Re-post from Last Easter: "Sunday Morning in a Garden"

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

It is in a garden that mankind first meets God and chooses sin, and it is in a garden outside an empty tomb that mankind meets God re-infleshed and has the opportunity to choose perfection.

If you read the gospel accounts of the discovery of the empty tomb and you get caught up in trying to determine how many women or men or angels were there and when and where, you miss the simple fact which is not, in any way, related differently among the four individual writers:

Jesus of Nazareth, beaten and crucified and run through with a spear, is not only no longer in the tomb, but He is no longer dead!

It is the single most astounding fact in the history of mankind.

Other people have died and have been raised from the dead by God’s agents in the flesh, and scripture is not shy about relating those accounts.

But this is the first time God has directly intervened and raised a man from the dead; restored life to three-days-lifeless flesh and bone; breathed breath and spirit back into His lungs and set Him on His feet and sent Him walking on the earth never to die again.

Can it mean anything but that the man is God’s own Son?

I believe that. I would believe it even if I were convinced that the accounts in the gospels contradicted each other on every other fact they relate about the event.

They don’t.

They each tell it differently.

There was a time when I felt like I had to know all the right answers in order to believe. It wasn’t that long ago. Now I’m persuaded that I’m probably never going to know all the right answers, any more than Job did. He didn’t know them before he spoke with God. He didn’t know them after. But at no point did he stop believing.

So, in the interest of those who (as I originally described myself as the author of this blog years ago) “question reality and won’t settle for an evasive answer,” may I offer my personal harmony of the four-fold gospel witnesses in this instance?

On the first day of the week, while it was still dark, there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

Very early in the morning just after sunrise, the women – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna and Salome – took the spices they had bought and prepared and went to the tomb so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. They asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” They found the stone – which was very large – rolled away from the tomb already.

While they were wondering about this, and entering the tomb, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. One looked like a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed because they saw him but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. Why do you look for the living among the dead? He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ Now I have told you.”

Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. At first, they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. Then they remembered His words. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples – to Simon Peter and the other disciple John (the one Jesus loved) and the rest of the apostles. Mary Magdalene came running and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” And they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

Peter and John, however, got up and ran to the tomb, the women following not too far behind them. Bending over, Peter saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally John, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. And they went away back to their homes, wondering to themselves what had happened, because they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons, stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and again saw the two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

Suddenly Jesus met them all. “Greetings,” he said. They also came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. – But do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me before I go.”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told those who had been with Him and who were mourning and weeping that He had said these things to her.

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

I haven’t added much beyond an “also” or an “and” or a “but” or a “because” to this narrative, and those only for clarity. The rest you’ll find in the histories of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All I did was try to put them in the right order. What I wanted to point out was that John saw and believed … even though he and Peter still did not understand. John himself wrote those words (20:8-9) – an admission of his own growing faith, unsupported by knowing all of the right answers. He just believed.

He believed in the most preposterous, unthinkable, ridiculous, impossible truth ever: that God raised His Son Jesus from the dead.

Because He did, all of the other puzzles pieces of life were beginning to fall into place, and all of life’s questions were beginning to be answered.

Why God allows evil – so that good can stand in contrast and be freely chosen. Why God lets man sin – so that He can fill the guilty emptiness it causes with forgiveness. Why God allows suffering and death – so that He can end it once and for all.

Through this One. This Son. This life. This death.

This resurrection.

I still can’t understand it.

I just believe.

What’s So Good About It?

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

An innocent Man, already tortured within moments of death, struggles to lift himself on feet nailed to a cross in order to take another breath. He has been doing it for hours. While afternoon darkness gathers, He will continue to do it for a few more.

It’s Good Friday.

What’s so good about that?

Nothing, if the Man were not the very Son of God.

Nothing, if the burdened cross was not succeeded by the empty tomb.

Nothing, if grace had not supplanted law.

It’s good because He is perfect.

It’s good because He lends us His righteousness.

It’s good because He commends His Spirit to God, who pours Him out on us.

It’s good because there is evening and morning, a third day.

And God sees that it is good.

1 Samuel 8; Isaiah 53 – The Last of the Judges

/ W. Keith Brenton / 3 Comments

52 Weeks at the Table – Week 15

The last of the judges was a boy named Samuel, a child in a family living among the descendants of Ephraim. Though his mother dressed him like a priest, he was not really a priest. He would grow up to crown a king or two, but not become one. He would be known as a seer, but serve God too early to be remembered as a prophet. For God’s people rejected his leadership as judge and begged for a king. God would tell him that they had really rejected Him as their King, so they could be like all the other nations – just like everyone else. They were to be a called-out people, but they wanted Samuel to call in this favor for them.

In the waning days of Israel’s true kings, a prophet named Isaiah would describe One later known as Prophet, Priest and King – One who would know rejection, yet nobly serve as a sacrificial Lamb; One who would suffer and die yet see the light of life and be satisfied; One who would bear the sins of many and intercede for them as a priest would intercede. And, having accomplished all, would finally serve as the last of the judges.

A Prayer Over the Bread

Father God, we so often want to be just like everyone else – even though we know you have called us out to be a people in the image of Your Son. We reject Your leadership and want to be in control of our own lives – though we have seen the disaster it can lead to. We think we know what the future holds, but we can’t even see the next moment. We want to judge others, but rarely ourselves. We need this bread of Your Word to give us Your leadership and vision and discernment and judgment. Feed us always with this Bread of Life. Amen.

A Prayer Over the Cup

Wondrous and Mighty Lord, we remember the sacrificed blood of the Lamb of God as we share this cup. We recognize the Sovereign King, the Prophet of Eternity, the High Priest of Heaven interceding for us through His own sacrifice. As our lives approach the day when You both will judge us all, we thirst for the perfection that it offers; the light of life that satisfies You and compels our adoration. We gladly yield it through Jesus: Amen.

Questions of Fellowship

/ W. Keith Brenton / 13 Comments
  1. What is “fellowship”? Meeting together to worship? To be friends? To learn and work together? To teach and enrich each other? To dine? To share the Lord’s Supper? A list of names on a church roll or roster, whether the people attached to them have been a real, living part of that family or not?

  2. Is “fellowship” a verb? Is it used that way in scripture? Can you “fellowship” someone? Can you “disfellowship” someone? Can you do either one to a person you’ve never met? Is it your role to do so as an individual? As a group of two or three agreed? Or only as an eldership? And regarding people within your church family? Or beyond?

  3. Did Jesus extend fellowship to sinners?

  4. Did Jesus extend fellowship to good people who sinned but didn’t fully understand God’s will for them through Him?

  5. Did Jesus extend fellowship to people who tithed tiny things but neglected justice and mercy?

  6. Did Jesus extend fellowship to people who washed externally but not internally?

  7. Did Jesus extend fellowship to people who kept others from entering His kingdom and would not enter themselves?

  8. Did Jesus outline a list of explicit commands regarding how to worship, upon which His followers were to decide with whom they should share His fellowship?

  9. Did Jesus withhold His fellowship from people with different political agendas … say, a Zealot or a tax collector?

  10. Did Jesus withhold His fellowship from people with different styles of sharing His message … for instance, a prophet in camel’s hair or a Samaritan siren who exaggerated?

  11. Did Jesus withhold His fellowship from people who disagreed with him about His ministry plans – or told others to stop doing good in His name; even casting out demons?

  12. Did Jesus withhold His fellowship from people who interrupted His teaching moments (perhaps about washing others’ feet) or confessed His identity in private, but caved in to denying Him when night came and arrests had been made?

  13. Did Jesus ever withhold fellowship from people who did something that God did not specifically authorize – like eating grain on the Sabbath day – or failing to observe tradition, like washing hands before eating, or fasting?

In the “fellowship” of Churches of Christ, there are those among us who talk a lot about “fellowship.”

There is an extreme position which believes that the slightest infraction of anything that might be construed as a violation of a command, an example, or something that sufficiently-intelligent persons like themselves can necessarily or reasonably infer as one or the other in scripture is forever-damning sin. They believe that “fellowship” should be tightly exclusive only to those who completely understand this (and all the other rules) and strictly obey the rules.

There is (perhaps) an extreme position which believes that scripture’s new covenant has no rules, and that “fellowship” is open to all, because God will eventually forgive everyone whether they believe, obey, understand, care – or not. They believe that “fellowship” should be unlimitedly inclusive. (Though I tend to think that most of those who really believe this have long since left Churches of Christ for other, more universalist assemblies.)

Most of us in Churches of Christ are pretty well-centered in the bell curve between these points of extremity. Even so, we all still see “fellowship” as something that happened pretty much exclusively after Pentecost, when there was a church and therefore “fellowship” within it; therefore, the only pertinent scriptures about “fellowship” fall after the second chapter of Acts. (In epistles to churches, where a word expressing the concept occurs one or two dozen times; about a quarter of which refer to relationships among believers.)

Because we can’t find the word “fellowship” in the Gospels – when we talk about the concept of it – have we inadvertently excised many of the standards by which the One who ultimately determines it … actually determines it?

When we talk about “fellowship,” do we really even know what we’re talking about?

Right now, my short answer to those many long and difficult questions above is that Jesus extended fellowship to all who sinned – everyone, in other words – and His message to them was the same whether He was gentle and loving toward them, or angry and defiant at them: “Repent.” That, to me, pretty much levels the playing field.

Should we tolerate or condone within our assemblies as saints wicked behavior or false doctrine – either of which deny the humanity, divinity, sufficiency and/or holiness of Christ? Absolutely not. We must lovingly and humbly (as fellow sinners) confront, correct, and discipline those who rebel – even to the point of putting the impenitent out of our gatherings, so that by “handing them over to Satan” to deal with him alone, they may yet repent and return.

We should go to that person first one-on-one, then two-or-three-on-one, then among the assembled saints. We should do so immediately – before the next opportunity to give a gift to God. We should never understand any of these instructions to be optional simply because not each one is listed in each case where reconciliation is detailed in scripture, nor assume that one or two did not happen as instructed. We should not omit any because an offense was against the church and God, rather than just against a single person. We are all in the body of Christ, and when one hurts, all hurt; when all are sinned against, any given one is sinned against. These are principles of Christ-like behavior in relationships, from the lips of the Lord himself. They are not laws with loopholes. They work, and He knew we needed them, and that’s why He gave them to us.

If there are other, scriptural reasons and praxes for failing to extend the right hand of fellowship to fellow believers, I am genuinely willing to hear them.

But these are all I have found.

Ruth 2:14; Matthew 26:17-25 – The Kinsman-Redeemer

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

52 Weeks At the Table – Week 14

An older man. A younger woman. He was a Jew, perhaps never married. She was from hated Moab, a widow. He was wealthy. She was destitute. It would seem that they had nothing in common – so the stage is set in the four brief chapters of Ruth for one of the most treasured love stories in scripture. It is a beautiful dance of first-look attraction, of quaint custom revolving around levirate marriage law, and the counsel of a doting dance coach. Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, would observe the ritual from afar, returning the loyalty and love of her foreign daughter-in-law by dispensing the right advice at the right time. It would all seem to be a matter of chance – how Ruth and Boaz meet; their common clan; the nearer kinsman-redeemer’s existing marriage and inheritance – were it not for the name of the Lord, invoked in blessing at every seeming coincidence. They meet while harvesting grain in his field – grain that would doubtless be made into bread – and he invites her to a meal: “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.” She eats her fill. Later, after he has celebrated with wine, she demonstrates to him her desire to be covered by his tent. Bread. Wine. A few dipped morsels together. A sandal exchanged in a pledge of purchase and troth. A bond that would lead to the birth of wealthy King David’s grandfather … and a poor Descendent whose cross would describe Him as The King of the Jews.

Two men among twelve, both Jews, both friends, both travelers in a ministry pilgrimage that covered many miles, fed many mouths, healed many stricken bodies, soothed many tortured souls, immersed many penitent believers. It would have seemed that they had everything in common – yet Jesus and Judas were from completely different worlds. So the stage is set in the latter words of each gospel for the most horrifyingly fascinating story of love and betrayal in all of scripture. For Judas’ heart was in bound up in his purse – a child of this world; an open door to the temptation of Satan. Jesus’ heart was the most free of any man who ever lived – a child of heaven and earth; free to love all, open even to someone who would betray Him. They shared a meal. Bread. Wine. A few dipped morsels together. Then Jesus spoke the truth they both knew: “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.” Their bond was shattered. No remorse could un-do it. Not even a kiss could repair it – for the kiss was the sign that would betray the King of heaven into the hands of hell … a life exchanged in a pledge of purchase and troth by the nearest Kinsman-Redeemer of all.

A Prayer Over the Bread

May the glory of Your visage, Holy Father, contain a look of love toward us even when we betray the Son we love by our sin, our denial. Rekindle in our penitent hearts the love we had at first glance over the sharing of these morsels of bread, His body. Observe and advise us in love. Reunite us in the One with Whom we have too often broken our bond of faith and fealty. Through Jesus Himself we ask You, and confirm with our “Amen!”

A Prayer Over the Cup

Almighty One of all ages, we crave the bond with You that was pledged and purchased with the blood of Your Son so that we would no longer be foreigners, but family. Bring us together always around this, His table, to remember with this cup how poor we were, and how generous You are. Help us see Your providence when we are tempted to only see coincidence. May we always invoke Your name in blessing through Jesus. Amen!

Judges 13-16; Mark 3:27 – Strength To Shear the Gates

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

52 Weeks at the Table – Week 13

Israel’s judge, Samson, became famed for his physical strength. He had been set apart from birth by the instruction of an angel to be a Nazirite, and to touch no wine or unclean thing. When the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he could tear a lion into pieces or best thirty Philistines with his bare hands; he could uproot a city gate and carry it away; he could snap new ropes binding him or strike down a thousand with the jawbone of a dead donkey. Yet his weakness was his passion for a woman outside of God’s will for him. Shorn of his Nazarite locks, he was also abandoned by the Lord. When Philistines had bound him with bronze, blinded him and paraded him before all the people in Dagon’s temple, he prayed for strength one last time, and God gave it. It is hard not to picture him in a cruciform position, arms stretched between that temple’s two pillars, pushing them apart with all his returned might, until they collapsed and the roof caved in on himself and the rulers of the Philistines.

The Judge of this world – Jesus – was also a man of great strength. Led by God’s Spirit into the wild, he could fast for forty days and nights and return to Galilee in the Spirit’s power; He could order evil spirits to leave and they would; He could go around doing good and healing those under the power of the devil; He could endure being bound and tortured and paraded before the people until stretched cruciform by the shame of the cross and be raised from the dead by the power of God. Then He could, through His riches, strengthen us with power through His Spirit in our inner being. For his greatest strength was His passion for His bride, given Him by His Father – and for doing God’s will for her. And with that rock-like strength, He said that the gates of death could not prevail against her, for He had bound the strength of Satan, and robbed him of his goal.

A Prayer Over the Bread

God of the Spirit which strengthened Samson and Your Son, we beg the strength that goes beyond what is found in ordinary bread. We ask the strength of character that seeks to do Your will; to love You with heart, mind, soul and strength – and to love those around us as ourselves. We ask for the power of the Body of Christ, the power of resurrection giving us new life beyond this one and new life within this one. We ask for this through the One who gave His body, remembered in this bread. Amen.

A Prayer Over the Cup

Father of the Son whose blood was given for us, we renew our prayer to be set apart for your purposes as the Nazirites once were; not for indulgence in the ordinary wine craved by self, but for the extraordinary cup which You offer through Christ. We know that You did not let this cup pass from Him, and we know that what it holds for us is not freedom from shame or pain, but freedom from sin and guilt – and the promise of life without end, life with and through the One who bears this prayer to You. Amen.

Judges – Witnessed by Women

/ W. Keith Brenton / 1 Comment

52 Weeks at the Table – Week 12

The descendants of Israel, over the centuries, endured many dark ages. Their sojourn in Egypt had become slavery, and though Moses and Joshua had led them out and through a desert time, both died. And the theme of the book detailing their succeeding – but largely failing – judges was one of the darkest. Twice it reminds us, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Mostly, they saw fit to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, an expression found seven times within its pages. Idolatry, forbidden intermarriage, internecine warfare – many of their sins began with “I.” Women like the prophetess Deborah and housewife Jael (and an unnamed female warrior who dropped a millstone on the head of an attacking king) rose to noble roles while men followed meekly. Just as often, they were the objects of cruelty from plundering armies, and an anonymous Levite who let the perverts of Gibeah complete the abominable sin threatened at Sodom centuries before.

Into such a dark age came Jesus of Nazareth, when a puppet king named Herod ruled Israel and puppet priests had made an idol of their interpretations of God’s law. Pharisees quibbled with Sadducees while Zealots plotted to overthrow occupying rule, including collaborators like tax collectors. Women like the prophetess Anna, Jesus’ mother Mary, an entourage of supporting listeners, an an unnamed soul at a well in Sychar of Samaria, rose to positions of honor by telling others about Him while men followed meekly. Just as often, women of poor reputation or caught in sin were made objects of ridicule and threat. So noble women stood at a distance from His cross of shame and went to keep vigil at His tomb.

A Prayer Over the Bread

Father God, each of us lives through our own dark times, times when our sins begin with “I.” We lose our faith, regain it, only to lose it again. And each of us does as he or she sees fit. We fail to destroy the idols in our lives. We flirt with evil. We bicker with our brothers and sisters. And we yearn to live nobly. Thank You for Jesus, who calls us to nobility; to a position of judging self, and judging rightly. Thank You for His willingness to be the object of cruelty to show us what true evil is – His willingness to be the body on that cross; His power to abandon that tomb. And His willingness to make us part of His body, His church. Thank You for this bread, His body. Amen.

A Prayer Over the Cup

Righteous God, though we may not have spilled blood, the malice in our hearts has sometimes made them as wicked as if we had. Forgive us of these our sins through the blood of your Son, and through this cup of remembrance, let His blood flow in us to cleanse and renew and invigorate and give life that is better, life without end. Life that does as You see fit, not us. Turn our times of darkness into Your glorious light. Turn our cowardice into courage. Inspire us to speak Your words and do Your will, for the sake of the blood of Your Son. In His name we say: Amen.

Just As I’m Not

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

Just as I truly need to be:
From all of my sin, I’ve been set free
Because Thy blood was spilled for me
O Lamb of God, I pause;
I pause.

Just as I truly need to be:
Thy Spirit will help me live for Thee
and help Thy Story be seen in me
O Lamb of God, I turn;
I turn.

Just as I truly need to be:
A bearer of Thy salvation free
A channel of grace for all too see
O Lamb of God, I go;
I go.

~ With apologies to Charlotte Elliott and William Bradbury

Don’t get me wrong. I love the old hymn Just As I Am. We should be singing joyfully about how God accepts us just as we are through His Son Jesus Christ – and doubtless we will throughout eternity.

But at some point in this life, we also need to sing more about our commitment to letting Their Spirit work in our lives, reflecting Their glory; telling Their Story.

And then actually do it.

Outrage at the Rich

/ W. Keith Brenton / 9 Comments

Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? ~ James 2:5-7

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” ~ Luke 12:13-21

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ~ Mark 10:25

We’re all outraged at the rich right now. The AIG whizzes who collect bonuses for badly investing funds. The legislators who, in 2000, passed the laws that made it easy to badly invest funds. Bernie Madoff and all the folks who trusted him with the funds with which he made off. Paris Hilton for feeling violated that someone made off with her cell phone.

Good grief.

How about being mad at ourselves, too?

We’re wealthy beyond words, each one of us who owns a computer in order to read these words formed by the pixels. We do precious little or nothing to relieve the suffering of the poor on other continents who can’t read and don’t have computers – or food or potable water – but perhaps do have malaria or AIDS.

The Lord’s brother would say we have insulted the poor, I think.

And Jesus Himself, I believe, would say we are making it nigh-on to impossible for ourselves to enter the kingdom of God.

May God help us all.

And forgive us.

– After we’ve shown that we’re willing to do much, much, much better.