Star of Wonder

This morning I jumped ahead to the first set of readings from the One Year Bible.  I realize how much I’ve missed reading a substantial chunk of Scripture every day.  Whenever I start a new reading program, there’s a part of my brain that tries to short-circuit the process.  The lazy part.  Which says, “Why read all this stuff?  You’re not going to remember half of it.  You’re only doing this out of some sense of duty and obligation.  Religious zeal.  Calvinist guilt.  You don’t need it.  You’re not really going to get anything out of it.”  The truth is that, like eating vegetables and exercising, daily Bible reading is a discipline.  And as with any good discipline, it shapes you in ways you can neither fully anticipate nor appreciate until you’ve done it for awhile.

Here’s the benefit I recognized first thing this morning: wonder.  I’m immersed in a world that is practical and fact-driven.  That makes conclusions based on evidence.  At any given time the evidence isn’t promising.  This morning’s news is full of retrospectives on the past year.  Hurricanes.  Shootings.  Political scandals.  A fiscal cliff (?).  None of it points in a hopeful direction.

But then I open the Bible and read:

·         The account of a God who, by the power of his word, called into existence an entire universe, and then made us and gave us a privileged place as his companions.

·         The story of a young woman who, in accordance with centuries’ worth of prophecy, conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit, and gave birth to the Savior of the world.

·         A star that served as a cosmic billboard to the Savior’s birth, and a chorus of testifying angels. 

·         A psalm that declares that those who choose God’s way of restraint, and grace, and hope, will ultimately prevail.

·         A proverb that maintains that there is a wisdom subtly woven through Creation that points to the Creator and shows us a better way.

There’s more to this world than data.  More than what we can see with our eyes, hear with our ears, manipulate with our hands.  The God who set the stars in place and fashioned us from the raw elements of the cosmos is still at work, shaping and guiding our reality.  God made it good.  God continues make good that which seems to us only bad.  And God has good plans – for you; for me; for the world he so loves.  Start the new year with a sense of wonder.  

Don't Be Afraid

This weekend I watched the movie Rise of the Guardians with my oldest daughter.  It’s an animated romp in which Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sand Man, and Jack Frost join forces against the Boogey Man to win back the imaginations of the world’s children.  In true Hollywood fashion, the movie reduces the two most important events of the Christian year (Christmas and Easter) to their thin secular and pagan facsimiles.  But if you can look past that, Rise of the Guardians actually has a timely and relevant message.  In his first scene, the villain of the story (a ghoulish character named Pitch) begins replacing kids’ dreams with nightmares.  Pitch then systematically stymies the efforts of the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa, so that children worldwide stop believing in the existence of these supernatural forces of good.  This in turn saps their hope, and leaves them susceptible to Pitch’s only real weapon: fear.  Their only defense against this onslaught of evil is the message: don’t be afraid. 

Whenever the God of the Bible shows up, his first statement is, “Do not fear.” When God appears at Mt. Sinai to give his people the Ten Commandments, his message is, “Don’t be afraid” (Exodus 20:20).  When the angel of the LORD appears to Mary, and Joseph, to tell them of the impending birth of the Savior, he says, “Don’t be afraid” (Luke 1:30; Matt. 1:20).  When the angel appears to Jesus’ friends at the empty tomb, he says, “Don’t be afraid” (Matt. 28:10).  The phrase, “Do not be afraid” appears fully 70 times throughout the Bible.  This is God’s message to people living in the darkness of a broken world.

Why this message, more than any other?  Because fear is the fuel of evil.  Fear causes us to see threats where there are none.  Fear causes us to see anyone – even friends and relatives – as enemies.  Fear causes us to take what we need without regard for those from whom we’re taking it.  Fear causes us to take up arms and strike pre-emptively – when there was no danger to begin with.  Fear saps us of our creativity and our compassion and reduces us to creatures of instinct; creatures of darkness.

But isn’t this a world full of real and present danger?  Here we get to the reason God makes the statement again and again.  “Do not fear” is the command of a God who eliminates any reason for fear.  He is the God who provides everything needed to sustain us.  He is the God who protects us from the forces of evil, and even co-opts pain and loss to serve his good purposes.  He is the God who guarantees that not a hair can fall from our heads without his will.  He is the God who defeated death, and promises us new life beyond the grave. 

Random acts of violence serve the purposes of evil in our world perfectly.  They lead us to believe the lie that we are all victims – that something like this could happen to any of us at any time, and no one can stop it.  Don’t give in.  Fight the fear.  Fight it not with the mistaken belief that you can protect yourself with bigger walls or better weapons.  Fight it with faith in the

“the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty – all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand.” (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 27).  Don't be afraid.  

A Place Called Home

The holidays are a time of the year during which we think about home.  The twinkle of Christmas lights and strains of an old carol bring a wave of nostalgia.  The traditions we introduce to our homes and families evoke the traditions we grew up with.  Every party and every seasonal meal and every gift brings warm associations – thoughts of home.

And yet our nostalgia bears a bittersweet quality.  At every gathering there are empty spaces around the table.  Every new home we create fails to fully reproduce the sense of peace and security we associate with the homes in which we were raised.  There is always a lingering feeling that something is missing.

This is the human experience.  The Bible teaches that we were created for home.  Home was for us, in the beginning, a perfect unbroken connection with God.  The Bible begins with a picture of God’s plan for human life.  This picture includes an overabundance of the good things needed to sustain us; good gifts for us to enjoy; true peace and harmony between people, the world around us, and God.  Kind of like our memories of Christmases past.  Imbedded in all of us is a sense that this is what life should be like – not just during certain seasons, but all the time.  We’re left asking two questions: first, what happened to that original, good state we enjoyed?  Second, is there a way to get it back?

During the season of Advent, our church will explore these two questions, and provide answers that cut deeper than the songs you’ll hear over the mall P.A. system.  Join our congregation's Advent celebrations.  Invite a friend.  Or tune in online to hear the story.

Here’s our Advent schedule:

Dec. 2: Message: It Was Good (Passage: Genesis 1:26-31a)

Dec. 9: Message: Are We There Yet? (Exodus 13:17-22)

Dec. 16: Meeting God (Exodus 19:1-9; 20:18-21)

Dec. 23: Looking for Lost Children (John 4:1-26)

Christmas Eve – Dec. 24, 6:00 p.m. (Lessons and Carols):  A Place Called Home.

"Vote Biblically"...?

Reference: John Calvin, Institutes, 4.20.9

It’s election season.  Many of the homes in my neighborhood have campaign signs on their lawns.  This week I saw a new one.  It said, simply, “Vote biblically”. 

What does that mean?  How do you vote biblically?  How do you distill the commands and wisdom of the Bible down to a political platform that you can vote for?    

Jesus summarizes all the imperatives in the Bible in Matthew 22:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

John Calvin argues that the duty of any government is to uphold these two functions of God’s order for human life:

“The duty of magistrates, its nature, as described by the word of God…extends to both tables of the law [i.e., love for 1. God and 2. Other people]…” (4.20.9) 

In other words, governments that honor God do the following:

First, ensure the right of its citizens to worship God.

“…no polity can be successfully established unless piety be its first care, and that those laws are absurd which disregard the rights of God, and consult only for men…We have already shown that this office is specially assigned them by God, and indeed it is right that they exert themselves in asserting and defending the honour of him whose viceregents they are, and by whose favour they rule. Hence in Scripture holy kings are especially praised for restoring the worship of God when corrupted or overthrown, or for taking care that religion flourished under them in purity and safety.”

Second, protect the vulnerable and uphold the cause of justice.

“ In regard to the second table of the law, Jeremiah addresses rulers, ‘Thus saith the Lord, Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood’ (Jeremiah 22:3). To the same effect is the exhortation in the Psalm, ‘Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked’ (Psalm 82:3,4).” 

God represents himself repeatedly as the ultimate restorer of justice – both civil justice and economic justice.  God’s objective is to restore the cosmos to their original, good state.  God imposes rules upon his people that ensure that everyone in their society – regardless of race, gender, physical ability or even merit – gets enough. 

So what does it mean to "vote biblically"?  Go to the Bible and see what God tells his people: Love me; love others.  Is there a party or politician whose policies and practices ensure the greatest good for the greatest number of people?  Not just people like you?  Vote not for self-interest, but the interests of a more just, equitable, safe world in which more people equate the name of Jesus with grace, peace, and provision.  That’s what a “biblical” people are all about.  

What About my Freedom?

One of the threads that runs deep in American culture is suspicion of government.  A common accusation is that the government is constantly impinging on our freedom.  Whether it’s demanding taxes that seem too high, or imposing such regulations as the pasteurization of everyone’s milk (imagine!), people in our culture are hyper-vigilant about government control.  The (not always) unspoken assumption is that we’d all be better off if the government left us alone.

Calvin’s conclusion is that a certain measure of government control is necessary.  Why?  Because left to our own devices, we pursue our own interests to the detriment of society as a whole.  There have to be communal checks and balances to protect us, and others, from our worst instincts.  Calvin says,

“Those who are desirous to introduce anarchy object that, though anciently kings and judges presided over a rude people, yet that, in the present day, that servile mode of governing does not at all accord with the perfection which Christ brought with his gospel. Herein they betray not only their ignorance, but their devilish pride, arrogating to themselves a perfection of which not even a hundredth part is seen in them.” (Institutes, 4.20.5)

Calvin adds that the apostles, Paul in particular, held this function of government in high esteem. 

“…there can be no doubt that he [Paul] is recommending every kind of just government. He speaks much more clearly when he comes to a proper discussion of the subject. For he says that ‘there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God;’ that rulers are the ministers of God, ‘not a terror to good works, but to the evil'...” (4.20.4)

He goes on to conclude,

“To this we may add the examples of saints, some of whom held the offices of kings, as David, Josiah, and Hezekiah; others of governors, as Joseph and Daniel; others of civil magistrates among a free people, as Moses, Joshua, and the Judges. Their functions were expressly approved by the Lord. Wherefore no man can doubt that civil authority is, in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful, but the most sacred, and by far the most honourable, of all stations in mortal life.” (4.20.4)

When the apostles Peter and Paul discuss civil authority, they both encourage Christians to submit to it (1 Peter 2:13-25; Romans 13:1-7).  When you read these passages, bear in mind that the governments to which Peter and Paul refer were far more controlling and far less friendly to Christians than ours.  The apostles encourage submission to human authority because they believe it to be authority God has granted and ordained to serve God’s purposes.  Calvin sees in this a challenge for Christians to submit not just to human authority, but to God’s:

“In regard to those who are not debarred by all these passages of Scripture from presuming to inveigh against this sacred ministry, as if it were a thing abhorrent from religion and Christian piety, what else do they than assail God himself, who cannot but be insulted when his servants are disgraced? These men not only speak evil of dignities, but would not even have God to reign over them.” (4.20.7)

When we get indignant about a particular government, party, or politician, the question we have to ask ourselves is, “Why would God allow them to be in authority over me?  What is God doing through this authority figure?  And if this is God’s will for me, am I truly willing to submit to it?”  God is at work in all the circumstances of our life.  Are we willing to let God work through whatever agents he chooses?

Getting it Right

Sunday (as part of a message on 1 Peter 3:8-17) I referred to the Gainesville State School’s final football game of 2010.  For more on that story, check out the first video on Ann Voskamp’s post, “Why the crazy sacrifices are worth it…”, available here.

Two Extremes

Reference: Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.20.1

When it comes to politics, John Calvin argues that Christians are at risk of gravitating to one of two extremes.  He claims that his theological reflection on civil government is necessary because

“… on the one hand, frantic and barbarous men are furiously endeavouring to overturn the order established by God, and, on the other, the flatterers of princes, extolling their power without measure, hesitate not to oppose it to the government of God.”

In other words, we either assume that human government is inherently at odds with God’s will and therefore dismiss it; or we assume that a particular government is so aligned with God’s will that we can't see the ways the two may be at odds. 

Calvin points out the folly of Christians who believe that their primary loyalty to Christ excuses them from obligation to civil law.  Here Calvin echoes the Apostle Peter, who says,

Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:16-17)

Calvin argues that a societal rule of law is essential to human life:

“But we shall have a fitter opportunity of speaking of the use of civil government. All we wish to be understood at present is, that it is perfect barbarism to think of exterminating it, its use among men being not less than that of bread and water, light and air, while its dignity is much more excellent.”

His point is that in a broken world in which people are naturally inclined toward disorder and self-interest, God ordains and blesses the implementation of structures that impose order.  Calvin goes so far as to say “that they [civil magistrates] are invested with divine authority”.  This is consistent with what Peter says in 1 Peter 2:13-25, as well as the words of Psalm 82, quoted by Jesus in John 10:34-35.  The basic gist of this scriptural argument is that all authority in heaven and earth belongs to God; therefore any authority wielded by a person is authority that God has, for the time, granted.

That does not mean that everyone who wields authority does it in a way that honors God.  Calvin cautions Christians never to mistake an earthly kingdom for the Kingdom of God:

“…it matters not what your condition is among men, nor under what laws you live, since in them the kingdom of Christ does not at all consist.” 

His words are intended as a comfort to those living under a government or culture that challenges the Christian faith.  They are also intended as a warning to those who believe their government will usher in the Kingdom of God.  This is a very important caution to Christians within our culture who believe that a particular political party will better serve the cause of the church.  Parties may endorse values such as moral restraint or social justice which are consistent with the Kingdom, but at the same time champion personal greed or the use of oppressive force to achieve its ends, which are at odds with the Kingdom.  Calvin says, simply, no human kingdom is or ever will be the Kingdom of God.  Don’t place hopes and expectations on your government that rightfully belong to God.  

Getting Political?

Passage: 1 Peter 2:13-25

Last week I preached the first of two messages on 1 Peter 2:13-3:7.  This is the passage in which Peter tells the church to submit.  In the first section, Peter tells all Christians to submit to every human authority.  He then goes so far as to tell slaves to submit to their masters.  If you’re interested in hearing my treatment of the passage, you can listen here.

Peter forces us to reflect on a topic we’re either too eager to avoid or too eager to engage: politics.  When we avoid politics, we use the excuse that the realms of church and politics should never overlap.  When we engage politics, we’re tempted to do so through the lens of our cultural biases.  Peter prohibits Christians from doing either.  We can’t withdraw from a world governed by human authorities.  But if we are to engage this world, we have to do so as citizens of heaven. 

John Calvin provides very timely insight in the last section of his Institutes of the Christian Religion.  For the next week or two I’ll give summaries of Calvin’s take on the intersection of the church and civil authority.  I’ll also provide links, in case you want to go directly to the source (highly recommended).  

Reclaimed

This past Sunday I referred to an artist named Vik Muniz, and his 2008 work with professional trash scavengers (or catadores) at Rio de Janeiro’s Jardim Gramacho.  At the time, Jardim Gramacho was the highest-volume landfill in the world, and was home to 13,000 people who scraped out a living salvaging recyclables.  Muniz went to Jardim Gramacho looking to meet these catadores and incorporate their stories into some kind of art installation.  His project is chronicled in the 2010 documentary Waste Land (it’s available through Netflix, and probably your local library and video store.  Watch it.  Seriously.).  At the beginning of the film, Muniz says, “What I do with my art is take people away from where they are and show them a different world; then give them a chance to look back at where they are differently.”  Muniz proceeds to explore a corner of the world that is home not only to the detritus of an enormous city but also to a community of discarded people.  Muniz asks these people their names.  He befriends them.  And he starts taking their pictures.  He goes on to stage photos modeled after famous masterpieces, with a group of catadores as his subjects.

After the photos have been taken, Muniz invites the subjects to join him at a warehouse, where he projects their photos onto the floor.  They bring in barrels full of materials they have scavenged from the landfill.  And they use the materials to outline and fill in their projected images.  The end results are warehouse-sized masterpieces rendered in trash.

And for the first time in their lives, the subjects of these masterpieces – the professional trashpickers – see themselves not as rejects but as objects of beauty. Muniz goes on to do much more with the images they’ve rendered, and opens frontiers for his subjects they wouldn’t have dreamed possible. 

What Muniz does at Jardim Gramacho is what God offers to do with each of us.  In 1 Peter 2:4-10, the Apostle talks about us as “living stones” – discarded building materials that become a masterpiece in the hands of the Creator.  At the end of the film, one of Muniz’s subjects says, “When I became a trash picker, I was so ashamed.  But then I met Vik.  And I became part of his art.  Now I’m not ashamed anymore.”  God seeks out those of us who are imperfect.  Or incomplete.  Who may have been marginalized or rejected.  And invites us to become part of his life-changing project of reclamation and redemption.    

Born Again

This past Sunday our message was based on 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 (you can listen to it here).  The passage is a meditation on new life in Jesus Christ – a life of being purchased from slavery and born again as new people.  As these are the central themes of the Christian life, there’s no end of available material for illustration.  That being said, here’s a tremendous story of rebirth and life transformation that one of my favorite theologians, Ann Voskamp, referenced on her blog.  Check it out.

I'm Changing My Diet

Peter says the following in 1 Peter 2:1-3:

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Peter's telling the church to stop consuming spiritual foods that malnourish us.  In my message on this passage, I highlighted the fact that our life before Christ is driven by the conviction that this life is all we've got.  This in turn forces us to prioritize two things:

Survival – the need to extend our lifespans using any means necessary;

Success – the need to acquire for ourselves everything we can using any means necessary.

Peter identifies spiritual “foods” that serve these two priorities:

Malice –advancing our ends by hurting others.

Deceit – distorting the truth for selfish purposes.

Hypocrisy – falsely representing ourselves as better than we really are.

Envy – wanting to possess what someone else has.

Slander – making others look bad to make ourselves feel good.

When we resort to these, we may in fact extend our lifespans; we may even derive maximal enjoyment, prosperity and security for our 70 plus years of life.  But our lives will become self-fulfilling prophecies – there will be nothing left for us when our days on earth come to an end.

Jesus Christ offers his disciples a source of life that cannot be extinguished – the Spirit of God.  Peter reminds the church that they have received this life source, too.  The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in them.  This being the case, says Peter, don’t malnourish it.  Don’t consume spiritual junk food.  Feed on “the living Word of God” (1:23), and live.  

What are you worried about?

Passage: Matthew 6:19-34

This week I’m preparing a sermon on 1 Peter 1:3-9 (as part of a series on the letters of Peter entitled “Holy”.  Find out more here).  Peter’s focus in this passage is “an inheritance that won’t spoil or fade”.  My preparation has brought to mind Jesus’ two-part exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount.  In this passage Jesus both reminds us of the fleeting nature of life in this world, and invites us to trust in a God who knows our needs and loves us immensely.  Above all, our faith directs our focus not to the worries of making today the best it can be, but preparing for an eternity that’s better than the best we can imagine.  Francis Chan, one of my favorites, puts it way better than I ever could.  Take five minutes to listen to what he has to say.

Why Pray?

Passage: James 5:13-20

In this passage, James says some things about prayer that, I’m sure, will spark contentious debate until the end of time.  At first glance James seems to issue a simple exhortation to pray.  “Pray when you are in trouble; pray when you’re happy; pray when you’re sick…”  As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray continually…”  It’s what James says next, however, that inevitably raises difficult questions:

…the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. 

James mentions that prayer will save the one who is sick.  Is James talking about physical healing, or ultimate soul-salvation?  Christians who conclude the former have applied “healing prayer” in the assumption that, issued with the proper attitude and fervency, prayer will sustain the life of the afflicted.  When the affliction is not lifted, the conclusion has to be that the faith or persistence of those praying was inadequate.  This in turn leads many of us to conclude that James is talking primarily about salvation and the promise of resurrection through Jesus Christ.  This is certainly a safer conclusion that explains why those for whom we pray still get sick and die.  But then James goes on to say,

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.  Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The apostle unapologetically argues that the prayers of the faithful have a real-life impact on imminent realities.  To understand this we have to appreciate what James and his fellow apostles have seen and heard.  James, the brother of Jesus who became a follower of Jesus, witnessed water being changed into wine; crowds being fed; sick people being healed; the dead being raised.  This in response to the words of the Savior and the prayers of his disciples.  Were these miracles invasions of earth by heaven limited to the time in which Jesus walked the earth? 

In Early Christian Letters for Everyone, NT Wright argues otherwise.  Wright points out that Jesus’ life and ministry marks the advent of an ongoing invasion of earth by heaven – an era in which “the Kingdom of Heaven is not far off.”  When the reality of Heaven breaks into our current reality, miraculous and unexpected things happen.  Because we live in a world corrupted by sin, we’ve been conditioned to think of weakness, sickness and death as normal.  In fact, these are deviations from the way it’s meant to be.  The sign of the Kingdom of Heaven is restoration – the restoration of bodies, spirits, and relationships.  Wright goes on to argue that when we live in Christ, we live at the intersection of Heaven and Earth.  This is an intersection at which all things are possible.  The invitation to prayer is an invitation to appeal to a God who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.  A God whose priority for us and our world is restoration, new life, and reconciliation.  When we pray for these, we do two things: First, we trust God’s timing and methods in answering our prayers; second, we trust his ability to fulfill his promises.  Our prayer, in turn, serves the purpose not of persuading God to do what we want, but of realigning our wills so that we begin to want – for ourselves and our world – what God wants.  

James and the Poor

Text: James 1:19-27

A couple of weeks ago I preached on this passage.  If you want, you can listen here.  Throughout his letter James repeatedly addresses matters of wealth and poverty.  He warns those who enjoy affluence or success in this world.  And he persistently exhorts Christians to humble themselves, befriend the marginalized, and care for the poor.  At the end of his first chapter, James goes so far as to say that the only kind of religion God is interested in is tending to the needs of the vulnerable.  His message is difficult to receive.  It's even harder to live.  One of my favorite contemporary Christian writers published a recent blog post that does this topic far more justice than I'm able to do.  I strongly encourage you to read it.  You can find it here.

The Superorganism

Passage: James 4:1-12

So far this has been an exceptional summer in a number of ways.  One is the heat.  And related to the heat, at least in my neighborhood, has been the proliferation of ants.  Every morning there’s a new ant mound somewhere in our yard or along our sidewalk.  Any scrap of food or discarded popsicle stick is, within minutes, alive with a seething mass of shiny brown bodies.  Only the diligent placement of ant baits and the use of various folk deterrents (some more effective than others) has stemmed the potential tide of insects just waiting to pour into our house. 

This morning my oldest daughter and I were watching ants forage and build in our driveway.  I said, “Ants are what some scientists call ‘superorganisms.’”  I went on to explain that ants (as well as many other insects, and some animals of other classes) live their lives in intense community.  So much so that each individual ant operates less like a single creature and more like one part of an enormous creature.  Each ant has its own specific job to do within its colony.  Individual ants who search for food or defend their colonies often do so at the cost of their own lives.  Each one exists for the whole.  And as a whole they can do amazing things.  They consume detritus and carry away trash inordinately larger than their bodies.  They tunnel the earth, pile up mountains of dirt, and undermine sidewalks and buildings.  They change the landscape. 

The authors of the New Testament repeatedly talk about the church as a kind of superorganism.  In several letters the Apostle Paul describes the church as a body consisting of many parts – each member of the church plays a role that serves the whole.  With each others' support, Christians can not only thrive in their faith, but they can change the landscape.  In his exceedingly practical book, James confronts behaviors that undermine the collaborative power of the church.  He challenges Christians to stop fighting, coveting, and slandering.  He identifies pride and self-centeredness as poison that destroys community.  Ultimately, says James, God cannot bless Christians who oppose the fellowship and unity of the church:

You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

In our super-individualist society, we are called to be a superorganism.  To commit ourselves to the well-being and submit ourselves to the will of the Body of Christ.  At times this feels like death.  In fact it’s the opposite.  We weren’t made to live in isolation.  God in his mercy reconnects us to a community that supports us, challenges us, and keeps us alive.  And it’s only as members of this greater body that we realize our capacity to change the landscape.  

Expect Something Amazing

Passage: James 1:2-8
James comes across as harsh.  No sooner has he gotten the obligatory apostolic greeting out of the way than he launches into this little gem:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

This is the New Testament equivalent of your dad saying, “Stop complaining – those splinters are building character” or, “When I was twelve I already had seniority down at the plant.”  James is all about sucking it up and getting down to the hard work of being a Christian.  

But behind his gruff utility is an invitation to a better life.  A life not of practical necessity but of wonder.  The wonder of belonging to a God who is real.  A God who shows up. 

A few verses later James says,

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Do you hear what he’s saying?  Not, “Stop complaining about not having enough wisdom and go get some.”  But, “Ask God, and believe that he will answer.”  Expect something amazing.

James, like all the apostles, is the ambassador of a true and living God.  A God who took on flesh and took on the forces of evil.  A God who turned water into wine and summoned miraculous catches of fish and raised the dead.  If you were going to ask this God for something as simple as wisdom, or your next meal, or the restoration of a broken heart, why would you doubt that he could deliver?  “When you ask, you must believe and not doubt…”  Not because God only rewards those who believe really hard.  But because when you pray you’re connecting with a God who is able to do more than you could ask or imagine.  Give God his due.  When you appeal to him, expect something amazing.   

Tipping the Scale Toward Redemption

This week I read through C.S. Lewis’ sermon TheWeight of Glory.  As with the bulk of Lewis’ work, it’s a masterpiece that bears reading in its entirety.  But one his final paragraphs cuts me to the heart:

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

After reading this I thought about all the people I’ve hated.  The bullies I’ve refused to forgive.  The marginally-abled drivers who cut me off on the expressway.  The slow people in line in front of me in the checkout.  Colleagues I’ve considered obtuse or annoying.  I thought about the people to whom I attribute the brokenness of the world.  Politicians whose greed or ignorance perpetuates injustice.  Terrorists or the agents of corrupt governments who murder kids.  Human traffickers.  Bigots.  Cheats. 

All of us are destined for eternity.  Each of us is a work in progress.  And each of us has been given the tremendous weight of responsibility to steer that eternal work.  Each of us has the potential to contribute to a trajectory of either redemption or reprobation.  Which will it be?

Last summer I heard a presentation from a guy who spent part of a year living in Uganda.  While there, his work brought him into contact with the officials of several different governments.  Some of these were either complicit with known human rights violations, or had connections to active warlords.  Evildoers.  One of these individuals told him, on one occasion, “Once you start killing people, it’s hard to stop.”  So he thought, “The best thing is to keep them from starting.”  He started a non-profit that mentors boys and young men.  Instills in them the ethics of honesty; compassion; peacemaking.  Reaches and redirects human beings who could, under the wrong influences, become the “nightmare creatures” Lewis talks about.   

When we see the depravity of our fellow image-bearers, our instinct is to condemn.  Lewis issues this caution.  It could be our act or attitude of condemnation that tips the scales of that person’s heart.  How much better to err and act on the side of hope – hope that in every person there lies the potential for redemption that the Savior sees in us.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

Age-ism as a Violation of Divine Law

A year and a half ago I attended a Sufjan Stevens concert.  And as the crowd filled the Royal Oak Music Theater, I noticed an unsettling trend: everyone was younger than me.  I was surrounded by slim college kids wearing the latest fashions, tweeting and texting on their smartphones.   I saw my middle-aged, spectacled self through their eyes.  I was suddenly self-conscious.

Ours is a culture that values youth, beauty and vitality.  These are our currency of choice.  A year ago Time magazine published an article entitled “Amortality”.  Its author observes that the lines between adolescent, young adulthood, middle and old age have blurred significantly in recent years.  Young teens are dressing and acting like adults.  Their parents are dressing and acting like teens (LOL).  Older persons are availing themselves of pharmaceutical and surgical options that maintain the illusion of youth well into their sixties, seventies and eighties.  Why? 

Because we all know that when we no longer seem youthful, we will no longer be relevant.  One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard among local job seekers is that no one will hire anyone over 50.  Those nearing “senior citizen status” (and even those significantly younger) are immediately perceived as out of touch with the skills and technologies of today’s economy.  Obsolete. 

This is a radical shift from the way older persons were treated in the cultures that produced the Bible.  In the Old Testament God insists that his people show due respect to those who have gone before them:

You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. (Lev. 19:32)

There are practical reasons for this command.  Our elders have lived what we’re living now.  Even if they lived it poorly, their mistakes have given them wisdom.  All of us can benefit from those whose experience exceeds our own.  It makes sense to respect people with more life experience than yours.

There are also sentimental and spiritual reasons for it.  Each of us (God willing) will one day be the age that “old” person is now.  When that day comes we hope we will have something relevant to say, and someone to whom to say it.  But as people of faith, we also recognize that we exist on an eternal playing field.  Not only are you and that 70-year-old not that far apart compared to eternity.  But you are on the same lifelong journey – a journey not to achievement but improvement.  Doesn’t it make sense to pay attention to the ways God has used the experience of years to improve the people around you?  Could God’s work in your own life be enhanced if you allowed yourself to be influenced by those who have been there?  As with all God’s commands, Lev. 19:32 has great relevance.  We and our culture suffer when we disregard it.

The Manna Principle

Passage: Exodus 16

Note: After a couple of months of inconsistent Bible reading, I have started a new reading plan.  I’m using Youversion.com’s “Bible in 90 Days” plan.  This will be the source of any passages I discuss here for the next few months.

I remember my older sister coming home from school one day and telling us that her 5^th grade class had gotten donuts.  She went on to say that initially her teacher had thought there were enough for each student to have two donuts.  But as they were distributed, he quickly realized they would run out (I have to assume my sister lost about a year’s worth of arithmetic in that teacher's class).  He asked students who had already gotten two to return one so there would be enough for everyone.  Several students (she claimed they were all boys.  I have my doubts) quickly took a bite out of both their donuts.  They were more concerned with having more donut than they needed than they were with everyone getting enough.

Throughout the Old Testament, God communicates his great interest in everyone getting enough.  In Numbers God distributes his people’s inheritance – the Promised Land – not on the basis of merit but per capita.  In the latter prophets – Amos in particular – God condemns the injustice that runs rampant amongst his people.  He gives these examples: the selling of people for profit, the oppression of the poor, and the inequitable distribution of resources.  God promises to give his people everything they need.  And God demands that his people share their surplus so that everyone has enough.

This principle is introduced long before God’s people enter the Promised Land.  Early in their journey from Egypt, the Israelites detect a problem.  They’ve marched out into the middle of the wilderness, and have no apparent source of food or water.  They immediately accuse Moses of plotting to kill the lot of them.  God then fills Moses in on his plan.  God says,

I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.

God delivers on his promise.  And this is what happens:

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little.  And when they measured it…, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.

They had enough.  And whatever surplus they gathered went bad.

Fast forward to the present.  God’s promise to provide applies as much to his people now as it did to the Israelites in the wilderness.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reiterates the promise:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Don’t worry.  If you belong to God, you’ll have enough.

Of course we don’t listen.  We don’t trust that God will actually give us what we need.  So we hoard.  We collect more stuff and shore up more resources than we need to live.  And while half the human race goes without enough to eat, our stores go bad.  We throw out food.  Our clothes go out of fashion.  Our electronics go obsolete.  Our hearts grow hard and our spirits wither as we obsess about getting more and protecting what we have.  Our surplus, like day-old manna, rots around us. 

The peace and the compassion and the generosity that are inextricable from the Christian life all start with simply taking God at his word.  Trust that God will show up tomorrow like he did today.  Try living like you trust.  Give away what you don’t need.  And become part of God’s system for ensuring that everyone has enough.   

Again They Did Evil in the Eyes of the LORD

Passage: Judges 13

The Book of Judges is a tough read. It follows the Book of Joshua chronologically as well as sequentially. And its narrative picks up immediately where Joshua’s leaves off. The Israelites have settled in the land God promised to give them. And life is good. At least it should be. But there’s this troubling prediction God makes in Deuteronomy 8:
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

It seems impossible – that God’s people would forget about God at the moment they finally partake of God’s promised abundance. Yet this is precisely what happens. The refrain throughout Judges is this: Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD… The story of Judges is the story of a people who repeatedly get themselves into trouble. They do so by turning their backs on God – the God who has rescued them without fail in the past; the God who promises to protect and provide for them every day of their lives. How in the world could God’s people forget his provision and his promises? It’s really very simple. There’s always something that feels more solid than the promises of an unseen God. A pocket full of coins. The touch of a stranger’s skin. The barrel of a gun. There’s no mystery here.

The story of Judges is our story. We trade in the promises of an unseen but unfailing God for the allure of someone we can see or something we can touch. Yet invariably people and property and politics fail us. Miserably. Judges ends with God’s people literally at each others’ throats, clawing and killing to save themselves. How much of our lives do we waste competing with each other for the stuff of life? Desperate to save ourselves?

The sliver of good news in Judges is this: every time the Israelites come to their senses and cry out to God, God shows up. Judges 13 introduces Sampson, a deliverer possessed of the power of God, sent to rescue God’s people from their troubles. When God rescues, he does so effortlessly and miraculously. All his people have to do is call. What do you need to be rescued from today? Don’t waste your life looking for help in the wrong places. Appeal to God, who responds to our cries for help without fail.

The Cost

Passage: Luke 14:25-33

Jesus continues his teaching on the cost of following him in Luke 14. In this passage he uses two analogies that seem to be saying the same thing but are actually saying the opposite.

In the first, Jesus says, essentially, “A developer wouldn’t endeavor to put up a condo tower if he hadn’t first calculated whether he had the funds to see the project through.” In the same way, Jesus says, “Do you have what it takes to go the distance with me?”

Jesus goes on to say, “A president wouldn’t initiate a war with an opponent he had no chance of overcoming. He would assess his military force, and that of his opponent. And if he was outmatched, he would pursue a peace treaty.”

Here Jesus is talking about the alternative to following him. Jesus presents himself as the only way to peace with God. Choosing not to ally with Jesus means, de facto, becoming God’s opponent. In a veiled way Jesus is really asking, “Do you have what it takes to go to war against God? Can you go the distance without me?”

If you’ve done the calculations, and concluded you can’t stand up to God, then for God’s sake, sign the peace treaty. What peace treaty? The one inscribed in Jesus’ flesh and sealed with his blood. God’s terms are beyond reasonable; beyond merciful. You may not like what it'll cost you, but it's far less costly than the alternative. Choose his peace.

The Narrow Door

Passages: Joshua 2; Luke 13:22-30

Periodically in my Bible reading plan the Old Testament and New Testament readings share remarkable continuity. Today my reading includes Joshua 2 and Luke 13.

Joshua 2 includes the account of the Israelite reconnaissance mission to Jericho. Joshua sends two spies into the city (which God has marked for conquest). Somehow the king of Jericho catches wind of the mission, and sends soldiers out to find the spies. They escape capture with the help of a prostitute named Rahab. Showing remarkable discernment, Rahab tells the spies, “I know that the LORD has given you this land…swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.” Rahab breaks ranks with her people, even though every indication is that Jericho should have no problem contending with the rag-tag army at their gates. She recognizes the irresistible power of the God of the Israelites, and sides with him. This is a move that will cost Rahab everything – her home; her friends; her property. But having come to faith in the one true God, Rahab understands that there’s only one real option. Only one doorway leads to life.

In Luke 13, someone asks Jesus the eminently relevant question, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” His response is this:

Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.

Jesus’ response is as unpopular today as ever. But it is the same message that is given throughout the entirety of the Scriptures: There’s only one way to life – God’s way. You can align yourself with the one true God by humbling yourself and becoming God’s servant. Or you can stand proud on your own and be lost. God’s way is costly. It may mean turning your back on pleasures, possessions or people you hold dear. But God affirms again and again that the alternative is infinitely more costly. Those willing to appeal to God’s mercy find it unfathomable and immeasurable. Don’t take your chances. Take the narrow door and get life.

Like Hell

Hell became a source of tremendous controversy last year around the publication of Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. For better or worse, Bell forced Christians to reconsider the ways we conceptualize hell and the Bible passages we use to support them. But Bell by no means broke new ground in offering alternatives to the classic or traditional way of thinking about hell. C.S. Lewis provides very cogent arguments for hell not as a place but as a state of being. These arguments, in turn, take shape around Lewis’ assertion that the Christian life is primarily about a relationship with the living being we call God. Hell, within Lewis’ theology, is the inevitable end result of living with a particular posture toward God. In God in the Dock, Lewis famously states, “The gates of hell are locked from the inside.” In other words, hell is populated by those who, in life, wanted nothing to do with God. In death God has simply given them what they wanted.

In Mere Christianity, Lewis says this:
“…Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live forever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse —so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be.”

Here it sounds as though Lewis agrees with Bell on one hand (“Hell is of our own making”). Yet he contradicts those who go on to conclude that hell is temporary, imaginary or metaphorical. As Lewis puts it, every human being was created to live forever. The real question is whether we will live forever in the company of the God whose company we’ve embraced here and now. Or whether we’ll get in eternity the thing we’ve demanded on earth: to be left alone. If you want God to leave you alone now, why would the prospect of God leaving you alone forever offend you? If on the other hand you want God’s company forever, God invites you to start enjoying it now.

Repent

If I could summarize the season of Lent in one word, it would be repentance. We typically associate repentance with fire-and-brimstone preaching and guilt trips. Being reprimanded for doing things we want to do but know we shouldn’t. We associate repentance with that feeling that Brian Regan so aptly expresses: “You’ll never be right no matter what you say!” Never being right.

There’s nothing appealing about repentance when you think about it like that. But what if repentance wasn’t so much beating yourself against an impossible standard as it was responding to the love of someone you really wanted to be with? What if that person already loved you, and you just wanted to be the person they saw when they looked at you? In the movie As Good as it Gets, Jack Nicholson plays Melvin, an author who’s a lifelong bachelor and lifelong sufferer of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. His life follows an idiosyncratic routine over which he has utter control. He’s also completely alone. Then he meets and falls in love with a single mom, Carol, played by Helen Hunt. And in order to get close to her, he has to upset the careful balance of his life. Melvin’s routines and rituals are so powerful that it’s almost impossible for him to change. But the possibility of love – giving and receiving true love – is an opposing force strong enough to turn him around. At the end of the film, when Carol has had about enough of Melvin’s particular brand of crazy, he asks her to give him another chance. And he says, “You make me want to be a better person.”

The thing that motivates us to repent is the love of God. A God who loves us because he called us into existence. A God who knew us before we were born. Knows the number of hairs on our heads. Knows just how selfish and broken and afraid we are. And loves us anyway. Repentance is change. Changing your mind. Changing your course. Turning and returning. Repentance isn’t an escape clause from the fires of hell. Repentance is coming back to the relationship you were born for.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis puts it this way:
“Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen.”
Lewis goes on to say,
“…the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or—if they think there is not—at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christlife inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us…”
Don’t waste your time and energy trying to be good. Just stop running. Turn around. And let God’s love do the work. Repent.