the Snowy Night with C.S. Lewis video

Jesus – Fully Human AND Fully GOD – a summary

The last post included a summary of the biblical and historical explanation for the Fully-Human Jesus. Here we look at the Fully-God nature of Jesus.  The Divine Son of God has made it possible for us to become like himself – as Peter said, to become “partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)

Our Lord saves us by becoming what we are, by sharing totally in our humanity, thereby enabling us to share in what he is.  Thus through a reciprocal exchange of gifts he takes our humanity and communicates to us his divine life, reestablishing that communion between Creator and creation which sin has destroyed.  (K. Ware,  pp. 52-53)

Again, I’ll include a detailed excerpt from the ESV Study Bible article on Christ’s Divinity.

The Full Humanity of Jesus – a Summary

ecce homo - "Behold the man!"

Our series on Fully Human Fully Alive is taking two weeks in Advent to examine the implications of Jesus being both Fully Human and Fully God.  Here is a summary of the biblical and theological truth of Jesus’ full humanity as summarized in an article from the ESV Study Bible.

The Humanity of Christ

From the moment of Mary’s virginal conception of Jesus, his divine nature became permanently united to his human nature in one and the same person, the now incarnate Son of God. The biblical evidence for Jesus’ humanity is strong, showing that he had a human body, and a human mind, and experienced human temptation.

Beyond Origins Debates – Genesis 1 Re-visited

In our series, Fully Human – Fully Alive we stopped to explore the question of how to understand Genesis 1.  I referenced an important new work called  The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John Walton, 2009 (IVP Academic).

“This book presents a profoundly important new analysis of the meaning of Genesis. Digging deeply into the original Hebrew language and the culture of the people of Israel in Old Testament times, respected scholar John Walton argues convincingly that Genesis was intended to describe the creation of the functions of the cosmos, not its material nature. In the process, he elevates Scripture to a new level of respectful understanding, and eliminates any conflict between scientific and scriptural descriptions of origins.” —-Francis S. Collins, head of the Human Genome Project and author of The Language of God

The book along with the topic of  evangelicals and evolution was summarized and discussed recently on Scot McKnight’s Jesus Creed blog.  You can read the posts and comments here.  It is part of a Science and Faith category.

A website recommended with an enormous amount of resources on all kinds of science and faith issues is from the Biologos Foundation at biologos.org

Go to the Christ Church website to hear the sermon.  Here I am listing a summary of the key principles from the teaching.

Imago Dei – ‘No Ordinary People’

I had the privilege of attending a C.S. Lewis conference in Oxford a few years ago on my sabbatical.  The closing event was a service at St. Mary’s church.  A British actor read Lewis’ sermon preached during WW II.  He called it The Weight of Glory (from a phrase in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Here is the link to the entire sermon. It is a masterpiece that adds greatly to our vision of eternity and to understanding the Imago Dei – humankind made in the image of God.
Christopher Mitchell in a wonderful article on Lewis’ evangelistic zeal demonstrates how Lewis “longed above all else for the unseen things of which this life offers only shadows, for that weight of glory which the Lord Christ won for the human race. And knowing the extraordinary nature of every human person, Lewis longed for and labored for their glory as well.”

An expanded quote we used in today’s sermon at Christ Church will whet your appetite:

“Keep Yourselves from Idols!”

“Little children – keep yourselves from idols.”  So the apostle John ends his first letter to the early church. (1 John 5:21)  I don’t think he was warning against Caesar dolls!  Interior idols and the cult of ‘Things’ is the ever-present danger.  Whenever we look to something other than God for our meaning or security – we become idolaters.

Imagine a community of people unattached to their stuff?  Living creatively, responsibly, generously in the world so that everyone can see the living God?
Jesus would call it ‘Church!’

I’d like to re-post something from a few years ago on the dangers of modern idolatry.

Consumerism has been called “The Cult of the Next Thing.”  The essay by Mark Buchanon and is available here. In Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus calls us to check our hearts and our eyes as it relates to possessions and Kingdom priorities . If Money is one of the idols – or gods of this world, then Jesus wants us (in the words of Dale Bruner in his commentary on Matthew) to become the real atheists to the secular gods of consumerism, successism, pride in possessions, self-serving, overspending, and indifference to needs…” 

The antidote to terminal consumerism is generosity: both the tithe principle of regular, planned giving and offerings of what we have that come from a heart of compassion in the face of urgent needs.

Randy Alcorn has a voluminous website with a section on Money that is well worth checking out.  As with any author, we may not agree with every emphasis, but Alcorn covers the questions thoroughly and with a heart of Christ-centeredness. Alcorns books, The Treasure Principle, and especially Money, Possessions, and Eternity are excellent.  Much of their content is on the website in the form of articles or downloads.

Stories of God @ Work – @ Work!

This is your invitation to join an important conversation.  Tell us your stories of how you have seen God use your everyday work in His mission to the world!  Or in light of the teaching from the I Am The Church series, how God’s Spirit  is moving in you to “re-imagine” your work -  reflecting the beauty of God’s love and truth in new ways.  Scroll down and leave your story in the Comment section.

Here is a wonderful summary of the theology behind the teaching from a site called The High Calling of Our Daily Work, by a ministry led by Howard Butt.  This is a quote from an article on creating a beautiful work place.

…Beauty must be seen then as an aspect of God and God’s creation. Beauty is the light of God shining from within the created world. The fact that one person sees beauty where another doesn’t has to do with people’s different capacities, not the nature of beauty itself.

Why does all this matter? Because if we want to be followers of Christ, we need to join Christ in his work. Through his incarnation, public ministry, passion, resurrection, and ascension, Christ initiated a cosmic renewal. His victory over death began the restoration of God’s entire creation to a state even better than its original “goodness.”

In fact, we are invited to be co-creators with Christ in this work, as part of his living body within the world. That means performing (good, i.e.) beautiful deeds . . . from anointing the Savior’s feet with expensive perfume to building exquisite church sanctuaries….to helping widows, orphans, and prisoners; from constructing excellent architecture to putting together vital organizations; from decorating our homes attractively to creating a harmonious workplace.

The Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole World

The Lausanne Movement arose out of the first international Congress on World Evangelization convened by Billy Graham and attended by leaders from 150 countries.  Out of it came the Lausanne Covenant – a wonderful document used ever since as a balanced statement of the Church’s mission.  It was here that John Stott first crafted the phrase, “the Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole World.”  We spoke of this briefly in our series on I am the Church, on The Call To Mission -Connecting to a Hurting World.

Let me encourage you to read further on this vital understanding of Mission. Lausanne has an amazing website with documents and papers from all of its conferences and global study groups.  I’ll link here to the section that further explains the “Whole” emphases. The article by Christopher Wright is especially helpful.

“Saturated with Christ” – and overflowing

Here’s a paragraph from The Jesus Prayer, reviewed in the previous post and referenced in the October 11, ‘09 teaching at Christ Church.  It captures the intimate link between communion with Christ and mission to the world.

“The purpose of this earthly life is to be saturated with the life of Christ.  Everything flows from that, every work of art and act of courageous witness, every  theological insight and every effort to help the poor.  The idea is that God will fill people with His Son’s life, and then they will accomplish his work in the world.”

“(Christ’s) indwelling presence heals, restores, and completes us, preparing each of us to take up the role in his kingdom that we alone can fill.”

Frederica Mathewes-Green, The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer That Tunes The Heart To God, p.12

Constant Connection to God – The Jesus Prayer

Many are familiar with what over the centuries has been called The Jesus Prayer, which in the subtitle of a new book by Frederica Mathewes-Green is described as “the ancient desert prayer that tunes the heart to God.” It comes from the Gospels and we’ve used it in worship services, retreats, and prayer gatherings and many have incorporated it into their personal prayer disciplines.  There are various forms, but I usually use the longer form: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I had the joy of sitting in three of Frederica’s workshops in Oxford during my sabbatical a few years ago.  We had coffee one afternoon.  At that time I told her I felt she was one of those great “bridge authors” like Henri Nouwen who helps different faith streams glean from one another.  I’ve been waiting for this book and I’m not disappointed.  I wrote an Amazon review which I’ll put at the end of this post as well.

Paraclete Press, the publisher, has posted a long excerpt you can read here.  It has the intro and first chapter that will help you get the idea of the history and helpfulness of prayers like the Jesus Prayer.  Here is the link to the book excerpt. My review follows here:

Frederica is a bridge author between historic Orthodoxy and other faith streams like Evangelicalism the way Henri Nouwen was appreciated by both Roman Catholics and Evangelicals.  I sat under her workshops at Oxford CS Lewis Institute and have read all her books and dozens of others on the Jesus Prayer. Eastern Orthodox spirituality, theology, and music have deeply impacted my own journey as a pastor. This book is direct, clear, and accessible for any Christian and even those seeking more understanding.

Matthewew-Green has chosen to have half the book be in a Question and Answer format which works well because of the many nuances and viewpoints even among the Orthodox on the practice of the prayer and the related principles of spiritual discipline.

I believe this will be the modern standard to introduce millions of Christians to prayer that moves beyond (both) shallow self-expressed prayers and formal written prayers to a place of constant presence with God so needed in our self-addicted world of miss-placed passions. I encourage you to read the book and more importantly, make the Jesus Prayer and similar scripture prayers the core of your prayer-practice.