reflections – Page 10 – Gregory Crofford

Top 5 Christlike acts in 2013

Posted on December 23, 2013December 23, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

Some want to go back to the “good ‘ole days.” Count me out. These are exciting times to be alive and to see what God is up to right now. Here are my “Top 5 Christlike acts of 2013”-

5. Nine-year-old swimmer gives trophy to hospitalized rival – Josh Zuchowski and Reese Branzell are rivals, with Reese usually coming out first, and Josh a close second. When Reese was hospitalized with a bone infection, Josh won the Florida swim meet, then sent his trophy to the hospital, a gift for Reese. The attached note? “I won this trophy for you today,” said Josh, “and I hope to see you back in the pool.” What parent wouldn’t be proud of such a son?

4. Wrongfully imprisoned man has kind words for friend whose testimony put him behind bars – Ryan Ferguson, 29, spent more than 9 years in a Missouri prison for a crime he did not commit. When he gave a news conference the day of his release – cleared of all charges – he promised to do what he could to work for the release of Chuck Erickson, whose police-coerced testimony had put Ryan behind bars. Ferguson’s humble spirit and refusal to walk down the path of bitterness have gained him more than 90,000 followers on FaceBook, the “army” that – in addition to the efforts of his family and lawyer, Kathleen Zellner – he credits with having produced the judicial review that ultimately resulted in his release. Thanks, Mr Ferguson, for your positive model to everyone.

3. Teammates create an unforgettable moment for fellow player with special needs – In a story worthy of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Keith Orr – a young man with a learning disability – scored a touchdown for his team, the Olivet Middle School. His teammates left their coach in the dark, working for weeks in secret to devise a play that would allow Keith to score from within the 5 yard line. When the play worked, they carried Keith off the field in triumph. Looks a lot like Jesus to me.

2. Freed prisoner walks the way of peace – O.K., this one happened before 2013, but the movie – “Long Walk to Freedom” – came out this year, so I’m counting it. Nelson Mandela had every reason to strike back after having spent 27 years in prison. Even his wife, Winnie – who had suffered 16 months of solitary confinement – was ready for battle. Yet in a broadcast that many credit with averting civil war, Mandela committed himself to reconciliation between long-term enemies in South Africa. The rest, as they say, is history.

1. Pope Francis sets new tone for the Roman Catholic Church – With his emphasis upon reaching the hurting and marginalized, Pope Francis is leading the way, not with law but with grace. Even those not usually inclined to applaud Christianity have noticed, including Time, which named him Man of the Year.

How about you? What would be your vote for the top 5 Christlike acts of 2013?

reflections

On good luck and the Providence of God

Posted on December 19, 2013December 19, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

Is God nearby or far away? Does God get involved in our daily lives?

These are important questions for theology. I’ve always found it interesting when Christians pray for God’s “intervention” in a situation. Or when we pray for revival, we will ask God to “break in upon us.” The comment could be interpreted that God is outside the system, keeping a safe distance from us, a divine aloofness. It’s like we are asking the Lord to exceptionally swoop down from some high perch and enter into our everyday lives.

The prophet Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal in their confrontation at Mt. Carmel. When Baal didn’t answer their feverish pleas to send fire, Elijah taunted:

“You’ll have to shout louder…for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!” (1 Kings 18:27, NLT).

In contrast to their view of Baal, Elijah trusted in a God who was not aloof but close by, and that close-by and engaged God answered with fire from heaven.

Like Elijah, Jesus believed that the Creator God is nearby and intensely interested in our welfare. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord comforted his listeners, reminding them that God would clothe them, feed them, and generally care for their physical needs (Matt. 6:28-34). We are of more value to God than a “whole flock of sparrows,” yet God knows when one falls (Matt. 10:31, NLT). Even more impressive – especially for those who still have a full head of hair! – is that God has numbered the hairs on our head (Matt. 10:30).

John Wesley seems to have shared this view of God’s closeness and degree of interest in human affairs. At several key junctures in his ministry, he cast lots to know God’s direction. It is only in the context of the doctrine of divine Providence – God’s care over all creation – that this action makes sense. If God cares for me and all people, then God has a stake in the direction our lives take. If our purpose in life is to glorify God, then whether it’s the seemingly little things of life or the clearly life-altering decisions that face us, it’s always appropriate to seek God’s counsel.

The point is this: A close-by God who cares about us is one who impinges in a positive way upon how we live our lives on a daily basis.

Which brings us to the title of this blog: On good luck and the Providence of God

A loving Providence directs the path of the righteous (Psalm 37:23). God is not aloof, outside the system, so why do we wish others “Good luck” as if God doesn’t come into the equation? Do we really believe that blind “luck” is what determines our future? As Christians, isn’t it far more appropriate for us to wish everyone “God bless you” or – if they are traveling – Godspeed?

At this Advent time of the year, we celebrate Jesus Christ, Immanuel, “God with us.” God has promised: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, KJV). For the believer, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, we are assured not only that God is with us. He is in us! (1 Corinthians 6:19). The God who is close-by is also working everything for the good of those who love God, who are “called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, NIV).

Good luck? No thanks, but feel free to wish God’s blessings upon me, or to tell me “Godspeed!” as I journey down life’s path. I’ll be happy to return the favor.

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Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

book reviews, reflections

Dark Side of Destiny now available in print!

Posted on December 4, 2013December 4, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

WIPFSTOCK_Template — The Dark Side of Destiny: Hell Re-Examined (Wipf & Stock, 2013) by J. Gregory Crofford

I didn’t set out to write this book, but it was the book that had to be written.

A story might help. During my sophomore year at Eastern Nazarene College, I worked as a teller at a Boston Savings & Loan. Joel was my fellow-teller, and during slow times, I’d break out a book. One day, I was reading one of Hal Lindsay’s best-sellers about the end times. Joel flipped through the book, then asked a piercing question:

Do you believe all that stuff?

Joel was a non-believer, and his question got me thinking. What if Hal Lindsay was wrong? What if his kind of writing – while seemingly truthful – was making Christianity unattractive to those we are called to reach? So I went back to Scripture and did a re-study. What I found led me away from that kind of sensational view to post-millenialism, a more historic and balanced view that fits better with the whole tenor of what God’s mission is in this world, especially as related to the work of the Church and the Kingdom of God.

That same process happened for me when it comes to the traditional doctrine of Hell.

This time it was many Joels whose voices came across in the threaded comments of websites. They questioned what kind of God would make individuals suffer forever in the flames of Hell. It was a character question, and that got my attention. I took down from my shelf Four Views of Hell (Zondervan, 1992) and re-read the excellent essay by Clark Pinnock. It was a good summary of an alternate view, but I wanted to go deeper. The magisterial The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment (3rd ed.; Wipf and Stock, 2011) by Edward Fudge made a convincing case from Scripture and answered some of the nagging exegetical questions that I’d had over the years.

Yet for all their merits, these kinds of works won’t be studied by the average layperson. So on this blog, bit by bit, I hammered out what later would become chapters to my new book, The Dark Side of Destiny: Hell Re-Examined (Wipf & Stock, 2013). Here’s what the back cover says:

Discussion of Hell is hotter than ever. Yet for all the attention the topic has drawn, few are the resources that provide an overview of the major points in dispute without bogging down in detail.

The Dark Side of Destiny: Hell Re-examined is an excellent primer, yet goes beyond a mere description of options. Dr. Crofford weighs various views of Hell in the light of Scripture and finds them wanting. In the end, he champions a neglected view of last things that both responds better to the preponderance of biblical evidence and safeguards the character of God as equitable, holy, and loving.

With probing discussion questions at the end of short chapters, The Dark Side of Destiny is ideal for Bible studies, Sunday school classes, or small groups.

The book has only 90 pages. It’s short on purpose. I hope to develop a C.S. Lewis side to me, to bring theology into the streets.

ORDER INFORMATION

You can order the book for just over $ 10.00 directly through the Wipf & Stock website (click on the link). Or, if you prefer, it’s also available here on Amazon.com for $ 13.00. Within 3 months, it will be available as a Kindle e-book.

Some of you may have downloaded the book in its original self-published Kindle e-book format. In a minor revision, this version tightens up some of the arguments and corrects some typos. It also includes a new foreword by Edward William Fudge.

Let me know what you think, and spread the news!

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Image credit: Wipf & Stock

Bible, reflections

Begging bread? God’s promise to the righteous in Psalm 37:25

Posted on November 16, 2013November 16, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

Two city street children in Antananarivo, Madagascar — Two city street children begging in Antananarivo, Madagascar

It’s a sweeping statement from King David: “I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread” (Psalm 37:25, NRSV).

What did David mean?

The context of the passage quoted helps us understand what David was saying. Psalm 37 contrasts the lot of the “wicked” with the “righteous” or the “blameless.” Do the wicked prosper? Only temporarily, affirms David. “The LORD laughs at the wicked, for he sees their day is coming” (v.13). The “arms” of the wicked shall be “broken” (v.17). Like a pasture can have “glory” for a time, so the wicked may as well, but they will “vanish” like smoke (v.20). They shall be “cut off” (v.22).

If the wicked won’t endure, the opposite is true for the righteous. They shall “inherit the land” (v.22). Even in famine they will have “abundance” (v.20). They will “give liberally” and be able to lend, their children becoming a blessing (v.26).

Two things come to mind when reflecting on this passage:

1. Redemption and lift – Jesus said: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21, NIV). If you want to determine what a person values – where their “heart” is – look at how she spends her money. Helen had been a chain smoker for years. When she came to Christ, God broke her desire for cigarettes. “Pastor,” she said, “the money I would have spent on cigarettes, I’m going to put into my change purse.” A year later, Helen had enough for a trip to Hawaii. When money is no longer going down the drain at the neighborhood bar or being wasted on gambling, it’s now available for the family budget. Christians call this “redemption and lift.” God re-orients our value system, meaning some of the leaks in our financial boat get plugged.

2. The solidarity of the community of faith – I can’t read Psalm 37 without thinking about Acts 2:44-47 (NRSV):

All who believed were together and had everything in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day as they spent much time together in the Temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

When I was in high school, our church youth group took a trip to one of the colleges sponsored by our denomination. For three days, we competed in sports and talent competitions. Before dinner one night, without thinking, I slipped my wallet into the pocket of my jacket, then hung the jacket on the coat rack outside the cafeteria. After dinner, my heart sank when I realized my wallet (and with it the $ 50.00 inside that I’d carefully saved up for the trip) had been stolen. Later that night back at the hotel, there was a knock on the door. Roger, my youth pastor, came in and handed me an envelope. I opened it up, and inside was $ 50.00. I couldn’t believe it! Had he found my money? “No,” he said. “But when I told the others in the youth group about your loss, they all wanted to take up a collection for you.” That generous gift of solidarity meant so much to me! I felt loved.

How do we as a church measure up to Acts 2:44-47? Are there practical ways that we could help each other? If the children of the righteous avoid begging bread, it will be because the community of faith has taken care of her own, seeing needs in the Body and responding in Christlike ways. Instead of making loans to each other – loans that cause division when repayment is delayed – how about if we simply say:

I’m giving you this small amount, but it’s not a loan. It’s a gift. You don’t have to pay it back to me, and let’s never speak of it again. All I ask is that you keep your eyes open, and if one day you see someone else in the church who has a similar need, give to them with the same simple conditions.

The “pay it forward” concept is powerful. As we exercise it inside and outside the church, it will commend the Gospel to those who are not yet followers of Christ.

King David rejoiced that he had never seen the children of the righteous having to beg for bread. If this was true, then surely it was not accidental. Putting God at the center of our lives means that wasteful practices will wither away. A holy frugality will take its place. Likewise, we cannot love God without loving our neighbor (1 John 4:20), whether that neighbor is already or not yet part of the community of Christian faith. Let’s pray that God will give us eyes to see like God sees and hands to do what God wants us to do.

Bible, reflections

Reading our Bibles backwards? A pre-Advent reflection

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

While attending Nazarene Theological Seminary, I participated in a dialogue with students from a nearby Seminary for rabbis. We gathered around a table and discussed passages from the Old Testament, or what they just called the Bible. In the sentence you just read lies the crux of the matter: Should the Bible have a “New Testament”? Christians says yes; Jews say no.

As the discussion turned to what Christians would consider “Messianic prophecies” fulfilled in Jesus Christ, one of the rabbinic students remarked:

You Christians read your Bibles backwards.

He was right if by that comment we acknowledge it’s practically impossible for Christ followers, on this side of the Cross, not to see Jesus when we look at parts of the Old Testament. The New Testament provides the model. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 presents Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfillment of a prophecy from King David regarding the resurrection of God’s Anointed (the Messiah), that the “Holy One” would “not see decay” (Acts 2:31, NIV). Likewise, Acts 8:26-40 tells the story of Philip the Evangelist. Led by the Holy Spirit into the desert, he climbed into an Ethiopian eunuch’s chariot. The eunuch was reading the description of the suffering servant from Isaiah 53, and asked: “Who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” (v. 34). Philip used that passage to tell him the good news about Jesus.

Saint Augustine is credited for having said: “The New is in the Old concealed. The Old is in the New revealed.” Like a good two act play, the outcome of the drama can be hinted at through foreshadowing, but the ending is not given away. In the same way, Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart estimated that only about 2% of the content of Old Testament prophecy can be considered Messianic prophecies (See Klein et al., Introduction to Biblical Interpretation [1993], p. 303). Still, it is enough to bind the Testaments together as the unfolding of God’s rescue plan for sinful humanity gone astray.

This Advent season, we will celebrate the coming of Jesus the Messiah into our sin-sick world. If “reading our Bibles backwards” means thanking God for accomplishing the divine promise to bring us salvation in Christ, then let’s keep celebrating. And as those who look to Christ’s return, let us together proclaim: Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus.

reflections

How big is too big? On Goldilocks and the devil

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

The story of Goldilocks and the three bears is a children’s favorite. A little girl takes a walk in the forest, and comes upon a house. She knocks, but when no one answers, she opens the door and begins to explore. Besides three bowls and three beds, she spies three chairs in the living room. Sitting in the first two, she concludes that they are too big, but the third one is different. “Ah, this chair is just right,” she exclaims.

When it comes to the devil, Christian theologians disagree on how large a “chair” he should occupy. Some argue that he should only be a bit player in salvation’s drama. After all, Satan goes unmentioned in the early affirmations of faith, including the Apostles’ Creed (2nd century CE) and the Nicene Creed (325 CE). Henry and Richard Blackaby, in their devotional guide Experiencing God Day-By-Day (Broadman, 1998), are of this persuasion. In their thoughts for October 31, they observe:

Christians can become preoccupied with battling Satan. This deceives them to invest their time and energy attempting to do something that Christ has already done for them. If Satan can divert you to wage a warfare that has already ended in surrender, he will have eliminated your effectiveness where God wants you. Fearing Satan is fearing a prisoner of war.

Dr Rob Staples, Professor Emeritus of theology at Nazarene Theological Seminary, recalled when he was a boy that his mother asked him to choose one of their farmyard chickens for dinner. When he lopped off the chicken’s head with a axe, the headless chicken danced in a frenzy for a while before dropping over dead. “That is an image of the devil,” Staples told us. “Jesus, through the Cross and Resurrection, chopped off Satan’s head, and all that we have seen since is his death dance.”

On the other hand, some reserve too large a place for the devil in their thinking. In 15 years of ministry in Africa, I have resisted calls for inserting a “demonology” course in our curriculum. While several courses with a different focus touch upon the issue, to dedicate an entire course to the topic reminds me of Goldilock’s comments about the first two chairs: “This chair is too big!” I’ve been in church services where the first ten minutes are given to the congregation raising its voice to chase the devil away. I’ve challenged pastors to consider whether they are unwittingly sowing fear in the hearts of believers. After all, if it takes 200 Christians ten minutes of concerted, high-volume prayer to chase the devil on a Sunday morning, what will the poor saint do on her sick bed when she senses spiritual attack and can only manage a whisper?

The New Testament truth appears to lie somewhere between the position of the Blackabys and Staples and the exaggerated view of some African pastors. It is a view that recognizes the eventual defeat of the devil (Rev. 20:1-3), a final defeat begun via Cross and Empty Tomb. Satan was wounded, there can be no doubt, yet is this the mortal wound of Staples’ headless chicken? If so, then the “death dance” has lasted 2,000 years!

Peter chose another animal to which he compared Satan:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8, NIV).

Paul joins Peter in his assessment, lamenting that to-date he had been unable to visit the Thessalonians, since Satan had “hindered us” (1 Thess. 2:18, NIV). Yet the same Paul did not hesitate to cast out of of a slave girl in Philippi a python spirit of divination (Acts 16:16-19). His spiritual preparedness to confront whatever the devil threw his way is epitomized in Ephesians 6:10-20, where we are to “put on the full armor of God” so that we may “stand against the devil’s schemes” (v. 11). Unlike the Blackabys, I do not believe that the devil has already surrendered, though one day he will.

When it comes to our understanding of the devil, there is a position – like the chair Goldilocks chose – that fits the biblical evidence “just right.” I wonder: If we insist that “Satan is a defeated foe” – rather than “Satan is wounded and will finally be defeated” – could this lead to spiritual complacency? A wounded animal is particularly dangerous. To downplay this reality may risk being naively blind-sided while serving the Lord. We may consider something a “test from God” that is instead an attack from Satan. On the other hand, to place the devil center-stage in our thinking is to do what neither creeds nor Scripture have done. This can lead to an unhealthy fascination with darkness. It may sow fear in our hearts, a fear that is unbecoming a Christian’s confidence in the victory of Christ, now and in the future.

Meanwhile, in this great parenthesis between Jesus’ ascension and his final enthronement at the Second Coming, we ask the question contained in Francis Schaeffer’s book title:

How should we then live?

We live in neither complacency nor fear in this time of “already, but not yet.” We live a vigilant life, aware of the devil’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11). With the Blackabys, we refuse to be distracted from the work to which God has called us, preaching the Gospel, binding up the wounds of the brokenhearted, and in victory over Satan awaiting the day when God shall in Christ bring all things to fulfillment. What a day that will be!

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Photo credit: Missoula News

reflections

Resting in peace, rising in glory

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

“Mommy, what is it like to die? Mommy, will it hurt?”

The 1955 film A Man Called Peter, based on the life of Peter Marshall, contains a story by the late pastor and Senate Chaplain, where this earnest line is on the lips of a terminally ill young boy, Kenneth. His mother does not know what to respond to her sickly son, and runs to the kitchen, supposedly to tend a pan on the stove. Finally, she has an inspiration, and reminds her son of a time when he had come home from playing outside. Exhausted, Kenneth had fallen asleep on the sofa. Later, his dad arrived home from work and gently picked up his sleeping boy in strong arms and carried him upstairs, laying him in his bed, in his own room. “Kenneth,” his mother said, “death is like that. You wake up in your own bed, in your own room, because Jesus loved you and carried you in his strong arms.”

In the same way, the Apostle Paul comforted the Corinthians:

Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. – 1 Cor 15:51-52, NIV

We lost a member of the NazNet.com community this week. In a tribute, the site manager emblazoned a banner on the front page. Part of the message read:

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

That’s a simple and comforting message. One day, I shall close my eyes in death, and one short sleep later, wake up in the presence of Jesus. What a resurrection promise!

Christian ethics, reflections

Baggage surrounding the word “holiness”

Posted on October 19, 2013October 19, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

You know a word has issues when you have to start qualifying it. Why does someone say they are a “born-again Christian”? Shouldn’t “Christian” be enough? (Read more on that here.)

Similarly, Ken Abraham published a book in 1988 entitled Positive Holiness. But I wonder: For those in the holiness tradition, shouldn’t the unadorned word “holiness” be enough? Abraham added the qualifier “positive” because he admitted what we rarely do:

The word “holiness” has baggage.

Like at the airport, baggage comes in different shapes and sizes. Here are two kinds of baggage:

1. Legalistic holiness – This was nearly extinct but is seeing a resurgence in response to shifting mores in society. It is the judgmental, Pharisaical approach to religion with an emphasis upon rules and outward appearance. Here, holiness is defined by what we abstain from: “A good ______________ (fill in denominational affiliation) does not _____________.”

This can be trickier than it looks. No one is denying the moral content of Christian faith. Jesus affirmed the Ten Commandments (Matthew 19:16-21) which contain numerous negative commands, i.e. “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal,” etc. But the problem with legalistic holiness is that it never gets around to the positive side of the equation, the Great Commandment of Christ to love God and neighbor (Mark 12:28-34), itself a re-affirmation of Old Testament teaching (Deut. 6:4-5, Lev. 19:8). Rules devoid of love dry up the spirit.

2. Magical holiness – Besides legalistic holiness, a second type of baggage is more subtle. I call it “magical holiness.” This well-meaning error is usually accompanied by calls to “revival,” to get back to a time when we really knew how to preach holiness! And so we plaster the word on our brochures and banners, and call holiness the “great hope.”

Yet hope in the New Testament is seldom attached to a religious experience, no matter how powerful that experience may be. Rather, our hope is Jesus! Galatians 5:5 speaks of our hope to be made righteous, but Colossians 1:27 exemplifies the more usual pattern, where it is “Christ in us” that is our “hope of glory” (NIV). 1 Thessalonians 1:3 affirms the believers for their “hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (CEB). Likewise, Peter extols the “living hope” into which we have been born, a living hope made possible through the resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 1:3, NIV).

A comparison helps. When studying spiritual gifts, sometimes we speak of the importance of “seeking the Giver more than the gifts.” That’s good advice, and keeps us from overemphasizing spectacular manifestations. However, we forget that counsel when it comes to holiness theology. We urge our people to seek “entire sanctification.” But I wonder: Isn’t that seeking the gift rather than the Giver? And when we seek gifts first and foremost, we become like Simon the Magician, wanting the power without the relationship from which the power flows. (See Acts 8:9-24).

But you say: Did not Jesus call us to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6)? Indeed, he did, yet that day on a hillside in Galilee, the people focused their attention on Jesus. They came to get to know this teacher better. They carefully listened to him, understanding intuitively that Jesus is the source of all righteousness. The order is important. If we desire holiness, seek first the Holy One.

Once we have sought Jesus for himself and not for what he can do in our lives, then we blossom into a growing, dynamic relationship with God. Later, in God’s timing, will God not transform us at a deeper level into the image of Christ? Paul affirms this clearly in Romans 8:31-32:

So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He didn’t spare his son but gave him up for us all. Won’t he also freely give us all things with him? (CEB)

Seek the sanctifying experience only, and you make Jesus your magician. Seek Jesus for himself, and you can’t help but be transformed at every level of your being.

Jesus, the Holy One, is our hope! May we preach a positive Christ, one who fills us with love for God and others. And may we always remember: We serve Jesus not for what he can do for us, though he does much. Rather, we serve Jesus because he is enough.

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Photo credit: Pinstripes and Pearls

reflections

Where did Bresee get his catchy phrase? And does it help?

Posted on October 13, 2013October 13, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

Last week, a Preacher’s Conference convened at Nazarene Theological Seminary. Though I was unable to attend, I caught my mind wandering back through the halls of NTS. Hanging on a wall in one of those hallways is a pencil sketch of Phineas F. Bresse, next to a framed quotation. Bresee, a key force behind the union of holiness groups in 1908 to form the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, cautioned:

“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; but in all things, love.”

I’m not sure why the administration chose to hang those wise words where everyone could see them. Maybe it was to prevent lively theological discussions from morphing into something toxic? Whatever the motivation, there is something I’ve since discovered: The words aren’t original with Bresee. In fact, a quick internet search shows lots of people past and present quoting them.

The original quotation was from Peter Meiderlin (1582-1651 CE), also known as Rupertus Meldenius, an obscure Germain theologian. Discussing whether the late divine Johann Arndt had been orthodox in his thinking, Meiderlin cautioned:

“In a word, were we to observe unity in essentials, liberty in incidentals, and in all things charity, our affairs would be certainly in a most happy situation.”

Apart from the origin of the phrase, it may be asked: Does it help?

As some have noted, it depends what parties to a conversation consider “essential” vs. “non-essential.” For example, some seem willing to fight to the death over whether God created the universe in 6 twenty-four hour days. Others are more flexible, allowing God whatever time frame necessary, even billions of years, as long as we affirm that God is the Creator. So, group 1 sees so-called “youth earth creationism” as essential to the whole structure of Christian faith, while group 2 decidedly does not.

Some light can be had when we look back through history to see what a group has judged to be “essential” vs. “non-essential.” In the Church of the Nazarene, we have never had a statement committing us one way or another on the timing of the return of Christ. Instead, we have always merely insisted that he will one day return. We’ve left the particulars up to individual conscience. On that issue, we have always embraced “wiggle room.” The onus then is on the group that wants to jettison history and change direction.

Though it makes the phrase less catchy, we might amend it to say:

“In what we’ve always thought essential, unity; in what we’ve always believed non-essential, liberty…”

When all is said and done, the best way to read Meiderlin’s phrase may be in reverse and with some modification: “In all things remember love, even as we discuss things some consider essential but others think are non-essential.” Our starting point is always love. Otherwise, tempers may flare and we may forget our first duty, to love our neighbor as ourselves. May love always be our watchword and song!

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Photo credit: Nazarene.org

reflections

False centers and restless hearts

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Gregory Crofford

A young man and woman on their first date were getting acquainted over dinner. He droned on for 45 minutes talking all about himself, never letting her get a word in edgewise. Finally, running out of things to say, he announced: “That’s enough about me. So, what do you think about me?”

We see in that story the self-centeredness that is the essence of sin. Martin Luther (1483-1546 AD) defined sin as in curvatum in se – the self turned in upon itself. It is the worldview where the “I” is the final truth, the ultimate reality that trumps the “we” of relationships. These relationships include the most important, that of the creature with the Creator, yet this relationship with God for the me-centered person is often weak, and may eventually be discarded altogether. This attitude refuses to acknowledge that “God made me,” and in its conceit concludes that “I made God.” God gets shelved next to Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, nice ideas for children, but hardly compelling for adults.

The self-centered worldview resembles humanity’s conception of the universe before the Polish mathematician, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543 AD). Earth was at the center, and the sun, moon, and planets revolved around the earth. Yet Copernicus calculated that rather than the Earth being at the center of the solar system, the Earth, moon, and planets revolved around the sun. With the sun at the center, mathematically, everything fell into place.

And herein lies a parable. There are three categories of people when it comes to God:

1. What sun? These are the new atheists. If the sun symbolizes God – “God is light; in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5, NIV) – for the atheist, no sun is necessary. Humanity is at the center, and humanity is enough. God does not exist.

2. The sun rotates around the Earth. Most people live out their lives with the “I” at the heart of existence. It is a solar system where the Earth (symbolizing self) is at the center, and the sun (God) and everything else revolves around the Earth. Many who bear the name “Christian” live out their lives this way. God becomes the servant in my lavish palace, bringing me my meals, doing my housework and laundry, making me comfortable. God exists for me; the Lord is my coping mechanism. The problem comes when God doesn’t show up for work. Disappointment with God may lead to me denying God’s existence altogether.

3. The Earth rotates around the sun. A minority of Christians undergo a “Copernican revolution.” They experience the “aha!” moment when it all clicks. They realize that God doesn’t exist for me; I exist for God. Their spiritual solar system is re-arranged, with Jesus now at the center. The Apostle Paul understood this, writing: “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28, NIV). Rick Warren knew this, too, opening his The Purpose Driven Life with these words: “It’s not about you.” And when we realize that, our lives are taken up into a Cause bigger than ourselves, producing the joy and peace that we can never know if we remain the center.

On the other hand, false centers always produce emptiness. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) observed: “Almighty God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” May the Lord open our eyes and give us the grace to make God the true center of our lives.

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