taking the war out of ‘worship wars’

I heard Matt Olson’s gracious resignation talk after the NIU board asked him to step down. So blessed to see a man who has been under fire from harsh critics respond in a gentle way and then to put the focus off himself and on God.

There were several things he said that are worth remembering. Here is one that sticks with me. I did a word wall of it since it is good for many other difficulties in life beyond his own at the moment.

pic background available through demilked.com

You may have noticed that the word ‘unexpected’ is in a similar color as the words ‘worship’ and ‘praise’ and ‘thank.’ The ‘unexpected’ starts out darker and duller, but as we direct our focus toward God and away from ourselves our actions and attitude shift from remorse or grief to the joys of being in God’s presence.

I am reminded how often I fall short of this. Right, left or middle – wherever we stand on these issues – this response proves that we can navigate our differences with grace.

President Olson’s response to his dismissal shows he sees a higher value in grace over gotcha. And for that matter, the NIU Board shows grace by giving President Olson the chance to freely speak his parting words to their students. Most dismissal situations like this are often well choreographed or restricted to avoid further collateral damage, but this looks quite unusual in its gentle tone and ethos.

The text that serves as President Olson’s anchor is Romans 11:33-36:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom

and knowledge of God!    

How unsearchable his judgments,    

and his paths beyond tracing out!

Who has known the mind of the Lord? 

Or who has been his counselor?

Who has ever given to God,

that God should repay them?

For from him and through him and

for him are all things.    

To him be the glory forever!

Amen.

The NIV translation entitled this section as “Doxology.”

The Jubilee in the Temple cleansing

The Temple and the Ultimate Jubilee

Mark 11:17 “…for all nations”

 

 

After a recent lesson on the Temple cleansing someone said to me, “Sounds like you had more to say about the Jubilee. We don’t hear much about that do we?” Yes and yes.

 

How is it that we miss the Jubilee in the Gospels? (At least, in our circles the Jubilee is not much mentioned).

 

In the beginning of his book, The Resurrection of Jesus, Mike Lacona tells us about his wife’s German grandfather and his diary keeping habit. “My wife’s grandfather Albert Weible kept a daily dairy for years.” On April 8, 1917 his grandfather wrote: “The weather is very nice and warmer. The ground is very much [?]. Pa…didn’t go to church today. I went alone on Pearl [horse]. There were quite a few there in spite of the mud. In the afternoon we all went up to Fred’s” (p.33).

 

What else happened the week of April 8, 1917? The US declared war on Germany on April 6^th. There is no mention of this momentous turn of events in the diary.

 

Not only are key events from WWI missing in Mr. Weible’s diary, Lacona goes on to say that “Albert Weible kept diary entries every day. Yet he never mentioned the war.”

 

Never mentioned the war? He gives notice to weather, farm, church, family, births, etc., but no notice to that large, life-altering, cross continental struggle.

 

So also the Jubilee and its accompanying imagery may go unnoticed. The Jubilee is a golden thread spun through the Gospels from gildings gathered in the OT. Here the jubilee shows up again in the Temple “cleansing.”

 

The jubilee of the OT was a time when freedom, debt release, property return, care for the destitute and cycled around every 50 years (or so it was supposed to, but probably not was consistently observed, see Lev 25-26). This jubilee Jesus announces in the Temple is the Ultimate Jubilee, the final, long lasting, world encompassing Jubilee of the Gospel of Messiah (see also Isaiah 61:1-2).

 

You see Jesus ransacked the Temple not merely because of shady business going on within its walls. In its wide courts Jesus’ voice echoed the good news that Yahweh’s time of full release and full forgiveness had arrived; not just for the Jews; for all nations and all peoples. Jesus quotes from Isaiah because Isaiah is a prophet who loves to wade in the river of jubilee theology.

 

John the Baptist was also a prophet of jubilee joy and forgiveness. As if singing the same tune, Jesus began his ministry by reading from a jubilee text in Isaiah (see Luke 4). Then, here in the Temple Jesus refers to jubilee revival again (Is 56:7). The Gospels are telling us that the ultimate day of divine release has arrived in Jesus.

 

“Let no foreigner [that’s you and me] who is bound to Yahweh say,

        ‘Yahweh will surely exclude me from his people.’

 

“For this is what Yahweh declares:

‘…I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”          (see Isaiah 56:1-8)

 

 

More about this tomorrow in our Sunday AM Bible study.

Mark’s Gospel: the Temple “cleansing” and Jesus’ sovereignty

Jesus, our Gracious Sovereign

In previous comments on the “cleansing” of the Temple I mentioned the mercy of Jesus. His mercy stands in stark contrast across all religions. We know that Yahweh is indeed the One full of mercy not because he says it. He shows it. Jesus shows us perfectly what Yahweh’s mercy looks like.

No other religion is so clear and vivid in what it says as the Gospel. The Gospel tells AND shows this mercy-filled good news.

There is another narrative strand in the “cleansing” of the Temple. It’s the sovereign grace of Jesus. When Jesus ransacked the Temple he was no doubt concerned about dishonest leadership. He was no doubt concerned about showing mercy to outcasts. He was very concerned about shady business in the Temple courts.

Yet, when Jesus ransacked the Temple he was doing more than that.

He was trying to bring his people under the care of his sovereign grace.

He was declaring his divine sovereignty over the Temple system. It’s not enough to say that Jesus was (and is) God. Zeus claimed to be God. Caesar claimed to be God. Apollo claimed to be God. So, Jesus is just one more guy in a long line claiming to be God. So what.

Jesus’ claims are higher and better than that. He comes into the Temple in the full authority of the Sovereign One.

Here are a few things that signal his sovereignty:

 

- In Mark 11:11 immediately after the Triumphal Entry of Jesus goes directly to the Temple. It’s like a sovereign coming home to his palace. He is the head of a new administration. How will he be received? Will the Temple receive him as enthusiastically as the common people did? The Temple leadership should have received him with the same enthusiasm and affirmation that the common people did just a few moments before. They did not.

- After ransacking the Temple Jesus hangs around all week teaching (see Mark 11:22-13:1) openly in the Temple courts. It’s like he’s taken over. He has “moved in” so to speak. What would you think if a friend of yours showed up at your door and moved in without asking permission or negotiating a rental agreement? He is making the Temple a short-term seat of his governing word.

- Later Jesus tells a parable within a parable about a keystone rejected and a vineyard owner’s son murdered. Both of these intertwined parables are a commentary on the Temple leadership of the day usurping Messiah’s divine authority over them.(see Mark 12:1-12)

-Then most shocking of all Jesus declares that this Temple must come down. He is not interested in renovating the Temple system, but in its removal and replacement. This is his way of saying that he is the new temple. (see Mark 13:1 and following)

 tip: it helped me to understand the significance of the Temple Cleansing when I started to see it as an event connected to what happens before it and after it. In the BEFORE (the triumphal entry) Jesus is received as King Messiah as he makes his was to the Temple, the climax of this procession, (note: after Jesus ‘cleansed’ the Temple the children were chanting “Hosana, Son of David” – thus the kingly procession continues with the children what was begun with their parents the day before)

AND

in the AFTER (the parable of the vineyard’s son murdered) Jesus assumes all authority over the Temple, its operations, its doctrine and its final destruction. Jesus isn’t claiming only to be God. He is claiming full sovereignty as he moves in and about his Father’s House.

These are sign posts to the sovereignty of Jesus. He is not assistant manager, not vice president, not even prince of the realm with a life time appointment. Jesus is fully and completely sovereign.

The fact of Jesus’ sovereignty is often missed when we conservative Christians talk about the Temple cleansing event. For a long time I saw this Temple “cleansing” event as basically about the dishonest dealings of the Temple leadership or having concern for the poor.

That is true, but there is more. Jesus is “the messenger of the covenant” (see Mal 3:1), an arresting officer, prosecuting attorney and supreme judge all in one. This is Yahweh “suddenly coming to the Temple” to see if covenant stipulations are being obeyed.

They are not.

So with the full authority of the covenant behind him he acts as the covenant’s lord (because he is) and prosecutes covenant sanctions (see Dt. 28) on the corrupt leadership. Jesus has at his disposal full authority to foreclose on the Temple.

And he does.

Jesus is sovereign.

How did I miss this for so long? The Temple leadership saw this. They approached Jesus the next day to confront him on this very point.

 

[with restrained sarcastic tone]

“Where do you think you get the authority (sovereign right) to do

these things (in our temple)?”

[intense stares while waiting for his answer]

 

 * * *

 

This, then, is a brief explanation of Jesus’ sovereignty in ransacking and occupying the Temple. He did more than clean the Temple. This is a kind of take over. It’s not a hostile take over, but it is a bold theological take over.

So now you ask, “How does the grace half of this Gracious Sovereign show up in the Temple ransacking?”

Ah, good question. His grace is in his declaration about the Jubilee while he is “cleansing” the Temple. More about this ultimate jubilee next time.

 

-

“We stop trying so hard to be

good Christians when

we see how good it is to

be in Christ.”

-

Mark’s Gospel: Temple ‘cleansing’ points to Jesus’ mercy

Jesus, the Merciful

{thots from the ‘cleansing’ of the Temple by Jesus} Mark 11:11-22

{entered the Monday after Easter 2013}

Yesterday, at the end of a very blessed Sunday, I sat down to read my copy of the Quran. I turned to Surah (chapter) number two and read a few verses. I flipped through several other chapters. My eyes settled on this line:

 ’In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful.’

 This line is deeply ingrained in Islamic culture. It’s repeated over and over throughout the Quran. This is the opening line to nearly every chapter of the Quran, a reminder to its adherents that Allah is beneficent, that Allah is merciful. In my translation it’s in caps – Beneficient…Merciful – a reminder that Allah is the embodiment of goodness and mercy.

 

Yesterday was not any Sunday, but a high day of worship. It was Easter. Seems like an odd thing to do at the close of a day for Christian worship – to read the central text of another religion.

 But there is beauty in contrast. There’s capacity of thought in seeing the starkness of a thing.

Recent in my thots,  almost alive, is Jesus cleansing the Temple. I could see Jesus rushing through the Temple the week before he was crucified. I see him slinging a whip. I see him upturning tables. I see him welcoming the blind and lame, unclean horde, into the Temple courts (see Matt 21). The vividness this “cleansing” the Temple washed the quranic text into the background.

 How do I know, I mean really know, that Jesus is merciful, that he is beneficent? 

Firstly, I know this temple cleansing, so called, is not really about cleaning the Temple. Jesus did not come into the Temple courts with a bucket and mop…or a shovel and broom as if to clean up after the animals. This event doesn’t look like a house call from Merry Maids (or Messiah Maids).

This is among other things a show of mercy. Yes, there’s bit of grand standing by Jesus, but it’s not surprising. Why not? The offenders had it long time in coming.

We know Jesus is mercy filled because he shows it. From the depths of his sincerity he doesn’t clean the Temple. He ransacks it. He intervenes. He brings its operations to halt even if only for a short while (“he forbid the vessels from passing through”). He displays the interruptive power of mercy. The greed and abuses by the Temple leadership were a stench on this holy place, but who would confront this? One man. Often mercy walks and runs and stoops alone. 

 Secondly, when Jesus ransacked the Temple he came into that space as a Defender. Yes, he was defending his Father’s expectations for covenant faithfulness in the one place on earth where it should not have faltered. And he was defending the weak, the outcast, the Gentile, the widow, the poor who wanted access to God. Jesus, an army of one whose weapon is mercy.

 I found it helpful to compare accounts from one gospel to another. When reading Mark’s account I also went over to Matthew’s.

So cool was it to notice that Matthew adds into his telling of that event that just after Jesus ransacked the Temple “the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them” (Mt 21:14).

“No way Jesus! You can’t do that!! Those…those people have to go through the process just like the rest of us. What in the world are you doing? Haven’t you read our laws?”

I conclude that Jesus was not only upset about the bilking of the money changers. He was upset that those hordes of people considered to be “unclean” were being excluded from worship except for their having to go through an intense – even expensive – process to be made ceremonially clean.

Jesus by his actions effectively says forget all the “red tape” ya’ll. Come on in! Just as you are. I’m going to heal you right here and now so you can immediately dispense with the frivolous gangway of man-made rules.

 Instead of being a place that breathed grace it had become a place tarnished by financial oppression and graft, a place where the outcasts felt very much like outcasts, where Gentiles seekers were threatened with capital punishment if they went past a certain point.

 You see, I know that Jesus is merciful, even if he were to say it over and over (but he didn’t), because he showed mercy. He lived it right in front of our eyes. I know for sure that Yahweh is merciful because I see Yahweh in the flesh being merciful, defending mercy.

 The one whose name means “Yahweh saves” comes defending and initiating his long storied intentions to make access to God free, open, without strings attached and priceless in its simplicity.

 I know Jesus is indeed the embodiment of mercy because he shows it. He charges solo into a Den of Thieves (see Jer 7:11 with Mark 11:17) for the sake of mercy. Then about a week later he hangs on a common cross for the sake of mercy, for the sake of bringing it to the world.

 

church cross project: special features

Georgia O’Keeffe said “Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.” She was (and is) a famous artist. Her opinion is helpful even if you aren’t an artist.

Did you ever read a book, hear a piece of music or look at a painting and think, “Too much, just too much.”

This project is one in which selection is necessary as the process evolves (although not Darwinian selection). What details to leave out? What details to accentuate?

When I sketched the cross in the beginning I had an idea that 3 nails would be a good detail. As I pondered it and talked about it with others the detail of nails slid into the column of “too much.”

Remnants of rope as they might have been used in a crucifixion was a detail that stayed.*

*Thank you JMG Ranch for providing the rope. 

securing old rope to the cross beam

.

However, the idea of nails is not left out altogether. The detail of nail holes randomly struck in the beam gives the suggestion of the cross having been used several times before. It is likely that the Romans would reuse their crosses. I doubt that the authorities thought this man from Nazareth needed a special cross since he would one day become famous. He was condemned as a criminal like thousands of others. No special treatment.

But this criminal was not merely “not guilty.” He was innocent. In the horror his beauty shines. Innocence gazes on us ever so pure, so holy, when around it the darkened sky of evil swirls. The many nail holes remind us that he was “numbered with the transgressors” (see Isaiah 53:12esv).

nail holes from previous uses

Then there are details that most people will not notice because those details blend with the whole. In this step I add more spots of glaze or color as needed. It helps to look at the assembled piece in different lighting. I set it up in the shop, later outside in the sun light and still later in the church a couple of weeks before the installation.

Fitting the cross together in the shop helps to get a sense of what needs adjusting. Black is not a color most artists use well. When black is needed I prefer to mix a pseudo-black from other colors. However, in a few small places I add a little true black. Some of the crevices needed a little depth from a dab of black.

Another detail  is to “grey out” some of the edges. This gives the sense that those places have been bleached by extended exposure to the sun. But here again, I only do this to the slightest degree since too much would be too much.

fitting in shop and final glazes

Finally a small detail, but a useful one that fills out the visual narrative is the foot hold. I want it to appear tacked on as an after thought. It is possible that these foot holds had to be replaced from time to time. Even though a cross was still usable a foot hold might swing loose with repeated nailings or weight stresses. 

adding the foot hold

Interesting though they be these details are not things to be admired. The cross is a disgusting thing. We admire the Cross because of Christ. Like a diamond the cross is the setting in which the jewel sits. The Christ of the Cross is our anthem. We cherish the Stone that the builders discarded. We love him who, as Isaiah wrote, “was wounded for our transgressions.”

You can see more about this project here.

church cross project: base coat and surface glazing

Any endeavor goes better with the good aide and companionship of a faithful son. I am blessed to have my son’s help. Caleb put himself into brushing on the base coat. He is using one of my favorite brushes – a Corona sash with Tynex bristles. All through this coating process we are careful to use paints with a low sheen. This will minimize glare or hot spots from directional lighting or even ambient light.

After the base coat is dry I add a series of glazes to give the surface a sense of depth and variety in color. A piece of wood of almost any species will have a range of colors across its grain. With exterior exposure and much use a bare piece of wood such as a cross will accumulate mud, dust, bits of debris or dried blood.

Below is a section of the vertical piece where the back of the criminal would have rested. When I put on the “dried blood” glaze my son remarked,

“Wow Dad! That looks so real…and gory too.”

On reflection it seemed like a good idea to tone it down a bit. After it set up I applied a little layer of rottenstone, a compound used in the framing industry to give that “dust in the crevices” look. Much better, more subtle it looked after that.

Another effect adding to the realism was to paint in the evidence of birds having paid a visit. Birds like to perch on elevated spots where they can rest and get an unobstructed view of the world about them. A cross on a hill would be an inviting stop over when flying from here to there. Any place where birds frequent is a surface and edge that will be discolored by what these birds leave behind.

church cross project: weathering effects

After carving knots and grain into the boards the next step is to achieve a weathered look. This step is very important to getting that rough and rustic appearance we are going for. It’s a key step because even if you have a top-notch finish on it without the real texture on the surface most people would have a feeling that something is missing. 

Before any paint is applied I use a variety of shop techniques to “beat up” the surface. In this process I am trying to give it…

- the appearance as if the lengths of wood have been knocked around many times from being transported back and forth from places of execution or from being put together and taken apart again and again.

- the appearance of having been exposed to all kinds of weather from being left in place. Often those executed would been left to hang there for many days or even weeks.

- the appearance of some edges or sections of the wood having fallen off due to repeated stress or rotting in an over-exposure area.

Here you see the cross boxing still in the “raw” state. The weathering effects are now mostly complete.

To see this project from the beginning go to this page – the cross