RIP Grandpa (Sort of), or maybe Uncle

I learned that, on the same day I posted the entry about my readings for January, one of my theological influences died in his sleep. Dr. John Allan Knight, former General Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene (roughly equivalent to bishop, but not considered a third order of ministry), former educator and university president, historical theologian, passed away during the night on February 1.

Dr. Knight was part of a great shift in Wesleyan/holiness theology, the implications of which are still being felt. He contributed, along with Dr. Mildred Bangs Wynkoop(†), Dr. William Greathouse, Dr. H. Ray Dunning, Dr. Rob Staples, and a few others the idea that sin and holiness are relational, not substantival terms. That is, the sin that is "removed" in entire sanctification is not a thing that is cut out by the Divine Surgeon as would a human surgeon remove a cancerous tumor or a wart. Or, as I expressed it in Doctrine of Holiness class yesterday, sin is not a microchip that is removed by the Divine IT Guy. Rather, sin is a perversion of relationship (to God, to other humans, to the earth, to the self) and holiness a restoration of that relationship which was marred, but not lost, not totally depraved, in the fall of humanity. The restoration of the Imago Dei is a reorientation of the relationship of freedom, such that a person can be free for God, for the Other, for the earth, and from self-domination.

Alternatively, if sin is a thing, a substance, then this renders both the Incarnation and salvation logically impossible. The Incarnation becomes impossible since, if sin is a thing that defines the essential quality of humanity then Christ could not have become fully human. (Aside: The objection could be raised that Christ did not take on fallen human nature, but human nature as it was supposed to be, in its "pre-fall" state; but this is Docetism.) It further renders salvation impossible because the removal of something that is absolutely definitional of humanity, then salvation would leave behind something less than a human; a biblically abhorrent idea.

Well, anyway, we pray for the family of Dr. John Allan Knight, and the church that misses him.

The fastest district superintendent election I've ever seen

Yesterday at District Assembly, the Metro Manila district elected a district superintendent. I wanted to go and watch because I've seen superintendent elections (well, one anyway) in the States and I was curious to see if it would be anything like my previous experience.

Any ordained elder before the age of 70 (I'm not sure if there is a age floor) can be elected district superintendent. Whether or not the person so chosen accepts the election is another matter, of course. It is typical practice now to use the first ballot as a nominating ballot, then limit successive votes to those persons who received votes at first, in order specifically to prevent Billy Bob Joe Fred from not getting any votes until ballot 17 and then taking just enough to keep Rev. So-and-so from being elected. For the chair to declare an election, one candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes cast in any one ballot. This prevents the parliamentary move of a block of voters geting up and leaving the bar to protest a protracted or especially contentious election. I do not know if this unusual parliamentary move has ever been made, but I think it would be kind of foolish anyway, since it would cause a candidate to suddenly need 20 out of 30 votes--or something--instead of 126 out of 188. For that matter, if all the supporters of Rev. So-and-so got up and left because they and the supporters of Rev. Thus-and-such kept at an impasse, then all they would do is assure the election of Rev. Thus-and-such. And if there was agreement for supporters of both sides to leave in equal numbers, then why couldn't they just agree on a candidate...and so on.

When a DS was elected in Tennessee some years ago, it look eighteen ballots or something, and the person they chose wound up not accepting anyway. In my experience, and this may only be the case in the States, I don't know, one to four candidates may jockey for position at the top of the slate for a few rounds then the eventual winner picks up more and more steam as the voting goes along, sometimes rather limping over the 2/3 tape. But it was not the case here. On the nominating ballot, there was a clear, convincing choice at the top. The person eventually elected was nominated with 70 more votes than anyone else received on the nominating ballot. It only took three rounds to elect him. He was one of my students last semester, but I should think that if that had anything to do with it it was in spite of instead of because of, you know? I did not stay long enough to hear his comments to the assembly, and I haven't heard of anything strange happening like someone rejecting that clear of an expression of a district's will, but I'm sure that means there is a new district superintendent in Metro Manila. Congratulations and God bless.

Rest in peace, Uncle John, but sorry, there's no handicapped parking in Heaven

My father informed me via email that my uncle John Modine passed away around 10 PM, December 30, which would have been about 2 PM on New Year's Eve for me. He had been battling multiple sclerosis for many years, and as those who are familiar with this horrid disease know it was an increasingly losing fight. But Dad did go on to say that Uncle John had become a Christian some time ago through the efforts of a pastor visiting the nursing home where he lived. Thanks be to God for that.

I just added the second part of the title of this post under a flash of inspiration: "but, sorry, there's no handicapped parking in heaven." I realize it is a quite sappy phrase, but I can be allowed a bit of sap in the aftermath of the passing of family. See, Uncle John had been confined to a wheelchair for the last few years of his life. I saw him last probably 5 years or so ago and even then he was not looking very good. He was a rather active person before the disease attacked him, and so I am sure he is active again now in heaven with his Lord.

Whenever I think of people getting saved later in life, and especially near death, as in Uncle John's case, my mind immediately goes back to the parable of the brothers, what is usually called the parable of the prodigal son, in Luke 15. A much overlooked point of this parable, in the midst of the wonderful news of even someone who has actively rejected the father's house (=salvation) being joyfully received upon returning, is the conversation between the father and the older brother while the party is going on. The older son complains that he has always been faithful, he has always done his work, and papa never even threw a small party for him and his friends. "But THIS SON of yours," and I am sure the emphasis was just like that, coming out of the older brother's resentment and desire not to have further relations with the prodigal. The father says to him, "Everything I have ever had is yours. But we had to celebrate, for THIS BROTHER of yours was dead and is alive again." Once again, I think that the emphasis was just like this. Have a relationship with your brother as I have with my son, says the father. That part of interpreting the parable is left open, because there is no more to the story.

I link it up with the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20. There, the slackers who work only an hour get paid the same that the people who worked all day, and that makes the latter decidedly unhappy. But the point of the parable is that the landowner does what is considered right, so go your way. If the day's wage is equated with salvation, and I think it's legitimate to do so (even though we should recognize the danger we face in coming close to works righteousness), then those who have been around forever do not have any extra bonus compared with those who came along only very late in the day. So also, those who have been Christians their entire lives have the same gift as those who confess their sins and trust in God for salvation only at the very end of life. Incidentally, this is the problem I have with the contemporary chorus often sung in evangelical churches like mine nowadays, "Come, now is the time to worship." The offending line is this:

One day every tongue will confess you are God,
one day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those
who gladly choose you now.

This is so wrong that I refuse to sing it when this chorus is sung in church services that I attend. It seems to be exactly against things like Luke 15 and Matthew 20. While the eschatological vision of every tongue confessing the lordship of God is correct, it is heinous to suggest that those who choose him now, however gladly, can expect a greater treasure than those who wait. By contrast, deathbed confessions and the stories of them that are told afterward are very powerful parts of Christian literature. This is precisely because even those who rejected God and Christ for many years, either by refusing to heed the call (Matthew 20) or by actively turning their backs on faith (Luke 15), can be redeemed and will be redeemed when they finally come and answer the call of faith. While Uncle John did not confess Christ is Lord at the very hour of his death, but rather some time before, nevertheless he has the same gift that I do after being a Christian for 22 of my 34 years.

And that, my friends, is NOT sappy.

Antipolo, Birthday, and Church

Went with a few others to a restaurant near Antipolo today. The buffet was excellent, but the company was better. I think it's very good to find people to connect with, especially colleagues, in a new and unfamiliar environment such as this. Turns out the celebration was not only, as stated, for one of the people there getting into a Ph.D. program (congratulations Sam) but also for my birthday.

This is the second birthday I've had outside of the United States. The first one was my fifth, observed in Rio de Janiero when my family was vacationing there and my parents were connecting with their Brazilian counterparts in a foreign-exchange program they used to run. My only clear memory of that experience is seeing an episode of The Bionic Woman (dubbed into Portugeuese) which I had seen in the States just a few weeks prior (in English, of course). Anyway, 5 and 34 were out of the USA, but that's pretty much the end of the connection, because the occasion which made possible celebrating 34 outside the USA was of my own volition (answering the call of God and the church) and I haven't seen an episode of the original Bionic Woman series in so long that, while I would recognize it if I saw one, it would not register with me as having any kind of special connection. Besides, the TV shows coming from America, for what few I've seen, are left in English. They don't bother overdubbing them into Tagalog or Cebuano or any of the other zillion languages spoken in the archipelago.

I was also going to upload some pictures of my first experiences in Nazarene churches in the Phililppines, but of course I left my camera at home across campus. No matter. There is plenty of time. One thing that was really neat--we were at Miracle Church of the Nazarene in Angono (next town to the south from Taytay). The rains from Typhoon Feng-Suen were still beating down hard (including a waterfall-like stream coming from a leak in the roof). We were singing "Here I Am to Worship." We had just gotten through the bridge ("I'll never know how much it cost / to see my sin upon that Cross!") when the power went out. It was just like it was intentional. The music leader kept on singing, leading us more slowly through the main chorus of the song:

Here I am to worship.
Here I am to bow down.
Here I am to say that you're my God.
You're altogether lovely,
altogether worthy,
altogether wonderful to me.

And then as the pastor was praying, the lights came back on just as dramatically as they had gone out. It was a neat experience of worship. That's about it for this post.