Passing-Thought

(Mark 12:18-27) the god of the dead?

This past Sunday (11/14/2004) our pastor challenged us from Mark 12:18-27 with these words. "The hope of the resurrection is a basic fact for all Christians, [so] make it your hope!" It's true. Though we as Christians say we believe "in the resurrection of the dead", perhaps the most notable difference between Paul's preaching and modern evangelical preaching is the neglect of full-bodied resurrection hope. Modern evangelical preaching tends to emphasize the cross of Christ as a means for individuals to be admitted into heaven after they die. That's it. That's our hope. In contrast, the language of resurrection in the New Testament is meant to refer to "a resurrected re-embodiment over which death would have no more power -- unlike the kind of disembodied state where death does indeed rule, forbidding re-embodiment." (p. 422, N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God.)

In Mark 12:18-27, the Sadducees' twist the Levarite law of marriage from Deut 25:5-10 to serve the reign of death. Though God originally sanctioned the law to provide the hope of embodied life for a widow and her deceased husband, the Sadducees use it to make God into a "god of the dead", denying His power for eternal life promised in His covenant to Abraham for all his children. Their imaginary story is the ultimate example of poetic injustice: it thoroughly abandons a covenant woman widowed to the grave and provides absolutely no hope for redemption. The Sadducees communicate their confidence in the complete victory of death over the promise of life by their symbolic use of 3 & 7: they enumerate the loss of three husband-brothers and second it by the total of seven brothers dying--all leaving no offspring. The only hope the widow had according to the Law, they suggest, was in the seven men, but they all died. In essence, the story of the Sadducees and their follow-up question says this to Jesus, "Abandon your foolish resurrection hope, for all life shall be swallowed up in death. God is the god of the dead, and we obey the Law of Moses according to that god to secure our reign. You preach a hope that is beyond the control of our Temple administration, and we perceive that to be a threat to the politics of our order. We will not tolerate your zealous justice for Ruth and Naomi in our house, lest every stone be torn down in Obed."

Psalm 5 - Sunday School Handout

The fruit of my studies in Psalm 5 were presented for adult Sunday School at my church on June 27, 2004. See my pdf handout for a summary of the presentation, including literary context, grammatical/rhetorical outline, and redemptive historical considerations of the passage.

2004 OU RUF Halloween Party (Oct 30)

I took a few pictures at the recent OU RUF Halloween Party (at the Staffords - Saturday, Oct 30).

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeEMnLFs5ctGIP

You'll notice several of the pictures are kind of blurry--somewhat a recent trend of mine (I typically eschew the flash). Besides, it is apropos to have a ghost effect for the holiday! (Hey, you should see some of the scary pictures in my outtakes!!)

The main focus is the pumpkin carving contest and bobbing for apples. Not very comprehensive. Missing is the lovely feast in the kitchen, the mult-user Halo in the backroom, the Stafford's nameless new puppy, not to mention close-up shots of all the creative costumes. (If you squint on the last couple of group pictures, you can make out some costumes.)

I came as "Neo Puritan", a hybrid character (John Owen meets the Matrix). I had an idea to come to the halloween party as a puritan, due to my love of irony (the puritans, I believe, were against celebrating such pagan holidays). But my attire was completely black and it reminded me of Neo from the Matrix, so I took my sunglasses along with my (New King James) Bible and some cinnamon Altoids. So when people asked who I was, I would say, "I am Neo Puritan. I bring good news from the city of Zion, but eternal damnation to all those who will not repent from the Matrix. Would you like a red-pill?"

My favorite costume vote went to Jessie's Alias (which I mistook for Lola, from Run, Lola, Run! with her red hair). But apparently she fell short of the number of votes that Kim received dressed as Della.

Other highlights of the evening: I met Julie Serven and children for the first time, even though I've known Doug Serven for three years. I also found out that one of the Stafford's daughters went to the same Elementary and Secondary schools I attended as I was growing up in Norman (Eisenhower & Longfellow, respectively). The Staffords also used to attend Wildwood Community Church which was where I went while I was at the University of Oklahoma (1994-1999) before joining Grace Presbyterian. (Grace happened to be a PCA church at the time.)

2004 OKC Conference on Reformed Theology (w/Jim Elliff) (Oct 29-30)

I recently posted my pictures from 2004 OKC Conference on Reformed Theology w/Jim Elliff (October 29-30, 2004).

I found the conference refreshing to my spirit, especially the first two lessons. One dealing with the relationship between the Spirit's sovereignty in our understanding of the truth of the gospel, and the second dealing with true faith as shown by the Spirit's activity in working true repentance in the heart and mind. True repentance is happy to leave sin vs. a sorrow that is no more than sorry for sin or a confession that is merely naming sins. Some things I really needed to hear! The lectures are available now online, and will continue to be a blessing to those who are able to hear them.

By the end of the conference, however, I wondered if his presentation of sanctification could have been strengthened by emphasizing its Christ-shaped goal. Not only is holiness a doing away with sin, but a growing up in the image of Christ, individually and as a community. The work of Spirit in the life of the church is the same Spirit who worked through Christ's life, death, and resurrection. As it stands, the conference seemed to be four separate sessions about the work of the Holy Spirit, without an attempt to fit those sessions into a more unified picture, of summing all things up in Christ. Likewise, the word "gospel" was used several times, but was not defined or fleshed out in a way that concretely related the work of the Spirit with its content.

The final session "The Method and the Mystery" was perhaps the most challenging pastorally, drawing fresh implications from the book of Acts for evangelism. For instance, he suggested, that pastors being "devoted to the ministry of the word" in Acts means more than locking oneself up in one's study only to preach on Sunday. The elders didn't have time to look after the physical needs of widows because they were too busy preaching the word! Another application he drew was an analogy between Paul's habit of teaching in the synagogue, and our need to bring the gospel into liberal churches.

Now, in general, I am skeptical of making modern applications from the book of Acts, assuming that the foundational experiences of the church remain normative for us today. The book seems clearly redemptive historical in character, at pains to show that all that Jesus promised to do through the apostolic witness, this He did. Nevertheless, I think we all still struggle with how its once-for-all foundational character remains normative for His building project upon that foundation. Shouldn't the book, afterall, be used for the shaping and governing of our ministry? Jim's radically challenging suggestions thus warrant our consideration.

If I had to guess, I would say that Jim's favorite session was "The Spirit and Divine Visitation" which drew from the history of revivalism, especially among puritan reformers like Jonathan Edwards, in order to encourage us to look for similar outpourings of the Spirit and what we should expect them to look like. I must admit, I was most skeptical of his conclusions in this session. Does the Bible teach that we should expect cycles of future outpourings or baptisms of the Spirit (like those experienced in Acts)? I tend to think that we simply should pray that God would work powerfully through preaching, sacraments, and prayer, and trust that He is answering that prayer, even when there no spectacular display to behold from Sunday to Sunday. The next spectacular display given for us to expect is Christ's physical return in glory.

Second Golf Score

On Tuesday, Nov 2, 2004, (National Election Day) I went golfing with my pastor and two of my friends. Westwood Park (2400 Westport Drive, Norman, OK, 73069) is a nine hole course, mixed par. It was cold and windy, which on the one hand is a terrible day for playing, but it also meant we didn't have to worry about many other golfers on the course.

Here is our final Score Card. (Pastor Scott had to leave early.)

This was the second time I've ever played a full golf course. For some reason my tee-offs tend to curve to the right. There's certainly room for improvement. But the other guys think I have good potential.