Unless you understand that Jesus invites us through faith in him… to actually live in the Kingdom of God now, there will not be a basis for discipleship and transformation.
Dallas Willard, http://www.outofur.com/archives/2011/05/ur_video_dallas.html
As the conversation goes on to say, faith in Jesus is not about a new life after death, but death in our life now, and grace to live a new life now.
Ubuntu 11.04 (AKA Natty Narwhal) eliminates all kinds of Gnome Applets – most of which I didn’t use or need. One that I realised that I miss today is the proxy switcher applet. When I’m at college (LST), I need to switch to use their proxy – and back again at home. I want that to be simple and painless, not open up something from the menu and muck about with all that.
Krish Kandiah has been musing on Bin Laden’s death and how scripture has been used by Christians responding to it on Twitter.
If we are not careful Bible verses become bumper stickers – ways of publicly labeling our beliefs. Or worse we end up not trying to seek God’s will but rather draw on the Bible’s authority to back our own positions- we turn the word of God into a mascot for our politics.
I completely agree. As Krish goes on to say, a ‘high’ view of scripture means not taking a verse out of context to back up our preconceived idea but rather engaging with the narratives on their own terms. Scripture is not a collection of proofs to tweet but a series of different and sometimes seemingly competing narratives that interweave and must be wrestled with.
Here’s Krish’s ‘working list’ of guidelines on how to avoid misusing scripture:
- We must avoid offering proof texts rather than letting the grand narrative of the Bible direct us.
- Let the original context of a passage direct its meaning for today.
- Be aware of our own cultural, political and economic biases when we come to scripture.
- Don’t avoid difficult texts that challenge your own position.
- Exploring the Bible with a posture that opens up a discussion rather than closes it down is a mark that we are seeking to humbly submit to scripture rather than use scripture to bully others.
There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Dad, give me my share of the company.’ So he divided his business between the sons and, taking nothing more than a warm coat, left them.
The younger son squandered all he had been given – drink, drugs and dubious characters. His part of the business eventually went under, he spent every penny he had. He was broke, it was a recession, but he lucked out in finding a job sorting waste at a recycling plant. Sometimes he just wished he could eat the banana skins and chip wrappers there, he could barely scrape enough together to survive.
One day he heard that his father was back. With no time to plan, he ran from work, into the street, up to his father. Through tears he blurted out, ‘Dad, I screwed it all up, I wrecked all you gave me and I never thought I’d get to see you again. You probably can’t even face talking to me.’ Before he could even finish, his father had grabbed him and, stinking work clothes and all, took him in a huge bear hug.
His father called to a guy standing near, ‘Get him a room in the hotel – and a shower! My son will need some new clothes and spending money – tonight’s going to be a party!’
The man had made another fortune while he was gone, so dinner was at the best restaurant in the city – and that guy was his PA. Everyone who had known the father came that evening, it was a real celebration!
While they were there, someone managed to get the older son on the phone and explained what was going on, ‘Your dad’s back, he’s found your brother and they’re hitting the town!’ The father begged him to come and join them, but the older son answered him, ‘Listen! All those years you were gone, I was slaving at keeping your business going. It’s still just as good as the day you left. I didn’t spend a penny of your money – not even one pizza with my friends! But that disgrace of a son destroyed your firm, wasted everything with hookers and now you party with him?!
‘Son’, his dad replied, ‘It was all yours to do what you want with all along. I want to give you more and more – and your brother too. I just want to get our family back together again.’
Define:Prodigal – “Given to extravagant expenditure; expending money or other things without necessity; recklessly profuse; lavish.”
This story is a response to Deus Absconditus, the hidden, or missing God. It was always the father that was prodigal, giving without thought or care apart from love, the son was just lost. In this story, both sons have lost the father. But his character is just the same – giving prodigally, recklessly, lavishly. The difference is that the younger son knows straight away what he’s lost, the older doesn’t. Like the famous original, we never know how he responds to his Dad’s generosity.
I wrote this and then came across Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. His book too is based around the idea that it is the Father that is the lavish, generous one and the real meaning of prodigal.
I woke up this morning to the headline “Osama Bin Laden is dead”. President Obama declares “Justice has been done”. Has it? It sounds like the kind of justice Holywood loves, the kind of redemptive violence that makes good action move. It’s the type of justice that has been doing the rounds since ancient Babylon. And it’s decidedly not the type of justice that the Bible speaks of – in fact it shows us to be just the same as the revenge motivated Muslims our media have demonised. Here’s how the story of Osama might sound like if it was a Babylonian-style epic.
There was once a land that was fought over by giants – one after another they rose up and stamped their way around, puffing themselves up. Once, two giants arose so massive that they could not fight. It seemed that if they did they very sky would fall and the earth be ripped apart. They danced around each other, feinting and jabbing, looking for heroes who would do the dangerous job of taking down the other giant. One day, in a small corned of the land, a hero was found. He was in love with a legendary woman called Khalifa. He could only meet her when the sleeping giant of his homeland awoke. He would do anything to bring his dream to life, even follow the greatest quest. The hero travelled to the mountains, where the giant Rus was terrifying the people. The giant Americ helped him to tease and harry the enemy giant all around the mountains. After months, years even, the warrior Osama cut off the hand of Rus, who slunk back to the frozen wastes to the north. It seemed Rus would never be the same again – like a bear with a sore paw, she hid in her den and watched the land change. Osama was loved like the greatest of heros in the mountains. Just as during his joust with the first giant, Osama recruited fighters to learn with him. They shared his dream of waking the giant Salam, they went all over the land to do what they could to wake him. There was just one giant towering over the land in these days. Other, smaller ones looked for footholds, but they could see that Americ could not be challenged. But Osama and his army knew no fear – they had driven one giant out of the mountains, now he would challenge another in its own lair. His soldiers fired three darts that put out the eye of the great giant Americ. Enraged, Americ swore to get revenge. Osama was once the hero of Americ, now he was the sworn enemy. The giant stomped over to the mountains to find Osama and get revenge for the pain of the darts. Where Rus could not defeat the hero, Americ put all his might into finding and crushing him. Osama slipped around the land of the mountains nimbly, just escaping the crushing stamps of the giant’s feet several times. He hid in caves, he hid in houses, he did not know who would tell the giant where he was. He could only speak in whispers, the giant was always listening with giant ears and chasing after any hint. For years he evaded the enraged giant, every stamped foot and pounded fist. He hid in the hills nearby, doing anything to be sure the giant would not harm him, while sending his warriors to keep irritating and harassing the giant. His army grew more, with new soldiers attacking the giant in the desert and in other places too. Osama’s fame grew so that many who waited for giant Salam to wake and longed for the beautiful Khalifa flocked to help him, new soldiers to advance his cause. They were sure that they were waking a new giant who would balance the land, even chase Americ away. No more would they be terrorised by the great giant, their hero and their giant would protect them. One night, Osama could hide no more. The giant found his hiding place and crushed him, grinding him into the ground like a bug. His dream of the beautiful Khalifa was never realised, the giant Salam had not done more than stir. What would his army do now – would they revenge his death, would new heroes arise, could they escape the same fate as Osama?
Note: Osama is not a hero to me, but he fulfils the ‘hero’ prototype of the epic genre. The hero of the epic violently resists forces much bigger than him, in a comedy he would triumph, in a tragedy, be defeated. However, the great hero of the Bible triumphs by seeming to be defeated and never resists violently. His kind of justice does not come by killing the enemy, the other. So how do we feel, how do we respond?
