Nathanael Szobody

Living Poles…?

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“They shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.”

This is the heart of God! This is the promise and hope that is set before the people of Israel time and again as he gives them his covenants, laws, and provisions for a relationship with him. Did God not originally create the garden of Eden to dwell with he people, to walk and talk with them in the cool of the garden as they abided in his rest? Sin entered the world, the abiding ceased, and humanity was cast out of the garden.

The drive of all that God reveals to us is his ardent desire to be present with his beloved creation! In Colossians 1 it is written that all things were created through Christ and for Christ, and that in him the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, that through him he might reconcile to himself all things. All things! The cry of God’s heart is heard over and over; he wants complete reconciliation with his creation that he might be present with us, his people.

In I Peter it is written that we are living stones, being built up into a dwelling place for God founded on the corner stone of Christ Jesus himself! This is the mystery that is spoken of in the book of James when he writes that in Christ the walls of division are broken down to make one people for himself. He makes peace by his blood, again, Colossians 1, and this peace is a dwelling place built for himself…out of us!!

The mystery is that we are miserable sinners, divided and at odds with God (Romans 2) but that by his blood we are redeemed, bought back, and made beautiful for him in every good work.

Take the picture of the Tabernacle. God told Moses to take acacia wood to make almost all of the larger objects in the Tabernacle and the poles that held it together. As we think of ourselves as the dwelling place of God, we may like to think of the altar, the holy place, the lampstand, or any other beautiful, special object in the meeting place. But according to I Peter, we should see ourselves as the rudimentary elements that hold the dwelling together as we suffer for one another. In this case, we are the poles that are used to build and hold the Tabernacle up.

God told Moses to take the poles of acacia wood that had been made and overlay them with gold. What a beautiful picture of the righteousness of Christ! There is the image of the tree that keeps on popping up in scripture. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the burning bush, the tree on which Christ hung, the use of the image of a tree to describe us, his people, as a tree that should bear good fruit, etc. The image is of humanity, created essence, that God nourishes and cultivates so that it produces good fruit. Or in the case of the judgement of sin it is the human flesh which must die and be destroyed in order for the spirit to rise to new life. It is also our humanity that God clothes in his righteousness that we might produce fruit in every good work for him. This is the image that the poles in the Tabernacle should evoke. We are “living poles” if you will, holding up the Tabernacle. Not because we are special or innately deserving, but because we were chosen by the master designer and builder of this heavenly kindom. We were made straight and true by his loving sacrifice and overlaid in the gold of his righteous life through his ressurection from the dead to be useful and beautiful as we serve in his house!

The Plurality of Religions

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The debate of religious plurality usually takes place between the Exclusivists, who believe there is only one way to God, and the Pluralists, who believe there are many paths to God.

I agree with the fundamental observation of the Pluralists: all religions are an expression of the same spirituality. But I believe this spirituality is bankrupt of eternal life, thus the unending “search” for salvation.

The language that the Exclusivists use has a problem. They argue that there is only one religion by which one can get to God. I disagree. I understand religion as the practical application of one’s spirituality. To say that a religion is the way to get to God, i.e. be spiritually connected with the Creator of the universe, is to put the cart before the donkey. Rather, the exclusivist should show how there is only one solution to a universal spiritual problem (that people are seperated from any spirituality that can give eternal life) and thereby expound on the religious ramifications.

Since God is perfect and infinite, then all human efforts to get to him, physically and spiritually, are in vain. Only if God himself transcends the practice of religion, fulfills its requirements (essentially, takes that issue off the table) and gives his spiritual life to us, is there any hope, then, of eternal life or salvation.

If the issue were how to get to God, then the debate could continue infinitely. But that is not the issue; the issue is: “Has God come to humans in any way?” If he has, then clearly it is only through the way in which he has chosen to do so that salvation can be found, and religious activity can take on an optimistic character based not on trying to reach God, but on the fact that he has reached humanity.

“All These Things We Will Do”

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Sound familiar? These are the words of the Hebrew people when God gave them his law.

He told them to keep the Feast of Harvest and Unleaven bread to remember God’s faithfulness in bringing them out of Egypt, that is, bondage. He gave them several laws governing social life. He told them that when they were to come into the promised land they were to completely destroy the people in it. Because these peoples were not God’s chosen people, they worshiped idols and would certainly drag the Israelites into sin if they were not destroyed. When the people heard all these instructions they said “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.”

Only a short while before,when God was giving the Ten Commandments to Moses and there was a great cloud around the mountain with thunder and lightning, they pleaded with Moses not to let God speak to them, because they were sure they would die if he did.

And weren’t they right? Isn’t the law which God gives exactly that which shows us our sin and condemns us for it? The Israelites were headed for the promised land. This land is a picture of Jesus, the “new creation”. God creates so that he may fill that creation with a relationship with his people. But in order for that to happen we have to abandon the life of sin. What the people saw in the mountain and heard in the law is what we see on the cross: God’s absolute abhorence of sin and uncompromising punishment of it. They rightly feared God’s wrath, for they were a sinful people.

This is shown so clearly in that even when they did inherit the promised land they did not follow God’s instructions to drive out the pagan nations. Even after the law was given, sacrifices were made for their sins, and they had entered into the land of promise and been given a temple where God dwelled among them, they failed to drive out all the pagans and were eventual seduced by their godless living.

Have we also lost the fear of God? Have we forgotten the wrath of God poured out on the cross? If we disregard this life of God’s presence given to us as we are made part of the new creation and do not live according to the mercy given, what else is there for us? How else are we to be saved? Of course we haven’t rejected the truth of God’s word, the message of the gospel, but we also fail to live in it. We have found it easier to make a truce with the hidden sins of thought and habit than to drive them completely out of the land. We say “well they are conquered, under control” but they are not destroyed. What is not destroyed eventual overtakes.

What does it mean to say “All these things we will do”? Certainly we are like the Israelites: we fail. We have failed and continue to. But it’s not just God’s wrath that’s on the cross, it’s his wrath toward us. Why did the Israelites fear? Because they knew in their hearts that they were already guilty of breaking the law that he gave. But what they didn’t know was that the guilt was payed for. Oh they were taught it through allegory in making the blood sacrifices, but most did not have faith in the promise of salvation and so were lost.

We know we are saved, we know that our salvation is sure because Jesus has died and rose again and has given his life to us, and yet, there can be no basis for knowing this is ours if in our practical every day living we are not being vigilant to do all the things the LORD has spoken. Search the hidden sin and tremble before the the mighty God who knows and condemns all sin. For this is repentence. Without the fear of God there is no true repentance and therefore not true salvation. Salvation came through the death of him who knew no sin and yet became sin for us. So now, actively seek to die to yourself and drive out mercilessly every weight and hindrence that would keep you from striving toward the prize of eternal rest in his presence.

Christ of Egypt, the Gift of Thanksgiving

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When Moses and the Hebrew people had followed God’s command and been spared the deaths of their firstborn in the worst and final plague that God brought upon the Egyptians, God instituted two festivals: the Passover and the Feast of Unleaven bread. He also instituded a ritual that was to be practiced throughout the entire year: the sacrifice of the first-born. As it is explained in Exodus 13:11-16:

11 “When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12 you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord’s. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt” (ESV).

The celebration of salvation brought by the sacrificial lamb at passover was given once a year to remind the people of how God had delivered them From Egypt. The feast of Unleaven Bread was celebrated once a year to remind them of what God had delivered them from: the sin of Egypt which puffs up. Yet the response of God’s people in gratitude for all that he had done for them was to be practiced the entire year.

The first born animal, the first fruit of the season, and the first born of a man’s children are all the best a man can give. As sinners we were lost and enslaved in sin–in our Egypt. But the blood of the lamb which covers the sin of the all who believe has delivered us from that Egypt and made us a people, set free from bondage. That sin which holds us down demands all that we are, for we have rejected the life of God. All that is left is the shell of the flesh, enslaved to sinful passions. So what is the best we can give? We are unfulfilled, and slaves to our unfulfillment. For this reason it was the “first born of all creation” who came from heaven to give up his life. Not that Christ was incarnate before his birth, but that he is the greatest of all creation for he is God, veiled in human flesh.

We celebrate his death and resurrection for our deliverence from sin on various occasions throughout the year. But the reason that we were saved, the reason that Christ delivered us from Egypt, is so that we might enjoy abiding in him at all times, in all places. This means that we don’t need to keep pursuing the things on this earth that seem so promising, but yeild so little. We can celebrate the Feast of Unleaven Bread, for when we abandon the leaven of pride in possession and ability, we can truly feast on the fulfilling bread that came down from heaven: our Christ, the one who delivered us from Egypt and now gives himself to us for our spiritual nourishment.

This feast is the enjoyment of the life of Jesus Christ. He sacrificed his life so that we, being filled with the gratitude of his gift, would in turn sacrifice our own lives for his glory. Thanksgiving is the one thing that we are called to do in every moment of every day. This thanks is not just lip service, or even a constant ‘feeling’ of gratitude, but an active giving of the best that we have. Christ gave all that he is for us, and in thanksgiving we give all that we are for his use. Nothing we have is worthy of him; but thankfully he does not demand what he has not given. He never has. He has only desired that we give back to him the best of what he pours into our lives.

The Life of the Liturgy

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By Aaron Schian

He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.

–Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation

In the liturgy God gives to us sacramentally and we receive these heavenly treasures in faith. The liturgy after the liturgy is our vocations where we give ourselves sacrificially to our neighbor in love. Our vocations leads us to forgiveness which is found in the liturgy and the liturgy leads us to our calling in our vocations and so the two are connected.

Faith receives the gifts from God in the liturgy and then takes on flesh and bone to serve our neighbor in love. Here a relationship is established between the liturgy and vocation that gives us an understanding of how God’s sacramental relationship with us leads us to a sacrificial relationship with our neighbor. The hinge between liturgy and vocation is Luther’s post communion collect: “We give thanks to thee, Almighty God, that thou hast refreshed us through this salutary gift; and we beseech Thee that of Thy mercy Thou wouldst strengthen us through the same in faith toward Thee and in fervent love toward one another.”

Faith and Evolution

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Evolution is proposed as the governing dynamic of the universe. It is supposed to explain both the micro- and macrocosmic origin and development of life. Even if this is not said to be a religion or faith, it is a world view and cultural perspective. We should approach it as such.

Whether the beliefs of animists are religious or cultural matters little when comparing them to Christianity; so also with evolution. If we are considering only the philosophy of religion in general, and comparing different philosophies of various religions, then evolutionists have already excluded themselves from the discussion: they contend that their teachings are not religious. They have disqualified themselves from making any statement concerning the truth of any religion; it is outside their realm of study.

If, however, we are examining all belief and teaching in light of our own religious perspective, then we should treat the theory of evolution as we do the teachings of Islam, Buddism, animism or any other worldview. We examine the basis for the belief, examine the observable facts, and come to a conclusion consistent with our spiritual interpretive framework.

We must define the parameters of discussion. If evolution is not a religion, then let the theory of evolution be proved or disproved by what is observed to be occurring today. If it is a faith, then let the fruit of that faith be compared to the fruit of the love of the body of Christ, founded in the literal interpretation of scripture as the interpretive framework for all of reality.

Blood, Death and Suffering

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As mortals we fear death. Death is the end of what we define as life, the end of the known, and therefore terrifying. We try to reconcile ourselves to the idea that we all must die, but we rarely ever come to a sense of peace about it until, perhaps, our last moments.

Next to death, we fear suffering. All that we pursue in life

Fideism

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All humans are subjective beings. There does not exist within the scope of human experience anything purely objective, for all creation is fundamentally relational, and all humans are personally and emotionally relational.

Reason is not objective. It is the part of a person which can operate almost entirely apart from emotion, but it is not purely objective. Its nature is however a constant among mentally healthy humans and is, therefore, universal

Being Shrewd With Our Money

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The Parable of the Dishonest Manager, in Luke 16, is an unusual one, in that Jesus is not giving an example of how one should act, or on the nature of the kingdom of heaven, but he is giving and example of how the people of this world are shrewd with their money. His point is not to tell us to do as the manager did–it was a dishonest thing! He is telling us that we should be just as shrewd with our money in the practice of good. When his point is learned, it brings great freedom!