Blog Archive
for August, 2007
Too Nice to Win?
— Monday, August 27th, 2007 —
Is your candidate mean enough to be President of the United States?
Newsweek magazine this week looks at the presidential prospects of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and concludes his primary problem is that he seems, well, “too nice” to turn aside a whole field of hard-knuckle Republicans and then Hillary Clinton on the way to the White House.
Whether one supports Huckabee or someone else or (like most Americans) no one yet at all, Newsweek’s question is a good one, and one as old as Christianity. Take Huckabee off the table, along with the question of whether his perceived “niceness” is the fruit of the Spirit or smalltown southern manners or his own niche political strategy. I know what Newsweek means: personal character isn’t enough to swim through the piranha waters of Americans politics. “Niceness” is just shorthand for Newsweek that Huckabee doesn’t seem, to them, to have the fiery ambition needed to go all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
But the larger question still stands: Does the life of the Spirit, summed up in the Beatitudes of Jesus, rob one of the ability to lead effectively in a fallen world?
This isn’t just a question for those running for President of the United States. Believers in the corporate world face this all the time, especially when they read leadership manuals whose subtext is Charles Darwin, not Christ Jesus. It is also a question, increasingly, for pastors who are told all the time by the books they read and the seminars they attend that the way to lead a church is drop the basin and the towel, and to do it the Gentile way (Luke 22:25-30).
Keep Reading...Commentaries and Character
— Sunday, August 26th, 2007 —
What if you know the writer of the book you’re reading, and he’s a jerk?
Some folks have offered some recommendations for biblical commentaries on the Book of Hebrews, suggestions I appreciate. I pondered as I read them why I favor one commentary on the Book over the others: that of William Lane. Lane wrote a two-volume set for the Word Biblical Commentary series that is impressive. Still, I prefer his popular level, more devotional work, Call to Commitment.
Most of the reasons for this are related to the quality of the work, but not all of them. Much of it has to do with Lane himself. I never met him, and don’t know much about him personally. But I have read and heard first-hand of the way he discipled men I respect greatly, such as singer/songwriter Michael Card and Hebrews scholar George Guthrie.
In this line of work, one tends to know many of the evangelical (and other) scholars who write much of the theological and biblical studies work in the field. This guild is awfully small. It is easy to see at conferences and society meetings brilliant scholars who are consumed by vanity, lovelessness, rivalry, fits of rage, envy, or factiousness.
That’s actually good for me.
Keep Reading...Letter from God Knows Who
— Saturday, August 25th, 2007 —
This Sunday I am starting a new sermon series on the Book of Hebrews, and have found myself looking at commentaries all week. One of the commentaries is a used copy of F.F. Bruce’s volume in the New International Commentary on the New Testament series that I found in a second-hand bookstore somewhere years ago. The text of the commentary was helpful, but what was perhaps most helpful to me were the handwritten pen marks along the side of the text. Whoever the text had belonged to had marked notes in the margins, along with questions and notations of “main point” or “conclusion.” The questions were not profound, just little question marks or underlines that caused me to think about the writing more.
As I read the commentary, I became grateful for the little question marks along the way, even though I have no idea who made them. Who owned this book? Was he a pastor preaching through his own series on Hebrews? Was he a churchmen seeking to understand better his own pastor’s proclamation of the Book? Was he an atheist or a liberal scholar seeking to discredit Christian interpretations of an ancient text? I don’t know. But his little question marks helped me focus on Bruce’s argument.
The more I thought about this, the more I realized that my unknown co-reader was playing something of the same role as the author of Hebrews himself. Unlike the epistles of Paul or Peter or James, the church has not been told who the writer of this text is. Options abound, from Paul to Luke to Barnabus. Some feminist theologians prefer to think Priscilla penned Hebrews. I once served with a pastor who believed it was Matthias, though I was never sure exactly why. I, with Martin Luther, tend to believe the arguments for Apollos are strong and convincing. Nonetheless, at the end of the day (at least of this day), we just don’t know who is addressing us in the Book of Hebrews or who exactly his first hearers were.
Keep Reading...Jesus, Take the Meal: Why We’re Afraid of the Lord’s Table
— Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 —
Keep Reading...Cyber-Sunday School
— Sunday, August 19th, 2007 —
You’re not supposed to say “Sunday School” these days, I’m told. It sounds too institutional to lost people. You’re supposed to say “Adult Bible Fellowship” (ABF), I’m told. I’m not there yet, unfortunately, and keep calling my Bible Fellowship group a “Sunday school class,” just like it says in the old King James.
Whatever you call it, this class…er, group…at the Ninth and O Baptist Church is one of the great joys of my life. Every Sunday morning, this group, ranging from a Metro Louisville police officer to a fourth-grade public school teacher to a seventy-something longtime member of our church to the seminary student new to the community, gathers to sing, pray, and to hear Jesus proclaimed from our Bibles. The members of this class are abuzz with ministries, ranging from the evangelization and discipleship of homeless people downtown in Louisville to caring for one another’s physical and spiritual needs throughout the week.
As of this morning, the class has now launched a website. I resisted this for a long time, as fearful as I am of the ways the Internet destroys community in the name of saving it.
Keep Reading...
