Month: December 2009

Going Beyond What is Written

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

“Do not go beyond what is written.” It’s the good advice of Paul to Corinth. (1 Corinthians 4:6) It’s also a pretty good principle of hermeneutics.

Let me pose a few questions.

Is it going beyond what is written to insist on a doctrine that is not explicitly expressed in scripture? When we say “thou shalt not” yet the scriptures say nothing about it? When we say “you’ll go to hell if you do” when the Bible is silent?

Is it going beyond what is written to support such a doctrine with the opinions of people who have not, as we generally canonize it, written any scripture?

Is it going beyond what is written to require biblical authority not only for any given act of worship, but also how, when, by whom, and where it may be performed … but ignore, minimize or explain away scripture which seems to contradict those doctrines of people? (for example: Acts 2:42-47; 18:26; 21:8-9; 1 Corinthians 11:4-5)

Is it going beyond what is written to forbid someone to confess Christ before others when scripture instructs us not to quench His Spirit? (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Is it going beyond what is written to make law out of silence? presume authority to make that law when all authority has been given to Christ? to cause division rather than maintaining unity? to declare indisputable what others dispute? to not keep what one believes about such matters between one’s self and God? (Romans 14:19-23)

Is it going beyond what is written to make law for all churches, for all believers, for all time … out of instruction given to a church at a given time in a certain set of circumstances? (Colossians 3:22; Ephesians 6:5-9; Titus 2:9; 1 Peter 2:18)

Is it going beyond scripture to correct others by attempting to publicly humiliate them by name, at a distance … before discussing the matter with them in private first? (Matthew 18:15-20)

Is it going beyond what is written to judge others when Jesus says don’t? (Luke 6:37)

As a rather exclusive members-only fellowship of the church He died to save, we have generally prided ourselves on not going beyond what is written. It’s one of our Restoration Movement mottoes (“We speak where the Bible speaks; we are silent where the Bible is silent”) – and we call it a motto because we say we have no creeds.

If we are, in fact, doing a really good job of not going beyond what is written … then why aren’t we widely known as Christians by our love?

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” ~ John 13:35

Eat this Scroll

/ W. Keith Brenton / 1 Comment

Twice in scripture – Ezekiel 3 and Revelation 10 – a spokesperson of God is told to eat a scroll containing a prophecy to be proclaimed, God’s Word for His people. God wanted His Word to be taken internally … digested and comprehended and made a part of His spokesperson.

The apostle John tells us in the opening chapter of his gospel that the Word of God for His people is Jesus.

Jesus came to this world, not by whirlwind or meteor, but as a baby laid to rest in a manger. We get our English word “manger” from the French verb manger, “to eat.” Jesus’ mother cradled Him in a food trough. He came to be consumed – consumed by His passion for His Father’s house; for the people He came to populate it with … you and me.

John recounts this zeal for God’s house early in his gospel – chapter two, right after the changing of water to wine – where Jesus drives the selfishness and convenience and animal nature from the temple; where He predicts that God’s temple destroyed He will raise up in three days.

By the sixth chapter, John records Jesus speaking of Himself as the “bread of heaven;” that we should eat His flesh and drink His blood. Whether Jesus is foreshadowing His last supper with his closest disciples, perhaps we can’t know for certain. But all three of the other gospel writers (Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22) agree that Jesus said the bread was His body, and the cup was His blood.

And His servant Paul would later add in his instruction to Corinth (1 Corinthians 11): “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Jesus’ birth, His life, His teaching, His miracles of helping, His death, and His resurrection – these are the gospel; what all scripture points toward. This is Jesus, the Word of God, not in a nutshell … but in a morsel of bread and a sip of the blood of the grape.

Let’s proclaim it together.

Yes, Virginia, There Was a Saint Nicholas

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

At a time in history when mankind’s faith is an ocean at low ebb – when it’s difficult for adults or children to believe in anything because of man’s failure and perhaps inability to live up to reasonable expectations – I would like to take this opportunity to reassure every man, woman and child upon this globe that Santa Claus is real.

He is not a mere wispy sentiment of generosity perpetuated among conspiring adults to play upon the gullibility of innocent children, nor is he simply an inflated legend of the literary and motion picture industries created to stimulate the purchase of merchandise to be given away as gifts.

He was a real person, born Nicholas of Myra a mere two hundred seventy-some years after the birth of Christ. Most of his life – and death – is fogged by mystery and legend, but we can be sure that he was a follower of Christ and a bishop of the church where he lived. And the mysteries of the miracles said to have been done by God through him as well as the legends of kindnesses done by him all share a magnificent common theme: giving … generosity … charity.

He had a great heart; he was eager to share wealth with the poor. And as the respect for certain saints grew into veneration in the centuries that followed his death, his memory was among the most celebrated and the most widely-observed. His death on December 6 was commemorated with a variety of practices and festivities. In northern Europe, he became known as Sinterklass – Saint Nicholas – and over a number of years in the English-speaking world that moniker slurred into “Santa Claus.”

Perhaps the life of Nicholas was exaggerated in that growing observance; perhaps not. But it became of such fascination that his very remains were stolen and secreted from his hometown Myra to another location – and perhaps more than one – in the hope that their presence would somehow bring God’s blessing.

What can be ascertained about Nicholas of Myra is that he serves as an inspiration for the generosity of a season marked by the giving of gifts, just as wealthy wise men gave gifts to the infant Jesus. They knew His true identity as King of Israel, but perhaps never knew that He was also King of Heaven and Earth, of all creation, of all people.

He was given as a gift to mankind, through Whom many other gifts could be given to bless us, every one: hope, purpose, an empowering Holy Spirit, a life without end in God’s kingdom.

Of this, Nicholas could be certain – and so can you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ~ John 3:16

What Is That To You?

/ W. Keith Brenton / 3 Comments

A few minutes ago, I added the comment below to a post at Patrick Mead’s TentPegs blog (which I am pretty much addicted to):

Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” (John 14:6) As nearly as I can tell, He does not add, “… and to do so, one must read and fully comprehend all scripture, intuit or deduce correctly any doctrine implied therein, and live perfectly in accord with those and only those correct doctrines.”

Jesus is the Lord, the Righteous Judge (2 Timothy 4:1-8) of the living and the dead. God has mercy on whom He wills, and hardens whom He wills (Romans 9 and elsewhere).

We can’t tie His hands and force Him to save us by what we do. Nor can we imprison Him in a box of justice defined by our own judgment, making Him condemn those who aren’t as faithful or lucky or exposed-to-the-Word as we are.

He is, in a word, sovereign.

I trust Him.

My responsibility is not to save, but to seek; not to condemn others but to commend Christ; not to judge but to proclaim. I don’t have to know who’s in and who’s out.

You’re right, Patrick: All I have to do is tell the Story … live the Story … let the Story work its miracle within the listening and the searching and the willing.

All I have to do is lift up Christ and let Him draw all men closer to Himself.

And in retrospect, I realized again how I spend too much time and worry fretting over who’s saved and who’s not.

Silly.

In John 21, Jesus tells Peter to follow Him, and gives him a glimpse at how his death will glorify his Lord. Peter gestures toward John: “What about him?” Jesus tells him to mind his own business. Gently, of course, and kindly; in that inimitable Jesus-way of His. “If I want him to live and write a gospel and some epistles and give him a spectacular pageant of the story of God and mankind start-to-finish, what concern is that of yours?” Okay, I’m taking great liberty with the text, but you know I’m getting the germ of it.

John’s salvation and destiny should be of no concern to Peter. It’s in His hands. Always has been. Always will be.

It’s not like Jesus can’t be trusted to judge. He bought our trust with His own blood.

So I find that, every once in a while when my faith is weak and my arrogance snarls, I really ought to be praying, “Lord, please don’t harden me. Don’t let the cause of someone else’s fall or salvation be my bad example.”

At the same time, when I remember Paul’s words to Timothy cited above, I need to recall that his words about the crown of life he is to be awarded are unequivocal and confident – confident in his Lord’s desire and power to save, not in anything he alone has done.

And I should pray, “Lord, may You empower me to mind my own business and be about Yours.”

Sent from my iPhone

Repost: Of Course We Christians Love Christmas

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

Who wouldn’t love a sweet, innocent little baby born in a barn, cradled in a food trough for animals, worshiped by angels, sought by wise men and targeted for death by despot?

So all of us Christians really want to emphasize this part of our Lord’s Story to charm and beguile those who haven’t heard it all into wanting to hear more.

The problem is, there comes a point where He grows up and he’s no longer just sweet and charming.

He scares his folks to the edge of panic by staying behind in Jerusalem while they’ve gone on toward home after the Feast. And asks them simply, “Shouldn’t I be about my Father’s business?”

He abandons Joseph’s business to pursue a career as an itinerant preacher.

He seeks out his weird, wacked-out cousin in the wild and seems to join his baptismal cult, fasts forty days, has an encounter with the devil, and starts preaching with John the gospel of “Repent! God’s kingdom is almost here!” with a few “… you brood of vipers!” thrown in for good measure.

This is not your typical, nice Jewish boy.

Oh, sure, He’ll impress the winesteward at a poorly-catered wedding, heal some people, feed a lot of people, and preach that people ought to love and respect each other because God loves all of them. But He’ll also thrash a few demons from time to time, fraternize with tax collectors and centurions, and generally antagonize the entire religious establishment, whether Pharisee or Sadducee. Not to mention putting one of the tax collectors in his entourage, along with a potential insurrectionist, a hot-tempered fisherman or two and a few other ne’er-do-wells (including a suspected thief).

Yet He does all these things – by the implication He encourages – because He wants people to accept that He is the Son of God?

What is His deal?

Why couldn’t He just settle for being a peculiar prophet with wise teachings about relationships between people and God; pick up a few seminary students, or pluck the best synagogues, or even schmooze a few Levites? Maybe even a priest?

It’s like there’s no compromise with Him. It’s either His way, or the highway – the broad, broad highway that leads to destruction, in His words.

And it’s not like He’s talking flowery beds of ease for His followers, either. He expects for them to suffer, and especially after He’s murdered. Yes, that’s right. He starts talking about being arrested and tried and crucified.

Then it happens.

He puts up no fight, responds to no accusation, retorts to no insult, curses at no torment, reviles no lash, evaporates no nail hammered into His hands and feet, calls down no angelic army to obliterate His captors, breathes no supernatural breath to hold asphyxiation forever at bay.

He dies while lifted up on that cross.

And draws all men unto Him. Not just a few shepherds. Not just some oriental astrologers. Not even just a dozen or so close friends. All men. We have to pause at the foot of that cross and gawk upward, and wonder …

… Who is this Jesus?

What happened to that marvelous Christmas Christ? The King given gold instead of a crown of thorns? The One gifted with myrrh who ends up buried with it? The Child who received frankincense, but became the Man whose innocence was sacrificed as a sweet-smelling savor to God?

Then we discover the tidings of comfort and joy don’t come until three days later … the swaddling cloths are found folded neatly in His empty tomb. It can’t hold Him.

Now it can’t hold us.

That’s what we Christians love about Christmas. It doesn’t end at Easter. It goes on and on and on, as long as life shall last, and then on and on and on.

It’s not just a sweet Story for gullible children; it’s not even a Story for every rational adult.

It’s for those who are willing to suspend incredulity, to truly and deeply believe its irrationality and passion, and who will live that belief from cradle to grave … and then some.

(from 2007)