Preface

John 20: ³⁰ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe^[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 1: ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  ⁴⁶ “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.    “Come and see,” said Philip.

The idea for these advent reflections began several years ago, as I began to become aware of the growing tendency of the Church in America to consistently move in the direction of post modern thought and theology. I was not only growing concerned for the generation my son found himself a part of, but I saw the same worldview being embraced by more and more Christians in America with very little thought or consideration for what this might mean for your future. These observations led me to renew my study of the Gospel of John, written during a time when Gnostic thought (an ancient Greek philosophical system that focused on an elevation of knowledge and wisdom) was gaining ground in the Roman world and early Church. John was writing an apologetic for the Faith in the midst of a foreign culture which needed to stop and look at the threat this worldview was bringing to the church of his day.

I recently had a conversation with my son which illustrates the reality of this threat to our modern faith. He was making a case for his understanding, or his way of determining, the concept of truth. He stated that “Christianity makes the most sense to me, therefore I am a Christian”. He believes that whatever religion a person embraces it should make sense, it should be substantiated by fact and substance. He further maintains that we need a place to go when we are deciding right and wrong, for those times when we hold right or wrong in question, there has to be a place to go beyond our own personal views to determine what is right and what is wrong. This is the real crisis when we speak of Truth. IF there is no truth, beyond what the culture embraces and the individual interprets based on their cultural experiences and upbringing, we are left with no place to go outside our own personal point of view. As my son said to me, “if we have no place to go other than ourselves, who’s to say the sociopath is not correct, or the Nazi extremist, or the terrorist, or anyone else who believes they have the right to define what is right and what is true?” What an astute observation, all flowing from a Philosophy course he is taking in college.

Having grown up in a post modern world, these arguments are often housed in a verbal display of truth and untruth, rational and irrational, consistent and contradictory phrases that are held together by the person speaking them rather than the laws of nature, logic, or the universe itself. They become a window into the post modern philosopher trying to make sense of what He knows to be true, and what he has been taught to think. On the one hand, the value of personal truth and one’s constitutional (in some cases God given) right to free expression of ideas is held over and above the right to proclaim universal truth. It is more important in our society to have a right to speak than it is to be “right” within our speech. This is what we are taught, this is what is indoctrinated into our souls from birth, and this is what most in our culture fully embraces. It does not matter whether they are church goers or not, Disciples of Christ or disciples of Marx, Baptist or Catholic, this is the philosophy of our age, and it eventually finds its way to some degree into all thinking minds within our culture. We cannot help but be exposed to the postmodern mind, and exposure will always lead to some type of conformity, if this conformity in fact feeds that which we believe we need or desire.

My son is an example of a mind in conflict. It is a war of worldviews. On the one hand, he is trying to discover a source of truth which lies beyond his scope of understanding about the moral compass that some believe exists in our universe- A cosmic good and bad which can define his life and give purpose to his choices when personal value and wisdom cannot take him there. (Can anything good come from Nazareth?) On the other hand, he is throwing himself full force into a post modern philosophical mind set when he states that whatever religion he embraces “needs to make the most sense to me.” (Come and see!) On the surface, nothing seems all that wrong with such a statement. Of course our faith should make sense. But, make sense to who? Me, or you. God, or the devil. Jesus, or Gandhi? Who gets to decide what makes sense and what the criteria is for deciding if a thing is right or wrong, good or bad, true or not true? In the postmodern gathering of the minds the choice is made by the same person every single time. ME. I get to decide. And if it does not make sense to me, I reject it out of hand, and I have every right to do so.

Now, let’s explore for a moment the logic of such a belief. When I was a child I had a reputation for hating Liver and onions (onions non Liver related were tolerable). I could not stand eating that impious organ and did whatever I could to get out of eating dinner when I could smell it cooking. I’d rather starve for a night than eat this abomination to my taste buds. I could fake a stomach ache or create unfinished homework with the best of them whenever I knew Liver was on Momma’s menu. Each and every time, my mother would do whatever it took to get me to eat it. Surround it with gravy, hide it with the cube steak, or smother it with mashed potatoes, whatever it took to get this awful taste in my mouth. I longed for college just so I could get out of the house, away from my Mom the Liver Nazi. Now, who had the truth? Well, in a post modern world, I did. I don’t like liver and onions, so why should I be exposed and forced to embrace something I don’t want to eat? But in a biblical world, my mom is right: “Liver is good for you, I’m your mother, and I get to decide what you should be eating to become the thriving young man I desire for you to be. One day your wife and kids will thank me!!” I trust you can identify the conflict of truths here. Personal preference or healthy eating? Like and dislikes or Momma’s desire for me? Eat what my mother cooks, or go hungry? One “right way” appeals to personal preference and my taste buds; The other “right way” appeals to healthy eating, a mother’s love, and future health and well being. You may think I take this argument too far, but in a society where obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes are epidemic, I wonder if I do. Who really had the truth about a growing boy’s diet?

Liver does not cease being good for me just because I don’t like to eat it. And Truth does not stop being good for me just because I have differing personal preferences. In the home of my youth Momma’s voice outweighed my voice. In a postmodern world, our voice outweighs the Creator’s voice. And my son is caught in the middle, asserting his autonomy by demanding that his religious and philosophical concerns make sense to him, while at the same time recognizing that personal preference and private interpretations of truth will always leave him short of knowing what is right and what is wrong on numerous occasions in life.

Jesus came to destroy this kind of autonomy. Jesus came to burst open floodgates and break down walls. The isolation what people feel from others right beside them, as well as the people of other countries, religions, and cultural contexts, have been obliterated in Christ. In Genesis 12 God told Abraham that He was going to use his seed to bring blessing to all nations. In Christ the promise is fulfilled. “In Christ there is neither slave nor free, male nor female, Jew nor Greek.” Jesus does not feed isolation and autonomy, he destroys all things that separate and divide. My thoughts become our thought. My life becomes His life. The Christian become the Church. And the Disciple becomes the Body. “For unto Us a child is given, Unto Us a Son is born.” Advent will never lose the profound ability to bring people together rather than causing them to scatter and abandon. Is it any wonder that of all seasons of the year this season amplifies the reality of loneliness and isolation among all people made in the image of God?

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