Dan Gilbert's Theology of the Cross: 3:45 PM

Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was not happy with Lebron James after Thursday night's ego-fest (oops, I mean "announcement") that Lebron would be joining the Miami Heat. In a bit of a ranting letter to Cleveland fans, he shares his contempt for Lebron's disloyalty, laziness, etc. etc.

However, what stuck out to me was Gilbert's picture of the cruciform life. He says of Lebron,

Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there. Sorry, but that’s simply not how it works.

I have no idea who Dan Gilbert is, what his faith is, and what exactly he meant by his statement. But I do know that his point is that this life will inevitably have suffering before our final glory. And Jesus said, "You cannot be my disciple unless you pick up your cross and follow me."

A Culture of Distraction 12:28 PM

I've been thinking a lot lately about distraction (that is, for as long as I can focus on the subject before getting distracted!) I have noticed in my own life, with the more social media (blogs, facebook, twitter, e-mail, etc., etc.,) that I have never been more busy doing nothing. Now, obviously, I don't think any of these things are sinful or wrong in it of themselves (I'm blogging now!), but oh how good we are at perverting all things, twisting them into something that hurts, rather than helps, ourselves and others.

With this in mind, I came across a quote from Pascal with commentary by Peter Kreeft on Justin Taylor's blog last night. Why do we have so much distraction? That question is answered rather marvelously:

Here is the line from Pascal:

I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

Kreeft writes in response to this:

We ought to have much more time, more leisure, than our ancestors did, because technology, which is the most obvious and radical difference between their lives and ours, is essentially a series of time-saving devices.

In ancient societies, if you were rich you had slaves to do the menial work so that you could be freed to enjoy your leisure time. Life was like a vacation for the rich because the poor slaves were their machines. . . .

[But] now that everyone has slave-substitutes (machines), why doesn’t everyone enjoy the leisurely, vacationy lifestyle of the ancient rich? Why have we killed time instead of saving it? . . .

We want to complexify our lives. We don’t have to, we want to. We wanted to be harried and hassled and busy. Unconsciously, we want the very things we complain about. For if we had leisure, we would look at ourselves and listen to our hearts and see the great gaping hold in our hearts and be terrified, because that hole is so big that nothing but God can fill it.

So we run around like conscientious little bugs, scared rabbits, dancing attendance on our machines, our slaves, and making them our masters. We think we want peace and silence and freedom and leisure, but deep down we know that this would be unendurable to us, like a dark and empty room without distractions where we would be forced to confront ourselves. . .

If you are typically modern, your life is like a mansion with a terrifying hole right in the middle of the living-room floor. So you paper over the hole with a very busy wallpaper pattern to distract yourself. You find a rhinoceros in the middle of your house. The rhinoceros is wretchedness and death. How in the world can you hide a rhinoceros? Easy: cover it with a million mice. Multiple diversions."

Confirming this thought are the words of Romans 1, that we by nature "suppress the truth in unrighteousness," always looking for something to draw us away from standing naked before a holy God. But it is just there, naked, with all our warts, imperfections, distractions, and sin, that we must stand before God. And it is just there, that in Christ, we hear the precious words of the Gospel: "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."

The Law would say focus all your mind, all your heart, all your soul and all your strength on loving Me and loving neighbor. Christ says, "You have not, but I have."

Now before faith came, you were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was your guardian until Christ came, in order that you might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, you are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Let's Make A Deal 2:20 PM

In reading through Genesis 15:1-ff we come across the story of Abraham being promised a biological child with his wife Sarah.  This child was no ordinary child but the one in which the descendant, Jesus, would come about as promised back in Genesis 12:1-3 and declared in Genesis 3:15.  


What makes this story so unique is that for one, Sarah was 65+ years old... her biological clock had run out, she was totally barren.  The second is the way in which God makes the promise to Abraham.


As typical of ancient covenants, several animals were cut in half and laid forth on the ground with half on one side and the other half of the animal on the other side.  Many times these covenants were made between a powerful ruling king and a subordinate participant.  Once the agreement was settled, the subordinate participant would walk between the cut up animals as a pledge that such a fate would come upon him if he were to violate the agreement.  I can imagine the subordinates saying to themselves, "If I don’t follow through with this agreement I am going to be butchered like these animals, the pressure is on, I better not mess this up." 


As previously mentioned, in this passage the Lord comes to Abraham in a vision and makes the promise of an offspring, an heir (i.e. the promised Messiah).  To seal the deal, God called Abraham to go forth and collect several animals and cut them up in the ancient covenant manner.  One might then expect to see Abraham anxiously walking through the animals with a knot in his throat from the stress of entering the promised descendant covenant, however, something interesting happens.  While Abraham is in a deep sleep, God, not Abraham, goes between the animals.  God makes the covenant, God makes the deal. 


Think about this for a moment, God goes through the cut up animals not Abraham.  God is active and Abraham is sleeping.  God makes and seals the deal and Abraham is a passive, inactive, sleeping recipient.  The covenant is unilateral or one could say that the deal is unconditional from Abraham's perspective!


God essentially takes the burden upon Himself of making sure that Abraham would be given an heir.  God is taking the burden of the covenant and the consequences of a possible broken covenant upon Himself while Abraham is completely passive.  


This is a not only a great example of grace but 'is' grace alone!  God's working of salvation through history and His working of salvation on the cross are both His doing, work that is given to us as sheer gift.  From scripture we see that mankind is completely passive and dead in sin, 'not' active and drowsy in sin.  Yet, God accomplishes salvation on behalf and in spite of mankind being dead and passive.  Ironically, according to the Lutheran Study Bible, "it is God's own Son who will assume the burden of our breaking God's Law, being sacrificed on the cross to atone for our offenses."

What great news that God went through the animals so as to seal our eternal covenant.  What great news that Christ became disfigured on the cross, like the cut animals, for our failures.  What great news that Christ assumed the burden and consequence of our breaking of the Law.   What great news that God has made a deal in Christ and continually gives this salvation to us in the way of gift.  

Let's Make A Deal?  The deal if finished in Christ... Amen!

Ministry in a Post-Christian World 7:19 PM

Ministry in a Post-Christian World
by Dr. Eugene Boe
Academic Dean
Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology
Lutheran Brethren Seminary

2010 CLB Convention
June 21, 2010

This seminar was the opening session that was meant to lay the foundation for the rest of the seminars at this year's Convention of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.

Watch other videos from the 2010 Convention

Worship Services are Online! - Biennial Convention 2010 8:35 AM

The Worship Services and Morning Bible Hours are being uploaded as they are ready. Sunday Evening (President Joel Egge) and Monday Morning (Pastor Chris Priestaf) are online at the CLB Vimeo website. The others will be uploaded as they are ready.

We will be providing the MP3's (and some video) of the seminars in the next couple weeks, as well. We will obviously let you know when those are ready.

Follow and add your own twitter and Facebook updates about the convention at the Faith & Fellowship convention page