Bible as Calibration 6.27.2024

     We need regular check-ups regardless of how long we have been a Christian. We will need to gauge our individual growth and our maturing integration into the Church. The Bible provides benchmarks for every part of our spiritual journey from our conversion, through the elementary phases of development, until we have discerned and developed our personal ministry gift. 

    The scriptures give us the best, most objective criteria for determining our progress through each step of our journey. It is objective in that all believers everywhere and at all times can calibrate their individual and corporate Christian lives according to the single Biblical standard which brings the whole Church into maturity. 

Process

    Christians follow a crucified Christ. This theological fact is supposed to be the basis for our own discipleship. The following text occurs after Jesus spoke of His founding of the Church. After He spoke of His own passion. After Peter’s thinking became demonic.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24 ESV)

Jesus' reasoning is so clear you could preach it! The process of discipleship--regardless of the wide variety of other ways we might qualify that process comes down to three actions. Deny Self. Take up our Cross. Follow Jesus. Sing the Hymn, say the prayer—Do thou likewise. 

Progress

    Benchmarks. We need benchmarks to know how effective we are. We need some measurable goals to help us determine whether we are maturing in Christ. 

 “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-8 ESV)

“Oh. Do you mean the Bible kind of tells us what is expected? It gives us an idea of what it means to mature in Christ?” Yes. Yes, it does. One of the issues is that it’s not the sexy kind of stuff that you’re going to hear in the modern Worship Industrial Complex. Why? Cause some of it is hard. Actually, it’s only as hard as we want to make it, it’s not very flashy and while it will build the Church it won’t result in many empires. Virtue. Knowledge. Self-control. Steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection? Nope not woke, rather the yoke of Christ. 

Proportion 

     Many of us have known someone whose sincerity and passion were so unbalanced, so disproportionate that it made me them difficult to work with. Every generation of believers is blessed with “Thunder-sons” who are eager to call down destruction on perceived enemies, or whose joy is unleashed when mercy or grace is needed. 

    We need to live a balanced life of faith. Not only will it allow the gift we have been given to flourish balance will also allow our gift to work in concert with the gifts that surround us in the Body.  There are many Churches that are all head. Some are all heart. Others are all help. And others all hallelujahs! Every Church, every healthy Church, needs all those things—at the right time, in the right proportion, for the right purpose. 

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:6-8 ESV)

 Strictly speaking, it is preaching that Paul says should be done in proportion to faith yet, the general tenor of this passage is that the maturing exercise of Spiritual gifts is to be channeled with balanced, symmetrical understanding. Working in concert the gifts create a harmonious, functional, healthy body. A disproportionate body is unhealthy, dysfunctional, and discordant. It is interesting and wise that Paul does not command the body to be proportionate—but the individuals who form the part of the body. A healthy body is composed of healthy constituent parts that use their gifts to further the witnessing and disciple-making purpose of the Church.

Summary

    We use the Bible in different ways to provide the guidance we need as believers. We look to the good and bad characters in the Bible for positive and negative examples. We use Scripture to provide a true bearing upon the road of discipleship. The Bible is our charter of freedom and the incorporating document of our New Covenant. And using the Bible we calibrate our maturity on the road to discipleship. 

    The Bible reminds us to have a balanced and mature approach to life and ministry. Scripture gives us benchmarks to measure our progress. Finally, the Bible clearly discloses the nature of discipleship and the process of cross-bearing submission expected of those who have called upon the name of the crucified and risen Lord for Salvation. This ought to keep us busy till the last beat of our heart and breath in our lungs.

Bible as Charter 6.20.2024

     Jesus gathered disciples. These men, many of whom are familiar to us, formed what I call the embryonic Church. Jesus trained them and nurtured them. He taught and tested them. He integrated and helped them reimagine what it meant to be part of a faith community. He made them His body. He made them His flock. Anthropologists and sociologists describe a group like this as a “fictive kin group.” Though not related they were formed into a “family.” Songs that say things like “I’m so glad, I’m a part of the family of God…” commemorate and celebrate this process. 

    It was after the events of His passion, after His final ascension and exaltation that this embryonic Church was fully born on Pentecost. To use a commercial metaphor, after Pentecost, the Church was “open for business.” The disciple-making business. We’ve been working that trade ever since. 

    By extending and enlarging that analogy we have yet another way to understand the function of the Scriptures in the Church. Most institutions, businesses, and organizations have incorporation documents—a charter. This charter determines what kind of an organization it is and the rights, responsibilities, privileges, perquisites, and purpose of the organization. In a sense the charter of an organization formalizes and fixes the organization, binding it to its stated purposes. When the organization departs from that purpose the charter can be challenged—even rendered void. 

    In the 21st Century, we often read Scripture through the eyes and actions of the characters we find in its stories. We also read Scripture as one uses a compass to provide a true bearing upon which both individual and corporate life in Christ can stay on track. And we most assuredly read scripture as our charter document. The Old Testament provides the “history of the corporation” whilst the New Testament itself comprises the articles of incorporation, our duties in the corporation, and the obligations of the contracting parties.” 

    We don’t often think of the Bible this way. Words like charter and obligation don’t leave much margin for error. There is little “wiggle room.” If there is anything we adore in the 21st century it’s wiggle room. We live in an era defined by options, and wiggle room is all about opting in and/or opting out. Fortunately, if you wish to be a Christian—if you are a Christian, the Scriptures make it clear what is and is not optional in both our individual and corporate response to the charter. 

Founder

    In Matthew 16.18 we find the following “…I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18b ESV). That tells us quite a bit about who is in charge around here. The Church belongs to and answers to Jesus. Assuredly within the Church, He distributes His authority to qualified leaders. Those “under-shepherds” are obligated to execute His will. The New Testament is the charter that continuously circles back to Jesus. 

Focus

    The great commission provides the focus for the Church. This is where our charter gives specific guidance, clarifying we are supposed to be doing. To use a crass commercial analogy our charter tells us what kind of business we are in. 

“Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

In this text, Matthew’s account of the “great commission, he specifies a primary and secondary focus. The primary focus is to make disciples. We are given a lot of leeway! There are not as many specific instructions as we might wish. We must make decisions and take responsible action. The secondary focus gives us some idea of what it will entail. We are to teach both those who are, those who may become disciples. 

In his account of the great commission, found in Acts 1.8 Luke provides some further clarification to this focus:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” (Acts 1:8 ESV)

    The process of making disciples requires us to bear witness to Jesus. To summarize: 

We are chartered to make disciples by bearing witness to Jesus and teaching disciples and prospective disciples to obey Him. 

    This is not a new way of reading scripture. Nor is it exclusive. We still read Scripture so that the heroes of faith can provide examples for us. When we keep the charter in the back of our mind, we can also see how these individuals bore true faith and allegiance to the founder of the “corporation” and whether they were guided by God’s motivating focus. We will likewise continue to turn to Scripture for a true bearing. We need the compass to provide direction and competencies that will allow us to implement the various commitments we find in our charter. 

    One of my goals this month is to remind you that our hermeneutical task, as complex as it may be, is greatly simplified by how we conceptualize it. Analogies connect Biblical reasoning with other familiar and often less complex activities. God has chosen us to bear witness. We are called to teach both current and prospective members of His Church. He has chosen us to be empowered disciple-making disciples. This is our charter. Our marching orders. Our purpose. This is our happy obligation.

Bible as Compass 6.13.2024

     Getting lost is becoming a lost art form. With our telephones in the seat next to us or connected directly to our car’s internal systems, there is always a sweet-sounding voice giving us directions. We don’t even have to take our eyes off the road. Back in the olden days, say any time before around 2005, people got lost more frequently and sometimes with great panache. 

    Men who were lost did not want to be found out by their wives or offspring so they would turn their confusion into an excursion. Eventually working out the mistake and subsequent corrections mentally, most men could spend hours lost and make the experience a seamless part of the plan. We have lost that craftsmanship. If I’m driving with my phone supplying directions via CarPlay, Mrs. Beckman, sitting right next to me can simply look up the destination on her phone, and give me that knowing look followed by the indictment. “You’re lost.” She doesn’t even have to phrase the accusation as a question anymore. She’s got the evidence right in front of her. So, it’s a different world here in 2024. 

    One of the uses of the Bible is to give God’s people direction. It is like our compass, the old-fashioned instrument we used prior to GPS and Siri. A compass is an instrument that always gives a true bearing. A person can travel by memorizing roads. If they reroute the roads (or a bridge goes out or they’re doing construction) a memorized route is useless. It might even be a detriment. A person can travel by using a map. Maps are vulnerable to the very same issues that route memorization confronts. Roads change and unforeseeable issues arise rendering the map useless. Landmarks! “Go east till you see Edgar’s old tractor, go past the jog to the 3 windowed barn, and turn left.” Those sorts of directions are common in rural areas like my neighborhood, but don’t help much if you are not a native. And again, Edgar may move the tractor, or the barn may finally fall down. 

    At some point, we need directions that are not context-dependent. We need a way to find our true bearing. All that a GPS is, is a system that uses satellites to calculate a true bearing. Like all electromechanical systems, they are vulnerable to electro-problems that render them useless. As long as a compass is properly functioning and as long as the poles are still at the top and bottom of the globe, a compass will work and give a true bearing unless you are standing atop the globe, where presumably you won’t be reading this essay. The Bible gives us a true bearing by providing curated, necessary, and accurate, universal information. 

We either forget or neglect the fact that the Bible reveals what God deems necessary for our salvation. It is not exhaustive. Consider the following New Testament passages:

“Luke 1:1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, Luke 1:2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, Luke 1:3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, Luke 1:4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”  

Luke tells us that he investigated, compared, and chose what is included in his gospel (and the book of Acts) to provide certainty for his believing audience. The process implies what we would call “curation.” He was working towards a purpose writing to meet that purpose. 

“John 20:30   Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; John 20:31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31 ESV)

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25 ESV)

John makes a similar point to Luke twice, specifically pointing out not only that signs and other events from the life of Jesus were omitted but that in so doing, he too was pursuing a specific agenda.

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4 ESV)

 Paul reminds us that the Scripture was written for our instruction to provide endurance through encouragement. This is a brief sample but each of these three authors reinforces the point. The Bible is not a comprehensive account of everything that happened from Genesis to Revelation. It doesn’t even tell us everything said or done by the central characters of the unfolding scheme of redemption. It is curated, selective, and intentional The authors, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, chose what God intended for His Church, to provide guidance--a true bearing during hard times. One of my old professors did not use the same terminology but he made the same point. “The Bible is not intended to satisfy your curiosity but to guide us to salvation and in Christian living.”

    Like a compass, the Scriptures provide a true bearing. It has provided guidance throughout the history of the Church. Many of the problems in the contemporary Church have arisen because misguided leaders have tried to lead the Church using tools that lack the capacity to provide the information the Church needs. Relying on the rough equivalent of modern maps or fancy new technologies the Church flails around lost, looking for a true bearing, forgetting we already have it, resting on our pulpits or sitting in a pew rack. Perhaps we should rekindle a desire to do as God wishes and learn how to get a true bearing from His Word.   

Bible Characters 6.6.2024

    For many people, their introduction to Scripture is the broad array of human characters who populate the Bible Stories we first learned as children. Our parents or grandparents read these stories to us when young and we learned to identify with the men, women, and even children who populated those stories. For many, if not most Free-Church protestants like us Sunday School is where we took our next step at understanding the Word of God through the eyes of the place, things, and especially people described. 

    The medium was still largely through the process of hearing and reacting to the story as a story. Much of the impact was mediated to us as an understanding of how God worked in the places and things in the story but most importantly the people. In Sunday school we first began to identify with Biblical characters in such a way that we could admire as heroes those who behaved heroically and avoid as villains those who behaved villainously. When I attended Sunday School in the late 1960s and early 1970s, two factors shaped this experience. First was the production of “Sunday School” literature. This allowed teacher selection (particularly for children) to be broader and more inclusive. Many children were taught by compassionate men and women who would have otherwise felt unable, save for the quarterly that did all the heavy lifting, allowing them to be nurturing and directive. The second factor, derived from the same companies that provided lessons was the visuals…Yes, flannel graph. With the growth of Television, children were becoming more accustomed to seeing as well as hearing stories told. The flannel graph may have been simplistic, (by design) but it was effective. 

    To this day as children move through their adolescence, teens, and early adulthood their introduction to Christian literature, tends to be a graded approach to the Scripture learning the nature and character of God through the experiences of people whose nature and character are shaped through their interactions with God recorded in scripture. 

    For many who were raised like this, Bathsheba comes as quite a shock! Not for her own sake but for what we learn about David. The shepherd-boy beloved of Sunday School Children had a darker side that more theoretical discussions about the fallen, sinful condition of humanity don’t quite capture. So, we begin to learn that the central plot of scripture revolves, not around heroic human behavior but around our sinful nature and the need for redemption. 

    In addition to David’s shortcomings, we are taught that before he became a champion for the faith Paul persecuted it. Before being the first Gospel preacher, Peter denied knowing the Lord. The examples could be multiplied but I’ve made the point. Our Sunday School heroes were just as fallen as we, and as much in need of redemption. 

    This should not discourage us. Despite all the differences of time, place, and culture those Biblical characters share our need for Jesus, the only Biblical hero of impeccable, sinless character. Christian maturity begins with recognizing both characteristics in those whose stories nurtured us as children, convicted us as adults, and still guide our thinking toward the likeness of Jesus, whose heroic citation consists of conspicuous scars upon His hands, His feet, and His side.