The Smoke of their Torment

As I saw this photo of a scrapyard fire in Bahrain yesterday, I thought of the sobering word in Revelation 14 about the coming judgment of God against sin:

"If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name."

And I was also filled with praise for Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God who rescues all who will have Him from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

It's Not Exactly the Empty Tomb, But....

I woke up this morning and the main page of espn.com had this picture:

The headline below the photo read:

Hear 'Em Roar

Penn State beat No. 23 Illinois 64-63 on Thursday night. Was it the win that puts the Nittany Lions into their first Dance since 2001?

This is not exactly as miraculous as the empty tomb, but it is pretty amazing nevertheless. And as I read the report of the game and thought about the Nittany Lions possibly going to the Dance, I had a deep feeling of satisfaction. I was pretty excited when the Phillies won the World Series a few months ago, but this was a much different kind of excitement (not necessarily better, just different).

Since graduating from PSU in 2000, I haven't followed the hoops team too closely. I always know how they are doing (mostly bad), but today I could only tell you the names of two or three players on the team that won last night. Still, I found satisfaction in watching them get some national recognition last night.

As I thought about this, I was reminded of a definition of community that I came across a few weeks ago as I was preparing a sermon on Acts 2:37-47. 'A community is a group of individuals who have been bonded into a body through an intense common experience.'

I think that explains the depth of excitement in seeing PSU hoops get a little positive recognition for a change. For five years of my life, I spent 6-7 months of 40 hour weeks working for the Penn State basketball program, in hopes that some day the words 'Penn State basketball' might mean something beyond the walls of our locker room. All those hours shared by the young men who came before me and after me (players, coaches, managers, etc.) has knit us together in such a way that I still rejoice in their successes, even though I don't know most of the people involved anymore. I was (and am) a part of the community that is Penn State basketball.

And this makes me very excited to see the deep bonds that form among the people who I am now working with as we lead and serve the church that I am privileged to work for. Long hours working for a college basketball team can be a somewhat intense experience, but laboring to see a church become all that it can be for the sake of the Gospel of Christ is an experience far more intense. And I am exceedingly grateful to be cultivating a bond with the men I am now working with, a bond that will endure throughout eternity.

When things get difficult at the church (which inevitably happens even in the best churches), I will look back on today's basketball enthusiasm and hopefully be reminded that all the hard work for Christ's church will eventually produce a bond of love with those who I've worked with that far surpasses what any sporting event can give.

Now let's hope the Nittany Lions done't blow it tomorrow afternoon!

Flesh-Filled Discernment

James MacDonald writes:

This past week my post about 1Timothy 2:1 and it’s exhortation to be thankful for our leaders came back to the forefront. A post I wrote on January 20th when President Obama was sworn in was picked up by a number of ‘watch dog’ discernment groups and the rest is history. I have been called weak, soft on the truth, a compromiser, politically correct, foolish, and worst of all, apostate (not truly saved). Wow!!!

I have been a pastor for more than 25 years and I have heard some pretty harsh things; but the deepest wounding by far has been at the hands of people using the gift of discernment in the flesh. Most often, these are the folks that separate friends, divide churches and destroy families. It is a very dangerous gift when not under the Spirit’s control.

I'd recommend that all Christians who are zealous for truth (and I hope that means all of you who are Christians!) read the rest of his post.

I'm Glad My Life Doesn't Revolve Around the Eagles...

If it did, I'd probably be darn near suicidal!

Since we're on the topic of sports, I can't help but mention the departure of Eagles Safety Brian Dawkins for Denver over the weekend. I was a sophomore in college when Dawkins started wearing Eagles green...that was a long time ago! He plays football the way it's supposed to be played...a classic Philly player.

But now Dawkins will not finish his career in Philly, where everyone seems to think he belongs. I don't think the Eagles are solely responsible for this, as almost all Philly fans seem to think right now. Dawkins could have done something incredibly radical for the sake of Christ (Dawkins professes faith in Christ, and from what I've been able to find he actually walks the talk, unlike so many athletes): he could have taken a big paycut and turned down the big bucks in Denver. It's not like the guy is really hurting financially, you know? When it comes to his Christian witness, I wonder if Dawkins now looks like every other athlete, going wherever he can to get the most millions?

Let's be very clear: Dawkins had no obligation to turn down the big payday in Denver and sign for less money in Philly; he is free in Christ to go to the team that offers him the best financial package. I imagine that being a Christian athlete and signing these extraordinary contracts is very challenging, and I obviously have no idea how Dawkins will spend all that extra money. So please don't hear me taking shots at Dawkins. He is a great player, by all accounts a great man, and he poured out all he had for the city of Philadelphia for 13 years. He will be greatly missed.

It's just a shame that in our day sports are first a business, with loyalty (both by players and teams) being far less important than the almighty dollar. Maybe one day, it won't be that way anymore.

Surely there are some Eagles fans out there reading this; what do you all think of Dawkins' departure?

Loving God and His Gifts

The title of this video clip is Thanking God for Sports, but the application is much wider than only the world of sports.

The Redemption of Culture, #2

A few weeks ago I started looking at the theme of the redemption of culture, but never came back to it. For those who would like to read more about this, I would recommend Richard Mouw's When the Kings Come Marching In, and Chapter 10 of Andy Crouch's Culture Making. What follows is basically a very short summary of material found there.

A comparison of Revelation 21-22 with Isaiah 60 will show that John's vision of the New Jerusalem seems to be shaped by his understanding of Isaiah's vision. And Isaiah depicts a holy city teeming with cultural goods not only from Israel's culture, but from the surrounding nations: domesticated animals, ships, precious minerals, jewels and timber. So as John echoes Isaiah's vision, it does not seem like he is picturing only 'Christian' cultural artifacts when he says that 'the glory and honor of the nations' are brought into the city.

Take the ships of Tarshish, for instance. Isaiah mentions these ships will be a part of the New Jerusalem (60:9). This is odd, because earlier in Isaiah (2:16) we are told that in the coming day of God's judgment, the ships of Tarshish will be among those things that the Lord is against. Yet in chapter 60 they are a part of the redeemed Holy City, being put to good use for God's glory.

How can this be? It seems that the judgment in chapter 2 is not a condemnation of the intrinsic value of these ships, but of the idolatrous function that these vessels are playing in the life of pagan societies. The judgment seems to be a purifying one, not a destruction. When the ships are stripped of the haughtiness and rebellion with which they are presently associated, they are freed for service to God and His people. That is how Isaiah can speak a word of judgment over the ships of Tarshish, yet chapters later speak of their use in the New Jerusalem.

Mouw writes, 'When the Kings come marching in, then, they bring the best of their nations -- even the cultural goods that had been deployed against God and his people. The final vision of the City is one filled, not just with God's glory and presence...but with redeemed human culture too.'

While this initially seemed far-fetched to me, reflection on the reference to the ships of Tarshish leads me to agree with Mouw. Just as our bodies will be redeemed and transformed yet still be our bodies and recognizable to those who knew us, so also cultural goods will be redeemed and transformed, while bearing some resemblance to what they were in the old creation.

This has caused me to ponder which of my favorite cultural artifacts might be cleansed and transformed on the New Earth. If the ships of Tarshish can be stripped of their idolatrous function and put to good use in the New Jerusalem, why not the best of music, film, sport, food, theater and architecture? For these are the things that our nation glories in, aren't they? So here are a few cultural artifacts I'd be delighted to see in the redeemed city of God:

Faithful readers of the blog know that Dave Matthews Band is one of my favorite culture-makers, and their CD Before These Crowded Streets is one of the most musically beautiful recordings I own. Yet I am often grieved that some of the songs contain lyrics that reveal ignorance of and/or hostility toward the God of Scripture. It would be sweet to see Jesus transform this cultural product and put it to use for His glory and honor.

I imagine we'll still love good stories on the New Earth, and this movie is one of my favorite parables of redemption. Cleansed and purified of course, but recognizable nevertheless.

Imagine the thrill of victory and the excellence of athletic greatness, purified from the egos, the greed and the idolatry of so many fans. Perhaps there will be some kind of World Series on the New Earth.

I prefer regular rye as opposed to marble, but a corned beef special would be a nice treat. Of course, as Andy Crouch points out, for the cow's sake I suppose that transformed meals will be vegetarian, but surely they will be a lot better than tofurkey!

Please remember, that my goal on this blog is to share my musings. I am not saying that I know Dave Matthews' music and the Philadelphia Phillies are definitely going to be a part of our experience in the New Jerusalem. All of us see through a mirror dimly when it comes to these matters. But I believe that God is honored when we use our Bible-grounded, sanctified imagination in pondering the wonders of His new creation, so long as we are looking to Him as our ultimate hope and the supreme joy and treasure of all our other joys.

So now it's your turn: what artifacts of culture would you like to see brought into the New Jerusalem?

Re-Learning God's Way

A few weeks ago I shared this quote from Neal Plantinga:

"Thoughtful Christians know that if we obey the Bible's great commandment to love God with our whole mind, as well as with everything else, then we will study the splendor of God's creation in the hope of grasping part of the ingenuity and grace that form it. One way to love God is to know and love God's work.

Learning is therefore a spiritual calling: properly done, it attaches us to God. In addition, the learned person has, so to speak, more to be Christian with. The person who studies chemistry, for example, can enter into God's enthusiasm for the dynamic possibilities of material reality."

On the Seeking Him blog, this led to a prolonged discussion of the merits of different forms of educating our children (ie. home-school, public-school, private school.). But the quote is more focused on learning about all subjects (no matter where that learning is done) through a God-centered vision of all things.

So, readers, here is what I want to know from you: if you could go back to school and re-learn a subject given what you now know about God, what subject would it be? Leave a comment and let me know.

My answer is anthropology.

A Disclaimer

This blog is titled Redemption Groanings: One man's musings as he waits for the restoration of all things.

This morning at church I was reminded that it's important for me to make something very clear about what I am trying to do with this blog: What I write on here is, more often than not, simply my own thinking aloud about issues that affect my faith in Christ. Whether I am writing about Miles Davis, Barbie, or the lyrics of a class hymn of the church, I am not aiming to make dogmatic assertions about things, but simply working out different things in my head. I find it helpful to do that in a format that others can read and interact with, because, as we're told in Proverbs, 'As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.' This happened just the other day, when my friend Erin sharpened me to think more carefully about what I had written about Barbie. Her comment caused me to re-phrase some things in a way that I hope was more God-honoring. Such correction is invaluable to me as I think things through.

So when I write about the dangers of Barbie or the presence of jazz on the New Earth or a potential lyric change in a great hymn of the faith, please don't assume that I have everything figured out and that what I've written is the absolute truth as I see it. Redemption Groanings is simply the overflow of my thinking through how to bring my Christian faith to bear on every aspect of life. That thinking is still very much in process, and I am appreciative of those of you who comment, because it helps me to refine my thinking. For I am no expert on the things I write about; I am just one man musing about life under Christ's lordship.

Thanks for taking the time to read my musings, both the refined and the unrefined.

Don't Forget to Groan

This blog is called Redemption Groanings because so many in the world are forced to live like this:

The carpe diem, 'eat, drink and be merry' mentality is strong only in places and hearts of people who try to insulate themselves from the way most people in this world have to live.

Where is Home: Heaven or Earth?

I had some reservations about reading Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright. Any book that announces in its subtitle that it is 'Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church' makes me a bit cautious. Rethinking things this essential often means saying something heretical about them. Not to mention the book has a glowing endorsement from Emergent superstar Rob Bell, and I was really thinking this book could be shady.

But when I read it at the end of last year, I found it to be a worthwhile and engaging read. I did not agree with everything in the book, but it seemed to me that there was a lot more wheat than chaff. So now I am re-reading the book again (since, if you read yesterday's post, I don't remember enough of what I read).

One of the points that Wright makes early in the book is that the hymns of the Church sometimes advance a view of the final hope of the Christian's ultimate destiny that is contrary to the Scriptural account. Among others, he cites the great hymn How Great Thou Art as an example. The final verse reads:

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.

Wright takes issue specifically with the phrase, 'When Christ shall come....and take me home...' This, he says, promotes a significant misunderstanding about what Christ will do at His second coming. As Wright puts it,

"Heaven, in the Bible, is not a future destiny but the other, hidden dimension of our ordinary life -- God's dimension, if you like. God made heaven and earth; at the last he will remake both and join them together forever. And when we come to the picture of the actual end in Revelation 21-22, we find not ransomed souls making their way to a disembodied heaven but rather the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, uniting the two in a lasting embrace."

This idea does not seem to be captured by the words of How Great Thou Art, which describes Jesus coming and taking His people out of this world to our home, supposedly somewhere up in the sky with Him. It gives the impression that salvation is found in escape from this present world, not the healing and renewal of it. So Wright suggests that a more biblical way to state the last verse would be to say, 'When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation/and heal this world, what joy shall fill my heart.'

It's not as if I expect the words to this great hymn to be changed (although the original Swedish version does not talk about Christ coming to take me home), but I like Wright's suggested change. I think the re-wording makes a statement about our final salvation and the scope of Christ's redemptive power demonstrated in His death and resurrection that seems largely absent from our singing and our thinking about God's final goal and purpose for the world.

Thoughts? Is Wright being over-dramatic here? Is this a matter of semantics and not a really big deal? How do these two different pictures affect your thinking of the final hope of Christianity?

Leave a comment and let me know what you're thinking about this...

Becoming a Better Reader

Last year I read 54 books, probably the most I've read in any one year of my life. But what I found in reading that much is that I did a pretty lousy job of retaining what I read. As 2009 came and I thought about setting new reading goals, it dawned on me that I felt like I needed to re-read many of the books that most engaged my thinking last year. I was in such a rush to read a book per week, that I have only a fuzzy idea of the content of many of those books.

So, with the help of John Piper, I have devised a way to be more active when I read and hopefully read books in a way that will profit me for a longer period of time. I have read that when Piper reads a book, he makes notes in the front and back blank pages of the book indicating the page number of quotes and thoughts that were significant. In addition, he breaks the page into tenths to indicate where on the page the quote or idea is found.

For instance, I'm currently (re)reading a book called Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright (yes, I am aware that he has some questionable beliefs; we can still read authors like that, so long as we use biblical discernment!). On page 18 Wright gives a succinct definition of the Kingdom of God. I thought it was worth noting, so in the front of the book I wrote, 'Kingdom of God defined, 18.6.' That means I can find that quote on page 18, around 6/10 of the way down the page.

Also, as I finish a chapter I am writing a sentence or a phrase or two in the front of the book so I know what the main theme or idea of that chapter was. Another book I'm reading is Robert Coleman's The Master Plan of Evangelism. Inside the front cover I have written, 'Chap. 1 -- Jesus invests in a few, not crowds.' That will now jog my memory as to the content of that chapter.

Whether you find these particular tips helpful or not, I encourage those of you who love reading to think about some specific ways that you can retain what you have read. Because a book with great content isn't really worth much if you can't remember anything that you read six months later.

The True Hero of the Story

Abraham is regarded by almost all Bible-believers (Jewish and Christian) to be a great hero of faith. He sure looks heroic in this picture, doesn't he? Here he is, preparing to sacrifice his own son Isaac in obedience to the Lord's command.

This month I've been reading Genesis, and while Abraham certainly is a notable man of faith, I've been noticing that he is not exactly your prototypical hero. The first we really hear of him is in the beginning of Genesis 12, when God comes to him and promises to make a great nation out of his offspring. Indeed, through him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. What a promise!

And initially Abraham plays the part of hero, leaving his homeland to follow the Lord's call to go to a land that He would show him. But Abraham's courage doesn't last long. Shortly after this extraordinary promise, he basically hands his wife over to be sexually abused by the Egyptians, in order to save his own neck. This is an utterly despicable act, which Abraham repeats just a few chapters later. Hardly the great father of faith!

It seems to me that the dominant point of Abraham's life is not for us to say, 'Here is a great man of faith; imitate his example.' Rather it's to say, 'Though Abraham was so full of sin and cowardice, God's promise comes because of grace, not as a response to human merit.' In other words, Abraham is not the true hero of this story. Jesus Christ is.

Abraham's faithlessness is a pointer to the supreme faithfulness of Christ. Abraham abandoned his bride in order to save himself from danger. Jesus descended from Heaven to Earth and gave Himself up to the brutal agony of Calvary in order to save His bride from sin, death and hell.

Jesus, not Abraham, is the true hero of Abraham's story. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Jesus is the true hero of every story. Let's not use the Bible simply as an instruction manual. Surely there are instructions, but the main purpose of the Bible is to show us what Christ is like. Only then can we begin to truly follow His instructions.

Barbie and the Spread of Bulimia

The latest edition of Newsweek has a story on Barbie turning 50 years old next month. I wish I could celebrate this 50th anniversary as much as I did the anniversary of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. But while Kind of Blue seems to me to be a cultural good of great enduring value, I don't think I can say the same for Barbie.

In the article, Eliza Gray writes,

"In her half century of existence, Barbie has become something of a Rorschach test for views about modern feminine identity. Either she's a sunny, self-confident, good-time girl—Doris Day in miniature—or, more commonly, she's the original bimbo, a relic of postwar paternalism that teaches its young owners to worship at the altar of blond hair, peach skin and formidable cleavage atop a waistline the size of a pinkie ring."

Count me in with the latter view. I wonder if the immense popularity of the Paris Hilton's and Britney Spears' of the world is a result of the same kind of corrupt thinking about women and beauty that led to the creation of the Barbie Doll. To what degree has the doll been an instrument in shaping little girls into becoming young women who think they need a certain bra size and waistline in order to be considered 'beautiful'?

It is interesting that some people criticize the Christian faith because of its' alleged oppressive attitude toward women. Beliefs like the headship of a husband over the wife and the distinction of church elder being a position only for men are said to reduce the value and dignity of women. But I cannot imagine anything more degrading to the innate value and dignity of a woman than to tell her that unless she has 'blond hair, peach skin and formidable cleavage atop a waistline the size of a pinkie ring' she is second-class. Yet I fear that the ongoing existence of Barbie is implicitly making such a statement to little girls every day in this nation. Millions of girls are learning to regard themselves as worthless, primarily because they do not look like the Barbie doll that American culture tells them they should. That's oppression, if you ask me.

Is it possible that the cultural product known as the Barbie Doll is being used in our day to spread eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia? I hope I am not over-stating the case; I am not trying to make a blanket condemnation of all parents who have ever bought their little girl a Barbie doll. But as a father of two little girls of my own, I want to take extreme caution and be very sensitive to how the toys my girls play with are used to shape the way they think about themselves. That may mean having no Barbies in the house; it may mean being diligent to remind your children what true beauty consists of, even while they do play with Barbie. That is for the individual parent to wrestle through. But reading this article reminded me that a seemingly innocent doll can make a big impact on the thinking of little girls.

The Unintended Results of Cultural Progress

This morning I read the news that Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, the company that owns the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com has filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to restructure its $390 million debt load. From the report:

The financial burden from an advertising downturn, rising costs for newsprint, and the migration of readers to the Internet caused Philadelphia Newspapers to fall out of compliance with its loan agreements last year. The same conditions have devastated the broadcast industry.

It is not clear whether any jobs will be lost during this process, as operations are reported to be sound and profitable. But surely there are many other situations which have led and are leading to job loss. This situation, and others like it, is a great sadness, and not what anyone foresaw as being an almost inevitable result of the internet age that we live in.

Reading this story reminded me of something I just read in Andy Crouch's Culture Making. Crouch writes that one of the difficulties of creating cultural products that serve others is that often the cultural product that is created has negative consequences that the creators of the product never imagined.

He cites the internet as a primary example. The internet is, by all estimations, an amazing product of culture that has greatly increased the horizons of possibility for millions of people. But people did not foresee many of the negative effects of such technological advance: the ease with which our children can be polluted and abused by online pornography, the decimation of the 20th century music industry and the vast loss of jobs that has created, or the increasing irrelevance of the newspaper, as people get their news quicker and cheaper online. Surely this is what led to the Philadelphia Newspaper LLC's announcement of bankruptcy.

All this increases my longing for the cosmic redemption of all things, which Jesus and the writers of Scripture have promised is yet to come. I am pretty sure that we will, in some way, still be culture makers in our final state of glory. And how sweet will that day be when our cultural creativity will produce one of the unintended, harmful results that often plague the best cultural advancements in this fallen world. In that day, every cultural good really will be good.

Algebra for Parenting

Those with children in the home might enjoy this post by Taylor Buzzard; it was an encouragement to me. From the conclusion:

"Please, do the math. The math will help you love your children better today. The math will make you take a giant step backwards, away from the difficulties of parenting, to better see the privilege and delight of parenting."