Author: Andrew Burke

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What Am I Putting First?

What Am I Putting First?

One of the most charming love stories in recent history was that of former United States President, Harry Truman, and his wife of 53 years, Bess. Having met in Independence, Missouri, in 1890, the love story began to unfold. Harry wrote 1,300 letters to his beloved wife during the war, his career and tenure of presidency. Harry had a lifelong rule: write to Bess every day they were apart.

Diplomatic and historical scholars examining these letters hoped to shed some light on historical events of the time. However, what is more fascinating and striking is Harry’s simple desire to continually write to his wife amidst dealing and negotiating with the world’s most powerful leaders. Priority. Harry desired Bess to know that she always came first, no matter what business and political decision-making he was in the process of. Harry prioritised his beloved wife.

Just as Harry wanted to demonstrate that Bess came first, in Luke 2:41-52, Luke wants the Christian to see what comes first in their life. What is the priority for the Christian? Who or what is the primary object of our affection and devotion? I wonder, is God our priority?

After Jesus parents have been on a wild search for their only child, they find Jesus sitting in the temple. Residing there, Jesus claims “why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). Instead of an apology, which we expect following his parents’ stressful and anxious search (2:48), Jesus insists they should have known where he was. In a moment of tension between parents and son — Jesus claims a priority to God above all. Jesus is claiming it is necessary he be about the Father’s business first and foremost. As John Calvin highlighted:

The responsibility that Jesus owes to his Father in heaven ought to be immeasurably preferred to all other human responsibilities.

This does not mean we become lazy and laid-back to the responsibilities of life. It means in view of everything we do, God must be first priority. Preferring Him and His business to everything else.

Revolving Around:

For the Christian, God is our priority now on earth. Not soon, not when you think you have sorted everything out, not when you clean up your act or tick off that bucket list! God as priority tops every list.

However, it can be difficult. We live in a ‘revolving around’ generation. There is so much information coming our way: notifications, alarms, buzzers, texts, emails, news alerts, an endless list. We are stressed and anxious; exhausted with the toil of life. What often happens is that our world revolves around ourselves. Revolving around our own heads and hearts we try to press through life.

Yet, Jesus, in the very first recorded words we have from him, indicates everything revolves around God. The priority for Jesus is God. With all the noise around us, why do we not take the time to sit with our Father like Jesus?

Yes, we will fail. But, we stand in great recognition of the grace God has lavished on us through His Son. Put aside the weights and burdens of this world, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ. It is not an easy call; trials and tribulations will come. But even when we fall in our sin, Jesus upholds us. The mistakes and failings of our lives can be taken to the cross and forgiven. Past, present and future.

With the indwelling Spirit, pray God would point us towards Him first that we may grow to be more like Christ. And to recognise He is the centre of it all. The first words of Jesus are some of the simplest, but they capture the essence of Christian living. It is not about us; it is about submitting gladly and obeying joyfully the Father first because of His great love for undeserving sinners.

Riches I heed not nor man’s empty praise; Thine my inheritance now and always. Thou and thou only, first in my heart. High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.

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A Mind-Staggering Event To Crush Fear

Fifty-three years on “A Charlie Brown Christmas” continues to be popular amongst a world plagued with social media and mountains of munchable content. When something maintains such a nostalgic repertoire in a crowded and noisy world it demonstrates meaningful substance.

At Christmas we are drawn towards things of nostalgia and worth. The Charlie Brown Christmas special definitely fits into this category. In the special there is one particular clip that has always struck me, Charlie Brown exclaims “isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”. Following this, Linus takes to the stage under the spotlight tightly holding his security blanket. He begins to speak the words of Luke 2:8-14. “Fear not” (v.10) Linus declares.

In this moment, Linus acknowledges the “good news of great joy” (v.10) that “in the city of David a Saviour” (v.11) is born. He loosens his grip on his security blanket, allowing it to drift away onto the wooden floor. This climatic scene is certainly intentional from Charles Schulz. The reality of the Incarnation and the birth of Christ distances us from our fears. The sinful patterns that we continually lay in bondage to, Christ breaks. The Word becoming flesh means we can drop the false idols we cling to in our lives, clinging and trusting to all Christ has done.

The Incarnation complicates what we think of as a joyful, simple time of year. The Incarnation was the point in history, where the King of all kings, took on himself human nature. For the Christian, to deny the virgin birth would lead logically to denying the bodily resurrection of Christ too. As much as we might not understand all the intricacies and particulars of the Incarnation, we have to continue to uphold its occurrence. This mind-staggering event in the historical narrative of mankind means we no longer need to fear for two reasons – the Christ child would be our righteous representative and a submitting substitute on our behalf.

The Righteous Representative: In the storyline of the Bible, the beginnings of bliss and communing with God in the Garden of Eden was ended by Adam and Eve’s disobedience towards their Creator (Gen. 3). They were humanity’s first representatives. Through Adam’s disobedience we are all guilty; Paul affirms this numerous times in the New Testament in case we thought we got off scot-free. The truth is we deserve punishment for turning our backs on God but Christmas is not a time we want to think about having offended God. Surely we deserve something for participating in the beauty and innocence of the festive season? Although we plea, although we claim decency, we have all fallen short of God’s glory – turning to love created things rather than the Creator (Rom. 3:23; 1:20-25).

Where do we stand then? We stand as sinners. Unable to live up to God’s law; we commit to good and do as much as we can. A valley of fear and anxiety engulfs us as we can never attain perfect obedience unto the Father. But there is good news due to the entrance of Christ into space and time.

Where Adam failed, Christ obeyed. He did not surrender to temptation, he did not sway, he rooted himself in the truth of God’s Word. Christ has obeyed for us, he has become our righteous representative (to those who believe). Adam our ancestor of old failed, but Christ came fully satisfying and fulfilling the law we could have never (Gal. 4:4-5). Christ’s example resulted in justification and life for all men. Through the disobedience of one man the cosmos crumbled, so by the righteous Prince of Peace, corrupted and crushed hearts would be renewed (Rom. 5:18-19). Fear can no longer grip our hearts knowing Christ has perfectly obeyed for us, however, an exchange still had to be made.

The Submitting Substitute: Christ submitted to the Father’s will. From the crib, to the garden, to the cross. Christ committed himself to his Father. But, did he really have to be a man to pay the price for our sin? Surely God could work out some cosmic calculation to ease the punishment that would come upon Christ’s shoulders. Yet, there would be no point in me writing unless Christ was a man who died in our place to take away the penalty and power of sin that was due to us.

The author of Hebrews writes “For surely it is not the angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sin of the people” (2:16-17). Jesus is the ‘merciful and faithful high priest’ who has made provision for our sin. He had to be made like a man, not an angel, to be the propitiation to save men. From eternity past, Christ was the only acceptable substitute. Unless Christ was fully man he could have not paid the price for our sinful selves. We would be left to our own folly and chaos, but this baby would become the mediator: “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Christ was the only acceptable sacrifice, the baby we acknowledge and celebrate at Christmas would one day make an agonising journey to the cross. He humbled himself above all else to the point of death on that wooden cross (Phil. 2:8). Why? So we might become children of God. Taking the sins of the world on himself, Christ the righteous representative took our sin and reconciled us back to God. Our sinful selves engrossed our minds and hearts with a fear of death, but because of the Incarnation we can proclaim “fear not!” like Linus. Christ has secured eternity for us through his once and for all sacrifice.

If there is anything we need to remember this Christmas its the Incarnation: “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14)-  “It was the supreme, mind-staggering miracle; love prompted it; and our part is not to speculate about it and scale it down, but to wonder and adore and love and exalt Jesus” – J. I. Packer.

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Moving Into 2019: Through the Window of Their Witness

I remember around this time last year scurrying about the library in Trinity College Dublin attempting to finish an essay. Hours of reading, drafting, editing and perfecting left me worn out. What was all my energy put into? An essay on the adaptation of Marxist-Leninist thinking in the domestic policy of Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution (I know it sounds riveting!). Although history and geopolitics is not everyone’s cup of tea, it is part of the grand tapestry of history in which we are apart of. Further, it is overseen by the Creator of all things.

Thinking back on that essay has made me concerned for my brothers and sisters in the country of China. In researching the 1960s and 1970s for the essay, I discovered the horrors that Christians encountered. Further, it seems if history is repeating itself again in China. Whatever the circumstances and trials our brothers and sisters in China face, to the world they are a window through which others can witness the reality of Christ.

That Was Then

Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976 made it his aim to roll Communism into all areas of Chinese life. Michael Lynch in his book Origins and development of authoritarian and single-party states notes how Mao saw religion as utter poison, even making the comparison of Christian missionaries in China to Nazis in Europe. In his leadership, Mao wanted to dominate the political sphere and weed out Christianity along with all other religions. Fenggang Yang, a prominent scholar on religion in China, noted that Mao set out in the Cultural Revolution to eradicate religion from China through a form of militant atheism. Religion was the stumbling block to Mao achieving total dictatorial power.

During these years, outward expressions of religion were banned, religious rituals were prohibited, churches were torn down and ransacked. Followers of Christ were tortured, persecuted and killed for their faith. Mao’s indoctrinated Red Guards aimed to permanently delete Christianity from Chinese daily life. Ironically, Mao ended up creating a religion around himself — Maoism. Mao, through propaganda, presented himself to the Chinese peasantry as a god. His little Red Book replaced the Bibles that were burned. His pictures were to take the place of the symbol of the cross. All aspects of life were infiltrated by Maoism. In all his endeavours, Mao sought to transform every aspect of the individual’s life in China. Frank Dikotter, a Dutch historian, notes that Mao only really managed to exact outward compliance. Faith moved into the shadows at this time, but within those shadows it grew exponentially. The Protestant denomination from estimates grew from 0.8 million in 1956 to 3 million in 1982. Climbing to 16 million in 2009.

Although Mao sought the riddance of Christianity in China by bringing worship to himself, he was unsuccessful as the Christian witness within China persevered and experienced huge growth. This can only be seen as the gracious and merciful act of God, bringing people to a knowledge of him as the gospel went across China during those years of persecution. Consequently, we might be prone to think everything is fine and dandy in China today. Even with the Reform and Open Door Policy of premier Deng Xiaoping in the 70s and 80s persecution of Christians in China continues. Moreover, things are intensifying under the presidency of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping.

This is Now

China is the world’s second largest economy and in years to come is predicted to overtake the US. With globalisation, China’s single-party police state is attempting to find means of dealing with the outside world politically and geographically. Historically, China has not dealt well with its surrounding nations, maintaining a tendency to look inward and grapple at self-sufficiency. Maybe greater openness has helped transform China though?

Modern day China appears to have greater accountability structures than those that existed under Mao — society is a project aiming for harmonious and prosperous living under party rule. Although we have seen greater openness from China since the tyrant Mao died, officials in China continue to crackdown on whomever they will. The CCP is permitted to go beyond the law without any accountability. This has created an environment of fear, uncertainty and frustration from the political to the economic to  the societal spheres. While this abuse of power is punctuated by human rights violations.

Diana Chandler addresses how 2018 has been a difficult year for Christians in China — has there been a return to Mao era persecution? Most definitely. For example, most of us have heard of the hunting down and arresting of members of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan Province. The pastors and elders of this church wrote ‘we will not bend, even it means jail, even it means death. We will continue to preserve our faith’. Police raids have escalated, crosses have been removed, people have been blocked from entering churches, worship has been shut down and Christians have been harassed. Those arrested from Early Rain reported being beaten, tortured and denied food. These Christians were dragged, stepped on, bound with chains for their faith.

President Xi Jinping will deny all these corrupt human rights violations. Unlike Mao, Xi does not want to ‘eradicate religion’ rather he desires to Sinicise it. He wants to bring the Christian religion in line with the CCP’s ideology. This is not feasible though as Christianity is diametrically opposed to a worldview system that bases itself in atheistic philosophy.

Xi knows that Christianity is a threat to CCP power, as it opposes everything the tyrannical and dictatorial CCP stands for. We, as the international community, need to stand for the religious freedom that Chinese Christians should be guaranteed. Any abuse of people made in the image of God in any shape or form is unacceptable and loathsome.  However, even in the midst of their persecution they are witnesses.

Those Who Witness

Secular author Ian Johnston noted how the Cultural Revolution showed how oppression encouraged real faith; the prayer for the church in China is that God would continue to grow his kingdom amidst persecution from the Chinese Communist Party and their cult like leader Xi Jinping. May the God of all comfort use the trials and difficulties of our brothers and sisters in China to bear witness to all around the world. Ultimately that they may believe in Jesus and his redemption of a sinful humanity.

The gospel of John begins by communicating how John the Baptist “came as a witness”¦ that all might believe through him” (v.7). John the Baptist was the first among a great “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) to testify to the truth of Jesus’s life. This cloud has swelled to millions of Christians in recent decades in China. Each witness having seen Christ through the witness of one another. Many in this cloud have lost their lives in China, but through this we hope that thousands more will join the cloud of witnesses who testify to the Son. The glorious Son who came, full of grace and truth.

 

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