Tebow

I read good article today about Tim Tebow (sorry to any non-Americans you might have to read a bit more about him) and his "seriousness".

Life attributed to the Divine?

"...so perfectly structured it was hard not to attribute divinity to it."

Walking to Emmaus in a Postmodern World

Two serious-minded unbelievers are walking home together, trying to make sense of the world of the mid-1990s. The dream of progress and enlightenment has run out of steam. Critical postmodernity has blown the whistle on the world as we knew it. 

Our two unbelievers walk along the road to Dover Beach. They are discussing, animatedly, how these things can be. How can the stories by which so many have lived have let us down? How shall we replace our deeply ambiguous cultural symbols? What should we be doing in our world now that every dream of progress is stamped with the word Babel? 

Into this conversation comes Jesus, incognito. (It is a good thing they don't recognize him because modernity taught them to disbelieve in all religions, and postmodernism rehabilitated so many that Jesus is just one guru among dozens.) "What are you talking about?" he asks. They stand there, looking sad. Then one of them says, "You must be about the only person in town who doesn't know what a traumatic time the twentieth century has been. Nietzsche, Freud and Marx were quite right. We had a war to end wars, and we've had nothing but more wars ever since. We had a sexual revolution, and now we have AIDS and more family-less people than ever before. We pursue wealth, but we have inexplicable recessions and end up with half the world in crippling debt. We can do what we like, but we've forgotten why we liked it. Our dreams have gone sour, and we don't even know who 'we' are anymore. And now even the church has let us down, corrupting its spiritual message with talk of cosmic and political liberation.

"Foolish ones," replies Jesus; "How slow of heart you are to believe all that the Creator god has said! Did you never hear that he created the world wisely? and that he has now acted within his world to create a truly human people? and that form within this people he came to to live as a truly human person? and that in his own death he dealt with evil once and for all? and that he is even now at work, by his own Spirit, to create a new human family in which repentance and forgiveness of sins are the order of the day, and so to challenge and overturn the rule of war, sex, money and power?" And, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, and now also the apostles and prophets of the New Testament, he interprets to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 

They arrive at Dover Beach. The sea of faith, having retreated with the outgoing tide of modernism, is full again, as the incoming tide of postmodernism proves the truth of Chesterton's dictum that when people stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything. On the shore there stands a great hungry crowd who had cast their bread on the retreating waters of modernism only to discover that the incoming tide had brought them bricks and centipedes instead. The two travelers wearily begin to get out a small picnic basket, totally inadequate for the task. Jesus gently takes it from them, and within what seems like moments he has gone to and fro on the beach until everyone is fed. Then the eyes of them all are opened, and they realize who he is, and he vanishes from their sight. And the two say to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us on the road, as he told us the story of the creator and his world, and his victory over evil?" And they rushed back to tell their friends of what happened on the road and how he had been made known in the breaking of the bread.   - N. T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, p.171-172

Why aren't there more Miracles done by the Western Church?

I know many others have asked this question and I ask it myself sometimes.

8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.
12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; 14 if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.  -John 14:8-14

Jesus promises that his followers will be doing miracles, even greater than his own! But where are they among the western church?

Paul was familiar with miracles and was somewhat famous in Asia for performing healings.

8 It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery; and Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him healed him.  -Acts 18:8

8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God; 9 but when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the hall of Tyran'nus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. 11 And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.   -Acts 19:8-12

Paul was also extremely familiar with suffering, imprisonment and hardship of his own and of his companions. I don't think I need to give references to Paul's own sufferings since examples are so readily available from his letters and Acts. His companions seemed to have suffered just as much as him,

25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphrodi'tus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy; and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete your service to me.  -Philippians 2:25-30

Paul was very concerned and yet seems to have felt personally unable to heal his friend, Epaphrodi'tus, even though in Ephesus he performed many miracles of healing. It is important to note however that Paul didn't see the need to discuss theological reasons for the difference between the two situations. Paul was not confused about why his friend was sick and almost died. Paul's theology has made room for the Spirit to choose the situations and times to enact miracles, the lack of miracles doesn't not cause Paul to doubt that they exist or question his faith. I would like to learn more from Paul's theology - he seems to have a healthy contentment about miracles, neither disbelief, nor obsession.

The Arrogance of Thinking your Right

There are two possible views that you can hold about your answer to a question (or just one depending how you look at it). First, you could think that a particular answer is true. And second, you could think that you don't have an answer because the possible answers you have thought of are clearly wrong. But in the end you only have an answer if you think that you are right.

Why then do people insist on accusing others of arrogance for having an answer and thinking that their answer is correct. Its a necessary presupposition of claiming to have an answer: you think that your answer is correct, or you wouldn't have an answer.

If this is not the heart of the accusation then I think accusation is that the questioner has categorized their question in the realm of unanswerable and they are offended that someone could claim that it is answerable. Instead, the productive question would be to ask whether a particular question is answerable. Then they can voice their belief that the question is not answerable and give evidence of why they hold this belief and hopefully a productive discussion can result.

There is no arrogance in and of itself in having an answer to a question or thinking that you are right - it is the logical prerequisite of having anything meaningful to say.