Gospel of Judas (New York Times)

April 6, 2006

'Gospel of Judas' Surfaces After 1,700 Years

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD and LAURIE GOODSTEIN

An early Christian manuscript, including the only known text of what is known as the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1,700 years. The text gives new insights into the relationship of Jesus and the disciple who betrayed him, scholars reported today. In this version, Jesus asked Judas, as a close friend, to sell him out to the authorities, telling Judas he will "exceed" the other disciples by doing so.

Though some theologians have hypothesized this, scholars who have studied the new-found text said, this is the first time an ancient document defends the idea.

The discovery in the desert of Egypt of the leather-bound papyrus manuscript, and now its translation, was announced by the National Geographic Society at a news conference in Washington. The 26-page Judas text is said to be a copy in Coptic, made around A. D. 300, of the original Gospel of Judas, written in Greek the century before.

Terry Garcia, an executive vice president of the geographic society, said the manuscript, or codex, is considered by scholars and scientists to be the most significant ancient, nonbiblical text to be found in the past 60 years.

"The codex has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal literature," Mr. Garcia said, citing extensive tests of radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging and studies of the script and linguistic style. The ink, for example, was consistent with ink of that era, and there was no evidence of multiple rewriting.

"This is absolutely typical of ancient Coptic manuscripts," said Stephen Emmel, professor of Coptic studies at the University of Munster in Germany. "I am completely convinced."

The most revealing passages in the Judas manuscript begins, "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover."

The account goes on to relate that Jesus refers to the other disciples, telling Judas "you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." By that, scholars familiar with Gnostic thinking said, Jesus meant that by helping him get rid of his physical flesh, Judas will act to liberate the true spiritual self or divine being within Jesus.

Unlike the accounts in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the anonymous author of the Gospel of Judas believed that Judas Iscariot alone among the 12 disciples understood the meaning of Jesus' teachings and acceded to his will. In the diversity of early Christian thought, a group known as Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge of how people could escape the prisons of their material bodies and return to the spiritual realm from which they came.

Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton who specializes in studies of the Gnostics, said in a statement, "These discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion, and demonstrating how diverse — and fascinating — the early Christian movement really was."

The Gospel of Judas is only one of many texts discovered in the last 65 years, including the gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and Philip, believed to be written by Gnostics.

The Gnostics' beliefs were often viewed by bishops and early church leaders as unorthodox, and they were frequently denounced as heretics. The discoveries of Gnostic texts have shaken up Biblical scholarship by revealing the diversity of beliefs and practices among early followers of Jesus.

As the findings have trickled down to churches and universities, they have produced a new generation of Christians who now regard the Bible not as the literal word of God, but as a product of historical and political forces that determined which texts should be included in the canon, and which edited out.

For that reason, the discoveries have proved deeply troubling for many believers. The Gospel of Judas portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus, but as his most favored disciple and willing collaborator.

Scholars say that they have long been on the lookout for the Gospel of Judas because of a reference to what was probably an early version of it in a text called Against Heresies, written by Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, about the year 180.

Irenaeus was a hunter of heretics, and no friend of the Gnostics. He wrote, "They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas."

Karen L. King, a professor of the history of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, and an expert in Gnosticism who has not yet read the manuscript released today, said that the Gospel of Judas may well reflect the kinds of debates that arose in the second and third century among Christians.

"You can see how early Christians could say, if Jesus's death was all part of God's plan, then Judas's betrayal was part of God's plan," said Ms. King, the author of several books on Gnostic texts. "So what does that make Judas? Is he the betrayer, or the facilitator of salvation, the guy who makes the crucifixion possible?"

At least one scholar said the new manuscript does not contain anything dramatic that would change or undermine traditional understanding of the Bible. James M. Robinson, a retired professor of Coptic studies at Claremont Graduate University, was the general editor of the English edition of the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of Gnostic documents discovered in Egypt in 1945.

"Correctly understood, there's nothing undermining about the Gospel of Judas," Mr. Robinson said in a telephone interview. He said that the New Testament gospels of John and Mark both contain passages that suggest that Jesus not only picked Judas to betray him, but actually encouraged Judas to hand him over to those he knew would crucify him.

Mr. Robinson's book, "The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and his Lost Gospel" (Harper San Francisco, April 2006), predicts the contents of the Gospel of Judas based on his knowledge of Gnostic and Coptic texts, even though he was not part of the team of researchers working on the document.

The Egyptian copy of the gospel was written on 13 sheets of papyrus, both front and back, and found in a multitude of brittle fragments.

Rudolphe Kasser, a Swiss scholar of Coptic studies, directed the team that reconstructed and translated the script. The effort, organized by the National Geographic, was supported by Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art, in Basel, Switzerland, and the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery, an American nonprofit organization for the application of technology in historical and scientific projects.

The entire 66-page codex also contains a text titled James (also known as First Apocalypse of James), a letter by Peter and a text of what scholars are provisionally calling Book of Allogenes.

Discovered in the 1970's in a cavern near El Minya, Egypt, the document circulated for years among antiquities dealers in Egypt, then Europe and finally in the United States. It moldered in a safe-deposit box at a bank in Hicksville, N. Y., for 16 years before being bought in 2000 by a Zurich dealer, Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos. The manuscript was given the name Codex Tchacos.

When attempts to resell the codex failed, Ms. Nussberger-Tchacos turned it over to the Maecenas Foundation for conservation and translation.

Mr. Robinson said that an Egyptian antiquities dealer offered to sell him the document in 1983 for $3 million, but that he could not raise the money. He criticized the scholars now associated with the project, some of whom are his former students, because he said they violated an agreement made years ago by Coptic scholars that new discoveries should be made accessible to all qualified scholars.

The manuscript will ultimately be returned to Egypt, where it was discovered, and housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo.

Ted Waitt, the founder and former chief executive of Gateway, said that his foundation, the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery, gave the National Geographic Society a grant of more than $1 million to restore and preserve the manuscript and make it available to the public.

" I didn't know a whole lot until I got into this about the early days of Christianity. It was just extremely fascinating to me," Mr. Waitt said in a telephone interview. He said he had no motivation other than being fascinated by the finding. He said that after the document was carbon dated and the ink tested, procedures his foundation paid for, he had no question about its authenticity. "You can potentially question the translation and the interpretation, he said, but you can't fake something like this. It would be impossible."

Grace Christian Fellowship Winter Retreat Reflections

This was from a blog of one of the attendees:

"kingdom vision. multitudes in the valley of decision. battle mode.i want to engage this campus. engage this world. love, mercy, justice, compassion. so things are gettin flipped upside down once again. beyond my dates with God in word, sunday worship, mtg w/ pj n shiyon, and just some fun time with my family in christ here and there...hes setting me in training mode and the voice is getting louder and louder.. get out there. go in there. the messy places. pray like crazy. but just engage. listen a lot. deepen relationships with ppl on this campus that are not in your spiritual family. get uncomfortable. love love love and light light light. no agendas. no projects. missions right now, right here. what is it but to love God and love people. how can i love people i hardly know? how can i know people i do not spend time with? kinda feel like im growin up and moving out of the house. good to kno my family is always there and its not goodbye. but my extra time..for this season... can no longer primarily be spent with you and for you...... i sense Him telling me... soon, perhaps starting now, my time is going to go to strangers that i've yet to meet and get to know. and my job is to love them period. not love them so that... love them only if.. love them until... just love them. because God loves me and my needs are set and secure in that love. time to feed the five thousand... how many thousands are on this campus? i forget. good thing to kno i dont create the bread. so refreshing that all i am called to be is a distributor of grace and love. im not the source nor the sustainer. just a jar of clay. but i can hand out treasure."

It has been a week since the retreat and I am still praying for these future ambassadors of the gospel and America. I was meditating on the Sojourner's interview with Philip Yancey. Yancey talked about how the world may see America as a "Christian" nation:

Jacques Ellul makes the comment somewhere, "How is it that the Christian gospel produces societies, the values of which are the opposite of the Christian gospel?" If you just ask somebody, around the world, "Tell me what stands out to you about the United States," they'll say, "military power, unbelievable wealth by the world's standards, and sexual license." All three of these are radically anti-Jesus. So how is it that we're viewed as the most Christian country in the world and yet characterized by the least Christian characteristics?

So these young people will face a world that is awaiting their defining aspect of their lives...what will they respond when they are asked..."what inspires you?" Will they give voice to the faith they profess to one another? They are the "Repairers of the Breach (Isaiah 58:12)" and to find an expression of their redemptive role in this fallen world. One of the "older" students shared about how he stepped out in faith when he was in an interview and he was asked "who, besides your friends and family, played the most important role in your life...." He said embarassingly..."Jesus..." and in that moment...and unveiling of God's provision...

In my time, I felt that there was a sense of prayerful peace as I shared about "future grace" the gift of suffering...doing things unto God, God providing...God seeing...and most of all the challenge of engaging our culture to transform and renew faith...as Wiersbe calls us to be "distributors" and not "manufacturers" of minsitry.

At times I felt not as intellectually engaging as I wanted to be...because fear of being too "intellectual and showy" but rather focus on the convictions of how these truths have impacted my life. The fellowship seemed very "playful" and sometimes I wondered on the urgency that was upon them to "do all things..." and get beyond the "Christian huddle" culture. There was one girl who reminded me of myself...always making people laugh...and yet how much that has been a defense mechanism for me...to keep people at a distance. To take things so lightly that my garments I wear for Christ is not weathered by battle but brand new from the comfort I clothe myself in.

Yet, as I saw them, they were a mosaic of broken lives of pride, loss and shallowed community. They seem to carry a levity that betrays the weight of glory. But there were some who wanted so much more...so much more compassion, power and justice in their journey. Yet, I wanted more of Jesus for them...not the results...but the deep affection that comes from knowing Him. And in that ravaged reality of fallenness there is redemption...hope...and the power of our homecoming for each of us.

I appreciated the worship team and their ability to simply and profoundly place us into an atmosphere of worship...I haven't not worshipped in that manner for some time and it brings me into this intimacy with God...unveiling my innermost sins and insecurities about His sufficiency...in worship, I learn to just be naked...and entering into Spirit and Truth.

I pray for them Lord...that they stumble in the depths of God...

Bono's Prayer Breakfast

Bono’s Speech at Prayer Breakfast
2006
If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic complex.
Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.
Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural...something unseemly...about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the south of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert...but this is really weird, isn't it?
You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind.
Mr. President, are you sure about this?
It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned - I'm Irish.
I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws...but of course, they don't always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you're here.
I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here - Muslims, Jews, Christians - all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.
I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.
Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here - but maybe it's odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was...well, a little blurry, and hard to see.
I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.
For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land...and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment...
I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.
Even though I was a believer.
Perhaps because I was a believer.
I was cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.)
Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.
'Jubilee' - why 'Jubilee'?
What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?
I'd always read the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)...
'If your brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.'
It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn't done much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public before...
When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' he says, 'because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18).
What he was really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it.
So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate - in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions...making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.
But then my cynicism got another helping hand.
It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children...even [though the] fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.
Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgmentalism is back!
But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.
Love was on the move.
Mercy was on the move.
God was on the move.
Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet...conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and country stars. This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!
Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!
Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!
Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.
It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.
When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened - and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even - that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and global health, governments listened - and acted.
I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.
Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.
Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.
I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff. Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."
It's not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. (You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.) 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
Here's some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told America would have no time for the world's poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.
In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund - you and Congress - have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.
Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.
But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.
And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice.
Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice.
And that's too bad.
Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.
But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.
Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality.
Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.
It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.
You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah, 'equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the image of God."
And eventually the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews - but not the blacks."
"Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man."
So on we go with our journey of equality.
On we go in the pursuit of justice.
We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.
We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.
Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents...that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents...that's a justice issue.
And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.
That's why I say there's the law of the land…. And then there is a higher standard. There's the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?
As the laws of man are written, that's what they say.
God will not accept that.
Mine won't, at least. Will yours?
[ pause]
I close this morning on...very...thin...ice.
This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God...vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.
And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.
But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the scriptures call the least of these.
This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.
'Do to others as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that.
'Righteousness is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love for him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.' The Koran says that (2.177).
Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.
That is a powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.
A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it…. I have a family, please look after them…. I have this crazy idea...
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.
Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what he's calling us to do.
I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does that compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than 1%.
Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:
I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.... Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor.
What is 1%?
1% is not merely a number on a balance sheet.
1% is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1% is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water.
1% is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.
America gives less than 1% now. We're asking for an extra 1% to change the world. to transform millions of lives - but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us.
1% is national security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a better, safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around.
These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised world.
Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices.
But I can tell you this:
To give 1% more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.
There is a continent - Africa - being consumed by flames.
I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not to - to put the fire out in Africa.
History, like God, is watching what we do.
Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.

Conversation with David Park

David Park: do you preach mostly for chinese congregations or a variety?
Peter Ong: mostly for asian american but I have been known to preach at other conferences
David Park: i see. there are truly integrated asian american congregations in your area then?
Peter Ong: I have seen one so far but that is something that I am committed in developing. i was part of forming a youth ministry in a church where the immigrant and ABC youth was truly integrated
David Park: so would you say that you have more exposure in chinese american circles?
Peter Ong: yes, but recently connected with korean american circles
David Park: do you ever feel as though it is difficult with crossing over into other culture’s churches?
Peter Ong: I think it is a matter of being missional towards a culture and celebrating that
Peter Ong: I remember this moment when this 8 year old girl told me that God is Chinese
Peter Ong: I asked her how did she come up with that
Peter Ong: she said I am made in God’s image and I am chinese so God is chinese
Peter Ong: then I asked her what about samantha? (samantha is black)
Peter Ong: she looked at me… and said… God is brown
Peter Ong: I liked that. not theologically mind blowing but there is something to be said about cultural expressions (or the heart language) of a people group and to enter it with a sense of wonder and discovery of how they express the gospel in their culture then it is not so hard to negotiate that…
David Park: and you haven’t found that difficult to do even among other asian churches?
Peter Ong: not particularly, because I really believe that God appoints people of authority and we are to submit and respect them. I haven’t met too many leaders who are “evil” but mostly misunderstood
David Park: i would agree with you there. and it does take people like yourself to be bridges within the community
Peter Ong: i really have strong convictions about leaders. i think a lot of American born pastors have undermined their ministries by not honoring that not being strategic about their ministries within a cultural context
David Park: wow, please feel free to expand. what are some good ways to be strategic?
Peter Ong: being missional…
Peter Ong: doing things the “chinese” way, I think there is a confucian element to our culture that is not biblical and that is something one has to be careful about
David Park: what confucian elements do you mean?
Peter Ong: prestige, academic achievements, money, morality versus graces, being moral, conservative mindsets, keeping the old… but I think that if we see things in their lens and helping to work under that understanding there are ways of negotiating
Peter Ong: i am an ARC so my chinese wasn’t that great when i started ministry, but I took time to learn so that I can speak to my senior pastor in chinese because i should respect him and the culture and i aligned myself with leadership who I could communicate better with so they can be advocates
Peter Ong: and I am being honest. I had trouble with some of the way they did things but I honored them as long as I trusted that the leadership had God’s glory in the big picture…. that is critical….i trusted my pastor completely but I didn’t think he did things along the way that were ethical or even biblical but it was very chinese so I accepted it and in two years, he gave me more support and more resources because I submitted and made alliances with key people who loved God and loved he church
David Park: i think what you’ve shown is a powerful display of patience and of reaching back to the older generation
Peter Ong: I think that it was important for healing
David Park: that’s really powerful. in what ways would you say the chinese culture has strengthened your faith?
Peter Ong: I think my faith has strengthened my chinese culture. I understand so much about the chinese thinking so that I can minister in that community and to my kid’s family
Peter Ong: parents was desperate to find someone who can minister to their kids and to listen to them…
David Park: i would agree with you that many in the 2nd generation are not as patient and have tendencies to undermine the 1st generation churches. but you know, that’s not only a chinese american phenomenon, it’s occurring in many churches where they are seeking faith not only in terms of their own culture, but in the middle of the larger, American, post-church, postmodern culture as well
Peter Ong: well, I think that for that instance it is fine to move on and with the blessing of the church to plant that church but the next movement is going to be the emerging immigrant church that will require a newly defined postmodern matrix
David Park: do tell~
Peter Ong: because the world is changing very quickly
Peter Ong: america is seeing more and more immigrants come; we can’t ignore them
Peter Ong: and start to pioneer a new vision for church
Peter Ong: i think we need a global perspective when we think of the modern church we can’t just focus on the postmodern matrix as we know it but rather be prepared to engage in a diversity of ministry perspectives that will require a missional mindset but the mission is not OUT there but coming to us
David Park: i agree.
Peter Ong: so we have to prepare and celebrate that “chinese” side
Peter Ong: but I also feel for the post church crowd who have no connection with their culture. I think we are beginning to do that in NYC to look at this new emerging immigrant community that is going to be there always no matter what you do
David Park: but would you say that we have or are equipping leaders to engage in that?
Peter Ong: I am excited to see the next generation of Asian American leaders and I see them so engaging and open and loving God and loving the church…. and there is a heart to return to orthodoxy… while being innovative forward thinking….
David Park: yes, we must strike a good balance there like you mentioned earlier, we must be strategic about this
Peter Ong: and intentional…
David Park: and prayerful

Advent Reflection

Zechariah 6:12-13 (New International Version)
“Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.'”



During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” -Hebrews 5:7-10

Advent reflection: Arriving

For we affirm His divinity so joined and united with His humanity that each retains its distinctive nature unimpaired, and yet those two natures constitute one Christ- JOHN CALVIN

As the snow falls down outside and the evidence of winter approaches, my soul is stilled by the wonder of advent…the arriving…the intersection of the divine unto the earth. For the son of God came into this world as a wonderful child. The whole of history hinges on this arrival. The promise, the hope, the mediator and the destination on a small village, inside a manger…with two reluctant parents, awestruck shepherds and animals…among hay and manure, the wonderful Lamb of God came…

Upon his arrival I am moved by the singular devotion of Christ to mediate fallen man to a holy God in the form of person;a person with a name.

Emmanuel. Yeshua.

I wonder sometimes how it would change us if we were there with the odor of animals, leaning next to the shepherds and beholding this little Yeshua as he pierced the silence with a cry. This body of flesh had taken form and what was eternal and boundless was confined in this wrinkled baby and wrapped in ragged cloths.

I wonder how we would be changed if we understood the depths He traveled. We would begin to see the distance He traveled? In the midst of our misguided sense of worship and pilgrimage we spend most of our time in our personal agendas or creating our ministries and forget the beauty of this child and how we don’t adore the God who walked away from His heavenly throne to be present here…

To be here with us and to save us. Emmanuel. Yeshua.

In Hebrews, the writer gives an amazing picture of Jesus and his office as a King/Priest.

Louis Berkhof writes that whereas a prophet represents God before men, a priest represents man before God. I will focus on the priesthood…in this entry…

Wayne Grudem gives this further description of the priestly office: "In the Old Testament, the priests were appointed by God to offer sacrifices. They also offered prayers and praise to God on behalf of the people. In so doing they `sanctified' the people or made them acceptable to come into God's presence, albeit in a limited way during the Old Testament period. In the New Testament Jesus becomes our high priest."

There is a hint of it predicts that Christ would be our priest (Psalm 110:4), and the priest in the Old Testament was a first source of the echo of Christ's priesthood.

The book of Hebrews contains teaching on Christ's priesthood, calling Jesus "the Apostle and High Priest of our confession" (3:1) and our "great high priest" (4:14). As scholars have underscored this when they present Christ acts as our priest in two ways, the first way during His humiliation (as a sacrifice), the second way during His exaltation (as a mediator).

In the days of the Israelites, the priests had the special office of approaching God, and of speaking and acting in behalf of the people. In Hebrews 5, it teaches us that a priest is taken from among men to be their representative, is appointed by God, is active before God in the interests of men, and offers gifts and sacrifices for sins. He also makes intercession for the people.

The priestly work of Christ was, first of all, to be a sacrifice for sin. On that fateful Passover dinner, the man, the Lamb of God had to proceed towards the will of the Father. He became the Priest and the atonement. As part of the Passover meal, there is no Lamb but rather the wine and the bread…Second, he was also the Priest as presenting the sacrifice with the shedding of blood.

Atonement

Matt Perman says, “He presents His sacrifice to God, on the ground of it claims all spiritual blessings for His people, defends them against the charges of Satan, the law, and conscience, secures forgiveness for everything justly charged against them, and sanctifies their worship and service through the operation of the Holy Spirit. This intercessory work is limited in character; it has reference only to the elect, but includes all the elect, whether they are already believers or still live in unbelief, John 17:9, 20.”

My prayer is that as we meditate through advent, that we remember these approaching days towards advent of this birth. I am reminded that with every arrival there is a departure, and as He left everything so that we can eat at the dinner table with Him for eternity…He became mortal so we can conquer death along with Him and it all started with this troubling scene of this child…this child who will reconcile us as priest…