In the next part of Wright’s new book (4-stars) he reaches for the metaphor of a sound system whose speakers are in serious need of adjustment. While reading the Gospels, the Church has tended to turn the volume down on some speakers, up on others and nearly off on yet others still. The result has been a distortion of the beauty that is meant to ring through the beautiful and true message of the Gospels.

Turn Up Israel’s Story

After assessing the problem we face, a misreading of the Gospels, Wright directs us into an adjustment of sorts by taking us through the Gospels one book at a time. He wants to draw attention to the importance of the story of Israel for the Gospel writers and reminds us that if Israel’s story is important for them, it should be for us as well. Of particular interest is Wright’s continued insistence in the Exile motif at this junction. This view that he holds to is still widely contested but for Wright it is absolutely essential to get it right and to understand that first century Jews believed they were still in Exile and that the Messiah would come and deliver them.

So to this end – in chapter four – he talks about Daniels seventy-weeks – “a jubilee of jubilee’s” if you will – and connects it directly to Matthew’s genealogy list where the Gospel writer structures Jesus’s genealogy into three fourteen generations (14 x 3 = 42) with Jesus being the last (totalling 49, a la Daniel’s seventy-weeks). I agree with my friend Drew, that when we think about this type of math it does seem that Wright is stretching things a bit, looking for any under-the-rock evidence connecting to key Exile-related numbering systems. But maybe Wright is correct here. Maybe we are just not thinking “Jewishly enough”. Perhaps for a first century Jew, Matthew’s point would not have gone unnoticed. I can’t say for sure, but Wright does present an interesting case.

Turn Down These Two Speakers

Many Christians will find Wright’s next adjustment somewhat shocking. He says that the next two speakers have been turned up way too loud, thus making the Gospel writers more subtle points nearly impossible to hear.

Yes “JESUS IS GOD!” But…

As he touched on earlier, the Church has been obsessed with proving the deity of Christ and reading the Gospels as if that (and perhaps some moral teaching stuff) is all they had to say.  Wright says, YES THERE IS A GOD, YES JESUS IS GOD (reflecting the volume of this emphasis), but the screaming of some points has drowned out the more subtle emphasis of the Gospels, not that Jesus is God (though he is), but that God has dwelt among us. Jesus did not do things to prove that he is God, he did things to show us what God is up to. It’s also been custom in the Church Tradition to read “JESUS IS GOD!” as simply an answer to Genesis 3, and to skip over, almost complete, the story of Israel. Yes Jesus is God, but he’s not just any old god, he’s Israel’s God. In fact, the main point of this whole chapter is to further what he said in Simply Jesus to remind us that the story of Jesus is more than just the story of Israel, the story of Jesus is the story of Israel’s God.

Yes, the Gospels are for the Church, But…

The second speaker that has been turned up way to loud is the one that emphasizes the Gospels as simply reflecting the life of the early Church. They have no real connection to Israel and are rather merely a reflection of the crisis’ that arose in those early days. Each Gospel writer, it is said, wrote to a specific audience to address a specific issue. They’re also read, then, as providing the early Church a proper moral compass, via the life of Christ. From the liberal point of view, this is why the Church made up a fictitious Jesus and filled his mouth with words and his hands with actions, things he said and did that he never actually said and did.

The truth is, says Wright; the Gospels are the Churches foundational documents, but primarily in the sense that they tell “the story of the launching of God’s renewed people” (emphasis original). But it’s not right to think of Jesus’ mission as one of “founding the church” because, as Wright points out, there already was a people of God.

Turned Off, Unplugged and Placed in an Attic

The first speaker, says Wright, was turned down too low and the second two were turned up way too high. But the fourth speaker, he goes on, “has often not merely been turned down, but never switched on in the first place. Maybe, to extend the metaphor, it’s even worse; maybe the speaker needs to be retrieved from its lonely spot in the attic, dusted off, put in its place, and plugged in.”

What speaker could Wright be talking about? Well, that precise speaker that speaks of the clash of the Kingdoms. Not some secondary, subsidiary, incidental clash, but an actual clash of the Empire of Caesar with the Kingdom of God. Explicit. Intentional.

For Wright there can be no doubt about it. It is especially clear, he seems to think, for anyone who embraces the notion that the true gospel is understood as the story of Jesus as fulfillment of Israel’s story. For Wright, that is a direct corollary to the notion that Jesus and his followers consciously pitted the Kingdom of God against the Empire of Caesar. (This must make Scot McKnight’s view ironic to N.T. Wright. McKnight passionately affirmed the first – that the gospel is Jesus’ story as fulfillment of Israel’s story – while rejecting the latter. )

Wright then sets about to make an impassioned case for the explicit conflict between the Kingdom of God and the Empire of Caesar in the Gospel’s:

“But, you say, surely Caesar is only mentioned once in the gospels, and there Jesus says that there’s a clear division between God and Caesar, a split of church and state, so that never the twain shall meet. Well, not so fast. We’ll get to that. It sounds suspiciously modern. Did Jesus really anticipate post-Enlightenment Western ideology so exactly? And the objection is forgetting, in any case, the wonderful passage in John 18-19 (to which also we shall return), in which Jesus, representing God’s kingdom, confronts Pilate, representing Caesar’s. They go at it together, arguing about kingdom, truth, and power until Pilate proves Jesus’s point by having him executed with the words “King of the Jews” above his head. And once we recognize that confrontation for what it is – part of the very climax of John’s astonishing gospel – there is more. Much more.” (p.135)

He goes on, in the allotted time, to build a wonderful case for the clash of the Kingdoms, not by appealing to some obscure verse here or there, but by tackling large portions of each of the Gospels and mixing them with the times and context of Israel’s own his(story). The confrontation of God and Caesar is a final corollary to the confrontation of God and Babel, or perhaps more explicitly, God and Egypt. Each case, as much as they have a spiritual element, have an explicitly physical one too.

In the end Wright’s point is that “the four gospel writers, each in his own way, tell the story of Jesus as the story of the new and ultimate exodus. What our present fourfold exercise has done is to draw out the various dimensions of that new exodus and to highlight their significance.” (p.153)

All of this delivers us through the corridors of the main arteries and directly into the heart of Wright’s book: “the explosive combination of the kingdom and the cross.” – Part 3…

Have you considered a career in sales? Look out! I can promise you – from firsthand experience – there are landmines hidden around nearly every bend, and given the nature of sales, you are almost always entering enemy territory.

As marketing manager for a Christian retail store, I can testify to the jungle like environment of sales. Sometimes there may be a conviction about sale approaches, sale targets, and sale strategies. Am I functioning with the utmost integrity? How would Jesus approach sales if he were in my shoes? Why do I feel like I am under attack all the time? Who is the enemy? Sales (especially Christian sales) feels like Guerrilla warfare.

Christopher Cunningham is a Christian sales professional who, years after inheriting his granddad’s Basic Field Manual on Jungle Warfare (dated December 15, 1941), and rediscovering it, found that it was filled with anecdotes to help Christians in sales navigate the competitive market. He invites the reader on a 22-day devotion-like adventure through the Jungle of the sales industry with his grandfathers’ journal as a guide. Each day quotes a section from his granddad’s journal, a bible verse, a battle plan, prayer, and a place to record your own reflections and prayers.

I appreciate what Cunningham has to offer here, gleaning great spiritual truths from a very practical source of a bygone era and applying it in a very practical way to contemporary sales. I think that if you are in ministry and sales and are looking for a new book to pick up, this is the one.

(Disclaimer: Jungle Warfare was provided by Thomas Nelson via Booksneeze for the purpose of this review.)

I was in for a real treat!

I have never read a book more enthralled with the Supremacy of Christ than I have here. With a broad stroke and great theological precision, these authors have enlarge my image of Christ and challenged me at times, and on many other occasions I found myself cheering, “Union with Christ! Union with Christ!”

As I’ve been trying to wrestle through the Biblical Covenants and doctrines such as “Justification”, “Sanctification”, “Predestination”, “Election”, and “Soteriology”, I find myself returning to the doctrine of Union with Christ (i.e., “In Christ”) as the starting and ending point for all of these other doctrines.

Rich in theology, particularly that bit we call “Union with Christ”, the doctrine of “in Christ” is the only possible way to convey anything about us and our mission in a Biblical fashion. The authors, in a sheer moment of brilliance as great wordsmiths, manage to convey the concept of “Union with Christ” in a way I only wished I had thought of first: “If God wrote your biography, it would be Jesus Christ” [p. 43].

As He is, so are we in this world – 1 John 4:17

At point after point these authors tear down anything which vies Christ for supremacy. Ministry is not the point, apologetics is not the point, spiritual gifts are not the point, a “sense” of his presence is not the point, “spiritual” or “religious” pursuits are not the point. The point is Christ.

Nothing can ever be preached apart from Christ! If in Church you are learning about “Worship”, “Evangelism”, “Christian Living”, “End Times”, “Social Activism”, “Spiritual Gifts” or any other hundreds of subjects, and if Christ is not the center in every one of those sermons, then Christ is not being portrayed supremely as he should.

Christ is all I need. You can strip everything else away from me, and I would still be left with Christ. Take away my gifts and my ministry; take away signs and wonders; take way the sense of his presence; take away my ability to read; and take away every spiritual and religious pursuit I have, and I will still have Christ. And in having Him, I have everything. – p. 22 Bold mine

What a powerful sentiment.

Five Stars!

[Disclaimer: Jesus Manifesto was provided by Thomas Nelson through the Booksneeze program for the purpose of this review.]

Over the years many authors and pastors have attempted to write books which answer the question, when all things in life crash around me, what am I to do now? From this question springs a myriad of other questions, doesn’t God work all things out for good? Where is he now? Where was he then? How am I going to get through this situation? Why did my life not go according to plan?

With an exceptionally sensitive and pastoral spirit Pete Wilson, in my estimate, addresses the pain people feel when Plan A crumbles before their eyes on a level which will resonate with everyone. I wrote a post on my blog telling a story of when my life switched gears from Plan A to Plan B. If truth be told, I am somewhere much further down in the alphabet today. My father died young; I didn’t go to Seminary; I did not enter the pastorate; I did not get married at twenty five; and so on.

What Pete offers in Plan B is the assurance 1) that God really does work all things out for good if we surrender ourselves and our plans to him, and 2) Pete provides much practical advice to help us cope with the changes we face in life.

What I particularly appreciate about Plan B is that Pete does not pretend that all things are always going to be okay (he provides illustration upon illustration from cover to cover to press the point). Life is not smooth sailing – not even for Christians. There are no “pat” answers, but there is a great God who is faithful and trustworthy.

I was standing over the stove cooking up a couple of grill cheese sandwiches for breakfast when my wife walked into the Kitchen with a parcel in her hands. “It’s for you” she says with glee in her eyes, “Can I open it?”  I shrug my shoulders and flip my sandwich. “It’s a book, Imaginary Jesus. A novel?” She sounded perplexed. I placed my sandwich on a plate, poured myself a glass of Canadian Dry and sat down to eat. “Its fiction” she said again, half asking and half stating in case I missed her quizzical tone, “you don’t read fiction”. I responded that I heard good things about Imaginary Jesus and will be giving away a copy on my blog. It only seemed prudent to read up on what I would be endorsing.

She placed the book on the table next to me and walked away. I reached down and opened up to the first page with my least greasy hand, took a swig of my pop and began to read. Moments later I stuffed the last piece of grill cheese sandwich into my mouth, took a big drink of my Canadian Dry and help the clump go down, and walked with a bounce in my step murmuring to myself until I reached the entrance to the bathroom where my wife stood fixing up her hair in the mirror.

“What’s with the smile?” she asked. “It must be really good for you to be laughing to yourself”.

I spent the next several minutes dramatically illustrating the first few chapters from Imaginary Jesus (my wife began to wonder if I had hit my head or something). My arms and legs flailing about as though I were Jesus[1] getting beat up by… well; let’s just say the whole scene is hysterical. (See the foot note to calm your anxieties.)

When I was done putting on my solo act (Imaginary Jesus really should be made into a cartoon) I finished getting ready and headed off for work where I performed an encore for the manager for my store. She almost fell over in laughter. I hold her the book is funnier and so she picked up a copy.

That was Wednesday. Thursday I finished the book (as in the next day, not a week and a day). I don’t know how long it takes people to read fiction (I’m not a fiction kind of guy), but one day seemed pretty darn fast to me.

So if I haven’t been clear already: Imaginary Jesus is a really funny book.

But wait, there’s more!

Matt Mikalatos was incredibly creative in this book. From chapter to chapter you never know who you’re going to meet or where you’re going to be or how – for that matter – Matt is going to communicate a difficult subject in a superbly assessable way. There is, quite literally, never a dull moment.

But Imaginary Jesus is not just for entertainment, nor is it an arbitrary read. Quite the contrary, we all create imaginary Jesus’ because we become – for whatever reason – discontent with the real one (“My Buddy Jesus”, “8 Ball Jesus”, “Legalistic Jesus” and so on). There are serious issues which come up in life, and in Imaginary Jesus, one such issue which led to Matt’s own imaginary Jesus my sister could well relate to (as could countless other families). But I’ll leave you to discover what that is on your own (read the book).

Finally I was thoroughly impressed with how Imaginary Jesus ended. All the loose ends were nicely tied up (even Houdini Dog finally makes an appearance – read the book!). I remember reading the last two or three pages to my wife (while we sat up in bed) and then folding the book closed challenged but fully satisfied.

This book gets five huge stars (out of five) from me. If you get a chance pick up it.

And as for me, I look forward to his next “not-so-real- story”, Night of the Living Dead Christians.

Thanks Matt.

Charles Foster invites us to consider or rather, to reconsider that ancient practice of pilgrimage, what he calls The Sacred Journey[1]. To take to the road, to visit Rome, Santiago or some other holy mountain (or mountain made holy). Jesus said, “follow me” and (Foster’s premise) he meant us to take him literally! Jesus never stayed in one place long, never became a city-dweller, he was a pilgrim. And you and I are called to follow him, to become pilgrims also. To journey to some sacred site or some sacred place or some sacred relic because the very action of doing this has a physiological reaction which will bring depth to your life and bring into focus those things that matter most.

Humans are made to walk. This, says Foster, is evident from our earliest ancestors who first stood upright some 22,000 years ago; its evolutions way of telling us that God favors the nomad. He chose Abel, the nomadic shepherd, over Cain, the settler. He chose Abraham the nomad, he chose Israel the Hebrew people also known as “wanderers”. It may be radical, says Foster, but “nothing that is not radical is Christian”. And so he calls you and me to take up the ancient practice – a practice common in all the world’s major religions – of pilgrimage.

The Sacred Journey can be summarized in three parts. The first is the history of pilgrimages from the first Homo Sapiens through the medieval ages (where Luther and the Reformers attempted to put a stop to it) and on to recent times. The second talks mostly about the practical: how do we become a pilgrim? What are the steps, the implications, what can be expected? Why go? Even to the details: what should I bring along for the journey? The third is a defense of his position.  It’s extreme and many people will attack it.

Reflections:

The Evangelical Conservative in me had a strong inclination to toss Foster’s book out the window after nearly every page (not literally, I don’t do that kind of thing), but my post-conservative tendencies challenged me to press on long enough for Foster to say something orthodox in the midst of pages of unorthodox things. He gives as much if not more quote space to Hindu’s, Buddhists, Muslims and Sikhs then to Christians. Furthermore he speaks of all these different religions favorably while it seems his disdain for Christianity (particularly Protestantism) comes to the surface, never tiring of calling us “Gnostics”. He seems to favor the Buddhist, quoting one who says, “thank you Jesus”. When he asks why a Buddhist would thank Jesus the answer he gets is “Why, he’s a Buddha, my friend.”  A thought which Foster allows to linger. And comments elsewhere, “A rather intense girl had identified a sixth-century Hindu text as “oozing the spirit of Jesus.” (And who am I to say she was wrong?)” Finally (as I’ve come to expect from theology like Fosters), there is a preference for orthopraxy over orthodoxy: good works over right doctrine. But more than this, Foster would dismiss right teaching altogether (ironically, shall we accept his teaching as being ‘right teaching’?) he says: “it is shocking to note, yet again, how little doctrine [the disciples] are taught to teach”. This is reckless negligence. Two thirds of the N.T. are doctrinal epistles.

As I concluded the book, the phrase “all things in moderation” came to mind – a concept that would no doubt horrify Charles Foster who presents his views with as much bigotry as he decries (and generalizes) Protestantism’ “often theological bigotry” [p.196]. (On an off note, my wife tells me that if you stick an “e” on the end of “bigot”, in Spanish it means “mustache”.)

An Irish monk states taking a pilgrimage to Rome you will not find God there unless you bring him with you. In response to this “Gnostic” idea Foster quotes Jeremiah, “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord”, then he adds, “Going to Rome, Geneva, or your own sacred mountain might well be part of that full-hearted searching” [p.198]. This is the kind of biblical negligence you will come to expect in this book, a complete disregard for the God’s own agenda in favor of his own agenda, by way of biblical “proof-texting”. Didn’t Jesus say that people will not search for God on this mountain or that mountain because God is Spirit? Foster’s Gnostic Jesus is to be despised in favor of his Buddhist Jesus.

Me, I don’t want Fosters Jesus, either the Gnostic one he imagines we serve or the Buddhist one which he prefers.

In no particular order, here are my top 5 reads of 2009:

Justification by N.T. Wright

Brian McLaren writes, “John Piper, it turns out, has done us all a wonderful favor” in writing the critique that invited this response. Rob Bell writes, “I find it stunning that a book dealing with the subject of Justification could be this compelling of a read.” Scot McKnight writes, “Tom Wright has out-reformed America’s newest religious zealots – the neo-Reformed – by taking them back to Scripture… Wright reveals that the neo-Reformed are more committed to tradition than to the sacred text.” I quote these fine reviewers because it is as though they took the words out of my mouth, had they not have said them first.

Telling the Truth by Frederick Buechner

Frederick Buechner is a masterful wordsmith! Written with the pastor-as-reader in mind, Buechner challengers a preaching of the Gospel as it is; as Comedy, Tragedy and finally as Fair Tale. This book is sensual and emotive. As you read it you will not just “learn facts” or “how-to’s”, you will instead “feel” and “be moved” by the words presented here. A special treat, I might add, is the comparisons Buechner makes between The Wizard of Oz (came out in 1900) and of what has become of the Gospel in the century it ushered in.

An Unsettling God by Walter Brueggemann

I wrote in a review of Walter Brueggemann’s book:

“An Unsettling God is both provocative and timely as Walter Brueggemann dazzles us with a portrayal of God – both unsettling and exciting – as the ancient Hebrews testified of him.” – C.A.R., Derek

I still stand by every word of that review. My understanding of God as the Old Testament testifies of him – indeed my interested in the Old Testament itself – has risen to know heights. Brueggemann is passionate about the Old Testament, and having tasted of his passion my own has been ignited.

We Become What We Worship by G.K. Beale

G.K. Beale’s book, We Become What We Worship, is both scholarly and pastoral. The theme of idolatry traced through the scriptures, as Beale goes to great lengths to show, plays a prominent part as one of the driving motifs of redemption History. Beginning with the difficult passage of Isaiah 6:9-13 and drawing comparisons between it and the Golden Calf incident at Zion [Exodus 32] helps to understand certain language employed by God throughout the scriptures.

His observation of the first man of creation as the idol of God, and the new creation which is a restoring of the image and likeness of God lost in the fall [2 Cor 3:18], is very helpful. I preached on sermon utilizing principals from this study, it was titled “Blockheads and Icons“.

Christ and Time by Oscar Cullmann

Oscar Cullmann’s Christ and Time has had a profound impact on the development of my understanding of Scripture, particularly as he develops the biblical concept of time as being linear (as opposed to circular – ANE), and in regards to Christ’ place in time. The ancient Hebrews had no concept of “end of time”, rather they thought in terms of “ages”. The first age is pre-fall, the second age is the “present evil age” and the third age is to be ushered in at the coming of the Messiah and with the resurrection of Israel.

But what the Jews had expected the Messiah to do at the end of the present evil age, Jesus did in the middle – by his own resurrection. The theological significance of this (it’s significance to the Apostle Paul on the Damascus road, the development of the doctrine of the Resurrection, and its continual significance for believers today) is difficult to exhaust, but to view the scriptures as Cullmann suggests answers many questions and shines much needed light on some very difficult passages and their cognant doctrines.

Encore: Best Movie 2009 – STAR TREK

So I realize that Star Trek does not quite keep with the feel of this post, what with not being a Christian book and all. But I simply love this movie, and when I unwrapped it Christmas morning (my wife knows me all too well), I decided to throw it in here as an encore for good measure.

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