Is There Such A Thing As Good Government?

**
I just realized that the Lord's first relation to the Roman government was as one who was being taxed. This past week was Holy Innocents Day which reminds us that the Lord's first relation to the reigning Jewish king was as one who was being hunted in order to be killed. Even as an infant the Lord was sought for taxation and sought for death by the respective governments under whose rule he lived. What a picture.

Isn't bureaucracy a wonderful thing. Those who know me well know of my long-standing disdain for bureaucrats. A distant relative to the modern bureaucrat was the Pharisee who forgot that the Sabbath existed for the benefit of man, not vice versa. Bureaucrats are continually guilty of forgetting that their coveted rules, regulations and policies exist to serve the interests of man. If their forms fail to make man's life better than they need to be reformed, disguarded or forgotten. Bureaucrats are easy marks for the temptation of a very boring idolatry.

I promise that I'll ramble my way around to a coherent point in a moment here.

Jesus embraced our fallenness in his Incarnation. He fully entered into our messy, inconvenient bureaucracy-laden world full of murderous, power-hungry kings and covetous, wasteful emperors. His presence caused the wise and the simple to join in worship. His rule will unite all of us confused, victimized, victimizing, grasping, mewling masses.

The Lord will return and will save us from all the Democrats and Repulicans, the Socialists and the Fascists, the Jihadists and the Dictators. All the wars, bureaucracies, taxes, oppressions and abuses will be done away. Peace and goodness will be the rule of the day. Welfare will be uneccesary for all will be well. Military men will be out of a job because of the Prince of Peace. Corruption in the courts will be no more in the light of eternal judgment and justice.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Lectionary Readings - Ps 145, Isaiah 9:2-7, Luke 2:1-20

Hack away.

Filed in Advent

Flyover - Part 2

**
I've just posted Part 2 of Flyover at Poboy Muse. Go read Part 1 iffin ya hain't already. The first few paragraphs of Part 2 are below so you can wet your whistle before you make the cyber-trek over there. This installment is more interesting than the first four paragraphs would lead one to believe.
**

The fly made a round through the shower, pausing at the soap, the waterproof radio and the loofa that one of the roommates had gotten as a present from an ex-girlfriend (or so he swore). Back in the hallway the fly discovered that only one of the two remaining doors were available for him to enter. The door on the left was slightly ajar. The door on the left was securely closed.

Had the fly been able to enter the door on the right he would have encountered the cleanest room in the apartment. The occupant's philosophy was that minimal stuff equals clean room. This twenty-something was not that much more orderly than the other one; he simply determined that his sleeping space would be neat by means of simplicity.

There were no bookshelves, magazines, food products, empty containers, or sports paraphernalia. There was a filing cabinet that was reasonably well organized with official paper, school stuff, and whatever else goes in a filing cabinet. There was a small table which housed a laptop, speakers, a lamp and an iPod sitting in its charger. A folding chair was pushed into place at the table.

A twin bed was pushed against the wall. When not in use, it was made. Next to the bed was a nightstand with a clock radio, a clamp on lamp, a mechanical pencil and two books: the Bible and a Grisham novel. Both of them helped him fall asleep.

Go read the rest.

The Woman, the Womb and the Word

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A good woman who attends on God hears a staggering message from an angel. She believes it and offers herself for the fulfillment of God’s word. She is forever blessed for her sacrifice. Her obedience is a pattern for us all.

A womb serves as the starting place for the Messiah’s first Advent (sort of). It is a safe place. It is a place of warm, quiet, nurturing darkness. It is just the kind of place for a God whose strength is made perfect in weakness.

A Word enters the world via that womb via that woman. That Word is the salvation of the world. That Word is good news for everyone who will hear it. That Word will recapitulate the entire sorry, violent, failing and sad history of mankind, from Adam through Israel. This impossible do-over will deliver us all from sin and death.

What good woman will hear the Gospel today and believe it? What woman can bear the scorn of obedience to God in an atmosphere of rights, self-actualization, liberation and choice? What woman could voluntarily limit herself to God?

Where will God find a womb through which children may be born who will live to the Father in the Son by the Holy Spirit? Where will there be wombs that are not up for grabs, battlegrounds for politics and ideology? Wombs should never be invaded by cold metal, bright lights and poisonous chemicals.

Where will we find the Word amidst all the words? The Word is true. Our words are so often false. The Word brings life. Our words deal death, promote and revel in it. The Word heals. Our words sting, wither, sicken and wound.

Our words are a cacophony. The Word brings clarity. Our words are muddled and confusing. The Word is decisive. Our words are simplistic despite their supposed sophistication. The Word comprehends all.

“ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.”

Lectionary Propers for Advent 4 - Psalm 89:1-30, Isaiah 9:2-7, St. Luke 2:1-20

Hack away.

Read Christmas Day 2005 - Stella and the Trinity

Filed in Advent

A Quiet Coming

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“Turn us again, thou God of hosts; show the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.”

Awaiting the arrival of a long-expected and eagerly anticipated visitor.

Sitting on the tarmac preparing for take-off.

Standing over an old grave longing for reunion with the recently deceased.

Is there any image that I can employ to salt your oats (if they need salting) or express the longing of your heart if your cry is “Come quickly, Lord Jesus?”

The mighty and the important and the notable will continue on in their mightiness and their importance and their notoriety. The voices will sound in the wilderness. Most people will be too busy, distracted or turned inward to hear the initial rumblings of the Spirit sounding from the Church.

The first Advent came quietly for most. It went largely unnoticed. The Jerusalem Post did not carry a story that day announcing the arrival of the Messiah.

Caesars, governors, judges and priests went about their routines, exercising the power of life and death, feared and strong. I don’t have much of a kingdom to rule over but I know self-importance.

I pray that we do not miss the voices that are speaking to us today. I hope that we are walking in the Spirit so that we might hear the word of the Lord. Can we be prepared for his coming amidst all the noise? It will require heroic repentance and unusual determination.

Unfortunately, I do not always live in eager anticipation of Christ’s coming, whether it be his daily approach or the eschaton. I get lost in the rush and rabble of (post)modern living. I let noise drown out holy silence. My gaze falls beneath the horizon. I get cross-eyed looking at stupid things.

Nevertheless, there are those times when I yearn for the coming of Christ. I grow exceedingly weary of this world. I get despondent when I consider the state of the Church and the world and my own soul. I groan for release. There is a place for us to live between despair and idolatry. The Spirit seeks to bring all of us into the joyful sorrow that is the sanctified life in a fallen world.

“O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.”

Lectionary Propers for Advent 4 - Psalm 80, Isaiah 40:1-11, St. Luke 3:1-17 (1st Set)

Hack away.

Read Advent 4 2005 - God's MC

Read Christmas Eve 2005 - The Powers That Be

Filed in Advent

Voices

**
An elderly priest and his barren wife are going to have a baby who will go before the Messiah to prepare Israel to receive him. The priest is unable to speak for the entire pregnancy as a judgment upon his unbelief at the angel's announcement. Nine months of silence. Nine months to consider the import of his wife's pregnancy. Nine months of self-examination and anticipation. Nine months to prepare for the preparer.

As Elisabeth birthed a prophet, so Zacharias emerged from his silence by bringing forth a prophecy that continues to occupy a prominent place in the Church's worship. The months of silence bore fruit as the old priest was filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaimed the visitation of the Lord God, promising salvationfrom every enemy. John's father made his first words count.

Then as now the Lord's people were sorely divided. The son of Zacharias and Elisabeth would be a galvanizing and polarizing figure. He would be the Voice who preceded the Word. As substantive as his life would be, from unlikely birth to early martyrdom, John the Baptist knew that his life would be primarily hidden. He would stand center stage for a brief moment, announce the arrival of God's Man and quickly exit stage left.

Then as now we need people who will prepare us for the coming of the Lord as we make our annual trek through the Church year. We need to hear the judgment of God against our sins. We need to be called to account for our omissions, our rebellions and our pecadillos, both perceived and unperceived. The echo of the Baptist's voice must be heard in our time, in every time.

If there are to be humble emulators of John the Baptist then there must be people who fear the Lord and will nurture such men. John was not born in a vacuum. He was not a self-made man. He was surrounded by the grace of God from conception to beheading. He was no rugged individualist but lived in and for Israel as a servant of God and his people. Somehow the Church that so clearly needs to hear the Voice must find a way to nurture the men who will speak truly.

Lectionary Propers for Advent 2 - Psalm 22:23-31, Ps 99, Jeremiah 1:4-10, 17-19, St. Luke 1:57-80 (1st Set)

Hack away.

Read Advent 3 2005 - John the Blues Singer

Filed in Advent

Related Tags: Advent, John the Baptist, Church, Prophesy, Salvation, Worship, Judgment

Flyover - Part 1

**
It's been a while since I had a new story over at Poboy Muse. I've just posted Part 1 of a 2-parter called Flyover. It's not really a short story. I don't know what it is. I know, I know, I should have been a salesman. The first few paragraphs are below so you can wet your whistle before you make the cyber-trek over there.
**

The fly had been trapped in the apartment since the middle of the night. It had made many discoveries over the last few hours by buzz, buzz, buzzing its way through each room. Don't ask me the fly's gender; I'm no insectologist. Though the apartment was small by human standards, it was enough to keep the fly more than occupied.

It got in through the air conditioning vent in the kitchen. There was some tomato sauce spilled on the counter from the Sunday night get together. No one had wiped it up, so the fly nibbled for a moment. No, I do not know whether "nibble" is the correct term for what a fly does when it eats. I do seem to remember Jeff Goldblum vomiting on his food before consuming it in the remake of "The Fly." Of course, that's kind of gross and you probably don't want to hear about man-flies vomiting on their victuals. So, whether or not flies actually do that is unknown to me. As with most things, I will trust that Hollywood has represented reality with perfect historical, scientific, religious and psychological accuracy.

Satiated, the fly buzzed around the kitchen table and landed amidst a conglomeration of magazines (ESPN, The Economist and Outdoors), greasy napkins, paper plates, used scratch paper and condiments. It walked over Dwayne Wade's face and defecated. It took off for a moment and alighted on a wrinkled piece of paper with a doodle of a barbershop quartet singing "Goodnight Ladies" with some additional racy lyrics. The fly took off, buzzed past a bottle of Texas Pete's Hot Sauce, and decided to check out the top of the fridge.

A skyline of cereal boxes, 12-packs and a misplaced copy of Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing met the fly's multi-faceted gaze. It landed on a box of Captain Crunch, cleaned some tomato sauce and feces off its legs, and took off again, unencumbered by feces and tomato sauce. What treasures might the living room hold?

Go read the rest.

Foes to the Left of Me, Foes to the Right of Me, Foes All Within Me, But I Ain't Got You

**
Last night I watched a few minutes of a lecture on Book TV by Richard Dawkins. The famed atheist was speaking at Randolph Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, VA. I think the lecture was from October. He was promoting his recent book, "The God Delusion."

There's another college in Lynchburg. Do you know what it is? Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. (The first time I typed the evangelist's name I accidentally wrote "Flawell." I think I tried three times to type it correctly before I got it right.)

Falwell has the best, collegiate debate team in the country, last I heard. Some of his young bucks and does showed up at the lecture and put it to Dawkins during the Q&A. The questions were not bad. The answers were not good. Nothing shocking. The Q&A ended up focusing on Dawkins's apologetic for students abandoning their parents' faith.

Some Christians see Jerry Falwell and his brand of faith as inimical to Christianity. I honestly do not know enough about him to confidently render an opinion. He is sometimes identified with an approach to Christianity that is overly-simplistic and truncated. There are certainly plenty of Christians who are guilty of amputating aspects of the faith and sewing on unseemly appendages.

Imagine a student at the Dawkins lecture. We'll call him Jonah. Maybe that student rode along with zealous friends from Liberty. The young man is away from home for the first time and has begun having questions about the faith of his parents. He is also wading in the waters of sexual sin for the first time with his new girlfriend, who happens to attend Randolph Macon.

The young lady from Randolph Macon is in the Women's Studies program. We'll call her Abby. Unlike her boyfriend from Liberty, she is moving towards the Church. She has never been particularly religious, but after almost a year and a half in college she has wearied of the hedonism around her. Something is drawing her to seek out Christians. She's bought a Bible and has been reading it. Jonah lent her a book by NT Wright called "Simply Christian." He had to read it in a class.

There are forces working against the best interests of both Abby and Jonah. Richard Dawkins is only one of many voices Abby is exposed to who are antagonistic to Christianity. Some of the faces attached to those voices smile. Some of them rail. Some of them appear to be in earnest.

Over at Liberty Jonah is chafing under the instruction he is receiving. He's heard it all a thousand times. He has questions that he is afraid to ask for fear of being zeroed in on by his friends on the debate team. He and Abby's roommate trade anecdotes from growing up in church. Jonah doesn't see himself as rebelling against God; he's not sure what exactly is going on with him.

Both Abby and Jonah are aware of something within them that resists all of their efforts to seek the Lord. Jonah has some religious terms for it. Abby's labels come from her psych classes. Neither of them feel like they are doing a good job diagnosing themselves.

The stories surrounding the Advent of Christ are full of humble heroes. They are people through whom the Lord was able to accomplish his work. The Lord has come and he will come again. Where are the heroes now who will hear the word of God and live the divine life before folks like Abby and Jonah?

I am going to continue my Advent penitence by examing the ways in which I fail to live as Christ's disciple before the world, both by my actions and my omissions. I will cry out to him to deliver me from the enemies I find on the inside. I will beseech him to come quickly that he might permanently vanquish all of our foes.

Lectionary Propers for Advent 2 - Psalm 25, Isaiah 52:1-10, St. Luke 1:26-56 (1st Set)

Hack away.

Read Advent 2 2005 - A Horror Movie and a Hero

Filed in Advent

Related Tags: Advent, Richard Dawkins, God Delusion, Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, Randolph Macon, Jesus Christ

The Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot and the "New Testament Church"

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When I was in college I bought into the idea that the Church had become apostate when it was embraced by the Roman Emporer Constantine. I believed that the vast majority of the Church after that time was Christian in name only. I believed that the faith had been preserved on the fringes by very small groups of people who stood boldly against the Roman Catholic Church. I believed that it was the duty of all true seekers of God to remain outside the apostate Church in witness against it.

To those people who are seeking to recover the "New Testament Church" it might be helpful if they were to clarify which New Testament Church they are seeking to recover? Colosse? Phillipi? Corinth? Rome?

There was no New Testament Church, per se. There were churches that existed during the time that the New Testament was being written. All of these churches had problems. Don't believe me? Go read the New Testament.

Corinth was a mess. The churches of Galatia were in danger of apostasy. There was infighting in Phillipi. Colosse was flirting with an odd form of legalism. Rome was kind of arrogant. Ephesus had left their first love. Do I need to go on?

The Essenes were a group of extremely pious Jews who lived during the time of Christ. The Essenes despaired of the corruption in Israel. They saw the Pharisees, Saducees and every other religious group as unclean. No one measured up to their standards, so they removed themselves from any interaction with them. They did not participate in the synagogues or Temple worship. They kept themselves pure as they waited for the Messiah's arrival.

Jesus never visited the Essenes. Neither did John the Baptist. They were left out there on their own: holy, separate and alone.

Let me be clear and say that Christians are called to pursue holiness. We are called to sanctification. God is committed to our theosis. The Holy Spirit is at work conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ, the Father's Beloved. We should never call a truce with sin in our lives. The Church should offer reconciliation to the penitent and discipline to the impenitent. I am not simply saying these things to assuage any nervous pietists who might be reading. I am committed to these truths.

To those who insist on taking their Bibles and reinventing Christianity in every generation, I say "good luck." You are like ancient Sisyphus. You'll roll that bolder up the hill, think you've got it done, and then get flattened by the work of your own hands as gravity overcomes your own strength. I hope you learn your lesson sooner rather than later. Sisyphus never did. He's still playing with himself.

What I am about to say is not meant to be a rhetorical strategy. It is not intended to belittle you. It is not my desire to slight your beliefs. I am in earnest here. I want you to listen to what I am about to say. Imagine that I have my hands on your shoulders and I am looking you square in the face.

Please do not labor under the misconception that you can recover the New Testament Church. People will never be pure enough to measure up to your standards of piety. The Bride who is pure, spotless and without wrinkle or blemish will only be fully realized in the Eschaton, that is, upon Christ's second advent.

I would hate for you to miss out on the reality of the Body of Christ, with all of its current sins, imperfections, self-inflicted wounds and tribulations. Your place is within that Church, not on some fool's errand questing for an ideal that God does not intend to create in the manner or timing that you imagine. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." But for God's sake and your own, do it in the context of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Hack away.

Filed in General

Related Tags: Church, New Testament, Essenes, Sanctification, Repentance, Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster

Ready or Not, Here I Come

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Silence can be frustrating. Some folks are determined to "get a word from God." They are under some delusion that what has already been made abundantly clear needs to be "confirmed" a thousand times over before they are convinced enough to believe and act.

Silence can be a sign of God's longsuffering. We are given time to "get right so that we don't get left." Advent is such a time.

I don't know how many people actually see Advent as a time of penitence. Of those who are aware of the penitential nature of the season, who knows how many enter into its spirit. My hope is that you and I can enter the silence with the Holy Trinity and the communion of the saints.

The Christmas season properly begins on December 25 and continues until Epiphany. That is the time for feasting. That is the time for rejoicing. That is the time for celebration. During Advent our attitude is to be one of preparation, self-examination, fasting, abstinence and repentance.

God is coming to meet with his people. For some of us that news brings joy. For others, trepidation. For most of us it is probably a mixture. We want God to be present with us, we're just not quite sure what he will say when he arrives. Advent is a time to lay aside those sins which produce such apprehensiveness about Christ's coming.

Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, was surprised by the angel's news that God would visit his people. We are surprised that God would judge people. We can believe that he will be with us; who whouldn't want to be with us? We are such wonderful and interesting people. We just can't believe that he would tell us that we are wrong. We will be struck dumb as Zacharias was, for we have offended against the Lord and his servants. We have doubted God’s veracity.

We have questioned the Lord's right to judge us, as if it were even possible to speak about God’s “right” to do a thing. Those of us who are committed to traditional Christianity would probably never vocalize such thoughts, but they are there nonetheless. Some time spent in silence will help expose our foolishness, as it does our sinfulness.

It is not too late for any of us. We are not fated to live as God's enemies. We are not locked into some kind of irrevocable self-destruction. We can meet the coming Lord with glad and clean hearts. He calls us to do so. The Lord rejoices in our salvation for "the glory of God is man fully alive."

"ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen."

Lectionary Propers for Advent 1 - Psalm 50, Malachi 3:1-6, 4:4-6, St. Luke 1:5-25 (1st Set)

Hack away.

Read Advent 1 2005 - A Neon Sign, a Megaphone and a Penitent Heart

Filed in Advent

Related Tags: Advent, Repentance, Confession, Prayer, Second Coming, Eschatology, Jesus Christ