The Antithesis of The Centrality of War And Violence In Culture

I had to bite my tongue in class when the topic of war came up.

I find that my views on war and violence are often quite controversial. I suspect that it is because they are controversial, that people are not always willing to hear them. Furthermore, people seem to not like opinions which span more than one sentence. They like black and white views on life–I am a Democrat, I am a Calvinist, I am a Cessationalist, I am a capitalist etc. More often than not, people don’t have the patience or time to hear a full exposition of how my view of war has been formed and evolved through time to arrive at what I believe in this. With this in mind, I think with any opinion there is a time to voice them, and there is a time to be silent. I also think there are clear opinions on war, that are reflected in our society.

It is unfortunate, because I would argue that the evolution in the history of someone’s thought is immeasurably more interesting than the final opinion that one finally arrives at. John Piper in Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian talks about how his initial views on race were shaped and influenced by growing up in a conservative culture in the South. As he grew up, he began to realize and change how he saw the world in a profound manner.

The Status Quo  

Comprehending Short Term Missions

In many things, I have learnt not to be too caustic towards other people. I often adopt this tone when I really dislike something–under the guise of sarcasm, I make very disparaging remarks, and the lines between where I’m being serious and joking blur. Unfortunately people get offended easily, especially when something as sacred as the modern pilgrimage to overseas countries, is questioned. It is certainly something that is important as being born again for many Christians today.

A lot time has to be spent at the beginning of any conversation exerting that I was generalising. I wasn’t talking about all missions trips, and I wasn’t judging any specific one. It was a general trend that I’ve been assessing and thinking about, not any specific trip I was thinking about.

Pornography and Our Insufficiency In Discussions

In this post, I am mainly referencing this post by RELEVANT Magazine.

I tweeted a few days ago (a few weeks ago now) that the natural conclusion from a post from RELEVANT Magazine on pornography was to never have sex again because it could cause us to become addicted to dopamines. The post is centered around the idea of the brain producing dopamines when we are stimulated by various activities. In this particular post, Internet pornography was targeted as producing dopamines, and through repetition, we slowly are wired into a routine in our mind.

To break out of this routine is increasingly difficult, as the brain “learns” to act a certain way, causing compulsion and addiction.

Charles Spurgeon on Pride

An excerpt from a sermon delivered on August 17, 1856 by Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark on the topic of “Pride and Humility”. I find paraphrasing a useful exercise for me, so I have done some editing, removing “thy” and “thou”s from the text, as well as some liberty in the substitution of archaic words and phrases. Nevertheless:

“In the first place, pride is a groundless thing. It stands on the sands; or worse than that, it puts its foot on the billows which yield beneath its tread; or worse still, it stands on bubbles, which soon must burst beneath its feet. Of all things pride has the worst foothold; it has no solid rock on earth on which to place itself. We have reasons for almost everything, but we have no reasons for pride. 

The Transient World of the Aeroplane

There is a certain feeling of claustrophobia that sets in when sitting in a plane. 

Sitting in a plane at 2.30 am and knowing that there is another 8 hours of suspension in the air–typing on your smartphone to try and pass the time. There is a feeling that this is only a transitory world, and at that, a mind-numbing purgatory. Yet, the knowledge of this temporary existence reminds you of the depravity of the human body.

Next to you, is the solitary snorer on the plane, the problem is the only time he seems to snore is when you’re about to nod off and fall asleep. Behind you, there is the man who insists on playing Angry Birds on full volume–he can afford an iPad but not headphones apparently. With the symphonic cackle of birds and short-breathed groaning like the sound you make when repeatedly told your pet cat died, conspiring to cause me grief, frustration is becoming an appropriate word.

Moreover, there is a brooding helplessness knowing your brother is asleep next to you in the aisle seat. There is zero chance of escaping down to the toilet. I don’t even need to go to the toilet–it’s evidence of how much I worry perhaps. The fear of never being able to get out in the situation that I need to go to the toilet, even if only to vainly stare into the mirror for a few seconds. Feeling taken from all sides, in a seat that is too small for me, there is a sense of being trapped by adversity and this world is too small. Sitting in the plane, I feel very big in a small world.

The fear of my cramped feet terrifies me, it’s not so much that they are cramped–I slouch down to fit my feet neatly under the seat in front of me–but that if they were cramped. I’m not a claustrophobic person, but any person in a plane should seem to be prone to many fears not previously known coming to the surface of my conciousness. In the previous world, where we were on holiday–that is quickly forgotten as we take on our depraved state hoisted in the air–so quickly things change that nothing in the previous could have prepared us for. Helpless is the feeling when I spend too long thinking about the present–it seems to make us forget of the future where we would finally make it home.

Forgetting the destination, the existential longing for freedom begins to amount to a lot less. People become contented with walking down the aisle as their form of heaven, people think that a glass could contain all the waters of the world, and the food is from the banquet tables of kings. The thirst and the hunger become contented with crumbs and shadows of beauty and wonder. There is much frustration, but there is a hope that this world is only temporary. I feel that many people seem to want to embrace this world of flight with buying seats with more leg-room and seats that bend backwards flat, with greater choice in meals, with greater entertainment systems. Yet, I feel they are only strawmen as we approach in for landing in this new world.

Stepping off the plane the present worries are lost and the kingdom in the air is forgotten. In the scale of this world outside of this aircraft, the petty trials and temptations are lost–almost ridiculous in a way that they are quickly forgotten. We are home and rest is finally found. Heaven is this world we emerge into, the past will be forgotten, as we emerge into resplendent glory and infinite freedom in Christ.

“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” Psalms 27v.14

Shane Claiborne Post-9/11

I thought in the weeks following 9/11 this quote was especially relevant about the world we live in.

“I saw a banner hanging next to city hall in downtown Philadelphia that read, “Kill them all, and let God sort them out”.

A bumper sticker read, “God will judge evildoers, we just have to get them to him.”

I saw a T-shirts on a soldier that said, “US Air Force…we don’t die; we just go to hell to regroup.”

Others were less dramatic–red, white, and blue billboards saying,”God bless our troops.” “God bless America” became a marketing strategy. One store hung an ad in their window that said, “God bless America–one dollar burgers.” 

Patriotism was everywhere, including in our altars and church buildings. In the aftermath of September 11th, most Christian bookstores had a section with books on the event, calendars, devotionals, buttons, all decorated in the colors of America, draped in stars and stripes, and sprinkled with golden eagles.

This burst of nationlism reveals the deep longing we all have for community, a natural thrist for intimacy that liberals and progressive Christians would have done much better to acknowledge. September 11th shattered the self-sufficient, autonomous individual. and we saw a country of broken fragile people who longed for community–for people to cry with, be angry with, to suffer with. People did not want to alone in their sorrow, rage, fear.

But what happened after September 11th broke my heart. Conservative Christians rallied around the drums of war. Liberal Christians took to the streets. The cross was smothered by the flag and trampled under the feet of angry protesters. The church community was lost, so the many hungry seekers found community in the civic religion of American patriotism. People were hurting and crying out for healing, for salvation in the best sense of the word, as in the salve with which you would dress a wound. A people longing for a saviour placed their faith in the fragile hands of human logic and military strength which have always let us down. They have always fallen short of the glory of God.” [1]

[1] Page 198. Claiborne, Shane. The Irresistible Revolution. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.

Talking About The Cross

There seems to be two differing extremes when people talk about the cross.

There are some who speak nothing of the cross. Granted, it is something of an oxymoron to be a Christian and to say nothing about the cross. It is something of a misnomer to assign the title of Christian to someone not be totally constantly in awe of the cross.

Yet, some people exist that are of that disposition, entrenched in either emotionalism or knowledge-ism. A lot of them are so far entrenched in this cross-less Christianity because I believe that they have not experienced what true love and regeneration there is in the cross and how it impacts us daily. Through this ignorance, there is no growth, but further and further retreat away from Christ. The reality is, if really Jesus did die on the cross for the world, then surely we would be changed. Moreover, if Christ did rise again from the dead, this is surely a hope that one day we would all be rescued from the ultimate death.

Charles Spurgeon says of Christ:

The motto of all true servants of God must be, “We preach Christ; and him crucified.” A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour in it. No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching. [1]

We are preaching nothing if it is not of Christ. We are living for nothing, if it is not for Christ.

On the other hand, some people can totally over-emphasize it in a way that the cross is cheapened. I find that the idea of the cross is cheapened when people use it merely as a word, not as a invasive, weighty act that is concurrent with all of your life. People throw around the words “cross” and the “resurrection” with much too ease and care, that it loses its sharpness and offense after a time. Perhaps, it is intentional to not make the Gospel a less painful cross to bear, but it is avoiding the basic commands of Christ. Moreover, what comfort there is in the burdens we carry daily is lost, because we forget that Christ would carry his own cross to death. I think we can speak so much about the cross that we make it something taken lightly–there is a certain flippancy about the way some people would use the word, as if they were not addressing the Most High constantly with every word.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 (English Standard Version)

The song that comes to mind is one by a certain Jeremy Camp, where the chorus goes:

“Sing it out to let all the world know
That Jesus saves
Raise a shout to let all the world know
That Jesus saves” (youtube)

The lyrics are undeniably correct, but the song comes across as just repetitive–how, I think Bob DeWaay termed a “7-11″ song, with a chorus of eleven words repeated eleven times. Now that I think of it, the two extremes are somewhat two sides of the same coin. If the cross does not drive us to reverential awe everytime we are speaking of it, then we have failed in our understanding of it. The comprehension of the cross escapes me constantly as I try to contain how much love there is within this act that Jesus accomplished. It is that lack of knowledge of Jesus that leads to these two extremes. The failure to realise that He is neither a weightless Jesus, nor a weighty Jesus that our sins, His love could never cover. It says in Eccelesiates to us:

“Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” Ecclesiastes 5:2

I think there is some great truth in those words. People often ask, if we were to meet God today, “What question would we ask?”. I am not so sure if we would ever be able to stop being in awe to have time to take out our notebooks from our back pockets and ask questions about creation/evolution. How purely idiotic, I would imagine us to be, to be asking things that utterly pale in comparison to what worship the cross deserves.

I cannot imagine a life without the cross, and though the memory is constantly embedded within our souls, how we show this love is more embodied within what we would do, instead of what we would say. Our life with the cross is marked by the meaningfulness of our worship, not our frequency with which we would proclaim it. 

[1] Spurgeon, Charles. Exposition of Acts 13:13-49. 1904.

[2] I struggle with not pointing fingers at exactly who I’m talking about.

To Be Christian Is To Love Your Enemies

The Apostle John argues in his letter to Christians, that to love is the mark of a Christian.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1John 4v.7

In other words, essentially, the Spirit of God is a Spirit of love. The knowledge of God that is given to us when we are saved is essentially a knowledge of a loving God. All else would be in vain if we did not have the knowledge of the provision for sin through the love of a Saviour in us. Matthew Henry says that it is “love [that] oils the wheels of his affections”–and surely this is a sign of being born again: being compelled to love.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” 1John 4v.8

John then proceeds to explain what the application of this love is: in the image of Jesus. Jesus was God’s only Son, the manifestation of everything–there was no other son that God had left. What Jesus accomplished on this earth was that we would live through Him. What is love, if we do not continually relate it to Jesus? What life is there of the Christian, if we are not continually comparing ourselves against what standard Jesus set for us?

Too often, I think it is too simple to compare ourselves to other people and see how ‘good’ we are compared to them. I can look at the Pat Robertsons and Rick Warrens of this world and think I am better than them, superior in the faith perhaps, and that could be no further from the truth. I am continually needing grace when I see myself and how Jesus needed to die on the cross for all of my sin.

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4v.9-11 (English Standard Version)

In another reiteration from John to emphasize and expand his point, he describes specifically the work accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus. What John is describing is not a menial love, that cannot stretch far–but a love that goes till the death. That if we were to love with the love of God which has filled us, it should be a lot that sacrifices itself totally for one another.

The description that John gives a complexity beyond just loving those who deserve love, but those who do not deserve our love. The same applies to grace, that we not only are lavished with this unmerited favour, but we are so fallen beyond deserving or even seen as neutral before God. I like to think of it as a negative bank account balance, no bank would dare give us a loan. The reality is this: that we can only love, when we realise that we are loved undeservingly. We can only love if the love of God inhabits within us.

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I was in church the other day, and there was a man who was struggling with addictions. He described how it would go in cycles, he would stop for a time and then when he thought he was victorious, it would come back with a vengeance. There was a certain doubt and defeatism that had entered this man’s heart, that he couldn’t believe in himself to fight this any longer. In an open conversation, my pastor gave two points:

1. The Holy Spirit in our hearts is the only thing that can truly change us. Him, entering our hearts will undoubtedly change us and conform us into what God would want us to be like. Freedom from alcoholism, freedom from drug abuse, and even greater–from sin and the eternal bondage to these depraved things.

2. I can guarantee you that everyone in this church would die for you. We all believe in the Holy Spirit’s power, and His love toward us–I think I am safe in saying that everyone here loves you so much that they would do anything for you.

It’s a monumental statement from my pastor to proclaim that anyone would die for him. He certainly knew his own worthlessness better than anyone else in the church, therefore, better than anyone else in the church should he know of what a love there is in the Church. Where there is a worthless feeling, surely this should be matched with love–that there is a value assigned to us in Christ. To be afraid of love, is to be afraid of God and who He essentially is. I am certainly reminded of what Saint Francis of Assisi said many years ago:

“Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.”

I truly believe that to love others truly it demands everything of us, and this in turn, is a monumental task. I daily realise how far short I fail in this standard and where I don’t have enough faith, I doubt. What does love demand of you, and what ? Is your life different from before you knew Christ, are you loving more?

Why I Disagree With Depictions Of Jesus

I am uncomfortable with graven images of Jesus.

This was amplified when I saw someone post a photo of Jesus writing on a MacBook on facebook. My first thought is that it’s rather blasphemous, and disrespectful being posted a week after Easter had just occurred. Excusing the fact that Jesus would never operate on an overpriced wannabe-hipster creation , the image of Jesus depicted makes me uncomfortable. I’m not entirely convinced what exactly it is, but there is something in my gut that doesn’t feel right.

This is not a new debate, with the Byzantine church arguing about this exact thing, whether Christians should revere symbols in what was known as the Iconoclastic Controversy between the mid-8th century and the mid-9th century.  Where most believers tended to revere icons, but many political and religious leaders sought their destruction because of the veneration being a form of idolatry.

This disagreement resulted in the image of Christ commanded to be taken down in 726 by Byzantine Emperor Leo III from the Chalke gate of the imperial palace. However, it was restored after much debate during a council meeting in Nicaea in 787, with greater restrictions on how they were used. For example, they could not stand out unnecessarily, and had to be painted flat where no features which stood out.

From this controversy, we know that what was distinguished further by theologians was a distinction between proskynesis and latreia, that is the difference between veneration and reverence which was paid to religious figures, and adoration which was owed to God alone respectively.

Of course in the Old Testament there was the commandment to the Israelites that:

““You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Exodus 20:4 (English Standard Version)

The assertion here that worshipping God through images is forbidden, and the application that we see through Scripture was that the Israelites took this to mean: no images whatsoever as a subject of worship. In fact, the Amish still take this command extremely seriously, and so much so that they do not allow to have their photographs taken, in the extreme case that become an idol.

The principle behind this was that the tangible form of God is not a part of his nature, He is completely spirit. It is a manipulation of the truth to create a form from a formless God “because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Romans 1:25 (English Standard Version) The notion of a physical form is taken to comic extreme in the Apocrypha, with the Jeremiah in his letter musing that, “[Idols] do not notice when their faces have been blackened by the smoke of the temple. Bats, swallows, and birds alight on their bodies and heads; and so do cats. From this you will know that they are not gods; so do not fear them. (Letter of Jeremiah 20-22)

So, if we transfer this to a New Testament context, if Jesus is fully God, and a manifestation of God as a fully bodily man. How does that impact how we approach graven images?

If Jesus is physical, then should we react to a physical imitation of Him and what he has done? I see this in many a Catholic churches, with the stained glass giving stories and illustrating what is contained within the Scriptures. In many ways, I heard this aided the illiterate in the church in ages past, where people did not have the ability to read, and they could learn about the Gospel through these pictures. Then again, it could be argued as to who was the cause of the lack of reading and writing ability…*cough* Pope *cough*

How about when the physical medium becomes what is the subject of worship? For example, many people come to see the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo – and arguably, less have come to admire the stories that are embedded within these images, but more so the medium: the artistry.

Nevertheless, I think my argument for the abolition of iconography in the church is that our memory of Jesus is spiritual, not physical.

Recently we had an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was a big earthquake, and occuring a few month after a devastating earthquake a few months prior, this one brought greater destruction to already damaged buildings. Of a multitude of buildings damaged, the central cathedral was damaged in the quake – the main spire falling to the ground. Now, there was a lot of debate, one voice of whom was the loudest argued that the spire should be put up immediately and that it is a representation of the Christchurch people. This is true, there is no more iconic building in Christchurch than the Christ’s Cathedral. But the cathedral has two forms of memory: there is the brick and mortar that stands, and the spiritual memories. And therefore, what is history if it is not embodied within people, buildings themselves are only of secondary importance.

The other example is the World Trade Center destroyed by Al Qaeda. America did not die that day when the buildings fell, the hearts may have grown weaker but essentially our ideas and ideals of society still remain in their place. People have their own ideas of what the World Trade Centre meant to them, and no one can change those. Our heritage is kept within human hearts, and the legacy of Jesus carries on through the Holy Spirit and not through images.

Our knowledge is not embedded within what we can see in the images of Jesus, but they are only influences of what Jesus means to us. If our identity of Jesus is embedded beyond what is essentially an abstract representation of the person, they it has gone off the tracks. How effective the image of Jesus operating the Macbook is built into the correlation of goodness and the person of Jesus. This is where it falls, only one aspect of the person is displayed through this, if we are using images, then they must show the complete person. This is impossible through images, as they are merely 2dimensional representations.  There will never be an accurate means of representing Jesus in print, because humans are three-dimensional creatures, and Jesus more.

Limits to iconography and semiotics lead to a packaged idea of Jesus. What can fit within a page is never enough to describe a person as important as Jesus to the Christians. For this exact reason, I believe that God will never be embodied in an image, but He is indeed a living and alive today.

Living As A Christian In A Foreign Land

“I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered. That’s for the “radicals” who are “unbalanced” and who go “overboard.” Most of us want a balanced life that we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering”

Chan, Francis. Crazy Love. 66

I would add to this by saying that most people have never considered what Christ has to say completely because they have never seen anyone who has followed literally the words of Christ completely. Such is the state of Christianity that it has morphed into something so insular, as opposed to something that is fundamental so outgoing. The calling of the Christian is as an ambassador of Christ in this world–if the ambassadors only know fragments of the Kingdom they represent, then how are they to represent an infinite God? Finitely?

It is difficult to step out where no one has tread before. And here, I think that it is the neglect of history that has prevented us from stepping out far. In all the saints, you would find people that have walked the path that God has called and have excelled so through the Holy Spirit. All the same, you would find saints who have fallen away and been brought up to accomplish great works which God has predestined for them to do. It is encouraging for sure to read of the same Spirit of these dwelling inside of myself.

Sometimes I wonder why I am not something more. I have all these resources and have undeniably been blessed beyond measure in my life. I have nothing to be discontented about, I am attending college and do not lack money for my needs. Yet, why am I no richer in faith than any of the Christians before me? Why am I not poorer in Spirit than any of the saints that have walked this earth earlier?

I watch videos like this, and I wonder if that is all Christianity is to most people.

Take note that when I say American Christianity, I am referring to anywhere where Christ is not preached. New Zealand Christianity is in a worse place than American Christianity in a different kind of way. In fact, I don’t know any point in time in history where the church has not been filled with sinners that are liable to walk off from the straight and narrow path at any point in time. We can see many examples of these in history, and they are perhaps the more well-known Christians of history.

But I take comfort in the small stories of people that have been handed down through the ages as small exceptions that God has raised up to keep His church alive in times of oppression. I use the word oppression very loosely, how weak our faith is, to compare our present troubles to saints of ages past.

What Francis Chan says is right, looking at American Christianity I would conclude that we are a rotten lot. But look at Christ living a perfect life and ultimately dying on the cross and we see what Christianity truly is. Look at the what Holy Spirit has accomplished through the broken vessel of humanity and look at God orchestrating the wonderfulness of human existence–only then can we see what real New Testament Christianity looks like, not what we may not see in the church today.