Christ

Christ isn’t his last name. “Yes, Mr. Christ, we have a table for 13 right over here.”

Christ is a title. It means Messiah, literally, “the anointed one.”

This explains why you sometimes see the order reversed in the New Testament. Sometimes he’s called, “Christ Jesus.” He’s Messiah Jesus.

Jesus clearly claimed to be the Messiah, the long-awaited Savior. At the end of Luke’s Gospel he says, “Thus it is written that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:46). When he asks his disciples that poignant question, “Who do you say that I am?,” Peter responds, “You are the Christ” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus affirms his answer, “My Father in heaven has revealed this to you.” At his trial the high priest asks him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus answered plainly, “I am.”

Many in Jesus' day were looking for a political Messiah, one who would cast out the Romans and restore Israel to its greatness. Jesus rejected this notion when he said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.”

One of the greatest statements about the work of the Messiah is found in the words of the Samaritan woman at the well. She says to Jesus, “I know that the Messiah (“Christos” in Greek) is coming and he will explain everything to us” (John 4:25). She expressed the idea that the Messiah would be a fresh revelation of divine truth. And indeed he is.

Here’s a thought: Jesus, the Messiah reveals the truth about the invisible God.

Prayer: Thank You, Holy God, for making yourself known to us in Jesus, the Messiah. Amen.


Extra Credit:

One ancient symbol for Christ is the "chi-rho." The letter chi in the Greek alphabet is symbolized by an X and translates to "ch." The Greek letter rho looks like our letter "p." So the "chi-rho" is really just the first three letters of Christ, C-h-r. It just looks cooler.

The Canon Controversy

We love controversy. Controversy tantalizes, engages and sells. It’s no different with a subject so potentially dry as the Canon of the Bible. Dan Brown based a large part of his mega-selling novel The Da Vinci Code on a supposed controversy with the church politics that he claims surrounded the process of selecting the books that made it into the New Testament. While Brown’s book had an air of intellectualism and scholarship, it was actually quite uninformed at best, and deceptive at worst. I’ll just take it for what it is, a work of fiction.

The word “canon” originally meant “measuring rule,” hence the meaning, “standard.” It refers to the officially recognized books of the Old and New Testament, the books received as divinely inspired and therefore authoritative for faith and life.

A Second Century Canon

While it’s true that the final list of the canonized books of the New Testament occurred in the 4th Century, it’s also true that the earliest Christian writers recognized the authority of all the 27 eventually canonized books. One important document is the Muratorian Canon of the 2nd Century, perhaps as early as 120 o 130 AD. It contains 22 of the eventual 27 New Testament books. Certain books like Hebrews and Revelation were debated for some time. (If you’ve read Revelation, you understand why!)

Further Evidence of Early Recognition
I wrote in an earlier entry about the fragment of John’s Gospel (see “Apologetics”) found in Egypt that dates to 125 AD. This finding (for one of the Gospels to have made it all the way to Egypt) tells us that John’s Gospel was considered authentic and authoritative very early in the life of the church. Further evidence is found in I Timothy 5:18, where the Apostle Paul (who died in 66-67 AD) quotes Matthew’s Gospel and calls it “scripture.” Again, this is very early evidence of another Gospel being deemed authoritative within the First Century itself! Another striking verse is 2 Peter 3:15-16, where Peter refers to Paul’s letters and calls them “scripture.” So, it was very early in the history of the church that Christians recognized authoritative, reliable and inspired scripture.

What about other “Gospels”?
You’ve probably heard of the Gnostic Gospels. We know from the writing of the early “Church Fathers” the names of some 40 different “gospels.” About a dozen of these have survived (Bruce Metzger, The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content, p. 100). Folks like Dan Brown love to suggest that these books were left out of the New Testament for fear of their content and as a power play within the early church. The Gnostic “Gospels” and others were excluded for several reasons, according to the foremost New Testament scholar of our time, Princeton Seminary Professor Dr. Bruce Metzger (next time you open an NRSV Bible take note at who wrote the introduction. If you’re writing the introduction to the Bible, you’re having a good career). Metzger states that the earliest Christians utilized the Gospels that had some connection to one of the apostles as well as the books that were widely accepted throughout Christendom at the time. The Gnostics Gospels were not widely known, read or accepted within the early church. They date from the 2nd to 4th Centuries, thus written long after the authoritative Gospels. They also present a very different “gospel,” where salvation is based on some “secret knowledge,” instead of salvation through faith in Christ as the New Testament contends. As Metzer says, “no one excluded them from the Bible; they excluded themselves” (p. 101).

Question: Does trustworthiness in the canon of the Bible really matter?

Here’s a thought: The foundations of our faith were not based on church politics but rather on reliable accounts of Jesus’ teachings and other books and letters deemed authoritative and inspired by the earliest Christians.

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for those who wrote and preserved our scriptures, which reveal to us so beautifully your ways and your love. Amen.

Extra Credit:

What do the Catholics have more books in their Bible?

Here’s the short answer: Protestants utilize the canonized books from the Jewish Bible, the Hebrew version of the Old Testament. The Roman Catholic Church accepts the canonized books from the Latin Vulgate version of the Old Testament. This version contained 15 more books, known as the Apocrypha, written in the 3rd - 1st centuries, BC. These books were never canonized by the Jews.

The "E" Word

Now here’s a scary topic - Evangelism.

How do we as modern, mainline, polite, accepting, tolerant Christians do evangelism? The answer . . . . . very carefully. Let me make two suggestions:

1. We don’t impose our faith.
We expose our faith.
Obviously we don’t ever want to force our religion on anyone. Instead we reveal our faith to others by speaking naturally about our faith.

“I got through it with a lot of support and a lot of prayer.”
“My church is putting on a great musical next weekend.”
“My church is a fun place to be and it helps me spiritually."
“I will keep you in my prayers. God bless you."
"I love my church. I feel close to God there.”
"I served at Cor Unum last night. It was an amazing experience. Want to join me next time?"

Romans 1:16 says, “I am not afraid of the gospel.” Don’t be afraid to let others know you’re a practicing Christian and that your faith is important to you.

2. We believe in Invitational Evangelism.
We simply invite people to faith, to church, to discipleship. At my first church there was a man named Bob who was responsible for at least 5 people joining the church. He did so with one simple sentence, “Hey, Joe, I’d like to invite you to my church this Sunday?” And it worked. Wasn’t this Jesus’ method as well? “Come, follow me.”

Question: Who do I know who just might come to church if I pop the question?

Prayer: God, help me to let the light of my faith shine to others, and give me the courage to invite others to come along on this journey of faith. Amen.

Lent

Have you ever heard of the “Rolaids Robber”? His name was R.A. Mortland, from Hennepin, Minnesota. Mr. Mortland clearly found his work too stressful. You see, he robbed convenience stores, eight to be exact. He got his nickname because he would often ask the store clerks for antacid tablets while he was waiting for them to hand over the money. He needed antacid because of the stress of doing what was wrong. I wonder if he ever made that connection?

Lent is about making that connection. It’s about prayerfully searching our lives for the things that don’t belong, things that diminish our joy, harm our relationships and weaken our spirituality. So if we’re to give up anything for Lent it’s this - sin. The New Testament word for sin, hamartia, means, “missing the mark.” It’s an archery term for landing short of the target and missing the bulls eye. One confession of sin puts it well. It’s “living by less than the best we know.”

This is why we need Lent. Because we need the practices of prayerful reflection, confession and repentance. We need religious practices that start with the heart. It’s the Control Room of our lives, that place where decisions are made, values are held or not, where love reigns or doesn’t. God can see in there quite clearly. It takes us a bit more work. That work is Lent.

So skip the Rolaids, Let’s have Lent instead.

Here’s a thought: Sin is living by less than the best we know.

Question: Instead of giving up something for Lent, is there a spiritual practice you can add? Read a book of the Bible or another devotional book? Practice meditating on a scripture? Making sure to say grace before meals? Skipping the afternoon trip to the coffee shop and giving an extra gift for those in need?

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for the season of Lent. May it be for us a time of honest, fearless soul-searching and gracious transformation by the presence and power of your Spirit within us. Amen.


Extra Credit:
Lent is 40 days long. There are 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, not counting Sundays. 40 as you may know is an important number in the Bible.
A. In the days of Noah it rained for 40 days & 40 nights.
B. In the days of Jonah God gave Niniveh 40 days to change their ways.
C. When the Israelites were wandering through the wilderness for 40 years, Moses sent out spies to explore the Promised Land. Their expedition lasted 40 days.
D. Moses spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai to prepare to receive the Ten Commandments.
E. Following his Baptism Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, preparing for his ministry.
F. And following his Resurrection, guess how many days Jesus spent with his disciples before he ascended to heaven? Yup. 40.

So let’s trust that God will do something powerful and wonderful in our lives over these 40 days!