I have always loved the first day of school. The new books, the new teachers, the sense of excitement over all that we will learn over the course of the semester. I know, I know…[NERD SALUTE].

Some observations about my morning classes (Old Testament, Barth)

• Intro to Old Testament Exegesis is going to be a huge course. We have a lot to cover and hardly any time to cover it. It will be good, though, so I won’t complain. I don’t have to do as much intensive Hebrew as I expected, so I’ll make it.

• My class on Karl Barth is going to be fun, although I’m one of only three grad students in the class. I feel like I am at the point where I can understand and interact constructively with his thought. It has taken six classes that had a major emphasis on Barth’s thought to get there.

• Rule of thumb for differentiating between grad students and undergrads in a mixed classroom: grad students use laptops…They also tend to cross their legs while listening to the professor and generally have an expression of, “I am understanding this at a way deeper level than you” on their faces. It’s not true, but we don’t let the undergrads know that.

• When asked why she was taking a class on Karl Barth, one girl said, “Well, my Mom used to wake me up every morning by reading a selection from Barth’s writings.” I’ll note that for future parenting techniques.

• There is one thing I can’t stand about people who are into Karl Barth. I love Barth, but lots of people do. He’s hot right now in theology in the English-speaking world, and American Evangelicals are waking up to the fact that he is awesome. At the moment, everyone who is into theology is into Barth. The problem is, even though the whole theological world has a major crush on Barth, everybody thinks they are the only person who appreciates him. So, you hear a lot of comments like, “I’m studying Barth because everyone thinks he is evil and they are all idiots. He gets ignored in American theology, and nobody realizes how awesome he is. But, I want to help change that and bring him back so that people will stop bashing him. I want to change the church’s opinion of Barth, because nobody likes him!”…All this, said in a classroom that is overflowing with so many students that there aren’t enough desks, and every student in there is thinking the exact same thing. How come we always think that we are on the cutting edge? Why is everyone else not as insightful or enlightened as ourselves?

Well, I’m off to get started on my reading.

The summer is winding down. It has been a good summer. I took three classes. We visited family in PA. Michelle and I are caught up on Lost. I read some good books. (Old School by Tobias Wolfe, Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card, On the Priesthood by John Chrysostom, and The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis were among the better ones.)

As the summer ends, I look ahead to the fall, which will has a lot going on…

Weddings

The most obvious thing that stands out on Michelle and my fall calendar is the crazy number of weddings we have to attend. There are five before the end of September. Michelle has more showers and bachelorette parties to attend than she can handle. Of course, this is a good problem to have. We are very happy for our friends and excited to celebrate their new lives together. One cool thing for me is that in December, I will be performing my first wedding. I’m pumped about it, because I love the couple. I am proud that they want me to bless them in this way.

School

School starts in a week. I’m excited, although it is going to be an intense semester. The core courses for my program are coming up, and, according to the horror stories of past students, they are the most difficult ones. I’m a little rusty on my Hebrew, and that scares me. Hopefully, I’ll be alright after some more review. It may not matter how much review I do though, because Dr. Beale and Dr. Walton are going to kick my butt either way. The only class I feel ready for is my Barth class, since I’ve read most of the readings before. I’m finally starting to understand that guy.

Ministry

Michelle and I have been figuring out our ministry schedule this fall, as well. Right now, it looks like we are going to be continuing to teach in Sunday school, following the kids we were with last year who will now be 4th graders. I’ll be team teaching with a guy who is in the same program as me. Michelle will also be playing in the orchestra on Sunday mornings.

What is new for us this year is Alpha. It is the program our church uses for new Christians and non-Christians to help them explore the basics of the faith. I’m not too familiar with the program, although it is a national thing that a lot of churches do. From what I understand right now, we will be leading a table discussion group. We’ll watch a video that raises some basic issue of Christian belief, and then talk about it over a meal. I don’t know much more than that, but I am excited about it because I don’t spend a lot of time with non-Christians or new Christians in my daily life. (i.e. in the Wheaton College library) In order to have time to do Alpha, Michelle and I are not doing a small group with Ecclesia. This is both good and bad. We were in a small group with great people, and the past couple years have been a lot fun with them. It is sad that we will not be spending a couple hours each week with them, talking and praying. However, our group has been ready for a change for a while now, and this will stir things up for Michelle and I in a good way. We will be stretched, and that it is so important for our own growth. Because of that we are very excited.

On top of this, I will also be coordinating the “Labs” ministry for Ecclesia. These are the training and educational sessions that Ecclesia does every month or so. I am looking forward to helping with this again and helping to develop other teachers in our community. More and more, teaching and training ministry is becoming a passion of mine. This year will be a good year to develop that.

Blogging

If you haven’t noticed by now, I am going to be very busy this fall. What does this mean for the blog? Considering that I had a flexible schedule this summer, and the blog fell silent for weeks at a time…probably that not much should be expected. I hope to keep writing, I doubt I’ll have consistent time to do it. I have learned my lesson of promising to write about certain subjects too far ahead of time. I still hope to write about heaven and the Lord’s Supper and respond to Tim’s comments on my Ephesian’s paper and many other things, besides…but I don’t know when or how it will pan out. Instead, I would expect waves of sporadic posting for a while. I’ll basically write what I feel like at the moment, not attempted any extended series of posts. Oh well.

Free WiFi. I’m here at the new home of Wheaton Bible Church, and I am blogging in our cafe. Pretty sweet, if you ask me. Of course, that could mean people surfing the web from their smartphones during the sermon. But of course, I don’t know anyone at our church who would do that.

I’ve got a friend. I’m not sure she would call herself a Christian, but she is around Christians enough to be curious. A while ago I asked her what I should write about on my blog. She said that she was thinking a lot about heaven, so I should write about that.

I appreciated the suggestion for a couple of reasons. First of all, heaven is one of the happiest topics in all of theology, which means it should be fun to talk about. Secondly, most people have a really lousy understanding of what Christians think about heaven. To be blunt, most of the popular conceptions of heaven are complete nonsense. Even the average churchgoer usually has a pretty skewed idea of what heaven is or what it will be like. Because of that, I am kind of excited to try and explain heaven here on the blog. I don’t know how long it will take, or how much detail I will go into, but I’ll try and do my best. So, let’s get started…

[Sidenote: N. T. Wright just published a book on the Christian hope for the future called Surprised by Hope. I have not read it yet. However, I have read enough Wright to guess what is in it, and I am willing to recommend it. You can see an interview with Wright on Colbert, discussing this book here.]

“Heaven” usually refers to the sky.

Heaven very often refers to simply the sky above, the place where birds fly, clouds move, and stars make their rotation. The term “heaven” or “heavens” is the same word as “sky” and sometimes it refers simply to what you saw when you looked up. The majority of time, when the Bible uses the word “heaven,” this is what it means. It is the place of air, birds, stars, clouds, rain, and the tops of mountains. In a very real sense any of us who have been to the summit of a high peak or flown in an airplane have been to heaven and back. That is the most common way for the Bible to use the term “heaven.” Much of the time, the Hebrew and Greek words for heaven are translated “sky” or “air.”

“Heaven” is where God is.

However, we have to remember that in ancient times, people assumed that their gods actually lived in the sky. To ancient eyes, it seemed that the top of the sky must be solid, like a big metal dome over the earth. They figured that the gods must live on top of the dome of heaven in a palace in the sky. Because of this, they could talk about the sky as the place where the gods dwelled. Where was the home of the gods? In the heavens. This was the common understanding in the ancient world, and so the term for the place where birds fly is the same as the term for where God lives. Although, we would not say today that God literally lives in the sky, the word has stuck, and the term “heaven” refers simply to the dwelling of God.

So this is where we will start our discussion of heaven, with the most basic fact: Heaven is the place where God lives.

This may seem very rudementary, but it will be important later on as I develop my understanding of heaven.

“There is such simplicity, such absence of display, or of any novel elaboration, in fact an absence of any costly trappings, when a man is plunged and dipped in water to the accompaniment of a few words, and then rises again not much cleaner, if at all; just because of this it seems to men incredible that eternal life should be won in this manner…We also marvel; but we marvel because we believe.” - Tertullian

Well, I think I have come to the end of my series on baptism. I certainly haven’t exhausted the topic. I haven’t even hit the real hot question on the topic. (Babies or believers?) But, I think I’ve covered a good bit, and hopefully stirred up some thinking on the topic. For so long, baptism has been one of the central acts of the Christian faith. It is not peripheral. It is not a nice side-topic. It is at the heart the wonder of the Christian faith. It is the way we all got into it.

I was talking with a friend the other day. He had mentioned that he thought people ought to be buried on church grounds. I wondered why he would say this, as it is an unusual conviction these days. He said that his main impulse for this was because the church is the place where you first died and rose again (in baptism), so it seems fitting that it be the place where it happens again (at the resurrection). Interesting thought. I don’t know that I have grown up accustomed to thinking of my baptism as an event as significant as being born or dying. I am beginning to think of it that way, now.

I hope that by thinking about baptism, you will begin to have some wonder. I hope that you marvel at the gift God has given us. We can experience the death Christ died for our sin, and it gives us faith. We can participate in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it gives us hope. We can be united with Christ and his people, and so we know love. This is the Christian faith. All of it is contained in the simple, unremarkable act of baptism. What a gift we have been given.

A few more baptism thoughts…

The ceremony of baptism is loaded with imagery from the Old Testament. For the early Christians, it was natural to think of baptism (and all of life) in terms of the story/stories of the Hebrew Scriptures. Baptism gathers up much of the narrative of the story of Israel, and, as someone receives baptism, they are caught up into this story. The story of what God is doing in history becomes their story. It is the narrative of their lives, in contrast with the plot-lines that the rest of the world demands we live in. Baptism is a ceremony that symbolically initiates you into God’s Story.

This became more clear to me this year during Easter. I attended the Easter Vigil at my sister’s Anglican church, which is a traditional time for baptisms. The liturgy included a reading of huge sweeps of Scripture from creation to Christ, hitting all the high points of redemptive history on the way. At the end of this reading, the baptisms occurred. The presentation of the Scripture was artfully done, and the effect of the liturgy was stunning. Baptism became more than a personal act by the time the readings were done. It was truly a part of God’s running narrative of salvation.

Here are some of the key points of the OT story that baptism symbolizes.

Creation

Go and read Genesis 1 again. Notice how the scene is set at the start:

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The primeval chaos that existed before God brought order to the world is depicted as a churning ocean. Before God speaks, all is death, disorder, and purposelessness. When other parts of the OT, such as Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Prophets depict creation, they often use the imagery of water being restrained. Creation is pictured as God calling new life out of watery death. Baptism takes up this theme and the new Christian becomes part of God’s New Creation in Jesus.

The Flood

Genesis 6-9 tells the tale of Noah’s flood. The flood was a consequence of the intense evil of the humans at that time. They were wicked and full of violence. God was anguished by what humanity had become and the mess they had made of the world. So, God decided to wipe the slate clean, to purge the world of evil. In an act that was as much a cleansing as a judgment, the world was overwhelmed by the waters of chaos, returning to the state it was in just before God formed the world. But, as the waters of death purged the land of evil, new life came out of the destruction. Noah’s family was spared through the waters of judgment, and they lived to begin creation anew, with the blessing of God upon them. This story is mentioned in connection with baptism in the New Testament. In one of his letters, Peter says that just as Noah’s family was saved “through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 3:18-22)

Circumcision

When God first initiated his plan of salvation for the whole world, he approached Abraham. He called Abraham out of his old life, promised him a great land and a large family. Through this family, blessing would come to the whole world. God confirmed his promises by making a covenant with Abraham. As a sign of this covenant, Abraham and his sons underwent the act of circumcision. For the Jews, this served as seal, marking out who participated in the covenant with God and who did not. Any who joined in with the Jews in pledging themselves to God and trusting in God to fulfill his promises took on this mark. In the New Testament, circumcision is fulfilled in baptism. Baptism is now the symbol that marks off who is in and who is out of God’s people. Those who claim the promises of God in Christ undergo baptism, just as those before Christ underwent circumcision.

The Exodus

Abraham’s children moved to Egypt and eventually became slaves there. But, God supernaturally rescued them from their slave masters. He triumphed over the powers of death, the rule of a leader who thought he was a god. The final, climactic defeat of the Egyptians came at the Red Sea. God’s people were trapped, caught between the pursuing armies of Pharaoh and the shores of an uncrossable sea. The people were powerless, but God told them to simply be still. Through Moses, God parted the waters of the sea, and the people pass through on dry ground. The Egyptians however, were caught in the waves, and the water brought them down to death. In the New Testament, baptism is symbolically connected to this event. Paul says, “our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” (I Corinthians 10:1-2) Our baptism is just like this crossing of the Red Sea. In it, we are set free from the rule of sin. We are no longer slaves to the forces of death that dominate this world, but we are rescued to live a new life of freedom. We pass through the waters of death, but we emerge on the other side to a new life. The act is not our own, but it is the work of God. He brings us from slavery to freedom. He parts the waters. We only need to be still.

Crossing the Jordan

After Moses leads the people out of Egypt, they go to the promised land. When they arrive, spies enter the land to scout it out. They return, and most of them are too afraid to invade. They lack the faith to take God at his word that he will provide them the new land. This rebellious generation ends up wandering around the desert for 40 years, until nearly all of them are dead. Then, their children end up being the ones to enter into the Promised Land. Joshua replaces Moses as their leader, and he leads the entry into the new land.

The initial point of of entry is at the Jordan river. They approach the river during flood season, which makes the river impossible to cross. The story is quite dramatic, and you can read it yourself in Joshua 3. To sum it up, God tells the people that they are to cross the river while it is flooding, and that the priests were to go first, carrying the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was the symbolic throne of God on earth, and the symbol of God’s presence with his people. When the priests’ feet touch the water and the Ark enters the river, the water is miraculously parted, and the river dries up. While the priests stand in the river, the people of Israel pass through it on dry ground. God enters the water, enabling the people to enter the land.

In the New Testament, baptism first occurs with John the Baptist. Where does he do it? The Jordan river, the same place where Israel first entered the land. What does he do? He calls people who are part of a rebellious generation to come and pass through the waters again, to repent, and truly become Israel again. God, he says, is about to fulfill his promises just as he did in Joshua’s day. His baptism is a re-crossing of the Jordan. And of course, like the first crossing, the presence of God on earth shows up. Jesus comes to enter the river, to stand in it with us, and be baptized.

Conclusion

The ceremony of baptism is not a private matter. It is the entry of individuals into a story much bigger than themselves. Baptism initiates you into the story of God’s work in the world. God is restoring creation, using his people. He has been doing it from the start. He has consistently worked to bring people out of death, slavery, and chaos. He does so by bringing them through the flood of death itself, giving them new life on the other side. God’s story is sweeping, covering the span of history. When we enter into this story through baptism, it redifines the narrative of our lives. The story claims us. We no longer live in the competing stories that the world offers us.

There are hundreds of false stories that we are called to believe in. The advertisers tell us that the plot of our life is one of consumption. The government tells us the story of the inevitable advancement of democracy around the world. We are painted a picture of career advancement, self-fulfillment, and status achievement. 20-somethings believe that they are supposed to take a few years to enjoy themselves before they take on responsibilities like family or ministry. Married couples are painted the picture of the happy, healthy family in a single-family home, with children who excel in school, music, and sports. This is the story they are told they are in, and their life is supposed to fit into that plot.

But baptism breaks this pattern. It brings us into the real story of the world. It brings us into God’s story and reveals that the others stories are lies and imitations of the world’s real plot. In baptism, God says, “You’re in my story now.”

Just after posting about my friends who blog, I found out that another good friend of mine just started a blog. Her name is Jenna, and she is a friend from Ecclesia. She also participated in “the Experiment.” She is an elementary school teacher. I am looking forward to her blog because she has a good sense of humor that I enjoy. Check it out: Herding cats…

My church is moving into a new building in about a month. I have been going to our current building for my whole life. It is kind of weird to be moving out. As part of the process of celebrating the good things that happened in that building, they have asked each of us to share some memories, which they are posting on the church website and using in the final service in the current building. My wife recently posted her memories. Here are mine. (Note: Some of these memories are going to make more sense to people who have been a part of my church. For others, it may feel like inside jokes. Herd = Junior High youth group. Student Body = Senior High Youth Group. Project Serve = Summer mission trip for students. Main Street Chapel = Student Ministries Building. 209 House = Student Ministries Offices.)

There is not enough space for almost 26 years of memories.

I remember Awana, with all of the frantic cramming and hasty recitation of Bible verses. Mrs. Brown would always make me go back and try to learn them again because I never remembered the reference. Her patience and my desire for prizes combined into a real blessing from God, because most of the passages I memorized then are still with me today.

I remember Breakout, the junior high prayer meeting that met early before school. All the older boys would chase the 7th graders around, but I kept coming anyway because they served Lucky Charms and my Mom didn’t. I’m glad I did, because this is one of key places where I learned to pray.

I remember being baptized in the main sanctuary. It was scary and cold and one of the best moments of my life. I come and witness as many baptisms as I can at WBC because never get over the wonder of seeing someone embrace new life through Christ’s death and resurrection.

I remember as a teenager sneaking into every corner of the building, from the storage behind the sanctuary, to the closets between the bathrooms in the gym, to the roof of Main Street Chapel. I think I know this building as well as any home I’ve ever lived in.

I remember getting my first job at 17 as a Gatekeeper. That consisted of sitting at the front desk for hours on end, stuffing the pew racks with giving envelopes, and preparing the candles for the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. We used to always get collect calls from some crazy guy who said he was “Jesus.” We weren’t supposed to answer them, but I mean, when Jesus calls collect, you accept the charges.

I remember my first Project Serve experience. We were sitting in the lobby of the main building with brown paper bags on our head, waiting to be chosen by a leader to find out what sites we were on. At that moment I swore that I would be a student leader the next year so that I didn’t have to do that again. This year is the first time in 12 years that I haven’t been on Project Serve. I’m thankful for every one of those trips because they taught me the value of missional living and gave me a potent vision of what it means to be a worshiping, serving community.

I remember giving my first sermon in Student Body in 11th grade. I have no idea why Rob Rienow thought I could do it, but I’m glad he gave me the chance. It wasn’t a very good sermon, but it is how I discovered my calling to teach the Bible.

I remember volunteering to be a Herd leader when I was in college. Week after week, Chris McElwee had us filling rooms in WBC with unusual objects, from hundreds of over-sized inner tubes to tarps full of slippery slime to strobe lights, all so we could gather junior highers and tell them about God. Some of my best memories are the nights where we didn’t play any games or watch goofy videos, but instead taught 7th and 8th graders that the coolest thing of all is to worship Jesus. Some of those junior highers are now missionaries.

I remember hundreds of meetings with high school students in the 209 house, where we would pray and plot about how to reach their world. I remember showing up to Main Street Chapel very early every Sunday morning for two years to get ready for Student Body. I’d look over the notes for my lesson, track down all the misplaced tech equipment, and pray like crazy for the students that I would be teaching that day.

I remember the first meeting of Ecclesia in Main Street Chapel, a little experiment in doing church in a new way in the hope of reaching the postmodern, post-Christian world around us. Four years later, I still love gathering with that community, to celebrate, learn, pray, and break bread together.

My favorite memory of all is meeting Michelle Sokoloski in a student leader meeting for Student Body. I thought she was cute. She thought I was an arrogant nerd. I remember how five years later, I watched Michelle walk down the aisle of the sanctuary to become Michelle Keenon. I still think she is cute, and she still thinks I’m a nerd.

Some of the best moments of my life were spent in the buildings on Main and Franklin. I am truly thankful for all that God has done during my time on that campus. I’ll miss it. I hope the new campus will provide as many good memories for us as this one has.

Because I am currently in a slow season here on the blog, it felt like a good time to tell you about some of my friends who blog so you can check them out. They are all over the map as far as style and perspective, but they are all my friends.

Matt

Matt is a very good friend of mine from Ecclesia. He and I have been in a small group together for the last few years. He is an engineer who works with robots. He recently started blogging (again). So far, he is writing about all sorts of things, from personal finance to exploited workers in the third world to the effects of living together before marriage. He applies a focused analytical mind to everything he does, but he is one of the more authentically caring people I know.

Joe

Joe, likewise, is a friend from Ecclesia. Joe’s blog, from the looks of it, started as his thoughts while studying in England. I didn’t know Joe then, so I can’t tell you much about that. Recently, I found his blog and saw that he is posting again. I mentioned before that Joe made a couple of posts about N. T. Wright’s What Saint Paul Really Said. Hopefully, he will continue sharing his thoughts, because they are worth hearing. A while back, I posted some thoughts after a class that he taught in Ecclesia about holiness. Joe is sharp, funny, and a solid guy.

Dan

Dan grew up in the same church as me. Both my wife and I knew him when we were younger, as he was a leader for us in Sunday school and the youth group. But that was a while ago. He has gone on to study theology at some significant schools, under some important theologians, amassing some impressive degrees. His blog is covers issues in politics, theology, poetry, and music. On the surface, he and I may seem to have fairly different political and theological outlooks. However, if you can read between the lines, there are some fundamental theological positions we share. For that reason I find his blog stimulating and fun. Of course, I would recommend the blog simply because he has good taste in music and because he is a friend.

Dahvede

Dahvede was a student of mine in junior high and high school. He is currently a missionary in New Zealand, working with YWAM. He blogs about his thoughts and experiences while doing this. I don’t know if he would use these terms for himself, but I’d characterize him as missional, reformed, and charismatic. In my book, that is a good combination. He is a man who is passionate about following Jesus wherever he leads.

Michelle (My Wife)

I saved the best for last. My wife, Michelle, has started a blog. It is impossible to be unbiased about your wife, but I think that even if I was not in love with her, I would recommend that you read her blog. She is both intelligent and wise. She is a high school English teacher. I’m not sure all that she is planning to write about, but I imagine she will write about faith, justice, simple living, family life, literature, and whatever amusing thoughts she has.

Also, check out my other friend’s blogs on the sidebar. Steve and Brian have good tumblelogs of interesting stuff they have found on the web. Kiley has some good recipes. Bryant and Dean have some good music. Chris is one of my pastors. Brett and Sam are former students. Jacob and Emily are friends from college. Wes, Jaemey, and Alison are friends from Ecclesia.

Also, don’t forget to check out my tumblelog as well. I post there more often than here.

Here is my recommendation. If you are not using a feed reader, get one. (I use GoogleReader.) Then, subscribe to these blogs.

I am going to be starting a series on heaven in the near future. But, before I get to that, let me give you a little preview of the sort of things I will be discussing. Actually, N. T. Wright and Stephen Colbert are going to help. Yesterday, Wright went on the Colbert Report and the two of them discussed theology. Basically, this was my ideal form of entertainment, theology and satire in harmony. (On a side note, I love that Colbert is actually a faithful Catholic, and he really does know his theology.) What Colbert and Wright discussed was the premise of Wright’s new book Suprised by Hope. It is a book about heaven, the end of the world, the resurrection, and the new creation. This is a quick summary, and frankly, if you don’t already have a grasp of Wright’s theology, you might not catch it all. But, I loved it, and maybe it will get things primed for my upcoming posts on heaven. Check it out.

Also, while I’m on the subject of Wright, a friend of mine from Ecclesia is blogging as he reads What Saint Paul Really Said by N. T. Wright. His name is Joe, and here is a link to his first post on N. T. Wright.