by RobertCummins | May 21, 2014 | 21. The Story
The passage brings to mind “the fulness of time” a unique phrase from Galatians 4:4-6
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
We learn something about the nature of fullness from our passage. Their is a great tension in it. Heaven is prone to rejoicing yet the stewards of the Law on earth are prone toward grumbling. And what is the source of their grumbling?
By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends. (MSG)
Yes we can see there is a serious problem here! Sinners are being drawn to God! This suggests that in the fullness of time those entrusted with God’s Law had missed the spirit of God’s assignment to them so badly they were willing to persecute those who were responding to Jesus, who was the actual fulfillment of the Law! Paul tells us that, ‘Because of you (Jews who had mishandled the Law) God’s name is blasphemed among the nations‘! In attending to the letter of it they totally missed the Spirit of the Law. In Romans, Paul, a converted Pharisee and apostle to the Gentiles, goes on regarding the Law. In the true spiritual reality of things….
The ‘Jew’ isn’t the person who appears to be one, you see. Nor is ‘circumcision’ what it appears to be, a matter of physical flesh. The Jew is the one in secret; and ‘circumcision’ is in the heart, in the spirit rather than the letter. Such a person gets ‘praise, not from humans, but from God.
In a study of Romans I am involved with we have those who think Paul is hard on the Jewish leaders. This contingent noted, “They had been given the Law and they were simply doing their utmost to obey it.” I suppose in a sense that is true. But we have to always keep in mind that God isn’t just interested in what can be seen. Outward visible obedience to a code, anticipating righteous outcomes was never what God was after. That is simply what men do, in their flesh, without the Spirit. We have to always keep in mind that it is the heart, and apparently the circumcision of it, that God is interested in.
Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. (Proverbs 4:23)
The Holy Spirit is honed in on the “why” (or the spirit of the matter) while we, in our flesh, are hung up on the “what” (or the letter of the matter). God, as He is perpetually endeavoring to transform us into the image of His Son (by way of the presence of His Spirit in us) is intent on why we do what we do. In a transient world that is fading away what we see is always rooted in the spirt which is eternal by nature. In God’s kingdom, which we cannot see yet are citizen’s of, we must experience the circumcision of the heart or we will be destined, like the Jews to focus on external obedience and repeat history – misrepresenting God to the very people He is endeavoring to reveal Himself to.
In our Romans study a number of questions came up that I pray we might find answers to. One in particular stands out. It was; Is the circumcision of the flesh a one time affair or is it an ongoing one?
I will answer this question with an emphatic “Yes!” Physical circumcision takes place once when a baby boy is very young. It is something done by others to him. Flesh is cut away. I cannot help but see this is as what happens when we place our confidence in Christ as our new Life. Our rebirth is accomplished by the giving and receiving of His Spirit, something that God does for (or to) us – thus accounting for our new hearts which were promised as a part of the new covenant. And while it is a mystery, our flesh was crucified with Christ. In the unseen eternal realm the rule of our flesh is no more it is cut away as it were.
Recall that it was circumcision of the flesh that was the evidence of being a partaker of the old covenant and its Law. It is circumcision of the heart that is evidence of the new birth and of being a partaker of the the new covenant. Also keep in mind that we have been saved and are being saved. I believe that is in this being saved aspect of our salvation – this working out of our salvation, where his apprentices will also encounter the circumcision of the heart in their ongoing journey. Those whose hearts are being formed into the image of Christ will see the scalpel again in the fulness of time when it becomes necessary to cut away aspects of their fleshly life that have not yet been surrendered to His Kingdom rule in their hearts.
Discipleship itself has unfortunately been cut away from the vision of the normal Christian life in western culture. Living actively with Christ as Lord over our hearts is not well taught or modeled. Discipleship, for the most part, has become an optional track for those who have been called into full-time ministry or into the deeper Christian life (as it has been unfortunately labeled). It is quite simply more than most sign up for when they asked Jesus into their hearts or performed whatever external ritual that was observed in order to join the church.
Could the widely acknowledged malaise in western Christianity be traced to the circumcision of discipleship away from the Christian life? Could this error account for millions of believers who are anticipating God’s kingdom when they die when in fact, unbeknownst to them, its already here? How are we different than the Jews who were in trouble for their stewardship of the covenant entrusted to them? Is there sufficient transformation into Christ’s image to prevent His name being blasphemed in our age?
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
So many of us are laboring in our obedience with all that is within us to live lives that are pleasing to God. If we are to measure ourselves by new testament standards (and not our own present culture) there are a few litmus tests we can employee. The first I see is that when God’s will is being done on earth as it is heaven (as it was being demonstrated by Jesus), joy will always accompany it, (certainly not grumbling).
A second is that persons of questionable character will be drawn to salvation that is being worked out by the adopted sons and daughters of God whose characters are being reshaped and they are infected with celebrant childlike joy. Sadly, I also believe that anyone and everyone will continue to be repelled by joyless lives attempting to comply with the letter of their particular religious codes, however biblical they may be. Always, the Spirit gives life but the letter of the law kills.
I know this may all sound foreign to some but is this living as an apprentice to Jesus, really a deeper Christian life or is this just the normal one that has been, of necessity, edited out of western Christian culture so that we can focus on the here’s and nows of a transient and material world, in our attempt at maintaining a bit clearer consciounce?
Father, We have rejected discipleship for so many wrong reasons and not surprisingly we are failing in Your commission to go an make disciples here or anywhere else. Let this be the fulness of time for us Lord. Let authentic renovation of our hearts take place. Deliver us from all the heart-errors that contribute to our misrepresentation of You. Awaken us and restore to us our new hearts that do not see your Law as a heavy burden, rather as the very Spirit of righteousness who indwells and animates us. Work within our hearts Lord until our realization of being sons and daughters of the living God spills out into a flood of stories honoring Your holy and precious name. Amen
by RobertCummins | May 20, 2014 | 21. The Story
Simon was nervous already, having invited Jesus, a known sabbath-breaker (and yet a possible prophet?) to his home for a meal. Simon knew that Jesus was performing miracles but he was also bothered that Jesus so easily mingled with the uneducated and unclean people who were beneath the status of he and his Pharisee brethren. He was deeply conflicted. God was obviously with this man but how could that be when he regularly contaminated himself, mingling with the rabble and working on the sabbath? Simon’s entire life, in fact that of his nation’s right standing with God had been maintained in large part through their meticulous attendance to the Law which this Jesus seemed to pay so little attention.
The room was already filled with awkward social tension when the town prostitute, the most defiled person in their city, found her way into their gathering. No one escorted her back outside. She was far too unclean to even be approached by men of Simon’s stature and purity. Besides, she was crying uncontrollably. The only thing that brought the noise level down where people could once again hear was when the woman’s eyes met those of Jesus. She then rushed to him, falling to her knees and with convulsive sobs drenched his feet with her tears. She added perfume to the pool that was forming there and used her hair to mop up the mixture. With that concoction which she was continually diluting with her tears, she washed Jesus’ feet.
Jesus, knowing Simon’s fragile condition as a Pharisee and a dinner host jump starts the conversation. He said, “Simon, I would like to say something to you.” Simon, relieved beyond the telling (thinking things could not possibly get worse), said, “Please. By all means say it.”
Jesus then makes his dinner speech using The Parable of the Two Debtors. We know the story which Jesus used to make his point and especially its punch line….
She (this weeping prostitute) was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal. (MSG)
Simon realized that Jesus (with his defiled accomplice) had just exposed him and most of his guests as the ungrateful minimalists in the parable. What Simon didn’t know yet was that while this seemed to easily be the worst day of his life, it was also potentially the best. Jesus said, astonishingly to Simon, that this woman’s sins had been forgiven on the basis of her profuse gratitude. It was quite clear, Jesus was implying that his sins (and those of the other Pharisees present) were not forgiven because they had, as yet, no thankfulness working in their hearts.
In God’s sight, whose sin is actually greater? Is it a woman who repeatedly sells her body for the money to survive or is it that of those further up the social ladder who repeatedly pass judgement on others like this woman, who they perceive to be beneath them morally and socially? In the sight of God, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who have come to see their spiritual bankruptcy before a holy God. And also…. how hard it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of God. This explains why tears flowed in one lace and not the other.
In some circles today, a heart broken by God is way down the list in terms of its worth as a spiritual experience. A story containing a healing, deliverance, a blessing or an answered prayer would be the preference. In some circles it would be unthinkable that God might coordinate the circumstances, as he did for Simon, to expose in us some impoverishment of heart. We are told that our hearts are not impoverished. They are brand new, intrinsically good and above such old-time religion. I actually agree with this theology but I have a problem; I believe God has broken into my new heart on at least three occasions since first coming to know Him 37 years ago. I would not trade those encounters for anything. They were answers to my deepest and most heartfelt prayers…..
One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple. Ps 27:4
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Ps 139: 23-24
Had it not been for these break-ins (and the accompanying gifts of repentance), I could have never wept over my heart (however new it may have theologically been) for the hurtful and anxious ways it had learned to live independent of God, while making, I might add, quite a showing (religiously speaking). I read about Simon the Pharisee and I have hope for him because I recall Rob-the pharisee. It is just like Jesus, in his kindness, to step into a party (or a human heart) and disrupt the false and fragile equilibrium of the status quo.
I know from experience that this process of brokenness is a rare and precious thing. Without having passed this way a few times I would never have arrived at the place of my present declaration…
….that God is able to keep me from stumbling, and to make me stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy (from Jude 24)
Having experienced this kind of blessedness, I can only pray to Him who is the fulfillment of the Law for all those who have and will believe….
Father, would you cleanse us from every pharisaic attitude operating in our hearts. Please help us to see where, in any way, we are carrying around judgements toward those you have bled and died for. Grant us the same compassion You have for the oppressed and discarded. Break our hearts where they need broken and let us rise cleansed – free and joyful, ready to proclaim your name in word and deed before a world that is lost and rightly skeptical about religion. Through us show them Your Life Father! Now to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
by RobertCummins | May 20, 2014 | 21. The Story
All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language, and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice. But God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall be open to one another. (from Meditation XVII by John Donne)
Today’s passage is The Prodigal Son. It might have easily been titled The Dysfunctional Family – The Church and Her Misunderstanding of the Father’s Heart. In a religious culture largely bent on saving souls from Hell, the traditional title focusing on the wayward son and his rescue is predictable. There is so so much more to this story as I learned when God began writing new chapters in my story a few years ago.
I wasn’t a youngest son, instead I was an only son but I was nevertheless a classic prodigal. Nor did I ask my father for any share of his estate. (Only because I had not thought of it. He was not that stupid anyway.) I did take enough of it though to get myself the heck out of my home town and off to college where I faced an unprecedented opportunity to squander time and money without restriction which is what I think the prodigal in our passage wanted as well. Sweet freedom! Or so we both thought.
I too spent everything I had and experienced a severe famine of sorts. It wasn’t a national famine as in our story. Mine was a famine of the soul, an impoverishment of spirit. In that season I did not even know what I hungered for. All I knew was that deep within I was dying. In the desolate landscape of my heart (like that of our prodigal’s) no one was giving me anything that my spirit could digest and therefor produce any vital energy for my soul. Hard work, reading, eastern meditation each promised hope but did not deliver.
Then I came into real contact with Jesus Christ – the one I heard about in those Presbyterian Sunday school classes I infrequently attended. This Jesus was different though. He wasn’t just the Lord of Easter bunnies, Christmas trees and high church. The Jesus I met was the Lord of Life. Incredibly, he rescued me from my toxic and condemned life. All I did was say to Him, “You can have my life. I am destroying it.” To my utter astonishment, He imparted something into my deepest being that began to undo and remake me. I was no longer starving. A peace that surpassed anything I had ever known filled me up. To this date, I account for this miracle by simply saying, “The Lord of Life miraculously and mysteriously imparted His own Life into me.” This is all to say that I am a new creation in Christ only because the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within my heart. It’s that simple.
But now glowing brightly, I decided I must work to be sure to live my life in such a way that I am pleasing to Him. (Where did I get the idea that He wasn’t pleased with me?) Plus, I heard the preacher say that the laborers were few so I reasoned that He must be calling me into those fields that are white for harvest. Yes, that was it. I have been called into ministry! (I usually get physically ill when I hear people (particularly young ones), say this today. But, that is another chapter to be called; How I Was Called Into Ministry (And You Weren’t). If you know me at all, this is dripping with sarcasm.)
Deleting the sarcasm, my story should be titled; Confessions of an Older Brother – How Prodigals Become Elder Brothers. (that is basically the story that I tell in MwM – Middle with Mystery.) Most churches and ministries are starving themselves for want of laborers to enter into the harvest fields defined by their visions. In the execution of their vision, in the hirings and the firings and the preaching and the teaching, they too often manage to make human-doings out of human beings, pharisaic elder brothers out of innocent and authentic prodigals who have been restored to their Father. Modern western Christianity is not reproducing disciples who each understand their kingdom assignments. It is reproducing (not surprisingly) church attenders who exist apparently to fund real ministry done by professionals with their tithes.
Let me briefly explain the alchemy of this unfortunate mutation of sons into slaves who fall into the snare of thinking it is their labors (not they in themselves) that give God pleasure. Since Adam, the first born of our race, we are born into this world with a massive wound in our soul the same size as God who created us in his image. We were evicted from Paradise and exiled into a land of darkness and shadows where things are not what they appear, where we learn to survive by our wits. However that eviction notice, branded into our souls, predisposes us to rejection. At the core of our being, there is something that says, I am unworthy. This is a predominant feature of our fallen nature.
We therefore begin compensating in any and every way to avoid that singular worst case-nightmare; being rejected again. Let’s imagine our new convert entering into the kingdom through legitimate regeneration. He is born anew, Christ has entered into this life by His Holy Spirit and begins to put things right in his heart. However, this poor soul is exposed to a shrunken (Kingdom-less) vision of Christianity where he has been saved and awaits heaven while the earth continues it inevitable slide into immorality and judgement (just as Pastor has preached it). Your role is to subject yourself to the covering of the Pastor’s authority and vision. In his vision the kingdom grows as you to invite your friends and family to church so that they too can avoid hell and get to heaven. If they happen to attend his church and pay a tithe AS GOD HATH COMMANDED…. well, that will be ok too. (Yes, a bit more sarcasm.)
The insecure soul has had no spiritual father to tell him the rest of the kingdom-story and how he is destined to find his place in it. He hasn’t had a father who can remind him that he is now a new creation. The culture of spiritual poverty this poor lamb is subjected to is sustained by many heresies. The biggest is that even though he has been born again, he is still, in his primary nature and identity – a “sinner”, one whose natural bent is wayward yet who has been saved from hell by grace. Another lie following close on the heals of the first is that God is essentially an angry Being who wields the rod quickly and harshly. The idea of a laughing or smiling God is inconceivable.
Our new convert with his young heart is grateful that he has been accepted into the fellowship of the righteous. The rejection that is still operating within his yet to be renovated heart, finds that fellowship (especially the new found attention) is a balm to his lonliness. He might not consciously be doing the math, but he has calculated in his heart that he now belongs and will do whatever is necessary to continue belonging. The insecurity of the heart has not been dealt with, it has only been appeased. The identity that should have been forming in-Christ alone is now attached inordinately to the group.
As time passes and the convert is faithful in little he inherits more and more responsibility. The follower is becoming a leader inside the shrunken kingdom-less vision of the local church. The value of having some visibility and receiving kudos for his labors has not escaped his insecure heart’s notice. In his moments of reflection though (which are incredibly sparse now that he is a leader) he is haunted by the notion that he has lost something precious and if he could be honest, still feels isolated. Something is missing. But, pastor has assured him that hearing this disturbing fleeting voice is normal. His council, “Just keep being faithful and God will reward you if you remain faithful. (especially in regards to the tithe.)
Pastor was right (as always), over time the disturbing voice was stifled. The problem is that in its place a hardness and rigidity of spirit took shape. Where there were once innocent questions, there is now mostly dogmatic certainties upheld by collections of bible verses. The disciple has become like his pastor/mentor. He is busy, and having less and less time for people (like Pastor) of necessity becomes aloof. Ministry obligations consume all his time! And, he thinks to himself, “I am being paid less than minimum wage. GIven the pressure pastor (and God?) place on me to perform, there is an inordinate weight of responsbility on me. If only somebody (preferably Pastor) would say thank you occasionally!” And as to how he feels about God, he dare not express that! His identity, his meaning and his livlihood are all dependent on not rocking this religious boat. However If he could summon the courage to articulate it it might sound something like the disgruntled saddle-worn cowboy (a bit lubricated and honest) after he had gone too far on the cattle drive to turn around…
“There were a helluva lot of things they didn’t tell me when I hired on with this outfit.”
“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be.” And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’
If I may summarize, “Because the father expressed his joy and love openly and extravegently toward my so-called brother….
I became angry and was not willing to go in; and my father came out and began pleading with me. But I answered and said to Him, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.
My paraphrase in its entirety, “Because you have expressed your joy and love openly and extravegently to my so-called brother, I am reminded that this is always how you are with everyone but me! I’m the reason this place keeps running and You have not treated me fairly.”
This story leaves us hanging. In a real sense this is where we are today as well. We have those who label themselves Christian yet misunderstand God and what he is endeavoring to do in this age. If the earth’s dependency is on the vision and the prayer’s of this group we have great cause for concern.
Father, would you continue putting this world to rights, renovating our hearts, sweeping them clean so that no demonic lies can return there, imprisoning us in walls of our own pious delusion. Restore identity to your sons and daughters that we might be a generation of people who live out of Your LIfe within us. May we live as the sons and daughters of a new creation – kingdom children and co-heirs with You; those who see Your delightful smiling face and who never sacrifice a thing in regard to true righteousness and holiness. Amen.
