Apr 29, 2009

Disability and Christlikeness

I just came across this short article by Angela Beise--a missionary and the mother of four children, including a 10-year-old with a rare genetic chromosomal disorder ("18Q-minus"). It is a very moving and thoughtful one. Indeed it uncovers the hidden blessing that God gives to those parents who have to endure all sorts of inconveniences of having a child with disabilities. Angela wrote in Christianity Today:
In the days following this teacher's remark, I tried to imagine a society devoid of people with disabilities. What if any and all babies with special needs were to be eliminated? What would a society look like if everyone were "normal," if we never had to make provisions and exceptions for people who are deaf, blind, mute, or lame?

I didn't have to look any farther than my own family to start finding answers. My children are among the most unselfish people I have ever known. Brian, 19, Melissa, 17, and Rachel, 13, have made sacrifices, too many and too big to count, for their disabled sibling. One would think that this would have made them bitter and discontented. Amazingly, it has done exactly the opposite. They are thankful, giving, and tolerant to difficult and unlovely people.

As I pondered this potential "perfect" society, one verse from the Bible kept coming to my mind: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit" (Phil. 2:3). Parenting a child with special needs makes living out this verse a little easier.

This child becomes the focus of most of his parents' time and energy. An enormous amount of money may have to be spent on therapists, doctors, hospitals, and equipment. He limits what dreams his parents can pursue. They grieve throughout his lifetime. They not only grieve the child they "lost" at his birth, but grieve as they see him struggle with tasks that normally come easy, grieve when he realizes that he is not like other children, and often when he is in physical or emotional pain. They have little room left for selfish ambition.

What about vain conceit? That is likely to die, too. It's often embarrassing to have a child who cries out in public for no reason, looks different, and acts different. He won't be at the top of his class, won't be the best athlete, and will probably never be voted Most Beautiful or Most Likely to Succeed.

I wonder, if our advanced technologies successfully eliminate the weak and needy, will future scholars, theologians, politicians, and poets ponder: "Why has our society become less loving, so selfish, so intolerant, so uncommitted to anything outside of individual gain? Why are we so full of selfish ambition and vain conceit?" Is this "perfect" society a place where any of us would want to live?

If having a child with certain disabilities is what it takes for God to make Christian parents more Christ-like, which is in the final analysis is what it matters when we see God face to face, then they have to be thankful for this unique means of grace. Of course there are other ways to be more Christ-like, but I am sure if having a child with disability is what God, in his perfect and sovereign will, arranges for that to happen among those who love Him, then it is surely something that He meant for good (Romans 8:28)

Carson on the Gospel

So what is actually the Gospel? How do you define it? Professor Don Carson writes with clarity answering the question in his editorial piece in the latest issue of Themelios. As always, we can say: It's Don, it's good:
In blogs, journal essays, and books, there has been quite a lot written recently about what “the gospel” is. In the hands of some, the question of what “the gospel” is may be tied to the question of what “evangelicalism” is, since “gospel” = εὐαγγέλιον = evangel, which lies at the heart of evangelicalism. People talk variously of the “simple” gospel or the “robust” gospel or the “pure” gospel—and doubtless a rich array of other adjectives. Some make a distinction between the gospel of the cross and the gospel of the kingdom. . . A handful of other essays have noted the instance where the gospel is not “good news” for certain people, but a promise of terrifying judgment. The writers of these essays argue that εὐαγγέλιον may not mean “good news” but something like “great and important news”: whether it is good or bad depends on those who hear it.

A couple of these questions I hope to address shortly elsewhere. For the moment, however, I’d like to underscore another distinction that is still worth making. It was understood better in the past than it is today. It is this: one must distinguish between, on the one hand, the gospel as what God has done and what is the message to be announced and, on the other, what is demanded by God or effected by the gospel in assorted human responses.

If the gospel is the (good) news about what God has done in Christ Jesus, there is ample place for including under “the gospel” the ways in which the kingdom has dawned and is coming, for tying this kingdom to Jesus’ death and resurrection, for demonstrating that the purpose of what God has done is to reconcile sinners to himself and finally to bring under one head a renovated and transformed new heaven and new earth, for talking about God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, consequent upon Christ’s resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and above all for focusing attention on what Paul (and others—though the language I’m using here reflects Paul) sees as the matter “of first importance”: Christ crucified. All of this is what God has done; it is what we proclaim; it is the news, the great news, the good news.

By contrast, the first two greatest commands—to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves—do not constitute the gospel, or any part of it. We may well argue that when the gospel is faithfully declared and rightly received, it will result in human beings more closely aligned to these two commands. But they are not the gospel. Similarly, the gospel is not receiving Christ or believing in him, or being converted, or joining a church; it is not the practice of discipleship. Once again, the gospel faithfully declared and rightly received will result in people receiving Christ, believing in Christ, being converted, and joining a local church; but such steps are not the gospel. The Bible can exhort those who trust the living God to be concerned with issues of social justice (Isa 2; Amos); it can tell new covenant believers to do good to all human beings, especially to those of the household of faith (Gal 6); it exhorts us to remember the poor and to ask, not “Who is my neighbor?” but “Whom am I serving as neighbor?” We may even argue that some such list of moral commitments is a necessary consequence of the gospel. But it is not the gospel. We may preach through the list, reminding people that the Bible is concerned to tell us not only what to believe but how to live. But we may not preach through that list and claim it encapsulates the gospel. The gospel is what God has done, supremely in Christ, and especially focused on his cross and resurrection.

Failure to distinguish between the gospel and all the effects of the gospel tends, on the long haul, to replace the good news as to what God has done with a moralism that is finally without the power and the glory of Christ crucified, resurrected, ascended, and reigning.

Apr 27, 2009

The Aroma of Christ

"For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient [1] for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:15-17).
These are mighty words. Paul Barnett in his commentary on the 2 Corinthians, page 53-55, unpacks these verses as follows:
If incense impinges on the senses, even though invisible, so to Paul’s ministry makes its presence felt. . . Although an aroma of sacrifice is unseen, its presence is unmistakable in the nostrils of the worshipper. The point of the metaphor is that although the word of God is also invisible, there is no doubting of its effects. It divides its hearers into two groups; those who are being saved and those who are perishing (verse 15). For those who receive the word of God the message is the fragrance of life, but for those who reject it there is the smell of death...

It is through us he says that God spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God. The sacrificial lifestyle of the messenger is an extension of the ministry and death of Jesus himself… The message incarnated in the messenger is a fragrance of life to those who obey it, but to others it has the odour of death. Barrett comments that “the apostles are the smoke that arises from the sacrifice of Christ to God

Sunday Prayer

A prayer I wrote in Indonesian recently for the Sunday service at the church where I serve:

Ya Allah, kebahagiaan sempurna ada dalam diri-Mu.
Namun Kau ingin ciptaan-Mu mengalami nikmat itu bersama-Mu.
Benar, Engkaulah sumber kebahagiaan ciptaan-Mu, Ya Allah Penciptaku.

Engkau menenun aku dalam kandungan ibuku.
Engkau menyelamatkanku, memeliharaku, dan menjagaiku.
Engkau mati bagiku ketika aku masih menjadi musuh-Mu, ya Yesus
Engkau setia ketika aku setia, dan Engkau tetap setia ketika aku tidak setia, ya Bapa
Engkau mengerti segala jeritan batinku dan tangisan hatiku, ya Roh Kudus

Mampukan aku untuk hidup bagi-Mu.
Selamatkan aku dari diriku ya Allah agar ku tak lagi hidup bagi diriku sendiri.
Bawa aku naik lebih tinggi tuk mengerti, bahwa kepuasan hidupku ada pada-Mu,
Dan hanya pada-Mu.
Karena saat aku puas didalam-Mu, kepuasan-kepuasan palsu disekitarku
Menjadi nyata bagi hatiku.

Tatkala aku menatap salibmu, mari ya Allah,
Getarkan jiwaku,
Usik lah hatiku,
Remukkan ego-ku
Sampai kasih Kalvari itu melingkupi aku untuk taat kepada-Mu,
Sehingga ketaatanku pada-Mu menjadi kesukaanku tiap-tiap hari.

Jika orang lain menganggap imanku sebuah ketololan,
Kelemahlembutanku sebuah cacat karakter,
Cintaku pada-Mu sebuah kefanatikan,
Pengharapanku sebuah mimpi kosong,
Kuatkan aku untuk berbagian dalam penderitaan bagi-Mu.

Aku ingin dapat mengingini-Mu.
Aku rindu selalu merindukanMu.
Tak pernah puas dengan kemajuan imanku,
Terus rindu serupa Kristus.
Bertumbuh setiap saat semakin sepadan dengan Injil-Mu,
selaras dengan karakter-Mu, dan seirama dengan kehendak-Mu.
Dengarlah ya Allah, permohonan hariku. Dalam nama Yesus, Amin.

Deblogging No More

A month has passed since my last post below. There are many things happening in and around my life that are worth blogging between March 28 and April 27. Not that I felt guilty when I haven't blogged that long, but on the contrary missing the opportunities to write freely feels like there is a blockage in the sewerage system inside my mind or heart (thank God that was written only metaphorically not literally). But I have a good excuse or two for being absent from this blog for a month. I am now ready to blog again, even if it is only for the sake of maintaining my sanity....