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!

The Bible

Above is The Gutenberg Bible of 1455, the first printed Bible.

The Bible

Now here’s a big subject!

How big?

66 books

39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament

1,189 chapters

31,173 verses (this varies slightly from translation to translation)

Over 40 different authors

Covering over 2000 years of history

With all that bigness you might be surprised that the word “Bible” means, “little books.” The Bible is a library of little books. Another surprising thing is that these 66 little books, covering over 2000 years of “holy history,” have many common themes running through them - God’s love, forgiveness, covenant, God’s expectations of us, the Messiah, praise, prayer and justice, just to name a few.

As you probably know, the Bible is divided into two major sections - the Old Testament and the New Testament. The word “testament” is an old term for “covenant,” which is a binding, loving partnership between two parties, in this case, between God and the Jews, and between God and all humanity.

Here are some contrasts between the Testaments:

The Old Testament covers about 1600 years of history: 2000 B.C. - 400 B.C.
The New Testament covers about 95 years of history: 3 B.C. - 90s A.D.
(Jesus was probably born 3-5 B.C. When they first figured it out they made a mistake. So Jesus was born “B.C.,” literally ahead of his time!)

The Old Testament is the story of God and the Jews/Israelites/Hebrews.
The New Testament is the story of Christ and his Church.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the language of the Jews.
The New Testament was written in Greek, the international language of the First Century.

The Old Testament is about a specific people and their land.
The New Testament is about a Gospel for the whole world.

The Old Testament is a partnership with God based on obeying God’s expectations, expressed in Torah, the Laws of God recorded in the first five books of the Bible.

The New Testament is a partnership with God based on faith and grace, expressed to us so clearly in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

Reading the Bible
If you haven’t read the Bible in a while I wouldn’t suggest trying to read it from cover to cover. You’ll probably quit in Leviticus; trust me. Instead, read some of the more important books (Yes, not all Bible verses are created equal). Perhaps start with one of these: Genesis, the Psalms, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, and James.

And read the Bible devotionally. By that I mean, read it until you find something you can pray into your life. Then stop, think about it, then pray about it.

Here’s a thought: The Bible is a love letter from God to humanity.

Prayer: Loving God, thank you for the Bible, which reveals your ways, your will and your heart. Help me to grow in my knowledge of this sacred, holy Book. Amen.


Extra Credit:

There are great Study Bibles out today. My favorites are these:

The Life Application Bible
The NIV Study Bible
The Quest Study Bible


Chapter and Verse:

To make it easier to study, the Bible was divided into present-day chapters by Stephen Langton about 1200. Verses were separated and numbered by Robert Stephanus in 1557.

The longest verse in the Bible contains 81 words. It’s Esther 8:9:

“Then the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language."

On the other end of the scale are the two shortest verses in the Bible consisting of only two words:

Job 3:2 - “He said.”

John 11:35 - “Jesus wept.”

The Beatitudes

Jesus spoke the Beatitudes during his most famous message, The Sermon on the Mount. They’re found in Matthew 5 and Luke 6. They describe virtues and experiences that are especially blessed by God. William Barclay puts it this way:

“The greatness of the Beatitudes is that they are not wistful glimpses of some future beauty; they are not even golden promises of some distant glory; they are triumphant shouts of bliss for a permanent joy that nothing in the world can ever take away.”

Let’s take a look:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Thought for the day: The Beatitudes express a present spiritual reality.
Question: Which is your favorite Beatitude, and which one do you struggle to understand?
Prayer Suggestion: Take one of the Beatitudes and meditate upon it, repeating in your mind allowing each word to speak.


Church of the Beatitudes is located near the site where it's believed that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, just north of the Sea of Galilee.

Extra Credit:

Below are the Beatitudes from “The Message” Translation by Eugene Peterson:

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

Atonement

At its core Christianity seeks to answer this question: how can I be reconciled to God?

It’s a legitimate question. How can I as an imperfect, flawed mortal approach the Infinite and Holy One? How can we as spiritual descendants of Adam & Eve, prone like them to rebel against God’s ways, find our way back to Eden and walk again in harmony with God?

Christianity answers this question with the concept of Atonement. The meaning of the word is apparent within itself: “at-one-ment.” How can we be at one with God? How can we be reunited with our Creator? Christianity's answer: through the Atonement found in the life and death of Christ.

I Peter 3:18 - “Christ died for our sins, once and for all, in order to bring us to God.”

In this act of unconditional love, God has swallowed up our sins, and has therefore made us one with our Creator once again. “Christ died for our sins in order to bring us to God.” That’s something we can never totally understand this side of heaven - how God reconciled us by the Cross. But we can let the sacrificial love shown at the Cross do its work and bring us to God.

There’s a theory about the Cross that CS Lewis liked. It’s called the “Moral Influence” theory. Brian McLaren describes it this way:

“The cross demonstrates Jesus’ self-giving, his complete abandonment to God’s will, his complete self-devotion for the sake of the world. Jesus’ death completes the whole message of his life; he makes visible the self-giving love of God. When that sacrificial love touches us, we are changed internally . . . so that we want to stop being selfish, and we want to join God in self-giving, beginning with giving ourselves back to God, and leading us to give ourselves to our neighbors and the world, too. It’s as if Jesus invites us into his self-giving. He gives himself to God, for the sake of the whole world, and he invites us into his devotion, both to God and for the world.” (From The Story We Find Ourselves In, p. 105)

Thought: Christ did what we could not do ourselves - reconcile us to God.
Question: The Cross is the symbol of our faith. What is your understanding of the meaning and mystery of the Cross?
Prayer: Thank You, Loving God, for reuniting us to Yourself, through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Amen.

“We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. - I John 2:1b-2