It happens during every election and intensifies whenever a Catholic Democratic (or is it Democratic Catholic?) politician is running for office against a more conservative, perhaps evangelical Republican Protestant (or is it Protestant Republican?). Abortion takes center stage, and politicians from both sides use their own opinions and talking points in vain efforts to appear more pious than the other. It is almost embarrassing to watch these mostly professional attorneys attempt to argue finer theological points as if so well versed in religion and theology that it had come down to a coin toss about whether to go to seminary or law school.
I’ve all but given up politics simply because I’m tired of caring so much about something that is beyond my control. I am not an affluent citizen, and there is nothing so special about me that a political candidate would worry about having his or her photo taken with me or even answering my letters, e-mails, or phone calls. Essentially it is that I have no clout, therefore no politician has time for me. No sweat. I’ve not lost any sleep over it. In fact, I have found that food tastes better and the air smells cleaner and my temper is not so quick to flare after I stopped reading and listening to the political rhetoric precisely because of its lack of substance. Besides, this particular presidential election all but started right after the 2006 mid-term elections. I know I am not alone in “burn out”.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, has been taken to task by Catholic Church leaders this week as she has attempted to use Catholic theology to justify her “pro-choice” stance by citing man’s free will and ultimate responsibility for one’s own actions (not entirely off the mark here, by the way). However, one of her spokespersons, Brendan Daly, dipped into St. Augustine and quoted a passage that was an appropriate and interesting question but is out of its 5th century context in 21st century America: 'The law does not provide that the act (abortion) pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation.'
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this quote from St Augustine can go in several reasonable directions and still miss the point he was trying to make. Pelosi’s crew attempts to use it as a fundamental Church teaching about the conception of a child; a bona fide theologian who specializes in St Augustine stated simply that Augustine was wondering when a soul is actually imparted to an unborn human child. I somehow do not believe that abortion was a big issue during Augustine’s time.
Speaker Pelosi graduated from a Catholic school, presumably when she was a child, but I wonder if that reference is by her own folks or the media in attempting to give Ms. Pelosi a theological or Catholic pedigree, suggesting that she can support her opinions on matters of catechism teachings about life, conception, and abortion. Clearly, however, it is that she has run afoul of what the catechism actually teaches, and several bishops have called her on it. In spite of these learned objections to her opinion, she appears ready to defend herself and what she believes the Church is teaching. She is, in fact, entitled to her opinion, but does it matter?
It is unfair – and unconstitutional – to use religion as a litmus test for public office. It is equally unreasonable and immeasurable to attempt to use faith in the same way – and yes, there is a difference. Jimmy Carter is a devout Christian and man of great faith, and is arguably the worst president of his time. Can it be said that his faith caused these failures, or were failures evidence of his lack of faith? Either way, faith is an unfair standard of measure. So why do we allow the allegedly unbiased media to provoke us to such a point that we would judge a candidate’s worthiness for public office based on his or her standard or measure of faith?
Unfortunately, abortion has been hijacked by politicians who seek favor with a particular group, whether NARAL or National Right to Life. Rather than have serious discussions about formulating serious policy about a gravely serious subject, we allow those seeking office to jerk our heart strings and wreak havoc with our emotions. Speaker Pelosi and Joe Biden are on the Church’s radar screen like John Kerry was in 2004 with some bishops suggesting that these wayward Catholics should refrain from participating in Holy Communion while they actively support abortion. And most likely as in 2004, some priest will ignore the bishops and serve Communion to these parishioners anyway.
So what was accomplished in 2004 that we can reasonably expect in 2008? My guess is nothing, nothing of substance anyway. We will call names and point fingers, the media will report whatever will get folks to pay attention to their news outlet, emotions will churn, yet absolutely nothing will come of it.
It is perfectly ok for church leaders to call on state leaders who share their faith just as some arms of the United Methodist Church have publicly derided United Methodist George W. Bush regarding the US presence in Iraq as well as some economic policies, but I sometimes wonder if these church leaders are not violating some ethical “line in the sand” by making such public comments critical of individual persons? At the very least, when we reduce ourselves to accusations, name-calling, and finger-pointing, we are very un-Christ-like. For this we should all be ashamed.
Voters have to exercise extreme caution when measuring a political wanna-be according to his or her statements regarding faith, regardless of the setting. It is ok to publicly profess Christ as Savior, but it is also much better and the Kingdom much better served if voters can actually see the faith rather than hear about the religion. We must always remember that the US Constitution was written in such a way for a specific purpose. We are not electing national religion leaders, and these wanna-be’s should stop pretending to be religious scholars. Abortion is a moral issue that the Church itself has failed to adequately address over the years. Politics will not turn a heart of stone … unless, of course, it will win votes.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Reality borne of Faith expressed in Works
Isaiah 51:1-6
James 2:14-26
Matthew 16:13-20
Faith, like love, is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused words in the Christian vernacular because of misunderstanding and misuse of the very Bible which proclaims the central role that faith necessarily plays in the life of the individual and in the life of a congregation. The reason such misunderstandings occur may be due to a conflict between the concept of faith and the manifestation of our faith; i.e., “works”. And I don’t think anyone illustrates the seeming conflict better than James when he states: “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show my faith by my works.” (2:18a,b)
The Protestant reformer Martin Luther had enough difficulty with James that he would probably have preferred the book removed from the canon so that faith might not be overwhelmed by James’ seeming overemphasis on works. While I do not pretend to know the mind of Martin Luther, it does appear on the surface that an “issue” was created rather than addressed by what I consider to be a misunderstanding and perhaps a misinterpretation of what James is saying altogether. It could well have been that one single phrase that James uses: ‘NOT by faith alone …’
We should reasonably know that there can be no conflict between faith and works, they being two sides of the same coin. Each is perfected by the other, and one cannot exist without the other, not completely. According to James, one absent the other becomes void of its essence, its truest form.
It is fair to say, however, that Luther came to his understanding of faith and its central role in our relationship with the Lord honestly. The Bible is clear: it is grace, the Lord’s unmerited favor, by which we are justified before the Lord; it cannot be earned by the works of our hands. But there seems to be an element missing in Luther’s understanding, and outright rejection, of how James’ concept of works should relate to one’s expression of faith. Righteous works are not an attempt to please the Lord; they serve as a witness to others as to the true nature of the Lord Himself. And such a witness is not restricted to such obvious acts of mercy as the Food Pantry but does include how we choose to live, work, and play.
Jesus’ entire role is centered on His witness to the true nature of the Lord God; He is showing us by word and deed what the Holy Father looks like not to the eye nor even to the mind but, rather, to the heart. And if we are true and genuine witnesses of Christ as His disciples, then we understand our role in witnessing to His nature so that by the Holy Spirit others can then see the truly Divine Image, the perfection of that Image in which we are all created.
As I have stated so often, I don’t believe that Jesus ever felt a need to “prove” Himself in any way though we might think it would have made His ministry a little easier. After all, maybe many more would have come running each time Jesus turned His hand. But then we would have been left with a lot of magic tricks rather than bona fide miracles performed within their proper context. Such cheap attempts to appease man’s eyes would defeat the entire focus of Jesus’ call to repentance by faith, a call to believe that there is something much greater before us than meets the eye. A warrior messiah would have dealt with the occupying Romans, for instance, but the true enemy would still be present and just as powerful … and just as compelling.
Jesus’ followers were presumably all Jewish. That is to say, it may be a foregone conclusion that they already believed in God. Simply believing in an existence, however, merely acknowledging the reality of a possibility does not constitute faith, and this may be the challenge that Jesus is posing to His disciples, then as well as now. In fact, such a challenge should be overwhelming on any level. Think about our own concepts of the Almighty, all powerful, God: the God Of All Creation humbling Himself to walk among His own creation rather than sit on a throne?? This concept is very nearly impossible to embrace!
It is also worth remembering that Jesus never presented Himself as an “alternate” god or a co-god. His message is a constant reminder that by the teachings of religious leaders and teachers who seem to make things up as they go along however noble the intent, the gap inherently created by false or misleading doctrine such as hand-washing as a divine tradition (Matthew 15:10-20) is ever widening. By losing a true and proper focus, we become further and further separated from the one, true, living God as we create our own gods made a little more palpable to us by our imaginations and personal desires. At that point, faith is completely lost.
Jesus always spoke of the Father as the necessary point of focus and the only One worthy of our worship. This reality alone would necessarily challenge ALL Christian doctrines that divert focus, however slight, away from the One and Only Holy God. And faith in anything less is further separation from the Divine.
With this in mind, consider the seeming shift in focus in Matthew 16:13-20. By the words of this passage, the focus seems to have shifted to Jesus Himself. To further complicate things, Jesus emphasizes the divine faith displayed by Peter in identifying Him as “… the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” It is that faith imparted by the Father, Jesus proclaims, that Peter was enabled to identify the true nature of Jesus as Messiah, as the “anointed One”.
Suddenly the Holy Father seems incidental to Jesus, but I don’t think it is fair or accurate to refer to Jesus as “incidental” to God. Still, there is an emphasis that is important to faith which must not be lost as we consider the implication of why Jesus is concerned about how He is perceived not only by the public but also by His own disciples.
So who is Jesus, and what purpose does He serve? Why the sudden shift? Or was there a shift at all? Why the sudden emphasis on Jesus and who He is to Israel, to His disciples, to the entire world? And how is the Holy Father glorified in all this?
Maybe we would do well to ask ourselves: why would Jesus want us to know that He is the Anointed One? And why is our faith in Him important to our salvation? Again, Jesus is not a co-god or a “new and improved” god; He IS God. But perhaps even more than this, He is the perfection manifest in the New Covenant, a Holy Promise that the Lord God our Father chose to make freely. We don’t have to like it, we don’t have to acknowledge it, and we don’t even have to accept it. Our rejection, however, does not diminish the Ultimate Truth.
There is something else to further understand Jesus’ role as the personification of the New Covenant. The Law of Moses demands atonement. Sin has to be called to account. So Jesus is the prophecy fulfilled, but He is also the Law perfected because the Law requires something of us that we humans are unable to bear. There is NOT ONE THING we could possibly do for ourselves to atone for the power of sin. And because the very “wages of sin is death”, our Father in Heaven could not bear this anymore than we can bear to watch our own children endure pain and suffering.
What would we do to spare our own children the unspeakable pain of sin and death? Well, we know what we would do and our own children have faith enough to believe that if someone means to do them harm, that someone will have to get through us first. This, my friends, is the essence of the New Covenant. And believing there is a God capable of this kind of love is what faith is all about; believing that we are loved. And the works of our hands coming from the abundance of our hearts is our joyful expression of this reality, this faith, so that others can comprehend it.
>>>>> What is lacking in our lives that we cannot embrace this and revel in it? What will it take to free us from the tyranny of our human minds and human hands so that we can see this with our hearts? It has to happen because that’s all there is. Jesus is the Holy Father perfected in a manifest way that we can comprehend; simple and perfect.
Jesus never shifted the focus from our Holy Father. He merely made Him clearer to us. AMEN.
James 2:14-26
Matthew 16:13-20
Faith, like love, is probably one of the most misunderstood and misused words in the Christian vernacular because of misunderstanding and misuse of the very Bible which proclaims the central role that faith necessarily plays in the life of the individual and in the life of a congregation. The reason such misunderstandings occur may be due to a conflict between the concept of faith and the manifestation of our faith; i.e., “works”. And I don’t think anyone illustrates the seeming conflict better than James when he states: “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show my faith by my works.” (2:18a,b)
The Protestant reformer Martin Luther had enough difficulty with James that he would probably have preferred the book removed from the canon so that faith might not be overwhelmed by James’ seeming overemphasis on works. While I do not pretend to know the mind of Martin Luther, it does appear on the surface that an “issue” was created rather than addressed by what I consider to be a misunderstanding and perhaps a misinterpretation of what James is saying altogether. It could well have been that one single phrase that James uses: ‘NOT by faith alone …’
We should reasonably know that there can be no conflict between faith and works, they being two sides of the same coin. Each is perfected by the other, and one cannot exist without the other, not completely. According to James, one absent the other becomes void of its essence, its truest form.
It is fair to say, however, that Luther came to his understanding of faith and its central role in our relationship with the Lord honestly. The Bible is clear: it is grace, the Lord’s unmerited favor, by which we are justified before the Lord; it cannot be earned by the works of our hands. But there seems to be an element missing in Luther’s understanding, and outright rejection, of how James’ concept of works should relate to one’s expression of faith. Righteous works are not an attempt to please the Lord; they serve as a witness to others as to the true nature of the Lord Himself. And such a witness is not restricted to such obvious acts of mercy as the Food Pantry but does include how we choose to live, work, and play.
Jesus’ entire role is centered on His witness to the true nature of the Lord God; He is showing us by word and deed what the Holy Father looks like not to the eye nor even to the mind but, rather, to the heart. And if we are true and genuine witnesses of Christ as His disciples, then we understand our role in witnessing to His nature so that by the Holy Spirit others can then see the truly Divine Image, the perfection of that Image in which we are all created.
As I have stated so often, I don’t believe that Jesus ever felt a need to “prove” Himself in any way though we might think it would have made His ministry a little easier. After all, maybe many more would have come running each time Jesus turned His hand. But then we would have been left with a lot of magic tricks rather than bona fide miracles performed within their proper context. Such cheap attempts to appease man’s eyes would defeat the entire focus of Jesus’ call to repentance by faith, a call to believe that there is something much greater before us than meets the eye. A warrior messiah would have dealt with the occupying Romans, for instance, but the true enemy would still be present and just as powerful … and just as compelling.
Jesus’ followers were presumably all Jewish. That is to say, it may be a foregone conclusion that they already believed in God. Simply believing in an existence, however, merely acknowledging the reality of a possibility does not constitute faith, and this may be the challenge that Jesus is posing to His disciples, then as well as now. In fact, such a challenge should be overwhelming on any level. Think about our own concepts of the Almighty, all powerful, God: the God Of All Creation humbling Himself to walk among His own creation rather than sit on a throne?? This concept is very nearly impossible to embrace!
It is also worth remembering that Jesus never presented Himself as an “alternate” god or a co-god. His message is a constant reminder that by the teachings of religious leaders and teachers who seem to make things up as they go along however noble the intent, the gap inherently created by false or misleading doctrine such as hand-washing as a divine tradition (Matthew 15:10-20) is ever widening. By losing a true and proper focus, we become further and further separated from the one, true, living God as we create our own gods made a little more palpable to us by our imaginations and personal desires. At that point, faith is completely lost.
Jesus always spoke of the Father as the necessary point of focus and the only One worthy of our worship. This reality alone would necessarily challenge ALL Christian doctrines that divert focus, however slight, away from the One and Only Holy God. And faith in anything less is further separation from the Divine.
With this in mind, consider the seeming shift in focus in Matthew 16:13-20. By the words of this passage, the focus seems to have shifted to Jesus Himself. To further complicate things, Jesus emphasizes the divine faith displayed by Peter in identifying Him as “… the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” It is that faith imparted by the Father, Jesus proclaims, that Peter was enabled to identify the true nature of Jesus as Messiah, as the “anointed One”.
Suddenly the Holy Father seems incidental to Jesus, but I don’t think it is fair or accurate to refer to Jesus as “incidental” to God. Still, there is an emphasis that is important to faith which must not be lost as we consider the implication of why Jesus is concerned about how He is perceived not only by the public but also by His own disciples.
So who is Jesus, and what purpose does He serve? Why the sudden shift? Or was there a shift at all? Why the sudden emphasis on Jesus and who He is to Israel, to His disciples, to the entire world? And how is the Holy Father glorified in all this?
Maybe we would do well to ask ourselves: why would Jesus want us to know that He is the Anointed One? And why is our faith in Him important to our salvation? Again, Jesus is not a co-god or a “new and improved” god; He IS God. But perhaps even more than this, He is the perfection manifest in the New Covenant, a Holy Promise that the Lord God our Father chose to make freely. We don’t have to like it, we don’t have to acknowledge it, and we don’t even have to accept it. Our rejection, however, does not diminish the Ultimate Truth.
There is something else to further understand Jesus’ role as the personification of the New Covenant. The Law of Moses demands atonement. Sin has to be called to account. So Jesus is the prophecy fulfilled, but He is also the Law perfected because the Law requires something of us that we humans are unable to bear. There is NOT ONE THING we could possibly do for ourselves to atone for the power of sin. And because the very “wages of sin is death”, our Father in Heaven could not bear this anymore than we can bear to watch our own children endure pain and suffering.
What would we do to spare our own children the unspeakable pain of sin and death? Well, we know what we would do and our own children have faith enough to believe that if someone means to do them harm, that someone will have to get through us first. This, my friends, is the essence of the New Covenant. And believing there is a God capable of this kind of love is what faith is all about; believing that we are loved. And the works of our hands coming from the abundance of our hearts is our joyful expression of this reality, this faith, so that others can comprehend it.
>>>>> What is lacking in our lives that we cannot embrace this and revel in it? What will it take to free us from the tyranny of our human minds and human hands so that we can see this with our hearts? It has to happen because that’s all there is. Jesus is the Holy Father perfected in a manifest way that we can comprehend; simple and perfect.
Jesus never shifted the focus from our Holy Father. He merely made Him clearer to us. AMEN.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Pastor came a-callin' ... or was that the Preacher?
Ok, so I might be splitting hairs on the title because the person who has shown up at the parishioner’s door is one and the same person: the pastor of the church, the spiritual leader, the parson, the preacher. No matter what title is attached, that particular person has taken time to come calling, and that same person will be at the pulpit the following Sunday delivering the sermon. There are questions, however: which is (or should be) the dominant role, and does it matter? Should more emphasis be intentionally placed on one over the other? What can a congregation reasonably expect, and what can they reasonably demand?
I have known and witnessed some exceptional pastors who were marginal, at best, as preachers, and I’ve known and witnessed some exceptional preachers who seemed to have no clue what it means to be a pastor, a shepherd of a flock, a spiritual leader of a people called forth in mission and ministry to the world. Of course there are many who are adept and gifted at handling both roles very well, and they have dynamic and thriving congregations to show for it. There are even some churches which seem to do well with an outstanding preacher who puts very little into pastoral tasks, believing that the dominant role he or she is called to fill is at the pulpit where the Word is proclaimed.
Dynamic and lively worship experiences most certainly fill pews as is evidenced by so-called mega-churches that spend extraordinary amounts of money to hire professional musicians, for instance, to lead worship, but can we reasonably question the mind and the heart of a worship leader who is there only because he or she is being paid to be there? If the church ran into financial difficulties, would that music leader or musician still show up for worship at that particular place of worship for the sake of worship itself … for free? Somehow I think not which is why I wonder what role it is that a pastor should put emphasis on. It is not reasonable to expect any human person to be all things to all people, and a church’s pastor should be no exception to this reality.
Having been appointed only this year to my first full-time appointment (I have been a part-time local pastor since 1999), I now find myself with more time to do the things I really did not have much time for when I had a full-time secular job in addition to my part-time pastorate. Subsequently I find it much easier to manage time for sermon preparation, prayer, and study with ample time left to devote to visiting parishioners. The time I have devoted to sermon preparation, however, is not necessarily planned more than it is allowed. I do not close my office door because someone walking in will be no less disruptive than a knock on a door. Still, isn’t this why I’m here, to be available?
The conflict I wonder about, however, is the seemingly rigid policy that some pastors have in which their study and sermon prep time is an absolute, no-visitors-no-calls-allowed time that will surely from time to time conflict with the congregation’s or a parishioner’s need for a “pastor” when the “preacher” will not allow himself to be disturbed.
Maybe it is not so much the role of the pastor than it is the expectations of a congregation. Does a congregation want to be fed, or does it need to be entertained? This question may seem unfair, but the reality is that for far too many it falls on the pastor to get and keep a parishioner’s attention. If this much is true, has that pastor somehow failed or did the previous pastor fail to do his job? Or is it a lazy parishioner who does not have a heart or a mind set for worship and is, instead, expecting “paid staff” to do his worshiping for him? And is this a pastoral problem, or can a preacher best deal with it?
I have no conclusions, only questions that I intend to answer as I go. I’ve gotten compliments on my sermons, and I’ve been greeted at parishioners’ homes with more surprise and suspicion than with hospitality because too many pastors in the past did not put much emphasis on “pastoring”, so maybe I have found a least a tenuous balance between the two but I also sense that the balance can be tipped either way rather easily without much notice until it is perhaps too late.
This balance surely cannot depend on a pastor’s personal preference, but it also should not be so much an answer to a congregation’s desire above their genuine need for spiritual leadership which would necessarily involve uncomfortable challenges to those most content with “navel gazing” than with social ministry, for instance. Maybe the bigger question would be how dominant a pastor/preacher should even be to his congregation.
I hope for perspective and will welcome input.
I have known and witnessed some exceptional pastors who were marginal, at best, as preachers, and I’ve known and witnessed some exceptional preachers who seemed to have no clue what it means to be a pastor, a shepherd of a flock, a spiritual leader of a people called forth in mission and ministry to the world. Of course there are many who are adept and gifted at handling both roles very well, and they have dynamic and thriving congregations to show for it. There are even some churches which seem to do well with an outstanding preacher who puts very little into pastoral tasks, believing that the dominant role he or she is called to fill is at the pulpit where the Word is proclaimed.
Dynamic and lively worship experiences most certainly fill pews as is evidenced by so-called mega-churches that spend extraordinary amounts of money to hire professional musicians, for instance, to lead worship, but can we reasonably question the mind and the heart of a worship leader who is there only because he or she is being paid to be there? If the church ran into financial difficulties, would that music leader or musician still show up for worship at that particular place of worship for the sake of worship itself … for free? Somehow I think not which is why I wonder what role it is that a pastor should put emphasis on. It is not reasonable to expect any human person to be all things to all people, and a church’s pastor should be no exception to this reality.
Having been appointed only this year to my first full-time appointment (I have been a part-time local pastor since 1999), I now find myself with more time to do the things I really did not have much time for when I had a full-time secular job in addition to my part-time pastorate. Subsequently I find it much easier to manage time for sermon preparation, prayer, and study with ample time left to devote to visiting parishioners. The time I have devoted to sermon preparation, however, is not necessarily planned more than it is allowed. I do not close my office door because someone walking in will be no less disruptive than a knock on a door. Still, isn’t this why I’m here, to be available?
The conflict I wonder about, however, is the seemingly rigid policy that some pastors have in which their study and sermon prep time is an absolute, no-visitors-no-calls-allowed time that will surely from time to time conflict with the congregation’s or a parishioner’s need for a “pastor” when the “preacher” will not allow himself to be disturbed.
Maybe it is not so much the role of the pastor than it is the expectations of a congregation. Does a congregation want to be fed, or does it need to be entertained? This question may seem unfair, but the reality is that for far too many it falls on the pastor to get and keep a parishioner’s attention. If this much is true, has that pastor somehow failed or did the previous pastor fail to do his job? Or is it a lazy parishioner who does not have a heart or a mind set for worship and is, instead, expecting “paid staff” to do his worshiping for him? And is this a pastoral problem, or can a preacher best deal with it?
I have no conclusions, only questions that I intend to answer as I go. I’ve gotten compliments on my sermons, and I’ve been greeted at parishioners’ homes with more surprise and suspicion than with hospitality because too many pastors in the past did not put much emphasis on “pastoring”, so maybe I have found a least a tenuous balance between the two but I also sense that the balance can be tipped either way rather easily without much notice until it is perhaps too late.
This balance surely cannot depend on a pastor’s personal preference, but it also should not be so much an answer to a congregation’s desire above their genuine need for spiritual leadership which would necessarily involve uncomfortable challenges to those most content with “navel gazing” than with social ministry, for instance. Maybe the bigger question would be how dominant a pastor/preacher should even be to his congregation.
I hope for perspective and will welcome input.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Irony of Public Policy
Everyone is out for a bargain. Stores advertise “annual” close-out sales at least four times a year, and many other stores seem to be on the verge of losing their leases, so “everything must go”. We consumers are eager to save a few bucks on things we need and even on some things we don’t need but if we are offered these things at “rock bottom prices”, we show up for these “specially marked down prices”, some of which “will not be seen again”. So many slogans are designed to get our attention and offer to lead us to the Promised Land as we are also led to believe that the store is willing to take a loss just to move merchandise, so we are keen on those bargains that just seem to scream at us. There is nothing, however, that beats a two-for-one sale.
We like two-fers. And in Arkansas it seems that our state government has figured out that if they are going to sell a bad bill of goods, they need only to convince us that we are getting a sweet deal. And nothing – I mean NOTHING – is sweeter than getting two-for-the-price-of-one.
Our own lieutenant governor is trying to convince us that college scholarships and instant wealth are just around the corner; all we have to be willing to do is vote for his lottery proposal. Arkansas is also in need of a medical trauma system, so Rep. Gene Shelby, D-Hot Springs proposes to finance it with an additional cigarette tax, the same tax proposal that failed to even make it out of committee in 2007. There is something sinister going on with these two proposals, and the reasoning for either makes no sense no matter how each is proposed because what may appear to be working in tandem with another is completely unrelated to the first part.
These are four distinctly separate issues being floated about, but our state’s politicians would have us believe that each is somehow connected; i.e., the lottery will finance scholarships, and the additional cigarette tax will fund a state-wide trauma system. There are faulty premises on each that do not consider the tenuous financing that is coupled. For instance, the additional tax (currently at .59) of .50 on cigarettes will raise an additional $70 million to $75 million annual on a system that, according to estimates, will require approximately $25 million. Then the state director of the Arkansas Department of Health says the tax is a good idea to encourage people to give up cigarettes. Surely the irony is apparent.
So what happens if the director’s wish that everyone quits smoking comes true? The revenue source is endangered; then what? One thing is accomplished at the risk of another, and surely the trauma system is a good idea, at least on the surface. So if the state legislature was unable to “find” funding for the much-needed trauma system last time around (in the middle of a colossal revenue surplus, no less), how is reaching for a shaky funding source, perhaps ideally designed to burn itself out, going to make this trauma system a sustained reality? And why should only one segment of the tax-paying public be responsible for a system whose sole source of revenue is unrelated to trauma and will ultimately benefit everyone? If a trauma system is worth having at all, it is worth paying for with a self-sustaining source of revenue. These are two separate issues, yet one irony.
Another irony must acknowledge statistics which suggest that it is generally low-income, uneducated citizens who spend the most on lottery tickets in Arkansas’ neighboring states. The Arkansas lottery proposal does not seek to fund education, per se, but it does propose to make available college scholarship funds so that the poor and uneducated will have an opportunity to change or enhance their social standing. As a result of the poor and uneducated funding their own scholarships, presumably to end their own poverty and ignorance, suddenly everyone is no longer poor or ignorant. They have ideally gained knowledge and wisdom and have come to the conclusion that buying a lottery ticket as a pretense to anything other than selfish gain (at a billion-to-one odds, no less) is nothing more than a tax on silliness, wishful thinking, greed, or a combination of all.
If there is a legitimate need for college scholarships in Arkansas that will offset those who were unable to go to school on grants, loans, and other state and privately sponsored scholarships, then I would suggest that the people of Arkansas be shown those who were unable to attend a state university due to a lack of money. And I would strongly suggest that the people of Arkansas be able to see that otherwise QUALIFIED students were somehow denied the opportunity. How many young people who made the grades in high school were unable to go to college due to a lack of funds? How many did not go because they did not pursue every single avenue of higher education funding? How much scholarship money around the state, public and private, went unclaimed because deserving students did not know the funds existed? My guess is that the number of deserving, qualified students who did not know about the many funding alternatives and did not go to school is not as high as Bill Halter’s proposal might try to suggest.
There is money available for higher education, but it will not be served on a dinner plate and laid before the potential student. It has to be sought, it has to be applied for, it has to be earned (work-study programs), and some must be paid back (student loans), but money is there. If someone has a genuine desire to attend college, the means to do so is already available now without a lottery. Mr. Halter tells us that his proposal will raise $100 million dollars for college scholarships (that number is disputed by other sources). My question is: are we coming up $100 million dollars short of what is currently needed?
Let us at least be honest with ourselves and with one another as we demand full disclosure from the pro-lottery people. A lottery is not “needed” to help educate Arkansans. A lottery is a lottery. It is a game, a game of chance that must not be promoted or used as a means to any legitimate end; it should be sold just as it is. It is a game, period. It is, in my humble opinion, a monumentally bad idea on so many levels, but being sold as an answer to what may or may not be a legitimate need or as a source of state revenue is an insult to the intelligence of voters. And it is made even more so by pretending to cover some shortage when Arkansas has been running budget surpluses for the past several years because of rather aggressive tax policies. How much more surplus needs to be accumulated before we realize that the only thing this state is short of right now is a good idea?
We like two-fers. And in Arkansas it seems that our state government has figured out that if they are going to sell a bad bill of goods, they need only to convince us that we are getting a sweet deal. And nothing – I mean NOTHING – is sweeter than getting two-for-the-price-of-one.
Our own lieutenant governor is trying to convince us that college scholarships and instant wealth are just around the corner; all we have to be willing to do is vote for his lottery proposal. Arkansas is also in need of a medical trauma system, so Rep. Gene Shelby, D-Hot Springs proposes to finance it with an additional cigarette tax, the same tax proposal that failed to even make it out of committee in 2007. There is something sinister going on with these two proposals, and the reasoning for either makes no sense no matter how each is proposed because what may appear to be working in tandem with another is completely unrelated to the first part.
These are four distinctly separate issues being floated about, but our state’s politicians would have us believe that each is somehow connected; i.e., the lottery will finance scholarships, and the additional cigarette tax will fund a state-wide trauma system. There are faulty premises on each that do not consider the tenuous financing that is coupled. For instance, the additional tax (currently at .59) of .50 on cigarettes will raise an additional $70 million to $75 million annual on a system that, according to estimates, will require approximately $25 million. Then the state director of the Arkansas Department of Health says the tax is a good idea to encourage people to give up cigarettes. Surely the irony is apparent.
So what happens if the director’s wish that everyone quits smoking comes true? The revenue source is endangered; then what? One thing is accomplished at the risk of another, and surely the trauma system is a good idea, at least on the surface. So if the state legislature was unable to “find” funding for the much-needed trauma system last time around (in the middle of a colossal revenue surplus, no less), how is reaching for a shaky funding source, perhaps ideally designed to burn itself out, going to make this trauma system a sustained reality? And why should only one segment of the tax-paying public be responsible for a system whose sole source of revenue is unrelated to trauma and will ultimately benefit everyone? If a trauma system is worth having at all, it is worth paying for with a self-sustaining source of revenue. These are two separate issues, yet one irony.
Another irony must acknowledge statistics which suggest that it is generally low-income, uneducated citizens who spend the most on lottery tickets in Arkansas’ neighboring states. The Arkansas lottery proposal does not seek to fund education, per se, but it does propose to make available college scholarship funds so that the poor and uneducated will have an opportunity to change or enhance their social standing. As a result of the poor and uneducated funding their own scholarships, presumably to end their own poverty and ignorance, suddenly everyone is no longer poor or ignorant. They have ideally gained knowledge and wisdom and have come to the conclusion that buying a lottery ticket as a pretense to anything other than selfish gain (at a billion-to-one odds, no less) is nothing more than a tax on silliness, wishful thinking, greed, or a combination of all.
If there is a legitimate need for college scholarships in Arkansas that will offset those who were unable to go to school on grants, loans, and other state and privately sponsored scholarships, then I would suggest that the people of Arkansas be shown those who were unable to attend a state university due to a lack of money. And I would strongly suggest that the people of Arkansas be able to see that otherwise QUALIFIED students were somehow denied the opportunity. How many young people who made the grades in high school were unable to go to college due to a lack of funds? How many did not go because they did not pursue every single avenue of higher education funding? How much scholarship money around the state, public and private, went unclaimed because deserving students did not know the funds existed? My guess is that the number of deserving, qualified students who did not know about the many funding alternatives and did not go to school is not as high as Bill Halter’s proposal might try to suggest.
There is money available for higher education, but it will not be served on a dinner plate and laid before the potential student. It has to be sought, it has to be applied for, it has to be earned (work-study programs), and some must be paid back (student loans), but money is there. If someone has a genuine desire to attend college, the means to do so is already available now without a lottery. Mr. Halter tells us that his proposal will raise $100 million dollars for college scholarships (that number is disputed by other sources). My question is: are we coming up $100 million dollars short of what is currently needed?
Let us at least be honest with ourselves and with one another as we demand full disclosure from the pro-lottery people. A lottery is not “needed” to help educate Arkansans. A lottery is a lottery. It is a game, a game of chance that must not be promoted or used as a means to any legitimate end; it should be sold just as it is. It is a game, period. It is, in my humble opinion, a monumentally bad idea on so many levels, but being sold as an answer to what may or may not be a legitimate need or as a source of state revenue is an insult to the intelligence of voters. And it is made even more so by pretending to cover some shortage when Arkansas has been running budget surpluses for the past several years because of rather aggressive tax policies. How much more surplus needs to be accumulated before we realize that the only thing this state is short of right now is a good idea?
Forgive ME while I consider the other ...
Matthew 18:21-35
I once had a parishioner declare to me that if she heard one more sermon about “forgiveness”, she just could not be held responsible for what she may do next!
I don’t think the issue of “forgiveness” itself was the problem my beloved parishioner was dealing with. Instead, it had become a rather redundant “issue” that had been beaten into the ground. For her, it was time to move on to other things. After all, she said, it’s a pretty big Bible that covers a lot of ground. Surely we don’t have to repeat ourselves in order to be faithful to the Lord.
Maybe not but faithfulness is directly related to the task at hand and if our mission in faithfulness to the Lord is to tell His story and proclaim the Good News, forgiveness is itself the central theme of our faith and must surely be the greatest hope for a new convert as well as for those still seeking some meaning to their existence: how to embrace this God who would do such a thing. It is the greatest of all mysteries, and without it the life of Christ’s Holy Church is reduced to nothing more than a social club.
Still, I can see where my beloved parishioner was having some difficulty with feeling as if forgiveness were being forced upon her because there is an element involved that we don’t often talk about: our sense of justice. Justice demands that a wrong be made right and that some sort of penalty be invoked so as to discourage future acts of injustice.
We Americans are nothing if not a people of justice and while we might say the same thing about Christians, the truth is we Christians – by virtue of the Lord’s mighty act of forgiveness – have been excused from paying the price for our sins, the price having already been paid IN FULL. True justice would demand that we would have suffered the penalty; instead, the penalty was paid in our stead – and this is incomprehensible to many.
Here is something else to consider. We know when we’ve done wrong and we reasonably know that this wrong must be made right; WE KNOW THIS. But we don’t want to pay a penalty, do we? We would rather right a wrong in our own time and according to our own desires. Don’t we often remind ourselves that if we do not repent of such behavior that is not pleasing to the Lord, we will sooner or later answer for it?
However, if someone does US a wrong, then we want them to pay and pay dearly!! We are not typically as forgiving of them as we are of ourselves. And I think it must be the lack of genuine perspective, a perspective that is absent a genuine experience of having suffered in a very real way for our sins.
Maybe it is not possible for us. Maybe it is that there will always linger just beneath the surface the reality that we had been wronged. There is another reality, however, that we must consider and ultimately come to embrace, according to Kenneth J. Collins, professor of Wesley Studies at Asbury in Wilmore, KY. He wrote recently in Good News magazine: “The genius of the Christian faith is that it sees evil for what it is and not as an illusion as in some other religions. It then triumphs over this darkness and transcends it through its central fact of loving forgiveness.”
In other words, we acknowledge the reality what has been done to us while we also acknowledge the humanity of the person or persons who had wronged us. We give them the same break we give ourselves. We acknowledge the possibility that there were extenuating circumstances that we may never be aware of. Even as we acknowledge such realities we must also be aware that whether we choose to avenge ourselves or simply move on, the certain reality will never change. We cannot “undo” what has been done. What we can do is adjust our attitude and refocus our energy while recognizing that such negative energy and hatefulness will harm no one but ourselves. Our “enemy” may never know or care how we once felt, so what’s it to him if we choose to move along?
In the midst of the most intense suffering imaginable, Jesus prayed: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” This was not only a sincere prayer from One fully possessed of true and genuine godly love; it was also a lesson from which we are called not only to learn but to live. The central theme of our faith is, indeed, forgiveness and forgiveness is central to life eternal. To carry any sort of grudge or resentment against someone is to suffer a slow and painful death. To forgive is to embrace divine life. To truly live is to forgive as we have been forgiven.
I once had a parishioner declare to me that if she heard one more sermon about “forgiveness”, she just could not be held responsible for what she may do next!
I don’t think the issue of “forgiveness” itself was the problem my beloved parishioner was dealing with. Instead, it had become a rather redundant “issue” that had been beaten into the ground. For her, it was time to move on to other things. After all, she said, it’s a pretty big Bible that covers a lot of ground. Surely we don’t have to repeat ourselves in order to be faithful to the Lord.
Maybe not but faithfulness is directly related to the task at hand and if our mission in faithfulness to the Lord is to tell His story and proclaim the Good News, forgiveness is itself the central theme of our faith and must surely be the greatest hope for a new convert as well as for those still seeking some meaning to their existence: how to embrace this God who would do such a thing. It is the greatest of all mysteries, and without it the life of Christ’s Holy Church is reduced to nothing more than a social club.
Still, I can see where my beloved parishioner was having some difficulty with feeling as if forgiveness were being forced upon her because there is an element involved that we don’t often talk about: our sense of justice. Justice demands that a wrong be made right and that some sort of penalty be invoked so as to discourage future acts of injustice.
We Americans are nothing if not a people of justice and while we might say the same thing about Christians, the truth is we Christians – by virtue of the Lord’s mighty act of forgiveness – have been excused from paying the price for our sins, the price having already been paid IN FULL. True justice would demand that we would have suffered the penalty; instead, the penalty was paid in our stead – and this is incomprehensible to many.
Here is something else to consider. We know when we’ve done wrong and we reasonably know that this wrong must be made right; WE KNOW THIS. But we don’t want to pay a penalty, do we? We would rather right a wrong in our own time and according to our own desires. Don’t we often remind ourselves that if we do not repent of such behavior that is not pleasing to the Lord, we will sooner or later answer for it?
However, if someone does US a wrong, then we want them to pay and pay dearly!! We are not typically as forgiving of them as we are of ourselves. And I think it must be the lack of genuine perspective, a perspective that is absent a genuine experience of having suffered in a very real way for our sins.
Maybe it is not possible for us. Maybe it is that there will always linger just beneath the surface the reality that we had been wronged. There is another reality, however, that we must consider and ultimately come to embrace, according to Kenneth J. Collins, professor of Wesley Studies at Asbury in Wilmore, KY. He wrote recently in Good News magazine: “The genius of the Christian faith is that it sees evil for what it is and not as an illusion as in some other religions. It then triumphs over this darkness and transcends it through its central fact of loving forgiveness.”
In other words, we acknowledge the reality what has been done to us while we also acknowledge the humanity of the person or persons who had wronged us. We give them the same break we give ourselves. We acknowledge the possibility that there were extenuating circumstances that we may never be aware of. Even as we acknowledge such realities we must also be aware that whether we choose to avenge ourselves or simply move on, the certain reality will never change. We cannot “undo” what has been done. What we can do is adjust our attitude and refocus our energy while recognizing that such negative energy and hatefulness will harm no one but ourselves. Our “enemy” may never know or care how we once felt, so what’s it to him if we choose to move along?
In the midst of the most intense suffering imaginable, Jesus prayed: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” This was not only a sincere prayer from One fully possessed of true and genuine godly love; it was also a lesson from which we are called not only to learn but to live. The central theme of our faith is, indeed, forgiveness and forgiveness is central to life eternal. To carry any sort of grudge or resentment against someone is to suffer a slow and painful death. To forgive is to embrace divine life. To truly live is to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
The Divine Stumbling Block
1 Kings 19:9-18
Romans 10:1-15
Matthew 14:22-33
The late comedian Dean Martin was once quoted as having said, “Show me a man who has no fear, and I will show you a man who gets beat up a lot.” It is often said that the greatest motivator OR stumbling block for any person is fear. Fear of risk, for example, marks the difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for them. Take away those fearless dare-devils and stunt actors in movies, and what’s left? Chick flicks.
To be fair, however, it is important to understand that fear and cowardice are not necessarily synonymous. A lot of people are alive today because “informed fear” (aka, healthy respect for danger!) borne of experience advised their decision-making process at one point or another. Many a combat veteran will testify that while fear can paralyze, it can also motivate one to make more reasonable decisions regarding, for instance, when to advance and when to hold or withdraw. For many, the absolute absence of fear is nothing more than evidence of an absolute lack of active brain cells!
We may admire, on a particular level, the courage of someone who will boldly proclaim, “Hold my beer and watch this”, but we will never take them seriously beyond their capacity to entertain us. Besides, I’m not sure this can even fall into a category that might define fear or courage, but it is interesting to see sometimes how differently we can act when we are under certain influences and not necessarily drugs or alcohol, but of other things which can inform us, embolden us, or even trip us up.
It is fear of rejection that can keep many of us from opportunities we cannot define and will never know because we stepped backward instead of forward when opportunities presented themselves. It is perhaps this fear that may at least partly account for the decline in American church membership. In a recent UMNS story about declining membership in UM churches, Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards who is director of worship resources for the UM Board of Discipleship says that while the UM Church should be working to attract “seekers”, we should also be aware that many spiritually inclined people are wary of religious institutions and may resent the data which causes churches to target them as potential “recruits”.
"Every time we do that, we miss the point," Burton-Edwards said. "Instead of adjusting our message to get those people with us, we should be working to be in mission with people, whoever they are, wherever they are." I would also add: regardless of their inclinations, and without judgment or prejudice.
Burton-Edwards said the study's data is useful but shouldn't be the focus in measuring the church's vitality. It takes more than numbers, he said, to address the core question of whether the church is following Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
"We've got the paradigm turned around. … It's not about getting people inside of the church; it's about getting Christians out," he said. "It's not how many people are in our organization, but what level of spiritual impression people are experiencing. How are they being imprinted with the likeness of Jesus Christ? And what is the impact crater around them as a result?" UMNS, Marta Aldrich, 29 Feb 2008
Peter may have had the right idea when he stepped out of the boat (Matthew 14:22-33), but his motive seemed highly questionable. It did not seem to be a matter of faith that compelled Peter to step out of the boat and I don’t think Jesus felt any real need to “prove” Himself, but He may well have been trying to make a point. Before the point of losing one’s focus and “sinking”, however, is the point of motive and what we hope to achieve in stepping out of our own boats.
Defining that motive, that sense of purpose, may be an important step in overcoming the common stumbling block – the fear - that, at the very least, can slow us down as we perhaps weigh the outcome against the potential risk. At most, perhaps, this fear can cause us to stop altogether. In the deep recesses of our being, we know that sharing the Good News of the New Covenant is our privilege, but our fear – rational or not – will help us to justify our choice to stay in the boat. Thus an opportunity lost is a blessing never realized.
We can admire and applaud Peter for being willing to step out as he did but can we follow this as an example of faith, or is there something more to this story than meets the eye? Could Peter have fallen into that category of those who say, “Here, hold my beer and watch this?” Peter was not trusting Jesus more than he was testing Him even if he was trying to affirm Jesus’ identity. He may well have been also trying to “show” the others in the boat something. In spite of his failure and ultimate fear, however, notice that he was still lifted up and rescued! Surely this is something we can relate to!
I want to add a minor twist to this Gospel passage in light of Paul’s words to the Romans. Both Martin Luther and John Wesley cited Romans in having been freed from the notion that one must live and work up to a certain standard in order to please the Lord God, which is to say that striving toward perfection in obedience, while an admirable goal and a worthwhile endeavor, may actually be the greatest stumbling block of all in the development of the faith we need to get us through difficult challenges. We rely on our righteous performance in an effort to please the Lord, thus the potential is there that faith will play too minor a role.
The Bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
With this in mind, then, consider what Paul is saying in verse 3 (Romans 10): “…being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own [righteousness], they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.”
I know that sometimes we can split hairs over the perceived contrast between faith and works in trying to find our niche on Christ’s path in our faith journey, but we must always be mindful that the right – and righteous - path is, indeed, Christ’s path and not our own. I think maybe what Paul is saying is that the focus of our works must necessarily be evaluated so that we can be confident that these works, whatever they may be, are acts of gratitude rather than self-proclaimed acts of righteousness. In other words, if we are seeking to please the Lord God by the works of our hands in some misguided effort to “score points”, we have missed the boat altogether! We have vainly sought to “establish [our] own righteousness”.
Socially and for the sake of the local church, the great tragedy in this is that once we have decided for ourselves how we must behave, we then make demands and judgments and then IMPOSE sometimes unreasonable expectations – stumbling blocks - on others who do not follow OUR footsteps along OUR path even if and when we use the Bible as our reference point. We have made a proclamation of OUR OWN righteousness and our place as “proper” examples and soon will demand that others follow not Christ but us. We may be “technically” correct in our endeavors and our beliefs but, according to Paul, we are spiritually in the wrong.
Perhaps this was the essence of Peter’s failure. It is a fine line between Peter’s lack of faith and his desire to believe what he was seeing. The gift Peter received was that first step upon the water in which he was able to stand, but then he turned to his own devices – his own ability to believe – and lost sight of his faith which was the only thing there could possibly have been to sustain him.
It was the righteousness of Christ Himself that saved Peter, not Peter’s. Would we, like Peter, choose to TEST the Lord in our doubts and fears as we embark on our own efforts, or shall we acknowledge that it is Christ ALONE who keeps us from sinking in the first place and that our own efforts and acts are those of gratitude and not obligation?
In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Romans 10:1-15
Matthew 14:22-33
The late comedian Dean Martin was once quoted as having said, “Show me a man who has no fear, and I will show you a man who gets beat up a lot.” It is often said that the greatest motivator OR stumbling block for any person is fear. Fear of risk, for example, marks the difference between entrepreneurs and those who work for them. Take away those fearless dare-devils and stunt actors in movies, and what’s left? Chick flicks.
To be fair, however, it is important to understand that fear and cowardice are not necessarily synonymous. A lot of people are alive today because “informed fear” (aka, healthy respect for danger!) borne of experience advised their decision-making process at one point or another. Many a combat veteran will testify that while fear can paralyze, it can also motivate one to make more reasonable decisions regarding, for instance, when to advance and when to hold or withdraw. For many, the absolute absence of fear is nothing more than evidence of an absolute lack of active brain cells!
We may admire, on a particular level, the courage of someone who will boldly proclaim, “Hold my beer and watch this”, but we will never take them seriously beyond their capacity to entertain us. Besides, I’m not sure this can even fall into a category that might define fear or courage, but it is interesting to see sometimes how differently we can act when we are under certain influences and not necessarily drugs or alcohol, but of other things which can inform us, embolden us, or even trip us up.
It is fear of rejection that can keep many of us from opportunities we cannot define and will never know because we stepped backward instead of forward when opportunities presented themselves. It is perhaps this fear that may at least partly account for the decline in American church membership. In a recent UMNS story about declining membership in UM churches, Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards who is director of worship resources for the UM Board of Discipleship says that while the UM Church should be working to attract “seekers”, we should also be aware that many spiritually inclined people are wary of religious institutions and may resent the data which causes churches to target them as potential “recruits”.
"Every time we do that, we miss the point," Burton-Edwards said. "Instead of adjusting our message to get those people with us, we should be working to be in mission with people, whoever they are, wherever they are." I would also add: regardless of their inclinations, and without judgment or prejudice.
Burton-Edwards said the study's data is useful but shouldn't be the focus in measuring the church's vitality. It takes more than numbers, he said, to address the core question of whether the church is following Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
"We've got the paradigm turned around. … It's not about getting people inside of the church; it's about getting Christians out," he said. "It's not how many people are in our organization, but what level of spiritual impression people are experiencing. How are they being imprinted with the likeness of Jesus Christ? And what is the impact crater around them as a result?" UMNS, Marta Aldrich, 29 Feb 2008
Peter may have had the right idea when he stepped out of the boat (Matthew 14:22-33), but his motive seemed highly questionable. It did not seem to be a matter of faith that compelled Peter to step out of the boat and I don’t think Jesus felt any real need to “prove” Himself, but He may well have been trying to make a point. Before the point of losing one’s focus and “sinking”, however, is the point of motive and what we hope to achieve in stepping out of our own boats.
Defining that motive, that sense of purpose, may be an important step in overcoming the common stumbling block – the fear - that, at the very least, can slow us down as we perhaps weigh the outcome against the potential risk. At most, perhaps, this fear can cause us to stop altogether. In the deep recesses of our being, we know that sharing the Good News of the New Covenant is our privilege, but our fear – rational or not – will help us to justify our choice to stay in the boat. Thus an opportunity lost is a blessing never realized.
We can admire and applaud Peter for being willing to step out as he did but can we follow this as an example of faith, or is there something more to this story than meets the eye? Could Peter have fallen into that category of those who say, “Here, hold my beer and watch this?” Peter was not trusting Jesus more than he was testing Him even if he was trying to affirm Jesus’ identity. He may well have been also trying to “show” the others in the boat something. In spite of his failure and ultimate fear, however, notice that he was still lifted up and rescued! Surely this is something we can relate to!
I want to add a minor twist to this Gospel passage in light of Paul’s words to the Romans. Both Martin Luther and John Wesley cited Romans in having been freed from the notion that one must live and work up to a certain standard in order to please the Lord God, which is to say that striving toward perfection in obedience, while an admirable goal and a worthwhile endeavor, may actually be the greatest stumbling block of all in the development of the faith we need to get us through difficult challenges. We rely on our righteous performance in an effort to please the Lord, thus the potential is there that faith will play too minor a role.
The Bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
With this in mind, then, consider what Paul is saying in verse 3 (Romans 10): “…being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own [righteousness], they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.”
I know that sometimes we can split hairs over the perceived contrast between faith and works in trying to find our niche on Christ’s path in our faith journey, but we must always be mindful that the right – and righteous - path is, indeed, Christ’s path and not our own. I think maybe what Paul is saying is that the focus of our works must necessarily be evaluated so that we can be confident that these works, whatever they may be, are acts of gratitude rather than self-proclaimed acts of righteousness. In other words, if we are seeking to please the Lord God by the works of our hands in some misguided effort to “score points”, we have missed the boat altogether! We have vainly sought to “establish [our] own righteousness”.
Socially and for the sake of the local church, the great tragedy in this is that once we have decided for ourselves how we must behave, we then make demands and judgments and then IMPOSE sometimes unreasonable expectations – stumbling blocks - on others who do not follow OUR footsteps along OUR path even if and when we use the Bible as our reference point. We have made a proclamation of OUR OWN righteousness and our place as “proper” examples and soon will demand that others follow not Christ but us. We may be “technically” correct in our endeavors and our beliefs but, according to Paul, we are spiritually in the wrong.
Perhaps this was the essence of Peter’s failure. It is a fine line between Peter’s lack of faith and his desire to believe what he was seeing. The gift Peter received was that first step upon the water in which he was able to stand, but then he turned to his own devices – his own ability to believe – and lost sight of his faith which was the only thing there could possibly have been to sustain him.
It was the righteousness of Christ Himself that saved Peter, not Peter’s. Would we, like Peter, choose to TEST the Lord in our doubts and fears as we embark on our own efforts, or shall we acknowledge that it is Christ ALONE who keeps us from sinking in the first place and that our own efforts and acts are those of gratitude and not obligation?
In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Monday, August 04, 2008
The Inevitable Struggle
Genesis 32:22-31
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
Struggle is imminent. There is no way to avoid it. Even making an effort to avoid struggle is itself a struggle! The essence of any struggle, however, is the personal growth that can come just as with any learning experience. Regardless of the nature of the struggle, we can come away with a broader perspective even if we firmly stood our ground. Surely we can at least appreciate the fact that we cannot possibly know everything there is to know, especially from the perspective of someone else.
I found myself in the middle of a couple of struggles this week and, like Jacob in Genesis 32:22-31, I also want to come away with a blessing. Yet I must prepare myself for the possibility that I may come away from it all with ONLY a limp … and that’s if I’m lucky! It’s ok, though, because if it were not for these particular two items, it would have been two others, maybe three. As I stated, struggle is unavoidable most especially for the faithful.
The first item was simply an issue of time; there seems to never be enough of it to do everything that we would like to do, let alone everything we must do. When time is compressed – as it always seems to be - then it becomes necessary to prioritize. The problem with this is that while I may have juggled a few things in a particular order I thought best, it may soon be brought to my attention that maybe I should have done something a little differently, maybe arranged my priorities in another way. I did the best I could, but only time will tell the true outcome. Time, however, is an issue that will never go away.
The second item involved the sermon. I thought I was done until I received an e-mail from the Arkansas Conference reminding me that August 3 is “Anti-Lottery Sunday”. I admit that the “reminder” itself suggested that at some point I should have already been aware of the significance of this particular Sunday, but I just don’t recall the first notice. This is not to say that I support the lottery initiative. I don’t. I think it is a bad idea for probably as many reasons as some of you, perhaps many of you, may think it is a good idea. Whether the lottery itself is good or bad, however, is not the point that I hope to make. Not today, anyway.
There is my political self that is ideologically Republican, almost libertarian. That is to say, I think that the less our government is involved in our lives, the better. We can make our own mistakes, thank you very much, or we can enjoy our own successes. Even within the highest ideals of this freedom, we must always be mindful of those who are marginalized by society through no fault of their own either by disability or certain injustices which do still exist whether we like it or not.
With this freedom, then, comes duty and responsibility. We must recognize that our freedom to do as we choose ceases to exist when we infringe upon the legitimate rights of others. Cigarette smoking is a prime example. Smokers have every right to light up but when in the course of exercising that right the clean air is poisoned, the air that non-smokers cannot avoid such as in restaurants or other common-area public places, the right to smoke no longer exists even in the absence of state or city smoking prohibitions. At least, this is my opinion primarily as a matter of common, social, and public courtesy. When our rights become burdensome to others, we then have the duty or responsibility to make other choices. The struggle exists in doing what we OUGHT to do vs. doing what we would LIKE to do. This is, in our society and in our culture, the constant challenge of the faithful. My libertarian self says you have the right to buy lottery tickets when you like and smoke where you like until kingdom come. It is not the government’s business – or mine.
Then there is my religion self, a United Methodist with the honor and privilege of serving as a pastor, a minister – LIKE EVERY BELIEVER - of the entirely social Gospel of Christ, and one who believes that the Church as a whole has remained silent for too long about social issues but is now trying to find its voice and speak with clarity and with moral authority regarding the Church’s social obligations within the context of the Gospel. Admirable, but some elements of the Church have also found themselves advocating for “choice” and “freedom” pertaining to certain social issues and have, in my opinion, jeopardized the moral authority of the Church as a whole by using flawed doctrinal or theological reasoning. My religion self says that the Church must use its voice to speak against the lottery but, perhaps more importantly, help others to understand the nature of our opposition – but, of course, within the boundaries of existing law. Only in America, huh???
So what else is new? Does the past silence of the church require that we remain silent from now on and just let things go as society allows or demands, regardless of the risk potential? Does the fact that most of us probably can be accurately labeled “hypocrite” mean that we should just stop the charade and quit trying? No and No. The struggle exists uniquely in our society because we understand our religion self that is probably constantly struggling with our social and public policy self, our political alter-ego. Lotteries, casino gambling, and abortion spring to mind as issues we may struggle with, but what may not be clear is what we hope to come away from the struggle with, what we hope to accomplish. Can we, or should we even try to, protect people from themselves - even if in the name of Christ?
Jacob’s struggle in Genesis 32 seems to come out of nowhere, yet it is the story of a struggle endured by a man of faith who is moving “forward”, enroute to his destination in Canaan, the Promised Land. But who is this “man” who seems to come from nowhere and is not only not identified but who also refuses to identify himself when asked? And what might the story of this particular struggle suggest for we who continue to struggle on our own journeys as we face that which evokes fear and uncertainty especially when we do what we think is the proper thing but which will face almost certain opposition?
Some schools of thought have suggested that the “man” against whom Jacob wrestled was perhaps a demon or a Canaanite god intent on keeping Jacob from going any further, essentially trying to keep him from entering into Canaan. This theory makes sense in a couple of points: Jacob’s ability to overcome even with injury, and the seeming need of "the man" to avoid the light of day. There are problems with this theory, of course, not least of which are Jacob’s determination to receive a “blessing” directly from this “man” and Jacob’s proclamation in verse 30 in naming the place “Peniel” as he attributes the struggle to a direct encounter with the Lord and has lived to tell it.
I think most scholars agree, however, that “the man” whom Jacob encountered was an angel of the Lord, but it still remains unclear as to why this encounter took place exclusively for Jacob and why this encounter had to end before the sun came up. The timing of the sunrise, however, may only be incidental to chapter 33 which picks up right from this encounter: Jacob looks up and sees Esau coming with 400 men in tow. This impending encounter was one that Jacob was NOT looking forward to!
Maybe the struggle Jacob encounters could more reasonably be attributed to his previous plea to the Lord in chapter 32. Remember that Jacob is very afraid of meeting up with Esau because of the stunt he pulled in chapter 27 when he “tricked” his father Isaac into bestowing the blessing to Jacob that should have rightfully gone to the older brother, Esau, in which it is also written: “So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, ‘The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob'.”
If Jacob was aware of this searing hatred, and he most certainly was, then he had every right and reason to be afraid and flee as he did. I wonder, however, if the struggle we encounter daily is the same struggle between Jacob’s religion self that should have been comforted by his earlier prayer in which he reminded even himself that that the Lord had already told him, “I will surely treat you well …”, and Jacob’s more worldly, political self which recognized Esau’s right to be upset and reason to seek vengeance.
The struggle may well be reduced to nothing more than a matter of faith in believing in, and resting on, the promises of the Lord God rather than turning to our own devices to manipulate an outcome more favorable to self than to the glory of the Lord God. The struggle is imminent, I think, perhaps because we have become too worldly over time and, rather than resist the worldly influences, we have probably resisted the religion.
The good news is that as long as a sense of struggle exists, there is hope. It could well mean that we are attempting to find a place for everything and keep everything in its proper perspective. The spiritual reality is that we cannot segregate ourselves by our worldly inclinations and our spiritual being, they being two parts of the same whole.
Within this struggle, however, we must finally and completely come to understand that it is the SPIRITUAL part of ourselves that will endure long after everything worldly has faded away. It must necessarily be, then, that we shift our focus on worldly things with our spiritual perspective, to be informed by the social Gospel of Christ so that the struggle will finally and completely give way to the will of the Lord God our Father. To His Glory … now and forever. AMEN.
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
Struggle is imminent. There is no way to avoid it. Even making an effort to avoid struggle is itself a struggle! The essence of any struggle, however, is the personal growth that can come just as with any learning experience. Regardless of the nature of the struggle, we can come away with a broader perspective even if we firmly stood our ground. Surely we can at least appreciate the fact that we cannot possibly know everything there is to know, especially from the perspective of someone else.
I found myself in the middle of a couple of struggles this week and, like Jacob in Genesis 32:22-31, I also want to come away with a blessing. Yet I must prepare myself for the possibility that I may come away from it all with ONLY a limp … and that’s if I’m lucky! It’s ok, though, because if it were not for these particular two items, it would have been two others, maybe three. As I stated, struggle is unavoidable most especially for the faithful.
The first item was simply an issue of time; there seems to never be enough of it to do everything that we would like to do, let alone everything we must do. When time is compressed – as it always seems to be - then it becomes necessary to prioritize. The problem with this is that while I may have juggled a few things in a particular order I thought best, it may soon be brought to my attention that maybe I should have done something a little differently, maybe arranged my priorities in another way. I did the best I could, but only time will tell the true outcome. Time, however, is an issue that will never go away.
The second item involved the sermon. I thought I was done until I received an e-mail from the Arkansas Conference reminding me that August 3 is “Anti-Lottery Sunday”. I admit that the “reminder” itself suggested that at some point I should have already been aware of the significance of this particular Sunday, but I just don’t recall the first notice. This is not to say that I support the lottery initiative. I don’t. I think it is a bad idea for probably as many reasons as some of you, perhaps many of you, may think it is a good idea. Whether the lottery itself is good or bad, however, is not the point that I hope to make. Not today, anyway.
There is my political self that is ideologically Republican, almost libertarian. That is to say, I think that the less our government is involved in our lives, the better. We can make our own mistakes, thank you very much, or we can enjoy our own successes. Even within the highest ideals of this freedom, we must always be mindful of those who are marginalized by society through no fault of their own either by disability or certain injustices which do still exist whether we like it or not.
With this freedom, then, comes duty and responsibility. We must recognize that our freedom to do as we choose ceases to exist when we infringe upon the legitimate rights of others. Cigarette smoking is a prime example. Smokers have every right to light up but when in the course of exercising that right the clean air is poisoned, the air that non-smokers cannot avoid such as in restaurants or other common-area public places, the right to smoke no longer exists even in the absence of state or city smoking prohibitions. At least, this is my opinion primarily as a matter of common, social, and public courtesy. When our rights become burdensome to others, we then have the duty or responsibility to make other choices. The struggle exists in doing what we OUGHT to do vs. doing what we would LIKE to do. This is, in our society and in our culture, the constant challenge of the faithful. My libertarian self says you have the right to buy lottery tickets when you like and smoke where you like until kingdom come. It is not the government’s business – or mine.
Then there is my religion self, a United Methodist with the honor and privilege of serving as a pastor, a minister – LIKE EVERY BELIEVER - of the entirely social Gospel of Christ, and one who believes that the Church as a whole has remained silent for too long about social issues but is now trying to find its voice and speak with clarity and with moral authority regarding the Church’s social obligations within the context of the Gospel. Admirable, but some elements of the Church have also found themselves advocating for “choice” and “freedom” pertaining to certain social issues and have, in my opinion, jeopardized the moral authority of the Church as a whole by using flawed doctrinal or theological reasoning. My religion self says that the Church must use its voice to speak against the lottery but, perhaps more importantly, help others to understand the nature of our opposition – but, of course, within the boundaries of existing law. Only in America, huh???
So what else is new? Does the past silence of the church require that we remain silent from now on and just let things go as society allows or demands, regardless of the risk potential? Does the fact that most of us probably can be accurately labeled “hypocrite” mean that we should just stop the charade and quit trying? No and No. The struggle exists uniquely in our society because we understand our religion self that is probably constantly struggling with our social and public policy self, our political alter-ego. Lotteries, casino gambling, and abortion spring to mind as issues we may struggle with, but what may not be clear is what we hope to come away from the struggle with, what we hope to accomplish. Can we, or should we even try to, protect people from themselves - even if in the name of Christ?
Jacob’s struggle in Genesis 32 seems to come out of nowhere, yet it is the story of a struggle endured by a man of faith who is moving “forward”, enroute to his destination in Canaan, the Promised Land. But who is this “man” who seems to come from nowhere and is not only not identified but who also refuses to identify himself when asked? And what might the story of this particular struggle suggest for we who continue to struggle on our own journeys as we face that which evokes fear and uncertainty especially when we do what we think is the proper thing but which will face almost certain opposition?
Some schools of thought have suggested that the “man” against whom Jacob wrestled was perhaps a demon or a Canaanite god intent on keeping Jacob from going any further, essentially trying to keep him from entering into Canaan. This theory makes sense in a couple of points: Jacob’s ability to overcome even with injury, and the seeming need of "the man" to avoid the light of day. There are problems with this theory, of course, not least of which are Jacob’s determination to receive a “blessing” directly from this “man” and Jacob’s proclamation in verse 30 in naming the place “Peniel” as he attributes the struggle to a direct encounter with the Lord and has lived to tell it.
I think most scholars agree, however, that “the man” whom Jacob encountered was an angel of the Lord, but it still remains unclear as to why this encounter took place exclusively for Jacob and why this encounter had to end before the sun came up. The timing of the sunrise, however, may only be incidental to chapter 33 which picks up right from this encounter: Jacob looks up and sees Esau coming with 400 men in tow. This impending encounter was one that Jacob was NOT looking forward to!
Maybe the struggle Jacob encounters could more reasonably be attributed to his previous plea to the Lord in chapter 32. Remember that Jacob is very afraid of meeting up with Esau because of the stunt he pulled in chapter 27 when he “tricked” his father Isaac into bestowing the blessing to Jacob that should have rightfully gone to the older brother, Esau, in which it is also written: “So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, ‘The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob'.”
If Jacob was aware of this searing hatred, and he most certainly was, then he had every right and reason to be afraid and flee as he did. I wonder, however, if the struggle we encounter daily is the same struggle between Jacob’s religion self that should have been comforted by his earlier prayer in which he reminded even himself that that the Lord had already told him, “I will surely treat you well …”, and Jacob’s more worldly, political self which recognized Esau’s right to be upset and reason to seek vengeance.
The struggle may well be reduced to nothing more than a matter of faith in believing in, and resting on, the promises of the Lord God rather than turning to our own devices to manipulate an outcome more favorable to self than to the glory of the Lord God. The struggle is imminent, I think, perhaps because we have become too worldly over time and, rather than resist the worldly influences, we have probably resisted the religion.
The good news is that as long as a sense of struggle exists, there is hope. It could well mean that we are attempting to find a place for everything and keep everything in its proper perspective. The spiritual reality is that we cannot segregate ourselves by our worldly inclinations and our spiritual being, they being two parts of the same whole.
Within this struggle, however, we must finally and completely come to understand that it is the SPIRITUAL part of ourselves that will endure long after everything worldly has faded away. It must necessarily be, then, that we shift our focus on worldly things with our spiritual perspective, to be informed by the social Gospel of Christ so that the struggle will finally and completely give way to the will of the Lord God our Father. To His Glory … now and forever. AMEN.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Stating the Obvious
1 Kings 3:5-12
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
In 1 Kings 3 King Solomon’s reign is in its infancy. The first two chapters speak of the last days of King David and the advice he gave to Solomon about whom to trust, whom to watch, and whom to punish. After David’s death, King Solomon goes about “cleaning house” and, at least in his mind, administering justice according to his father’s advice. He also had to deal with an errant brother who had previously taken it upon himself to claim the throne of the kingdom when he learned that King David’s days were numbered. And here we thought our own “to-do” lists were overwhelming!
Sooner or later our lives will catch up with us if we refuse to slow down and think things through, but too often we run and rely on instinct and habit to get our “stuff” done. And while we may say there is no fair comparison between our “list” and King Solomon’s “list”, I will submit to you that even as Solomon’s “list” involved people’s lives, so do ours. It just is that we tend to get so caught up in our own private little world that we fail to take into account that every moment spent completely self-absorbed is another moment that could have perhaps been put to better use for the sake of the Kingdom. We may also reasonably come to the conclusion that our natural inclinations or instincts are not God-breathed and are not necessarily divinely inspired. Still, we go according to what seems right for the moment.
Solomon is obeying his father’s instructions in carrying out some perhaps questionable executions. The wisdom of Solomon’s rule thus far has been by the edge of the sword, and why not? King David was a righteous man and was faithful to the Lord to the very end as it is written, so following his advice would seem the thing to do. Nevertheless, as David’s life was coming to an end it had already been told to him that Adonijah – David’s son by a woman other than Bathsheba but still the eldest surviving son of the king nonetheless – had already proclaimed himself king which was not in keeping with what the Lord had shared with David as written in 1 Chronicles 22:9-13 which promised that David’s son, whose name shall be Solomon, will succeed him to rule AND build the Temple that King David had wanted to build.
Building a Temple dedicated to worship of the Lord God of Israel seemed perfectly right and good to King David, but he was a man of war. By his hand blood had been shed, and so it would not be fitting to the Lord that a man of war would build a temple dedicated to the Lord God. The desire that King David had was simply not enough. According to the word of the Lord, it was not time.
Isn’t it always the way, though, that after we have done all that we thought we needed to do, there is always something left over that REALLY needed to be done but was overlooked because we were running on “auto-pilot” just to hurry and finish? This almost seems to be what King Solomon has concluded, judging by the prayer he offers to the Lord when asked to name what he needs. Though Solomon will eventually have problems of his own as king, it is evident by his request at this stage in his life and reign that he does at least acknowledge his limitations as a human being and that he is going to need divine wisdom in order to govern the Lord’s “chosen” people, seeming to comprehend the task of “the chosen”.
Do we ever admit our short-comings and acknowledge the limitations of our own humanity often enough so as to humble ourselves before the Lord in asking for His help instead of running on instinct or just doing what feels right or blaming someone for our failure to do all we wanted – or thought we needed – to do? I admit that this is perhaps one of my biggest failures – among many, I’m sad to report!
It seems to me that the limitations of our humanity are exactly the reason why Jesus spoke so often of the Kingdom of Heaven in parables. It is along the same line as teaching a child that 2 + 2 = 4. It is not enough to simply know this to be true; one must also know WHY this is true, how such a conclusion is reached. Memorization may be a good thing on a certain level, but without the why’s and how’s of a particularly tough subject, the memorization will never be internalized nor personalized. It will never make sense and so will never be relevant in any real way except to maybe pass a math test.
So King Solomon’s prayer is a sincere prayer which recognizes that sound reasoning, rational thought, and divine guidance are all ingredients required of being able to minister to those who are entrusted to his care. It is no less so for those of us entrusted with the Good News of the New Covenant, but nothing will make sense to us until we think AND reason AND pray through it. Jesus is offering exactly that by speaking to His disciples in parables.
These parables may not make sense right off the bat, but they require that we think through them and pray through them. Even before that, we need a time of prayer and reflection so that divine wisdom may be imparted to us. I don’t know that it will “just happen”. The answer to any prayer will come only in the Lord’s time and not our own - which we readily acknowledge when we’re not in any big hurry - but we also have to be ready and willing to receive what is offered to us regardless of the answer or advice.
I think maybe this is the very reason why prayer is the single, most difficult of all the spiritual disciplines, to pray without speaking a word so that answers and guidance can be received. Even more difficult than this, however, is the acquisition of a willing heart enabled to hear an answer we did not wish for.
Being a disciple of Christ is no easy thing. It is not for the faint-hearted or the weak-minded. This is partly why I take exception to those who dismiss Christianity as a “crutch” for the weak-minded who cannot or will not deal with “real life”. There is nothing weak about being enabled to swallow pride, admit limitations, and lean toward the Lord for help BEFORE we insert foot in mouth or otherwise make fools of ourselves. Sometimes silence is the better option, but our instincts will not always allow for that, will they?
Reading Scripture is important for spiritual growth, but scripture is nothing more than ancient literature if there is no divine wisdom to help guide us toward the ultimate Truth. And this should be the struggle of every disciple, young or old, because if we ever reach a point when we come to believe that we have it all figured out, it is then when we will stop growing and will actually move backward, “for My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
Pray that we never “figure it out”. Amen
Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
In 1 Kings 3 King Solomon’s reign is in its infancy. The first two chapters speak of the last days of King David and the advice he gave to Solomon about whom to trust, whom to watch, and whom to punish. After David’s death, King Solomon goes about “cleaning house” and, at least in his mind, administering justice according to his father’s advice. He also had to deal with an errant brother who had previously taken it upon himself to claim the throne of the kingdom when he learned that King David’s days were numbered. And here we thought our own “to-do” lists were overwhelming!
Sooner or later our lives will catch up with us if we refuse to slow down and think things through, but too often we run and rely on instinct and habit to get our “stuff” done. And while we may say there is no fair comparison between our “list” and King Solomon’s “list”, I will submit to you that even as Solomon’s “list” involved people’s lives, so do ours. It just is that we tend to get so caught up in our own private little world that we fail to take into account that every moment spent completely self-absorbed is another moment that could have perhaps been put to better use for the sake of the Kingdom. We may also reasonably come to the conclusion that our natural inclinations or instincts are not God-breathed and are not necessarily divinely inspired. Still, we go according to what seems right for the moment.
Solomon is obeying his father’s instructions in carrying out some perhaps questionable executions. The wisdom of Solomon’s rule thus far has been by the edge of the sword, and why not? King David was a righteous man and was faithful to the Lord to the very end as it is written, so following his advice would seem the thing to do. Nevertheless, as David’s life was coming to an end it had already been told to him that Adonijah – David’s son by a woman other than Bathsheba but still the eldest surviving son of the king nonetheless – had already proclaimed himself king which was not in keeping with what the Lord had shared with David as written in 1 Chronicles 22:9-13 which promised that David’s son, whose name shall be Solomon, will succeed him to rule AND build the Temple that King David had wanted to build.
Building a Temple dedicated to worship of the Lord God of Israel seemed perfectly right and good to King David, but he was a man of war. By his hand blood had been shed, and so it would not be fitting to the Lord that a man of war would build a temple dedicated to the Lord God. The desire that King David had was simply not enough. According to the word of the Lord, it was not time.
Isn’t it always the way, though, that after we have done all that we thought we needed to do, there is always something left over that REALLY needed to be done but was overlooked because we were running on “auto-pilot” just to hurry and finish? This almost seems to be what King Solomon has concluded, judging by the prayer he offers to the Lord when asked to name what he needs. Though Solomon will eventually have problems of his own as king, it is evident by his request at this stage in his life and reign that he does at least acknowledge his limitations as a human being and that he is going to need divine wisdom in order to govern the Lord’s “chosen” people, seeming to comprehend the task of “the chosen”.
Do we ever admit our short-comings and acknowledge the limitations of our own humanity often enough so as to humble ourselves before the Lord in asking for His help instead of running on instinct or just doing what feels right or blaming someone for our failure to do all we wanted – or thought we needed – to do? I admit that this is perhaps one of my biggest failures – among many, I’m sad to report!
It seems to me that the limitations of our humanity are exactly the reason why Jesus spoke so often of the Kingdom of Heaven in parables. It is along the same line as teaching a child that 2 + 2 = 4. It is not enough to simply know this to be true; one must also know WHY this is true, how such a conclusion is reached. Memorization may be a good thing on a certain level, but without the why’s and how’s of a particularly tough subject, the memorization will never be internalized nor personalized. It will never make sense and so will never be relevant in any real way except to maybe pass a math test.
So King Solomon’s prayer is a sincere prayer which recognizes that sound reasoning, rational thought, and divine guidance are all ingredients required of being able to minister to those who are entrusted to his care. It is no less so for those of us entrusted with the Good News of the New Covenant, but nothing will make sense to us until we think AND reason AND pray through it. Jesus is offering exactly that by speaking to His disciples in parables.
These parables may not make sense right off the bat, but they require that we think through them and pray through them. Even before that, we need a time of prayer and reflection so that divine wisdom may be imparted to us. I don’t know that it will “just happen”. The answer to any prayer will come only in the Lord’s time and not our own - which we readily acknowledge when we’re not in any big hurry - but we also have to be ready and willing to receive what is offered to us regardless of the answer or advice.
I think maybe this is the very reason why prayer is the single, most difficult of all the spiritual disciplines, to pray without speaking a word so that answers and guidance can be received. Even more difficult than this, however, is the acquisition of a willing heart enabled to hear an answer we did not wish for.
Being a disciple of Christ is no easy thing. It is not for the faint-hearted or the weak-minded. This is partly why I take exception to those who dismiss Christianity as a “crutch” for the weak-minded who cannot or will not deal with “real life”. There is nothing weak about being enabled to swallow pride, admit limitations, and lean toward the Lord for help BEFORE we insert foot in mouth or otherwise make fools of ourselves. Sometimes silence is the better option, but our instincts will not always allow for that, will they?
Reading Scripture is important for spiritual growth, but scripture is nothing more than ancient literature if there is no divine wisdom to help guide us toward the ultimate Truth. And this should be the struggle of every disciple, young or old, because if we ever reach a point when we come to believe that we have it all figured out, it is then when we will stop growing and will actually move backward, “for My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
Pray that we never “figure it out”. Amen
Friday, July 25, 2008
Victims ... or ambassadors
Something occurred to me as I was driving this afternoon while listening to American Family Radio. There was a report of some school (I’m afraid I perked up only after most of the details had already been given) that had written policies governing the dissemination of religion-related materials such as Bible School invitations. One particular church followed the rules to the letter, but the assistant superintendent of the schools decided against allowing the invitations to be distributed, citing – of course – church/state issues. And – of course – someone has his or her nose out of joint as a result and – of course – is claiming “persecution” or, at the very least, unconstitutional behavior.
Considering that this particular issue has numerous sub-issues, I am going to attempt to address only a couple as I see them in hopes that other Christians may be able to come to terms with the fact that there will always be obstacles slowing our journey. Whether these obstacles are results of the evil one’s direct intervention or the plain ignorance and fear of man, it matters little to the disciple who is serious about the work of the Gospel and feels unfairly burdened.
Even if a public school district has consulted with legal experts (a major expense) about how to properly deal with religious issues, there is always the potential for a lawsuit which will, more often than not, require more legal guidance (more expense). At a time when many public school districts are struggling financially, a decision to forego even a potential lawsuit is fiscally responsible … and the potential seems always to exist. If such unnecessary expenditures can be avoided, by all means avoid them. The money is better spent for teacher salaries, supplies, bus fuel, etc. And in today’s climate when everyone and his brother-in-law is trying to claim “victim” status to one degree or another, it is best for a public school district to stay out of the religion business altogether.
For Christians to claim “victim” status, however, is beneath contempt. In the United States, it is perfectly – and physically - safe to be a Christian and worship openly, but there are laws in this country which exist for historically sound reasons. Even by the wording of the Constitution, this is a decidedly secular – if neutral – government. The state is prohibited from taking sides or even getting involved at all. That having been said, then, it must be understood by Christians that even as we can claim US citizenship by birth or oath, we are unmistakably - and foremost - citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven by virtue of rebirth. In this country and in this world we are ambassadors, foreign dignitaries charged with the responsibility of abiding by and respecting the laws of our host nation. And if this nation’s laws say that there is a distinctive line between church and state that must not be crossed, then so be it.
Make no mistake. I am not defending those who seem to seek out opportunities to be “offended” by religion; I think it is much ado about nothing and that those who make such claims are only seeking their fifteen minutes of fame. I think it is a little ridiculous to claim harm on any level by seeing Christian literature passed around at a public school or hearing a prayer, for instance, at a public school football game. However, these people are still constitutionally protected from religionists who attempt to force feed their beliefs on a public that, regardless of sharing a belief in the New Covenant, simply may not see things exactly the way these religionists think they should. Therein lays the harm.
Jesus never imposed Himself on anyone. If He was asked a question, He answered it. If He was called upon to have mercy and heal, He showed mercy and healed. He was never without compassion for those who wallowed in their ignorance, but He could not really help anyone who did not want help. And if He was asked to leave a place, He would leave (Mark 5:17-18) just as He had advised His disciples to do (Matthew 10:14).
There is plenty of injustice in the world, but a Christian group being denied permission to distribute Bible School invitations at a public school does not quite meet the criteria of “unjust” when there will always exist alternatives such as going door-to-door or doing mass mailings and advertising. Obstacles only challenge us to go around them, but our journey must still continue because the obstacle itself was not, and perhaps is not, the ultimate goal. And if we cannot go one way around this obstacle but we are sure we are headed in the right direction, then we must choose to go another way. Let us be mindful, however, that allegiance to Jesus and the New Covenant is a decision that individuals must make freely and without compulsion. Shoving religion down someone’s throat is not only not within our “rights” but is a direct violation of another’s legitimate rights.
This is not who we are, and it is not who we are called to be or what we are called to do. Many will seek us out sooner or later and they may come calling as a result of our faithfulness, but they will never come to Christ if He is presented to them as an unreasonable and demanding task-master or iron-fisted ruler. We have rights, you know, and we rejected one king some 230 years ago who attempted to usurp the rights of man. Another equally unreasonable and demanding king will not likely fare much better.
Considering that this particular issue has numerous sub-issues, I am going to attempt to address only a couple as I see them in hopes that other Christians may be able to come to terms with the fact that there will always be obstacles slowing our journey. Whether these obstacles are results of the evil one’s direct intervention or the plain ignorance and fear of man, it matters little to the disciple who is serious about the work of the Gospel and feels unfairly burdened.
Even if a public school district has consulted with legal experts (a major expense) about how to properly deal with religious issues, there is always the potential for a lawsuit which will, more often than not, require more legal guidance (more expense). At a time when many public school districts are struggling financially, a decision to forego even a potential lawsuit is fiscally responsible … and the potential seems always to exist. If such unnecessary expenditures can be avoided, by all means avoid them. The money is better spent for teacher salaries, supplies, bus fuel, etc. And in today’s climate when everyone and his brother-in-law is trying to claim “victim” status to one degree or another, it is best for a public school district to stay out of the religion business altogether.
For Christians to claim “victim” status, however, is beneath contempt. In the United States, it is perfectly – and physically - safe to be a Christian and worship openly, but there are laws in this country which exist for historically sound reasons. Even by the wording of the Constitution, this is a decidedly secular – if neutral – government. The state is prohibited from taking sides or even getting involved at all. That having been said, then, it must be understood by Christians that even as we can claim US citizenship by birth or oath, we are unmistakably - and foremost - citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven by virtue of rebirth. In this country and in this world we are ambassadors, foreign dignitaries charged with the responsibility of abiding by and respecting the laws of our host nation. And if this nation’s laws say that there is a distinctive line between church and state that must not be crossed, then so be it.
Make no mistake. I am not defending those who seem to seek out opportunities to be “offended” by religion; I think it is much ado about nothing and that those who make such claims are only seeking their fifteen minutes of fame. I think it is a little ridiculous to claim harm on any level by seeing Christian literature passed around at a public school or hearing a prayer, for instance, at a public school football game. However, these people are still constitutionally protected from religionists who attempt to force feed their beliefs on a public that, regardless of sharing a belief in the New Covenant, simply may not see things exactly the way these religionists think they should. Therein lays the harm.
Jesus never imposed Himself on anyone. If He was asked a question, He answered it. If He was called upon to have mercy and heal, He showed mercy and healed. He was never without compassion for those who wallowed in their ignorance, but He could not really help anyone who did not want help. And if He was asked to leave a place, He would leave (Mark 5:17-18) just as He had advised His disciples to do (Matthew 10:14).
There is plenty of injustice in the world, but a Christian group being denied permission to distribute Bible School invitations at a public school does not quite meet the criteria of “unjust” when there will always exist alternatives such as going door-to-door or doing mass mailings and advertising. Obstacles only challenge us to go around them, but our journey must still continue because the obstacle itself was not, and perhaps is not, the ultimate goal. And if we cannot go one way around this obstacle but we are sure we are headed in the right direction, then we must choose to go another way. Let us be mindful, however, that allegiance to Jesus and the New Covenant is a decision that individuals must make freely and without compulsion. Shoving religion down someone’s throat is not only not within our “rights” but is a direct violation of another’s legitimate rights.
This is not who we are, and it is not who we are called to be or what we are called to do. Many will seek us out sooner or later and they may come calling as a result of our faithfulness, but they will never come to Christ if He is presented to them as an unreasonable and demanding task-master or iron-fisted ruler. We have rights, you know, and we rejected one king some 230 years ago who attempted to usurp the rights of man. Another equally unreasonable and demanding king will not likely fare much better.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Rolling the Dice ... for Vice
Arkansas voters will once again go to the polls and decide whether a state-wide lottery should be allowed. We’ve been down this road before more than once. Still, those who would suggest that gambling is somehow going to be the saving grace of education in Arkansas are going to give it another shot, but this time it is the duly elected lieutenant governor of Arkansas who is behind the push. This may be a new twist that could complicate things for voters because a state constitutional officer is working tirelessly to influence the vote. He is perfectly within his right to do so as a resident of the state, but it almost seems an unfair advantage when an official of the state throws his weight behind something.
I would like to believe that voters are not that easily swayed, but it is difficult to think otherwise when so many officials run virtually unopposed in state and even national contests secure in the knowledge that voters tend to lean toward familiar names and faces rather than to go into the depths of any particular issue or pay attention to voting records. It has often been said that if one can get elected on the first go-round, reelection is virtually assured unless a felony charge enters into the picture. It is a sad state of affairs when perfectly qualified individuals choose not to run, being aware of the futility of such an endeavor.
Politics and public officials aside, gambling in any form as a means of state revenue puts a great deal of faith in the weaknesses and fears of man. Especially during such economic times as what we are currently enduring, these weaknesses are exposed in such ways of desperation that those who are afraid of tomorrow - and the potential for job and home loss - are willing to risk what should be devoted to a savings account choose instead a “pie in the sky” empty promise of a big, fat “maybe”. There may well be some available college scholarship money in the future as a result should this measure pass, but it is the “here and now” that is being put at risk. This is no investment for the future; it is a waste of resources now.
Arkansans need a stable job market and opportunities to earn their own way; they don’t need games of chance which do nothing more than to take from an already-challenged pocketbook. Arkansas’ elected officials should be devoting their time and the state’s currently plentiful resources to such endeavors as those which led to Conway landing a huge opportunity with Hewlett-Packard and its 1,200 future jobs. These are the kinds of public policies that give Arkansans real opportunities for education and advancement. These are the kinds of public policies that promote honest labor, hard work, and a real shot at the so-called “American Dream”. These are the kinds of public policies citizens have every right to expect from elected officials. Instead, we have apparently surrendered to elected officials who make promises that cannot possibly be fulfilled, and other opportunities may be lost because the lieutenant governor of the state wants a lottery instead of a manufacturer or other major employers.
I pray that Arkansans are not fooled by what may or may not come as a result of a lottery, but isn’t this the rub: what may or may not come? We are already at risk with an economy that has gone sour and will not recover anytime soon, folks losing their jobs and homes, and oil at record prices with no sign of abating anytime soon. In the midst of this reality, the lieutenant governor of our fair state wants us to put our faith in gaming.
Lest there be any confusion, this is not a purely religious objection though I would submit that the Lord has more in mind for what He has entrusted to us than risking money purely for selfish gain. Those who can least afford to gamble will, according to statistics, be the major players in this game of chance. The money spent can be put to better use in interest-bearing savings or checking accounts and held for the sure thing instead of a one-in-a-billion chance of winning. The risk is, indeed, far greater than the reward that will most likely, according to reasonable odds, never come.
I would like to believe that voters are not that easily swayed, but it is difficult to think otherwise when so many officials run virtually unopposed in state and even national contests secure in the knowledge that voters tend to lean toward familiar names and faces rather than to go into the depths of any particular issue or pay attention to voting records. It has often been said that if one can get elected on the first go-round, reelection is virtually assured unless a felony charge enters into the picture. It is a sad state of affairs when perfectly qualified individuals choose not to run, being aware of the futility of such an endeavor.
Politics and public officials aside, gambling in any form as a means of state revenue puts a great deal of faith in the weaknesses and fears of man. Especially during such economic times as what we are currently enduring, these weaknesses are exposed in such ways of desperation that those who are afraid of tomorrow - and the potential for job and home loss - are willing to risk what should be devoted to a savings account choose instead a “pie in the sky” empty promise of a big, fat “maybe”. There may well be some available college scholarship money in the future as a result should this measure pass, but it is the “here and now” that is being put at risk. This is no investment for the future; it is a waste of resources now.
Arkansans need a stable job market and opportunities to earn their own way; they don’t need games of chance which do nothing more than to take from an already-challenged pocketbook. Arkansas’ elected officials should be devoting their time and the state’s currently plentiful resources to such endeavors as those which led to Conway landing a huge opportunity with Hewlett-Packard and its 1,200 future jobs. These are the kinds of public policies that give Arkansans real opportunities for education and advancement. These are the kinds of public policies that promote honest labor, hard work, and a real shot at the so-called “American Dream”. These are the kinds of public policies citizens have every right to expect from elected officials. Instead, we have apparently surrendered to elected officials who make promises that cannot possibly be fulfilled, and other opportunities may be lost because the lieutenant governor of the state wants a lottery instead of a manufacturer or other major employers.
I pray that Arkansans are not fooled by what may or may not come as a result of a lottery, but isn’t this the rub: what may or may not come? We are already at risk with an economy that has gone sour and will not recover anytime soon, folks losing their jobs and homes, and oil at record prices with no sign of abating anytime soon. In the midst of this reality, the lieutenant governor of our fair state wants us to put our faith in gaming.
Lest there be any confusion, this is not a purely religious objection though I would submit that the Lord has more in mind for what He has entrusted to us than risking money purely for selfish gain. Those who can least afford to gamble will, according to statistics, be the major players in this game of chance. The money spent can be put to better use in interest-bearing savings or checking accounts and held for the sure thing instead of a one-in-a-billion chance of winning. The risk is, indeed, far greater than the reward that will most likely, according to reasonable odds, never come.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Considering the Cost
Isaiah 44:6-8
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
I’ve often wondered if suffering is a requisite part of the Christian salvation story. It is easy to see that Jesus endured unspeakable pain on His way to Calvary, but was it a necessary, rather than an incidental, part of the Passion and did this pain in any way help to facilitate His Resurrection? I seem to recall reading from one of Billy Graham’s books in which he expressed regret for not having suffered “enough” in this life, but I also recall that both Rev. Graham and his wife made tremendous sacrifices all their married life in efforts to support his ministry. Considering the enormous success of his world-wide efforts to promote the cause of Christ, I would suggest that Rev. Graham and his family gave plenty of themselves and their time and energy that must have surely resulted in some measure of “pain”.
Biblical writers, especially St. Paul, are pretty clear that as we “share” in the suffering of Christ, we also share in the hope of the Resurrection of Christ. In other words, as we live in the totality of Christ in this life, including His pain and suffering, so shall we also live in the totality of Christ in the life to come. Such ideals of living don’t necessarily involve physical pain, but it does not mean that we should not strive for higher ideals to the best of our ability regardless of the risk. But I don’t think it means we should intentionally go looking for pain and misery.
So could suffering be subjective to what path we may choose to follow in our spiritual life and faith journey? It could if there is some measure of our discipleship, and thus our lives, that we would choose to withhold when the pressure of conflict intensifies and we find ourselves confronted with the apparent – and plentiful – ugliness of this world. The “cost” of our discipleship, our loyalty to the Lord, could come to require more than we are willing or able to bear.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’.” Luke 14:26-30
It seems to me that suffering as we understand it does serve a purpose, but it should not be discounted as suffering for its own sake or as merely “incidental” to a certain harsh reality, evidence of the broken world in which we live, a portrait of the destructive nature and power of sin itself, and the conflict which is inherent when “good” and “evil” are in the same realm. Instead it must be, in the words of my dear friend and fellow pastor, Rev. John Farthing, “the inevitable corollary of radical discipleship”. The suffering Jesus endured was the direct result of this inherent conflict within the “corollary of radical discipleship” which will always exist when good (or Light) enters into the realm of bad (or Darkness), and we give of ourselves completely and hold nothing back – like Jesus.
The suffering to which St. Paul refers in Romans is better brought to life as we “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) It is during this fellowship when we endure and bear the suffering WITH, and not because of, the “last”, the “least”, and the “lost”, those who have by some form or fashion become marginalized in our society and have been mistreated by too many, those who have lost their faith due to the utter and unspeakable pain of neglect and loneliness, and those who are suffering from genuine persecution for their faith.
It is a mistake to believe that happiness and contentment should be a source of guilt as if we are not suffering enough, and I don’t know that Paul is demanding that we go out and seek misery more than he is warning us that pain and suffering will find us sooner or later … get this … ACCORDING TO THE LEVEL OF OUR FAITHFULNESS, according to our will and ability to “take up our cross” – NEVER MINDING the cost or risk to ourselves - and follow Christ.
It is not unlike the night Jesus was arrested and Peter was confronted by accusers (“YOU WERE WITH HIM”). Peter had a choice to make, and his level of suffering had everything to do with his choice. Out of a sense of overwhelming fear, Peter “dropped” his cross and fled for safety thus avoiding perhaps the same fate and suffering as Jesus … for the moment, anyway. His conscience bothered him, of course, but notice that the “WORLD” left him alone even as he fled “into the world” and away from Christ.
Where does this leave us? In the middle of good things and in America where it is relatively safe to be a Christian, we must exercise our faith just like we “should” exercise our muscles so that when we need them - and I think Jesus and Paul are saying we will if we are faithful – our faith will be in good shape to perform. Otherwise, our choice might be to flee when we are called upon or “accused” of being one of Jesus’ disciples. And where can we flee? Into the world that may offer temporary – but NEVER-lasting - comfort and away from the spirit of righteousness borne of a life in faith, a life in and with Christ.
The true cost of discipleship is complete and total vulnerability. It means that when we love and give of ourselves totally and completely, without hesitation or reservation, we will be exposed for what we truly are: disciples of the Risen Christ in a world ruled by the prince of darkness, remembering that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the Glory about to be revealed to us …” Amen.
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
I’ve often wondered if suffering is a requisite part of the Christian salvation story. It is easy to see that Jesus endured unspeakable pain on His way to Calvary, but was it a necessary, rather than an incidental, part of the Passion and did this pain in any way help to facilitate His Resurrection? I seem to recall reading from one of Billy Graham’s books in which he expressed regret for not having suffered “enough” in this life, but I also recall that both Rev. Graham and his wife made tremendous sacrifices all their married life in efforts to support his ministry. Considering the enormous success of his world-wide efforts to promote the cause of Christ, I would suggest that Rev. Graham and his family gave plenty of themselves and their time and energy that must have surely resulted in some measure of “pain”.
Biblical writers, especially St. Paul, are pretty clear that as we “share” in the suffering of Christ, we also share in the hope of the Resurrection of Christ. In other words, as we live in the totality of Christ in this life, including His pain and suffering, so shall we also live in the totality of Christ in the life to come. Such ideals of living don’t necessarily involve physical pain, but it does not mean that we should not strive for higher ideals to the best of our ability regardless of the risk. But I don’t think it means we should intentionally go looking for pain and misery.
So could suffering be subjective to what path we may choose to follow in our spiritual life and faith journey? It could if there is some measure of our discipleship, and thus our lives, that we would choose to withhold when the pressure of conflict intensifies and we find ourselves confronted with the apparent – and plentiful – ugliness of this world. The “cost” of our discipleship, our loyalty to the Lord, could come to require more than we are willing or able to bear.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’.” Luke 14:26-30
It seems to me that suffering as we understand it does serve a purpose, but it should not be discounted as suffering for its own sake or as merely “incidental” to a certain harsh reality, evidence of the broken world in which we live, a portrait of the destructive nature and power of sin itself, and the conflict which is inherent when “good” and “evil” are in the same realm. Instead it must be, in the words of my dear friend and fellow pastor, Rev. John Farthing, “the inevitable corollary of radical discipleship”. The suffering Jesus endured was the direct result of this inherent conflict within the “corollary of radical discipleship” which will always exist when good (or Light) enters into the realm of bad (or Darkness), and we give of ourselves completely and hold nothing back – like Jesus.
The suffering to which St. Paul refers in Romans is better brought to life as we “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) It is during this fellowship when we endure and bear the suffering WITH, and not because of, the “last”, the “least”, and the “lost”, those who have by some form or fashion become marginalized in our society and have been mistreated by too many, those who have lost their faith due to the utter and unspeakable pain of neglect and loneliness, and those who are suffering from genuine persecution for their faith.
It is a mistake to believe that happiness and contentment should be a source of guilt as if we are not suffering enough, and I don’t know that Paul is demanding that we go out and seek misery more than he is warning us that pain and suffering will find us sooner or later … get this … ACCORDING TO THE LEVEL OF OUR FAITHFULNESS, according to our will and ability to “take up our cross” – NEVER MINDING the cost or risk to ourselves - and follow Christ.
It is not unlike the night Jesus was arrested and Peter was confronted by accusers (“YOU WERE WITH HIM”). Peter had a choice to make, and his level of suffering had everything to do with his choice. Out of a sense of overwhelming fear, Peter “dropped” his cross and fled for safety thus avoiding perhaps the same fate and suffering as Jesus … for the moment, anyway. His conscience bothered him, of course, but notice that the “WORLD” left him alone even as he fled “into the world” and away from Christ.
Where does this leave us? In the middle of good things and in America where it is relatively safe to be a Christian, we must exercise our faith just like we “should” exercise our muscles so that when we need them - and I think Jesus and Paul are saying we will if we are faithful – our faith will be in good shape to perform. Otherwise, our choice might be to flee when we are called upon or “accused” of being one of Jesus’ disciples. And where can we flee? Into the world that may offer temporary – but NEVER-lasting - comfort and away from the spirit of righteousness borne of a life in faith, a life in and with Christ.
The true cost of discipleship is complete and total vulnerability. It means that when we love and give of ourselves totally and completely, without hesitation or reservation, we will be exposed for what we truly are: disciples of the Risen Christ in a world ruled by the prince of darkness, remembering that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the Glory about to be revealed to us …” Amen.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Lord, Grant Us Peace
One of my favorite movies of all time is “The Sound of Music” with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. And one of my favorite scenes is toward the end when Mother Superior is talking to Maria and quotes Psalm 121 as Maria is hiding with her new family from the Nazis. If you recall, the Nazis had just taken over Austria and were trying to force Maria’s husband, Capt. Von Trapp, to serve in the German navy. The family was trying to escape into Switzerland because Capt. Von Trapp wanted nothing to do with the Third Reich.
I suppose there is always a time in our daily lives and routines when we are trying to escape from something. You probably remember the old Calgon bath oil commercials in which the woman was just about overwhelmed with household chores, phones ringing, kids screaming and running about, dogs barking, and errands that still needed to be done. The woman would finally get to the end of her rope and shout, “CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!!”, and then she would run off to soak in a hot bubble bath.
Or consider the young family now being hit from all sides by rising energy, food, and college tuition prices as well as the potential job loss which may be just around the corner. Or even the retired folks living on fixed incomes trying to make ends meet with rising medicine prices IN ADDITION to the other costs which keep going up … up … up.
Some folks turn to their congressman or shake their fist at the president, even we Christians. Things are hard and we are more than a little shaken by not knowing exactly what may be just around the bend. We don’t like things in our lives being so completely out of control, but we also know that these problems as well as many others are beyond our control. When we talk about a WORLD economy, we know it’s getting pretty big and will only get bigger. Who can stick their finger in the dike and plug the hole like the little Dutch boy, and how much good will it do??
When we reach the end of our rope, however, it is then when we should pray for … what? Pray for an economic miracle? Pray that Congress will be able to do something about it all? Pray that any MAN may have the answer to all our problems?
No, my dear friends, we do not. We pray for faith; just faith, especially when we are afraid because fear itself can be evidence of a faith that is lacking. It is faith that will help us turn to the Scripture in good times AND bad to find such soothing words as this Psalm to calm our fears. I also have to say that even though I don’t typically refer to the KJV, this particular Psalm will not work any other way. There is a poetic flow that speaks of a sense of peace and serenity that can only be useful to us if it is Heaven-sent. Such words of poetry and beauty remind us of a divine love so incomprehensible that sometimes there are no words … just peace. And it is this peace which is the “help” we so desperately need.
The Lord is the One willing and able to give us what we truly need. We will deal with life as it comes to us and do the best we can with His grace and strength, but it will always be His grace and strength that will calm our nerves and remind us that we are never alone when we are with and in Him through Christ. It is the Good News of the Gospel of Christ, and it is Peace in this life and Hope in the Life that is to come. Amen.
I suppose there is always a time in our daily lives and routines when we are trying to escape from something. You probably remember the old Calgon bath oil commercials in which the woman was just about overwhelmed with household chores, phones ringing, kids screaming and running about, dogs barking, and errands that still needed to be done. The woman would finally get to the end of her rope and shout, “CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY!!”, and then she would run off to soak in a hot bubble bath.
Or consider the young family now being hit from all sides by rising energy, food, and college tuition prices as well as the potential job loss which may be just around the corner. Or even the retired folks living on fixed incomes trying to make ends meet with rising medicine prices IN ADDITION to the other costs which keep going up … up … up.
Some folks turn to their congressman or shake their fist at the president, even we Christians. Things are hard and we are more than a little shaken by not knowing exactly what may be just around the bend. We don’t like things in our lives being so completely out of control, but we also know that these problems as well as many others are beyond our control. When we talk about a WORLD economy, we know it’s getting pretty big and will only get bigger. Who can stick their finger in the dike and plug the hole like the little Dutch boy, and how much good will it do??
When we reach the end of our rope, however, it is then when we should pray for … what? Pray for an economic miracle? Pray that Congress will be able to do something about it all? Pray that any MAN may have the answer to all our problems?
No, my dear friends, we do not. We pray for faith; just faith, especially when we are afraid because fear itself can be evidence of a faith that is lacking. It is faith that will help us turn to the Scripture in good times AND bad to find such soothing words as this Psalm to calm our fears. I also have to say that even though I don’t typically refer to the KJV, this particular Psalm will not work any other way. There is a poetic flow that speaks of a sense of peace and serenity that can only be useful to us if it is Heaven-sent. Such words of poetry and beauty remind us of a divine love so incomprehensible that sometimes there are no words … just peace. And it is this peace which is the “help” we so desperately need.
The Lord is the One willing and able to give us what we truly need. We will deal with life as it comes to us and do the best we can with His grace and strength, but it will always be His grace and strength that will calm our nerves and remind us that we are never alone when we are with and in Him through Christ. It is the Good News of the Gospel of Christ, and it is Peace in this life and Hope in the Life that is to come. Amen.
The Word ... for what it is
Isaiah 55:6-13
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-23
Several years ago I took a class in Old Testament Interpretation that took me by more than a little surprise. It’s not as if I had never heard of the Hebrew Scriptures, but I had never had a teacher to challenge me to read the texts without my Christian perspective such as the people of the day obviously had. What they were getting was what was written specifically for them in the context of their own contemporary setting. This is not to suggest that what was written in the past has no relevance for us – NOT AT ALL!! – but context is everything in understanding what was offered and under what circumstances so that it may become relevant for us today.
I worked through the class and took more than my share of “hits” on one paper I wrote because there were many subtle, though unintentional, New Testament references peppered throughout the paper. I passed the course, but I came away probably more confused than educated. Still it was a good exercise in reading something and taking from it its own message based on its own historical and theological perspective and setting as well as reading it for what is actually there instead of trying to read INTO IT something that is not.
Isaiah addresses Judah during the Babylonian exile. The southern kingdom had been overthrown though it was not what had been intended. King Ahaz turned to help from Assyria in fending off an attack from Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel (aka, Ephraim). Long story made short, Judah was sent into exile and the Assyrians ruled the kingdom.
In this setting, then, and in light of what Isaiah has to offer Judah is probably the best way to approach the reading in understanding that even as Judah endured hardship by the hands of man, the Lord God was still ultimately in control because He granted to them exactly what they had asked for: help from man at the expense of their national identity.
And just like the people of Judah, we also have to sometimes take our own spiritual lumps. In Judah’s case, it was probably a mistake for King Ahaz to align himself with a foreign nation sort of like when we rely on man instead of the Lord to get us through difficult times such as now in our economy as we expect the presidential and other candidates to promise AND DELIVER economic miracles. Taking these lumps, however, does not mean that the grace of the Lord will not still shine. The question will be whether we are willing to see it.
Through Isaiah, the Lord makes it clear that He is not much for idle talk. The Word which comes from Him is for a purpose and when that Word comes to us from Above, it will not stop until it serves its divine purpose, like rain replenishing the earth. What this may mean for us is that the potential exists that we can waste what has been offered for us to use, and the Lord will move it to someone else who will make better use of His Holy Word. It is not unlike the Parable of the Talents (Matthew25:14-30) in which the third servant who had been entrusted with only one talent had it taken from him and given to the other who had made good use of what had been entrusted to him. The servant who wasted what little he had ended up with nothing and was “thrown into the outer darkness ...” (Matthew 25:30)
To the exiles the Word of the Lord which came to them through Isaiah was the word of encouragement and grace, not condemnation as “I told you so”. The people of Judah were already down so it would not serve the purpose of the Lord God to continue beating and kicking them. They needed more than a good “chewing out”; they needed to know that what they had endured served a purpose. They, like we, needed to know that within the Word of the Lord is enduring Hope and a Promise for a future.
Jesus warns His disciples, however, that even as the Word of the Lord is sown there are still challenges that require us not to simply read the Bible but to PRAY the Bible and internalize what is offered to us so that the Word becomes the essence of who we are and what we are to our community and the world. Beyond this, then, it is also incumbent upon us to live the Word so that it becomes our nature. When we are then strengthened by the Word, we can venture out into the world that is hostile to the Word and SHOW the world the goodness of the Word and the Life which springs forth from it.
Though Jesus’ parable warns of the dangers and temptations of this world and the obstacles which are inherent to the world, it seems also clear that the “path” to which He refers is our path. This path goes into the world and meets a hostile world right where it is. This Word does not make demands, it does not judge or condemn or insist that the world come to us or meet us on our terms. Instead, we are called to meet the world right where it is at any given time and place. By the light of Christ which should shine in and through us, we are able to light the path and show the world the way out.
We are essentially the Lord’s “rescue party”, and the Word of the Lord is our tool belt. And like a rescue party, we go to the scene of distress rather than wait safely from a distance until those in distress somehow manage to find their way out. It is the life perfected in Jesus who came to mankind - in mankind’s world, in mankind’s image, and even on mankind’s terms – to show humanity the way out.
I suppose in many ways we are still a people in exile but like Judah, we are still being cared for, looked after, and encouraged. We have not been forgotten or forsaken. It is only fitting and right that we should remember that we are equipped with the Word – AS IT IS – to light the path for other exiles and those who may be lost. We GO TO THEM instead of waiting for them to come to us. Just like Jesus, the Word made flesh who came to His own, but His own did not recognize Him. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God.
This is the light of Life and the Word of the Lord …. And it is what it is now and forever. Amen.
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-23
Several years ago I took a class in Old Testament Interpretation that took me by more than a little surprise. It’s not as if I had never heard of the Hebrew Scriptures, but I had never had a teacher to challenge me to read the texts without my Christian perspective such as the people of the day obviously had. What they were getting was what was written specifically for them in the context of their own contemporary setting. This is not to suggest that what was written in the past has no relevance for us – NOT AT ALL!! – but context is everything in understanding what was offered and under what circumstances so that it may become relevant for us today.
I worked through the class and took more than my share of “hits” on one paper I wrote because there were many subtle, though unintentional, New Testament references peppered throughout the paper. I passed the course, but I came away probably more confused than educated. Still it was a good exercise in reading something and taking from it its own message based on its own historical and theological perspective and setting as well as reading it for what is actually there instead of trying to read INTO IT something that is not.
Isaiah addresses Judah during the Babylonian exile. The southern kingdom had been overthrown though it was not what had been intended. King Ahaz turned to help from Assyria in fending off an attack from Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel (aka, Ephraim). Long story made short, Judah was sent into exile and the Assyrians ruled the kingdom.
In this setting, then, and in light of what Isaiah has to offer Judah is probably the best way to approach the reading in understanding that even as Judah endured hardship by the hands of man, the Lord God was still ultimately in control because He granted to them exactly what they had asked for: help from man at the expense of their national identity.
And just like the people of Judah, we also have to sometimes take our own spiritual lumps. In Judah’s case, it was probably a mistake for King Ahaz to align himself with a foreign nation sort of like when we rely on man instead of the Lord to get us through difficult times such as now in our economy as we expect the presidential and other candidates to promise AND DELIVER economic miracles. Taking these lumps, however, does not mean that the grace of the Lord will not still shine. The question will be whether we are willing to see it.
Through Isaiah, the Lord makes it clear that He is not much for idle talk. The Word which comes from Him is for a purpose and when that Word comes to us from Above, it will not stop until it serves its divine purpose, like rain replenishing the earth. What this may mean for us is that the potential exists that we can waste what has been offered for us to use, and the Lord will move it to someone else who will make better use of His Holy Word. It is not unlike the Parable of the Talents (Matthew25:14-30) in which the third servant who had been entrusted with only one talent had it taken from him and given to the other who had made good use of what had been entrusted to him. The servant who wasted what little he had ended up with nothing and was “thrown into the outer darkness ...” (Matthew 25:30)
To the exiles the Word of the Lord which came to them through Isaiah was the word of encouragement and grace, not condemnation as “I told you so”. The people of Judah were already down so it would not serve the purpose of the Lord God to continue beating and kicking them. They needed more than a good “chewing out”; they needed to know that what they had endured served a purpose. They, like we, needed to know that within the Word of the Lord is enduring Hope and a Promise for a future.
Jesus warns His disciples, however, that even as the Word of the Lord is sown there are still challenges that require us not to simply read the Bible but to PRAY the Bible and internalize what is offered to us so that the Word becomes the essence of who we are and what we are to our community and the world. Beyond this, then, it is also incumbent upon us to live the Word so that it becomes our nature. When we are then strengthened by the Word, we can venture out into the world that is hostile to the Word and SHOW the world the goodness of the Word and the Life which springs forth from it.
Though Jesus’ parable warns of the dangers and temptations of this world and the obstacles which are inherent to the world, it seems also clear that the “path” to which He refers is our path. This path goes into the world and meets a hostile world right where it is. This Word does not make demands, it does not judge or condemn or insist that the world come to us or meet us on our terms. Instead, we are called to meet the world right where it is at any given time and place. By the light of Christ which should shine in and through us, we are able to light the path and show the world the way out.
We are essentially the Lord’s “rescue party”, and the Word of the Lord is our tool belt. And like a rescue party, we go to the scene of distress rather than wait safely from a distance until those in distress somehow manage to find their way out. It is the life perfected in Jesus who came to mankind - in mankind’s world, in mankind’s image, and even on mankind’s terms – to show humanity the way out.
I suppose in many ways we are still a people in exile but like Judah, we are still being cared for, looked after, and encouraged. We have not been forgotten or forsaken. It is only fitting and right that we should remember that we are equipped with the Word – AS IT IS – to light the path for other exiles and those who may be lost. We GO TO THEM instead of waiting for them to come to us. Just like Jesus, the Word made flesh who came to His own, but His own did not recognize Him. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God.
This is the light of Life and the Word of the Lord …. And it is what it is now and forever. Amen.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Reconciliation: Imagine the Possibilities
Genesis 18:16-33
1 Peter 2:4-17
Matthew 6:5-15
Have you ever considered the very real possibility that your pastor may be “demon possessed”? It could be true. I don’t know about other fellow pastors but in my case, there are some issues that still often cloud my judgment and cause me to do or be or act or speak or even think in a manner that is not consistent with the life of a disciple of Christ. I mean well but I can see and feel these demons that are within me. I sense that I have the power to at least suppress these demons, but a total defeat and eradication is going to require something far more substantial, something that will transcend my will to let it go. Until I reach that point when I can turn it loose, however, I will have no real sense of peace because the struggle will continue to eat at me from within, taking a tiny piece of my soul with each bite.
I suspect that my demons are probably some of the very same demons many have done battle with in the past to one degree or another and may be entangled with in conflict even now. These are the demons of bitterness that continually draw us backward in time to a place where we feel we had been cheated or wronged in some way, real or imagined. These places are where we got hurt, for instance, by people we trusted but who ultimately betrayed our trust. Whenever I allow myself to dwell on these “demons” I sometimes become so angry that my mind ceases to think rationally, and these fantasies begin playing in my mind in which the tables are turned and I’m in a position of authority and power from which I can do real harm to those who harmed me. All too often, the demons win as I virtually bury my “enemies” in their own sorrow and misery.
This is not a place where Christians belong yet I know that I am not alone. Failure to understand the destructive nature of such bitterness and what it can bring and how easily and quickly it can grow as it festers like an open wound is a failure to recognize our own limitations and our genuine need for healing. In my own case, I recognize that if I do not repent of it and work harder at suppressing these demons and these irrational fits of anger, I will soon be judged by my chosen allegiance to them and the harm they can do.
Now it is easy to say that we should simply turn these things over to the Lord and He will make it all go away, but I don’t know that it is that simple. This is not to diminish the power of the Almighty; rather, it is a statement acknowledging the free will of man. Regardless of such situations and how they came to be, we still have choices to make and ultimately it comes down to this: we can live in reconciliation and peace of mind or we can die with the demons that seek to destroy us.
This does not mean that we can easily forget what happened, but I want you to consider this. I am a man blessed beyond measure in spite of my failure to be the kind of godly man I set out to be. I lost my secular job in January from a company I had faithfully served for 15 years. When I was given a small severance and unceremoniously dumped, my heart was broken and I also suffered a certain identity crisis.
Long story made short, look at where I am now. I still have my family, I am still in reasonably good health, and I am now in the privileged position of serving as a pastor and enjoying getting to my congregation. Is this the life of a man who has been forever cursed? Yet if I so choose, I can stay in the past where my heart and my spirit had been broken and where I will eat myself alive in bitterness and anger over something I perceived – but still cannot change - and where I will NEVER know what really happened. Either way, my new charge is nowhere to be found in my past.
I know that there have been “issues” in the past at just about every church I’ve been affiliated with, and I am also aware that there are still residual hurt feelings and suspicions as a result of these “issues” that still affect how some feel about and relate to others. I know that many are dismayed that choose to leave a fellowship and go somewhere else. I hate it as well, but I also recognize that even within the Body of Christ there is a certain dynamic that mandates change. It does not always seem good, but it’s not always bad! Even if we think we have somehow been weakened by what has happened in the past, the weakness of man can still be the manifest strength of the Lord God – that is, IF we are willing to do something.
And that is: FORGIVE so that we may be FORGIVEN as it is written. Now some might suggest that we forgive and “forget”, but I submit to you that “forgetting” amounts to little more than a vain effort to suppress. Like my demons which continually come back to haunt me, I have yet to make peace with the thing that still eats at me so this suppressed demon I’ve tried to “forget” will not allow it to happen because a necessary element is still missing and I am still at the mercy of sudden and/or unexpected recall. As we all know, it does not take much to trigger a memory.
Yet when I take the intentional action to forgive, I have done something more than simply sweep the problem under the rug. I have made a step FORWARD into this incredible dynamic known as RECONCILIATION that is the essence of Christ’s Holy Church, and I have dealt with the issue and put it where it belongs. Now it is not simply swept away – it is PUT away, and I can finally have some peace!
Jesus is not ambiguous about this because it is central to everything we are about as disciples, and it is the very lifeblood of any church. Can we share Holy Communion with a clear conscience? Can we eat the bread and drink of the cup of salvation if we still hold some grudge against our neighbor, real or imagined?
I will only tell you in this regard that we must each allow our own consciences to be our guides and participate as we see fit within the context of Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians to "eat and drink to your own judgment" (1 Corinthians 11). I will also tell you that if we don’t finally and completely put these demons away from us and send them back where they belong, we will continue to fight the same, tired, old battles that have wrought nothing but depression, anger, division, and general misery. These are NOT the fruits of the Spirit of the Lord God!
However, send these demons back to hell where they belong and I promise you days ahead filled with Spirit-fruit that will give new life to a bunch of tired ol’ bodies begging to be spiritually nourished, and we will be renewed and refreshed just as in the day in which we proclaimed and professed Christ the Lord as Son of the Living God and Savior of the world!! O my dear friends, can LIFE ITSELF be any less?? I say “NO” because anything less is but a slow, painful, agonizing death if only from within.
Whatever it is that is holding us back from making peace with one another, we are compelled by the Lord Himself to GET RID OF IT!! “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose LIFE, that both you AND YOUR DESCENDENTS may live, that you may love the Lord you God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may CLING TO HIM, for He is your life and the length of your days…” Deuteronomy 30:19-20
1 Peter 2:4-17
Matthew 6:5-15
Have you ever considered the very real possibility that your pastor may be “demon possessed”? It could be true. I don’t know about other fellow pastors but in my case, there are some issues that still often cloud my judgment and cause me to do or be or act or speak or even think in a manner that is not consistent with the life of a disciple of Christ. I mean well but I can see and feel these demons that are within me. I sense that I have the power to at least suppress these demons, but a total defeat and eradication is going to require something far more substantial, something that will transcend my will to let it go. Until I reach that point when I can turn it loose, however, I will have no real sense of peace because the struggle will continue to eat at me from within, taking a tiny piece of my soul with each bite.
I suspect that my demons are probably some of the very same demons many have done battle with in the past to one degree or another and may be entangled with in conflict even now. These are the demons of bitterness that continually draw us backward in time to a place where we feel we had been cheated or wronged in some way, real or imagined. These places are where we got hurt, for instance, by people we trusted but who ultimately betrayed our trust. Whenever I allow myself to dwell on these “demons” I sometimes become so angry that my mind ceases to think rationally, and these fantasies begin playing in my mind in which the tables are turned and I’m in a position of authority and power from which I can do real harm to those who harmed me. All too often, the demons win as I virtually bury my “enemies” in their own sorrow and misery.
This is not a place where Christians belong yet I know that I am not alone. Failure to understand the destructive nature of such bitterness and what it can bring and how easily and quickly it can grow as it festers like an open wound is a failure to recognize our own limitations and our genuine need for healing. In my own case, I recognize that if I do not repent of it and work harder at suppressing these demons and these irrational fits of anger, I will soon be judged by my chosen allegiance to them and the harm they can do.
Now it is easy to say that we should simply turn these things over to the Lord and He will make it all go away, but I don’t know that it is that simple. This is not to diminish the power of the Almighty; rather, it is a statement acknowledging the free will of man. Regardless of such situations and how they came to be, we still have choices to make and ultimately it comes down to this: we can live in reconciliation and peace of mind or we can die with the demons that seek to destroy us.
This does not mean that we can easily forget what happened, but I want you to consider this. I am a man blessed beyond measure in spite of my failure to be the kind of godly man I set out to be. I lost my secular job in January from a company I had faithfully served for 15 years. When I was given a small severance and unceremoniously dumped, my heart was broken and I also suffered a certain identity crisis.
Long story made short, look at where I am now. I still have my family, I am still in reasonably good health, and I am now in the privileged position of serving as a pastor and enjoying getting to my congregation. Is this the life of a man who has been forever cursed? Yet if I so choose, I can stay in the past where my heart and my spirit had been broken and where I will eat myself alive in bitterness and anger over something I perceived – but still cannot change - and where I will NEVER know what really happened. Either way, my new charge is nowhere to be found in my past.
I know that there have been “issues” in the past at just about every church I’ve been affiliated with, and I am also aware that there are still residual hurt feelings and suspicions as a result of these “issues” that still affect how some feel about and relate to others. I know that many are dismayed that choose to leave a fellowship and go somewhere else. I hate it as well, but I also recognize that even within the Body of Christ there is a certain dynamic that mandates change. It does not always seem good, but it’s not always bad! Even if we think we have somehow been weakened by what has happened in the past, the weakness of man can still be the manifest strength of the Lord God – that is, IF we are willing to do something.
And that is: FORGIVE so that we may be FORGIVEN as it is written. Now some might suggest that we forgive and “forget”, but I submit to you that “forgetting” amounts to little more than a vain effort to suppress. Like my demons which continually come back to haunt me, I have yet to make peace with the thing that still eats at me so this suppressed demon I’ve tried to “forget” will not allow it to happen because a necessary element is still missing and I am still at the mercy of sudden and/or unexpected recall. As we all know, it does not take much to trigger a memory.
Yet when I take the intentional action to forgive, I have done something more than simply sweep the problem under the rug. I have made a step FORWARD into this incredible dynamic known as RECONCILIATION that is the essence of Christ’s Holy Church, and I have dealt with the issue and put it where it belongs. Now it is not simply swept away – it is PUT away, and I can finally have some peace!
Jesus is not ambiguous about this because it is central to everything we are about as disciples, and it is the very lifeblood of any church. Can we share Holy Communion with a clear conscience? Can we eat the bread and drink of the cup of salvation if we still hold some grudge against our neighbor, real or imagined?
I will only tell you in this regard that we must each allow our own consciences to be our guides and participate as we see fit within the context of Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians to "eat and drink to your own judgment" (1 Corinthians 11). I will also tell you that if we don’t finally and completely put these demons away from us and send them back where they belong, we will continue to fight the same, tired, old battles that have wrought nothing but depression, anger, division, and general misery. These are NOT the fruits of the Spirit of the Lord God!
However, send these demons back to hell where they belong and I promise you days ahead filled with Spirit-fruit that will give new life to a bunch of tired ol’ bodies begging to be spiritually nourished, and we will be renewed and refreshed just as in the day in which we proclaimed and professed Christ the Lord as Son of the Living God and Savior of the world!! O my dear friends, can LIFE ITSELF be any less?? I say “NO” because anything less is but a slow, painful, agonizing death if only from within.
Whatever it is that is holding us back from making peace with one another, we are compelled by the Lord Himself to GET RID OF IT!! “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose LIFE, that both you AND YOUR DESCENDENTS may live, that you may love the Lord you God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may CLING TO HIM, for He is your life and the length of your days…” Deuteronomy 30:19-20
Saturday, June 21, 2008
More of the Same
Throughout the early campaign season, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, continually harped on the need to present articles of impeachment against President Bush and Vice President Cheney while seemingly ignoring the fact that he, as a member of the US House of Representatives, could actually do such a thing. I always wondered why he chose to talk about it on the campaign trail as he sought the Democratic nomination for president rather than do something about it as a sitting representative. Well, he finally did it long after he was soundly trounced on the campaign trail and written off as a less-than-serious contender for the nomination.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently kinda-sorta gave Mr. Kucinich suppressed applause for finally having had the gumption to submit the articles to the House even though the PI also acknowledged the Congress’ complicity in approving and funding the war effort. In the end, the PI gave Kucinich his due: “Having been read into the record, the impeachment articles now are likely to do no more than gather dust in committee. OK. But as least Kucinich did his part to place a footnote in the history books.”
At the VERY least, the articles of impeachment against the president have been read into the record, but what has been accomplished? What may well be noted in history’s footnotes is that there was apparently only one member of the Congress who felt it necessary to frivolously waste time submitting for consideration something that had no chance of even being considered because the president is only months away from being out of office anyway, which is what an impeachment conviction is ultimately designed to do.
If I were to make some kind of prediction, it will be that someone some distant day from now will actually say out loud, “President Bush was impeached” without filling in the rest of the blanks and telling the whole story: there was this one pissed-off congressman from Ohio, if I remember correctly, whom no one seemed to take seriously, but he wanted someone to know that he was here, I guess. The whole impeachment process takes months anyway. By the time the articles might have passed the House and the Senate made ready for the trial, President Bush would be another former president.
The joke is on us. Though impeachment is no laughing matter, one cannot help but to wonder if this is not some lame pay-back for President Clinton’s impeachment which actually did make it to trial in the Senate though he was exonerated. So it remains to be seen whether the next president will be impeached by some congressman with an ax to grind. Meanwhile the price of oil on the worldwide market is making history, and Congress is fighting tooth and nail to continue the current moratorium on domestic drilling. Energy research and development will take a back seat to a new windfall profits tax (which didn’t work 30 years ago), and there has actually been congressional talk about nationalizing this nation’s oil refineries.
Now we are in the midst of an election season. Though Congress will recess probably in August, there is no reason to believe that anything of substance will come from this Congress before then. Democrats will blame Republicans, and Republicans will blame Democrats and we will merrily reelected almost every one of these people all the while giving this Congress its lowest approval rating ever. Nothing will ever change in this Congress until this Congress is changed. If Obama continues to beat McCain over the head with his “more of the same” banner while we reelect the same people who have given us all this and more, “more of the same” will be the least of our worries.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recently kinda-sorta gave Mr. Kucinich suppressed applause for finally having had the gumption to submit the articles to the House even though the PI also acknowledged the Congress’ complicity in approving and funding the war effort. In the end, the PI gave Kucinich his due: “Having been read into the record, the impeachment articles now are likely to do no more than gather dust in committee. OK. But as least Kucinich did his part to place a footnote in the history books.”
At the VERY least, the articles of impeachment against the president have been read into the record, but what has been accomplished? What may well be noted in history’s footnotes is that there was apparently only one member of the Congress who felt it necessary to frivolously waste time submitting for consideration something that had no chance of even being considered because the president is only months away from being out of office anyway, which is what an impeachment conviction is ultimately designed to do.
If I were to make some kind of prediction, it will be that someone some distant day from now will actually say out loud, “President Bush was impeached” without filling in the rest of the blanks and telling the whole story: there was this one pissed-off congressman from Ohio, if I remember correctly, whom no one seemed to take seriously, but he wanted someone to know that he was here, I guess. The whole impeachment process takes months anyway. By the time the articles might have passed the House and the Senate made ready for the trial, President Bush would be another former president.
The joke is on us. Though impeachment is no laughing matter, one cannot help but to wonder if this is not some lame pay-back for President Clinton’s impeachment which actually did make it to trial in the Senate though he was exonerated. So it remains to be seen whether the next president will be impeached by some congressman with an ax to grind. Meanwhile the price of oil on the worldwide market is making history, and Congress is fighting tooth and nail to continue the current moratorium on domestic drilling. Energy research and development will take a back seat to a new windfall profits tax (which didn’t work 30 years ago), and there has actually been congressional talk about nationalizing this nation’s oil refineries.
Now we are in the midst of an election season. Though Congress will recess probably in August, there is no reason to believe that anything of substance will come from this Congress before then. Democrats will blame Republicans, and Republicans will blame Democrats and we will merrily reelected almost every one of these people all the while giving this Congress its lowest approval rating ever. Nothing will ever change in this Congress until this Congress is changed. If Obama continues to beat McCain over the head with his “more of the same” banner while we reelect the same people who have given us all this and more, “more of the same” will be the least of our worries.
Reflections of the Soul
Genesis 21:8-21
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39
They say that the true character of a person is revealed in the choices they make when no one is watching. The world does watch, and watches carefully, for signs of faith as Christians work within the demands and expectations of our contemporary culture. Rev. William Obalil, a United Methodist elder in Geneva IL, suggests that the nature of our discipleship is revealed not only in what we do but also in our reasoning as justification for the choices we make. He writes: I fear not many weekly churchgoers are equipped to integrate what we hear and affirm in church with the concrete choices faced each day – at home, school, work, and marketplace. The result is functional atheism. Much of the time we operate as if God were not an active factor, let alone the decisive factor, in our decision-making. Yes, we engage in discrete religious practices. We go to church, we pray, we read the Bible, and we give time and money to acts of mercy. But we also act without considering God as a force to be reckoned with. We weigh a purchase, asking, “Can I afford it?” but not, “Am I being a faithful steward?”
It occurred to me as I reflected on Jesus’ discourse to His disciples that we pay a lot of attention to the life of Christ while He was physically present on the earth, but we do not seriously consider how it might have been for the disciples who followed Jesus throughout His time on earth, who lived and worked and worshipped with Jesus and knew Him to be within eye sight or ear shot. It could well be that the choices made by these disciples were tempered somewhat by the knowledge that Jesus was always nearby. Our theology teaches us that He is still nearby even if only spiritually, but do we really live our everyday lives as if we really believe that?
I have to admit that even as I think about religion or philosophy often and wonder how either may be reflected in what I have already done, I cannot say that I’ve given even half as much thought into something I may be ready to do BEFORE I actually do it. I am actually more inclined to act instinctively according to my own experiences and desires or according to cultural or social expectations and demands – or a little of both. And given the state of the current credit market crunch, for instance, I would suspect that I have not been the only one.
In Matthew’s discourse Jesus seems to be going off in several different directions at the same time almost as if He may be running down a list of generalities and then thinking, “Oh, and by the way …” There is a lot to take in, but the central theme seems to be about the active, and interactive, Divine Presence that responsible disciples should consider at every turn. It is especially revealing in verse 26: “… nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.” It is as if He is saying, ‘you can run but you cannot hide’!
Still, I think this is probably the wrong approach to take when reading and praying this passage. Our theology must never be reduced to perceiving of the Holy Father in such a negative light as that of a task master who rules with an iron fist because in verse 27 Jesus moves to something a little more positive in encouraging us to share what we know. This must surely be an indication that what we will have revealed to us is GOOD NEWS that others need to know about, so understanding something Jesus shares as a veiled threat does not fit well with all that He has tried to teach us.
“Everyone who acknowledges Me …”, contrary to popular belief, is not restricted to an opportunity for martyrdom or an e-mail that comes with the not-so-subtle “threat” “that those who deny Me will be denied …” if we fail to forward the e-mail to “at least 10 people”. Back to the very point that Rev. Obalil was trying to make regarding our moving about at work or school or in the public marketplace, I think maybe this part of Jesus’ discourse has everything to do with how we conduct ourselves and temper our purchase choices. Whether those around us know us as members of a local church or as Christians at all or not, what we do is a reflection of who we are and what we believe to be true. If our decision to act or refrain from acting is not determined by our knowledge that the Lord is nearby, then our act might be construed as a denial of the real presence of Christ. Honestly, this is a pretty overwhelming thought and more than a little unsettling.
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone {or anything} as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness?” Romans 6:16
So whom do we pay homage to? Who gets our time and attention? The answer to these questions is revealed in everything we do, every choice we make. And Jesus does not make it easy for us, either. When He proclaims that He “brings not peace but a sword”, it may be a way of telling us that within this context which will certainly bring challenges that will test our limits, our proclamation – or denial – of Christ will be revealed in how we face up to these challenges, whatever they may be.
It is not an easy thing to be a disciple of Christ, and it is a mistake to pretend otherwise. Think of it this way. There are those who will avoid confrontation at almost all cost, and they mistakenly believe that such avoidance is an indication of weakness or fear. Think for a moment of how much strength is required to bite one’s tongue when one might rather unload on the offending person. It is not hard to curse someone who has wronged us, but it is almost physically painful to withdraw from a confrontation when we would rather not especially when it is our pride, and not the Gospel, that is on the line.
This is the challenge before disciples not only in the way we think through a purchase but in the way we deal with everyday life and everyday people. The world tells us that it is ok to “tell it like it is” or to “do it if it feels good”, but Jesus challenges us to offer something different. To “take up {His} cross” is to put aside our lives and our desires and our natural inclinations. When we are able to do so, it is then when we “lose {our} life for {His} sake” by choosing the spiritual and faith-filled alternative. Only then will our very souls be an accurate and honest reflection of Goodness and Mercy. Only then will our souls be a reflection of Christ when His life becomes ours, and our lives become His. It is what the world is hungry for, and we as disciples are the ones called to provide it.
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39
They say that the true character of a person is revealed in the choices they make when no one is watching. The world does watch, and watches carefully, for signs of faith as Christians work within the demands and expectations of our contemporary culture. Rev. William Obalil, a United Methodist elder in Geneva IL, suggests that the nature of our discipleship is revealed not only in what we do but also in our reasoning as justification for the choices we make. He writes: I fear not many weekly churchgoers are equipped to integrate what we hear and affirm in church with the concrete choices faced each day – at home, school, work, and marketplace. The result is functional atheism. Much of the time we operate as if God were not an active factor, let alone the decisive factor, in our decision-making. Yes, we engage in discrete religious practices. We go to church, we pray, we read the Bible, and we give time and money to acts of mercy. But we also act without considering God as a force to be reckoned with. We weigh a purchase, asking, “Can I afford it?” but not, “Am I being a faithful steward?”
It occurred to me as I reflected on Jesus’ discourse to His disciples that we pay a lot of attention to the life of Christ while He was physically present on the earth, but we do not seriously consider how it might have been for the disciples who followed Jesus throughout His time on earth, who lived and worked and worshipped with Jesus and knew Him to be within eye sight or ear shot. It could well be that the choices made by these disciples were tempered somewhat by the knowledge that Jesus was always nearby. Our theology teaches us that He is still nearby even if only spiritually, but do we really live our everyday lives as if we really believe that?
I have to admit that even as I think about religion or philosophy often and wonder how either may be reflected in what I have already done, I cannot say that I’ve given even half as much thought into something I may be ready to do BEFORE I actually do it. I am actually more inclined to act instinctively according to my own experiences and desires or according to cultural or social expectations and demands – or a little of both. And given the state of the current credit market crunch, for instance, I would suspect that I have not been the only one.
In Matthew’s discourse Jesus seems to be going off in several different directions at the same time almost as if He may be running down a list of generalities and then thinking, “Oh, and by the way …” There is a lot to take in, but the central theme seems to be about the active, and interactive, Divine Presence that responsible disciples should consider at every turn. It is especially revealing in verse 26: “… nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.” It is as if He is saying, ‘you can run but you cannot hide’!
Still, I think this is probably the wrong approach to take when reading and praying this passage. Our theology must never be reduced to perceiving of the Holy Father in such a negative light as that of a task master who rules with an iron fist because in verse 27 Jesus moves to something a little more positive in encouraging us to share what we know. This must surely be an indication that what we will have revealed to us is GOOD NEWS that others need to know about, so understanding something Jesus shares as a veiled threat does not fit well with all that He has tried to teach us.
“Everyone who acknowledges Me …”, contrary to popular belief, is not restricted to an opportunity for martyrdom or an e-mail that comes with the not-so-subtle “threat” “that those who deny Me will be denied …” if we fail to forward the e-mail to “at least 10 people”. Back to the very point that Rev. Obalil was trying to make regarding our moving about at work or school or in the public marketplace, I think maybe this part of Jesus’ discourse has everything to do with how we conduct ourselves and temper our purchase choices. Whether those around us know us as members of a local church or as Christians at all or not, what we do is a reflection of who we are and what we believe to be true. If our decision to act or refrain from acting is not determined by our knowledge that the Lord is nearby, then our act might be construed as a denial of the real presence of Christ. Honestly, this is a pretty overwhelming thought and more than a little unsettling.
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone {or anything} as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness?” Romans 6:16
So whom do we pay homage to? Who gets our time and attention? The answer to these questions is revealed in everything we do, every choice we make. And Jesus does not make it easy for us, either. When He proclaims that He “brings not peace but a sword”, it may be a way of telling us that within this context which will certainly bring challenges that will test our limits, our proclamation – or denial – of Christ will be revealed in how we face up to these challenges, whatever they may be.
It is not an easy thing to be a disciple of Christ, and it is a mistake to pretend otherwise. Think of it this way. There are those who will avoid confrontation at almost all cost, and they mistakenly believe that such avoidance is an indication of weakness or fear. Think for a moment of how much strength is required to bite one’s tongue when one might rather unload on the offending person. It is not hard to curse someone who has wronged us, but it is almost physically painful to withdraw from a confrontation when we would rather not especially when it is our pride, and not the Gospel, that is on the line.
This is the challenge before disciples not only in the way we think through a purchase but in the way we deal with everyday life and everyday people. The world tells us that it is ok to “tell it like it is” or to “do it if it feels good”, but Jesus challenges us to offer something different. To “take up {His} cross” is to put aside our lives and our desires and our natural inclinations. When we are able to do so, it is then when we “lose {our} life for {His} sake” by choosing the spiritual and faith-filled alternative. Only then will our very souls be an accurate and honest reflection of Goodness and Mercy. Only then will our souls be a reflection of Christ when His life becomes ours, and our lives become His. It is what the world is hungry for, and we as disciples are the ones called to provide it.
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