This is #25 in Crossing the Threshold series.

                                        A Response to a Revelation

So let’s begin with what worship is. “Worship means literally, acknowledging the worth of something or someone. It means recognizing and saying that something or someone is far superior to oneself.” A key phrase in this definition by N.T.Wright is far superior to oneself. Worship is a response to a revelation of a wholly other; to one far superior in power, being and reality.

Let me illustrate this definition for you by using a scene from The Two Towers, the second book in J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas are in pursuit of their friends Merry and Pippin when they enter the ancient woodland known as Fangorn Forest. They come upon a shrouded figure who they presume to be the evil wizard Saruman and are about to attack him when suddenly….

“The old man was too quick for him. He sprang to his feet and leaped to the top of a large rock. There he stood, grown suddenly tall, towering above them. His hood and grey rags were flung away. His white garments shone. He lifted up his staff, and Gimli’s axe leaped from his grasp and fell ringing on the ground. The sword of Aragorn, stiff in his motionless hand, blazed with a sudden fire. Legolas gave a great shout and shot an arrow high into the air, it vanished in a flash of flame…..”

All three are totally disarmed by a power, being, and reality far superior to their own.

“They all gazed at him. His hair was white like snow in the sunshine, and gleaming white was his robe; the eyes under the deep brows were bright, piercing as the rays of the sun, power was in his hand. Between wonder, joy, and fear they stood and found no words to say.”

The revelation of the wholly other Gandalf now returned from the dead produces an instinctive response in the man, the dwarf, and the elf. They are simply undone and caught up in a state of wonder, joy and fear. They are caught up in worship.

Tolkien was a devout Christian, and there is no doubt that in writing this scene he had other moments of “Eucatastrophe”*, the in breaking of Joy, in his mind.

“And six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.” Matthew 17:1-2

“And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across the breast with a golden girdle.. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:12-18

You see one of the great tragedies of the Post Modern World is that we have no one greater than ourselves to worship. We have diminished God. He is not the Holy other, He is not even the wholly other. The secular realm has done more than diminish Him. They have dismissed Him as entirely irrelevant; the old man in the sky sort of thing. The religious folk have not dismissed him as much as they have reduced Him, brought Him down to a manageable size, and created Him in their own image. Simon Chan writes of this diminished god “he is nice, accommodating, friendly and always expected to meet my needs; solve my problems.” A diminished god evokes diminished worship; a caricature of the real thing. Diminished worship produces diminished human beings. Diminished human beings are the tragic lives we meet everyday.

This is #24 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

What is worship? Whom do we worship? Why do we worship? These are extremely important questions; the answers to which have eternal as well as temporal consequences. Human beings first and foremost were created to worship. Not only was it part of our original design; it was and is our primary vocation, calling, lifework. Therefore it is not a question of choice as if you can choose to worship or choose not to worship. If you are human it is inherent in you to worship. The only question is to what or to whom do you give your worship.

Response

“Worship means literally, acknowledging the worth of something or someone. It means recognizing and saying that something or someone is worthy of praise. It means celebrating the worth of someone or something far superior to oneself”. A key phrase in this definition by N.T. Wright is “far superior to oneself”. Worship is a response to a revelation of the wholly other; to the one far superior in power, being and reality.

One of the great tragedies of the Postmodern World is that we have a diminished God. The secular realm has done more than diminish God they have dismissed him as entirely irrelevant. The sacred realm does not dismiss him as much as they reduce him, bring him down to a manageable size, and create him in their own image. Simon Chan writes about this diminished god “he is nice, accommodating, friendly, and always expected to meet my needs; solve my problems.” A diminished God results in diminished worship. Diminished worship results in diminished human beings. Diminished human beings are the tragic lives we meet everyday.

What is worship? Worship is a response; it does not begin with us nor do we initiate it. Worship is a response to the revelation of the wholly other. It is therefore our answer, our reaction, our acknowledgement to that revelation. We see this in two of the Bibles best known and clearest passages on expressions of worship: The prophet Isaiah had a revelation of the Lord sitting on his throne, lofty and exalted, and his response was to cry “Woe is me for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips”, the Apostle John on the island of Patmos received a revelation of the glorified Christ and responded by falling to his feet like a dead man. Ruined, dead, falling to their feet, these are the responses of one who worships, of one who acknowledges and recognizes the worth of one far superior.

This is #23 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                            The Sacred Box

We could spend (and waste) a lot of time defining and discussing how Christianity was reduced to a religion. Do the words reduced to a religion startle you? Christianity is not a religion. Religions exist where there is a wall between God and men; Christ shattered the wall. Christianity is not a religion it is a Life. That we do not know or understand this shows how far we have come and how much has been lost. Religion exists to help men cope in a fallen world not to bring them the life of a new world. Christ came that we may have life, the life of the age to come; the life of New Creation.

We do not need to waste a moment in the box of religion. Our journey is to explore worship for the true and genuine way it is to enter the Life of Christ; the life of New Creation. This will not be easy and it will be opposed; life always is. If you have spent most your life in the secular world you may feel we are heading into religion; we are not. If you have sojourned long in the compartmentalized religious world it may be hard to think of what "life with God" is really like. For all who persevere on the journey, I can promise you worship is the portal into the Kingdom of God and the presence of the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ. 

This is #22 in the series Crossing the Threshold.

Act Three: Return

The Road Back and Resurrection

C.S.Lewis captured the mythic beauty of Jesus’ Resurrection in his famous tale The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan the Christ figure, exchanges his life for the “traitor” Edmund held captive by the White Witch who rules Narnia. After his Resurrection from the dead, Aslan explains to Edmund’s sisters Lucy and Susan what it all means, giving us a glimpse of the full work of Christ.

“It means”, said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

Death itself would start working backward? Yes, the undoing of death, the undoing of the curse, the undoing of the fall. A new kind of life is now on release through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Return with the Elixir

The Hero returns from The Special World with the Elixir. He is forever changed by his adventure but the Elixir he brings back has the power to change others and the world itself. Our Hero’s Elixir is the Holy Spirit; the eternal life of the age to come is now available to all who believe and all who will receive as their Lord and Savior; Jesus the Christ, Jesus the King.

The Gospel of John that began with a new Genesis …”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being, that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overpower it” (John 1:1-5), now concludes with the giving of the Spirit…. “And when He had said this He breathed on them, and said to them ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22).

This is not the end of the story; it is the beginning. The coming of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts is the ongoing story of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ now on the throne of the universe fulfilling the original commission to man to “be fruitful and multiply” and fill the earth with the glory of God. How will He do this? Through His Body the Church.

We have seen that The Hero’s Journey, the story that captures the heart and imagination of the world has its origin in the eternal story of The Son of God, Jesus Christ. Does this surprise you? Did you realize that with stories like Braveheart and Lord of the Rings God was wooing you, speaking to you in a language your heart could understand; the language of story? Have you ever seen The Hero’s Journey as an invitation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Probably not. Truth be told for some of you the moment I connected Jesus Christ to The Hero’s Journey your heart sank. And the reason why? Quite simply you associate Jesus with religion and religion is a lifeless confining box you do not want to be in. Neither do I.

This is # 21 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

Act Two: Descent and Initiation

Crossing the Threshold

Act Two begins with a Threshold for our Hero to Cross; Jesus is led by the Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. It is so easy with our rational minds to read this in sort of ho hum nonchalant way. He was tempted by the devil and of course he is God so he passed the test..…period end of story. It changes everything when we think mythically. Jesus laid aside his divinity and became man, one with all the vulnerabilities of man. He fasts for forty days and forty nights becoming weak and hungry. Now the Devil, God of this World, Accuser, Apollyon, Angel of the Abyss, Murderer, Ruler of Darkness and Demons to name just a few of his names moves in, to tempt his prey. He is the Villain, the slithering serpent of old, the source of all evil who seduced Eve and destroyed Adam. Remember they were first God’s glorious created ones, vice-regents; royal priests of the Lord Most High that is before their tragic fall and corruption.

The Villain has pursued Jesus since birth; this will not be their last meeting.

Tests, Allies and Enemies

After successfully withstanding the wiles and temptations of the devil; Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Having Crossed the Threshold he is now fully immersed in The Special World. Jesus chooses to commence his earthly mission by entering the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. After reading from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah Jesus proclaims his Call to literally be the Hero, the Messiah, the Jubilee of Israel, while at the same time he is a Herald inviting others into the Call. Immediately the room is divided between Allies who believe and receive his Call, and Antagonists who want to kill him. There is no middle ground with Jesus.

Approach to the Inmost Cave

During the three years of his ministry proclaiming the Kingdom of God Jesus is always headed in one direction; toward the final confrontation with civil and religious authorities in Jerusalem and the spiritual power that lies behind them.

The glory is returning to the temple from which it departed (Ezekiel 10), but in a way no one anticipated. It does not come with a Messiah on a white horse leading an army to destroy the Roman occupiers; rather it comes in an interesting prophet riding a donkey with a rag tag assortment of ordinary people following him into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Feast.

Jesus, the Passover Lamb Approaches the Inmost Cave not by an ascent but by a progressive descent; first to his knees in the garden of Gethsemane, then by being nailed to a Roman cross and finally by being lowered into a tomb.

The Ordeal

Act Two began with descent and it climaxes with initiation. What was Jesus being initiated into? Death. We return to Paul’s letter to the Philippians; “and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians2:8). The sentence of death rested upon all men; for all men were “in Adam”. All men came from his corrupt seed and all had fallen short of the glory of God. The one and only spotless lamb must be initiated into the death of all in order that “in Christ” all may be saved.

Reward 

The mystery of the tomb remains just that a mystery. Scripture and creed proclaim that Jesus descended into the lowest parts of the earth. Like the mystery of a seed germinating and bringing forth new life, we will never know all that transpired during His three days in the tomb. We do know Jesus received a very great Reward. “Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).

This is #20 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                       Jesus and The Hero’s Journey

Act One: Separation

Ordinary World

Once upon a time……In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2). The story of our Hero, the Last Adam begins in the heavens; the part of God’s one good creation not contaminated by sin. The Apostle Paul captures this beautifully in his Epistle to the Philippians when he writes to his tiny flock and tells them to “have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5-7).

Our hero leaves The Ordinary World of heaven and enters The Special World of earth. The Incarnation is the beginning of the restoration of God’s entire creation and the reuniting of heaven and earth. It begins microscopically in the womb of a maiden from earth and a miraculous conception with a life from heaven (Luke 1:35).

The Call to Adventure

Shortly after our Hero’s birth comes the first Call to Adventure. Jesus is presented in the temple by his parent’s in accordance with the Law of Moses for “every first born male is to be called Holy to the Lord (Luke 2:23). In the temple is a devout elderly man named Simeon who is waiting for the fulfillment of a promise God made to him; he will not see death before he sees the Lord’s Christ. Simeon is a Herald bringing The Call for upon seeing the infant Jesus he blesses and proclaims him to be a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel. Turning to Mary, Jesus’ mother he gets more specific; “Behold this child is appointed for the fall and Resurrection of many in Israel and a sign to be opposed and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke2:34-35).

The Refusal of the Call

Silence replaces the Refusal of the Call. From infancy to adulthood the scriptures are virtually silent on the life of Jesus. The one exception is the record of his visit to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast in his twelfth year. After losing Jesus for three days his parent’s find him sitting in the temple dialoguing with the teachers. His response to his mother’s query may sound strange, “Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” (Luke2:49). It does tell us that he understood his Call even if his parents by their bewilderment did not.

Meeting with the Mentor

All three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) give an account of Jesus’ baptism. The Gospel of John however skips the actual baptism in favor of recording the testimony of another Herald John the Baptist. He identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus is baptized by his cousin to “fulfill all righteousness” and immediately after he comes out of the water the heavens open and the Spirit descends on him. A voice out of heaven declares “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. (Matthew 3:16-17). The Father Mentor has spoken and given to Jesus the Son all he needs for the adventure that lies ahead.

This is #19 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                     Israel

I am adding a note on Israel for it is important to see we don’t just jump from Genesis to the New Testament and the Last Adam. This often happens when you reduce God’s story to three act play: Creation, Fall, Redemption.

It is crucial to understand God’s plan of redemption begins in Genesis; first with the promise (Genesis 3:15) of one who will come and defeat the evil one, and then his initiation of a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. God promises to Abraham (Genesis 12:3) that through his seed all the nations will be blessed. God’s “project” for filling the creation with a people who will offer up “right praise” and reflect his glory into creation pushing back the darkness, is to go forth through Abraham’s “seed”; Isaac then Jacob, who becomes the nation Israel.

This is the recapitulation of Eden. God will dwell with them, he in the tabernacle/temple, which is in the midst of the garden/land. Israel is to be King /Priests (Exodus 19:6), a royal priesthood like Adam and Eve were, and sadly like their parents they too enact the primal sin of idolatry. The entire Old Testament is to story of Israel going after other gods.

Finally in the book of Ezekiel ( 10:15-19) the glory of the Lord ( His presence) leaves the temple and in 586 BC Israel is expelled from the garden/land into exile, just as Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden. And even though Israel returns to the land in the second temple period it is important to understand they were still in a state of exile for the glory of the Lord had not returned to the temple. In the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament they are still waiting for the glory of the Lord to return to Zion and inhabit the temple.

And that is where we pick up our Hero Journey story with the Last Adam. He is the climax of the six act story God is telling. He is the one true Israelite through whom salvation of God’s entire Kingdom will be accomplished.

Act 1 God Establishes His Kingdom: Creation

Act 2 Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall

Act 3 The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Act 4 The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act 5 Spreading the News of the King: The Mission of the Church

Act 6 The Return of the King: Redemption Completed*

(Six acts from “The Drama of Scripture” Bartholomew&Goheen)

This is #18 in Crossing the Threshold series.

                                              Genesis the “Backstory”

Our story starts with a hero of course and before we step out on the journey with him we have to understand one of the many titles given to him in scripture. In First Corinthians 15:45 Jesus Christ is referred to as “The Last Adam”; what does this mean? We find the answer by going to the Genesis account and looking at the First Adam, the son of God (Luke3:37). This back-story is vitally important to all that follows in the biblical narrative.

In Genesis on the 6^th day of creation God created man in his own image and gave him the vocation of ruling over the plant and animal kingdoms, as well as commissioning him to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. In ordinary everyday terms God was making man his “vice-regent”; someone he would uniquely empower to rule the earth along with him. We have a great distortion and perversion of this idea when we see ruthless dictators setting up their own images all over their countries, as a reminder of just who rules the place. Man (Adam) created in God’s image was to be a reflector of God; of his glory, giving an exact representation of  who God is by exercising benevolent dominion over the earth. Being fruitful, he would multiply and fill the earth with the glory of God.

In Chapter Two of Genesis this vocation is more clearly defined when in verse fifteen God takes man and places him into the Garden of Eden “to cultivate it and to keep it”. Adam is given the priest-king role of serving (to cultivate) and guarding (to keep) God’s first temple Eden. This includes keeping out all uncleanness. In “journey” language Adam leaves his Ordinary World, the ground from which he was created, and enters the Special World of the garden. When he is placed in Eden he is confronted with a test; will he obey the one command God gave him? Only one stipulation: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam failed the test; he failed to love and trust His Creator.

Do you remember our definition of Hero in Chapter Two? The word hero comes from the Greek root of the word that means “to protect and to serve”; a hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others, like a shepherd who will sacrifice to protect and serve his flock. Protect and serve was Adam’s Genesis vocation, he was called to be God’s shepherd over creation. Adam did not reflect God when he allowed the unclean “serpent” into the garden, he was not willing to lay his life down to protect his flock instead he willingly chose to sin. He turned in on self and became the first tragic hero. 

What was God to do? Scrap the whole project of filling the earth with glory by using his image bearers; his priest kings? No, he had spoken his word. Did he know Adam would fail? Absolutely, and he already had a plan for the great rescue operation. God’s salvation is not about saving some people so they can go to “heaven” when they die. His salvation encompasses rescuing his entire creation; of restoring the earth and reuniting it to heaven, of restoring his images bearers to be his royal priesthood, and of saving the plant and animal kingdoms that have been subjected in bondage to corruption

For the task of saving God’s creation, another Adam had to be found. The Last Adam would be one that would not fail the test but be obedient even to the point of death; one who would be the true hero by sacrificing his own life to protect and serve his flock and in so doing defeat all the powers of evil unleashed by the first Adam’s disobedience.

This is #17 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                                   The Hero’s Journey

Now that we have a better understanding of the word myth we can return to The Hero’s Journey or Hero’s Myth without automatically thinking fable, falsehood, untrue story. We can now begin to see its cosmic pattern and perhaps by “looking along and through” as C.S. Lewis would say, connect the myth of the Hero’s Journey with the “true myth” of Jesus Christ.

In Chapter Two I used Christopher Vogler’s Twelve Stage version of The Hero’s Journey and we will return to that, but let me give you another formulation that may also prove to be insightful. In his book Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero, David Adams Leeming outlines the journey like this: 1. Miraculous conception and birth

                                                2. Initiation of the hero-child

                                                3. Withdrawal from family or community for meditation                                                           

                                                      and preparation

                                                4. Trial and quest

                                                5. Death

                                                6. Descent into the Underworld

                                                7. Resurrection and rebirth

                                                8. Ascension, apotheosis, and atonement.

Oh does this sound familiar? If I had not revealed the source of this eight point list you could easily have thought “I know this story, it sounds very much like the one that’s been going around for well let’s see, two thousand years; the one about Jesus!” If you attend or have attended a liturgical church you probably recited either The Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed, both are very early statements of the Christian faith and both include the essential outline of Christ’s life: miraculous conception and birth, trial and death, descent, resurrection, ascension, atonement. You see Joseph Campbell was wrong in one respect; the hero does not have one thousand faces he has one, and the Hero’s Journey that we find in all cultures at all times does not originate in the primordial past, it originates in eternity.

So let’s take a look at God’s Eternal Story in a fresh new “mythic” way by seeing it as The True Hero’s Journey.

This is #16 in the Crossing the Threshold series.

                                                True Myth

The high meaning of myth: a means by which the eternal expresses itself in time, went to the low meaning of myth; a discredited popular belief , in much the same way Christianity went from being the one true metanarrative of the one true God to being….well myth!

In the undivided world prior to 1400 Christianity looked upon earlier pagan myths, not so much as lies but as primitive attempts to express God’s eternal truth prior to the coming of the full revelation of His truth in Jesus Christ. They did not dismiss the pagan myth; they sanctified it by using it as a means to communicate in story language the one “True Myth”, the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what we earlier saw the Apostle Paul doing in Athens; taking the myth of an unknown god and explaining it with the true myth, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, beyond myth in the primordial past lay true myth in eternity, for as Mircea Eliade says myth is simply “nostalgia for eternity”.

When Christianity and the Bible were rejected as fable and falsehood by The Enlightenment, the world lost this understanding of true myth. Instead of being the source from which all truth originated the Biblical narrative was reduced to just another “myth” and all myth was reduced to its lowest possible meaning; a false explanation or a pleasant lie.

This loss puts men in perilous circumstances for “whether or not people are aware of the fact, they cannot live without myth, nor can they reach full stature as people without true myth. Wrong myths destroy lives; those partially true affect the human spirit like disease. A proper response to true myth is necessary to moral and spiritual health” (R.Hein)

What is the proper response to true myth? It is not to deny it like the secular modernist do; nor to relegate it to a subjective personal belief signifying nothing like the postmodernist does. And certainly it is not to abstract it from scripture making the Biblical text nothing more than a set of doctrinal truths and moral precepts, the way so many in the religious world do.

A proper response is to see that true myth is essential to who we are as human beings. We were created in the image of God to live a mythic life in an epic story. The proper response is to identify true myth with Truth himself Jesus Christ, for only then can we understand “why we respond as we do to patterns of myth, why the human heart is so strongly moved and fascinated by them and where they come from in the first place.” (R. Hein)