Category: Uncategorized

Regarding the Father – Son relationship in the Trinity

Below is an email response to a question that some of our congregation had brought to them by a friend of theirs who was inquiring about Christianity and its claim that Jesus is the Son of God.  In prior conversation or emails, they were already very knowledgable about the difficulty followers of Islam have with the language of “father” and “son” and the implication they see regarding a sexual relationship required for the incarnation, something Christians obvious deny.  But the further explanation of the possible importance of the Father-Son language for the Christian may prove helpful for others, so I’m posting it here.  Notice that I’m hardly writing as much as I’m quoting in it.  Here it is for your enjoyment:

Dear _______________,
This is a long email, so let me summarize my recommendation:
I’d say, first that “Father” and “Son” are important metaphoric words to describe the type of relationship these two persons exhibit. One is “originating” and the other is “of the same kind”. While the relationship is different than our human father-son relationships it was the metaphor that God felt (we assume) best fit the way that God exists in three persons that are unified in their being or essence.
So here are my more detailed thoughts….
First off, I might recommend a book (I have not yet read but have in my office) by Carl Maderas called Speaking of Jesus.  He has worked with Muslims for many years and while he might not address this specific issue, probably has a great deal to teach us on the topic generally.  I’ve enjoyed talks by him.
Your friend asks a great and difficult question. I’d certainly encourage your friend in his questioning.  God is a mystery to us for the very reason that he is God and infinite and we are not.  We can (and should) search for him and for knowledge of him, but our understanding will never completely be satisfied. That said, the pursuit of God is the best thing we can do.
At the core of his question lies our doctrine of the Trinity.  That God is one (essence or substance) and also that God is three (persons).  It took the early church a few hundred years to figure out how to talk about that this and it still is too much for our minds to grasp, and however, it’s clear that this is what the Bible teaches and that it is essential to our understanding of how salvation and grace work.
The union that the Trinity describes is one of both substance and fellowship. So Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, called “the Son” and sometimes “the Word” and he makes claims about himself that only God can make.  So all the attributes that you’d use to describe God (eternal, ultimate, all-powerful, etc) apply to Jesus, the Son of God. Since these attributes are only attributable to God, then Jesus is God.  John 1 says “The Word was with God and the Word was God.”  That said, it is clear that Jesus is a separate person from God the Father. This is important for two reasons.  One, Jesus (the Son) took on humanity when he came to earth and God the Father did not. In this, the Son was able to represent humanity in his crucifixion taking the punishment for our sins.  Two, Jesus (the Son) was restored into communion or fellowship with God the Father in his resurrection. When we are “in Christ”, we too are brought into the relationship that they have shared for eternity past.
So, borrowing from an early discipler, Don Fairbairn…
“Salvation or heaven apart from Christ is inconceivable, precisely because salvation is Christ; salvation is our sharing in Christ’s relationship to His eternal Father.” –  – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 57
As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In the resurrection, “God the Son was brought back into the fellowship (communion) of the Trinity, and through his humanity he brings us with him.” –  – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 182
As the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently…. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” – Romans 8:23-25,29
or to the Colossians “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority….having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”  – Colossians 2:9,10,12
Again, Don writes,
“The Bible depicts three divine persons who are identical in terms of characteristics or attributes, although…there are other ways to distinguish them in spite of their having the same set of divine attributes. Theologians describe this by saying that they possess a single “substance,” “nature” or “essence” or simply that they are a single God.” –  – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 51.
“The biblical idea … is that there is one God, the Father, but there are also two other persons who are equal to him and united to him and each other in such a way that they are one being, one God.” – Life in the Trinity, Donald Fairbairn, p. 44.
or from a much older theologian…
“The Word of God (the Son), in so far as He subsists in Himself, is distinct from Him from whom He has His subsistence. But, since He exhibits in Himself those same things which are discerned in God, then in His nature He is identical with God.” – John of Damascus, 750 AD
So…. how does that translate to a person without a Christian background…
I’d say, first that “Father” and “Son” are important metaphoric words to describe the type of relationship these two persons exhibit. One is “originating” and the other is “of the same kind”. While the relationship is different than our human father-son relationships it was the metaphor that God felt (we assume) best fit the way that God exists in three persons that are unified in their being or essence.  So, as the early church wrote in the original Nicene Creed:
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God,] Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father;
By whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth];…
The parts in the square brackets were removed and/or replaced by other text in the one we and other churches occasionally recite (the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed).
I hope that helps more than it confuses.  As ___________ said, probably the most important things you are doing for them is praying for them and loving them.  Ironically, it is the third person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit) who will be the most effective agent at promoting the glory of the first two (John 16:14,15).
Blessings,
Pastor Chris

Homily for Renee Young Memorial Service

We are a culture obsessed with identity. We struggle to find our place, our titles, our preferences, and our personality types. Renee was not immune to this struggle and we’ve reflected on her struggle to make space. But early in Renee’s life she settled on the short letter a tearful prophet Jeremiah scripted to the exiles in Babylon. They also longed to find themselves in a place that “truly understood them”. They also felt misunderstood, underrepresented, cast aside. But Renee took these words as her life verse.  Let me read us a small selection: (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.

And this was the verse that Renee had inscribed in a ring which she cherished:

 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 

Seek the peace and prosperity, the shalom, of the city. Renee loved the cities she lived in. Some of them she was even fond of. But all of them received her dedicated service: her prayer walks (often with some of us in tow), her food-bank, block-party, movie-night, immigrant-support, Bible-study shalom-seeking. Her Babylons were Minneapolis, Denver, Washington DC, and Brooklyn, NY. Indeed she sought out peace for many people, many people that religious people like me at times overlook. Renee sometime stirred up us religious folk. She didn’t always let me off the hook when it seemed polite or discreet. But when it came to an active seeking of actual peace for situations easier to step over than to address: She never let me look away.

There was another prophet who stirred up religious folk. Jesus of course told us not to seek what the world seeks. He also refused to just step over those who were inconvenient, those hard to love, those with little to offer.  His words were, “if you seek life (as the world does), you will loose it.” (Matt 10:39, 16:5). Jesus asked us to, “seek first his kingdom,” (Matt 6:33) the place where his peace rests and replaces our restless selfishness. This only costs you everything you’ve been chasing after. One early follower of Jesus exclaimed, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him,” (Phil 3:8)

Can you imagine the shalom, the peace of Jesus resting in you and granting you a peace and a fullness that quenches your soul’s thirst? Perhaps you, like Renee can imagine it. Imagine God’s peace working it’s way through your body and your soul, working it’s way out to your neighbor, your grocer, your fellow passenger, your student, your boss, your parent. That’s what seeking the shalom can become. And our cities, our Babylon, becomes pocketed by small kingdoms of God’s peace and mercy.

That is what Renee asked me to share with you.  She asked me to ask you this specifically:  Who will take on this calling, this mission: to seek the peace and wellness of the city, to pray for it, to serve it?  So I suppose there are two questions before you.  Two inconvenient truths that Renee and I won’t let you look away from just yet. First: Will you give up your search for your self and relinquish your life to God? Second: Will you seek Jesus and his peace for the city that surrounds you?  If you would, after the service concludes, I would like to speak with you and commission you in Jesus’ name, for the sake of our cities, with Renee’s blessing, and for the glory of God.

Sermon Series Idea: Holy Spirit

1 – Who or what is the Holy Spirit?
2 – What does he Holy Spirit do?
  • in the world
  • In the kingdom / believer
  • In salvation and sanctification
3 – What are the gifts of the spirit?
4 – What are the fruit of the Spirit?
5 – What are the excesses of ecstasy and emotionalism?
6 – How do we balance doctrine and knowledge about God with experience and openness to God?
This might be great around Pentecost, but I’m doing the class now, so could take advantage of the study work I’m doing for that.  It’s very topical and not easy to find larger passages for many of these, except the fruit of the spirit and gifts of the spirit weeks.
Also, one week on a doctrine heavy topical sermon has gone well, I’m not sure about 6.  Maybe I could make it into 4 weeks and do Gift and Fruit in one week and either not cover the last two listed above or do those together as well.
Ben mentioned that Multmann has some important work on this topic.  I was going to buy one of his works on the topic.  I don’t remember if I got it for Kindle, but they don’t have an audible version, which is too bad. Anyone have a copy of one of his books on it (seemed like he had two or three).  Any passages that would be good for any of the weeks above?

Sermon Series Idea: “Start”

Overview:
For many (students, teachers, families), September / Fall is a time of starting a new year or restarting back at work after some summer vacation time.  In life, sometimes you just have to stop for a moment so you can make a fresh start at things (clearing your desk off, a new computer set up, a fresh coat of paint in your room, etc). “Start” doesn’t mean breaking away entirely from what was yesterday, but it may mean re-focusing and re-committing and moving into a forward gear.
Summary:
9/1  – Start Fast – Shared Meal & Fasting
9/8 –  Start Straight – The Why Question – Vision / Mission alignment energies activity
9/15 – Start Steady – The How Question – Healthy culture knows itself and builds from it’s character
9/22 – Start Moving – The What Question – Coordinated action turns chaos into team work
9/1 – Start Fast – breakfast on 9/1 introducing the idea
This is communion Sunday.  Perhaps instead of a full service with a sermon we have an introduction time and then enjoy a light breakfast type meal together down stairs.  It will be heavy lifting, but it will have these benefits:  No Sunday School this week as all our workers are away.  If we eat together, we don’t need it.  Light attendance due to three day weekend, this weekend is often time people take on last trip out of the city.  Its communion Sunday and communion used to be a meal (a long time ago).  It could include a time to ask for dedicated prayer, fasting for a few weeks.  I was thinking of asking people to fast specifically  for three weeks, one day a week from food if they are able, or one meal if not AND one day a week from entertainment / digital addiction / social media.  So three times during the three weeks, carving out two different types of cravings (food and entertainment) and asking God, for ourselves and for the church, what our part in God’s kingdom is right now and how we can step closer into that.  What actions do we each need to push ourselves toward, what commitments do we need to make, what things do we need to stop doing, what good things may need to be paused to make room for better things.  The other real advantage of this is that we have so many people now who are new or new-ish and we may need some shared face to face interaction that is more intentional.
9/8 –  Start Why – Beginning with proper stance and balance, knowing why exist is critical to staying on track – Eph 2a
 
9/15 – Start How – Re-establishing goals and priorities is important but How we do them is more important.  It makes our culture. and if our culture is healthy then the mission will be carried by it well. – Maybe a Nehemiah text.
  • Culture areas of strength:
    • People before Programs. Slow together is better than fast and alone.
  • Culture areas of growth:
    • If I own it, I finish the job, I report on the job
9/22 – Start What – Finding our hills to take will require us to come together around some shared passions and it may mean that we support each other’s causes knowing that others will join our causes too. Maybe spiritual gifts passage, Romans 12 with James 2 or Great commission passage breaking down how our continued life as a church brings ACTION to the work of the great commission.
  • Introduce or Re-Introduce the idea of Ministry Team and Building Team

Great Piles of Paradox: An Advent Sermon, Delivered December 3, 2018

Paradox.  A paradox sounds absurd at first but echos with profound sensibility as it settles in. A paradox forces us to see the truth held in tension. And of course a good paradox fills us with a sense of wonder and awe.  You are a bit of a paradox.  As we grow older, time feels both longer and quicker. We say the days feel longer and the weeks feel shorter. As we mature and grow in wisdom, we realize how much we do not know and can not comprehend.

  When we consider our current situation our paradox’s multiply. We have access to more information all about any subject every known to mind, but we know less about our neighbors than ever in human history.  Most of us have the ability to call any country in the world for free or very cheaply, but most people around us are lonely.  Most of us have seen amazingly detailed images of galaxies far in the distance taken by a telescope that orbits far above the earth, but most of us can’t see the stars in our sky anymore.  

Psalm 19 says, The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

God created the silence of the night sky to scream his wondrous power through infinite vacuum and terrifying cold. He hurled the galaxies, stars and planets into precise and measured paths.  The Psalmist thinks they speak.  That their dance reveals truth and knowledge.  That their message goes out to the ends of the earth, to every person who has ever walked the earth.  And for most of us, we don’t care to look up. Have we lost the wonder? The awe? 

I recall walking in a Redwood forest as a small child, the trees wider than several cars, taller than twenty-story buildings.  I experience deeper awe returning with my children.  I had grown twice my childhood height, but my neck still drew back and my mouth swung open. But when I look into the sky, I don’t see what the ancients saw.  I don’t see the evidence of God’s goodness like the wisemen of Persia did.  I don’t rely on it consistent story to mark seasons, planting and harvest, years of births and deaths, constellations, shooting stars, comets and blood moons.  I suspect you don’t either.  We use calendars, cell phones, watches, and atomic clocks to pass time. It’s a paradox though.  We’ve gained precision on each second, but we’ve lost the context of the infinite vast creation.  We can measure our lives duration but we’ve lost track of our life’s value. But this is the great aspect of Advent.  This season where we revisit the Christmas paradox.

Christmas is a great pile of paradox. A group of wise guys from out East see a star.  They hear the heavens declare the glory of God while Levites, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots see only another nights sky.  The silence of God, 400 years without prophetic interruption, is broken by the voice of planets. The word planet means wandering star.  These celestial messengers proclaimed a King of Kings.  The greatest king who was hidden in a feeding trough.  The royal birth promised to bless all nations proclaimed through the entire cosmos but attended to by a few poor shepherd and perhaps some resting livestock.  By the time the foreign magicians, maybe distant disciples of Daniel, maybe leftovers from a Jewish captivity, the child at age two still played among the sheep being raised as temple sacrifices.  A king who would be tortured.  A gift from almighty God, overlooked by a nation waiting for him.

But here is where we glimpse with awe, a thrill of hope, the psalmist says more precious than gold and sweeter than honey. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” He is Immanuel, God with us. Not just around us or at our meetings or hovering within earshot.  He created galaxies humans will never see, but he promised to dwell with you.  He said he stands at the door and knocks. If anyone hears his voice and opens the door, he will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.  He told his disciples that he would be with them, even to the end of the age.

And that’s the last paradox worth our wonder. Jesus said the heavens will again scream God’s glory to all the nations.  He says, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

This is also the paradox of Advent, the wonder of our waiting.  A trembling world will receive God’s glory.  A cosmic creator will declare his kingdom over a lone planet of humiliated usurpers.  Jesus said, “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”

This advent season we wait, not for a holiday on a calendar, parties, pastries, presents, or programs.  This advent we wait for celestial proclamations, messages blazing across the heavens.  This advent our paradox is not absurd, but filled with hope and wonder and awe.  That Jesus has brought us near to God, and God’s kingdom is drawing near.  That the day of our redemption, our hope, our final peace with God is held firm, prepared before time, as sure to come as tomorrow’s sun rise, it’s light overcoming every evil, every darkness, every fear.

Let’s pray.

Christ identified as human. How about me?

Written: Feb 14, 2019  Ideas are my own and are not approved by anyone. 

Christ didn’t come to identify with Christians, Protestant or Catholic, Orthodox or Coptic.

Jesus didn’t come to identify with heterosexuals, married, monogamous, homosexual, or bisexual.

Jesus didn’t come to identify with Jews, or North Americans, with Asians or Europeans, with Africans or South Americans. Jesus came to identify with humans.

He took on humanity. He took on the ecclesiastic meaninglessness of human life: birth, growth, siblings, learning, work, play, love, hurt, rejection, failure, sickness, brutality, etc. All of it. Humanity. He experienced it all. He did no evil. (Faith required). But he experienced every kind of sin against him, and every kind of temptation. He identified as human.

This is the miracle of God with us. Not merely God for us from a distance. But God with us, one of us, in step with us.

Church Planting Thoughts from the lens of a business startup podcast show

Recently I listened (for a second time) to an entire six episode series on church planting made by a business podcast targeting new start ups.  I really enjoyed it.  I thought I’d share it with a few people so the links to the show are below.  (If you listen to Podcasts already search “Startup Church Planting” in your podcast app of choice and you’ll probably find the shows easily.)
Here are a few thoughts and questions that the show revisited on my soul.
1. In my journey toward my present role in the Church (pastor of an established or “historic” church) what gifts about the development of a church body from scratch did the church plant efforts I have been involved with give me that I need to revisit?
2. What opportunity am I going to seize to encourage the church planters around me (both in my church stream and outside my group)?
3. Are there things that I am not doing because I’m at an established church that are more about my comfort level that is ignoring the real needs of the community around me (and even the church attenders here)?
Here are the Podcasts: (from summer 2018)

Learning to Praise from Psalm 98

This Sunday we focused on Psalm 98 and discussed how we pray to God, specifically in our praise of God.  I claimed that our praise for God rebuilds our trust in him. Our website has the sermon posted now here: firstfreebrooklyn.org/sermons

Here is a quote I used in the sermon that I really enjoyed:   “When I give thanks, my thoughts still circle about myself to some extent. But in praise my soul ascends to self-forgetting adoration, seeing and praising only the majesty and power of God, His grace and redemption.” – Ole Hallesby, Prayer, 1957

According to Richard Foster’s book on Prayer, CS Lewis (Letters to Malcom) wrote that four thing keep us from adoration:

  1. Lack of attention
  2. Negative attention or misunderstanding
  3. Greed : Ever asking God for an “encore” or another blessing
  4. Conceit : A high view of self

As we learn to pray, I hope we will learn to praise God for his actual goodness and learn to cherish him for himself.

Practicing Prayer With You, Pastor ChrisVH Icon Praise I Love You

The “Unfinished” Sermon Series from Titus is Finished

And this is a post to just mark that fact and list the titles and dates.  They are all on our website to listen to. (online here)  Enjoy!

April 28th: Titus 1:1-5 An Unfinished Calling

May 5th: Titus 1:5-9  An Unfinished Character

May 12th: Titus 1:10-16 An Unfinished Battle

May 19th: Titus 3:3-8 An Unfinished Inheritance

May 26th: Titus 2:1-10 An Unfinished Relationship

June 2nd: Titus 2:11-15 An Unfinished Proclamation

June 9th: Titus 2:15 – 3:2 An Unfinished Investment

June 16th: Titus 3:9-15 An Unfinished Commitment