The KGB, the Incarnation and Christian Mission - and why we need Victorian preachers to tell the story

Spy stories aren't what they used to be. They used to be some of the hottest action of the cold war. But those days are gone and ten Russian spies exposed in the U.S. is more of an embarrassment than anything else.

The Russians, it appears, however, do take their spying more seriously than western nations. "Sleepers" is what they call people who are planted deep into the society for the purpose of gathering information.

The story of one such sleeper I found quite amazing. He was a talented young Russian. A brilliant linguist and a gifted musician. Somehow he ended up being recruited by the KGB and embarked on a mission to spy on America.

It is quite remarkable what he did. He moved to East Germany to enable him to become more like a German. He then pretended to be a refugee who had come to the West.

His next move was to develop a career as a piano tuner and move to America. Having moved across the Atlantic, he managed to land the job of piano tuner to Nelson Rockefeller, then Governor of New York.

Such a story demands the kind of rhetorical flourish that would have been second nature to one of the great Victorian preachers: "Consider what lengths this man went to in service of his country. Should not the zeal of the Christian exceed that of the communistic (I know that would be anachronistic for a Victorian preacher - but I am sure the -ic suffix would have been stuck on at the end) type of man in service of his Lord and Master? Consider the self abnegation of one so graced with such gifts and of such a sensible temper, who loved the cause of his motherland more than his own life. Should not the servants of Christ esteem the loss of all that is theirs by grace and nature a small thing, perchance one should advance the cause of Christ's kingdom?

Or indeed, "Consider Him who emptied Himself of the splendours of a life greater than that of the Bolshevist for the sake of poor lost sinners."

I am sure that if anyone ever does read this post, they will be tempted to think that I am flippantly sending up a stereotyped Christianity which we love to poke fun.

Well I'm not. There are a couple of serious points here.

Firstly, this is some illustration of both the incarnation and what singleminded discipleship might look like.

Phillippians 2 has been a bit of a hot potato for theologians for a while. What does it mean that Christ emptied Himself? Did he lose His divine attributes when he took on flesh? Or were they merely veiled, hidden for a while? Perhaps our KGB man can help us. He didn't lose his gifts in becoming a German refugee and then a piano tuner. He simply, for the sake of the Soviet Union, chose not to utilise them - at least not to the extent that he could have used them. They were hidden in the guise of a refugee turned piano tuner.

In this same chapter in Phillippians, Paul presents Christ in His becoming a servant as a kind of template for Christian servanthood. If you've ever heard anyone talking about "having a servant heart" your hearing about something rooted in this passage of scripture.

Christian growth and Christian ministry is about becoming. Becoming more like Christ. And to begin to minister like Jesus ministered we have to leave our worlds and enter into the worlds of those whom God has called us to serve. It might not be a geographical movement. And it certainly won't be anything as dramatic as the movement of Christ from heaven to earth. But it will challenge our thinking and affect our will and emotions.

So why not just say all this in plain, 21st century English? Why the faux Victorian speak? Perhaps, because these things deserve better than the blandness of much contemporary speech. Misguided communist or not, you can't help but admire and be challenged by such commitment to a cause. And to simply present it as "If we were as committed as some of those commies were, the world would be a better place" has limited emotional punch. We need something that at least tries to make us feel the grandeur of the gospel and the sheer romance of serving the King.

The KGB illustrating the incarnation and inspiring to Christian mission. Marx and Lenin must be spinning in their graves.

Unstraightforward living

I use McCheyne's Bible reading plan to read through the Bible every year. Highly recommend it.

I have noticed recently that in each of the four chapters I am reading that the different characters - all from different times in biblical history - are continually facing problems and difficulties like barrenness, critical and malicious leaders, tyrannical kings. And that's because they are doing God's will! This Christian life was never meant to be straightforward!

You can get McCheyne's plan here

Looking for your Egyptian

Kevin Peat spoke at our Sunday evening service. He brought a very challenging word. He preached from 1 Samuel 30 about how David turned defeat into victory. He drew attention to the Egyptian, who had been abandoned by his master, that David and his men met as they pursued those who had raided Ziklag. The intel they gathered from the Egyptian was the key to their success.

Sometimes the most unlikely person can be a major determining factor in living in victory. I'm looking for my Egyptian.

Daily Offerings

Thought I'd post a few holiday reflections while I have the chance.

I was sitting in Starbucks the other day - "What's new?" you might be asking - when one of their promotions caught my eye: "Daily Offerings: Strawberries and Creme". Initially it was the strawberries and creme (I think that is the same as "cream" but the French spelling creates a more exotic impression) that captured my imagination. However, the vision of this particular daily offering was interrupted by the thought that a daily offering had some kind of biblical resonance.

And indeed it has. Numbers 29.6 talks about a daily burnt offering (NIV and KJV). Paul calls us to live sacrificially for Christ in Romans 12.2 in language that echoes that applied to burnt offerings:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship."

And here's the rub. We're trying to live sacrificially for Christ and teach others to do so in a culture that uses the language of sacrifice to flog strawberries and cream - sorry creme!

I'm not sure Starbucks set out to use a biblical allusion to promote their product. I can't imagine that they did. Though somehow, more broadly, deliberately or otherwise the value of sacrifice has been displaced in Western culture by the sale of indulgence.

ps. came across a Bible study site I hadn't seen before while checking my scriptures. Check it out here

Just get ten (or twelve,perhaps?)

I am so pleased to have discovered Seth Godin and his blog. I find his posts are though provoking and really challenge the kind of conventional wisdom that is rapidly becoming unwisdom.

At one level, Seth's posts are marketing related. At another, you gain an insight into the way society works in the early twenty-first century. I would recommend anyone who wants to reach the world of today to read his blog. I realise that the preceding sentnence might not make sense - after all what other world can we reach other than the one of today? Sometimes, however, our thinking is more appropriate to reaching the world of yesteryear.

The post First,ten, I think, is very helpful in understanding how ideas spread in our world. This could help us in our thinking about mission and discipleship. I seem to remember that Someone Else started out with a similar sized group - twelve in His case.

Dallas Willard

These talks by Dallas Willard are worth a listen. The first one is quite "involved". The other two are thought provoking without being mind bending. Would love to hear any thoughts you have on what he says.

Christianaudio.com is worth subscribing to (it's a free subscription) as they have a free download every month, usually a classic Christian title.