Wow! or Whoa!

I love to read the Apostle Paul because he changes personalities so quickly and innocently. One paragraph sounds like the incredibly well educated and trained Jewish theologian he was. The next you find a caring friend trying to walk you through a difficult time. Then it is the nurturing pastor giving instructions on dealing with life and faith.

But my favorite personality is the mesmerized child watching a caterpillar crawl across the ground or the aspiring astronaut staring up at the Milky Way in the middle of clover field at midnight. It’s just that as you read his writings you find that here is a man who is still trying to discover “what’s all this Jesus stuff?” Sounds like me.

My last post was the musings of an amateur philosopher trying to nail down why the concept of “truth” is so elusive and yet always ultimately points directly back to Jesus. Previous posts are about my frustrations with why Christians are so uninvolved in their communities or churches, about my excitement over just how GOOD the Good News is, or about how far we are to take Jesus’ message of peace in our lives.

But for my first post in several months I would like to spend the majority of the time attempting to describe my amazement with God by looking at things we don’t yet understand. We tend to have a problem with that in our Christian world. We like orderliness. “God is not the author of confusion,” says the oft used Scripture. Paul nonetheless.

We like our church growth to be linear. We like obvious immediate responses to questions of faith. We like to start church at 10:00 and we damned well (am I allowed to use that expression in a Christian blog?) better be done by 11:00 because then the pastor is biting into my time. Life in the Christians world is to be black and white, even if we at least superficially concede to some modicum of gray.

That is how we get hung up on keeping the 10 Commandments and raising important issues in the courts and media like how the retired pastor greets me during Christmas/Chanukkah/Kwanza season at Wal Mart. In doing this we miss expressing the greatest part of our message: That this God who loves us gave us all of creation to explore and enjoy wonder about, and his Son to make sure we get to explore, discover, wonder and enjoy for all eternity.

That is what I see Paul expressing in Ephesians 3:2-12. In describing how his mostly Greek audience how they as Gentiles would be forever melded to the Jews, who were so opposed to them, forever in Christ. And here is the point: How this would happen is a, in Paul’s words, MYSTERY. Do you get it? Paul doesn’t know how it works. He just knows it does. So much for black and white orderliness.

We in modern American Christianity have lost so much of our Jewish roots that we have also lost one of the things Jews to this day still covet in their religion: They love to wonder about what God has done. David wondered about why, while man is such a seemingly insignificant part of creation, does God care so much about us. He describes how the angels sang in awe as God initiated the Big Bang (can I say that in a Christian blog?) and set the creation in motion. Isaiah marveled at 6-winged angels. We wonder how putting a red-hot charcoal briquette to one’s mouth by an angel can make someone’s speech pure? Why are we so afraid of wonder?

Closer to life, how exactly does a man and wife become one? How, as Paul writes, is that the mystery of Christ and the Church. What will our new bodies be like? Mystery is God’s gift to us so we can constantly be amazed at what He’s done, is doing and will continue to do “world without end, Amen.”

If you are one of those who is in constant stress over keeping the 10 Commandments, forget for a moment about the fact that you just cussed out the knucklehead driving in front of you who almost caused a chain reaction wreck on the parkway. Before you pray in repentance, go lie in the middle of a midnight black field looking at the Milky Way and wonder about the One to whom you are about to pray. How can he hear you? How do you know he did? It’s a mystery.
Peace.

 

Truth is Truth

“Anyone can make the Bible say what they want it to,” he told me, “But truth is truth.”

Now, the discussion I was having was with someone who was complaining about my particular set of belief and the beliefs of my denomination, the Worldwide Church of God. You see, our denomination went through a major doctrinal upheaval about 13 years ago that is still having repercussions today. I won’t bore you with the details, but the point that this man made is still valid for us as Christians, and for many who claim distance or complete separation from the Galilean carpenter and his teachings.

We are all subjected to the harangues of preachers of various ilk who all claim to have all of the truth. If you don’t follow their truth, you will meet with some undesired consequence. To some degree, that is true, but I will discuss that later.

We search high and low for truth, don’t we. There is something in our very core that requires a truth to give our life purpose, direction. We will seek out spiritual advisers of every kind. We will climb mountains to speak to gurus, look at cards, go to church, synagogue, temple or mosque in order to acquire it, or at least get a picture of what it looks like. One book that recently became a movie had characters searching for “the meaning of life” and asking a computer for that meaning.

Jesus, himself, was posed with that question under interrogation from the Roman commander, Pontius Pilate. “Quid est veritas?” What is truth? Modern philosophy shows us that there are even degrees of truth. Truth can be subjective or absolute. So the question that was posed to me has greater meaning and significance that we, perhaps, have ever considered.

Now I don’t want anyone to think that this blog will be the definitive description of truth. But I hope to raise at least one key point on this issue when we are considering what is truth. Truth is that which we can count on never changing regardless of circumstances. Truth is the very source and reason for our existence. It is that which gives us purpose in life. So we have to wonder if there is any truth out there?

As I said earlier, truth can be subjective, it can be a thing that held as unchanging, but only within a particular cultural or historical context. We see that that which was accepted as true in one culture, at one point in history, can change.

For example, the enslavement of people, which has been an acceptable part of the histories of all peoples at one point or another, is one of those things that is a subjective truth. During the 18th and 19th Centuries in the U.S., the economy of much of the nation was either directly or indirectly tied to the work of black slaves in the South. Slavery was an accepted part of international trade. It was a truth to doing business. (We most often hear of slavery of whites against blacks in the U.S. and South Africa, it is good to remember that historically, all peoples have made other peoples their slaves either through politics or economics . This is the truth of slavery.) Yet today, it is banned in virtually all nations of the world. Yes, I know that hundreds of thousands of humans are traded still today, but it is now an underground operation and not generally accepted by the laws of most nations. The point is that this is the new truth accepted by people in this day and culture. This truth is subjective.

Even in what I am typing now, if I were to ask you, “What color is the letters of the words of this text?”, most would say black, or some translation thereof. What color is the background on which I am typing? Most would say, “white.” But is it possible that in some unknown culture in this world that what I call black they could call white? Conversely, is it possible that what I call white could in this other culture could be called black? Yes, in some strange aberration of culture it is possible.

That is subjective truth. It is subject to the cultural norms of given times and peoples. Like slavery, this could change from culture to culture and moment to moment. On the other hand, the fact that there is a difference between the two colors is acknowledged across cultures and time. That is a truth that is unchanging regardless of time and location. Such a truth is absolute truth. It is not affected by time or culture.

So the question of what is truth itself must first be defined: Are we asking about subjective or absolute truth? In asking the question, most of us are looking for the latter. In the latter, the absolute truth, comes some semblance of security. All else brings anxiety because it is shifting sand, it is constantly moving.

In religion we search for that which brings us security. What is it that is unchanging? How about your very existence? That is truth, objective truth. You exist. Nothing in history or culture can change the fact that you exist. This planet exists and is truth. Jesus existed.

What about God? Is God a subjective or absolute truth? Many would say that the differences between what different cultures calls god makes God’s existence subjective at best. Some go as far as saying that whatever god we worship is our own creation. But that is not possible, for that is saying people search for security from their own questions in a being of their own creation who also bears the same unanswered questions. When it comes to Christian philosophy and theology, we are searching outside of that which we have created.

Karl Barth, the noted 20th Century philosopher/theologian writes in Dogmatics in Outline (1959, New York, Harper & Row), “The concept of [discovered] knowledge, scientia, is insufficient to describe what Christian knowledge is. We must rather go back to what in the Old Testament is called wisdom, what the Greeks called sophia and the Latins sapientia, in order to grasp the knowledge of theology in its fullness. Sapientia is distinguished from the narrower concept of scientia, wisdom is distinguished from knowing, in that it not only contains knowledge in itself, but also that this concept speaks of a knowledge which is practical knowledge, embracing the entire existence of man. Wisdom is the knowledge by which we may actually and practically live; it is empiricism and it is the theory which is powerful in being directly practical, in being the knowledge which dominates our life, which is really a light upon our path.”

So what is he saying? Truth that is not immediately practical is limited in power. It is discoverable (scientia), but it is not truly wisdom (sapientia) until it can be harnessed for practical use. Just knowing something does not make it truth until it becomes useful. For example, knowing gravity is far less important than understanding gravity and its impact as you are falling off a roof.

So it is with truth. What is subjective, or absolute truth, is useless until it moves from the empirical to the practical. Truth we can conger up without usefulness is meaningless. Truth is never inside created, though it can be inside discovered (scientia). Truth exists outside of us and what we do. We can apply truth to its fullest extent, constantly testing and extending its limits because absolute truth doesn’t change. Hence, we continue to learn more about gravity, aerodynamics, quantum physics as time goes on.

But this is still useless. Why is it important to know? What set it in motion? What keeps it in motion? Again, we search for that unchanging thing that gives meaning and purpose to life.

When we discover that absolute, unalterable truth is that which is most meaningful to us to explain our very existence and purpose, is not what we come up with by discovery, but that which is the prima causa, or source of that which is to be discovered we start to find meaning. Truth that is meaningful cannot be changed by us in any way. If it can be changed, we come to realize it is but a stepping stone to the truth we long for. Truth, then, is that which is unchanging and unchangeable.

When Jesus says, “I am … the truth,” (John 14:6), He is not speaking about that which changes for He is that which doesn’t change ( Hebrews 13:8). What Jesus says can be counted on as unchanging. He holds the key to why we exist (personally) in the first place. He says that, regardless of the circumstances of your birth and life, you were personally crafted by him and given a role and talents, skills and a personality designed to fulfill that role. None of us could be fulfilled by less than that.

That is truth you can rely on. That which will not change regardless of your place or circumstance. That truth is absolute and it finds it basis in Jesus. You find meaning for life when lived in the light of why God created you. You are to use your talents to brighten and enlighten the world to its purpose. We can only live in peace, fulfillment and truth when we live it as God intended it to be lived, lived as it was lived by Jesus. No rejection, no condemnation, no ill will. Life given in abundance. That is truth.

 

No Pressure

That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.

So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! (Romans 6: 12-18,22; The Message)

In my last post I wrote the story of the amazing freedom of the Gospel of Jesus. In it I related how what most currently view as “The Gospel,” that is that you must pray a prayer, you must repent, you must be baptized to receive the gift of God’s salvation. I pointed out that that concept works against the theology that is supposed to be its underpinning. For what started out as a Gospel of Grace (innocently) became a gospel of works. In doing so, we weakened what God has done through Jesus Christ.

For those of you who are new to my posts and are vehemently (violently?) evangelical, let me say before you go any further in this post or in any condemnation to be leveled toward me that you read my previous post. I am not saying that the Prayer of Faith, repentance or baptism are against the Gospel. Nor am I saying that we as Christians should not practice these things. What I am saying is that as a means of proclaiming the Gospel they have been misused and made it appear that God and the Gospel were weak. So please, go read the other post (Amazingly Free) and then come back. We’ll wait.

Told you we’d wait. Welcome back. Now as I was saying, the Gospel of Jesus is amazingly powerful and makes us amazingly free. The Gospel in its corrected form shows that all power really does rest with God and that the Saving act of Jesus is not weak or limited. There is nothing that can limit it, not even death.

I know that right now your head is spinning as a result of this really GOOD news for all humanity. I know that, for some, this will even take a burden of guilt or fear off some of your shoulders. That, however, is why the Gospel is GOOD news and not just ok news; it is why it is GOOD news for everyone, not just a few Now to the really great part: what happens next.

In my posts I reflect and try to present a Gospel of the Kingdom. Not a Kingdom of a later heaven but a Gospel of the Kingdom of God NOW. I talk about how we can now live our lives in a Kingdom that lasts forever under the love and mercy of a God who will guide our Kingdom in such a way as to make any current joy and happiness pale into insignificance. Our lives will be fulfilled in such a way that any accomplishment we achieve apart from him will be overwhelmed by the meaning of acts we do with him.

This is not a story of denominations, so the GOOD News of the Gospel doesn’t really care if you are Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, evangelical, or anything else. This is God’s good news and it is for everyone.

Imagine being able to live a life free from guilt. What would that life be like? Imagine being able to live a life without the weight of a mistake you made in the past: an affair you had, the way you treated a close relative and then they died, a lifestyle you lived, people you hurt or even killed because there is a God who loved you enough to send his Son to fulfill the requirement of justice and penalty that you deserve. Imagine being able to forgive and be freed from the anger of the wrongs that some have perpetrated on you. Let me tell you a story. My story.

I had, like many of my generation, sought after excellence and success in a growing business marketplace during the 80’s, 90’s and on into the 21st Century. I got myself an advanced business degree and thought that my life would be filled with continual opportunities for positional and financial growth. I wasn’t looking to be CEO, but I wanted a comfortable life.

Then came a bump in my plan in the person of a new boss. Up to that point I had gotten along well with my previous boss. But he got a promotion and they brought in someone from outside the company with new toys and tricks to use on the job. Most of us were cruising along and getting things done pretty well thank you very much. We didn’t want a new toy, which we felt was superfluous (beyond the scope of what was necessary) to the work we were doing. But since the position was his ball and we could play by his rules or not, we were each left with a decision.

Well I really didn’t like the new ball. I didn’t like the new rules. I didn’t like the superfluous toys we were made to play with. Needless to say, while he and I got along well at the beginning, it soon became obvious that this wasn’t going to work. One of us had to go. That would be me.

Other things happened between he and I that caused lots of hard feelings. For several years this went on. My wife even went to work for his wife and that just continued to work as salt in an already open wound. That wound festered and all I could think about was how he had wronged me.

When I saw him a couple of years after that it was still hard for me to be even cordial. The problem, however, wasn’t in him; it was in me. My anger held him hostage in a prison of my making.

During all of this time the words of the Gospel rang in my ears. Jesus was telling me that I had been freed from my separation, my blinders, of a God who loved me despite the bad things I did. Draw close to Him. Become like Him. Finally, forgive…. like Him.

The other day I saw him out with his wife and son. We exchanged pleasantries and an amazing thing happened, I wasn’t angry any more. I actually had a real conversation (you know the difference. It’s not like when you talk to someone and say nothing of substance.) and really felt at peace with him and actually liked him. God’s amazing love and forgiveness had broken the back of my anger and I shared it with my former boss. (Romans 5:5)

That is what is so great about the next part. What we see in Romans 6 is an amazing freedom from the way we “naturally” find ourselves. In our blindness of not seeing God for his amazing grace we try to find ways to justify ourselves and our actions toward others. Obviously I was right because I had been wronged. Obviously I had a reason to stay angry for 5 years, I had been wronged. Doesn’t the Bible teach us about righteous indignation? Shouldn’t we point out others mistakes and bring them to grace? Well, no.

Imagine if God did that to us before He extends his mercy, what we call his “grace.” Imagine you had to fix it all before He loved us. You would live in guilt and fear and disappointment and feel unworthy and unloved. You could never measure up.

That is why in my last post I started to point out the mistakes of how we preach the Gospel, the GOOD news of Jesus. We focus on the mistakes and how we need to change our mistakes, (personal, national and globally) for God to love us. THAT IS NOT THE GOSPEL. 

The Gospel, the really, really, really, really, really GOOD news that Jesus brought is that God HAS ALREADY forgiven you. “While you were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly.” What Romans 6 is telling is that we can’t sin anymore. The GOOD news is that it is not about a belief set or a set of rules or being a good person. The GOOD news is that an already perfect God has already forgiven you of any and all mistakes past present and future.

It says, “Don’t give sin another thought.” Don’t let it think it has control over you. When you see God for who He is as a loving Father whom Jesus came to reveal, nothing else will matter.  God loves you regardless.

It doesn’t matter if you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Bahai. It doesn’t matter if you are a liar, a prostitute, a junkie or a greed-filled-member-of-the-proletariat. (How’d you like that last one? Once a Baby Boomer, always a Baby Boomer.) God’s grace is done and given through Jesus and nothing else matters. Nothing else is really true. No religion. No dogma. No list of commandments.  God loves you as you are and wants you to glorify Him as you are. You don’t have to change to become like anyone.

You will change, however. You will start to put on His likeness, His love, His mercy, His kindness and all the good things found in Galatians 5 of the Bible. You will change, not because someone tells you you must, not because there is a list of expectations, but because you will see your life in comparison to this perfect loving being and long in your inward-most places to be like him.

Sin has no control over you. You are under the control of the love of God.

 

Amazingly Free

A mother raises her child alone and he grows into a handsome young man. The young man is the apple of her eye. He feels the call to serve his country and joins the military. The young man is sent off to war. In the last note he writes he tells his mom, “Don’t worry. I will be fine.”

A week later representatives of the government come to the door. “We’re sorry to inform you this, but your son was killed in action.” The woman is obviously crushed. Her hopes for her son’s future are no more. The joy of her heart just in seeing his face will be gone forever. Grief casts a dark shadow over her life.

Not too long after that visit, another person comes to the door. It is a young man, also dressed in a military unifom. But this one is on crutches, obviously wounded. She invites him in and tells her an incredible story. He says that he served with her son and was in the same battles as him. He then tells her that her son is alive.

Now she has a decision to make. It is a decision about how to go forward with her life. On the one hand there are the government officials with their data and details, their power and convincing arguments. On the other is this wounded, solitary soldier. He has no rank. He has no power. He has nothing but the story of her son. Whom should she believe?

This parable, borrowed in its essence from Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy, tells the story of faith. A true story about the true Gospel that Jesus preached. A story that has such amazing power, yet little influence, even in the Christian world. A story that comes from the earliest days of the followers of the Galilean carpenter, yet is truly missing in the majority of the churches today.

Those who tell the story have no power, no political standing. They have little on their side but an amazing belief that the story of Jesus is far more amazing and wonderful than is currently told. It is a story of a God who loved the world so much that he guaranteed to take away the separation of every human being who ever lived from this loving God. A separation that started at the Garden of Eden with the rebelliousness of the one man, Adam. (Romans 5:12-17)

You see this woman has to decide whether to believe the officials, with their logic and data and organizational power, or to believe this one, disabled young soldier and his amazing story. To believe the people with all the power means continuing in her sorrow. It means a life filled with a void left by her missing, presumed dead son. To believe the young man means living with no proof and only an amazing hope and suppressed joy that her son is yet alive. How would you choose?

It is the same story with the Gospel. What I am about to say is not what you will read in the traditional Christian press, with the exception of the writings of Dr. C. Baxter Kruger (www.perichoresis.com). But what you are about to read has to be true because it is the only explanation that maintains the concept of the free gift of restoration to God’s favor and his power. Let me explain.

In the majority of the Christian press you will read something akin to the following: You have to accept Jesus as your personal savior and you will be saved. That statement is usually followed by having to be baptized or say a “prayer of faith.” While I do not dispute the importance of either one of though things in the life of a disciple, I disagree that they have anything to do with restoration to God by grace, by the free gift.

Theologically it means that in addition to the sacrifice of Jesus one must add one of these acts for restoration to take place. That means that restoration, we Christians like to call it salvation, comes as a result of a person’s act of prayer or baptism. We Christians call that “works” and it is something that most Christians would argue vehemently against.

Secondly, if salvation required either of those acts and if we had to do it before we died, that would take the power out of God’s hands and place it in ours. Two things occur here: First, you would have the power to override God by not praying or being baptized. You would also have the power to save yourself in your act of praying or being baptized. This is not a picture of an almighty God.

Thirdly, most Christians would agree that only a portion of the world (the percentage of the population could be argued) would currently be qualified for salvation. Most would agree that less than half (perhaps as low as 3%) of the world would be on God’s side of the tally sheet. That would mean that the Adversary, we Christians call him Satan or the Devil, would come out as the truly powerful one because he is obviously winning the battle. This would also be theologically incorrect. Either God is all-powerful, omnipotent, or he isn’t.

Finally, if death is a limitation, God’s power is also limited and he is not omnipotent, all-powerful. Do you get the picture? The God we Christians project is not all-powerful and the Gospel is not really Good News. No wonder most people reject this story. Who wants to be on the side of the loser?

The real Gospel, as told by the early Christian annals tells a completely different story. A story of a grace so amazing as to boggle the mind. There is only one way that a person can be reconciled to God. It can only happen if God, himself, freely forgives. Some might ask, “But isn’t that what we have been saying?” In theory, yes, in practice, not even close.

If grace and reconciliation is the free gift of God, then nothing we do can preempt it, preclude it or in anyway force it to happen. What I mean by that is that in Jesus Christ, God has forgiven all of humanity. Not just a few. Not just those who say a prayer, but everyone. It is true because he is all-powerful. Please don’t jump to conclusions about hell because I am not done.

Grace in this manner is truly grace, an unmerited, unearned pardon. To say you must pray a prayer or be baptized for grace to apply is to give conditional acts toward that forgiveness. If there is a conditional act, it is not grace, not a gift, but a wage (see Romans 4 for Paul’s explanation). The fact that it is a gift is what makes it so powerful. This is a freedom that is amazingly free.

Now back to our story. In the story, the woman must choose to believe one of the stories that are being told to her. Each has its consequences. So it is with the Gospel. It applies only if we believe it. But this story is so incredible as to fly in the face of reason. It is reason that holds us back from the belief, the trust, that God is truly that forgiving, that Jesus has done that for us.

Now about heaven and hell. I know you are wondering about what I have just said. Is this universalism, the belief that all will go to heaven? (“Go to heaven” is another interesting subject on which I will blog at a later date.) I am not saying that at all, and here’s why.

Back to our story. Suppose the woman decides not to believe the young soldier’s story? Suppose she decides to believe the official story given to her by the government officials. What happens to her? She will have chosen to live in a vast emptiness and sorrow that will plague her for the rest of her life.

If she chooses to believe the story, however, she gets to live in a freedom of spirit living with the hope of seeing her son alive again. She will have a burden lifted off of her shoulders. There may not be a lot of reason behind this thinking, but there is plenty of hope. After all, the government officials did not see her son, the young soldier did.

What God is asking you is to believe that he loves you. You cannot “do” a belief, you can only believe or not believe. Belief in God and Jesus and the things of the Gospel have “logical” proofs that only go so far and frankly often has convincing scientific proofs that come up against it. But to live in belief has the same benefits as the woman could have if she believed the young soldier’s story.

Ok. Now the theology, sort of. If God has provided reconciliation for all humanity through Jesus, who is winning the battle? Who has the most “souls” in his side of the balance? One last thing: Consider all those who have never had the chance to hear this Good News. Consider all those who were turned off because they were told off the top that they were going to hell because they were too poor, too rich, too left, too right. Think of those who have lived a life thinking God didn’t love them and had rejected them because they were gay or had an abortion; they were drunks or drug addicts; they were prostitutes or gamblers or whatever someone decided you couldn’t be to “get in. Even if they died the resurrection of Jesus is the greatest of news because it shows that God is not limited even by death. God’s grace applies no matter what the situation.

Now what about Hell? Is it real. Absolutely. Think about it in terms of our story above. Suppose you don’t believe the amazing story you have been told? What will happen with your mind? You will live apart from the amazing love of God and in a dismal state of self deprecation forever. That is a penalty that you impose on yourself. God, in his love, gives you what you wished. You wished to live apart from the knowledge of God and He grants that wish. Only the consequences are limitless, eternal.

What do you believe? Do you believe that God could do this for you? That he did? Or is it just too amazing to believe? One day, you’ll have to choose.

 

When Is It Going To End?!!

Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East! His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.

One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?” Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”

God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!

“But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.” God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.

Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”

While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them—burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.” While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”

While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”

Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped: Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I’ll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes.
God’s name be ever blessed.

²² Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.

One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan also showed up. God singled out Satan, saying, “And what have you been up to?” Satan answered God, “Oh, going here and there, checking things out.” Then God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him, is there—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil? He still has a firm grip on his integrity! You tried to trick me into destroying him, but it didn’t work.” Satan answered, “A human would do anything to save his life. But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away his health? He’d curse you to your face, that’s what.” God said, “All right. Go ahead—you can do what you like with him. But mind you, don’t kill him.”

Satan left God and struck Job with terrible sores. Job was ulcers and scabs from head to foot. They itched and oozed so badly that he took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself, then went and sat on a trash heap, among the ashes.

His wife said, “Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!” He told her, “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God—why not also the bad days?”

Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God. (Job 1-2, The Message)

My family and I have been going through a severe financial trial of late. In part I could say it was of my own doing. Decisions we made were not fully thought through. I can honestly say that greed was not involved. In fact, some of the decisions were made so we could cut back on our spending in the long run. But wisdom was also lacking. We relied on the fact that my wife would be getting a new job for which she had interviewed and ultimately didn’t materialize. So we have been suffering with the results of our choices for about 8 months now.

As a result of those choices we are behind in our mortgage, behind in our car payments, have lost the use of satellite and have our credit shot to Gehenna. We feel like Job because we don’t have the very best right now. We watch TV shows a day late or more off the internet. God has been good. But the stress of the trial when the bill collectors call is embarrassing at best and painful at worst.

I have spent many nights awake and crying out in remorse and desperation to God to fix the problem. God has be great through this whole thing in that while he hasn’t answered the big prayer of deliverance, he has given us little signs of his ultimate presence and knowledge of our situation. Just to give you one example, I submitted one of these blogs (On The Death Of A Church) and it was picked up and printed.

But the pain of trial does not go away. I worry that the house and the cars will go away. In ancient society losing a car would be no big deal. You worked where you lived. But in our modern society, cars get us to work. I work about 20 minutes away on the other side of town. No car, no work.

It is the anguish of not knowing how it will all end, or when, that makes trials so painful to deal with. Like Job does for the next 35 chapters or so until God finally shows up, we cry, we worry, we sweat,  our stomach ties up in knots and antacids become our best friends.

Some trials are even greater. Job loses all of his children. I don’t even want to imagine that. My mom has experienced that when my sister died in the 9/11 attacks in New York City. She lives with the anguish of never seeing her child again on this side of eternity. It hurts to hear her talk about Sue as her voice breaks and her eyes well up with tears. It is a pain that makes her question God.

There are more and more who have that same question. “Where is God? Why does this suffering have to hang on? When is it going to end? Do you hear me, God? Do you care? Do you even exist?” Job had those questions and expressed his disillusionment.  “I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me… Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. The churning inside me never stops.” (Job 30: 20-21, 26-27)

He cries out to just die and get it over with. He wants God to answer him, answer his questions, his doubts, his fears. “I don’t get it! What did I do? Why are you tormenting me?!”  Some in religious circles would say that Job was suffering for his self-righteousness, for his blasphemy (a fancy word for denying God’s supreme greatness). They would be wrong. It is God, himself, who holds Job up before Satan as an example of a righteous and loyal subject. Notice the last line of the scripture at the top, “Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.”

What we need to learn is that when we talk about a real, relational God we mean it in the very depths of that definition. God is real. He not only exists, he experiences. He not only is in relationship with us, he relates to us. After all we are all made in his image. We all have his traits of creativity, curiosity, and all the emotions that go along with being human. It is that God whom Job questions and God doesn’t have a problem with that.

But trials are still going to come and ultimately, at the end of the story much more than at the beginning, Job stands as the object of righteousness and an example to those who really were self-righteous, all of the “friends” who kept telling Job God thought he was a loser.

Like Job we do not have the benefit of seeing the background to our trials. We have them. Sometimes we bring them on ourselves. But it is not the mistakes or the suffering that winds up being most important. Behind the scenes is a spiritual battle where God holds us up as his children. He is proud of us. He tests us and tries us to develop the only true lasting value in us: faith.

I love the line in Phillip Yancey’s book, The Bible Jesus Read, “Job tells me that God cares more about our faith than about our pleasure.” The joy of the here and now lasts until the next time we wake up. Knowing and believing God is there even when we suffer will last an eternity. It takes the pressure off. Not entirely; I still worry and ache and hurt and cry in the midst of my suffering. But I am more willing today than I probably was 8 months ago to acknowledge like Job, “Though He slay me, yet I will hope in him.” (Job 13:15)

Life is not hopeless, but it is difficult. One concentration camp survivor pointed out the difference between those who lived and those who died. He said, “Even the strongest man would wither and die when he lost his reason for being alive. But those who held onto a reason for living were able to withstand the greatest punishments and live.”

I don’t know what you are going through now or what you will go through in the future. I won’t say to you, “think happy thoughts.” Question. Cry out. Show your anguish to Him. That  is what makes our faith so different, so real. It is a faith of real life. For that is the God who is holding you right now. He wants you to feel his presence, His strong arms around you. It will all end soon.

 

Figs Can Make A Person Unpopular

Normally in this section I will have written out section of Scripture. But I have so much to write about this time that I will direct you to look at Jeremiah 24 and Jeremiah 15 on your own. You can also look at www.bible.com under passage search to find the scriptures. Suffice it to say that the first talks about figs and the second is looking at the world through God’s eyes.

The other night I happened to watch Law & Order Criminal Intent. The show dealt with two topics a) the murder of a well known evangelical leader’s wife and b) the sexual indiscretions of that same leader. Ultimately it was that although the leader had committed homosexual indiscretions, he hadn’t killed his wife. A leading atheistic/agnostic scientist (with whom the evangelical leader had been going around the country to debate intelligent design) had committed the murder because the wife wouldn’t have an affair with him. Complex? Confusing? You needed a scorecard to keep up with who was or wasn’t sleeping with whom.

It was almost as if the writers of the story had made a concession, a compromise so to speak. It was if they were conceding that the evangelical wasn’t a murderer, but he was still a hypocritical jerk. Which leads me to talk about figs. What?! Frank’s lost it again. What possible connection could there be between the two?

If you glance at Jeremiah 24 you will see that God uses the common fruit as a symbol of what is right and wrong in his people. He describes some of his people as good fruit and some as bad. He goes as far as to say that all of them have wronged him. All have deserted him. All have disobeyed him. So, what’s the difference? What makes some good figs and what makes others bad? And how can it make a person unpopular?

Those of us who take the teachings of the bible seriously know that God is not swayed by appearance. He goes as far as to explain to us (this is in the story of how David the shepherd boy came to be chosen king of Israel) that while we may fool all those around us with our money, good looks, high-priced toys or holy words, he sees deep inside, into our very souls and knows the naked truth about each of us. The real us plays like fluoroscope movie. All is revealed.

To carry on with the figs metaphor, I can remember my grandfather showing me which figs to pick and which to throw away. I always looked by their color. My grandfather’s figs where white-green when unripe and deep purple when ripe. I would always look for the most purple I could find.

Some of those figs that I had picked based on their color, however, were overripe and over run – with worms. I don’t know to this day how he could tell, but he would sometimes show me that some of what I picked as beautiful, sweet fruit was full of worms. They were perfect on the outside and rotten on the inside.

This reminds me of Jesus’ description of the Pharisees and Sadducees (the First Century equivalent of the “religious right”) in Matthew 23. He called them, “white-washed tombs.” Then he tells them they looked great on the outside. But inside they were like decomposing bodies, smelly and worm-ridden.

The main reason he calls them this is because of their religion. Much like many religious leaders today, those ruling parties wanted political power. Their intentions on the religious side may have been good, but the power corrupted too many of them. Few could really live up to the ideas and rules of what a “believer” could and couldn’t do they placed on others.

That is the way the religious right makes many feel today. Just check out any of the anti-Christian, anti-religion blogs here on WordPress. They feel a burden placed on them by our Christian leaders that Jesus never required. Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” Grace lifts the burden. But some of us Christians pile burdens on like drinking, smoking, dancing, tattoos, unwed pregnancy, homosexuality, and on and on the list goes. Don’t get me started on how I give and how I pray and how I study and what theology I follow. None of this is easy or light.

This is not to say that we all will not be judged for our actions one day. We will. However, Jesus asked one thing of people who wanted to be his disciples. “Follow me,” he said. Not instant perfection. Just instant commitment to learn and transform.

The bad figs today are the modern day Pharisees. God says to you, “Wake up!” The bad figs are also apathetic Christians who want the good life in this world and the next. The bad figs are all of us Christians who have turned a blind eye toward the drunks, prostitutes, junkies, AIDS victims, poor and marginalized Jesus told us to help. Bad figs see them as different than themselves, those who might soil the carpet of the new, multi-million dollar sanctuary. Bad figs are just too wrapped up in their own world to care about God’s.

I found this out when I received a couple of responses to my blog “On The Death Of A Church.” People don’t like you calling them bad figs. They want to be good figs. Good figs they may be. Or good figs they may become.

Good figs have faults and sins and pasts they want to forget. But their heart is truly wrapped up in the work of God here and now. Good figs see “the Kingdom is among you” now and have repented, asked forgiveness of their selfishness, and gotten involved in changing things. Like my friends Lauren, who is off to Mongolia to work with the people there, and Joel who is learning about Islamic culture and bringing some a message of hope in an area of the world that currently knows only destruction and violence.

Good figs are my friends Levi and Rick, who sacrificed time and energy to help the victims of Katrina rebuild their lives. Good figs exist everywhere and look like your friends and family members, neighbors and co-workers.

How do I become a good fig, you may ask? That is where Jeremiah 15 comes in. Despite the fact that Israel had become an adulterous nation selling itself to foreign gods, the true God of Israel promised them forgiveness and reconciliation through one who would yet come. Their true King, descendant of David himself, would sit on the throne and bring them back to him. That King is Jesus and because of him “all the nations of the world will be gathered” to proclaim peace, love and hope.

Good figs recognize they can’t do it alone. They can’t change themselves and their own bad habits, much less change the world. So they cry out for help. Help to overcome their personal difficulties. Help to make sense of this crazy world. Help to find the people and places to love as God does. Good figs recognize Jesus, he has already recognized them. Why don’t you give it a try? What have you got to lose? Nothing else has worked.

Right now you are sitting there thinking no one cares. You’re thinking what is the point of going on? But I can tell you as one sinner to another that Jesus cares, and I care. Don’t do this alone. Give Him a try. I’ve seen him transform alcoholics and drug addicts, liars and thieves. I’ve seen people released from the tyranny of porn. All kinds of things are forgiven because he is that big. So ask him and write me.

 

The Paradoxitudes

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5: 1-12)

A paradox. Something that seems to opposite of what your common sense tells you is true. For example, when we say, “Her silence was deafening” or “freezer burn,” that is a paradox. That is what we find when we look at Jesus’ statements in what are called “The Beatitudes.”

It is the nature of the Kingdom of God (you can change this title to the society of God or nation of God if you like) to be a paradox. Jesus’ example shows us for example that his Kingdom can not be attained by force, but only by bending your knee. He shows us that justice can never occur as long as our answer for those times we are wronged is revenge.

So in giving us this sermon, Jesus is telling us how the citizens of this new Kingdom respond to life. At the same time he is pointing us in the direction of becoming citizens, members of his Kingdom; how to be a disciple.

Jesus shows us what one can expect as a citizen of the Kingdom. To become a citizen of God’s Kingdom we must mourn; mourn for what we have done to ourselves, each other, our society. Mourn for the senseless loss of life from war and greed like we see in Darfur. Mourn for the persecution and imprisonment some face because of what they believe. We see it in China where Christians are persecuted and India where Sikhs are persecuted. But God sees that mourning and says he will fill our hearts with comfort.

We all hunger for right living, righteousness, because we recognize that physical hunger, injustice and war are wrong, not part of the Kingdom. But as we surrender to God, as we find ways to change our patterns of thought and action we are filled with a different kind of satisfaction. It is a satisfaction that we have taken a step in eternity now.

Do you see what I’m saying? We have a sense for what eternity means. We envision a great expanse set out in front of us into the future. Eternity to us is as mind blowing as trying to imagine the end of the universe where we let our thoughts travel past galaxies and nebulae and never really grasp that there is an end to all we see.

In equating eternity with that vision we never see that what we do now is a part of what is ahead. Like the Chinese proverb: Every journey begins with a single step. Eternity is a journey of expansive wonder that we get to be a part of every day.

That is upside down, paradoxical thinking. Eternity is now.That is what Jesus has called us to. But it will really upset the status quo thinkers.

In the New Testament of the Bible is a story of the Apostle Paul going into a Greek town and teaching people about Jesus and his paradoxical thinking. Many in the town, both Jewish and Greek leaders start a riot.

They grab Paul and his companions and take them to the local judge or magistrate. When they come before this official he asks them, much as we would see at an arraignment on Law and Order, what is the charge. They charge Paul and his companions with something amazing. They say, “They are turning the whole world upside down.”

The Beatitudes turn the whole world upside down. It is this upside down thinking that Jesus asks us to accept. But it is a hard journey. We are trying to overcome millenia of accepted thought, all of it truly what is upside down. What God is doing us through Jesus is to turn us right side up to see things from His perspective.

Here’s what I mean by the fact that the world is what is really upside down. When the Colt 45 revolver was invented in the 19th century it was given a name. That name was The Peacemaker. When has a weapon ever brought peace?

World War I was called, “The War to End All Wars.” When has war ever brought peace? There was only a lull until the next war, the next faction gained power.

Peace makers absorb hatred and violence and answer with forgiveness and love. This thinking is scorned by most today. Even in Christian circles and on Christian blogs you will find that most accept political thinking that says we fight to bring a premptive peace. Read the other blogs on other sites and see how many accept this thinking as normal.

Let’s be the first to turn our worlds so upside down that they are truly rightside up.

 

No Substitutes Please

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 13-20)

My dad had his first heart attack when I was just 11. We had moved into our first (and only) owned home in Brooklyn, N.Y. I remember from that point learning all the do’s, don’ts and other information of living with heart disease. One of the big things they taught us from the beginning was to avoid using salt.

So we as a family learned to eat foods without much or any salt or to use a salt substitute. Now anyone can tell you that salt substitutes are anything but a substitute for salt. Salt is one of the five tastes that the receptors, or taste buds, can detect along with sweet tastes, bitter, sour and a new one called umami (look it up, it’s true). One taste of a salt substitute tells you quickly there is nothing salty about it.

Something is lost when you can no longer taste the salt in or on a food. There is a certain blandness that makes things uninteresting. Even if we say that we still have four other tastes we can appreciate, there is something satisfying about salt that cannot be replaced. Not being a candy person, I can really go without sweets for an extended period of time. Sour and bitter is a now and again thing for me. I like lemon in my iced tea and a bitter ale every now and again, but it bugs the crap out of me to go without a salty taste. I don’t even want to imagine a sweet tasting steak.

Think about what kinds of snacks are sold most often. We, especially in America, like our potato chips and cheese puffs and tortilla chips. All of them are salty snacks. So there is something satisfying to human existence that salt provides. That is why Jesus used this metaphor. Life without the presence of God through Jesus is less than satisfying. There is no getting around this fact.

Life without hope. Life without joy. Life without love. Life without any sense of peace. Life without goodness, fairness or justice. All leave a void in human existence that cannot be replaced. If we ourselves do not have these things or do not share these things leaves life a little empty and meaningless.

Jesus goes on and tells us he doesn’t want us to hide these things from the world. In some form we have to be sharing these things, and openly. He doesn’t ask us to stand on a street corner and preach them. He is asking us to find ways to live them to each other, to strangers, to coworkers or classmates.

Most of us have been doing this all our lives. We share our peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch with our best girlfriend in kindergarten. We carry the packages of the old neighbor lady into her house. We run errands for lunch at work or loan tools so our neighbor can fix his water heater. Now we just need to find expanded ways to salt the world, reach out to more and more people with the salt of Christ.

Jesus teaches us that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. The law of God must be kept in every detail. This too salts the world. If we become those who hate and steal and lust and murder, how does this add to the salt of the world? This is the bitter or sour that I said I could do without.

If we fail to show God his proper respect and reverence, if we take him for granted, it becomes too easy to withhold salt. We become greedy instead of generous, bitter instead of gracious. If we don’t ponder all the salt God has added to our own lives, if we don’t take the time to reflect on what we do have instead of what we don’t, it will become too easy to hold back when another person needs our salt. God’s salt in us. There is no substitute for that.

So what will we add to the world today? Will we withhold the salt of Christ? Or will we season it with just the right blend of herbs and spices? Bring me the shaker please.

 

On the Death of a Church

Then the LORD appeared at the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the Tent. And the LORD said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?’ And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.

“Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.” So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites. (Deuteronomy 31: 15-22)

Yesterday my friends Andy and Carey McClure watched their dream breathe its last breath. Yesterday Mountain Ridge Community Church, a church they felt led strongly enough by God to move several hundred miles away from family, friends and comfort to begin, closed its doors for the last time. I mourn with them.

Unfortunately, they are not the only church in that town to close its doors. Several other churches, even the mega-church plant that had thousands of dollars of support, closed its doors over the last year. So there is something about Erie, Colorado that makes it difficult to bring a word of hope to its people. Something in Erie is causing churches to die.

I’ve been to Erie on several occasions. It’s a typically beautiful Colorado small town at the base of the Rockies just southeast of Boulder, home of the University of Colorado. It’s location, just a half hour north of Denver, makes Erie a great place for people to relocate and slow down the pace of their lives from the hustle and bustle of the big city. It is also a place near where technology companies are relocating and bringing jobs. So from all outside appearances, Erie is a great place to live and raise a family. So what is it about Erie that kills churches?

I think I know the answer. It is the thing affecting most of America and Europe and Israel: apathy and complacency. Much the same as what God told Moses would happen to the people of Israel when they entered into the Promised Land, our wealth and relative safety have lulled us into a spiritual slumber. We have forgotten that God provided all that we have; we have not achieved it on our own. Erie is just at the forefront of what will ultimately take over our nation; Erie is in an advanced stage of narcicism.

Most pastors, if they are honest and not afraid of losing their paychecks, will admit that we are a fickle group, we Christians. We have gone from the “whither thou goest” attitude found in the Bible book of Ruth, to the fulfillment of the warning in Isaiah 30:10 “They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.”

Erie, like the rest of us, wants it easy. Give me something more than this life, but I don’t don’t want to die for it. Take all the poverty out of the world, but I don’t want to get my hands dirty. Stop the war and the fighting, but I don’t want to put down my weapons. Bring peace, but I don’t want to give up my grudges.

Again, if you pastors will admit, people pick and choose churches like they do cars: they want the most bells and whistlesthey can find and they want it for free. Give me a free nursery for my children, but I won’t volunteer. Give me concert level music of whatever genre, make me feel good, but don’t make me pray or change my life. Andy and Carey can tell you personally of people who told them they were changing churches because there weren’t enough high chairs in the nursery. No, the people didn’t offer to buy more.

One pastor who was blatently honest told a friend of mine: “I pastor the largest church in [town name]. For now. I have been the pastor of the smallest church, the fastest growing church and now the largest. All the same church. I know one day in the future when they get bored, or disagree with something or don’t like something, I’ll pastor the smallest church again.” That shows where we have “progressed [?]” to.

I think also about Randy Alcorn’s latest novel, “Safely Home.” This is a book based on actual accounts of the persecuted Church in China. It is estimated that there are some 30 to 100 million Christians in China. Some estimates range as high as half a billion, but I think that is optimistic. There is an official, recognized Christian church in China. But it only spews the party line of utopia if the people sell themselves to the Party leadership, work hard, and raise loyal communist children. But most Chinese Christians do not buy into that and face jail sentences, torture and death for meeting in secret home churches or holding, much less owning a Bible.

These churches meet in secret, in the dark, often long before the sun rises. They meet in the dark so they are not seen by the Secret Police. They wrap their Bibles in special linens to protect it because they cherish it so dearly. They would rather die than sell out to the lies of the Party and reject Christ.

Their faith, like many other Christians in unwelcoming societies from India, to the Muslim Middle East, to Darfur is the faith of martyrs. It is a faith most of us Christians here in the U.S. will never have to experience. It is a faith that holds out hope in a hopeless land. For them, survival only exists in Christ. The recurring theme in the book is, “Is this the day? Will I die today for my faith?“

I think it is obvious that this faith is the faith of the Disciples, the Apostles of Jesus. This is the faith of the early church, of its great theologians whom we call the “Early Church Fathers.” This is the faith of Polycarp, Athanasius, Ireneus and Augustine. For them all other things are “rubbish that [they] may gain Christ.”

It is with this faith that I struggle most, for I myself am going to be the cause of the death of my church and many others like it. I am too wrapped up in my life and my security and my stuff to live like a martyr.

Yesterday, Mountain Ridge Community Church died. Its people wouldn’t get involved. I wouldn’t get involved except to pray from here in North Carolina. I wouldn’t die that others might live. Are we too far gone to save ourselves from the fate of Israel? Am I? Lord, give us faith.

 

One of You, Is A Murderer

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

I don’t know if you have ever played this game, but I love the group game “Murderer.” It’s a game where you deal out cards andwhoever gets the ace of spades is the murderer. As the game progresses, the murderer tries not to get caught by the rest of the group. His or her job is to eliminate all the other players by winking at them. The game got more and more exciting, frustrating and funny as one person after another would slump over or scream and flop on the floor in fake death. I guess you could say murder brought the group closer together.

We all know that in real life that is far from the truth. Murder is the deliberate taking of a life. This heinous act not only takes the life of the victim, but sucks the life out of all those who are intimately connected to both victim and murderer.

Things are never the same in either family, for example. Simple things like songs, smells and images remind the victim’s family of their loss. Someone is missing. Fathers will never walk their daughters down the aisle. Mother’s will never cheer at their sons’ sporting events.

For the family of the murderer there is the stigma of being related to that person. Everywhere you go you get to be known as the murder’s spouse or child or mother. People look at you differently. Then there are the questions and awkward pauses when one of you doesn’t know what to say and feels embarassed.

We certainly are glad we aren’t murderers, then, aren’t we? Or are we? When we started this journey I told you I wanted to look at this series of verses from Chapter 5 through Chapter 7, but backwards; so from 7 to 5. I wanted to look at these chapters in terms of the Great Commandments to love God and love each other.

Then we have to look at how we “murder” each other in terms of the Great Commandments. That is why Jesus takes the commandment “thou shall not kill” a step further. When we tell someone they have no value, we destroy their reason for life. That is what really gets so many to remain complacent when dictatorships begin programs of genocide. Think of why most of the Jews of World War II remained in Germany after Hitler’s rise to power; why bankers, lawyers and businessmen became docile to the early acts of the Nazis.

Now I know that some will argue the threats and reality of beatings, the threats of guns and all the rest, and I would agree with them. Where I grew up I had a number of friends whose relatives, whom I knew, were in the camps of the Holocaust. I am not saying that these were bad or stupid people. What I am saying is that the Nazis had already taken the fight out of them with the constant ridicule and coercion.

How do we do it fatso? Loser? Dork? Jerk? Idiot? Ho? Tramp? Putz? I could go on and get much more vulgar. I could because I have used them. How dare I? What makes me think I’m God’s gift to anything, much less God? As I am writing this, I am watching Simon on American Idol Rewind. I don’t normally watch Idol, but I can’t get anything else off my bunny ears. But this is probably the top show in America for two reasons: the talent and Simon’s destruction of people. Tell me I’m wrong.

Why do we tear down? While we’re at it how is it we fawn over stars that have affairs? Brad and Anjolina? Tom Cruise and pick a female until Katie came along. We watch it on the OC, Desperate Housewives, Las Vegas and countless other shows. Why are we not up in arms? Probably because we aren’t directly affected.

But know the pain of adultery having been the victim through my first marriage. I experienced it again with another girl I thought I was going to marry. Let me give you a sample of what it is like: take a four-inch diameter pole. Fasten it so that it is about three feet off the ground and horizontal. Now run as fast as you can and contact your abdomen at full speed. Then take the pole and have someone beat you about the head with it.

Adultery is murder of what God has joined as one. The aftermath is no different, only the victim has to remain alive and live with the pain the rest of their lives. How can we then face God who says to love each other as we love ourselves? Can we see how Jesus equates the destruction of a person’s psyche with murder?

This week, count the number of times you do this to someone either out loud or in your mind. Then look in the mirror and tell yourself the same thing. What would you want to say to God after that? One of us is a murderer; no, I think it’s both of us.