Conversations on Christ: The Two Natures and Inclusive Language

The 800 pound gorilla in the room is the entire issue of gender relations. I will ignore him (or her)...mostly.  For today we are discussing the language of Gospel proclamation.

But since "inclusive language" embraces both the nature of language, and the nature of humanity, and since these two converge in the Person of Jesus who is the Word (language) made flesh (human), I have to begin with a nod to the gorilla before turning to language and the incarnation.

And so, three points: 1) humanity is essentially binary; 2) gender is God's language — not man's invention; and 3) God's incarnation interprets both — not the other way around.

Humanity is essentially binary

This simply means, "male and female created He them." (Gn 1:27). Maleness and femaleness go to the essence of our being — body, mind and spirit. Strictly speaking, male and female are two modes of human being — ways of being human.

A female is, in her sexuality, completely and fully human and so is every male. And every human is either a male person or a female person. There is no asexual humanity. To be inclusive of all humanity is to embrace both sexes without denying their distinctiveness.

God is the author of language — not man.

God begat the eternal Word and created by Him (Gn 1; Jn 1; Ps 33). God gave language to Adam and Eve (Gn 2:19-20). God also multiplied languages at Babel (Gn 11) and sanctified them at Pentecost (Ac 2). And not only has He authored all human language, He uses it to reveal Himself.

Yahweh spoke the Hebrew language to Moses — complete with all the masculine and feminine nouns, pronouns and pronominal suffixes. In Hebrew He "called their name ADAM" (Gn 5:1). Both sexes are included in this term "man". Just as both sexes are included when Christ calls us His bride.

Such modes of speech are not cultural accidents of Hebrew or Greek — much less English. Rather, all the gender inflections found in the Holy Scriptures are God's own way of speaking. And to the extent that we ignore His mode of speaking, we also ignore His self-revelation. Conversely, to understand WHY God speaks like this, is to understand Him. And the place to begin this understanding is in the Person of Jesus Christ.

The incarnation of God's Son as a male is the base line.

If either the masculinity of Sonship or the sexuality of maleness bothers us, something is terribly wrong. Our problem is that we are offended by the very "thatness" of God's salvation.

Attempts to mute the gender language or treat His sexuality as interchangeable, only highlight the problem. As long as the details of the incarnation are approached as something to be overcome, we won't get it. For the fullness of the Gospel is located precisely in these concrete facts, namely that:

• Jesus' divine nature is the eternal Son of the Father — masculine, albeit not male.
• Jesus' human nature is pure male — conceived and born of pure female.

Only by receiving this Jesus and understanding everything in Him, will our offense give way to delight.

Conclusions:

Therefore, as the Church seeks to understand these mysteries, we need to hear God's words spoken. The gender language of the Bible should be heard in Church and not muted in any way. And we should listen reverently without imposing our cultural biases of chauvinism or feminism. Instead of attenuating God's gender-freighted language in our zeal to be inclusive, we should attend to it to learn how God's own choice of language reveals the truest inclusivity.

Cultural biases centered on power and exclusion, tempt us to minimize these incarnational facts. But to do so scuttles our only hope of redeeming our culture with the reality of God in Christ. The mystery of the incarnation is the only sure starting point to address both gender and sexuality.

If our understanding of gender clashes with these linguistic realities, it is our modern anglo-centric understanding of gender which is suspect—not the words employed by God. Since it is divinely wrought, you can be certain that beyond the offense and confusion, there is a Gospel-charged, beautiful reality just waiting to be discovered in all these gender distinctions.

God designed both language and humanity with Jesus fully in view—not the other way around. Both humanity and language were structured by God in order to be His own vehicles of self-revelation.

The very nature of most languages (romantic and semitic languages to be sure) makes the expunging of these distinctions virtually impossible. English alone — with it's loss of most gender inflections — makes gender neutrality remotely feasible. We ought to take care that our anglo-centrism not cause us to reinterpret the Bible in ways which not only mute the actual text of the original but also are impossible for our fellow Christians world-wide.

Our own language (English) has lost most inflections, including gender. Our anglo-centric worldview makes it very hard even to know what we have lost in the translation. And it is no accident that inclusive language debates are largely limited to English translations! This ought to give us pause to consider what we have already lost before deliberately losing still more.

Conversations on Christ: The Two Natures and Baptism

Baptism and Creed

We believe in one God, the Father...

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten...
In one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We confess one Baptism for the remission of sins.

That's how we have confessed these things since Constantinople in 381. The unique, eternally-begotten Son is made flesh in One Lord Jesus—one Person. (without confusion, change, division, or separation) And the unity of these two natures constitutes the unity of both Church and Baptism.
"One Lord [Christ], one faith [Church], one Baptism, One God and Father of all" Ephesians 4:5-6.

The 10th chapter of Hebrews fleshes this out. "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all... Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, ...namely His flesh,... Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

As Tertullian (ca. 190) put it: "The flesh is the hinge of salvation." And Baptism is our new birth into the flesh of Jesus.

Baptismal Types

Before the incarnation of God's Son, baptism had not been inaugurated, only prefigured.

1. At the first creative moment, we see the Spirit of God brooding over the waters and we hear God speaking His Word. (Genesis 1:3) This is the basic shape of Baptism: Water and Spirit and Word.

2. Later God baptized the world with a flood, cleansing it of corruption and violence and saving for Himself a new humanity in Noah and his family. Peter writes:"Eight souls were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—Baptism" (3:20-21).

3. When God freed his children from Pharaoh and made them a kingdom of priests, He drew them out of the Red Sea. (Just as Moses himself had been "drawn out of the water" to become royalty.)
"All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor. 10:2).

4. But Moses could not lead them into the Promised Land. Only Joshua could. Joshua put the Ark of God into the Jordan and made it a road (Joshua 3:17). 1480 years later, another Joshua stood in the same place to be baptized by John.

Baptism, John and Jesus

"When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son," (Gal 4:4) and exactly at that time John inaugurated a new and unique baptism. Now it is a "baptism of repentance for the remission of sin" (Mk 1:4; Lk 3:3).

John explained: "O brood of vipers! [begotten of serpents]...9 do not think to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father: for I say unto you, that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones" (Matt 3:7-9).

Baptismal forgiveness has to do with fatherhood and children. The Serpent's seed are cut down and true seed of Abraham is begotten by the Father in their place. This is exactly how Jesus describes baptism when Nicodemus came to Him. "Unless a man be generated again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)

Then, Jesus explained that it happens in Baptism. "Verily, verily, I say to You, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5).

Baptism Today

That's why, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). Not because Baptism is another washing in addition to the washing of Jesus. But because by it you are reborn into the pure and holy flesh of the Son of God.

As Paul puts it, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Galatians 3:27  You have "received the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!'" Galatians 4:5-6

At Jesus' baptism, while He was standing in the water, the Father declares that this Man, born of the Virgin, is His own eternally-begotten Son. And Jesus still stands in the water.

Just as the Ark's presence in the Jordan made it a road into the Promised Land, so Jesus' continued presence in Baptism gives Baptism it's content.
 -- This is the place were our bodies are sprinkled with pure water...
 -- This is where the Father declares: "You are My son by adoption and grace."
 -- This is where, the Spirit of Christ comes upon you.

And we respond by confessing: "One Lord [Christ], one faith [Church], one Baptism, One God Father of us all..." (Ephesians 4:6)

Conversations on Christ: The Two Natures and Forgiveness

1) The forgiveness of sins embraces two events: atonement and absolution. Forgiveness earned and forgiveness delivered. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 5: "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them (forgiveness earned); and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then ... we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. (forgiveness delivered)" (2 Corinthians 5:19-20)

Note that in both events God acts in Christ! "God was in Christ, reconciling"... and also we speak "in Christ's stead." Jesus, according to both His divine and human natures, atoned for the sins of the world by His perfect obedience and His innocent suffering and death.

AND

Jesus, according to both His divine and human natures, delivers the fruits of His atonement through "the word of reconciliation."

The atonement is history. "It is finished," (John 19:30) "once, for all" (Hebrews 10:10) accomplished on Calvary. The delivery is His ongoing work; happening in the "One Holy Christian (catholic) and Apostolic Church." (Nicene Creed)

2) Just as we can admit none of our work into the earning of forgiveness. So also, there is no place for synergism in God's delivery of forgiveness. It "is a gift of God lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

As soon as we say that God Himself is the one who delivers His forgiveness to us, the natural question is: what God? And the answer is: the same God who earned the forgiveness--Jesus Christ.
It is not as though Jesus handed off the baton to the Holy Spirit upon ascending. The Holy Trinity is indivisible. And while no one can say "'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1Corinthians 12:3).
The Holy Spirit remains the Spirit of Christ who is present by virtue of Jesus who sends Him. (Jn 1:7). And where Jesus is, He is present with both natures—entire and intact (unconfused, unchangeable, indivisible and inseparable).

To ascribe the work of bestowing faith to the Spirit alone, divorces the Spirit from the Incarnate Christ. And finds no ongoing relevance or purpose for the risen body of Jesus.

3) But the Biblical witness is clear: God's forgiveness of sins—spoken through a human mouth is inextricably bound up with the incarnation of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Old Testament, forgiveness is prayed for and left to God. The priests never declared God's forgiveness to anyone. But shortly after Jesus' baptism, we see a remarkable change.

Matthew 9, Mark 2 and Luke 5 all report the healing of the paralytic. He is brought to Jesus, who says, "be of good cheer your sins are forgiven." Those who heard Jesus were astonished at this utterance. The man Jesus was saying what had never been heard before! The scribes counted it blasphemy saying, "only God can forgive sins." But Jesus went on to prove that "the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins," by saying, "Arise and walk." And "when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, who had given such power (Greek: exousia) unto men." (Mt 9:8)

God begins a new thing: delivering the forgiveness of sins through a man. The Scribes were right in one respect: only God can forgive sins. That is why no one ever was permitted to speak such things before Christ. But now God has become a man and this man—by speaking—forgives sins.


4) The incarnation has brought about something new...and it is permanent. The multitudes marveled not that "God had given such power to Jesus..." ...but that "God had given such power to men." This is the Gospel history which undergirds Jesus' promise to the Church: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom..."

A promise spoken to the disciples in both Mt 16(:19) and 18(:18) and fulfilled after the atonement was "finished" (Jn 19:30) and when Christ first showed His risen body to the gathered apostles. He said, "... as the Father has sent Me, even so I send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." (Jn 20:21-23) Now the Word sent by the Father is sent also by the Son and is heard wherever those sent by the Son are speaking the absolution.


This is the story of the book of Acts as Paul put it in his sermon at Antioch: "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man [Jesus] the forgiveness of sins is preached unto you" (Acts 13:38) And this is still the story of God's forgiving sin as Paul says in  (2 Corinthians 5:18): "all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation"

Conversations on Christ: Who Do Men Say that I AM?

The question on the table is: "Who do you say that I am?"

My answer is simply: "I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, The only-begotten Son of God...Who...was made man..." (Nicene Creed)

This confession, which arose from the grassroots of early Christendom and was formalized into these exact words at Nicene council in 325, are my own confession also.

Flesh and blood does not reveal this but the Father of Jesus. And while formal confessions over time can become formulaic and thoughtless,     ...the fault for this problem lies not in the formula itself but in its mis-use. For this reason, and in a conscious bid to re-assert the usefulness of this creed, I will spend the bulk of my time here today unpacking these words and demonstrating their usefulness in the everyday thought of each and every Christian.

And this presentation, will simply follow the outline provided by the Creed itself. Namely: Jesus is One; Jesus is God and Jesus is Man.

Jesus is One

When Jesus asks the question, "Who do you say that I am," the first part of the answer already lies embedded in the question itself.

For He asks "who I am" not "who we are," "who I was," or "who I will be." And these words cry out for an answer which is both singular and ever-present.

"I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ," one person--inseparable, forever The union of Jesus' two natures is not a temporary arrangement but permanent. And this permanent union means that anything Jesus is, says, or does must be in complete concert with Him as a single person.

It is not permissable to ascribe an action, quality or ability to one nature to the exclusion of the other.  That would make of Him two persons, not one. When Jesus is born, God is born. (Lk 2:11) When Jesus sleeps, God sleeps (Mt. 8:24), when Jesus is crucified, God is crucified (1 Co 2:8) and when Jesus dies, God dies. (Mt 27:54)

Of course, it is offensive to think of a God who does such things. And this is precisely the scandal of the incarnation.  This is why people like Arius and Nestorius, Euthyches and Marcion said what they said.

We must not kid ourselves into thinking that these people took their positions out of sheer unthinking malice and hostility toward God. Rather, they sought to defend God against such "scandalous" notions that He could be subject to crucifixion, suffering and death.

But in the process of defending God, they denied the heart of what God did in Christ. In trying to explain away the scandal of the incarnation and the paradox of Jesus, they denuded Jesus and stripped Him precisely of His saving identity.

The theology condemned at Nicea took either of three different directions in trying to resolve the paradox of the incarnation and smooth over the scandal. Either they denied that Jesus is true God, or they denied that Jesus was tuly human, or they separated Him into two persons, one God, one human.

But ours is not to explain the paradox or defend God against scandal. Ours is to confess Jesus for everything He is; and to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. It was at this point that the teachers of the early Church introduced a very useful analogy into the discussion of the person of Jesus.

The branding iron was used to picture the interplay of Jesus' two natures. When a branding iron is used, it is actually fire that does the work. Iron alone cannot burn anything. When you add fire to the iron, now the iron burns. And yet, for a branding iron to be useful--that is to produce different and recognizable brands--the fire must only burn where the iron touches. Unless the fire is actually located in the iron, it is a useless tool.

So also with Jesus, while it will always remain true that people are forgiven, raised from the dead and reconciled to God only by the power of God Himself ...it is also true that God does this in and through the very human Jesus. And so, the two natures of Jesus are brought together into One God-man person without changing either nature into the other. Iron is still iron. Fire is still fire. Just as God remains God and man remains man.

From this basis, let's now think about what we can learn both about God and about man by observing that Jesus brings these two natures together in Himself. In doing so, we put aside our preconceived notions about who God can be and what or what not he can do and simply fix our attention on the Person of Jesus... And Jesus Himself reveals to us what God can truly do and who He truly is. And Jesus Himself reveals what it is to be truly human and made man. And as we look to Jesus to define these matters for us, we begin with His unity and conclude at least this much...

Since Jesus' actions, qualities and abilities cannot cannot be incompatible with either nature, we can at least learn from Jesus what is possible for God and man without negating each respective nature.

Simply put, if Jesus can die, then God Himself has found a way to die in Christ without becoming less than God. And if Jesus can give life and forgiveness and salvation, then humanity is, in fact, capable of conveying life and forgiveness and salvation without becoming more than human.

Thus, to confess "one Lord Jesus Christ" is to let Jesus be for us both the perfect image of God, and also the perfect image of man.  With that said, we can now look to Jesus to learn of God.

Jesus is God We confess Jesus to be "the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made, Being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things were made;"

Jesus is God

That Jesus is God is simple to say. But what does it mean? Who is God in the first place? What is His essence? What is in His heart? How does He want to be known?

By asking these questions, we turn away from the sterile world of metaphysics and philosophy and into the personal world of theology and revelation. For there are any number of sound and reasonable conclusions that we can make about God by observing the glory and wonder of the heavens and the earth. But when God reveals Himself in the person of His Son, we see someone completely different than we expected!

This leads many to conclude that Jesus is only a partial revelation of God. ...that we learn about God partly from nature and partly from Jesus. Thus, most theological textbooks begin with a section on God in general and only after this topic is thoroughly explored do they turn to a discussion of Jesus.

I believe this to be a mistake. Not because we are incapable of seeing God in His creation ...but because we are bypassing the very revelation of God in Christ. "[God] hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, who is the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person." (Hebrews 1:2-3)

What more could we need to know about God than this? Especially, if that additional "knowledge" causes us to ignore, minimize or even contradict what God expressly reveals of Himself in Jesus?!?

And what is it that we see of God in Christ?

Simon's confession, identifying Jesus as God, led Jesus immediately to speak of:  First, of forgiving sins in the Church;  Second, the necessity of His suffering, death and resurrection We see, here, that His majesty, power, might and judgement are hidden and quieted ...while is mercy and love and self-giving are magnified.

This is not to say that God is not majestic, powerful, just and holy. Just hear again at the account of Jesus' Transfiguration."...his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him...and behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud... And when the disciples heard [it], they fell on their face, and were sore afraid."

The majesty is unmistakable. And if Peter wasn't yet frightened by Jesus' appearance, the booming voice from heaven knocked them all to the ground "like dead men." That's why I did not say that these majestic qualities were lacking in Christ.

 I did say that they are quieted--literally--by Jesus Himself! "Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead." This charge of silence was not given tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness. God wishes His majesty and power to be known only in the proper context: Calvary.

And it is exactly this economy and way of presenting Himself that is the incarnation.

God deliberately hides His flashing glory "for us men and for our salvation." God wishes to be known wholly and exclusively in Christ precisely because God wishes to be known as savior from judgement and terror, sin and death.

Notice that after the frightening voice demanded that we listen to Jesus ....Jesus' first words are, "do not be afraid." "When they looked up they saw no one but Jesus only." This is not because God's self-revelation was partly removed!  It is because God's self-revelation is complete in Jesus.

Jesus is Man

With that said, we now turn to the human nature of Christ in order to learn about who we are.

Jesus is man: What are the minimum basic requirements without which a person can  no longer be said to be human?  Do you need a body? a free-will? the ability to feed yourself? or breathe for yourself? viability outside the womb? Self-determination?

Many today use such standards to label some human beings as unworthy of life. Just think of Terry Schaivo or the plight of the unborn and you see what I mean. On the other side of the coin, what are the maximum limits beyond which a person is no longer human but divine. Can a human being forgive sins? or raise the dead?

Here, again, you can perceive that these are precisely the things that Jesus did which caused believers to marvel and unbelievers to accuse Him of blasphemy. To deny that a human can do such things is to deny Jesus' true humanity ...either that or to divide Him into two persons.

But, on the other hand, there is a very real danger in elevating humanity to the status of Godhood--assigning to man that which is proper to God alone.

To return to our earlier analogy, it would be like turning the iron into fire itself. This, in fact, is the essence of sin--to desire to be like God. (Genesis 3) And so, to know both the true nature of humanity and also what God can do through a human being, we again look to Jesus alone.  For He alone is a true man!

We believe, teach and confess that Jesus Christ is true man...
 ...Even while His face is shining like the sun, and His robes are white like lightning.
 ...Even while He is forgiving the sins of the paralytic (Mt 9)
 ...Even while He is transmitting divine healing power through the hem of His robe.
In all these things, the flesh and blood of Christ are not doing human things but divine things and yet they do not cease to be human.

So, human being is not defined well either by setting up some "minimum basic requirements" or by denying that God can do certain things with it. Rather, human being is defined by Jesus alone.  He is "the new Adam." (Romans 5) Or, as Pontius Pilate once put it: "Behold, the Man."

So, what IS true humanity as revealed in Christ? I believe this can be summarized in two parts. First, to be truly human is to be and remain a creature. Jesus, as creature means that He depends completely and fully upon His creator.  To be a true man is to be constantly in a relationship of receiving from God.

This is why many people are puzzled by His prayer in the garden. Why does He need to pray such things if He is God? they ask.  !!He doesn't pray because He is God. He prays because He is truly a man!  Precisely at the moment when He is going to give His own life for the salvation of mankind, He must ask God for what it is He will give!

And so Jesus teaches that creaturliness is not something to be overcome. But something to embrace. To be dependant on God is not a liability but an asset To become "a perfect man, unto the measure of the  stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph 4:13) is not to become independant from God but to finally be dependant.

I believe far too many people (Christians included) are of the opinion that the goal of human existence is to reach independance. And thus, when we see regression in this regard, we count it as failure and death.

I do not.

Especially in the twilight years, as our independance is stripped from us, I see God's gracious and loving hand bringing us to be precisely more like those little children who alone inherit the kingdom of God (Mk 10) But in addition to being a creature, there is a second thing that makes us human.

For, after all, everything that is not God Himself is a creation of God and thus, dependant on Him. But to be human is to be distinguished from every other creature by this: You are a creature in the Image of God. This alone--not language, rationality, genetics or anything else--this makes you human.

And what is this Image of God? Is it power?  Is it ruling force? Is it majesty? Is it sovereignty? No. None of these taken in isolation is a complete and balanced description of the Image of God. Rather, the Image of God is simply what Jesus shows us of God in His own person. The image is God is precisely what God reveals of Himself in Jesus.

We already discussed this in Part II of this presentation.  God is Love. God is merciful. God saves. And so, again in the direct context of Peter's confession that Jesus is God...

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. 28 Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

To follow Jesus in His perfect humanity is to follow Him in His self-sacrificial suffering. And this is the "Glory of the Father" and the coming of the Christ's Kingdom. Thus what charactorizes the true human existence is the image of God. Which is none other than Jesus Christ, the express image of the Father.

CrossTalk: The Unopened Gift

We are a nation of doers. This is especially apparent during the holiday season. People everywhere are making preparations for Christmas. Buying presents. Decorating houses. Preparing feasts. Going to parties. Traveling to relatives. Doing, doing, doing.

Of course, this is all for a good reason. Christmas is all about the greatest Gift ever given. It is about the birth of Jesus. Christmas celebrates the day when the Creator of all things was born into His own creation as a creature. Christmas is about God giving Himself to us as a Gift. And it is in commemoration of this Gift that we observe the tradition of giving gifts to one another. Christmas is about Bethlehem (Hebrew for “house-of-bread“). When He was born, Jesus was placed in a manger—a feeding trough. And so we follow the tradition of setting out great feasts in commemoration of Jesus who is the Bread of Life.

But these beautiful traditions carry with them a danger. In our zeal to commemorate God’s giving, we always tend to focus more on our giving than on God’s Gift. We work so hard at preparing feasts that we have little time to be fed by the Bread of Life. And so, God’s greatest Gift lies unopened and un-enjoyed while we buzz around giving gifts to others.

This gives rise to another holiday tradition: to grouse about the commercialization of Christmas. It is tempting to complain about “those people” who are trading off of Jesus’ birthday. But I choose not to participate in this chorus. Because the problem lies not in merchants, chain stores, toy manufacturers or secular culture. The problem lies within us. And I don’t just mean that we are the ones buying all these things!

What I mean is that we regularly and habitually rush past all of the gifts that God gives and hasten to get to our response. We are so busy with doing all the right things that we fail actually to appreciate the Gift. It may well be your intent to thank God with all this activity. But as a giver of gifts, you know that the greatest gratitude that people can show you is simply to enjoy and use what you give. God is no different. He gives Jesus to you not to set an example of giving. God gives you Himself that you might handle and enjoy (1 John 1:1).

I submit to you that we don’t need practice in giving gifts. What we need is practice in receiving them. How many times have you been given a gift which caused angst rather than joy because you didn’t have a gift to give in return? And so the reception of an unreciprocated gift becomes an embarrassment and a source of the holiday blues when it should be pure joy and the epitome of the holiday spirit!

As a remedy for this topsy-turvy condition, I offer two simple prescriptions: First, discipline yourself to receive at least one gift this year with nothing but heartfelt appreciation. Suppress that habitual need to give a gift of equal or greater value in return. By this, the gifts of Christmas can again serve their original purpose—to remind you of what you have received from God in the birth of His only-begotten Son (John 3:16). Second, reminded of the Gift of God, take a break from all your doing in order to sit quietly in Christ’s Church to hear the Word made flesh and thereby to receive the Bread of Life. This way you will actually be receiving the Gift that God gave you on the silent and holy night. And in receiving Him, you receive the fullness of God’s grace and truth (John 1:1-14).

Conversations on Christ: Inaugural Address

Almighty God, whom to know is everlasting life, grant us perfectly to know Your Son, Jesus Christ, to be the way, the truth, and the life, that following His steps we may steadfastly walk in the way that leads to eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN.

Greetings, to each and every one of you. I am excited to such a response for what we hope will be the first of many meetings. As Mike already mentioned, we are very conscious of the time-constraints of a noon meeting and so I am going to get right to the point.

During this half-hour, I feel it necessary to do two things: First, I want to talk about the over-all intent of these conversations--what observations began us down this path, what benefits we hope to gain, and what trajectory we might pursue in order to make the most of them. Second, in the few minutes that remain, I will offer some brief reflections on Christ as a kind of down payment on what we hope to unfold in time. Perhaps after others have had opportunity to weigh in, I might be given the chance to flesh-out these seminal thoughts.

Part One:

"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?  And they said, Some [say that thou art] John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Mt 16:13-18

By this exchange, Jesus teaches plainly that the cornerstone and foundation of the Church, for all time, is the confession of Peter concerning the true identity of the man, Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. So strong, in fact, is this Rock that, as long as the Church rests upon it, even the very gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

Stop and think about that for a minute. What an audacious claim! Of all the things that the church does and says, nothing is more foundational than her confession and teaching. And of that, no doctrine, dogma or exhortation is called foundational other the confession of who, exactly, is this man, Jesus. This has enormous implications for us today. ...and it is the starting-out-point for our Conversations on Christ.

Observations that began us down this path

It is at this point that some of us observed a sad reality. With an ear to the ground of Christianity in America generally and an even more informed eye on the goings on in our own traditions, we observed precious little confession of the most foundational doctrine in Christianity--namely Christ! It is as though we believe that enough has already been said about Christ. We seem to have moved on to more pressing issues.

I will only speak for myself here, (but I suspect my confession will resonate). I came to the dawning realization that, caught up in the struggles of my own synod, I had become increasingly conversant in the hot-button issues of the day... But was unable to carry on any more than the most basic conversation on the person of Jesus Christ.

Of course, I subscribed to the Christology of orthodox Christianity as hammered out in the seven eucumenical councils and stated plainly in the Nicene Creed. But I was at a loss to relate that doctrine to the issues that so concerned me. What is more, as I studied the church fathers, I could not understand why they were so interested in the fine and subtle distinctions of Chalcedonian Christology but had so very little to say about the controversies of our time.

My working explanation for this was that, for them the doctrine of Christ had not yet settled., but for us, it is now a settled matter and we have moved on to other discussions. This working hypothesis was demolished as I came to realize that their vigorous discussions of Christ were generally driven by very practical concerns.

I now realize that the reason for centuries of struggle over the answer to Jesus' question, ("Who do you say that I am")  was not because the ivory tower had not yet spoken definitively. Rather, the discussion of Christ continued simply because discussion of Church practice continued! They understood what we seem to have lost: that whenever you are addressing something in the Church, the foundation must be the first consideration.

Benefits that we hope to gain

To move back toward this truth and to put it into practice among ourselves individually and corporately is the highest purpose of this endeavor.

It is the stuff of legend that Vince Lombardi kicked off each year's training camp with a team meeting and a speech that began, "Gentlemen, this is a football..." By these words, some of the greatest NFL teams ever were re-centered on what made them great: namely a renewed focus on the very foundation. This is not unlike what we hope to accomplish here.

But lest there be any misunderstanding, I should probably say a few words about the concept "foundation." Even though the word, "foundation" is derived from the Latin fundamentum, we should be careful to avoid some common mis-perceptions about fundamentals.

Too often these days, fundamentals are confused with least common denominators. Instead of treating the foundation as the most important part of an actual building, fundamentals are presented as isolated stones that must be preserved because of their great value but they have no working relationship to a buiding of any sort. Thus arises the idea that salvation involves the formal adherance to one or more "fundamentals" while anything beyond these is ultimately unimportant..

The reason that such thinking is inadequate is aptly illustrated by the construction that you can see on Cheyenne Drive. There we have several perfectly good foundations poured--worth quite a lot of money But because these remain only foundations and have no building on them, they are worthless to the investors, worthless to the city and to potential renters.

A foundation without its building -- or a building off the foundation -- is equally worthless. Teachings, practices and morals which do not flow integrally from the person of Jesus Christ--these are a church off the foundation. All teaching. All morals. All mission work. All worship activity. All in the Church must be built upon the foundation which is Christ. If it is not resting squarely upon this foundation, it is a building of straw which will not even withstand the breezes of Western Wyoing--much less the gates of hell.

So, the benefit that I hope we realize from this conversation is two-fold. FIRST: To rediscover, reclaim and rejoice in the foundation who is Christ Jesus. To return to the Christology embraced by the whole Christian world before our present divisions disrupted the unity. Let us savor that common foundation and not be too quick to move on. And then, SECOND, re-asserting that common understanding of Christ Jesus, let us begin slowly, painstakingly and humbly to build stick-by-stick upon Christ.

In this way, we can re-examine our buildings as individuals and as congregations to make certain that each portion of the edifice is a direct extension of the foundation Christ and is not built off of the foundation on the shifting sands.

Trajectory that we might pursue.

Now, while we can learn from each other in this regard, I believe that the best correction will come from within--from each one of us taking careful assessment of his or her own building.  That is why I do not envision this gathering as a forum to criticize one another. Rather, I envision that as each of us are drawn into the conversation and become eager to address contemporary problems from the foundation which is Christ That we will find the honesty and courage to examine and criticize ourselves. That is where growth into Christ and unity under Christ's word will be fostered.

I believe that each of you love Jesus and have the personal integrity to benefit from this opportunity without need of harangues or diatribes. In fact, these would be counter-productive to our high purpose. In order for this to work, there will be some parameter's that will be helpful.

1) Talking down to one another will not accomplish much more than making the atmosphere more acrid. Let's not kid ourselves (I speak especially to the clergy here) we each believe that we have the fullest measure of truth than anyone else in the room. If we didn't, we couldn't have the courage to stand up and preach on Sunday. If you think that I am exhibiting too much hubris in saying this and that you would not be quite so dogmatic, you simply are proving my point.

But please hear me! I do not say this as a criticism but, rather, as mutual respect. I am recognizing here that what you say and do, you say and do become you believe it is the right thing to say and do. I simply ask you to recognize that your attitude is felt by the people you are addressing and if you want to help them, you will speak as you, yourself would wish to be addressed.

2) It is my hope that these presentations do not simply regurgitate the ossified thinking of others. If that is the case, we will not have accomplished our goal. Rather, if the goal is to encourage a more intentional thinking on Christ, then, it will be necessary to actually think on Christ.

I suspect, if my own experience is any guide, that this may be unfamiliar territory / uncharted water for you. It may even, to a certain extent, take you out of your element and challenge you in ways that you have not yet considered. I do not consider that a bad thing. For to start again at square one is a more promising beginning than to assume our unity on the foundation and vault hastily to other parts of the building without taking the time to examine each building block that got us here.

So, My prayer and confidence is that we are all taken out of our element. That you will resist the temptation to use this forum as an opportunity to advance your agenda and address your own hot-button issues. Rather, consider this as an opportunity to think about Jesus Christ in a bottom-up kind of way. Notice His beauty in a way that you have never seen it before. Use your own traditions' reflections on Christ to notice in Him what you have never noticed before.

3) It will be difficult enough for you to ignore your hot-button issues and step out of your element.
 I would not recommend that you reject your own tradition's perspective. Rather, use the writings and reflections on Christ that are the most familiar to you.

Become reacquainted with them in ways that you never have before. Present them to the rest of us in the most winsome way that you know how. Leave it to the presentations of others to offer new and different possibilities that you are not familiar with. But use your own presentation to mine the riches of what you have to offer Christendom concerning the person of Jesus Christ.

In this way, you will grow in your own understanding of Christ and also have opportunity to be challenged from the Holy Scriptures to incorporate more into that understanding or to modify based on the Scriptures that are presented. Either way, this forum could be a blessing to you and to those who hear you.

This is my vision for these Conversations on Christ. And it is with this in mind that I would now make a beginning of my own remarks...

Part two

"And as [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man which was blind from [his] birth.  2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?  3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.  4  I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.  5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.  6  When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,  7  And said unto him, Go,  wash  in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."

This event, recorded in John chapter 7, is a good place to begin our discussion precisely because it is so typical of Jesus' workings.  Notice the glorious combination of marvelously divine working accomplished through thoroughly earthy and even distasteful means. By healing a man who was blind from birth, Jesus does what was unheard of.

It is a work that only God can do. And it touched off a flurry of activity from the religious establishment precisely because they had to either discredit the miracle or acknowledge Jesus to be God. I realize that we may be jaded enough in our experience to not understand the problem that this posed for the Jewish leaders.

Between the antics of televangelists and the wonders of modern medicine, we may not think it all that uncommon to give sight to one born blind. But set all that aside for the moment and enter into the world of the Gospel. The blind man himself speaks for everyone when he says (vv. 32-33) "Since the  world  began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.   If this man were not of God, he could do nothing."

And beyond these words of the blind man, Jesus Himself, in the very miracle points us to see that in healing the man born blind, He is simply doing what He has done from the beginning of the world. Just as He formed humankind from clay and breathed in the breath of life, so now, He uses clay to restore the eyes that had become deformed.

By all of this we know that God is at work and not mere man. But there is another side to this action as well. The use of dirt. The spit from Jesus' mouth. The distasteful picture of muddy spit being smeared into the eyes of this poor blind man.

All these things conspire make us ask, "Did Jesus HAVE to do that?" "Couldn't He have healed Him in another way? -- Less disgusting but just as effective?" If we were to take the bait of that question and engage a discussion of what God could or couldn't do, who knows how long we would be here.
The stories in the Gospel are not given to touch off idle speculations about what God can or cannot do. The Words of God are given us that we might shut our mouths with wonder and rejoice in what God DOES in Christ. When we do that, we notice that the full power of the God-head is at work in the spit and the mud and the water of Siloam.

God, the creator of heaven and earth, has so thoroughly entered into His creation that He can use very humble and simple elements to convey all that He is and has. More than that. Not only do we notice that Jesus makes use of created things to do His work. But even the things that He chooses are quite humble--even disgusting--in the eyes of the world.

This points us to learn something about Jesus that will put us in good stead as the narrative moves on to the crucifixion and death of God. That is this: Not only does Christ come to redeem the higher parts of creation--like people and minds and lofty words and thoughts.  But He comes to redeem all of it. Dirt, spit and water.

St. Paul reflects on this aspect of Christ partiularly in 1 Corinthians where we read: "1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;  28  And  base  things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, [yea], and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:  29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.  30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:"
Now, if you consider yourself to be some of that higher stuff of creation, this news might not be very exciting for you -- in fact, it might be a bit demeaning. But as you come to know more and more your own commonality with all of fallen creation...

The wonder of Jesus' working becomes greater and greater and greater news for you. This is the basic story of Christ: God come down to you. God come down, not just part-way so that we might meet Him on the way up...

 - God come down not just to those who are worthy of it...
 - God come down not just in those things that are valued by the world...
 - But God become a man whose visage we turn away from because it upsets us.

This is the picture of Christ that Isaiah paints for us in the 53rd chapter. And yet in that coming down, God loses none of His identity, power or grace as the only creator of all things in heaven and on earth. Do not spend time and energy on whether He needs to do this or not. Do not construct elaborate theologies either to defend His actions or to explain them away as to be more logical or reasonable. In short, do not ask what God could or should do.

Only sit in wonder and rejoice in what God DID and DOES For in this, and in this alone, you come to know God Himself, your Savior.