being human

yesterday afternoon/evening was the last cafe grace. there were going to be a two more in the next couple of months, but mark will be too busy with travel and preparations for taking up his new job at the bible college of new zealand and training others to take over his business here in sydney.

so i'm glad i went yesterday, despite the tiring (but good) weekend, which included a trip to canberra and back (two hours each way) with my mum & dad on saturday to see floriade, then packing and driving up to parramatta (over an hour) lunchtime sunday before heading out to the the strom's house west of richmond (another hour). a lot of driving but all very worth it.

as i said, it wasn't planned to be the last cafe grace, but it ended fittingly as mark basically gave an overview or summary of all he'd talked about over the last couple of years. the reason for this was that it was being video-taped, basically to get it down on some sort of hard-copy for mark to use as he sees fit, including turning it into a book (which i think would be excellent). i don't know if he'll ever make the video widely available (i doubt he'd sell it but could do a mail-order thing with it if he ever gets the time), but it would be an great introduction to the what he's been thinking and studying and teaching over the last few years, stuff which is, in my most humble opinion, quite revolutionary for the church, though it is completely biblically based. on the other hand, its quite possible that many christians wouldn't be ready or receptive to it, because they want to keep doing christianity and church they way they're comfortable with. but i think there is a growing number of believers (including myself) who are just not satisfied with the status quo anymore, and it is to these that mark's exposition of the scriptures is, i think, like rain to a drought-striken land.

one of the major themes of what mark had to say yesterday was the dignity and glory that we have as god's children. so often we have the attitude that we're basically good-for-nothing worms that are not worth anybody's time or attention, let alone god's! but this is not how the bible portrays us. god made us in his image, which gives us enormous dignity and worth - as psalm 8 says,

"What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor."
(vs 4 & 5, NIV)

we find it easy to relate to the first part, but it is the second part that is the truth, the answer to the "what is man?" question.

one of the illustrations of this that mark talked about yesterday was something he heard recently from a guy named rick watts (i think), to do with the way moses wrote the book of genesis. in ancient near east religions, when people had finished building a temple, the last thing they did was to place the image of their god in it. this is paralleled in the opening chapter of genesis, where god creates the world, which is his temple, then finishes the job by placing human beings, bearing his image, in the temple.

of course this image was corrupted by sin, but the rest of the story of the bible, culminating in jesus, is about the god putting the whole thing back together again, restorating us to that place of dignity and glory which god always intended for us, and through us the rest of creation. in romans 8:18-21, paul says

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (NIV)

again, we are so used to hearing the 'creation is groaning' bit (vs. 22), but we miss that what creation is waiting for is not to burn but to be liberated, and that liberation is going to come through us, by "the glorious freedom of the children of god."

another aspect of the ancient near east religious custom was to 'animate' the image of the god in the temple, by rituals which highlighted the mouth, eyes and ears of the image, as well as its hands and feet. again, there is a wonderful parallel in the bible, with the bulk of jesus' miracles dealing with those things, the eyes, ears, speech, hands and feet. so we can see these miracles, not just as a display of the divinity of jesus, but as reflecting the heart of god to bring restoration to our physical bodies.

finally, in the resurrection of jesus into a human body, instead of some 'heavenly' or 'alien' form, we see the ultimate reaffirmation and vindication of our human-ness. and it is in and because of the resurrection that we are (and will be) ultimately and finally restored, in jesus, to who we were meant to be.

this is truth. are you ready to live it?