Nielsen’s Nook

Some of our friends turned us on to a promotion at an online dating service, that rates blogs along the lines of movie ratings. I do not recommend online dating, generally because it tends to emphasize physical quantifiable aspects of a human being over the more complex personal aspects that are better intuited than stored in databases for anonymous observation. That being said, it is funny to see my blog is rated PG, because it refers to “death” 6 times and “hurt” 1 time (on the front page at least).

If one rates the pages that come up under Nielsen’s Nook’s “Suffering and Grief” category, interestingly we go of the charts, receiving a NC-17 rating for the following words that appear on that page:

• pain (27x)
• death (18x)
• dead (4x)
• murder (2x)
• hell (1x)

This marketing gimmick is not able to discern between words and concepts, literal uses and figurative uses of words. No real surprises there. However, is it not at least worth stopping to consider the fact that most of us have the same aversion to suffering and grief “Don’t talk to me about ‘pain’ man!” We spend so many of our resources and so much of our lives seeking to ilk out a life less suffered. We like living in the matrix, as it were.

Then there is reality. Some will say, “You’re being morbid. We should not seek out suffering.” The former is false and the later statement is unnecessary, both being non sequitors. I am saying there is life in a world condemned in and corrupted by sin that is at the same time being renewed and reformed in the life of Christ. Sin has cosmic proportions as does the incarnate- crucified- resurrected- and- ascended Christ.

I am reading Justinian’s Flea, by William Rosen presently. In it he presents a rendition of the bubonic plague that hit Constantinople in 542 AD. He interacts with Michael Behe, an Intelligent Design (ID) advocate, though he himself takes an evolutionary approach. Behe argues that the flagellum, the rotary motor used by bacterium to propel themselves, is an irreducibly complex component that indicates it could not have evolved and must have been created. Rosen points out that the same proton pump used to propel the flagellum is used to pump the deadly endotoxins of Y. pestis, into its victims causing tortuous death. Rosen then admits that neither ID nor evolution have satisfying answers regarding why the Y. pestis bacterium is constituted this way. ID implicates God in evil in its irreducibly complex argument and evolution cannot explain why the bacterium would slaughter its host so rapidly that it extinguishes its own life.

We do have revelation; a point that neither ID nor evolutionary theory want to acknowledge. It does not give us pithy answers, but it does tell us of a Fall that had cosmic significance. This revelation, found in the bible, puts that awful consequence, squarely upon the shoulders of the human race and more profoundly in the context of a God who is bent at redeeming a world out of suffering and grief through taking that suffering and grief upon himself. While I would never in the least desire the plague on anyone for a moment, plagues come. They come like tidal waves and without warning. Some come through illness, others through oppressive circumstances. The good news and the real news of the gospel does give itself to hope in the midst of suffering that we see in the words of one who also suffered much, the Apostle Paul:

⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9, ESV)

Out of the brief second section of Osborne’s article on interpreting Paul there are nuggets of insights into Paul’s world. The letters of the Apostle Paul generally follow the traditional bounds of “Hellenistic letters”; however, Paul “felt less bound” to these structures, mixing several forms to accomplish his literary task.¹

Osborne incorporates nine types of Hellenistic letters into his catalog of letters with which Paul was likely familiar: ²

1. Letters of friendship (cf. 2 Cor 1:16; 5:3; Phil 1:7–8)
2. Family letters
3. Letters of praise and blame (1 Cor 11; Rev 2–3)
4. Exhortatory or paraenetic letters (1 Thess 1-5; the Pastorals)
5. Letters of mediation or recommendation (Phil 2:19-30, Philemon)
6. Juridical or forensic letters (1 Cor 9:3-12; 2 Cor 1:8-2:13)
7. Private or documentary letters
8. Official letters
9. Literary letters

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¹ Grant R. Osborne, “Hermeneutics/Interpreting Paul,” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 391.
² ibid.

We learned that humanity was created as the image of God, to be the likeness of God on this earth, living in fellowship with God (Genesis 1:26-27).� However, our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned and brought a great change to all who were born after them (Genesis 3, Romans 5:12-21).� Now we find that human beings, while retaining the image of God, are corrupted by sin – the unlikeness of God, and consequently live in enmity with God (i.e., they live in an againstness with God).� In Colossians 1:15-20 we learned that Christ was the image of God, in whom the fullness of God (i.e., likeness) was pleased to dwell, and through the blood of his cross made permanent peace with God for us.

We talked about how much there is that we accept as peace or that we strive after thinking it will bring us peace when in fact there is no peace to be found in these things.� We likened this to three kinds of peace that were witnessed during World War II.

First, the French sought to appease the Nazis by turning a blind eye to their aggression.� “If we don’t bother them then they won’t bother us.”� This kind of tolerance resulted in non-peace.� The German blitzkrieg rolled right over Paris.

The second kind of peace we considered was that of the Russians.� They made the case that Germany needed peace with them so that Germany would only have to fight on the western front and not fight the Russians in the east also.� They sought value in themselves and their possessions.� Once the western front was defeated, or at least sufficiently weak, the Nazi’s marched all the way to Moscow.� This was no peace either.

Finally, we reflected on the peace that was achieved by the allies.� This kind of peace was lasting and yet it was also extremely costly.� The Germans brought everything they had against the American forces landing at Normandy and were eventually crushed, driven back.� That death blow at Normandy has historically been called D-day (dooms day).� While this marked the functional victory of the allies, it was not until they finally reached Berlin and forced disarmament and the signing of a peace treaty that the functional peace of D-day became the official peace of V-day (victory day).

The Christian life is much like this.� Christ has come into the world, taking on the very same stuff out of which we are made.� As such he is the image of God, who is also an exact representation of God (Colossians 1:19, Hebrews 1:1-4, Matthew 14:8).� This exact representation or likeness to God meant that Jesus was without sin.� We are told in scriptures that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23, Genesis 2:16).� What we find with Jesus is that as a human being, he lived out the life of likeness to God that we all as the image of God were created to live.� Consequently, Jesus delivered the D-day blow, trampling down sin, death, Satan and hell.� Therefore, God raised him from the dead and all who are in him also are assured of that same resurrection-destination, to which he now leads us as our King in royal procession (V-day).� Indeed, “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

One thing that is exciting for me is that the biweekly publication of Park Cities Presbyterian Church published a 500 word article I wrote in October 14 edition of their This Week newsletter. This Week is read nationwide by approximately 2,200 people. For me the thing that differentiates this from just publishing it on my blog is that someone else had to read it and decide if it was worth publishing. Blogging of course has no such strictures. At any rate, here is the article for you and as you will notice it duplicates some of the materials you will have seen else where here. Thanks to Stephanie Barker and Terri Speicher for the privilege to write for PCPC.
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Christian the Yoke’s on You

When I was a boy, I received a coin inscribed with the words one dollar. While the words described something that was true about the coin, they didn’t tell the whole story. The coin was an 1883 silver dollar that is now worth about $50.

Scripture can be like this. In 2 Corinthians 6:14 we are told not be otherly yoked to unbelieving things. The word yoke is like the one dollar inscription on the coin I received. The word certainly tells us something, but the concept at hand is far weightier. This idea of being yoked runs throughout scripture.

Just as the value of my silver dollar grows over time, so the weightiness of the metaphor of being yoked increases through the course of God’s redemptive work in history. Where do you suppose we might find the metaphor of yoke first minted? Conceptually, we witness it in the Garden of Eden, where the serpent seduced Adam and Eve to throw off the blessed yoke of God from their necks, only to find that in its place the devil subtly slipped a silky noose. On the cross, Jesus broke the bars of this satanic yoke and restored us to union with God in Christ.

The Christian life is walking in Christ’s yoke, to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1) We walk in this yoke only by the steps of faith and repentance with the purpose of seeing the likeness of Christ formed in us. In this way we experience an exodus of sorts, walking from the land of slavery and sin to the purposed destination of promised rest in Christ. Just as God broke the bars of Israel’s slavish yoke, so God has liberated us by binding Himself to us.

We walk neither aimlessly nor alone; rather, God Almighty has­—in loving kindness—bound himself to us. Walking with us, He leads the way to everlasting rest. Is this not the language of Jesus’ imploring words in Matthew 11:29–30, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light”? The Christian life is walking with Christ in His unbreakable yoke of love.

By the time Paul gets his hands on the conceptual coinage of yoke, it has sharply increased in value and meaning from the mere idea of joining two animals. In His divinity, Christ has united us to God in His glory. In His humanity, Jesus has bound each member of His Church together in love and thanksgiving. Loving God and our neighbor is rarely easy. The wonder of our union with Christ is that He works in us now to grow us up, leading us that we might truly love in His likeness.