on waiting for the day of the Lord

““For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act,” says the LORD of hosts. “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.””
—Malachi 4:1-6

When was the last time you heard someone’s parting words before a long wait? Maybe it was when you were little, maybe something like Mom and dad will be out tonight, so listen to your sister and eat your dinner and do your homework. Or maybe something less boring, like in the second Lord of the Rings movie when Gandalf tells his friends, Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, before riding away on a white stallion, leaving his friends to fight ten thousand monster men.

Continue reading →

04/01/2024 0

on Jesus’s kingship and its complications

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”
Matthew 4:1-11

We like our ideas to be simple, don’t we? Black and white is easier than shades of grey. We like the news to be about good guys vs bad guys, not bad guys vs worse guys. We like our Instagram Stories to be mostly pictures, not text. And then there’s that design principle called KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid.

But the problem is most things aren’t actually simple. People aren’t simple. And sometimes packaging complicated things to look simple is not truthful or helpful. Christians often like to do this — the Bible is all about this, or being a Christian means doing that. We like to talk about a Jesus who’s nice and cuddly, always ready to forgive, a nice teacher, meek and mild, basically Santa Claus but skinny and not just available during Christmas.

Continue reading →

01/10/2024 0

on the preciousness of the Church

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”
—1 Corinthians 3:16-23

When I say the word church, I think I’ll get many different responses from you. For some of you, it might stir up memories of Sunday School and having a nice time with your friends; for some church might be a necessary but tiring burden every Sunday morning; for others it might be something negative, something that has caused a lot of pain in the past, and even today; and for others maybe at least it’ll make you think of the Renaissance and Martin Luther.

One Indian philosopher called Bara Dada was not so enthusiastic about the Church; he said “Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but Christians are not like him.” Most people would probably agree that there are a lot of serious problems with the Church, this community of Christians, these people who say they follow Jesus but often do the exact opposite of what Jesus did.

Continue reading →

12/27/2023 0

on preaching to the choir

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.””
Romans 4:1-8

There’s an old-fashioned phrase called preaching to the choir. It means you’re saying something that your audience already knows, and already agrees with. Generally when you’re preaching to the choir you’re just kind of wasting your time, since you’re not saying anything new, or changing anyone’s mind.

In this passage Paul is kind of preaching to the choir: he’s addressing Christians living in Rome, explaining to them what it means to be God’s people. But here’s where things get complicated: among those Christians are Jewish believers who think Paul is preaching to the choir, they think they know it all already. But in today’s passage Paul — who is Jewish himself — is trying to show them that they actually don’t know what it means to be God’s people, to be acceptable to God; Paul is trying to show them what that really means.

Continue reading →

09/28/2023 0

byzantine or roman? (vid)

Should we call them Byzantines or Romans? (video version of this post)

08/06/2022 0

speed drawing — Roman cavalryman

A time lapse illustration of a Roman auxiliary cavalryman, from the early 2nd century AD.

04/16/2022 0

speed drawing — After Rome

A time lapse illustration of infantrymen from several different parts of the empire after the end of the Western Roman Empire.

03/17/2022 0

How much can we blame barbarisation of the Roman army in leading to the end of the western empire in AD476?

Introduction

The ‘barbarisation’ of the Roman army has become a popular explanation for the end of the Roman Empire. While the empire possessed a strong army of professional Roman soldiers, it could not fail; therefore its end in AD476 was the result, directly or indirectly, of the failure of the army. And since by the fifth century AD the army had come to incorporate many non-Romans into its ranks, logic follows that this ‘de-romanisation’ of the army – the deterioration of Roman military discipline, the end of the legions of the Principate – made the army ineffective and weak.¹

Continue reading →

03/05/2022 0

byzantine or roman?

Byzantine or Roman?

I recognise that there are lots of reasons for calling them Romans — possibly I’d even say that’s the label that on balance makes a bit more sense. But I still lean toward calling them Byzantines.

Continue reading →

11/08/2021 1