Living Wittily

TFTD March 17-23: "Kept by the Power of God."

Monday

1 Peter 1.1 Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia…”

None of your informal “Hi”, the casual greeting of the digital age. This letter comes from Apostle Peter, and its recipients are geographically all over the place. Those early Christians are special people – God’s elect, therefore chosen for blessing; strangers in the world so they can expect to be either ignored or given a hard time; scattered so separated into small communities trying to find ways of being faithful to Jesus. Not much has changed. Those following Jesus are still strangers, a scattered minority, but – God’s elect, “kept by the power of God.” That’s you, and me.

Tuesday

1 Peter 1.2 “Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying power of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood.”

Each Christian is held within the triple lock of God’s electing grace, the Spirit’s working in our lives, and the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. This is both privilege and calling, to blessing and service. We are chosen ‘for obedience to Jesus Christ”. It is the sanctifying work of the Spirit that enables and empowers that glad obedience. Peter is telling Christians faced with all the pressures of a suspicious and powerful culture, you’re not on your own. Through Christ you are drawn into the eternal purposes of the Triune God – and “you are kept by the power of God.”

Wednesday

1 Peter 1.2 “Grace and peace be yours in abundance.”

Or as in another translation, “Grace and peace be yours to the fullest measure.” Grace and peace, as much as you can contain, and then God expands our capacity. Grace is God’s self-giving in Christ, undeserved, utterly unlooked for, free, but always seeking the response of an answering love of grateful glad obedience. Peace is that pervasive sense that nothing can separate from God’s love, and that God’s grace is sufficient whatever comes our way. These are the signs of God’s work within and amongst the people of God. Elect, strangers, scattered, but graced with peace.

Thursday

1 Peter 1.3 “Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”  

Praise is one of the highlighted words in the Christian vocabulary. Likewise mercy is one of the key words of the Christian Gospel. Paul says, “Because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ…” God’s mercy is experienced as forgiveness, a renewed heart, a cleansed conscience, in other words a new birth into a living hope. Peter and Paul had their differences, but on the meaning of the cross and resurrection they used the same terminology – mercy and hope.

Friday

1 Peter 1.4 “…and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.”

I wonder if Peter was remembering the words of Jesus about having treasure in heaven where thieves can’t steal it, and rust doesn’t corrode it? There is nowhere safer than heaven for all that is most important to us.  Our inheritance in Christ is “untouched by death, unstained by evil, unimpaired by time.” This is the kind of assurance we sing of in a hymn like “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine”! Peter is building up the faith and hope of a community wondering what kind of future lies ahead. It’s one in which all that matters most is secure, because “kept in heaven.”

Saturday

1 Peter 1 “…who through faith are shielded by God’s power till the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed at the last time.”

Kept by the power of God, through faith shielded by God’s power, our inheritance guarded in heaven. Despite all the odds loaded against these small Christian communities, immersed in the power of the Roman Empire, exposed to massive temples and the cultural pressures of not conforming, they are ultimately, and finally safe. The elect of God, kept by the power of God, sanctified by the Spirit, sprinkled with the blood of Christ which is a defiant statement of identity – this is who we are, and Christ is to whom we belong. Salvation will surely come – till then we are safe.

Sunday

1 Peter 1.6 “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

Peter knows about suffering first-hand. His own psychological and spiritual collapse after denying Jesus; then witnessing the trial and execution of Jesus, his death and burial. Then there was the morning the earth moved with the news of Jesus risen, and that meeting of the guilty and broken-hearted Peter with One who simply asked, “Do you love me?” “God has not promised, sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain.” Peter could have written that – and we each know the truth of that mixture of suffering and joy that is our life. Read 1 Peter 1.1-5 again. You’re safe.

TFTD Mar 10-16: Yes, Jesus Meant Every Word He Said.

Monday

Matthew 5.1-2 “Now when he saw the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:”

Right, let’s ask the hard question first! Did Jesus mean what he said? Is the Sermon on the Mount (SM) meant to be a template for how we live our lives? Is it practical, sensible, even possible, to live up to the commands and promises of the Sermon on the Mount? If so, why do we find it so hard? Why have there been so many wrestling matches with the text to make it easier to live up to the demanding words of Jesus?  SM test 1: Do I forgive others as I have been forgiven?

Tuesday

Matthew 5.1-2 “Now when he saw the crowds, Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying:”

“The Law was given by Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (Jn 1.17) The Law was given on a mountain; grace and truth are now spoken in a new covenant, the law written on the heart. Jesus as a teacher with authority, sits, and teaches, and speaks the grace and truth that is the manifesto of the Kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount (SM) gathers together the values and principles, the guidance and commands, of the One who comes to teach and to live the life of loving obedience to God. SM test 2: Do I follow (understand and do) what Jesus says?

Wednesday

Matthew 5.13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again.”

Saltiness is the unique quality of our personal devotion to Jesus. Saltiness is our determination to seek first above all else the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness. Saltiness is also wise determination to build our life on the rock-solid foundation of hearing and doing the words of Jesus. Jesus teaches his followers to live differently, to act and think and behave in ways that enact before the world the ways of Jesus as signs of the Kingdom of God. We have only followed what Jesus says when his teaching is followed up by who we are. Salt serves it purpose by making a difference by its presence. SM test 3: Am I maintaining my saltiness?  

Thursday

Matthew 5. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Jesus is the Light of the World, and his disciples, those of us who confess him as Lord and follow his teaching, are the reflected radiance of that light. The Sermon on the Mount is the handbook that describes the spiritual power source of “the light that gives light to everyone in the house.” You, (plural) – the Christian community, are like a city visible in the darkness for miles around, because the accumulated light makes it stand out. Those who believe Jesus meant what he said, by relying on God’s grace, and who seek to live out, and live into the teaching of Jesus, will stand out in the surrounding gloom. SM Test 4: So, as followers of Jesus and practitioners of his teaching, do we stand out in the surrounding gloom? See Philippians 2.14-16.

Friday

Matthew 5.16 “Let your light shine before everyone, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

What good deeds? Those actions of kindness and compassion that go the second mile. Those words that rather than obscure the truth, are words where yes is yes, and no is no. That way of being in which Christian anger management uses the levers of forgiveness, applying the brakes that restrain and retrain the way we speak to and about others. Those attitudes to others that seek reconciliation, and work towards neighbourliness, so that we can come to offer worship without embarrassment.     SM Test 5: Am I light that by my good deeds gives light to everyone in the house?

Saturday

Matthew 5.19 “Whoever practises and teaches these commands, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

By practising what Jesus teaches, we teach others the ways of the Kingdom of God. Forgiveness is a practice; truthful speech is a practice; compassion to those who suffer, considerate neighbourliness, generosity with our stuff – these are practices in which we work out the teaching of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount is a Highway Code for those seeking to follow faithfully after Jesus. Of course some of Jesus’ saying are hard to put into practice, but in the everyday life that is ours there are countless times when we are called to be salt and light, to take up our cross and follow. SM Test 6: Is my life a persuasive lesson in what it means to follow Jesus?

Sunday

Matthew 5.48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

No pressure there then! No, in this life on this earth we will never be perfect, but that is the goal and the end of Christian life. The word does not mean flawless, it means complete and whole. God loves his enemies, we should too. God blesses people like the rain, generous and un-choosy; likewise our love for others can’t be just for those that we think ‘deserve it.’ God is most revealed in Jesus. He is our paradigm, the single criterion by which we examine ourselves. SM Prayer: “To be like Jesus, all I ask, to be like him.” Amen   

What Jesus says about empathy: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

In a week when Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, dubbed empathy a weakness and a threat to Western civilisation, and at a time when a new film on the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is currently in cinemas, these words of Bonhoeffer remain an astringent and authentic interpretations of the words of Jesus against such a dark view of human compassion and the way the world works:

 

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." These people without possessions, these strangers, these powerless, these sinners, these followers of Jesus live with him now in the renunciation of their own dignity, for they are merciful. As if their own need and lack were not enough, they share in other people's need. They have an irresistible love for the lowly, the sick, for those who are in misery, for those who are demeaned and abused, for those who suffer injustice and are rejected, for everyone in pain and anxiety.

 

They seek out all those who have fallen into sin and guilt. No need is too great, no sin is too dreadful for mercy to reach....They know only one dignity, and honour, the mercy of their Lord which is their only source of life....This is the mercy of Jesus, from which those who follow him wish to live, the mercy of the crucified one.

 

Blessed are the merciful for they shall have the merciful one as their Lord."

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Works, Volume 4, pages 106-7.)

An Exegetical Master Class on the Letter of James.

A week or two ago this book was only available in Hardback at £168. The paperback is now available at £27.99. It has just arrived. This is the premier critical commentary on James, and widely regarded as magisterial, and an exegetical masterpiece.

 

I spent most of yesterday evening reading and browsing all over the place in the 800 pages, and as with all Allison's writing it was like sitting at the feet of Gamaliel.

 

Each small section is preceded by a section History of Interpretation and Reception, tracing the way the verses have been understood, preached and practised in the 2,000 years since it was written. These are superbly done.

 

The main exegetical sections are jam-packed with details of grammar, syntax, semantic analysis, social context, theological reflection. Last night I read the whole treatment of James 1.19-21 as a sample - 22 pages on three verses, and I'm not sure any of it could be edited out without real loss of insight. Over the years I've preached on this passage "Quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger". Allison's' treatment is thorough, discerning, and emerges from deep textual reading that is intertextual and intra-textual. It's interpretive gold.

 

The wide ranging Bibliography includes the latest academic and technical studies, a rich harvest of periodic literature much of it distilled into Allison's exegesis and interpretive moves. He is a master of the history of exegesis of James, ranging from Augustine to Calvin, Luther to liberation theologians, John of the Cross to Thomas Manton the Puritan, sermons from social gospel exponents to evangelical preachers and the Scottish Congregationalist Ralph Wardlaw.

 

T&T Clark are to be commended for producing such a valuable scholarly volume at a more than fair paperback price. It's a brilliant commentary - it won't displace other important volumes such as Scott McKnight, Dan McCartney, or Luke T Johnson, but to use a word often overused, it is indispensable for serious study of the Letter of James.

 

I have one major complaint - the book has no indices which significantly limits the user friendly quality of an 800 page book bursting with technical detail. This isn't a one off either. The most recent volume in the series, on Galatians is also missing indices. I confess myself perplexed that such a prestigious publication has no detailed roadmap to where the treasure lies. I'm going to email the publisher to suggest a rethink if this is the approach going forward.

The Premier New Testament Scholar and Professor, and Durham Prison.

Chasing something else, I read again N T Wright's remembrance of C. E. B Cranfield. Of course, he wrote in fulsome praise of Cranfield's "patient faithfulness, the gentle wisdom, the ferociously precise scholarship, and the pastoral heart of Charles Cranfield."

 

But in that long tribute of one scholar to another, there was this comment on another side of this 'ferociously precise scholar'.

 

"Though I did not see his pastoral or churchly side but the word among people in Durham was that he hated ecclesial pomp and ceremony, including the wearing of academic hoods in church; that he went regularly and voluntarily to Durham Prison early in the morning to meet men being discharged and to take them for a cup of tea and see if he could be of any practical help..."

 

And there in those early morning encounters is the pastoral heart underlying the scholarly precision, and living into the words of Jesus.

 

The two green and well used volumes of Cranfield's ICC are permanent fixtures on my Romans shelf. I bought volume 1 in the Christian Aid book sale in Woodlands Road, Glasgow, in 1976, in mint condition and probably a discarded review volume - priced at 50 pence! (At the time the retail price was £6) I've always interpreted that memorable find as a singular providence