In the Center

When we leave the world of right living in the first Psalm, where the wicked blow away like chaff but the righteous stand strong like a tree, we come to the disorienting world of the second psalm. Here the outer world is in chaos. Kings and rulers are revolting against the Lord and his anointed one. Makes one wonder what kind of world is this of which this psalm speaks. However, the psalms affirms the King remains in the center.

This psalm divides into three parts:

Rulers seek to overthrow God’s rule (vv. 1-3)

Yet God still appoints his king (vv. 4-9)

Rulers had better seek God’s rule (vv. 10-12)

On one edge of this text there is conspiring, plotting, revolt. On the other, there is fear, trembling, anger, and potential destruction. Scholars believe that this psalm might have been used when a new king was being installed in ancient Israel. During regal transitions from the old king to the new king, subject nations would sometime use the occasion to gain their freedom. That seems to be the picture here.

It is time to install a new king, and Israel’s vassal nations are considering revolt. So they “take their stand against the “Lord and his anointed one.” This last reference is to the king of Israel (or Judah later on) in the original context. The vassal kingdoms seek to release themselves from their bondage (“chains” and “fetters”).

HOWEVER, in heaven, God can only laugh at their feeble attempts. God’s will will be done. His king has been installed on Zion, this king will inherit, the earth, and will rule the world with an iron scepter.

Therefore, the kings of the earth will do well to pay homage to the king: “Kiss the son!” calls the psalmist.

When the king is installed, he is recognized as “God’s son.” (cf. 2 Sam 7:12–16; 1 Chr 17:10–14). This language was common in the ancient world where several cultures consider their king somehow the son of their God. But more importantly, for us, it points to the role that Jesus would play as God’s son and our king.

So, remember, when life is disorienting on the edges, our king reigns in the center where God is.

Only Two Ways

In an age of too-many options—too many cable channels, too many brands, too many things—I’m not sure we can believe there are really only two ways when it comes to life. Now I would be quick to add that there is lots of variety within each of these ways, but would still contend with the wisdom of the past that there are only two ways to live and one leads to life and the other, destruction.

Jesus, when speaking about living in the kingdom, taught there were only two ways, one broad and wide, the other narrow and tight; he even said that only a few folks find the nar-row path of the kingdom of God. His longest-living disciple John wrote about the “two ways” to point followers of Jesus within the way of life, not death. Later, an early Christian document called the Didache (Or, the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), begins, “There are two ways…” then repeats much from the Sermon on the Mount.

However, way before even Jesus, Psalms and Proverbs employed the “two ways.” For example, the first Psalm does this with poetic flair.

In Psalm 1, there are only two kinds of people: the righteous and the wicked. There is no gray here. Life here comes only in black and white. We, with all our options, bristle at the no-tion but deep down most people are willing to admit that one can live either wisely or fool-ishly.

The Psalmist describes the righteous in three main moves. The righteous does not keep bad company, is devoted to God’s law, and is fruitful as a tree by a river. Conversely, the wicked will not be found in good company (when it really counts), doesn’t care about God’s law (notice that this should be vs. 4 ½ but the psalmist is silent on this point), and is like fruitless chaff from the wheat harvest.

The psalm ends with a final contrast showing God’s perspective: God is attentive to those in the path of righteousness but the way of the wicked can only lead to destruction.

The Psalms were the songbook of ancient Israel. So I think we should give notice that the first song in the book contains instructions for wise living. Is there a connection to be made here? Perhaps it is that worship has something to do with the kind of people we are become. If that is the case, then let me ask you once again to consider: there are only two ways. Pick carefully, ok?

The Five Most Important Questions

When Jesus formed the church, he had at least two aims in mind. Church would first of all be about loving God with heart, soul, mind and body (or strength) and, secondly, that this group of people would love their neighbors as themselves (Mark 12:28-34). While “neighbor” might include other church members, Jesus nearly always used the term to push us toward those who are different from us. Given the centrality of this teaching for Jesus, it would be hard to suggest that the church should be doing something other than fulfilling these commands.

Since Jesus says these are the most important commands, any other command we find in the Bible must somehow fit under these. Additionally, any understanding of any of the lesser command that ignores or bypasses these two must be seen as an misinterpretation of the lesser command.

So, if these are the core values of Jesus for the church, how are we doing?

I have found Peter Drucker, the well-known business specialist, to be helpful in this regard. He once framed what he called “The Five Most Important Questions” any organization must ask if it wanted to remain true to its mission. I think you might find them instructive as we seek God’s specific missional vocation for Tammany Oaks.

  1. What is our mission?
  2. Who is our customer?
  3. What does the customer value?
  4. What are our results?
  5. What is our plan?*

I have found these questions very helpful in thinking out where God might be leading us. While the church is not a business, it is in the business of announcing the kingdom of God and our “success” can be measured in how well we are doing that and lives that are transformed because of it.

So what is our mission? While each congregation needs a specific focus, we can be sure that it involves loving God and loving “other” people. So who are the church’s customers? Again, Jesus helps us here: God and “other” people. When the church views her members as the primary “customers,” her mission will always get redirected to “our” perceived needs. Members should see themselves more as customer service representatives who are eager to please God and serve others.

The final two questions are the hard ones, and as such, deserve more of our attention than I can give here. However, we should be able to see that the answers lie near the two greatest commands.

What are the markers of a “successful” church? Two of the makers, of course, would be that a successful church loves God and other people.

So what is the church’s plan? While the answer to this question needs to have specifics based on where God has placed each congregation, we can be sure the plan should be the outworking of loving God and others.

__________

* Peter F. Drucker, The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask about Your Nonprofit Organization (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993).

Where were You on August 29, 2005?

Within American history, there have been several events that qualify as “conscientious altering.” Among these one might list the Civil War, the Great Depression, the Great Wars (I and II), the assassination of Kennedy, 9-11, and, I would class with these, Hurricane Katrina.

Of this level of event, you can ask people, “Do you remember where you were that day?” and they can tell you exactly where they were. While I’m too young to remember Kennedy’s assassination, I remember the impression the event left on my parents and grandparents. They would tell stories about where they were at the exact moment they heard the news.

I remember 9-11 vividly. I was in New Orleans, more precisely, I was getting ready to take Rachel to school. We were watching the morning news and watched, along with millions of other viewers, as the first place crashed into the World Trade Center. The scenes are forever sketched on my mind.

For me, Katrina was much more personal. I knew people who were forever affected by the storm. I was in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada when Katrina struck but my family, but because of our ties to New Orleans, we helplessly watched CNN for a month because it felt like it was happening to us, too. We gasped as reporters showed us places we knew. Now that we are back in this area, I understand what people mean when they say things have changed—alot.

Katrina and aftermath had an enormous impact on the life of the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. On August 28, 2005, the building where we now worship was to be formally dedicated to God’s purpose. The church numbered over 200 in regular attendance; things looked up. That is a far cry to where the church finds itself today, but that dogged determinism remains and though the times have been hard, we are still here. And that signals hope.

It is not unusual for someone who has survived a terrible car accident to believe they are still here because God has a mission for them. I wonder if that is the same attitude we should take. God has preserved us to this day, thus, he must have a purpose for us. We are here; we have survived.

Long ago, when the Judeans were forcefully exiled to Babylon, they experienced an event as soul-shaking as our Katrina. When they finally returned home, they thought it would never be the same. They looked at the once magnificant Temple which now seemed only a shell of its former self.  When they thought that things could never be as good as they once were. God announced through his prophet Haggai:

‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.” (Haggai 2:8–9 NIV)

Perhaps that is what God has in mind for us, too. In Christ, we have to believe that the best days are yet to come.

Copied from Tammany Oaks Church of Christ Bulletin, 29 August, 2010.

Jonah: Missional Misdirection

“I worship the Lord, the God of heaven,
who made the sea and the land”
(Jonah 1:9 NIV)

Once I was looking for a fun way to introduce Jonah and thought that showing adults the VT version of Jonah might be the ticket. According to Veggie Tales (VT), Jonah is a story about a prophet who got a second chance. After viewing it, I chose not to use it because the book of Jonah is not really about second chances.

Jonah may be the oldest critique of tribalism and prejudice we have. But I’m jumping ahead of the story.

The Jonah story comes in four scenes: on the sea, in the sea, in the city, and near the city. Furthermore, there is a symmetry to the story with chapters one and two paralleling chapters three and four (compare 1.1 with 3.1).

In chapter one, Jonah hires a boat to take him to Tarshish which is about as far as one can get from Nineveh. Nineveh, in the context of Jonah’s time, was the capitol of the imperialistic empire Assyria. To Jonah, the people of Nineveh was the enemy.

The suspense of the story is built around contradictions and ironies. Jonah knows he can’t flee from the God because God made the sea and the land, still he tries. Jonah is asleep while the pagan sailors are seeking to save him. The sailors even feel guilty in throwing Jonah overboard. They care more about Jonah than Jonah cares about the people of Nineveh.

In the second scene (and chapter), Jonah cares more about his salvation than that of the Ninevites, which becomes clear in v. 8: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (Jonah 2:8 NIV). No point of wasting ones time on the Ninevites, then! Jonah proves the maxim: “you will never evangelize those whom you hate or fear.”

With the third scene, Jonah seems to be repent, but a closer reading reveals that he does the bare minimum to warn the city. In his fire and brimstone preaching, Jonah leaves no room for the people to repent, yet, they do.

Finally, in the last scene, Jonah seeks a comfortable place from which to enjoy the destruction of the city. When God takes away his comfort, he remains more concerned about his fate than he does for the city below.

The story concludes with punch line: “Should I [God] not be concerned about that great city?”

Well, should he? Should we?

If you are interested in a more detail investigation of Jonah, see my friend Bobby Valentines’ blog: http://stoned-campbelldisciple.blogspot.com/2010/07/jonah-gods-heart-his-struggle-with.html#links

New Opportunity among Old Manuscripts

Forgive this intrusion into my own blog for a little announcement:

The Center for New Testament Textual Study (CNTTS) at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary has offered me a fellowship to work with them in the coming year. The CNTTS is a research center devoted to the study of the New Testament text in the Greek manuscripts.

My primary activity with the center this fall will be “collating” hand-written Greek manuscripts. Collating is the process of comparing the manuscripts letter by letter, word by word, with a base text. When there is a difference between the manuscript and the base text, I will note that on my copy of the base text. This past summer I worked on a ninth or tenth century manuscript of Matthew and Mark; currently working on Luke now.

Additionally, I will be working on a project sponsored by the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung to “index” some of these manuscripts. On the top of each page of your Bible, there is a reference alerting you to what is included on the page below. As you can imagine, handwritten manuscripts did not come with this aid. Also, these manuscripts were written before the versification we use today was added. My job will to be to find the first and last verse on each page so scholars and students in the future can find their way around these ancient Bibles. If you are really interested, you can find some of my work at:

http://intf.uni-muenster.de/vmr/NTVMR/viewer/viewerWolkenkratzer01.php

Then scroll down to manuscript 1014.  Don’t do this unless you are really nerdy!

Along the way, I will share some of what I discover with you.

Leaning into Life

Readers,

I would like to introduce you to Jordan Gervais. I met Jordan while working at Western Christian College and High School in Regina, SK (Canada). I did not know Jordan well because he was in the high school division and I worked for the college. After my family and I moved back to the states, Jordan sent me a facebook message. What follows are excerpts from our conversation.

 Jordan Gervais December 10, 2009 at 5:45pm

Hey stan it’s Jordan i am just messageing you too say hi and ask if i could possibly be prayed for because i have cancer and have two brain tumors it has been pretty hard for me i have known about this for three months now and i seem too be getting better but i just thought i should ask anyway thanks alot stan and i hope too hear from you soon take care and god bless.

Stanley N. Helton December 11, 2009 at 9:45am

Wow. Jordan, that is some heavy news. I will be glad to pray for you and have already when I read this the first time. Also our church here in Louisiana has a prayer email list that we send to people to pray. I will add you to our list.

Thanks for letting me know and I’m so sorry that someone so young is facing this. I do know this that God can use your suffering to bless others. I don’t know how this works, but have lived long enough, to have seen it several times.

Where are you now? Send me your address, phone number and email address so I can stay in contact with you.

Jordan Gervais December 12, 2009 at 8:11pm

well i am doing good right now with everything i havent been too sick for two weeks now i have i think two or three more cycles of chemo and then i get a week off then i start radiation so that will be alright they already made a mask for me for the radiation part of the treatments so everything is in order for now

Just today, I received this note from Jordan:

Jordan Gervais August 6 at 11:50am

hey stan how have you been i just wanted to tell you that i am healing very quickly and i start back in school so that i can finally graduate. (Thank You Lord.)

Stanley N. Helton August 6 at 1:52pm

Praise God. I would love to hear more. Did you lose memory; did it change your personality any? What challenges are you now facing, etc.

Thanks for the note.

Jordan Gervais August 6 at 2:08pm

Yes i did lose my short term memory and i have found that it is getting better but i still forget quite a bit of stuf which is to bad but it is coming i’m not sure what personality means but i really find myself listening to ruls more and i also find myself coming closer to the lord i read my bibly everyday and i pray as much as i can as well so thats a good thing and some of the challenges that i am facing now are thing like i still forget alot of things and it upsets and frustrats me so then i just go to the lord in pray and just ask him to help me to just not be upset or frustrated anymore and it seems to help but it just bothers me i guess because i think that i should remember them but i don’t so i think thats why i get so upet you are very welcome for the note and i will talk too you later

I decided after reading this, that today is not such a bad day after all.

Sabbath

What is the relationship between the following words: rest, cease, and seven? They all relate to the biblical notion of Sabbath, however, in the Hebrew of the Old Testament the relationship is even tighter since the each of these words are all based on the same root word. So throughout the Old Testament they form something of a word-play. The word “rest” sounds like the word “seven” which sounds like the word “Sabbath.”

With this in mind, God created the world in six days and on the seventh day rested or ceased from his labor. Later God will declare the seventh day a holy day and a day of rest for his people. This notion is so important that it finds a place in the Ten Commandments. In the Exodus version of the Ten Commandments, Sabbath grows out of in God’s creative activity:

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (20:11 NIV).

However, in Deuteronomy’s version, Sabbath is more closely tied to the Israelites release for hard labor:

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day (5:15 NIV).

Jesus himself focuses the purpose of Sabbath-keeping more clearly, when he states,

The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27–28 NIV).

In short, Jesus will clarify what should have already been clear. Humans need Sabbath and God instituted Sabbath for the good of humanity.

Later in the Bible, Sabbath becomes a way of talking about heaven. The writer of Hebrews teaches us,

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:9–10 NIV).

This serves as a word of encouragement for us to hang in there to the end.

Still, we need Sabbath now. Increasingly, in our culture today, Sabbath is hard to come by. The time when we reserved Saturday or Sunday for worship and family time is gone. Therefore, Christians need more discipline at getting away from the hustle of every-day life. The work will be there when you get back and the benefits of Sabbath include clearer thinking, a stronger connection with God, and a calmer presence when we return to our work.

When God Listens to Us

There has never been a day like it before or since,
a day when the Lord listened to a man.
Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
(Joshua 10:14 NIV)

This amazing comment concludes the story of the time when God caused the sun to stand still over Gibeon so Joshua and the Israelites could defeat the kings who had come against Israel’s new ally. You can read the story for yourself in Joshua 10.

The notion that God is a mighty warrior is found throughout the Bible. So we are not surprise to find that God fought for Israel. However, that language is more subversive than we might see at first. Shouldn’t Israel be fighting for God? After all, who is God here? This is bit like saying that God works for us? Yet the Bible reveals a God who serves his people; what is a strange God, indeed.

The background of this particular story involves a covenant or treaty between ancient nations. The more powerful nation would conquer the weaker. Then the overlord would form a covenant (or treaty) with the vassal nation. The covenant would stipulate the responsibilities of both nations: on the one hand the powerful nation would promise to protect the weaker nation. In exchange, the weaker nation would pledge their allegiance to the conquering nation, which often include providing solders, and tribute. In fact, in this very story, Israel is fulfilling its covenant responsibilities to their new ally, Gibeon.

The Bible frames Israel’s relationship to God in the language of covenant or international treaty. Actually, the book of Deuteronomy looks very much like one of these ancient covenant.

Yet, there is more than mere covenant responsibility here. There is relationship. God seeks a relationship with his people. Notice how t his comes out in the text cited above. There had never been a day “when the Lord listened to a man,” says the narrator of Joshua. Did you hear that: when the Lord listened to a man. Now who is working for whom?

Our Bible is full of stories where this kind of give-and-take relationship is what God seeks and acts out. For example, once God shared with Abraham his intent for the wicked cities Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham interceded for them and God agreed to spare the cities if there should be ten righteous people living within them. Read about this in Genesis 18.

Again, but later, Moses intercedes for the people of Israel after they exchanged their loyalty to God to follow a golden calf. God wanted to wipe out the people and to start over with Moses and his descendants. Moses argued against God and pleaded for the people. Then, the Bible relates,

“Then the Lord relented (changed his mind?) and did not bring on the people the disaster he had threatened”(Exodus 32:14).

Yet later Moses seeks a face-to-face encounter with God.. Yet God concedes,

“I will do the very thing you asked …” (Exodus 33:17).

God is willing to go part of the way on this request

There are many other stories illustrating this give-and-take relationship that people can have with God. It works something like this: God acts, we respond, God responds, we act, and so on.

If this is how God really is, then, it would seem, that our lives with him ought always be filled with adventure and new surprises around every corner. Not only should we take God seriously, it appears from Scripture, that God takes us seriously as well. What we do counts!

Gotcha: How Scripture Subverts

I find that when I really hear Scripture, I have a “gotcha” moment. By this I don’t mean that God is seeking to trick us through Scripture, but that Scripture has a way of deflating our egos, correcting our visions, and taking us to places we would not have travelled ourselves. Perhaps it would be better if I illustrated one of the subversive moves of Scripture. Jesus tells this catching parable in Luke 18:9-14:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

I’m assured by the gospel writer that this parable has nothing to do with my friends or me. This parable was clearly addressed to the self-righteous and those who look down upon other people. This parable is for those evil religious leaders that resisted Jesus’ ministry, right?

I may even reassure myself that I am much more like the tax collector than the Pharisee. I know I’m a sinner so I would never compare myself to others the way this Pharisee does—though, secretly, I know I am better than say, robbers, evildoers and adulterers. Nor would I think of bragging to God about all the pious acts I have done and I would never brag about how often I fast or how much I give. Not me.

So aren’t you glad we are not like that Pharisee? Gotcha!