Life

 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10: 10).

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body (Psalm 139: 13-16). 

Here’s your riddle of the day:  what do clocks and abortionists have in common, and what do they have to do with our theme of the year, “All things held in Christ?”  Ponder these two statistics.

(1) The small Greek island of Ikaria (pop. 9000) boasts the longest life-span per resident of almost any region on earth.  Researchers have spent time there analyzing why this is so, and two of their conclusions are very striking:  (1) hardly anyone pays attention to clocks on the island, and its residents are rarely rushed; (2) the social ethos on the island is one in which people feel free to drop in on each other unannounced at almost any time; there is a deep sense of community and relational support. 

(2) Abortion rates are very high in our world.  Why?  It’s a complex question, but Christian ethicist Stanley Hauerwas answers it simply:  in the western world we don’t have time for babies.  Babies are inefficient:  they cry at night, they poop at the worst times, they limit our freedom, they’re just plain inconvenient.  We’re too busy to raise them. 

Now combine these statistics:  an island where clocks are ignored boasts the world’s highest longevity; the western world is too busy to allow babies to be born. 

Is Redeemer pro-life?  If Hauerwas is right (and I think he is), then it’s not clear if we are pro-life at Redeemer.  We may say that we are pro-life, but our lifestyles and the harriedness in our hearts proclaim the deeper message that we have also bowed down at the altar of the western world’s idolatrous adulation of being too busy.  We’re too busy for devotions, too busy for deep conversations, too busy to weep with those who weep, too busy to attend chapel, too busy to truly LIVE the life that Jesus gives.  We don’t live a life in which all things are held together in Christ; instead, we live as if all things are held together by the clock, by deadlines, by to-do lists, by time pressures. 

To the extent that we live this way, we have accommodated to the idolatry that justifies abortion.  You see, the devil’s fundamental strategy with idolatry is that we reject it with our lips while embracing it with our lives.  That strategy gives him a double win:  (1) the Christian community embodies idolatry, and (2) we also embody hypocrisy because our words and our lives don’t match up.  As one who struggles with this, I need this prayer:

“Lord, forgive us as we bow before the throne of the clock, and grant us wisdom and discernment to tear down this idol so that the LIFE that Jesus gives may fill us more and more.  Thank you for those who model that kind of life for us.  Amen.”

P.S. One of the world’s wisest voices concerning abortion issues – Stephanie Gray from the Canadian Center for Bio-ethical Reform – will speak here Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 1:30 in room 220.  See http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/about/staff/5 for more. 

Public Spectacles and Peaceful Hearts

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together…For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Col. 1: 17, 20).
Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Col. 2: 15).

How much shame are you carrying?  What sorts of things add to the shame that lives within you?  You know – things like, “if they ever find out this about me…” or “why don’t I stick up for what is right when…” or “I’ve got to look like I’ve got it all together even though…”

Shame is universal:  each of us – professors, staff members, students – knows what shame tastes like.  Shame is also powerful, and it sucks grace right out of our lives.

So, ponder the connection between shame and the cross.

If you’ve heard so much about the cross that the word makes your eyes glaze over, remember this:  in the ancient Roman Empire, the authorities first made a public spectacle of offenders to shame them and then silenced them into the oblivion of the grave.  Thousands upon thousands died this way, never to be heard from again. 

Except for One.

The cross of Jesus did not silence him into oblivion, but rather became the throne from which he rules the entire universe.  On that cross, He made a public spectacle of all those powers and authorities, including that shame which so easily has power over us. 

How can a humiliating torture instrument become a triumphant throne?  The answer is actually quite simple:  divine purposes overrule human purposes.  Human authorities sought to shame Jesus on the way to the grave; he walked in perfect obedience to his Father, and so put those same authorities to shame.

He humbled himself and became obedient to death -- even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2: 8b-11)..

Our Lord chose to listen to his Father rather than the voices that sought to shame him.  He refused to give the shaming voices permission to touch Him. 

Whose voices are you listening to?  Try this one:  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16: 33). 

That voice wears the belt of Truth.  Give Him permission to fill you with his peace. 

In Him, All Things Hold Together

I once heard an address by the president of one of Canada’s largest universities in which he announced that the idea of the university must yield to the emerging reality of the “multi-versity”. The idea of a unifying ideal, underlying the notion of a “uni-versity”,  had essentially faded into oblivion.  No doubt he was being pragmatic and describing the way he saw institutional realities.  But to my mind he was surrendering to the fragmentation endemic to the spirit of our age.

Against this backdrop, our theme from Colossians rings with fresh relevancy. Is there a unifying core to reality? Is there indeed Truth that brings cohesion to all of the many and various truths we encounter?  Is there unity that underlies diversity?

At Redeemer, we affirm that there is. And that unifying core, that Logos that underlies things visible and invisible  (John 1, Hebrews 1), is not only personal, but it is a Person.  And in Him, all things hold together.

There is a wonderful tension to embrace, here:  the tension of unity without uniformity and diversity without fragmentation.  In Christ, we can celebrate both. We do not need to lose sight of one for the sake of the other.

As you observe the way you experience our culture, where do you see the dark side of the “Multi” as it is unhinged from the whole?  We, like our culture,  are fragmented, compartmentalized, broken, lacking  and in desperate need of wholeness. Isaiah describes this powerfully:  We, all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way (53: 6).

Isaiah is really describing the history of ancient Israel:  a cycle of integration and disintegration.  As God’s people drew close to Him, they experienced Shalom. Shalom has been whimsically defined as “Nothing Broken, Nothing Missing”. Shalom is not merely a peaceful feeling but the presence of God’s integrating Wholeness. As Israel would draw away from Him, they experienced dis-integration, fragmentation, brokenness, emptiness, lack, multi-faceted poverty.

As Christ followers, we know this Shalom, this peace, came at infinite cost.  Consider the words that preceded the previous quote: 

the punishment that brought us peace (Shalom) was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.  (Is 52:5b)

Last night I attended an International Celebration by Portico Church in Mississauga. It is a massive multi-racial, multi-cultural church that embraces some seventy-plus nationalities. Each nationality not only dressed in their native clothing, but they each served a feast of their national dishes. It was wonderful. As I sampled and watched, it struck me:  where else in all of the earth, but the Church of Jesus Christ,  would we see such a celebration of both unity and diversity?  What a taste of heaven!  It is only possible in Jesus. It models Jesus.  It is in Him that the celebration of diversity is possible with such a spirit of shalom.

So, connect the dots with me. Jesus makes people, institutions and societies whole.  At Redeemer, we need His integration at personal and institutional levels.  Yes, we may be jumbled inside and, yes, we have more than fifty-five Christian denominations at Redeemer, but there’s a much deeper reality.

It is, in fact, in Him that all things are held together.

Jesus, the Teacher of Teachers

Jesus sent out the twelve, with the following instructions, “…freely you have received, freely give”   (Matt. 10: 5, 8).

Last week Tuesday all the profs here at Redeemer got together for ninety minutes to ponder the question, “what do we learn about teaching from Jesus our teacher?”  As Redeemer’s faculty, we wanted to explore in very practical ways what our theme of the year – “All things held in Christ” – means for us when we walk into our classrooms. 

I wish every member of the Redeemer community could have listened in on the conversation.  Here are a few assorted quotes:

  “The subjects I teach fill me with wonder and humility due to the beauty and complexity

    of God’s creation, and I pray I can transmit just a little of that spirit to my students.”

  “Jesus was a teacher and a shepherd at the same time – he didn’t just teach people’s

   brains, he ministered to the whole person.  I long to do the same.”

  “Jesus taught with grace and truth, challenging people to continue growing in their faith

    by leading them to wrestle with difficult questions and allowing room for suffering and

    struggle.  That inspires and challenges me as a teacher who follows him.”

  “Jesus knew people, and he spoke differently to different people based on this knowing. 

   That’s hard for me because I have large classes, but I want to honour that goal as much

   as I can.”

  “Jesus offered himself as a gift of love.  I am called to do the same, and I begin by

    praying for my students.”

We professors also asked each other the question, “how might our students be called to model Christlikeness?”   The response that stuck with me went like this:  “At our Christian university our goal is not that our students go through their courses but that our courses go through our students.”  In other words, at Redeemer, we are grateful for students who are open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in the classroom. 

As a professor, I know that what I long to do and what I actually do in my classroom never match up perfectly.  That’s true for all of us:  students, staff, faculty.  But our longings are the deepest engine that drives our actions, and so I was very encouraged listening to the longings of my colleagues. 

All of us who follow Jesus have freely received from him, and have been sent out by him to freely give to others what we have received. 

I invite you to look for glimpses of the deepest longings that live in our community this week.  In what ways have others been giving to you?  How specifically do you long to give to others what you have received from him? 

And how does he hold together the tangled web of longings in your own heart?  Are there ways you can surrender more of that jumbled web to Him?