Monthly Archives: March 2010

Narrative Chain: Centurions in Luke-Acts

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Daniel Marguerat in The First Christian Historian highlights a unifying mechanism within narratives called a “narrative chain” (p. 52 ff). He points out the chain of centurions in Luke-Acts and comments on their significance.

  1. centurion of Capernaum (Luke 7:1-10)
  2. centurion that confesses faith at Jesus’ crucifixion (Luke 23:47)
  3. centurion named Cornelius who believes (Acts 10-11; 15:7-11)

Marguerat notes that these centurions all have exemplary faith that is underlined in the text (see Luke 7:9b; 23:47; Acts 10:2). He writes, “The narrator has linked these three soldiers together by the common theme of the astonishing grace accorded to faith” (53).

For its significance on the level of narrative, he writes:

(a) it creates the continuity between the meeting of Peter and Cornelius and an action of Jesus

(b) it legitimizes the favour of God towards Cornelius by the positive construction of the character of the ‘centurion’

(c) it prepares for the shock of the opening up of salvation to the Gentiles

Evangelizing my Childrens’ Hearts

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In all of our attempts to “shepherd” Elizabeth’s heart, I realize that God did no such thing to my own. He just created a new one.

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”  – Ezekiel 36:26-27

If our “shepherding” is to have any good effect then God has to do the same thing in her. In a truer sense, our work is soil-tilling and seed-sowing.

There are some fundamental differences that we tend to overlook when considering my favorite book on parenting. The padeobaptist understanding of the children of believers is a little different than that of credobaptists. Covenant theology would consider children of believers to be new covenant members. The new covenant is clearly contrasted with the old specifically at this heart issue– in the new covenant God will create a new heart.

My daughters do not get a new heart because their daddy and mommy believe in Jesus. And therefore my parenting of them is not so much a “shepherding” as it is an evangelizing–an evangelizing and praying that the Father would one day work that miracle in them.

Don’t Loiter in that Ditch

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It is true, religion in the souls of men is the immediate work of God, and all our natural endeavors can neither produce it alone, nor merit those supernatural aids by which it must be wrought: the Holy Ghost must come upon us, and the power of the Highest must overshadow us, before that holy thing can be begotten, and Christ be formed in us: but yet we must not expect that this whole work should be done without any concurring endeavours of our own: we must not lie loitering in the ditch, and wait till Omnipotence pull us from thence; no, no! we must bestir ourselves to our utmost capacities, and then we may hope that, ‘our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord ‘ (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, 97ff.

And then looking back on the “bestirring of ourselves” we will say that it was all of grace.

The Holy Church in a Dirty World

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In reflection on this.

The Church’s holiness is a certain kind of derivative holiness in that because its reality is completely outside of itself, the manner of holiness is expressed in humble gratitude. This humble gratitude is a stark contrast to demeaning separatism. The Church’s calling to be separate is a gift given by God in His grace, not an achieved title in demonstration of human virtue. If this is not understood then the glory of the gospel is severely diminished and Church’s witness in the world is handicapped.

This naturally leads to implications for the Church’s relation to the world. God’s holiness is a communicated holiness. His being is expressed in His works. Holiness is perceived and confessed. In a similar way, the holiness of the Church is expressed not in its separation or mere moral transcendence over the world, but it its activity in the world. Light does not shine if it is tucked away in parochial seclusion. Light shines by being present. Light’s activity is the reality of its essence (Matt. 5:14-16).


What Being A Man Has To Do With Phineas And His Spear

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Numbers 25:1-13. The narrative is short but it is one of my favorites… it starts following the LORD’s determination to bless Israel (despite Balak). The people of Israel apostatize. The men whore with the daughters of Moab. The men who were supposed to be leading their families in the worship of the true God have instead  been seduced to go to bed with Baal. The picture in verse 6 seems odd. What that guy did in bringing the Midianite woman along was evil. The text implies that he was flaunting his idolatry.

Then comes Phineas. He rises up to play the man. He chased the couple down and slays them both with a spear. It is a gruesome scene. But Phineas doesn’t waste time. He goes straight for the problem. It is a sober rage. It is a logical fury with the glory of God at stake, and the good of the people (vv. 10-11). The idolatry was putting the previous oracles in jeopardy. They were up to thwarting God’s promise. And where there were no men, Phineas was a man. I want to be like Phineas.

I don’t want a spear and I hate ultimate fighting (it is nonredeemable), but I want to be a man like Phineas. That means, I want to lead my family well in the worship of the triune God. And that means that sometimes you have to slay the inhibitions, you have to put to death those things that contradict the reality of the gospel.

Our situation is not like Numbers 25. But what is it in your camp that is impeding your worship of GOD? What is it in your tribe that is derailing your family from living in light of the gospel? Is it your TV addiction? Is it your disproportionate affection for sports? Is it your preoccupation with Twitter and Facebook? Maybe your lazy? Whatever it is, we all have something in our lives, in the life of our family, that needs to be impelled (metaphorically, of course). We are surrounded by things that aim to knock us off track. Be a man and get rid of those things, for the glory of God and your family’s good.

When Criticizing Coolness is Cool: An Inescapable Problem and a Plea for Gospel Transcendence

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There is a severe irony at work in all our blog posts about uncool people needing Jesus and paragraphs that aim to describe what hip Christians like and dislike. The problem that we can’t get away from is that all this talk of coolness, with all its sarcasm, is itself, well, cool.

Anyone can sound cool and make something else look stupid if they are creative enough with their words. Who is cool becomes the one who can make fun of everything else. It is the battle of sarcasm. And I am afraid that we are all infected. We can make fun of door-to-door evangelism. No. Wait. Let’s make fun of people who make fun of door-to-door evangelism. And then let me write a post about people who make fun of people who make fun of door-to-door evangelism.

It is important to evaluate, to become aware, to step outside a get a good look at things. It is good to write about it. To show how silly that thing is, how silly we can be. But, we shouldn’t get lost in this. We have to keep our eyes on the cross. Watch out that we don’t buy into the sport of criticizing the critical, of getting the upper hand in situating everything in its respective realm, influenced by this or that cultural trend, and on and on. Let us get lost in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us have tunnel-vision in that. Let that transcend and overpower everything else. Everything else.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Day 13: The Church At Every Moment…

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The holy people of God is a form of common life which owes it origin to a decision and act beyond itself, utterly gratuitous, excluding from consideration ‘everything which men have of themselves.’ Neither in its origin nor in its continuation is the sanctified community an autonomous gathering; it is–at every moment of its existence–a creature of grace.

John Webster, Holiness, 40.

Jesus is Building His Church in Cities, Neighborhoods, Towns, Communities, Subdivisions, Townships; i.e. in Urban, Suburban, Rural

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In light of Bill Streger’s post yesterday, “Uncool People Need Jesus Too“, it seemed good to repost some thoughts from the summer. I’ve heard concerns similar to Bill’s in the round-table discussions of the Bethlehem cohort that I’m in.


We should beware–in the  name of ‘not wasting our lives,’ we could become  self-righteous and sadly uncharitable. We should beware of the wartime-lifestyle-go-to-the-hard-places-snobbery that thinks ministering in places vacant of gang graffitti and homeless people is somehow second rate. I believe in ministry of a radical flavor–holding our lives cheap, seeking that city which is to come, going to the places nobody else wants to go, heralding the surpassing worth of Jesus above all things. Amen. We should do this. And at the same time, we should understand that it takes more than a zip code to actualize this kind of ministry. And if we aren’t  careful, we’ll create this false picture of how it looks and we’ll form these nonspoken leagues–one Major and another Minor–there are superstars and rookie wannabees… ‘those guys go there and these guys come here.’ And this is wrong.

We should remember that the gospel is needed everywhere. This doesn’t mean that we just go anywhere. Be strategic. Seek the Lord. But never forget that the folks down at the hardware store where ‘everybody knows your name’ and the prostitute in New Orleans who sells her body for crack have one thing in common–they both need the gospel. The wrath-bearing death of Jesus Christ on the cross is their only hope, period. And God would say that same thing of Mayberry that he would say of Los Angelos– “I have many in this city who are my people.”  He sends servants to both to go and stay, and we should be thankful for that.

So let us not be weak and pass judgment on our brothers by the neighborhoods in which they serve. Each of us will give an account of himself to God. Instead, let us be grateful and pray for our brothers. Pray for radical ministry for these whom God has sent and is sending everywhere… and let us go to the hard places (that means urban and rural) with all that in mind.

True: He Will Make All Things New

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We can rejoice that we are saved not through the immanent mechanisms of history and nature, but by grace; that God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that He will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, He will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes — and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and He that sits upon the throne will say, “Behold, I make all things new.”

David Bentley Hart, Tsunami and Theodicy