Tag: discipleship

Recognizing the Reality

Thoughts out of my message yesterday (April 14) at St. Andrew’s, Ajax. Audio of the message will be available at www.standrewsajax.ca.

Since there is a power that seems to try to destroy our happiness when we most have it, I decided to address the reality of evil in the wake of Easter celebration. As evidence and example of the reality of evil, I referenced the sickeningly disturbing recurrence of girls being gang-raped, subjected to further humiliation through cyber-bullying, resulting in their suicide. As I make these notes, there has been news of bombs at the finish of the Boston Marathon. We do not just have social “ills” and global “issues.” We face evil.

Arguably, the book of the Bible that most obviously (or at least most grapnically) deals with evil is the Revelation, or Apocalypse, to John. The context of the book is the brutal persecution of early Christians at the hands of the Roman Empire. As with what they faced, symbolized (chapter 13) by the beast from the sea and the beast crom the land, with the authority of the “dragon” behind them, there are forces coming together todsy, as in every age, to try to deceive us and rob us of union and peace with God. The deception today plays especially on our insecurity, and tries to convince us that we are not smart enough, pretty enough, good eough, or even worth while persons, without what the powers of influence have to offer, having instilled the “need.” It is curious today that as “brand” (think of cattle) names have come to be considered critical (who instilled this?) to our credibility, attractiveness, and success, so a “mark” was required in the vision of John for people to engage in commerce and get on in the world.

But as chapter 20 conveys, when we are joined to Christ, Satan is bound and unable to deceive us (the completeness of the 1, 000 year symbol), even while Satan is still loose in the world and wreaks havoc until all is fulfilled (the significsnce of the “little while” time period symbol). Whatever the language in chapter 20 may convey about future events, it always has this basic meaning for us, whatever the times.

Evil is real. That was underscored again today in Boston, as it is underscored every day somewhere. It has power to destroy and cause misery in this world, and we must spare no effort to limit its power and effects. But we will never destroy evil itself. We must place our trust for that in one who has already demonstrated his power over it. “Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5 nrsv).

He Has Nothing to Prove

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent. The Gospel lesson is the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4:1-13. Jesus could have used, accepted, or displayed power to satisfy his real physical hunger, to have world power right then and there, or to demonstrate suoeriority. Any of thse would have sabotaged his real purpose, to go to Jerusalem and the cross that he knew awaited him. We might endure temptation in order to gain something good; Jesus passed this test in order to move toward even greater pain and suffering, for our sake. He passed the test, at his temptation and at the cross. He has nothing to prove.

What about us? Is there ever a time when we are not tested? Is there ever a time you do not feel you have something to prove?

Consumer Electronics Show

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas officially opened today. The emphasis is definitely on “officially” since more than a glimpse of what is being flaunted there has been showing up in the news for days.

There are bigger and sharper-than-ever televisions. Mere HD apparently is so day before yesterday. Now it’s OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) HD TV. The South Korean firm LG announced its own Ultra HD, based on a different technology, which is said to provide a screen resolution four times sharper than your current full HD set. And there are of course new doo-dads to go with these TVs. One has something called “my homescreen” that lets you organize all your digital content in one place and help you organize content for each family member. If don’t have a family, this will make you want to get one.

There’s lots more than TVs, naturally. The theme running through all the gizmos and gadgets, they say, is connectivity, with techonology embedded in the technology that feeds into your tablet and smartphone, so that you can control the devices with the tablet or smartphone.

Some of this wizardry is probably very useful. The bulk of it is no doubt entertainment. Nothing wrong with fun. And there is a time for everything, says the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1). But it does, in one more way, point to the huge disparity between rich and destitute in the world. While I gawk idolatrously at much of this stuff, Syrian kids are gawking at the sky watching for fighter-bombers, even while they are scavenging for food and scratching the ground with sticks to try to make a shelter from the destructive technology from the sky. Will forgoing your Ultra HD TV help them? No. But it can’t hurt the world around us, and our own well-being, at least to be mindful of our priorities and try to keep things in balance. Furthermore, many of us obtain these things with money we don’t have. And then there is the issue of what kind of content is on those screens, and how much they detract from relating to actual people – although yes, a lot of technology is meant to help us connect with one another.

In the end, the appropriateness of the technology we latch onto can be judged by the quality of life it contributes to. By quality of life I mean that which is measured by standards other than the amount and sophistication of the stuff we have. How about this:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV).

Or this:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).