"Beginning at the End..."

The end of the school year marks the beginning of opportunities, responsibilities, trials, joys, failures, and transformations--in short, it is the beginning of another season of life in which to witness and praise the steadfast love and faithfulness of our heavenly Father.

Plans for summer (James 4:13-17):
___1. Begin multiple class proposals. I want to propose Greek and theology courses for the STAR program. This means that I should think about 'how' and 'what' I should teach high school students... James 3:1 comes to mind.
___2. Continue to be rooted in my discipline (i.e. read books by prominent scholars [I am looking into John Webster], listen to lectures, read scholarly articles, etc.). I also have the opportunity to serve as a research assistant for one of my professors but I am not sure if I should make the time commitment...
___3. Look into graduate programs...I may attend Talbot and get a masters in OT or NT. Other options include: St. Vladimir's Seminary (NY); Catholic University of America (Washington DC); St. John's School of Theology (MN); St. Louis University (MO); Fordum (NY); Saint Andrews (Scotland); and the University of Aberdeen (Scotland).
___4. Take Apostolic Fathers: I am in an Apostolic Fathers course over this summer.
___5. Prepare for next semester: Read the Summa before school starts (haha!), read the Apocrypha, start a research paper for one of my classes next semester...get the syllabus for each class so I know what I am in for...then move forward.
___6. Most importantly, I want to become a better hearer of the Gospel and continue to deepen in intimacy with our heavenly Father. I have felt that I have grown increasingly selfish, proud, sad, angry, presumptuous, and unintentional. I look forward to learning how to worship God more deeply, hear His voice more clearly, and know the Gospel more fully. So, I will leave you with a quotation on the same topic:

"Rightly understood, spiritual care has a pedagogical character; but in service
to the gospel its only goal can be new and right hearing of the sermon.
Spiritual care does not want to bring about competence, build character, or
produce certain types of persons. Instead it uncovers sin and creates hearers of
the gospel." (Bonhoeffer, Spiritual Care, 32)

Although I would not say that spiritual care is entirely disinterested with being formed by God into being a whole and virtuous person, I would agree that its main purpose is to create hearers of the gospel. I hope that this summer we will learn to be better hearers of the gospel of our Savior. (One passage that I have been seeking to hear more fully is Matthew 25:31-46. What passage/verse/book have you been trying to hear more fully?)

I wonder... #22

I wonder...

How many people read the OT and subconsciously/implicitly think God is legalistic? Do our theological categories allow us to understand the Mosaic law in any other way?

Legalism has developed into a sort of trump card in Protestant circles and it has been used rather frequently (and I would say, 'recklessly') against tradition, structured liturgy, church government, dogma, etc. If any practice or view can possibly be called "legalistic" (that is, if its execution, premises, or conclusions can be easily misconstrued as "works based" salvation) it is not worth trying to understand on its own terms--however, there is often not much care put into defining legalism, let alone properly identifying it. In most of the cases I have seen, I think that the accuser conflates perfectly neutral things (i.e. tradition, dogma, etc.) with a legalistic motivation.

I wholeheartedly agree with Paul when he says that we are saved by grace through faith. Grace must remain grace ("But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." Romans 11:6)! Men are justified by faith alone--which is to say that no deeds will save a man or contribute to the atonement that Christ had made for our sins, or add to His righteousness. Yet, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, and the very nature of saving faith is that of a synergism between doctrinal confession and obedience (see James). Even Luther said that though we are saved by faith alone, faith alone is not saving faith.

So what is legalism? Where does it start?

How do you understand the law? Can you sing Psalms 1, 19, and 119 about the Torah without being legalistic?

(Really, I do want your opinions. How do you read the OT? How do you view the relationship between the NT and OT?)

Photography...

For your own enjoyment, here is a link to some of my brother's Photography...


..........now back to finals prep.

Chopin, "Marche funèbre"...

...is one of my favorite songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgw_RD_1_5I

I am starting to learn this piece right now, along with Fur Elise, Moonlight Sonata, and Prelude in E-minor Op 28 No 4. I have found that I enjoy Piano...I hope to take lessons over summer.

"A grace that is also judgment" -- Kittle

“For Paul ἱλαστήριον is not something which makes God gracious. This expiation for human sin presupposes the grace of God. For Paul even those who fall victim to the wrath of God are also set under His patience, kindness, and long suffering, Rom. 2:4. The ἱλαστήριον serves the revelation or the righteousness of God, cf. vv.25, 26: εἰς ἔνδειξιν, v.21: πεφανέρωται. But revelation and substitution are not antithetical. Revelation comes to men only as substitution is made. God in His righteousness reveals more than a patience which leaves sin unpunished, v.26. He also reveals a holiness which is at one and the same time both grace and judgment, which distinguishes between a sinner and his sin, which separates him from his sin, which brings him to a faith that is also repentance, i.e., self-judgment and true conversion. The revelation of a grace that is also judgment, and which establishes a faith that is also repentance, is no mere declaration of a transcendent attitude of God. It is a real fulfillment of grace and judgment on the human race. This demands, not only One to reveal God to the race, but also One to represent the race before God, to bear the divine judgment vicariously in order that the race might be brought thereby to self-judgment. A revelation without representation would be no more effective than the Law in terms of judgment. Hence it could not bring men true ἀπολύτρωσις. In this unity of the revelation of God to men and the representation of men before God, which really frees men from sin by self-release, redemption, and union with God, Jesus is ἱλαστήριον διὰ πίστεως ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι.”

Translation of the Greek:

ἱλαστήριον = “propitiation”
εἰς ἔνδειξιν = “in order to demonstrate/declare”
πεφανέρωται = “has been manifested”
ἀπολύτρωσις = “redemption”
ἱλαστήριον διὰ πίστεως ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι = “propitiation in His blood through faith”; Or, “a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith”

I wonder... #21

I wonder...
What does it mean that we are a family in Christ? More specifically, what does it mean that believers are "brothers" and "sisters"--being children of God? And what implications does this familial status in Christ have on cross-gender relationships? Further questions that then ought to be asked are: how much of our conception of being a "family in Christ" is influenced/defined by our relationships with our blood-siblings? And how much is our relationship with our blood-siblings influenced/defined by our culture's conception of family? What was the relational dynamic intended by the authors of Scripture when they describe believes as brothers and sisters?

The way I understand familial relations in Christ is shaped largely by my relationship with my younger sister, Nicole. She is my best friend. I am very open with her. We have conversations about Christianity, Philosophy, Art, etc. all the time. She critiques me, encourages me, challenges me, and I value our familial intimacy, striving on together to be like Jesus.

I admit that when Scripture says we are brothers and sisters in Christ, it probably does not have in mind the sort of familial intimacy that I have with my sister (how intimate were siblings in those times?...I cannot pretend to know). My view is perhaps the result of my own relational needs, desires, and expectations (being more introverted, contemplative, etc.). But I wonder if my view could be explained as a proper extension of the Biblical command to be brothers and sisters to one another.

I have been criticized, and confess rightly at times, that my "approach to cross-gender relationships (with such intimacy between men and women who are not blood-related) can severely hurt a woman." By getting to know a sister in Christ on terms that are "deep" without any intention to date her, I am said to be "leading her on" and not "guarding her emotional vulnerability." My conduct has been equated to women who (not being "sensitive" to their brothers in Christ) wear scant clothing.

However true this critique has been in the past, I think something is lost when we do not cultivate healthy, intimate, familial (i.e. non-romantic!) relationships between men and women in Christ. To be honest, it seems to me that "dating," "marriage," "Eros," etc., should not be our first thoughts or motives when talking with a Christian of the opposite gender, neither should believers simply engage on "surface" levels that never address the basis of their unity (i.e. Christ), which is the most intimate topic for any Christian.

What I think is lost by having such a polarized view of cross-gender relationships is a broader view of humanity and virtue. My views on love, gentleness, purity, meekness, etc. have been shaped by the women I have known. Also, many of my Christian sisters have served as sources of exhortation and encouragement in my life. Yet this only happened because I was engaged with them on terms that were not superficial, disengaged, but according to our identity in Christ.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with my approach (an approach I have actually been stopping for the past year-and-a-half), I think we can agree that whatever our relationships with Christians of the opposite gender are supposed to look like in Christ, they ought to be different from how we engage with the non-Christian of the opposite gender.

So my question is this: how do you view your brothers and sisters in Christ? Does your view go beyond how you look at your general acquaintances or friends who are not Christians? What is the difference? And does your view meet the biblical call to familial relations in Christ?

"All that is unsolved in your heart"--Rilke

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the question themselves...Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

I am not sure that I agree with the quote in its entirety, but I do think that it has truth to it (i.e. we must learn to be healthy inquirers and remember that we are not inquiring for inquiry's sake--rather we are inquiring so as to live joyfully and consistently with the truth. The point is to live humbly under the Lord, and part of a humble life is to realize that we are all learners before the infinite wisdom of God. We will never know all that there is to know and it would actually hurt us if we knew something before we were ready to live it out in humility before God. So here is the exhortation: do not be greedy for answers; live in paradoxes, questions, and tensions; live humbly, fearfully before the Lord your God as a student; and live out what you learn from both questions and answers.)