Occasional Thoughts

Throughout the writing of Paul there are countless echoes and implicit references to the rhetoric of the imperial cult.  Just as much as a party’s “No You Can’t” slogan contains echoes to a politically driven mantra, so Paul’s language is infused with parallelism to the language of the Roman Empire.  This language is not merely for the sake of familiarity with his audience, but to make a subversive statement to a world that claimed Caesar was Lord.  The resurrection of Jesus, God’s Messiah and the hope for Israel and all the world, was the inauguration of God’s New Creation, stating loudly that this world has one Lord and it is not Caesar.  For Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not.  This theme of Paul and Empire runs predominately through various epistles, including (but not limited to) Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, and his magnum opus to the Romans.

In the letter to the Philippians (2:9-11) Paul incorporates what was likely a well known “Christ hymn.”  This hymn, whether in its circulated use or Paul’s revision and rendition of it, contains language that directly parallels that used to describe Caesar and the imperial cult.  The Roman society viewed Caesar as the one who had been exalted to the highest place.  They viewed Caesar as the name above every name.  It was at the name of Caesar that every knee should bow and tongue confess (threatened by death) that Caesar was Lord.  However in the hymn found within the epistle to the church in Philippi it is Jesus who has been exalted to the highest place, not Caesar.  It is Jesus at who’s name every knee should bow and tongue confess, not Caesar.  For Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not.  There is only one ruler of the world and it is not a deified human who sits atop the Roman empire, but it is Jesus, the Lord and ruler and Messiah and hope of the world.

In the letter to the Colossians (1:15-20) Paul continues a similar polemic use.  To a culture that saw Caesar as the image of the invisible God and firstborn of all creation (seen directly in the physical “image” of Caesar that was placed on every coin, arch, and random piece of society), the one in whom all things hold together, the head of the body politic of Rome, and the one who perpetuates the Pax Romana (via highways lined with wooden crosses), Paul promotes Jesus again in place of Caesar.  Instead of Caesar it is Jesus who is the image of the invisible God and firstborn of all creation.  Instead of Caesar it is Jesus in whom all things hold together.  While Caesar sits as the head of the body politic of Rome, Jesus I the head of the body, the church, the people of God.  While Caesar and Rome attempt to bring peace by spilling blood on rows of crosses, Jesus brings peace, reconciling all things on earth or in heaven, through his blood, shed on a Roman cross.

A slightly briefer reference, though still as present in its echo of the imperial rhetoric, is found in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians.  The language of parousia (whether delayed or imminent) would immediately strike the image of a Roman official or ruler (or even Caesar himself) appearing to meet a city while the citizens of the city lined the streets outside the city to meet the ruler and follow him into the city gates.  However, in the letters to the Thessalonians it is not the appearance of Caesar that we see in the parousia but the appearance of Jesus.  This imperial rhetoric redefines the lordship, authority, and rule of Caesar around the Lordship, authority, and rule of Jesus who brings God’s New Creation and Renewed Covenant to his people and the world.

Finally in Romans Paul begins with language taken directly from the rhetoric of the imperial cult: “gospel,” “power,” “salvation,” and “believes” (Romans 1:16).  These four words, though common in our Christian vernacular, are rooted in the rhetoric of Rome where the good news was peace of Rome, brought through the power of Rome for the salvation (or conformist unification) or the world.  This was brought about by the faithfulness and loyalty (belief) of the Roman people and empire.  Already in the first lines of his letter to the Romans Paul is borrowing (or hijacking) imperial rhetoric to show the good news of Jesus is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.  For as we have already seen, Jesus is Lord (and Caesar is not).

Throughout all of Paul’s writing as well as Paul’s world, the echoes of the imperial cult are found both implicitly and explicitly.  From the life, death, and powers that threaten to separate us from the love of God to the locatedness and loyalty of our citizenship (as well as later to the profoundly imperial apocalyptic vision placed at the end of our scriptures), Paul’s letters (as well as the theology they communicate) loudly proclaim the good news that there is one Lord and ruler of the world.  And he is not Caesar, but rather he is Jesus.

A while back I read through N.T. Wright's most recent work on Paul.  Since then I've been working my way through the entire conversation between Wright and Piper (and reading their dialogical books that continue to emerge).

I am becoming more aware of the tendency we have in our world and culture to put everything into a dichotomistic or binary spectrum.  Things are good or bad, in or out, left or right, us or them.  Similarly our understanding of God falls into a type of dichotomy; there are places where God is and there are places where God isn’t.  Only I am continuing to realize and experience that this binary spectrum, like many others, is no longer sufficient.

As Aaron Niequist says in his song Already Here, “You’re always everywhere.”  Just as Jonah fled from God only to find God in the place where God wasn’t supposed to be, I am realizing that God is in the places that “God isn’t.”  Because there is no place that God isn’t.  God is wherever there is love.  And God is wherever there is not love.  God simply “is.”

This ever-and-omni presence is a God who is in all things and all places, with all people at all times.  Just as the fingerprint of an artist can be found on every stroke of her art, God can be found in every breath of creation.  In all the places where God isn’t supposed to be, God is already there.  Because God is always and already here.

This day marked a moment of great uncertainty and darkness for the followers of Jesus.  Yet it is precisely in the midst of a Holy Saturday experience that the decision to follow Christ becomes truly authentic.  A faith that can only exist in the light of victory and certainty is one which really affirms the self while pretending to affirm Christ, for it only follows Jes sin the belief that Jesus has conquered death.  Yet a faith that can look the horror of the cross and still say 'yes' is one that says 'no' to the self in saying 'yes' to Christ.

Only a genuine faith can embrace doubt, for such a faith does not act because of a self-interested reason (such as fear of hell or desire for heaven) but acts simply because it must.  A real follower of Jesus would commit to him before the crucifixion, between the crucifixion and the resurrection, and after the resurrection. (p38)

If you're familiar with the enneagram, I'm often behave like a "seven."

When all we do is sing, I think the we can never teach kids/students/anyone "how" to worship and that worship is "more than choreographed movements to a song but rather a posture of the heart".  The method is the message.  What we do is what we teach/learn.

I firmly believe that everyone is always worship.  The questions isn't "when?" but "what?".  At Mars Hill we teach our kids and students that worship is finding God and you can find God in whatever you do (we even call our "worship segment" Whatever You Do).  Sometimes we sing and sometimes we don't.  At Fifty6 - the fifth and sixth grade ministry - we always end Whatever You Do with "Stop and Breathe" where we do exactly that: we stop and we breathe, reminding ourselves that God is always as close as our very breath.

Whether or not they ever sing a "worship" song again, I don't care.  But I want them to continue to find God in all people and all places.  The song itself isn't "worship" but is simply helps me find God.  It is a finger pointing at the moon and too often it seems we become infatuated and fixated on the finger rather than that to which it is directing us.

God is not an object to behold.  
Rather, God is the light in which we behold all objects.