Christmas in Matthew and Luke

For anyone interested, click here to read a great article by Mark D. Roberts on the historical nature of the Christmas story and the relationship between the two accounts in Matthew and Luke.

A Future Letter From An American University President

December 1, 2061

To: Board of Trustees
From: John T. Olerance, President, All American University
Re: Quelling of radical groups and hate speech on campus

I want to inform the board of trustees of my awareness of the recent incidents of hate speech on our campus, and of the activities of the radical cell groups which I hold responsible. As you know, a decade ago the university passed an absolute ban on any campus organizations that promote such incendiary ideas. Through the federal anti hate speech legislation and church regulatory laws passed over thirty years ago (and the mass arrests of priests and pastors that followed) our society as a whole has been liberated from these types of suppressive and hateful sentiments. However, there are some clandestine remnants who are strategically targeting college campuses around the country. They realize, of course, that the university is often the rudder that steers the moral and intellectual ship of society, and they seek to gain influence there as the fastest means of returning to the type of degrading tyranny that was imposed on so much of the world for so many centuries before our own.

In fact, while looking through some news archives from universities around the country, I recently came across a fifty-year-old article from The Pennsylvania State University that shows the extent of the strangle hold this backward sect once had on the mindset of the majority of Americans. The article described a huge scandal resulting in the firing of the university president along with other top officials, all because one of the school’s football coaches was found to be authentically living out his trans-generational orientation. I want you to know that I am as appalled as you are to know that the moral sensibilities of our culture were so twisted by this ancient superstition that good American people were deprived of the right to live out their natural-born orientations. This is a crime which I hope never to see repeated!

With all this in mind, I want to assure you that broad minded acceptance of all viewpoints, lifestyles, and beliefs is one of the foundational principles of this university, and as its president, I will work diligently to see that this is upheld. Through some well-placed informants, I am becoming increasingly aware of the time and locations of the secret meetings of these Christian groups. All it will take is one piece of evidence proving they have held an unapproved religious gathering, and everyone involved will be in violation of federal law, and thus eliminated as a threat to the tolerance and progress of our university.

Thoughts on Penn State

Today I suggested a parallel between Esau's forfeiting his birthright for a meal (Genesis 25) with the officials at Penn State who forfeited justice for abused children to keep their jobs and maintain the school's reputation.

What are your thoughts on this issue? What are some important aspects of this that haven't been brought up in all the news stories?

MM

Black and White and Gray

Today I made the point that, in light of Hebrews 5:14, the more spiritually mature a person is, the more clearly he or she is able to discern the difference between good and evil.

What are some examples of moral issues where the right and wrong side should be clear to Christians, but often is not? And what's an example of an issue which many Christians treat as if it's cut and dry, when it actually is not?

MM

The Clash of Hope and History

Most of us are incorrigible optimists. And I don’t just mean the happy, bubbly people who could see the bright side of a sewer trench. Most of us, no matter our temperament, have a sense that the world will ultimately be good. We may not have all our future plans clearly mapped out, and we may be in the midst of struggles right now, but the majority of us have an inarticulate but definite sense that in the future the world is somehow going to be made right. In a word, we hope.

But hope is a curious thing in this world so filled with seemingly hopeless tragedies. We suffer directly as we or our family members grapple with pain and terminal disease. We witness the immense suffering of others in seeing Tsunamis wiping out entire cities and house fires taking the lives of children. And yet we still hold on to the belief that everything will be all right? But even if we could make every city natural-disaster proof, every house fireproof, and every disease curable, we would still eventually grow feeble and die, and that doesn’t meet anyone’s definition of all right. So where does hope come from?

It’s as if we live amidst the constant clash of two worlds: The world of hopeful desire on the inside of us, and the world of hopeless facts on the outside. The question is, which of these two worlds is the real world? Thoroughly cynical people (who, interestingly, usually still try to live as if there’s a future to hope for) accuse Christians of being childish and willfully ignorant. They say we live in a dream--that there’s no real difference between our belief in Heaven and a child’s belief in the Easter Bunny. Each of these beliefs, they say, is just a castle built in the air, with no objective facts to ground it. We’re said to be “escapists” who retreat to our inner fantasies about God and Heaven because we don’t have the good sense and fortitude to face the world as it truly is.

And it’s at just this point that confetti explodes over us Christians. The resurrection of Jesus was precisely the moment when the world of hope entered into the world of history: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

At Easter, and all through the year, we want to proclaim to all the stiff-lipped “sensible” people who base everything they believe on the hard facts of history, that Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead is indeed one of those hard facts! It really happened, and because it really happened “...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

In the words of, John Mark Mcmillan, “Jesus laid Death in his grave” and in so doing, He broke hopelessness and gave us the hope that does not disappoint.