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Treat Them Like a Tax Collector: Reflections on Matthew 18, Church Discipline, and Andrew

January 26, 2012 in Church Ministry, Community, Culture, Early Church, Tim Geddert with 71 Comments

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Jesus offers a model for reconciliation in Matthew 18.15-17.  Often, these three verses are used for the opposite of this: alienation.  These words operate as a law in some settings, when in fact they are meant to give guidance toward restoring relationship.

Over the past few days, Matthew Paul Turner hosted a series of blogs (#1 & #2) about a guy named Andrew.  It was found out that he engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior and he was placed on church discipline.  After reading part 1 of the series, although I thought the rigidity of creating a church discipline contract was over-the-top, I didn’t know that the actions of the Mars Hill elders were worth fussing about.  After all, when a leader in the church acts in a way that is inappropriate, the way to restore them back to good standing is to raise the bar – so to speak.  We ought to invite people to repent and put their lives back on a good track – good for the people involved and good for the community of faith.

But, after hearing the second part of the story, I knew it was time for me to engage in the conversation.  This is what happened when it was all said and done: Continue Reading…

N.T. Wright on the Death Penalty and American Christianity

September 22, 2011 in Early Church, Fundamentalism, N. T. Wright, Politics with 32 Comments

Source: Trevin Wax

This comes from a short article in the Washington Post “On Faith:”

You can’t reconcile being pro-life on abortion and pro-death on the death penalty. Almost all the early Christian Fathers were opposed to the death penalty, even though it was of course standard practice across the ancient world. As far as they were concerned, their stance went along with the traditional ancient Jewish and Christian belief in life as a gift from God, which is why (for instance) they refused to follow the ubiquitous pagan practice of ‘exposing’ baby girls (i.e. leaving them out for the wolves or for slave-traders to pick up).

Mind you, there is in my view just as illogical a position on the part of those who solidly oppose the death penalty but are very keen on the ‘right’ of a woman (or couple) to kill their conceived but not yet born child… Continue Reading…

I’m Quitting Facebook to Join Faithbook Because My WWJD Bracelet Told Me To

June 20, 2011 in Community, Culture, Early Church, Evangelism, Holy Spirit, Kingdom of God, Missional, Nonviolence, Social Justice with 23 Comments

The end of the age has come.  No, not the rapture, but the end of Facebook.  There I said it… finished.  As of today, I am shutting down all Facebook communication.

“Why?” you ask.  I’ll gladly answer.

I’m convinced that the God revealed in Jesus desires that Christians avoid becoming convoluted by the world.  We Christians often look more like “world-lians” and today I’m done representing the wrong team.  As evidence of my sincerity, its “goodbye Facebook” and hello “Faithbook.”

I can hear it now.  Some of you are saying… “but Kurt, you have thousands of friends on Mark Z’s dorm room creation.  There’s no way you’re serious!”  Don’t believe me, check out this screenshot from my MacBook (Maybe some good soul will produce GodBook?): Continue Reading…

A Post for Passover! Exodus / Passover Motifs in the New Testament… “The Cups” (repost)

March 30, 2010 in Consummation, Early Church, Eucharist, Jewish Roots, Kingdom of God, Last Supper, New Creation, Passover, Theology with 9 Comments

Yesterday evening at sundown began the ancient festival of the Passover. As you may remember, this is the celebration that retells the story of the Hebrews being liberated from their bondage in Egypt. The theme of “exodus” is one that has often been overlooked by Christians, but is one that we must not ignore if we are going to read the bible “for all its worth.”

Below is a post that I did a year or so ago, when I began to do some research on the Jewish roots of our faith.
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ORIGINAL POST

I have been doing some thinking and study about Exodus/Passover motifs in the New Testament. One of the most obvious ones is found in the gospels when Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples. Most scholars agree that the Last Supper was shared by Jesus during a Passover meal or “Seder” (I am choosing not to go into the problem of John’s Gospel and the difficulty it presents to this theory, but am personally convinced that even the fourth evangelist’s account of Jesus can be brought into harmony on this issue).

Something that I recently learned is that Jesus did not drink the communion cup that we Christians associate with our celebration of Eucharist until after the dinner was complete. What this means is that this was the third cup of wine in the Passover meal of four cups. This cup is called the “cup of redemption.” The potential imagery of this is powerful Continue Reading…

Love Your Enemies… An Ethical Exhortation

March 2, 2010 in Early Church, Faith Journey, Nonviolence, Open Theism, Reconciliation, Sermon with 16 Comments

* What follows is based on a seminary assignment where we were encouraged to use the indicative (what God has done) to lead to an ethical imperative (what we can do). I wrote a mini-sermon or sermonette :-) It is very personal and a bit longer than the average post (about 1500 words), but I trust that if you take the time to read that thoughts will be moving. Love to hear your thoughts…

There once was a boy who lived in the tension between joy and pain; happiness and hurt; light and darkness. At an early age, his parents who loved him dearly, got a divorce. He would go on to live primarily with his mom and would visit his dad every other weekend. This happened at such an early age that the he did not know anything different. Having a family in tact only existed in his clouded dream-like memories, which he could not even confirm were more than mere dreams.

Around the time that this boy was getting ready to begin school, his mom began a relationship with another man. After all, she could use the financial stability that comes from some relationships, because she struggled to maintain a job and mostly relied on welfare. Soon after, this new man began to show his true colors of anger, alcoholism, and abuse. On a sporadic and yet regular basis, this man would beat the boy’s mom and would even take his rage out on this child. At home with mom and the man, this boy’s life became a constant nightmare that he never could seem to quite wake up from.

Now it is true that along side the pain, the boy also experienced joy. His dad, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and church gave him opportunities to know love. Unfortunately, the boy chose to keep these people in the dark because if such things came to light, he feared that his mom would get into trouble. He was protecting her. After all, she truly did love him and hated seeing her son get hurt, but she could not see a way of escape. Nevertheless, as he grew older he knew that a time would come when he would be strong enough, brave enough, and big enough to fight back. If this man, his greatest enemy, continued to make life hellish; a day of vengeance would come when the boy would be able to defend his mom.

There is a story in the bible that we don’t know much about. It comes from Genesis immediately after Cain has killed Able. You may remember that God has mercy on this murderer and makes known to all people that: “anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over” (Gen 4.15). After this, a character named Lamech enters the story and admits to having committed murder. He claims for himself what God had said about Cain: “If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times” (v 24). Notice that this story is a warning to the enemies of Lamech. Anyone who kills or tries to harm Lamech will receive vengeance 77 times worse. This is a story rooted in the idea of the fear of retaliation.

Now in the first century there was a man who taught about a way of God that was rooted not in vengeance, but forgiveness and love toward enemies. One day he was approached by a disciple named Peter who asked: “Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Up to seven times?” (Matt 18.21). Listen to Jesus’ rabbinic response: “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (v 22). Can you imagine how revolutionary his words would have sounded if you were a first century Jew for whom the story of Lamech was part of your heritage? You would be saying: so… in the same way that the story of Lamech claimed vengeance toward enemies, Jesus says that this is how often we ought to forgive our enemies! Wow! But we should remember that this is not the first time Jesus Continue Reading…

Exodus/ Passover Motifs in the New Testament… "The Cups"

January 29, 2009 in Consummation, Early Church, Eucharist, Jewish Roots, Kingdom of God, Last Supper, Passover, Theology with 11 Comments

I have been doing some thinking and study about Exodus/Passover motifs in the New Testament. One of the most obvious ones is found in the gospels when Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples. Most scholars agree that the Last Supper was shared by Jesus during a Passover meal or “Seder” (I am choosing not to go into the problem of John’s Gospel and the difficulty it presents to this theory, but am personally convinced that even the fourth evangelist’s account of Jesus can be brought into harmony on this issue).

Something that I recently learned is that Jesus did not drink the communion cup that we Christians associate with our celebration of Eucharist until after the dinner was complete. What this means is that this was the third cup of wine in the Passover meal of four cups. This cup is called the “cup of redemption.” The potential imagery of this is powerful when you consider that Jesus seemed to have not indulged in the fourth cup (reference in Mark 14.25) which appropriately is called “cup of consummation.” As Marvin Wilson states in his book, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith:
“The unfinished meal of Jesus was a pledge that redemption would be consummated at that future messianic banquet when he takes the cup and ‘drinks anew in the kingdom of God.’” (p 247)

What are your thoughts on the above “cup” image? What are some interesting and often overlooked connections of Exodus/Passover motifs that have inspired you?

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