Paradise is Lost and it isn't coming back on its own

My wife and I spent the afternoon hiking in Oil Creek State Park, enjoying God's wondrous creation and spending some quality time alone.  It was just the sort of thing I need to recharge my batteries and begin another week of ministry.  As we drove home from the park I switched on ESPN radio only to hear the President talking about some bombing.  Moments later the news of the Boston Marathon bombing confirmed once again that evil has no bounds, nor does it understand pity or mercy.  Once again Mankind's inhumanity was on display, the peaceful woods and babbling streams were forgotten, replaced by an act of terror.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this senseless violence and to their families.
As my wife and I talked about today's act of terrorism, I commented that this sort of thing is never going to go away.  Even if 99.99% of the world is convinced that such acts are cowardly and evil it only takes the 0.01% to kill.  There's no going back to the days we thought of as innocent.  But were they really; was the Cold War more civil than the chaos we see on display now, has humanity ever set aside war to choose peace?
Last night I was watching the Vikings on The History Channel.  For the people of Medieval England, the terror lay across the sea, with the unknown barbarian peoples.  No villager, ignorant of what lay more than a day's walk from where he grew up could feel confident that a marauding horde was not on its way.  In a sense, terror lay outside of the known, it was the unknown that caused fear.
In our world today there are no longer any barbarian peoples, the edges of the maps have all been filled in.  We can no longer blame the inhumanity on display each day on "them".  Terrorism isn't simply international, it is also domestic.  The words of William Golding continue to ring true from The Lord of the Flies, "the beast is us".
And so I begin another week of striving to mend what others have broken, a week of helping the weak and powerless, a week of bringing hope through forgiveness.  If I did not have confidence that Christ would one day rectify this world's evils, that a final judgment will indeed come, how could I continue trying to do my small part against the "reckless hate" (to steal a line from Theoden in Two Towers) that no longer hides beyond the edges of the map?  But we do have hope, we do have faith, this world is not all there is, God will bring judgment upon those who do such evil, in this world or the next.

Sermon Video: "He who has begun a good work in you" Philippians 1:1-6

As the beginning of Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, this opening passage reflects the optimism and hope that Paul felt toward this church, the first in Europe.  Paul expresses to them that he is confident that the work of redemption that God had begun in them collectively would indeed be continued until its completion.  Paul had ample reason to be confident as he had himself seen the power and faithfulness of God in his own life and was well aware of God's Covenant faithfulness to his people Israel throughout their history.  Therefore Paul could share his confidence with the church at Philippi knowing that his trust in God would not be misplaced, the work of God would indeed continue as the message of grace and peace through faith in Christ planted seeds that sprout to this day.

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Sermon Video, "Stop doubting and believe' - John 20:24-29

A week after the resurrection, Jesus appears to Thomas, the last disciple to see the risen Christ with his own eyes.  Previously, Thomas had refused to believe on the word of the other disciples, he wanted to see and touch the wounds of Jesus for himself.  How would God respond to this doubt?  In the past, God had shown patient with doubters, including Sarah, Moses, Gideon, Esther, and Zechariah, still including them in his plan to bless his people, but what of Thomas?  Instead of punishing Thomas, Jesus offers him eyewitness proof to which Thomas responds, "My Lord and my God".
Do we need to see Jesus to believe, is a miracle the only thing that can prove God to us?  Actually, Jesus tells the disciples that those who believe without seeing will be more "blessed" because their faith is greater than those who must see first before they believe.  We have ample proof of the Gospel all around us, the wonders of God are daily in contrast with the evil of mankind, but a group of people who chosen a different path.  These followers of Jesus, by their willingness to sacrifice for others and be servants, are more clear proof than any miracle.  We have indeed seen Jesus when we see those who have been transformed by their belief in him.  Now, stop doubting and believe.

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How the Pope became popular among Evangelicals

The title alone seems like a crazy thought; it least it would have only a generation or two ago.  Having just finished Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (with its 1016 pages no less), I could not help but comment on his observation that Secularism (in particular cultural battles over sexual morality) was an unintentional boost to the modern alliance between formerly rival factions within Christianity.  A generation or two ago, the primary threat as seen by Evangelical Protestants would have been Liberal Protestantism and Catholicism; Orthodox Christianity wouldn't have rated a mention as it languished behind the Iron Curtain.  Fast forward past the Cultural Revolution of the 60's, Roe vs. Wade, the rising tide of divorce in the West and America, and the battles for ordination for women and homosexuals.  With all of these struggles in common, a remarkable shift has taken place: "a survey on approval ratings among American Evangelicals showed that Pope John Paul II, who would have represented Antichrist to an earlier Evangelical generation, out polled assorted spokesmen of the Religious Right" (pg. 1010, from a poll taken in 2004).
What did it take to make the Pope popular among Evangelicals?  The realization that we have more in common with our brothers and sisters in the Catholic (and Orthodox) Churches than we do with a society that has come to embrace sexual promiscuity, divorce, abortion, and euthanasia.  It was not a sudden outbreak of Christian brotherhood that prompted those looking across the divide of Christianity for solidarity, but a realization that we must work together lest we separately be overwhelmed by atheism and agnosticism.  It seems that after 500 years of confrontation (in the case of Orthodoxy, 1000 years), the worldwide Church is beginning to see that the message of the Gospel is needed in our world regardless of which one of our Christian denominations is doing the telling.  What we have in common is more important that our differences, however important they may be.  The world needs a message of hope, forgiveness, and reconciliation, far more than it needs us to continue the arguments that have raged within the Church in the shadow of the writings of St. Augustine.
Did I once think the Pope would be the Antichrist?  Sure I did, that's what was being taught in Evangelical circles 30 years ago.  The times, they are a changing.  In the words of the American Patriot Benjamin Franklin, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Sermon Video: "Woman, why are you crying?" - John 20:1-15

In the Easter resurrection appearance of the Gospel of John, the focus is upon the emotional state of the three participants.  Mary Magdalene is filled with anguish upon learning that the stone has been rolled away and fearing that Jesus' body has been stolen by those who would desecrate it.  She runs to tell Peter and John who both come to see the empty tomb for themselves, ponder the mystery of the burial cloths left behind, and leave believing that Jesus is alive but confused as to how and why this has happened.
As Mary remains behind, still in anguish over the apparently stolen body of Jesus, she first sees two angels, and then Jesus himself whom Mary mistakes for a moment as the gardener.  Jesus asks Mary, "Woman, why are you crying?"  When she doesn't recognize him, he simply says, "Mary" to which she responds with recognition, "Rabboni" (Teacher).  At once the cloud of sorrow is lifted off of Mary and replaced by extreme joy.  Jesus gives her the important task, and high honor, of being the first Christian missionary to spread the Good News that Jesus is alive.  As she runs to tell the disciples, the words of Jesus that he will soon be returning to his Father are a sobering thought amidst the joy that the worldwide task of preaching the Gospel will be the task of this small band of disciples; this is just the beginning.

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