WHAT IS A
RESIDENT THEOLOGIAN?
What does it mean to have a religious leader in a community? And what does it mean for that person to have a specialized education? These questions are answered in the notion of a "resident theologian." Theology, as a field of study, asks the questions of God and of the human being in relationship to God. Hopefully, like any form of education, theological study leads a person our of his or her or their assumptions and preconceived notions into a deeper understanding of reality and the human condition. To have a person who has taken serious time to think through our biggest questions means that the community can count on that person to offer meaningful guidance as we respond to our experiences of life. We expect the same from other professionals: doctors help with our experiences of illness; advocates help us navigate the laws; mechanics help us respond to the experience of car trouble; et cetera. A theologian is no different. Trained to think about the ups and downs of human life in terms of the ultimate questions of our existence, theologians lead in community by helping to frame our problems in light of the reality that God exists. And in terms of Christian theology, religious leaders point the community toward the redemptive and reconciling work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This page on our website is dedicated to this work of pointing the community to Christ and the Spirit essays and sermons, poems and hymns. We hope you will feel free to engage with pastor Jonathan when you find ideas that are interesting or challenging.
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
(Isaiah 40:11)
December 2020
The Penitent heart...
and the
Meaning of Advent
The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill.
David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his house stood beside him, urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, “While the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we tell him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, he perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”
Then David rose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the Lord, and worshiped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you rose and ate food.” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (II Samuel 12: 15-23)
Dear sisters and brothers,
This may seem like an odd passage to scrutinize as we begin the season of Advent, the Christian New Year. But that’s probably because most of us are already thinking about Christmas, skipping right to the babe in the manger, of whom that famous carol wishfully claims: “no crying he makes.” Of course, in the year of our Lord two-thousand and twenty, this is understandable. Jessica and I couldn’t wait to get our Christmas Tree up and decorated to give ourselves a little relief from 2020. However, as my friend, the Rev. Dr. Chris Dorn has pointed out: “Advent does not look back, but forward. It does not look back at the Christ child in the manger, but forward at Christ the King in the clouds of heaven.” So rather than entering into nostalgic sentimentality, helpful as that may be emotionally, our faith calls us to reckon with the prophetic vision of the triumphant Christ, whose return will undoubtedly be less docile than his first overture into our consciousness. As the prophet says:
Who may abide the day of his coming,
and who shall stand when he appeareth;
for he is like a refiner's fire…
(Malachi 3:2)
The idea that we are each a lump of ore to be fired until the impurities drain away is not a comfortable prospect. Nevertheless, this is Advent: to contemplate that we retain in our lives many and diverse impurities, which have the effect of obscuring the Image of God in the dross of sin. If we’re willing to face this reality about ourselves, we’ll immediately see that we’re not ready at all for the return of Christ the King. Like King David, another twelve-hundred years or so before Jesus, we are so often pulled into the lusts of our own hearts, rather than living joyfully and faithfully in the covenant which the LORD has so generously opened to us. And like King David in this story above, we need to have the sin in our lives fired by heat of a broken heart.
Here we find David caught in his guilt by the prophet Nathan. With the offspring of his lust condemned, adding another death to his conscious after conspiring in the murder of Uriah the Hittite, David’s pride and self-assurance and privilege all melt out of him until there is nothing left but the heart which first made him ripe for the kingship. What needs to melt out of your heart this December?
It is the common heritage of both Jews and Christians that David, son of Jesse, was “a man after God’s own heart (I Sam. 13: 14, Acts 13: 22). But this doesn’t mean that David was without sin. As we see, David was deeply flawed. What set him apart is revealed for us in the passage above: David had a heart that desired reconciliation, first with God, then with the people he had wronged, and ultimately with those who had passed away. This is what it means to be a person after God’s own heart, for the heart of God is revealed through the incarnation of the Living Word in the person Jesus; and the ministry of Jesus is a ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5: 16-20). To be penitent therefore is to desire reconciliation and to lament all the ways in which we have turned away from God and sowed division and strife amongst ourselves. This is the great and difficult task of Advent. If there is work to be done in December, it is to consent to the fire of Christ’s love and burn the dross of rancor, apathy, and discontent from our hearts, letting the Spirit hammer us out on the forge of God’s righteousness. Nothing less will do for any who would be the disciple of Jesus. He calls us to account for our part in the darkness of the world.
There will be a time for candy and cards and carols… for bright lights and quiet nights. But it has not yet arrived. Advent is the time of our penitence… a time for fasting and prayer and self-examination. But here’s the Good News. For this reason, Advent is a time of hope. In the story above, King David would eat nothing and remained prostrate in prayer out of hope that his repentance would lead to the boy’s recovery. Sadly, the righteous vengeance of the LORD was not to be undone. We may think this is hard on the child, until we realize that God took the boy to himself. David says, “I will go to him; but he will not return to me.” Even in the dreadful darkness at the death of the child, God’s future stills glimmers: a future in which what has been ruined will be restored, a future in which we will sing with the holy angels,
Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace!
Let not the darkness of your sin fill your heart with despair. Let not the gloom of death in 2020, or the shadows of division and antagonism, obscure the light of God’s Image in your life. Fast and pray. For we are the Body of Christ, and our repentance is a source of power and strength, of hope, and of joy.
O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home.
The captives from their prison free,
and conquer death’s deep misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel!
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace.
Pastor Jonathan
David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted, and went in and lay all night on the ground. The elders of his house stood beside him, urging him to rise from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, “While the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we tell him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, he perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”
Then David rose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the Lord, and worshiped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you rose and ate food.” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (II Samuel 12: 15-23)
Dear sisters and brothers,
This may seem like an odd passage to scrutinize as we begin the season of Advent, the Christian New Year. But that’s probably because most of us are already thinking about Christmas, skipping right to the babe in the manger, of whom that famous carol wishfully claims: “no crying he makes.” Of course, in the year of our Lord two-thousand and twenty, this is understandable. Jessica and I couldn’t wait to get our Christmas Tree up and decorated to give ourselves a little relief from 2020. However, as my friend, the Rev. Dr. Chris Dorn has pointed out: “Advent does not look back, but forward. It does not look back at the Christ child in the manger, but forward at Christ the King in the clouds of heaven.” So rather than entering into nostalgic sentimentality, helpful as that may be emotionally, our faith calls us to reckon with the prophetic vision of the triumphant Christ, whose return will undoubtedly be less docile than his first overture into our consciousness. As the prophet says:
Who may abide the day of his coming,
and who shall stand when he appeareth;
for he is like a refiner's fire…
(Malachi 3:2)
The idea that we are each a lump of ore to be fired until the impurities drain away is not a comfortable prospect. Nevertheless, this is Advent: to contemplate that we retain in our lives many and diverse impurities, which have the effect of obscuring the Image of God in the dross of sin. If we’re willing to face this reality about ourselves, we’ll immediately see that we’re not ready at all for the return of Christ the King. Like King David, another twelve-hundred years or so before Jesus, we are so often pulled into the lusts of our own hearts, rather than living joyfully and faithfully in the covenant which the LORD has so generously opened to us. And like King David in this story above, we need to have the sin in our lives fired by heat of a broken heart.
Here we find David caught in his guilt by the prophet Nathan. With the offspring of his lust condemned, adding another death to his conscious after conspiring in the murder of Uriah the Hittite, David’s pride and self-assurance and privilege all melt out of him until there is nothing left but the heart which first made him ripe for the kingship. What needs to melt out of your heart this December?
It is the common heritage of both Jews and Christians that David, son of Jesse, was “a man after God’s own heart (I Sam. 13: 14, Acts 13: 22). But this doesn’t mean that David was without sin. As we see, David was deeply flawed. What set him apart is revealed for us in the passage above: David had a heart that desired reconciliation, first with God, then with the people he had wronged, and ultimately with those who had passed away. This is what it means to be a person after God’s own heart, for the heart of God is revealed through the incarnation of the Living Word in the person Jesus; and the ministry of Jesus is a ministry of reconciliation (II Corinthians 5: 16-20). To be penitent therefore is to desire reconciliation and to lament all the ways in which we have turned away from God and sowed division and strife amongst ourselves. This is the great and difficult task of Advent. If there is work to be done in December, it is to consent to the fire of Christ’s love and burn the dross of rancor, apathy, and discontent from our hearts, letting the Spirit hammer us out on the forge of God’s righteousness. Nothing less will do for any who would be the disciple of Jesus. He calls us to account for our part in the darkness of the world.
There will be a time for candy and cards and carols… for bright lights and quiet nights. But it has not yet arrived. Advent is the time of our penitence… a time for fasting and prayer and self-examination. But here’s the Good News. For this reason, Advent is a time of hope. In the story above, King David would eat nothing and remained prostrate in prayer out of hope that his repentance would lead to the boy’s recovery. Sadly, the righteous vengeance of the LORD was not to be undone. We may think this is hard on the child, until we realize that God took the boy to himself. David says, “I will go to him; but he will not return to me.” Even in the dreadful darkness at the death of the child, God’s future stills glimmers: a future in which what has been ruined will be restored, a future in which we will sing with the holy angels,
Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace!
Let not the darkness of your sin fill your heart with despair. Let not the gloom of death in 2020, or the shadows of division and antagonism, obscure the light of God’s Image in your life. Fast and pray. For we are the Body of Christ, and our repentance is a source of power and strength, of hope, and of joy.
O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home.
The captives from their prison free,
and conquer death’s deep misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel!
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace.
Pastor Jonathan