Zombie

What is a zombie? A living corpse, mindlessly wandering, with no place of belonging; no rootedness. A zombie was once alive and retains a semblance of that prior life. Death is re-animated. Its existence is forever consuming without any real purpose except to consume, to merely continue existence. Living, but not really alive. If I were to think about it, this is Adam’s gift to his progeny. Christ’s gift is belonging. When he left, he told his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them.

Christ belongs with the Father. He returned there. I am exceptionally grateful that in his descent that he claimed his own so that we may ascend with him! He has a place, and because he came, I have a place where I belong. I have a citizenship that transcends locale. Here, I am merely a sojourner and a pilgrim. I know that I will leave this world. Only then will I finally be able to truly go home.

Is it Really Important?

In a recent conversation I spoke about how I was musing on a line that is often omitted in the Apostle’s Creed. To be fair, it is often omitted for good reason, and it is telling that the earliest versions did not include, “He descended into Hell.” Why then, do many church traditions include it, expand on it, and include Christ’s descent into Hell as doctrine?

I wondered, if I want to live a life that faithfully depicts biblical truths, I should restrict myself by emphasizing the things emphasized in the Bible. When I look back at my concern for understanding death and Christ’s descent, I realize that it is not of primary importance. However, it is more important than secondary concerns.

Simply put, the single most important event in the Christian faith is the Resurrection (cf. I Corinthians 15:12-19) and without any understanding of death and what happened between Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, one does not understand the Resurrection. It has an import that directly effects how one understands the very reason for hope in this life!

I am studying death so that in this life, I might have hope. My aim is to share that hope, and in doing so, share life.

Of the Going Down of Christ into Hell, pt1

“He descended into Hell.”

This line is sometimes omitted from the Apostle’s Creed (or added to it, depending on your perspective) in its section on Christ. How are we to understand that short period of time between Jesus’ death and resurrection? Why is this ill-described moment in history so important that it is built in to the confessions of the ancient Christian Church and many modern iterations of the same? Why do we make such a big deal of something about which Scripture is relatively silent? I will begin my reflections here the same way they germinated in my mind.

It started one recent Sunday at church. The president of a Christian college in Uganda spoke during the service. He is a self-described evangelist, and I found in his preaching a sense of urgency. I did not realize that I had missed it. Growing up a Baptist in South Carolina, one would expect a preacher to have a little bit of “fire” in his sermon. Up here in New England, I have noticed that this style of preaching is equated to unnecessary theatrics and a provocation of a forced emotional state. Perhaps this is just my experience, but it seems to be true!

Back to my Ugandan Brother. He spoke of the East African Revival and it’s key marks, personal repentance and holiness. I wondered what contributed to that sense of urgency and why I did not see it as much here in New England. One could presume that it is because he is more accustomed to coming face to face with death; a kind of liveliness that results from “fearing the One who can destroy both the body and the soul.” It got me thinking about the Wisdom Literature in Scripture that recounts the merits of musing on death. Here in the U.S.A., we value youth and immortality so much that as a culture, we shy away from and outright hide anything that resembles feebleness or death. Is that why there is not so much urgency to prepare for the possibility of life after death? Is that why the demographics are what they are in the U.S. churches? (I truly wonder why my mind gets so distracted on these tangents. I promise to get to where I’m going.) One way or another, my thought process shifted to why we fear death and how we understand (or fail to understand) death. Should we be more urgent in addressing life? Should we be more urgent in addressing death?

As I noted in an earlier post, I paused when I read an exposition on the third article of the 39 Articles of Religion. Specifically, I was struck by The concept of how Jesus Christ died for our sake and descended into Hell. At this point, I was intrigued. I began reading as many commentaries and expositions as I could get into my hands. How could he have done anything after death and before resurrection? He was dead, right? What do we know about death, anyway? What is so important about it that I need to consider it?

In search of an answer, I go first to the beginning. Genesis states that God created everything good. If I am paying attention, I can confess that life is good. Adam and Eve were placed in Eden, and they were warned not to eat the fruit of a certain tree. With that command, God said in Genesis 2:17, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God’s command states plainly that the day they ate of it, they would die. Because of this, I can safely assume that death is a bad thing. Yet, Adam and Eve ate of that tree, and they lived long enough to have at least three children, seeing at least two of them grow old enough to have professions. Genesis 5:5 even states that Adam lived 930 years. I am left befuddled as I try to understand death in these introductory chapters of the Bible.

In my attempt to make sense of the scene, I presume that Adam and Eve died spiritually the day they ate of the tree. Their physical death was stalled due to the loving graciousness of their Creator. My conclusion includes a division of death into spiritual and physical. This would allow for Christ’s physical death at Golgotha and his being spiritually present in Hell, doing some work. While it does not get me any closer to understanding death, it provides a very fragile framework. On its own and without any further explication, this is heretical territory, and I do not want to be here. The greatest problem is having a Christ who does not fully participate in our suffering.

Allow me to explain why this is dangerous. If in Adam, all humanity is spiritually dead, yet Christ lived spiritually after physical death, descending into Hell, then as far as I can tell, Christ did not experience spiritual death as we experience it. This provides a Christ who did not fully experience the current, fallen human experience, keeping him from fully redeeming mankind from our experience. If Scripture teaches a division of death into physical and spiritual, I need to either uncover more truth from Scripture or divest myself of some presuppositions. Perhaps I need both, but I believe this is an appropriate starting point.

One thing is certain: more study is needed. First Corinthians 15 testifies that while the first Adam brought death, the second Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit. Perhaps this is where I should turn next in my search to understand death, Christ’s descent into Hell, and why death should be such an urgent matter.

Active or Inactive

As a man who was born, raised, and is still living in the USA, I must understand the context from which I come and in which I live. In His wisdom, God has placed me in this time and place. This understanding MUST bleed over into all areas of my life! This includes the areas where I feel the most vulnerable, especially financially. Too often, I hope for God to miraculously provide for my family’s needs. While I am open to God moving in order to “give us our daily bread,” I also must be aware of how I have been equipped to earn the same.

I am beginning to believe that it is time I try to enter the context in which I am placed. This does not mean entering the context in a “God-helps-those-who-help-themselves” fashion but in a “bloom-where-you-are-planted” kind of way. After becoming an adopted son of God, I was not magically taken to a mystical plane where all my needs/wants/desires were fulfilled. I am still obligated to sleep, eat, poop, and all the other things required to sustain life in this world. Instead, I was changed. I am being made into the image of His Christ. That which is broken is being healed. Throughout this process, I am still active, but it seems that I am active in a different way and for a different reason. I am no longer simply seeking my own. I am working and seeking a higher calling, to which I have been called. Exactly what that looks like is still a mystery to me. That particular vision is one for which I continue to search as I seek ways to provide for my family; to figure out how to bloom where I have been planted.

Yet there is hope: Isaiah 61:3,4 describes a broken and rebuilt people rebuilding a broken creation. We are God’s co-workers. It is not just God who works; we also work. God uses us for His great work of reconciliation. He is using us to create something beautiful.

02DEC14 Thoughts

02Dec14

Know this: The Lord himself is God;
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

I am His sheep. He has given me stewardship of this pasture in which to roam and feed. He has also given me duties as a shepherd of my own little flock. As His sheep, it is my duty to stay within my own pasture to feed and to shepherd my flock. I can utilize my gifts and talents as I set fit, so long as I stay in the pasture given to me, tending to it and caring for those under me. I am a sheep, living under the Curse. Redeemed, my work will bring love and life to this thorny ground. I live on the cusp, in the already and the not yet.

If I am His sheep, given a pasture and responsibility, what am I to do with it? I believe the first thing I need to realize is that the pasture in which I am placed is larger than I think it is, and so much more can be done in it than I think possible. It is covered with soils of differing types, rocks, and thistles, but it is more vast than I have imagined. It is my duty to work it. To do so, I must set this corner of the pasture in order. My little flock depends on it.

My prayer for today:
Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.