The Hunger Games

Catching Fire is the next installment. A friend of mine has done a great job of giving a cultural picture of how we are dealing with it.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire... thoughtful and captivating review

http://bit.ly/1c9UEH3

Alpha Cites: Can We Dream Together

New Blog on CRCNA Network: Alpha Cities: Can we Dream Together

Only the Lonely

New post on CRC Network
http://network.crcna.org/content/church-planting

CPDLT's blog has moved to the Network! New blog post
http://network.crcna.org/content/church-planting/alpha-and-omega

Stepping into worship in the face of tragedy is always hard...

http://network.crcna.org/content/church-planting/alpha-and-omega

Dealing with Realities

The New York Observer is a culture watch newspaper. The paper keeps an eye on the culture and movement in New York City.  While some may say that reading a paper like this doesn't give a broad look at our culture, the truth is that all studies say NYC is the number one city of influence in the U.S. and the world. So knowing what is going on in NYC helps us see what is or what will be happening in the rest of culture.

The March 25 issue had as its lead article, "No Divorce is the New Divorce: Moms and Dads Navigate Messy Breakups in Marriage-less World." The article points to a new struggle: breakups where there is no marriage. In reflecting on one marriage the article says, "When it came to call it quits, there was only one problem: how could they get divorced when they had never gotten married in the first place?" 

The article also points out that not only are marriage rates in the U.S. at record lows (I would guess that Canada is in a similar place), but more than 1/2 of the children born to women under 30 have unwed parents.

The question that I have is, "Is there a place for these folks in our churches?" Not only those struggling with breaking up when there was no marriage in the first place, but those who are struggling with marriage itself. (It is worth noting that how we understand marriage has changed over time, or at least the way people get married. In the early middle ages all it took to get married was two people agreeing they wanted to be married and it was done. In Calvin's Geneva if you didn't get married within 6 weeks of announcing your intentions you got a call from the elders). Often we seem more concerned with nailing down the rules than we do helping people seek answers, weeping with them over past brokenness that has caused them to stay away from marriage, and finding pathways to wholeness. 

While we may want to lay down the rules, the reality is that this issue and many others are not only finding their way to the door of our churches, they are already in many of our churches--perhaps especially in our church plants. How do we begin to share biblical wisdom on this and other important issues (it is hard to ignore other issues such as gay marriage which apparently is not supported by 58% of Americans and the struggles of young women that is reflected in shows like HBO's Girls see http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/april/girls-talk.html?start=2). 

Somehow the early church managed to navigate a culture that feels a lot like our own. Can we learn to navigate this well and so open our doors to people who are trying to find their way to a life that is truly life? At moments I have great hopes that we can become excellent cultural navigators who work not from rules but from tears and a broken heart. At other moments I am not so sure.

What do you think? Are we going to be able to navigate this cultural wave that steps far beyond where many of us are comfortable?

Kingdom Fail II

The promise of the kingdom in Luke 1-3 is a kingdom of great hope where the rich and powerful are brought down and the poor and struggling are lifted up. The promise builds and builds and then it comes crashing down: John the Baptist, the great announcer of this kingdom, the harbinger of the kingdom is put in prison by Herod. The powerful take over the weak, hope is dashed (see blog post from March 14).

As soon as John is put in prison by Herod we hear these words in Luke 3, “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21–22 ESV) The line about Jesus being God’s beloved Son comes from Isaiah 42, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Is 42:1–4 ESV) 

Jesus begins his ministry with the same powerful promise we have been hearing: justice will come, it will be established, and God’s law (Torah) or way of right living will be brought to the coastlands (coastlands is a way of speaking of the remotest corners of the earth). Again, the promise of the first three chapters is raised, but with a difference. For all who thought that Jesus was going to be a Herod or a Cyrus or take on the ways of a Roman Emperor, Isaiah smashes that idea. Jesus is the suffering servant. He comes not to imprison like Herod, but to set people free. He comes not to crush the weak, like Herod and a hundred other despots down through the ages, but to bring sight to the blind, to bring the year of the Lord’s favor. And by the way, he does this for the nations, not just Israel.  God’s law, his Torah will be not just for Israel but for all.

In a powerful contrast as Jesus’ ministry begins all those who believed that the Messiah was there to raise an army to defeat the enemies of Israel, all those who believed that the Messiah would crush like a Herod, find that their hopes are turned on their head. Jesus comes in a different way, his agenda is still justice, but that justice (don’t be fooled, this is not just individual salvation, this is justice to the nations) will be accomplished in a way different than Israel thought.  It will be accomplished first of all by taking on Satan in the verses that follow.

But there is another piece to this, namely, how many of us find ourselves right where the people of Israel were as Jesus entered the world? We expect Jesus to come and crush as he shows himself for the second time. Is it possible that we are mistaken as they were in our understanding of New Testament language as they were by the language of the Old Testament? If we are wrong what would his second coming look like?

And one more thing: do we let our understanding of his second coming impact our way of seeing the world right now? Do we imagine that the world is a battlefield because that’s how we see things in apocalyptic literature? Could it be that if we saw the startling contrast that Luke makes between Jesus and Herod that we would see not a battlefield but a mission field? A mission field where people long to be set free from their prisons, where people long for God’s jubilee?

Why Translations Matter

I was reminded recently why getting a good Bible translation for study and getting the full sense of the text matters. While reading the book of Judges I was reading the story of Samson. The English Standard Version in talking about Samson's desire for the woman at Timnah says, "But Samson said to his father, 'Get her for me for she is right in my eyes.'" The NIV translates the same verse, "But Samson said to his father, 'Get her for me. She's the right one for me." 

The ESV in staying true to the original immediately calls our mind to the theme that we find at the end of the book, "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 21.24-25 ESV This connection helps us see that Samson is nothing less than a picture of Israel. He does what is right in his own eyes instead of following after God and God's commandments. His lack of following God finally leads to his destruction. To get that connection it is really helpful to have the words of the text tie things together. (By the way the NIV translates Judges 2.25 as "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." So it further obscures the connection).

But the importance of the connection does not stop here. The writer of Chronicles picks up on the theme of "in his own eyes" when David becomes king. When it is time for the Ark to come back David calls the people together and they decide together as a community to bring the Ark back into the cultic center of Israel. The ESV reads, 1 Chr. 13:4 "All the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people." The connection back to Judges is made. Israel now has a king, people no longer do what is right in their own eyes, they live in community with a king who leads and who desires to make God central. They make wise decisions together under the leadership of a godly king. (The NIV reads, 1Chr. 13:4 "The whole assembly agreed to do this, because it seemed right to all the people.")

While the NIV is a wonderful translation for worship, for ease of understanding and for memorization some of the choices it makes for translation obscure vital connections both within a book and to other parts of Scripture. If you are contemplating digging more deeply into Scripture the NIV is not the best choice. For that kind of work you need to head to the ESV or the NASB.