The View from the West Mesa

Well, it’s done for another year – the commercial side of Christmas anyway. Now we enter the Octave of Christmas on the religious and spiritual side of things. A chance to savor the coming of God during the period leading up to Epiphany, the day that marks both the baptism of Jesus and serves as a remembrance of His being revealed to the world through the testimony of God Himself. And so, for those attuned to the rhythms of the church year, we moved through Advent as we awaited His coming into the world, and through the Christmas season wherein we celebrate His accomplished in-breaking, to Epiphany when we celebrate His revealing to the world through His ministry, and then into Lent, anticipating His death as well as ours, and so into Easter, another and perhaps His most powerful revealing in power as Savior of the world, and as our hope of living with Him forever. And so we travel seasons with our focus repeatedly on Jesus, His coming to save us, and His acceptance of us to participat...

Most Christians would agree that the writers of Scripture were inspired by God when they wrote the autographs. While we may argue whether the Holy Spirit dictated the actual words, or the thoughts and ideas, inspiration in some form is usually not debated. Inspiration is a critical aspect of Scripture, imbuing it with a divinely-appointed importance for the church. We know what God has said because we believe that what we have received was inspired by our God. Scripture is the very words of God – in some form. But few Christians today would claim to be inspired in their daily lives, or in their church lives. To claim to be inspired is a claim that will receive considerable scrutiny if not out right rejection by the vast majority of Protestant Christendom. While I don’t know that we should claim inspiration for every idea or thought that travels through our minds, I am equally doubtful that we do not receive inspiration as we attempt to live and minister as God would have us. If we beli...

The following is the communion reflection given on the first Sunday of Advent, 2007. Romans 13.11-14 reads like this: “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” (NIV) This is an interesting passage for communion but we will get to that a bit later. First let’s read the previous pericope. Verses eight through ten read thusly: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments,...

The following is the communion reflection given on The Feast of Christ the King, 2007. Colossians 1.15-20 reads like this: [W]ho is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say , whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens. In these verses there are various points we can observe as part of our Supper observance. The first...

During the sermon this past Sunday, our preacher used an illustration that I have heard numerous times. Oh, not word for word, but ones like it. It goes something like this: “There was this Midwest preacher and his family who went to Washington D.C. and while there, they met a family friend. This friend it turns out was a member of the Secret Service detachment assigned to the President. The friend offered to give the family a tour of the Oval Office and the family readily accepted. The family was somewhat surprised, after expecting searches, and metal detectors galore, to be ushered around all the security because they were with the Secret Service officer.” The point of the illustration is that we gain entry past all the checks and defenses into God’s presence as people who know – or better yet, are known by the Son. As part of the sermon, it made plenty of sense, following a discussion of Jesus’ promise to the one on the cross who asked to be remembered, and to whom Jesus s...

The question comes, concerning whether we must be re-saved everytime we sin. Must we live such a tight rope of behavior that we are in danger of separation from God if we misstep from time to time? While I was growing up, there were some who believed, even if they didn't say it out loud as one sentence, that we in fact were doomed if we died having unrepented sins. It seems to me that God made Man in His image, to be the kinds of people who would live out of that image. God, through history has expected two primary things: 1) That Man honor God, YHWH, Jehovah, as God – as the God to whom Man is devoted, and 2) That Man’s life of dedication, of understanding, of living out of the image in which he was made, would reflect the values and the views of God It has always been that God sought Man to be “His people and He would be their God.” When Man forgot God, failed to trust Him, and relied on themselves, or used the promises of God to excuse their own prideful behavior, God disciplin...

Salvation is not a once in a lifetime event. Having responded to God at some point in our lives does not admit that we can stand on that event forever. It is not accurate, in an absolute sense, to suggest that at some future point we can stand before God and justify ourselves because we had done such and so at some time in the past. We are not able to say that we had let go at some point, or that we had been baptized, or performed some penance and therefore God must accept us. Because salvation is more appropriately described as a relationship, a state of existence, it is not properly or completely defined by a legal state or by some act. We either are saved, in relationship with God, submissive to Him, or we are not. We cannot say "I may not be in submission to God now, but I once was." We either live in concert with God or we do not. What God wants is people who seek Him, who want to live with Him, in Him, and to have Him move through them. This living is imperfect and God ...

It is Man’s destiny, his ultimate goal or purpose, to return to God. We were made in communion with God, in His presence, and in His image. It is to this original relationship with God that we are called – a place where God is with all, in all, through all, where we live in Him and He in us. There are various schools of thought concerning how this looks in practice. For some, this is an “assumption,” a “joining,” a losing of one’s self in God so that there is little or no difference between me and God. We see the world as God sees it, we act as God acts because we have become so like God that we must. Others perceive that Heaven is the Creation restored to its rightful place. We will inhabit a pristine world as we were meant from the beginnings. Regardless of which view we take, there is some sense in which we return to God and live in harmony with or in Him. What is sin? How do we become separated from God? Sin, regardless of which word we care to use for it, is essentially either 1) ...

Lazarus is dead. In fact he’s been dead four days or so when Jesus finally arrives. When Lazarus was sick, Jesus was told that he was. It wasn’t some head cold or allergy with which Lazarus was dealing. Folks wouldn’t have sent word to Jesus for that. No, Lazarus was severely ill, and Jesus had been summoned to heal him. But Jesus hadn’t gone. He had tarried for a day or two before heading back to Lazarus. What he found when he arrived was two distraught sisters who lash out at him, accusing even, that his delay had resulted in Lazarus’s death. They were hurting, and so were a great number of their friends. The sisters even accost Jesus saying “If you’d been here, this wouldn’t have happened!” As if to say, “What took you so long!” As it turns out, Jesus raises Lazarus and returns him to his family; there is much rejoicing. But through the story, we learn that Jesus knew Lazarus was terminal, that he was going to die, and He took his time getting back to Lazarus on purpose. In fact, Go...

The Christian life has never been intended to be expressed primarily in church buildings. Oh, don’t get me wrong, worshiping with one another is something Christians do, and rightly so. But despite our penchant for doing church, structuring staff, and making sure our various rituals are completed, they form a significantly small percentage of what Christian life entails. In fact, I suspect they aren’t nearly as important as we seem to think they are. The Christian life, it seems to me, is more about who we are, what our desires are, where our life focus is. These others, assemblies, staff, rituals, are all tools to remind us or to move us closer to where we are meant to be. As tools, they are not the substance of life, and we endanger ourselves if we allow them to become the substance. Throughout Scripture, God makes it clear that he expects his people to do what he says, to pay enough attention to him to form themselves into his likeness. But event in the expectation of doing, there i...

The question of when someone is saved, or who can we say is a Christian, comes up from time to time in my circles. The ensuing dialogue usually includes points concerning faith, repentance, baptism, Calvinism, free will, grace, and a few other topics. The discussion seems to revolve around a point in time, a place where, on one side, someone is not a Christian, and on the other side, one can safely be said to be a Christian. This is important, it seems since it directly affects fellowship, communion, membership in a local congregation, and participation in assemblies. This question has been debated for centuries, and I don’t presume to settle it in this short essay. I do however, believe that it has taken a lot more ink, blood, and hurt feelings than it deserves. It seems to me that salvation is not so much about having completed a complete ritual, but is rather a state of being in which we live with, in, and for God. It is, quite frankly, being allowed by God, through our submission t...

As learning to live out of the image of God transforms the way we live and see one another, it must also transform the way in which we do church. I come to worship fully cognizant of my relationship to and in God and therefore my worship becomes more personal and more relational. I not only worship God by myself, but within the community of believers with whom I share the image and relationship with God. Just as a more fully understand the real spiritual connection I have with God, I come to our assemblies with the same mind of God and I see my brothers and sisters as God sees them. I see them as a shepherd would; as sheep who need nurturing and safety. In a real sense, I join with God and our assemblies become opportunities for me to share Him with the others here, regardless of their station, their challenges, or their failings. I see them as God sees them, and my worship and our assembly becomes ministry to them. Because I live my life in this same way, in recognition of my relation...

The previous post, Radical Christianity?, posited the idea that Christianity isn’t as radical as we sometimes want to make it seem. Rather, Christianity is the most natural and normative way to live since we are made in the image of God. If we can grasp the idea that it is this image in which we were made that actually defines both who we are, and the most natural drives and cares we have, we gain a different perspective on Christianity and the Christian life. Christianity becomes not something strange to which we must convert people, but a natural way of living that frees us from chasing unnatural things, and allows us to share with others a way of life that satisfies, and a God that blesses those who can see the blessings. Rather than a God that seems to have lost control of humankind and who seeks to judge people if they don’t jump through the correct hoops, we see a God that made us, and we can see (and experience) ourselves as most contented and happy when we live in concert with ...

We hear a lot about radical Christianity these days. Whether from the Emergent church world, or from social religionists, people like Brueggemann, and others, we hear that true Christianity is radical – that it goes against the grain, against the status quo. If we really buy into Christianity, our lives would be counter-cultural. Sometimes we get the idea that if we were real Christians, we’d live in communes - maybe in the forest, dress like monks, and cease most interaction with those outside our community. I know that is an extreme caricature, few people would advocate eliminating outside contact, and most don’t espouse communal living. Most advocates of this style of spiritual living aren’t arguing that you can’t work on Wall Street and be a Christian, but they do want us to think about others (and the environment) first, rather than buying the latest Lexus. The picture created is that true Christians have a different set of priorities, different views of what is important both ete...

Lauren McCain was a Virginia Tech student. She died on Monday, the 16th of April. The title is a snippet of what her father has said about her killer. Yes, it is only three days after his daughter’s death and he may well still be, and likely is, in the initial stages of his response to his daughter’s loss. He may well change his message, or at least his emotions surrounding it, in the coming days and weeks. Maybe when his daughter doesn’t come home for the summer and his house seems so empty, so quiet, so desolate, he will come to more fully grasp the violence that has been done to him and his world. And he will be entitled to changing his view. No one would blame him for changing his views, for being angry and demanding some sort of vengeance from someone . Anyone . While we deduce that he and his family have some pretty strong Christian convictions, he remains human. Feeble, imperfect, and subject to emotional and psychological conflicts and swings as are the rest of us. And so no on...

When Jesus is in the environs of Jerusalem prior to the Passover of His death, He spends time in the city, but apparently spends evenings outside the walls, in one or more of the small towns in the vicinity. It is coming into Jerusalem from one of these small towns that Jesus sees a fig tree and goes over to it. When Jesus gets to the fig tree, He searches through its leaves, looking for figs apparently. Finding no figs, He curses the tree saying that no one will ever eat figs from it again. We find out later that the tree withers and dies. None of this seems overly out of place. That is until we reach the phrase “It wasn’t the time for figs.” What? That simply doesn’t make any sense. It isn’t time for figs and yet Jesus curses the tree for not having any figs on it. Surely the creator of the universe knew that it wasn’t fig season. No, this story now takes on an almost laughable and confounding aspect. How are we to accept the text as written? How will we correlate Jesus looking for f...

The latest hubub at church has to do with reflections prior to the Lord’s Supper. Last Sunday, the speaker used an illustration of St. Patrick and how the attention paid to him has shifted over the centuries from his accomplishments in the Kingdom of God to green beer, rivers, and clothing. The speaker’s thrust was that we humans often forget the point of our faith and the purpose of our God in coming to the earth. Just as St. Patrick’s memory has shifted from hard and self-less evangelistic work to beer parties on the local college campus, we often lose track of the point of our calling and our God’s death for us. We are too often distracted by life, by work, by ourselves, that we forget who we were made and called to be. The Supper is not just a remembrance, but in that remembering, a rededication and a proclamation of faith. A faith that is supposed to lead to our very transformation into different people, with different values and goals. The importance is not in how we do it, but r...

The topic on the radio talk show’s nine o’clock hour was forgiveness. The host related a story of a lady who said that she had forgiven the people who had killed one of her daughters and severely wounded another. Her daughters were twin twelve year olds, shot by a drive-by shooter last week. The host of the show didn’t know whether or not he could forgive someone so quickly if they had killed his daughter. As you can imagine, there were phone calls galore, ranging across the spectrum of possible responses. There were those who said they would forgive someone after they had been punished, and there were those who said that the only one who can forgive is the victim and since one of them is dead, that’s not possible. Still others said they’d forgive the shooters only after “taking care of them.” Others seemed more willing to forgive. A couple folks called in to say that they would forgive the shooters because that’s what their faith said they were supposed to do, and one caller said if J...

Saul it seems, was instructed to have the Israelite completely destroy the Amalekites – people and animals. Rather, Saul allowed the Israelites to capture the Amalekite king, and to bring back the choicest live stock. When Samuel returns to visit Saul, the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the cattle are clearly audible. Assuming that the Israelites had done what had been directed, Samuel finds this noise to be somewhat unexpected, and so he asks Saul to explain what has happened. Saul’s response is a two-parter. The first is that the people have brought back the best of the plunder to sacrifice it to God. The second is that Saul was afraid of the people and so he let them bring back the plunder [and in this explanation, we don’t know why]. Samuel’s response is his mission for God, and he will complete it. Samuel tells Saul that he has failed in his mission to destroy the Amalekites and as a result God has rejected him as king of Israel. In Samuel’s discussion with Saul, he says:...

I don’t know much about her, but I do know that the media has said “she captured our attention,” and “she wanted to be like Marilyn Monroe,” or other silly things. While she was breathing, she had a lot of attention, even a pretty poor television show for a while. But really, did anyone care? What do we know about her? Oh, that she married some rich guy, was in the middle of fighting for millions with the rich guy’s children, apparently slept with a number of weird and rather opportunistic guys, resulting in a laughable-if-not-tragic episode of one after another claiming to be the sire of her little girl, just to find out that she had left all her money to her now dead son. Unfortunately we knew much more about her than we needed to know. We know that she had little self control, loved attention, and led a life style that was unthinking and dangerous. She apparently taught her son to live the same style of life, using drugs, being unproductive, and dying early by mixing drugs in a reck...

What was Jesus asking when He looked at His disciples and asked, "Who do you say that I am?" He had gotten a few answers surrounding what the people at large had been guessing; primarily some famous prophet from Israel's history. But the people hadn't gotten it right. Jesus wasn't the reincarnation of some long-dead prophet. We may want to offer answers such as 'the messiah,' or the 'Son of God,' or some other such title. But I don't think Jesus was asking "What's my title." He wanted to know if the disciples had had their eyes openned to the working of God. And so His question is more than "Who am I?" I think He was asking something like "So, after running around the country side with me, watching me care for people, and hearing what I have said, do you think you can see God in me?" He wanted to know if the presence of the Divine among them awakened their hearts to who He and they really were. The question rem...

John 3.16 is the most well known verse in the Christian church, and rightly so. This verse tells us of the Father’s love for us, as Paul will say, even while we were yet sinners. This verse, and the one that follows it, form the core of the Gospel, explain why God was interested enough to send Jesus to earth, and establishes the basic expectation of Man’s return to God. It is that basic expectation with which I want to deal in this essay. The expectation is “…he who believes....” But what is that belief that is spoken of in this passage? If we go to our Greek dictionaries we will find words that deal with the apprehension of facts, or assent to a proposition. Many people will take that simple definition and expand it to include a following through on that belief. Namely, repentance is often included in a rightly understood belief. After all, if we really believe that Jesus is who He said He was, we must be compelled to make ourselves look like Him. While I acknowledge the foregoing def...