Author: Tim Morgan

Image of the “The Denial of St. Peter” painted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Saint_Peter_(Caravaggio).

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).

What is the Bible for? This book’s a strange thing. It’s the setting of our personal devotions. It’s the common ground of our public worship. It’s the language of the Church. It’s an object of study for believers and non-believers alike. It’s been given to kings and queens upon their accession to the throne. It’s been waved high at protests and riots, displayed in cases, elevated in Church services, read from and quoted at inaugurations, sold door-to-door, burned in condemnation (by both Church and state!), marked up and poured over by monks and theologians, janitors and plumbers. Over the millennia of its existence (in one form or another), it’s had a life of its own, a biography more expansive than any man or woman, town or city, country or continent.

The apostle Peter clues us in to what the Bible’s doing, to what God’s doing with it. He writes,

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21).

In a very important sense, all of Scripture is one big prophetic word to us (see 2 Timothy 3:16), telling us of God’s promised future in light of his remembered acts, “for to us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). It’s God’s word to us, putting our present into perspective with this future. On the basis of this future, which is attested by the apostles (2 Peter 1:16) and the prophets (2 Peter 1:19)—rooted not in something one of us came up with or willed into being, but rooted in God’s act and presence with his people—we “make every effort” to bring faith through virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, and brotherly affection finally to love (2 Peter 1:5-7), so that we “may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:4). God’s promised future is that the Church, “the princess in her chamber,” as the psalmist writes, will be led to the king “with joy and gladness” (Psalm 45:13-15). It doesn’t just tell us his promises, it also tells us what’s true in light of them, as well as how to act in accordance with them (all prophecy involves this). Peter writes these things in view of his impending martyrdom (2 Peter 1:13-14), having learned the hard lesson of not making every effort (Luke 22:61-62).

Peter, as is well known, denied Christ three times just before his crucifixion—and this just after resolving to go to death with Jesus (Luke 22:33)! However, Jesus’ power and coming made a way for Peter to make good on his resolution (2 Peter 1:16; Luke 24:12, 34). Just this power, just this coming is the life of the Bible; it’s what makes this word living. As Peter has it, in the living scriptures, God addresses us. Because of this, they demand our attention. The Bible is God’s prophetic word to us, to aid us in the formation of endurance, to rebuke us in error, to embed us in the life of God with his people, to get us in on Jesus’ coming.

Today, I’d encourage you to contemplate the role that Scripture plays in your faith, to ask yourself how you relate to it. What is the Bible’s “use” for you, for the Church? How can you take that seriously?

Further Reading: Psalm 45; Isaiah 9:1-7; 2 Peter 1:12-21; Luke 22:54-69

Written by Guest House Theologian, Tim Morgan. These reflections are a complimentary addition to our Advent Blend Coffee Bags. Scan the QR code each day to read the most recent reflection. 

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More Advent reflections can be found here.

“They say, ‘A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies’” (Psalm 41:8).

“But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations” (Isaiah 9:1).

The life of faith, in large part, is the formation of perspective. God’s people stand under the ominous shadow of a great empire. It is night. Anguish swells in our hearts, animates our thoughts, spills over into wordless, desperate surrender to God (Romans 8:26). In our world, everything is downward trending. If it’s not out to get us, then it’s because we’re useful. When we’re done being useful, it’ll be out to get us (Psalm 41:9). In one way or another, we’re contorted, used, and then discarded. Indeed, our world is a fundamentally hostile place.

However, the world is God’s—it’s the place where God is doing something, the place to which he’s coming. The psalmist writes, “Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies” (Psalm 41:1-2). The will of our enemies won’t take the day, because God’s will does. And God’s will is his people’s victory (Revelation 3:21). As the apostle Peter has it, “he has granted to us his precious and very great promises” (2 Peter 1:4; if one keeps reading that passage, one finds that the promises are very great). These promises pertain to God’s future, where the voice who calls God’s people arrives, God’s “own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3), Immanuel who they signify and portend (Isaiah 8:16-18). However, on the way, in the distance between, those without hope “will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God” (Isaiah 8:21) and “they will be thrust into thick darkness” (Isaiah 8:22).

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus withdraws to the Mount of Olives with his disciples to pray. There we have an infamous scene: Jesus asks his Father to “remove this cup” (Luke 22:41), praying with such intensity that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). It’s important to recognize where Jesus’ “agony” takes place. It takes place in prayer, in surrender to the will of the Father. In fact, Christ’s surrender, his active abiding in the Father’s will, brackets his request. He says, “if you are willing” and “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). He doesn’t concede God’s promises, God’s future. He embraces it and prophesies it (Luke 22:69).

Today, I’d ask you to keep perspective. Don’t just keep any perspective. Bind yourself to the coming Christ’s perspective. The Lord’s future Kingdom is at hand. It’s coming, even with hidden face (Isaiah 8:17). Don’t waver from the path. Rather, “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). This is Christ’s perspective. It’s the place where he stands. It’s the shape of his life. And, by the divine power at work in us, it can be ours too (2 Peter 2:3).

Further Reading: Psalm 41; Isaiah 8:16-9:1; 2 Peter 1:1-11; Luke 22:39-53

Written by Guest House Theologian, Tim Morgan. These reflections are a complimentary addition to our Advent Blend Coffee Bags. Scan the QR code each day to read the most recent reflection. 

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More Advent reflections can be found here.

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes” (Isaiah 35:5-7).

The birth of Jesus is God’s gift of immeasurable riches. It’s form and plenty to a submerged, desolate earth (Genesis 1:2). It’s the joy of conception to a barren womb (Genesis 11:30; 21:1-2). It’s the open air of liberty to an enslaved people (Exodus 15:1-18). The apostle Paul writes that God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:2) and that in Christ “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us” (Ephesians 1:7-8). Where our world has named scarcity “abundance” and nothing “plenty,” Christ declares its true name (Revelation 2:17). The psalmist tells us that God provides justice for the oppressed, food for the hungry, freedom for the prisoner, sight for the blind, exaltation for the lowly, protector of those far from home, and support for those who have none (Psalm 146:7-9). In the birth of Christ, God fills his world with life, teeming, brimming, and spilling over with life upon life; he pours forth everything of his world into our world for us to enjoy; he fills us with his riches, treasures of true life which our souls take hold of by faith (1 Timothy 6:17-18).

John the Baptist’s ministry was characterized by restraint and dearth, the simplicity and single-mindedness of prophetic word. He “came neither eating nor drinking” (Matthew 11:18; this was his proper ministry as Forerunner). Jesus, on the other hand, “came eating and drinking” (Matthew 11:19). However, his wealth (indeed, his food; see John 4:32) was not that of “kings’ houses” (Matthew 11:8). Rather, “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:5). Rather than in earthly goods, Christ’s riches consist in wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3), in “the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 11:11).

These “riches” aren’t always easy to see. Our vision is often crowded by scenes of earthly resource or poverty, indulgence or desperation. Amid the earth’s bounty, however, Jesus lays “the Way of Holiness,” the sacred highway down which his people parade in song toward God’s city (Isaiah 35:8-10). The psalmist writes, “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation” and “the way of the wicked he brings to ruin” (Psalm 146:3, 9). Like a farmer waiting patiently for his harvest, God’s people wait patiently for “the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7). Like the prophets, including John the Baptist, we wait in suffering and patience for the transparency of the full measure of his riches before our eyes (Matthew 11:3; James 5:10), the fruition of God’s purpose (James 5:11).

Today, I’d ask you to consider the wealth of God’s kingdom—and what sort of wealth it is! In Scripture, in the Church, in what God’s doing in the world, we’re given an abundance: an abundance of images for us to behold, of direction for us to follow, of meaning for us to contemplate, and finally of God’s own life for us to live within (Acts 17:24-28). As James puts it, riches rot, clothes are eaten by moths, gold and silver corrode, and all these things in which we trust testify against us in judgment (James 5:2-5). While “we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of world” (1 Timothy 6:7), we await the appearing of Jesus “who alone has immortality,” whose riches do not fade (1 Timothy 6:16).

Further Reading: Psalm 146:4-9; Isaiah 35:1-10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11

Written by Guest House Theologian, Tim Morgan. These reflections are a complimentary addition to our Advent Blend Coffee Bags. Scan the QR code each day to read the most recent reflection. 

BUY NOW

More Advent reflections can be found here.