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!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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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