THE RESURRECTION BRINGS THE NEW NORMAL

Some mornings I identify with the painting by Gary K Olsen of the contemplating Jesus looking over Jerusalem.  The painting is entitled O, Jerusalem.  When I listen to the local, national, and global news, I think that rampant sin and degradation is normal.  It seems that the norm in the  world is depravity.  Humanity’s penchant for gossip, lies, theft, deceit, violent assault, and war, harming others to the unimaginable point of murder and genocide, is readily seen over multiple millennia of sin and sorrow.  It seems that it has been that way from the very beginning.  If I dwell on the sad, “normal” state of humanity, I can really get down.  I sometimes turn off the news and stop reading the paper.  The only antidote to depression and pessimism is to remember the Good News.  I remember in view of eternity that  this sorry state of the world is not lasting.  In light of the cross and the resurrection, in the big picture of things, the sin of the world is not permanent nor normal.  Its abnormal.  We are created for a purpose and can be restored to the idea God had of us in the very beginning.

The Good News is that in Christ there is a new normal, an eternally new norm.  It is not only that “He is Risen,” but that therefore He makes possible all things new.  The cross and the resurrection make possible the way of holiness and righteousness.  They clear the way for repentance, reconciliation with God and with each other.  They set the stage for our regeneration (new birth; fresh start), and restoration to the likeness of Christ.  They make possible our ongoing spiritual formation, the shaping of the clay of our lives into vessels of service that can be filled with the perfect, holy love of Christ’s Holy Spirit and equipped for service all to the glory and praise of God.  This is the new normal.  It is the new norm sustainable throughout eternity.

The new norm for all Christians is that we be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that we live not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (Romans 8:1-8)  In the meantime, while the world still struggles with sin on a massive scale, we have God’s assurance of new life, a new heaven and a new earth.  We also have work to do in the spirit of a new normal, to love the Lord Our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind and others as well, and to make disciples until the Lord’s return. To do so is to honor God by living in His new normal established by the cross and His resurrection.  

He is risen!  Thanks be to God!

TELL US. WHAT'S OUR TELOS?

In the end we all have a telos.  Its been 3,000 years since Aristotle commented on the Greek word telos.  He said that a telos is an end state that guides all natural things.  We see telos in the laws of nature.  When a weight like a stone falls to earth it does so the same way.  It never varies.  It responds to the law of physics we call gravity.  That is its telos.  All forms of biological life grow and adapt to suit their habitat.  Growth is their telos.  As humans, like all biological life forms, our telos is physical growth, but we are also social, spiritual beings created for positive relationships with God and others.  We act for the benefit of others. We reciprocate.  We seek interpersonal fulfillment.  We love self and others. 

Love is our social and spiritual telos.  In spite of our fallen, sinful human nature, in the end we are made to love God, ourselves, and others.  But because of the sinfulness of human nature, it isn’t easy, especially given our fallen nature and others who are not very lovable.  In fact, we cannot love consistently and with a pure love without the help of God’s holy spirit.  The Bible speaks to us about the telos of love restored by the presence and indwelling of Christ in us through the Holy Spirit:

1. ·      We are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26,27)
2. ·      In Christ we are restored to the image of our Creator (Colossians 3:9,10)
3. ·      God is love (1 John 4:8)
4. ·      God has loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)
5. ·      God’s greatest expectation is that we love him, ourselves, and others in return (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37)
6. ·      By his dwelling within us, we can grasp the magnitude of God’s love and be filled with God’s love to the full (Ephesians 3:19)
7. ·      God can cleanse our hearts from sin and fill our hearts with pure, holy love after the likeness of his heart (Ps. 51:10).

The telos of a heart after the likeness of God’s own heart is not the ultimate end  A pure heart makes possible becoming like Christ, a suffering servant.  It makes possible loving others even when it is difficult and when loving the unlovable occasions sacrifice and suffering.  How do Nigerian Christians love their Muslim neighbors who burn down their churches and do even far worse.  How to Coptic Christians love and forgive their Muslim neighbors who do the same.How do Ukrainian and Russian Christians reachout and reconcile with each other. We could go on with a litany of anger, vengeance, and reciprocal hate over human history and across the world today.  However, the telos of a pure-hearted follower of Christ is to be a suffering servant whose loving character and nature means following in the likeness of the Suffering Servant.  

In the end, our spiritual telos is to bring glory to God.  In so doing, we make possible the ultimate end for which we were created, to bring glory to God.  This is the telos of a follower of Christ.

Now unto him . . . Glory!

Ephesians 3:20 & 21

A PRESIDENT WITH A PURE HEART?

With another presidential election on the horizon, what kind of president can you imagine hoping and praying be elected?  What kind of Congress or Judiciary of the Supreme Court might we desire?  Why do we seem to set the bar so low in our prayers for national leadership at the top?

Who wouldn’t want a president with a pure heart, a congress after the likeness of Christ, a judicial system guided the Holy Spirit in their interpretation of the Constitution, and a voting public that remembered that those who comprise positions of public office in their responsibility are still human and inclined to imperfection.  They need our prayers for spiritual maturity, purity of heart, and commitment to Kingdom priorities.

Let’s just take the first question about electing a president.  What would it mean to have a president with purity of heart?  William Booth, in his little book entitled Purity of Heart  (1902, pp. 11&12), generically gives us some answers we might remember when it comes to the U.S. presidency:

                  

     Purity of heart takes place when God acts on a              desire to have one’s heart cleansed from all sin              and made pure so that God will enter and dwell in        one’s soul.

     Although he or she may have a pure heart, they will      have to fight temptation.

     A pure heart is not a heart that cannot suffer                  heaviness.

     By a pure heart it is not meant a heart that cannot          sin.

     By a pure heart it is not meant any experience of          purity cannot increase in enjoyment, usefulness,            and power.

William Booth goes on to say some helpful things.  To paraphrase him, if the president were to pull the weeds out of his garden, the flowers and plants and trees would grow faster, flourish more abundantly, and become more fruitful.  Just so, in the president’s pursuit of a pure heart, Jesus Christ can purge the garden of his or her soul of envy and pride, and remove the poisonous plants of malice, selfishness, deceit and every other thing.  Then faith, peace, hope, love, humility, and courage, and all the other beautiful flowers in the garden of one’s soul would flourish in more charming beauty and more abundant fruitfulness. 

What would it mean to have a president with a pure heart in the oval office.  Would not the impact of such a pure heart of a president be radically transformational? His/her relationships with Congress and the judiciary would reflect his relationship with God.  His foreign policy would reflect his being wise as a serpent and yet compassionate where possible, firm but seeking understanding. He or she would be  a velvet covered brick.  Imagine the consequences for the nation and the world.  Unimaginable! (See Eph. 3:20)

Pray now for a future president whose heart is fully given over to God and who prays for the cleansing work of God now before seeking the highest office of the land.

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  
Psalm 51:10

THE PURE IN HEART

Jesus declared in his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)  As a child growing-up in the faith context of The Salvation Army, I learned a chorus that I still remember the tune.  At times, throughout the day, it comes to me as an enduring gift from God.  It goes like this:

Give me a heart like thine.  

Give me heart a like thine.

  By thy wonderful power, 

  By thy grace every hour,

   Give me a heart like thine.

Samuel Logan Brengle, in his classic work Helps to Holiness, his chapter entitled "The heart of Jesus" unpacks what the song writer likely meant when he penned the chorus above.  Jesus has a pure heart, a heart of pure, holy love.  Purity of heart is God’s essence, his nature, his character.  When the Bible says “God is love” it means not any kind of love, but holy love that characterizes the purity of his heart.  Brengle underscores Jesus having a loving heart, a humble heart, and a gentle heart.  He goes on to say, “It is just this kind of heart he wants us to have.”  But it is not just a heart that only teaches love, but lives out the purity of heart as love in action.

Martin Luther King grasped an understanding of purity of heart in action when he powerfully wrote, Strength to Love (1964) especially chapter four about the love of Jesus in action.  Citing Christs’s words on the cross, “Father forgive them . . . (Luke 23:34), King highlights the “marvelous expression of Jesus’ ability to match words with action.”  The words of our Lord’s teaching came from the purity of his heart, but he was not merely a good teacher or philosopher with a pure heart.  He was and is Savior and Lord who out of the purity of his heart bled and died on our behalf on the cross.  He acted on our behalf , and still does in the sending of the Holy Spirit.  He acted on our behalf and still does in his advocacy with God the Father for our forgiveness and salvation.  Today he acts on our behalf even now to restore us to his likeness in purity of heart.

Dr. Steve Seamand's, professor of Christian doctrine at Asbury Seminary, in his book entitled Holiness of Heart and Life (1990), writes “God’s holiness is manifest in his absolute purity.  God calls us to be pure.  Through his Spirit he can make us pure.  If we are willing, God can cleanse us from all our impurities and will cause us to follow him wholeheartedly (Ezekial 36:25-27).  Then he asks, “Will we hear his call to purity?  Will we receive his grace which can make us and keep us pure?  Will we be holy as God is holy?”

There is the useful life and the holy example that flow

from a pure heart, which will not only speak in favour

of God and holiness while you live, but shall go on influencing

the world long after you have passed on to your reward.

                 - William Booth, Purity of Heart (1902) -