My wife and I used to own a CrossFit affiliate. We’re still pretty fit (even though I’m pushing 50) but we’ve both been into fitness for a long time. Anyways, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that nutrition is critical for us to achieve the fitness goals we set for ourselves. Fitness is critical for us to live healthy lives. I think we’ve all seen this during this “pandemic.” The number one comorbidity that, combined with Covid-19, caused death was obesity. As we used to say to our clients all the time, “You can’t out-train your fork.”
Garbage in, garbage out. When I first began to get serious about my faith, I spent a lot of time reading the Bible. Duh, right? If you’re going to learn something, you have to go to the source. At the time, what I did not know was that there were other sources. Now, lest you think me a heretic, I’m talking about the Church and her Tradition. What I learned (it wasn’t said out loud but the practice of it taught me this) in seminary and just after was that knowledge was the key. The more Bible you had memorized or the more you understood the better. There was very little, at least in my experience, of a notion of living the “right way.” Not that the people who called themselves Christians all lived like pagans but… Not that it was never talked about, but a lot of Protestants shy away from talking about how we live because they don’t want you to think they’re talking about “works based righteousness.” The focus was almost exclusively on what you believed, not on what you do. As the years have gone by, I have become increasingly disenchanted with a notion of Christianity that is almost exclusively focused on knowledge rather than a faithful life. I look at the earliest Christians and see a group of mostly simple people who believed, and that belief then led them to live in a certain way. In other words, their faith and their lives were mutually part of one another. Faith and “works” were not separated. As I have progressed over the years, I have become less interested in theology and more interested in a lived faith. The way we live our lives matters. The things we consume matter. The media we ingest influences our heart. Anyone who says otherwise is, frankly, an idiot. It is not possible for us to continually consume certain kinds of media and not be affected by it. It is not possible for us to continually listen to certain kinds of music and not be affected by it. Our hearts are already hardened against the things of God anyway. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah, relaying the words of God, in chapter 17:5-10 says this, “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed in the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according the to the fruit of his doings.” (emphasis mine) Out of the heart comes the things we do. Our Saviour said this. We find, in Mark 7:20-23, “And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Aside from the innate disease of sin which affects our fallen flesh, where do you think these things come from? Have you watched TV recently? Been to see a movie? Turn on most of the shows or even the news these days and all you see is evil, adultery, fornication, violence, wickedness, lewdness, blasphemy, pride and foolishness. Garbage in, garbage out. Let’s try putting good things in. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 5:1-21. I’ll put some excerpts here, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.” (vs. 1) “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.” (vs. 3) “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” (vs. 8-11) “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (vs. 15-17) What we do with our bodies matters. What we take in with our eyes and hear with our ears and do with our bodies matters. Rather than ingest the things of the world that are spiritually dangerous for us, let us spend our time in prayer and fasting and reading and spending time with family and things that are good and holy. Again, the Apostle Paul, in Romans 13:11-14, says, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Lotta action words here. St. Paul says to cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. In other words, flee from the things which are against the things of God. Fill your life with things that lead you to our Lord. Most importantly, as St. Paul says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” If we have been baptized into Christ, we have put on Christ. We have now literally begun to participate in the divine life. The divine and the perverse cannot co-exist. If you have put on Christ, live like it! Put on the things that are holy and cast off the things that would stand in your way! Cling to Christ. He will not leave us, but we can certainly turn away from Him. There is no halfway, there is no compartmentalizing Christ. If you are in Christ, you have literally been brought from death to life. Christ has changed what it means to be human, He has restored humanity and so you have changed as a human. Don’t turn away from this staggering gift! Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters! Glory to Jesus Christ!
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I remember coming out of seminary and thinking about a few things. I know that sounds funny. You’re probably thinking, duh, you should be thinking. Over the years since I graduated from seminary, I’ve actually read the Bible more than I did while in seminary. Let me refine that. It’s not that I didn’t read the Bible during seminary but Bible reading in seminary, for me, was an academic exercise. I was studying the Bible, not absorbing it, not digging in, not spending a lot of time meditating on the whole of Holy Scripture.
I came out of seminary understanding what hermeneutics was and being able to tear verses apart word by word…and missing the forest for the trees. I fear that scholasticism has not done us any favors in Christianity, at least not in a tangible, lived reality kind of way. I’ve said this a lot recently, but I feel like modern Christianity is much less biblical and holistic in its approach than our forebears. Rather, modern Christianity is a direct product (I believe) of a rationalism that has emerged since the Enlightenment. Let me dial this in a little. I want to specifically talk about salvation. I’m going to critique the position that I once held. I was taught and came to learn that salvation was, largely, a forensic thing. Let me explain what I mean by that. The picture of salvation that was painted for me was that of a courtroom where God was the judge and I was the defendant. Evidence was presented in this heavenly courtroom of my sinfulness. All my past misdeeds were trotted out and placed on gruesome display for all to be shocked at the hideous filthiness of my actions. In the closing arguments, the prosecutor (who signified Christ) would stand up and say to the Judge, “He is guilty. But don’t punish him. Punish me. I have taken his punishment.” He atoned for my sin. Sound familiar? Or another picture painted for me was that, because of my sin, a debt was owed to God as the Judge. It was a debt that I could not possibly pay. There was such a stark difference between the holiness demanded by God and my sinfulness that I would never be able to pay that debt. So, Christ paid my debt. He propitiated on my behalf. Sound familiar? Our sins have been forgiven. After all, the Apostle Paul tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). If we have been forgiven by our faith in Christ, we get to go to heaven when we die. Sound familiar? By the way, all those things are true. Our sins have been atoned for. Yes. Our debt has been paid. Yes. Our sins have been forgiven. Yes. When we die, if we have been forgiven and our faith placed in Christ, we get to go to heaven. Well…sort of. All those things are true. Look deeper. I want to suggest to you that our view (mostly Protestant and most modern Catholics) of salvation is so shallow, narrow and truncated that we have failed to grasp what is going on when we say salvation. I want to suggest to you that a patristic and biblical view is much more than merely forensic justification. Go back to the beginning. In the beginning, God created the human race. Life as we know it began in the Garden with a man and a woman joined to their Creator and each other in an intimate union and perfect harmony. They were living in a state of perfection, unashamed to be who God made them to be, walking in the cool of evening in fellowship with their Maker. All their needs supplied. All was as it should have been. Then they sinned. The union was broken. Then God made a covenant with Abram. Let’s think for a second about what a covenant is. A covenant is a union of two parties for a specific purpose. Look at Genesis 12, 15 and 17. Look at the language used there, specifically in Genesis 17. God makes a promise to Abraham. He says that He will be God to Abraham and his offspring. Abraham, in return, was to be faithful to God. Notice that it is God who initiates, and Abraham is to be faithful in response. Faithful. Over and over throughout the Old Testament, the reason that God gives for punishing His people is unfaithfulness. Some examples: Psalm 78:10-11, 40-42, 56-57, 59-62 (the psalmist says God left where He dwelt among His people, which we will come back to) 2 Kings 17:7-8 Jeremiah 32:30 The book of Amos The book of Hosea (we’ll come back to this one as well) Joel 2:12-14 Isaiah 5:1-7 Jeremiah 3:14 Ezekiel 16 The covenantal language used here, and the violation thereof are indicative of infidelity. In fact, pretty much the entire book of the prophet Hosea is an object lesson of the infidelity of God’s people. There is really graphic language used in Hosea. The Hebrew root ‘zanah’ is used 14 times in Hosea and has strong sexual undertones. It means “to commit fornication, to be a harlot.” This is how God viewed the idolatry of His people; as marital infidelity. God, who had condescended to His people to dwell among them (Lev. 26:12, Exodus 25:8), Who had made an intimate covenant with His people to stand forever, had “wedded” Himself to a people who were unfaithful. God was faithful, His people were not. It is in this context that we turn now to the New Testament. Repeatedly, Christ calls people to, yes repent, but also to be in relationship with Him. He says, for example, in John 14, that He will “take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.” He says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.“ We will make our home with him. Intimate language of union. St. Paul picks up on this intimate language. He uses, for example, the words “in Christ” or “in Him” repeatedly. In the New Testament, this phrase is used 70 times. St. Paul links the marriage of a man and woman with the love of Christ and His Church on more than one occasion, clearly picking up on this intimate covenantal/union understanding of how God loves His people. At the end of our corpus of Holy Scripture, the vision of St. John paints another picture for us. He paints a picture of a banquet, the great marriage supper of the Lamb where the Bridegroom and His Bride are joined together in perfect union again. This, brothers and sisters, is salvation. We are joined in intimate union with Christ, the God-man, the Second Person of the Trinity. This is the restoration of the people of God to the union of the covenant He has promised. Yes, our sins are forgiven, propitiated, expiated and all those other fancy theological words. All those are true. But the ultimate joy and aim of salvation is the restoration of the union of God with His greatest creation, the human race. Those who are in Christ as part of the Bride, His Church, will know this renewed intimacy. Just as the Holy Trinity exists in perfect union, so the Bride is drawn into perfect union with her Bridegroom. Oh, what joy! What manner of love has been bestowed on us! Let us, like the Apostle Paul, cry out, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Glory to Jesus Christ! |
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