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Thoughts on God, life, and ministry.

A Larger Story

The Apostle John opens his gospel with the words “In the beginning…” Sound familiar? That’s how Genesis 1:1 opens, “In the beginning…”

With this one phrase John not only connects his gospel to the larger body of the Hebrew Scriptures, but he also connects his gospel to the larger story of redemption that the Israelites believed they were a part of. There is also implication that the work of this Jewish rabbi from Nazareth is equal in magnitude to the Creation of the cosmos. John connects the creation of all things to this story of New Creation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5; 14)

Logos and Zoe

John’s gospel is the most theological and possibly the most artfully written book in the New Testament. The themes and words and stories John selects for his telling of the story he witnessed is layered and beautiful. One of the themes and layered metaphors John uses is related to his use of a particular Greek word. John borrows a term from Classical Greek philosophy. The Greek word translated as “the Word” is the Greek word λόγος, or logos.

The idea of the “logos” is first attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and the idea is beyond my intellectual capacity to explain in a way that does justice to the idea.

In short, the “logos” was the idea that there was something fundamentally and absolutely true that brought order and purpose to the universe. The “logos” was the unifying force or principle that governed and pervaded the reasonable order we see in the universe. The “logos” was the organizing principle that brought order to the ever changing nature of life and reality.

Later Greek philosophers adapted the idea of the “logos” and applied it to human reason and rationality.

A sort of modern way of understanding this would be to say that the “logos” is the ultimate reality behind the existence of all things. The idea of “logos” is still talked about in academia today. Professor and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson said,

You could think about it as the power of speech to transform reality. But even more importantly, more fundamentally, it’s the power of truthful speech to transform reality in a positive direction. We have this magical ability to change the future, and we do that through action, obviously. But action is oriented by thought, and thought is mediated by dialog. And so it’s speech, in particular, that’s of critical importance to this logos process. The logos is symbolically represented in the figure of Christ, who’s the word that was there at the beginning of time. So that’s a very complicated topic, but what it essentially means is that the West has formulated a symbolic representation of the ideal human being, and that ideal human being is the person who speaks the truth to change the world.[1]

Like I said, the depth of the concept in historical philosophy and modern day academics is beyond my current capacity to explain.

John begins his gospel by essentially affirming this secular, Greek idea of the “logos.” He sort of basically says, “Yeah, you guys were on to something here.” Paul does this in Acts when he is in Athens. In Athens, they built an altar to the “unknown god.” Paul says, “I am going to proclaim truth to you about this ‘unknown god’” (Acts 17:23).

What I love about this is that sometimes Christians tend to take a defensive posture towards secular ideas whether they are found in science, philosophy, psychology, or even ideas from other religions. I believe the biblical witness shows us that we can claim all truth wherever we find it as God’s truth and apply redemptive revelation to it. So, when science discovers something true about nature, when psychology offers insights for mental health, and even when other religions affirm moral truths—we don’t have to reject the truths, but rather we can re-ascribe the implications in a way that points to Jesus.

John says that the organizing force that brings order and purpose to the cosmos is pre-existent, and that this pre-existent Word, the “logos,” is also the originating source and sustainer of all things.

In fact, he says that in this “logos” was life. The Greek word here is ζωή or zoe. This word for life carries more than just the idea of biological life. Zoe has to do with the vitality and fullness of life. We might say when someone has a sort of contagious joy that they are “full of life.” We often understand that there are things that are “life-giving” and “fulfulling.” Many of us have experienced a concert, an adrenaline inducing ride, or once in a life-time opportunity and said something along the lines of “I feel so alive.” That’s “zoe.”

Zoe is a sunrise with painted with brilliant hues of purple, pink, yellow and orange. Zoe is a hot cup of coffee paired with a delectable strawberry scone. Zoe is laughing with family until it hurts. Zoe is finishing a half-marathon and with that finish accomplishing a goal you never thought possible. Zoe is your wedding day.

Zoe is what permeates the Christmas spirit of joy that we can all identify with yet can’t quite explain. Zoe is the sense that life and life-giving things are good, right, and true. Which is why John says that this Zoe gives light to all men. John also says that the darkness, evil and chaos, did not and by implication will not overcome it.

So, for John, this pre-existent “logos”—this “ultimate reality” that brings beauty, life, love, music, joy, and orderly purpose—was with God and is God.

It Gets Personal 

But it gets better. You see, for the Greeks, the “logos” was an impersonal force or Divine reason.

John says that this ultimate reality is not just an impersonal Divine force, but that the Divine is a personal God and by nature also relational. And, this God became flesh.

The “logos” became flesh and dwelt among us. The idea behind the word “dwelt” is that the “logos” tabernacled or took up habitation among men. This language here would have reminded any Jewish readers of the tabernacle in the wilderness. The central place in which the very presence of God was believed to inhabit among God’s people.

John says that ultimate reality was embodied in the person of Jesus Christ and he dwelt among man!

The glory of this ultimate reality as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. Think about that. Grace and truth.

Christmas and Embodied Deity

So what do a few Greek words and tabernacles have to do with us?

Jesus is the embodiment of God—of ultimate reality. Paul put it this way: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form… (Colossians 2:9). The author of Hebrews wrote, The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3).

Christmas is about more than just a baby in a manger. Christmas is about more than just the necessary prelude to the main event of Christ’s atoning work on the cross.

Christmas is about the incarnation. The “enfleshing” of the Divine nature. Christmas is about the expression of God’s love being revealed in a person. The transcendent divine nature took on flesh. Part of the message of Christmas is that God is fundamentally a relational, personal being.

Pre-existent transcendence is deeply and fundamentally personal—God is relational.

What is more, He desires a relationship with you!

And, this divine, transcendent reality is good. When the fullness of God is embodied, we see that God is full of grace and truth.

When all the fullness of deity took up residence in a First Century Jewish rabbi…

When the divine nature could be passed by on the street, heard teaching in a synagogue, hosted at a dinner party…

When God became human…

…We see Jesus. We see that God has compassion for the poor, the power to heal the sick, and the desire to associate with outcasts.

Jesus is the supreme revelation of the Divine nature and this revelation culminates in the humiliation of the Messiah through his death on the cross. The paradox is that in this humiliation, the supreme revelation of God in Jesus is glorified. 

I am convinced that the glory of God on the cross is not just about the atoning work of Jesus’ death for our sin, but it is also about the self-giving love of God on display in Jesus.

When the “logos” that gives “zoe” is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, ultimate reality is revealed to be fundamentally personal and radically oriented towards self-giving love.

The Logos Was With God… The Logos Is God…

There’s this cool scene in Exodus 33 where Moses asks to see God’s glory. God tells him that he cannot see his face because it would kill him. This is not to mean God’s literal face. Essentially, God is telling Moses that the weight of the fullness of his glory would crush him. So, he will pass by Moses and declare his name.

Exodus 34:4-7 records Moses going to the top of Mount Sinai and God doing as he said. He passes by Moses and declares his name. Verses 6-7 are the most quoted verses in the whole of the Old Testament:

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

Many people get hung up on the “bringing consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren. There’s a lot there to unpack there and it is not what it seems. In short, God will make things that sin has destroyed right and will hold people accountable. Not only that, our actions have far reaching consequences. Just ask a child of an alcoholic or an abusive parent or of divorced parents if their parent’s sins have brought consequences upon them.

What is important to notice in this passage is that the order in the original Hebrew indicates importance and repetition indicates emphasis.

When God describes himself, he leads with his compassion and grace and emphasizes his faithful love by mentioning it twice.

In his book God Has a Name, John Mark Comer connects this to John 1. He writes:

Usually people read ‘grace and truth’ and talk about how Jesus was the perfect balance of grace and niceness and loved mixed with truth and the backbone and the courage to say what needed to be said. That’s totally true. It’s just not remotely the point that John is making. John is ripping all this language out of the Exodus—‘tabernacled’ and ‘glory’ and ‘love and faithfulness’—as a way of retelling the Sinai story around Jesus. He’s making the point that in Jesus, we see the Creator God’s glory—his presence and beauty—like never before. In Jesus, Yahweh becomes a human being. In Jesus, we get a new, evocative, crystal-clear glimpse of what God is actually like.

Christmas reminds us that the Word became flesh and showed us what God is like. It turns out, God is full of compassion and grace, he is faithfully true, and he made the debt of sin right by absorbing it’s consequences on the cross! 

Reflection:

  1. What is God like? Do you have impressions and ideas of God that are void of any personal or relational attributes? Or, when you think about God do you think about a loving, relational, and personal being?

  2. If you are a follower of Jesus then we are called to imitate Christ. This raises the question: Does our imitation of Jesus reflect and exemplify grace and truth?

May Christmas be a reminder of God’s deeply personal nature and of his self-giving love for you.

O-Holy-Night-Small

(This post was originally published on 12/06/2017.)

Birthday Parties

I loved birthday parties as a kid. I remember one of the first birthday parties I was invited to in elementary school. I went to a small Christian school which meant our class size was also small. So, if you were not invited to the birthday party that happened over the weekend it was pretty obvious that you were left out. You were not part of the “in” crowd. I was invited to a kids house who was generally liked by everyone. The guys thought he was cool and the girls thought he was cute. That was pretty much the formula for popularity in elementary school.

A typical birthday party with my friends usually included basketball, pizza, and video games. My birthday was in August and we had a pool. This meant my party included swimming too. I am not sure any of my friends thought I was that cool, but my neighbor had a paved and painted basketball court. So, between the pool and the basketball court my birthday was usually well attended. I remember my mom always encouraging me to invite the “other” kids too. The kids that weren’t always invited to other parties. A couple of times, I was encouraged to invite a kid from my class who wasn’t exactly my friend. We were kind of like “frenemies”… Anyways, inviting someone to a birthday party was about more than getting presents. It was a social statement about who was part of your friend group. It was a clear indication of who was “in,” and who was out.

Baby Jesus’ Birthday

I love the Christmas story. For many of us, the Christmas season is just about this nice children’s story and the nostalgia of the old Christmas carols. For many of us, we are so familiar with the story that we completely miss how scandalous and not-so-child-friendly the story actually is. The details the gospel authors include are raw and incredibly human, but they paint a compelling and beautiful picture of God’s love for humanity. I love the story. I love the theology of the incarnation–God became flesh. I love the characters the authors include. Almost every main character in the story highlights God’s love for the underdog.

It all really starts with the genealogy. Matthew opens his gospel with a really long and seemingly boring genealogy of Jesus. Most of the genealogy goes like this: “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father…” (Matthew 1:2). I know, it sounds real invigorating to read right? But, here’s the thing: one’s family name was and still is derived from the father. Therefore, the mother was not as significant to the establishment of the bloodline. Yet, Matthew includes at different points in the genealogy a couple of women.

The text reads, “So-and-so was the father of so-and-so, and blah, blah, blah” until the author breaks rhythm and occasionally the text states, “..the son of so-and-so by (insert mother’s name).” You would think that the names of the mothers included would be great heroines of the faith right? Nope.

Matthew includes a woman named Tamar who intentionally seduced a married man (Genesis 38). He highlights a Gentile prostitute from Jericho named Rahab (Joshua 2:1-7). Ruth gets her name in there too. She was from Moab—a nation that can trace its origins back to an incestuous relationship (Genesis 19:30-38). Matthew also highlights King David’s not-so-shining moment by mentioning that he was the father of Solomon “by the wife of Uriah.” That is of course a reference to Bathsheba, and Matthew apparently had to make that clear.

After the genealogy, we have the main characters. Mary is one of my favorites. God asks this poor, teenage girl from a really small and insignificant town located in a disreputable region of Israel to be the one who would bring God’s Son into the world. Due to the unbelievable explanation of Mary’s pregnancy, Jesus’ entire birth was likely surrounded by disgrace and scandal. This is one of the most sanitized details about the entire story. I love that God came under the most humble of circumstances.

I love that when the Savior of the world, the creator of the cosmos, the Word at the beginning was born, God commissioned an army of angelic beings to announce it to….Shepherds.

Shepherds were not the most liked, trusted, or respected members of that society. Their occupation likely left them ceremonially unclean most of the time. This means the more orthodox, religious types looked down on them. God announced the arrival of our King to shepherds.

Let us also not forget the Magi from the East. While these guys were likely incredibly intelligent in philosophy, astrology, and medicine, they were nonetheless Gentiles. Israel’s Messiah was supposed to come for Israel’s redemption and liberation. Why on earth would God reveal the birth of the Christ-child to the Magi?

I love the Christmas story because every aspect of the story is drenched in God’s unfathomable grace and his preferential love for the have-nots of society. Jesus’ entire birth narrative communicates that God redeems the past, uses the unlikely, loves the outcast, and invites the unqualified to the table of grace.

You’re Wrong

If you think your past is too messy, that God would be ashamed to mention your name—you’re wrong.

If you think you are too young, too insignificant, or too simple for God to use—you’re wrong.

If religious people have told you that you don’t belong at the party, that your lifestyle is just not squeaky clean enough—they’re wrong.

If you think God’s good news is only for the “in” crowd and not for outsiders—you’re wrong.

God isn’t ashamed of your story. He can write a new story on the pages of your life. God not only can use you, but He wants to use your life to make a lasting difference in this world. Jesus came for the outcast, the marginalized, the oppressed, the enslaved, the broken, the unlovely, the unclean, the too-far-gone, the sick—Jesus came for you. You are invited to the party. You belong. The table of grace has a spot for you.

Read the Story Again.

If you are a Jesus follower and the focal point of your gospel message is God’s wrath—you need to read the story again. If you claim Jesus and you are more concerned about drawing the lines dividing who’s “in” and who’s “out”—you need to read the story again. If you are a Christian and you find yourself making judgments about a person’s lifestyle rather than finding your heart filled with compassion—you need to read the story again. If you’re a disciple of Jesus and your “good news” message is reserved for those who look like you, think like, vote like, live like you—you need to read the story again.

The entire story, from beginning to end, paints a picture of a God who traveled across the universe to declare His undying love for the pinnacle of His wayward creation. The entire story paints a picture of a God who runs after the prodigals to the disdain of the self-righteous. The Good News is about grace. The Good News is—Jesus came.

You know that moment in a movie

When the anticipation of fright seizes your heart,

When you are afraid before the culmination of the scare?

I live in that state of anxiety almost daily.

Why you may ask?

The reasons are as complex as a single life itself.

I fear because I exist.

I exist in a world that is wrecked with darkness—with brokenness.

In the midst of the brokenness, we wander around in emptiness.

We wander, searching for wholeness.

Searching for significance.

Searching for an answer to the question: Do I matter?

Maybe I am alone in this,

But my search has taken me to places

I would have hoped to never go.

I have looked among the finite for an answer to an infinite question.

I have looked among the ugly for validation through comparison.

You see, if my ugliness looks beautiful next to something horrific—

Maybe I am okay. Maybe.

So we scramble around in the muck

Complacently concluding that maybe this isn’t so bad.

Maybe this is all there is.

Maybe there is no greater significance.

Maybe the attempt to hope is as elusory as eternity.

Maybe hope for meaning is a lie.

So,

I fear insignificance.

I fear failure.

I fear the future.

I fear fear.

Yet, my entire being cries out

Fear is a lie!

Fear is a mirage

For fear is the anticipation of what could be,

Not the reality of what is.

What if hope is the anticipation of what is truly to come

But is not yet?

What if hope defines what really is in reality?

What if fear determines what really will be but was not?

What if fear is self-fulfilling?

What if what we fear could never be

If we didn’t fear in the first place?

So hope—why?

What is it about being human

That innately means we seek hope?

Why do we all hope for a connection with transcendence?

Possibly because we all wonder about significance.

An infinitely crucial question such as:

Whether a human life is significant or not?

Who can answer?

None but the Author of life itself.

Only that which transcends the finite can answer such an infinite question.

And, the question has been answered.

The Infinite became finite.

The eternal entered into the temporal.

The essence of life subjected itself to death.

Hope was born and walked among us. The Eternal One has answered the infinite question

By surrendering His eternal life to Death.

But Death could not corrupt the Incorruptible

Hope could not be surrendered to fear.

Thus we need not fear.

The God of all creation

The God of the universe

The One who imagined the mysteries of galaxies and atoms,

The One who is infinite has declared to all that is finite

The Creator has proclaimed to humanity

While the entire Cosmos looked on:

You, my beloved, are of unsurpassable worth.

Fear not, I have overcome.

I have redeemed, forgiven, healed, restored, reconciled, saved—

I have taken care of your descent into brokenness.

You were not made to find your eternal worth in temporal things.

You were not made to toil and search so hard.

Rest in hope.

Rest in grace.

Rest in love.

Fear not, for I AM with you.

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