Talking Points 2 – Love God, Love Others: Biblical or Feel-Good Christianity?
Background Music: Weaver at the Loom, “You Can’t Evade Them” (Support their music!)
At Death’s Doorstep
On Easter Sunday, Pastor David read an amazing poem written by Cana’s own Anika Nyman. By popular demand, here it is:
I’m at death’s doorstep
And very thankfulIn between two worlds
One of angels and old souls
The other of the animals that created sin
And crush every beautiful thingI’m glad to leave my body behind
To let my soul sprint and leap and singMy thoughts so random and unorganized
Sight so blurred
There are fish in the sky
And birds in the sea
Creatures like rainbows
Streaks of bright lightFinally I hear a voice
Strong and deep
Echoed closely by
A soft child’s“Come, come
Celebrate true life with me”I rise and see myself
Still and lifeless
Though I do not fretI am welcomed at the door of eternal life
- Anika Nyman
Freeze Dried Christianity
“The secular world of ideas plays the doubting game almost exclusively and is usually scornful of anyone who doesn’t. Ironically, however, the church also plays this game to a great extent. The mystery of the gospel, the paradox of the incarnation, and the wondrous enigma of grace are freeze-dried into a highly rationalized and/or authoritarian system of theologies, codes, rules, prescriptions, orders of service and forms of church government. Everything is written down, everything is organized, so that all can be certain and those in error detected.”
- Daniel Taylor
The Antithesis of Pride
How does our own self-righteousness determine how we treat others? Self-righteousness is the gateway to all sorts of repulsive behavior: hatred, jealousy, animosity, anger, resentment, self-centeredness, meanness, self-satisfaction, exclusivity and most dangerous of all, self-deception that is born in pride.
I think this is why we find in Scripture that God despises pride. It deceives man into doing all sorts of evil, and worse, it is the one thing that keeps man from following Jesus Christ: For a God who dies is the antithesis of pride. Spurgeon said it this way, “The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.”
The Chicken or the Egg?
Are we forgiven by God of our sins because we repent of those sins? Or does repentance and faith follow in response to a genuine encounter with the forgiveness of Jesus Christ? Capon provides some insight:
We are forgiven for one reason only: because Jesus died for our sins and rose for our justification. Forgiveness surrounds us, beats upon us all our lives; we confess, to wake ourselves up to what we already have. We are not forgiven, therefore, because we made ourselves forgivable or even because we had faith; [faith] is not a transaction, not a negotiation in order to secure forgiveness… We are forgiven solely because there is a Forgiver. Nothing new is ever done to achieve anything. It was all done, once and for all, by the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world – by the one God, in the Person of the Word incarnate in Jesus. We may be unable, as the prodigal son was, to believe until we finally see it; but the God who does it, like the father who forgave the prodigal, never once had anything else in mind.
- Robert Farrar Capon
On Church Doctrine: Following Christ, Not Slash & Burn
We would rather cling to the Christ and His purposes than to try to be another voice in the already crowded debate over doctrine.
One of the most common ways people tend to define a church community is through the doctrines they profess. This definition is then used to evaluate and eventually judge one particular church over and against another. It is in this way that through the centuries Christianity has become a much divided religion. Don’t read us wrong — we are not saying that all division is blatantly deconstructive. Christ’s own metaphor of the Kingdom of God being like a large tree in which all the birds of the air come to nest may have been a haunting but tender prophecy of this very present divisive reality. Division may not be the Divine ideal, but certainly it has not left a too-small tree.
God as Mad Hatter?
People always give me a double-take when I describe God as the “Mad Hatter.” But when you consider the wonderfully, ludicrous nature of the gospel, you just have to laugh…and that laughter is good news. Here’s one example…
Jesus said that if we are going to follow him, we have to “give up everything” – the one life and all that we have in it. But, think about it: in order to be empty enough to receive His grace, we are going to have to give it up anyway! Every single one of us is going to die one day and give it all up. So, the cost of the kingdom is exactly what we have to pay one day anyway. Pay now and get everything; or pay later and get nothing. His grace is the best deal in town.
