The Rambling Disciple

The Bible is a magnificent book full of wonder, poetry, and epic stories that doesn't shy away from what the world is really like. It is a complex work written by many different authors over hundreds of years, unified in one overarching narrative and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is a gift from God, help in time of trouble, and the chief revelation of Jesus Christ. Everything I just said is true, but the problem is I don't always want it to be true. While at times I can admire the complexity of scripture I would mostly prefer it to be simple and straightforward. I want something that will tell me what to do, believe, and what to avoid. I want a quick moral reference handbook or a systematic theology encyclopedia that I can easily reference on the go.  That isn't what the Bible is. I think many Christians feel the same way I do. It can be nice to admire the Bible's complexity and variety from afar, but when it comes down to it we want something simple. We want a...

Our view of justice is narrow and limited. Typically when we, as Christians, talk about justice we are really only referring to punishing wrongdoers for their crimes. While that is certainly a part of justice that isn't the only thing. In the Bible justice consists of much more. Consider the book of Amos, one of the minor prophets and therefore a book that most Christians barely touch. Amos is announcing judgment against the nation of Israel for their infidelity to their covenant with God. What do you think is the most repeated indictment against Israel? Interestingly it's not idolatry, sexual immorality, or war although these things are mentioned. The primary sin of in Amos is Israel's neglect of the poor and their oppression of the needy. Over and over again Amos declares that judgment is coming to Israel because of their treatment of those less fortunate. The poor are trampled and the needy are crushed. There is no justice in the land. Biblical justice includes both crim...

"God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful." - Mother Teresa The one thing we prioritize above all else in our culture is effectiveness. If something is not effective at what it's doing we replace it with something that is more effective. This is true with tools, equipment, ads, structures, and even people. It is foolish for a company to continue paying an ineffective employee when they could be replaced with someone far more effective. Everything in our culture revolves around effectiveness. We rarely support political candidates for their ideals anymore, merely their effectiveness at pursuing agendas. We continually upgrade our technology and discard the older and therefore less effective models. We want things to work and work well. This is true even in churches. We want our ministries to be effective. We want our ministers, elders, deacons, and other leaders to be effective. We want our outreach programs, VBS programs, food pantries, and ...

This is the manuscript of a sermon I preached on Easter Sunday, 2021. All around the world people of every tribe, nation, and tongue gather to celebrate the pinnacle of history. Almost two thousand years ago to the day everything changed for the human race and indeed the cosmos. The word went out that death had been broken because Christ is Risen. Blessed by Providence we gather here today to celebrate the triumph of life over the powers of death and darkness. We gather to participate in the Resurrection Body of our Lord. We gather to behold the beauty of God displayed in the trampling of death by death on the cross, a victory of which we can be assured because Christ is Risen. Glory to the Father, glory to the Son, and glory to the Holy Spirit. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts overflow with adoration and praise for our Almighty God. We can rest assured in the comfort of his grace because Christ is Risen. Dear brothers and sisters if Easter Sunday is about ...

Over the as several weeks we have been examining different views on what it means to be made in God's Image. Each of them, I think, is valid and speaks to the truth of the situation. Ultimately I think a more robust view is one that incorporates all of them into one. Here is a brief summary of each to refresh our memory. Functional View - This view holds that being made in the Image of God refers to our calling or vocation here on the earth. We are called to be God's image in his cosmic temple, which means being conduits of praise up to God and conduits of blessing down from God. This primarily focuses on our function or purpose in creation. Structural View - This view holds that being made in the Image of God is about our design, or structure, of being both physical and spiritual beings. Every human being is both physical and spiritual. This uniqueness makes us made in God's Image in this world as we alone of all the creatures of the world are truly spiritual and in touch ...

The last few weeks we have been examining different views on what it means to be made in the Image of God. The first was the functional view, that being made in God's Image is a calling and vocation we live out. The second was the structural view, that what it is is how we were designed by God as both physical and spiritual beings. Last week we discussed the communal view, that being made in God's Image has to do with us being made for community, much as God is community in the Trinity. This week we are going to talk about the last view, that we are made in God's Image by virtue of our use of language. Language is something unique to human beings in this world. While other animals communicate with one another none do so with the sophistication as human beings. It is this ability to communicate that some believe is, at least in part, of what makes us made in God's Image. When God created the heavens and the earth the Bible specifies that he spoke everything into being. I...

The last two weeks we have examined two different views on what it means that we are made in the Image of God. The first was the functional view, that it means our vocation and calling in the world. The second is the structural view, that it means our very design as both physical and spiritual beings. This week we will look at the communal view, which holds that what it means to be made in God's Image is the fact that we were made for community. First we must remember that God is Trinity. God is an eternal community of self-giving love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There was never a time when this was not true, nor will there ever be one. The fundamental truth about God is the Trinity. This view takes this into consideration and views the Image of God as meaning communal. After all, God himself declared that it "was not good for man to be alone" in Genesis 2:18. Since God is community and we are made in his Image, then we too must be made for community. We see...