Sermon Recap for February 8

Yes, these usually come on Monday.

Morning Service: Pastor Tecumshia Desmuke brought our morning message. Here’s the video:

 

Evening service: message from Romans 3 (direct audio)

Book: The First Principle

Today’s book is free on Kindle for Monday, and then discounted the rest of the week. So, the book review gets jumped to the front of the week.

 

Dystopian fiction is one of the major players in the “young adult” book space these days. Put shortly, these types of books present a world that has not gone well and has the main characters dealing with that reality. Whether that says good things about our society or not is a discussion for the long-term, but I have my doubts—rather than a hopeful view of the future, we seem to be taking a dim view of the likely outcomes.

Dystopian fiction typically picks up on the specific fears or concerns of the author. Thus, some show an environmental collapse while others show violence and war. The First Principle, today’s book, takes a look at the collapse of religious freedom.

Marissa Shrock’s novel is set in a future world where the United States has collapsed into a consortium of regions. Her main character, Vivica, is the daughter of one region’s governor. The situation of religious freedom and government tyranny moves up close and personal to Vivica—and we see how she responds.

How well does Shrock execute this?

1. Believability of the setting: there is no future projection here that is too far to believe. The idea of a government-approved Bible “version” that is sanitized of all controversy fits some current trends in public religion. The use of public schooling to automatically force-deliver birth control and deal with teen pregnancy is perhaps a stretch, and perhaps not.

2. Believability of the plot: teenage girls and boys get into trouble? People rebel against an oppressive government? One can believe that.

3. Believability of the characters: you have a teenage boy who is struggling with living his faith and having been sexually active. That’s real. The other characters? Skeezy politicians? Yep. Sacrificial and hypocritical people? Indeed.

4. Believability of the events: there’s one event that I think strains credibility, because I have been present at the birth of three children. I think a scene where an individual gives birth but then carries on without much difficulty? Without immediate and present medical care? It doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the setting, where there is an attempt to pamper over and medically control everything, that an individual would have that ability.

Beyond that, the rest seems to fit well.

Appropriateness? This is a “young adult” novel, so it’s aimed into the teenage market. I think that’s a good aim, but I’d watch the low-side of the ages. If they are already reading works like The Hunger Games, then there’s no new innocence lost in thinking through this dystopia. If you haven’t gotten there yet, then waiting another year won’t hurt.

Is it smooth to read? Yes. One can definitely knock back a chapter or two at a sitting and keep up with the plot line. In all, a good book. I am curious to see how the series develops from this starting point.

The First Principle is by Marissa Shrock. Learn more about her here, at her website.

(Free book in exchange for the review. See the dates in the graphic above for when it’s available on sale from Kregel.)

Things that should NOT need saying

This past week, I reached a point of speechlessness. Why?

Because, apparently, there remains a need to address issues in this world that really should not need addressed. I’m going to highlight a handful of them.

First, apparently someone has stirred up a question of whether or not it’s appropriate for Christian women to wear yoga pants. Yep, you read that right. I’ve seen a few links about it on the Net. I, admittedly, have not read the articles. I am terrified that rather than just reading a misplaced, unnecessary tome about modesty I will read some ill-conceived nonsense alleging that the spiritual background of Eastern Meditation that some of yoga derives from is following the pants.

Folks, anyway you slice it: I am less than interested in what kind of pants you are wearing. I believe maturing Christians should ask these questions about their clothing: 1. Does it glorify God for me to spend money on this? (Is this shopping good stewardship?); 2. Does it glorify God or me for me to wear this?

That’s it. Your head-to-toe hyper-modesty dress can draw as much attention to you as walking through the streets in a bikini. If you are making your clothing about you—not just a reflection of who you are, mind you, but about you—then you need to rethink. Same with your nice suit and tie or your muscle man shirt. And don’t get me started on the further question of whether your t-shirts reveal a love for Jesus or a love for: politics, sports, food, beverage, hobbies, or what have you.

If someone who saw you every day would not be surprised to hear you proclaim the name of Jesus based on how you dress, then carry on. I don’t expect anyone in the real world sees yoga pants and thinks “Heathen!”

Second, let’s talk vaccines. Not vaccines that are not about dreaded childhood diseases—leave the Gardasil and that pneumonia one they advertise on Wheel of Fortune out of it—and think about Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Polio. Throw in Tetanus.

And get your vaccines up-to-date. I do not think the government should compel vaccinations, because the question then becomes “Where does it stop?” Do they get to compel a flu shot that doesn’t work half the time?

But let’s not be foolish. The compelling evidence is that vaccinations are generally safe. There needs to be reasonable study of whether or not they are administered safely, but it’s a need-to-do. Christian folks are nearly the backwards thinkers on this that the media is making us—it’s a lot of health nut types. And there are other issues, like a massive influx of undocumented immigrants. Guess what one of the required documents is that we’re overlooking? Shot records.

People, there’s no need for your kid to get measles, mumps, rubella, typhoid, tetanus, or polio. Get the shots and be done with it. It’s not a spiritual issue. It’s a common sense one, like buckling your seat belt.

Third, let’s talk about items like “swimsuit” issues of magazines. People, if you’re stressed about the cover the latest one of those, you are haggling over inches when you’ve surrendered miles already. The purpose of these magazines is to celebrate an impossible standard of body perfection. If you would look at her in a nearly-not-there bikini if the bottoms were pulled up and not down, I think that you’re making the wrong argument.

Fourth, there is the terrorist organization ISIS in the Middle East. There’s not much to say here: these folks are wicked and evil. They are using, exploiting, their religious beliefs to justify their actions.

Yes, this has happened before. Yes, other religions have done so. At some point, we Christians have to stop getting irritated when someone brings up the Crusades. Let’s point out that, yes, indeed, that was the horrid mess that occurs when you merge church, state, and geopolitical warfare.

In view of that, let’s pull religion out of it all. Stop worrying about who is in or out, religiously, of the situation. If a group is burning prisoners alive, then they need to be dealt with decisively. If HRH King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom wants to lead that, let him. He said, based on reports, that he’d go after the bad guys until he ran out of bullets and fuel. FedEx delivers overnight. He need not run out.

That is not the call to a religious war. That’s the call to end the threat to life and liberty that exists. If King Abdullah wants to argue religion with me later, I’m available at his leisure. We can debate it peacefully over mansaf and coffee.

But the evil has to stop. And getting distracted over who said what about the Crusades just delays the necessary.

Finally: for the love of bacon, we Baptists especially, and most of us white ones, have to stop papering over racism. Folks, the words that come out of your mouths reveal your hearts. And confession is good for the soul. Cover ups are not. If you are openly repentant and contrite, I would suggest that most of the reasonable world will back you up in asking for time and continuation in your ministry to make amends.

But if your response is that not enough people saw or heard it to really matter, that’s evil.

And it’s evil for many of the other sins we keep overlooking. Let us deal with it head on.

There. Five things that shouldn’t need saying but apparently do: we are not the boss of each other, but we are here to help. And we should be willing and ready to restore and strengthen each other.

(Yes, I see the spiral that is me saying “we’re not the boss of each other” and sounding bossy.)

CSI Israel: Deuteronomy 21

In Summary:

Remember, Israel is forming into a nation out of whole cloth here. Prior to the Exodus, they were not a nation. Instead, they were a small family group. Family rules are, by nature, quite different from national rules. Within the four walls of your home, you can overlook offenses that cannot be overlooked in large scale—and you can punish those that appear minor but reveal major character issues.

This chapter, then, is part of addressing those types of concerns. We can assume that some of the situations eventually happened, but others may not have occurred. We see regulations for dealing with unsolved murders, captives from conquest, inheritance issues, and rebellious children. The hodgepodge that is Deuteronomy 21 reminds us, first of all, that God’s law roams into all forms of life.

While I find the rules about unsolved murders at the beginning of the chapter quite fascinating, it’s hard to make a direct application of this point. I would suggest the thrust here is this: all lives are important to God. Even if the perpetrator is unknown, society bears guilt for murder and that must be atoned for. Death matters, loss of life matters.

There is also something to be said about the rebellious children segment. It is clear from the infractions mentioned that the “children” in view are not minors. After all, gluttony and drunkenness are adult behaviors—a child cannot participate in those without serious enabling on the part of parents, and the requirement he be taken to the city council of elders would shield against parents shuffling off their responsibilities like that. We need to see from this that parents should raise their children to serve God, which in turn serves the community.

In Focus:

In the middle, though, there are two segments dealing with the treatment of women. They are significant for a couple of reasons. First, we see how a captive woman taken as a wife was to be treated. Second, we see how the offspring of polygamy were to be treated. The latter is easier to address than the former. Polygamy is addressed here as a possible reality but not an approved idea. Further, the assumption is that one wife will be more loved than another, and that the human tendency will be to take it out on the children. (See: Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah.) God clearly declares this to be unacceptable behavior.

This dovetails into the section on the treatment of women taken as wives from battle captives. It is likely that taking wives from captives resulted in polygamous situations and the resultant problem addressed in 15-17.

More than that, though, is the troubling idea of women being forced into marriage. One can accept that marriage was better than slavery, which itself is better than slaughter, but that hardly salves the conscience. This does not sound right. Likely the best response is to see God’s law here as restraining the Israelites from typical behavior of the time.

The Law (not always the practices) of Israel links sexual activity with marriage. Therefore Israel is here forbidden from taking part in the typical “conquer, pillage, and rape,” of a victorious army. If a man sees a woman in the captives he wants, he has to: provide her a home, new clothes (don’t take ‘remove her captive clothes’ as ‘sit around unclothed’ but as ‘replace her clothing’) and a month for you to think about it. That restrains the impulses—and then, if you’re not happy, she goes free as any other Israelite woman would, not as a slave in your home.

And, with that in view, if she has children and your first wife (most of the warriors would have been old enough to be married, at the least) has children, the children must be treated equally.

In Practice:

Obviously, we can’t quite apply this literally. Please do not read this passage and think that God approves of taking women captive in war and making them be your wife. That may have been acceptable, based on the above, in the old covenant. It is not Christian behavior. In fact, we have made not a few mistakes trying to apply Old Testament warfare concepts to Christian living. I digress.

Practically speaking: overall, this chapter speaks to the humanization of people. It’s easy to forget that the stranger who is murdered, the woman who is captured, the scorned wife and her children, are real people with real needs. It’s easy to judge the importance of a life compared to its value to us.

That’s exactly the opposite of how we should practice. Each life matters. Even those with no direct value to you. All people count.

Treat them as such.

In Nerdiness: 

I like the CSI image of Deuteronomy 21:1-7. You’ve got the forensic analysts trying to sort out just who has to deal with this murder.

And it leads me to wonder…does this develop into the concept of jurisdictional limits and ranges for law enforcement today? Going back into the English Common Law system that ours is adapted out of, did they structure investigative authority similarly to this passage, where the “nearest” municipality had to determine the murderer?

If Mel Starr is right in the Hugh de Singleton series, there is some connection. Would be worth nerding up about.

Book: Shepherding God’s Flock

That thing there? It’s the graphic representation of a book! You should read books!

Shepherding God’s Flock is a hard book to classify. It’s densely-packed with theology and history. At times, it reads like more like a textbook than a professional development resource. Overall, the eleven contributors build somewhat on each other’s work, but each chapter can also stand alone.

In summary, this book addresses the theological development of church leadership. This includes historical factors, keeping in mind that “history” often falls as part of “theology” in the Christian academic world. History tells us how God worked, after all, so the two are connected.

The method of construction for this book is that various scholars wrote about church leadership from their particular strength point. Therefore one gets James Hamilton’s view of how Old Testament and Synagogue imprints carried into church leadership and Michael A.G. Haykin deals with the Apostolic Fathers until the solidification of the Papacy.

That is certainly a strength. And as a Baptist myself, I do not find a problem with the Baptist-flavored viewpoint of each chapter. If you are a convictional Presbyterian, reading Shepherding God’s Flock will help you better understand the Baptist viewpoint and hopefully challenge your thinking.

A weakness? I think that, as a result of the multiple contributor method, there may be some overlap and duplication from one chapter to the next. Rather than treating a specific issue as settled, it may be raised again later. That’s not awful, it just leads to thinking “Haven’t I already read this?”

Further, while I the depth and density of the work has been a good challenge to my reading, I would definitely put this more in the “textbook” category. The focused attention it takes to make sense of it all might be a challenge for a harried, distracted active minister. It would be of value, but it might not be accessible enough for him.

In all, as a training and development tool, this is a valuable addition to the shelf.

AND IT HAS FOOTNOTES! YAY!

I did receive a copy of this book from Kregel Academic in exchange for the review. Read a sample chapter here.

In Prayer: Luke 18

In Summary:

Luke 18 continues the travel of Jesus to Jerusalem. Along the way, he continues teaching his disciples. This chapter, the opening focus is on prayer. The stories used by Jesus to teach here are often misapplied. Let us sum up by noting that God is far more righteous than any earthly judge—the point of that parable about persistence is not that we have to keep bugging God—we should see here that the widow of 1-8 and the publican of 9-14 (oh, that a Republican would cry out for mercy like that!) understand their utter dependence. That is the primary point: prayer ought to be born out of a heart that knows there is no where else to go.

Skipping ahead, we meet Blind Bartimaeus in 35-43. He is near the city of Jericho and cries out for Jesus to “have mercy on him!” His prayer echoes the prayer of the lepers in Luke 17. There is something to acknowledging our need without specifying our remedy as we see in both of these events. And we see it in the story of the Pharisee and the publican: no instructions to God about what these men thought they needed, only a confession of their deep and dire need.

It is worthwhile in prayer to trust God and not ourselves. In fact, it is pointless to pray as if we know what we need and just need a little assist from God. That is, unfortunately, the background noise in our prayer life.


In Focus:

Turning to the middle narrative, it is the well-rehearsed story of the “rich young ruler” that many of us have seen and heard before. It’s in Luke 18:18-25 but also in Matthew 19 and Mark 10. This meeting comes immediately after Jesus’ rebukes the disciples that wanted to keep the children from coming to him. That’s not an accident.

For ease, we’ll refer to the man who comes to Jesus as the ruler, based on Luke’s description. He has, apparently, just seen Jesus be open and accepting of children. This was unusual in the time, as many important people did not have time for children. One a child grew up, then he was important (and often, that was an exclusive “he”), but until adulthood? Keep that kid away.

The ruler, then, wants to know what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. A few notes: he’s looking for an action. Jesus gives him an action. He rejects the action, and then Jesus notes how hard it is for the wealthy to follow Christ. This is a story recorded to teach us to give up all material wealth, right?

In Practice:

Practically, I think there’s more to it than that. Let’s apply some concepts here:

First, the ruler is looking for a specific action. Look at his question. What shall I do? He wants a checkbox. It’s the same thing we often look for, and when we find one or two things that fit, we make that checkbox our defining characteristic.

Jesus, though, does not give him a specific action. Wait, you think selling his stuff was supposed to be the action? Nonsense. Nowhere in Scripture do we find salvation based in the works an individual does, even if he gives all he has to the poor. (1 Corinthians 13:3, perhaps?) Eternal life is found in the following statement: “Come, follow me.” Following Christ is where life comes.

The idea of selling all the stuff is secondary to the relationship. Jesus tells the ruler to come into a relationship with him, to walk in obedience. The stuff has to go for the sake of freeing the ruler to obedience. Beyond that, discipleship is an open-ended, never-ending walk with Christ.

We often try to find “one thing” to do when it is “one relationship” we need to walk in obedience for. That is the essence of Christianity and the point of this event—your salvation does not have anything to do with your wealth and everything to do with your obedience.

In Nerdiness: 

There are some good examples here of what is called the Synoptic Problem. First, the focal passage is found in all three Synoptic Gospels. Those are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They are called “Synoptics” because they see (optic) the events together (syn). There are many similarities between these three accounts of the life of Jesus.

Yet there are also significant differences. For example, is Bartimaeus on the way into Jericho or the way out? Mark 10:46, Luke 18:35 present different ideas. There are some suggestions about how this balances—but the truth is we do not know for sure. As you find these passages (there’s one person, there are two, or others) the real issue is this:

Do we trust God to know what He’s talking about? Or do we assume there’s an error?

Whatever the outcome, I will stand on this: Scripture says exactly what God intends for it to say. If we have to search harder to understand, that’s not his fault but rather our opportunity to rely that much more on the Holy Spirit to illuminate.

Sermon Recap for February 1

Good morning! Here are the sermons from yesterday. If you listen or watch, can you either leave a comment or shoot me a message if there are any quality issues? Working on some tech problems. Doug

 

Morning Sermon: Authority Mark 1:21-28 (audio)

"Authority."

First: the confrontation of the demonic. There is no power that Jesus fears nor cannot command; further He is in charge immediately…there is no need for Him to get up to speed.

Second: knowledge does not equal salvation/faith. The demon knows who Jesus is. He’s still doomed.

Jesus teaches with authority.

Jesus heals and delivers with authority.

Does anyone else?

No. Not anyone else.

What does this teach us?

What is authority? The right to instruct others about truth and demand they comply with it.

1. Who has authority? The Word of God—remember John 1!

2. Who does not have authority? Any thing, any one not the Word of God

3. Where does authority sit in the church? The Word of God

4. Where does authority sit in the life of believers? The Word of God

5. Where does authority sit in the world/created order? The Word of God

What do we do, then? We teach other people The Word of God. We do not attempt to take the authority that belongs to God alone. The Word, which we see in the inspired text of Scripture, is where all authority sits.

Not in you. Not in me. Not in some council or coalition, not in some college or convention, but in the Word of God.

Evening Sermon: John 1:14 (audio)

Concluding Notes:

1. I do have the video of the presentation on Bible translations, but didn’t get it uploaded.

2. We use a set-place camera so that no one is spending church being a “cameraperson” instead of a participant.

3. If you want to subscribe, here’s a list:

A. iTunes for audio subscription link is here.

B. General Audio RSS feed for other programs is here.

C. If you’re a Stitcher User, the link is here

D. For Youtube Video, subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93/