Tag: Genesis

THE DIVINE MIRROR RESTORED

It’s true that we Lutherans certainly believe that the Lutheran branch of the Christian Faith has many wonderful gifts to offer to the whole of Christianity and indeed to the entire world, but we Lutherans also recognize that we do not have a monopoly on all theological and spiritual truths. And it’s true that we as Christians proclaim that the good news of Jesus Christ provides direct access to the fullness of God’s grace and truth, but we do not say that we have a monopoly on God’s eternal grace and truth. So if members of the Church of Jesus Christ consider those of other religions to be completely ignorant of all theological and spiritual truths, then this is just plain wrong. And if non-Christians assume that we Christians claim to be the sole purveyors of truth, then they’re wrong too.

Nevertheless, we Christians do profess and confess that Christ is “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6), and so we earnestly proclaim the good news of his redeeming life, death and resurrection for the sake of the world. In fact, the Holy Scriptures exhort us to always be ready to share the grace and truth of Jesus Christ with our neighbors:

“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth [of Christ] to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” – (Ephesians 4:25)

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” – (First Peter 3:15-16)

However, we do this proclamation of Jesus’ good news within the multicultural context of human civilization. For we see throughout the history of salvation (from ancient times unto today) that there is a certain universal pattern we sinful human beings (of all times and places) seem to follow. It’s the pattern of faithfulness and apostasy, and it should be very familiar to us within the Christian Faith because the Holy Bible is filled with this pattern.

The cycle of faithfulness and apostasy is the historical pattern of civilization all over the world throughout the ages. From the very genesis of humanity, over and over again, God calls us, gathers us, instructs us and blesses us. But over and over again, people begin to reject and fall away from God’s revealed truth and grace. Therefore, God decided to send us the exact reflection of the glory of the fullness of himself — Christ Jesus our Lord, the Eternal Son of God and Bread of Heaven.

Let’s imagine that the revelation of God is one great Divine Mirror. And let’s imagine that the pattern of faithfulness and apostasy within human civilization is that Mirror breaking into a thousand pieces and scattering throughout the world. And then, after each shattering of this Mirror, a faithful remnant of believers were left to salvage as many pieces of God’s grace and truth as they could, resulting in a great diversity of faiths and spiritual traditions over time. So each time this shattering would happen in history, a group of like-minded believers would gather their particular shards of the Divine Mirror, and they would follow God’s Light reflected in these shards as best they knew how. And thousands of other groups did the same thing with the shards of truth they had collected.

But then, at the right time in human history, God revealed the fullness of his truth and grace for all people through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is the entire Divine Mirror restored to humanity — for he is the clear-as-glass Living Mirror of Heaven. And it might sound presumptuous to claim that the faith, hope and love of Jesus constitute the complete Divine Mirror reflecting the fullness of God’s Heart for humanity, but that is indeed what we have been granted in Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God!

However, while we have amazing access to the entire Divine Mirror of God (in all its clarity) through Jesus our Savior, this should not by any means negate the importance of the shards of God’s grace and truth that other religions have access to. In fact, the shards of Divine Truth within non-Christian religions (although incomplete) are nevertheless reflective of God’s saving truth. Consequently, the great non-Christian religious leaders of the world such as Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Confucius, and Lao-Tzu (as well as philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and others) have all received pieces of God’s complete Mirror. They all have received a portion of God’s True Light — morsels of the Bread of Heaven (so to speak). So let’s genuinely appreciate the Truth of God from whichever direction it’s coming at us, even from non-Christian sources.

As we Christians share with others the fullness of God’s grace and truth in Christ Jesus our Lord, let’s remember the great Divine Mirror that every compassionate religion has pieces of — precious pieces of the universal reality and saving grace of God. Yet, our evangelical mission is to always uplift how all those shards of God’s Truth fit into the wholeness of God’s pure reflection in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. And even if a certain non-Christian belief seems to be contrary to the gospel of Jesus, it just might be that this belief is still somehow based upon an eternal principle of God (if we look deeply enough). So maybe that shard of belief that seems to contradict Jesus simply needs a little ‘gospel windex’ to clarify it a bit.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we’re not here to trash the pieces of the Mirror (or the portions of the Bread of Heaven) that people of other belief systems possess. We are simply here to do as it says in Ephesians 4 and First Peter 3, where it says: “let all of us speak the truth [of Christ] to our neighbors, for we are members of one another” and “be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect…”

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim

EVOLUTION & RESURRECTION

I consider myself a science buff; not an expert, but an informed enthusiast. Consequently, ever since the successful deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), I’ve been amazed by its unequalled ability to see through time and space into the deep history of the cosmos. Of course, as a Christian, I always emphasize that the evolution of the universe was not by “chance” processes, but by the designs of the infinite and eternal Mind of God. That is, according to the principles of both faith and reason, it is quite clear that the entire universe (from the very large scale to the infinitesimally small) is intentionally fine-tuned toward the manifestation of life. And this reality leans strongly toward the conclusion that the genesis and evolution of all things is not by chance.

Interestingly, the science of quantum physics tells us that there are eleven dimensions in order for the universe to make mathematical sense, and this tells us that there are higher aspects to existence than we perceive with our five physical senses. We can use mathematics and creative metaphors to describe these higher dimensions, but we can never truly wrap our minds around the reality that our existence has far more dimensions than we can fully comprehend. Nor can we wrap our minds around the scientific fact that there was a “time” before time and space. And of course, the fact that our universe is so finely orchestrated to produce life is a clear indication of a Grand Orchestrator — an infinite, eternal and transcendent Orchestrator of all that is, both seen and unseen.

Certainly, there are still those who seek to perpetuate the archaic notion that there is a war between faith and reason. They insist that a person must be either spiritual or rational, but not both. I completely disagree with this false dichotomy. Science addresses a certain set of questions and religion addresses another set of questions. In other words, science addresses questions dealing with the function of the universe, while religious faith addresses the meaning of it all. Therefore, these are not mutually exclusive pursuits. Rather, while respecting the boundaries and limitations of both science and religious faith, these are actually complementary disciplines. Simply put, to be a person of faith does not mean that you have to turn off your intellectual self, and to be a person of science does not mean that you have to turn off your spiritual self. We can be both scientific and faithful.

So, how does the Resurrection of Jesus the Universal Messiah factor into all of this cosmic evolution? Could it be that resurrection itself is a “quantum leap” forward in God’s evolution of our universe? Could it be that God, who is beyond time and space, is drawing all things toward his universal renewal? In other words, by Divine Providence, we can say that God is still creating and re-creating, and that we might not know exactly what the future holds, but we have come to know the One who holds the future.

What a blessing it is to live every single day in a personal relationship with the Creator and Redeemer of the entire cosmos! And in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, we intuitively know this truth according to the spiritual “sixth sense” of God’s grace through faith by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

The gospel truth is that God is still creating, renewing and redeeming, and this is what resurrection life is all about. For the Apostle Paul writes in First Corinthians 15…

“I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the Apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the Apostles, unfit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God… What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain… So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. As there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.” – (1 Corinthians 15: 3-9, 36b-37, 42-44)

From Easter Sunday through all seven weeks of Eastertime, we have been commemorating and celebrating (“as of first importance”) the living hope of resurrection life with Jesus in the Eternal Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we Christians believe and trust in “the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting” (from the Apostles’ Creed). And the Apostle Paul described this resurrection of the body as relating to some sort of “spiritual body” (First Corinthians 15:44) that has the following supernatural characteristics: imperishable, glorified and powerful. Thanks be to God!

So the New Testament declaration is that resurrection life beyond this present life is the ultimate stage of our existence in Christ, and the Resurrection of our Lord is the foretaste of the great universal resurrection yet to come. Like a caterpillar before its metamorphosis into a butterfly, unable to conceive of flying in the sunlight from flower to flower, we also cannot conceive “what God has prepared for those who love him” (First Corinthians 2:9d). And the eventual “end” of our ever-expanding (and accelerating) universe shall be the fulfillment and consummation of all things (of all worlds and all beings) in the One Eternal God of All.

Hallelujah! Jesus is Lord! Christ is risen!

Together in Resurrection Hope, Pastor Tim