This is Most Certainly True

    We do not know how to wrestle with Truth.
   
Why would I say such a thing?
   
I am going to go back a few years to 9/11 when radical Islamists hijacked four airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentegon, and intended to crash into the capitol building.  Initially, we came together as a nation to recognize this attack against us, but then we began disagreeing, sometimes vehemently, on how to respond.  There was a particular struggle in how to handle religious ideology –especially in trying to deal with a religious sect that believed it had the absolute Truth and used that belief to justify the killing of innocent people.

    There were two basic responses to this.  Fortunately, most people know that both responses in and of themselves are inadequate, but we have yet to find a happy medium–if such a thing is even possible.  Why would I say that?  Let me begin to define the problem as I see it.

    As we began to delve into the psyche of those who hijacked the planes, we began to focus on their absolute certainty in their beliefs about God.  We reasoned, “If they wouldn’t have been so absolutely certain, they would have been more humble.  They would have known that flying those planes into those buildings was wrong.  All those people would not have been killed if religious nuts wouldn’t be so certain of their beliefs and try to force them on everyone else.” 

    And so, there has been a concerted effort among some to question anyone who has certainty in his or her religious convictions.  Certainty is the enemy in no uncertain terms, and if anyone espouses certainty, then that person is close minded, arrogant, a fanatic, exclusive, or whatever derogatory term you wish to apply.  Now, there are a couple of problems with these trains of thought.

    First is the premise.  Does certainty necessarily cause people to kill others?  Does believing in God with absolute conviction necessarily lead a person to commit atrocities?  The answer, of course, is no.  As Timothy Keller once reported in his book Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, “You never hear of an Amish terrorist.”  Why?  Because the Amish believe uncompromisingly that God commands them to be non-violent.  Their firm religious conviction leads them to be passivist.  So, it’s not religious certainty that leads someone to kill others in the name of faith, there must be something else.  We will get to that in just a moment.

    The second problem with a war on certainty is that it is logically impossible.  You may wonder what I mean by that.  Just this: the next time someone comes up to you and says, “We cannot be certain about anything.”  Ask them, “Are you certain about that?”  Do you see the problem?  Even if someone wants to narrow it down and say, “We can never be certain about any claims about religion.”  Well, you have just made a truth claim about religious belief.  How can you say with certainty that we can have no certainty?  The statement is self-defeating.  Everyone believes they know something.  Everyone has to have some sort of certainty in order to simply function.  It is a requirement.

   Thirdly, can you imagine anyone preaching a sermon with no certainty?  Can you imagine what it would be like for someone to get up in front of a group of people and basically say, "Well IF God exists--now, we don't know for sure.  Maybe there is a God, maybe there isn't.--then maybe that God is good.  Again, maybe God is evil, but perhaps God is love.  And IF that God is love, then maybe, just maybe that God wants us to care for each other, but we really don't know what that God wants if God even exists.  But it might be a good idea to care for each other anyway.  I can't tell you that for certain, but it might be a good idea."  Yeah, how many of you would stick around for that kind of sermon?  Certainty is necessary. Even in religious belief.

    But if certainty is necessary, then why did religious fanatics hijack planes and kill people?  Why do some “Christians” picket funerals of military personnel and cause extra grief for families?  Why do some people of religious persuasion have a holier-than-thou demeanor and look down their noses at others?

    It’s not because of certainty.  It’s because of self-righteousness.  It’s because they believe they are better than other people.  It’s because they believe they are able to follow the tenets of a particular religion, and they believe everyone else should be able to accomplish what they accomplish.  They believe their performance makes them righteous before God, and “if I can do it, everyone else should be doing it too.”  And if they are not doing it, “then they are of less value than myself.  They are destined to hell.  They deserve punishment.”  You see, it’s not certainty that leads to the demeaning and killing of others, it is self-righteousness. 

    And so, we have these two extremes: we have those who don’t want any certainty, and they are convinced that the world would be better if no one had any convictions; and we have those who are consumed with the certainty that they are righteous and everyone else needs to get with the program.  And the reality is, there are many of us who actually jump between these two poles depending upon the circumstances.  If we don’t like something that someone tries to tell us about faith, we are happy to say, “No one can be certain.”  However, if we want others to fall into line with our own train of thought, we will gladly say, “God is (fill in the blank)...”  In some ways, we are either too open, too closed, or we gladly jump between the two extremes to suit our own agendas.

    You may be wondering just what this has to do with our Gospel lesson from the seventh chapter of the book of Mark.  Perhaps it is time to turn to that now.

    Jesus has an encounter with a man who is deaf and who has a speech impediment.  Jesus is in the midst of a journey through Gentile territory when they– bring to Jesus a man who is deaf and “mogilalon.”  Now I know that sounded strange.  I gave you the Greek word for a speech impediment, because it is an important word.  It is only used once in the entire New Testament–right here by Mark.  And there is a very important reason Mark uses this particular word. 

    It is the same word used in Isaiah chapter 35:6.  I’m going to turn to Isaiah 35 now and read verses four to six to you so that you can see what is going on here.  “4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear!  Here is your God.  He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.  He will come and save you.’  5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the “mogilalos” the speechless sing for joy.”

    Mark is unequivocally tying Jesus encounter with this mogilalon to the promised coming of God in Isaiah 35.  Mark is showing us, once again, that this Jesus is the promised One–the promised Messiah–God Himself coming to earth.  And what Jesus does here to this deaf, mogilalon, speech impediment bound man is nothing short of amazing as He offers extreme compassion.

    First, Jesus takes the man aside.  I want you to contemplate this for just a moment as we remember what it would be like for this man given the culture he was in.  For you see, they didn’t have special places to care for those who were deaf and unable to speak in those days.  They didn’t have sign language.  They didn’t see people in such conditions as contributing members of society who had worth and value.  Most folks who were suffering from disabilities were outcasts; mocked; degraded; seen as burdens to the rest of people; contemptuous.  This guy could see, but he would never have been able to hear the insults thrown his way.  He would not be able to understand people’s contempt or hatred.  If he entered Jewish territory, there was then a whole other layer to contend with: for most of the Jewish religious authorities believed that if you suffered with such a malady, then you were under the curse of God. 

    So, Jesus, God incarnate, takes this man aside–away from the crowd and gives him His full attention.  Imagine being a Jew who was hearing this story.  Here is a man who would be seen under God’s curse standing before God with a private audience.  What was God going to do with this cursed individual?  What was God going to do with this man who was an outcast; on the fringes; who was looked down upon and seen as contemptuous?

    As we read through the text, we might think that Jesus is a bit gross, but as I heard in more than one sermon this past week, Jesus is doing something quite amazing.  He is communicating with this deaf, tongue tied man in his own form of sign language.  Jesus puts His fingers in the man’s ears as if to say, “I know your ears do not work.”  Jesus spits on the man’s tongue. “I know your tongue is tied.”  Jesus looks us to heaven.  “God knows your bondage.”  Jesus sighs deeply.  “I am praying to God.”  Then Jesus says, “Ephphatha” which in Aramaic means, “be opened.”  I am sure the man saw Jesus’ lips move.  He had no idea what Jesus said, but he could not mistake the meaning of the word for immediately after Jesus’ lips moved, the man’s ears were opened, and the chains fell off his tongue.  That’s the imagery Mark uses.  The man’s ears were opened and the chains fell off his tongue.  Mark’s imagery here is beautiful.  Jesus reaches out to one who was shunned.  Jesus brings him into a special place alone.  Jesus communicates with the man and shows the man He understands his problems, and Jesus heals the man and restores him to community.

    Jesus’ healing causes quite the stir, but Jesus’ response is quite intriguing.  Jesus tells everyone keep things quiet.  Don’t talk about what I have done.  But the crowd, the man who was just healed kept talking.  Jesus said, “Hush!”  Everyone talked louder.  They proclaimed, “He has done everything well!!”  Jesus said, “Quiet!!” to no avail.  Why would Jesus tell them to hush?  Why would He tell everyone to keep it under wraps?

    The best answer I came across was this: Jesus didn’t want everyone focused on Him simply being a miracle worker.  Jesus didn’t want everyone to think that He was simply here to take away people’s pain and suffering.  Jesus didn’t want everyone just to see Him as the fixer upper of a person’s personal life.  No.  Jesus was much more than that.  Jesus was not here simply to fix all of our problems and make our lives perfect.  Jesus was not here to give us a comfortable position in all that we encountered.  Jesus was about restoration.  Jesus was about mending the relationship between humankind and God–a relationship broken by our hardened hearts, our self-righteous behavior, and our desire to submit ourselves to no authority but our own.  Jesus did not come to simply open ears and tongues, but open hearts to redemption.

    And so we return to the problems of self-righteousness and uncertainty.  We return to them because these are both ways of hardened hearts.  These are both ways of selfish behavior.  I become self-righteous when I think I can follow all of the commands of God–particularly the one’s I like.  I impose those beliefs on others because they should do what I do and be like me.  Oh, but if I am confronted by another’s beliefs in God or in what they think I should do, I will respond, “No one can know for certain God’s will or mind.”  At the heart of this problem is a hardened heart–a closed heart–a heart that is closed in on itself. 

    How does Jesus open such a heart?  How does Jesus change such a heart?  What language does He speak to us to help us see our problem?

    First, He speaks by living the life we were supposed to live.  He reveals to us our own failure to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength.  Jesus reveals to us our inability to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Jesus does all these things well.  He does them perfectly.  He shows us the depths of our own sin.  Just like last week with the Syrophonecian woman, Jesus challenges us and shows us we deserve nothing for our selfish behavior.  Jesus becomes perfectly righteous, putting us all to shame.

    And then, revealing to us that He knows our condition–He knows our selfishness; He knows our shame; He knows our separation from God–He understands our inability to reconcile ourselves unto God, it is He who stretches out His hands and allows nails to be placed in them.  He sheds His precious blood as He hangs from the cross.  He looks heavenward and with a deep breath cries aloud, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?!”  In that moment, Jesus experienced the wrath and separation from God that you and I were meant to feel.  He experienced God’s silence as He suffered.  He bore the weight of our sin when we least deserved it.  He poured out His love while we were sinners restoring us to God.

    And because of Jesus’ actions, we have complete certainty about two things: number one we are sinful and unrighteous on our own.  We cannot look down our nose at anyone because we all fall short of the glory of God.  We cannot look at another with contempt and hatred because we deserve contempt and hatred.  We cannot kill another for a lack of believing because we lacked faith and trust in God ourselves as we trusted in our own works.  This should make us hang our heads in shame.  But that leads us to the second thing we can be certain about: that God loves us more than we can imagine.  For the Author and creator of the universe was willing to die on our behalf.  He was willing to die for us when we least deserved it.  He was willing to give of Himself to pay for our transgressions. 

    And when you hold onto these two certainties. When you hold them in dynamic tension: that you are undeserving and loved; when you are a failure yet accepted, then your heart is opened too.  Not because of what you do, but because of sheer grace.  A grace rooted in the Gospel:

    For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world may be saved through Him.  This is most certainly true.  Amen.

He Carried You

For the past several weeks, I have been leading a course on Timothy Keller's book The Prodigal God.  This book centers on what many call "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" found in the Bible; Luke Chapter 15.  In addition to the course I teach on Wednesday evenings, I have worked with the adult Sunday School class to delve deeply into Luke Chapter 15 to study the literary context of Jesus' parable. 

(Henceforth, I will be referring to the parable as "The Parable of the Two Sons" for, indeed, the parable isn't just about one son.  It's about both sons and their relationship with their father.) 

As I was preparing for the next adult class session, I focused my attention and study on Luke 15:3-7.  This is actually the first parable of two which lead up to the Parable of the Two Sons.  It's a familiar one to most Christians who grew up in the Church:

3 So Jesus told them this parable: 4‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

I consulted four different commentaries and was pulling quotes from each that we might discuss said quotes this Sunday.  One particular quote grabbed me as I finished typing.  It was from Joel Green's commentary on Luke found in The New International Commentary on the New Testament:

Because sheep are gregarious creatures, a sheep lost from its flock becomes quickly agitated and disoriented and must be carried back to the other sheep; for lengthy journeys this is most easily accomplished by placing the sheep on one’s shoulders.

For a moment, I paused.  Yes, the imagery is touching when you imagine that Jesus was 1) talking about God's seeking out of those who have gotten lost from the fold and 2) Jesus was defending His ministry of "eating with tax collectors and sinners."  The thought of God seeking out the lost, and Jesus manifesting this has offered great comfort to many, many people throughout the years.  But this is not what caught my eye.  This did: for lengthy journeys, this is most easily accomplished by placing the sheep on one's shoulders. 

Have you traveled a great distance with a load on your shoulders?

When my children were younger, oftentimes I would hoist them on my shoulders to walk around the store or the zoo or some other venue.  Before too long, my back began to ache.  My shoulders felt the weight of the burden, and they began to protest.  My leg muscles began to let me they were not used to such added weight.  I know some people train for such things--for long hikes with backpacks and the like, but most folks I know aren't deliberately walking around with burdens on their shoulders.  Most folks I know begin to feel such burdens after only a few minutes.

The Good Shepherd puts the sheep on His shoulders and carries it long distances to bring it back into the fold.  If this is a full grown sheep...do you know how much that weighs? 

Now, if we are talking about a juvenile--that could be 20 lbs or so.  Not terribly heavy, but after a while, even that starts to hurt.  Minimum for an adult ewe is 90 lbs.  Minimum for an adult ram is 100 lbs.  Try carrying that for any distance.

Can you imagine the exertion?
Can you imagine the muscles crying out in pain?
Can you imagine trying to keep your balance and walk with this living thing on your back moving and perhaps struggling to get away?
Can you imagine the perspiration and heavy breathing?

All that work for the sake of a sheep.
To bring it back into the fold.
Without a second thought.
And then throwing a party when he gets back.

Oh, and it gets better.

For how is it that Jesus brings us back into His flock?
What burden did He bear on His shoulders?
What caused His muscles to cry out in pain?
What caused Him to perspire profusely and breathe heavily?

All for the sake of those who had rejected Him
Who had deserted Him
Who had mocked Him
Who had betrayed Him
Who had denied Him

So that even they might be united with the flock?

The cross.
God and sinners reconciled.

And a party is thrown!

Oh, I know that someone will point me toward verse 7.  Believe me I am not ignorant of it.  "7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance." 

"The party will only be for those who repent!" you might say.

But I remind you of what  John Nolland in his Word Biblical Commentary on Luke says:

The place of repentance here takes us right outside the framework of the parable, which focuses exclusively on the role of the shepherd.  Studies often protest that this verse obscures the fact that Jesus scandalized the Pharisees precisely by his failure to demand repentance in the normal way...

This is a very important point...one that I didn't quite realize until John pointed it out.  You see, Jesus' call for repentance comes as a response to what He has done.  Repentance, for a Christian, comes as a result of contemplating the nature of what Jesus has already done for you.  The cross leads to repentance.  It was contrary to what the Pharisees taught then.  It is contrary to what many, even within the Church, teach now. 

For when you see the pains that the Good Shepherd endured for your sake
When you see He carried you to God through the cross
When you see His nail pierced hands and feet
When you see His sacrifice on your behalf

It changes you deeply.
There is no way you could ever live the same.
Once the Shepherd, at great cost to Himself, has brought you home.
And thrown a party because you were there.

Why are Christians So...

Whew!

I just returned from a yearly theological conference put on by the three ELCA synods in Texas and Louisiana.  This year's topic was preaching, and we were blessed with a dynamic presenter Len Sweet.  Of course, I didn't agree with him on everything.  In fact, we are quite divergent in our methodologies.  Yet, I do know he wants very much for our churches to thrive.  I know he wants us to follow Jesus as Jesus' disciples.  I commend him for that.

But I disagree with some of his methodologies--most particular, I disagree with what he considers the Gospel. 

Perhaps early on in his first presentation, I became jaded, and here is why:

Early on in his presentation, Sweet used a Yahoo! search bar clip to present his case that we as Christians are viewed negatively by the surrounding culture. 

You can see the comments are not so flattering--to say the least.

"This is what the culture thinks of you..." Sweet elaborated.  Most of us simply sat and stared at this without challenging it.  And, of course, it is true that there are Christians who are judgemental, hateful, mean, stupid, self-righteous, intolerant, easily offended, annoying, ignorant, and arrogant.  There are more than a few adjectives we could add to this list.  Many pastors deal with congregation members who fit these adjectives, and sometimes we tend to be a bit too agreeable when someone shoves something like this in our face.  (Full disclosure: there are a few congregation members out there who believe their pastors can indeed fit these adjectives as well!!!)

But being the type of person I am, I did not readily swallow Sweet's assertion.  In fact, the presentation bothered me, so later that evening, I decided to have a bit of fun on Yahoo!  I didn't do what I did because I don't believe Christians can't be this way--they can and are!!--but I wondered just how accurate such a thing could be?  I wondered if there wasn't something else to be discerned from Yahoo! searches.  Here is what I discovered by simply changing one word in the search query:

Why are atheists so...

Why are Muslims so

Why are Jews so

Hmm.  Are we discerning a pattern yet?  So, being who I am, I started doing a little more:

Why are whites so

Why are blacks so

Why are Mexicans so

Why are women so

Why are men so

Take a look at each and every one of these screenshots and look them over carefully once more.  Look them over and tell me what you see.  Do you see honesty?  Or do you see a caricature?  Do you see reality, or do you see someone emphasizing the less than savory "blemishes" of all these folks?  Do you see reality, or do you think someone is trying to warp reality?

Timothy Keller says this in his book Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (emphasis mine):

Religion, generally speaking, tends to create a slippery slope in the heart.  Each religion informs its followers that they have "the truth," and this naturally leads them to feel superior to those with differing beliefs.  Also, a religion tells its followers they are saved and connected to God by devotedly performing that truth.  This moves them to separate from those who are less than devoted and pure in life.  Therefore it is easy for one group to stereotype and caricature other ones.  Once this situation exists, it can easily spiral down into the marginalization of others and or even to active oppression, abuse, or violence against them.  (Kindle Location 331)

See any stereotyping and caricature in the screenshots above?   But I would argue, it's not just religion that causes this.  It's any person who believes he or she is above reproach and morally superior to another.  And if these screenshots are an indicator of culture--or an indicator of those who put together the algorithms at Yahoo!--then, there are some folks whose hearts are traveling down that slippery slope of the heart.

The cure for such a slippery slope is the Gospel; however, I think it is enough to stop here and let it simmer for a while.  I think it is enough to stop here and reflect upon that which has been seen for unlike Sweet, I will not see what Yahoo! is doing as a reflection on Christianity because if Yahoo! is doing what I see it doing, it tells us more about Yahoo! than it does about reality.

Heroes with Clay Feet

  

 Do you remember the first time you discovered one of your heroes had clay feet?

    It’s a bit of a disturbing thing for many of us.  I mean, I think there is a part of us which constantly looks for another person to look up to and admire.  I think there is a part of us which seeks out examples and role models.  There is a part of us that desperately wants to see and know a real, life, flesh and blood person who has it all together; who is successful in all endeavors; and who lives up to the expectations we have within us for a hero.  I think everyone holds out hope to find such a person in life.

    Oftentimes, we find someone who seems to have all these qualities.  We latch onto that person.  We hang on their every word.  We follow their every action.  We start imitating the way they talk; the way they think; and the way they act.  If they are famous, we may buy their books; watch their television shows; or attend lectures or gatherings where they are in attendance.  We quote them in our conversations.  We strive to be just like them.

    And then we find out, they are only human.

    How many of you remember Michael Jordan?  If you grew up in the ‘80's and ‘90's and were a basketball fan, you know exactly who I am talking about.  Jordan was simply an amazing player.  Some would argue–and I personally think they are right–that he was the best basketball player to have played the game thus far.  He won numerous MVP awards and championships.  Advertisers cashed in on Michael Jordan.  Nike especially.  McDonald’s was another.  Gatorade was another.  Gatorade even had a slogan, “Be Like Mike.” 

    Oh and how many of us tried to be like Mike.  We wore long shorts.  We wore wrist bands in the same fashion.  We walked with a swagger.  We tried incomprehensible basketball shots.  We tried to air walk and make difficult moves as we flew through the air. 

    Of course, we failed, but that was minor.  We had a hero who almost seemed superhuman when he took to the basketball court.  If you want to know Jordan’s influence, know that nearly all my friends who were born and raised in Texas rooted for the Chicago Bulls without reservation or thought of the Spurs, Rockets, or Mavericks.  Jordan captivated us. 

    But as time passed, we found out even Michael Jordan had limits.  He retired three times.  He came back to play twice.  Does anyone remember when he came back and played for the Washington Wizards?  I do.  It was a miserable thing to watch.  Michael Jordan had grown old.  He no longer had many of his abilities.  Kids who never saw him play with the Chicago Bulls wondered what the fascination was with this old player who could no longer dominate games like he once did. 

    And then, there was Jordan’s attempt at team ownership and general managing.  Those were abject failures.  While Jordan the player was awesome; Jordan the general manager, owner, and even coach were awful.  Success in one area did not guarantee a golden touch in all other areas.  No one I know wanted to be like Mike once he became old and left the court for good.  He was only human after all–much to the chagrin of many who truly admired the man.

    Examples of this abound.  They abound everywhere.  Everyone has a skeleton or two in the closet.  Everyone has something in their lives that can be used against them in one fashion or another.  There have even been books written about Mother Teresa criticizing her for some of the decisions she made in caring for the poor and needy.  More than a few pastors and televangelists have been brought to their knees by scandal–monetarily and sexually.  Politicians are rocked by scandals on almost a weekly basis now.  And people who put their trust in these individuals find themselves disappointed and upset that their heroes are imperfect and not completely trustworthy.

    Sometimes, it shocks us.  And it really shouldn’t.

    I mean, I’m a pastor.  For as long as I can remember, I have learned, taught, and preached that we are all both saint and sinner.  We have both good and bad within us.  I know this cognitively, but there is still a part of me that longs to find someone to completely trust.  And I thought I had found someone I really admired in Timothy Keller.  I’ve quoted him a lot in sermons and in other places, and I will still quote him by the way.  But I couldn’t help but feel a bit of disappointment the other day when I was trying to find some sermons he preached.  I went to his congregation’s website.  I clicked on the links to find sermons and found that they were being sold for $5 a pop.  Five bucks for a sermon!!  Five bucks for what was preached as an exposition on God’s Word?  What happened to St. Paul’s statement, “I proclaimed the Gospel freely!”?  I was disappointed.  But I shouldn’t have been.  Everyone has clay feet.  Everyone.

    Of course, this is hard for us to admit.  It’s hard for us to look in the mirror and say, “Self, you are broken.  You don’t live like you should.  You don’t care for others like you should.”  We don’t like telling ourselves such things.  In fact, usually, we’d like to think we have it all together and that it is the other person out there who has the problem.  We are just fine the way we are.  We are good enough.  Sure, we might make a mistake here and there, but we are basically good.  We are basically upright.  We are basically okay.  Not like those people out there.

    Jesus had a word or two to say about such folks in our Gospel lesson today from the book of Matthew.  He says, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.”

    This is an interesting statement here.  Some have commented that Jesus is being sarcastic, but I don’t think so.  I think Jesus is serious in what He tells His followers.  Why?  Because the scribes and Pharisees are teaching the Law of Moses, which, of course, was given by God.  We are supposed to follow and do what God tells us to do.  When someone tells us to follow God’s laws and instructions, we should listen.  So, what is the problem and why does Jesus say, “But don’t do as they do?”

    Let me put it in this fashion.  Let’s say I get up on Sunday morning and I tell you, “We must love God with all our hearts and souls and minds, and we must love our neighbor as ourselves.”  And I preached a long sermon about such matters with all kinds of illustrations and arguments which urged you to do such matters.  You and I hopefully know Jesus said that all the commands of God are summed up in these two commandments.  They are Jesus’ instructions to all of us.  Of course, we are all supposed to do these things.  We are supposed to live them out.  This is why Jesus says, “Do what they tell you to do.” 

    But this is the problem.  Number one, no one fully loves God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength, and no one fully loves their neighbor as they love themselves.  No one.  Period.  You can try to argue with me on this one, but I think I could convince you in a matter of moments that none of us can implement this teaching at all.  We may not like hearing that, but it is true.  The second part of the problem would be this.  Let’s pretend, at the moment, that after preaching that sermon, I actually believed I was doing it.  Let’s pretend that Pastor Haug thought in his mind that he actually loved the Lord with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength and that he loved his neighbor as himself.  Let’s pretend for a moment that this gave Pastor Haug a deep sense of satisfaction that he could actually accomplish this faith thing, and because he believed he could accomplish this faith thing, he felt like people should look up to him.  He felt like people should honor his work.  He felt like people should admire him and do things for him because he was so good at following God’s commands.  Let’s pretend that Pastor Haug started wearing a very big cross around his neck and walking with his chest puffed out.  Let’s pretend he started wearing shirts saying, “Want to follow Jesus?  Just ask me how.”  Let’s pretend he tried to tell everyone at every moment what they could do better to be a better Christian and to improve their own lots in life as if he were some sort of expert in being a super-Christian.  What would you think of Pastor Haug?

    Some of you may be saying, “And in what way is this different than the way you really are?”  Duly noted. 

    You probably wouldn’t like Pastor Haug very much.  You would probably think he was an arrogant you-know-what.  You probably wouldn’t have much nice to say about him because there are very few who truly admire someone who is self-righteous.  Very few.  And those who do usually admire them until something happens which exposes them in their hypocrisy.  

    “Do what they teach you, (about following the commands of God),” Jesus says, but don’t do what they do.”  What are the Pharisees and scribes doing?  Exactly what our hopefully hypothetical Pastor Haug is doing.  They are being self-righteous.  Listen to what Jesus says they are doing, and this comes across plain as day.  “4They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 5They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, 7and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi.”  All of these things smack of self-righteousness.  All of these things smack of people who have inflated thoughts of themselves.  And when someone is so full of themselves, they have no room for God.  They do not believe they need God.  And so, they break the first and most important commandment–even though they think they are following it.

    Now, listen as Jesus wraps this little segment up.  He says, “8But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. 9And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11The greatest among you will be your servant. 12All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. “

    Let’s unpack this because I think it’s crucial.  Who does Jesus want us to focus on?  In these three statements, where does Jesus want each and every one of us to place our trust, our hope, and our view of a role model?  “You have one teacher...You have one Father–the one in heaven...You have one instructor, the Messiah.”  Jesus wants us to focus on God the Father, and on Him as the Messiah.  He wants us to look up to them and them alone.  No one else.  Why?

    Here’s why.  Every single role model you choose; every single instructor you view as great and fantastic; every single father figure you look to on this earth will let you down.  That is simply the reality.  Every single hero; every single pastor; every single professional athlete; every single parent; every single teacher; every single astronaut and politician and police officer and the list goes on will let you down.  They are not perfect.  They are not blameless.  They are not free from selfish motivation.  They will do something or say something which will hurt you.

    Not only this, if you allow yourself to have everyone look up to you and think you are an awesome role model, you will eventually become self-righteous, and you will let down others.  It’s a horrible, double edged sword.

    Not only will you be disappointed in others, others will become disappointed in you.  Why?  Because they cannot be perfect; and neither can you.  They cannot live up to your standards, and you can’t live up to someone else’s.

    There’s only One who can.  There’s only One who can live up to the standards of perfection and serve as the perfect role model.  There is only One who, when you point the way to Him will not disappoint others.  His name is Jesus.

    For it is in Jesus that we find the cure for self-righteousness.  It is in Jesus that we find the perfect role model.  It is in Jesus that we find humility and the strength to try to do what we should do even though we stumble and fall time and again.

    How does Jesus do this?  How does Jesus keep us from becoming self-righteous?  By dying for us.  By giving us salvation when we didn’t deserve it.  By granting us grace when we had clay feet.

    For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world may be save through Him. 

    When you realize your salvation did not come from anything you did–from your own ability to please God and love your neighbor and follow all the rules; when you realize your salvation was given to you precisely when you were not pleasing God and loving your neighbor; you can’t get a big head.  You can’t become arrogant.  You can’t walk around looking down your nose at others–like the Pharisees and scribes.  You are humbled.  You realize you have clay feet and are not worthy of what Jesus did for you.  But you also do not become self defacing.  You don’t feel like a horrible piece of dirt because you were valuable enough that Jesus died for you.  You realize you are indebted to Him for what He has done for you, and so you seek to follow Him; to learn about Him; to have Him instruct you and show you how to live in this world.  You realize He places upon you a burden, but He does more than lift a finger to help you with it.  He willingly dies to lift it.  He does not wear any special garments, He hangs on a cross.  He does not demand to sit at the head of the banquet; He invites you to come and dine with Him. 

    And when you realize this about Jesus, you are filled with thankfulness and joy.  You are filled with satisfaction.  Deep within, you know the sinner you are is transformed into a saint by what Jesus has done.  And you become a role model–not in pointing to what you do, but what God has done.  And this precisely one of the main reasons we celebrate All Saint’s Sunday.  We remember those who have gone before who also pointed to Jesus.  Amen.

Why Worship...In (a) Church...That You Disagree With

Because of a lack of time--and the lengthiness of the post, I did not come full circle as I wrote about worship.  Today, I'd like to finish the thoughts on worship and come back to the extended quote by Timothy Keller:

If you don't trust the Bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, how could you ever have a personal relationship with God?  In any truly personal relationship, the other person has to be able to contradict you.  For example, if a wife is not allowed to contradict her husband, they won't have an intimate relationship.  Remember the (two!) movies The Stepford Wives?  The husbands of Stepford, Connecticut, decide to have their wives turned into robots who never cross the wills of their husbands.  A Stepford wife was wonderfully compliant and beautiful, but no one would describe such a marriage as intimate or personal.

Now, what happens if you eliminate anything from the Bible that offends your sensibility and crosses your will?  If you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest, how will you ever have a God who can contradict you?  You won't!  You'll have a Stepford God!  A God, essentially, of your own making, and not a God with whom you can have a relationship and genuine interaction.  Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten a hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.  (Kindle Location 1901-1907)

If we worship to come in contact with Jesus--to hear about what He has done and how we are saved purely and solely by His action...

And if it is at worship where we attempt to shut out all the other false gods of the world and concentrate on Jesus...

And if in the midst of doing so, Jesus begins tuning our hearts toward Him...

...then we should feel quite a bit of discomfort.

And I know we do not like feeling uncomfortable.  Take another quick look at the reasons I wrote for folks skipping worship on a given Sunday (or for an extended period of time):

• I am spiritual, but not religious.  
• I can worship God anywhere.  I do not need to be in church to do so.
• I do not find anything compelling when I attend worship.
• This person hurt me, and I do not want to run into them at worship.
• I do not like the decision the church made, and I will not worship.
• I do not like the way the pastor preaches. 
• I do not like the music.
• I want more organ music.
• I want more contemporary music.
• I like being anonymous when I go to church and do not like small crowds.
• I like being welcomed and part of an intimate group and do not like large worship services.

 What do they all have in common?  Well, let me rephrase that question: who is at the center of all of these questions?

Me.  Myself.  And I.

It's understandable, really.  We live in a consumer oriented culture.  We live by the mantra, "Have it your way."  (Even though I detest Burger King.)  If we find a restaurant does not tickle our taste buds, we find another.  If a repair shop does not satisfy us with the job of repair, we find another.  If we do not like the prices at one store, we find another.  Hey, I'm just as guilty as the next guy when it comes to this.  I needed a part for my SUV, and after consulting with a few shops, I gleefully ordered it online and saved $30!!!  Saving money made me happy and much more comfortable.

And we really, really like our comfort zones. 

In quantum mechanics, there is a rule which governs atomic particles: those particles like to remain at the lowest possible energy state.  It takes extra energy to get them "excited" and changing or maintaining a particular position.  If everything is same ol', same ol', they simply will not change or move to another level.

The more I have studied humankind, I believe we too are influenced in the same manner.  We are all to happy to remain right where we are.  We are all to happy to stay entrenched in our thought processes, beliefs, and actions.  Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing in all circumstances.  For instance, you would be hard pressed to get me to change my belief that Jesus is the Son of God, second person of the Trinity, and resurrected Savior.  But am I so comfortable in that belief that I do not ask myself why I believe it to be true?  Am I so comfortable in that belief that it makes little difference in what I do and how I do it?  What challenges that belief and makes me think through why I believe what I believe and do what I do?

If I go to a church where I never end up asking myself those kinds of questions, I have a Stepford Church.  I have a church/congregation that simply affirms me and makes me feel good about myself.  I have a church that never challenges my ideas or makes me do the messy work involved in a REAL relationship.

And face it, real relationships are messy at times.  We disagree with others.  We misunderstand others.  We are forced to examine our own contributions to the problems in relationships.  We have to invest time and energy and money into real relationships.  We argue.  We fight.  Sometimes we don't talk to one another for a while.  But within those real relationships, we also find love, compassion, caring, and intimacy at a level far beyond most of the superficiality we experience each and every day.

You will find neither challenge nor true intimacy without engaging an "other" who is different from you and does not see everything just like you.

A few have asked me why I remain in a denomination that I tend to disagree with on many levels theological and philosophical.  Why stay in a denomination that I feel has gone astray doctrinally? 

Unless said denomination has people within it who challenge it (and vice versa) it will never grow, and neither will I.  Unless said denomination has people of differing theologies, it simply has Stepford Members, and if I find a denomination that fits all my beliefs, then I have a Stepford Denomination.  There is no growth, and there is no intimacy.

Whether it is a Stepford God, Stepford Denomination, Stepford Congregation, or Stepford Member, none of these are real relationships.  Relationships should make us uncomfortable as we engage the "other."  It's how we grow.

And if you are not engaging the Holy Other--Jesus the Christ, on an extremely regular basis, you are not growing; your heart is not being changed; you are maintaining your comfortable place at the lowest energy state.

Perhaps you are happy with such a thing.  Perhaps you believe you have no need to change or become a better person than you are.  Then church and worship definitely isn't for you.  Church is for people who know they fall short.  Church is for those who know they miss the mark.  Church is for those who know there is more to life than what they currently experience.  Church is for those who know they have plenty of room to grow.  Church is for those who want transformation of themselves, their relationships, and the world.

And that transformation comes from Jesus who changes hearts at worship.

Why Worship...In Church?

For many years, I have struggled to answer this question.  In many ways, even some of the answers I have posted on this blog have left me unsatisfied.

I mean, I know what has been passed onto me:

• Worship is central to the life of a Christian.
• Worship is the place we encounter Jesus in the Word and Sacrament.
• Worship is where we meet fellow Christians who share our joys and sorrows.
• Worship is where heaven and earth intersect for precious moments helping us and equipping us to endure the grind of daily life.
• Worship is where we are instructed and equipped for living the Christian life.
• Worship is where we hear the Gospel.

All of these things (and a few more), I know deep within the depths of my being, but they are sorely inadequate in persuading people to attend worship on Sunday mornings.   Such points do not cut through the fortified walls people have erected in their lives--the walls of reasoning and thought excusing them from regular worship:

• I am spiritual, but not religious.  
• I can worship God anywhere.  I do not need to be in church to do so.
• I do not find anything compelling when I attend worship.
• This person hurt me, and I do not want to run into them at worship.
• I do not like the decision the church made, and I will not worship.
• I do not like the way the pastor preaches. 
• I do not like the music.
• I want more organ music.
• I want more contemporary music.
• I like being anonymous when I go to church and do not like small crowds.
• I like being welcomed and part of an intimate group and do not like large worship services.

And the list could go on.  Instead of picking at each of these points and arguing their merits or lack of merits, I would like to approach things from a little different manner.

First, a lengthy quote from Timothy Keller's book The Reason for God:

If you don't trust the Bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, how could you ever have a personal relationship with God?  In any truly personal relationship, the other person has to be able to contradict you.  For example, if a wife is not allowed to contradict her husband, they won't have an intimate relationship.  Remember the (two!) movies The Stepford Wives?  The husbands of Stepford, Connecticut, decide to have their wives turned into robots who never cross the wills of their husbands.  A Stepford wife was wonderfully compliant and beautiful, but no one would describe such a marriage as intimate or personal.

Now, what happens if you eliminate anything from the Bible that offends your sensibility and crosses your will?  If you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest, how will you ever have a God who can contradict you?  You won't!  You'll have a Stepford God!  A God, essentially, of your own making, and not a God with whom you can have a relationship and genuine interaction.  Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten a hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.  (Kindle Location 1901-1907)

Can you connect the dots between worship and this quote?  I am sure many of you probably can, but if you are struggling, let me try and clarify.

At my congregation's last council meeting, one of the members brought up an interesting statistic: there are 8760 hours in a year.  If you worshiped every Sunday (at an average of one hour per worship service), you would only spend 52 of those hours in a place devoted to God--that's less than 1/2 of one percentage point of your time!!!

But let's also put a little more perspective on this.  During those other hours, everything else in the world is striving to garner your devotion.  Yes, I said that purposefully.  Everything else is trying to gain your worship and adoration--from your job to your family to your children to your leisure time  to television advertizements to your possessions to even your self!!  Each of these things is trying to draw your heart toward it, and they are obsessed with owning you and your time.  Don't believe me?  Try giving any one of them less attention than you do now.  See what happens.  Not only may you get a visceral reaction from one of these things, you will also feel torn, like you are letting it down.  You will feel guilty for not obeying one of your masters.  That may sound harsh, but it is assuredly true.  False gods do not let go of you easily--and it is not easy to give them up.  They have a special place in all of our hearts.

And there is no way to totally get rid of the heart's desire to worship.  There is no way to get rid of the heart's desire to grasp onto an object greater than itself.  Consider what atheist author David Foster Wallace said during a commencement address at  Kenyon College,

Everybody worships.  The only choice we get is what to worship, and the compelling reason to maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.  If you choose to worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough.  Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age starts showing you will die a thousand million deaths before they finally grieve you.  Worship power and you will end up feeling weak and afraid and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect being seen as smart and you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud always on the verge of being found out.  But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is they are unconscious.  They are default settings.

Now, you may argue that there is nothing necessarily wrong with the "default settings" our hearts want to worship.  I mean, we do need money to survive in the world.  Taking care of our health and bodies are important.  Positive use of power makes a difference to people in the world--especially to those with no power.  Reading and studying to increase one's knowledge is generally a good thing.  I won't disagree with these statements, but that is not Foster's point.  Foster's point is that when these good things are turned into ultimate things, they will destroy you.  Each desire--while good in moderation--becomes destructive when it turns into an object of worship--a false god.  The reality is: there is no object of worship that does not lead to guilt, self-righteousness, pain, hunger, depression, anxiety, dissatisfaction, except God.  Unless Jesus is the heart's desire, one will remain unsatisfied and without peace.

Which leads right back to the worship of Jesus in church during the week.  Why?  Because we must answer the question: how do we put Jesus at the center of worship?  For a heart will not willingly give up its objects of worship.  It will simply turn from one to another.  Again, consider this quote
from Thomas Chalmers in his sermon "The Expulsive Powers of a New Affection":

It is seldom that any of our bad habits or flaws disappear by a mere process of natural extinction.  At least this is done very seldom through the instrumentality of reasoning or by the force of mental determination.  What cannot be destroyed; however, may be dispossessed.  One taste may be made to give way to another and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection of the mind.  A youth may cease to idolize central pleasure but it's because the idol of wealth--the desire to make money--has got the ascendency; so he becomes disciplined.  But the love of money might actually cease to have mastery over his heart if it is drawn to ideology and politics.  Now he is lorded over by a love of power and of moral superiority instead of wealth.  But there is not one of these transformations in which the heart is left without an object.  The human heart's desire for one particular object is conquered, but it's desire to have some ultimate object of adoration is unconquerable.  The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is to replace it with the expulsive power of a new one.  Thus it is not enough to hold out to the world the mirror of its own imperfections; it is not enough to come forth with a demonstration of its evanessive character of their enjoyment; it's not enough to simply speak to the conscience--to speak of its follies; rather, you must seek as a preacher every legitimate method of finding access to the heart for the love of Him who is greater than the world. (As quoted by Timothy Keller here.)   

What Chalmer's argues is that our hearts move from object of worship to object of worship to object of worship, and this only happens when one object gets displaced by another.  We do not give those objects up freely or rationally.  Only when one object is substituted for another does our heart let go.  Tie that to what Foster said previous, and one must ask himself or herself: to what am I giving my worship, and is that worship leading me towards abundant life here and in the world to come?

If Foster is right, and I think he is, then the only worship which will lead to abundant life and not devour you is the worship of God--particularly the worship of Jesus Christ.  And, it is only at worship apart from the rest of the world and false gods, where the Gospel is proclaimed--the action God took to save you, redeem you, and give you value and worth.  It is only in worship where you hold the body and blood of Jesus and take them into yourself that He may transform you from within.  It is only in worship where you shut out all the other false gods which demand your time, effort and energy and turn your attention to the One True God.  It is only by hearing that you are broken yet forgiven by no action of your own that the false gods begin to lose their grip and be displaced by Jesus.

For He is the center of all Christian worship.  Not the music we play.  Not who may or may not be at church.  Not the size of the church.  Or whether or not I feel welcomed.  Or I find anything compelling (unless you are only receiving the Law and being told what to do over and over and over.  That is not hearing the Gospel, that is for certain.)

And you cannot hear the Gospel sitting by yourself in a deer stand, or on the beach, or while fishing.  You may see God's handiwork, but you do not meet Jesus--sorry, you just don't.  The Word takes root in proclamation not in doing.

I know this post makes a very big assumption--that people actually want to be transformed into something different.  It assumes people want to know peace and joy.  It assumes they want to have an abundant life--much more abundant than running around from activity to activity feeling tired and stressed and overworked and the like.  It assumes people are dissatisfied with the way things are playing out deep within themselves and they would like to find a place of peace.

If that fits you, I invite you to worship.  Regularly.  Not once a month.  Not twice a month.  As much as you can.  No excuses.  Come meet Jesus.  As your heart is moved toward Him, you will notice the difference.

Weed or Wheat? Sermon on Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

    So, are you a weed or are you wheat?  That is the question that is before us this morning.  And I’ll be up front with you–it’s a trick question.  Seriously.  It’s a trick question.   Why?

    Let’s look at Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the Weeds and the Wheat to begin with.  Jesus says, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

    When you read this particular explanation, one thought usually goes through your head, “Man, I hope I am wheat.  I hope I’m not a weed because I don’t want to get thrown into the fire!”  And it’s interesting where our brains can go at this point.  It usually goes in one of two directions.

    First, the brain can take us to a place of great fear.  For those of us with guilty consciences, we begin examining our lives and say, “Uh oh!”  We say, “You know, I’m not such a good person down deep.  I get angry a lot.  I have impure thoughts and lust after people I am attracted to.  I love making money and having wealth and possessions.  I am not as charitable as I should.  I drink too much.  I am not as kind to others as I should be.  I don’t do a very good job of taking care of God’s creation.  I am broken.  I must be a weed.”  And we feel really, really bad about ourselves.  We carry a burden of guilt and shame, and a little black cloud seems to follow us around.  This is one response to this parable, and I think it’s the wrong one for reasons I’ll get to in a moment.

    The other response to this parable is quite different.  Some of us hear this parable and think, “Well, I’m not too bad of a person, I must be wheat!  I will end up in eternal glory!  I go to church regularly.  I put money in the offering plate.  I treat others decently.  I’ve provided for my family.  I love my spouse and my kids.  I do a few nice things from time to time.  Sure, I may have a few flaws, but my good deeds far outweigh those other moments I have.  God won’t hold that against me because I am pretty decent.”  When we are in this camp, we start feeling pretty good about ourselves, and before long, it actually has some interesting consequences.  Before long, we begin to look at others who don’t measure up to our standards as weeds.  “They just don’t have it all together like I do.  Those folks aren’t quite doing what God asks them to do, and they’d better get with the program or they will be in for a hot time.  That church over there doesn’t teach the Bible right, and God isn’t happy with them.”  Before long, the folks who believe they are wheat end up with a self-righteous attitude that looks down on others who they believe are weeds.  This is another common response to this parable, and again, I think it’s the wrong one.

    Why would I say that these two responses are wrong?  Here’s why: I don’t think God wants us to end up in either of these places.  I don’t think God wants us to end up worried and frightened and depressed thinking we are a rotten worm who can’t do a lick of good.  Neither do I think that God wants us to end up thinking ourselves better than anyone else with self-righteous behavior.  Both of these responses are dead wrong.

    But the question is how do we avoid falling into either one of these responses?  How do we avoid thinking of ourselves as weeds?  How do we avoid thinking of ourselves as wheat?  –Especially when the pastor starts off his sermon by asking, “Are you weeds or wheat?”  Remember, I told you that was a trick question.

    The answer is, of course, the Gospel.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but so that the world may be saved through Him.”  Remember, God did this, God took on flesh and entered into the world not because we were good–not because we were following His commands and His Law, but precisely the opposite.  God did this because we could not follow His Law.  We could not follow His commandments.  We could not be good people.  We were and are broken, and could not live up to God’s standards.  We could not redeem the world and reconcile ourselves unto God, so He acted for us.  He redeemed us while we were still sinners.  Let’s put this in the terms of the parable, God sent His son into the world to be wheat while we were still weeds, and by grace, Jesus took our weediness upon Himself and faced the fire so that we could become wheat.

    How does this happen?  I think we have to remember that Jesus came into this world to do two things: to live the life we should live and to die the death we deserve.  First, Jesus lived the life we should live.  Jesus followed the commandments of God perfectly.  He lived totally dependent upon God.  He did not seek wealth and privilege.  When Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus walked away.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus did the exact opposite of Adam and Eve–instead of seeking to save His own skin and be dependent upon Himself, Jesus sought obedience to the Father.  Jesus did all the stuff we should have done.  He lived the perfect life when we could not.

    And then He died the death we deserved.  Because of our selfishness, because of our desire to be gods ourselves, we issued into the world violence, death, disease, racism, sexism, warfare, and all sorts of evil.  We were created to be the caretakers of creation, and as such we were the lynch pin for creation as well.  When we rejected dependence on God for our own desires, we allowed all this stuff to happen, and we participate in it to this day!  What should the penalty for all of this be?  Nothing less than enduring the entire wrath of God.  The only problem with that is, we could never endure that.  Never.  We would be blasted out of existence.  And God knew this.  He wanted more for His creation, and so He sent the Son to endure that wrath for us.  Only God could endure God’s wrath, and Jesus suffered that on the cross.  He died the death we deserved to justify us.   And what does that justification mean?

    Just this–and this is important–it doesn’t mean that we completely stop sinning.  It doesn’t mean we have become perfect.  It doesn’t mean we are perfect people who are perfect in our actions.  Far from it.  It means God looks at us differently.  God looks at us through the actions of Jesus.  Our sin has been taken up on Jesus, and Jesus’ righteousness has been imparted to us.  In other words, we are still weeds, but because of what Jesus has done, God sees us as wheat.  Think about that for a moment. 

    I like how Timothy Keller put this: “In the sight of God, we are justified.  In ourselves, we are sinners.  A Christian is an honored failure–a righteous sinner–a justified sinner.”  Listen to that statement one more time: a Christian is an honored failure.  We are both saint and sinner.  We are both weed and wheat at the same time.  This is what the Gospel helps us understand.  And what does this mean?  How does it help us get away from the consequences that I spoke of earlier?

    Just this: if you think you are a weed and are a horrible, terrible person who can’t do anything right–the Gospel says, think about this for a moment–God sent His Son to die for you.  God does not want you to perish.  You are of too much value to Him.  Do not consider yourself rubbish.  Do not get down and depressed about yourself.  You are loved.  You are cherished.  All you need to do is look at the cross to see what price God paid for you.  You are that dear to Him.  Pick your chin up.  Know that you are a child of God.

    And if you believe you are wheat and that you can look down your nose at others because of your righteousness, the Gospel says–not so fast buddy.  You don’t even come close.  You aren’t as good as you think you are.  You are still a sinner.  You still don’t follow the commandments of Jesus.  You still don’t love in the manner God calls you to love.  The only reason you have any standing with God is because of what Jesus has done–not because of anything you do.  Get your nose out of the clouds for it doesn’t belong there.  Be humble.  You are only a child of God because of what Jesus has done, not because of what you do.

    The Gospel raises the lowly and it brings down the haughty.  The Gospel lets us escape the two fold trap which leads either to depression or self-righteousness.  The Gospel helps us see that we are not exclusively weeds nor exclusively wheat.  We are both at the same time.  We are honored failures.  We are justified sinners.  This is what it means to be a Christian.  Amen.

Doing Versus What Has Been Done

This week, I stumbled upon another video lecture by Timothy Keller.

When I attended seminary, it was rare that I took notes in class.  Rarely did I find myself engaged and hanging on the words of my professors to the point that I felt it necessary to jot down the words they spoke.

Well, that was certainly not the case with this lecture.  I watched it three times: two just to listen, and a third to write down notes.  It took me almost two hours to make it through the video as I paused and wrote; paused and wrote.

As Keller spoke about "Gospel Centered Ministry", I reflected upon much of my career as an ordained minister.  I thought about my preaching all those years.  I thought about the state of the church in our American society and its decline.  I thought about all the seminars I have attended in those years of seminary and since becoming ordained.  I thought about all the debates I have gotten into with others concerning how Christianity should address what is happening our culture these days.  And I thought about my focus--and often the focus of many of my colleagues and fellow Christians.

What can we do to stem the tide of decline?

That's been the operative question.  And, of course, the answers usually revolve around a couple of things:

1. Make sure we are adhering to the right doctrine.
2. Make sure we are doing the right things.

We've had some tremendous intramural battles over these things.  Tremendous battles.  And we've continued to decline.

Much of our conversations revolve around what can we do better.  We need to do justice.  We need to do evangelism. We need to do social media.  We need to do different forms of worship.  We need to do.  We need to do.  We need to do.

Action is part of the Christian faith.  Of this, there is no doubt.

But, we must ask the question: Is Christianity MAINLY about what we do or is it about what God has done?

That's the operative question, and it changes the way you think, preach, and act.

I love Keller's illustration of this using the comparison of a king who goes off to battle an invading foe.

If the king wins, he sends back heralds who proclaim the good news!   Victory has been achieved for you.  No longer are you under any threat!  Live into the peace that has been brought to you!

If the king loses, he sends back military advisers.   Put up the breastworks here!  Archers here!  Calvary here!  Get ready to fight for your life!

All of the world's religions send military advisers.  They all say, "This is how you live so that you will not endure the wrath of God.  This is how you live to escape the cycle of karma.  This is how you live to escape desire."  They all give advice on life and how to achieve salvation.

Only Christianity sends heralds.  Salvation is achieved without any action on your part.  The battle with the evil one is over.  Reconciliation between God and man is accomplished.  Live into that freedom!

Both of these proclamations receive a response.  Both of these proclamations bring about action, but their motivations are very different.

Military advisers produce fear.
Heralds produce joy.

As people of faith, are we advisers or heralds?
Do we tell people what they should do to live a particular type of life, or do we tell folks what God has done to bring them a fulfilled life?

The gospel is Good News.  Really, it's Greek for Good News.  It is not something people do.  It's a proclamation! 

Live into that freedom!

What Anti-Abortionists and Universal Health Care Supporters Have in Common

I think Timothy Keller said something similar in his book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, but it didn't sink in.  It did yesterday when I was listening to a lecture by Richard John Neuhaus on Youtube. 

Neuhaus tells us he was very much the liberal back in the 1960's and wrote for liberal publications.  He said there were two forms of liberalism which surfaced in that time: a liberalism which sought the absolute freedom of the individual, and a liberalism which concerned itself with expanding the definition of who should be included when it came to who was welcome in the public square.

Neuhaus said that when the issue of abortion arose, it was the first group that seized upon the issue making it an issue of individual freedom: the "right" of a woman to choose what happens within her womb.  Neuhaus argues the second phase of liberalism made a mistake in allowing this to happen.  Why?

Going back to the title of this post, he argues it is because the dignity and sacredness of human life.  Neuhaus argues that there is no biologist in the world who argues to the contrary that once a sperm and egg join, the process begins in the formation of a human being.  As adults, we can trace our very selves to the moment when that one in 6 million sperm found an egg, fertilized it, and began the process of cell division.  All of us arose out of that biological state.  You cannot argue that simple fact.  Anti-abortion folks extend the sacredness of life all the way back to this starting point.  They have a very deeply rooted conviction that God holds the beginnings of this human being as sacred.

In many ways, so do those who support universal health care.  Again, you have a group of people who believe that each human being deserves medical attention when in need, and they believe quite strongly that a person should not go broke to extend one's life--particularly if there is the ability to treat a disease.  I strongly feel this is rooted and grounded in the care and concern for fellow human beings because life is, again, sacred.

Fundamentally, these two groups view life as sacred, but how often do you see them actually joining together to work for both of these things?

Usually, not so much.

In fact, despite sharing this common ground, usually pro-lifers (as they are often called) are found in more "conservative" camps.  Those who support universal health care are usually found in the more liberal camps.  Why is this the case?

A failure to carry one's logic all the way through.  At least, this is what I think.  Why do I think in this fashion?

Let's start with a particular premise: human life is sacred or for those who are more uncomfortable with religious language: valuable.

If human life is sacred/valuable, then what are the consequences of having such a premise?

Well, it would seem as if the common good would want to protect life and extend it to the best of our ability--at least this seems to be a logical consequence.  Therefore, one would think that extending that protection would go to the potential for human life as well as human life which has been struck by disease and illness.  It should be a both/and, at least logically.

However, oftentimes, pro-life folks are against universal health care, and universal health care folks support a woman's right to choose to abort a baby.  The common good seems to travel only so far.

For instance, for many pro-life folks, protecting a potential human is more important than providing food, shelter, an education, and health care for a living human.

For many who support universal health care, providing food, shelter, a education, and health care for a living human being is more important than protecting the life of a potential human being.

What changes the equation?

Individual freedom.

Those who support a woman's right to have an abortion have a particular understanding of individual freedom for that woman.  It is the woman's choice and no one else has a say.  In a very real way, it's radically individualistic.

Those who do not wish to support universal health care have a radically individualistic view as well--pertaining to wealth.  They believe individual freedom to earn and spend money as they choose is paramount.

Interestingly enough, each group has an idea of the sacredness of life; however, they also are (is the right word) infected by a radical individualism.  Each group is not willing to carry either one of these positions (sacredness of life/individual freedom) to it's logical consequences, and so fodder is provided for anyone who wishes to exploit this and continue what some call a culture war.

Pope John Paul II repeatedly spoke out against a culture of death--a culture which allows the potential for human life to be prematurely ended  AND which devalues the lives of living human beings as it fails to provide basic care to those in need.

It seems to me that if the Universal Church believes that all human beings are created in the image of God, then it will be very protective of those which bear that image--before birth and after birth.