:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

The Bible can be tough to dive into. Where should a student of scripture begin? Most Christians want to understand Jesus and the letters that his followers wrote, but they can be tough to figure out.

When we ask questions such as, “Why did Jesus say that?” or “Why did Paul write this?” we will encounter a great deal of complexity and mystery. If we can’t answer these first questions, then it will be even more difficult to discern what they mean for us today. This application to everyday life is the real pay-off for Christians.

Studying the Bible well takes some time and effort, but just about any Christian can learn how to study it effectively with a little direction. After investing time into the study of scripture you’ll soon find it easier to read. Certain themes and connections will emerge, and you’ll not only arrive at a better understanding, but a better ability to apply it to your life.

Each day next week we’ll take a look at some simple steps toward effective study of the New Testament.

As the popularity of Jesus increased, so did the opposition of the Pharisees who set out to trap him and discredit his ministry. By resorting to a conflict over the observance of sacred traditions they thought they had a legitimate way to attack him.

Jesus disregarded the traditional practices of the Pharisees, opting instead to focus on the inner person and the problems that only God can fix. Anyone can wash a pot. God is not needed for that kind of religion.

For followers of Jesus there is an emphasis on the internally rooted sins such as pride, envy, lust, immorality, slander, and some of the more serious crimes such as murder. Physical regulations cannot stop these sins at their source in the heart, even if external rules can certainly do something to dam them up. In fact, the more the Pharisees moved away from the internal goals of the law, the more they missed out on the heart of God and the real power that can heal sin.

The Pharisees neglected the laws of God because they made their own doctrines on par with the law of God. Perhaps these laws began as well-meaning guides on the path to obedience, but over time they took on a power of their own and even threatened the greater commands from God. This passage is a reminder that we can associate our own traditions and practices too closely with real obedience to and love for God.

After so frustrating a confrontation, Jesus traveled to the Gentile region of Tyre and the Decapolis, respectively west and east of Jewish Galilee. While in Tyre Jesus tried to keep a low profile, but the news about him spread and a woman boldly sought him out in the home where he was staying.

We don’t know much about this woman. Did she have a husband or was she a widow? Did she come alone because no one else she knew believed in Jesus or wanted anything to do with this Jew? In addition, she didn’t bring her daughter with her, and we only read that she begged Jesus to drive out the demon, not that he should go with her to heal her daughter. What does this tell us about her faith?   

In one of the only times Jesus denied someone who wasn’t a religious leader testing him, Jesus told her that now was not the time for the Gentiles to enjoy God’s favor. That wasn’t to say that it couldn’t happen some day, but he told her that at the moment she was on the outside of God’s work.

The woman’s faith only grew stronger in the midst of this let down. She believed that the one who could feed thousands with bread surely had some crumbs to spare for her daughter. Unlike those who begged in other situations, this woman humbled herself and reasserted her belief that Jesus was not only willing but able to grant her request. When Jesus healed her daughter he showed that God honors faith wherever it may be found.

After leaving the Gentile region of Tyre, Jesus visited the Decapolis where people begged him to heal a deaf and mute man. People are still begging Jesus to heal. Evan after witnessing his miracles they struggle with doubt that he can do the same things for them.

Rather than show his miracle to the masses, Jesus pulled the man away to a private space and even commanded the healed man and the crowd to keep it a secret. However, they only spoke of him all the more because of their amazement at his mighty works.

Throughout the Gospels those starting from scratch, without religious expectations for Jesus, had a much easier time in accepting Jesus, while those with preconceived notions of a Messiah, religious practice, or theological perfection in  mind couldn’t see the big picture because of their obsession with the minor points of the law that had become inflated in importance. Perhaps the place to begin with Jesus is to first figure out his terms and to then sort out what matters from there.

Much like my previous series on the book of Romans, I’ll be starting a series of devotions and reflections on the Gospel of Mark. While I’m at it I’ll also stick up the occasional post on theology or Christian living.

I like Mark because he begins with a bang, jumping right into his declaration that his work covers the Good News about the Messiah and then wastes little time in introducing us to John and Jesus. Jesus emerges as a miracle worker and preacher who immediately runs afoul of the religious authorities, and isn’t afraid to use complex imagery that alienates some listeners while conveying his deeper truths to those who wrestle with his words.

Throughout the Gospel of Mark Jesus follows a course that his followers and opponents generally don’t expect or can’t quite explain. If we step back from our familiarity with Jesus and his ministry and try to insert ourselves into the world Mark describes we will find in Jesus a challenging and unexpected Savior.

If the people who witnessed Jesus’ miracles found him puzzling, with many rejecting him outright, then any reading of the Gospels should be uncomfortable at some levels, stirring up some tough issues, confusing us, and leaving us with difficult choices to make. Jesus offers us salvation, communion with God, and the freedom of discipleship, but that path has a cost and will become quite difficult at times.

As we enter into this brief Gospel that dives right into the ministry of Jesus and shows his various actions and teachings receiving a variety of responses, let us pray that this account of Jesus will push us and pull us in good ways, showing what we must leave behind, and how we can take active steps toward greater intimacy with Christ in our daily lives. 

There is no doubt in my mind that Ed Dobson, a former pastor and author of The Year of Living Like Jesus, has some tremendous insights for the church today. Who can’t respect someone with a few years to live because of ALS who devotes a year to live like Jesus?

The simple fact that Dobson has set out on this project is reason enough to admire him. In addition, his attitude throughout the book is one of both compassion for others and a personal passion for the Gospel. Dobson has so much to teach us, and yet I was disappointed by this book because it promised far more than it delivered.

The Absurdly Short Review

Do you believe Christians should only vote for Republicans? Read this book. Did that question strike you as a silly one? Then read Shane Claiborn’s Irresistable Revolution and Jesus for President instead of this book. Not sure yet? Then read this:

The Long Review

While I can’t give this book a positive review, I can’t say enough good things about Dobson. The book reads like a personal journal, and therefore I don’t want to take away from the gains he made in his one-year project. A lot of good stuff happens in this book, but to put it bluntly, the book’s presentation as a year of living like Jesus doesn’t work. Perhaps he could have just listed a few lessons learned after immersing himself in the Gospels rather than claiming he was “living like Jesus.”

The first sixty five pages alone drag on with insignificant details and fretting over silly things like whether to use electronics during a plane’s take off or whether he should eat shrimp. Such passages zeroing in on minutiae are far too common throughout the book. In addition, any project like this needs parameters and Dobson doesn’t really set up hard and fast ones to follow, which could have saved a lot of ink and paper later in the book as he confronts the limitations of his ALS.

Was he going to follow all of the Old Testament? Was he going to live like Jesus in light of Acts 15? He doesn’t really tell us, and so he does a little of each, spending a lot of time worrying about what to do and talking about the Jewish customs he picked up along the way.

In addition, while Dobson wants to focus on praying more so he can be like Jesus, I can’t quite figure out why he’d pick up the Rosary and the prayer beads of the Eastern Orthodox. While his openness to these things is admirable, it’s hard to see how they fit in this book, which brings us back to his project’s parameters and the way it has been marketed.

The book’s main problem is that it still presents living like Jesus in a fairly tame form where we have to think a little harder about how we vote, make ourselves a little bit uncomfortable by picking up hitchhikers, give away a few things, and read the Bible more. These are all good steps that I want to honor, but when I read about the folks  living sacrificially in the communities of folks such as Shane Claiborn and Mark Scandrette, I can’t help but feel this project didn’t quite go far enough.

Though Dobson is careful to set his own course in order to distinguish himself from A. J. Jacob’s The Year of Living Biblically, I think the book would have benefited by interacting with some other Christian leaders beyond the few clergy he sought out. Wouldn’t it have been amazing for a former assistant to Jerry Falwell to sit down for a chat with someone like Jim Wallis or Shane Claiborn?

Dobson is honest about some of his failings, such as not visiting someone in prison or giving up more of his possessions, but at the same time there is a failure throughout the book to tackle some of the teachings of Jesus that many American Christians would find most difficult to stomach. If the publisher knew Dobson hadn’t done these things, then why not present the material in a slightly different light?

It was nice that Dobson gave away some suits and even sacrificed his preaching gig at his gated community in Florida, but his example of trusting his wealthy friends to buy him dinner didn’t exactly strike me as the kind of thing worth recording in a book about living like Jesus.

Dobson takes admirable risks at times and reaches out in wonderful ways to those outside the church, but there are plenty of awkward moments where he uncritically mentions his corvette and his gated community without wondering how the story of the rich young man could apply to them. He very well could have justified either of them, but his lack of attention to them makes them a glaring oversight that makes this book a bit difficult to digest at times.

I have really struggled to review this book because it does some things well, but also has some glaring weak points in light of the way the material is presented: a year of living like Jesus. The bar has no doubt been set high, but in reality we have a series of journal entries from a gracious and compassionate brother who benefits greatly by devoting more time to prayer, scripture reading, and attempts to live like Jesus.

As far as the benefits of this book, pastor Dan Kimball notes that Dobson has a passion for those outside of the church and has a lot of great stories to share from his year of trying to live like Jesus. Just taking a gander at the comments on Kimball’s blog you can see how some Christian brothers and sisters can’t stomach a discussion in politics beyond abortion, and to the extent that Dobson helps broaden the pro-life agenda and add nuance to our discussions, his book has made a valuable contribution to Christianity.

This book was reviewed as part of Zondervan’s blog tour.

I’m continuing my reflections on the book of Romans with chapter two today…

The second chapter of Romans continues to build the case for equality among the Gentiles and Jews in the Roman church, but at this point Paul is making a negative association that will continue into chapter three. The Jews and Gentiles are equally in trouble when it comes to sin and whether or not they consider themselves God’s chosen people, God recognizes those who are obedient, avoiding both sin and judgment of others.

This passage contains some pretty harsh words for folks who are supposedly saved by faith and secure in their salvation. They have the same sin problems as those who are not believers. They judge others. They are storing up wrath and judgment for themselves. They have stubborn and unrepentant hearts.

And the blow to the jugular? God will one day uncover all of the sin they’re hiding away in their hearts.

None of this is sounding all that pleasant.

I have a feeling that Jews in attendance may have felt a tad smug still after all that Paul said. Perhaps they still thought they had an edge on others because of circumcision: the mark of the covenant. Whatever the case may be, Paul drops a bomb on them by saying that circumcision doesn’t mean a thing if it isn’t paired with faithful obedience.

And if invalidating the mark of Judaism, one of the most hallowed rituals for the past 2,000 years with deep biblical roots, isn’t enough, he goes on to completely redefine circumcision as a spiritual act that the Holy Spirit performs on the heart. It would seem that sin has rendered the old system useless.

However, in the midst of this seeming biblical revisionism and verse after verse of bad news, there is hope that God can save and reform us.

The trouble is that his audience needs to let go of their deeply implanted sins, open themselves to the message of the Lord for them in their current day, and even let go of good, biblical practices in favor of the new things God is doing. We should marvel at the radical nature of Paul’s statement about circumcision. This is a deepening of that ritual to the core of what God intended: an obedient people who were holy as he is holy.

This is a goal for our lives: holiness. When we get that right, we are free to have fellowship with God. And when we have fellowship with God, we have tapped into the very thing we were made for.

Lately I’ve been realizing that I’m not comfortable describing myself as a “conservative” evangelical. Nevertheless, I’m still pretty committed to the Bible and even have many conservative traits in my reading of scripture. So while I have departed from the conservative end of evangelicals in part, I find myself trying to figure out what it means to have a high view of scripture from the evangelical left or center.

If I want to sound trendy or at least charitable, I’d describe myself as a “progressive”. Now doesn’t that sound catchy. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be progressive?

Here’s the thing: I’m cool with there being a broad range of evangelicals. Whether right, left, or center, our movement has thrived by focusing on the Gospel message of cross and resurrection, Christian activism (I’m going with David Bebbington’s word here for Christian service and volunteerism in ministry), conversion, and the Bible. Therefore, as an evangelical who sees himself somewhere in the middle to left of this movement, I’d like establish solid credibility for my end of things.

I’ve been trying to think of the most evangelical thing I could do—something that would demonstrate my commitment to scripture in particular. How could I show that one need not cling to the right of this movement to be a Bible-loving evangelical? The folks on the left and center still take the Bible seriously—generally adhering to the accepted evangelical methods of historical-cultural interpretations that deal with the complexity of scripture, while not disregarding biblical revelation.

What’s an evangelical to do?

The answer: Study the book of Romans!

When all else fails evangelicals traditionally dig into the good ole’ book of Romans for spiritual sustenance. If I only had a denarius for all of the Bible studies that have started with the hefty book of Romans.

And so that is exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve been reading through Romans and hope to post a series of meditations on the book. I promise an especially exciting exegetical and hermeneutical adventure for the part about homosexuality in chapter one.

Seriously, when was the last time the words exegetical and hermeneutical were linked with “adventure”? Epic this will be. And with such promises of exegetical excellence, let’s jump in…

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It’s hard to demonize someone after you share a meal together.

I’ve seen folks on the ideological right paint those on the left as freedom-hating regulators who want to squash freedom and ruin America. I’ve also seen folks on the ideological left stir up fear of right wing bigots who want to take over America and run it according to their narrow moral visions.

Each side is unable to countenance the views of the other, demonizing them as ridiculous, nuts, freedom-hating, bigoted, and non-sensible.

I used to be a pretty strident advocate for the right, but over time I met homosexuals, supporters of abortion, atheists, sundry Democrats, and a host of other sub-groups from the left.

On several occasions I shared meals with these people, and as my own views shifted and developed, I learned a bit  more about where they come from. I don’t agree with all that is on the right or left, but now that I know people on both sides, I feel like I can converse freely and understand where people are coming from. This helps me stand up for what I believe without demonizing or writing off those who disagree with my perspective.

When I think about the kind of community that Jesus wanted to create, it’s no mistake that that his final days on earth centered around a meal. Fellowship, prayer, theology, and worship can all be linked in many ways to this meal that Jesus instituted.

Sharing a meal with someone creates a certain degree of common ground. Once you’ve sat with someone for an hour or so, you probably know a little bit about this person’s family, background, and reasons for his/her beliefs.

Several of the courses I took at Biblical Theological Seminary took place over entire days, allowing us time to go out for lunch and dinner together. We didn’t always stick to theology during those meals, but we did manage to forge some pretty powerful bonds that continue to this day. In addition, I found a lot in common with the guys who came from very different theological or ideological backgrounds.

If we’d only debated in class, I would have certainly been inclined to write some of these folks off. However, our meals together forged a greater sense of community and common ground in Christ and in other areas as well. I was better prepared to hear them out and to learn a thing or two from them.

When most Christian theology takes place in classrooms and Sunday School rooms, as well as the contexts of Bible studies, I wonder if we’re missing the crucial component of a community-building meal. I know of many small groups who have adopted a meal-centered format, and have seen it work really well on many occasions.

We need to think a bit more about ways we can make our discussion forms more conducive to fellowship and community—letting our theology grow and develop in the context of meals. If the medium is the message, and Jesus used a meal to teach some of the most important aspects of salvation and theology, then we cannot ignore the ramifications for us today.

It’s easy to praise Martin Luther King with forty years to cushion us from his message, methods, and goals. We see his results, admire his legacy, and revere him for his courage and commitment to justice.

The Christian elements of the civil rights movement is certainly a mixed bag. Some Christians used the Bible to support segregation such as the folks at Bob Jones University (by the way, did you know that school wasn’t desegregated until the 1990’s?).

Other Christians urged for desegregation, but didn’t resort to protests, sit-ins, marches, and civil disobedience in the face of unjust laws. Billy Graham fits into this category, as he refused to preach to segregated audiences, even removing ropes that would have kept whites and blacks separate. However, he was uneasy with breaking the law, even if the laws were unjust.

And then you have the legacy of Martin Luther King, a Christian minister who struggled for equality. Remember, in his day he was perceived by many as radical and too extreme. He was urged to be patient, to wait this out. His civil disobedience was perceived as potentially dangerous.

While we do well to honor King, we should remember that his methods were deemed too radical and his dreams too grandiose. If we desire to honor him today, we should start asking, “What should we be dreaming and what should we do to make these dreams a reality?”

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I’ve had a growing reading list of books these days that I’m trying to plow through. Each meets a different interest or need, so I thought I’d share some reviews according to my categories.

For the Blog

David Sanford’s latest book, If God Disappears, confronts nine ways our faith can be wrecked and then offers nine of his own faith builders. The book is packed with anecdotes and stories that show Sanford is no stranger himself to suffering and difficult times, if not deep doubt and despair. He’s walked through the valleys dealt with in this book, and so he is never lacking in compassion and empathy as he unravels a wide variety of scenarios where faith may take a hit.

The narrative has a nice movement from story to teaching and then back to story, and his own reflections are particularly powerful. I haven’t quite finished it yet, so I hope to blog on it again once I wrap it up, but for an accessible read that deals with the weighty matters of doubt, losing faith, and finding it again, Sanford’s book is a solid buy. If you have a skeptic or someone going through some doubts, I highly recommend this book as a Christmas present.

On one other note, the design itself is excellent. Salt River is an imprint of Tyndale, and they’ve been putting out some great books with a clean, minimalist design for their compact hard backs. This means the books are affordable, sturdy, and attractive. With the changes coming to the book industry, I suspect these will be the kind of books readers will want in the future when the more affordable kinds of paperbacks will be replaced with digital formats.

Pleasure Reading/Learning to Write Better

Stephen King advises would-be writers to read, read, read. As someone who wants to try making a living as a writer, this means I’m always looking for a good writer to not only read for pleasure, but to learn from. A.J. Jacobs’ book The Year of Living Biblically fits that bill nicely.

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How should we confront false doctrine today?

Well, if you’re an approved workman of God able to handle the truth (2 Timothy 2:15), you should be able to lay some holy Bible smack down on false teachers, right? I mean, if you don’t confront them, who will? Are you just going to sit by and watch false teachers make a mess of things?

When Paul instructed Timothy on the best way to handle false teachers in Ephesus, he actually told Timothy to step back. Really. He eventually instructed Timothy to gently teach those who have erred, but for the most part, Paul’s approach is not all that aggressive or confrontational. Paul is far more concerned with the state of Timothy and his own purity of spirit and the purity of his Gospel.

In fact, he tells Timothy to avoid godless chatter. This godless chatter just happened to be calling the resurrection into question. Serious no doubt, godless for certain, but to be avoided all the same.

What should Timothy do instead? Find out in 2 Timothy 2. It’s got something to do with faith, love, and holiness.