Author: Gregory Crofford

Greg is interested in many topics, including theology, philosophy, and science.
Posted in Bible, reflections

When you think you’re alone – Psalm 12:1

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

In public high school, a believer can get pretty lonely. Sometimes, it’s tempting to think that there’s no one else who wants to follow Christ. But God gave me new eyes to see those around me for who they really were, and sent other believers my way. We started a prayer time, and met every day before homeroom. By the end of the school year, nearly twenty gathered daily to pray for each other. What a difference that made in my attitude! Truth be told, I had never been alone.

David sometimes thought he was all alone, too. He cried out to God:

Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind (Psalm 12:1, NRSV).

God did not scold David for his heartfelt plea. David knew that God was big enough to receive his wrenching complaint. He felt all alone, and longed for the comfort of the LORD’s presence. Though in Psalm 12 David never sees the solution to his problem, we know from his life that God was listening. At various times, God sent people David’s way to encourage him. In Jonathan, he found a friend closer than a brother. In Abigail, he found a caring wife. The LORD blessed him with family, children like Solomon who – while far from perfect – sought after God and His wisdom. To one all alone, God gave faithful community. His heart brimming with joy, David proclaimed:

I rejoiced with those who said to me,  “Let us go to the house of the LORD” (Psalm 122:1, NIV).

Thank God today for the companions that He has given you on your journey of faith.

—————-

Reflection based on Scripture reading for Day 45, Cambridge Daily Reading Bible, 1995

Posted in book reviews

‘Summer for the Gods’

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

Like a stubborn weed refusing to be uprooted, the debate between creationism and evolution sprouts up periodically and demands attention. Edward Larson’s Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion(Harvard University Press, 1997) revisits the 1925 “trial of the century,” carefully reconstructing the players and issues at-stake in an iconic clash between the forces of fundamentalism and agnosticism.

Williams Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) and Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) squared off in the town of Dayton, Tennessee. The former had been Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson, and came to defend a statute outlawing the teaching of evolution in Tennessee public schools. The latter was a brilliant trial lawyer, determined to embarrass those who favored a literal interpretation of the Bible’s view of the cosmos. What Edward Larson does masterfully is to tease out nuances in the Scopes trial that the 1960 film, Inherit the Wind, either ignored or purposely misrepresented. For example, the film makes Bryan out to be a young earth, six day creationist. In reality, he accepted that the “days” mentioned in Genesis likely were long, indefinite periods of time corresponding to geological ages. Further, the townspeople of Dayton, Tennessee are presented as raving lunatics, whereas in real life they were welcoming to both sides in the Scopes trial. Finally, the defense team in Dayton included those who accepted a theistic view of evolution, namely, that evolution could have been the means that God used to create humans. Unfortunately, by focusing on the agnostic Darrow, Hollywood’s version set up an either/or understanding, a battle of science vs. religion, an antagonistic view of the question that lingers to this day.

Continue reading “‘Summer for the Gods’” →

Posted in Bible, reflections

Getting beyond “if only” – Mark 14:8

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

After a dismal nine holes of golf, my dad and I were lamenting the tough breaks. “If only that stream had been ten yards further away, I wouldn’t have put it in the drink!”  my dad observed. “Yeah,” I joined in,  “and if only I’d used my 7 iron instead of my 5, I wouldn’t have overshot the green on the last hole.” Things got quiet as we sipped our Cokes in the clubhouse. “You know,” my dad reflected, “when if comes to golf, maybe the two words we need to remove from our vocabulary are ‘if’ and ‘only.’ ”

As in golf, so in life. In Mark 14, we find a remedy to the “if only” approach to living. A woman wondered what she had to offer the Lord. She may have been tempted to think: “If only I had been born rich, then I could contribute my wealth to the Master.” Then she remembered the jar of aromatic nard. She heard that Jesus was at the house of Simon the Leper. Timidly, she crossed the threshold and made her way toward the table. Perhaps Jesus smiled at her, giving her just enough courage to carry through with her plan. Opening the jar, she slowly poured the perfumed oil on his head. When others protested the lavish waste, the Lord scolded them. “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her?” (v. 6). Jesus insisted that the poor would always be with them, but the woman had done an incredibly loving and selfless thing:

“She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial” (v. 8, NRSV).

Jesus affirmed: “She has done what she could.”  There are lots of things that we cannot do. We can waste a lot of time pondering the “if onlys,” or we can get busy doing what we can, using what is at our disposal. It’s time to get beyond “if only.” It’s time to do what we can.

——————-

Reflection based on Scripture reading for Day 42, Cambridge Daily Reading Bible, 1995

Posted in reflections

Visiting the shrine of the “Anti-Christ” – Mark 13:24-37

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

Last March, I visited the shrine of the “Anti-Christ.” Let me explain. Back in the 1980s, our President was active in negotiating treaties with the Soviet Union. By some weird twist of logic, this made him a candidate for the dreaded apocalyptic title, “Anti-Christ.” To bolster their case, the doomsayers added up the number of letters in each of his names:

R-o-n-a-l-d (6)   W-i-l-s-o-n (6)  R-e-a-g-a-n (6)

As you’ve guessed, the “shrine” was actually former President Reagan’s Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. He’s now resting peacefully, awaiting the resurrection like countless other world leaders who played their parts on the world-stage. Last I heard, he didn’t turn out to be the dreaded Anti-Christ.

While President Reagan is gone, that kind of speculation is still with us. As I type these words, a radio preacher – whose theories don’t deserve to be dignified by the mention of his name – has predicted that Jesus will return on May 21. His kind belong to what theologian Ray Dunning has called “speculative eschatology.”  Suffice it to say that cotton candy is twice as nourishing to the stomach as speculative eschatology is to the mind and spirit.

In Mark 13:24-37, Jesus talks about the return of the “Son of Man.” Christians do believe that Jesus is coming back. Since this is our firm hope, we should heed two important things Jesus tells us in this passage:

1. No one knows precisely when – Verse 32 is clear: “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” The creative ways prognosticators dance around this verse’s clear meaning are legion. “Maybe we don’t know the day or hour,” they’ll say, “but we might know the minute and second!” Seriously?

2. Keep awake – The reason why God didn’t give us the exact timing of Jesus’ return is obvious. Having made us, God knows our human tendency to procrastinate. Rather than living the kind of righteous life we should at all times, if we knew when Jesus was scheduled to return, we’d live any old way right until he returns. So Jesus warns us:

Therefore keep awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at the midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake” (Mark 13:35-37, NRSV).

Are you ready for Christ’s return, whenever that might be?

——————-

Reflections based on Scripture reading for Day 41, Cambridge Daily Reading Bible, 1995

Posted in reflections

David Bosch on discipleship

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

David Bosch makes one think. Here’s what he has to say about disciples (Transforming Mission, p. 74):

Every disciple follows the Master, but never alone; every disciple is a member of the fellowship of disciples, the body, or no disciple at all.

Bosch makes the comment in a section on Matthew, which he calls “the gospel of the church” (Ibid.). Matthew is the only one of the four gospels that uses the word ekklesia, the Greek New Testament word for “church.” To follow Jesus is to follow him together.

As a Wesleyan, Bosch’s comments make sense to me. Christianity is never about a one-time “decision for Christ.” If we must use the word “decision,” then it should always be a “decision to follow Christ.” To decide to follow Christ is to become a disciple. As Bosch notes, “disciple” (Gk. mathetes) occurs seventy-three times in Matthew, and is “the only name for Christ’s followers in the gospels” (Ibid.).

So…

1) To be a Christian is to be a disciple, and

2) To be a disciple is to follow Jesus with other disciples;

3) To follow with other disciples means being part of the body of disciples, the Church.

If I could identify the greatest weakness of American Christianity, it is this. Somehow we’ve latched on to the notion that being “saved” has no necessary connection with the ongoing, everyday decision to follow, to be a disciple, to be part of the Church. Is it the individualism woven into our American DNA that blinds us to the corporate nature of Christian faith?

Thank you, Mr. Bosch, for giving us lots to think about.

Posted in ecclesiology & sacraments, reflections

Christian traditions: the commendable practice of things not forbidden

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

“Here I stand. I can do no other.” So said Martin Luther, the 16th century German monk now considered the father of the Protestant Reformation. When it came to doctrine, particularly the doctrine of salvation, he stood boldly before Church councils, insisting on the supremacy of Scripture. On Luther’s correct reading, only the Bible can show us how to be saved. Pardon of sin and reconciliation to God come only through faith. We can do nothing to earn heaven’s favor.

While Luther was clear that the Bible is the basis for theology, he was less clear when it came to the question of Church tradition. Traditions are time-honored practices that have grown up in the community of faith. One example is the practice of Lent, the forty day period preceding Good Friday and Easter. While some Christians wanted to eliminate this annual period of solemn reflection, since Scripture does not mandate it, Luther argued that it should be maintained as a practice that strengthens faith. Luther was willing to keep as part of worship or the life of the Church meaningful practices that – while not taught by the Bible – neither were they forbidden.

Continue reading “Christian traditions: the commendable practice of things not forbidden” →

Posted in reflections

Jesus saves, but what does he save?

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

If you’re over thirty, chances are you have trouble reading the text language. What’s all this BTW, LOL, IMHO and POS stuff anyways? Parents look at their child and say: “English, please!”

Yet how often do we as followers of Christ use insider language? How strange would it be for a first-time visitor to church to hear someone pray for “traveling mercies” or in Sunday School to listen as another insists that she wasn’t “angry,” but  “righteously indignant”? Visitors might as well turn to us and demand: “English, please!”

There’s another common expression that falls into the same lingo category. It’s the word “saved.” A “personal evangelist” may ask: “Are you saved?” When he receives a blank look, he tries again: “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?” He’s digging himself in deeper, piling jargon upon jargon, as the hapless victim looks for any excuse to escape.

But let’s suppose that an individual is truly curious. We’ll call her Ashley. She listens politely, and with time begins to piece together what the church teaches about “good news.”  The irony is not that the church is saying too much. Rather, the church is saying too little.

Continue reading “Jesus saves, but what does he save?” →

Posted in Christian ethics, reflections

Is the death penalty Christian? (part 2)

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

Any argument against the death penalty sooner of later must stare-down the “tough cases.” None is tougher than Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., he detonated a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. The explosion killed 168, including 19 children in an on-site daycare center. When all was said and done, more than 680 were injured. Damage to buildings, vehicles and other property was estimated at $ 652 million dollars. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, never having shown any remorse for his heinous act.

The purpose of this essay is not to cause grief or pain to the many who lost loved ones on that tragic day. Rather, it is to question whether any punishment meted out by authorities could ever be sufficient in such cases. Can the execution of one man ever balance out the scales of justice in the face of such suffering? Surely it cannot. If this be true, then the door is open to asking a Christian question: What other form of response can speak a word of Gospel without at the same time condoning sin of the highest order, or taking the grief of the grieving lightly?

Continue reading “Is the death penalty Christian? (part 2)” →

Posted in Christian ethics, reflections

Is the death penalty Christian? (Part 1)

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

Extremism is loose in the land. On May 15, 2010, a Christian punk rock group from Minnesota, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, caused a stir when their front man, Bradlee Dean, opined that Muslims who execute homosexuals “…seem to be more moral than even the American Christians…” The full context of his on-air radio comments – via audio clip – is available here.

Bradlee Dean’s remarks have been roundly condemned, and none too soon. Exodus International, a Christian ministry to gay individuals seeking another path, characterized his comments as “powerfully irresponsible” and “incomplete theology.”  While most Christians – including my own denomination, the Church of the Nazarene – interpret the Bible as prohibiting sexual acts between those of the same gender (Romans 1:26-32), the apostle Paul also holds out the possibility of a God-given new start for those wanting one, including the gay individual (1 Cor. 6:9-11). On the other hand, Dean’s rant knows nothing of gospel, of good news. Instead, his version of Christianity is bad news, singling out one class of persons for special judgment, misusing Leviticus 20:13 as a none-too-subtle call to target gays.

Continue reading “Is the death penalty Christian? (Part 1)” →

Posted in ecclesiology & sacraments

Hungry and thirsty for Holy Communion

Posted on by Gregory Crofford

How often  should we celebrate the Lord’s Supper? Kyle Tau, in his “A Wesleyan Analysis of the Nazarene Doctrinal Stance on the Lord’s Supper” (Wesleyan Theological Journal, Fall, 2008, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 101-22) addresses this question as well as other subtle but important shifts that have occurred across the years in the wording of the Nazarene Manual. These shifts, he argues, have moved us toward a purely “memorialist” view, and away from the more robust “real presence” view of John and Charles Wesley and Phineas Bresee.

Leaving aside the more technical aspects of Kyle Tau’s treatment of Ulrich Zwingli’s, John Calvin’s and John and Charles Wesley’s views of the Lord Supper, this brief essay will focus specifically on the question of how often we as Nazarenes celebrate Holy Communion. Since he was writing in 2008, Tau was unaware of additional language to the Manual that would be added by the action of the General Assembly in the summer of 2009.  The 2009 Manual (paragraph 413.9), under the heading “the core duties of the pastor” now reads:

“413.9. To administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at least once a quarter. Pastors are encouraged to move toward a more frequent celebration of this means of grace…”

Continue reading “Hungry and thirsty for Holy Communion” →