Scriptures on experiencing Divine Light

I figured I would start the year with a little Bible study. Here are some things that Scripture tells us about Divine Light and how we may experience and embody Light in our lives. The following is a Scriptural outline on how we can experience Divine Light, through Jesus Christ, but the power of God's Spirit.

God's relationship with the world and culture

This is intended to help us understand how "Scripture speaks" on various topics. I have taken topical outlines I created for preaching and teaching, and reformatted them as articles to provide minimal framing and commentary, so that Scripture passages on certain topics may be collected, read, and meditated on. This is not an exhaustive commentary on Scripture, but rather an opportunity to collect thematic Scriptures together to see the trajectory that Hebrew and Christian Scriptures take, and how they converge and diverge on various topics. This is drawn from my own eclectic reading in Biblical and Systematic Theology, as well as topical resources such as Alister McGrath’s Thematic Reference Bible, Walter Elwell’s Topical Analysis of the Bible, Nave’s Topical Bible, Bible Gateway online, and the Open Bible online. 

In order to understand how to navigate our relationship with the world we live in, and the cultures we are immersed in, we need to understand the relationship of God to our world and the cultures in it. This can be difficult, because at different times in Scripture, there are different relationships between God's people and the world they inhabit, and the cultures that surround them. Sometimes, such as during the Davidic Kings of Judah, God's people were in charge of their culture and were directed to use that culture for the full flourishing of the people in it. Other times, such as during the Babylonian Exile or the period of Roman domination, God's people were called to create their own culture in the midst of cultures that ranged from being apathetic toward God's people, to being actively hostile to them. Despite this diversity of cultural context, there are some common Biblical themes that emerge:

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Scripture

At the school I serve as chaplain, I was recently asked to provide some Scriptural reflections on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Earlier, I did an essay for my previous school on how these values are rooted in Episcopal Identity and the foundational beliefs and prayers of the Episcopal Church. Not only that, but the Christian vision of God leads us to these values, because the very idea of God as the Trinity leads us to embrace diversity, and the Incarnation of God in Christ leads us to embrace inclusion. These ideas of God are, in turn, rooted in the self-revelation of God which is recorded in Scripture. So now it is time to dig into the foundational texts of the whole Christian Faith, and the founding stories of Jesus and his Apostles, to understand how they inspire us to create communities of diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice. 

Jesus, the Bible, and Private Property

The earth is the LORD’S and all that is in it, 

the world, and those who live in it! (Psalm 24.1)

Recently one of our History classes viewed this video in which Billy Graham makes the claim that “Jesus... taught the value of private property” (start at 5:14 for the whole quote). This seems to be an odd claim for the teachings of Jesus, and it generated quite the class discussion, after which the teacher asked me to make sense of Graham’s claim. 

I’ve actually been reading and thinking about this subject for the last 20+ years, but I’ve never penned anything publicly about it. In that time, I have travelled quite a distance politically and economically. I ended the 1990’s and began the 2000’s as a Christian Libertarian, convinced of the goodness and Divine sanction of the Free Market and its Invisible Hand to find the best solution to all social ills. I fundamentally resonated with George W. Bush’s vision of compassionate conservatism and market based public-private partnerships to do good in the world. 

Two decades later, in the midst of an interminable War on Terror which diverts trillions of dollars to the Military Industrial Complex, after a Bank Bailout that diverted trillions of dollars of public money to private coffers, after Occupy and Bernie Sanders and staggering levels of wealth inequality, as we watch public institutions and civic life desiccated and destroyed by ravenous Global Consumerism, after reading and re-reading and re-re-reading Scripture and Christian Tradition on economics and social justice, I have come to reject the naive Christian Libertarianism I embraced as a 20-something. 

As you may guess by now, I am convinced that the Bible as a whole, and Jesus in particular, do not support the post-enlightenment Consumerist concept of "private" property, in which "goods are irrevocably and unaccountably owned and controlled by the libertarian freedom of atomistic individuals, without connection to a higher duty, social purpose, or larger community".

In fact, to understand Jesus’ teaching on property, we have to look at the whole trajectory of the Bible on these issues. And, in short, the Bible nowhere supports our odd and recently formed concept of “private” property. It may be used to support ownership and property in a very publicly accountable sense, with many responsibilities tied to ownership. But it does not support private ownership unaccountable to other social, ethical, or spiritual responsibilities. 

Two Christian Views on Same-Sex Relationships

It's a "Modern Family", but is it a "Biblical" family? Depends on how you read the Bible! 

I wrote both of the following mini-essays at various times in my journey with Jesus. They reflect two different viewpoints on the same issue held by one person over time. There are thoughtful, Christ-centered, Biblical Christians on both sides of this issue. Those who support gays and lesbians may find the first essay offensive, while those who challenge them may feel the same about the second essay. I will begin with a brief look at the only Scripture passages which deal with the issue of same-sex intercourse.

After that, I will move on to present two different Christian interpretations, derived from Scripture and attempting to be faithful to Scripture. The first challenges gays and lesbians on the issue of sexuality and sin, while welcoming them in faith to support them in their struggle. The second welcomes our gay brothers and lesbian sisters in the faith, and sees their sexuality as a gift from God that is as different from heterosexuality as celibacy is. This second essay is a concise summary of research I explored more deeply in another essay on Homosexuality and the Christian Faith.