Tod Bolsinger

NT in CT: “Mere Mission”

After finding great refreshment and refocusing for my Christmas Eve words through my “wordless Christmas” blogging, I am going to continuing my blog “word fast” until after epiphany.  I have turned from images back to words, but they are still not mine.  So for the next week, I’ll yield my space here in my blog to the teacher whose words made the most impact upon me during 2006. 

During my three month sabbatical this past summer, I read almost all the books of N. T.  Wright. I came back from my sabbatical more convinced than ever about the necessity of needing to re-proclaim the gospel for the world by reframing the gospel for the church in the more consistently biblical terminology of the Kingdom.

In the most recent issue of Christianity Today, Tim Stafford (a friend and fine writer who has written a really good book on Jesus after his own lengthy study of the writings of Wright) interviewed the good bishop and for the next week I’ll post some excerpts.

Next weekend, Beth and I are going away to celebrate our anniversary with a little trip.  When I return I’ll begin a new series. 

On deck for early 2007:

• What unbelievers seem to believe about the church.  My Christmas conversations with a thoughtful agnostic and a clever cynic.
• How hospitality is making money by selling what the church is supposed to give for free.
• What does “on earth as it is in heaven” really mean?

Happy 2007.  May God’s “Kingdom come and his will be done” at least a bit more in every corner of “earth as it is in heaven” in the coming year.

“There is an old evangelical saying, “If he’s not Lord of all, he’s not Lord at all.” That was always applied pietistically.  I want to say the same thing but apply it to the world.  We’re talking about Jesus as the Lord of the world—not the Lord of people’s private interiority only, but of what they do with their money, with their homes, with the wealth of nations and with the planet.”

   N. T. Wright, Interview in Christianity Today, January 2007, 39.

Astonishing Generosity

In the middle of my sabbatical, while reading through a wonderful, thick tome on the ministry of Jesus by  N. T. Wright, I stumbled across two words that were used to describe a key characteristic that Jesus’ expected of his followers: “astonishing generosity.”  I liked the phrase.  I rolled it around in my brain.  But I also found myself disturbed by it.  It seemed almost impossible.

The quote itself was a reference to Matthew 5:38-42, when Jesus tells his followers “to turn the other cheek” when struck, “give their cloak” when asked for a coat, or to carry a load an “extra mile” when a person makes you haul something for one.  He is saying in effect, that even when people use or take advantage of you, they in the words of Bishop Wright, “must be met with astonishing generosity.”  (Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, p. 290)

I underlined the phrase and even typed it into my sabbatical journal.  Through the next days, the word astonishing stayed with me.  It’s not enough to be generous, Jesus was saying.  But our generosity must astonish the people around us, leaving them dumbfounded for an explanation, flabbergasted for a rationale.  It’s not enough to be good to the people who are good to us, if we are going to be his followers are generosity must flow to the very people who we DON’T want to be generous.

At the same time, I was intrigued and challenged by the phrase and began to noodle on it some more.

First of all, why? Why does Jesus ask this of his followers?  There was a long-standing principle of tithing or giving or being charitable to those in need.  Of course, the people of God should give, but why generously, and why should that generosity be “astonishing”?

Two hundred pages later I found my answer.  In a section on how so many religious leaders of his day, thought that the only way the world would change would be through violent revolution, Wright tells us:

“Jesus summoned his hearers to the real revolution, which would come about through his people reflecting the generous love of God into the whole world.” (p. 507)

Ah, that’s it.   
• This is not just a strategy for adding some kindness to the world.  It’s a strategy for changing the world.  (It's a revolution strategy!)
• It’s not just about making the world better, it’s about making the world new. 
• Generosity is not just about making people think we are good nice and kind, it is about helping people see that God is good, compassionate and responsive to their cries.

It is a central activity of the followers of Christ to reveal God to the world. 

Our generosity is to remind people of God’s generosity.  Our generous forgiveness of those who fail us, giving to those in need, of openhandedness to those who were clinging so hard to the scraps of life, and welcome to those who are without a place in this world would be nothing more (and nothing less!) than a reflection of the “generous love of God into the whole world.”

And how abundantly, astoundingly, astonishingly generous God is! 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16

He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Romans 8:32

…God, who gives life to all things… 1 Timothy 6:13

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…James 1:17

God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.  2 Corinthians 9:8 

For the next few weeks in a sermon series at church, I am going to be teaching on becoming people who reflect God’s astonishing generosity. (You can download the first sermon here.)

If you want to follow along I’ll post links to the sermons here.  Perhaps you could start letting it roll around in your heart and mind, too.  And if you know of any stories of generosity in the name of God that took the breath away from the people, then please let me know. 

What would it mean to be lavishly generous, astonishingly generous people? 

Astonishing generosity. 

What would have to happen in your life for those two words to describe you?

On One Middle School Campus in One Little Town

We are so used to hearing disturbing stories coming from our campuses.  Let me share with you one that is absolutely bringing joy to my heart, TODAY.

Last year as a seventh grader, my son Brooks read an article in Ignite Your Faith Magazine (put out by Christianity Today/Campus Life) about kids starting Christian groups on their campuses.  He came to me and said, "Dad, I think I want to do this."  (Brooks had no idea that twenty years ago I worked for Youth for Christ running and starting Campus Life clubs on high school campuses.)  It was totally him responding to the nudge of the Spirit. 

He went to school and found out that in this day and age that even starting a student-run club is harder than it looks.  He talked to a teacher who said she would support him, but ultimately the district policies blocked the way.

But he didn't let it go.  He just kept praying about it.  For a year now, frankly.

Over time, more and more folks heard about Brooks' idea.  He let some of his friends from another local church in on the idea and they kept praying about it.  Some local members of the Moms-in-Touch group told Brooks they were praying for him. And Brooks thought it was time to try again.

So, Brooks made an appointment to go to the principal (by himself, mind you) and ask for permission.  I asked several people to quietly pray for this meeting.  Pastors in my covenant group, my Session at church, team members who went with Brooks and me to Malawi last year, a missionary from Africa, even a Vice-President at World Vision.  And they prayed. 

But the principal reiterated the policies.  No student run clubs unless they are directly affiliated with the school.  We were disappointed.  But we kept praying. Beth and I met the principal at "Back to School Night" and thanked her for meeting with Brooks. She was gracious and very complimentary of our son.  And we kept praying.

The next week, the principal wrote me back to tell me that when she went over the policies again, she found out that while the kids couldn't use a classroom, they could use the library.  And she suggested that they use a section of the library that is often NOT used during lunch--the research area.

Brooks wrote her on email and secured permission. He started a weblog to tell other kids about it.

So today, at lunch, The Lighthouse will have their first meeting.  A bunch of middle school kids all meeting for the purpose of learning about Jesus, "the light of the world" (John 8:12) and how they, as followers of Jesus can  "let their good deeds shine out for all to see" (Matthew 6:16) and make their school a better place.

Give praise to the God who answers our prayers and ask him to bless these young leaders as they seek to live out their faith for him. 

Update after school on Friday:  I met my beaming son after school. 15 kids showed up, the librarian had even reserved the tables for them (thank you to whomever got that to happen), he shared a scripture, they talked about the group and he led them in prayer to close.  It was a good day.  We celebrated with some frozen yogurt and he's already making plans to have a leaders meeting at our house. If you want the "teen version" of this report, you can find it at Brooks' blog.

(I'll return to my current "Green God" posts next time.  This news was too good not to share.)

What Plan? Whose Acceptance?

My sabbatical has ended and I am back at church enjoying the challenges and reconnections with a church of people whom I love.  While the “days” of sabbatical are ended, the experiences and thoughts certainly linger.

Confident that that my blogging will become a place to further unpack what I learned, I want to begin a new series today my study and musings about the way we Christians think about that great gift of God to us—namely our “salvation.”  Over the next few posts, I want to consider how our thinking about salvation effects our living out the salvation we have been given  So, let’s start here.

Having started my ministry career as a youth evangelist, I learned the “plan of salvation” as a young college student.  Actually I learned several of them.  Campus Crusades “Four Spiritual Laws”. Billy Graham's, “Steps to Peace with God”.  I learned the "Roman Road" and few others, too.  I am truly grateful for them.  But, as I continue to study the Scriptures I have come to believe that they quite often start at the wrong place and end up leading off in a direction that is can be tangential from the Biblical description of salvation.   

Special Note here to calm friends who think I may be flirting with heresy—The plans in themselves are not misleading or wrong.  Millions of people have become genuine Christians through using them.  I have led people to Christ through them.  I had lunch with someone just yesterday who became a Christian by looking at the diagram in one of them.  God has and does use them, I am not throwing them out, but I do want to encourage us to return back to what the Scriptures say about salvation and how that “root” can lead us to much more and better “fruit”. 

So lets start today by reconsidering this idea:  Many of us think that the reason that Jesus came to this world was to save US.  God so loved US that he sent, Jesus, right?  Isn’t that what John 3:16 says?  Isn't the point of the Gospel that by grace,even people like us can "accept Jesus" into our lives?

Then after we having accepted Jesus into our lives, become saved, forgiven, set free from sins and given a new nature to live with him for eternity, we think, Jesus comes to us and says, “By the way, if you are satisfied with the salvation that I have given you, would you mind telling other people? If you are happy with what you have received would you mind supporting my work with the rest of the world?"

This approach makes the point of the gospel individual salvation and everything that follows it is about "expanding the market."

But is that really what the gospel is? Look again at John 3:16. For God so loved the world…

Our starting point is not God’s love for US, but God's love for the world of which we are part.  Jesus didn’t come to save us and then ask us to help him out in saving the world.  He came to this world to save the world.  And he saved us SO THAT we can be part of his plan to save the whole world.  God saved us to become his body at work in the world, his people carrying out the plan of God for all the world. 

As N.T. Wright points out, this is the biblical understanding of salvation that Jesus' own hearers would have understood when they heard him or that the early church would have assumed when the gospels were taught,

"Salvation,then, was a matter of a new world, the renewal of creation" through God's own renewed people, "the spearhead of the divine purpose." (Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, p. 338)

And grace, amazing wonderful grace--the “good news” of the Gospel is NOT that we can “accept Jesus into our lives".  The good news is that Jesus graciously accepts US into his.

A Place or A Way to Live?

Over the summer I watched on DVD a mini-series called “Into the West”.  In one of the early episodes, a young Jacob Wheeler has left the safety of hearth and home to follow a group of mountain men led by the famous (and historical figure) Jedediah Smith to exploring the uncharted west. 

In one scene, the mountain men are all in the middle of a night of carousing when young Wheeler notices that the devoutly Christian Smith has pulled away from the men and abstained from the debauchery.  When Wheeler asks his mentor about why he doesn’t join in with the other men, Smith tells him that “The west is just a place on the map, not a way to live.” 

That maxim leads the young Wheeler to a life of conviction and integrity.  A life that differentiated him from so many of the mountain men with whom he shared company. A particularly powerful moment comes when a young Lakota woman is being sold like meat for consumption; he duels for her and protects her, marrying her instead of exploiting her.

Throughout the summer as I traveled to many different places I observed that most of us have also confused our places and our lives.  I have seen this with beach cultures and mountain towns, in poor villages and wealthy enclaves.  We are so easily influenced by the culture around us that the place becomes the way to live. 

I found myself wanting to say to the lawyer who left his family in the middle of a “mid-life crisis, breakdown, whatever-you-call-it” to move to Costa Rica, to far-too-young adolescents on the beaches of San Clemente who were obviously growing up too quickly, to the ultra wealthy in resort towns who are living for nothing beyond golf or skiing or the next exotic vacation and even to the triathletes who seemed to have sacrificed everything for lower split times or a coveted spot in Kona…

This is just a place on the map, not a way to live. 

(There is a popular t-shirt in Tri circles that, while tongue-in-cheek, cuts close to home: “If you are enjoying a meaningful relationship….you could be training more.)

So many of us confuse where we are with who we are.  We are chameleons who take on our environment, our culture, and the world around us and are convinced that it won’t harm our souls.  We believe the lie that “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” when the truth is that what we do, wherever we are, shapes who we are.

In many ways, we Christians, fall into the same trap.  We often believe that the “Kingdom of heaven” is nothing but a “place” on a spiritual map that we hope to go to when we die and not a “way to live”.  We read passages that refer to us as “citizens of heaven” (Phil 3:20) and think that it refers only to the afterlife.  But it is actually a calling—a way to live—not an address.

N.T. Wright has pointed out that the imagery of citizens of heaven was a reference to those ex-patriots (most of the retired Roman soldiers) who were rewarded with land grants and asked to populate the conquered territories at a distance from Rome.  These “citizens of Rome” knew that while they lived in far off lands like Philippi and Ephesus, they were to be loyal to Rome and by their influence help turn this territory into Roman stronghold.  While the “place” they lived in was a foreign land, the “way” to live was as a Roman.

My friends, we Christians must get clear that as Christians, the Kingdom of heaven—life under God’s reign and rule—is the way to live in whatever “place” we are called or find ourselves.  And if the church is going to be, again in the words of Bishop Wright, the “place” where “heaven and earth overlap” and then that “place” will only become evident by the "way" we live.

Resurrection and Heaven

Should have posted this last week as a follow up to my "K is for Kingdom Witness" post, but it also provides good "priming the pump" thinking about Easter, Resurrection and the Kingdom...

(T)he resurrection stories in the four Gospels aren't about going to heaven when you die. In fact, there is almost nothing about "going to heaven when you die" in the whole New Testament. Being "citizens of heaven" (Philippians 3.20) doesn't mean you're supposed to end up there. Many of the Philippians were Roman citizens, but Rome didn't want them back when they retired. Their job was to bring Roman culture to Philippi.
That's the point which all the Gospels actually make, in their own ways. Jesus is risen, therefore God's new world has begun. Jesus is risen, therefore Israel and the world have been redeemed. Jesus is risen, therefore his followers have a new job to do.
And what is that new job? To bring the life of heaven to birth in actual, physical, earthly reality…Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven...With Easter, God's new creation is launched upon a surprised world, pointing ahead to the renewal, the redemption, the rebirth of the entire creation.


NT Wright

Credible Evangelism Today

“How can this strange story of God made man, of a crucified savior, of resurrection and new creation become credible for those whose entire mental training has conditioned them to believe that the real world is the world that can be satisfactorily explained and managed without the hypothesis of God? I know of only one clue to the answering of that question, only one real hermeneutic of the gospel: Congregations that believe it.”

Lesslie Newbigin, Word in Season, p. 42.  Cited in Tim Stafford, In Jesus’ Steps.

“The gospel does not present the church as a savior.  Rather the church is the place where the Savior lives.  The message can be heard rising out of the church: ‘Jesus is changing the world.  Come and join us as we follow Jesus.’”  Tim Stafford. 

Wide to Narrow and Back Again

I know that for many of us today, the biggest problem with Jesus teaching is the narrowness of it.  We really do live in a “small world after all.”  There are so many different paths, so many different ways, it really can’t be about following the words of one, just one man, one teacher, one carpenter from Galilee that has been dead for 2000 years.  That is so…narrow.  I know it may seem really hard to believe this, but it’s really, really true: Only the narrow gate leads to the wide grace of the Kingdom.

Listen again to Jesus’ teaching here.  What echo do you hear in this story?  What theme is being played out here?  What is the music that is reverberating in this passage?  “Hear my words and act on them…” The God of the universe is coming to us like he did the first humans in the Garden of Eden and asking us to trust him. 

Remember, life with God didn’t start out so narrow.  God made humans and told them that they could have everything, everything.  All of creation was theirs to enjoy and take care of.  Be fruitful and multiply! Enjoy the world and each other.  It’s all sex and gardening.  Intimacy and enjoyment, freedom and responsibility. 

We were to live together in perfect love and peace, perfect enjoyment.  God the Creator would be the King of a good, delightful and lovely world.  The grace of God was so wide, so vast, so immeasurable.  There was only one thing, one command, one prohibition.  They had to trust God by not eating from the fruit of one tree.  That was his word to us.  Enjoy all the wide, wide world that I have given you except this one tree.

But we didn’t listen to God’s words.  We didn’t act on God’s words.  Humans listened to Satan’s words and acted upon his words not God’s words and everything in Creation was turned inside out. 

Now in Jesus, God himself comes to show us the way, to be the way, to take us from the tree in the garden that brought our condemnation to the tree on Calvary where he would atone for our sins. 

In Jesus we are offered a chance to regain the Kingdom, to begin now to live under God’s reign and rule, to be assured of the day when peace and beauty, enjoyment and loveliness will be the experience of every person, but there is but one door, one gate, one road and it is simply the way that Adam rejected.  To do God’s will.  To hear the words of Jesus, the son of God and act on them.  To follow Jesus and live out the Kingdom.

Eden was the widest life with one narrow way to death.  And we took it.
Jesus offers us the narrow way out of death that leads to the widest way of life
  …if we will take it. 

My friends, in the same way that my Father’s voice had to break through fog of my fear and grab my attention when I was rock climbing as a teenager, Jesus is doing the same thing at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  Maybe he saw their furtive glances, maybe he knew their hearts, maybe he just knew his own heart well enough to know the temptations that awaited all who would seek the Kingdom that is only possible through the cross. But before he leaves that mountainside and takes his disciples in into a new season of ministry, he speaks to them directly.

Enter the narrow gate. (Jesus)
Do the will of (Jesus’) Father in heaven.
Hear these words of (Jesus) and act on them. 

When it all comes down to it:  Do we trust Jesus?  Will we build your lives on Jesus? 

Citizens of Heaven

I'll return to the posts on Matthew 7, but as we worship this Lord's Day, I wanted to share a snippet I found on the resurrection, heaven and what being a Kingdom community is really all about.

(T)he resurrection stories in the four Gospels aren't about going to heaven when you die. In fact, there is almost nothing about "going to heaven when you die" in the whole New Testament. Being "citizens of heaven" (Philippians 3.20) doesn't mean you're supposed to end up there. Many of the Philippians were Roman citizens, but Rome didn't want them back when they retired. Their job was to bring Roman culture to Philippi.

That's the point which all the Gospels actually make, in their own ways. Jesus is risen, therefore God's new world has begun. Jesus is risen, therefore Israel and the world have been redeemed. Jesus is risen, therefore his followers have a new job to do.

And what is that new job? To bring the life of heaven to birth in actual, physical, earthly reality...

Jesus' resurrection is the beginning of God's new project, not to snatch people away from earth to heaven, but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.

NT Wright

The Narrow Gate to the Solid Rock

After telling his disciples that the Narrow Gate to the Kingdom is “(doing) the will of my Father in heaven.”  Jesus then launches immediately into a word picture to describe it.  Frankly, he reveals that “doing the will of the Father” is so basic, anyone can do it.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

So Jesus wants his disciples to get this clear point before they head down the hill and try to live like Kingdom people.  That narrow gate that most people will not choose is doing the will of the Father in heaven.  And the will of the Father, Jesus says is to “hear these words of mine and act on them.”

In other words, to do the will of the Father, it is not enough to simply show up for the sermon, you must live the Kingdom.  You have to hear the words and then live them out.

My friends, so often when we hear passages like this one, we hear them with the voice of judgement.  It is a stern voice, a harsh voice.  A voice of ultimatum.  But that is not the voice I hear.  The voice I hear in this text is sober, and urgent and indeed a bit confronting.  It is a voice that is trying to get our attention, warning us of the precariousness of our position and trying to break through the fearful haze that so many of us live in each day.  Like my Father’s voice calling up at me.  “Tod, do you trust me? Tod, if you do, you must move, now, you must act on my words.  You must do what I tell you.” 

My friends, this is the voice of love, the voice of grace.  Jesus looks at those whom he has gathered at his feet, who has listened to him tell of the Kingdom and I believe he says, pleading with us, “I know there are a lot of teachers out there.  I know there are a lot of spiritual options.  But, do not take the wide road.  Do not build on the sand.  For that is the way of destruction.  I warn you, I beg of you.” 

My friends, when the storm comes will you be those who are on the hard firm road, the rock of truth?  And notice that I say when, not if, the storm comes, because it will most certainly come. 

As one fine theologian, Bono, lead singer of the rock band U2, said in a Rolling Stone interview last month: “I want to build my house on a rock because even if the waters are not high around the house, I’m going to bring back a storm.  I have that in me.”   

Some of us get that don’t we?  We may not be in the middle of a storm, right now, but we are certainly capable of blowing our lives to pieces, aren’t we?  My friends, where are you this morning?  What are you building your life on? 

What gate are you entering, what road are you taking?  This is your opportunity today.  Do you trust Jesus?  Do you take him at his word?  You have heard the word, indeed we hear it every week. 

Do we believe it, does it change the way we live and work, and spend our money, and use our time?  Does it change our marriages and parenting style, our choices we make about the future and friends?  Do we put the Kingdom first, do we live out the righteousness that only Jesus the King can bring in our lives?

My friends, Jesus is telling us that in every life a moment of truth will come.  A storm will appear on the horizon or well up within your heart and at that moment the fruit of your choice of gates and roads and rock or sand will be evident.  Jesus comes with a sharp word that is meant to get our attention so that we will not miss it, but it is a word of love, of truth, of caring. 

To enter through the narrow gate that leads to life, to build the house of your life on solid rock, to do the will of the Father who loves us is nothing more or nothing less than to hear the words of Jesus and do what he says.  To hear the words of Jesus announcing the Kingdom and to live out the Kingdom in our lives.  Starting now, at this moment, God helping us by the power of the Holy Spirit that he offers.