Elected to Chill with Jesus?

Been thinking a lot about the idea of election - I mean how could I not with all that has transpired over the last month, right?! What is more, I am teaching a Christian Theology class these days, and the topic of election is a hot button - everyone wants to know, am I the elect? Yes I have a doctorate in theology, but I hate to burst every one's bubble, I do not know who is predestined for heaven...Well I take that back, my theology says that I do know who the elect is...it is Jesus!

Those who are in Christ are the elect. That is what Paul writes in Ephesians - "Just as He chose us in Him" (Eph 1.4). Seems fairly straight forward, be let's be real, the idea of election is somewhat easy to understand with politics but with regards to faith - well that can be a different story...

Does our Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) invite all of us to dine at the blessed feast of the saints? Are we all elected to eat at the table with the Savior? Does Matthew 24 point to the reality that all of humanity are the intended beneficiaries of the death of Christ in the same way? 

And then, in my very Farlow way, I push the envelope even further...Am I good enough to chill with Jesus? Would He consider me His homeboy? I have to believe that a lot of good people have died and will die who did not know Jesus Christ as their Savior - so what of them? 

So what is the skinny on this whole issue? Tell us Dr Farlow, what is the real issue of election? Okay, (and I tell you this in strictest confidence - don't let my students know what I am about to tell you!) I do not believe the concept of election has to be an issue. The cross is the place where God says yes to all of humanity. Because of the redemptive - the salvific - performance of Christ, humanity is chosen - we are all elected for salvation. The question is, will we accept such a gift? As the Bible purports, from eternity, God decided to acquit humanity at great cost to Himself (Romans 5.8).

The drama of salvation is the drama of God's own life, made real in revelation. This is a genuine drama with harrowing crises and pivotal turning points - a drama whose outcome makes a real difference in God's being God. Grace is eternally real in the life of God and it is being played out on the world's stage in a way that allows for all to realize we are the elect. The question of election really rests in your answer to Jesus' question, "who do you say I am?" (Matt. 16.15)

So who do you say Jesus is? 

Living out our thanksgiving word

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

 - Romans 8.16-17   

Thanksgiving: a day in America when many will sit down with friends and family and embark on a crazy food journey! Before diving into the turkey, stuffing, cranberries and the like, might we first search the depths of our hearts so as to remember the dramatic intervention taken on our behalf? Years ago the Godhead chose to shower its lavish love through creating - that is in Their creation of the human.  For through creation, the glory of God was set forth through the unimaginable grips of eternal love.  As it is said in Genesis: 

In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the waters.  And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said Let there be light, and there was light… Then God said, "Let Us make them in Our image, according to Our likeness;" (1.1-3,26)

What is crazy is that the outpouring of love did not end with creation. Some 2000 years ago we were given the ultimate performance of love through the suffering and death of Jesus. 

God lived out His love and for this we have a plethora to be thankful for. So what then is the meaning and foundation of thankfulness? In attempting to answer such a question we should seek to look further than the beautiful landscape we inhabit and truly grasp the underlining meaning of gratitude and thanksgiving.  For it is written that with the death of Christ, we were given the key to enter into God’s heavenly paradise.  We have been made heirs to the eternal riches of Christ through our relationship with Him - an inheritance that we are called to live out here and now - to live out the hope of tomorrow, today.   

I am thankful that the God loves us so insanely that He did not simply seek to create and then walk away. Nope. He created and loved so insanely that He chose to give His life away for us so that today every single one of us can celebrate the breath we just took in, we can celebrate the look of beauty in the eyes of the other, can give thanks for being the "beloved" of God. So instead of simply giving thanks, let us begin here and now to live out our thanksgiving word by loving and serving the "other!"

Lunatic Fringe

Quickly becoming a Farlow favorite is the Greek word hupernikao. And by favorite in farlow world means it is moving ever so closely to becoming a tattoo! Well truthfully, this word has been a favorite for some time now, but just recently we have truly begun to step into its meaning and live it out.

Hupernikao - Greek for "more than conquerors" Paul uses it in Romans 8.37. It introduces three verses that I find to be some of the most passionate, exciting and life giving verses - verses that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, verses that make my blood rage, verses that get me dancing and shouting AMEN brother preach it! Verses that expose the drama unfolding before each of us - GOD - Father Son and Holy Spirit - loves us so insanely that nothing - yes, nothing - can separate us from Him.  Just makes me tingly all over! 

Now let me be honest, I wish I could say I do not have any doubts nor can I say that I have this relentless faith that never wavers, but even in writing this, I am reminded that the faith I speak about, the faith I have is rooted not in my being, but (thankfully) the being of Jesus Christ. We can only be hupernikao through the crazy insane love of Jesus; a love that is beyond anything we could ever imagine.  It is a love I want so badly to live within but honestly, so often I am afraid to live it out.  I wrestle in my flesh because my bones burn to be a lunatic for the One who the worlds sees as a raving lunatic.  I want to stand upon the edge of sanity and shout out "here am I—a faithful and obedient servant of Christ—nothing can separate me from the love source that glistens upon my soul while drenching my heart with a love so insane!"

           

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes that we (the Church) are called to be "ministers of reconciliation." Why not let this be the truth of today? Don't let Satan fool you, our human response to what God has done on our behalf can and will change the world! God so desires us to participate in His reconciliatory performance. The God who is for us and with us in Jesus Christ wants us, by the Spirit's power and presence, to be for and with one another. 

And so I stop—I look all around me and ponder, do I, do we, even understand what it means to live for Christ? Am I willing to be persecuted, even put to death for my faith? What if today I started to live out the hope of tomorrow? What if we (the Church) lived out the hope of heaven (the not yet) in the midst of the reality of earth here and now? What if we stepped to the edge of the lunatic fringe and jumped into the insane love of Jesus?! 

Lunatic Fringe - we all know you're out there 

Can you feel the resistance? 

Can you feel the thunder?

Becoming the action

Christ is the living framework within which every human destiny is acted out; every human destiny is judged by his perfection and saved by his redeeming meaning. By grace each of our roles on stage can be recognized as a dramatic action within the dramatic action of Christ, in which case the actor becomes ―fellow actor, a ―fellow worker with God (1 Cor. 3:15). Jesus came to give life and through His incarnational performance we are granted the freedom to live out His crazy insane love.

Our freedom in Christ is the allowance or rather, the promotion of performance. The performance within the divine drama results from the intimate interaction of faith and action.  Thus, furthering the dramatic reality of the Theo-Drama, we can look at Luke 10.25-37 whereby the fullness of the dramatic content of the Bible is once again found.  The intention of Jesus is made explicit through His command for His followers to "Go and do likewise."  It is not (as Jesus illumines) through the simple reading or hearing of the Biblical words that the inheritance of eternal life is realised, but through such words becoming action.[1]  For the teacher is answered by Jesus from this Biblical inheritance, but Jesus goes on to the command requiring active living.

Jesus did not simply speak of hearing the message ei=pen de. auvtw/| o` VIhsou/j\ poreu,ou kai. su. poi,ei o`moi,wjÅ (Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ – Lk 10.37).  Jesus insisted –the verbs here are in the imperative (poreu,ou and poi,ei)—that His followers go and do likewise, thereby drawing upon the intimacy of one’s faith and their actions.  That their response to His words was and is manifested in performance – o[ti qe,atron evgenh,qhmen tw/| ko,smw| (spectacle unto the world – 1 Cor 4.9) is the message and expectation of the Christian faith. So the question for each of us today remains, how are we becoming the action?

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[1] The words becoming action is brought about through the fulfillment and movement of the narrative becoming the drama. Theology is dramatic (not simply narrative) and calls for the participants on the world's stage to step into the Biblical drama as it is revealed in and through the Scriptures.

Faith Seeking Understanding

What is this blog all about? The idea behind my blog is to provide an opportunity to grow in our faith seeking understanding. The truth is, we all have questions about faith, about theology, about life, and the hope for this blog is to provide an arena for us to dialogue about any and all of these, and more so that we might all come to understand our role in God's drama as it plays out on the world's stage.

Each post will offer stimulating and imaginative thoughts that seek to arose our mind's eyes so as to elicit dialogue. Visit the blog each day (and multiple times even) and bring your questions, comments and heart's thoughts as we embark on finding our role in God's drama!