Names and Titles of Jesus

Mark 14:62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

1 John 5:20 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

 

There two very similar yet quite different titles applied to Jesus in the gospels; namely, Son of God and Son of Man. These phrases are used for Jesus Christ and refers to His humanity and deity. The message of scripture was that Jesus Christ was both God and man.

The notion of sonship can teach us a lot about Jesus. In Matthew 3:17 we read, “And a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.’” 

In Judaism, the firstborn son is viewed as significant in “the redemption of the first-born son.” This is a commandment in Jewish culture where the firstborn son is “redeemed” and predestined to serve as a priest. The firstborn son was also given a double portion of the inheritance. Sons were viewed in this time as being chosen, prepared with purpose, and to carry on the vision of the father. This helps shape the significance of Jesus being called the Son of Man and forms a fundamental tenet of christian doctrine as seen in the Nicene Creed - For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

Jesus would often refer to himself as the Son of Man, in fact there are 69 occasions when he uses this phrase to describe himself.  The title goes back to the Book of Daniel where the Son of Man would inherit the everlasting kingdom of God. It is a designation of the Messiah. At His trial Jesus acknowledged that He indeed was the Son of Man - the one who would bring in God's everlasting kingdom. When the religious leaders heard this they accused Him of blasphemy - making Himself equal with God. The purpose of the title seems to be Jesus' own emphasis on His humanity.

Where as the title Son of God, refers to the divinity of Jesus Christ. Of note, all followers of Jesus Christ are designated sons of God, but Jesus is spoken of as the Son of God.

Rowan Williams can help us understand the nature of the Son of God. “We call Jesus the Son of God. But we do not mean by this that God has physically begotten him, or that he is made to be another God alongside the one God. We say rather that the one God is first the source of everything, the life from which everything flows out.

 

Then we say that the one God is also in that flowing-out. The life that comes from him is not something different from him. It reflects all that he is. It shows his glory and beauty and communicates them. Once again, our teachers say that God has a perfect and eternal 'image' of his glory, sometimes called his wisdom, sometimes called his 'word', sometimes called his 'son', though this is never to be understood in a physical and literal way. And we say that the one God, who is both source and outward-flowing life, who is both 'Father' and 'Son', is also active as the power that draws everything back to God, leading and guiding human beings towards the wisdom and goodness of God. This is the power we call 'Holy Spirit'.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us,

let us find our rest in thee.

Israel's strength and consolation,

hope of all the earth thou art;

dear desire of every nation,

joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,

born a child and yet a King,

born to reign in us forever,

now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal spirit

rule in all our hearts alone;

by thine all sufficient merit,

Raise us to thy glorious throne. 

Charles Wesley

The Names and Titles of Jesus

 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.....“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 14:18-21

Have you ever had a confusing conversation when a word  used had two meanings and was understood differently by those sharing the discussion. Such words, are known as homonyms. Here are just a few.

When used as an adjective, "compact" means small, but when used as a verb, it means to make something smaller. It can also be used as a noun when talking about a small case for makeup. Or as a noun, "desert" is a dry, barren area of land where little rain occurs. When used as a verb, the word means to abandon a person or cause.  Other words such as fair, lie, lead and so on can be similarly misunderstood.

The title ‘Messiah’ (Christ in Greek) although not strictly a homonym, was understood in different ways when applied to Jesus. Messiah can mean the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. It can also be interpreted as a leader regarded as the saviour of a particular country, group, or cause.

The question here is not the actual Saviour aspect of the word but the understanding of how such deliverance should be exercised. Strictly speaking, Messiah means the anointed one but the contemporary expectation at the time of Jesus amongst many Jews was for a warrior to rid the nation of the occupying Roman invaders. Whilst Jesus in his declaration in Luke 14 above, gave a classical proclamation of his Messiahship, his methods ran contrary to the understanding at that times. 

The record of the temptations of Jesus gives insight to his counter cultural living out of his Messiahship. Scholars are practically agreed that the essence of the temptation consists in the opposition of the current lower ideal of the Messianic kingdom to the higher as conceived in Jesus' own mind. His purpose to fulfil the most beautiful of the Messianic psalms, which pictures Israel's Shepherd, after he has led them through the valley of the shadow of death, preparing a table before them in the presence of their enemies, anointing their heads with oil, and filling their cup to overflowing but to do this Jesus chose a counter cultural way.

Within a culture that associated the coming of a Jewish king, descended from the line of David, with military and political domination, Jesus was exceptionally wary of being misconstrued. With good reason, he told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” John 18:35. Jesus did not come to establish his rule through military power, but by giving his life as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world. He challenged his hearers to embrace his teaching of love towards enemies. Even when the people greeted him as “the son of David” on his entering Jerusalem, Jesus rode on a donkey, not a warrior’s horse.

For us, it is seeing afresh in faith the true essence of Messiahship, that of the redemption and rule of Jesus the Christ as perceived by Charles Wesley in his hymn.

1 Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only Light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
triumph o'er the shades of night;
Dayspring from on high, be near;
Daystar, in my heart appear.

2 Dark and cheerless is the morn

unaccompanied by thee;
joyless is the day's return
'til thy mercy's beams I see;
'til they inward light impart,
glad my eyes, and warm my heart.

3 Visit then, this soul of mine;

pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
fill me, Radiancy divine;
scatter all my unbelief;
more and more thyself display,
shining to the perfect day.

The Names and Titles of Jesus

Matthew 1:21-22 “..an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph son of  David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Today we start a series at looking at the various names and titles found in the bible foe Jesus. We start with his given name, translated into english as Jesus. In the native tongue of Nazareth the given name was Yeshua  and in greek Iesous, From the former it can be seen that it is closely related to the name Joshua and in the Greek how the english Jesus was evolved.

There are several definitions of Yeshua that can be found in Hebrew and Aramaic biblical text, taken from the Hebrew verb, yasha, that means “to deliver, save, or rescue,” and the link with Joshua. Joshua is stated as “Jeshua” in some English Bibles, and you can see the resemblance of Joshua leading the Jews out of Egypt as how Yeshua would lead and save all people years later as the Saviour. The link with Joshua is even more descriptive in that it means the LORD saves. In the Hebrew scripture translated in Capitals in some english translations s LORD refers to YHWH, a form of the Hebrew name of God used in the Bible. The name came to be regarded by Jews as too sacred to be spoken.

By claiming “Yeshua” as a name of Jesus, we support the bond we have with the Messiah in acknowledging all that He did to deliver us from evil bondage from the enemy and to save us from ourselves, our sinful natures. Some suggest that using “Yeshua” when addressing Him in prayer establishes a closer bond with the Lord that could be viewed in the same way one would reference a loved one in an intimate way.  

In the bible we often read the phrase “the name of Jesus”; for example Philippians 2:9–11 “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”

Charles Wesley speak of the name of Jesus in this way.

Jesus, the Name high over all, 

in hell or earth or sky; 

angels and mortals prostrate fall, 

and devils fear and fly.

Jesus, the Name to sinners dear, 

the Name to sinners giv'n; 

it scatters all their guilty fear, 

it turns their hell to heav'n. 

Jesus, Name full of glory, grace, love and strength! You are the refuge of those who repent, our banner of warfare in this life, the medicine of souls, the comfort of those who mourn, the delight of those who believe, the light of those who preach the true faith, the wages of those who toil, the healing of the sick.

To You our devotion aspires; by You our prayers are received; we delight in contemplating You. O Name of Jesus, You are the glory of all the saints for eternity. Amen.

St. Bernardine of Siena

 

Ordained Presence 

2 Timothy 4:1-5 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge thel iving and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.

How is it possible, in terms of the ordained minister’s pastoral task to work this out in practice? The Lutheran Church,  emphasises that ordained ministry is a privilege granted by God through the call of the church and that those who serve in this ministry are accountable to the Word of God for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ordained ministers are called to faithful preaching and teaching, to be examples of the Christian life, and to lead and equip the baptized for their ministries in the world. In other words the emphasis is the ministry of Word and Sacrament expressed through holy living and enabling ministry in others. 

For the Tentmaker Minister, this has to be expressed through a sense of presence and purpose within the community of the church, its wider field of mission and the context of daily employment. John Mantle writing about Britain’s first Worker-Priests speaks of such a presence in the pastoral sense as being an organised presence, an articulate presence and a prophetic presence. In his book he tries to answer the question “What did a worker-priest have to offer in the workplace that a layman did not?”+ by saying that the simple answer might be an understanding of human and pastoral problems, substantial theological comprehension and a human face for a distant institution whose clergy he represents. 

Whilst acknowledging the differences between a worker-priest and a Methodist Non-stipendiary Minister, there is a similarity of where pastoral ministry is exercised. Perhaps we should questions why leadership, in the presbyterial sense, is restricted to the church environments. I would argue that the traditional role of the pastor seen as exclusively within the 'fold', whilst the laity are those who venture into the world of work is an inappropriate model. 

There are, however, those who would advocate the need for the ordained minister to have a sense of separateness in order to fulfil the pastoral role. I feel that this is primarily a misunderstanding of what it means to be set apart. Yes, there is a need for a presbyter to disengage in order to reflect upon her/his engagement both in the world and community, but unless the pastoral task is focused on care and development of the body of Christ, it will become impoverished and itself ineffective in ministry. For the church's task is surely that of  ministering to the community by reaching out to it as it actually is, rather than passively expecting a sudden active Christian commitment from people before anything else can be done. Being with people, where they are making the Incarnation known in the community is surely true pastoral ministry. 

Conclusion For me, the ordained Non-stipendiary Minister’s task in an age of uncertainty is to truly underpin the life, ministry and care of the whole people of God. This work has to be truly incarnational in essence, participatory in nature and holistic in expression. Whilst individually focused, the pastoral task has to project the all-embracing representation of Christ, with, through and by the whole people of God and as such is in, through and beyond any human institutional limitation. The Tentmaker Minister has to be  both engaged and disengaged from life, an inhabiter of the margins, a dweller of the verges the mass experience, at least in the mind of many of those she/he meets. Yet perhaps because of that very dislocation, through such wandering, the  Tentmaker can be is used in discerning signs in the lives of those who either frequently or momentarily find themselves along side her/him, seeking direction.

Empowering God, you called your disciples to share the good news of your love to the ends of the earth. They were a motley crew, many from the margins of the society of their day. Sometimes I feel on the margins of life, and I wonder if you can use me. Remind me that power comes from you and you alone. Give me a courageous and willing spirit so that I may boldly go wherever and to whomever you send me. Amen.

Tomorrow- The Name of Jesus

+ John Mantle, Britain’s first worker-priests, SCM Press Ltd, London, 2000

Tent Making Ministy 4

 A Renewal of the Tent Maker Tradition 

With the greater part of society existing outside the organised life of the church, there appears to be a growing need for across-cultural ministry grounded within the congregational of the faithful but able to communicate the gospel in incarnational terms. Through such a ministry, substance is given to the latent Word found within all humankind. 

The example of this can be plainly seen in the life of Jesus Christ, who was able to naturally cross the cultural barriers and frequently accompany people at every level of society just where they were. For the Non-stipendiary Minister engaged in some other work there are two aspects of pastoral care distinct from those engaged in full-time stipendiary ministry. 

The first is the process of enabling the laity to share with others the problems and achievements of their working or community life. I suggest that in order to be able to fulfil their vocation with awareness, the scattered church members need an ordained ministry that recognises the value of their task and actively promotes an internal church life that sustains them as agents of the world's potential in God's name. It has been advocated  that the presidency of a Non-Stipendiary minister at the communion service has a strong contribution to be made in this area for the one who breaks bread on a Sunday is also the one who is at the work bench or office desk on a Monday,

I recall a stipendiary minister of many years service speaking of a growing gulf between him and his congregation. He knew that his existence was secure, compared with many in his congregation who faced efficiency targets, vulnerable security and all too often faced redundancy. The Non-stipendiary Minister faces the same predicament as his/her congregation and in this sense can be truly representative and a focus of ministry with, through and by the Christian Community. 

The Pastoral Task in Action The second aspect that I feel needs liberating within the Non-stipendiary Minister `s ministry is that their day-to-day employment is not merely the means of earning a living but forms an integral part of her/his ordination. There is a need to end what could be termed, ministerial schizophrenia, where the identity and integrity of a Non-stipendiary Minister is brought into question. 

Twelve years on from leaving as head of St Loye’s College, I am still contacted by former colleagues or their families in need of pastoral support, particularly at times of crisis, for those who have no other church affiliation,

All too often there is a  tension within congregations in the  way that a local community of faith understands its existence, its dynamic and its locus of operation. This is also true as to its expectation of the ordained ministry, albeit paid or unpaid. 

A simple way of defining the way a church operates is to compare activity by what has been called the sheep farming models of Britain and Australia and therefore to have a clearer picture of the scope of pastoral care for the ordained Non-stipendiary Minister. 

The British model is of an enclosed sheepfold with definite boundaries and capacity. Here the pastoral care is inward looking and subject to a gate-keeping mentality. This model leaves little scope to operate flexible patterns of ministry. Within the Australian model there are no boundaries as the ‘flock’ is centred on a well with scope for variety of mission and extended ministry. The sheep roam where they will but know where to find water that sustains life.

Whilst Jesus in the parable of the Good Shepherd speaks of a fold, he also tells of seeking the lost sheep. He also said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” John 10:6

Help us, with simple words, to explain the warmth within our hearts that we experienced in that first encounter with your love and grace - the Spirit’s flame, still burning bright within - that others, in their own journeys of discovery might reach out and touch the hand that’s always there, and be embraced by love.

Tentmaker Ministry 3

 

Defining Tentmaker Pastoral Care 

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ your are serving.” - Colossians 3:23-24

The Deed of Union, (the constitution of  the Methodist Church passed by Act of Parliament in 1929  enabled the various Methodist branches to unite in 1932), uses such words as 'Steward, and Shepherd' to describe the call, vocation, life and responsibility of the Presbyter. 

This is very much in line with Wesley's sermon based up Hebrew 13:17 where he speaks of "pastors... who guide and feed a part of the flock of Christ." 

The words steward and shepherd, deeply rooted in Jewish thought, also reveals something of the nature of a ministry of word and sacrament. 

This task is the care of souls , the conduct of worship and the oversight of church order. 

Wesley continues by considering the presbyter as having a dual role of both ‘under-rowing’ and oversight expressed in terms that the steward employs all that she/he has through ‘the poor, whom God has appointed to receive by looking upon ourselves as one of that number of the poor.’ 

For Paul Johnson, an English journalist, popular historian, speechwriter, and author, such pastoral care is "a religious ministry to individuals in dynamic relationships arising from insight into essential needs and mutual discovery of potentialities for spiritual growth." 

But how is this dynamic expressed through the presbyterial ministry? Ordination has been described as the setting apart of an individual for the task of eldership. However, the concept has led to a false understanding of the ordained being somehow, separated and removed from the people. If presbyterial pastoral care has a hallmark it is surely incarnational in essence and participatory in practice. A working definition of incarnational ministry is the immersion of one’s self into a local culture and ‘becoming Jesus’ to that culture.

The 1968 Anglican/Methodist unity report spoke of ordained ministry as " ...distinctive...a special form of participation. It is in this way that the priesthood of the presbyter should be understood... as both Christ's ambassadors and the representatives of the whole people of God." 

Defining what is meant by the whole People of God is perhaps the most difficult aspect of this statement when considering what it means to be incarnational in terms of the ordained ministry. This suggests becoming incarnate in society is moving onto a group's "turf" - its social territory and living fully among people in a way that they can understand. 

Regrettably, all too often, the church has frustrated ministry beyond it’s walls by filling the time of lay and ordained members with maintaining organisational structures and not prepared, and in some cases not allowed its people to be in the world but not of it. The call of a Tentmaker Minister challenges the church by ploughing a vocational furrow of faith firmly anchored within the church yet exercised beyond.

Yes there are tensions, yes there are frustrations and there are even heartache and misunderstandings in following the call the Tentmaker Ministry; but wasn’t this the sort of pathway that the apostle Paul endured.  

Perhaps we need another definition of Tentmaker Ministry - One writer defines the term “tentmaker” as missions-committed Christians who support themselves, and make Jesus Christ known on the job and in their free time. They are in full-time ministry even when they have full-time jobs, because they integrate work and witness. Just a thought - isn’t every disciple of Jesus a Tentmaker Minister?

Before You I kneel, my Master and Maker

To offer the work of my hands,

For this is the day You’ve given Your servant;

I will rejoice and be glad:

For the strength I have to live and breathe,

For each skill Your grace has given me,

For the needs and opportunities

That will glorify Your great name.

Before You I kneel and ask for Your goodness

To cover the work of my hands,

For patience and peace to shape all my labour,

Your grace for thorns in my path.

Flow within me like a living stream,

Wear away the stones of pride and greed,

‘Til Your ways are dwelling deep in me

And a harvest of life is grown.

Before You we kneel, our Master and Maker;

Establish the work of our hands,

And order our steps to seek first Your kingdom

In every small and great task.

May we live the gospel of Your grace,

Serve Your purpose in our fleeting days,

Then our lives will bring eternal praise

And all glory to Your great name,

And all glory to Your great name.

Stuart Townend, Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty and Jeff Taylor Copyright © 2012 Getty Music Publishing (BMI) and Seek 1st Publishing & Townend Music (Adm. by Song Solutions info@songsolutions.org)

Tomorrow On the Job Ministry

Tent Maker Ministry 2

  

The Priesthood of all Believers in Context of Presbyterial Ministry 

1 Peter 2:4-5 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The priesthood of all believers is the framework through which all ministries, whether lay or ordained, are exercised within the context of the church and its ministry in the world. Central to this ministry is making the gospel credible and thus enabling people to believe that 'the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross.'

Furthermore the Good News, the Gospel, is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it. If the location of this priesthood is considered to be the whole church in the world and that being the church, whether at work, play or worship, is its reason for existing, is it not also true that ordained ministry should be assessable, enabling and sustaining this work? 

Central to ordination within Methodist Church is what the Statement on Ordination (1974) calls the focal and representative nature of this ministry. Some would say that through ordination the ministry of the whole people of God is focused and represented. 

Whilst I go some way in agreement with this concept I do not feel that this belongs exclusively to the ordained ministry. After all, the word minister, often translated as presbyter in the New Testament, has also been translated as ‘huperetes’ meaning an under-rower - one who helps other crew members to row in unison so as to propel the ship. Paul used this to describe himself in Romans 1:1 signifying that ministry is wider than leadership in the traditional sense. 

The concept of the representative, focus and priesthood is often misunderstood when applied to ordained ministry. 

Depending upon a Christian's tradition, the image of the priestly office will differ greatly. Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I, understood the word priest to have its root in the word presbyter (an office bearer who exercised tracking, ministerial and administrative functions). This word became interchangeable with ‘prester’, possible after John Prester, a legendary Christian King and priest of the Middle Ages. Through usage, the word Prester eventually became Priest. 

However, Michael Harper, an anglican minister who eventually joined the Orthodox Church urges the need to drop the term priest and restore the presbyterate to its rightful scriptural position. 

The presbyter’s ordination does not in itself indicate a greater degree of holiness but through Christ's call given in a particular gift, further enables the whole church to exercise the common priesthood. I recall Rev’d Dr David Hewlett, principal of the South West Ministry Training Course preach on the subject of three Vocations. He claimed that every one had a Sunday Vocation, a Monday to Friday Vocation and a Saturday vocation. Sunday our call to worship God in the name of Christ. Monday to Friday - to exercise our faith and ministry through our day to day activity and Saturday our calling to rest and recuperate. That’s not a bad rule of thumb for all Christian Ministry whether lay or ordained, is it.

Lord, my God and my loving Father, you have made me to know you, to love you, to serve you, and thereby to find and to fulfil my deepest longings. I know that you are in all things, and that every path can lead me to you.

But of them all, there is one especially by which you want me to come to you. Since I will do what you want of me, I pray you, send your Holy Spirit to me: into my mind, to show me what you want of me; into my heart, to give me the determination to do it, and to do it with all my love, with all my mind, and with all of my strength right to the end. Jesus, I trust in you.   Amen

Tomorrow - Pastoral Ministry Outside the Fold