Community of the Risen

One of my professors in class quoted an old theologian yesterday:

“Always Israel’s greatest peril is God himself.”

Dr. Baloian went on to say that:

“America’s greatest fear is not Osama Bin Laden, it is Jesus Christ.”

Yesterday was a heavy day for me. I spend the afternoon in a three hour class talking about different types of abuse in my “Adolescent Issues and Interventions Class.” It made me angry, sad, hopeful, cynical and unfeeling all at the same time. A flurry of emotions come to my head when I was reminded about how often women are sexually abused. And somehow that fit in perfectly with the nighttime class of “Hebrew Prophets” where we spent over two hours in the book of Jeremiah.

It is dangerous when we read Jeremiah 4:18 and think of what Baloian said above. “America’s greatest fear is not Osama Bin Laden, it is Jesus Christ.” What does Jeremiah 4:18 say?

“Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you
This is your doom; how bitter it is!
It has reached your very heart.”

In speaking the prophets always speak of impending doom as a result of what people have done. Their “ways” and their “doings” is what would bring a crushing blow to the Israelite people. They would never again rise to the full glory that they had once rose as a result of what they had done. The word “heart” here is not translated as the emotional part of who we are. The heart in the Hebrew mind was the “consciousness” or the “center of your being.” In other words, this corruption of Israel had reached the very “center of Israel’s being.” It was inherent now in who they were. And Jeremiah desperately and intimately wants to bring his people back to God.

And perhaps the preachers who preach “hell in a handbasket” would learn something from Jeremiah following verse 18 into 19.

“My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.” –Jeremiah 4:19

Vernon McGee says it like this, “You should never preach judgment or about Hell without a tear in your eye.”

Dr. Baloian tweaked it slightly saying, “If you tell your children they’re going to hell, you’re going to hell because your life is hell without your children.”

I can only imagine what Jeremiah must have felt and heard from the Lord. I can imagine that he did not want to speak it, I can imagine he did not want to be chosen. The only good picture that I can think of for this is Metatron in the movie Dogma attempting to comfort Bethany when she thinks her “mission” is too big. I can imagine that he did not want the “big guys” to win. But he knew they were going to win. Perhaps the American might understand it if Jeremiah had come today:

“Sell all your stock. Stockpile your food. But it won’t help.”

And here I sat in class just three hours earlier listening to story after story about how women had been brutually beaten sexually, emotionally, physically, and that we everyday allow economic abuse and environmental abuse. Everyday we allow segregation between the urban and the suburban. We allow a break between the rich and the poor. And we expect to turn out any differently than those who stood in Israel.

Some call Jesus the New Testament Jeremiah:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” –Luke 13:34

“America’s great peril is not Osama Bin Laden, it is Jesus Christ.”

The Jews seemed so much more free to challenge God.  Why do you think this is so?

Just finished reading a blog over on Alan Creech’s blog about his   http://www.alancreech.com/index.html church.  It was an interesting read making me consider how I do church. 

He doesn’t get an introduction like many people in today’s world.  The only introduction we get to Nicodemus is that he is “a member of the Jewish ruling council.”  The world Pharisee means “separate ones” and probably meant that Nicodemus was a “ruler of a synagogue” (From “Lexical Aids to the New Testament).  Nicodemus was a man in power at the time of Jesus.  At this point in time we don’t know Nicodemus’ motive for visiting Jesus. 
 

We only know what Nicodemus refers to Jesus as: Rabbi.  Nicodemus’ first words should give us a clue as to who Nicodemus thought Jesus was: teacher.  First and foremost he uses the word “teacher” to describe Jesus.  He then goes on to qualify this statement saying that he knows not only that Jesus is a teacher but a “teacher come from God.”  He then qualifies this saying that “no one could perform the miraculous signs” Jesus was doing if “God were not with him.” 
 

This may seem only preliminary flattery from a Jewish leader, but it is more than this and must be seen as such because Jesus will subtly use this later in the passage and again John will hint at it in chapter four.  There are three logical progressions that Nicodemus goes through to get where he is at thus far:
 

(1)   Jesus is a teacher (“rabbi”)
(2)   Jesus is teacher sent from God
(3)   We know that Jesus is from God because of his signs
 

We might come up with a fourth logical progression inferring from Nicodemus saying that:
 

(4)   A great teacher from God must perform signs in order to be validated.
 

This, argued responsibly, would seem in line with Torah and with the Jewish Testament (i.e. “old testament”).  If we understand Jesus as a “new Moses” then we can go back and compare the Exodus to this moment here.  That is that the people were living in slavery in need of redemption.  In order to show that Moses is from Yahweh he is given signs me must complete.  Reading through them we find such things as Moses’ staff turning into a snake (Exodus 4) and the ten plagues (Exodus 7-11).  All of these things deal with signs from God in order to validate Moses. 
 

Thus the next thing that Jesus says seems strange.  Jesus simply states that “no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.”  It doesn’t seem to flow with Nicodemus’ thought.  It’s not everyday that we walk up to meet someone and they give us an answer similar to the one that Jesus gave.  Here there are two questions that jump up right away:
 

(1)   What does it mean to “see” the Kingdom of God?
(2)   What does it mean to be “born again?”
 

These questions, hopefully, will be answered clearly enough by Jesus himself in the verses to come.  Nicodemus asks the question that we all have just asked, “How can a man be born when he is old?”  He then goes on making a statement invalidating the question.  “Surely” he says “He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”  Let us be clear from the outset, Nicodemus here is simply stating the obvious: It’s impossible to “born again.”  Jesus sounds a bit “off his rocker” at the present moment, either completely crazy or talking in far fetched metaphors that Nicodemus does not yet grasp. 
 

But there may also be more to Nicodemus’ answer that we cannot find at first glance.  Barclay points out that a Jew would understand that “this as not an idea which was in the least strange to people who heard it in New Testament times.  The Jew knew about rebirth.  When a man from another faith became a Jew and had been accepted into Judaism by prayer and sacrifice and baptism, he was regarded as being reborn.”[1]  The Rabbi’s would often say, “A proselyte who embraces Judaism is like a new-born child.”
 

Jesus goes on again stating that he is telling “the truth.”  Notice this time he switches the word “see” for “enter” the kingdom of heaven.  He also qualifies being born again by saying we must be “born of water and spirit.”  Just as “flesh gives birth to flesh” so “the spirit gives birth to spirit.”  In other words, we are all born by “flesh.”  Jesus is saying that we must also now have a “spirit birth” or a “second birth.” 
 

Then he goes on to say that “you should not be surprised at my [Jesus’] saying you must be born again.”  This is to say that Jesus thought his message was totally and fully expected.  Jesus is saying that this second birth is the natural way of living for Israel.  That is, that it is the most natural thing in the world to be born of this spirit.  He goes on to qualify what it means to be born of the spirit by comparing it to the wind.  Everyone born of the spirit is like this wind because we cannot “tell were it comes from or where it is going.” 
 

This is an important message to Nicodemus and, consequently, an important part of the passage for us to understand.  Jesus is saying that we can here the “sound” of the spirit, but we don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going.  The spirit “blows wherever it pleases” and we don’t see it.  In other words, Jesus is providing a direct answer indirectly to Nicodemus.  He is telling Nicodemus that one cannot understand the way this rebirth works because it is the work of God.  The spirit cannot be contained by an idea or a doctrine. 

Today I spent two and a half hours in the theology library studying the background to the book of John.  I have to write a seven to ten pager on a text of my choosing for my “Studying and Teaching the Bible” class.  The information is so interesting and fresh.  Hopefully I will be able to spend a considerable amount of time tomorrow night studying up (two hours in the library only wet my appetite).  I worked tonight up until 12:30 and now I’m at home trying to get ready for bed, resting my thoughts for the night.  Hope

Lately I’ve been thinking about changing the world. A lot of my roommates have been hounding me for the amount of time I’ve been spending on ebay. I think now would be a good a time as any (as my account is currently suspended) to talk about this. I’ve been thinking for quite some time now that I’m tired of “Best Buy” and especially “Wal Mart” running the world we live in. People stand in lines for ten hours the day after Thanksgiving because the corporate world has the power to make people line up. I thought by starting my own business online I might do my part in giving people the best possible service at the lowest price. Unfortunately I learned the hard way that honest business is hard work.

I’ve been kicked off of ebay for “abusing” it. I’m still not sure why they’ve done it. For now I’ve switched to using Amazon. Hopefully they will treat me better than ebay did. I’m still working on my exegesis of John. It has taken a backseat to the new school year. Hopefully something will arise soon.

Lately I’ve been absent from the blogsphere for four reasons:

(1) I’ve been spending time with my family and friends over the Christmas season.

(2) I’ve just opened up a store on Ebay at http://stores.ebay.com/Community-of-the-Risen.  If any of you are interested you should visit my store and see if there’s anything like DVDs, CDs, Books or batteries that you need. I’m just getting started and any purchases would be appreciated.
(3) I’ve been working like crazy at In-N-Out Burger.

(4) I’ve been working on my exegetical analysis of John 3 and 4.  I’ve been finding William Barclay’s commentary very helpful in this regard.  Currently I’m working up finishing Chapter three (at about 12 pages).

I’m heading back to school today early because Mia and I are going to Disneyland.  Hopefully going back to school will allow me to allot more time to blogging.