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Today was a strange day, and very thought provoking.  It started by seeing NT Wright deliver a sermon at Park St Church, which is celebrating its 200 year anniversary with guest speakers.  It ended at a wake of a grandmother.

NT Wright’s sermon was about hope.  He started out with a wonderful observation.  At the same time Paul was in prison writing to the people of Colossae another announcement was being sent out.  A young man, with some of the best education of his time, extremely popular with the people took office bringing a new hope to Rome.  This was the emperor Nero.  Although, we could easily change a word in that previous sentance to be much more applicable to our own time here in the United States.  Yet, where does our true hope lie.  Paul tells the people of Colossae not to trust in Nero - but rather Jesus

This topic of exile has, in my opinion, a valuable place in looking at the New Testament from a Christian perspective.  I don’t think it is the singular theme of the New Testament.  I don’t think any theme is particularly singular, if there was one, it could be the vindication of Jesus and those who are his.

I think it is a valuable topic because it ellucidates the historical actions of Jesus and John the Baptist.  Everyone, even those are led by God, acts in ways that are comprehensible to their context.  Understanding ‘exile’ gives a very rich meaning to these actions in the eyes of those who lived in that time. Without this understanding certain actions of Jesus and John become arbitrary in our eyes.

(Heb 1:6) And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

As far as I can remember, I have always viewed this verse as speaking of a future event.

But I have noticed that for some “reason”, some among our ranks have now changed their minds and see this verse as talking about the birth of Christ; and I simply can’t see why!!

The following is my reasons:

Now the context that I speak of is ‘The worship of Christ’ as shown in verses such as
Matt 2:2,8,11; 8:2, 9:18, 14:33, 15:25, 20:20, 28:9,17;
Mark 5:6, John 9:38, etc.

The meaning of the word “worship” in relation to Christ using the words ’shachah/proskuneo’ has been nicely explained in articles such as

by Mark E. DeYoung

The Isolated Members Ministry (IMM) is a project of the Church of God General Conference that seeks to identify and minister to people with a tie to the Church of God and its teachings who do not live near to any congregation holding to these truths.

The IMM’s Case Statement is:
“There have always been a significant number of isolated members that share a like precious faith and common heritage with the Church of God. They have spiritual needs that cannot all be met by churches of other denominations that may be in their area. The Isolated Members Ministry purpose is to identify isolated members of the Church of God, discover their needs, and develop strategies for meeting those needs. The Isolated Member Ministry invites pastors and churches join with the IMM to seek out and bless the lives of isolated Church of God people.”

Hebrews 3:12 & 13 (NASB)
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

The Gospel story is so significant because it has real power.  When Paul writes in Rom 1.18 that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation he is right on.  A story, about what God is going to do, about Jesus and what he did, and about you is God’s power.  Why?  Because that Story has the ability to change reality here and now.  More and more I am realizing that God’s salvation is less and less about the future date in which Jesus will separate goats and sheep.  Why is that true?  Because the goats and sheep are already manifesting themselves today.  We should already know, by our actions, which side we are on.  God’s salvation is not an ethereal concept!  Go and tell the Jews who walked across dry land fleeing the Egyptians that God’s salvation is a feeling in your heart.  They would laugh at you.  Tell David who God saved from Saul an seated as the King of Israel about this ethereal salvation.  No salvation is to be found today.  Today is the day of salvation.  We find it when God enters our life and changes us, all the way around, from the power of sin to the power of life.

I’ve been struggling a bit to figure out exactly how to express this idea about Story. I use a capital ‘S’ to denote the concept of Story, not a particular story or stories. Interrelated to this idea of Story is Symbol. Symbols are attached with a huge meaning, a story. For example
This piece of art has become a symbol of an entire time period, artistic and cultural shift in the modern western world. If an image is worth a thousand words, a symbol’s worth cannot be counted in words. Another example is the Crucifix. It stands for Jesus’ death, passion, atoning work, and suffering, in addition to his resurrection, ascenscion, an identity for all Christian peoples of all time and worldwide. I could clearly go on. The Crucifx embodies a very specific and solid story, whereas Warhol’s Campbells soup cans is a little more fluid, but still evokes a meaning, especially to those in the art or cultural studies. So why is story important? Because story is a fundamental building block to how we ‘know’ things.

I came across this quote from Karen’s email list a little while back (she sends quotes each day):

The devout student is the best of all students. There are too many who are devout, but not students. They will not accept the discipline of study and of learning, and they even look with suspicion upon the further knowledge which study brings to men. There are equally too many who are students, but not devout. They are interested too much in intellectual knowledge, and too little in the life of prayer and in the life of service of their fellow men. A man would do well to aim at being not only a student, and not only devout, but at being a devout student.
–William Barclay

I just came across this incredible resource for learning New Testament Greek. The site features an animated guy who teaches Greek using a pretty fancy interactive web interface. I’m not sure how good it is from the perspective of someone who has never had exposure to Greek, but it looks like it starts from the very basics and go right through all of the grammar and vocabulary basics.

Here is the link if you are interested.

I would also like to mention that Karl has done a basic Greek course and it is available online as well. The advantage of Karl’s is that he uses modern pronunciation which may be helpful if you decide to transition to modern Greek later on (or if you just want to impress the waitress at the diner).

Last weekend we held an evangelism conference at Living Hope Community Church in upstate NY. During the conference we focused on what the biblical gospel is and how to speak the gospel of the kingdom and the cross to a world in desperate need. The weekend included teachings, an interactive video workshop, role playing, and an evening out at the park. We wanted to provide an opportunity for those who wanted to try out what they had learned while at the same time not forcing anyone who wasn’t ready to do evangelism. Fortunately a good number of people did speak to people at the park and we had a wonderful time discussing these encounters as well as some related questions regarding evangelism in general Saturday night. The teachings from the conference are now available for free download.