Invitations to the Feast: What?

In the last two weeks we have looked at why we should tell people the Good News about Jesus and how we should tell them. This week we get to what we should tell them.

The gospel can be as simple or as complex as needed, just like most things in life. If you want to explain atoms to kids or laypeople you can use the picture of a ball or clump of balls being orbited by other balls, rather like a planet with many moons or satellites. If you want to explain it to a physics major, you can go into the fact that the traditional picture is a very simplified image of the way atoms really are.

To get a really good look at our really big God and the different ways he relates to different situations, you need to read the whole Bible, preferably in the original languages, and then read Bible dictionaries, commentaries, theological works, etc. But not everyone can do that. And even if they did it would take a long time to do it and then digest it all. So when people want to become Christians, while we encourage them to start a lifelong habit of reading the Bible and other good Christian literature, we first just give them the basics. The church even took the traditional baptismal formula and expanded it into what is now know as the Apostles' Creed. It is a good summary of the essentials of the faith and we say it every time we baptize someone, as well as frequently throughout the year, alternating with the Nicene Creed which is really an expansion of the Apostles' Creed. We use catechisms to get deeper into the beliefs we build our lives around. But for starters, we can use something even simpler than the creed.

By the way if you wish to see how the apostles summarized the gospel read Acts 10: 34-43. It is Peter's speech to Cornelius and his family, the first Gentiles he ever evangelized. He talks of the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus went about doing good and healing, was crucified and rose from the dead. He will come to judge the living and the dead but those who trust him will be forgiven their sins. Bible scholars call this basic outline the kergyma, Greek for proclamation. You see variations of it throughout the book of Acts.

There are other ways to present these facts and we will discus them a little later but first let's look at the elements using the 5 W's you were taught in writing class: who, what, when, where, why and, for good measure, how.

Who is the subject of the good news? Jesus, of course. But who exactly is he? The early Christians, during times of persecution, came up with a secret sign to identify each other. It was the ichthus or what we call the Jesus fish. It was not an arbitrary symbol. Some clever person realized that the Greek word for fish could be used as an acronym for everything one needed to know about our Lord. Ichthus stands for Iesus Christos Theos 'Uios Sator, or in English, Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. The first letter of ichthus was the same as the first letter for the Greek form of Jesus. Not only is this his given name, it also means the person we call Lord is a real human being. No reputable historian denies that Jesus of Nazareth lived. He was a real man. What it means for us is that when we look at Jesus we see what a human being can be. He lived and died as one of us; he ate, got tired, got angry, slept, felt pain, was tempted but without sinning. He is the epitome of humanity.

The second letter stands for Christ, the Greek word for the Hebrew Messiah, the Anointed one. Christ is not Jesus' last name but his title. It means he is God's promised and anointed prophet, priest and king. He speaks for God; he acts for God; he is to be obeyed as God. Jesus is not merely a philosopher or a good teacher. As C.S. Lewis said, after all Jesus said about himself, he can only be one of 3 things. If he is wrong about himself, he either knew it was false and is therefore a liar. Or he didn't know he was wrong and so was deluded and a lunatic. Or he is right in what he said about himself and therefore is the Lord. There really aren't any other choices.

The 3^rd and 4^th letters stand for God's Son. As his son, Jesus shares God's nature, the way a person's offspring shares their DNA and is a human being and not a dog or a frog or a rhesus monkey. The Bible says that Jesus is the very image of his Father and so when we look at Jesus we see what God is like: just but merciful, loving and forgiving. As J.B. Phillips put it Jesus is the God who is beyond our ability to comprehend focused in terms we can understand, in time and space and human personality.

The last letter of the Greek acronym stands for Savior. He redeems us, literally, buys us back from slavery. He saves or rescues us. But from what?

What he rescues us from is evil, which can be defined as the misuse, abuse and neglect of the good gifts God gives us in creation. There is nothing in this world we have not turned against ourselves or others. We have used our God-given intelligence to makes weapons out of everything we have discovered: our muscles, rocks, sticks, metals, chemicals, germs, and nuclear materials. We have created civilization and used it to create dictatorships, war, slavery, prostitution, and exploitation. We have enormous inequality in the distribution of pay so that those who work the physically hardest and most hazardous and nastiest jobs get paid less. Except for professional athletes, who first have to risk their bodies for no money in school and college before we pay them large sums for short careers that are over just when other people's careers are hitting stride.

We do evil or sin by our thoughts, by our words and by our actions. Jesus says, in Mark 7:21-23, “...from within, out of people's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, promiscuity, envy, slander, arrogance and foolishness.” The evil conceived in our heads comes out in what we say and what we do. We even manage to sin by what we don't do, like not helping the hungry, the threadbare, the sick, the imprisoned, the person who is not like us in appearance or culture or status. The typical attitude toward God, at least when his way conflicts with our way, is “My will, not yours, Lord, be done!” Like rebellious children, we don't see God's will for us as loving but as telling us what to do and we would rather suffer the consequences of our bad choices than do what we don't want to do. This contrarian way of thinking, speaking and acting alienates us from God, which in turn alienates us from everything else he created: nature, other people, even ourselves.

This separation from God, the source of all goodness and life, causes spiritual illness. Sins are the symptoms of this spiritual and moral disease which can lead to spiritual death, the ultimate separation from God. That is what Jesus came to rescue us from.

When did Jesus do this? During his earthly life. He preached, that is, told us what the problem is with us and what the cure is: himself. And to show that he was right in his assessment and that he was what we need, he healed all who came to him and trusted in him from whatever illness enslaved them, be it physical, mental or spiritual. When an illness is really severe, a transplant can be the only thing which can saves the sick. And some transplants, like a heart, require the death of the donor. Such is the spiritual disease of the whole world, that the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, gave his life on the cross. (Crucifixion is, not coincidentally, a method of death that was the product of evil minds, who communicated that evil idea to other people who built it and evil leaders commanded that still other people act on this evil thought by nailing folks to it.)

Of course, Jesus could have been a liar caught in his own snare or a lunatic who didn't know he could die. But God raised him from the dead on the third day since his burial. This event vindicated Jesus and turned his followers from fugitives into witnesses to his mighty act of self-sacrifice and triumph over death. It was his resurrection that showed that Jesus was right about who he was and what he was sent to do. He was God doing for us what we could not do: live a human life perfectly in harmony with God's will and take on all the consequences of human evil. As Paul wrote in Colossians 1:19-20, “For God was pleased to have all his fulness 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.” In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us, to paraphrase 2 Corinthians 5:19.

Why would he do this and at such a high cost? Because he loves us, as John 3:16 says. Or as Romans 5:8 puts it, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” If you really love someone you would do anything you could to save them. The extent to which Jesus went to save us shows how much he and his Father love us.

How should we respond to this good news? How should you respond to anyone who offered to save your life? If it were your doctor and you trusted him, you would do what he said. You would undergo a heart transplant if the doctor said that was the only way to save you. You would put yourself in his hands. And if afterward he said to stop doing these things and start doing these other things, you would do what he said. That's all Jesus wants us to do: believe what he says and act like it. Respond to his love and faithfulness with love and faithfulness.

That is the gospel or good news in a nutshell. Notice I stated the problem—evil—and the solution—Jesus. You could tell the gospel as a story. Jesus often did. And he used common things and experiences to make the gospel more understandable. You'll see that I used medical metaphors to explain it. Use ones from your own background if you find appropriate examples. Or from the background of the person you are talking to. Which is the second part of successful communication: know your audience so you can tailor your message to their level of understanding. That's what we'll discuss next Wednesday. 

The Run-Up to John 3:16

Probably the one verse all America knows is John 3:16 and that's largely due to sports fans who hold up signs with the reference at televised events. I wonder how many folks actually look up the verse and how many of those who do check it out then go on to read it in context. Today's gospel (John 3:1-17) is almost the complete passage in which the verse occurs.

It starts with a stealth visit by Nicodemus, a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin, or Jewish council and supreme court. He comes by night because, we presume, having a heart to heart conversation with Jesus would be seen as a breaking of his vow as a Pharisee. To enter the chaburah or brotherhood of the Pharisees one had to vow in front of 3 witnesses that one would observe every detail of the written law found in the Torah as well as the Mishnah, the oral law codified by the scribes. Meeting with someone who had disrupted the temple as Jesus had just done would, at the very least, be frowned upon. Pharisee means “separated one.” The Pharisees set themselves apart from the ordinary world and from ordinary people by their observance of the law and all the regulations deduced from it. Jesus did not follow the law as closely as they would like.

Still it is a wonder that Nicodemus came to Jesus at all. And he obviously wants to discuss something with a person he regarded at this point as a prophet. Nicodemus says this because of the signs Jesus performs. But Jesus immediately moves the focus to the deeper matter of being born anew. I know our translation says born from above and that is one possible meaning of the Greek but based on Nicodemus' response, I think he perceived it as being born again. William Barclay, to whose Daily Study Bible I am indebted in researching this sermon, tries to capture both meanings by translating what Jesus says as “...unless a man is reborn from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Now Barclay has this interesting idea about Nicodemus' misunderstanding of being born anew. Perhaps he did get Jesus' meaning. After all, when a Gentile converted to Judaism, he was not only circumcised but baptized and treated as if he was a new and different person than he had been in his previous life. That was why John the Baptizer's ministry was so radical; he was baptizing not Gentiles but Jews as if they were just coming to Judaism. But perhaps Nicodemus was also skeptical, posits Barclay. He interprets Nicodemus' response as not crudely literal but almost wistful. “You talk about being born anew; you talk about this radical, fundamental change which is so necessary. I know that it is necessary; but in my experience it is impossible. There is nothing I would like more; but you might as well tell me, a full grown man, to enter my mother's womb and be born all over again.” And maybe Barclay is right. Perhaps Nicodemus would like to change but thought he was too old to start over, to start a new life. His hope was fighting despair.

But Jesus insists that such a change is possible; not by the will of mortals but by the will of God. And Barclay points out 4 closely interrelated Biblical ideas that go with being born anew or from above.

The first idea is, of course, rebirth, a new beginning. As Jesus says in Matthew 18:3, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul writes, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away and, behold, the new is here.” Being born from above is a new start to a new life, lived in and through Christ.

The second idea connected with being born anew is that of entering the kingdom of God. Jesus says no one can enter it except by being born anew. But what does this mean? Earthly kingdoms have borders; they are limited by geography and by treaty. God's kingdom does not, because it is not a place but a state of being. In the Lord's Prayer we say, “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That is Jewish parallelism, a poetic way of saying the same thing in 2 ways, the second time enlarging upon and explaining the first. We see it in the psalms, like verse 7 of today's psalm (121): “The Lord shall preserve you from evil; it is he who shall keep you safe.” So in his prayer Jesus is equating the kingdom of God with doing God's will in this life as perfectly as it is done in the very presence of God. Wherever people entirely follow God's will, there it can be said that God truly reigns. Being born anew makes us citizens of God's kingdom and wherever we are doing God's will, loving him and loving others, we are planting and expanding the reach of his kingdom.

The third idea that goes with being born from above is our being adopted as children of God. In Genesis 4:20, 21 it says, “Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of the nomadic herdsman. His brother was named Jubal; he was the father of all who play the lyre and the flute.” It's rather like when we call George Washington the father of our country and patriots the sons of liberty. Similarly, in the Bible, someone who not a literal child of someone else could still be called the son of that person if he followed in his footsteps. Thus in the Old Testament angels are sometimes called the sons of God. Sometimes the king of Israel is poetically called the son of God in the Psalms. In this vein Paul says, “...be imitators of God, as beloved children.” (Ephesians 5:1)

To be a Christian is to be adopted as a child of God. In Galatians 3:26 Paul writes, “...for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.” John 1:12 says, “But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name.” True faith naturally brings about a change in how one acts. Jesus himself says, “But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High.” (Luke 6:35) Like being a citizen of the kingdom, being a child of God means following God's will.

A fourth idea associated with being born anew is receiving eternal life. Which means more than life which never ends. Because eternity is outside time. Time is a creation of God who lives in eternity. So eternal life is God's life, which he shares with us. On the cross Jesus gave up his life so we could have eternal life. Through him we are born anew or from above into a different kind or quality of life—divine life.

In his discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus goes on to say, “I tell you the truth, unless a person is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The water, of course, is baptism, the washing away of our sins, the sacrament in which we are buried with Christ and raised to new life in him. And the Spirit is God's Holy Spirit, who anoints us and seals us as Christ's own when we are baptized. This is symbolized by the blessed oil with which we anoint the forehead of the baptized. The Greek word Christ as well as the Hebrew word Messiah mean, literally, “the Anointed One.” As members of the Body of Christ we are also anointed by the Spirit to do God's work. We are to be, as C.S. Lewis put it, “little Christs,” reflecting our Lord and Savior in our thoughts, words and deeds.

We are both physical and spiritual beings, operating in both realms. But the two are not separate but interpenetrate each other. The physical gives the spiritual form and the spiritual gives the physical meaning. Water symbolizes death and rebirth; and H2O ceases to be merely a combination of chemicals but is also made a channel of God's grace. Bread and wine make Christ's lifegiving death and our internal dependence on him concrete; the Eucharist turns the basics of a meal into a communion with the divine, the Body of Christ on earth sharing the Body and Blood of Christ, becoming one with God and with each other.

The person of the Trinity we have the hardest time understanding is the Spirit. Nicodemus is having trouble, too. So Jesus uses the fact that the same Greek word pneuma means both “spirit” and “wind.” Wind moves things. You can feel it but you can't see it. The Spirit works that way as well. The Spirit moves us. We feel him when he is at work though we do not always know where the energy and inspiration he gives us comes from. Bacteria, atoms, energy—lots of powerful things in the physical world are invisible to the naked eye. God's Spirit cannot be seen but the effect he has can.

When Nicodemus still doesn't get it, Jesus shows surprise that a Jewish leader does not understand. But then Jesus has come from heaven, the presence of God, so he is the one with direct experience. So he goes with a reference to the Torah, specifically Numbers 21:4-9, where the people of Israel were plagued by poisonous snakes with a fiery bite. God commands Moses to set up a bronze snake on a pole. The people are told that anyone bitten who looks at it recovers from the poison. Jesus draws an analogy to what will happen to him. He will be lifted up on a cross and those who look to his self-sacrifice with faith will be reborn into life eternal.

And that brings us to John 3:16. We have learned that at the heart of Jesus' mission is not just getting people to sign on with God's side. This is not a competition between good and evil. It is about God bringing spiritual rebirth to his creatures, making them his children, citizens of his kingdom, participants in his divine eternal life. But why is he doing this? Because God loves the world. He loves his creation and all his creatures. He pronounced them good when he created them. They have turned bad but he wants to make them good again, bring them back into harmony with his gracious will. And so he sends his unique son to rescue the perishing and bring them back to life, true life. He is not interested in condemning this world but in saving it.

And he is doing it one person at a time, touching and healing them, washing and anointing them, adopting and transforming them. He opens to them the realm of the Spirit that they might grow into their fullness as beings created in his image, more than mere animals, more substantial than angels. As Christ is both fully God and fully human, so we are to reflect the marriage of the earthly and the heavenly made perfect in him. We cannot take credit for it; it is all his doing. What we can do is humbly and thankfully work with him until not our will but his will be done and we see all things through his eyes, eyes that look with love upon this world and look forward to pronouncing it good once and for all.  

Invitations to the Feast: How?

Last week we looked at why we should tell people the gospel. We looked at both the practical reasons and the spiritual ones. And it's important when you embark on any task to understand why you are doing it. For instance if your spouse tells you to grab something for dinner, the way you go about it and what you get depends on whether it's for the whole family or just the two of you or if you have guests. If there are kids involved you will probably pick up things they will actually eat. If it's for the 2 of you, you might stop by a favorite restaurant or pizzeria and pick up something you both really like and don't get to eat often. If you are entertaining guests, you might kick things up a notch.

This week we are starting to get into the “how” of evangelism. And there are 2 important things to know when you want to communicate something: your message and your audience. But before we get to those I want to build on what we said last week and show how the “why” influences the ways we communicate.

You can only be effective at delivering a message if you are passionate about it. That's why in the days before cell phones when your teenager relayed a phone message to you, it tended to be incomplete or garbled. If the message was unimportant to them, they just jotted down a number and you were lucky if they remembered the name of the person who called or what it was about. 

Where do we find the passion we need to communicate  the gospel? For completeness, I mentioned several reasons “why” we should share the good news but the key reason is that we should do so out of concern for the spiritual welfare of others. That's even more important than the fact that Jesus commanded us to. When we pass on the gospel out of a sense of obligation, we will probably communicate that along with the message. And it won't elicit much of a response if the person thinks we are only telling them this because we are being made to do so.

We should share the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done for us out of compassion for those struggling through life without Jesus. Because that will dictate how we communicate it.

First and foremost, we should communicate it with our love. In John 13:35, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The mark of the Christian is love. One of the big reasons young people are leaving the church is that they don't see the ethic of love being carried out as it should. Would you take advice on weight loss, however well researched, from an obese doctor? Why should people believe what we say about love if there is little evidence of it in our lives?

So our second point is that we must proclaim the good news with our lives. St. Francis is supposed to have said, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” Wikiquotes lists this as disputed but a possible source of the idea is Rule 11 of the Franciscan order where it cites 1 John 3:18, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.” Or as the Good News translation puts it, “My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.” That idea is seconded by James when he says, “But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” (James 1:22) Later James writes, “Show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18b) He is not contradicting Paul or saying works save us. He is saying that true faith changes one's life and such a change will be evident in how one lives and what one does. Jesus himself says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

True love begets action or else it is the kind of daydream love adolescents have for the cool guy or hot girl in class, the one they can't bring themselves to talk to. If we really love others we will do things for them. What kinds of things? Jesus gives us a good list of things to begin with in Matthew 25: giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty; taking in strangers; giving clothes to those who need them; taking care of the sick; and visiting those in prison. James, Jesus' brother, adds the frequent Old Testament concern for helping widows and the fatherless. (James 1:27)

When 6 year old Caleb White first noticed a homeless man sleeping on the streets in Detroit, he began a project of making and taking sandwiches to the homeless. Now 11, Caleb has enlisted classmates to make presents of wrapped shoeboxes that contain not only food but a hat, gloves, toothpaste and toothbrush, soap and other necessities. This last Christmas he distributed 150 boxes as well as 100 winter coats sent by an apparel company in Boston which heard about his project. They were distributed through a charity called Feed My Sheep.

Here on Big Pine Key we have the food pantry. Located at the Methodist church, its volunteer base includes people from all denominations. It is a real demonstration of the fact that Jesus fed the hungry and those who follow him should, too.

There are also ministries that provide shelter for the homeless, that visit hospitals and nursing homes, and that bring God's word and love to jails and prisons. In Africa there are several ministries helping the many widows and orphans that are the result of war, AIDS, and slavery.

Here in the states I found a ministry called Mary's Comfort which works with those who have lost husbands and fathers in any way, whether death, desertion, divorce, war or imprisonment. The statistics they have gathered from the Census Bureau and the Department of Health and Human Services are staggering. The vast majority of the poor in this country are single mothers and their children. Of the 12.2 million single-parent families in this country, 10 million are headed by single mothers. Up to 15% of these are actual widows, women whose husbands died. The average age at which a woman is widowed is 52. 40% of the homeless are women and their children, the fastest growing segment of the homeless population. Considering how often the Bible talks of widows and orphans, I'm surprised there aren't more ministries like this in the US.

I hadn't heard of Mary's Comfort until I googled “ministries for widows and orphans.” I imagine most people have not heard of it. This is a major problem with the church. We do a lot of good but we are not as savvy as a lot of secular organizations in letting people know. When people think of Christians they tend to think of all the controversies that have made the news rather than all the ways in which Christians show the love of Christ for others every day.

So if we are going to tell other about God's love, we need to make sure that they see nothing in our lives that contradicts our message, or suggests that it is nothing but talk.

Finally, we must communicate the good news of God's grace and forgiveness through Christ with our lips. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” The statement assumes that people will be asking us about Jesus rather than us buttonholing folks in malls and on street corners. In fact, if you look in the Bible telling the gospel is usually done in answer to a question. In Acts 2, people are amazed by the disciples speaking in tongues and ask, “What does this mean?” In Acts 3, Peter responds to the obvious questions that were forming in the minds of the people who saw the lame man walking and leaping and praising God. In Acts 4, the Sanhedrin asks Peter, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” In Acts 7, Stephen is asked to defend himself against charges of blasphemy. In Acts 8, Philip sees the Ethiopian eunuch reading Isaiah, asked him if he understands what he is reading and the man answers with a question, “How can I unless someone guides me?” And so it goes. When they talk about the gospel, the apostles for the most part are responding to questions asked them about spiritual things. In fact, Jesus' own teachings are often given in response to questions from his opponents or his disciples or ordinary people.

Now it must be admitted that many times the questions are prompted by things Jesus or the apostles say or do. You may not have the gift of healing or speaking in tongues or other extraordinary things that draw people's attention or amazement. But you know what is extraordinary today? Taking time to help other people—taking a hungry person to a restaurant to eat or listening to someone in emotional distress or going out of your way to aid someone. And if that prompts a question, like “Why are you doing this?” or “Am I holding you up from something?” You can respond with an appropriate comment about how you are doing this because you are trying to follow Jesus. And if they ask to know more about Jesus what do you say? We will get to that next Wednesday.

Tempting Offers

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 and Matthew 4:1-11.

I'm going to offend some sportsfans right off the top. I really don't care who wins March Madness or the Olympics or the Superbowl or the World Series. They are ultimately irrelevant to my life and, generally speaking, to the life of the world. Take the World Series. Unlike the World Cup in soccer, the World Series doesn't actually include teams from all over the earth and I'm sure that there are people in South America, Africa, the Middle and Far East who would think the name not merely inaccurate but arrogant. Still, it just doesn't interest me. It's merely people playing games. I'm glad their fans enjoy it. I hope the players are enjoying it. But when people anywhere riot or get into fights over who wins a game, I am puzzled. Why do people get so worked up about a game with arbitrary rules played in many cases by people who get paid more than the President and who are just as likely to move to any team that will pay them more and whose scores will soon be old news? Are people's everyday lives actually affected by the wins or losses? Where is their sense of perspective?

Sports and games are as old as humanity, though. We love to pick sides and root for our team. And often our team preference is a matter of happenstance, depending largely on where we grew up or presently live. The people of Chicago are loyal to the Cubs despite the fact that the team hasn't won a World series in more than a century.

Unfortunately, some people think that theology works the same way. That is, that religions are essentially teams and that the rules they play by are just as arbitrary as the rules for human games. So they feel that penalizing anyone for picking the wrong team makes as much sense as inflicting physical punishment on fans for picking the Denver Broncos over the St. Louis Rams. Aren't they all basically the same?

While it's true that religions overlap a lot when it comes to social ethics—establishing justice and encouraging unity, for instance—they really see the world in very different ways and that affects how they teach you to live. Buddhists don't generally believe in a god. They believe that they should follow the 8-fold path in order to ascend to Nirvana, which is literally the snuffing out of the flame of life and therefore ending the dreadful cycle of death and rebirth into this world of suffering. Hindus believe in a rigid caste system with no upward mobility in this life as well as in millions of gods. One is Kali, the goddess of death, destruction and disease. Her devotees, the Thugs, were robbers who saw their murder victims as sacrifices for her. The Sikhs see themselves as soldier-saints. The Amish are complete pacifists, eschewing all violence and use of force. Saying all religions are alike is like saying all political philosophies are alike and therefore it doesn't matter if you believe in Nazism or in democracy. Unlike sports, the differences in religions matter. Their ideas of morality, what is good and what is evil and why, matter.

The Bible says that God is love. That is, that God is literally a love relationship, the Father loving the Son loving the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, a unity of love so strong that the 3 divine persons are one God. We were created in God's image and in order that we might love him back we were created, not as pre-programed robots, but with free will and the ability to choose. We have misused the gifts God has given us, made bad choices and have turned the paradise God has given us into hell on earth. We have chosen to murder, to steal, to rape, to torture, to deceive, to take away other people's freedom, to worship men or money or might or popularity or elements of creation rather than our creator. God didn't create evil; we did by making non-loving and often intentionally harmful choices. And the consequences of those choices ruin our relationships—with God, with other people, with the rest of creation and even with ourselves. So why do we make bad choices? Genesis and Matthew give us perfect paradigms of the temptation process.

It all begins with doubting God's goodness or wisdom. The serpent, the voice of temptation in Genesis 3, first makes an exaggerated assumption. “Did God say 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?” Obviously this would be an outrageously bad decision by God, leaving the man and the woman malnourished, if not starving. The woman contradicts this but the seed of doubt is planted. And often temptation begins with thinking that God is unreasonable and his rules arbitrary. That's because we don't always see the reasons for God's rules. In a similar way, a toddler doesn't understand why Mom won't let him climb up the bookcase or drink from the bottles of brightly colored fluids under the sink or open the front gate and go exploring the neighborhood on his own. From his point of view she is just being mean. He can't see that though the rules displease him, the reason for them is love.

The woman then misstates God's rule, expanding it. She says they can't even touch the forbidden fruit. And when we face a rule we disagree with, it usually begins to loom larger in our eyes. It seems to become bigger, more grotesque, more of a hindrance to our lives than it really is. Every parent is familiar with how the biggest arguments with children or teens seem to revolve around the smallest things. If they can't get a specific toy or electronic gadget, they act as if they are being deprived of all the necessities of life. If they can't wear a particular fashion item, they act as if they are being condemned to be treated as a pariah. If they are forced to miss a special event because they didn't do their homework, they act as if they are being persecuted to the point of martyrdom. They act like it is the end of the world. Deny us humans what we desire and it becomes not the most important thing in our life but the only thing in our life.

Next the woman is told “You will not die!” From doubt and an exaggeration of the size of the prohibition, we go to a flat-out contradiction of what God says. God is not just unfair but wrong. Or lying to us. The woman is being tempted to distrust God. And we often do that when we want to surrender to a temptation. “Oh, it won't hurt to do it just this once.” And then we take two steps into the minefield, see that we haven't blown up yet and figure it's safe to do handsprings.

On Cracked.com a recovering heroin addict said that the most insidious thing about the drug is that it doesn't addict you immediately. He and his girlfriend started by taking it occasionally and without suffering any scary side-effects. Their descent into fullblown addiction was so gradual they didn't realize it until it was too late. Had it powerfully taken hold of them from the very beginning, it would have alarmed them and they would have fought it immediately.

So the voice of temptation tells the woman that, despite what God said, nothing bad will happen to her. In fact, the reason for the prohibition is that God is insecure about his position. “...God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” A lot of kids start drinking because all the cool kids do. Their parents are against it because they are hypocrites. Or kids smoke because they think it will make them look more grownup. Their parents are treating them like babies. The kids can make up their own minds. They're not stupid.

We disregard God's rules because we either think he is keeping good things from us or we think he is just plain wrong. We know better than God. We can handle this. We are not stupid. Thinking we are wiser than God or ascribing ignoble motives to him are good ways to end up doing stupid things. It's like when someone ignores a Warning Sign on a piece of machinery or on a piece of property. It's like ignoring the Mythbusters when they say, “Do not try this at home.” There is usually a very good reason. It is often a matter of safety. There's a reason why hair dryers have stickers that tell you not to use them in the shower. Because someone probably has and tried to sue the manufacturers for not making explicit what common sense should have told them.

Finally the woman takes a good look at the tree and the fruit and since everything looks fine (and the fruit is a shortcut to great wisdom) she gives in. One wonders how often people's last words were, “Looks OK to me.” If you are not an expert, don't go picking wild mushrooms for dinner. If you are not a construction worker, don't go climbing around building sites. If you don't know the person who sent you the email, don't click on it. People trying to deceive you know that we are drawn to what is attractive. Looks are often the least reliable indicator of whether something is safe to do or ingest or mess with. 

And be especially skeptical when an offer sounds too good to be true. Take this pill and lose weight without dieting or exercising. Don't think so. Answer this email from a bank official in Nigeria and you will be millions of dollars richer. No way. Take a bite of forbidden fruit and you will instantly be as wise as God. Really?

C.S. Lewis pointed out that the last thing someone tempting you wants you to do is think about it clearly. Temptations rarely appeal to reason; they go for the gut, for our feelings and desires. They appeal to our lust or greed or envy or laziness or anger or fear or hunger or pride. They may be presented as the smart thing to do but there is always a flaw in the reasoning. Don't ask if it's the latest thing or if it's popular or if it's what all the smart people are doing. Ask is it true or false? Is it right or wrong? Is it loving or harmful?

Basically we see in Genesis the fundamental problem with humans. God gives them the run of his whole paradise, asks them not to do one thing and they can't stay away from it. It's like when you tell a kid he can play with every toy in the room; just don't touch that one. He ignores all the other great stuff and makes a beeline for the one forbidden object. Humanity never changes. We are rarely swayed by the thought that “I could do that but I really shouldn't.” We just can't say no to ourselves.

We are told in Hebrews that Jesus was tempted in all things as we were but without falling into sin. When we look at Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, though, it doesn't look very tempting to us. I would not be tempted to jump off a building. So we need to look beneath the surface of the temptations he is facing to see what is really at stake.

The temptation to turn rocks into bread is obvious when applied to Jesus. He's been fasting for weeks. He's hungry. And he is the son of the same God who gave Moses and the Israelites manna in the wilderness and water from a rock. It should be easy for him to satisfy his hunger. The temptation seems to be, on the surface, about him misusing his power for his own benefit. It might also be about becoming a material messiah, feeding the poor to get them to follow him. We see later that when he feeds the 5000 they try to force him to be their king. What he tells them then is in line with what Jesus tells his adversary here. “Man does not live by bread alone...” and as the quote from Deuteronomy goes on to say, “...but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

Humans are more than mere animals. We are spiritual beings as well. Jesus did not come to fill our bellies but our hungry souls. These days people don't starve because the world doesn't produce enough food but because it is not getting to them, often for reasons of politics and corruption. If enough people did hear God's words and put them to work, we would make sure no one was physically hungry. It's not that feeding everyone is impossible; just difficult. Which we often confuse with the impossible. When we see a starving child, we should not ask, “Why, God, why?” but “Why, man, why?”

Doctors discovered that Romanian orphanages had high infant mortality rates. And it wasn't because the babies weren't receiving food or good physical care. It was because the staff was too busy to do anything more. The children were not being cuddled or cooed over or loved. Most died from failure to thrive. Those that survived suffered from severe emotional problems. They needed more than just their material needs met. 

It is interesting that suicide rates are highest not in poor countries but in wealthy countries where people's physical needs are met but their religious ones are not. Japan, South Korea, Hungary, and Belgium are in the top 20 countries with the highest suicide rates. They are also in the top 20 least religious countries. China is both the least religious country in the world, according to Gallup, with 75% of the world's atheists and it has the world's 6^th highest suicide rate. Is this because mankind does not live by bread alone?

So the first temptation is to expend our energy on something other than what we really need: God. Without him, most people find life not worth living. Jesus did not go into the wilderness to feast but to fast and hear what God was saying to him about his upcoming mission. Jesus will not compromise his relationship with God over food, in sharp contrast to what Eve does.

Next Jesus is tempted to jump from the pinnacle of the temple and be caught by the angels. Again this would not be a temptation for me. But for Jesus this would be a spectacular demonstration of his divine power and a great way to start off his mission. His adversary even quotes the Psalms to back up his suggestion. As Shakespeare said, the devil can cite scripture for his purpose. But Jesus has a counter quote: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Jesus did not treat God as his special effects team but as his Father and Lord. He didn't try to paint God into a corner or demand stuff from him as proof of his support. Jesus' mission was about substance, not flash. His miracles serve his mission, showing God's love through healing minds and bodies, feeding the hungry, saving the disciples from a storm at sea, and restoring the dead to their grieving families. He used his powers to help others, not to hype himself.

We have all heard of people doing foolish and reckless things as a show of their faith in God. Pat Robertson said God had told him the outcome of the 2012 election. He was as wrong then as when he predicted Armageddon would happen in 1982. At best that kind of stuff makes him a laughingstock; at worst it damages the faith of some Christians. Recently preacher Jamie Coots, star of the reality show “Snake Salvation,” died from a snake bite received during one of his worship services. Even if we were to accept the verses in the longer version of Mark 16, on which this practice is based, there is nothing there that commands people to pick up snakes and handle them. But I bet it is a lot more exciting than a sermon which explains that these verses are not found in the oldest and most reliable biblical manuscripts or that Jesus refused to do miracles just to prove himself.

We face this temptation every time we speak for God on matters that are not found or well-grounded in scripture. Or when we tell God what we think he should do, instead of following Jesus and what he said we should do. We should always know the context and general thrust of any passage we quote. Way too much damage has been caused by people erecting whole rickety theological structures on a few overburdened and misused verses. There are lots of bright and shiny notions about God that look and sound good but are just not true. We need to go beyond superficial appearances and attractive lies, in contrast to what Eve did.

Finally the tempter makes a blatant bid to get Jesus to worship him as a quick way to make the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Hey, it would speed things up and there would be no need for anybody to get crucified. Jesus again quotes scripture: "Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”

We face this temptation whenever we feel we must have something “no matter what it takes.” Or whenever a leader says something must be achieved “at all costs.” Or when we endorse the idea that “Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing.” We may not see it for what it is but we are essentially selling our soul to the devil when we say that the end is so noble that it justifies the means, however unethical. What Eve desired, to be like God, was such a good and desirable thing she was willing to disobey God to achieve it. We see this at work when people cheat to win elections or lie to win an argument, or when they use fear or hate to persuade people to adopt their position. We are not to fight evil with evil but as Paul says in Romans 12, we are to overcome evil with good.

The right thing to do is not always the easy thing to do and that is why we find ourselves tempted. We begin to doubt God's goodness or wisdom or fairness. We stop trusting him. We get caught up in appearances and muddy thinking. We neglect the spiritual for the physical. We figure it won't hurt to break the rules this once, especially when the goal is so noble. And surely God won't let us get into any real trouble if our intentions are good.

There are real moral dilemmas out there, where two values seem to be at odds, like when pursuing justice threatens to disrupt the peace or when seeking peace seems to mean not giving everyone full justice. Those are times when making the right choices are really hard. But a lot of time what we think are tough moral choices are simply situations in which what we want is wrong and we want to somehow make it right. We want to justify it. We need to trust that God is wise and that his rules are expressions of his love. 

And we need to trust him to help us fight temptation. In 1Corinthians 10:13 Paul writes, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your strength but with the temptation will provide you a way of escape so that you are able to endure it.” Ways to escape include honest prayer, an appropriate verse or passage of scripture, a helpful distraction, a call to a friend who will help you, or an opportunity to literally leave the site of the temptation. Musician Bobby McFerrin uses song. I hadn't heard that one before but singing a rousing and meaningful hymn or inspirational song might be enough to break the spell which temptations seem to exude telling you that you will inevitably succumb to them. Remember that God's Holy Spirit is in you, the Spirit that empowered Jesus as he faced down every temptation life could throw at him.

And remember that the last temptation is the temptation to despair, to think that you will never be able to conquer your temptations and that God will give up on you for falling and failing. Nothing could be further from the truth. As it says in 1 John, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God forgives all who repent. Just admit your sin, get up and start again to follow Jesus. By his death he freed us from the penalty for sin. Through living in his Spirit, we are gradually being freed from the power of sin. When we enter his Kingdom, we will be freed from the presence of sin. For we will be with him and we will be like him forever.

Invitations to the Feast: Why?

I'm not a sports fan so correct me if I'm wrong but it seems to me that there are more hours of TV time devoted to the run up to the Superbowl than to the game itself. I know for a fact that the rehearsal time preceding a school or community theatre play is a lot longer than the amount of performances you give. Movie preproduction can go on for years before shooting begins. The actual filming may take as little as a month or 2. To do something special takes a lot of preparation. Which brings us to Lent.

The special event Lent prepares us for is Good Friday through Easter. In those 3 days, Jesus gave his life to redeem the world, was laid in the grave and then rose from the dead. That is so unprecedented, so pivotal to his plan to save the world, such an amazing demonstration of the extent of his divine love that simply taking a mere week to prepare seems inadequate. So, echoing Moses' 40 days receiving the law from God and Jesus' 40 days being tempted in the wilderness, we spend 40 days thinking about what Jesus did for us and what our moral and spiritual response ought to be.

There are a lot of traditional spiritual disciplines that are urged upon Christians during Lent: self-examination and repentance, for instance. Lent is a good time to take stock of who and what you are and what direction you are going in. And if you need to change that direction, this is a good time to turn things around, the literal meaning of “repent” in Hebrew.

During this time, it is traditional to give something up. Since Jesus fasted during that 40 days, people often give up certain foods. In the Eastern Orthodox churches, Christians are supposed to give up all meat, provided this doesn't endanger one's health. In the West, people give up trivial stuff usually—chocolate or snacks or the like. A recent trend has been to give up electronic distractions, like Facebook or Twitter, which probably is good for one's mental well-being and frees up one to do a lot more with one's time.

Besides self-denial and fasting, Lent is traditionally a time to take on or increase the time devoted to a spiritual practice, like prayer, and reading the Bible. (By the way if you read 1 chapter a day of Mark, the first gospel to be written, and after you've finished that book, 1 chapter a day of John, the last gospel written, that will take up 40 days.)

There is one key practice, though, commanded us by Jesus himself, that I don't see urged upon Christians at Lent, and that is evangelism. Before he ascended, Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” The Baptists didn't dream evangelism up. Jesus told us to do it!

This raises questions, which will we deal with throughout Lent. But today I want to start with what I think should always be the first question: why? People ask: why foist our opinions about God and how to live on others? We live in a pluralistic society. Why bother people?

Before I answer that question, I want to look at some of the underlying assumptions that phrasing of the question reveals.

First, there is the assumption that Christians are alone among putting their beliefs out there. That is patently not true. Political parties are not shy about putting their opinions out there. People who are pro-abortion or pro-life are not hesitant to assert their opinions. Pro- and anti-gun control advocates are hardly reticent about their positions. People who are for better nutrition or against child abuse or against domestic abuse or against animal abuse or for clean water or for freedom of speech or a number of other important issues will not remain silent. If we really believe that following Jesus is not merely important but essential for one's spiritual health and healing as well as for the good of society, why are we not at least as outspoken as these other people?

Because we don't want to be obnoxious. Which is a good point but that really speaks to how we do evangelism. As a nurse, I've seen what smoking can do to a person—how it can cause cancer, emphysema, heart disease and other life-threatening diseases. But will harassing every smoker I see be very effective in changing their minds? I doubt it. That doesn't mean I shouldn't ask compassionate questions about how smoking is affecting a friend when he or she coughs and hacks his way through his smoke break. That doesn't mean I shouldn't pass on information about smoking cessation programs when an acquaintance mentions they really ought to stop smoking. That doesn't mean I shouldn't be alert for situations in which it is natural to discuss it such as when someone is pregnant or concerned about their child's asthma or when they see someone else's health deteriorate due to the habit.

The other assumption I want to address is the idea that we are merely foisting our personal opinions on others. That should be avoided, obviously, unless someone asks our opinion. But just as saying smoking is bad for you is not an opinion but a fact, so asserting that loving others and being grateful and having a purpose in life and having a strong faith in God and belonging to a loving community are good for us are not just opinions but scientific facts. Yes, there is plenty of research showing these things are beneficial for both our mental and our physical health. People who do these things and have these attitudes tend to live longer, get sick less, heal faster, have lower blood pressure, and are happier. In one eyeopening study, it was found that even among smokers, those who attend church regularly are healthier than those who don't! That's the impact of the spiritual on the physical.

This puts a whole other light on the matter. By spreading the word we are offering people something helpful and healthy. And of course if we really believe Jesus this is something that will not only help them in this life. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In today's pluralistic society, that is usually labeled as exclusive. And it would be if it in fact meant that out of all the perfectly good and basically interchangable groups of believers, only our little club will get to heaven. But this is no more exclusive than saying if you want to get better you need to go to the doctor and you ought to make it the right doctor for your condition. If Jesus is God and we were created through him, and if we are spiritually sick, then saying people need to go to him to get fixed up is no more discriminatory than saying if you broke your custom-made prosthetic leg, you need to take it back to the person who made it. And if our problem is that we are estranged from God because of what we have done, it is not discriminatory to say that we must go to him to get reconciled. Only if Jesus is not who he said he was but just another thinker, and one who was drastically wrong about his central role in the universe, can we disregard what he said about being the only person to go to in order to be saved and to be reunited to God.

So the moral reasons to tell others about Jesus are because (1) we should be concerned for the spiritual well-being of others and (2) because Jesus told us to. I know we don't like to do things just because we are told to but we are talking the Son of God here. If your boss told you to do something you would, especially if he wanted you to tell others that he is here to help them. And that is ultimately what we are telling others. That Jesus is here to help. If they don't want help or don't think they need help, we are not under an obligation to force them to accept help. We are not talking about the Crusades here. We are not making conversions at swordpoint. Nobody is being shanghaied. We are simply telling people that Jesus has helped us and will help them if they'd like, the way you would recommend a good doctor or good car mechanic.

Ah, but what's in it for you, some people might ask. And it's true that there are practical outcomes from our church growing. Our church, like 2/3s of the churches in the country, has less than 100 people. With more people we could do more ministries, like, say, for kids. As it is everyone who is active in this church is wearing more than one hat. It would be nice to have more heads to distribute the hats to. If we had more people we could have more impact on this community. I love Big Pine Key but we don't have much here for the needs of the people in this community. It would be nice to do something for our neighbors like the Food Pantry at the Methodist Church. If we had more hands we could make a bigger difference in the lives of our friends and fellow citizens.

Another thing more people could contribute to our church is money. Ah, there's the ulterior motive, people might say. Religion always comes down to money, they say. But you might as well say that about Wesley House or AIDS Help or the Domestic Abuse Shelter or Heron/Peacock Supportive Housing for the chronically mental ill. If you think commercial enterprises are all about money and non-profits and charities aren't often thinking about it, you really should join the board of one or work for one. Just like a commercial concern, you also have to keep the lights on and pay salaries and get things repaired and do maintenance and buy supplies. You have to have insurance and comply with local and state and federal regulations. Some of that can be done or supplied by volunteers. But a lot of it requires money. And much of what we provide is intangibles, things like hope and faith and comfort and wisdom and guidance and acceptance and love, that are essential but which are not quantifiable. We can't sell more faith to cover a budget shortfall. Movie theaters and sports arenas and museums and theme parks charge fixed prices and people are fine with paying $20 or more to go to them. We don't charge. We ask you to give what you think God would want you to give. Apparently a lot of people think God is a cheap date.

We could go back to the old model of colonial days when people paid for pews and rich people had boxes around their pews to keep others from sitting with them. But we don't. Because as Jesus said, “Freely you have received; freely give.” The gospel, like the salvation it offers, is a free gift from God. I didn't become ordained to become wealthy. Which is a good thing because that ain't likely to happen either. I have no Lexis or Rolex or $1000 suits or million dollar mansion. I don't need them. I do this because I love serving God. And I want to share that joy with others, that good feeling of helping those in need, those in pain, those who are anxious or fearful or grieving. I see lots of people who look like they could use Jesus in their lives. More than I alone can handle. So as Jesus said, we need more workers for the harvest.

There are lots of reasons, spiritual and practical, why we should share the good news of what God has done in Christ. There are a lot of good reasons why evangelism is to be considered a vital spiritual discipline and thus a good thing to adopt at Lent, as well as year round. But what really flummoxes us is how to share it. That's what we will discuss in our next Wednesday service.

Before I close, I want to put this out there for you to think about. Jesus used a lot of metaphors for the Kingdom or coming Reign of God. Many of them were about agricultural things, weeds and seeds and soils. But when he included people in his parables a recurrent metaphor for the Kingdom is a wedding banquet. He did his first miracle at a wedding banquet and he did it in order that the celebration not be spoiled by a lack of wine. And Jesus referred to himself on occasion as the bridegroom. To Jesus the Kingdom of God is like a Wedding Feast, the biggest, most joyful event in the life of a village such as the one he grew up in. So I'm calling this Lenten series “Invitations to the Feast.” Because inviting people to come to Jesus should not be drudgery, but like inviting them to a great party.  

The Whole Story

Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, once told this story on the old David Letterman show. He was in a cafe at a train station in his native Great Britain. He bought a newspaper and a package of cookies (he called them biscuits). He put them on a table and got himself some tea. When he returned to his table he found that another traveler had seated himself on the opposite side of the table, probably because the cafe was crowded. This did not bother Adams because the arrangement was temporary. One or the other would eventually get up to catch a train. What did bother Adams was that the other man was helping himself to a cookie from the package and eating it. Adams, being British, did not wish to make a fuss and so, sitting down, he asserted his ownership of the cookies by taking one himself and eating it. Then the other man just as coolly as before took another cookie and ate it. Now Adams was flummoxed. He had not objected before to the man's taking the first cookie and so felt odd making a row about it now. He merely took another cookie to reassert his possession of the package of cookies. But then so did the other fellow. And so it went until all the cookies were gone, the other man thinking nothing of eating Douglas' cookies and Douglas being too much of a gentleman to speak up and make an issue of such a small thing, however rude and arrogant the other man's behavior was. At last the other man got up and left, presumably to make his train. Adams sat there looking after the jerk and wondering where he had gotten the gall the eat another man's cookies. Then his train came and Douglas got up and gathered his things. When he picked up his newspaper, however, he was surprised and chagrined to find that under it was his own package of cookies! He realized that to the other traveler, Douglas had appeared to be the jerk who was brazenly eating another man's cookies. Douglas told Letterman that somewhere in Britain there was another man telling his family and friends the very same story, except, unlike Douglas, he had no punchline!

It has often been said that the Anglican approach to faith and practice was like a three-legged stool. The 3 legs holding it up are scripture, tradition and reason. If an issue must be addressed on which scripture is silent, then one turns to tradition, what Christians have written and done in the past. If that doesn't yield an answer, then one uses reason to work it out. Though this is identified with Anglicanism, all denominations use the same method, even if they don't use the same labels. Our basic beliefs and behaviors come from the Bible and, as 16^th century theologian Richard Hooker points out, everything necessary for a person's salvation is found in scripture. You cannot require for salvation something not found in the Bible. But on issues not found in the Bible (method of baptism, for instance, or the composition of the bread used for communion) we tend to look at traditions, either in the history of the church in general or within our own denominations. If they don't seem to contradict scripture, and if they are helpful, we use them.

The tricky bit, and where we get the most variations among denominations, is when we get to the use of reason. And I think it is not always the use of faulty reasoning that causes the problems. Two lines of the thought can both be logical and yet contradict each other. For instance, if a philosophical problem is approached by both an atheist and by a theist, each resulting lines of reasoning could be self-consistent while simultaneously coming to very different conclusions from one another. The difference would be in the premises, the foundational truths upon which each argument was built. For the Christian that reasoning, needless to say, must take as its premises what scripture says on related or underlying issues so that the resulting answer is consistent with the Bible. So why do Christians come to different answers when they use reason? I think a lot of the differences between theologies are based on the differing interpretations of various parts of scripture and the weight given to certain principles derived from scripture.

To this so-called 3 legged stool (though I would rather think of it as a step stool with 3 stairs) some people wish to add a 4^th leg or level: experience. It is true that experience can reveal things that cannot be deduced from an armchair. Theory only goes so far in finding the truth. Some things are best learned through experience. But, as we see from the Douglas Adams anecdote, the experience has to be properly interpreted or you get a totally different idea of what really happened.

I had a violin teacher who had been in a very bad car wreck in which the car burst into flames. He however was thrown clear. So he now refused to wear seat belts because otherwise he might have burned to death. I was a kid so I didn't know then what I do now. Which is: (1) Contrary to what you see in TV and movies, cars rarely burst into flames when crashed. Only 4% of vehicle fires are caused by collisions. 2/3s of vehicle fires are caused by mechanical and electrical problems. (2) More than half of all people killed in car crashes were not wearing seat belts. Because getting hurled from your vehicle--smashing through the windshield and hitting the pavement or a pole at 60 miles an hour or more--is a really good way to break most of the bones in your body and turn your internal organs into leaking bags of blood. Which can kill you. My violin teacher's survival of a very rare kind of accident was a fluke. Instead of thanking God for beating the odds, he concluded that it was preferable to be flung from a car than to be caught in a statistically unlikely fiery crash. He learned from his experience; unfortunately he learned the wrong lesson.

In our New Testament passage (2 Peter 1:16-21) it says, “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.” So the author is claiming firsthand experience of what he's talking about. But later he says, “First of all you must understand this, that no prophesy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophesy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” The problem is whose interpretation is being referred to? The reader's? The prophet's? The translators' notes in the NET Bible makes a strong argument that it refers to the prophet. Which fits in with what we see in scripture. When Daniel or Ezekiel or John see a vision they ask God or an angelic messenger what it means and receive an explanation.

In other words, it would be as if a first responder had reached my violin teacher as he lay outside his flaming car and, as he administered first aid, told him how lucky he was, in that collisions rarely caused vehicle fires and people thrown from cars are frequently killed. He would have gotten an objective explanation of his experience and he wouldn't have taken away from it a disastrously erroneous lesson. 

What a person contributed when he wrote a book of the Bible was not his or her private interpretation of his experience of God. But does that mean that what they wrote was simply dictated by God? No, because we can see that the various writers use different vocabularies, different writing styles, and focus on different themes. Paul and John each have distinct voices. Ezekiel will never be mistaken for Jeremiah. Matthew and Luke cover the same events in Jesus' life yet each has a unique approach in their accounts. As our passage says, all were moved by the Holy Spirit. The word “moved” might be better translated “carried” or “borne” as by a mighty wind. In other words, they were taken where the Spirit wanted them to go and shown what the Spirit wanted them to see. Then they each recounted what they saw and heard using their own individual ways of expression.

But why don't they speak in one single voice and style? Why do the things they write sometimes seem to contrast to the extent that some see these as contradictions?

I have probably used this Buddhist parable before. A group of blind monks encounter an elephant for the first time. One feels the girth of one of the beast's legs and declares that an elephant is like a tree. A second one pats along its broad side and says the elephant is like a wall. A third monk touches its tusk and proclaims that the elephant is more like a spear. A fourth feels its trunk and says the animal is like a snake. A fifth feels the ear and announces that the elephant is like a palm leaf. They seem to contradict one another but actually they are all correct—about the part of the elephant that they are encountering at that time. They are, however, failing to take into account all of the data that their fellow monks are gathering through their also limited experience with the elephant. To get a more complete picture, you need to bring it all together.

Think of the 4 gospels. Matthew emphasizes Jesus as the new Moses, proclaiming a deeper, more comprehensive law that is less about picky details and more about one's moral state and how a Christian's behavior flows from following Jesus. Mark emphasizes Jesus as the Son of God who is master over all creation. Luke emphasizes Jesus as the Spirit-filled savior of the whole world, showing special compassion for the poor and for women. John emphasizes Jesus as the Incarnate Word or Expression of God's nature, who gives life and light to all. These are not contradictions but different perspectives on the same person, each bringing out new aspects of Christ and his mission. No one gospel gives us a complete account. And at least one gospel writer realized this.

John's gospel, the last one written, seems to deliberately not cover certain major events the other 3 gospels narrate in order to concentrate on material the others don't have but which fleshes out and explains incidents in those same gospels. Only John tells us that after Jesus fed the 5000, the crowd tried to make him their king and that what Jesus said caused many to stop following him. Only John lets us know Jesus' ministry lasted at least 3 years. Only John tells us that the raising of Lazarus was the event that triggered the plot by the Sanhedrin to have Jesus killed. Only John tells us that it was fear of being reported as being disloyal to the emperor which caused Pilate to give the order for Jesus' crucifixion. Only John's gospel gives us a detailed account of the discovery of the empty tomb and of Jesus' three-fold reconciliation of Peter after his three-fold denial of Christ. Our understanding of Jesus' life and mission would be considerably poorer without John's gospel completing and complementing the others.

Since the Bible is a library of books written by at least 40 authors in different times we have a lot of perspectives on God. Like the monk's observations, each is true but none is exhaustive. Neither is the Bible exhaustive; how could any book encompass all there is to say about God? John's gospel even concludes by saying, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” And that's just talking about what Jesus did during his earthly life. How could any book or series of books record every single thing God has done or is doing?

So what the Bible says about God is true but not exhaustive. And the Bible gives us several perspectives which, when brought together, give us a fuller idea of our very large and complex triune God. 

So what? What do we do with this insight?

For one thing, we need to realize that what the Bible gives us are the basics of what we need to know about God but not everything it is possible to know about God. The foundation has been laid as well as the structure of the first several floors along with an artist's rendering of the finished building. More can be added but it must be built on what has already been laid down and it must be in harmony with the grand concept. 

N. T. Wright likes to compare the Bible with an unfinished 5 act play. We have the first four acts: Creation, the Calling of the Covenant People, Exile and Return, the Coming of the Messiah. What we must do is improvise the last act but do so in line with the direction in which the author is going so that we arrive at the conclusion he has plotted out. We cannot ignore or contradict what has come before. If you've ever seen the game show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” you know that in improvisation the basic attitude of the cast is “Yes, and....” You have to say “Yes” to the premise and to what other cast members establish but then you build on that. If you are doing a Japanese monster film parody and a fellow cast member says, “Look, there's a giant 3-headed gerbil destroying Tokyo,” you can't say, “No, there isn't!” But you can say, “Yes and he's seems to be selling Girl Scout cookies as well!”

In our case, the story we are telling is that of our loving God redeeming his straying creatures and his fallen creation. The ending is the recreation of heaven and earth. Our roles are to be followers of Jesus, the incarnate, crucified and risen Son of God who has commissioned us to tell his story and bring others under his royal reign. He could do it all himself but he is graciously letting us work with him to accomplish his goal.

Our challenge is to carry out what he has commanded us to do in a world that is constantly changing and which generally opposes God's justice and mercy. Thus we will have to improvise. But we are not left to our own devices. We have the aid of his Spirit. Following his lead and using the gifts and talents he has supplied us with, we are able to fulfill his commands to love God with all we are and all we have and to love everyone else, neighbor or enemy, family, friend or stranger.

Basically, all we are doing is answering this question: what is the most loving thing to do for this person in this situation? To speak up or to listen? To lift them up or make sure they are grounded? To show them how to do something or to let them discover how? To confront or to comfort? To lead them or to get out of their way? To hug them or to give them a little push? Or all of the above? Just because our only response is to love doesn't mean that we are one trick ponies. Love can be shown in a million ways. Some may require creativity and flexibility while others just need persistence and consistency.

After Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter answered, “You are the Christ!” Jesus told them he must be crucified. Peter remonstrated with Jesus for saying this and Jesus rebuked Peter. He said anyone following his way must disown himself and take up his cross. That's what they needed to know at the time. Jesus also told his disciples that some of them would not die before seeing him come in glory. Immediately after that we get the story of the transfiguration. I think part of this was to give Peter, James and John the assurance they needed that, despite the pain, suffering and death he would face in the immediate future, Jesus was who they thought he was. And I think this was a fulfillment of the promise that they would see him in glory before they died. John was given an even grander vision, that of a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem where God would be with his people, drying their eyes and abolishing pain and death and sorrow. If they hadn't experienced it, they wouldn't have the punchline; they wouldn't know the whole story; they wouldn't have seen the surprising happy ending.

We don't have the complete story in this life. We don't have every single detail spelled out for us. But we have enough. We know who the hero is, the Prince of Peace, the Anointed one. We know that he rescues us from the tyranny of those things that enslave us. We know, from Revelation from which every timeless story gets its imagery, that one day he will slay the evil dragon and marry his bride and they will live happily ever after in his gleaming city. And we know he has called us to play our parts. We do know how it will turn out; we just don't know exactly how. To find out, we only have to say, “Yes, Lord. And...”