Pirating Passages on Prayer

When you pray, don't prattle and rattle like hypocrites--
those prancing pious porkers, seeking praise in a pigsty.
Earthly praise is their full reward.

Matt 6:5 The Challenge

gather us in

Here in this place (gather us in)
Marty Haugen

1.
Here in this place, new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away.
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in - the lost and forsaken,
gather us in - the blind and the lame.
Call to us now, and we shall awaken,
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

2.
We are the young - our lives are a mystery,
we are the old - who yearn for your face.
We have been sung throughout all of history,
called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in - the rich and the haughty,
gather us in - the proud and the strong.
Give us a heart so meek and so lowly,
give us the courage to enter the song.

3.
Here we will take the wine and the water,
here we will take the bread of new birth.
Here you shall call your sons and your daughters,
call us anew to be salt for the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion,
give us to eat the bread that is you.
Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion
lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

4.
Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven, light years away,
but here in this place, the new light is shining;
now is the Kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in - and hold us forever,
gather us in - and make us your own.
Gather us in - all peoples together,
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

The church as the goal or the instrument of mission?

In "Salvation to the Ends of the Earth", I can't figure out where Kostenberger and O'Brien stand.
On the one hand, they say this
"The apostle understood his ministry within the context of an Old Testament expectation in which the nations would on the final day partake in God's ultimate blessings to Israel. Paul knew that he was entrusted with God's 'mystery', the eschatological revelation that now Jews and Gentiles alike were gathered into one body, the church"
pp 258
On this reading, the church, and the churches seem to be a fairly important part of Paul's message. The new community is not simply incidental, but the goal of the preaching.

But then, after discussing evangelism they say
"But he also founded churches as a necessary element in his missionary task" pp259
It would be easy to misread K+O'B here and see the churches merely as instrumental to the mission to individuals. But it is clear here that Paul's task of calling the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith necessarily involves them in a new community. It is the new community that is paraded before the powers and authorities, it is the new community that is presented up to God as a pleasing sacrifice.
The church is not simply the instrument of mission, but its goal.

Trellis, vines, baptism and making disciples

"Jesus told his apostles to disciple all the nations. The way his words are often translated, “to make disciples of all nations”, allows for a misconception to arise. It is the nations that are to be discipled, baptized and taught, not merely individuals out of the nations. The gospel will heal the nations and in the book of Revelation the nations shall walk in the light of the glory of God and bring their treasures to the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:24, 26; 22:2). This glorious result of the exaltation of the Messiah had been prophesied in the Old Testament (Isa 11:10, 12; 25:7; 49:6, 7; 52:15). All the nations, that is the peoples and their cultures, are to be Christianized by the knowledge of the triune God. Christ’s commission to his followers is to baptize the nations, to bring them under his leadership, as their Lord and their teacher."
D B Knox
“D.Broughton Knox Selected Works Volume II - Church and Ministry”; ed. K. Birkett; Matthias Media 2003; p277-282.

Knox isn't arguing against the practice of water baptism here, simply arguing against applying the commission to individuals, and hence their individual baptism. Though individual baptism, discipling and teaching may be good ways to achieve the 'baptism of the nations' the individuals are not the goal of the commission. Jesus' use of the terms 'baptize', 'disciple' and 'teach' is metaphorical.

Now, baptism isn't a huge issue for us in Sydney anymore, but 'disciple-making' is.

In a more recent Matthais release, Col Marshal and Tony Payne use the great commission to argue that the chief goal of the church is to 'make disciples'. By this they mean individual followers of Jesus, and put great emphasis on one-to-one Bible reading with personal application. Yet the great goal of the church is to bring the nations in line with Jesus their Lord, not just individuals. Tony and Col fall into the misunderstanding that Knox points out, interpreting the verse as 'make disciples from all the nations'. The only problem is that there is no 'from' in the verse. (neither is there a genitive 'of'). They have missed the metaphorical (or at least stretched) use of the words. Just as the nations wont be 'baptized' the way individuals are, they wont be 'discipled' in exactly the same way either. The original disciples were NOT commanded simply to repeat the experience they had had under Jesus.
What does this mean for Tony and Col's claim that all disciples are to be 'disciple makers'?
Well, if it means that all christians are to be part of bringing the knowledge of the Triune God to bear on every aspect of the world, to call it to faithfulness and praise of as Jesus the Lord, in personal and political and economical and social realms, in their homes, in their work, in their time with others, in their time alone, in their actions as well as their words, in their practice of accounting and maintenance, as part of their lives within those nations, as citizens or sojourners, as mechanics or orators, as homeless or as presidents, as large institutional organizations and as bare individuals, then, ok.
But if they mean that every christian should take on a quasi-pastoral role, should be speakers, should do one-on-one Bible study with someone. Well, I don't know. They are still good things...but...

The terrible irony in all this is that Tony and Col have a go at another bunch of people, Missionaries, for their use of this verse.
According to Payne and Marshall, the missionaries are wrong to use this verse to promote overseas mission.
Payne and Marshal note that the main verb of the sentence is not 'go' but 'make disciples'. The other three verb forms (go, baptize and teach) are participles.
So far, so good.
But Payne and Marshall then argue that this means that the best way to translate 'go' is 'when you go' or ' as you go..make disciples'. You might go, but you might not.
The only problem is, this isn't the best way to translate it.
The participle is an aorist, before an aorist imperative. It is a participle of attendant circumstance. This participle construction takes the mood of the main verb. Yes, the emphasis is on the main verb, but, as Dan Wallace says (in a second year greek text)
"there is no good grammatical ground for giving the participle a mere temporal idea...Virtually all instances in narrative literature of aorist participle+ aorist imperative involve attendant circumstance participle. In Matthew in particular, every other instance of the aorist participle of 'go' followed by a main verb..is clearly attendant circumstance."
D B Wallace 'Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics' 645
So, the missionaries were right, going is part of the command. Which is no surprise really, since the disciples are commanded to disciple all nations. It would be tricky to do that without a little travel.


I'm sure the rest of the book has some good ideas for evangelism and nurturing people. It may have some strategies that are helpful.
But it's use of the great commission is theologically and exegetically naive. Since this interpretation of the Great Commission forms the basis of the books claims about the true goal of everything the church should be doing, the whole book should be read with a grain of salt.

Can a Christian be a banker? Usury your imagination

The gospel of the Lordship of Jesus invites us into a world that we can't even imagine. We are so bound by our conception of 'how things must work' in the broken world around us, that God's kingdom is simply incomprehensible to us. This is why studying history is so worthwhile. At the very least it trains our minds to imagine the world differently.
And as we look back, the evil of past times, that seemed so necessary, so unavoidable, so world dominating, we see as passing, unecessary, and well, evil.
Who could have imagined that the British and American economy would survive without slave labour? or child labour? The notion seemed absurd when christians started questioning slavery. The christians that opposed it were extreme, unreasonable, unrealistic, did not understand the way the world worked, idealistic, unpatriotic and downright dangerous.

There has been a discussion in the Sydney Anglican magazine, Southern Cross, about housing and debt in Sydney. Post GFC, I guess everyone is talking about debt.

Who could have imagined that christians would one day be fine with usury? (usury is lending money for interest. In our system I guess it includes both 'lenders' and 'depositors' who make interest). Or more pointedly, what contemporary christian can actually imagine a world that is not dominated by debt and interest. I certainly can't.
Yet historically, christians have not tolerated it. The Bible is totally against it. In Ezekiel, usury is listed as one of the practices that leads to God's wrath and ultimately to death. It is right up there with eating at idol shrines, raping your neighbours wife, oppressing the poor and needy and robbery. Proverbs describes lending as making someone your slave.

Now, in the article, Andrew Cameron, quite rightly, says that we have to be very careful when trying to apply Old Testament laws to current situations. We are not Israelites, but followers of Jesus Christ.
the difficulty is, Jesus goes even further than the OT when it comes to lending. It is very difficult to charge interest when you expect NO PAYMENT WHATSOEVER!
Yet this is just what Jesus says about lending.
"Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back....and if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high; for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men" Luke 6
For Jesus, the motivation for giving someone money is the future reward from God. the expectation of reward before the resurrection of the righteous nullifies the futurereward. It is the 'bad stewardship' of Luke 16:10. You will either use your money to buy friends for yourself in the kingdom or you wont. Now, I don't think I will be giving a warm welcome to the shareholders of banks in the kingdom. The money they liberally spread around is not gift, but obligation and slavery. The whole system of debt is not about 'gaining friends' but getting their money. (the same is true when I deposit for interest too). We are literally wasting money when we lend it for interest. We are squandering our resurrection reward.

We have a giant edifice of debt which holds up the world as we know it. I can't imagine the world without it. Perhaps this is why we no longer pray 'release us from our debts, as we release those indebted to us'. But that does not mean it is right. Or that christians should oppose every last instance of usury. Or should start practically imagining other ways of living and giving and investing. I'm sure it will cost a great deal. but the reward will be great

EA review of trellis and vine

http://www.eauk.org/slipstream/resources/krish-kandiah-book-round-up.cfm