Today is the day that St. Ambrose is remembered within the history of the church. It is the day that is historically remembered for his being consecrated as a bishop. Ambrose was a key figure in the first few hundred years of the church. He is known as one of the Eight Doctors (Teachers) of the undivided church.

Ambrose was a leader brought up by God in a time when leadership was badly needed. There was a controversy in the church between two groups, the Athenasians (who believed that Jesus was divine and human, and a part of the triune God head) and the Arians (who believed that Jesus did not share the God head, but was the first created being). This was and is important when talking about Christian theology, for it is what we do with Jesus that defines our faith as Christian or not. (Christian belief holds that Jesus is divine and human and shares the divine godhead with the Father and the Holy Spirit). If we believe that Jesus was not divine, but only a created being, then we attack the sacrifice he made on the cross, the atonement he offers through his death, and the overall plan of God's redemption. (BTW, an example of present day Arian theology comes from within the Jehovah's Witness camp)

Ambrose stood for Athanasian theology as a bishop, in a time when it was difficult to do so. It was difficult because the emporor Constantius (son of Constantine) was Arian and was doing everything he could to ensure that the Arian theology won the day. Ambrose stood up to Contstantius, even to the point of placing himself in possible physical harm, until the Holy Spirit through Ambrose and others founded the church in the correct way of thinking of Jesus of Nazareth. If you are interested in reading more of the history, click here.

We in the present day church owe Ambrose and those like him, a debt of gratitude for it is because they fought the battles they did, that we stand on orthodox (right thinking) theology today.

We also must learn from Ambrose, for there are battles still to fight. Within postmodernity, the age in which we live now, there is this philosophy that permeates our culture. This philosophy is one of "relativism", or in other words, "there is no truth, but what is true for you". This philosophy is a response to the arrogant age of enlightenment, or modern age, that told us humans that we could know ultimate truth through the use of our own intellect, scientific methods, and hard work. The problem was, the more we studied, the more we found out that the "rabbit hole" went deeper. So, postmodernity (after-modernity) responded by saying to modernity, "there is no way to know truth, so there is no such thing as truth".

This philosophy is seen through out our culture, in the general thought of "each person creates their own truth", so there is no such thing as real truth. We who follow Jesus of Nazareth know that this is not the case. Unfortunately we in the church have responded to this "wrong thinking" in the wrong way. We have many times responded to this postmodern philosophy with weapons from modernity. We try to "prove" the truth of the Bible to postmodern people; laying out our arguments and our logic, which we find not only falls on deaf ears, but many times pushes people away. We pass out our tracts and our research papers, give our reason lined speechs, all with good intentions, but not recieving the respond to truth that we expect. Why is this? How do we fight this battle of offering the truth of Jesus to a postmodern world?

Well, first, I think we must go back to the story of Jesus laid out in the Bible and specifically what, or more correctly, who is truth. Truth is not a set of logical ideas, or a plan of salvation, that we can give to someone to convince them to believe. Truth is a person, Jesus. Jesus called himself, the "way, and the truth, and the life." If we want this age, that is so skeptical of logical proofs, packaged doctrines, and precise theologies, to set aside the idea that there is no real truth, and pick up the truth of Jesus, we must first offer them the person of Jesus, not the defense for him.

Obviously there is much to be said about how we offer the person Jesus, but I am going to let that sit for now and thank God for Ambrose and his example to us to live for and in the truth.

It is advent season again. The time of expectations. The time when we expect, anticipate, and keep our eyes open for the coming of Messiah. Being interested in Biblical history as I am, I have often tried to place myself in the context of a good "God fearing" 1st century Jewish person's context when it came to expecting Messiah. I wonder if I would have seen this man Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. The tendency among those of our time when looking at the Jewish sect in the 1st century is to look with a judging eye, as if to say, "how could they miss it?" However, when we look closer at the context, the prophecies they knew by heart and the present socio-political situation that they lived within, it is hard for me to blame them. They expected Yahweh to work, they just didn't expect it would look like it did.

Of course there are immediate correlations to our own lives. We have ideas and expectations to how our lives will play out. However, anyone who has lived for long finds out quickly that life doesn't always play out as we think it is going to. Not even for Christians. Plans change, dreams submit to reality, and expectations are broken. I wonder if this is the same for our thoughts of God and how he works in our lives?

To be honest, I have been struggling with where I am in my life. I had thought while I was in seminary that I would go to a church and spend twenty years pastoring, preaching, teaching, growing with the community. Well...I have pastored two churches and been a hospice chaplain in the last six years. Not exactly the stability that I had hoped for. I know God is teaching me through this time, and I know there are things I need to learn and ways I need to mature. However, it is still hard to see the hand of God in unmet expectations. Maybe I'm like the Jews that couldn't see Jesus in the face of their misplaced expectations. Thankfully, he didn't give up on His Plan because they had misplaced expectations. That gives me hope as well.