This week, I begin a new blog series on the work of theologian Walter Wink1935-2012). Wink is best known for his “Powers trilogy: Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament (1984), Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces that Determine Human Existence (1992), and Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (1982). [1]Wink attempted to bring his insights to a broader audience in a series of smaller works.

The Basic Thesis

Naming the Powers introduces this basic thesis: The language of “Principalities and Powers” in the New Testament refers to the inner pole of human social dynamics—institutions, belief systems, traditions, and the like. Presidents, legislatures, judicial systems, and the like are the outer dynamics that political science and other disciplines study. These institutions, actors, and “manifestations” possess an inner and an outer aspect. Thus, Wink states:

Every Power tends to have a visible pole, an outer form—be it a church, a nation, an economy—and an invisible pole, an inner spirit or driving force that animates, legitimates, and regulates its physical manifestation in the world. Neither pole is the cause of the other. Both come into existence together and cease to exist together.[2]

The outer dimensions of the powers and principalities cannot dominate our understanding, or we will inevitably misunderstand them. Science can study the outer dimensions of powers, but religion can examine the inner and spiritual dimensions and gain profitable insights.

What are The Powers?

In Naming the Powers, Wink conducts a deep biblical, grammatical, historical, and theological examination of the powers and principalities, which forms the basis of his deeper study and conclusions. When I first read Wink more than thirty years ago, I did not fully appreciate the necessity and importance of this first step. Relying on biblical and other sources, Wink details the basic words used to describe powers and principalities in the New Testament. The following is a brief personal summary:

• Angelos: In the New Testament, Aggelos primarily refers to a supernatural being sent by God to deliver messages, execute His will, or provide guidance and protection to humans. Angels are powerful, holy beings who carry out God’s commands and assist His people. However, the term can also refer to human messengers in specific contexts. It emphasizes the role of the messenger rather than the nature of the being.
• Angels of the Nations: In Middle Eastern thought, nations are assigned angels. For example, Michael, the only angel mentioned on my list, protects God’s people.
• Arche: beginning, origin, first; ruler, power, authority; position of authority, domain. This is usually a more abstract and general term than Archon, a specific ruler.
• Archon: An Archon is a “ruler,” often referring to a specific human public office title. Arthur is an Archon, and a grand archon is a prince. It can also mean someone who holds a form of status or power.
• Dunamis: Dunamis refers to power, strength, or ability. It is often used to describe God’s miraculous power available to believers.
• Exousia: Exousia (“from being”) is often translated as authority or power. It mainly refers to legal, moral, or spiritual influence and jurisdiction or dominion over a specific realm, right, privilege, or ability.
• Kyriotes: Kyriotes derives from Kurios or Lord. It refers to human, divine, or angelic lordship, domination, and dignity, sometimes concerning a celestial hierarchy.
• Arch-Angel Michael. Michael, or “Holy Michael, the Archangel” or “Saint Michael.” the first role is the leader of the Army of God and heaven’s forces in their triumph over the powers of hell. He is viewed as the angelic model for the virtues of the “spiritual warrior,” his conflict with evil is taken as “the battle within,” which is why he is included in preparation for this novel. Michael would be Arthur’s natural angelic protector. The second and third roles of Michael in Catholic teachings deal with death. In his second role, he is the angel of death, responsible for carrying Christians to heaven. In his third role, he weighs souls on his perfectly balanced scales. For this reason, he is often depicted holding scales.
• Onoma: Onoma means “name.” In Greek, it can refer to a person or place or signify authority, character, reputation, or identity. It is often used to express the essence or nature of a person, especially about God or Jesus Christ. The term can also imply the power or authority associated with a name, as seen in phrases like “in the name of Jesus. As a term of power, it means that the name mentioned embodies a power or authority that the speaker claims as their own under the circumstances.
• Thronos: A throne is a chair of the state with a footstool from which a ruler exercises power. The New Testament “Chronos” metaphorically refers to those with governing powers, including God and Christ. However, it can also be used abstractly to refer to an actual ruler’s power of judgment and action.

As these examples show, the inner or spiritual Powers are not separate heavenly or ethereal realities but rather the inner aspects of material or tangible manifestations of power in relation to nature—as well, we may note, in relation to prisons, the police, racial and sexual violence, debates over gun control, militarism and the ‘War on Terror.’ As Wink writes in Naming the Powers:

I will argue that the “principalities and powers” are the inner and outer aspects of any given manifestation of power. As the inner aspect, they are the spirituality of institutions, the “within” of corporate structures and systems, and the inner essence of outer organizations of power. As the outer aspect, they are political systems, appointed officials, the “chair of an organization, laws—in short, all the tangible manifestations which power takes. Every power tends to have a visible pole, an outer form, be it at a church, a nation, or an economy—and an invisible pole, the inner spirit or driving force that animates, legitimates, and regulates the physical manifestations in the world. Neither pole is the cause of the other. Both come into existence together and cease to exist together. [3]

In Wink’s view, the biblical worldview allowed its writers to comprehend the spiritual nature of human structures. The language of demons, spirits, principalities, and other such entities helped these writers recognize that social life has both seen and unseen elements and that both need to be considered to understand the dynamics that shape our lives.

Process Roots

As I explained in other writings, the biblical worldview has been supplanted in the minds of many people who struggle to grasp spiritual realities. One way of reincorporating the ability to grasp spiritual realities and yet continue to appreciate the advancements of modern science is to embrace a new way of looking at reality. One option, an option that Wink takes, is to incorporate the insights of what professionals call “Process Theology.”

This is not the place to examine process thought. Moreover, it is unnecessary to adopt all of its implications to appreciate Wink’s point. It’s enough to point out that Alfred North Whitehead and the process thinkers are trying to create a philosophical and theological worldview that incorporates the insights of modern physics. Fundamentally, this is a change from seeing the world as a material entity built of material entities bound together by forces. The new worldview sees reality as fundamentally a process.

This new worldview posits that the fundamental realities are actual occasions. Wink believes that social institutions have both a material pole (or, for example, an institution) and a spiritual pole, that spirit that empowers the institution. Material objects or actual entities are simply occasions that have reached a period of stability. According to Whitehead, actual occasions and entities possess a material and a mental pole. In the same way, Wink believes that human social institutions have a material pole (or, for example, an institution) and a spiritual pole, the spirit that empowers the institution.

This is to say that experience and intelligibility are present in everything from subatomic particles to human beings. In Whitehead’s view, every level of existence possesses mental and physical poles, including quanta, atoms, cells, organisms, the Earth, the solar system, our galaxy, the universe, all the way up to God.  For God, the whole physical universe is the physical pole, and all ideas and forms are the mental pole. [4] In other words, there is no ultimate distinction between mind and matter. Mind and matter are two aspects of a single reality. The potential for the kind of consciousness that human beings possess is, thus, an evolutionary possibility within the structure of the type of universe we inhabit.

Wink extends this distinction, positing that social institutions, such as governments, agencies, and other entities, have both a material and spiritual pole. These two poles are organically related and cannot exist without one another. Nevertheless, they cannot be understood except by understanding both the physical and spiritual poles. Thus, for example, one could say that Europe in the 19^th Century and the United States in the 20^th century were possessed by a spirit of colonialism that existed separately from their actual colonial empires. The United States, not a colonial nation in 1960, had become one by 1960 and possessed by that same spirit. (I do not mean to use the term “possessed” with the connotation of demonic possession. It merely refers to the presence of the power in its decision-making.)

This understanding is crucial because it seems that Europe and the United States often engage in foreign policy ventures controlled by the remnants of that colonial spirit—for example, the notion that they can and should impose a two-state solution in Israel and the West Bank or ensure the continuation of Syria’s current boundaries. The colonialist assumption that we know what is best in the region may blind actors to more productive solutions.

Next week, I move on to Unmasking the Powers.

Copyright 2025, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] Walter Wink, Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1984), Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces that Determine Human Existence (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1986), Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992)

[2] Naming the Powers, 5.

[3] Id.

[4] Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (New York, NY: Free Press, 1929, 1957), 128.

This week I am once again publishing a bit early. January 6 is Epiphany, which is traditionally the celebration of the coming of the Wise Men to see Jesus. As the notes at the bottom of the poem note, I’ve been working for on this poem for some time. I’ve even published it before. Nevertheless, I think it has a message given through the voice of Quirinius. It gives voice to the fatalism of an older, cynical, and world weary public servant of an empire faced with inevitable decline.

When Quirinius Was Governor of Syria

A bright day for traveling, but foreboding warns—
The transit of Magi may be a vile omen.
I sent them on to Herod, confident his fear and paranoia
Will unravel the mystery of a messianic child-king.

Octavian: Friendship did not send me here
To oversee an unpopular tax at your empire’s edge,
With Varus barely competent and Herod “the Great,”
Your lap dog perched upon his throne by a razor’s edge.

With no legitimate claim to rule, only convenient friendship,
Force of arms and a conniving mind, devious and twisted,
A man lacking any genuine principles or honor,
Herod rules because he flatters Rome and enlists our aid.

We can trust Herod no further than our leash extends:
The Arabian revolt and his actions then shows
He will honor us, then another, then us again
If it serves some dark purpose or strategy.

Nicholas of Alexandria defended his most recent
Scheme—and if death does not interfere,
There will be another duplicity, another scheme,
Intrigue upon intrigue until he lives no more.

Worse, his “people” loath and hate him for his blood
Is only half Jewish, and that half open to question.
Therefore, this visit of Wise Men sparks my fear
That to overthrow this usurper may be Heaven’s plan.

(Not that this would be too cruel a fate—
That this Idumean upstart, a vassal king
Who treats his pigs better than wives or children
Should be replaced is not too terrible a thing.)

I warned our “friend” and “king” by a secret message,
Sent with the Star Followers from Chaldea far to the east,
Knowing full well Herod’s madness and cruelty
Will cause the death of at least one small and helpless child.

These Median wanderers and their speculation
Concerning a Jewish King born in Palestine,
home to Rome’s most stiff-necked subjects,
Assures death when Herod hears their reading of the stars.

Someday, I fear, Herod’s “friendship” notwithstanding,
We will raze their temple, disbursing Jews as an example
Of our powers of domination and willingness to us  it
(These Jews, with their One God and disdain for other Gods)

Octavian: I watch these Wise Men fade into the autumn sun
As I watch my life fade into that autumn that leads
All men to another world, deep below where Hades
Rules. We are but slaves and shadows of the night.

My heart is desperate within me and wishes it were not so,
But I see no light beyond this darkness we inhabit.
How could any Olympian light follow this life of maintaining
A violent empire doomed to fall  (when we cannot know).

My career, our friendship, this empire Rome created
And I serve, is founded on power, deceit, and force of arms.
I am honored for my defeat of the Homonadenses—
A victory no one will recall within a generation of my death.

I have served as commander, governor, tutor, counselor,
Friend of Augustus Caesar and loyal servant of Rome,
All this is but a spider’s web of violence and shrewdness
My glory and honor will last no longer than my life.

All this for you, Octavian, Augustus, “Son of Caesar” (that
Child of ambition that broke our Republic and left
Us with this “empire,” vast, unstable, and expensive–
It dooms our ancient character through riches and war.

Old friend, we are not the powers we think we are,
Only servants of silent powers and principalities of the air,
Powers we believe we control but which, in fact,
Control us and our destinies, and wish us death in the end.

No, I cannot deliver this to you, old friend;
It would be my certain death now and not tomorrow.
Yet, how I wish I might write to you this word of my heart
That together we might find our way out of history’s trap.

Now, they are gone, these pilgrims, gone to seek a God/Man,
This anointed Messiah for which the Jews so anxiously wait.
Would it be, I wonder, such a bad thing if this King of Kings
Did arrive and we all gave up our pride and bowed down?

Gone our wars, gone intrigue, gone the lies of diplomacy—
All that I have spent my life doing and achieving
Swallowed up in a victory of a Prince of Peace:
Foolishness, of course, but if true, then what?

(Written by Chris Scruggs)

Note: I suppose this poem may have been inspired by some memory of T. S. Eliot’s poem, “Journey of the Magi.” It began in a November day of 1991 as I sat in the Union Theological Seminary library studying for final exams. It was cold and the leaves were swirling outside. Suddenly, I was overcome with the transience of empires. The first lines were written that day. Years later, I worked on it again in Brownsville, Tennessee, recognizing that it needed much work. Recently, inspired by a friend, I began again. That day in Richmond, I researched the figure Quirinius, who Luke says was governor of Syria, when Jesus was born (Luke 2:1). Now, I work on it from time to time in San Antonio.

Pubilius Sulpicius Quirinius (51 B.C.- 21 A.D.) was a friend of Caesar Augustus. Born of an aristocratic family, he was a good administrator and daring military leader. Luke has been questioned as to the veracity of his account because Quirinius did not actually become governor until 6 A.D. However, he held official posts in the region from 10 B.C. until about 7 B.C., which puts him in the region at or about the time of Jesus’ birth. He was an excellent soldier, capable administrator, and friend of Caesar. Census’ were taken about every fourteen years, and scholars believe that one might have been taken in the year 8 B.C.—a time when Quirinius was present. His role during this period was probably that of an extraordinary legetate with Quinctilius Varus as the Governor, who was not as capable as Quirinius. Varus appears in the poem as a figure Quirinius does not think capable. Quirinius ended his political career during the reign of Tiberius and died a trusted advisor and friend to Caesar. I have completely made up the notion that the Wise Men met him in Syria, though the trade routes might have taken them in that way. I have also made up the notion that by this time, Quirinius was a world-weary servant who knows only too well the vagaries of history.

Herod the Great (74 B.C.-4 B.C.) was a friend of Octavian and the Roman government, to whom he owed his power. He was capable, brilliant, ambitious, and over time, cruel and mad. The title “Great” comes from his great building projects, which included the Second Temple, Caesarea Maritima, Masada, and Herodium, where he died. Herod was of both Jewish and Idumean descent. Because of this, he had no real claim to the Jewish throne and was hated by the Jews. He was viewed as a half-breed. His cruelty and murder of his wife, mother-in-law, and three sons caused Augustus to famously say, “It is better to be a pig in Herod’s household than a son.” Although Herod was a client king of Rome and generally loyal, he was not above minor challenges to Rome’s authority. One of these minor disloyalties is referenced in the poem.

The Magi were probably historically of Median origin. Babylon and the region of Chaldea were famous for its wise men. The Medes were a warlike people, but after their conquest by the Persians, the ceased to have military power, they turned to scholarship and wisdom. Thus, the term “Wise Men” is not entirely without foundation. These Magi studied the stars and believed in the powers of their astrology. They were sought after as advisors.

As Rome grew, it became increasingly unstable militarily and economically. The empire founded by Julius Caesar and solidified by Augustus Caesar ended the Roman Republic and the virtues of the early Roman State. It’s stable years did not last for long, and by 64 A.D. when Nero allowed the burning of Rome, it was on a long slide towards is fall, which is ordinarily placed around 410 A.D.

All this has been on my mind because Christmas and Epiphany are my favorite times of the year, and the American Empire resembles the Roman Empire in many ways —a republic founded on simple virtues corrupted by wealth and power.

Beginning next week, I will write a series of blogs on the Powers and Principalities, which have a purpose for both the last of the Arthur Stone novels and my work on political theology. In the next few weeks, I will publish Illumined  by WIsdom and Love, a philosophical work.

Copyright 2025, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

This posting is a rework of a prior blog and sermon. It seemed appropriate for the time we were in. I am posting it on New Year’s Eve as we say goodbye to 2024 and look forward in hope to 2025.

My favorite carol is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” written during the American Civil War, a time in some ways resembling our own. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the lyrics, which were later put to music. By Christmas 1863, Wadsworth’s wife had tragically died, and his son had been seriously injured in the American Civil War. On Christmas Day, he wrote a poem capturing the conflict in his own heart and the world he observed around him that Christmas Day.  Here are the lyrics:

I heard the bells on Christmas day, /Their old familiar carols play; In music sweet, the tones repeat, / There’s peace on earth, good will to men.”

I thought how, as the day had come, /The belfries of all Christendom. Had rolled along the unbroken song/ Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

And in despair, I bowed my head: “There is no peace on earth,” I said, “For hate is strong, and mocks the song, Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.” [1]

The poem and Christmas Carol point out the divergence between the peaceful world for which Christians and others long and the violent reality of human history.

Our War-Torn World

Jesus warned his followers that wars and rumors of wars would mark the time between his first and second coming (Matthew 28:6). This Christmas Season, for the second Christmas, there are wars in the Ukraine and Israel and Gaza that threaten to engulf the entire Middle East. The parties engage in physical, psychological, and emotional warfare. Around the world, nations and international bodies have interceded themselves into the conflicts. Peace seems often on the horizon but then recedes to a far horizon. Maybe next year will be different, but this year, we can say with the poet, “There is no peace on earth—for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth goodwill to men.”

The World We Long For.

On Christmas Eve, we traditionally light the Christ Candle, a symbol that the One foretold by the prophets, the true Son of David, Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the Wisdom and Love of God in human form, has come. His reign is not complete, but it has begun. It is represented imperfectly and sometimes unrecognizably in his Church, the gathering of his children by faith.

 In the Narnia books, the true King of Narnia, Aslan—a Christ figure—is coming. One indication that Aslan is coming is that the long Narnia winter is ending, and Spring is finally coming. Even Santa Claus appears to give the children gifts before Spring arrives. In Isaiah, the prophet also uses an image of nature being changed because of what the Messiah will do when he comes as a symbol of the spiritual healing of the land of his people. In Isaiah 11, after speaking of the supernatural justice of the expected Anointed One, the prophet has the following vision:

Righteousness will be his belt, and faithfulness will be the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together,and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together,and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11: 5-9).

The idea is that justice and injustice impact nature. When we seek justice and to live peacefully with others, humans and lives are changed for the better. [2] It is also a reminder that the hope for an entirely peaceful and just world is eschatological. In this world, wolves and lambs will never lie down together—and it is the foolish lamb that believes otherwise. This a lesson many in our culture need to learn.

Whether or not we visualize the future in poetic terms, we all long for a just world and believe that a just and harmonious world would be happier than the world we live in. Unfortunately, almost all of us also desire our favorite injustices to remain part of that world. We want the injustice that impacts us removed, but we do not feel so strongly about the injustice we inflict on others. God will not have it this way. God wants to get rid of all injustice, the injustice of the rich and the poor, of the powerful and the powerless, of the insiders and the outsiders. God desires a perfectly just world. There will not be peace until there is justice for all—and that goal escapes accomplishment by selfish, self-centered, and often immoral humans.

The One Hope We Have.

The cross reminds us that God suffers injustice with everyone who suffers injustice. Christ was arrested unjustly, tried unjustly, and crucified unjustly. God knows and understands the reality and power of injustice. The cross is where the mercy and justice of God meet—and it reminds us that God is with us when we suffer injustice. The resurrection is our reminder that God will ultimately win over injustice. Christmas is our reminder that the King has come. Winter may not be over, and it may get colder before spring, but spring is coming.

I heard the Bells on Christmas Day ends on this word of Hope:

“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:/ “God is not dead, nor does He sleep, / For Christ is here; His Spirit near/ Brings peace on earth, goodwill to men.” [3]

Our hope is not in a political party or an army. It is in the one who is the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords–one who is not just a better human king, but the kind of ruler we humans can only wish to be.

I wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas this warm and rainy Texas Christmas Day (the day it was written) and this New Year’s Eve (the day it was published.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (I864).

[2] I have noted more than once that we modern people too often discount and fail to recognize the impact of sin on the world we inhabit and its consequences, even upon those with whom we have no direct impact. Just as in the physical world, there can be “spooky action at a distance” in the subatomic world, in the macro world, I am convinced that spiritual realities “act at a distance.” I have seen the phenomena with my own eyes.

[3] “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” previously cited.

When I was a child, our family always attended the midnight Christmas Eve service at our church in Missouri. Our duty was to arrive around 10:30, light the luminarias, and help prepare the sanctuary for the service. The service was scheduled to end at midnight, with the final song being “Joy to the World.” As a pastor for 25 years, I led midnight communion services on Christmas Eve, once again, always timed so that shortly after midnight, we sang “Joy to the World” as a congregation. This week, our mediation is on Joy.

Christian Joy

Several years ago, I began underlining “joy “ in my Bible in orange. How often the word appears in the Old and New Testaments is incredible. In secular life, joy can be defined as an emotion evoked by well-being, success, good fortune, or the prospect of possessing what one desires. From a biblical perspective, the meaning is more profound. In the Bible, joy is always connected with God’s presence and favor.

Joy involves the presence of God. Jesus is “God with us,” and the Spirit of Christ today is God with us. This is why in Galatians we read, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). Christian joy is not a human feeling; it is a divine gift.

Joy in the Old Testament

The prophets often compare the current situation of Israel with the joy it will experience when God sends his salvation on the land. In Isaiah, especially, the theme of divine joy is explored. For example, when God sends his salvation,

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom, rejoice greatly, and shout for joy.

…
Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution, he will come to save you.” Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert (Isaiah 34:1-6).

The coming of the savior of God’s people is a cause for joy—a divine, not human, joy. This is a joy in which the oppressed, the sick, the emotionally wounded, the elderly, and all those denied justice and peace will find a joy frequently missing in our fallen and broken world.

Joy in the New Testament

If in the Old Testament, joy is a gift of God showing his favor to his people, in the New Testament, another feature is added: it is a joy that withstands difficult circumstances. The author of Hebrews puts it this way:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder, and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2).

The joy Christ gives is a joy that overcomes suffering and trouble—even enduring a cross and defeating its suffering and shame.

On the night before he was crucified, Jesus promised his disciples a wholeness that was utterly different from what the world could give (John 14:27). In James, the author puts it this way:

Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet all kinds of trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Let steadfastness have its full impact so that you may be perfect, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).

In other words, the trials and testings of this life can and will be overcome in Christ—and are a source of a more profound joy than mere physical, emotional, or mental well-being.

Conclusion

This Christmas Eve, I will not be leading a worship service. I am now retired. Likely, I will not even attend a service at midnight because of circumstances beyond our control. Nevertheless, we will sing or remember the words of Isaac Watt’s carol:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let Earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders, wonders, of His love.

Amen

The early Jews might be forgiven for doubting the “steadfast love” of God. For centuries, they were a conquered, defeated, and enslaved people. Their hopes and dreams of restoring the worldly kingdom of David was a constant dream that seemed more like an illusion, which in part it was. If Israel had been restored as simply one earthly kingdom among many earthly kingdoms, they could not possibly have fulfilled their calling to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Even today, this misunderstanding is a constant danger for the Christian church. We presume that we can somehow be a blessing to a broken, violent, and unstable world by being one among the many players for position, power, and influence.

The Steadfast Love of God

For all the centuries of their captivity, enslavement, and domination by foreign powers, the prophets and wise men continued to proclaim the steadfast love of their God. The utter faithfulness of God is repeated over and over again to the Jewish people as an encouragement for faithfulness and righteous living. Even today, when we baptize children, one of the most familiar verses to recite, verses that were recited at each of our children’s baptisms and at nearly every baptism I ever performed, comes from Psalms:

For the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments (Psalm 103:17).

The steadfast love of the LORD God is eternal—it never ends. However, our experience of that love requires that we respect God, keep his covenant of love, which has implications for our behavior, and remember and obey his commandments in times of temptation. The Jewish people recognized these requirements, which is why the prophets continually reminded them that they had failed in faithfulness, in keeping God’s commands, and in remembering them in times of forgetfulness. The same is true for us.

What Steadfast Love is and is Not

We live in a romantic society filled with silly and impossible ideas for human happiness and fulfillment. In such a society, it is easy to think of love as a feeling. Steadfast Love is not an emotion; it is an action. For example, no marriage can endure without some degree of temptation, forgetfulness, and weariness. What characterizes successful marriages is not a lack of temptation, a perfect memory of first love, or a constant feeling of passion. What characterizes successful marriages is faithfulness and endurance through the difficulties of life. What characterizes a successful marriage is a commitment to the other, which the Jews called steadfast love.

In addition to being a romantic society, contemporary America is also pathologically individualistic, which makes any kind of relationship unstable. This leads to another observation about the steadfast love of God:  while it is true that the Bible contains personal references to the steadfast love of God, particularly respecting God’s love for individuals, such as David in the Psalms, the vast majority of all of the references to steadfast love involves the promises of God, not individuals, but to the people of Israel. In other words, steadfast love is not just a personal virtue. It is a political and social virtue without which a stable society cannot exist. [1] The steadfast love of God for Israel must be mirrored in our steadfast love for the institutions that make for a stable, prosperous, and just life.

Steadfast Love on a Cross

Christ defines a Christian understanding of the nature of Steadfast Love. As a friend put it, Christ’s revelation discloses that “Love is the most rational act of all.” [2] Christians believe that in Jesus, God’s Light (wisdom) and Love (self-sacrificing relationality) were joined in indissoluble unity. God’s steadfast love is visibly seen and experienced in Jesus Christ.

As the Apostles, New Testament writers, and early Christians meditated on Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, they understood Jesus as the Christ and God’s image in human form—the form of Divine Love. The first name for Christians was “People of the Way” (Acts 9:2). Jesus showed his disciples both a way to fellowship with God and a way of life. This Way of Jesus involves serving and leading others with a gentle, other-centered, steadfast, sacrificial love.

There is a technical word theologians use for the willingness of God to serve his creation at its deepest point of need. The word is “kenosis,” which means “to empty.” It comes from the words of Paul in Philippians:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8).

In the older translations, the phrase “made himself nothing” (ekenosen) is translated as “emptied himself.” This is the classic testimony to God’s self-giving nature shown in Christ.

The God Christ reveals serves the greatest need of his creation and his people by emptying himself of overt power so that the human race might see and experience the deep, unfathomable power of God’s loving nature. Christ reveals the limitless, vulnerable, self-giving love of God. The message of the Cross is that God is the One who gives himself without limit, without restriction, and without any holding back for the sake of his creation and his people. [3] This is what we mean when we say, “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

God’s steadfast love patiently bears with us, even as we presume upon his mercy. God’s love endures our sins, shortcomings, and brokenness as the Spirit works patiently and in love to redeem and restore us. The Way of Christ begins in trusting this revelation, as Christians follow Christ’s example daily.

Steadfast Love at Christmas

This week, we celebrate the love of God shown to us by the birth of a child in a small and insignificant city at the edge of the Roman Empire. His parents were ordinary people. Although through the eyes of faith, some recognized that this birth was unique, the birth was ignored by the wealthy, the powerful, the crowd, the influencers, the media, the elite, academics, and anyone else of importance. Nevertheless, this birth was the beginning of revealing what steadfast love really is.

Copyright 2024, Gl Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] See G. Christopher Scruggs, Illumined by Wisdom and Love: Essays on a Sophio-Agapic Constructive  Postmodern Political Philosophy(Forthcoming late this year or early next year).

[2] Rev. Dr. Warner Davis, pastor of the Collierville Presbyterian Church in Collierville, Tennessee, in a private conversation, May 24, 2007. This meditation section comes from Centered Living/Centered Leading: The Way of Life for Christ-Followers Rev. Ed. (Cordova, TN: Permisio Por Favor, 2017).

[3] W. H. Vanstone, Love’s Endeavor, Love’s Expense: the Response of Being to the Love of God (London, UK: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1977). See also John Polkinghorne, ed, The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans 2001) for a deep analysis of how creation reflects the One who is love and became love incarnate to redeem and restore his handiwork.

We have family and friends in Israel. For most of the past year, I have checked the news daily following the conflicts in Gaza and, more recently, Lebanon. One of the more frightening graphics I followed showed the air attack siren locations, many of which covered areas where we know people. We were, of course, happy for the people of Israel and Lebanon when a cease-fire was announced in the north, and we look forward to the day when there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Then, this weekend, we saw hopeful and frightening events in Syria. One of the sources I use for information also publishes a daily review of the war in Ukraine and the suffering there. We live in a conflicted world.

Watching for a Prince of Peace

One of the most familiar Christmas passages is from Isaiah:

For to us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7)

At Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of that Prince of Peace and anticipate the final victory of that peace over the forces that limit and destroy human flourishing. As we can see, the arrival of the Prince of Peace did not bring the kind of “power-peace” we humans often desire.

The Peace We Seek

Old Testament scholars helpfully remind us that the passage from Isaiah was not written in a time of peace but in a time of war. Isaiah probably thought that the new-born child of the current Israeli king was to be the anticipated Messiah/Savior. One meaning of peace in the Old Testament (and today) is the absence of conflict based on the victory of one side.

Scholars also helpfully remind us that the meaning of “shalom,” the Hebrew word for peace, ultimately connotes much more than a mere absence of conflict. It connotes “wholeness and completeness,” a situation where all the aspects of human flourishing, physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and social are in balance. In ancient Hebrew, if a person asked, “Is your family Shalom?’ (a phrase we would translate as, “Is your family well?”) they meant to say, “Is your family doing OK?” Just as today, they would not mean, “Has your family stopped fighting?” They would mean, “Is your family doing well?” Thus, shalom includes well-being in every area of life. [1]

Personal and Social Shalom

We need the Shalom (Peace) more than the absence of conflict. It is a sense of personal wholeness and well-being. Social scientists tell us that human flourishing has several components, such as:

• A feeling of well-being
• A sense of meaning and purpose in life
• Economic security
• Mental and physical health
• A sense of integrity and virtue
• Close and meaningful social relationships
• An absence of personal and social conflict. [2]

This list reminds us that there is much more to shalom than an end to fighting. We human beings are social animals. We need close, healthy, non-conflicted social relationships; without them, we wither on the vine of life. As a parent, I have observed that healthy relationships characterize happy families. On the other hand, dysfunctional families are often characterized by unhealthy relationships.  People who grow up in unhealthy families are wounded by the dysfunction they experience as children. These wounds can take decades to cure—and sometimes, they are never cured. Where there are not such healthy relationships, children often grow up wounded. [3]

As a pastor, I have often noted that healthy relationships among and between members characterize happy, growing churches. The same phenomenon is true in business and other organizations. When human relationships among people are or become dysfunctional, there is a lack of health and wholeness, and everyone suffers. Fortunately, the Holy Spirit can work within our spirit to restore the wholeness for which we were intended—which is one of the primary roles of the Christian church.

When Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Shalom-makers), he means a lot more than “Blessed are those who engage in. transnational peacemaking.” He means, “Blessed are all those who enter any situation, personal or social, in which human beings are not experiencing the wholeness for which they were created and work to restore health and wholeness.” This blessedness of true shalom is one of the primary fruits of faith in Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the healing and restoring power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus as our Peace

Near the end of John, Jesus warns his disciples about the peace or shalom he came to provide. “Peace I give you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let your hearts not be troubled nor be afraid” (John 14:27). Jesus warns his disciples that the peace, shalom, wholeness and flourishing that he will provide is not the “personal peace, pleasure, and affluence” that the secular world seeks and its apostles promise. It is a more profound, richer, and more lasting peace that sickness, age, disease, and death cannot take away. It is finally faith in God, forgiveness of past misdeeds, peace with God, and a sense that one is within the will of God. This is the Shalom we celebrate on Christmas Eve when we hear the voice of angels singing, “Peace on earth, Goodwill to men.”

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] See, Donald E. Gowan, Shalom: A Study of the Biblical Concept of Peace (Pittsburg, PA: Creative Edge, 1984). This helpful study was a part of the Kerygma Bible study program sponsored by the Presbyterian church some years ago. This study was central in preparing this blog.

[2] This particular section of the blog is dependent upon research done by the so-called “flourishing initiative” being led by researchers out of Harvard. The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) seeks to carry out research and teaching to bridge the empirical social sciences with the humanities on topics related to human flourishing. See, for example, the Flourish Initiative at https://hfh.fas.harvard.edu/.

[3] I do not want to indicate at all that every emotional scar indicates a dysfunctional family, as all families have some dysfunction. Nor do I want to suggest that these emotional scars from childhood cannot be cured. They can. See, Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality updated ed (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017). Today, the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and Relationship Courses are available as the “Emotionally Healthy Disciples Course,” which includes books, study guides, teaching videos, devotional guides, and teaching helps. Finally, for leaders, the following can be helpful. Peter Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform your Church, Team, and World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017).

This weekend, we celebrated Thanksgiving with four of our five grandchildren. It was a wonderful family time together. We were in the hotel where one of our children was staying on Friday evening. It was the day that this particular hotel lit its Christmas tree and had Santa Claus attend the lighting. All four grandchildren raced from where we were sitting to the Christmas tree. I held the three-year-old on my shoulder so that he could see over other people. On each one of their faces was the biggest smile you can imagine. Thanksgiving was over, and now they were anticipating Christmas!

There’s no question that Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I have long memories of Christmases past. Perhaps, unfortunately, it’s been many years since I felt the supreme joy of anticipation that my grandchildren experienced last Friday. Christmas should be a time of anticipation, but for too many of us, it’s a time of running around purchasing gifts (many entirely unneeded) and getting ready for the big day. At this stage of life, my job is not so much to enjoy Christmas as to help other people enjoy Christmas and build the memories my parents gave to my brother and me. Frankly, that’s fine with me.

Anticipating Christ

The Babylonians conquered Israel sometime between 587 and 6 BC. Four hundred years passed before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea—four hundred years of waiting. To put this into perspective, the United States of America is only about 250 years old. Imagine if we had been dreaming and anticipating freedom from the British Empire for 400 years. How many of us would remain hopeful that God would enable our nation to regain its independence?

One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament is quoted by Peter in the New Testament: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8). Last Sunday, the preacher in the worship service we attended decided to preach on the Second Coming of Christ. I thought it was an odd choice, mainly since he spent his time defending a dispensational interpretation of the New Testament text from Thessalonians. It seemed to me that the first Sunday of Advent ought to be about anticipating the First Coming of Christ. Nevertheless, the sermon made a point: Just as the Jews had to anticipate the coming of Christ for a long time, and just as children have to anticipate Christmas, sometimes we have to wait and anticipate the coming of Christ into our own lives.

I’ve mentioned before that I wouldn’t say I like waiting. I rarely go to any restaurant where I must wait in line. It takes a family member insisting we go there to make me stand in line. I wouldn’t say I like standing in checkout lines at the supermarket, which I often do. I wouldn’t say I like standing in lines buying Christmas presents, something I’ve had to do recently. I haven’t had to wait 400 years for anything, but I’m sure I would find it stressful!

No matter how little we enjoy it, we all must wait for God from time to time. There are prayer requests that need to be answered, opportunities that never seem to arise, conflicts that seem never resolved, and problems that never seem to be solved. When this happens, and we have to wait, often we lose hope and the joy of anticipation. We lose the faithful anticipation that God will act on our behalf.

Christmas and Waiting

Christmas reminds us that this is a short-sighted mistake. It is part of our fallen human nature and our inevitable human anxiety about our future. We can’t know when God will solve the problems we are concerned about. We suspect that it may not even be in our lifetime. And, our fears are justified. Nevertheless, scripture reminds us that God hears our prayers and is in the business of answering all our prayers sooner or later.

When you get to be 70 or older, many of your worries are about your family and its future. I know most of mine are. No one can look at the condition of our world and not suspect that difficult times lie ahead. On the other hand, there’s no point in human history in which this was not true. There have always been wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6-7). There have always been times of economic dislocation, bad government, oppression, and other human suffering. Most nations, unlike the United States, have suffered times in which they were invaded and held hostage.

As a college student many years ago, I was on a train from Luxemburg to Switzerland. Sitting beside me was an elderly gentleman, a French schoolteacher. Twice in his lifetime, the German army crossed the border and entered into his country. As we talked, he reminded me that we Americans often cannot understand our world because we have not had to suffer some of the problems other nations have suffered. Before recent years, the vast expanse of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans protected our country from invasion or war. The nuclear age has ended our geographic safety, but we have not yet suffered an attack, conquest, and servitude. Those nations who have, and those people who have suffered as the ancient Jews suffered, look at the world differently. They look at the world much more the way the ancient Jews looked at the world.

Waiting Like the Ancients

Perhaps this Christmas, as we wait for our annual celebration of the coming of the Messiah, it would be a good idea for us to practice Holy Anticipation. Holy Anticipation is not a naïve anticipation. It is not the anticipation of a child that believes their parent will solve all their problems. It is not the anticipation of an immature person who believes things will be OK without me doing anything. Holy Anticipation is that anticipation that allows us to go about the business of living wisely and loving others, in the name of Christ, not knowing exactly what the future will bring, but anticipating that in the end, everything will turn out as God wishes to turn out, and therefore for good.

It is that anticipation that Paul speaks about in Romans:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified(Romans 8:18-30).

There are just a few weeks until Christmas. Let us begin by anticipating Christ’s special entrance into our lives.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

Like many Americans, I have many fond memories of Thanksgiving. These memories stretch from warmer California holidays when my own grandparents and great-grandparents were still alive to colder Springfield, Missouri, punctuated by an occasional snowball fight in the early snow, to almost hot Houston Thanksgivings with our own family and the parents and now grandparents, to the current Thanksgivings with our children and grandchildren.

For most of my life the day involved a late breakfast, a very large lunch with Turkey and dressing, and a late evening snack of turkey sandwiches or soup made from the leftovers. Much of the time there was a football game watched by my Kathy’s or my father. On one memorable occasion, Kathy had the children do a complete Thanksgiving pageant, with each child playing some part from the partially legendary first Thanksgiving.

Since I began these blogs, it has been my custom to write a shorter Thanksgiving-themed entry for the week, usually focused on some particular incident of Thanksgiving history. Texans might want to know that a Thanksgiving Day may have been held as early as 1598 in El Paso, Texas!  A similar early Thanksgiving was held in 1619 in the Virginia Colony. The history of modern Thanksgiving Day often highlights a harvest celebration of the Pilgrims, which was held in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. As recorded in this blog, the first actual Pilgrim Thanksgiving was in 1623, when they gave thanks for rain that ended a drought. These early thanksgivings usually involved a special church service rather than a feast. In my childhood, we often attended  a early Church service on Thanksgiving Day.

William Bradford described the early Plymouth Thanksgiving feast in Of Plymouth Plantation:

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they can be used (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl, there was a great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterward write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports. [1]

For nearly five years, our family lived in a small Tennessee farming town, Brownsville. In Brownsville, Thanksgiving was always special because by then the harvest would normally be nearly done. There was a special festive feeling in the air as the final cotton trailers came into town with their loads of the primary crop. Early America was a farming nation, and after the first Thanksgivings additional harvest thanksgivings became common annual events. However, they were celebrated on different days in different local communities. In 1789, after the American revolution, George Washington, the first president of the United States, proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day.

Our periodic wars have also occasioned Thanksgiving proclamations. Our current national holiday dates to the Civil War; when in 1863, after victories at Gettysburg in the east and Vicksburg in the West, Abraham Lincoln declared a holiday in thanks for the blessings of the past year with the following proclamation:

The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, the order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. The population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Highest God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In all these holidays, there was a feature often missing from our current holiday of food, football, and family: actual time spent thanking God for the blessings of life that we do not necessarily deserve. If we are honest, we don’t deserve the freedoms, the affluence, and the blessings of life we now possess. They are gifts—and like all gifts, it is only appropriate to thank the giver. The Psalmist put it this way, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,  for his steadfast love endures for ever” (Psalm 136:1).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Chris

[1] William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (Carlisle MA: Applewood Books, 1898)

As indicated in prior blogs, each of the Arthur Stone novels (Marshland [1]and Peace at Battle Mountain[2]) involves an economic and legal problem, murder, and engagement with spiritual realities. In Peace at Battle Mountain, the spiritual reality is our human problem with what St. Augustine called “disordered love.” We love as primary things that are secondary and as secondary things that are primary. A good deal of the suffering and distortion of human flourishing we encounter in our lives and the lives of others involves just this problem.

In Peace at Battle Mountain, the aging and now retired managing partner of Winchester & Wells talks to the now middle-aged Arthur Stone about this problem:

Patrick decided to get to the point.

            “Arthur, you know that, for years and years, I was all in at the firm. I thought we were building something meaningful. I also felt I was doing something important and building an important reputation. I rarely worked less than seventy hours a week. For many years, I never even took a vacation. The law was my life.

            “I realized I was mistaken when Jeanie got sick so soon after I retired. The firm was important, but Jeanie and the children were more important. She rarely complained, but everything we planned to do in retirement never happened. I had my priorities mixed up.

            “You have been far more successful than I ever was. You are known throughout the nation. Most people think you are Texas’s best litigator and corporate attorney. It makes me proud every time I hear your name. But you are fifty now. Soon, your children will be grown. As you have said, the law is changing, and there is every possibility that what we know as Winchester & Wells might not survive the changes. I would hate to see you at seventy alone and thinking, It was not worth it.

            “I am an Irish Catholic. I still go to mass once a week. Our priest uses a message from St. Augustine in sermons at least once a year. It is about disordered love. Augustine felt that human beings love as primary, what are secondary things like power, success, possessions, and pleasure. In the process, we make love for God and other people secondary. Most of the world’s problems come from loving the wrong things too much or the right things too little

            “I would hate for you to chase crown of victory after crown of victory for another twenty years or so, only to end up alone and empty. Plenty of men and women do. I did. Your family is more important than winning another case or even 100 other cases. You are a wealthy man and do not need to show how good you are to anyone ever again. Right now, your family needs you. [3]

In his great work, “On Christian Doctrine,” St. Augustine puts it this way:

Living a just and holy life requires one to be capable of an objective and impartial evaluation of things: to love things in the right order so that you do not love what is not to be loved or fail to love what is to be loved or have a greater love for what should be loved less, or an equal love for things that should be loved less or more, or a lesser or greater love for things that should be loved equally. [4]

In On Christian Doctrine, Augustine bases his entire ethical theory on the Great Commandment, “You shall love the Lord that God with all your heart, and all the soul, and all your mind and your neighbor as your self (Matthew 22: 35-40; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10: 25-28).In other words, a Christian is to order his or her affections toward God first and others second. Our love toward our neighbor is just a part of our love for God, now shown to God’s creation and all his creatures. Other human beings are part of that creation and art to be loved in the same way that God loved them and in Christ gave his life for them.

The duty to love others cannot be divorced entirely from our responsibility to communicate the gospel. Part of loving another person is to bring them into a vital connection with that God who is love and who loves his creation and every creature. This part of love is captured in the Great Commission. God does not ask Christians to share their faith out of ego, narcissism, or a desire for power. God desires Christians to share their faith because God is love and desires his creation and creatures to live with love for God and others.

One way we can distort our lives is by loving human beings, who ought to be loved for their own sake, as objects of our desire. This is one of the problems in Peace Battle Mountain. In particular, Lance DuFort is incapable of loving others except as vehicles for his own ambitions and desires. Others in the book suffer the same fate.

In the passage quoted above, Arthur Stone meets with his mentor, Patrick Armbruster, who gives him advice about organizing his love for his wife and family. Patrick is aware that human beings can worship their own work and accomplishments. He is fearful that Arthur is falling into this trap of distorted love.

Building a business, a church, or a nonprofit organization can be demanding. Those who undertake such an effort must love the organization that they are creating. As anyone who has had a career knows, it is easy to give a job or organization a kind of love that one should reserve for God and others. In particular, one’s family. I would say that I was guilty of this during my professional career. It is easy to love ourselves in our own ambitions to the exclusion of our love for others and God.

Peace at Battle Mountain is primarily about love. It is about distorted lives and the struggle we humans must engage in to re-order our loves properly. As pointed out, we find it easy to love ourselves. We find it harder to love God and others. We humans are naturally selfish, and the result of our natural selfishness is that we need to have these loves re-ordered by grace. It is a slow process. It doesn’t happen in an hour or a day. There may be a moment in which we sense that we are committed to re-ordering our loves and even making some progress and re-ordering our loves—but that reordering will take the rest of our lives.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] Alystair West, Marshland (Bloomington, IN: Westbow Press, 2023). The book is available on Amazon.

[2] Alystair West, Peace at Battle Mountain (Hunt, TX: Quansus, 2024). The book is available on Amazon.

[3] Peace at Battle Mountain, 171-172.

[4] St. Augustine, “On Christian Doctrine” Chapter 27 in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1st Series Vol, 2 (Grand Rapids MI: Hendrickson, 1994).

Tomorrow evening, I will sign copies of my new novel, Peace at Battle Mountain, at a local bookstore in San Antonio.[1] All my novels involve a financial crime, murder, and a spiritual struggle. In the case of Peace at Battle Mountain, the central theme is love—our human propensity to love things as secondary that are primary and love things that are primary that are secondary. Instead of God and other people, we love secondary things. Of course, sex, pleasure, power, and money rank high among the things that we human beings tend to overvalue.

From a financial perspective, Peace at Battle Mountain involves misusing generally accepted accounting principles to create illusory profits. In my legal practice, more than once, I saw the susceptibility of people to invent reality, distorting their business’s financial reporting. One of the saddest things is when management begins to believe their distorted reality. This fatal misstep always ends in disaster. I’ve seen this happen more than once.

Unfortunately, with the advent of postmodernism and the loss of confidence in the reality of truth in Western civilization, the problem has become even more serious. In my judgment, some of the most recent financial disasters reflect the most profound danger of a Nietzschean way of thinking – a group of so-called “supermen and superwomen” develop a highly complex financial strategy divorce from reality in which they can make a lot of money on the front end.  Of course, these people have little or no concern for those damaged by their behavior.

This is part of the decline of Judeo-Christian Christianity in the West. In Peace at Battle Mountain, one of the characters describes the problem this way:

“Unfortunately, no one was paying much attention to where this was all leading. In this enthusiasm, accountants turned a blind eye to lousy accounting that did not reflect reality. Analysts on Wall Street ignored difficulties in financial reports. Money center banks loaned money for marginal transactions. Lawyers created vehicles for transactions that lacked financial reality. This was especially true at E-Titan. Lance used his contacts on Wall Street to grow E-Titan at astronomical rates—growth rates that no serious investor should have believed. But they did. Everyone forgot the old maxim, ‘If it is too good to be true, it isn’t.’

“Years later, one of the architects of the final growth of E-Titan (its lead trader) put it this way, “Postmodernism is popular on college campuses these days. One principle of postmodernism is that human beings can and do create reality through language. That is what we did at E-Titan. Accounting rules and financial statements involve the language of mathematics. We made the mistake of believing that we could just create our own reality and that whatever that reality was would one day be real. We didn’t stop to think that it would come crashing down on us all since it wasn’t true. The question was never ‘if.’ The question was always ‘when.’ We were just too arrogant to see it coming.

“I remember Brad Gilliland telling me one day, as we created another Cheetah and took more assets and debt off our balance sheet, ‘I think we might be forgetting that when Judgment Day arrives, everyone will have to go to cash accounting. That includes E-Titan.’ I didn’t remember Brad saying that until Judgment Day arrived—at least as it pertained to E-Titan.

“We thought we were supermen. We were making all these trades, and we were making big money. Our bonuses were huge. Who cared about the accounting? Who cared about the financial statements? Who cared about the pension plans investing in our stock or the fate of those leaving E-Titan stock to their aging spouses? Somewhere along the line, we lost our moral bearings. “After a time, we began believing our Lance DuFort-created false reality. We came to believe that the illusions created by mark-to-market accounting were true. (Or, maybe we just wanted to believe it was true, or we would not have been able to live with ourselves.) Here is the bitter truth: after E-Titan failed, and the bankruptcy lawyers and managers reconstructed and restated all the transactions, they became convinced that E-Titan never made much money on a continuing basis. It was all smoke and mirrors.” [2]

Here, we have depicted a sad truth in the form of a novel. In most of the financial crises of my lifetime, driven by greed, someone or some group created an alternative reality that was divorced from economic accuracy. Accounting only works if those preparing the financial statements and later auditing them use accounting principles to reflect reality. It is not just a matter of “following the rules.” It’s a matter of morality and judgment. No series of regulations or laws can protect people from financial misdeeds.

One of the points made in Marshland and Peace at Battle Mountain is the consequences of the dubious use of mark-to-market accounting. In the case of the savings and loan crisis, market accounting allowed savings and loans to ignore losses for long periods. In the case of E-Titan and similar situations, mark-to-market accounting was used to show profits that did not exist. In both cases, management and accounting firms were “following the rules” but also manipulating those rules in ways that were simply inappropriate. In some cases, they were breaking the law. In all cases, reality came crashing down on the perpetrators sooner or later.

The Arthur Stone novels are not designed to keep me busy and retirement. I’m trying to say something that I think is important to our society and its stability. It’s vital for our children and our grandchildren and their happiness. It is essential for the stability of our political system. It is crucial for the stability of our economic system. It is critical to the strength of our families and neighborhoods: The excessive, narcissistic individualism that America breeds is unhealthy. It leads to all kinds of dysfunctions, both personal and social. Our educational system, the media, the government, and, most recently, economic businesses reinforce this. This means we can’t have a stable society without the ultimate values that are wisely and carefully applied to every area of life.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] Alystair West, Peace at Battle Mountain (Hunt, Texas: Quansus, 2024). The book can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets. The electronic version is not yet available due to the author’s lack of competence.

[2] Id, 150-151.

Last weekend, Kathy and I had the opportunity to provide some leadership for a retreat focused on the Apha program of our church. For those unfamiliar with Alpha, it is an introduction to the Christian faith that originated in the church of England at a congregation called Holy Trinity-Brompton. Over the past many years, it has become a worldwide phenomenon, and many churches use it to disciple people into the Christian faith.

One thing that I like about Alpha is the format of the program. Over 12 weeks or so, the group meets weekly to have dinner together, listen to a video, talk together at a small table, share questions, and eventually pray. Just before the program is over, there is a weekend retreat in which the primary subject is the Holy Spirit. It is an opportunity for people to get away from their day-to-day lives and experience God in a new and different way.

The program’s structure is a contemporary embodiment of the description of the first Christians in Jerusalem after Pentecost:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the people’s favor. And the Lord added to their number daily those being saved (Acts 2:42-46).

Our local church was willing to underwrite the weekend, so we had people from various socioeconomic groups, races, creeds, and ethnicities. We had people from independent Bible church backgrounds, charismatic, Presbyterian Church backgrounds, and more. We had people who were part of a new church development and the oldest congregation in San Antonio. We had people who were part of an intercity ministry for youth, including some youth. It was a wonderfully diverse group of Christians and seekers.

Community as Opposed to Individualism

On Friday night, not everyone was in attendance, so we were able to sit around and talk with people with him we would ordinarily not be paired. It was a wonderful experience! One of those in attendance had read my book Crisis of Discipleship. [1] In the group, he asked: “I know that you discussed the barriers to Christian faith in America, but what do you think is the most significant barrier?” It took me a moment to answer.

Those who read Crisis of Discipleship know that I analyzed our culture and some of the things that make it difficult for the Christian faith to penetrate contemporary society. I am also against the simplistic reduction of complex phenomena to simple solutions. In response to the question, I chose to say that the fundamental issue is our implicit materialism. Most people live based on an outdated idea of what the world is like. We automatically think of the world in terms of physical bodies and forces acting upon those bodies. We automatically think that we are one of the bodies and should participate in carefully managing the forces upon us. The search for affluence, money, power, pleasure, and individual security is almost automatic in such a society.

Those who have read Crisis of Discipleship know that another factor plays a significant role in the problem of Christian discipleship in contemporary America: our excessive individualism. The church is a community of believers. Evangelism and discipleship are essential activities of the entire body of Christ as it lives out its witness to Christ and God in whatever place it exists. In other words, evangelism is not individualistic. It is essentially communitarian. It is an activity of the entire Body of Christ.

The Mission of Christ as a Mission of the Church

Furthermore, the Mission of God, sometimes called “Missio Dei” in Latin, is not the business of specialized people or groups. It’s an activity in which the entire church should be involved merely because of its existence. Contemporary churches talk a lot about missions, forgetting that the first and primary mission is given to us in the Great Commission. We are to go into all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:16). This is God’s mission to his people.

Everything else we do, such as education, medical care, providing clean water, building churches, and supporting colleges and universities, is simply part of the church’s mission to share God’s love with others and bring the entire world into fellowship with the Living God. No one person can do this alone; it’s the activity of the whole church.

The great missiologist Lesslie Newbiggin once observed that a church without a mission is not a church. [2] It is a statement about the condition of the American church, that so many people found this statement revolutionary. It wasn’t revolutionary in the least. Newbigin simply stated what the church was intended to be by Christ has been through the centuries and will be in the future.

The Importance of the Local Congregation

If the primary mission of the church is to share the good news of Jesus Christ and the coming of God’s kingdom into the world and make disciples who are members of that kingdom, and if that commission is to be carried out in community, then the local church gains a new and central importance in the mission of God. The church is not an accidental collection of people. It’s not a social organization, like the PTA, formed for a particular purpose. It is not merely a place where people meet to hear a nice talk and listen to the music of their choice. It is the living embodiment of Christ and his kingdom amid the world. The church is not incidental to the proclamation of the gospel. It is central. It is that manifestation of the kingdom of God into which people are brought to live out their lives in community with others.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] G. Christopher Scruggs, Crisis of Discipleship: Renewing the Art of Relational Disciple-Making Rev, Ed. (Richmond, VA: Living Dialogue Ministries, 2024).

[2] Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission Rev. Ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi: William B. Eerdmans, 1978, 19950, 2.

Every once in a while, the people who help me publish books remind me that I am a terrible marketer! Since I have two books out this year in different genres and am trying to finish a third, this blog is a natural transition from the apostle Paul. As I pointed out several times, the apostle Paul was not a lone ranger. He was brought into ministry by Barnabas. He ministered with many people, including Barnabas, Silas, Luke, Timothy, and others. In other words, Paul modeled a communitarian approach to ministry.

Crisis of Discipleship and Betsy Shaw

When I wrote Crisis of Discipleship: Renewing the Art of Relational Disciple-Making, I had in mind renewing the art of making disciples in relationships, not just with those being discipled but as part of a community dedicated to the Great Commission. [1] I believe it is necessary in our day and age to renew the art of making disciples in small groups, including churches, Bible studies, prayer groups, discipleship groups, and other vehicles.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to return to my former church, Advent Presbyterian Church, in Cordova, Tennessee, for the funeral of a longtime colleague, Betsy Shaw. In some ways, Dave Schieber, who founded the church, and Betsy Shaw, who worked with the youth for many years and was the Director of Christian Education, exemplified the strategy I urge people to adopt. In doing this, they also made Advent an enjoyable place to be, worship, grow in Christ, and share the gospel with others. They created a dynamic, fun, and gospel-centered community where people could come and grow in Christ, bringing their families and friends. In all this, both of them sweetly, non-judgementally, and powerfully shared God’s love with others.

Dave and Betsy would not presume to say, nor would I presume to say, that Advent was the perfect church. It wasn’t. We had our problems, made our mistakes, and faced challenges with greater and lesser degrees of success. Nevertheless, there was a commitment to discipling people from when they joined the church, formed families, or otherwise entered our sphere of influence.

From its very beginning, Advent had a Wednesday evening, family-centered program. It was directed towards children, but children’s ministry was not the only focus. When the church grew large enough, it had a youth group, which, in time, was quite large. That youth group was an important part of the church because it ministered to the entire church in many ways, most notably by participating at a very high level of involvement every year in vacation Bible school.

When I say that Advent was oriented toward discipling families, I don’t want to suggest that singles were left out. We had many single parents. Those single parents knew the pastors and staff were dedicated to helping them raise their children. In addition, they knew that at least once a week, they could come to church, have a family meal together, allow the children to have a program, and go to a Bible study or hang out with friends until the program was complete.

In time, we would have over 100 youth and children in the building every Wednesday night, which required many volunteers. Betsy Shaw was the person who made sure we had enough volunteers. She also had the opportunity to support those volunteers, write them notes of appreciation, provide them with an annual dinner, and provide time off because the program did not run 12 months a year. She was also very good at supplying Sunday school teachers, youth, volunteers, and others with time off each year so that they would not burn out. It was an enormous task.

When I spoke at Betsy’s funeral, I pointed out that she knew every family in the church: the children, most of the grandchildren, and many cousins and other extended family members. She shared God’s love with everyone she met—and specifically with everyone in our congregation. There was hardly a question that one could ask about any facet of the church’s life involving any person in the church to which Betsy could not give wise advice. In addition, she worked very hard to be sure that the programs she supervised were fun and made disciples. Dave Schieber, the founder of the church, worked just as hard. In the end, for all of the faults we knew we had in our church and its programming, people sensed that the pastors and staff loved them, loved their children and grandchildren, and wanted to do their best to help them flourish in a problematic society.

Advent decided they needed a more advanced adult disciple-making program when I joined the group. Therefore, we developed a series of 34-week Bible studies going through the entire Bible and specific sections in detail. We also had a Bible study that studied the Bible by Christian doctrines so that our members could, if they desired, learn just a little about theology and how it affects Christian life.

These studies involved reading privately during the week, praying a prayer list, and coming together for a social time where we would pray, share, have a meal, and review the week’s study. In other words, the entire adult discipleship program was built around the same features we see operating in the New Testament. Most specifically, the following verses guided our structure:

 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. Everyone was awed by the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the people’s favor. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:42-47).

Salt & Light

Just about the time I retired, we began to feel that the programming we had relied on for so long was no longer adequate for a new generation. Therefore, we begin to study how to reach a new generation. Out of that study and trial and error, we created what we called Salt & Light: Everyday Discipleship, a leadership development program designed for more traditional churches undertaking to be structured along the lines of churches with a robust Disciple Making Ministry program. [2] Out of this particular study, which I used at another church, I began to write the book Crisis of Discipleship, setting out general principles instead of a specific program. No two churches are exactly alike; therefore, no two churches can have the same disciple-making program. In Crisis of Discipleship, I was trying to set out some applicable general principles, no matter what kind of church you’re in, its theology, and its size.

C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Developing a  Classical WorldView

One of the difficulties pastors and local congregations face today is our culture’s resistance to the Christian faith and especially to Christian discipleship. Before I became a Christian, I read a few books by C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I was particularly fascinated by Lewis’s Space Trilogy and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Some people would describe what Lewis and Tolkien were doing as “pre-evangelism.” I often tell people that reading C.S. Lewis did not make me a Christian, but he did open up my mind to the possibility that the Christian faith might be true. It took a community of believers in Houston, Texas, and a small group Bible study to bring me to Christ. Nevertheless, Lewis and Tolkien played a vital role in my coming to Christ and early Christian discipleship. I became a believer in 1977 and 1979. I had probably read every book that either Lewis or Tolkien (and several of their friends) had written. Lewis and Tolkien were members of the Inklings, one of which was an author named Charles Williams, who wrote what he called “Spiritual Thrillers.” I have enjoyed reading Williams’ novels over the years, and he was one of the inspirations for my own novels.

Marshland and Peace at Battle Mountain

When I retired, I decided that it would be a good idea if I tried to write a novel. I’d wanted to write a novel for years but never had the time. In retirement, I had the time. Therefore, I sat down one cold winter day and began riding the book that became Marshland. By the time I finished Marshland, I was pretty sure it was the first book of an eventual trilogy, the second of which has just been published, Peace at Battle Mountain.  [3] I plan on beginning the last of the novels on a cold January morning next year.

Each book deals with a spiritual battle. The first examines whether there are spiritual realities, which, in a way, is about faith. The second, Peace at Battle Mountain, asks, “Why do humans have so much trouble creating and sustaining healthy relationships? Why do we find it so hard to love other people selfishly?”

However, these are not traditional Christian books by any means. Each novel involves an economic crime, one or more murders, and characters struggling to make sense of their lives. I have been careful not to follow the simple formula: “A wounded person comes to Christ, and everything is fine.”

People like to read murder mysteries, including mafiosos, spies, greedy, business people, and other exciting characters. My first career was as a corporate lawyer. It’s fun to look at economic crises and the type of misbehavior that causes them. But, most importantly, people struggle to make sense of their lives.

In Marshland and Peace at Battle Mountain, I’m encouraging people to ponder whether or not a more Christian view of life would help them muddle through life. In the process, I’m trying to entertain people with a thriller. I’m not trying to be preachy, and I’m staying open to the value of other world religions and faith systems. But in the end, some of the characters are Christians.

Conclusion

I’m unsure exactly where the series of blogs is going in the next few months. To meet my obligations to those who have helped me write these books, I need to spend some time talking about them and why they were written. On the other hand, I will publish another book about political philosophy before the end of the year. I want to talk a little about our Constitution and a fundamental way of looking at it in this postmodern era. I hope these blogs and books help people understand our culture and life wisely and lovingly in these troubled times.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] G. Christopher Scruggs, Crisis of Discipleship: Renewing the Art of Relational Disciple-Making Rev, Ed. (Richmond, VA: Living Dialogue Ministries, 2024).

[2] G. Christopher and Kathy T. Scruggs, Salt & Light: Everyday Discipleship (Collierville, TN: Innovo, 2017).

[3] Alystair West, Marshland (Bloomington, IN: Westbow 2023) & Peace at Battle Mountain (Hunt, Texas: Quansus Publishing, 2014). Marshland and Peace at Battle Mountain are written under the penname “Alystair West.”

Paul began his final journey after his arrest and trials in the holy land. As Luke describes the situation, Paul was under house arrest for some time as these trials unfolded. Part of the reason he was under house arrest was to keep him safe. Eventually, Paul was able to make his defense, which Luke describes as conclusive, but was not released because he had appealed to Caesar. This resulted in Paul finally being able to make his long-awaited journey to Rome.

This week, we’ll examine the final journey and how Paul’s story ends in Acts.

A Long Voyage

As Paul was under arrest, he needed to be transported to Rome under supervision. The Centurion Julius and members of the Augustine Regiment, of which he was commander, were charged with seeing that he safely arrived in Rome and was presented before the emperor (Acts 27:1). Eventually, Paul, other prisoners, his traveling, committed companions (Luke) and another brother Aristarchus from Thessalonica set sail on their journey to Rome (v. 2).

In those days, sailing vessels were small, and it was in the best interest of the safety of the passengers to stay as close to shore as possible. This was especially true in this case because the winds were contrary. They traveled north up the coast of the Mediterranean Sea until they got to Sidon, which is part of modern Lebanon. For those who keep track of current events, Sidon is not far from the Litani River and the scene of current military operations by Israel in the Middle East. At Sidon, Paul was allowed to visit with friends (v. 3).

Leaving Sidon, they sailed east of Cyprus so that the island’s mountainous terrain would shield them from the contrary wins. From there, they sailed further north until they came to Mira. There, they transferred to a larger vessel, more seaworthy, for the long trip to Rome (v.6). setting sail again, they fought country wins until they could sell south of the island of Crete near Salome (v. 7). Eventually, they came to Fair Havens (v. 8). In Fair Havens, they encountered difficulty. Paul and his companions had left on their journey late in the year, and by the time they arrived in Fairhaven, it was beyond the regular sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea during that time. There was, therefore, a grave danger that if they continued from there, the ship would be lost. Paul advised that they stay in Fair Haven (v. 10).

Julius was of a different mind. He was anxious to get the ship to Rome and complete the task which he had undertaken. In any case, the harbor at Fair Havens was unsuitable for the entire winter, so the ship set sail, hoping to reach Phoenix Harbor in Crete, which was much safer (vv. 11-12). Unfortunately, the favorable wins soon gave way to a severe storm, what we would call a “North Easter.” The ship was caught in the storm and could not possibly make its way into the wind (v. 14-15). From that point on, Paul and his companions were in grave danger. They had to run cables around the ship to keep it from being crushed by the heavy seas (v. 17). They were required to throw overboard part of the boat’s cargo (v. 18). Eventually, they had to through overboard the sales and tackle of the ship (v. 19). They were now at the mercy of the sea. The seas were so heavy that the crew and passengers could not eat for many days (v. 21).

Finally, Paul told them they must eat because they needed their strength for what was to come. In this speech, Paul revealed to the sailors that God had spoken to him amid the storm (v. 23). He told them that the God he serves sent an angel to tell him not to be afraid, for he would be brought before Caesar for trial, and those with him would be saved. He advised everyone on board to take heart because God assured Paul they would not die (v. 25). Finally, Paul prophesied that everyone with him would be safe (v. 24).

After fourteen days of misery, everyone began losing hope (v. 27-28). The ship could not be steered and ran in great danger of running upon the rocks  (v. 29). The sailors eventually decided to desert the ship, leaving the passengers to their fate (v. 30). Paul told the Centurion to cut away the ropes that attached the small skiff to the boat so that this could not happen (31-32). Once again, Paul urged everyone to take some food to strengthen them for the final ordeal ( v. 34).

In a manner resembling Jesus’ last words, he took bread, thanked God, and began eating in their presence. Everyone felt encouraged by Paul’s symbolic act (v. 35-36). Once again, they lightened the ship, throwing out what remained of its cargo (v. 38). At daybreak, they could see a small beach. Running out the anchors to create drag, they slowed the ship until it ran into the ground (vv. 39-40).

At this point, Julius was faced with his obligation to put the prisoners to death so that they would not escape. This would have followed Roman custom, and his soldiers urged Julius to do precisely that (v. 42). However, Julius wanted to keep Paul safe if possible (v. 43). Therefore, he let everyone swim ashore. As Paul had predicted, everyone was saved (v. 44).

A Miracle on Malta

The island upon which they had landed was the island of Malta (28:1). Once the tired men arrived at the shore, cold and wet, they canceled the fire to shelter them against the winter cold (v. 2). As Paul went to collect some sticks, a snake came out of the fire because of the heat and bit him (v. 3). It was poisonous. The natives saw this happen and thought that Paul would certainly die because he was a murderer (v. 4). He did not. Therefore, they concluded he must be a god! (v. 6). This is a pretty good indication of human fickleness. Paul went from being a murderer to a god in a matter of seconds.

This particular incident is recounted in the edited version of the end of Mark, where the author explains that snakes may bite believers and still live. Mark concludes as follows:

He told them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my Name, they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:15-18)

Contrary to those who believe this is a prescription for current worship behavior, I think this reflects what has already transpired in the past. It’s not an invitation to deliberately be bitten by a snake. It is an indication that if snakes bite us while on God’s business, God can frequently be trusted to save us. This indicates that God will provide signs of his presence at every point in human history. If the enemies of God try to harm believers, they can expect a certain amount of protection. In addition, this protection is designed to see that the gospel reaches the ends of the earth.

After a while, a prominent local citizen named Publius took the little, ragged band of survivors into his home (v. 7). Publius’s father was sick with fever and dysentery. Paul, praying for him and laying on hands, was able to heal him (v. 8). Having seen this sign of Paul’s relationship with God, many people brought those with diseases to the apostle for the laying on of hands and prayer (v. 9). All this, was a sign that God was with Paul and had enabled him to do the same kind of signs and wonders that characterized Jesus himself. This is the last instance of a central theme of Acts: The apostles were commissioned with God’s power and could do what Jesus himself had done.

After three months, a ship arrived from Alexandria with a figurehead of the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux. Having wintered in Malta, the group prepared to go to Rome (v. 11). They sailed and landed at Syracuse, where they stayed for three days. From there, they ended up in the port of Puteoli (v. 13). There, they found some Christians and were invited to stay for seven days, and then they departed from Rome (v. 14). The citizens of Rome had heard of Paul’s arrival, and so they sent out a welcoming party to meet them. When Paul saw them, he was encouraged that everything would be fine.

When the group finally arrived in Rome, Julius, the Centurion, had completed his task. He delivered Paul to the captain of the guard, where Paul was placed again under house arrest. Three days later, the brothers and sisters of the church in Rome came to visit Paul. At this point, Luke recounts for a final time his defense of Paul’s ministry:

“My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to release me because I was not guilty of any crime deserving of death.  The Jews objected, so I was compelled to appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people. For this reason, I have asked to see you and talk with you. I am bound with this chain because of the hope of Israel.” (Acts 28:17-20).

This particular provision resembles the defense we discussed last week. It supports the view that one of Luke’s primary intentions in writing  Acts was to defend Paul and his ministry.

Eventually, Paul was able to inhabit some lodges in the city of Rome. Then, he continued his apostolic ministry. The final part of Acts reveals Paul as teaching about the kingdom of God, the consistency of the ministry of Jesus with the law of Moses and the prophets, and the Messi ship of Jesus. As everywhere else, not everyone believed the apostle’s words. Some Jews rejected Paul and departed (v. 25). Luke sees this as a fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah that the Jews would hear and not perceive, that they would see and not understand the Messiah (vv. 26-27). Having ministered in Rome in precisely the same manner as Paul ministered everywhere else, he then began to teach Gentiles about Jesus. The final words are that no one, implicitly no authority in Rome, took any action against him. Neither should Caesar (v.31).

Conclusion

To some readers, the book of Acts ends abruptly, as if it is incomplete. We are simply told that Paul lived in Rome for two years at his own expense, welcomed people into his home, proclaimed the kingdom of God, and was not hindered in his ministry (vv. 30-31). Interestingly, we are not given a rendition of what happened when Paul appeared before Caesar. We are not told about the death of the apostle. Most of the questions that we would typically have are not answered. Why is this so?

Scholars ponder two different explanations. First, it’s possible that Paul was released without a trial before Caesar because it was felt unnecessary. Those who follow this way of thinking believe that Paul was released, continued his ministry, traveled west as far as return to Rome, was arrested, and then put to death. The second possibility is that this particular imprisonment ended with the apostle’s death, which, for some reason, Luke did not want to recount. A final possibility is that having written two books, Luke and Acts, each of which is about one scroll length, Luke reached the end of his capacity to record the actions of Paul and the other apostles. Perhaps there was some interruption that made it impossible for him to complete the book in the way he originally planned. I find the third explanation unconvincing.

This summer, Kathy and I were on a trip with some people from the Moody Bible Institute. Their take was that Paul was released, did continue his ministry as far as Spain, returned to Rome, and was arrested during the rain of the emperor Nero. At that point, he was put to death.

From a spiritual point of view, the ending is entirely satisfactory. The ministry of Jesus was continued by the apostles, including the apostle Paul. The work of the Holy Spirit was not finished when Jesus was crucified, died, resurrected, and ascended into heaven. It continued in the early church. It is also not over when Paul is arrested or when Paul dies. It continued then as it continues today. The book ends with the continuation of the ministry of Jesus. Perhaps that’s the way we ought to think of our own lives. The Work of Jesus continues today in us as we create little communities of wisdom and love.

Sometimes, even our most well-intentioned actions have negative consequences. Leaders often make decisions in good conscience but without a complete understanding of the costs of their choices. Usually, leaders are given good advice, which has unforeseen results. Stress, failure, opposition, and other negative experiences are part of the life of every human being and every Christian leader.

We began the prelude to Paul’s eventual trip to Rome two weeks ago. He had been warned that his travel to Jerusalem would result in danger, and those who prophesied from the danger were correct. Almost immediately upon his arrival and travel to the temple in Jerusalem, he is recognized and provokes a violent response. Paul’s defense of his ministry in the Temple courts provoked a riot so severe that the Roman legionnaire in charge felt it necessary to intervene (Acts 22). Paul went to the temple to obey the suggestions of the Christian church leaders in Jerusalem. He was trying to do the right thing. However, the consequences were not what anyone had anticipated. However, he was able to defend his ministry. Even that did not go well.

The Religious Nature of the Conflict between Paul and the Jewish Leaders

Near the end of his address to the crowd, Paul brings up the resurrection, which the Pharisees believed in, but the Sadducees did not. This provoked an additional conflict. Remembering that Luke probably wrote hacks partially as a defense of Paul, a defense that would be presented in Rome, this little vignette gives us an insight into one line of defense that Paul had against the charges against him. The Roman Empire allowed much religious diversity, and Roman governors did not interject themselves into disputes between religious sects. They were especially familiar with the violent disagreement among the Jews about religious matters, including the resurrection. By adding this vignette, Luke provides a defense for Paul in front of the emperor: the charges brought against Paul by the Jews were simply matters of religious dispute among Jews and not a matter of Roman law or threats to the Roman state.

The text indicates that Luke is defending Paul before the Roman Emperor. While he was under arrest in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus appeared to him, saying, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11). Neither Paul nor Luke felt that Paul’s imprisonment and trial in Rome were in any way unusual; they were part of God’s plan.

Transfer to Caesarea

Paul’s appearance at the temple provokes not just a violent response of immediate anger but also a conspiracy to put Paul to death (23:15). The potential for religious beliefs to result in violence is not only an ancient phenomenon. Sadly, for all religious groups, the existence of religious violence and religiously motivated violence is, for most people, a strong argument against the value of religion. The response of a small number of Jewish people is a reminder to all of us that there is a limit to what should be done to defend one’s religious beliefs. In the case of Christians, the fact that God is love and does not desire anyone to suffer violence adds additional emphasis to the importance of respecting other peoples, religious beliefs, and their right to disagree with ours.

Fortunately, a relative of Paul became aware of the plot against Paul’s life (v. 16). When Paul learned of the plot, he informed the centurion, who made arrangements for Paul to be transferred to Caesarea, where Governor Felix had his headquarters (v. 19-23). To fully inform the governor, the officer sent Paul a letter informing him of the situation and his handling of the problem (vv. 25-30). Thus, another step is taken, bringing Paul closer to his goal of eventually visiting Rome.

Trial before Felix

Five days after Paul was taken to Caesarea, the High Priest, the elders, and their lawyer came down from Jerusalem to give evidence against Paul (24:1). Tertulius, their lawyer, accused Paul of being a troublemaker and a desecrator of the temple (vv. 2-9). Paul, who had heard of Felix, was more than willing to give his defense. It began by explaining that he had only been in Israel for a brief time. He admitted that he was a follower of the way who worshiped the God of Israel, believed in all things taught in the law and the prophets, but who believed that Jesus was the foretold Messiah and the fulfillment of the Jewish Hope of a resurrection from the dead (vv. 9-14).

Paul went out to explain that he had been absent from Israel and Jerusalem for some time. He, therefore, came to bring arms and offerings for the people of Israel. While there, he had been in the Temple courts purifying himself. He was not with a mob of people but only a few colleagues (vv. 17-21).

At this point, Paul made an important statement for his defense. He claimed he had done nothing wrong and said nothing that caused anyone any trouble except perhaps one statement: his belief in the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ. This was an extremely wise move on Paul’s part. The Pharisees believed in a resurrection, while the Sadducees did not. In addition, Roman law gave a great deal of freedom to religious beliefs. This was particularly true for the Jewish people because the Romans were well aware of their tendency to engage in disputes that could become violent. It was Roman policy not to interfere with private religious conflicts. Paul’s statement was designed to show that this was his case. All of the trouble that had been caused in the temple was not because of any revolutionary act by Paul or any failure to abide by Roman or even Jewish law but only because of a religious belief (v. 21).

At this point, Felix seems to have seen a way out of the predicament. He immediately called a halt to the proceedings and delayed the hearing. In other words, Felix was not only buying for time but also giving Paul a chance to prove his allegations were true. Also, it’s possible that he was hoping that Paul would give him some kind of a bribe to rule in his favor, which he was probably inclined to do in any case (v. 26). As a point of history, Felix did have a bad reputation for minor corruption of a financial nature. Whatever the case, Paul was left in house arrest for two years (v. v. 27).

Those two years of enforced solitude and inactivity were stressful for Paul. Nevertheless, it’s very possible that there was a positive side to the delay. Many scholars think it was during this period that Luke did the research that would ultimately result in the gospel of Luke. For example, during this time, he may have interviewed Mary and others and gathered the information he needed for the birth narratives of the story. Perhaps during this time, he had a chance to look at collections of the sayings of Jesus and begin to outline his ideas about the book he intended to write.

This is a reminder to all of us that sometimes delay, and even long delay can be a positive experience in God’s providence. We may want to undertake a new task, begin a new ministry, or start a new career. All these things may take study, planning, and quiet solitude to bring to fruition. God sometimes brings space into our lives amid trouble so we might grow and develop the capacities needed to undertake the next chapter of our lives.

Paul’s Defense before Festus

Eventually, Felix was replaced by Festus, and it was time to take care of delayed business. Once again, the High Priest and those who wanted to accuse Paul came before the governor and asked that Paul be brought to trial (25:1-2). It so happened that Festus was about to go to Caesarea and suggested that the trial be held there. He may also have been concerned about Paul’s safety, having heard the rumors of attempts on his life. It was that Paul was brought before the new governor. Once again, Paul’s defense is essentially that he has not done anything to violate the law of the Jews, Temple laws, or Roman law (v. 8-9).

Festus, trying to get off on a good start with the Jewish people, asked Paul whether or not he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to stand trial. It was here that Paul played another legal card. He insisted that he tried in Caesarea and appealed to Caesar. Paul was a Roman citizen. Therefore, he had the right to demand a trial before Caesar, and Festus was obligated to grant that request. Whatever happened next, Paul would get a chance to visit Rome – which was his intention all along. In all this, we see both God’s Providence and the apostle’s shrewdness.

Festus recognized that he had a way out. Therefore, he tells Paul, “To Caesar, you have appealed to Caesar, you will go” (v. 12). In a way, all that transpires after this before Paul gets to Rome is commentary because Paul has assured himself that he will get to Rome and be able to defend the Christian faith before the supreme ruler of the Roman Empire. Before another word is said, Paul has actually won.

Nevertheless, Paul has another opportunity to share his testimony. After a while, King Agrippa and his wife, Bernice, visited the new Roman governor. This gave Festus a chance to allow Agrippa, who, after all, was able to understand the religious complexities of the Jewish faith. King Agrippa knew all about Paul and wanted to hear what the apostle had to say. As an aside, Festus notifies Agrippa that he doesn’t think that Paul has done anything to violate Roman law (v. 25). This, Festus believes, creates a problem. It was customary to send a list of charges against someone being transmitted to Rome for trial before Caesar. Festus doesn’t know what to say in this case because he doesn’t see that Paul has committed any crime.

At this point, it might be important to ponder Luke’s motives in including this scene in his narrative. Once again, some scholars believe that the book of Acts is essentially a defense of the apostle Paul. In particular, specific portions may have been written as part of an outline of defense that Paul intended to be made before Caesar. The statement, repeated more than once, that the Roman authorities involved were unclear that Paul had done anything that might be wrong could be put before Caesar as evidence that Paul should be released.

We’re jumping ahead, but many scholars believe that Caesar released Paul, continued his ministry to Spain, returned to Rome, and then was arrested for the final time. This would explain why Acts ends the way it does and why Paul may have had an opportunity to continue his ministry after his arrest in Jerusalem. The Roman authorities involved didn’t think he had done anything wrong. As a practical matter, most likely, Caesar would have followed the advice of his lieutenants unless he felt, for some reason, that they had made a mistake. The book of Acts seems to have been written partially to prove that those who felt Paul had done nothing wrong, or at least nothing violating Roman law, or correct.

Paul’s Defense

Some weeks ago, I wrote a blog outlining the spiritual meeting of Paul’s defense and how it shows how we might defend our faith in our day. In this particular blog, I want to take another tack. What’s evident in the narrative is that when Paul describes what he has been doing, he tries to convince Festus and Agrippa that they should become Christians! At one point, Agrippa responds to Paul, “You almost convince me to become a Christian!” (26: 28).

Paul responds that he does wish that Agrippa would become a Christian (v. 29). Immediately after these explanations, Agrippa and Festus agree that Paul has done nothing deserving death or imprisonment (v. 31). In fact, if Paul had not appealed to Cesar, they would have released him 9v. 32). Once again, here we have Roman authorities and the Jewish authority over the people of Jerusalem, agreeing together that Paul has done nothing wrong. The agreement between the Roman governor and the Jewish king was that under neither Roman nor Jewish law, Paul was guilty of a crime. This is a solid defense.

What was the content of Paul’s defense? Paul began by giving Festus and Agrippa a brief history of his life. The point of this part of the discussion is that Paul had been a religious Jew all his life. He had been a Pharisee of the strictest sect. Pharisees believe in the resurrection of the dead, and Paul had been a Pharisee who believed in the resurrection of the dead. He did not, however, believe that Jesus was the source of resurrection. Therefore, he persecuted the Christians. He went to such extremes that he persecuted the Christians in Damascus.

In other words, Paul’s description of himself is not very different from his accusers. Like them, he was a Jew. Like them, he was deeply religious. Like the Pharisees, he obeys the law strictly. Like them, he rejected Christ. He then recounts that he had been confronted with a vision of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Christ had admonished him about persecuting Christians because in persecuting Christians, he was persecuting the risen Messiah. Christ appeared to Paul because he might become an apostle and messenger of the Christian faith.

In other words, at the beginning of his defense, Paul agrees with the arresting officer, Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, that Paul has done nothing wrong that would involve Roman law. His difficulties with the Jewish authorities are not a dispute about Roman or Jewish law but a disagreement about whether or not the resurrection of the dead is a valid doctrine and whether or not Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of the resurrection hope of the Jewish people. If Paul was correct (and he was), Paul had done nothing wrong under Roman law.

Conclusion

Next week, I hope to conclude this little series of blogs. I’ve tried to show this week that the book of  Acts is not simply dictated off the top of Dr. Luke’s head with no purpose in mind. In fact, throughout the book, it has been researched and has a purpose. One of those purposes is to defend the ministry of Paul. I think it is quite possible that the latter part of the book was written partially to be read in some form to the Roman emperor in defense of Paul’s ministry.

We sometimes underestimate Christians’ need to be wise, study hard, and be careful what we say and how we say it. We are called to defend our faith. Christ warned us that we will occasionally be called before important people to make that defense. When that happens, we need to be wise. From the beginning, Paul shows a certain shrewd wisdom in how he handles his defense. He conducts himself in a dignified manner. He provides his accusers with the best possible defense against the charges against him. This defense, which is ultimately pretty simple, is often missed by contemporary Christians. What Paul is saying is that the religious dispute between him and the Jewish people is not a matter for secular authorities to handle.