Three Dimensional Theology

If you are listening to this the day it goes up, yesterday was an election day. I recorded this episode a while ago, so I don’t actually know specifically what went down. But I don’t need to see the results to know that a lot of people are really disappointed today. I don’t need to look at the election returns to know that a lot of other people are feeling really relieved today. I’m sure some of you are fighting off depression. And I’m aware that some of you are probably glowing today.So, to fans of “candidate who lost” I just want to say that I’m so sorry. But I’m sure “political party who lost” will do better next time. And for fans of “candidate who won”, remember to be nice to the other side. Don’t gloat. I’m sure you remember what it feels like to be in their shoes. After all, you’ll be on the losing side once again sooner or later.And to all of us, at least those Christians among us, I kind of think that we should take all this a little less seriously. I know there is real stuff at stake in these elections, and I know some of you are convinced that your side is right and the other side is wrong. But today on Three Dimensional Theology I want to invite you to pause, put the cork back in that bottle of champagne, and/or step away from that ledge. Democracy is great, but don’t forget that you are the citizen of a Kingdom that is much greater. Stay with us!The Reformation era - the sixteenth century - was not a flattering time for Christians. Protestants killing Catholics. Catholics killing Protestants. Catholics accusing Protestants of being heretics and apostates. Protestants claiming that the pope is the Antichrist. On all sides we said some pretty unflattering things. And we did some even worse things.But there was one thing that Catholics and Protestants could both agree on. There was one activity that brought both sides together. One thing that most everyone thought was a really good idea. One thing that Catholics and Protestants might stop killing each other to participate in. And that, of course, was killing Anabaptists.The Anabaptists were a relatively small and diverse group of Christians, mostly in Switzerland, Germany and the Low Countries. Most of them rejected violence as incompatible with faith in Jesus - so they weren’t killing anyone. And they thought that politics was a corrupting influence on the church. They also didn’t practice infant baptism, which is where they got the name “anabaptist”.There’s this one famous story about an Anabaptist who lived in the Netherlands named Dirk Willems. He was arrested by the local magistrate for his Anabaptist convictions, and they locked him up in a castle. But one cold, winter day he escaped and fled! He ran across the castle’s frozen moat. He ran through frozen fields and forests. And he ran across a frozen pond. But a guard who was chasing him wasn’t so lucky. This guard probably weighed a little more than Willems. The guard had probably been eating a little better than Willems. And so he fell through the ice and thrashed about in the frigid water below, crying for help.But then two really remarkable things happened. First, Dirk Willems turned back around and helped the guard, saving his life. Second, his pursuers arrested him anyways, and a short time later burned him at the stake.The most natural thing for us to ask is: What on earth was Dirk Willems thinking? He had to know that if he saved that guard’s life it would cost him his. What would cause someone to act so irrationally? Why would someone have such a profound disregard for their own self-interest?The answer comes from a cool sounding German word that was a prized Anabaptist virtue: Gelassenheit. In addition to being really fun to say, Gelassenheit is a kind of letting go, a sort of cool detachment to one’s life. It’s the state of mind that Jesus had at the Garden of Gethsemane, when he prayed, “Not my will, o Lord, but yours be done.” It’s about yielding your life and your will and your desires completely to God. Gelassenheit is about taking up your cross and following Jesus. Dirk Willems was full of Gelassenheit.The most natural thing to ask is what was Dirk thinking. But there’s another question that needs to be asked: What on earth were his captors thinking? These were Christians, after all. How does someone who identifies as a Jesus-follower witness Dirk’s act of selfless love and then proceed to tie him up and light a match? How does that make sense? How can people be so blinded by their deeply held convictions that they fail to realize that they are playing the part of the Roman soldiers as they crucify someone who looks an awful lot like Christ?One really cool thing about living in the United States in the twenty first century, is that we don’t burn people at the stake anymore. But we are still pretty divided. There is conflict in the air. And it can get brutal. According to one recent study, Americans value political party affiliation over basically all other affiliations, including race, ethnicity, language, and, yes, even religion.I’m disappointed by this. I’m especially disappointed by the implication that many Christ followers apparently think of themselves as Republicans or Democrats more than they think of themselves as Christ followers. I’m disappointed, I should say - but I’m not surprised.I don’t agree with everything the Anabaptists stood for, but I can’t help thinking they were the closest thing the sixteenth century had to real Christianity. And I think it is because they took God’s kingdom more seriously than their lives. In other words, they had Gelassenheit.Where are the real Christians today? Where are the ones who take their identity as God’s adopted children more seriously than their vote? Where are the people who put love for people above love for party and platform? Where are the people who have more faith in Jesus than policy and politics? If you find them, send them my way.Links:Dirk Willems (Wikipedia)Americans’ partisan identities are stronger than race and ethnicity, Stanford scholar finds

Show notes:Our series on the Apostles Creed continues today as we take a look at the phrase, “Maker of Heaven and Earth”.When people think of God as Creator, a lot of times we think about nature. We think about going out into nature and seeking God there. A lot of us seem to have this romantic idea that God the Creator is somehow more accessible out there in state parks or on the beach than he is at our houses. I’m sure at some point you’ve been on a hike or sat beside a lake or had some other kind of meaningful experience with nature. What’s going on there? I decided to look into it.I realize you’re probably in your car fighting traffic, jogging on a treadmill, or doing the dishes or something, but I hope you’ll imagine being right there with me. Today on Three Dimensional Theology, I’m journeying out into nature, and I want to bring you with me. Let’s go.My wife and I live in a neighborhood that is famous for its connection to nature. Shopping centers and gas stations are shrouded behind banks of trees, invisible from the road. Our house sits on a normal sized lot crammed with about twenty eight trees, at my last count. And miles and miles of walking trails weave through wooded areas among the homes, streets, and drainage ditches.So earlier today I laced up a pair of shoes and headed out onto the trail closest to our home. I’ve walked and biked this path dozens of times before, but today I wanted some space to get away and to see if I could connect with God our Creator out here.The first thing I noticed was the quiet. I heard a dog bark, some children playing, cars passing on nearby roads. But mostly I heard natural, quiet, peaceful sounds. Water gurgling, brown leaves crunching beneath my steps, green leaves rustling overhead.A bright red cardinal swoops across the path, unseen birds squawk in the distance, and squirrels chatter and scurry all around. I love the peaceful sounds of being outside, the feeling of getting away from the house a little bit, the ability to almost forget I’m never more than a stones throw away from people’s houses.The squirrels especially make an impression on me. They seem so full of personality, so curious but also quick and cautious. A few times on my walk I came within just a few feet of one of them before it suddenly realized I was there and retreated to the shelter of nearby undergrowth. Sometimes when I ride my bike out here the squirrels, bounding around on the path, don’t hear me coming. I almost always have to slam on my brakes at least once when I’m out riding the trails to avoid hitting one. My constant fear is that one day one of these squirrels, alarmed by the sound of my fast approaching bike, will bolt beneath my tire. I really don’t want to have to Google, “How to clean squirrel blood off a bicycle”.But hold on a minute. Here I am out here, trying to commune with God in nature, and all I can think about is accidental squirrel-icide. I try to refocus: peaceful sounds, I key back into the birds, rustling leaves, gentle footsteps, babbling br…Oh. My. Gosh. What is that smell? It’s like something died in the gully or something. Uggggh!No! Stop it. I need to refocus: God’s creation, I’m in nature, everything is peaceful and beautiful and…Alright. I can’t keep this up. That’s like the tenth pile of animal feces I’ve stepped over. I’m sorry, but I think we’re done here. I love nature and everything, but this is no Garden of Eden.Many years ago, I went camping with a few friends of mine. We drove for like five hours to this really beautiful place in the Texas Hill Country called Enchanted Rock. I remember actually hoping that it would be a good opportunity to get away from it all and connect with God. So the second day we were there I went off alone and found a secluded spot on the face of this enormous hunk of granite jutting hundreds of feet into the sky and I just sat down there, enjoying the view. I was hoping to have a moment like Elijah had on Mount Horeb in 1 Kings 19.“The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” (1 Kgs 19:11–12 NIV11)Thankfully that day there wasn’t an earthquake or a fire on Enchanted Rock, but there was a lot of wind. And just like Elijah, I didn’t hear God in the wind, or in any of the other sights and sounds that were going on all around me.But I think I did hear a still, small voice. It said, “What are you doing out here? Don’t you get that you didn’t have to drive halfway across the state to meet with me?”Nature doesn’t have a monopoly on Creation. Our actual, day to day lives, even in all their messiness, are a part of God’s creation too. In fact, they may be the least messy parts of God’s creation. It’s great to get away once in awhile, but we don’t need nature to be able to connect with God. We just need to be tuned in wherever we happen to find ourselves. Where you are, right now, is a gift. This place, and others like it, they are your habitat. Your house, your car, your work or school, your grocery store, God has placed you there. God is the maker of heaven and earth. That includes the Grand Canyon, but it also includes your kitchen, your bathroom, and your couch.In spite of all the messiness, may you experience the richness and the beauty of God’s creation wherever you are today.Links:Enchanted Rock State Natural Area

Show notes:I know a town in the Dominican Republic with a poverty rate 74.5%, where the average family income is a slim $101 a month. Take note: that was family income.Let that sink in for a minute. Where I live a lot of people’s income is 100 times that. Meanwhile one in nine people in the world will go to bed tonight hungry, and one in three suffer some kind of malnutrition, but scientists and NGO’s tell us that our world produces plenty of food for everyone to have enough.We live in a world where sometimes people die of starvation, sometimes babies die, children work in sweatshops, and human beings are bought and sold as slaves for manual labor and prostitution. And I know everyone can list their own things, their own injustices, things that happen in the world that bother them. The truth is we need a God who is Almighty - a God who is big enough to handle all that.Thankfully, we actually have one.God is called by the name “Shaddai” exactly forty eight times in the Old Testament. But Shaddai is a mysterious name - no one can agree on where exactly it comes from. In ancient times when Greek and Latin speakers translated the Bible they rendered this word in a bunch of different ways: all powerful, all powerful lord, God of heavens, maker of all things, the sufficient one, highest, strongest, sublime God. But most often when it is translated into English we just have one word: Almighty.Again, this word is only used forty eight times in the Old Testament, and thirty one of them are in the relatively off-the-beaten-path book of Job. But in our creed we say, “We believe in God the Father ALMIGHTY.” Indeed, one of the most important icons of Jesus is Christ Pantokrator, Christ Almighty.On this episode of Three Dimensional Theology we are talking about what we mean when we say God is “Almighty.”God is big, and God is good. God is omnipotent and philanthropic. God is way stronger than Super Man, and God is way more morally good than Mother Theresa. Sometimes these two things are thought of as incompatible. But the fact is that we also have a God who promises to put things right. Believing that promise, believing that God is true to His word - this is what we mean when we say we believe in God the Almighty.God is big. God is good. God will put things right.May you put your trust in that promise, and may you live your life in its light.Links:World Food ProgrammeWorld Vision: Global Hunger FactsCompassion International

Show notes:Today’s show has very little in the way of explicit theological, religious, or spiritual significance. But I think a father and his adult son talking about fatherhood together is worth something. And so - this.I asked my dad about his favorite dad joke (spoiler alert: it’s him), his favorite memories from raising my sisters and me, and for advice he might have for dads - or aspiring dads.Links:George Matthews on LinkedIn

Show notes:Today we’re continuing our slow crawl through the Apostles Creed, including Three Dimensional Theology’s first ever interview.Since the topic today is “We believe in God the Father…”, I thought it would be interesting to do an interview with my own father, George Matthews. He was gracious enough to agree to be a part of it, and came over to our house the other day and I recorded our conversation. He shares a few stories about his own father, and tells stories of fatherhood from his experience raising my sisters and me.And of course we talked about what it might mean that we call God our “Father”. Like all metaphors for the divine, it doesn’t tell the whole story about God. But it tells a part of the story really well. Fathers at their best are protectors. Sometimes they discipline, but they do it only for the good of their children. Fathers give good gifts. And above all, fathers, again, at their best, offer unconditional love. For that and a whole lot more, give this episode of Three Dimensional Theology a listen!Links:George Matthews on LinkedIn

Show notes:In this episode of Three Dimensional Theology we’re talking about God.That’s a really broad topic, after all God is infinite, all powerful, and all knowing. How can this be condensed into a short podcast format? Well, it can’t. In fact, we humans are finite creatures who don’t have the ability to talk about an infinite God at all.Except that this God that the Bible talks about sometimes talks to us. This God sometimes comes and addresses people. And then he tells them to share this encounter with others.Who or what is God? We don’t have time to do justice to this question. Indeed, we aren’t up to the task. But we can look at what God does, and what God says about himself. Theologian Robert Jenson (who died about a year ago) once said, “God is whoever raised Jesus from the dead, having before raised Israel from Egypt.” I think that’s pretty good. And I think it directs us to one of the most interesting times when God identifies himself: Exodus 3.“Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’“This is my name forever,the name you shall call mefrom generation to generation.“Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’” (Exod 3:13–17 NIV11)Who is God? God gives three part answer:God is “I AM WHAT I AM”God is the God of this peopleGod is the God who has seen what’s gone on, and promises to rescue his people from itOf course as Christians, we have a bit more to say. God is Trinity - Three in One. Our God is the God that we come to know in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.Links:Robert Jenson Wikipedia

Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.Show notes:We’re kicking off this podcast by looking at the Apostles Creed. This episode we’re just discussing the first phrase: "I Believe."What is faith or belief? It is more than merely cognitive, and it’s not mainly about existence. Belief, the way Christians use the word, is closer to me telling my wife I believe in her.There are at least three overlapping ways of thinking about this:faith as conviction(s)faith as existential trustfaith as faithfulnessThis is true when I say I believe in my wife, but it is even truer when Christians say we believe in God. Christian belief is cognitive - but it’s so much more. It is about convictions that change us, trust that defines us, and faithfulness that slowly becomes us.What are you confident in? What unseen things do you hope for? What do you believe in? What convictions do you have? Where does your allegiance lie? What are you faithful to?If you can answer those questions honestly, you’ll find out who you truly are .Links:Apostles Creed Wikipedia