Dan's Marinations

As the counterpoint to my last entry allow me to just remind you of what may be so obvious that we need to be reminded occasionally.  Beyond decorations, beyond trees, beyond cards, beyond presents (which better be bought by now!), beyond frosty and rudolf, there's something real about what happens.  Beyond the exasperation that many believers feel about TV hosts that can only say "happy holidays," and cities that have "holiday trees" instead of "Christmas trees," there is something very real, mysterious and powerful. The Gospel of God is afoot this time of the year.  It lies beneath church pageants we all have- little boys as shepherds, freckle-faced 6 year old girls with tinsel wings as angels, and bearded men as the magi.  It is the most amazing event in all history.  It is the reality that here in this miraculous birth the eternal Word of God, became incarnate as flesh and blood.  Just as remarkable is that this incarnation was for the purpose of...

Buying a Bible used to be pretty simple.  Got to store and decide between leather bound or hard back and put down a few dollars.  Reading it used to be pretty simple as well.  Pick up a Bible and read it and anyone hearing you with their own Bibles would be able to follow along easily.  Of course it's never been quite that simple, but there has been a regular explosion of new translations hitting the bookstores in recent years making the whole idea of buying a Bible an intimidating task.  Look at the shelf or the Christian Book Distributor catalog and you can be lost in the veritable alphabet soup of translations available now.  There's the NASB, NIV and TNIV, the ESV, the RSV and NRSV, the NLT, the JB and NJB, KJV and NKJV, CEV, CEB, HCSB, NEB and REB, the Living Bible, the Message, Good News for Modern Man, and the list goes on.  (In case you're wondering, my own bookshelf only has seven of these.) What I'd like to do now is to at least try to clar...

We draw near the end of this little discourse on how to read scripture.  This post and the next will wrap it up and will deal with the whole matter of languages and translations.  For starters, contrary to what some may think, the Bible was not originally written in King James English.  A funny story illustrates this.  Once some enterprising seminary students took it upon themselves to criticize the translation my New Testament professor used in chapel one day.  To their dismay he showed them what he used- the Greek text itself.  The writers of King James English would put their reaction this way-  "Behold they shutteth their mouth."  Every Bible the average reader picks up is a translation from the original languages in which it was written thousands of years ago.  Nearly the entire Old Testament was written in Hebrew.  This very ancient language is earthy, its words and phrases are picturesque.  For example, the common way of...

I'd like to mention now one of the most basic principles of Biblical interpretation:  scripture interprets scripture.  Related passages in the Bible essentially interpret each other.  In particular, we can sometimes use clear passages shed light on the more difficult ones.  Allow me to toss out some examples of using scripture to interpret scripture.  Genesis 2:2-3 provides the foundation for hallowing the sabbath, the seventh day.  More meaning comes from looking elsewhere in the Old Testament.  There are numerous examples of "sabbatical years" in the Old Testament.  Leviticus describes a sabbatical year for the land in which nothing was planted.  The writer then declares that after "seven weeks" of seven years- 7 X 7 years there would be a Year of Jubilee in which existing debts were cancelled.  Turning to Hebrews 4 we find even more about the Sabbath.  Entry into the promised land is portrayed as a kind of sabbath ...

I was recently watching a show on the training required to be a U.S. Marine Corps scout/sniper.  As one would expect, there was lots of grueling physical training and training in marksmanship.  I was struck by one particular drill, however.  The trainees were lined up with spotting scopes and told to look downrange where they were told there was an instructor.  Their job was to focus intently on everything they saw, the slightest movement, the slightest unnatural color, the slightest unnatural silhouette.  The well-concealed instructor couldn't be spotted until he had fired his own weapon twice because the trainees weren't careful enough.  The difference in combat would have been the difference between life and death. The same diligence in carefully looking at what really is and isn't there is vital in reading and interpreting the Bible.  Assumed knowledge leads us to skim over passages that we think we know, and also to read things in...

This second post on how to interpret scripture could be called "it can't mean what it never meant."  All the Biblical books were originally written to ancient cultures and in two very different languages.  Interpreting the Bible correctly requires bridging the enormous gaps between the world to which the books were written and our own.  Failure to build this bridge causes all sorts of problems for us as we read the Bible.  The Bible was not originally written to us, but to someone else.  When we read it only through our modern lens then we are, in fact, saying that the scriptural books have had little to no meaning to anyone else in history but us.  That doesn't mean that one has to be a scholar to interpret the Bible, but that one at least should be sensitive to the differences between the world that received these books originally and our own. Let me give some examples.  In looking at the first chapters of Genesis some today read ch....

I learned to read in the first years of the 1970s using Ginn reading textbooks.  That was the era of phonics in reading before it fell badly out of favor in the 1980s, and then came back into favor in the last few years.  The very fact that you the reader can interpret these symbols we know as letters and translate them into thought is an indication that you too learned to read.  Unfortunately, many of us today don't know how to read the most important book of all.  Some do know how and don't realize it.  Even worse, some think they do but really don't.  My goal over the next several posts is to give some rules of thumb for how to read and interpret scripture. Right off the bat, this is something that doesn't come instantaneously.  I once had a book called "Thirty Days to Understanding the Bible."  Reading and understanding scripture can't be rushed.  We can't "microwave" it.  The more you read the better you get at reading i...

In my last post I levelled some pretty serious charges against what I perceive to be the way many churches function.  If that entry was akin to a diagnosis of some of the ills that plague the church, then today will be a modest suggestion of how to make the church stronger and healthier. Evangelism-  Too often evangelism is simply a recruitment method.  One of the measures of a healthy church is that it regularly takes in new members by profession of faith instead of merely transfer of membership from another church.  We need to focus on evangelism as inviting people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  This does not mean that we go door to door passing out tracts or asking people on the street if they've "been saved."  It does mean that we always have an attentive heart to discern when people we encounter may indeed be searching.  It means also being wise to discern when God's prevenient grace may already be d...

We go where we go, and do (oftentimes) what we shouldn't.  I have a pretty strong conviction, even vision for the way the church of Christ should function, but that vision must be set in context of what I sense to be some serious weaknesses in the way people look at the church and in the way the church itself operates. Recently, I read a book on the missional church that made some very pointed jabs at "program driven" churches.  Though I had some serious misgivings about the book as a whole it made some very good points.  Among these was that too often churches focus on programs as an end in themselves.  This can lead to the notion that the more programs and ministries a church can offer, the better it is.  If the church calendar for a week takes a whole bulletin page, the church would be better if it took two pages.  The church operates like a smorgasbord.  The more menu options you can toss at the parishioner (consumer) the better off you are. Th...

Soon, it will be basketball season and I can hear ole' Woody Durham say in tight games "time to go where you go, and do what you do.  Applied to the church, what does it mean to go where you go and do what you do?  As we saw in the previous post- this means worship of the Living triune God.  Worship may be the most important thing a church does, but it is not all.  A vital component of what a church does takes place outside the church doors.  Ours is an inherently missional/evangelistic faith.  The call to the great patriarch Abraham included this statement- "I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing" from Genesis 12.  The selection of Abraham to be the "Father of many nations" was not simply a whim of the Almighty.  God chose Abraham so that through him the rest of the world would be blessed.  These chosen people were to be different, set apart, holy so that they could be a light to all the ot...

I proudly claim being a UNC graduate and fan.  For us Tar Heels "football is fun, but basketball is religion."  I've watched countless basketball games in person and on TV.  Sometimes I can actually watch the TV with the volume muted while listening to the Tar Heel sports network on the radio.  The play by play voice for Carolina football and basketball is Woody Durham, a man who has become an institution in nearly 40 years broadcasting UNC games on the radio.  When a basketball game is coming down the wire he will frequently say that it's time to "go where you go and do what you do."  In this case he's encouraging his listeners to pull out whatever good luck charms they may have.  It's time to put on the old T-shirt from college or sit in the right chair.  Whatever superstittion you may have, it's time to do it.  Silly it is because none of us listening to the radio can affect the outcome of a basketball game, but it is a brilliant...

The most quoted Bible verse is probably still John 3:16 (at least according to BibleGateway) but some say that another one is gaining ground on that perennial favorite.  The one that may be gaining ground is from Matthew's Sermon on the Mount- "Judge not, lest ye be judged."  I'd like to offer a few remarks about how some misuse this verse today and also about how it should be interpreted. The problem with how this verse is commonly used today is that it is used as a blanket statement that one should never make value judgments.  It becomes then another way of supporting one of the characteristics of post-modernism- that truth is relative, that there is no absolute truth.  This injunction- "Judge Not" has been used as an excuse not to oppose everything from adultery to theft to pornography.  In this way- one can see someone doing what is clearly unjust by traditional standards, but be absolved from any responsibility to act.  Had Karl Barth,...

We humans have a need to be able to understand events.  We are programmed, I suppose, to want to interpret the events that happen around us.  This explains what passes for condolences and explanations at times of great grief or turmoil.  Phrases like, "I believe everything happens for a reason,"  "God needed another angel," "God needed Sally Sue more than we did," or this one to parents who've lost a child born with tragic birth defects, "God doesn't make junk."  I will grant that each of these statements are well-intentioned.  On the other hand they represent the most horrid theology.  Let me begin with the phrase in the title of this post.  It is pure mythology that humans turn into angels when we die.  The Bible simply never says that, ever.  Look it up.  Jesus describes the resurrected as being like the angels in neither marrying or being given in marriage.  The great worship scenes of Revelation always des...

Of the things I've posted so far, this may be the most confusing because what many folks think they know from the Bible isn't really there, yet what is really there they don't know.  In fact, what most folks think the the Bible says, and what is commonly heard at funerals is just a warmed up version of 2nd century gnosticism.  A common view of the afterlife runs something like this.  When we die our souls go to heaven and that's the end of the story.  At times this is embellished to talk about our souls escaping the prison of the body.  Eternal life in this view is purely about souls in heaven for all eternity.  Unfortunately, we hear this preached all too frequently in funeral sermons. Allow me to explain the problems with this view before I delve into what the Bible makes clear.  In the first century after the New Testament era the most damaging heresy the church faced was gnosticism.  Among the views of the gnostics was the notion...

The next sacred cow to hit the slaughtering block is this:  God loves us just the way we are.  Right from the start I need to state absolutely that God loves all people no matter how good or bad (by human standards) they may be.  In one of the most well-known verses of scripture Jesus himself said "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not die."  The problem with this statement is that by itself it does not say enough about the relationship between God and humanity, between God and the world.  To state without clarification simply that God loves all of us just as we are has enormous dangerous implications.  God does love each of us as we are, but is not content that we remain that way.  God loves the world as it is, but does that mean that he loves the way the world is right now, though it is with sin, evil, wars, hatred, injustice and the like.  The answer is "of course no...

This is the first in a series of blog entries aimed at poking fun at some of the sacred cows we Christians cling to.  These are primarily practices and beliefs that we cling to, yet which have precious little to do with what the Bible actually says.  I suppose that most folks reading this will find their toes being crunched a time or two.  That's okay, I'm aiming to promote reflection on how what we think we believe is related to scripture. The sacred cow on the slaughtering block today is the ubiquitous "sinner's prayer."  You've heard it a million times.  The preacher (often on TV) will encourage his listeners to do a repeat-after-me prayer that admits sin and professes faith in Christ.  Those who followed along are then ensured that their place in heaven is now secure forever.  The first great problem with this is that it truly amounts to "cheap grace."  When this is added to the doctrine of perserverance of the saints (once saved always sa...

The pants were getting a little tight.  A little more flab around the middle than I like.  I realized that I needed to either set a goal for myself or just toss the running shoes in the trash.  So the notion struck me earlier this week that it's not too late to find a good race to sign up for this fall.  Thought about Paris Mountain 20K, got really excited about maybe the Kiaway half marathon in early December.  Registration was closed.  So Elizabeth found the Thunder Road Marathon and Half-Marathon in Charlotte on Dec. 11.  She read a course description someone had written about the course.  It described the course as being moderately difficult with lots of rolling hills.  To that my beloved son said, "Daddy, I don't think you want to do that one, it would be too hard for you."  Yes, I'm 43 going on 986, am thinner on top than I'd like to be, and have let myself go a little since I had a good run at the Paris Mountain race last winter...

How often do we here someone ask or say that they want to know God's will for his/her life?  How many books, sermons, lectures, studies are aimed at enabling people to know what God has in store for them?  For everything from what church to attend, what career to pursue, who to marry, where to live, down to mundane matters- red car or blue, we want to know God's will.  Call it the curmudgeon in me, but I confess that I've become more and more skeptical of the enterprise we know of as discovering the Lord's will.  Okay preacher, but what about Jeremiah 29:11, about plans for wholeness and not to harm?  That was spoken to the weeping prophet as Jerusalem was being laid waste by the Babylonians and was a promise to restore the city and land, a promise that was indeed fulfilled beginning in 539 BC.  My own ruminations on this lead me to think that there is much less in scripture about this topic than what we think or wish.  More and more I find mysel...

In reviewing some proposed Sunday School material last week I came across an interesting phrase.  The publisher of one of the curricula I looked over had a statement of faith which proudly proclaimed that they followed "no creed but Christ."  As I reflected on that, I couldn't help but think that the writers probably meant one thing, but in effect were saying something quite different.  To the extent that they were saying that they followed one Lord, or one faith, I certainly agree wholeheartedly.  Unfortunately, they did not say that followed no lord but Christ.  A creed, at its simplest is a statement of faith, a doctrine that differentiates one group from another.  The very statement faith that they posted on their website was a contradiction of their proclamation that they had no creed.  To say that they follow no creed is to quite literally say that they have no beliefs about Christ.  All of the things that the Church has taught and believed ...

For starters, to answer some questions.  Why this title?  As Sunday approaches each week sometimes eagerly anticipated, other times viewed with trepidation, depending on how responsive I am to the Spirit's leading on a sermon I find myself musing over the week's text.  I typically call this allowing the text and my own thoughts on it to "marinate" much as I will marinate a good piece of meat before putting it on the grill.  Sermons don't fall from the sky gift-wrapped for me, though I wish they did.  Instead they must marinate.  To use another cooking analogy, like good chili they must simmer a few hours. What about that website name?  What gives with "One Good Port?"  The short answer is that this was the heart of the title of my M.A. Thesis in history from my former life.  A Union Navy officer opined that if they could seize Beaufort Harbor, NC they would "have one good port."  He was prophetic in that the harbor did prove to be ...