For like the eagle in latter days, I will renew your strength.

Young men faint and grow weary, but I will renew your strength.

I give you the spirit of my servant Caleb.

Stand before every river and call out to the God of Elijah.

Take up the spear and hold forth the Word of Life.”

“Take up the spear from where it has fallen.

I will shod your feet with the gospel of peace.  Your chest I emblazon with the shield of faith; Your head I anoint with the helmet of full salvation.

Take up the spear and hold forth the Word of Life.”

Deep in our bones a fire burns, shut up within; we are weary from holding it. This raging flame, many waters cannot quench. Just grant us Lord this day, a voice— not barred; give us the freedom. To lift it up without shame. Brokenhearted— to them you are near, and you save the crushed in spirit. Our soul— to you, we lift it up. Make bright its depths, with the light of your face.

Over these past years I have become certain that I am obliged by God’s mercy that I am to always represent and minister— from the basis of His gifting me within the Church as a Pentecostal.  I once embarked on steps towards becoming more identified with another tradition.  But I came to see that this is the tradition God made me part of, and it is a calling.  I am therefore also certain that what I am to do, no matter how small of a way it may be, is to represent this tradition to the rest of the Church and the world, and from this gifting, help envision and point this world to the new world that is God is crafting out of this present order.  During this same season I have been working on a project titled, “Pentecostal Spirituality and the Prophetic Imagination.”  In that work, I am proposing a renewed Pentecostal imagination, identity, spirituality and ethos in response to emerging challenges of the 21st century.  What follows, are extracts reflecting some of the themes I am pursuing in that work.

I strongly believe with the upmost conviction— that Pentecostalism was birthed through a sovereign “latter day” outpouring of God’s Spirit.  Having received a prophetic consciousness through encountering Jesus as the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit, we Pentecostals have thus been spirituality gifted “for such a time as this, to manifest a revolutionary ethos in our personal and congregational way of life, as a perennially prophetic and apocalyptic witness to the coming Kingdom.  Pentecostalism is a spirituality that therefore prophetically contributes to witness of the Church Catholic throughout history and the world.  Pentecostal spirituality helps the Church remember that she is to question the legitimacy of this world’s prevailing realities, and demonstrate and proclaim through the power of God’s Spirit, an alternative vision of God’s new world.  By the power of the Spirit given through the pentecostal experience of Spirit-baptism, we thus speak forth liberation to all humanity, and even to the whole creation.

Pentecostalism emerged and is distinctively gifted within the greater Christian Church, as a unique Christian spirituality— a prophetic-type spirituality.  I moreover believe that the emerging challenges of our age reveal that if we are to be faithful to the revolutionary roots of Pentecostalism, we must again discover that God raised up Pentecostalism as a communal gifting for the edifying of the entire Catholic Church in the prophetic consciousness.  This consciousness comes through the Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism.

I believe then that our core giftedness and calling as Pentecostals, even within the greater Christian Church calls us towards a two-fold rhythm that should always characterise our distinctive Pentecostal spirituality.  This is a rhythm that directly arises from the Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism, which grants us a seminal gateway into the prophetic tradition and thereby also, into the prophetic imagination.  On one hand this prophetic consciousness calls into question the prevailing consensus and status quo.  On the other— it envisions a better dream arising from the new world God is building out of the present order.  As the Spirit renews our encounter with Jesus, we are discovering that the Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism is therefore an important and seminal gateway to the prophetic imagination.

Now with the passing of the first decade of the 21st century, we have come to a moment in history that enjoins us in a fresh way, to allow the Spirit to renew our prophetic imagination so that we can again faithfully critique the prevailing norm around us.  Hence, we must allow the Spirit of prophesy to deconstruct our personal and communal paradigms, our values our practices and behaviour, and our aspirations.  We must allow the prophetic imagination of God’s Spirit to thus help us insure that these are not scripted by the story-worlds of our surrounding culture, but rather by the story-world of Jesus.  Then second, as we allow the Spirit to reveal the radical disjunction between what is and what should be, we cry out to God that He would pour out His Spirit— endowing us to speak a better dream of the new world He is bringing to pass, even as the Spirit baptises us into the story of Jesus.

In order to therefore forward move towards and into the new world of God’s future for us in this new century, we need to thus allow the Spirit to renew our imagination, thus again opening our vision towards the broad moral and ethical contours of life in God’s kingdom.  With such a renewed and thus rightly nurtured imagination— we again are thereby endowed with a salient prophetic imagination that is able to look beyond existing norms and affectively grasp in all its beauty— the promised coming of God’s new age and new humanity as God’s “co-creator” of this new age.

VISIONEERING A NEW KIND OF PENTECOSTAL CHURCH FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

I am visioneering a new kind of Pentecostal church for the 21st century.  It is a vision arising in response to challenges that have emerged and continue to do so at the beginning of this new century.  Moreover, the pluralistic fragmenting of human and spiritual identity which arises from our 21st globalised setting, enjoins Pentecostals towards a renewed re-imagining of Pentecostal self-identity.  The challenge we face is that our missiological impulse must be at this point in history tempered by a renewed identity of what our “centre” should be as distinctive spirituality within the Christian Church. These challenges therefore enjoin us towards a renewed Pentecostal spirituality, ethos and ministry philosophy that is:

1. Firmly grounded in the soul-nourishing “roots” of the “latter day” Pentecostal outpouring.
2. Sensitised as much (if not more) to the marginalised as to the affluent around us.
3. Faithfully-responsive to emerging 21st century challenges of a market and consumerist-driven world order— countering its false hopes by demonstrating through the Spirit’s power, the full spiritual and socially redemptive vision of Jesus as Saviour, Healer, Coming King and Baptiser in the Spirit.
4. Centred as a “prophetic” spirituality in the pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism.
5. Ecumenically-engaged and open to the greater Christian Church.

Pentecostal Formative Ethos and the Prophetic Imagination

God’s rest the Church not yet enters; but at war the Church now is; at war with falsehoods and powers in high places.  Triumphant is the Church through the power of Jesus’ Spirit— who gives us visions of the new world. To us who stand and kneel in the presence of His Kingdom, this power comes as His Spirit possesses with joy— set before us in the light of His Face.

One of the most critical challenges facing Christianity today, which is particularly challenging the integrity of Pentecostal spirituality, is the formative power of 21st century global market forces along with their consumerist vision for human life.  The revolutionary and prophetic giftedness of Pentecostalism as a Christian spirituality is even now becoming jeopardised through the threat then of assimilation into the identity-forming stories of 21st century globalization.  At the root of these stories is a consumerist vision of human life that is currently propagated through what we may define as the global dominant culture and thereby also sustained to serve the interests of the 21st century globalisation.  This newly emerging story world is now scripting and defining the worth of human life not only according to how much we can measurably achieve but even more— according to how much we can consume.  Given the formative-power these forces have towards scripting the “shape” of human behaviour, we can no longer make “cultural relevancy” our primary posture towards our cultural setting.

Moreover, too often on account of our “localising” giftedness and evangelistic passion, and thus also pragmatising impulse towards ministry, numerical growth and retention, it is easy for us to lose our primary “prophetic” calling as a “prophetic-type of Christian spirituality.  We must therefore consistently assess how well our evangelistic philosophy, strategies and objectives are centered on the true essence of the Church, remembering that that the “very existence of the Christian community” is above all else, to be “a sign of the kingdom of God.”  We must therefore again recall that the kingdom of God comes to break down all walls of alienation and remake us into one new humanity— not just in spirit and ideal, but in actual manifestation of how life is meant to be within the kingdom of God.

I would also add that in spite of the seminal 20th century missiological contribution Pentecostalism has made towards the worldwide catholicity of the Church, it has now reached a critical historical point, which threatens its movement’s sustained viability as an authentic “latter-day” renewal movement of the Holy Spirit.  One major problem we face is the fragmenting of our Pentecostal identity, which is arising from a unique interface between globalisation and Pentecostal indigenisation.  This interface is too often shaping Pentecostalism as a Christian spirituality, albeit in manners and directions that signify a movement away from an ethos, which I believe, comprises, or should comprises, the most enduring distinctives of Pentecostalism— particularly for the 21st century.  This problem now emerges because the context of 21st century globalisation tends to prompt varied centres and streams within the Pentecostalism— to hybridise, reconfigure, refashion and evolve in reaction to the constant fluidity that is and will continue to characterise and link diverse communities within the 21st century.  The challenge we face is that our missiological impulse must be at this point in history, be tempered by a renewed identity of what our “centre” should be as a distinctive spirituality within the Christian Church.

Therefore, the time has now come for us to be “faithfully-responsive” to this emerging 21st century challenge.  We must now counter the prevailing status quos of this present evil age.  To do so, we must construct a congregational ethos that is formatively and visibly counter to the formative power of the consumerist-driven story-worlds and vision for human life that now characterises our greater cultural setting.  Therefore, our visible life-existence as Pentecostal missional communities must call into question the prevailing culture and world we live within.  We must ensure that the world will come to know us more— as counter-cultural alternatives to its predominate consensus, social conventions and values, rather than as congregations which are “culturally relevant” to our immediate setting.

This re-imagination of Pentecostal spirituality for the 21st century therefore infers then that if Pentecostal churches are to be faithful to our calling as a prophetic spirituality within the greater Church of God, just as this tradition emerged through the latter outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they will desire cultivating a congregational ethos and spirituality that is visibly counter-cultural to the predominate status quos of the present evil age.  This visible counter-cultural ethos arises as Pentecostal spirituality creates personal, communal and congregational movements towards God’s dream.

While our prophetic consciousness calls into question the prevailing consensus and status quo, let us rest assured that the Spirit also helps us it envision a new world order.  Even then as we move towards this vision of many bound together by the Spirit of fellowship, this same Spirit shall nourish us with prophetic hope and speech, wherein He speaks, envisions, inspires and evokes in us better realities and futures reflecting God’s dream for creation— a better dream arising from the new world God is building out of the present order.

Empowering the Weak to Dream a Better World

“The poor and needy seek water, but there is none.  So for them, I the Lord will provide.  I will pour out my Spirit and their sons and daughters will prophesy.  Upon you and your descendants will I do this; You who did not bear children, will spread out— when I restore the fortunes of those whose inheritance was lost along the way.”

As earlier mentioned, the Spirit who renews our encounter with Jesus is reminding us that the Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism is a gateway to the prophetic imagination.  As the Spirit again fills with a renewed sense of prophetic perception into the coming of God’s kingdom, we discover that the revolutionary power that comes through encountering Jesus as the Baptiser in the Spirit is especially evident when the weak and marginalised are now empowered to dream of a better future for the world and meaningfully contribute to its coming fullness— as well as ourselves when we too share in experience of marginalisation caused by oppressing status quos.  Through the Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism we thus find ourselves endowed with a capacity to dream of a better future for the world, particularly for those who have suffered under yokes of material, social and spiritual oppression.

The Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism thus grants entry into a “new world order;” wherein the “last” of any given social setting now receive an empowering grace to become the “first.”  In this new order of life, the Spirit grants both the “first” and the “last,” the affluent and working class, the marginalised voice and the majority voice, a common tongue signifying the inclusive broadness of God’s eschatological “household” (oikoumene).  A robust pentecostal spirituality will therefore nurture within Pentecostal communities a particular concern towards empowering the weak to also dream and thereby move towards the new world, illustrated through their own entrance into the prophetic imagination that arises from the pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism.

From Zion now come the latter rains. Open then your heart and mouth; open wide that from your mouth He shall spring forth His righteousness upon the earth, and visions of a new world. No earthly tongue can utter its glory; but through groans of his Spirit, you may speak its mystery: the mystery of love— we who are many are now one in Christ; and through His Spirit we speak the language of love.

To reiterate then, as we therefore allow God’s Spirit to form through us this counter-culture, “Jesus-centred” ethos, we will thereby visibly manifest before the world, an alternative community that is inclusively embracing and reconciling diverse peoples and populations into a heterogeneous community shaped by the love of the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.  On account of the concrete prophetic witness of inclusive, heterogeneous pentecostal communities, the world shall therefore indelibly identify us as communities more visibly sensitised to the socially marginalised, than to the socially affluent, powerful, privileged, elite, and secure— even as the Spirit unites people of every social strata and background into one community of Love.

Returning to our Roots of as a Prophetic Witness to a Better World

Into its depths the earth pulls us, making us one with the promise of our roots. The soil beneath us calls forth words from another age: “Son of Abraham! Like Eden I make deserts, and the wastelands I make a garden. So to you I give a new name. Hear now the mystery of the wind from which I call you.” “Speak Lord; thy servants listen.”

For the 21st century, Pentecostalism has much more to offer as a prophetically gifted spirituality within the greater Christian movement and in the world.  At the dawn of the 20th century and from many early centres around the world such as through the Azusa Street Revival, Pentecostalism emerged as a prophetic “voice,” both within the universal Church and to the world.  It has existed as a voice that is congruent to a peculiar ethos, story-world, and value-system, which arose from its distinctive experience of the Pentecostal baptism in the Holy Spirit, through “latter day” outpourings of the Holy Spirit.  The future of Pentecostalism hinges on whether we can once again recover our “prophetic imagination.”  To envision a renewed emergence and manifestation of this “prophetic imagination,” through the renewing of an authentic Pentecostal ethos and spirituality, thus partly defines the intent of this discussion.

Yet for too long we have forgotten our prophetic calling.  We have forgotten our prophetic consciousness, through which the Spirit has equipped us to call into to question the prevailing consensus and status quo.  We have forgotten our calling to offer an alternative vision of reality that is radically counter-culture to this world’s prevailing norms.  We have forgotten that God’s dream and vision is far grander than the world’s dreams and visions for self-gratification.  We have exchanged gold for bronze because we think that bronze is gold.  We have brought into the lie that to be effective as a church we must be at the “cutting edge” of whatever is relevant.  So we have replaced the stories, symbols and narratives of the Bible for the stories, symbols and narratives of the world.  We had failed to know that in doing so, we have allowed the world’s symbols to shape our thinking and behavior, more so than the symbols of the Scriptures.  So we have become, as so also have become Christians of other traditions, “fat cows of Bashan” who are far too at home with the first-world middle class yet very oppressive value system.  It is indeed an oppressive value system because it defines human worth according to monetary and material capital, and encourages Christians to see salvation as a ticket to heaven, and a ticket to consume whatever brings pleasure to our tummies.  In view of all I have thus said this far, I have come to believe that the problem with virtually all of us today is that we have forgotten who we are.  We have lost our identities.  We have lost our identities because we have lost our roots.  We are thus now rootless people.

The giftedness of Pentecostal spirituality as a viable spirituality within the greater Christian Church, is dynamically derived and must therefore be continually anchored to its historical roots.  In these roots we find our true heart and identity as a gifted spirituality for all the Church; at the heart of our identity is “an apocalyptic horizon for reading reality,” which comes to us through the pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism.  This “apocalyptic horizon” is as I have consistently here stressed, the “prophetic imagination” made operative in us through the experience of Spirit baptism.  Through the Pentecostal baptism in the Holy Spirit, the Sovereign Lord thus unveils to us a new reality, as we begin to see the radical disjunction presently between the prevailing order and the order that is even now breaking into the present—, which is the kingdom of God.

Therefore, the way forward and into the future, will also only come if we are willing to evolve into a living yet matured tradition that is faithful to our perennial calling and purpose.  The spiritual DNA, which has already provided the true essence of Pentecostalism and thus defines its distinctive calling and gifting within the greater Christian tradition, is derived from its early ethos in and through its initial historical emergence.  We must therefore know that as we return to our roots, so will we return to rich reservoirs of revolutionary gifting and calling, and thereby move towards an even greater service towards the Church of Christ in the 21st century, postmodern world.  Our roots are thus pointing to us the way forward, if we are to go towards that future where the Spirit has always wanted us to go, and flourish and bless the whole Church and the world through a new Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Ecumenically-engaged with the greater Christian Church

I must also confess that as a Christian spirituality, I recognise Pentecostalism is too often marred by so many vicissitudes which betray its revolutionary and ecumenical role within the greater Church and world.  Therefore, like all other spiritual traditions within the Church, we Pentecostals must perceive ourselves as weak earthen vessels.  Yet we are filled with a distinctive gifting, that we may contribute our gifting back to God as part of the Spirit’s manifold activity throughout the entire Catholic Christian faith— and thus the broadness of Christian spirituality.  We also thus offer ourselves so that we may also receive gifts from the enduring wisdom and depth already entrusted within the greater Church.  The Spirit that thus enjoins us to offer our gifts to the whole Church, thus also enjoins us to nurture an openness to hear and receive other gifts found within other traditions, which to some extent may find at least a small niche within our own Pentecostal spirituality.  Yet I also most strongly believe with the upmost conviction— that Pentecostalism was birthed through a sovereign “latter day” outpouring of God’s Spirit.  Having received a prophetic consciousness through encountering Jesus as the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit, we Pentecostals have thus been spirituality gifted “for such a time as this, as a perennially prophetic and apocalyptic witness to the coming Kingdom.

Renewing the Centre of Pentecostal Spirituality: Jesus the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit

To those He loves, He grants sleep; there they come to a place where dreams are born.

Central to the Pentecostal message is Jesus as the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit— who is restoring to us our true historical calling and prophetic destiny, as God’s co-creators in the making of His coming new world and thus calling people back to Himself as the New Humanity.  I believe that encountering Jesus as the Baptiser in the Spirit grants us a glimpse into God’s own heart— His dream towards creation.  As we enter into His heart, God endows us with a “prophetic imagination” that causes us to see a radical disjunction between the prevailing order and the order that is even now breaking into the present— which is the kingdom of God.

There are times moreover that through new challenges the Sovereign Lord calls us towards Himself for “fresh baptisms” in the Spirit.  In doing so, He thereby calls us onwards into the life journey of Jesus Himself.  We must thus remind ourselves that it is indeed through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, that we take a radical step into Jesus’ life-story, whereby God is further re-creating and restoring us into His likeness. God is creating in us His own likeness, which He has revealed to us through the person of Jesus Christ.  He is creating it through His Spirit by the presence of Christ’s life in us.  God has thus called us to imitate Jesus as the Perfect Man who lives in and by the Spirit of God’s presence, power, life, and love.  Jesus came, lived, and died to provide us the example of how we are to live.  For in Jesus we see who God is, and we also see the true revelation of authentic humanity.

As we follow Jesus, He sanctifies us, and conforms us to His likeness.  He thus calls and creates in us anew, the summons to follow Him.  This He does through the embrace of His life as our guiding model and script for the outcome of our life journey.  It is highly important therefore, that we re-capture a way of life that is pre-eminently lived out of the Gospels of Jesus, allowing the life of Jesus to script the direction and manner of our life as God’s prophetic people for the shaping of world history.  It is imperative then, especially in view of the alternative “stories” which compete for the narration of our life story, that we prioritise the Gospel story of Jesus as our “core-framing” story, along with the continuation of His story through the Acts of His Spirit upon and through His people.

The Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism is therefore a baptism into God’s love— the inner life of the Triune God.  Through Spirit-baptism the Lord also therefore heightens our intuitive grasp of God’s own suffering heart— that is, His pathos, for the redemptive liberation of all creation from its present suffering.  We thereby become divinely commissioned as a prophetically endowed witness to the Christian gospel.  The Sovereign Lord thereby also baptises us into the biblical prophetic tradition and its vision for a new world.  Through this encounter with the very inner life of God, the Spirit thereby creates in us a divine summons; hence, a prophetic call beckoning us towards God’s empathy and mission towards creation, even as He endows us with a new dream of His new world.  Spirit baptism thus also creates in us “a passion for the kingdom.”  This “passion for the kingdom” thus in turn creates in us an “eschatological longing” for the in-breaking of God’s new world, even as the Spirit is now leading us into this new world order.

Consequently, through this Pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism, the Sovereign Lord creates in us a new sense of history.  Through this encounter with Jesus, the Spirit thus creates a heightened eschatological awareness of God’s involvement in our life and that His involvement in us unites us to His involvement in shaping the entire historical direction of human history.  He thereby awakens us by granting us conviction that our life now possesses a providential-orchestrated and ordained destiny towards the shaping of God’s world.  We are thus becoming restored to our true human vocation as God’s co-creator upon the earth.  As the Spirit restores in us our true face, our true voice and our true humanity, we discover that our life has historical purpose as we meaningfully contribute to the final consummation of God’s new world.

Through Spirit baptism, we are therefore also experientially baptised into the biblical story—which comprises a literal and existential baptism into biblical story-world.  We thereby interpret our identity as a people living out the vision of the new world projected through the Biblical story of God’s redemptive purposes.  In so doing, we thus now interpret our personal and corporate identity as members of the biblical story— the story of God’s people journeying towards the biblical vision of God’s new world.  This story has the power to script to our own life story, as a people delivered out of Egypt, journeying now through this present age by the Spirit’s presence, as we march to a new world order, the Zion of God, where justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

So it is through each new shattering experience of Spirit baptism, that our Lord Jesus Christ disciples us through radical and new re-evaluations of so much we take for granted.  Filled with the Spirit of prophesy, we become more attuned with God’s dream for the full manifestation of His Kingdom throughout all creation.  Jesus empowers us to question the prevailing consensus, and prophetically proclaim through word and deed, a new future for the world around us.

The Role of Tongues in Renewing the Prophetic Imagination

Wearisome all words are; none utter the primal longings. Yet in His divine embrace come tongues of fire. Kindled from Eden’s distant shores— now burn raging flames of love. From a lost world come primeval sounds; sighs too deep for words— cries for liberation; groanings; dismantling walls of alienation; echoes of birth pangs from the Heavenly Dove; speaking forth with all creation— the birthing of a new world.

I want to briefly point out here a few important reasons for a continued and perhaps greater nuance on the historical personal and congregational practice of tongues speaking, as a salient discipline for 21st century Pentecostal Spirituality.  I believe that that the past historical nuance on tongues within much of world Pentecostalism and its perceived role in perennially signifying the pentecostal experience and Spirit baptism, the themes I have here developed on Pentecostalism and the prophetic imagination, ongoing philosophical discussions on tongues as a unique form of linguistical discourse, and the biblical data pertaining to this unique charism of the Spirit, altogether sufficiently demonstrates a key relation of this practice to the renewing of the prophetic imagination operative within Pentecostal spirituality.

I believe that we should incorporate in this renewed envisioning of Pentecostal spirituality for the 21st century, an emerging thesis that that the Pentecostal practice of tongues speech comprises a distinctive generative power in the nurturing of the Pentecostal, prophetic imagination.  With this theme in mind, we can therefore enter into a new appreciation for the pentecostal practice of tongues as a spiritual discipline, and even moreover, as a restored linguistical expression of a primal power deeply integral to our true humanity, and human vocation as bearers of God’s likeness.

Through the practice of tongues, we are therefore discovering a restored linguistical element to our true human vocation as co-creators with God in the remaking of creation.  For as one unique yet true form of prophetic speech, the practice of tongues enables believers to function as God’s co-creators in the renewing of creation, through prophetic speech-acts of linguistically envisioning and speaking forth qualitatively moral, social-ethical, aesthetic and spiritual realities that are so counter to the existing prevailing orders of our day, that it necessarily involves the imaginative creating— of “new tongues.”

Tongues therefore functions as a “language of resistance” to prevailing norms.  Yet also through the act of tongues speaking, the Holy Spirit encourages believers in prophetic “speech-acts” that imaginatively dramatise, the creating of God’s new world order, thus signifying the Spirit’s work in restoring our primal “prophetic” role as God’s co-creators in the renewing of creation.  As such, our prophetic imagination is nurtured through the creative power of tongues speech as we engage in imaginative vocalising of “new languages.” Through the practice of tongues we are thereby practicing in cooperation with the Spirit in a most transrational, aesthetic and artistic manner, a crucial bodily and oral nurturing of our prophetic imagination.  For in doing so, the Spirit thereby thus evokes within us alternative realities and futures reflecting God’s dream for creation.  Through this distinctive pentecostal practice we are therefore thus dramatically and linguistically enacting the prophetic hope of God’s new world and hence the in-breaking of God’s kingdom into our present age.

I should point out that given its generative power towards envisioning a new world order, the personal and congregational practice of tongues conveys a distinctive pentecostal moral vision ethic, ethos which Pentecostal spirituality should distinctively manifest in the world in its role as one but highly relevant type of Christian spirituality for the 21st century.  The distinctive congregational practice of tongues within the gathered Pentecostal worshiping community, visibly and orally thus signifies salient revolutionary and social ramifications of the Pentecostal worship service.  For from the perspective of the prophetic tradition, we can thus appreciate how the congregational experience of tongues empowers every believer into full immediate and vocalised participation within the gathered community.

It is for these reasons that within some early historical centres world Pentecostalism, this congregational practice of tongues functioned as the perennial sign of God’s reconciling purpose, which He significantly executes through granting us the pentecostal experience of Spirit baptism.  People are thereby corporately and vocally empowered in forming this mutual worship gathering and event through a sharing in a common form of speaking that transcends our linguistical, racial, social-economic and educational differences.

The congregational practice of tongues therefore indeed signifies, the reversal of Babel— as the Spirit reconciles us of different “tongues,” into a common tongue through this shared oral giftedness.  We thereby experience and orally dramatise the miracle of social and racial inclusiveness, and hence the reconciling of varied peoples into one common tongue of the Holy Spirit—thus also dramatically and prophetically visioneering through our gathering, God’s remaking of this present order into the moral and ethical likeness of His coming new world.

The 21st Century Pentecostal Outpouring of the Sprit

Poor and needy we are; so with tender mercy, renew in us a faithful spirit; steadfast and not divided. Open to us the mysteries of your love and the embrace of your Spirit.  Open wide our mouth.  From the fount of your wounded side, fill us with living waters. Fill us with living waters flowing from the wounds of your broken body. In the breaking of bread, make known in our hearts— the fire of your love.

As we seek to preach the gospel of Christ from renewed encounters with Jesus the Baptiser in the Spirit, we will seek and anticipate a new outpouring of His Spirit upon the entire Catholic Christian Church.  The place to begin is in prayer.  We can pray for a new Pentecost.  We can pray for an “open heaven.”  We must pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  In times like these, we must also pray for a new Pentecost because the paradigmatic narrative of Luke-Acts exhorts us to this kind of prayer.  As many Pentecostals well know, the Luke-Acts story fully integrates the Pentecostal theology of Spirit-baptism with a distinctive theology of prayer.  So again, we should pray for an “open heaven,” seeking a new “latter day” outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Pentecostalism itself needs a new “Pentecost.”  There is a need to turn and see again the flame that burns so brightly in the bush where at the altar of new beginnings the Spirit says, “Remove your sandals for where you now stand is holy ground.”

Let us pray for this outpouring that when it comes, all the world may know that the kingdom of God is now dawning upon us.  So shall they know that the Kingdom is still breaking into this present evil age, countering the prevailing realities and empowering the poor of the earth towards their complete redemption into the riches of God’s kingdom.  This redemption, which Christ availed to us through the cross, He is now making visible through eradicating every social, racial, economic and demographic barrier that separates people from one another.  Let us therefore recognise that God’s purpose for every Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit is that He wholly and visibly reconciles us and all of God’s lost children to one another in Christ— as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  And from within us, shall they see a blazing fire— and they will shout, “God is among you.”  For the glory of the new house will be greater than the glory of the former house.  And satisfied shall be the belly of the poor, for those who seek the Lord shall be filled; their faces shall not be shamed, but unveiled. Lit from flames of love— from heaven to earth they fall; lit from the altar on high.

Monte Lee Rice © 2010

“Then what about the journey; is it safe?”  ”Not at all!  It is fraught with known and unknown dangers and treacherous waters.  But He shall go before you and walk behind you.  Know that neither the Lion nor the journey are safe.  But if you follow Him, He is good and you can follow Him.”

2010: LIVING THE GLORY OF CHRISTMAS

“There were shepherds . . . the glory of the Lord shone around them . . . But the angel said to them . . . ‘To you– is born this day . . . a Savior’. . . So they hurried off and found . . . the baby lying in the manger.”  Luke 2:8-14

We can find within the traditional Christian calendar used in the more historic churches as well as in the worship of the ancient churches, a profound understanding that the spirit of Christmas ought to help us begin every new year with a renewed vision of God’s glory—which is the true glory of Christmas.

First off, for the believer, Christmas is not just a celebration of Jesus’ birth on earth but a celebration of His birth in our hearts.  And that having been born in us even also as a seed, He lives in us for this reason:  that we may be restored to His likeness.  It is this very work of Christ in us that partly defines the glory of Christmas.  Christ is born in our hearts for far much more than to bring us into heaven.  He is born in us to unite us to Himself, that we also manifest His likeness and hence the glory of God.

It is for this reason that right after Christmas comes the season of Epiphany: the beginning of every new year, is a season of Epiphany!  Epiphany means, “appearance;” epiphany means the manifestation of Christ.  Until Christ again, bodily returns to earth when we shall see Him in His resurrected body, he is now primarily manifest when His likeness is manifest through humans who offer their lives to him for this very purpose:  to be an “epiphany” of Christ.

When we can see in the weakness of human flesh, the glory of God, it is then we see an epiphany of Jesus.  It is then we encounter a living manifestation of the life of Jesus, changing a person from the likeness of Adam and into the likeness of Christ.

So the question we must ask ourselves is this: would we like to begin the new year with an “epiphany” of Christ in us?  Do we want to see in the new year, a new manifestation of His life in us?  Would we like to let others see this manifestation of Jesus?  Because when they do, then we are sharing the hope of the world through our very life.

So let again revisit the story of Christmas, and again reflect on the glory of Christmas.  All over the world, it is common for homes to put up brightly lit, tinsel-covered, glorious Christmas trees, and brightly coloured lights and candles and decorations.  Perhaps in some way, all this is part of what we call the “glory of Christmas.”

But let us also be mindful that the true glory of the first Christmas, is not in these things.  It’s not in the “Christmas tinsel.”  The true glory of Christmas is rather found in things very plain, simple, and humble.  Now Christmas is about how God came down, and lived among us.  But how far did He come down?  It’s an important question, because in Jesus, we see God for who He is. 

How far down did He come?

1. I. HE CAME ALL THE WAY DOWN.

In a small village, He was born in poverty and scandal.  The son of a teenage peasant girl named Mary.  She was pregnant, but not married!  Her protruding belly branded her— an adulteress.  For her husband to be— was not His natural father!  Yet the day came, Jesus was born!  In an animal stable.  They laid Him in a manger, a feeding trough for donkeys!  So the air smelled with urine and donkey dung.

First to greet Jesus’ birth were the shepherds.  These were not white haired clean-cut looking Kiwi sheep herders.  They were rough, smelly, and dirty.  Most were not, morally upright people.  I sought to identify a “functional equivalent” for these shepherds— to help us reflect, on who they might be, in our setting.  But not wanting to offend anyone, I’ll suggest: you imagine who might fill that role.  But I would say: the kind of places they would frequent may be similar to what we have here in the Geylang area!  Living in dormitories or one-room rented flats.

Most of these shepherds were not out looking for God.  They were neither pious, nor devoutly religious people.  Yet to them the angels came, and proclaimed: “To you!  Is born this day . . . a Savior, who is the Messiah.”

Then Jesus grew up.  In a “kampong,” called Nazareth.  It was so bad, they used to say, “Could anything good, come out of Nazareth?”  Nazareth was in Galilee.  95% of Galileans were poor.  Jesus was one of them, and became a carpenter.  Then at age 30 He one day went into the Synagogue, and proclaimed: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor. . . to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Then for the final three years of His life, He ministered to His fellow Galileans.  He never wrote a book.  He never held a political office.  He never owned a home.  He lived on handouts.  Except for Jerusalem, He never visited the big cities.  He had no credentials but Himself.  But He attracted all kinds of people.  The poor, the rich.  Prostitutes.  Political revolutionaries.  Religious people.  Political leaders.  But above all, the oppressed and downtrodden.  Everyone invited him for dinner.  He enjoyed a good meal, with just about anyone!

But public opinion turned against Him.  Threatened by His revolution, the leaders sought to kill Him.  His followers left Him.  They nailed Him to a cross, between two thieves.  He died disgraced, in total shame.

20 centuries have come and gone.  Yet today He is the central figure of the human race.  All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected humanity on this earth, as much as that one solitary life.

He is the true King of Heaven and Earth.  In Him, the Kingdom of God has come.  One day the kingdoms of this world shall cease, but His kingdom shall never end.  When He first came, there was no room in the inn.  But when He comes again, the whole world will not be able to contain His glory.

The greatest event in human history was the birth of Jesus Christ.  This event divided history, into two parts:  before and after Christ!  The creator of all things, shrank Himself down. so small, as to become a single fertilised egg.  And we “beheld His glory!”  This– is the glory of Christmas.

“He made Himself nothing.”  He “emptied Himself” of all His glory.  Why?  To show us, what He is like!  That God– is humble!  He is approachable!  He is touched by our suffering!  He is giving!  “He is the image of the invisible God!”

Yet there’s more!  For in Him, we now see– our true humanity!  He became like us, that we might become like Him!  He is not only the image of God— He is the image of the perfect man, and woman.  If you’re a Christian, He is the image of what God re-making you and I to become.  He is changing us into His likeness.  Therefore, He says to you and I:

1. II. GO AND DO LIKEWISE!

All through the Gospels, that’s the word Jesus keeps speaking to us: “Go, and do likewise!  He says, “This is how I’ve lived my life.  Put your feet in my footsteps, and follow me!”  People were asking Jesus, “Who is my neighbour?  Who do I show kindness to?”  And He said, “All people.  Rich or poor.  Every skin colour.  Locals.  Foreigners.  Whatever you think their sin is, it’s not the issue: be a neighbour.  And make sure you be a neighbour to people you tend to despise.  These especially, are your neighbours.”  “Come down!  Go, and do likewise!”

The other day, I was boarding the LRT in Sengkang.  I was behind the yellow line, waiting for passengers to exit.  But there were these “China” foreign workers blocking the entrance, positioning themselves to be “first” inside the coach.  Since I was doing the “right thing,” I gave a “look,” to let them know, they were doing the wrong thing!  But the Lord spoke to me.  And I realised that, these are foreigners; they don’t know all the “rules,” but God loves them.  What they need is kindness, and forbearance; not correction.  Anyone can judge!  But are you willing to die for them?  Jesus was, and He did.  “Go and do likewise!”

Last week we met a Taiwanese woman at a coffee shop.  We talked for over an hour.  She’s been here for about two years, and suffering from culture shock.  She said we were the nicest people she’s met since coming here.  But I know she’s suffering culture shock.  Are we sensitive to these “strangers” in our midst?

Now let’s reflect on the situation here in the Geylang area.  Let’s evaluate our perspectives.  Because, if we compare Geylang to Shenton Way, there’s the probability that there is a whole lot more “sin” going on in Shenton Way than in Geylang.  Why?  Because throughout those tall buildings is marital adultery, fornication, lying, stealing, cheating, backstabbing, politicking, slander and malice!  Those things are just not as visible.

Geylang is more like an open wound, caused by the sickness of our whole world.  But by sheer geography, this community comprises, “our neighbours.”  And because we’re bound to “bump” into people who are different, Jesus says, “Go, and do likewise.”

We are also surrounded by people of other religious persuasions.  But they are not spiritual “competitors,” or “enemies.”  They are also, our “neighbours.”  How we understand people, determines how we treat them.  Do we see them as so depraved they deserve our contempt, or as people whom God loves?

How are we postured to people who are “not like us?”  Who are “different from us?  Not as “prim and proper” as us?  But we’re all, “diamonds in the rough.”  For inside the heart of every person, lies a “spark” of God’s glory!  That’s why we’re “redeemable.  That’s why we matter to God.  So we’re called not to judge but to see people through Christ’s eyes.

Over these past days, I felt the Lord impress me with this thought:  Revival in this church is linked to how deeply in our heart, we’re willing to embrace this community.

Because, for however long it may be— this church, like other churches here, is for this moment, God’s hope for this area.  God sometimes keeps a person or people in a certain place until lessons are learned that He wants to teach in that place.  So therefore, “for such a time as this,” this part of the land, of the “good earth,” is part of the “pasture,” for this church.

It is part of the “pasture” where the “shepherd,” meaning this church, has to “be a neighbour,” to the lost sheep.  I’m not talking about going out and “witnessing.”  I am rather referring to our posture towards “our neighbors.”  The posture of our heart towards people who are different from us, especially people we tend to brand as depraved, “immoral,” or of a different religious persuasion, or simply find different from us.  The problem, is not what’s “out there, around us.  It’s here, in our heart.  It’s our posture to human beings— created in the image of God.

So that when opportunity arises, we are kind, and what is manifest is not “judgment,” or irritation, but the warmth of Christ.  That’s what it means to be a “Christian:” a little “christ,” a disciple of Jesus Christ.  That to all men, and all women, the warmth and love of Christ is manifest.  I would challenge us that for 2010, let’s strive not to be all the more known for Christianity.  But rather to be known as “Christ-like.”

1. III. AND HE SHALL LIFT YOU UP.

Humble yourselves and He shall lift you up!  Become a magnetic house of healing!  Jesus said, “When you give a banquet, do not invite your friends . . . or rich neighbors,” or anyone who can repay you.  But rather, “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed!”  (Luke 14:12-14).

You set your self to become a “different kind” of church.  A magnetic house of healing.  A church without walls.  Let your fruit “hang over the walls,” for the poor in the land.  Don’t worry about not attracting the right kind of people you’d like to bring here, to these premises.  But become a “magnetic house of healing,” and God will fill the church.  He fill it, if we’re open to all kinds of people who healing.  And along the way, God will send a few rich people along the way also, because there are some who’d believe and be attracted to what your doing.

If you embrace the whole community with all you heart, be a neighbour to this whole community, “You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. . . . you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” (Isaiah 58:11-12)

1. He came all the way down.
2. Go and do likewise.
3. And He shall lift you up.

Monte Lee Rice (December 2009)

The Christmas miracle

“’You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you . . . And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son . . . for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’  Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’” (Luke chapter 2)

God favours those who are barren, yet open to His Word.

Hear the angel’s word: “Mary . . . you have found favour with God. . . . you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”  The virgin Mary conceived.  The life of Jesus came incarnate within the darkness of her womb; into the “darkness of human impossibility!”

Scripture is full of stories, where God opens closed wombs.  Only God brings life to closed wombs.  And a woman’s womb reminds us that in the darkness of human desolation, God gives life (Ps 139:13).  It is the miracle of Genesis, of creation, of new beginnings in Jesus Christ.  And so for us, a pattern was established.  Mary became a model disciple of the Lord.  And she anticipated this; spilling forth the Magnificant, “My soul magnifies the Lord . . . for . . . surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has ‘magnified’ me!”

1. 1. Rest in the knowledge you are highly favoured by God.

If you are in Christ, you also are “highly favoured.”  You are “beloved of the Lord!”  People may forget you, but God remembers you.  He knows where you are.  He knows how you are.  God knows your name, and He knows your number.  And God has His timing.

1. 2. Rest in God’s “timing.”

There are times in the human predicament that a “womb” is closed.

Are you trapped by circumstances with no exit sign?  In prison, Joseph had no network.  But Joseph knew God.  In the Judean hills David had no network.  But he knew God.  Moses had a network; then he lost it.  But in the desert he found God.  Job had a network; but it was taken from him.  Yet Job found God.  “Come,” he says, “and I will teach you about the hand of God.”  Paul too lost his network.  But in the desert, he too found God.  In the desert, Mary knew God.  No doubt all these people wondered about God.  No doubt they wondered if they knew God.

But in the silence of the “womb” of human impossibility, they learned God.  And all these people were “highly favoured” by the Lord.

Where are you in God’s timing?

Mary was in a village, in the outback of the Judean desert.  They used to say, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Mary had no network.  There were surely days that she and Joseph could not even afford a net, a fishing net.  They were flat broke!

But God sent His angel to the village . . . and the angel said, “Greetings favoured one!  The Lord is with you!”  Mary did have a network after all, a friend in high places- the highest place!  Mary knew God.

1. 3. Be ready for God’s timing.

Are you open to the timing of God?  Are you open to the fullness of God?  At first Mary tried to reason it all out.  She asked the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”  Mary knew she had no relations yet with Joseph.  Mary is just like the rest of us, walking around the altar with this little “scientist” in us, trying to figure out God with our little mental “microscopes.”

Now Mary was also just a little teenage kampong girl.  She probably didn’t even know how to read or write.  She learned the Scriptures by hearing and singing!  But the angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you . . . For nothing is impossible with God.”  Somehow, perhaps because Mary was in the desert was learning God, she received the word of the Lord.  And she opened herself up to the Spirit of God, and the word of the Lord.  “I am the servant of the Lord,” she cried out, “let it be to me according to your word.”

Down through the epochs of Scripture, God sometimes “opens wombs.”  There are times when God shows up. . . a serendipity surprises us!  And life is born in the “darkness of human impossibility!”  But will you be ready for God’s visitation?  Are you ready for His timing?

Rest in God’s “timing,” and be ready for His timing.

1. 4. Open your self to God’s fullness.

“In the fullness of time,” God opened Mary’s womb.  That kairos moment was in the sixth month after God also opened Elisabeth’s womb, previously barren in her old age.  God has His time.

Finally, Mary was open to fullness of God.  She was open to His fullness because she was open to the possibilities of God who out of darkness, brings forth new life.

But if we are open to God’s fullness, we have to open His way.  His way may require our willingness to look foolish in the eyes of the world.  Mary looked foolish because for several months she was pregnant though her marriage to Joseph wa not yet formalized and consummated.  Some thought she was an adulteress.

But Mary restined in the knowledge that she was highly favoured by God.  She rested in God’s timing.  She rested in God’s ways.  She readied herself for God’s timing.  And she was open for God’s fullness.  In spite of all the possible and probable shame and misunderstanding that were to come upon her, she said to the Lord, “Be it unto me, according to your Word.”

Someone asked a historian if he could briefly summarise the lessons of history.  He said he could, in four sentences.  Here is his last sentence:  “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”  Time now for a worn cliché:  “Let go and let God.”

There you are.  A barren womb.  The despair of human impossibility.  You have been there and done that.  Yet God can speak a word to you, a word that brings seed and life to your “womb of human impossibility.”  But can you make this one hard confession?  “I let go.  God, I let you . . . Be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Good news!  God favours underdogs.  He came to one, as one Himself.  So Mary sang, “He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.”

Some of you know about Evensong.  Let me close on the Morning Song:  “Be it unto me . . . according to your Word; and there shall be a performance . . . of that which was spoken; for nothing is impossible with God.”

Martin Luther’s doctrine of love, suffering, faith and true ministers of God’s Word

“Now it it not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross.”

(Martin Luther, Luther’s Works XXXI, 52; Heidelberg Disputation, par 20)

“That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as if it were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened. . . . He deserves to be called a theologian however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.“

(Luther’s Works, XXXI, 52; Heidelberg Disputation pars 19, 20)

THEOLOGIES OF GLORY VERSUS THE TRUE THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS

In April 1518 Martin Luther traveled to Heidelberg in order to attack what he identified as a wrong kind of thinking about God and a wrong kind of thinking about the Christian’s relation and faith in God.  This wrong kind of thinking Luther called a “theology of glory.”

This event when Luther attacked this wrong kind of thinking about Christian life and faith, is called the Heidelberg Disputation.  Luther delivered this lecture about six months after he nailed his Ninety-five Thesis on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, thus igniting the Protestant Reformation.  During this lecture, Luther contrasted “theologies of glory” with the true “theology of the cross,” which underlies his entire outlook on the Christian life, and how he understood God’s involvement in the Christian’s life.

THE WRONGNESS OF ALL THEOLOGIES OF GLORY

According to Luther, “theologies of glory” encourage Christians to seek “God in heaven,” but not in and through the “sufferings” of this present world.

Christians who embrace nothing but a “theology of glory” are according to Luther, like Moses who said to God, “Show me your glory” (Ex 33:18-23).  These kinds of theologies only seek to know God in his majesty, as He is in heaven.

Christians who are entrapped by this false “theology of glory” imagine that the best of God’s works, or even more so, God’s works altogether are thus always beautiful, fine, attractive.  But Luther taught that the in fact, God’s works are directly the opposite.  For God in fact will make us “nothing” and even “stupid” if that is what it take to reveal His true love to us (LW, XXXI, 33, HDT, par 4).

But these Christians who can only embrace a “theology of glory” are those who have forgotten God’s reply to Moses, telling him he is to rather see His “backside.”  That reply according to Luther, is what he calls, the “theology of the cross.”  Christians are to therefore rather focus in this present life, on finding God in the things that are lowly, despised, weak, foolish, and rejected.

Hence, Luther wrote, “Now it not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross.” (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works XXXI, 52; Heidelberg Disputation, par 20)

THE ROOT OF THEOLOGIES OF GLORY IS NOT GOD’S LOVE BUT HUMAN LOVE

Luther taught that the root of this false “theology of glory” is not God’s kind of live but “human love.”  In contrast to God’s love, human love is essentially selfish and seeks only one’s own best interests but not the interest of others.

According to Luther, this perverted kind of love makes people incapable of receiving God’s grace (LW, XXXI, 57, HDT, par 28).  Moreover, Luther believed that this “human love” causes people to love only that which they can immediately enjoy.

Much of Luther’s lecture at Heidelberg consisted of this contrast between God’s love and human love.  Luther’s main point was that, “The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it.  The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.” (LW, XXXI, 57).

Luther thus pointed out that the flaw of human love is that it is basically passive rather than active. It constantly seeks to receive rather than give out.

Human love therefore results in covetousness.  People who are thus preoccupied with receiving, are basically receivers and not givers.  Yet God is a giver, and his entire aim towards us in Christ is to transform us into givers.

Amongst Christians, all works that are prompted by this “human love” are “deadly sins” (LW, XXXI, 43, 45 HDT, par 28).  And amongst Christians, a main symptom of these sins is perverted love, which is caused by not having a fear in God (LW, XXXI, 47, HDT, par 8.)

THE TRUE THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS

In contrast to this wrong “theology of glory,” Luther called Christians to embrace the true theology, which is the “theology of the cross.”  Comprehending the “theology of the cross,” begins by asking God to remove from us that root of “human love,” and replace it with God’s kind of love; namely, “God’s love.”

“God’s love,” said Luther, seeks not one’s own interest but the interests of others.  It is love “born of the cross.”  It is therefore a “love of the cross.”  It “turns in the direction where it does not find good which it may enjoy but where it may confer good upon the bad and the needy person.” (LW, XXXI, 57, HDT, par 28.)

Luther went on to say that without the true eye of faith, it is impossible for Christians to perceive and discern the true works of God.  Without the eye of faith, Christians perceive God’s works as “unattractive” and “evil.” (LW, XXX, HDT, par 3)

Luther went on to teach alongside this “theology of the cross,” the “theology of paradoxes.” By the “theology of paradoxes,” Luther meant that sometimes God works in us by forgiving us and encouraging us, but sometimes He works in us by putting us down, by taking away our hope, and by leading us into desperation (LW, XIV, 95).

For this reason, Luther wrote, “You [God] exalt us when you humble us.  You make us righteous when you make us sinners. . . .  You grant us victory when you cause us to be defended.  You give us life when you permit us to be killed” (LW, XIV, 95).  Luther went so far as to say that sometimes God allows His works to create bad results (LW, XXXI, 45, HDT, pars 5, 6).

Luther therefore encouraged Christians to look for God’s work in and through whatever suffering might fall upon them.  Luther therefore wrote, “He, however, who has emptied himself through suffering no longer does work but knows that God works and does all things in him.  For this reason, whether God does works or not, it is all the same to him.  He neither boast if he does good works, nor is he disturbed if God does not do good works through him.  He knows that is sufficient of he suffers and is brought low by the cross in order to be annihilated all the more.” (LW, XXXI, 55).

Faith in God thus involves faith in God when the natural circumstances contradict God’s love towards us.  So Luther wrote concerning the promises of God, “Faith is holding fast to the deep and hidden ‘yes’ under and above the ‘no’ by firmly trusting God’s Word.” (LW, XVII, 203; German/Latin translation).

Luther continues to teach that to see God at work through our sufferings requires a revelation birthed by the Holy Spirit.  Only the Spirit can grant us “faith” in God’s hidden work through suffering.  So Luther wrote, “No one can correctly understand God or His Word, unless he has received such understanding from the Holy Spirit.  But no one can receive it from the Holy Sprit without experiencing, proving, and feeling it” (LW, XXI, 299).

A TRUE THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS REVEALS GOD’S LOVE

Because Luther preached that God only works in us through this theology of the cross, Luther characterized the church as a hospital for the incurably sick.  As Chrstians, our life in the hospital is that as “ministers” to one another.  We therefore cannot live for ourselves but rather, in Christ, “Every man is created and born for others” (LW, XVI, 346; German/Latin translation).

Therefore Luther said that if we do not use everything we have to serve our neighbour, we rob him of what we owe him according to God’s will (LW, XXXII, 224).  But, “Since Christ lives in us through faith . . . He arouses us to do good works which He does as the fulfillment of the commands of God given us through faith” (LW, XXXI, 56, HDT, par 27).

GOD’S LOVE IS EVIDENCED NOT BY RECEIVING BUT BY GIVING

According to Luther, to know that Christ lives in us, ought to lead us to primarily lead us to only one practical implication:  that He is in us that we might be a “Christ” to others.

This is precisely Luther’s comment and reading of Galatians 2:19-20, where Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”

If our focus is correctly on allowing God to replace our “human love” with His love, then we are simply not preoccupied with receiving things from God to use for our own pleasure.

Rather, recognizing we are “ministers” in God’s “hospital, our concern is on becoming a “Christ” to others.  This is Luther’s understanding of what it means to live in union with Christ; to be indwelt by the Spirit of Christ.

For this reason, Luther wrote, “Surely we are named after Christ not because he is absent from us, but because he dwells in us; that is, because we believe in him are ‘Christs’ to one another and do to our neighbors as Christ does to us.” (LW, XXXI, 368).

I gathered these extracts from Luther’s writings from an Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s article, “Theology of the Cross: A Stumbling Block to Pentecostal/Charismatic Spirituality?”

Kärkkäinen offers some closing reflections:

1. God’s love seek out the weak things to make them new.

“For Luther, God’s love means . . . loving something . . . that exists in weakness and shame, in order to make it something new.  That is what it means to be God: to create something out of nothing.

Evangelical theology in general and Pentecostal/charismatic in particular has not paid much attention to the category of love, but rather has focused on the grace of God.  Luther’s theology of love, combined with the biblical . . . view of God’s passionate love, could help evangelical to say something [more] worthwhile about agape.

2. Faith is proved when our hands are empty but our hearts are full.

Luther’s theology of the cross takes suffering and death seriously, so seriously that it also takes hope seriously: it is constitutive of God to make new life out of death, out of nihil.

The concept of ‘faith’ also has to be critically scrutinized by Pentecostals/charismatics. . . .  there is reservation in talking about faith as an ‘empty hand’ (George Muller) that reaches to God and his mercy.  Faith is not so much needed when one sees God’s miracles; faith is needed when we are facing the dark side of life . . .

3. The church is not a showplace for the successful but a hospital for the suffering and needy.

And finally . . . another lesson to learn from Luther: the church is not a showplace for the successful but a hospital for the suffering and needy!”

Extracted from:

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, “Theology of the Cross: A Stumbling Block to Pentecostal/Charismatic Spirituality?” The Spirit and Spirituality: Essays in Honour of Russell P. Spittler, eds. Wonsuk Ma and Robert P. Menzies (New York, NY; London, UK: T & T International, 2004).

“Freely you received, freely give.”

These are some thoughts on celebrating Christmas.  But even more, these are thoughts reflecting how the true spirit of Christmas ought to posture our journey in and through the new year.

Jesus said, “Freely you received, freely give.”  God gives that we may give as He gives.  God freely gives but always with the purpose of changing us.  God freely gives, but He does not give just to bless; He gives to invest in the growth of whatever He blesses with His gifts.

Jesus did not die on the cross for our sins, so that we can go to heaven when we die.  The Bible does not teach that; at least not in quite that perspective.  Rather, our eternal livelihood in God’s presence is a by-product of a greater purpose God has designed towards us.  For what the Bible teaches is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, so that He may restore us into His likeness.

This Christmas, let us be mindful that God is greater than Santa Clause and nothing like Santa Claus.  Contrary to the ill-fated beliefs of far too many Christians today, God does not freely give to us, without seeking a change in us.  He does not freely give to us just to make us happy and affirm us as His children.  God does not freely give in order to solve all our problems, fulfill all our desires, and make feel good and happy.  This kind of thinking is pure delusion and a very poor and very wrong image of God and His blessings.  This whole mindset misses the greater nature, power and purpose of God the giving God; of God who freely gives because He is the Most Moved Giver.

A helpful contemporary metaphor to describe God in His giving to us, is the idea of an “angel investor,” but in the best sense of the word.  God graces us with His gifts because He finds all of us to be a worthy investment of His grace.  This is partly what the Bible means by “redemption.”

God finds us humans redeemable for one reason:  He created us in His likeness.  So He has staked His very existence in fact, to secure our redemption.  He has redeemed us, for one reason: to restore all things back to their original purpose.  It does not matter how far we have strayed from the divine purpose.  In all our sins, we are redeemable.

“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.” (James 1:18).  A Santa Claus god gives so that we can have and enjoy things.  But the true God freely gives so that we can become joyful givers, passing down all that he passes down to us.

God give so that hopefully, we become something like God: a gracious person endowed with the supernatural capacity to freely and joyfully give to whomever lacks the “gift” we receive from God.

Every gift that God bestows upon us has a prophetic purpose.  Every gift God freely gives us is divinely purposed to produce a change in our wicked heart.  And the evidence of that change is how well we also become endowed with the grace of giving.

As He restores us into His likeness, we become ambassadors of heaven.  As ambassadors of heaven, we give as God has given to us, and still gives to us.  Everything passes down from the Father to us, so that we become channels of His blessing.

Whatever God gives us, if we give it away, especially as an investment in others, our act of giving will last forever.  But whatever God gives us, if we keep it only to our self, it will soon pass away; it will not last into eternity.  The time will come when whatever gifts we have received but failed to somehow pass on to others, those gifts will rot; they will burn, they will pass away.

There are acts we do however, which can last forever.  What lasts for eternity is the motive and purity behind every gift and blessing we pass on to others.

As “calculating” humans who are still growing in the ways of Jesus, we may question the effectiveness of what we give.  We may regret what we have given because we perceive our “gifts” have been ill planned, squandered, or have not resulted in the desired fruit or long-term outcome.

So we must remind ourselves that what will last forever, is the purity of our act; the purity of our giving.  If we freely give in pure gratitude for what God has freely given us, our action—our act of giving, will last forever.

What can we give?

We can give our time; we can give our material possessions; we can give expertise.  We can give our gifts; we can pass down and on, what has been passed down to us.  We can give grace.  We can give forbearance.  We can give forgiveness.  We can give others the benefit of the doubt.

We can give our selves to creating goods, services and technologies  that may not make us rich but will make the world a better place, especially for those who have less than us.  We can give our excess away.

Who should we give?

We should give to everyone, but especially to those who cannot pay us back.  So we should foremost give to the poor, to children, to the elderly, to the widows, to the broken, to the destitute.  We should give to those who have broken the law and suffered for their transgressions.  We should give everyone who needs a second chance, and to everyone who need a new lease in life.  This is what the Bible means by preaching the “Year of the Lord,” the acceptable year of the Lord;” the year of Jubilee.

And may I say to my Pentecostal brothers and sisters, and also to my Charismatic brethren who value manifestations of God’s Spirit through the miraculous, to give freely give largely sums up the meaning of Pentecost, because Pentecost is the beginning of the year of Jubilee; the Age of the Spirit; the Age of God’s prophetic people.  If we presume we are full of the Spirit and speak in tongues but find it hard to free give or freely forgive, we had better reflect if we are living out the year of Jubilee.  What we might really be living out is just remnants of a once great move of God’s Spirit in our life.

How should we give?

We give without expecting anything in return.  We freely give because we have freely received.  But we can hope and pray that whomever we give to will in turn become prompted to also give. We cab hope and pray that to whomever we give, will pass on the grace of giving.

We can hope and pray that whomever we forgive, will likewise forgive someone else.

We can hope and pray that as God’s grace flows through us, so also it will continue to flow through whomever we have freely given.

God is building a new world; He is building a new world out of this present one, which is passing away.  Every good thing we do; every pure act that results from encountering God’s grace in our life, will last forever.  Every act of kindness will last forever.  Every act of charity will endure for all eternity.  What we do in life, will indeed last for eternity.  That is why the Scripture says, “Let us know become weary in well doing, for in due season we will reap a harvest.

God loves you just as you are.  But He loves you too much to leave you as you are.  Everything He gives to you, is with the aim of transforming you into His likeness.

So if God has freely given to you, you also must free give, as often as possible, as much as possible, and to as many as possible.  For in so doing, you are contributing to the building of a new world, a world built not on wood and straw but a world built on gold and silver; a world built on the foundation of Christ.  A new world built upon the very image of God Himself.  Freely you have received, freely give.

Postlude:

Some of these thoughts I’ve gleaned from a book I am presently reading by Pentecostal theologian Miroslav Volf, titled, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005).

In 2006, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, selected this book as the Lenten study book for 2006.  Dr Rowan Williams wrote in his “Foreword,” “This is a book about worshiping the true God and letting the true God act in us. . . our knowledge of this true God is utterly bound up with our willingness to receive from the hand of God the liberty to give and forgive. . .  I cannot remember having read a better account of what it means to say that Jesus suffered for us, ‘in our place.’”

Here is one Volf’s final reflections, which I find quite stimulating:  “Why do we refuse the God-given bridge that would transport us from selfishness to self-giving, from vengeance to forgiveness?  That’s a mystery that should make us tremble— tremble before the God who gives to the ungrateful and the God who forgives the ungodly.”

The film 2012 offers some insightful dialogue and illustration on what it means to be a human being.  Moreover, my wife and I saw the film a few days ago and found it most entertaining, though the action sequences were often farfetched to the point of hysterics.  But again, there are some very insightful themes running through the film which I find that as a Christian, are especially relevant for my Christian brothers and sisters.

Note that while the film does not necessarily convey a Christian perspective towards history, I believe as I have inferred at the onset, that the film convey insights on how we ought to carry ourselves in moments of crises, let alone in the normal events of life for that matter. I thus hope that many Christians, as well as non-Christians, will watch this film in order to reflect on two themes I saw emerging through its plot, both of which I find highly relevant to the age we live in.

An apocalyptic parable on true humanity

Before I introduce these two themes, I should offer a few comments concerning the film’s apocalyptic genre and story line.  We can most benefit from the film by interpreting it as simply a parable— though a parable unfolding through a rather unimaginable and horrifying event concerning a cataclysmic reconfiguration of the earth’s crust, which results in the near extinction of human life.

To call the story a parable is to stress how the film depicts an imaginary event yet uses that event to convey, even if quite unintentionally, some very relevant lessons for real life.  When we do that, (and again, I am speaking here to my fellow Christians), then there is really no need to focus so much on dismissing the film’s value because of its apocalyptic premise derived from the Mayan Calendar, which presumably concludes that the world may end in the year 2012.

As a further qualification, it is also important to note that in the film, the world does not actually end.  The world does undergo a horrific cataclysm created by earth’s crust becoming for a moment in history, unstable.  This in turn results in a shifting of the continents and of the north and south poles, and further results in several cataclysmic and global-reaching tsunamis that reach all the way up to Mount Everest.  These tsunamis thus destroy most of the earth’s inhabitants, but in the end, a remnant of the human race survives.  Moreover, the floodwaters apparently recede, thus marking a new beginning in human history.  Hence, the story line roughly echoes the biblical story of Noah and the flood.

Now again, while this scenario may not wholly fall within the images of biblical apocalypticism, I do not find its portrayal of a cataclysmic upheaval capable of seriously threatening life on earth, as wholly impossible.  For I believe there is sufficient warrant to surmise that are a number of very possible scenarios also involving the most unmanageable, horrific and cataclysmic destruction which can very well erupt upon the earth and at any moment in human history.  We should also keep in mind that for most of history, the human race consisted of less than 200 million people around the globe.  Then during the Middle Ages, the Bubonic Plague had in fact wiped out millions of people in Europe and I believe in Northern and Central Asia.

With this mind, the film actually thus becomes deeply relevant to our postmodern age. This is because today we in fact do live in the face of very real and looming apocalyptic threats to our entire earthy existence.  This reality thus largely defines the setting that we commonly call the postmodern setting.  Postmodernity means to some extent that we have come to realise that there are definitive limitations to what extent modern science and human knowledge can insure our continued survival as a species upon the earth.  Modernity preached self-reliance and human ingenuity; it preached the message of self-interest at all costs.  However, if now live in an age marked by a deep sense of pessimism towards the future, our pessimism largely stems from realising that in ourselves, we can no longer be certain of anything concerning our future.

We should however also note that there is a more positive element to the postmodern situation.  This element is that we have come to recognise that the way forward may come, not from the things we have traditionally trusted in, but rather from the most unlikely places and people.  Hence, we should therefore be open to marginalised voices; voices that the majority or the most powerful, or most affluent, have too often marginalised for purposes beneficial to their own security.  So with reference to the film 2012, by the time the film ends, the future of humanity becomes located— in the continent of Africa.

As a Christian, I believe the Lord is coming to unite heaven and earth, which will bring about a full renewal of this world, resulting in its complete transformation into a new creation under His complete reign.  Yet I am aware that things can potentially become far worse for humanity before they get any better.  I have come to realise that if things do get far worse— and I believe they may well in fact eventually get far worse, even to the point of a global-reaching, cataclysmic and utterly complete ecological and financial breakdown, what we may find ourselves suffering under, are the consequences of our own human follies.

Yet in the event of such a possible scenario within human history, and within the possible history that all of us can very well enter into, I want to stress that we as Christians will be called upon to live a life that is counter to the ways of the world.  That will be a counter-culture way of life that is wholly expressed through an ethic fully manifesting the charity of Christ, hope is His soon coming, and certainty in the coming establishment of His kingdom upon the earth, which will culminate in the complete union of heaven and earth through the full coming of His kingdom; the kingdom of God.

The true nature of true humanity

Now I will introduce the two themes that I found so vividly illustrated in the film 2012, which together I believe reveal the true nature of true humanity.  This true nature of true humanity is therefore our true destiny and calling as human beings upon the face of the earth, both in this age and in the age to come.

The first theme we can discern in the film 2012 is this: The film provides us an epic yet also horrifyingly apocalyptic parable on, what it means to be a human being.  This theme first emerges early in the film when upon discovering the potentially impending doom facing humanity, two individuals reflect on how we might carry ourselves in a moment of life-threatening crisis.

More specifically, the film calls to imagine a moment of life-threatening crisis, where the crisis gives us a choice to act and can only act upon only one of two possible choices: the choice to save either our life— or the life of another human being.  Even more specifically, this is the moment of life-threatening crisis, when the crisis confronts a person with the choice to either save only one’s self or rather, to selflessly act without regard for ones own safety, if in doing so, one can possibly save a number of other human lives from certain doom.

In the moment of truth, how will we live?

As the movie 2012 moves towards its end, one of the two individuals, who at the beginning of the film engaged in the moral discussion that I just presented, comes face to face with a moment of truth.  It is a moment we all may at some point in the course of life encounter, where that moment asks us, “In this moment of truth, how will you live?”

What happens in the film is that a scenario develops which reminds me of that old humanistic “life boat” case study involving seven people lost at sea but with a lifeboat made for only five people.  The case study thus calls us to decide which five out of the seven people, should we allow into the lifeboat that is presumably capable of holding no more than five people.  The case study thus forces us to ask ourselves, which two people should we throw over board?  Since the boat has space for only five people, which two people should we together elect to leave behind? Who should live and who should die?

The “lifeboat” case study is one image that implicitly shapes the film’s story line, but so also does the biblical story of Noah’s arc and the flooding of the earth.  Therefore, as the movie reaches its climax, several mammoth “life-boats” are revealed, which had been built in preparation for the global flooding, each capable of saving perhaps hundreds of thousands of people from the floodwaters.  After the selected populations board the boats, there are however still thousands of others desperately seeking to board the ships.

But in midst of the ensuing tension, and hours before the tsunamis impact the ships, one of the chief architects of these mammoth lifeboats, fears that the ships cannot contain those remaining thousands waiting to board.  Therefore, in the moment of truth, this individual, fearful that the ships may not sustain everyone, seeks to close the gates from the masses still hoping to board the boats.

This individual reasons that only by closing the gates to the many still outside the boats, can the human race be preserved from compete destruction.  Note then that this individual has a grand vision, which he passionately believes in, and it is a vision for the preservation of the human race.  He then reasons that if preserving the human race involves making tough decisions as to who we should save and who we should not save, then let us made that decision, and let us limit the number of passengers into the lifeboats.

Yet then there is another man who also faces this moment of truth.  He is that man who earlier pondered, how shall we act in the true moment of truth?  How then shall we live?  How will we act in that moment where we might be called upon to selflessly act without regard for our own safety, if in doing so, we might possibly save the lives of countless other individuals besides our self?

That man speaks up and says, “What is the point of saving our self, if we think that in doing so we are preserving the human race, yet also in doing so, we are in fact acting less than human?”

That man then further argues, “What does it mean to be human?”  He continues by pleading what he believe is the nature of a true human society and culture.  He thus asks, “How can we even start a new society, a new culture, if our foundation consists of behaviours that are less than human?  How can we rebuild a truly human culture, if our founding actions involve no sense of costly yet selfless altruism, even to the extent of our laying down our lives for one another?”

That individual then concludes and challenges those already on the boat that we must take the risk of jeopardising all our lives, if in doing so— we might successfully save every other life from destruction.  Ultimately, we must do so for this reason: it is only in doing so, that we can live a life that is truly human.  If we cannot do so, we are in reality, living less than a human life.

True and false civility

Some years ago, the famous psychiatrist, Dr Scot Peck, wrote a book titled, A World Waiting to Be Born: The Search for Civility.  Peck begins his first chapter titled, “Something is Seriously Wrong,” by noting too many people, think of “civility” as simply being polite and observing proper etiquette.  Peck calls this assumption not only superficial but also horribly wrong.  For this reason Peck goes on to say that too often in our varied life settings, especially in the larger and formal organisation structures in which we work, we carry ourselves towards one another according to the secular techniques of manipulation and personal self interest.  As a result, Peck says, we fail to manifest “the glory of what it means to be human.”

Elsewhere in Peck’s book, he demonstrates how a common organisational culture that is trapped in this secular idea of polite civility, is illustrated when an organisation’s presumed identity is one of, “We’re the best in the business,” and its motto is thus “Quality at all costs.”

In contrast to this idea of civility as nothing more than politeness and following proper decorum, Peck therefore stresses that true “civility” refers to seeking the best interest of all people, regardless of the cost to one’s self.  Within this same discussion, Peck then draws attention to the biblical story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, who was unwilling to part with his wealth.  Peck suggests that the story functions as a parable for all of us, and every time when we read the story or reflect on the story.

The point of the story about the rich young man who is unwilling to part with his wealth, is not that following Jesus means that Jesus wants you to necessarily let go of everything you possess and live in voluntary poverty in order that you may follow him.  Although, I would say for many of us, that may not be a bad idea!  But no.  The moral of the story is that Jesus oftentimes will come to us and ask us the question, “What are you really trusting in?  Where is your security, right now, in this moment?”

Jesus will ask us these questions because if our security is indeed in the things we possess, then how are we going to carry our self as a human being, when the moment of truth calls upon us to express our humanity?

Within this discussion, the mental psychiatrist Peck throws throw at us this observation: “Security can become an addiction, and there are many for whom enough is never enough.”  Peck goes on to say that his work in psychiatric care has convinced him that having wealth never fully satisfies the aching feeling of insecurity.  All their lives, the rich often find themselves caught up therefore, in an insatiable quest to heal this ache through the continued accumulation of wealth.

Peck notes that past statistics demonstrate that within the American setting, the wealthiest segments of the American population give away to charity a much smaller proportion of their income that do middle or working class people.  Hence, their proportional giving reveals “a telling commentary on the spiritual impoverishment of most who are financially rich.”  For similar reasons, another notable psychiatrist, Erich Fromm, realised from sheer experience in the profession of mental care, that, “The essential difference between the unhappy, neurotic type person and him of great joy is the difference between get and give.”

A truly human life therefore, is a life lived in utter selflessness towards other human beings.  A true human life is always lived in the presence of one another, and for the presence and existence of one another.  A true human life can only be lived in selfless action to one another.  This is the mark of true humanity.  Anything less, is less than human.  Anything less is to live not as a human being but to live like an animal.  This discussion thus clarifies what we should mean by the term secular humanism.

Real Christianity infers a true and biblical humanism. Christian humanism is a humanism that encourages and celebrates the true nature of true humanity.  It is founded upon a moral centre, because it is furthermore, founded upon a Person— who is the True Human.  Secular humanism however, is a humanism without the true moral centre, and thus no real moral centre.  It has no moral centre because it encourages and celebrates living only for one’s self without regard for others.  It encourages and celebrates living for one’s self especially when the well-being of your life is any way dependant upon the loss, deprivation or disregard for the best interest of another human being.

For the most part, the world we live in, in spite of its increasing nuance towards spirituality, operates by values reflecting not a true humanism but a secular humanism that really does enthrones “self” at the centre of all things.  That is why even Christian bookstores are filled with books with titles such as “How to Become a Better You,” or “How to Be all You are Meant to Be,” or, “How to Receive all You’re Supposed to Have!”  At the root of all these pseudo-Christian books is not the paradigm of true humanity but the subhuman paradigm of self-interest.  So deep is this false humanistic in the cultures that we live, that much of the current talk within Christian circles of becoming relevant to the day we live in, or of transforming the culture around us, is really quite ludicrous.

The forces that have constructed the macro economic systems of our world, the security systems and social systems we now live within through the processes of globalisation, have constructed these systems upon premises that seek the best interests of the few without concern for the many.  The proverbial lifeboat of the film 2012 is therefore indeed a proverbial analogy of our present world order.

Many of us are right now enjoying the privileges of life on a “boat,” to which untold millions are currently barred entry into, and thus face the prospect of becoming the first causalities of whatever repercussions may erupt upon the earth because of our follies.  Moreover, added to these follies is the folly resulting from keeping our eyes closed to the many.  We close our eyes to their existence, though one day we may painfully discover that all people are indeed interdependent.  When that day comes, we may then truly learn that “No man is an island,” for the same forces that have united much of the world together in economic affluence, has united that much of the world to frustrations of the greater numbers of people who lack access to our prosperity.

Self-denial, charity, sacrifice, and healing the world

This discussion illustrates how nothing less than a complete, radical and revolutionary subversion and undermining of the entire world order, can bring healing to the world.  If a Christian truly believes that he or she lives as salt and light in the world, then he or she must also see their role as a prophetic presence in the world.  This is a prophetic presence that consistently demonstrates values that are visibly counter to the values of the world, and at the same time positively point to a world that is waiting to be born.  The good news is that to fulfill this prophetic role in the world, one need only mature and thus behave as a human being— a true human being.

To fulfill this prophetic function of living a truly human life we must however confront a common though false presumption concerning the purpose of Christian life, and about the purpose of Jesus’ life, sufferings on the cross and resurrection from the dead.  This is the misunderstanding that the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ atonement, was to insure our eternal salvation and hence, that we get to go to heaven when we die.  Now to be sure, the securing of our eternal destiny is central to why Jesus came to live and die upon the earth.  It is central because it is we and not angels whom God has created as His image-bearers— It we whom He loves as His children, and it is we who are made to reflect His likeness.

But in itself, this assumption is only a half-truth, and in itself, it makes for a very “self-centred” gospel.  It is the message of a gospel that men have not centred in the glory of God but rather in the glory of man apart from God.  Rick Warren therefore had it right when he titled the first chapter of his book titled, The Purpose Driven Life; with the title, “It all Starts with God.”  In that chapter, he moreover and rightly began the first sentence by saying, “It is not about you.”  Warren’s proposition illustrates how the primary purpose of Jesus’ atonement was far bigger than the redemption of humankind.  For even greater than to secure the redemption of humanity, is the greater purpose for which Jesus died for.  That greater purpose was to secure the glory of God.

Within the greater purpose of securing the glory of God, is that Jesus dies to reconcile all things— all things both heaven and earth, to Himself.  Jesus suffered and rose again that He might restore all things back together under His rightful reign.  So the Scripture says, “For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”  To this end, the entire purpose of God is to restore our humanity, that we might live as true human beings.  Moreover, the healing of the world involves our becoming more human; thus our becoming more humane.  To this end, God is at work to restore our humanity.

If we want to therefore carry our self in the world as a true human being— if we want to carry our self in a manner that is truly civil, we will never do so by calling attention to what we possess.  We can only show our true humanity through denying our self; and hence, by how easy it is for us to give it all away.  It is for this reason that in his Institutes of Religion, John Calvin devotes Book III to the Christian Life, and in chapter four, he summarises all of Christian life by this one phrase:  “self denial.”

By using that one phrase, “self denial,” as the most succulent description of a truly Christian lifestyle, Calvin chose to stick within a long tradition and a principle within that tradition, which every other leader of the Protestant Reformation also affirmed.  That is a tradition that thus remained connected to the best of Roman Catholic spirituality as illustrated in earlier works such as The Imitation of Christ and The Rule of St Benedict.

The tradition of self denial, which is in fact the true call of Jesus and the only call He gives any of us, when He calls us to Himself, is a tradition that stresses a central image of true humanity, which goes all the way back to the why the Gospels are in the Bible.  It is a tradition that rightly recognises that the Gospels are not provided for our intellectual assent to Jesus’ historical life, but rather foremost to grant us the one true guide on how we should live as human beings.

The Gospels are written to show us how to live— to actually imitate the life of Jesus.  That is why Jesus says, “Deny your self, and follow me.”  Moreover, God has made to some extent, the healing of the world dependent on weather or not we choose to follow Jesus.  For only in following Him can we begin truly living like human beings.

Within this context, we should thus realise that self denial is not something based on ideas of having to live with a “poverty mindset” or deny the very real and material nature of God’s blessings.  But rather, self denial is simply based on a true knowledge and comprehension of what it means to truly live like a human being.  When that knowledge is received, self denial becomes an act of calling and joyful vocation.  We begin joyfully denying our self because we have come to know that only here are living according to our high calling as real people upon the earth.  But to do that, requires our reception of a special kind of joy, and it is a joy that is freely received from the One who is humanity par excellence.

Jesus is humanity par excellence

I submit to you that there was a man who was truly human and remains the True Human, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the one who laid down his life for His friends.  He is the one who put Himself in harm’s way and suffered harm’s way for the preservation of the entire human race.  He did so because in doing so, he truly behaved and acted as a true human.  He acted as true as a human life can ever be.

Christians rightly confess and know Jesus as the image of God.  Even more so, we have come to know He is God in the flesh.  In Him, we see God, and by his behaviour, we see and know the true personality of God.  Yet I will here also remind us that in Jesus we see true humanity.  In Him we see what human life is designed to be.

This confession that Jesus is not only truly God but truly human, is true because after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus did not stop being human.  After he rose from the dead, He remained human.  This is why He rose from the dead with an indestructible though fully physical and material body.  Even now at this moment, Jesus reigns in heaven through His very real and physically material body.  Moreover, there will come a day when He will appear and like Thomas, we will see the nail scars in His hands.

The entire weight of these reflections rest upon a cardinal doctrine, which if we in any way undermine, we therein commit heresy concerning the person of Jesus.  This doctrine we must confess in order to lift up the name of Jesus over all things, is that He is truly God and He is truly human.  As the ancient creeds effectively established the concluding synthesis of the biblical story of Jesus’ coming, death and resurrection, Jesus is and will always be truly God and truly human.  In Him we see two distinct natures, the divine and human, clearly distinguishable, yet wholly different; undivided, yet inseparable.  He is and will always be, truly God and truly Human.

If we are to therefore truly worship Him as God, and if we are to preach Him fully lifted up in all His saving glory, we must also confess Him and preach Him in all His true Humanity.  For in Him we therefore also see who were born to be, if we are ever to become truly human.  He dies to restore our humanity.  When He lives in us, He works in us to restore our humanity, by setting us on a path of human restoration.

In Jesus Christ we see not only the potential of true human life, but even more so, a vision for a true human society and human culture.  We therefore also see a vision for a new humanity upon the face of the earth.  That is why the Scripture says that Jesus is the beginning of a new humanity.  He is the First Man of a new humanity.  He is therefore the true paradigm for a true human life and human existence.

When we look at Jesus, we therefore see what were born to be.  We were born to be like Jesus.  This is God’s true purpose for all human life; to become like Jesus.  This is why the ancients said, “God became man, so that man might become something like God.”  This again is why if we want to know what God is like, we should look at Jesus, for He is not only the true man, but in Him, we see who God is.  For God is love, and love acts without regard for one’s self but wholly for the sake of those outside our self.  For this reason, God created humankind in His image that we might reflect the likeness of God in how we live.  This is our true human calling.

The process of becoming human is the process of becoming like Jesus.  So complete is the process that He works upon us both from the inside and from the outside.  There is no antithesis between the two processes.  On one hand, he works within us, transforming us from the inside out.  On the other hand, He works outside us, presenting Himself to us as our Teacher and ourselves to Him as disciples called to follow Him.  Through both ways, the goal is the same: that we might live as human beings.  When that happens, we realise that self-denial is indeed not a method towards Christ-likeness, but rather simply the fruit of becoming human, and thus, of becoming like Christ.

Servant-leadership and the vocation of true humanity

In bringing these reflections to a closure, I will now draw attention to the second theme I find so poignantly illustrated in the film 2012; this is theme of true leadership.  Moreover, this theme of true leadership is what Jesus argued as, servant-leadership.

In the movie 2012, one of the chief architects of those mammoth lifeboats was something of what we might call, a visionary leader.  He had a grand vision and it was a vision for the preservation of the human race.  To some extent, we may argue that this man possessed a noble vision.  He believed his vision was for the greater good of humanity.

This man was also a practical leader.  He was a pragmatic leader as well, because He well knew that to be most effective and efficient, he had to make practical choices that may involve refraining from higher moral ideals.  Hence, he chose not to jeopardise the lives of the few by opening the boat to the many.

This man therefore chose to insure the security of the boat and the few in the boat, by choosing not to risk the security of the boat by opening the boat to so many others hoping to step into the security of the boat.  So in all these presumptions, we have a picture of practical, pragmatic and sometimes of visionary leadership.  But in view of the true humanity of Jesus, this is a way of leadership that is nonetheless, subhuman.

Yet the other man, who I want to say was the true leader, argued that preservation of the human race is still not possible unless we seek to preserve the human race through and upon the high moral foundation of self-denial.  As earlier mentioned, this man who was the true leader, argued that a new world that is truly human cannot be rightly established unless such a world is founded upon actions involving genuine risks through the giving of our lives for one another.

This man who was the true leader, therefore sought to persuade those in the boat to risk their own secure future by taking the wild risk of opening the boat to all those outside the boat.  He called upon everyone in the boat to do so, even if in doing so, the boat might sink in the process of getting everyone into the boat.  He argued that failure to do that is to behave not as humans but as animals.  He therefore understood that true leadership is not about putting one’s personal interest before others, but about putting the interest of others before one’s own interest.  He understood that true leadership is always the laying down of our life for the common good.  He understood that true leadership is servant-leadership.

Jesus is not only the True Man but he is the true leader of the human race.  Jesus said that the rulers of this age love to be lord over others, but that is not true leadership.  True leadership is serving others.  Serving always has its penultimate and highest expression in the laying down of our life for one another.  That is what Jesus taught and it is what he modeled— not only to secure our redemption into restored humanity, but to grant us an example of true humanity.  He did this in the expectation that we would actually emulate as an act of our will, having had our will empowered by the Spirit of Christ who lives within us.

Jesus did not just give His life for us, but He modeled to us what it means to be a true human and how to live like a true human being.  It is not enough to even say, “I’ll let Jesus live through me.”  It is important to know that Jesus lives in you and that is where it all begins.  Then when He begins to live in you, you will always face choices every day, where circumstance call upon you to behave like Jesus.  That comes through an act of your will and obedience to His Word.  You can choose to disobey the Lord, even as a Christian.  For this reason, many Christians know the Lord, but actually disobey Him.  Such Christians the Bible calls, fleshy Christians; Christian who remain like spiritual babies.  However, there are times when we all disobey the Lord.  So you must choose to follow Jesus, observe how He lives, and starting acting like Him.  If you do, He will guide your steps and place your feet into His footsteps.

I have digressed here, but I am talking about servant leadership.  True leadership begins with laying down our life for others.  Any aspiration that begins with the preservation of one’s self is not true leadership.  That is a kind of leadership founded something less than a truly human life.

Some months ago, I was engaged in a discussion with a group about the nature of leadership.  In that discussion, someone suggested that there are many kinds of leadership, one of which is the idea of servant leadership, and another is what we might call visionary leadership, and that they are not the same.

Let me point out that for a Christian, there is only one valid kind of leadership, and that is servant leadership.  Any other kind of leadership model or style that fails to recognize Jesus’ model of servant leadership as the foundation, is a subhuman form of leadership.  In a truly biblical worldview, Jesus’ pattern of servant leadership and the concept of visionary leadership are not antithetical styles, but they are the same.  Having a vision for a world founded upon true justice where God’s righteousness and peace prevails requires nothing less than a great people who have discovered their true vocation as servant leaders.

Sometimes in life, there is a moment of truth, which will call on us to choose either the way of self-preservation or the way of self denial.  In the moment of truth, how will we live?  How will we live in the moment of truth, when Jesus comes to us and says let it all go?  How will we live in the moment of truth, when Jesus says let it all go and follow me?  How will live in the moment of truth, when in that moment we are called upon to either act without regard for our own security or even safety , if in doing so, we might secure the life and posterity of other individuals besides our self?

But the truth is that in an infinite number of small and unknown ways, the moment virtually always comes to us every day of our life.  Abraham was able to offer up Issac on Mount Moriah because his whole life revealed a pattern of hearing and responding to God’s call every day of his life.  Every day God calls us and every day we are given a choice to either obey or disobey the Word of God.  Make no mistake about it:  the New Testament does not shrink from describing Christian life according to the language of obedience and disobedience.  “Today, if you Hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”  And a moment of truth will come when you are also called up to the top of Mount Moriah.  And there maybe even several times or more when He will call you up to the top of Mount Moriah, and offer your life a living sacrifice.

The healing of both our selves and those, whom we might need to lay down our life for, will come through the way of self-denial.  So part of the good news is that our own healing— the healing of our soul, is found through simply living like a true human being.  The healing of our soul and the healing of the world, is only found through losing our selves in the saving of those not on the boat, but who also long for a new world waiting to be born.

When the Gospel is preached in all its fullness, it possess the power and revolutionary purpose towards the entire social, economic and racial settings of our lives.  The Gospel in its fullness will challenge the entire social order we live within, and it will confront us in all we have taken for granted in our previous stations within the existing social order.  For when in our wealth, God calls us to Himself, our entire life within the material plane of existence, becomes suspect, questioned, and critiqued by the values of kingdom.

Wealth indeed has within it both a light side and a dark side.  But the disciple of Jesus gladly embraces his deliverance from the dark side of wealth and he or she will cheerfully celebrate this deliverance.  He or she will do so because as a disciple of Jesus, we acknowledge it as the god whom Jesus called mammon. And so we now embrace Jesus’ life and step into his footprints.

This is all a work of God’s grace upon our life.  In His grace, God thus comes to us and tells us He is on our side, and that we are victors regardless of how well we have played the world’s game of material gain and social status.  For the truth is that our entire striving towards success, has been premised upon our aching need for have or “self” validated.  We have this aching need to have our “self” validated through the acquisition of all our things— our material wealth, our positions, our achievements, our titles, and all our success.

Therefore, what now happens to the grace-touched believer, is not— as the success-themed gospel message so often tells us— that we are now free to pursue without guilt all our innate dreams and present pursuits to continue “climbing” this world’s ladder to success.  Rather, what now happened to the grace-touched believer is that knowing God accepts us just as we are in all our failure, we are now free to no longer pursue the “success” dreams that the world has laid upon use.  God’s grace thus confronts us with the wrongness of our entire present existence in this world’s order.

We are now free to let it all go— to take a “leap of faith,” and fall into thin air.  Encountering God’s grace thus then calls us to make a “leap of faith,” a leap from trust in our self, to trusting God alone for our present and future existence.  But actually, it is even more, a fall into the loving arms of Jesus.  So we are now willing to fall freely along with the downward current of God’s grace.  For the river of God’s grace flows naturally not upward but downward.  That is why God gives grace to the humble and not the proud.  The grace-touched disciple thus worries less about what to wear or what to drink, because he or she has come down to the level of the birds in the air, and the lilies in the field (Matt 6:25-34).  Because such a disciple no longer worships mammon (Matt 6:24), he receives all things in life, no matter how big or small as God’s gifts, and thus as expressions of God’s grace.  Thus, the disciple is free to serve the kingdom of God, and so go downwards with the flow of grace (Matt 6:33).

The freed-up disciple that has been touched by grace, is thus willing to embrace the script laid out for him by the Lord Jesus— the redemption that comes through entering into Jesus’ life story; His “riches to rags” story.  Yet thank God that this “riches to rags to riches” story paradoxically leads us back to true riches, which involves the process of being conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ.  Consequently, there will always come a point in time when the graced-touched disciple, will be confronted with a genuine “call” to in some manner or way, express a solidarity with the poor of this world.  This is inevitable because just like water, grace goes downward.  And its power will pull us towards its rushing, downward destination towards the sea, where it brings fresh life to all things.

Entering into Jesus’ life, the process of allowing Christ to script our lives according to his pattern is the only true and authentic response to God’s grace.  Two things naturally happen when God touches us through His grace, which is the river of His grace.  First is that this same grace flows through us.  Second is that we flow with His grace, which is flowing downward.  Grace will always lead us into service, servant-hood, and servant-leadership.  God’s grace is the water that flows from the high places to the lowest places.

If just once we have received God’s grace, we are like the growing disciple named Much Afraid, in Hannah Hurnard’s spiritual allegory, Hind’s Feet in High Places.  While climbing the high places towards the Shepherd’s Land, she heard the rushing water’s song as it flowed down the mountain: “Come, Let us go away— Lower, lower every day . . . from the heights we leap and flow, to the valleys down below.  From the height we leap and go, to the valleys down below.  Always answering to the call, to the lowest place of all.”  And once Much Afraid surrenders to that call, she receives her new name, Grace and Glory.  God’s grace comes to those who in sheer abandonment surrender to the downward flow of grace.  The grace-touched disciple prays, “Abba, I abandon myself into your hands.  Do with me what you will.  Whatever you may do, I thank you.  Into your hands, I commend my spirit.  I give myself; I surrender myself into your hands without reserve, with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.”

^“Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich . . . we are fools . . . but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute . . . Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. . . .  But I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”  – Paul the apostle

God has not called us to cultural relevancy.  He has called us to counter-culture revolution.  He has called us as a creative and prophetic minority to question the prevailing consensus and speak forth a better reality.  For the kingdom of God is counter to all kingdoms of this world and is overturning their thrones.  For this reason, Mary the mother of Jesus is still celebrating the revolutionary power of God’s reign:  “He is bringing down the powerful from their thrones, and lifting up lowly; He is filling the hungry with good things, and sending the rich away empty.”  For now is the Year of the Lord, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of God.

There are Christians who are “misfits;” “misfits who believe that the way things are is not how things are supposed to be. . . [but] History has taught us that it is when ‘misfits’ call for an end of the status quo, that the rumblings of revival begin.”  – Jim Wallis, The Great Awakening: Seven Ways to Change the World

“I call upon you to be maladjusted . . . The world is in desperate need of such maladjustment.  Through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice. . . . This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists.  The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. . .  Christians should take a stronger stand in favour of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.” – Dietrich Bonhoffer, sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:9; executed by the Nazis who sought to make Christian churches “culturally relevant.”

The Key to Global Prosperity

At this very moment the rich nations of the world, the affluent peoples of the world, and particularly those in the world who believe the boundless wealth they possess is given to them by the mercy of God; all these individuals, communities, peoples and nations, have together in their hands the key to an era of global prosperity not known since the dawn of human civilization.

The key is simple and is four-fold. First, all these peoples, or at least vast representations of their communities need only repent of their many extravagant indulgences which are destroying the world’s ecosystem and that even more so at the expense of the developing and non-developed nations of the world and world’s poor. Second, they must squarely resolve to adapt and find satisfied enjoyment in a far simpler lifestyle that is profoundly shaped by an awareness into how the crisis at hand further threatens the world’s poor.

They must do so because it is they— the poor of the word in the two-third’s world, who face the greatest suffering by the coming ecological and humanitarian crises, which is rooted in the past and present mindless carbon footprints— not of the two-thirds world, but by the first-world people of the world. The crises of global poverty and impending ecological disaster are one and the same. And both crises threaten the present and enjoyed security of the world’s affluent.

We all live on borrowed time. The poor of this world, the world’s oppressed, the hungry and the starving, they suffer not foremost because of those demonically-enslaved forces of terror now unleashed upon both poor and rich alike, but because of our own consumerist-driven extravagances. For it is our extravagance largely made available to us through wrong paradigms towards our entire created order, which has led and is now leading to a possible world-encompassing and cataclysmic ecological meltdown and financial ruin of many nations. At the top of this list is the United States, followed by the European Union, then China, and then India. This list is certainly even more astonishing as China and India are set to substantially lead the global economy over the next century.

Furthermore, we must squarely acknowledge that if we take the high road, we must therefore know that in the short run, the rich nations of the world will need to make far greater, biting and painful changes in how we spend our wealth. It is they who are most responsible for the coming crisis, and it is they who must also make the needed sacrifices and monetary outlay to tackle the crisis. We must do so if we are to avert the coming ecological meltdown and security-threatening crisis of global poverty.

To squarely acknowledge and embrace this cost however, is indeed a high road which can lead us into a new and profound era of global prosperity, not just for the affluent peoples of the world, but also for so many who are now living in abject poverty. We must find resolve towards this high road, for in one way or another, global poverty as it presently exists, directly threatens the economic security of every first-world community.

This threat to our present security and seeming stability exists because everything we own is in some way tied, linked and connected to the destiny of every hungry child, man and woman throughout world. We are fools if we think our lives are lived in complete isolation from the “have-nots” of this world. The very forces of globalisation which have brought us all the wealth we now enjoy, are the same forces which threaten to destroy us if we cannot find a way to let go and invest the bulk of our wealth, towards redeeming the world’s impoverished. They are the ones who will first suffer from the follies of our material extravagances when the tides of natural calamity are finally unleashed upon the earth. But is also they who will rise up in judgment against us, against our folly and against our selfish squandering of God’s creation.

Third, if this high road is taken by the rich, the affluent, the wealthy and the materially secure of the world, then let them give their wealth— let them invest without reserve to the creation of radically new technologies which will now free us from all carbon-based fuel and energy sources. For if we do so, then also we may well usher in an era of technological innovation and scientific advancement not seen since the Renaissance.

And through the spirit of profound charity towards the world’s poor and economically oppressed, this 21st century Renaissance can be simultaneously parallel to the greatest spiritual awakening ever to cover the earth. What spiritual awakenings we have known in these past three centuries can well up into an even greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh. New gifts of the Spirit will be given. The earth shall be full of the glory of the Lord. Floods of emotions will well up from within the hearts of many when the Spirit is again poured out. What man had tried to achieve through all his managerial capacities, God will achieve in one day. Swords shall be laid down.

Fourth, is perhaps the most crucial part of the key to global prosperity. This fourth aspect specifically concerns the largest religious grouping of our world— the professing Christians of the world, of whom I also represent. Even more importantly, it is the spiritually regenerate Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, who should by the very Spirit of Christ, want to lead the way out of the coming destruction. It is most damaging and irresponsible for you who are professing Christians, to forsake this earth in your belief that it is hopelessly doomed and must be doomed to destruction. For until the day He calls you to Himself, and until the day He returns in coming glory, the land where you stand is the garden He has called you care for and to till and to nurture. He has not called you to exploit and destroy for your own gratification, but to care for and he has called you to care and look after all the animals of the forest, the birds of the air and the creatures in the sea. Over all these, He has made you steward and ambassador in His behalf.

Therefore, we can argue that on the global scale, the ecological meltdown that threatens our entire human existence is also to some dire extent, caused by wrong past ideologies, mindsets and doctrines held, propagated and practised by vast communities of Christians throughout the world, especially by first-world Christians. These doctrines are doctrines touching on matters towards wealth, consumerism, material possessions, creation, the material universe, and our human role on earth as God’s steward. Therefore, the fourth key implies that repentance must be begin with the household of God. As a matter of conscience, we must turn from our preferred eagerness to identify ourselves primarily with the rich of the world, rather than with the poor of the world. Or have you forgotten the word of our brother James, who was the Lord’s brother: “Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. . . . Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.”

But Nineveh believed God, and God repented of the judgment about the calamity He said He would bring upon them. And He refrained from doing so. Judgment does not yet have to come.

The Church can repent on behalf of the dying believers and confess their partaking in the sins of those outside the Church. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” But if you do not hide, then your light shall break forth like the dawn. Then you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory. For the Lord loves justice, hates robbery and wrongdoing. Then you shall be called the repairer of the breach, and the restorer of streets to live in. Justice will roll down like waters. Righteousness like an ever flowing stream. You will drink from the brook beside the way, and you will lift up your head.

Why do you walk along these long forsaken roads?
Calling to me, in the hungry and the homeless,
Calling me, to water your thirst . . . “

Who is it that hides among the nameless and forgotten? Who is it that walks along these long forsaken paths? He is the one who says, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me”

For two years now, Corrine May’s haunting lyrics remain on my mp3. Those words are hard to remove because somehow they continue to provide connection with divine realities beyond the here and now. They touch my soul with what I know is God’s pathos and dream for a better world.

Then comes that lyrical response,
“So I’ll give you my heart and my song,
In a world where so much is right but so much is wrong.
Your love is my beginning and I know it wont be too long, Till I see you, till I hear you, till I love you again.”

Is Driving a Luxury Car a Matter of Preference & Income, or a Matter of Christian Morality?

In an age, where people are destroying God’s good earth by their cravings for big fossil-fuel burning cars, beef, and every other extravagance that’s taken through exploitation and not stewardship; in an age where the forces of globalisation are not closing the gap but increasing the gaps between the rich and the poor— which thus betrays the righteousness of God’s Kingdom on earth, Jesus would probably be more pleased that we that we ask for the grace to do with less; far less. That is a true manifestation of people encountering the gospel of grace.

The time has come for first-world Christians to stop assuming their wealth is the definitive sign of God’s blessing over their lives. It is not. Far too much wealth is being created through the destruction of the earth’s climate and the neglect and exploitation of the world’s poor.

Is it not astonishing that much of recent the devastating climatic crises is not caused by purely natural climatic cycles but by the recklessness of human arrogance, greed, unbridled consumption, and the perpetually increasing levels of “wants” that are largely created by the global market system— in its innate need to increase those “wants” in order to achieve greater wealth for the most privileged players of the global market, namely multi-national corporations?

Is it not astonishing that those who suffer the most from the devastating climatic crises of our day, which are ultimately rooted in the mindless abuse of the global environment primarily in the interest of world’s most affluent— are the “poor of the earth?”

But it is they— the “poor of the earth,” who upon turning to Jesus, are in their very poverty, the best examples for all ages of God’s grace; yea, the gospel of grace. For Jesus did say of them, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” Do not misunderstand: They are not graced by God because they are poor. Poverty is caused by the devil. No, they in their material poverty are graced by God because when they turn to Jesus they become friends of God, in a world where the rich are not willing to be their friends.

The global market of this present evil age is led not by men but by demons and principalities in high places, who are intent on making the rich richer— by making the world’s poor, poorer and ever deeper trapped in the dark bowels of poverty. Bono gave the right word for this present hour: “The Church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market, if it’s to have any meaning in the world— and stop being its apologist.”

Jesus did not come to satisfy our every want. Jesus came to deliver us from evil and make us “signs” of the kingdom. His kingdom is coming. And when He comes, He will avenge every wrong. He will, because He will establish justice on the earth.

He came and said “repent.” “Change your mind. Change your direction. You are going the wrong way. Turn around and go the other way.” He came to that we might see the kingdom, because it is another reality that is counter to this world’s realities. God has a dream, but that dream is neither expressed nor achieved through satisfying every material whim of our first-world lifestyle. They are like frogs in the well who see the sky and think it is the world.

Frugality builds character

“I think frugality and a simple lifestyle are effective ways to cope, morally and psychologically, with the temptations of the modern consumerist world.”  Wise and timely words from Lee Wei Ling, Director of the National Neuroscience Institute, daughter of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, and a Christian.

Thank God she was able today to share her reflections in yesterday’s edition of The Sunday Times, page 31.  Lee goes on to add that “extravagant banquets, expensive wines, designer clothes shoes and handbags – all these things are wasteful.”  Perhaps not always, but they do indeed become “wasteful” when our expenditures on luxuries beyond our needs deprive us of true riches which can only be received through the spiritual disciplines of self-denial.  Lee thus quotes from Romans 5:3-4 to remind us how the Bible “commends suffering:”  “We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, and experience, hope.”

But we should also recall the preceding verse which reads, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”  “Grace” is the big buzz word today; a true spiritual gem but is becoming more and more re-invented into a doctrine that calls believers to a life of self-indulgence rather than self-denial.  The marketing teams of this re-invented doctrine have forgotten that even greater than God’s grace is God’s love.

The Bible does not describe God as “grace,” but it does describe God as love.  God is love.  So in love God pours out His grace, to empower us not towards self-indulgence, but to self-denial.  He pours out His grace to enable us to deny our self, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus.  I say this without reserve:  if any man chooses to differ on this point— if any professing Christian chooses to differ on this point, he or she is not preaching the gospel of Jesus.  He or she is not preaching the gospel of grace.  He or she is rather cheapening the gospel of grace.  He or she is reinventing the gospel into something else than the gospel of Christ.

But the true doctrine of grace recognizes grace as a verb.  It is active and is flowing of God’s love.  Grace is God’s love flowing downward.  So when we are truly caught up in God’s grace, we too also naturally flow downward, and want to flow downward, because that is the true nature of God’s love.  We freely let go, and want to free give because we have been “graced” by God.  We have been “graced” by God because as Paul says in Romans 5:5, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts.”

Furthermore, a true doctrine of grace cheerfully proclaims that God gives us grace to sustain us when He then fully sends us into experiences of “tribulation.”          In His love, God even sometimes “deprives” of what we want.  He does so for our own good because as our Father He knows best what is good for us.  Lee therefore adds that “There is benefit to be derived from a certain degree of deprivation and even suffering.  Many of the things we like in excess are bad for us – for example, fatty meats, chocolates and alcohol.  Over and above denying ourselves such pleasures, outright suffering is not always bad, and in moderation, is good character training.”

Ms Lee finally concludes her reflection by saying, “I have been through a fair amount of suffering in my life mainly because of my health.  If I had been given a choice to be spared the experience, I would actually have chosen to go through it because suffering taught me lessons no teacher or book can ever teach me.  As the ancients of various traditions knew, tribulation worketh character.”  I hope that Ms Lee receives a greater platform to shares this truly Christian perspective towards suffering, self-denial, sanctification, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and following Jesus in His paths of spiritual discipline, which truly lead to spiritual transformation.

Know Who You Are / The Mosquito Prayer

Dear God,

My father says that am too small.

My mother says that I am slow.

My teacher says that I am a dreamer.

My boss says that the others are better.

My colleagues say that I lack solidarity.

My lieutenant says that I am a coward.

My pastor says that I am a sinner.

My wife says that other earn more.

My children say that I am old-fashioned.

And you, my God, what do you say?

You say that you made me in your likeness.

Over the past year, I have found my soul deeply stirred through reading, re-reading and continually reflecting on Walter J. Hollenweger’s opus magnus work titled, Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide.  Hollenweger’s 400 page work is largely and purposely, story driven.  Not a system of thinking but stories and songs.  Scattered through his book are several prayers.  I have already quoted his first prayer, which is about what people say versus what God says about us.  Following are the other several prayers:

• Prayer of the Earthworm.
• Prayer of the Caterpilar.
• Prayer of the Mosquito.
• Prayer of the Turtle.
• Prayer of the Cow.
• Prayer of the Singing Bird.
• Prayer of the Frog.
• Prayer of the Ostrich.

Hollenweger is by now an old man.  People often found his life message provocative, but I believe he is the most definitive Pentecostal statesman and theologian for the 20th century.  His book narrates what he believes are the “five historical roots” of Pentecostalism:

• Black oral root.
• Roman Catholic root.
• Evangelical root
• Critical root
• Ecumenical root.

Hollenweger believed these are not only the roots but also the true seeds of our future.  Emerging from each of those five seeds is the true calling and true future of Pentecostalism.  They point the way towards that future where the Spirit has always wanted us to go, and flourish, so that we can bless the whole Church and the world through a new Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  I think Hollenweger was right all along.

You see, the problem with virtually all of us today is that we have forgotten who we are.  We have lost our identities.  We have lost our identities. because we have lost our roots.  We are thus now rootless people.  We have become like the eagles who now act like turkeys because they forgot or never knew that they are really eagles.  We are all together like the parabolic lion character named Simba in the movie, Lion King.  So we just carry on our lives like every other creature in the forest because we forgot we are really lions.  We like Simba need to hear the Spirit of his father, who still cries out even from beyond the grave, “Know who you are.”

We live in a day when the word “tradition” spells something very unspiritual and irrelevant.  Hence, Christians do not know their inherent giftings and callings within the entire Christian Church, and to the world.  They fail to know that the DNA of where they came from represents a gift to the whole Church as well as to the world.  Every spiritual tradition has a part to play and needs the engagement of every other tradition within the Christian Church.

On this theme, the problem with far too many Pentecostals, is that they see themselves as simply Evangelicals who speak in tongues.  Or Evangelicals who believe in the miraculous works of the Spirit; or are passionate about reaching people for Christ.  But alas, we have forgotten our prophetic calling—our prophetic consciousness, to call into to question the prevailing consensus and status quo.  We have forgotten our calling to offer an alternative vision of reality that is radically counter-culture to this world’s prevailing norms.  We have forgotten that God’s dream and vision is far grander than the world’s dreams and visions for self-gratification.  We have exchanged gold for bronze because we think that bronze is gold.

We have brought into the lie that to be effective as a church we must be at the “cutting edge” of whatever is relevant.  So we have replaced the stories, symbols and narratives of the Bible for the stories, symbols and narratives of the world.  We had failed to know that in doing so, we have allowed the world’s symbols to shape our thinking and behaviour, more so than the symbols of the Scriptures.  So we have become, as so also have become Christians of other traditions, “fat cows of Bashan” who are far too at home with the first-world middle class yet very oppressive value system.  It is indeed an oppressive value system because it defines human worth according to monetary and material capital, and encourages Christians to see salvation as a ticket to heaven, and a ticket to consume whatever brings pleasure to our tummies.

Now back to Hollenweger’s prayers.  Each of his prayers tells a story about Christian life, and about being Pentecostal.  And if we are honest about ourselves and one another, these prayers express our real needs before the Lord.  I am going to recall these prayers over several entries.  I am doing so because I also believe that these are prayers that reveal our true need for repentance and revival in the Church today.  Is it not amazing?  The recession will soon past and yet our sins are still undone.  Revival is still somewhere beyond the crashing waves at the shoreline.  But one day the rain will fall again.

I think some may find my sharing something like that which comes from the mosquito who likes to draw blood from others.  Maybe it is; we are indeed earthen vessels.  Oh, how we need to pray like the “Mosquito.”

God,

Sometimes I feel like a mosquito.

In the morning, when the sun is shining,

I hum away happily.

But then an urge comes over me:

I must sink my sting into somebody;

I must draw blood in order to survive.

God, I have not made this sting.

Why must I be a mosquito?

I would prefer to be a fly,

Who lives on sugar-water

Or a butterfly who drinks honey.

Why must I be a mosquito,

Who can only survive by stinging others.

I did not make myself.

You did not ask me whether I wanted to be a mosquito,

Neither did my parents.

Dear God, will there also be mosquitoes in the kingdom of God?

What are you going to do with those that have sting others?

Let’s get real.  It has not been a “Good Friday” for most of humanity.  The Lord Jesus Christ was not the first person to ever be crucified; nor is he the last.  And Jesus was not the first nor the last, to cry out from a “cross:” “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”  That horrible cry of “God-forsakenness,” has been shared by countless millions upon millions of people, down through the ages, through infinite tragedies and terrors, that have shaped the experience of human existence.

Consider the testimony of Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Elie Wiesel.  Most probably, he has done more than any other man, to make known to all the world, that horrific, mass experience of “God-forsakenness” of Hitler’s Holocaust.  When during World War 2 the Nazis slaughtered six million Jews in the death camps, the gas chambers, the furnace ovens where live children and babies were tossed into the flames- alive.  I highly recommend you get a copy of his book tilted, Night.  He recalls the first night, when as a young boy, earlier a devout student of the Hebrew Scriptures, he was forced to march towards the furnace where living people were pushed into the flames.  He saw his own mother and sister forced into an extermination over.  Then just as he arrived- the order was given for no more killings that night.  But of that night, this Wiesel wrote:

“The  Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. . . Never shall I shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night . . . . Never shall I forget that smoke.

Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.

Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God (and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. . . .  Never.”[i]

At the prison camp- along with thousands of onlookers, Wiesel was forced to watch hundreds of hangings at the gallows.  At one execution they were forced to march past the three victims:

“The two men were no longer alive.  But the third rope was still moving: the child [a 13 year old boy] too light, was still breathing . . . And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. . . .

He was still alive when I passed him.  His tongue was still red, his eves not yet extinguished.”

Someone behind Wiesel kept asking out loud: “Where is merciful God, where is He?  For God’s sake where is God?” Wiesel then recalls that: “From within me [that moment] , I heard a voice answer, Where He is?  This is where- hanging here from this gallows . . . “[ii]

Was it a Good Friday: For Elie Wiesel, for the millions of Jews who suffered through the horrors of Hitler’s Holocaust?  For the six million Jews who murdered by Hitler?  Was it a Good Friday for:  The million Tutsis who were murdered by Hutu fanatics during the mid1990′s genocide in Rwanda, when more than a million Tutsi people were murdered, while the industrialised world watched and refused to step in?  Has it been a Good Friday for the many other millions who were murdered over the past century through all the genocides across the earth and history?  Was it a Good Friday for the 3000 murdered people at the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Centre?  Was it a Good Friday for the countless thousands of innocent Iraqi children, women and men indiscriminately killed in cross fires between the warring forces?  Has it been a Good Friday for the millions and millions throughout the earth, even now today, who every day suffer the pangs of hunger and malnutrition?

What about even here in Singapore?  Is today a Good Friday for a growing number of people right here who every day go to bed hungry- without enough food to eat?  Or for those who have been evacuated from their HDB flats?  Is it a Good Friday for people and families suffering horrific pain from cancer or other terminal diseases?

How about our mankind’s destruction of this good earth?  Where right now, human being are rapidly destroying 1000s animal species from the face of the earth, destroying the ozone layer, destroying the rain forests, destroying the oceans, destroying the earth?  Destroying ourselves? Is it a Good Friday?

If we’re honest with ourselves and one another, we must appreciate this reality: The Lord Jesus Christ was not the first person to ever be crucified; nor is he the last.  And, Elie Wiesel was not the first or the last to ask the question, “For God’s sake, where is God?  For so many, the seeming “silence of God,” is most deafening!

So again, Jesus was not the first nor the last to cry out from a “cross:” “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”  The point here is that most of the world’s people’s have experienced a world that- in many respects suggest we’re all living a tragic comedy- a God-forsaken universe- a universe without God.  A universe without any ultimate meaning.

“Many atheists deny God because they care so passionately about a caring and personal God . . . [yet] the world around them is inconsistent with a god of love . . . and so they say, ‘There is no God.”[iii] Atheism is their protest against a world where the experience of evil so severely undermines the very idea of God:  How can a God, a personal and loving God at that, exists, in a world where evil prospers?  Where evil has the power to inflict horrendous pain and suffering?”  So again:  We are mindful today that most of humanity, has not known this day, as a “Good Friday.

Second, let’s again get real: It was not a “Good Friday” when Jesus suffered on the cross.”  I believe we do a great, and irreverent, injustice to Christ’s suffering, when we gloss, or even seek to minimise the depth by which Jesus suffered on that Friday afternoon.  But the record is clear:  Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (v34)

We well know that prior to the moment of death, the torment of crucifixion- through the onslaught of blood loss, shock, exposure, and dehydration, would result in: The victim’s complete mental and emotional breakdown.  That breakdown was evidenced by the most horrific screams of rage, pain, cursing, and utter dereliction- the total experience of abandonment, of “God-forsakenness.”

In that brief wrinkle in time, like any other victim of crucifixion, Jesus screamed out his experience of total God-forsakenness.  His words may not have been coherent.  That is why some thought (in vv35-36) that Jesus was calling out for the prophet Elijah.  But Jesus was not calling for Elijah; neither was he calling for God to save him.  He was screaming out the experience of feeling forsaken!

All through the Gospels, we see Jesus at prayer- always calling on God as “Father.”  But now for the first time, He in pain cries out not to “Father,” but He cries out with that more distant formal word, “God.” “Why have you forsaken me?”

The verse is indeed most accurate:  “Cursed is the man that hangs from a tree!” (Deuteronomy 21:23).  There on the cross Jesus’ whole good life was revised; there on the cross, those who orchestrated his death successfully and maligned him into a social misfit, utterly disgraced, ruined, and abandoned.

But Jesus suffered something even far more horrible than other victims of crucifixion: If Jesus Christ was indeed God in the flesh, we cannot escape the hard fact that in this brief wrinkle in eternity, something happened to God.  There was some kind of rupture within the person of God.  Naked and shivering on the cross, somehow, someway, the Son was separated from the Father.  He experienced and felt (if only in feeling but not reality) abandoned by the Father.

Jesus cried out to heaven in tortured agony; and from heaven there came- nothing. There was no audible response from the Father (as there had been at his baptism and transfiguration); there was only silence. Deafening silence.

For those of us who are Christians, we sometimes want so much to think of Jesus as a “hero” on the cross, who heroically rose above the sufferings of His own death; that He calmly took it all in stride.[iv] But let us be warned: If we fail to acknowledge that Jesus Himself suffered the complete experience of abandonment, alienation, of being forsaken even by the Father, we undermine the very message of the Gospel.

We do so because we are entertaining a very pagan and nonChristian idea into the nature of God: The idea that God does not experience suffering, pain, or rejection.  For reason even Martin Luther (founder of the Protestant Reformation) calls the crucifixion, the “death of God.”[v] On the cross, God in Christ, somehow in way that boggles the human imagination, experienced death.  Which leads us back to our original question: What, makes, Good Friday- Good Friday?”  

There is good news.  It is Good Friday.  For while as we’ve seen this “day,” has not been a “good Friday” for most of humanity, and while as we’ve seen this day was not a “good Friday” when Jesus suffered on the cross,” yet on the cross jesus made this day, Good Friday. 

The Scripture says (Mark 16:37) that, “Then Jesus gave a loud cry, and breathed His last.”  Just at the moment of His death, just before that moment when His soul was separated from his body, the Bible says, Jesus did not calmly whisper; he shouted!  The Greek term here is mega; as in mega department store.  At that moment, Jesus screamed out a shout!  But Mark’s Gospel does not tell us what at His death, Jesus screamed!  But the Gospel of John does:  “It is finished! (John 19:30).  Or another translation is:  “It is achieved!”  It is accomplished!”  What was achieved?

What was achieved is that this Friday became “God’s Friday!”  That is why it is Good Friday!  This was the day that God showed Himself to us as, God! This was the day that God proved His love towards us: “God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:4)  Why did Jesus die on the cross?  It all begins with the love of God.  This cross reveals the depth of God’s love towards us; that He freely enters into our own suffering, and shares our suffering with us.  God is there in our suffering, in the midst of evil, God is present and experience in Himself, the very pain of that evil.

When Wiesel watched that 13 year old boy hanging from the gallows, remember his question: “Where is merciful God, where is He?  For God’s sake where is God?” Then Wiesel “heard a voice answer, Where He is?  This is where- hanging here from this gallows . . . “  But what Wiesel has not yet discovered is this:  God in Christ, was indeed there, “hanging from this gallows.”

That is why the centurion cried out in verse 39, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

This is why Jesus is called Emmanuel: “God with us.”  The cross reveals to us that God is with us, and chooses to suffers with us in all our suffering.

This was the day that God struck the death blow to suffering, pain, and death. It’s almost as if, hanging on the cross, Jesus “breathed in” all the world’s hatred, and suffering, and evil.  And by doing so, He struck the death blow to suffering, pain, and death.  The cross was the means by which God warred against the present existence of evil.  So the Bible say, that on the cross, Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities . . . triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15)  He warred not through power but through absorbing the evil in Himself.  And this is exactly what the Bible declares: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray . . . and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

The truth is, all of us nailed Jesus to the cross.  Because at some point in each of our lives, all of us have shown ourselves capable of the most violent of evils and crimes against humanity, against what is good and just, against even God Himself.  Everyone one of us nailed Jesus to the cross.[vi] “But God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:4)  This is why Jesus shouted, “It is achieved!”

Finally, this day is Good Friday because: On Sunday, Christ rose from the dead. Ultimately, it’s Easter morning that make today Good Friday.  Because on Easter morning, God raised Jesus from the dead.  At the end of the day, there is nothing good about Good Friday, apart from Easter morning.  For “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. . . . But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20)

Jesus was bodily raised from the dead as the first of a new humanity.  God is even restoring and remaking, creation!  There is a restoration right now underway!  Not just people, but the entire creation.  So even now, “resurrection” is happening: from the “inside out.”  When we come to Christ, God begins transforming us, from the inside, to the outside.  People spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to attend workshops and training programmes with titles like, “Total Transformation,” “Inside-Out” transformation.”  Well, this is what God in Christ offer you and I.  God is remaking us, by restoring us to Himself.  Therefore, even now all over the world, God is raising people from the dead!  Remaking us, and transforming us into His own likeness.  And this is why today is called, Good Friday.

Notes

[ii] Wiesel, Night, 64-65.

[iii] Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press; Crosswicks, Ltd, 1980), 19.

[iv] Jesus did not eagerly and fearlessly go to the cross.  For the night before his crucifixion, Jesus did not pray, “Thank you Father for this opportunity to suffer.”  No!  He prayed, “Father if it is at all possible, take this cup away from me.”

[v] “For God in His own nature cannot die; but now, since God and man are hunited in one Person, thne death of the man with whom God is one Thing or Person is justly called the death of God” (Luther, On the Councils and Churches, 1539, WLS I, p198); quoted in: Thomas Oden, The Word of Life, Vol. 2 of Systematic Theology (New York, NY: HarperSanFransicso; HarperCollins Publishers, 1992), 341.

[vi] We were there.  The cross of Jesus exposes not just “their” sin back then and there but our sin here and now.  When we read about them, we read about ourselves.

“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” (Matthew 15:3)

“By a perversion of justice he was taken away . . . stricken for the transgression of my people.” (Isaiah 53:8)

“Would we also send Jesus to the cross?”

As we transition through the season of Lent all the way to the end of the Holy Week, the Holy Spirit reminds us that our Christian life is a perpetual turning from the ways of the world to the ways of Jesus.  The practice examining ourselves during the Holy Week usually focuses on the inner life; our sins of both omission and commission.  Of course, many believers, particularly Evangelicals, see no need for setting aside this week as a week of spiritual reflection; “We are free of all such traditions!”  The Holy Week comes and goes, and we remain satiated yet spiritually dulled in spite of our sustained praise.

Yet this is indeed a season of repentance.  And the good news is that this turning is leading us into the promise of Easter, which is Pentecost.  So we ask the good Lord to turn our hearts towards Himself.  Then as empty vessels the Lord fills us afresh!

So the during this season, the Holy Spirit will ask us questions.  He will close our eyes and draw back to into the Gospel story.  He will then open our eyes as we again behold the prophet Jesus walking about the streets of Jerusalem.  Then He will ask us, “Were you there, when they crucified the Lord?”  Then He sometimes asks us questions like, “If Jesus walked amongst us today, would you recognise Him?  Or, would you also send Him to the cross?

If our hearts our turned, the Holy will at times, ask us the question.  So if we turn our hearts, we must also ask ourselves, Are we willing to let the Spirit sift through our entire existence as a community of believers?  Are we willing to let Him also probe the systems, the apparatus, the values, and the very ethos of our gathering together?  Are we willing to allow the Spirit of God to deconstruct all that we think is right and just and good, to only find that what we perceived was right and just and good, is not God’s truth but only chaff in the wind?

What would happen if Jesus Christ came into our church and said, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted?”  What would happen when He begins to uproot things in the church?  Would we recognise Him or would we also send Him to the cross?

Let us be clear:  It was not, as commonly presumed, that Jesus preached an inner righteousness while His opponents sought only an outer righteousness, and that for this reason they nailed Him to the cross.  No, it’s not that simple.  We now know enough from the sources of Jesus’ day, to suggest that His opponents were in many respects also deeply concerned with both an inner and outer righteousness of the heart.  Nor did Jesus’ opponents nail Him to the cross because He inferred His divinity or inferred Himself as the awaited Messiah.

Rather, the immediate root cause of Jesus’ death was that as God’s prophet, He questioned the prevailing consensus.  He sought to uproot “plants” which God never planted.  He publicly questioned and sought to uproot practices, systems, and symbols to which Jesus’ opponents had so deeply attached their self-identity.  He publicly called into question all our dreams, aspirations, and demarcations of faith.  He questioned prevailing perceptions, interpretations, and postures towards the symbols of faith.  He questioned the prevailing perceptions and postures towards institutions such as the Sabbath, the Torah, the Temple, and the restoration of a political nation-state.  And most threatening of all, He questioned the exclusive authority of the ruling elite.

He questioned the “boundary-markers” of faith; of “who is in and who is out.”  And even more, Jesus envisioned and proclaimed an alternative consciousness which radically jeopardised the authority of the existing power players of His day.  He publicly questioned all these things again, again, and again.  Therefore, those who were most threatened by His questioning, sought to kill him.

And how did they kill Him?  They killed him by maligning His character, His integrity, His place within the community.  They sought to silence Him as a social deviant, an unpatriotic antagoniser, a rebel and a liar.  That is why they nailed Him to the cross.  For by nailing Him to the cross, they sought to forever, ruin the name of Jesus.  The question remains:  If Jesus Christ came into our church and said, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted,” would we recognise Him or would we also “nail” Him to a cross?

I have reflected on the practice of Christmas amongst many churches and believers.  Every year here in Singapore, the Muslim festival of Hari Raya Haji vividly precedes Christmas.  This is the way it is of  course within many other religiously pluralistic societies.  About two years ago, the two holidays were only a week apart.  This provided quite a contrast between visible expressions of faith and celebration, between the Muslim and Christian communities.

Given the short span between the two holidays, I saw something, which at least for me- was simply ludicrous, almost tragically comical.  I was perplexed by the bewildering reaction when I shared this reflection with fellow believers.  But here it is.

On the day of Hari Raya Haji, the Singapore Muslim community slaughters thousands of lambs, giving away most of this meat to poor Muslim families; to families in need.  Given the enormity of this exercise, we are reminded every year of this event through the media.  Lest Christians draw the wrong conclusion, this is not a case of the media playing privy to the Muslim holiday..  Not at all; the enormity of the event simply warrants news coverage.

And so in past years- when our economy was strong and booming, Christmas celebrations receive ample news coverage.  Coverage of the hundreds of thousands of dollars churches spend to give a distinct “Christian message” to the Singapore Tourism Board’s “Christmas at Orchard Road.”  Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on bringing in star-studded overseas performers, to help Christians some kind of “Christian meaning and value” to the celebration of Christmas on Orchard Road.  We invest in this “witness” through our dancing, singing, and varied on-stage performances.  In past years, we’d have Christians walking about in brightly coloured, presumably first century Holy Land costumes, along with the many colourful and brightly lit nativity scenes, floats, and “Christmas Village.”  All to insure that the “purity” of the Gospel is somehow held intact within the Orchard Road light-up.”

Just to clarify, Christmas should involve celebration.  It is a festivity and celebration of the coming of Christ.  We can and should to some extent, proclaim Christmas through this pageantry, dancing, and singing.  There has been, and there continues amongst Christians, a desire to “enculturate” popular and pop culture.  “Christmas on Orchard” is one but significant expression of this desire, which has some merit in the long-term penetration of popular culture.

Yet back to my observation a few years ago, regarding the very close proximity between Christmas Hari Raya Haji.  On that year, the broad message which became subtly visible through the media was that in midst of all the time and money given to keep Orchard Road “Christianised,” the Muslims dutifully budget and provide a free meal for the Muslim poor in the land.

Now I am well aware that the “Christmas at Orchard Road” has generated substantial funds for varied charities.  But in terms of the greater picture of December of all that transpires during the festive season, this contrast between the ethos and behaviour associated with Christmas and Hari Raya Haji remains still quite vivid.  To some extent, it is matter of branding the values within an affluent first-world setting, of two contrasting religious communities.

So there comes a time that we must reflect on what we are doing.  We must reflect on how best to “brand” our Christian faith.  We must also ask in the greater picture, what kind of message we are really communicating through our attempt to keep Christmas at Orchard Road, “Christianised.”

I believe that when it comes to penetrating the media and other doors or expressions of popular culture, we Christians do have a powerful role model on how to function as a prophetic light to and within the media world.  We would do well to reflect on his life, and on how he is using his influence as a media personality and celebrity, as a witness to God’s kingdom.  The media personality is successful, culturally relevant, and a true visionary.  His name is, Bono, lead singer of the famed Irish group, U2.

Some Evangelicals struggle with Bono.  Yet I think he is one of the best examples of how a Christian media personality can use his or her life for the cause of Christ.  Bono says that he finds his faith foremost influenced by the words and actions of Jesus, the Beatitudes, and Old Testament Prophets.  I’ve come across two quotes from Bono, which deserve our reflection during this time of global economic meltdown.  Here is the first one:  “To some people the church is their ticket to respectability, a certain bourgeois point of view, a safety net for when they go to bed. My idea of Christianity is no safety net, a scathing attack on bourgeois values, and a risk to respectability.  Clamoring for better church marketing isn’t about respectability, it’s about being authentic and effective.”  Now here’s the second: “The Church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it’s to have any meaning in the world- and stop being its apologist.”

Now back to my observations on the practice of Christmas and Hari Raya Haji.  I wonder then if sometimes the Holy Spirit might be speaking a “word” to believers through Hari Raya Haji, although our ears have not yet opened.  For what is Christmas?  Is not Christmas the advent, the dawning of the Messianic Jubilee?  Perhaps Christmas should therefore involve most all, a giving to the poor, even as Christ first came to the poor.

Some day, the economy will recover.  When it does, what will become of “Christmas on Orchard?”  Here is a proposal.  What if rather than investing so heavily in our performance / entertainment driven “Christianisation” of the Orchard Road light-up, we rather take a less glamorous but socially conscious approach to Christmas.  Perhaps an approach that might even involve some reflection on the actions demonstrated one week earlier on Hari Raya Haji- and maybe, the Holy Spirit might even provide us a creative way to publicise that kind of spiritual act- a witness to the real meaning of Christmas, even at Orchard Road.

If Jesus came in the flesh today, what prevailing consensus would He question?

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice . . . Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house . . . Then your light shall break forth like the dawn.” (Isaiah 58:6-8)

“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted, will be uprooted.”

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19

Last week I stood alone in an open field.  The rain just ended and the sun was setting.  Minutes earlier, I saw the lightening and heard the thunder.  But now I saw a double rainbow.  This is what the rainbow said:  God is going to send His people into a wilderness.  There they will learn that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Why should it surprise you that God would send His people into the wilderness?  The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.  Jesus did not choose to go into the wilderness.  But the Spirit sent Him there.  There, Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered.  That is why He came out “full of the Holy Spirit.”  Then Jesus sent Paul into the wilderness.  He sent many others, and He is sending more into the wilderness.  For “the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”

In the wilderness God is going to deliver believers from the god of money, because they have come to pride themselves in the things they own.  A flood will come in from the sea.  Some will be washed away, because it will go over every head.  But with salt the flood will wash them, that they may share in His holiness.

So the Lord will lead them into the desert and speak tenderly to them.  He will split open the rocks and give them water.  He will turn the desert into pools of water.  And to him who overcomes will He give some of the hidden manna.  So shall they come out of the desert full of the Holy Spirit.

When the sun was setting the rainbow appeared and I remembered God’s covenant:

“I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears . . . I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures.” (Gen 9:14-15)

When storms come, God sends also the rainbow.  That covenant will never cease.  It is forever in this present age, a sure and certain word.  For “the LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.  The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.”

That which does not destroy us, only makes us stronger

I just journeyed through one dark path, which lied on a razor’s edge.  It was the razor’s edge of speaking the truth in love.  But thanks be to God, who has given me both solice and exhortation from several of Amy Carmichel’s “IF’s.”

These “if’s” speak to both sides of the edge.  That edge is like a double-edged sword.  It is sharp enough to pierce through flesh.  And it “penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; for it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Heb 4:13)

I remember from somewhere a word spoken that now comes to mind: “That which does not destroy us, only makes us stronger.”  The Psalmist David shapes our prayer in the right direction; surely it is the Spirit who is still speaking through the prophet David (Psalm 18):  “Your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.  You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.” (Ps 18)

On one side of the edge, are ten “If’s” :

1.      If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

2.      If I can hurt another by speaking faithfully without much preparation of spirit, and without hurting myself far more than I hurt that other, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

3.      If I cannot be at rest under the Unexplained, forgetting the word, “And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me,” of if I can admit the least shadow of a misunderstanding, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

4.      If I do not give a friend “the benefit of the doubt,” but put the worst construction instead of the best on what is said or done, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

5.      If I felt injured when another lays to my charge things that I know not, forgetting that my Sinless Saviour trod this path to the end, then I now nothing of Calvary love.

6.      If I feel bitterly towards those who condemn me, as it seems to me, unjustly, forgetting that if they know me as I know myself, they would condemn me much more, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

7.      If I want to be known as the doer of something that has proved the right thing, or as the one who suggest that it should be done, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

8.      If I avoid being “ploughed under,” with all that such ploughing entails of rough handling, isolation, uncongenial situations, strange tests, then I now nothing of Calvary love.

9.      If I wonder why something trying is allowed, and press for prayer that it may be removed if I cannot be trusted with any disappointment, and cannot go on in peace under any mystery, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

10.  If I ask to be delivered from trial rather than for deliverance out of it to the praise of His glory; if I forget that the way of the cross leads to the Cross and not to a bank of flowers . . . so that I am surprised when the way is rough and think it strange- though the words is, “Think it not strange, but count it all joy,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.

On the other side are these three “if’s”:

1.      If I am perturbed by the reproach and misunderstanding that may follow action taken for  the good of  souls for whom I must give account If I cannot commit the matter and go on in peace and  in silence, remembering Gethsemane and the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

2.      If I am afraid to speak the  truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, “You do not understand,” or because I fear to lose my reputation for  kindness; if I put my own god name before the other’s highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

3.      If I am content t to heal a hurt slightly, saying “Peace, peace, where there is no peace,” if I forget that poignant word, “Let love be without partiality,” and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

God is my rock, in whom I take refuge (Psalm 18)

“The Lord has heard my prayer and has come down to save me from myself and all my enemies.  In my distress I called to the Lord: I cried to the Lord for help.  From His temple He heard my voice.”

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me he drew me out of deep waters.  He rescued me from my powerful enemy. . . .  “They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. . . . He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, and a stronghold in times of trouble.

Prologue to Spirit-Baptism and the Prophetic Imagination

Part 1: The revolutionary power of Pentecostal spirituality

Part 2: The decline of Pentecostalism as a revival movement

Part 3: A vision for true Pentecostal revival

Part 4: The Prophetic  Purpose of Spirit-baptism

I undertook this revisioning for three reasons.

First, there were a number of grammatical errors and stylistic flaws rampant througout the series.  Much of the writing was therefore unncessarisly difficult to follow or read, especially de to far too many long and complex sentences.  I had thus sought to simplify quite a bit of the content, specifically, the sentence structures. In the process of doing so however, I was forced at times to further clarify thoughts and concepts.  I also needed to at time re-arrange some of the materials within the postings.  I also found it needful to add some new material within the third part of the series (“A vision for true Pentecostal revival) in the section dealing with similarities Pentecostalism may share with certain older traditions.

The second reason the revisioning stemmed from the fact that this series currently exists as a set of  keynote Perichorus manifesto essays.

Finally, with the completion of this revisioning of the series, I will now be able to more effectively tackle at some point (hopefully within the very near future!), the posting of the fourth and final part of the series, which will centre on the prophetic purpose of the Spirit-baptism.  A preview to some of the concepts which will be discussed in the final part of the series is presently available at the end of the prologue  (Prologue to Spirit-Baptism and the Prophetic Imagination).

The fourth and final part will serve to not only complete the series as a fitting climax, but will also provide the original purpose of the series.  This original purpose was to substantiate the Pentecostal doctrine of Spirit-baptism, through several variables quite lacking in much of the literature that has been developed thus far in the world of Pentecostal scholarship.  Again, I have briefly introduced some of these variables in the prologue of this series.