Circumcision of the Christ-Child

Story of the Life of Christ: Circumcision, Angelico

By Chaplain Mike

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (Luke 2:21, NRSV)

eighth day and the baby cries
hard tool cuts his flesh
fulfilling all demands
bleeding flesh by human hands

patriarch’s dream
the promised son
fulfilling all demands
spared in lieu of sacrificial ram

now on selfsame mount
is brought a newborn child
fulfilling all demands
little did we understand

this would not be the last time
hard tool would cut his flesh
fulfilling all demands
bleeding flesh by human hands

iMonk Classic: The Face of the Gracious God

Return of the Prodigal Son, Murillo

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From January 25, 2009

Note from CM: I can’t think of a better way to start the new year than to contemplate our wonderful, gracious God and the gifts he has for us in Christ. Wash away those false conceptions of the God who’s out to get you as you hear Michael reiterate the Good News of Him who loves you from everlasting to everlasting.

Religion #1:
God is mean, angry and easily provoked. From day 1, we’ve all been a disappointment, and God is–justly–planning to punish us forever. At the last minute, thanks to Jesus stepping in to calm him down, he decides to be gracious.

But don’t do anything to mess that up. Peace is fragile around here.

Religion #2
God is gracious, loving, kind, generous and open-hearted. He rejoices in us as his creations, and is grieved that our sins have made us his enemies and caused so much brokenness and pain. In Jesus, he shows us what kind of God he is and restores the joy that should belong to the children of such a Father. True to his promises, he will bless all people in Jesus, and restore the world by his resurrection victory.

You can’t do anything to mess this up. God’s got his heart set on a universe wide celebration.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: The Face of the Gracious God”

Saturday Ramblings 1.1.11

Look at all of those ones. It must be the start of a new year. For those of you who liked 2010, just wait until you see what 2011 has in store for you. I have no idea what it is, and neither, truth be told, do you, which is why you’ll just have to wait. In the meantime, I suggest you relax, pull up a footstool, and enjoy the initial helping of Saturday Ramblings for the new year.

First things first, I say. Right after you have your daily dose of Ramblings, head out to your moving picture theater and watch one of the best movies I have seen in years: True Grit. The Coen brothers wrote their screenplay based on the Charles Portis novel, and they cast it perfectly. Matt Damon plays LaBoeuf, Jeff Bridges is Rooster Cogburn, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld is Mattie Ross. The movie starts with Proverbs 28:1, The wicked flee when no man pursueth. It ends with Iris Dement singing “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms.” And before—or after—you see the movie, check out Cathleen Falsini’s The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers.

Seems that on the surface, Americans are more religious than those in just about any other nation. On the surface. Yet for so many, that is as far as they let God into their lives. This interesting article in Slate goes into some of the reasons as they see them.

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 1.1.11”

Another Look: Now in Another Wilderness

It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die--neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering, and the shore that he must leave." — E. M. Forster

[Originally posted April 6, 2010, the day after Michael died]

By Chaplain Mike

I had been wandering in the post-evangelical wilderness for a long time. But I never knew what to call it until I began reading Michael Spencer. And I never knew a genuinely safe place to talk about it until I entered the discussions on Internet Monk. Then I knew I had found a guide, and a group of fellow-wanderers.

The site’s popularity testifies to an undeniable fact: I am not alone. There are multitudes of us out here in exile, weary and dry-mouthed, panting for streams from which to slake our thirst.

  • Longing for grace.
  • Longing for some thoughtfulness and common sense instead of the gnostic fanaticism that tries to pass itself off as vibrant faith.
  • Longing for a faith that is not simply another attempt to avoid, escape, or transform our humanity into something else.
  • Longing for real good news of a real Savior for real people.
  • Longing for a Jesus-shaped spirituality.

Michael’s blog was the first site on which I ever commented. I had found a kindred spirit. His posts and the comments he gave in response to those who entered the discussion revealed a no-nonsense lover of Jesus, tired of religion as usual, willing to point out “spiritual” craziness, never too proud to admit his own weaknesses, intolerant of intolerance, especially from those called to love even their enemies.

Oh yeah, and he loved baseball too. “What’s not to like about this guy?” I thought.Continue reading “Another Look: Now in Another Wilderness”

The Most Discussed Posts on IM in 2010

By Chaplain Mike

Looking back on 2010, our first full year of writing on Internet Monk, I am humbled and grateful for the opportunities we’ve had to explore topics of interest and discuss them together. And I’m more convinced than ever:

You make Internet Monk the great conversation that it has become.

I remember talking with a friend who is a prominent blogger and he observed that what makes our blog unique and special is the participation of its readers. After we post something, I can tell you we eagerly look forward to getting your responses so that we can get feedback and have a thought-provoking discussion.

Of course, not every post gets a lot of comments. Some are written primarily as meditations or studies, and we hope that those articles are read carefully and turn out to be an encouragement to those who digest them. But what we really live for are those posts that provoke conversations in which we are able to have lively dialogue, debate, and agreeable disagreement; conversations which can help us discern how to think more clearly and develop a better understanding of some aspect of life and faith.

Today, at the ending of the year, I present a review of the ten Internet Monk posts that prompted the most discussion in 2010.

Continue reading “The Most Discussed Posts on IM in 2010”

Difficult Scriptures: The God Who Smites

God loves us.  We learned that in Sunday School.  So how do we explain God smiting people?

I’m thinking of four incidents, three in the Old Testament and one in the New.  In each case people were struck down, usually with death, once with leprosy.  The Bible is very clear that judgment was from God or his representative and in response to their actions.

First Onan:  He inherited his brother’s wife and was responsible to sleep with her and create an heir for his dead brother.  He slept with her, but he took measures to prevent her from getting pregnant because he didn’t want to produce offspring for his brother.  “What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so he put him to death.”  (Genesis 38:6-10)

Next Uzzah:  He was guiding the cart with the ark of God on it.  The oxen stumbled as the cart moved along, so Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark.  “The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.”  (2 Samuel 6:3-7)  First Chronicles 13:10 confirms specifically that he was struck down because he had put his hand on the ark.

Continue reading “Difficult Scriptures: The God Who Smites”

Biblical Narrative and History

By Chaplain Mike

One of my primary New Testament professors in seminary was Grant R. Osborne. I loved his infectious enthusiasm and approach to teaching, especially with regard to Greek. He believed that seminaries should be training pastors, and so our projects and examinations were always exercises in taking a passage in the original language and working on it until we could produce a finished product in the form of a sermon outline or Bible study.

He was also another key voice in my life emphasizing the importance of hermeneutics—the art and science of how we study the Bible—particularly the four Gospels. With his studies on the Gospels, he complemented my OT teachers, who were opening new vistas for me in learning to read and appreciate the message of Biblical narratives.

Grant has written a commentary on Matthew in a new series from Zondervan that I am eagerly looking forward to digesting. The series is called The Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Starting next week, I will be blogging on Matthew and using his commentary as my main resource.

Today, I was intrigued by a quote I read in the commentary’s introduction. Osborne writes: “Biblical narratives contain both narrative and historical elements. As narrative, they exemplify real/implied author and reader, point of view, story time, plot, characterization, and dialogue. As history, they attempt to trace what actually happened.”

Then, he quotes a definition to help us “get” the character of Biblical narratives:

“Narrative history” involves an attempt to express through language . . . the meaning . . . that is, a particular understanding/explanation . . . of the relationship of a related sequence of actual events from the past . . . and to convince others through various means, including the theological force and aesthetic appeal of the rendering . . . that the sequence under review has meaning and that this meaning has been rightly perceived.

• From Provan, Long, Longman III, A Biblical History of Israel, p. 84

So then, Osborne is saying, biblical narrative (and I would argue all narrative forms of communication) involve a complex interplay of factual information and authorial or editorial interpretation. They are both history and theology (interpretation). Furthermore, they are a reflection, not only on historical events, but also on the theological movements and perspectives that shaped the world they are writing about.

The Biblical authors were writing “history” in the sense that they believed they were portraying events and ideas that were actually realized in this world. Fiction writers, on the other hand, create an imaginary world that may or may not reflect reality on the ground, and then fill that world with characters and events. Through dramatic development they seek to speak “truth” in more indirect ways. By stepping outside this world, they hope to shine a light on this world. Narratives in the Bible, however, interpret events that the authors believe took place in this world of space-time history. Nevertheless, they still write about them in creative, interpretive ways that bring out what they consider to be the significance and meaning of those events.

In a nutshell, I would call it history presented in an interpretive framework.

Your response?

Joseph and the Way of Kindness

St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus, Reni

By Chaplain Mike

“What is desired in a man is kindness” (Prov 19:22).

If there is one major lesson I’ve learned in my six years of being a hospice chaplain, it is the importance and power of kindness.

Basically, it’s my job to show kindness. I visit with patients and their families and offer to be a friend who will sit with them, provide a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on, a representative of God who will pray for them, serve them through prayer, the sacraments or other spiritual practices. I officiate funeral services for them. I call and visit the bereaved after a death.

I still can’t believe I get paid to be kind! My employer asks me to do the work of being a friend; to show strangers that someone cares, to be a supportive presence in a time of stress and sadness, a calming presence when life is spinning out of control.

One character in the Christmas story exemplifies the virtue of kindness. He stands somewhat in the background, but his compassionate, caring presence is indispensable.

Continue reading “Joseph and the Way of Kindness”

Mary and the Contemplative Life

The Virgin Reading, Carpaccio

By Chaplain Mike

“But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).

The American evangelical church is renowned for its activism. We are a “can do” people, and in the Christian context that often means we see ourselves as “saved to serve.” We commend “being about the Lord’s business,” and value that which works and produces results.

On the other hand, we don’t always appreciate the value of practices like contemplation. For some, the idea seems too mystical. For others, such disciplines seem too “Catholic” or associated with movements that come dangerously close to “new age” thinking or a lack of doctrinal stability.

It is unfortunate that we divide action and contemplation. It is unfortunate that we sometimes suspect those who pursue a robust inner life.

For example, let’s take a passage like Ephesians 2:10—“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

This text teaches plainly that Christians are to live out their faith actively. In Christ, we have been made new to walk in the good works that God planned that we would do. On the other hand, the context is instructive. Eph. 2:10 comes in the midst of one of the longest, richest, most prayerful meditations in the New Testament, a breathtaking panoramic examination of the blessings with which God has favored his people in Christ (Eph 1:3-3:21). The section ends with Paul praying that the Ephesians “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (3:18-19).

Apparently for Paul, holy contemplation and action go hand in hand.

Continue reading “Mary and the Contemplative Life”