If you caught Martin Luther at the grocery store, probably in the beer isle, and asked him “if you died tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?” he would look you in the eye and tell you in no uncertain terms that he has no idea and that is his dilemma if not also his angst and then in the same breath and as breathlessly as this run-on sentence is spilling out onto line after line he would tell you with greater certainty what he does know….and that is that he has heard the word of Jesus Christ, born, lived, died and rose again and that that word is simply is too good not to be true and he is going to trust that light over against the darkness of not knowing and not being able to do anything about his ultimate destiny.
I am a believer in that word too. And if you caught me in the beer isle, after asking if you like lager or ale I would tell you I have no idea what will become of me. But I do know this. I have heard the word of Jesus and he is sweetness to my sour soul.
And I will go there. Much like John watching Jesus approach the river Jordan and pointing to Jesus with “behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” I see Jesus and I am going there. The darkness is too deep for me and I have no answer nor can I provide any light. But God does. In Christ Jesus.
The notion that God is a Judge who holds court and decides who is in and who is out is an image we have fabricated out of our own deep sin of thinking we can take our destiny into our own hands by saying “yes” to a proposition about Jesus or others and fabricated out of our own deep despair at knowing we really do let ourselves down and let others down and so too we must be letting God down too.
The bible is at pains to let us know God is Love who holds court to throw us a feast if we but sit down and eat and drink!
Behold! God is not out to get us! God is out to give us….everything…including our future. But we will not have it! And in the case of our ultimate destiny, because we can’t impact that (why? Because we are not God! Only God is in the destiny business! So we are stuck….and do not know!) we are left in the hands of God. What is God going to do with me? I don’t know! But….God knows I do not know and in his love put on “clothes” in Jesus. And it.s really more intense and radical than that. God didn’t become Jesus. God is Jesus.
And even though I don’t know my destiny, and the darkness of not knowing and not being able to be God and determine that destiny is too dark for words, I have seen the light.
I have seen Jesus Christ. And he is my mercy. And I will trust Him and I will trust in Him.
On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther did not go trick or treating and he knew nothing of our “Halloween” but certainly did know that that day was “All Hallows Eve” from which we get our holiday name if not the way we observe the day, but he did go trucking down to the Castle Church on the opposite side of town in Wittenberg and, being the honorable Professor that he was, proposed a debate by posting his proposition publicly on the church doors. The Thesis for his debate numbered 95 and I mean to tell you they stirred up a hornets nest. Luther’s major contribution and the explosion of grace did not come, in my estimation, from the issue of indulgences of which the 95 are so famous. But that posting event and the Guttenberg press aid in distributing the printed document put him on the map. For me, the genius and power of Luther comes in his work on the freedom and bondage of the will….related to the “if you died tonight” discussion above.
As a closing Halloween treat, and no trick, and related to the beer isle discussions, I offer to you some thoughts from Guther Gassmann and Scott Hendrix’ The Lutheran Confessions (1999) from their chapter on “The Christian Life.”
“Luther agreed with Augustine’s decision and held the doctrine of predestination throughout his life. He acknowledged its danger, however. Conceivably you could believe in Christ and still not be saved because you were not predestined. Luther admitted that such speculation had once almost driven him to despair. Fortunately, he had been consoled by his monastic superior and counselor, John von Staupitz, who advised Luther: ‘Why do you torture yourself with these speculations? Look at the wounds of Christ and at the blood that was shed for you. In their light predestination will shine.’ Luther learned from his own experience that predestination, which belonged to the hidden will of God, was secondary to faith in Christ, which was revealed in Scripture as the way to salvation. He then advised others to put the revealed Word of God ahead of speculation: ‘Accept the present promise [of Christ] and predestination, and do not inquire too curiously about the secret counsels of God. If you believe in the revealed God and accept his Word, he will gradually also reveal the hidden God. For “he who sees me also sees the Father” (John 14:9).”
Happy Reformation Day 2010!
Happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
On Quitting Christianity Today (and a surprise from 1845!)
Anne Rice is now famous for her move to “quit Christianity.” She says she hasn’t lost her faith. She just has quit the organized religion. True enough. And right on target for why – she refuses to be anti-life in the many ways so much of the mainstream church in all its forms has been and still is. But realize that Christianity itself was never intended by Christ. It was the outgrowth of people trying to take the one who announced their utter freedom and using him as a front. This freedom of Jesus, identified as Christ, is the total reliance on God and total obedience to God that had nothing to do with using reliance or obedience to shape identity, community, meaning and destiny by claiming a place for self or by creating boundaries to keep others from polluting the purity of it all.
We take Christ and declare positions and demarcations in his name for our own status and power, our own safety and security. Christianity is a system of belief and morals used to justify ourselves. Christ is the end of all justifications. He is the end of all our projects and schemes to create a safe haven for ourselves by either building up our cache or by tearing others down or fencing others out.
But people, perhaps including Rice, are deluded in thinking a Christian can follow Christ without church. Not church as “organized religion” in the form of existing or developing denominations or judicatories or even congregations. Yes, you can follow Christ without those forms of church, but you cannot follow Christ without church in some way shape or form since when you follow Christ you are church. Those that reject today’s “organized religion” are not wrong or radical in such a move. There’s nothing original or particularly creative, however, in rejecting a pattern or style of organizational management that doesn’t meet the needs of one’s needs or worldview. This happens generationally, if not more often. To quit organized religion and go one’s own way of following Jesus on your own – whatever that may mean – is to distinctly miss the mark of Jesus himself. His focus was the dream (aka “kingdom”) of God, to be sure. But this dream is built on the community connection and in many ways is itself the community connection. Church, do we need to say it again, is not what you attend; it’s what you are when you follow Christ. You can stop attending organized religion as a follower of Jesus but you can’t stop being church. Not if you are following Christ. So the challenge and privilege of Anne Rice and all of us who do not agree with an “anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-artificial birth control, anti-Democratic, anti-secular humanism, anti-science organization” approach (as Rice put it), is to follow Jesus Christ into organizing into loving all these “anti’ folks as much as we love our self-righteous and politically correct selves and to shape this new organization, however wonderfully amorphous as it may be, around Jesus Christ and his radical love that destroys our self-justifications and leaves us free to love and serve others at all costs. You cannot not organize if you are people working and living together in mission. And if you are following Christ, you are doing it together, not alone. So, given that, what might the organizing principles be for today’s church? How about love your enemies (teaching of Jesus), see the secular as the sacred and the sacred as secular, with no distinctions (a worldview where it’s all holy, it’s all belonging to God) and making sure nobody goes without (a seriousness and intentionality about community)? How about that?
Interestingly, there needs to be something more, though, than this new or renewed manifesto. There must be more than Jesus and his way of life and living. There must be Christ and his destruction of the myth of human constructions and his new creation of a human being freed from all self-justifications (aka self-improvement plans…take your pick of all the choices! Shall we Eat, Pray, Love or shall we dance?) Today’s church must renew it’s following of Jesus, but it cannot do so while throwing out the thing that Christ did: he died for our sin and was raised from the dead for our life. This work of Christ gets thrown out when those critical of the “theology of glory” (bluntly and too simplistically put as seeing Christ as using the cross as a starting point for personal gain, a place of becoming healthy and wealthy and successful because of God) replace this theology of glory with what is called a “negative theology of glory.” A negative theology of glory takes the end result of the theology of glory (namely a right and secure place with God because of your belief and behavior) and simply applies a “sacrifice self and serve others and become vulnerable and poor and faithful because of God” approach to get that right and secure place instead of the “positive” theology of glory’s application of Jesus’ sacrifice.
We don’t need a negative theology of glory to counteract the positive theology of glory.
We need something entirely different. Martin Luther called it the “theology of the cross.”
For our purposes here, we could simply say that the theology of the cross allows Jesus Christ to do all the saving and doesn’t replace him with anything, not even our wonderful new plans to be what Brian McClaren identifies, in referencing various key leader and voices showing us the way into what the church will or should look like (A New Kind of Christianity, 2010) as “a Christianity worth believing with Doug Pagitt or the new Christians with Tony Jones, whether we call it generative Christianity with church historian Diana Butler Bass or emerging mission with Marcus Borg, or a generous orthodoxy with Hans Frei or integral mission with Rene Padilla.” In other words, again, Jesus Christ is the end of all our scheming, however salutary and genius, and the beginning of new life (see Romans 6 for Paul’s expression of this in death and resurrection language). Once this is done to us, we are free to have at it.
And, well, have at it is what we need.
We do need to be the church of Jesus Christ even as we might “quit Christianity.”
By the way, in closing, let me just make a reference to a stark and direct connection I made with all of this. Just coincidently I finished last week reading the classic little tome Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass’ autobiography published in 1845. The whole thing is compelling, but it was the “Appendix” that was the amazing correlation to Anne Rice’s critique of today’s Christianity. In this Appendix Douglass cuttingly critiques the church of his day and calls it up short against Christ. Listen: “What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference – so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity.”
In every day and age we lose sight of Christ and replace him with our own agenda, social or other wise. Some agendas are destructive and need themselves to be destroyed, but destroyed by the love of Christ, not brute force. And certainly, as per the theology of the cross, the constructive agendas cannot be our saving grace or holy grail. Only Christ saves. And he never quits.
We take Christ and declare positions and demarcations in his name for our own status and power, our own safety and security. Christianity is a system of belief and morals used to justify ourselves. Christ is the end of all justifications. He is the end of all our projects and schemes to create a safe haven for ourselves by either building up our cache or by tearing others down or fencing others out.
But people, perhaps including Rice, are deluded in thinking a Christian can follow Christ without church. Not church as “organized religion” in the form of existing or developing denominations or judicatories or even congregations. Yes, you can follow Christ without those forms of church, but you cannot follow Christ without church in some way shape or form since when you follow Christ you are church. Those that reject today’s “organized religion” are not wrong or radical in such a move. There’s nothing original or particularly creative, however, in rejecting a pattern or style of organizational management that doesn’t meet the needs of one’s needs or worldview. This happens generationally, if not more often. To quit organized religion and go one’s own way of following Jesus on your own – whatever that may mean – is to distinctly miss the mark of Jesus himself. His focus was the dream (aka “kingdom”) of God, to be sure. But this dream is built on the community connection and in many ways is itself the community connection. Church, do we need to say it again, is not what you attend; it’s what you are when you follow Christ. You can stop attending organized religion as a follower of Jesus but you can’t stop being church. Not if you are following Christ. So the challenge and privilege of Anne Rice and all of us who do not agree with an “anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-artificial birth control, anti-Democratic, anti-secular humanism, anti-science organization” approach (as Rice put it), is to follow Jesus Christ into organizing into loving all these “anti’ folks as much as we love our self-righteous and politically correct selves and to shape this new organization, however wonderfully amorphous as it may be, around Jesus Christ and his radical love that destroys our self-justifications and leaves us free to love and serve others at all costs. You cannot not organize if you are people working and living together in mission. And if you are following Christ, you are doing it together, not alone. So, given that, what might the organizing principles be for today’s church? How about love your enemies (teaching of Jesus), see the secular as the sacred and the sacred as secular, with no distinctions (a worldview where it’s all holy, it’s all belonging to God) and making sure nobody goes without (a seriousness and intentionality about community)? How about that?
Interestingly, there needs to be something more, though, than this new or renewed manifesto. There must be more than Jesus and his way of life and living. There must be Christ and his destruction of the myth of human constructions and his new creation of a human being freed from all self-justifications (aka self-improvement plans…take your pick of all the choices! Shall we Eat, Pray, Love or shall we dance?) Today’s church must renew it’s following of Jesus, but it cannot do so while throwing out the thing that Christ did: he died for our sin and was raised from the dead for our life. This work of Christ gets thrown out when those critical of the “theology of glory” (bluntly and too simplistically put as seeing Christ as using the cross as a starting point for personal gain, a place of becoming healthy and wealthy and successful because of God) replace this theology of glory with what is called a “negative theology of glory.” A negative theology of glory takes the end result of the theology of glory (namely a right and secure place with God because of your belief and behavior) and simply applies a “sacrifice self and serve others and become vulnerable and poor and faithful because of God” approach to get that right and secure place instead of the “positive” theology of glory’s application of Jesus’ sacrifice.
We don’t need a negative theology of glory to counteract the positive theology of glory.
We need something entirely different. Martin Luther called it the “theology of the cross.”
For our purposes here, we could simply say that the theology of the cross allows Jesus Christ to do all the saving and doesn’t replace him with anything, not even our wonderful new plans to be what Brian McClaren identifies, in referencing various key leader and voices showing us the way into what the church will or should look like (A New Kind of Christianity, 2010) as “a Christianity worth believing with Doug Pagitt or the new Christians with Tony Jones, whether we call it generative Christianity with church historian Diana Butler Bass or emerging mission with Marcus Borg, or a generous orthodoxy with Hans Frei or integral mission with Rene Padilla.” In other words, again, Jesus Christ is the end of all our scheming, however salutary and genius, and the beginning of new life (see Romans 6 for Paul’s expression of this in death and resurrection language). Once this is done to us, we are free to have at it.
And, well, have at it is what we need.
We do need to be the church of Jesus Christ even as we might “quit Christianity.”
By the way, in closing, let me just make a reference to a stark and direct connection I made with all of this. Just coincidently I finished last week reading the classic little tome Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass’ autobiography published in 1845. The whole thing is compelling, but it was the “Appendix” that was the amazing correlation to Anne Rice’s critique of today’s Christianity. In this Appendix Douglass cuttingly critiques the church of his day and calls it up short against Christ. Listen: “What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference – so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity.”
In every day and age we lose sight of Christ and replace him with our own agenda, social or other wise. Some agendas are destructive and need themselves to be destroyed, but destroyed by the love of Christ, not brute force. And certainly, as per the theology of the cross, the constructive agendas cannot be our saving grace or holy grail. Only Christ saves. And he never quits.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Grace is Not Being Let Off the Hook of Punishment but rather Being Put On the Hook of Radical Reliance and Radical Obedience
The life of living graced is one of radical reliance on God (freedom) and radical obedience to God (service).
The reliance is the hard part. You’d think the obedience would be – but no, it’s the reliance. This is so because reliance comes from being put in our place from rebellion being squelched by God in Christ. To have nothing to provide or “bring to the table” for our identity, community, meaning and destiny is all together unnerving to our “Old Self.” To be defined not by the possibility of our own new and ambitious plans or accomplishments that will transform or save us (“a new you in 60 days” or “why can’t they cap that oil well if we know enough to go down there and drill” or “there is no military solution in Afghanistan” or “we are the world, we are the children, we are the ones…”) is not, it’s safe to say, our preference! To be defined not by that possibility, as invigorating and, indeed, critical and vital as that can be in its own right (there is a place for rigorous optimism that translates into action for improvement) but rather by the promise of God that all things are made new in Christ Jesus, well now, that is really something new! Not something reformed or revamped but rather something resurrected! That is to say, you and I cannot accomplish it We can’t get to that place of radical reliance. We must be brought there. And I think we only go there kicking and screaming because nobody wants that peace brought by being humbled until they are actually there. Once there, well, there is no place you’d rather be.
Instead of being done in by God (we would traditionally call this “repenting of our sin,” not an active move by us on God but an allowing of the active move by God on us) we turn to religious journey and pilgrimages. These forays can be “sacred” and filled with “spiritual practices” of prayer, bible and the like or “secular” and filled with “lifestyle changes” of yoga and book clubs or financial makeovers with debt reduction. What they hold in common is dependency on our aspirations and actions. If you can do these things they can be, and usually are, salutary. And the more power to you! But if you think they will provide peace, I’d have to say “good luck with that.” Not because they are not of value and you are not accomplished. But because of their nature. They are you. And you are not you. You are not made for you. Rather, you are made for God. Now by this I don’t mean to deny each person’s individuality, uniqueness and freedom. I mean rather to state in blunt terms, perhaps to get our attention (I can hear our objection: “What do you mean I am not me! I am the real deal!”), that all our personal singularity finds its strongest expression when we live as mortals in the larger ecology of life rather than as conquerors over each domain, real or imagined. This whole business of being most “found” as an individual when we are most “lost” in the community is what I believe Augustine was talking about when he said “our hearts are restless until they rest in God.”
The whole Adam and Eve story is not one to describe how we break God’s rules and need to be forgiven, but rather how we are made to live in this radical reliance on God but refuse to do so. So, you are indeed you, but you might say it this way: the real you lives most fully when defined by God rather than your own futurings.
So, this is all just a bit on the “radical reliance” piece of the puzzle. Much more could and should be said just about this, let alone all that needs to be said to describe the “radical obedience” piece.
But before I close on the “radical reliance” piece, but me say just a bit more. Being there, at that place of radical reliance, is called faith. And if you look closely at what I said above regarding “repenting” you will notice something critical. It’s something that has been at the heart of the disagreements, not to say also disruptions, within the Christian family pretty much from day one. It’s that “allowing” part of the dynamic. We don’t save ourselves, but we “allow” Christ to save us. And isn’t that “allowing” something we do?!
In order for Christ to be our Savior and not some quaint or even severe disciplines of our own to be so, the answer must be “no.” But we are active and we do believe don’t we? No doubt.
To get a sense of what this struggle to actually live out faith in serenity that comes from letting it be given to us versus living out the faith in striving that comes from taking hold of it ourselves…..to get a better look at what this struggle is actually like, let’s take a look at one of the more common ways we live it out.
There is hardly a mantra more prevalent in Christian circles when engaging the storms and struggles of life than, after all the striving, you end up at the place of saying “well, I’m just going to ‘let go and let God’!”
And everybody kind of shakes their head in recognition and approval of this time-worn and seemingly now so popular strategy for spiritual and mental health.
The problem is it doesn’t work. Not because its not actually a place of peace, this place of being cared for and carried along by Benevolence, a merciful and good-giving God. It is a place and it is real and it is salutary and life-giving. It’s just that you will not go there on your own, no matter what lip-service you give it. You will not because if you did you would be taking yourself out of the driver’s seat….and that is something that you simply will not allow. It’s too risky. It’s too, well, dependent.
And you, by your very nature, are independent.
So how do you get to this place of peace where God is the control and security?
The answer lies in realizing it’s not a place you can go on your own. You have to be taken there. You have to be put there. You have to be put in this place. You have to be put in your place.
Many people wonder why they keep struggling with being able to “let go and let God” even when they walk away from a conversation with a friend where that’s the conclusion for the best strategy. There is no getting there, there is no letting go because the moment you attempt to do so, you, by definition and de-facto, are attempting to let go instead of actually letting go. You are actually, in the attempting, hanging on to yourself and your capabilities and not relying on God.
But our bondage to this condition of self-determination is more than the philosophical bind of activity versus passivity. It’s more profound than that. You cannot let go because you will not let go. We will not will it. The only thing we are willing to do is will our own preservation. We will not not do everything to save ourselves. We cannot “let go” because that would mean the end of us, and that is something we will not allow.
But I did say that place of peace and serenity, that place of letting go, is possible.
So how?
Jesus Christ brings you there. He looks at you and has the first word about you before you have a chance to speak: “I choose you” he says, and does not even give you the chance to choose him. He chooses. He decides.
You don’t find that place of peace and serenity of living in his first word decision about you by figuring out how you are going to let him in or let him take over. Here’s the key: You find that place by confessing that you do not let him in or over. You simply stop all the protesting and acknowledge your resistance. You don’t “let go and let God” to find the peace but you confess you will not “let go and let God” and you are given the peace.
This, I believe, is why confession is so necessary. Confession has gotten a bad rap over the centuries, and for good reason. The church at large corrupted it’s meaning of recognition of identity and place (I am a child of God, dependent on God, earthbound and mortal) that receives the already given grace, to make it an active payment for benefits (I am a person who has disobeyed God who, through this statement of guilt and perhaps some added service, can only receive grace fully by taking these steps). Confession can enumerate sins (the things done or left undone) but that is not its core: its core is simply stating we can’t and don’t do this on our own, this finding of peace, inwardly and outwardly, and that God can and does.
The problem with grace is that it’s just too easy. We can’t simply be given peace can we?! What about all the spiritual disciplines and all the religious life we hear so much about and within which we have so much invested?! What, in essence, about “me”!?
Grace as radical reliance and radical obedience.
A radical reliance that can only be done by admitting you cannot and will not do it.
A radical obedience that can only be done by not even knowing you are doing it.
Here we have only touched on the radical reliance, and that only in a fast-handed sort of way. We haven’t said a word here, for example, of how the cross, what Luther called “the theology of the cross” is the touchstone of it all.
We haven’t spoken at all of the radical obedience so desperately needed in our world full of debt, war-torn and melting down. That speaking will have to wait for another writing.
Those of you familiar with Luther’s “freedom of a Christian” will recognize in radical reliance Luther’s “subject to none” and in radical obedience Luther’s “subject to all.”
Maybe future blogings can unpack that as well.
The reliance is the hard part. You’d think the obedience would be – but no, it’s the reliance. This is so because reliance comes from being put in our place from rebellion being squelched by God in Christ. To have nothing to provide or “bring to the table” for our identity, community, meaning and destiny is all together unnerving to our “Old Self.” To be defined not by the possibility of our own new and ambitious plans or accomplishments that will transform or save us (“a new you in 60 days” or “why can’t they cap that oil well if we know enough to go down there and drill” or “there is no military solution in Afghanistan” or “we are the world, we are the children, we are the ones…”) is not, it’s safe to say, our preference! To be defined not by that possibility, as invigorating and, indeed, critical and vital as that can be in its own right (there is a place for rigorous optimism that translates into action for improvement) but rather by the promise of God that all things are made new in Christ Jesus, well now, that is really something new! Not something reformed or revamped but rather something resurrected! That is to say, you and I cannot accomplish it We can’t get to that place of radical reliance. We must be brought there. And I think we only go there kicking and screaming because nobody wants that peace brought by being humbled until they are actually there. Once there, well, there is no place you’d rather be.
Instead of being done in by God (we would traditionally call this “repenting of our sin,” not an active move by us on God but an allowing of the active move by God on us) we turn to religious journey and pilgrimages. These forays can be “sacred” and filled with “spiritual practices” of prayer, bible and the like or “secular” and filled with “lifestyle changes” of yoga and book clubs or financial makeovers with debt reduction. What they hold in common is dependency on our aspirations and actions. If you can do these things they can be, and usually are, salutary. And the more power to you! But if you think they will provide peace, I’d have to say “good luck with that.” Not because they are not of value and you are not accomplished. But because of their nature. They are you. And you are not you. You are not made for you. Rather, you are made for God. Now by this I don’t mean to deny each person’s individuality, uniqueness and freedom. I mean rather to state in blunt terms, perhaps to get our attention (I can hear our objection: “What do you mean I am not me! I am the real deal!”), that all our personal singularity finds its strongest expression when we live as mortals in the larger ecology of life rather than as conquerors over each domain, real or imagined. This whole business of being most “found” as an individual when we are most “lost” in the community is what I believe Augustine was talking about when he said “our hearts are restless until they rest in God.”
The whole Adam and Eve story is not one to describe how we break God’s rules and need to be forgiven, but rather how we are made to live in this radical reliance on God but refuse to do so. So, you are indeed you, but you might say it this way: the real you lives most fully when defined by God rather than your own futurings.
So, this is all just a bit on the “radical reliance” piece of the puzzle. Much more could and should be said just about this, let alone all that needs to be said to describe the “radical obedience” piece.
But before I close on the “radical reliance” piece, but me say just a bit more. Being there, at that place of radical reliance, is called faith. And if you look closely at what I said above regarding “repenting” you will notice something critical. It’s something that has been at the heart of the disagreements, not to say also disruptions, within the Christian family pretty much from day one. It’s that “allowing” part of the dynamic. We don’t save ourselves, but we “allow” Christ to save us. And isn’t that “allowing” something we do?!
In order for Christ to be our Savior and not some quaint or even severe disciplines of our own to be so, the answer must be “no.” But we are active and we do believe don’t we? No doubt.
To get a sense of what this struggle to actually live out faith in serenity that comes from letting it be given to us versus living out the faith in striving that comes from taking hold of it ourselves…..to get a better look at what this struggle is actually like, let’s take a look at one of the more common ways we live it out.
There is hardly a mantra more prevalent in Christian circles when engaging the storms and struggles of life than, after all the striving, you end up at the place of saying “well, I’m just going to ‘let go and let God’!”
And everybody kind of shakes their head in recognition and approval of this time-worn and seemingly now so popular strategy for spiritual and mental health.
The problem is it doesn’t work. Not because its not actually a place of peace, this place of being cared for and carried along by Benevolence, a merciful and good-giving God. It is a place and it is real and it is salutary and life-giving. It’s just that you will not go there on your own, no matter what lip-service you give it. You will not because if you did you would be taking yourself out of the driver’s seat….and that is something that you simply will not allow. It’s too risky. It’s too, well, dependent.
And you, by your very nature, are independent.
So how do you get to this place of peace where God is the control and security?
The answer lies in realizing it’s not a place you can go on your own. You have to be taken there. You have to be put there. You have to be put in this place. You have to be put in your place.
Many people wonder why they keep struggling with being able to “let go and let God” even when they walk away from a conversation with a friend where that’s the conclusion for the best strategy. There is no getting there, there is no letting go because the moment you attempt to do so, you, by definition and de-facto, are attempting to let go instead of actually letting go. You are actually, in the attempting, hanging on to yourself and your capabilities and not relying on God.
But our bondage to this condition of self-determination is more than the philosophical bind of activity versus passivity. It’s more profound than that. You cannot let go because you will not let go. We will not will it. The only thing we are willing to do is will our own preservation. We will not not do everything to save ourselves. We cannot “let go” because that would mean the end of us, and that is something we will not allow.
But I did say that place of peace and serenity, that place of letting go, is possible.
So how?
Jesus Christ brings you there. He looks at you and has the first word about you before you have a chance to speak: “I choose you” he says, and does not even give you the chance to choose him. He chooses. He decides.
You don’t find that place of peace and serenity of living in his first word decision about you by figuring out how you are going to let him in or let him take over. Here’s the key: You find that place by confessing that you do not let him in or over. You simply stop all the protesting and acknowledge your resistance. You don’t “let go and let God” to find the peace but you confess you will not “let go and let God” and you are given the peace.
This, I believe, is why confession is so necessary. Confession has gotten a bad rap over the centuries, and for good reason. The church at large corrupted it’s meaning of recognition of identity and place (I am a child of God, dependent on God, earthbound and mortal) that receives the already given grace, to make it an active payment for benefits (I am a person who has disobeyed God who, through this statement of guilt and perhaps some added service, can only receive grace fully by taking these steps). Confession can enumerate sins (the things done or left undone) but that is not its core: its core is simply stating we can’t and don’t do this on our own, this finding of peace, inwardly and outwardly, and that God can and does.
The problem with grace is that it’s just too easy. We can’t simply be given peace can we?! What about all the spiritual disciplines and all the religious life we hear so much about and within which we have so much invested?! What, in essence, about “me”!?
Grace as radical reliance and radical obedience.
A radical reliance that can only be done by admitting you cannot and will not do it.
A radical obedience that can only be done by not even knowing you are doing it.
Here we have only touched on the radical reliance, and that only in a fast-handed sort of way. We haven’t said a word here, for example, of how the cross, what Luther called “the theology of the cross” is the touchstone of it all.
We haven’t spoken at all of the radical obedience so desperately needed in our world full of debt, war-torn and melting down. That speaking will have to wait for another writing.
Those of you familiar with Luther’s “freedom of a Christian” will recognize in radical reliance Luther’s “subject to none” and in radical obedience Luther’s “subject to all.”
Maybe future blogings can unpack that as well.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Letting the Bible Do Its Thing (and not your thing).
Letting the Bible Do Its Thing Rather Than Using it for our Own Purposes.
Diana Butler Bass has written a book entitled Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (2006)
She did some research around vital and growing mainline churches, among them Lutheran.
She writes this about them:
“All the congregations have found new vitality through an intentional and transformative engagement with a Christian tradition as embodied in faith practices. Typically, they have rediscovered the riches of the Christian past and practice simple, but profound, things like discernment, hospitality, testimony, contemplation and justice. They reach back to ancient wisdom and reach out through a life sustained by Christian devotional and moral practices. They know the biblical story and their own story. They focus more on God’s grace in the world than on the eternal state of their own souls.”
To know the biblical story is to know more than bible stories. Too often we take our sinful and self-justifying mindset and apply bible stories and morals gleaned therein to support our own agenda. They can be conservative agendas or liberal agendas or somewhere in between. To know the biblical story is to know Jesus Christ who died for our sin, destroying all self-justification, and is raised from the dead, creating a new person who trusts God alone and serves neighbor. How can we read various bible stories or accounts and come to different conclusions as to how we are to live (ethics/morality) and still remain together in mission for Christ? Because we know the biblical story. Because Christ is raised from the dead and now still raises the dead we are all alive because we are all first dead. Dead to our projects and agendas and lifestyles. And alive only in Christ. We believe in Christ, not the Bible. I know that sounds strange, if not against the faith, because we are used to talking about what we revere about God by saying we “believe in the Bible.” But we as Lutheran Christians have always seen the Bible as the “cradle that holds the Christ child” (to use a phrase of Martin Luther) where it is the Christ child, not the cradle, that is the vital (life-giving) word to us.
To honor and live out of our Lutheran identity and tradition most directly, we take the Christ from the Bible, not the Bible from the Christ.
So read your Bible. And listen for how God crucifies you and raises you from the dead, how God is faithful. When you read, instead of listening for ways for you to define yourself as faithful and correct, listen for the ways the holy breaks into the human and your identity and purpose become who God is and what God does.
Christ alone gives life. Your life does not.
The more we are dead the more we are alive.
The Bible tells us so.
Diana Butler Bass has written a book entitled Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (2006)
She did some research around vital and growing mainline churches, among them Lutheran.
She writes this about them:
“All the congregations have found new vitality through an intentional and transformative engagement with a Christian tradition as embodied in faith practices. Typically, they have rediscovered the riches of the Christian past and practice simple, but profound, things like discernment, hospitality, testimony, contemplation and justice. They reach back to ancient wisdom and reach out through a life sustained by Christian devotional and moral practices. They know the biblical story and their own story. They focus more on God’s grace in the world than on the eternal state of their own souls.”
To know the biblical story is to know more than bible stories. Too often we take our sinful and self-justifying mindset and apply bible stories and morals gleaned therein to support our own agenda. They can be conservative agendas or liberal agendas or somewhere in between. To know the biblical story is to know Jesus Christ who died for our sin, destroying all self-justification, and is raised from the dead, creating a new person who trusts God alone and serves neighbor. How can we read various bible stories or accounts and come to different conclusions as to how we are to live (ethics/morality) and still remain together in mission for Christ? Because we know the biblical story. Because Christ is raised from the dead and now still raises the dead we are all alive because we are all first dead. Dead to our projects and agendas and lifestyles. And alive only in Christ. We believe in Christ, not the Bible. I know that sounds strange, if not against the faith, because we are used to talking about what we revere about God by saying we “believe in the Bible.” But we as Lutheran Christians have always seen the Bible as the “cradle that holds the Christ child” (to use a phrase of Martin Luther) where it is the Christ child, not the cradle, that is the vital (life-giving) word to us.
To honor and live out of our Lutheran identity and tradition most directly, we take the Christ from the Bible, not the Bible from the Christ.
So read your Bible. And listen for how God crucifies you and raises you from the dead, how God is faithful. When you read, instead of listening for ways for you to define yourself as faithful and correct, listen for the ways the holy breaks into the human and your identity and purpose become who God is and what God does.
Christ alone gives life. Your life does not.
The more we are dead the more we are alive.
The Bible tells us so.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Supper is Ready! On Love and Enemies
S.O.A.P. (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) is a way of encountering God through the Bible each day, following a prescribed pattern of reading so you cover the whole Bible over a period of time.
Its a good discipline for a disciple because we need to let God loose on us through this source (written word). Watching for God and listening to God through other sources (like, say, the beauty of the golf course!) has a tendency to allow us to build God into what we think God should be. Paying attention to the bible can do that too, of course, if you are less than honest. But if you are honest and let the wrestling with God commence, blessings occur.
So, a S.O.A.P from Wednesday May 12 2010 and my daily reading of that day.
“Supper is Ready”
Love and Enemies
Scripture
“All were happy about this covenant, for they had entered into it with all their hearts. Eagerly they sought after God, and they found him. And the Lord gave them rest from their enemies on every side”
2 Chronicles 15:15
Observation and Application
Last night at my Diakonia Class I included my “Parable of Salvation” (see below) as part of my lecture. The whole thing about finding God is not that we cannot but that we will not. And when we do see him he forces us to sit down at the table. We will not sit down on our own. We are forced to sit down. It is the force not of violence but of love. We are overcome by the unconditionality of it all – we have nothing to bring to the table, this feast, and our pride on the one hand, is shut down because, no, we are not allowed at this feast to bring any fare. We are served, unconditionally, by Christ. And our despair, on the other hand, is rejected because at this table no one, for any reason, is turned away. We then are forced, against our will, our will being destroyed by the fire of this love. Christ’s heart-melting (or piercing) gaze takes us beyond the choice of sitting down. It is too good not to be true. And so we do sit, we do find him, we do feast, after he has found us out, and we enjoy his presence.
And then there is the “rest from the enemies.” I think of Psalm 23 and the table set in the middle of enemies. Think about that. Our enemy is just as likely to be sitting at the table with us as to be standing on the side causing all kinds of distraction (the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is noisy and obnoxious) so that it’s a serious challenge to actually enjoy the hospitality of God. Our enemies are everywhere. You could say the Enemy is everywhere: anything and everything that would be bent on keeping us from celebrating this meal – this life of unconditional love by God. No matter, though, where the enemy is or what he does. As Paul exhorts (Romans 8), nothing can separate us from this love of God in and through Christ. The party has started and nothing is going to shut it down.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, today my enemies surround me. Can you bring the food from the kitchen pronto, with lots of wine too please, so that in my hunger I don’t get up and walk away and really, then, be in a fix!
Amen.
A Parable of Salvation
Heaven is like a huge banquet hall in which God has set a table setting for every single person in the world. At each table setting is the name card for each person, signifying their invitation and the desire of the Host of the banquet to have each person join in. The door to the banquet hall is open to all. There is no admission charge. There are no credentials that must be shown in order to enter. The Host has paid for the entire banquet and has posted an open invitation. When guests arrive they are shown their place at the table and invited to be seated. Many do, and thus enjoy the service and hospitality of the Host. But many do not, for many reasons, not the least of which is that they feel there must be something they should offer to help with the festivities. In fact, when they entered the banquet hall they did so with the question if not the objection of an offering of some sort by saying “Is there not something I can bring?” There is an awkwardness, if not a resistance, on the part of the guests to letting the Host be totally responsible for all the fare. No matter that their place is reserved and open for them, they refuse to actually sit down to be a part of the party. Always gracious, the Host does not insist they participate but also is not interested in having “spoil-sports” interfere with the festivities. He asks that those who refuse to sit down and join the fun to then go off into another area of the Banquet Hall, albeit empty of banquet items, where they can commiserate or perhaps rethink their invitation.
© Johan Bergh 2006
Its a good discipline for a disciple because we need to let God loose on us through this source (written word). Watching for God and listening to God through other sources (like, say, the beauty of the golf course!) has a tendency to allow us to build God into what we think God should be. Paying attention to the bible can do that too, of course, if you are less than honest. But if you are honest and let the wrestling with God commence, blessings occur.
So, a S.O.A.P from Wednesday May 12 2010 and my daily reading of that day.
“Supper is Ready”
Love and Enemies
Scripture
“All were happy about this covenant, for they had entered into it with all their hearts. Eagerly they sought after God, and they found him. And the Lord gave them rest from their enemies on every side”
2 Chronicles 15:15
Observation and Application
Last night at my Diakonia Class I included my “Parable of Salvation” (see below) as part of my lecture. The whole thing about finding God is not that we cannot but that we will not. And when we do see him he forces us to sit down at the table. We will not sit down on our own. We are forced to sit down. It is the force not of violence but of love. We are overcome by the unconditionality of it all – we have nothing to bring to the table, this feast, and our pride on the one hand, is shut down because, no, we are not allowed at this feast to bring any fare. We are served, unconditionally, by Christ. And our despair, on the other hand, is rejected because at this table no one, for any reason, is turned away. We then are forced, against our will, our will being destroyed by the fire of this love. Christ’s heart-melting (or piercing) gaze takes us beyond the choice of sitting down. It is too good not to be true. And so we do sit, we do find him, we do feast, after he has found us out, and we enjoy his presence.
And then there is the “rest from the enemies.” I think of Psalm 23 and the table set in the middle of enemies. Think about that. Our enemy is just as likely to be sitting at the table with us as to be standing on the side causing all kinds of distraction (the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is noisy and obnoxious) so that it’s a serious challenge to actually enjoy the hospitality of God. Our enemies are everywhere. You could say the Enemy is everywhere: anything and everything that would be bent on keeping us from celebrating this meal – this life of unconditional love by God. No matter, though, where the enemy is or what he does. As Paul exhorts (Romans 8), nothing can separate us from this love of God in and through Christ. The party has started and nothing is going to shut it down.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, today my enemies surround me. Can you bring the food from the kitchen pronto, with lots of wine too please, so that in my hunger I don’t get up and walk away and really, then, be in a fix!
Amen.
A Parable of Salvation
Heaven is like a huge banquet hall in which God has set a table setting for every single person in the world. At each table setting is the name card for each person, signifying their invitation and the desire of the Host of the banquet to have each person join in. The door to the banquet hall is open to all. There is no admission charge. There are no credentials that must be shown in order to enter. The Host has paid for the entire banquet and has posted an open invitation. When guests arrive they are shown their place at the table and invited to be seated. Many do, and thus enjoy the service and hospitality of the Host. But many do not, for many reasons, not the least of which is that they feel there must be something they should offer to help with the festivities. In fact, when they entered the banquet hall they did so with the question if not the objection of an offering of some sort by saying “Is there not something I can bring?” There is an awkwardness, if not a resistance, on the part of the guests to letting the Host be totally responsible for all the fare. No matter that their place is reserved and open for them, they refuse to actually sit down to be a part of the party. Always gracious, the Host does not insist they participate but also is not interested in having “spoil-sports” interfere with the festivities. He asks that those who refuse to sit down and join the fun to then go off into another area of the Banquet Hall, albeit empty of banquet items, where they can commiserate or perhaps rethink their invitation.
© Johan Bergh 2006
Sunday, May 9, 2010
This Really is a New Day!
My S.O.A.P. (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) for Monday, May 10.
"We've Never Seen Today Before"
What Christ Does
Scripture"And the one sitting on the throne said, 'Look I am making all things new!' "
Revelation 21:5a
Observation/Application
The other day I was in a group and somebody was asked to say a prayer for all there.
The person praying spoke of something simple that caught my attention and opened my heart. He said "Thank you Lord for giving us this day today that we have never seen before." Simple enough. But what blew away some cobwebs for me was the notion that even though I could expect to see alot of what I had seen before on this day, it actually was totally new. Every thing was literally new because it had never been done in that same way before. It had been done before, perhaps, from breakfast to turning on the computer and opening the blinds at the lab to hitting the gym for a workout after work. But never really done before because it was never done in this moment. Today was totally new because all things were being done, even if repeated, in a new day.
These days I need to be reminded that nothing is inevitable and all things are possible.
When Christ says to me that he makes all things new I know it in the freedom from the burden of having to carve out my own destiny. But I also know it in the freedom to be creative with him in making something new explode on the scene today that will lift up and improve not only my life but the lives of all he puts before me.
Jesus Christ is life.....always creating new life!
Prayer
Lord Jesus, let me see this new day for what it is! Amen.
"We've Never Seen Today Before"
What Christ Does
Scripture"And the one sitting on the throne said, 'Look I am making all things new!' "
Revelation 21:5a
Observation/Application
The other day I was in a group and somebody was asked to say a prayer for all there.
The person praying spoke of something simple that caught my attention and opened my heart. He said "Thank you Lord for giving us this day today that we have never seen before." Simple enough. But what blew away some cobwebs for me was the notion that even though I could expect to see alot of what I had seen before on this day, it actually was totally new. Every thing was literally new because it had never been done in that same way before. It had been done before, perhaps, from breakfast to turning on the computer and opening the blinds at the lab to hitting the gym for a workout after work. But never really done before because it was never done in this moment. Today was totally new because all things were being done, even if repeated, in a new day.
These days I need to be reminded that nothing is inevitable and all things are possible.
When Christ says to me that he makes all things new I know it in the freedom from the burden of having to carve out my own destiny. But I also know it in the freedom to be creative with him in making something new explode on the scene today that will lift up and improve not only my life but the lives of all he puts before me.
Jesus Christ is life.....always creating new life!
Prayer
Lord Jesus, let me see this new day for what it is! Amen.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
S.O.A.P for Today
My S.O.A.P. (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) for today….
“Earthly Minded”
On Eternal life
Scripture
“Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord”
Leviticus 19:17b
Observation/Application
Luke 10:25-28 has the law teacher ask the eternal question and Jesus answers with this from the law. This is nothing new. This “loving neighbor” is as old as Moses. Why would anyone object on theological grounds? Maybe practical, moral, psychological, or legal grounds. But not theological: there never has been a way to eternal life. Why would Jesus start now by describing a path or formula? No, you and I are to do just what is the only thing we (can) do: pay attention to our neighbor and leave the eternal speculation to God.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, who is my neighbor? Amen.
“Earthly Minded”
On Eternal life
Scripture
“Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord”
Leviticus 19:17b
Observation/Application
Luke 10:25-28 has the law teacher ask the eternal question and Jesus answers with this from the law. This is nothing new. This “loving neighbor” is as old as Moses. Why would anyone object on theological grounds? Maybe practical, moral, psychological, or legal grounds. But not theological: there never has been a way to eternal life. Why would Jesus start now by describing a path or formula? No, you and I are to do just what is the only thing we (can) do: pay attention to our neighbor and leave the eternal speculation to God.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, who is my neighbor? Amen.
Monday, May 3, 2010
This I Believe
Another "S.O.A.P." (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) from daily bible readings. FYI, for bible readings, I'm using the daily lectionary from the worship book called Evangelical Worship).
"This I Believe"
Sharing the Faith
Scripture
“It was there at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.”
Acts 11:26b
Observation/Application
It makes sense that we would bear the brand of the one we follow. Christ. It would be interesting if we never got that label or title. What would we be? “the believers”? That would be interesting since it naturally begs the question – what do you believe? Once identified as one of the believers we would naturally, in the course of any regular conversation, be asked what we believe! Many today assume they know what a “Christian” is. In the U.S., outside of church circles, most understand it by what makes the media (no blame here, no media bashing, just the reality). Often because of the label “Christian” things are assumed and conversation is shut down. But what if I was a “believer”? For one thing, I would be, I’m thinking, better trained and prepared to actually know and speak what I believe! What is your 30 second “elevator speech” about what you believe? Here’s mine: “I believe that I do not have to believe or do anything in order to be right with God – not even believe in God – and it is only Jesus Christ who gives me this freedom.” I would say more, but that’s the “elevator version.” It would be cool if everybody in any given congregation/church would write down what they believe (like the popular book This I Believe, which, by the way, I highly recommend!). It would go a long way in growing and sharing the faith!
Prayer
Lord, Jesus, thank you for setting me free!
Amen
"This I Believe"
Sharing the Faith
Scripture
“It was there at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.”
Acts 11:26b
Observation/Application
It makes sense that we would bear the brand of the one we follow. Christ. It would be interesting if we never got that label or title. What would we be? “the believers”? That would be interesting since it naturally begs the question – what do you believe? Once identified as one of the believers we would naturally, in the course of any regular conversation, be asked what we believe! Many today assume they know what a “Christian” is. In the U.S., outside of church circles, most understand it by what makes the media (no blame here, no media bashing, just the reality). Often because of the label “Christian” things are assumed and conversation is shut down. But what if I was a “believer”? For one thing, I would be, I’m thinking, better trained and prepared to actually know and speak what I believe! What is your 30 second “elevator speech” about what you believe? Here’s mine: “I believe that I do not have to believe or do anything in order to be right with God – not even believe in God – and it is only Jesus Christ who gives me this freedom.” I would say more, but that’s the “elevator version.” It would be cool if everybody in any given congregation/church would write down what they believe (like the popular book This I Believe, which, by the way, I highly recommend!). It would go a long way in growing and sharing the faith!
Prayer
Lord, Jesus, thank you for setting me free!
Amen
Friday, April 30, 2010
About That Faith
I just started teaching a class in a course of study for adults called Diakonia here in Orlando.
The course is "Ministry in Daily Life."
One of the assignments is for the class participants to complete a daily journal using a method called "S.O.A.P." Each read the same assigned Scripture each day and then journal about it. S = Scripture, O = Observation, A = Application, P = Prayer. From the total Scripture they read for the day they pick just one piece that caught their mind and heart. Then they write.
Takes about 20-30 minutes for the whole thing each day.
I'll be doing this along with my class participants, and I'll try to post as many of my daily journal S.O.A.P's as possible.
Here's a start:
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
“Enough Faith?”
The Nature of Faith
S = Scripture
“ ‘You don’t have enough faith,’ Jesus told them. ‘I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.’ “
Matthew 18:20
O = Observation
A = Application
So Tuesday night at the new Diakonia class I start teaching on the topic of the nature of faith – and I say that it’s not about quantity. You can’t get more faith, just faith. And I say – the main topic – it’s not something you do, but it’s something done to you. Then, the first reading in S.O.A.P., the daily bible journal discipline I introduced to the class and required them to do, has this from Jesus: “You don’t have enough faith”!!!! Yeah, that’s Jesus for you – deconstructing the nice worlds we build. But wait. Listen. Seriously, I think he’s not saying anything about quantity after all. Because his qualifier, his object lesson, his metaphor for illustrative purposes to tell of this gigantic “more” is not a Mac Truck (I know, they didn’t have those then, but still), but rather a mustard seed. If we had a mustard seed faith we could mountains? Really? Do you know how big, how “more,” a mustard seed is? Okay then. Here’s what’s going on – he’s saying they have no faith, not a small faith that needs to be super-sized. If they had any faith, mountains would move. Good enough, but now we still are left in a quandary, because it seems harder to us to produce something from nothing than to grow something larger. These days I work a lot in a greenhouse. I know how to grow plants that’ll knock your socks off. But I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make a seed. So, back to the key point about the nature of faith: it’s not something you do but something done to you. That’s the deal, and the critical point. And the subject of another posting! Or two!
P = Prayer
Lord Jesus, give (more!) faith to me today!
Amen.
The course is "Ministry in Daily Life."
One of the assignments is for the class participants to complete a daily journal using a method called "S.O.A.P." Each read the same assigned Scripture each day and then journal about it. S = Scripture, O = Observation, A = Application, P = Prayer. From the total Scripture they read for the day they pick just one piece that caught their mind and heart. Then they write.
Takes about 20-30 minutes for the whole thing each day.
I'll be doing this along with my class participants, and I'll try to post as many of my daily journal S.O.A.P's as possible.
Here's a start:
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
“Enough Faith?”
The Nature of Faith
S = Scripture
“ ‘You don’t have enough faith,’ Jesus told them. ‘I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.’ “
Matthew 18:20
O = Observation
A = Application
So Tuesday night at the new Diakonia class I start teaching on the topic of the nature of faith – and I say that it’s not about quantity. You can’t get more faith, just faith. And I say – the main topic – it’s not something you do, but it’s something done to you. Then, the first reading in S.O.A.P., the daily bible journal discipline I introduced to the class and required them to do, has this from Jesus: “You don’t have enough faith”!!!! Yeah, that’s Jesus for you – deconstructing the nice worlds we build. But wait. Listen. Seriously, I think he’s not saying anything about quantity after all. Because his qualifier, his object lesson, his metaphor for illustrative purposes to tell of this gigantic “more” is not a Mac Truck (I know, they didn’t have those then, but still), but rather a mustard seed. If we had a mustard seed faith we could mountains? Really? Do you know how big, how “more,” a mustard seed is? Okay then. Here’s what’s going on – he’s saying they have no faith, not a small faith that needs to be super-sized. If they had any faith, mountains would move. Good enough, but now we still are left in a quandary, because it seems harder to us to produce something from nothing than to grow something larger. These days I work a lot in a greenhouse. I know how to grow plants that’ll knock your socks off. But I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make a seed. So, back to the key point about the nature of faith: it’s not something you do but something done to you. That’s the deal, and the critical point. And the subject of another posting! Or two!
P = Prayer
Lord Jesus, give (more!) faith to me today!
Amen.
Friday, April 2, 2010
About that Cross on a Friday Noon
It is easy to want to de-spiritualize the Jerusalem events and point to how Jesus, historical figure that he was, was simply a misguided mystic who underestimated Rome and The Temple in their reaction to his following or a political insurgent incapable of producing a strategic plan to deploy and organize those sympathetic to his cause. I am of the mind to say that something cosmic and transcendent did, however, happen that Friday noon and Sunday dawn, even as I cannot employ the traditional atonement theologies to give it meaning.
The most popular explanation, and most longstanding of the theories, is that Jesus was a stand-in for us in taking on the anger and righteous judgment of God against our wrong-doing, not to say also our mistrust. There are more, but the key reason I cannot appreciate this thinking is that it undercuts the actual mercy of God. There is not mercy shown if blood spilt is a necessity. In this, I am not defending God as loving and kind. I am simply pointing out the impossibility of the actual claim – that God is merciful to humanity by being merciless to one of humanity’s own (and you cannot rebut this by claiming Jesus’ humanity exempt from humanity’s attributes. Nicea took care of that!). One more reason to mention (and this is not incidental in my mind these days overall when it comes to our contemporary reading of the biblical accounts) is that the actual and historical events that took place should not be infused artificially with supernatural occurrence or meaning in order to render them divine. If divinity is real, and I believe it is, it should not have to be invented or superimposed, but rather observed and experienced. In this case, this Friday and Sunday so observed, we must look closely at what actually happened as we look at the biblical narrative that those contemporaries recorded. It was (and is) written that Jesus died for them (and us). It’s possible to see that this is true without invoking a theology of a just God who cannot tolerate opposition.
I would put it this way. Jesus did love those he taught, healed, fed and led. The accounts bear this out. When cornered by the Religious and Rome, what were his options when it came to not compromising his singular love?
He could run away, lead an escape, taking his close band of followers with him (or not, for that matter). But where would that leave those same followers, those same that he loved? Bereft of home and community, they would be political and social refugees never able to safely return. How loving is that?
What other options for Jesus? How about fighting back? He could actually lead an insurrection – either politically or militarily. But where would that leave his beloved? Crushed in a heartbeat, that’s where. Caesar’s power, co-mingled with the Religious Elite, would quickly and violently take out any organized opponent. Not exactly, for Jesus as the leader, the most loving place to lead his followers.
So Jesus did what only could be done to stay true to who he was (the identity recognition here is not unimportant: he is the son of Mary and Joseph, but also, as he says, sent from God). He died for them. Rather that flight or fight, he let them go and took his place on their behalf. Tragically, and divinely profound, it was the only thing he could do – he was caught, perhaps you could say, by his own identity and mission. He must love at all costs because he is love at all costs. God was not impressed by this, nor thwarted from ruthless action against humanity. Because, we see, what happened there, on this Friday noon, was God’s Self. This is God, purely unconditional and self-giving love.
And, then, why do we know this and recognize this (and fall on our knees in worship) instead of counting it all as one more death among many? Because on that Sunday something happened where this same crucified Jesus was experienced alive and inviting his followers to this same kind of unconditional love. Debate the resurrection event as you will – empty tomb or embodied Jesus – but someone real encountered those Jesus followers and invited them to embrace his dying as their way of living.
The risen Jesus calls into question all our self-preserving schemes that would distance us from trusting God alone so that loving others unconditionally as he did would be our very way of life. We are, facing him, named for what we are: intransigent mis-trusters (sinners). Facing him in this way he destroys our self-serving projects. The apostle Paul wrote about his effect when he wrote to the Christians in Rome (Romans 6) about how the “sinful self” is put to death in Christ when the follower is baptized. But at this same time, the Risen Christ gives us his own God-trusting Self so that loving others unconditionally as our way of life could be done with joy and abandon. We are, facing him, named (again!) for what we are: capable trusters (saints).
Far from being some kind of insurance policy against our mortality, the Resurrection of Jesus is a deathblow to all who cannot trust (that would be every last one of us, religious or not) and the life-giving power to all who take his gift of faith (trust) and live by it.
As much as we’d like to think that the cross and the resurrection is some kind of antidote to our fear of what will become of us – either here or hereafter – any vigorous reading of the New Testament does not afford us such luxury. The story of Jesus is the truth of the matter: we don't know what will become of us and are only left with the invitation to trust God alone with this and get on with the business of taking care of neighbor and nature. And since we will not do this trusting, God gives us, in the most dramatic self-giving move of all, even his own presence to do the trusting for us (This is the real power of the resurrection! Power to trust God’s promise of life against all odds).
What would be “luxury” would be to claim eternal safety and security through a belief system or behavior pattern we adopt. We have, to the detriment of all, made Christianity into this. What I argue here is that the cross and resurrection are not such system or structure, but rather are the actual way of God that gives us life where and when (everywhere and always!) we refuse it!
God is about healing and blessing the world. Jesus was exactly this. He is this. The cross is what we do to God. The resurrection is what God does to us – amazingly – in return.
So, back to what actually happened that Friday and Sunday. Coming up with elaborate explanations of meaning (theologies) can serve to protect us from engaging the truth about us and God. The truth about us is that we cannot impact our destiny by our belief and behavior. The truth about God is that God can and does impact our destiny. God decides, we do not. And the further truth about us is that we will not trust God to do that deciding but instead create elaborate schemes to supplant God’s decision. And the further truth about God is that God only decides for us, never against us. But instead of embracing these truths we construct a religion that says Jesus died to keep us from the wrathful God who rightly could and should destroy us and that we must decide for or against him.
I suppose this type of religion could be tolerated if it were benign. But it is not. Not only does it drain us of resources (investing in religious rituals and protocols) that should be spent on the only thing that matters to God – lifting up our neighbor and tending the earth’s ecology. But also, it sets up exclusivities and expels outsiders who do not conform to our established beliefs and behaviors (no matter how congruent with God’s moral law). So, we must declare, as Martin Luther did, the cross is our theology, and not a theology about the cross is our theology!
What happened on that Friday noon and Sunday morning is the presence of God encountering our sin and giving us life, not things to believe or do (Jesus simply died, he did not give his followers burdens to bear: Fight! Flight!). If we could but see this – God in-breaking instead of us believing something about God – well, then, everything would change. Holy week would be the grand celebration of giving life away to those in need and to our environment in crisis, all in the name of Jesus Christ! This, instead of what it so often is now: a ritual observing a supposed transaction between God and Satan to which we are passive observers until such time as we tell ourselves we must believe this transaction took place so that we might be given its blessing.
This week is Holy alright, because of Jesus Christ and his passion – that sets us free to serve and does not, decidedly, set us about the business of believing and behaving correctly to save our skin.
We are saved. To love. Unconditionally. Now if we could only get used to that truth. It would set us free.
The most popular explanation, and most longstanding of the theories, is that Jesus was a stand-in for us in taking on the anger and righteous judgment of God against our wrong-doing, not to say also our mistrust. There are more, but the key reason I cannot appreciate this thinking is that it undercuts the actual mercy of God. There is not mercy shown if blood spilt is a necessity. In this, I am not defending God as loving and kind. I am simply pointing out the impossibility of the actual claim – that God is merciful to humanity by being merciless to one of humanity’s own (and you cannot rebut this by claiming Jesus’ humanity exempt from humanity’s attributes. Nicea took care of that!). One more reason to mention (and this is not incidental in my mind these days overall when it comes to our contemporary reading of the biblical accounts) is that the actual and historical events that took place should not be infused artificially with supernatural occurrence or meaning in order to render them divine. If divinity is real, and I believe it is, it should not have to be invented or superimposed, but rather observed and experienced. In this case, this Friday and Sunday so observed, we must look closely at what actually happened as we look at the biblical narrative that those contemporaries recorded. It was (and is) written that Jesus died for them (and us). It’s possible to see that this is true without invoking a theology of a just God who cannot tolerate opposition.
I would put it this way. Jesus did love those he taught, healed, fed and led. The accounts bear this out. When cornered by the Religious and Rome, what were his options when it came to not compromising his singular love?
He could run away, lead an escape, taking his close band of followers with him (or not, for that matter). But where would that leave those same followers, those same that he loved? Bereft of home and community, they would be political and social refugees never able to safely return. How loving is that?
What other options for Jesus? How about fighting back? He could actually lead an insurrection – either politically or militarily. But where would that leave his beloved? Crushed in a heartbeat, that’s where. Caesar’s power, co-mingled with the Religious Elite, would quickly and violently take out any organized opponent. Not exactly, for Jesus as the leader, the most loving place to lead his followers.
So Jesus did what only could be done to stay true to who he was (the identity recognition here is not unimportant: he is the son of Mary and Joseph, but also, as he says, sent from God). He died for them. Rather that flight or fight, he let them go and took his place on their behalf. Tragically, and divinely profound, it was the only thing he could do – he was caught, perhaps you could say, by his own identity and mission. He must love at all costs because he is love at all costs. God was not impressed by this, nor thwarted from ruthless action against humanity. Because, we see, what happened there, on this Friday noon, was God’s Self. This is God, purely unconditional and self-giving love.
And, then, why do we know this and recognize this (and fall on our knees in worship) instead of counting it all as one more death among many? Because on that Sunday something happened where this same crucified Jesus was experienced alive and inviting his followers to this same kind of unconditional love. Debate the resurrection event as you will – empty tomb or embodied Jesus – but someone real encountered those Jesus followers and invited them to embrace his dying as their way of living.
The risen Jesus calls into question all our self-preserving schemes that would distance us from trusting God alone so that loving others unconditionally as he did would be our very way of life. We are, facing him, named for what we are: intransigent mis-trusters (sinners). Facing him in this way he destroys our self-serving projects. The apostle Paul wrote about his effect when he wrote to the Christians in Rome (Romans 6) about how the “sinful self” is put to death in Christ when the follower is baptized. But at this same time, the Risen Christ gives us his own God-trusting Self so that loving others unconditionally as our way of life could be done with joy and abandon. We are, facing him, named (again!) for what we are: capable trusters (saints).
Far from being some kind of insurance policy against our mortality, the Resurrection of Jesus is a deathblow to all who cannot trust (that would be every last one of us, religious or not) and the life-giving power to all who take his gift of faith (trust) and live by it.
As much as we’d like to think that the cross and the resurrection is some kind of antidote to our fear of what will become of us – either here or hereafter – any vigorous reading of the New Testament does not afford us such luxury. The story of Jesus is the truth of the matter: we don't know what will become of us and are only left with the invitation to trust God alone with this and get on with the business of taking care of neighbor and nature. And since we will not do this trusting, God gives us, in the most dramatic self-giving move of all, even his own presence to do the trusting for us (This is the real power of the resurrection! Power to trust God’s promise of life against all odds).
What would be “luxury” would be to claim eternal safety and security through a belief system or behavior pattern we adopt. We have, to the detriment of all, made Christianity into this. What I argue here is that the cross and resurrection are not such system or structure, but rather are the actual way of God that gives us life where and when (everywhere and always!) we refuse it!
God is about healing and blessing the world. Jesus was exactly this. He is this. The cross is what we do to God. The resurrection is what God does to us – amazingly – in return.
So, back to what actually happened that Friday and Sunday. Coming up with elaborate explanations of meaning (theologies) can serve to protect us from engaging the truth about us and God. The truth about us is that we cannot impact our destiny by our belief and behavior. The truth about God is that God can and does impact our destiny. God decides, we do not. And the further truth about us is that we will not trust God to do that deciding but instead create elaborate schemes to supplant God’s decision. And the further truth about God is that God only decides for us, never against us. But instead of embracing these truths we construct a religion that says Jesus died to keep us from the wrathful God who rightly could and should destroy us and that we must decide for or against him.
I suppose this type of religion could be tolerated if it were benign. But it is not. Not only does it drain us of resources (investing in religious rituals and protocols) that should be spent on the only thing that matters to God – lifting up our neighbor and tending the earth’s ecology. But also, it sets up exclusivities and expels outsiders who do not conform to our established beliefs and behaviors (no matter how congruent with God’s moral law). So, we must declare, as Martin Luther did, the cross is our theology, and not a theology about the cross is our theology!
What happened on that Friday noon and Sunday morning is the presence of God encountering our sin and giving us life, not things to believe or do (Jesus simply died, he did not give his followers burdens to bear: Fight! Flight!). If we could but see this – God in-breaking instead of us believing something about God – well, then, everything would change. Holy week would be the grand celebration of giving life away to those in need and to our environment in crisis, all in the name of Jesus Christ! This, instead of what it so often is now: a ritual observing a supposed transaction between God and Satan to which we are passive observers until such time as we tell ourselves we must believe this transaction took place so that we might be given its blessing.
This week is Holy alright, because of Jesus Christ and his passion – that sets us free to serve and does not, decidedly, set us about the business of believing and behaving correctly to save our skin.
We are saved. To love. Unconditionally. Now if we could only get used to that truth. It would set us free.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
You, Me, Tiger Woods and (Wrong) Confession That Keeps God at a Safe Distance
Most people avoid Ash Wednesday and any kind of general confession not so much because they don’t believe they actually do things that offend the divine and other fellow human beings and that it would probably be the right and civil thing to do to actually apologize.
I don’t think people really want to avoid apologies.
Certainly not “in general” as in recognizing that we all have a part to blame in the mess we are in.
Take the current economic meltdown. In the current “blame game” most of what I have read is that there is enough blame to go around. Every one of us is implicated, from greedy financial folks to overzealous consumers.
And in the “particular” too it’s not too hard to find folks willing to say “I’m sorry, I overstepped my bounds.” You do have to look harder for this than the “in general” admission of guilt. But it does happen and many people are morally up to the challenge.
No, I think the general avoidance of confession is not an unwillingness to say “I’m sorry” or admit fault in various parts of our life. In fact, confessing ones failing can not only be good for the soul (“I feel much better already!”) but also suggested as good for the pocket book (witness the many observers and analysts who recommend(ed) Tiger Woods be transparent of infidelity as completely and as quickly as possible and thereby position himself as upright and earnest in reformation, if not marital commitment. Then, we have something good to feel again about Tiger, if not his golf, which will then open wallets again for him). Confession of foibles or faults can hurt, but it can also help. And we see that. And so we confess.
This kind of confession is really not so hard to do.
Recently on Ash Wednesday I stood with many others in a worship Service and recited aloud a virtual pandora’s box of failings. And one thought that occurred to me was how easy it was for all of us in that sanctuary to claim all these offenses. I mean really, you had to be amazed at all the bad things we were saying about ourselves! But that’s not the really amazing thing. The really amazing thing was not the list of offenses, which, by the way, I do believe are all true enough, but the fact that we weren’t all collapsing on our knees and in tears, distraught with grief at such admission. How could we possibly admit to all this rottenness and stand there calmly reciting (while we are simultaneously wondering if our DVR is recording properly the shows at home we are missing?) I know what you are thinking! You are thinking I am going to accuse us all of being too shallow and not genuine in our confession. Like we were simply going through the motions and not being real. No, I think it was all heartfelt and we all meant what we said. So, authenticity was not the issue that kept us from falling apart.
It was remedy, not authenticity or sincerity. What kept us in one piece in that room is thinking that we could in fact turn this thing around. We can and would be better! We may need a bit of help, which, thank God, God provides in Jesus, but we can pull ourselves together and make this thing work. In fact, being here doing the confession is the first and necessary step of this reformation!
Confession is easy when it is assumed that it’s simply the precursor to redemption by our reformation. By, in other words, what we do to change (and not, by definition, what God does to us).
We can and will do better, after all. All we need is a little help. And that is what we are here admitting. We need a little help. Maybe even a lot of help. We are human after all, aren’t we? Just give me another chance. And you will, won’t you? That would be, after all, the kind and loving thing to do.
Confession is generally viewed like the “self help” shelf at Barnes and Noble. You’ve got issues you need to deal with and improve….but the operative thing here is that you are still in control and can deal with things…all you need is some help.
Now you are going to start getting upset with me because you are thinking I am going to undermine that bedrock value we hold dear: that, in fact, people can change their behavior and go from bad to good. No, no, no, I am not going to do that. Of course we all know that it is possible to stop cheating and start being honest, to stop trashing and start recycling, to stop working obsessively and start spending more time with your family.
Confession as admission of guilt and need for help is not incomplete (not to say “wrong”) because guilt is not true or reform possible. Confession in this way simply does not tell the whole truth. It lives on the surface and protects us against the depth of truth. It lives in the world of our activity and accomplishment and protects us against God, of all things.
[I even think that this approach to confession is a big part of what keeps so-called non-believers away from church services. It’s nothing new. “What’s the big deal?,” says the non-churchgoer, “ I can (and do!) confess all the time before God that I have done wrong and ask for help to do better. Why do I need to come together with others anywhere, let alone a church building with rituals, to do that?”]
What? “Confession protects us against God”? What do I mean by that? You’re probably thinking “hey, confession exposes us to the wrath of God! How can you say it protects us against God”? Well, watch the particulars. I said “this kind” of confession: the kind that really only asks for the help of God and not the hope of God.
What happens in real confession is all the nonsense about getting things better or getting things right stops. And you are just there. Just there with no hope. Except for God.
You are at the mercy of God.
Martin Luther spoke of how we live on two levels and we dare not mix them up. The first level is the level of relationships with each other and our world, all of which we are actually capable of doing something about. The other is our relationship with God, the one thing we can do nothing about.
Many people need a lot of confession about how they have messed up the first level…and they need to straighten up and fly right. For everybody’s sake.
But you can do this kind of confessing all day long and never deal with God. You don’t even have to believe in God.
But real confession….the kind where you are saying you’ve got nothing to bring to the table and are totally in need of rescue, not to say also reform? Well, that’s living in the truth and something that religious people, perhaps especially religious people, have a hard time doing. Why is this real confession so hard? Because it means you really don’t have a prayer. All you have is God.
I wonder sometimes if people who don’t like church life with all its trappings do this disliking because it so often simply does not tell the difficult truth. Church life too often confesses failings and a way out with proper believing and behaving instead of confessing being stone cold lost without the mercy of God.
I do know this: confessing doing wrong things is easy because tomorrow you can do better. Confessing being lost without God is hard because all you are left with is the waiting and the trusting that God will be as true to you as the Story goes.
But I am going to encourage you to go there. To real confession. It’s way hard. But man, when you look God in the eye and tell that truth about how you are least, last, lost, little and dead…..just watch what happens. Because that is where God works: in the darkness. On deadness (the live cannot be raised! Only the dead!). God’s light, there, in the darkness, makes all things new!
What is confession anyway? We like to say that it is “good for the soul” if not also “necessary” for forgiveness.
Good for the soul, certainly.
And “necessary,” but I would venture to say not for why we normally think.
We often think “necessary” means “contingent upon,” that is to say “we don’t actually have forgiveness unless we confess.”
Now if that were true, that God’s forgiveness isn’t for us unless we apologize, or “repent,” turn back toward God, then we have cut Jesus and his death and resurrection off at the knees! He died and was raised not only because we wouldn’t stand for it when he first gave it to us (you remember his “blasphemy” was that he forgave sins!) but also for the eternal privilege of saying it to us forever…if we would but take him at his word.
“if we would but….”: our problem is that we don’t take the forgivenss that is ours. The forgiveness of God is simply always there. It was there from the beginning and it never left and it never goes away. But we go away. We will not have it! Its too much of a threat to our own control and position to let God simply forgive us without our participating in the whole process! After all, there “certainly must be something I must do!” and “I’m not unimportant am I?”
So forgiveness is not “contingent” upon confession, but confession is necessary for forgiveness!
Why?
Well, its kind of like having been given a gift and not opening it. You can appreciate it without opening it, but you can’t really use it. You can’t enjoy it for what it is for you even though you might appreciate it for what it could be.
Let me turn this over to someone who does a better job of explaining all this than I do. Robert Capon in The Foolishness of Preaching (1998).
What follows here is kind of lengthy, but even so it’s just a tidbit. I encourage you to hang in there with it. I trust your heart and soul will thank you because your confessions may just be opened up to allow for a deeper forgiveness.
Here’s Capon:
“Our fascination with guilt is a blind alley (especially for preachers) because the New Testament isn’t about guilt at all; its about forgiveness. The Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world, not laid them on us like a coat of tar. Furthermore, we celebrate the absolution every Sunday in the Nicene Creed: “We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” Notice what a remarkable statement that is: it proclaims that by the grace of God, we live all our lives in an irremovable suit of forgiveness. It tells us that every sin we ever commit will be committed inside that suit – and therefore that every sin in our lives is forgiven before, during, and after our commission of it. We don’t need to get forgiveness; we need to learn how to cheer up in the forgiveness we’ve had all along. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ (Romans 8:1).
Of course there must be repentance. But even repentance is a celebration, not a bargaining session in which we work up enough resolve against sin to con God into putting up with us. It’s not a turning from sin but a return to faith – a reawakening of our trust that all our deeds, bad as well as good, have been done in God (see John 3:21). God doesn’t run away from our sins or from the sins of any human being; he meets us in them by the indwelling of his incarnate Word in every last child of Adam and Eve. And thus, since even our sins were done in the Light that is Jesus, all we have to do about them is the truth (John 3:21, again). We don’t have to feel guilty about them. We don’t even have to overcome them (which, in any case, is more than we could realistically promise). We have only to admit them – to own them as they are in the truth of our condition, and to celebrate them as the death in which grace gives us life. ‘O feliz culpa’ (‘O happy fault”) one more time. ‘Amazing grace!’”
Let me try my hand at it some more. You know how Jesus’ mode of operation was to seek out and hang out with “sinners” (see Luke 15:1-2 passim)? He went to them. He did not wait for them to come to him. I reckon that pretty much amazed them because they knew by standard definition (their own conscience and the rule of religion all rolled up into one major “casting out”!) that they were not the perfect bunch. So by his presence with them he legitimized them, if not their behavior. You might say he “saved” them. He “justified them.” By being with them he “exposed” them for what they were : sinners. You could say that his justification “made” them sinners: exposed the truth. So, Jesus made them sinners! But while he made them sinners by exposing their sin he did a most amazing thing at the same time. He made them whole. There is foundational church teaching here: we are simultaneously sinner and saint. Stately bluntly for effect: Justification makes us sinners and being made sinners makes us justified because that’s what Jesus Christ does: he justifies sinners!
The truth about us is hard to take.
The transparency that Christ brings to us is hard to take.
The truth about God in Christ is amazing grace.
The transparency of God…how he opens his heart to us and simply gives us everything….is amazing grace.
And trust??
We trust that its all true and for us!
I don’t think people really want to avoid apologies.
Certainly not “in general” as in recognizing that we all have a part to blame in the mess we are in.
Take the current economic meltdown. In the current “blame game” most of what I have read is that there is enough blame to go around. Every one of us is implicated, from greedy financial folks to overzealous consumers.
And in the “particular” too it’s not too hard to find folks willing to say “I’m sorry, I overstepped my bounds.” You do have to look harder for this than the “in general” admission of guilt. But it does happen and many people are morally up to the challenge.
No, I think the general avoidance of confession is not an unwillingness to say “I’m sorry” or admit fault in various parts of our life. In fact, confessing ones failing can not only be good for the soul (“I feel much better already!”) but also suggested as good for the pocket book (witness the many observers and analysts who recommend(ed) Tiger Woods be transparent of infidelity as completely and as quickly as possible and thereby position himself as upright and earnest in reformation, if not marital commitment. Then, we have something good to feel again about Tiger, if not his golf, which will then open wallets again for him). Confession of foibles or faults can hurt, but it can also help. And we see that. And so we confess.
This kind of confession is really not so hard to do.
Recently on Ash Wednesday I stood with many others in a worship Service and recited aloud a virtual pandora’s box of failings. And one thought that occurred to me was how easy it was for all of us in that sanctuary to claim all these offenses. I mean really, you had to be amazed at all the bad things we were saying about ourselves! But that’s not the really amazing thing. The really amazing thing was not the list of offenses, which, by the way, I do believe are all true enough, but the fact that we weren’t all collapsing on our knees and in tears, distraught with grief at such admission. How could we possibly admit to all this rottenness and stand there calmly reciting (while we are simultaneously wondering if our DVR is recording properly the shows at home we are missing?) I know what you are thinking! You are thinking I am going to accuse us all of being too shallow and not genuine in our confession. Like we were simply going through the motions and not being real. No, I think it was all heartfelt and we all meant what we said. So, authenticity was not the issue that kept us from falling apart.
It was remedy, not authenticity or sincerity. What kept us in one piece in that room is thinking that we could in fact turn this thing around. We can and would be better! We may need a bit of help, which, thank God, God provides in Jesus, but we can pull ourselves together and make this thing work. In fact, being here doing the confession is the first and necessary step of this reformation!
Confession is easy when it is assumed that it’s simply the precursor to redemption by our reformation. By, in other words, what we do to change (and not, by definition, what God does to us).
We can and will do better, after all. All we need is a little help. And that is what we are here admitting. We need a little help. Maybe even a lot of help. We are human after all, aren’t we? Just give me another chance. And you will, won’t you? That would be, after all, the kind and loving thing to do.
Confession is generally viewed like the “self help” shelf at Barnes and Noble. You’ve got issues you need to deal with and improve….but the operative thing here is that you are still in control and can deal with things…all you need is some help.
Now you are going to start getting upset with me because you are thinking I am going to undermine that bedrock value we hold dear: that, in fact, people can change their behavior and go from bad to good. No, no, no, I am not going to do that. Of course we all know that it is possible to stop cheating and start being honest, to stop trashing and start recycling, to stop working obsessively and start spending more time with your family.
Confession as admission of guilt and need for help is not incomplete (not to say “wrong”) because guilt is not true or reform possible. Confession in this way simply does not tell the whole truth. It lives on the surface and protects us against the depth of truth. It lives in the world of our activity and accomplishment and protects us against God, of all things.
[I even think that this approach to confession is a big part of what keeps so-called non-believers away from church services. It’s nothing new. “What’s the big deal?,” says the non-churchgoer, “ I can (and do!) confess all the time before God that I have done wrong and ask for help to do better. Why do I need to come together with others anywhere, let alone a church building with rituals, to do that?”]
What? “Confession protects us against God”? What do I mean by that? You’re probably thinking “hey, confession exposes us to the wrath of God! How can you say it protects us against God”? Well, watch the particulars. I said “this kind” of confession: the kind that really only asks for the help of God and not the hope of God.
What happens in real confession is all the nonsense about getting things better or getting things right stops. And you are just there. Just there with no hope. Except for God.
You are at the mercy of God.
Martin Luther spoke of how we live on two levels and we dare not mix them up. The first level is the level of relationships with each other and our world, all of which we are actually capable of doing something about. The other is our relationship with God, the one thing we can do nothing about.
Many people need a lot of confession about how they have messed up the first level…and they need to straighten up and fly right. For everybody’s sake.
But you can do this kind of confessing all day long and never deal with God. You don’t even have to believe in God.
But real confession….the kind where you are saying you’ve got nothing to bring to the table and are totally in need of rescue, not to say also reform? Well, that’s living in the truth and something that religious people, perhaps especially religious people, have a hard time doing. Why is this real confession so hard? Because it means you really don’t have a prayer. All you have is God.
I wonder sometimes if people who don’t like church life with all its trappings do this disliking because it so often simply does not tell the difficult truth. Church life too often confesses failings and a way out with proper believing and behaving instead of confessing being stone cold lost without the mercy of God.
I do know this: confessing doing wrong things is easy because tomorrow you can do better. Confessing being lost without God is hard because all you are left with is the waiting and the trusting that God will be as true to you as the Story goes.
But I am going to encourage you to go there. To real confession. It’s way hard. But man, when you look God in the eye and tell that truth about how you are least, last, lost, little and dead…..just watch what happens. Because that is where God works: in the darkness. On deadness (the live cannot be raised! Only the dead!). God’s light, there, in the darkness, makes all things new!
What is confession anyway? We like to say that it is “good for the soul” if not also “necessary” for forgiveness.
Good for the soul, certainly.
And “necessary,” but I would venture to say not for why we normally think.
We often think “necessary” means “contingent upon,” that is to say “we don’t actually have forgiveness unless we confess.”
Now if that were true, that God’s forgiveness isn’t for us unless we apologize, or “repent,” turn back toward God, then we have cut Jesus and his death and resurrection off at the knees! He died and was raised not only because we wouldn’t stand for it when he first gave it to us (you remember his “blasphemy” was that he forgave sins!) but also for the eternal privilege of saying it to us forever…if we would but take him at his word.
“if we would but….”: our problem is that we don’t take the forgivenss that is ours. The forgiveness of God is simply always there. It was there from the beginning and it never left and it never goes away. But we go away. We will not have it! Its too much of a threat to our own control and position to let God simply forgive us without our participating in the whole process! After all, there “certainly must be something I must do!” and “I’m not unimportant am I?”
So forgiveness is not “contingent” upon confession, but confession is necessary for forgiveness!
Why?
Well, its kind of like having been given a gift and not opening it. You can appreciate it without opening it, but you can’t really use it. You can’t enjoy it for what it is for you even though you might appreciate it for what it could be.
Let me turn this over to someone who does a better job of explaining all this than I do. Robert Capon in The Foolishness of Preaching (1998).
What follows here is kind of lengthy, but even so it’s just a tidbit. I encourage you to hang in there with it. I trust your heart and soul will thank you because your confessions may just be opened up to allow for a deeper forgiveness.
Here’s Capon:
“Our fascination with guilt is a blind alley (especially for preachers) because the New Testament isn’t about guilt at all; its about forgiveness. The Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world, not laid them on us like a coat of tar. Furthermore, we celebrate the absolution every Sunday in the Nicene Creed: “We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” Notice what a remarkable statement that is: it proclaims that by the grace of God, we live all our lives in an irremovable suit of forgiveness. It tells us that every sin we ever commit will be committed inside that suit – and therefore that every sin in our lives is forgiven before, during, and after our commission of it. We don’t need to get forgiveness; we need to learn how to cheer up in the forgiveness we’ve had all along. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ (Romans 8:1).
Of course there must be repentance. But even repentance is a celebration, not a bargaining session in which we work up enough resolve against sin to con God into putting up with us. It’s not a turning from sin but a return to faith – a reawakening of our trust that all our deeds, bad as well as good, have been done in God (see John 3:21). God doesn’t run away from our sins or from the sins of any human being; he meets us in them by the indwelling of his incarnate Word in every last child of Adam and Eve. And thus, since even our sins were done in the Light that is Jesus, all we have to do about them is the truth (John 3:21, again). We don’t have to feel guilty about them. We don’t even have to overcome them (which, in any case, is more than we could realistically promise). We have only to admit them – to own them as they are in the truth of our condition, and to celebrate them as the death in which grace gives us life. ‘O feliz culpa’ (‘O happy fault”) one more time. ‘Amazing grace!’”
Let me try my hand at it some more. You know how Jesus’ mode of operation was to seek out and hang out with “sinners” (see Luke 15:1-2 passim)? He went to them. He did not wait for them to come to him. I reckon that pretty much amazed them because they knew by standard definition (their own conscience and the rule of religion all rolled up into one major “casting out”!) that they were not the perfect bunch. So by his presence with them he legitimized them, if not their behavior. You might say he “saved” them. He “justified them.” By being with them he “exposed” them for what they were : sinners. You could say that his justification “made” them sinners: exposed the truth. So, Jesus made them sinners! But while he made them sinners by exposing their sin he did a most amazing thing at the same time. He made them whole. There is foundational church teaching here: we are simultaneously sinner and saint. Stately bluntly for effect: Justification makes us sinners and being made sinners makes us justified because that’s what Jesus Christ does: he justifies sinners!
The truth about us is hard to take.
The transparency that Christ brings to us is hard to take.
The truth about God in Christ is amazing grace.
The transparency of God…how he opens his heart to us and simply gives us everything….is amazing grace.
And trust??
We trust that its all true and for us!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Talking with God About Fixing Things
God is not here for us but rather, we are here for God. In all aspects of our relationship, we are creation and God is creator and by virtue of our position in that relationship, we are here to serve and worship. God is simply here. Not here to serve our needs. But because of God’s nature, God’s “bleeding heart” if you will, that cannot without reservation give and provide, we are constantly and consistently given everything we need. And because we, as creation, for whatever reason – call it sin – a reason for which we cannot find or fathom the origin (but we create stories to describe – rebellions and fallen angels included), are needy and fearful, we turn incessantly, and without capability to do otherwise, to religious activity. And by definition, these religions come to God for safety and security, protection and provision. And so we have created our own image of God – a God who acts like we act (e.g. brings retribution when wronged) and provides what we need.
But what of all the actual prayers in the Bible themselves that provide avenues and vehicles for supplication? Doesn’t this fact that Scripture themselves give voice to a relationship where God is responsive to human invocation and provocation provide evidence that our relationship really is interactive? Rather than giving proof of God giving interventionist response to our declared needs, I’m inclined to say it simply does provide an outlet for what is real – our need and fear – and does provide descriptions for a sustaining and always adequate provision. Prayers provide comfort space and time to live in the relationship. They do not manipulate God.
When we ask God for help, will God do so? Well, yes, of course, but not because of the request. God is…..always…..helping. It’s what God does. It’s what God is. God is creator. Always creating. Creating space, time, provision, and possibilities. It’s not our asking that triggers a response – it’s our asking that triggers the possibility to see any response as provided by the creator.
Scripture’s prayers of supplication give voice to our necessity to reach out. They are, in that sense, so honest. But do not tell me my prayer determines or influences God’s loving creativity. Maybe this is why the Psalms end so much in words concerning trust, waiting and acceptance. This is where we end up. But see, it’s really where we (should) start. A supplication out of trust is a prayer of the faithful and faith-full.
When we get this straight, this orientation of our relationship with God – God is not here to serve our needs but rather we are here to serve God’s mission (purpose) – then all dimensions of our life change, including how we talk with God and how we expect things to be fixed when we need them to be.
But what of all the actual prayers in the Bible themselves that provide avenues and vehicles for supplication? Doesn’t this fact that Scripture themselves give voice to a relationship where God is responsive to human invocation and provocation provide evidence that our relationship really is interactive? Rather than giving proof of God giving interventionist response to our declared needs, I’m inclined to say it simply does provide an outlet for what is real – our need and fear – and does provide descriptions for a sustaining and always adequate provision. Prayers provide comfort space and time to live in the relationship. They do not manipulate God.
When we ask God for help, will God do so? Well, yes, of course, but not because of the request. God is…..always…..helping. It’s what God does. It’s what God is. God is creator. Always creating. Creating space, time, provision, and possibilities. It’s not our asking that triggers a response – it’s our asking that triggers the possibility to see any response as provided by the creator.
Scripture’s prayers of supplication give voice to our necessity to reach out. They are, in that sense, so honest. But do not tell me my prayer determines or influences God’s loving creativity. Maybe this is why the Psalms end so much in words concerning trust, waiting and acceptance. This is where we end up. But see, it’s really where we (should) start. A supplication out of trust is a prayer of the faithful and faith-full.
When we get this straight, this orientation of our relationship with God – God is not here to serve our needs but rather we are here to serve God’s mission (purpose) – then all dimensions of our life change, including how we talk with God and how we expect things to be fixed when we need them to be.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
On Getting Rid of God
On Getting Rid of God
The first thing I’m going to ask you to do is read this parable that Jesus told.
And before you do, I’d like to ask you to take this question along with you as you read it: “Who said that anybody needed trimmed lamps in order to meet the bridegroom?”
Ok, let’s have some fun.
Matthew 25:1-13
25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
25:3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;
25:4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
25:5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.
25:6 But at midnight there was a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'
25:7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.
25:8 The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'
25:9 But the wise replied, 'No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.'
25:10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut.
25:11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.'
25:12 But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do not know you.'
25:13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Please listen to a word about God from Robert Capon:
“God is not our mother-in-law, coming to see whether her wedding present china has been chipped. He is [rather] a funny Old Uncle with a salami under one arm and a bottle of wine under the other. We do indeed need to watch for him; but only because it would be such a pity to miss all the fun.”
(Kingdom, Grace, Judgment, Robert Capon, 2002, p. 501)
We think this story in Matthew 25 of the 10 Virgins that Jesus tells is about the mother-in-law checking up on us and we need to be attentive and watch out for her.
It’s actually about the funny and fun Old Uncle coming over who is the life of the party.
But how is that? How is this story of 10 Virgins that seems to tell us that God is like the Bridegroom arriving and if you are not ready….and “ready” means believing correctly that he is God and behaving nicely to everybody and in everything…..if you are not ready you get condemned…..how is this a story about God as the Old Uncle wanting to throw us a party and not the mother-in-law coming to inspect?
Think about this. All ten virgins are invited to the party in the first place. They are all in the wedding. Everybody is in before anybody is out (you might want to notice that this is a theme, a principle, and mode of action or whatever you want to call it that runs through all of Jesus’ stories…especially all of these in Matthew 25 that we so easily dismiss as saying God is in the business of kicking people out of his presence).
Everybody here is in. Everybody in the story is invited. Everybody is in the presence of God.
Now then. Why are the five so-called “foolish” left out in the end?
Try this: maybe the foolishness was that they thought they needed oil in order to see the Bridegroom. You remember the story: they ran away from their waiting in order to get more oil because they ran out of oil. But why did they need oil? Well, now, everybody knows you need oil when trimming your lamps and lighting them up! Yes, but did they need a trimmed and full lamp to greet the Bridegroom? Who made up those rules? Can’t the Bridegroom decide who gets in based on what he thinks and not on what they do? Can’t they just be there, just as they are, all empty and untrimmed lamps and all! Of course not….not according to reasonable propriety! They need to be “ready!”
Friends, there is judgment. But the judgment on us is self-inflicted. It is not a condemnation from God upon us because we won’t do well or believe correctly. It is a separation we create by refusing to let God decide who gets to stick with God. The judgment is thinking and behaving as if what really matters is what we do and say rather than what God does and says. Living under constant threat of condemnation by God is a false reality that we have made reality (the “real world”!) because we can’t stand what happens if we don’t live with it. If we can’t change our relationship or standing with God by doing good things or believing the right things….then what are we left with?! Oh my goodness! We are left with the only thing we can do….depend on God alone! And who wants to leave everything up to God!? Can’t we have any say in the matter!!!!?
And don’t think this is just something that so-called religious people think about or deal with. Non-religious people don’t like God calling all the shots because that would mean all their wonderful plans really are contingent after all. Religious people don’t like God calling all the shots because that would mean all their wonderful faith really gets them nowhere. Non-religious people don’t want to depend on God alone because that would mean there is more than flesh and blood now and forever. Religious people don’t want to depend on God alone because that would mean they are no more than flesh and blood now and forever.
Listen closely.
What God wants is us, not our “trimmed lamps.”
He wants you with your troubled mortgages and your slumping businesses that are causing you not just sleepless nights but a damaged future. He wants you with your misbehaving and underperforming children that you try so hard to turn around. He wants you as is. He doesn’t want you running off to get pretty. You don’t have time for that. He doesn’t have time for that. The time is now. He is here now. Are you ready?
Listen closely again.
Jesus’ message was not that God would arrive someday in the future and judge. His message was that God had arrived then and there and judges. “The Kingdom of God is near…repent, and believe the good news!” (Mark 1). Or, as I like to put it: “God has come close to you and he wants to do stuff!” Jesus is telling us that God is here….now…and his very presence brings a judgment on us.
And what is God doing….here?
Oh my goodness…..he is throwing a party! Break out the salami! Pour the wine!
Enjoy!
“Peace I give to you,” Jesus said. “Not as the world gives do I give to you! Let not your hearts be troubled! Believe in God and believe also in me!” (John 14).
And what is the judgment? Not that he throws you out….but that you and I…we throw him out!!!!
But……watch how difficult this enjoying the party really is….watch how difficult it is not to throw God out!....as if you need to be told! You and I live it everyday!
God is present….and all is well, right? Yes, but you have just lost your retirement savings in the stock market crash and you have lost your job or your business or your health….
See?
See how easy it is to throw God out! Who wants a crazy Old Uncle showing up when all of this is coming down!
Wait until things improve….wait until you feel better…..wait until you are ready for a party….then maybe you can let Old Funny Uncle in.
But no. Don’t you see? Your time is up. You can’t go and get ready. He is here now. And if you don’t let him in….you will MISS OUT!!!!
Will you trust him now….in your broken world and broken spirit? ‘Cause if you don’t, you throw him out. Again, let me say that…slowly: you…throw…him…out!
Don’t miss out…on how wonderful it is to simply let him in when your lamps are untrimmed and you are falling apart and have nothing to offer. Things might be so bad that you can’t even offer your belief. No matter. Please let him take you in.
So….God is blessing and healing the world….and when we get it, when we get that, we have this cool thing to do: join in!
Let me tell you today that when you give to God and his mission of throwing parties for broken people….forgiveness and love at cost to God and not to us…..you are recognizing that there are THOUSANDS of people who need to hear and know that the funny Old Uncle has arrived in their life and he’s got the salami and he’s got the wine. Now. Not later. Now.
You have received the generosity of God and now you give in the generosity of God!
There are too many people missing out on the good news of Jesus Christ.
There are too many people who think that Jesus Christ is bad news and not good news!
We give because our purpose in life of sharing this good news is too vital to let slip away.
We don’t miss out…Thanks be to God. We give!
And we don’t want others to miss out.
We give!
Thanks be to God!
The first thing I’m going to ask you to do is read this parable that Jesus told.
And before you do, I’d like to ask you to take this question along with you as you read it: “Who said that anybody needed trimmed lamps in order to meet the bridegroom?”
Ok, let’s have some fun.
Matthew 25:1-13
25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
25:3 When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;
25:4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.
25:5 As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.
25:6 But at midnight there was a shout, 'Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'
25:7 Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.
25:8 The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'
25:9 But the wise replied, 'No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.'
25:10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut.
25:11 Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.'
25:12 But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I do not know you.'
25:13 Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Please listen to a word about God from Robert Capon:
“God is not our mother-in-law, coming to see whether her wedding present china has been chipped. He is [rather] a funny Old Uncle with a salami under one arm and a bottle of wine under the other. We do indeed need to watch for him; but only because it would be such a pity to miss all the fun.”
(Kingdom, Grace, Judgment, Robert Capon, 2002, p. 501)
We think this story in Matthew 25 of the 10 Virgins that Jesus tells is about the mother-in-law checking up on us and we need to be attentive and watch out for her.
It’s actually about the funny and fun Old Uncle coming over who is the life of the party.
But how is that? How is this story of 10 Virgins that seems to tell us that God is like the Bridegroom arriving and if you are not ready….and “ready” means believing correctly that he is God and behaving nicely to everybody and in everything…..if you are not ready you get condemned…..how is this a story about God as the Old Uncle wanting to throw us a party and not the mother-in-law coming to inspect?
Think about this. All ten virgins are invited to the party in the first place. They are all in the wedding. Everybody is in before anybody is out (you might want to notice that this is a theme, a principle, and mode of action or whatever you want to call it that runs through all of Jesus’ stories…especially all of these in Matthew 25 that we so easily dismiss as saying God is in the business of kicking people out of his presence).
Everybody here is in. Everybody in the story is invited. Everybody is in the presence of God.
Now then. Why are the five so-called “foolish” left out in the end?
Try this: maybe the foolishness was that they thought they needed oil in order to see the Bridegroom. You remember the story: they ran away from their waiting in order to get more oil because they ran out of oil. But why did they need oil? Well, now, everybody knows you need oil when trimming your lamps and lighting them up! Yes, but did they need a trimmed and full lamp to greet the Bridegroom? Who made up those rules? Can’t the Bridegroom decide who gets in based on what he thinks and not on what they do? Can’t they just be there, just as they are, all empty and untrimmed lamps and all! Of course not….not according to reasonable propriety! They need to be “ready!”
Friends, there is judgment. But the judgment on us is self-inflicted. It is not a condemnation from God upon us because we won’t do well or believe correctly. It is a separation we create by refusing to let God decide who gets to stick with God. The judgment is thinking and behaving as if what really matters is what we do and say rather than what God does and says. Living under constant threat of condemnation by God is a false reality that we have made reality (the “real world”!) because we can’t stand what happens if we don’t live with it. If we can’t change our relationship or standing with God by doing good things or believing the right things….then what are we left with?! Oh my goodness! We are left with the only thing we can do….depend on God alone! And who wants to leave everything up to God!? Can’t we have any say in the matter!!!!?
And don’t think this is just something that so-called religious people think about or deal with. Non-religious people don’t like God calling all the shots because that would mean all their wonderful plans really are contingent after all. Religious people don’t like God calling all the shots because that would mean all their wonderful faith really gets them nowhere. Non-religious people don’t want to depend on God alone because that would mean there is more than flesh and blood now and forever. Religious people don’t want to depend on God alone because that would mean they are no more than flesh and blood now and forever.
Listen closely.
What God wants is us, not our “trimmed lamps.”
He wants you with your troubled mortgages and your slumping businesses that are causing you not just sleepless nights but a damaged future. He wants you with your misbehaving and underperforming children that you try so hard to turn around. He wants you as is. He doesn’t want you running off to get pretty. You don’t have time for that. He doesn’t have time for that. The time is now. He is here now. Are you ready?
Listen closely again.
Jesus’ message was not that God would arrive someday in the future and judge. His message was that God had arrived then and there and judges. “The Kingdom of God is near…repent, and believe the good news!” (Mark 1). Or, as I like to put it: “God has come close to you and he wants to do stuff!” Jesus is telling us that God is here….now…and his very presence brings a judgment on us.
And what is God doing….here?
Oh my goodness…..he is throwing a party! Break out the salami! Pour the wine!
Enjoy!
“Peace I give to you,” Jesus said. “Not as the world gives do I give to you! Let not your hearts be troubled! Believe in God and believe also in me!” (John 14).
And what is the judgment? Not that he throws you out….but that you and I…we throw him out!!!!
But……watch how difficult this enjoying the party really is….watch how difficult it is not to throw God out!....as if you need to be told! You and I live it everyday!
God is present….and all is well, right? Yes, but you have just lost your retirement savings in the stock market crash and you have lost your job or your business or your health….
See?
See how easy it is to throw God out! Who wants a crazy Old Uncle showing up when all of this is coming down!
Wait until things improve….wait until you feel better…..wait until you are ready for a party….then maybe you can let Old Funny Uncle in.
But no. Don’t you see? Your time is up. You can’t go and get ready. He is here now. And if you don’t let him in….you will MISS OUT!!!!
Will you trust him now….in your broken world and broken spirit? ‘Cause if you don’t, you throw him out. Again, let me say that…slowly: you…throw…him…out!
Don’t miss out…on how wonderful it is to simply let him in when your lamps are untrimmed and you are falling apart and have nothing to offer. Things might be so bad that you can’t even offer your belief. No matter. Please let him take you in.
So….God is blessing and healing the world….and when we get it, when we get that, we have this cool thing to do: join in!
Let me tell you today that when you give to God and his mission of throwing parties for broken people….forgiveness and love at cost to God and not to us…..you are recognizing that there are THOUSANDS of people who need to hear and know that the funny Old Uncle has arrived in their life and he’s got the salami and he’s got the wine. Now. Not later. Now.
You have received the generosity of God and now you give in the generosity of God!
There are too many people missing out on the good news of Jesus Christ.
There are too many people who think that Jesus Christ is bad news and not good news!
We give because our purpose in life of sharing this good news is too vital to let slip away.
We don’t miss out…Thanks be to God. We give!
And we don’t want others to miss out.
We give!
Thanks be to God!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Nothing to Do with Haiti....and Everything to Do with Haiti
It's not about Haiti....but it's all about Haiti....
From What Is Jesus Saving Us? Reflections on Hell and Heaven on Earth.
I share these thoughts after reading a short article on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “religionless Christianity” and reading Acts 16 in my daily devotions.
Bonhoeffer: religionless Christianity
Acts 16: Lydia believing “in the Master truly”
Acts 16: Jail guard and family “had put their trust in God”
If Jesus was simply calling the religious and non-religious to trust this truth: that God is here and wants to do stuff (“the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel”), what human dilemma does this address?
Could it be that our dilemma is that we are innately religious – trying to forge our own success with destiny by climbing over and through (physically, psychologically, emotionally, et.al) anybody that gets in our way and that Jesus simply tells us to silence this nonsense? He kills this Old Self which cannot not live only for itself in trying to create and secure its own destiny and security…..and raises the New Self. He doesn’t bring to us a new religion, a process by which the Old Self can do what it only knows how to do…take hold of anything that will keep it safe. Instead he brings to us a religion-less spirituality. One that “trusts the Master truly” and not its own enterprise of spiritual calisthenics. Can we trust God in this way? Well, the truth is we cannot because we will not. God must intervene and do it for us. Thus all the “new creation” language about us in the New Testament.
Can we trust that God is here and is doing stuff (like feeding the hungry and healing the hurting) and simply join in this marvelous presence instead of trying to define who is in and who is out (the practice of religion, creating boundaries that distinctively and instinctively put Self at the advantage). I believe we can, ahem, God can. And I believe that it is uniquely Jesus Christ that allows us to do this. Or you could say it is uniquely Jesus Christ that does this to us.
And here’s another twist…..
What we have a really hard time doing as Christians is understanding how we can be totally dedicated followers of Jesus Christ and believe he is unique in setting us free from religion for the sake of finding life simply trusting God and serving neighbor…..without at the same time saying that everybody else who doesn’t see it this way is going to hell. And a big part of this difficulty in “understanding” is that we are incurably religious….back to that religion thing again. It’s kind of crazy….Here we have been given this gift of being set free from trying to prove ourselves and carve out our permanent place in history and then we go and take the very One who frees us as a way to define ourselves in distinctiveness and separateness from others!
We can’t get out of the business of deciding or thinking we can decide or impact our eternal destiny and including in that defining who is in and who is out (this, by the way, is the essence of original sin). I believe Jesus is God’s way of showing up to finally and definitively close the door on that subject. God decides. We do not. All we can do is trust that the one we see….God in Jesus…..is the mercy he says he is. I believe he is.
One way of thinking of all of this is this: If we really must keep trying to figure out who is eternally in or who is eternally out then lets simply go to the heart of it. Everybody is out. Everybody is going to hell. There is no hope for anybody. I believe this is what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 all the way to chapter 3 verse 20. . But then something amazing happens. In hell, God shows up! God is there! Jesus Christ. There! Paul says this in Romans chapter 3 beginning with verse 21. God doesn’t remove some from hell to be with him. God moves into hell and sets up shop and builds a heaven. Right there! Everybody is in not because some are out but because God has arrived!. Some folks just can’t buy that kind of luck, so to speak. They think it’s too good to be true. I fall into the camp of thinking it’s too good not to be true.
So, what is there to pay attention to if we don’t have to pay attention to our massaging or improving our relationship with God? God in Christ has all that wrapped up. What is there to do if there is nothing to do? What do we have to do now that we don’t have to do anything?
Well, I believe Jesus would say this is a no-brainer. Check in with your neighbor and see what you can do to make his or her life better. Across the street and around the world.
In this sense, you see, what you do makes no difference to God, and all the difference in the world. Literally.
From What Is Jesus Saving Us? Reflections on Hell and Heaven on Earth.
I share these thoughts after reading a short article on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “religionless Christianity” and reading Acts 16 in my daily devotions.
Bonhoeffer: religionless Christianity
Acts 16: Lydia believing “in the Master truly”
Acts 16: Jail guard and family “had put their trust in God”
If Jesus was simply calling the religious and non-religious to trust this truth: that God is here and wants to do stuff (“the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel”), what human dilemma does this address?
Could it be that our dilemma is that we are innately religious – trying to forge our own success with destiny by climbing over and through (physically, psychologically, emotionally, et.al) anybody that gets in our way and that Jesus simply tells us to silence this nonsense? He kills this Old Self which cannot not live only for itself in trying to create and secure its own destiny and security…..and raises the New Self. He doesn’t bring to us a new religion, a process by which the Old Self can do what it only knows how to do…take hold of anything that will keep it safe. Instead he brings to us a religion-less spirituality. One that “trusts the Master truly” and not its own enterprise of spiritual calisthenics. Can we trust God in this way? Well, the truth is we cannot because we will not. God must intervene and do it for us. Thus all the “new creation” language about us in the New Testament.
Can we trust that God is here and is doing stuff (like feeding the hungry and healing the hurting) and simply join in this marvelous presence instead of trying to define who is in and who is out (the practice of religion, creating boundaries that distinctively and instinctively put Self at the advantage). I believe we can, ahem, God can. And I believe that it is uniquely Jesus Christ that allows us to do this. Or you could say it is uniquely Jesus Christ that does this to us.
And here’s another twist…..
What we have a really hard time doing as Christians is understanding how we can be totally dedicated followers of Jesus Christ and believe he is unique in setting us free from religion for the sake of finding life simply trusting God and serving neighbor…..without at the same time saying that everybody else who doesn’t see it this way is going to hell. And a big part of this difficulty in “understanding” is that we are incurably religious….back to that religion thing again. It’s kind of crazy….Here we have been given this gift of being set free from trying to prove ourselves and carve out our permanent place in history and then we go and take the very One who frees us as a way to define ourselves in distinctiveness and separateness from others!
We can’t get out of the business of deciding or thinking we can decide or impact our eternal destiny and including in that defining who is in and who is out (this, by the way, is the essence of original sin). I believe Jesus is God’s way of showing up to finally and definitively close the door on that subject. God decides. We do not. All we can do is trust that the one we see….God in Jesus…..is the mercy he says he is. I believe he is.
One way of thinking of all of this is this: If we really must keep trying to figure out who is eternally in or who is eternally out then lets simply go to the heart of it. Everybody is out. Everybody is going to hell. There is no hope for anybody. I believe this is what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 all the way to chapter 3 verse 20. . But then something amazing happens. In hell, God shows up! God is there! Jesus Christ. There! Paul says this in Romans chapter 3 beginning with verse 21. God doesn’t remove some from hell to be with him. God moves into hell and sets up shop and builds a heaven. Right there! Everybody is in not because some are out but because God has arrived!. Some folks just can’t buy that kind of luck, so to speak. They think it’s too good to be true. I fall into the camp of thinking it’s too good not to be true.
So, what is there to pay attention to if we don’t have to pay attention to our massaging or improving our relationship with God? God in Christ has all that wrapped up. What is there to do if there is nothing to do? What do we have to do now that we don’t have to do anything?
Well, I believe Jesus would say this is a no-brainer. Check in with your neighbor and see what you can do to make his or her life better. Across the street and around the world.
In this sense, you see, what you do makes no difference to God, and all the difference in the world. Literally.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Hello all...in the New Year!
It's time for me to get this blog up and rolling. I had given myself an "after the new year" deadling and we are here, to be sure.
So a week or so ago I pulled out Gerhard Forde's The Captivation of the Will and read through it again. It occurs to me that for any Lutheran leader, especially rostered clergy, this piece should be read 2 times a year and then discussed with others....colleagues, professional peers, leaders who have the same passion for mission and ministry....with a matrix of questions that get at what's important here and now. In other words, there needs to be some kind of continued baseline look at our theological grounding in grace....continually.....as we engage the constant who, what, when, where of being missional.
I'm not convinced that many lutheran leaders today understand the radical nature of grace.
And when grace is misunderstood....mission gets hijacked by the theology of glory and all we end up doing is trying to build organizations and institutions rather than travel the marvelous road of God's dream (kingdom) for the world and let Christ loose so he can change lives and change the world.
More on this as we go with this blog week in and week out. Overall, right now, I have a couple of topics, if not to say also passions, that I would like to engage regulary here: grace as expressed in and a result of the theology of the cross and the missional nature of the 21st century church.
To get things started....
Luther said this, in the form of a thesis for debate, about how God relates to us: "The love of God does not find but creates that which is pleasing to it"
This is fundamentally opposite to what we normally think. We think that we are placed here on this beautiful earth and that we just don't do that placement justice and we need to get our act together and start appreciating this great place and this great God who created it all. All of that is true enough, but we add to it all the position that somehow, some way we will in fact get it all together so that when God does her great "human belief and behavioral virus" scan (which, I suppose we suppose, occurs at a preprogrammed time so that God doesn't have to think about it but can insure that it does happen! Don't you just love that about your computer virus scan? Isn't it great that God can scan too?) we show up as "pleasing." What Luther is saying is that no, there will not be a time to be satisfying to God....but that really doesn't matter because God is actively creating us so that we are pleasing. It's all God's work. None of ours.
Most churches think mission is trying to get people to pay attention to God so they can get busy with a track of work and prayer that will make them pleasing to God. And things get very religious.
If however, we start with the premise that we never will be pleasing to God and there is no reason to try.....but instead realize we are pleasing to God because God is doing the work....we have something refreshing to share....life!....with the unchurched, instead of a religiousity that calls on them to get their spiritual lives together, whatever that means, so they can please God.
So, I leave you with a question:
How does grace, the radical reality of God's unconditional love and regard for us, impact the definition of church mission itself? I know that's a heavy one, and I will try to unpack it more with more questions, but I can't just now. I'll just leave it there. Let's have some fun.
It's time for me to get this blog up and rolling. I had given myself an "after the new year" deadling and we are here, to be sure.
So a week or so ago I pulled out Gerhard Forde's The Captivation of the Will and read through it again. It occurs to me that for any Lutheran leader, especially rostered clergy, this piece should be read 2 times a year and then discussed with others....colleagues, professional peers, leaders who have the same passion for mission and ministry....with a matrix of questions that get at what's important here and now. In other words, there needs to be some kind of continued baseline look at our theological grounding in grace....continually.....as we engage the constant who, what, when, where of being missional.
I'm not convinced that many lutheran leaders today understand the radical nature of grace.
And when grace is misunderstood....mission gets hijacked by the theology of glory and all we end up doing is trying to build organizations and institutions rather than travel the marvelous road of God's dream (kingdom) for the world and let Christ loose so he can change lives and change the world.
More on this as we go with this blog week in and week out. Overall, right now, I have a couple of topics, if not to say also passions, that I would like to engage regulary here: grace as expressed in and a result of the theology of the cross and the missional nature of the 21st century church.
To get things started....
Luther said this, in the form of a thesis for debate, about how God relates to us: "The love of God does not find but creates that which is pleasing to it"
This is fundamentally opposite to what we normally think. We think that we are placed here on this beautiful earth and that we just don't do that placement justice and we need to get our act together and start appreciating this great place and this great God who created it all. All of that is true enough, but we add to it all the position that somehow, some way we will in fact get it all together so that when God does her great "human belief and behavioral virus" scan (which, I suppose we suppose, occurs at a preprogrammed time so that God doesn't have to think about it but can insure that it does happen! Don't you just love that about your computer virus scan? Isn't it great that God can scan too?) we show up as "pleasing." What Luther is saying is that no, there will not be a time to be satisfying to God....but that really doesn't matter because God is actively creating us so that we are pleasing. It's all God's work. None of ours.
Most churches think mission is trying to get people to pay attention to God so they can get busy with a track of work and prayer that will make them pleasing to God. And things get very religious.
If however, we start with the premise that we never will be pleasing to God and there is no reason to try.....but instead realize we are pleasing to God because God is doing the work....we have something refreshing to share....life!....with the unchurched, instead of a religiousity that calls on them to get their spiritual lives together, whatever that means, so they can please God.
So, I leave you with a question:
How does grace, the radical reality of God's unconditional love and regard for us, impact the definition of church mission itself? I know that's a heavy one, and I will try to unpack it more with more questions, but I can't just now. I'll just leave it there. Let's have some fun.
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