A Pentecost Riddle

Why did the man bring his baseball shoes to church on Pentecost Sunday?

Because he wanted the church to have a pair of cleats!

Get it? Pair of cleats? Paraclete?

Ha.

All That Has Been Written

Have you ever had those times when you read something for the umpteenth time and then something in your brain finally clicked? I had one of those experiences today.

I came across this passage from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 21, verse 22:

For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. (emphasis mine)

The context is Jesus' warning the disciples about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. When the followers of Jesus saw all of the signs that this event was going to occur immanently, they were to flee Jerusalem and not turn back. The immanent destruction of the city and the temple was the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. (emphasis mine)

This absolutely blew me away! The fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures in their entirety would be accomplished in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

Wasn't one of the hopes of 2nd temple Jews the fulfillment, or the consummation, of the Scriptures? Wasn't that "the dream"? Didn't they want to see the conclusion of their story? This is what Jesus was claiming was going to happen! The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was the end of the story!

So, where did we get this idea that the space/time continuum would be destroyed or even that their will be a complete consummation of all things sometime in our future? I used to teach this, but will do so no longer.

In Mourning

The Detroit Red Wings were eliminated yesterday from the NHL Playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks. The Red Wings were clearly the better team in this series except for where it counted the most: goaltending. J.S. Giguere (sp?) was the superior goalie by far.

But... the Pistons are still in contention for the NBA crown. They're one game up on Cleveland, but it's going to be a tough series. LeBron James is a force to be reckoned with, but the Pistons can handle him if Rasheed Wallace stays hot.

I'm sad for the Red Wings, but they played very well and made a game out of last night. At least the 3rd Period was exciting.

The Intermediate State

This was spoken by a professor at one of our LCMS seminaries:

"I think the LCMS has the doctrine of the intermediate state wrong. To say that the soul leaves the body and then is later rejoined sounds horribly gnostic to me. Doesn't it make more sense to say that when a person dies, they are with Jesus, even though we don't know all the details?"

I won't mention the prof's name, but can I just say that he absolutely rocks!! This is what I've been trying to say for quite a while, and especially in my more recent posts on the Lord's Prayer. My friend Chris commented that perhaps the Lord's Prayer is a prophetic utterance, and I would agree totally!

Are we so afraid of dying that we've invented a conscious post-mortem existence to counteract our fear of dying? I'm not saying their isn't a conscious post-mortem existence. There very well could be. But why is it so necessary? I'm with the good professor on this one. This whole idea of the "soul" leaving the body and floating away to some kind of cosmic Shangri-la (which we call "heaven") sounds to me like Gnosticism, which held that anything material, including the body, was evil and that our true selves, our souls, seek to escape this evil material body.

What is so wrong with saying that we don't know what happens when we die, and leave it at that?

On Earth As It Is in Heaven

Hallowed be Thy Name, on earth as it is in heaven;
Thy Kingdom Come, on earth as it is in heaven;
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

No, you're not seeing things. What I have written I have written!

Again, I do not believe that the Lord's Prayer is telling us that heaven and earth are different places with different locations. In teaching the disciples this prayer, Jesus was demonstrating what they should pray for, namely, that God's presence would be known to all people. I also think that it's a veiled request for God to destroy the Temple. One must remember the multidimensional contours of Jewish thought. Many times, God and heaven were equated with the Temple. It was, after all, thought to be God's dwelling place. Jesus was asking for the earth to be the dwelling place of God (even though it already was). But because the Temple cultus had maintained a monopoly on God, most people were not aware that a temple is not necessary for interaction with God. Heaven doesn't need an access portal made with hands, but one made by God himself. This is the role that Jesus served. He was a walking, talking, living, breathing Temple. And you and I are part of the makeup of this temple, which rises to give glory to God.

Who Art in Heaven

Our Father, who art in heaven...

Does this petition in the Lord's Prayer automatically mean that since God is in heaven God is therefore distant? That's how we normally characterize God-- we are here (on the planet Earth) and God is up there (in a detached and distant place called Heaven). But I'm not so sure that that's a Biblical picture. It's quite possible that Heaven is not as far away as we think.

I have no trouble envisioning heaven as other than or different, but I'm no longer comfortable envisioning heaven as a separate realm or a detached dimension of existence. Rather, I would like to think of heaven and earth as two sides of the same coin and as qualitative terms.

In this petition of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus pointed out that our Father is greater, not gone. God hasn't been removed from our daily lives, and in fact interacts with us with grace.