“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” (Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline)

I read these lines when I was a freshman in college. They set a course for my life, because as I read them, I determined that I was going to be a deep person. No matter what it took, I was going to be one of them. Its seems like almost everywhere I go, people (especially young adults) are disillusioned by the degree of shallowness in the Church. It can easily become a topic for griping and complaining. Though I can’t say I haven’t ever participated in such ill speech, I realized a long time ago, that unless I was going to proactively be part of the solution, I was merely perpetuating the problem. Many are content with complaining because it is exceedingly easier than radically reorienting your life in the pursuit of a different end.

Leo Tolstoy once said, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing themselves.” In an age where being extremely shallow and narcissistic has become the norm—where our concepts of reality come from the hyper-idealized world of movies, where our heroes are celebrities who occupy a fantasy world enabled by exorbitant wealth—the only way change will happen is as we personally wrench ourselves out of the spell cast by modern society and begin to dwell deep.

The second principle in this series discussing Principles and Practices for the Spiritual Life is as follows:

Becoming a deep person is the most fruitful long-term approach to loving God and neighbor.

with its negative formulation as follows:

Remaining content with being shallow is not loving or helpful to anyone.

In John 15, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” To be connected to the vine, means to draw life-giving nutrients from the source, such that, over an extended period of time, there is a slow and gradual process of growth. It is only this slow and gradual process of growth that produces fruit, and as Jesus says, much fruit. This is what I mean by “becoming a deep person” – unplugging from the hectic mayhem of our narcissistic culture and engaging in a process of growth, whereby, over time, your entire being is both opened to and ultimately flooded with the life-giving presence of Jesus. We can often tell the difference between people who answer problems with cliches, and those who have real, helpful answers; people who are merely repeating the words of another, and those who can speak from the heart; people who wax eloquently about God, and those who seem to have been with God; people who have plastic smiles, and those who can empathize with your pain; people who interact with life in a detached and low-risk manner, and those who have a passion for life, engaging in the full range of its joys and sorrows; people who can network, and those who love affectionately and deeply; people who relate to others on the basis of what they can get, and those who give freely from the heart, laying down their lives for others in love. It is to the latter that we are invited as we open ourselves to God, allowing him to enter deeper into our lives, and in such, we become deep people.

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There are two general postures toward life: open or closed. The former is characterized by the risk, passion, wonder and joy of giving one’s self in a whole and undivided way. We reach beyond the encroachment of our self-contained shell by engaging with the people and experiences of life. In these experiences, we necessarily give up control and allow our lives to be affected and changed by what befalls us. In this way, we entrust what is most precious, indeed our very selves, to others. This openness leaves us indescribably vulnerable. Such is why alongside the experience of life’s highest joys, the open heart bears life’s most poignant sorrows.

The closed posture programmatically restricts the experiences of life. By refusing the loss of control entailed in authentic engagement with life, by objectifying reality in order to maintain a sense of control, by denying the opportunity for the people and experiences of life to really change one’s self, the self remains as desired – unchanged, untouched, unmoved. In the avoidance of true self-giving, the sorrows as well as the joys of life are quenched. Vulnerability being absent, passion also lies dormant. Under the ruse of passion, risks are well calculated and attempted primarily where there is really nothing to lose – carefully concealing the underlying apathy.

Love is how we open to life. The passion for life and for living lies in the giving of ourselves in bold and risky ways, in laying down our lives for one another. When we love, we open ourselves to be shaped and changed by others because we, in a sense, invest our existence in others. We offer ourselves as a gift — a gift that can never be returned — and placing it in the hands of another, give them power of determination over us for good or ill.

Jesus summarizes the entirety of God’s guidance for life (i.e., the “torah” or “law”) as the call to love with the entirety of our being. He said he came to give us life and life to the full (John 10:10). His command can be summed up as “love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 15:12), which for him means to “offer the core of our very being to those we love” (John 15:13). This full and unreserved self-giving is ironically the means by which we remain in the love of Jesus and experience the fullness of his joy (John 15:11).

The evasion of such counsel necessarily entails that our lives will be characterized by a marked emotional numbness, or else an artifice of passion contrived to veil our apathy and fears. Yet the call to love is the opportunity to abandon our apathy and begin to experience the full, rich and vibrant life of passion we were created for. Jurgen Moltmann describes it well when he says, “Apparently human beings cannot find themselves in themselves, or hold fast to what they are in themselves, without self-division or self-dissolution. It sounds paradoxical, but it is none the less true to say that it is only the person who goes out of himself who comes to himself. It is only in other people that we find the way to ourselves. No one can ever say ‘I am who I am,’ for no one is God. We say ‘I am because you are; you are because I am.’ (Jurgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life, 24-25)

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I am personally not a fan of new-years resolutions, because most never get accomplished. However, I’ve decided to take some time to reflect on what it might mean to “sanctify” the coming year to God. My thoughts here are following Jurgen Moltmann’s book Spirit of Life.

Moltmann takes issue with popularized conceptions of “spirituality.” Sometimes spirituality means nothing more than “religiousness” or “devotionalism.” Such equations can cut off spirituality from everyday life. It can also establish a schism between the “religious,” that is, the clergy and the cloistered, and the laity, the common person. One group is “spiritual” and the other, the overwhelming majority, is unable to access such a place. It can also drive a wedge between the “spiritual” and the sensory, assigning greater value to the “spiritual” and a diminished or even negative value to the sensory and bodily experiences of life. Furthermore, life can be neatly separated into its superior “vertical” (Godward or heavenly) and ancillary “horizontal” (relational, human or earthly) dimensions. This dichotomization disintegrates what God made a coherent whole, and in effect “splits life in two, quenching its vitality.” (Jurgen Moltmann, Spirit of Life: a Universal Affirmation, p. 84)

However, it is of fundamental concern that the concept of “spirituality” be vitally connected to the Biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is, after all, “life in God’s Spirit.” In the Old Testament, the ruach (Spirit) is the power that created all things and interpenetrates the life of all the living (Ps. 104.29ff., Gen. 1). In the New Testament, the Spirit is the power that raises Jesus bodily from the dead, inaugurating the “final springtime of creation (Rom 1.4; 8.11; 1 Tim 3.16),” the definitive restoration of life on earth (Moltmann, p. 84). This gives us an understanding of the Spirit that is immanently connected, rather than opposed, to physical, material, bodily, sensory and relational life.

Overcoming dualistic tendencies with regards to the Spirit and spirituality, Moltmann wants to understand “spirituality” as vitality, as a love for life. This expresses itself in an affirmed social and bodily existence. “In the experience of the Spirit, the spring of life begins to flow in us again. We begin to flower and become fruitful. An undreamt-of love for life awakens in us, driving out the infection of resignation, and healing painful remembrances. We go to meet life expecting the rebirth of everything that lives, and with this expectation, we experience our own rebirth, and the rebirth we share with everything else.” (p. 95)

We can then reach out to the world with the eagerness, innocence and expectation of a child (Matt. 18.1-5). A jaded attitude towards ourselves and the world melts with the rising of a vibrant love for life. The release of the body from the fears of “age-aquired wisdom,” which cynically expects the triumph of death, frees the arms to extend and embrace. The love of life empowered by the hope of resurrection looses the shackles of the soul with a penchant for retreating into the refuge of isolation. Open to the world, faith, hope and love once again flow in the risky endeavor of whole-hearted living (p. 97).

Life in the Spirit is not life against the body, it is life against death. It is everything that stands against the maniacal death drives of modern culture. It is awakening from the slumber of apathy and mechanistic living. “In this world, with its modern ‘sickness unto death,’ true spirituality will be the restoration of the love for life – that is to say, vitality. The full and unreserved ‘yes’ to life, and the full and unreserved love for the living are the first experiences of God’s Spirit, which is not for nothing called fons vitae, ‘the well of life’” (p. 97).

Moltmann wants to recast the concept of sanctification in light of the theology of the Spirit he has already been developing.  He begins by discussing John Wesley’s “methodisitic” holiness. John Wesley’s “societies” arose at the time of the burgeoning industrial revolution. “The Christian discipline to which they submitted themselves and their bodies corresponded precisely to the discipline of their work in the factories” (p. 166). Wesley’s methods had a healing effect on isolated people who had been forced to leave home to search for work in the factories. It gave them community, stability and self-confidence in a time when there was much uncertainty and instability. However, because we are leaving the industrial age and moving into the post-industrial age, we need a renewed vision of the Christian life that is “related to the sickness of the given society in a healing way” (p. 171). The discipline of the industrial revolution has produced a society where production and efficiency have become the highest virtues. When such happens, the human body is reduced to a machine and the mind to a computer. No time remains for full-blooded feeling. The integrity of human being is sorely violated. The simultaneous growth of production and consumption that have flourished under the myth of progress have shown their debilitating effects on the psychological, relational and ecological condition of life on earth. As our production and consumption increases, we find ourselves unable to engage in living-giving relationships that God created the human race to enjoy mirroring His triune fellowship of love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

A renewed concept of sanctification begins, for Moltmann, with the concept of spirituality as vitality and is embodied in the rediscovery of the sanctity of all life. Recognizing the holiness of all life effectuates the ethic Albert Schweitzer termed ‘reverence for life’: “Anyone who loves ‘the living God’ loves the life of all living things” (p. 172). This has communal (loving brothers and sisters), social (loving the poor and weak), and ecological (loving creation) dimensions. Reverence for life also “requires the renunciation of violence towards life,” including violence towards creation and violence towards one’s own life.  The “violent regimentation” of one’s own life and body produces physical and psychological infertility, an inability to grow. The life oriented toward self-mastery, which by nature blocks off “whole sectors of life” must be loosed to allow for the “spontaneity of faith” (p. 173). This requires a greater trust in God than the discipline that breeds deeper mistrust. While this may seem contrary to Wesley’s methods, it is not contrary to Wesley’s intention “to heal soul and body” (p. 173). Wesley understood sin as a sickness that required healing (p. 164). The faithlessness, fear, anger and violence that lie hidden beneath ruthless discipline and regimentation must today be recognized as part of the sickness of sin the soul needs to be healed from. In such, specific actions are not sanctified, but entire lives are sanctified in the presence of the God of life. The word “holy” is again recognized in terms of its semantic origin: to be holy is to be made whole, to have integrity of being and life restored to a fragmented and divided existence, for the brutal violence of self-domination and other-manipulation to be relinquished in the trusting spontaneity of faith and sanctifying affirmation of life (pp. 175-6).

With this said, it might seem an attempt to cast off restraint and discipline, that any related “New Year’s Resolutions” would be about loosing the shackles of a regimented, scheduled existence. Such would be a superficial reading. I still plan on having and keeping a schedule. I have a passion to be a faithful steward of everything God has given me, especially time. However, it is true and essential to maintain there is nothing inherently Christian about discipline and it can be remarkably unchristian when it functions to destroy the goodness of what God loves. My New Years resolutions mostly relate to resisting the freneticism that schedules out the breathing space which enables the heart to live and delight in love. I am also keen to resist the constant encroaching of technology which seeks to mechanize life and dull the affections. God calls us to live a quiet and peaceful life, for in this stillness alone can the heart truly be present to God and there discover the “broad and open space” of love for live within which it can flourish and thrive.

My 2010 New Years Resolutions:

1) to never for any reason tell someone else that I am busy and thus imply that my “busy-ness” is more important than them or is an excuse to treat them poorly (thanks to my undergrad spirituality professor Mike Walters for this gem).

2) to leave my phone on silent and not check or send text messages while in the prayer room or when having a conversation with someone. Both when in prayer and in conversation I want to be fully present to the persons involved and not constantly detaching by frenetic digital communication.

3) to check my e-mail no more than twice a day. This is related to the previous one as far as frenetic digital communication goes. I am not so important that I need to be constantly accessible. I will also not upgrade my cell phone to be able to get email or internet. I’ll sacrifice having “the world at my finger tips” in order to maintain my sanity and quietness of being.

4) to regularly give people my undivided attention when talking with them, to interrupt less, speak less and listen more.

5) to periodically (though not frequently) allow significant relationships to disrupt my schedule.

6) to regularly remind myself that the people “under” me as a leader are not cogs in a wheel but people with precious and vulnerable hearts, abounding with love, hope, hurt, fear and God-inspired dreams.

7) to breathe deeply and be more fully present to God.

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The Scripture does not only command us to do certain activites. We are also commanded to feel certain emotions. Thus an emotion-less obedience is not in fact full obedience. God calls us to follow and obey him with our entire selves – all of our bodily, sensory, emotional, spiritual, and relational existence. This might seem unreasonable, as we all know it is impossible to simply turn our emotions on and off. The Bible does not call us to look like we have emotions, but to actually have them. Such requires more than will-power, but the opening of our hearts to God in a process of thorough-going transformation and restoration. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes the process of Christian transformation aptly:

“When Jesus said ‘be holy,’ He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

While this might seem incredibly overwhelming, it is actually remarkable good news. From this we know that the religion we call Christianity is not simply about behavior modification or straight-jacketing your passions in order to conform to a behavioral norm. Rather, God would say that your passions are too weak, they are too easily satisfied, and Christianity calls you not merely to acquire this or that activity, but to have full liberation of the heart and body to fully flow and function in the manner God intended for humanity in creation. To be fully alive and fully human is at the heart of true Christianity.

The following is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but simply to show some of the extent to which God calls, indeed, commands us not only to do, but to feel.

(1)    Joy—Philippians 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again rejoice!” (also Psalm 100:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:16; Romans 12:8, 12, 15)

(2)    Love from the heart—1 Peter 1:22 – “Love one another deeply, from the heart” (also  Romans 12:10)

(3)    Hope— Psalm 42:5 – “Hope in God…” (also 1 Peter 1:13)

(4)    Fear—Luke 12:5 – “Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.” (also Romans 11:20; 1 Peter 1:17)

(5)    Peace—Colossians 3:15 – “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…”

(6)    Forgiveness from the heart—Matthew 18:35 – “This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” (also Leviticus 19:17-18; Colossians 3:13)

(7)   Zeal—Romans 12:11 – “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

(8)    Grief—Romans 12:15 – “…weep with those who weep [sharing others’ grief]” (also James 4:9)

(9)    Desire—1 Peter 2:2 – “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation.” (also 1 Corinthians 12:31, 14:1)

(10)  Tenderheartedness—Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted…” (also 1 Peter 3:8)

(11)  Brokenness and contrition—Psalm 51:17 – “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (also James 4:9)

(12)  Gratitude— Colossians 2:6-7 – “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him…overflowing with thanksgiving.” (also Ephesians 5:20; Colossians 3:17)

(13)  Contentment—Hebrews 13:5 – “be content with what you have” (also Exodus 20:17)

(14)  Patience—1 Thessalonians 5:14 – “be patient with everyone.” (Also Colossians 3:12)

(15)  Kindness—Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love (love, not just do) kindness.”

(16)  Compassion—Colossians 3:12 – “…clothe yourselves with compassion…”

(17)  Sympathy—1 Peter 3:8 – “Finally, all of you, have…sympathy…”

(18)  Cheerful giving—2 Corinthians 9:7 – “Each one should give…not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

(19)  Courage (do not fear)—Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified.” (also Deuteronomy 31:7, 23; Joshua 1:6- 9, 18; 10:25; 1 Chronicles 22:13; 1 Corinthians 16:13)

(20)  Confidence (do not worry)—Matthew 6:25 – “Do not worry about your life…”

(21)   Awe—Ecclesiastes 5:7 – “Therefore stand in awe of God.”

(22)  Hate – Psalm 97:10 – “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!”; Romans 12:9 – “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (also Amos 5:15)

(23)  Do not hate – Leviticus 19:17-18 – “You shall not hate your brother in your heart…You bear a grudge against anyone of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” (also 1 John 2:9, 11; 3:15)

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The problem with sin is not “because God said so.” Sin is a cancerous force which seeks to destroy all that is good, true and beautiful, leaving the wreckage of alienation and death in the wake of its violence.

In his Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, Jonathan Edwards describes one of the signs of a true work of the Holy Spirit in that it causes people to hate sin. So I decided to set my hand to writing some prayers related to the subject. The starting point for my reflections was Genesis 1, the account of God’s original creation. Here human beings are given their initial and original commission to “rule the earth,” (Gen. 1:28) in other words, to be the agents of God’s gracious and life-giving presence on earth. Further, in chapter 2 (verse 15), the human beings are called to “cultivate and keep (i.e. guard, protect)” the Garden of Eden. Here their task is to foster the life that God intended for his creation, to preserve its integrity, and guard it from all harm.

For me, this is the starting place when thinking about sin. I will occasionally run into people who only think sin is wrong because “God said so,” as if God started from absolutely nothing and arbitrarily came up with a list of “good things” and “bad things” to subject us to. Then sin mostly becomes about abstract accounting systems in heaven – how well I have done at doing the good list and keeping away from the bad list and the respective tally that God is keeping. This obsession with “accounting in heaven” is a haunting specter over some places in American evangelical Christianity. The result is people who are much more concerned over their “status” as a “good girl” or “bad boy” than whether their actions lovingly cause life to flourish or instead cause damage and destruction to people.

It further degenerates to a delusional belief that once you ask God to forgive you for your sin, all things are “just-as-if-you-never-sinned.” This near-heresy is essentially a fundamental denial that our actions have real consequences and that there is even something wrong with sin. It is indeed gloriously true that God can and will forgive us when we ask and seek to amend our lives. But the reason we need forgiveness in the first place is because our actions have consequences – what we do really matters. Sin is not wrong because God said so – it is against nature and inherently destructive. Every sin grates against the purposes of love, life, joy and freedom for which God brought forth his creation. Every sin causes hurt and havoc in the lives of real people on planet earth, which does not magically vanish with an apology. When we sin, we cease to be the agents of God’s life-giving presence and rule on earth and rather operate in collusion with counter-forces which produce death, violence, hatred and alienation. God takes this personally, not primarily because we don’t “do what he says,” but because in his immeasurably vast love for us, he is personally affected when we are hurt by others’ sin, when his desire for love, joy and freedom in life are undermined. He is full of compassion and feels the pain of those who are injured (cf. Ps. 34:18; 145:8-9; Isa. 63:9). It is from this depth of love that God is virulent and assiduous in his opposition to Sin and Evil.

It has become my conviction that I need a more powerful motivation for life than my status as a “good boy” and abstract accounting systems in heaven. God has called us as humans to be the representatives of his gracious rule on earth. He has called us to love the life he created and so foster its growth and protect its integrity. He invites us to understand sin as it really is – not simply something on a “bad list,” but the antithesis and nemesis of everything good, true and beautiful, a cancerous presence which progressively produces increasing death. As our hearts are filled with the love God has for his creation, as we participate in his compassionate longing for the full flowering of life on earth, as we rise into our role as those bearing God’s image and his gracious life-giving rulership, our actions take on new weight and our decisions come into new light. Hating sin is not about being a “good boy or girl.” It is about treasuring the life God has created and loves.

Majestic Lord, you possess within yourself the pinnacle of goodness, truth and beauty, and grant all creatures to share in that same splendor: Enthrall us with this radiance and fill your church with a tenacious distaste for all sin, that as you restore the lost splendor of your creation, by the gracious nurture of your Holy Spirit, we would with great determination disavow every thought, word and deed seeking to perpetuate the bondage of Death and the tyranny of Night, whose sway is already fading in the dawn of your resurrection life, through Jesus the Messiah, your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

O God: the heavens of heavens are yours, but the earth you have given to humanity: grant to your Church an inexhaustible love of life, that hating all which compromises the integrity of your creation and fails to foster that society of love for which you called us into being, we would walk before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, treasuring the good, true and beautiful, stewarding your creation as faithful agents of your royal power, through Jesus the Messiah, Your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in glory everlasting.

Lord God, whose heart overflows with the purest delight: help us see and understand the insidious nature of sin, which in the end only steals, kills and destroys, that, hating all which destroys life, and loving that which restores, we might find holiness to be the very fountain of joy, welling up to eternal life, through Jesus the Messiah your Son, our Lord…

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I’m unsure if you’ll believe me, but I am not preparing to launch into a discussion on bodily processes, but rather, New Testament Greek and the New Testament concept of love. I have often heard sincere Christian people define love as something like “acting to promote the well-being of others.” I can understand, both the perspective that would see this definition as initially odd, as well as those who would affirm it in reaction to sentimentalized or exclusively eroticized understandings of love. However, I would contend it is impossible to define love as “acting to promote the well-being of others.” This may be something we include in our understanding of love, or indeed make part of the core – but this in itself cannot occupy the place of primacy. As an illustration, the person working at a restaurant who washes their hands prior to preparing your food is certainly “acting to promote your well-being,” but one would be hard pressed to further assert that they were “loving” you. Like illustrations could be multiplied ad nauseum, demonstrating there must be something more fundamental to love than “beneficial action” that in fact constitutes it as love.

I think the one of the clearest Biblical portrayals of such is in 1 John 3:17. The NRSV for this verse reads:

How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

The NASB is a little closer when it says:

But  whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him,  how does the love of God abide in him?

The TNIV is closer still (though in a less literal fashion):

If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you?

The underlined phrase in each verse is literally the expression “closes their bowels from them” (kleisē ta splanxna autou ap autou). The Greek work splanxnon means “intestines” and is the seat of the passions and strong emotions.[1] Here John brings together what cannot be separated – action to alleviate the suffering and needs of others, which is motivated by a deep-felt concern. One apart from the other is not love. John is adamant – if one shut’s their bowels from another, if they fail to have deep and powerful feelings that motivate acts of service and kindness, “how does the love of God remain in them?” Failure to have compassion is a failure of love that cannot be compensated even with action. Obviously, this is challenging, for we know it is impossible to turn on powerful emotions at will. However, let us not create a “theology of barrenness,” which seeks to justify our condition and surely falls short of God’s own nature and his expressed intentions for us. Does God act for us in a beneficial but detached manner? Is this the highest modality we could envisage for humanity? Rather, let us seek to know the Love of God. We love because he first loved us. Let us open our hearts rather than close them. Let us devote ourselves to consider, meditate on and receive the Love of God, and that as it remains in us, find ourselves transformed as people who love others from the depths of our affections.

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Jesus is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals. Jesus is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. What is the relationship between these two ascriptions of worthiness? Why precisely is Jesus worthy? In Revelation 4 and 5 we see a dramatic scene of the heavenly temple in which God’s limitless beauty is being lauded with unceasing adoration.

Chapter 5 centers around a scroll sealed with seven seals. What is the scroll? What are its written content? In light of the observations that:

1) The scroll is not actually open until all the seals are broken

2) The seals sequentially release the judgments described in the following chapters

3) The seventh seal seems to contain within itself the seven trumpets

4) The seventh trumpet seems to contain within itself the seven bowls

Therefore, it appears that the scroll is not open until all the judgments in the Revelation 6-18 are completed. Thus, the content of the scroll itself cannot be about the judgments in chs. 6-18, but rather has to do with the restoration and renewal of the earth described in Revelation 20-22. The scroll is God’s plan to fully redeem and restore his creation.

The question at hand in Revelation 5 is “who is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals?” Someone who is “worthy” is needed to execute and oversee the removal of the seals, i.e,  the judgments that will remove all wickedness from the earth. Someone with a unique expertise is needed and strangely enough, God himself, the one seated on the throne, does not seem to be able to do it. What we learn as the passage proceeds is that the Lamb (meaning Jesus) is worthy and his unique qualification is he was slain. This entails at least three aspects:

1) The crucifixion – Jesus entered into the experience of human pain and felt first hand the plight of our god-forsaken fallen existence (Mk. 15:34). He knows and understands the human condition and the human frame. He truly and fully is sympathetic towards us in every way because he became like us in every way (Heb. 2:17; 4:15). He can be trusted to administrate the cleansing of the earth in ways that are neither arbitrary nor insensitive.

2) The resurrection – this aspect is often missed – but how is a Lamb that was slain standing? Dead animals don’t stand up – only living ones do. Furthermore, you don’t talk to or praise dead beings – only living ones. Therefore, since the Lamb is standing and he is being praised, the implication is that he is alive and has been raised from the dead, as confessed elsewhere in the NT and previous in this book (Rev. 1:18). This is additionally asserted by saying the “Lamb has overcome” – i.e., overcome Sin and Death. As the Messiah, has fought the decisive battle and overcome the enemies of humanity. He is qualified to execute the judgments and unfold the plan of God’s redemption because he is the Lord of Life, the steward of the earth’s true restoration as the one who has already partaken of its resurrection life.

3) The restoration of humanity – He was slain in order to “redeem for God” people from all nations in order to be “a kingdom of priests” who will “reign on the earth.” Biblically speaking, “redeem” refers to the Exodus, where God “redeemed his people with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” (cf. Ex. 6:6, 15:13; Deut. 7:8; 9:26; 13:5; 15:15; 21:8; 24:18; 1 Chr. 17:21; Neh. 1:10; Isa. 51:10; 63:9). Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has enacted the great “New Exodus” from the pharaoh of history – Death itself. This redemption however, was not to wisp us off to heaven, but so we might “reign on earth,” in restoration of God’s original intent for humans to rule the earth (Gen. 1:27ff). As Jesus administrates the judgments in Revelation 6-18, we know that He is the one who is redeeming and restoring humanity’s creational purpose, rather than destroying it.

With that as an introduction, my observation from the Greek text is the ascription that Jesus is worthy to take the scroll (5:9) and that he is worthy to receive glory and honor, etc. (5:12) are in parallel. Both use exactly the same word in the exact same form, labein, which can mean either to take or receive.  Jesus is worthy to take (labein) the scroll and he is worthy to receive (labein) the praise. This observation could mean a lot of things, but it at least means that we are intended to understand that the taking of the scroll, the execution of the judgments and the restoration of the earth has an explicit connection to his receiving all of the praise and glory.

I occasionally hear expressions like “I praise Jesus because he is worthy,” or the like. I understand and appreciate the sentiment, but the Bible itself does not stop there. The reason we worship Jesus is not simply “he is worthy,” end of sentence. The Bible tells us why he is worthy and hence gives a substantive reason for our praise. We should take care lest “I’m praising him because he is worthy” subtly becomes “I’m praising him for no reason I’m aware of or can articulate.” The ensuing result would undoubtedly be an increasingly lifeless and insipid worship maintained only by sheer mechanical force of will. The very power and impetus behind our worship is the blazing revelation of what God in and through Messiah has accomplished by his death, resurrection and inaugural restoration of the human race, as well as the full renewal of the earth he will accomplish when the events of the Book of Revelation fully unfold. Praise is not a duty, but the spontaneous eruption of our hearts when we encounter what we love and delight in, when we are overwhelmed with gratitude and awe. As we become enthralled with the substantive reasons of Jesus’ worthiness, namely his mighty acts of redemption and love exemplified in the cross, resurrection, restoration of creation, and even the eschatological judgments, worship will be an instinctual reflex – an unfettered and unforced surge of affection and adulation to the one we truly know to be worthy.

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For some time I’ve been pondering the notion that we become like what we worship. With reference to God, we become more like God as we worship him with an adoring gaze. With reference to sin, we become increasingly consumed with and characterized by that which we worship (whether it be money, sex, power, etc.). Recognizing this as a biblical principle (2 Cor. 3:18, amongst others), I’ve wondered how exactly it works. I’ve come up with a theory, not attempting to fully explain the concept, but perhaps to give one reason why worship has a transformative effect.

My theory is that worship significantly entails a reorientation of value. Worship comes from the Old English word weorthscipe (i.e. worth-ship). Worship is the recognition of the “worth” or “value” of someone or something. When I worship God, I am recognizing the worth and value of the concrete dimensions of who God is to the concrete aspects of my life. When I worship God for being loving, it is because I recognize the value of his love meeting me in my alienation and isolation. When I worship God for raising Jesus from the dead it is because I recognize the value of the hope he gives to the disjointed and desperate particulars of my existence.

When I say “recognize the value,” I primarily mean an affective and intuitive recognition rather than a cognitive or analytical recognition. Obviously they are not mutually exclusive. Obviously I very much prize the functions of cognition and analysis to our personal and indeed our spiritual lives. However, if the affective and intuitive faculties are rarely or never engaged, I would question whether the concrete dimensions of God’s self are in fact touching the concrete particulars of one’s life. I base this on the observation that when peoples’ personal lives get messed with, they get emotional, whether it is someone getting sad at the death of a loved one, frustrated at their own failure or furious when someone takes their stuff or challenges their authority.

Over time, my affective experience of what is valuable in worship reorients my sense of value in all areas of life. If in worshipping money (either through fantasy or anxiously-driven financial development), I repeatedly reinforce the value that money has for me in affording feelings of power, success, security, etc. Especially, but not only because such feelings and their cause (fantasy or actuality) are so uncertain in a world characterized by unceasing flux, my life becomes increasingly oriented around maintaining that value. This includes viewing people and circumstances increasingly through the lens of financial prospects.

If in worshipping God, I perceive him as the creator God, who formed and fashioned all that is in love, and who in spite of my disobedience, did not abandon me to the power of death, but became human, compassionately identifying with the fullness of the human condition, gave himself up to death, and rising from the grave, destroyed death, making the whole creation new — I begin to affectively understand the value of love, compassion, forgiveness, self-giving and self-sacrifice. The people and circumstances in my life look and feel different as these values are being reinforced in my life, values that are radically different than those cultivated in obsessions with money, sex and power.

Understanding (at least some of) the transformative power of worship in value-reorientation, it is thus imperative that our worship bear both specific and accurate content concerning who God is. Faulty and defective notions of “god” derived from inadequate interpretation of Scripture reinforce values and a world view that are different than those that would be imparted in the worship of the true God. If one explicitly or implicitly worships a “god” who is mean, vindictive, harsh and impatient, good luck cultivating compassion and tenderness.

“Generic” and content-less worship (i.e., endless repetition of “praise slogans,” like “we worship you,” “we bless you,” “we praise you,” “we give you glory,” etc.) would seem to be lacking this transformative effect unless the content was significantly supplied elsewhere and lies implicit behind such words. It is of consequence to note that the biblical records of worship (most notably in the Psalms and other canticles) are not of this “generic” type. In fact, there seems to be so much content in the Psalms, both about God and his activity in history, as well as the concrete situations of the worshippers, that they are too lengthy and unwieldy for most Christians to regularly use in their private and corporate worship. This is most unfortunate, because the psalms and canticles of Scripture are precisely the kind of place where the concrete dimensions of God’s self can meet the concrete particulars of the worshipping-self in a manner which would cultivate and ultimately yield the kind of value reorientation that I described above.

I’d be interested in comments, critiques, etc. on this theory, or alternate/complementary theories.

Also, if I accomplish anything by this post, let it be an encouragement to make singing/praying the Psalms a significant part of your daily devotional life.

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Narcissim: Denial of the True Self is a fascinating book by Alexander Lowen, a leading psychoanalyst discussing the problem of narcissism. Though commonly thought of as simply the dilemma of an over-inflated ego in which one loves themselves excessively, Lowen contends that narcissism is rooted in emotional numbness. The narcissist does not love themselves excessively, they can hardly love, if at all. This emotional numbness is a defense against overwhelming experiences in life that if expressed appropriately would seem that one is going crazy. When our experiences do not correspond to how we perceive reality we feel disoriented and eventually like we are going crazy. One way of coping with overwhelming experiences is to deaden the body and sedate all emotion.

Over this lack of feeling, the narcissist constructs an image to present to the world. This image is not in accordance with the individual’s true self, which is mired in unexpressed sadness and anger. Since the sense of self is not rooted in the actual self, it is remarkably unstable and is constantly needing the praise and affirmation of others, hence the commonly perceived symptoms of narcissism related to the over-inflated ego. This image projection however, does not show one who loves themselves too much, but one who in fact has rejected their true self in favor of an image that is sane, collected, sophisticated, appreciated and affirmed. Narcissism lies not in self-love or self-acceptance, but rather in self-rejection.

One of the most insightful sections of the book was the final chapter in which Lowen critiques modern culture in a chapter he calls “the insanity of our time.” He claims that many fear expressing their emotions lest they seem, become or go insane. If insanity can be defined as not being in touch with reality, there is little more insane than not being in touch with one’s own emotions. To be emotionally numb is to not be fully alive. It is actually a form of insanity.

This applies not only individually but also culturally. Our culture as a whole is entirely over-stimulated. Whether it be television, radio, stereo, i-pod, billboards, etc. the stream of images and sounds is incessant. Add to that the hurried pace of our lives and the insanity is building. Since it is truly impossible to respond to all of these images and sounds, the only way to deal with such over-stimulation is to deaden one’s feelings. When that happens, we need further, stronger stimulation to feel anything at all. So we make the volume louder, beat the drums harder, play the music faster, flash the images more quickly, speak only in sound-bites, keep the activities rolling, etc. Is it any wonder why so many people are incredibly bored yet inundated with more entertainment than ever in history? Is it thus any wonder why our society compulsively throws itself into a boundary-less sexual expression as if one more orgasm can jolt one out of emotional numbness? Is it any wonder why even in the church, studies show that a majority of men are involved with pornography in a desperate attempt to feel something?

The church plays the game little differently than the rest of society. “People can’t listen very long, give them sound-bites,” they say. The music is getting increasingly louder, stronger, harder and faster. The pace is getting more and more frenetic. But this time, it is not just the ideal of societal advancement, God is behind it. It is no different in the seeker sensitive movement, where everything has to move quickly to keep people’s interest, or in the prophetic movement, where everything has to be so intense to maintain people’s passion. There is less and less time and ability to feel, be still, to read books, enjoy art or relate to another person non-pragmatically, much less to have deep prayer.

One of the most misused writers in the Christian tradition is John of the Cross. His fateful phrase “Dark Night of the Soul” is often applied haphazardly to whenever the pace slows down enough and stimulation decreases so that the “sense of the presence of God” has vanished from an individuals’ experience. Somehow the intensity must be ramped up, the pace quickened, the images made more vivid so that feeling can return. Over-stimulation is never the way for feeling to return. John speaks of the spiritual journey not as merely an increase of intensity, but an increase in sensitivity. When the sensitivity increases, the intensity will likewise increase automatically. The period of dryness that John speaks of is when feelings so subtle and so profound begin to graciously infuse the soul and one cannot even feel them. If one was in such a state and was to play the modern over-stimulation game, nothing at all would be gained. One’s sensitivity would actually continue to decrease and greater stimuli would increasingly be required for one to feel anything at all. Take hearing for example. If one wanted to hear something clearly, they could turn up the volume. Yet the more one turns up the volume, at a point, hearing will begin to be lost. When this happens the intensity has to be increased to replicate the same level of experience previously. Though the analogy breaks down here (as there is no way to reverse hearing damage), if one’s sensitivity were to increase, one could have the same level of experience even at a lesser intensity, and the same level of intensity as before would produce a greater level of experience.

Remarkably, those who have written on “deep prayer” throughout the centuries of church history, traditionally called “mystics”, generally describe this prayer as not having increasing activity and freneticism, but increasing stillness. It is often called the “prayer of quiet.” At this point “discursive prayer” ceases and one moves into sheer enjoyment of pleasures so very subtle and sublime. It is not our activity or words that matter here but simply the gentle current of love flowing from the deep within us. Jesus said in John 7:38 that whoever believes in him, that out of the deepest place within, rivers of life would begin to flow. These are pleasures more subtle but more superior than anything else in existence. However, their sublimity often evades us in the modern sea of stimulation. Let us forsake the insanity that fosters the deadness of our bodies and emotions. Let us again grow comfortable with stillness, quietness, silence and sublimity. Let us dare to believe that John of the Cross and Jesus were right. Let us not pursue stimulation, but increasing sensitivity; not mere doing, but rather resting in being; not simply operating by logic, but living and breathing, by giving and receiving unfailing love.

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