Reflection on Advent and Mass Murder of children in Connecticut

We live in a world broken by sin.  We laugh together that I continually point to Genesis 3 for explanations but it does go back to that one little thing, that little sin of disobedience in the garden.  Over the years you have surely heard marijuana referred to as a "gateway drug", that it is non-addictive but the pleasure derived from it leads to seeking other pleasures in other places.  Whether that is true or not is debatable but it applies to sin and nowhere is it clearer than in Genesis.  After the sin of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we didn't get wisdom.  We may have known good and evil but we didn't get the wisdom and will to choose the good.

God asked two simple questions of Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  Adam's response was to shift blame first to the woman and then, quickly, to God Himself, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  Eve did somewhat better in her moment in the box, at least she didn't blame God: Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Why didn't God intervene to stop them? 

It seems such a small thing but it brought sin and disobedience and death into the world.  No longer would we know anything that was truly good until Jesus came into the world and we proved that after millennia of searching and even being given revelation of God by God we had no idea what good looks like and we destroyed it by mutilating Him and putting Him on a cross. 

Only one chapter later in Genesis we have the first murder, Cain killed Abel because he was jealous that God had regard for Abel's sacrifice but Cain's was not regarded.  Cain sought to do away with the competition by killing his brother but we know that God saw this heinous act and confronted Cain.  Why didn't God stop it?  Why allow Cain to live once He knew that this was conceived in his heart? 

Why didn't God intervene?  That is the question that is always asked in such situations, it is the question the world is asking today, the day after the murder of those innocent children in Connecticut.  They were simply at school, counting the days until Christmas, singing songs, playing and learning so that when they grew up they could take their place in society when a young man entered their school and ended all the hopes and dreams their parents had for them, killing 20 of those who are precious in His sight. 

We become like Adam, blaming God when in reality it is sin that is to blame, sin that entered the world through the serpent in the garden.  The Bible is brutally honest about who is to blame, we are, we allowed our desire to be like God to triumph over humility and dependence on Him.  The serpent merely offered us the way to independence and we took it.  We take it all the time, we can't blame Adam.

In this season of Advent we are reminded that the Lord desires a people who are different from the world, who are striving through their own effort and the power of the Holy Spirit working within them against desire and against the drive to be independent, who know they are radically dependent on Him if they are to be true image-bearers.  The world is living in darkness and under the power of satan who thought the kingdoms of the world were his to offer Jesus.  Sin reigns.  The first of God's creations was light, John tells us that Jesus is the true light and that His life is the light of men and that " The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." 

In this dark hour we are to be the light of Christ to the world.  We are to be those who bring hope and life in the midst of despair and death. 

Nearly fifty years ago an Episcopal organist named Kathleen Thomerson wrote a song called, I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light.  There has never been a more appropriate moment to truly sing this song and mean it with all our hearts, the world needs a people who are dedicated to becoming children of the light.

I want to walk as a child of the Light I want to follow Jesus.  God set the stars To give light to the world The Star of my life is Jesus.

In Him there is no darkness at all. The night and the day are both alike. The lamb is the Light of the city of God.  Shine in my heart Lord Jesus.

I want to see the Brightness of God. I want to look at Jesus.  Clear Son of righteousness shine on my path And show me the way to the Father.

I’m looking for the coming of Christ.  I want to be with Jesus.  When we have run, with patience, the race We shall know the joy of Jesus.

The purpose and intent of Marriage and Sex

Adam couldn't receive, much less fulfill, the command to be fruitful and multiply prior to the creation of Eve.  All the rest of creation could procreate but Adam could not do so on his own.  Creation requires a way to procreate in order for  a life form to persevere and so it is in Eve that God's creation is perfected and the future of the image bearers secure.  The relationship between humans, however, is not the same as the other animals, it is deeper in every way and intended to last.

For the two to become one flesh expresses the relationship of the Godhead, God in three persons who are One.  (See the Creed of Athanasius)  In theology we use the term perichoresis when we speak of the relationships of the Trinity.

Perichoresis is a Greek term used to describe the triune relationship between each person of the Godhead. It can be defined as co-indwelling, co-inhering, and mutual interpenetration. Alister McGrath writes that it "allows the individuality of the persons to be maintained, while insisting that each person shares in the life of the other two. An image often used to express this idea is that of a 'community of being,' in which each person, while maintaining its distinctive identity, penetrates the others and is penetrated by them." (Source - Theopedia)

The two image bearers are to have the same relationship as the persons of the Trinity.  In the high priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus prays for his followers that they would be one as He and the Father are one.  Marriage is the ultimate fulfillment of the unity of persons and sex becomes sacrament rather than simply the fulfillment of lust. 

Within marriage lust is not wrong, but if sex within marriage is nothing more than satisfaction of lust, it loses the deeper significance we should see in it.  We should take seriously the reality that in sex we become truly one flesh in a unique and God-ordered way, it is the highest expression of love and our appreciation for the created order that allows sex to be both for pleasure and reproduction.

Marriage is intended for many reasons, not the least of which is reproduction of new image bearers that God might never lack a representative on earth.  That shouldn't be reduced to a slogan that belittles other forms of relationships, it should, rather, emphasize the sacred in sexual reproduction.  Our union has a higher purpose than that of other animals and we have cheapened it through the sexualization of all things.  The first place to reclaim marriage as a Christian concept is at this point, reclaiming the primacy of marriage as the domain within which sex is to be confined, like the old illustration of the fire which is good in the home if confined to the fireplace but bad if it is found elsewhere.

Betrayal

When God showed up they had already hidden from one another and now they hid from the Lord. Their new knowledge had seemingly only brought the knowledge of "evil", that which was not good.  The Lord had already told them that what "is" was good so what benefit was there in the knowledge of that which was evil?  Evil was their disobedience and the opening of their eyes, not their nakedness.  As the southern comedian Lewis Grizzard once said, "Southerners can use the same word and create new meanings by pronunciation.  There is "naked" which means you ain't got no clothes on and then there is "nekkid" which means you ain't got no clothes on and you are up to something."  They were now nekkid so they knew shame and hid themselves from God, a futile activity.

When God questions Adam where he got the knowledge that he was naked, responds, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”  He threw her under the bus, blamed her even though it was he who was given the commandment by God.  In fact, he also blames God who had given him the woman.  The woman gave him the fruit and God gave him the woman.  Sure, he ate the fruit, but surely it was okay since the woman gave it to him and God had given her to him, perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, but if not it really wasn't his fault.  After Adam blamed Eve for his sin it is amazing that they ever got together to be fruitful and multiply.  Now he needed forgiveness from her as well.

Eve's excuse was that the serpent tricked her but he hadn't deceived her at all had he?  We are told she saw it was good for food, a delight to the eyes and desirable to make one wise, all on her own, not because of the serpent.  At least she didn't blame Adam but that would be an outright lie, not a little fudging of truth because there is a difference between the two isn't there?  No.  

Now, sin has entered the world and has to be dealt with but they do not in fact surely die, but they will, and now an animal loses its life to cover their sin, a pattern for what will come in the covenant sacrificial system.  God gives grace to them both but now things will be more difficult for them, there is a price to pay for sin.

We don't hear the conversation between the humans so we don't know how they sorted out their issues, but the fulfillment of the command to be fruitful and multiply is now a part of the curse, the pain of childbirth is multiplied and also, their relationship is different, her desire will be for her husband but he will rule over her, their partnership is more alienated, the man will seek to have dominion over her as he does the rest of creation.  She will be less in his eyes than originally, no longer an equal.   

Eden and disaster

So it started out wonderfully, Adam was appropriately joyous and thankful for God's provision of a companion and helper.  He recognized immediately that this was God's gift to him and rejoiced over her.  Eve surely received this song of joy with gladness and she knew her mate's pleasure in her over all else in creation.

Then, we get to chapter 3, that fateful day in the garden where everything was ruined forever.  She spoke with the serpent, over whom humans were to have dominion, and she trusted it.  Apparently she was not surprised that the serpent could talk and believed it might have some wisdom, it might know something about the fruit and about God.  He was, after all, here before she was, so perhaps he knew things she didn't.  Adam had been told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and if he did they would surely die.  The serpent seems to have other information.

We don't know if Eve had experience of God but the serpent questions whether God is truly good and whether He is truly great.  If He were truly good He wouldn't be so insecure about Himself, He wouldn't prohibit something that was so good as this knowledge, knowledge the serpent says will make them like God.  Is all that separates us from God this knowledge?  Surely there is more between us and the one who created all things that a bit of knowledge.  Second, the serpent questions God's greatness, "you will not surely die."  God either lacks the power to bring about their demise or He lacks the will to do so. 

Eve's temptations are creaturely temptations, the fruit was good for food, a delight to the eyes and desirable to make one wise.  She has been created in the image of God, unlike the serpent, she has the power to rise above creaturely temptations and say no but she chooses to live below her birthright.  Adam, seeing she didn't die from eating the fruit, takes and eats.  He, who was given the command directly by God, who has spent time with the Lord, has no excuse for his actions other than, she didn't die so what the heck, I will eat also, I don't want to be left out. 

The only evidence that they gained knowledge of good and evil is their reaction to God's presence.  They had decided that naked wasn't good now that they had eaten of the fruit, so they hid from themselves.  They knew evil because they had been disobedient so they hid from him.  Estrangement was the new rule of the day.

Marriage and Eden

As the king said in Alice in Wonderland, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end, then stop."  Marriage in the Bible begins at the beginning of creation and ends at the wedding feast of the Lamb in eternity in Revelation, so let us begin at the beginning and see where it goes.

In Genesis 2 we are told of the creation of man and the Lord placing him in the garden the Lord had planted to work and keep it.  In verse 18 of that chapter we see some surprising words, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone...'"  In Genesis 1 there is a pattern of creation and God seeing that what He had done was good so now God sees Adam alone and determines that is not good.  (Good is an incredibly important concept in those first three chapters and then right through to the end, including what we know as Good Friday but which certainly wasn't good to anyone other than God the Father at the time.)  


The Lord's plan for remedying that "not good" is to "make him a helper fit for him.” What happens next though isn't the creation of woman, but rather the parade of animals whom Adam is to name.  The naming of a thing was considered to be an act of dominion.  In the same way, we name our domestic animals and therefore have dominion over them, they won't respond the same way to being called something other than their names and our children are also under our dominion in the same way.


At the end of the day, there was no helper among the animals "fit" for man.  Adam now saw too that it was not good for him to be alone in the world without a helper, a companion or complement.  The word is used of God in the Old Testament, for instance, in Psalm 46.1 the Psalmist wrote, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble."  If God is our helper then the word certainly doesn't mean an inferior or subordinate.  Adam simply had no one like him to share his life and his labor.  The animals most certainly were breeding pairs, just as Noah took breeding pairs into the ark so that the new creation, after the flood, would be self-sustaining and renewed in full.


Adam sleeps and the Lord takes a rib from him to form Eve.  Adam is formed of the dust of the ground but Eve is not, she is like Adam in every way and Adam's song of joy and celebration expresses that reality, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”  


Right there in Genesis 2 we get the first reference to marriage, " Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."  The idea of one flesh is that in the sex act and in life together they are in perfect union.  Adam and Eve were literally one flesh from the beginning, she was formed from his flesh.


Joy is found in God's seeing that the situation of "alone" was not good even when Adam could have had no concept of companionship other than seeing the animals together.  He couldn't possibly have imagined woman.  The Lord, however, provided Adam with a delight beyond his imagination and his song proves that he agreed wholeheartedly that things were now very good indeed. 

Marriage - Part Deux

After my son's wedding this year a retired Baptist minister told me that I had tied a very tight knot.  I believe that is the point of the wedding these days, to make sure that everyone, including but not limited to the bride and groom, know that this is a lifelong commitment.  If we are going to reclaim marriage as important we will do so not at the ballot box but in the church.  I believe that is possible but only if we recover the Christian understanding of marriage, only if we tie tight knots. 

In our tradition we speak of the covenant of marriage and I believe it is indeed a covenant.  The ceremony itself has all the earmarks of a covenant, vows, symbols (rings), terms of agreement, third party witnesses and an official who ratifies the covenant, and finally a meal at the conclusion of the covenant ceremony. 

Covenants in the Bible are everlasting, they have no expiration date and they are irrevocable, they depend on God's faithfulness not man's.  The Israelites broke covenant immediately and then constantly thereafter by transgressing against the terms of the covenant and failing to perform the required sacrifices to re-instate the covenant but that didn't end the covenant relationship.

Through multiple prophets the Lord accused Israel of prostitution and infidelity.  The covenant relationship between God and His people was likened to a marriage between a man and a woman.  The intimacy of the relationship is similar to a marriage and the sense of betrayal of the marriage bed is God's chosen way of expressing His side of things.  What emotions are embedded in that idea of a spouse who has been betrayed in a most intimate way?  That is how God feels about His people breaking covenant with Him.

The prophet Hosea had to act out the relationship between God and His people by first marrying a prostitute, then having her stray from the marriage via sexual infidelity.  His life became a sign to Israel concerning their relationship with God.  Hosea was to love and forgive all the sins of his wife and to be willing to reconcile and restore the marriage relationship no matter how hurt and angry he might be, no matter how horribly she treated him.  He was to be faithful to her and his love was not to wane.  All because Godly covenants are everlasting and only dependent on the faithfulness and love of one party.

We are to be like Him in every way.  Marriage is an incredibly important covenant because it is the only intra-human covenant God instituted and it is to be a sign and symbol of the covenant between God and His people.  Our understanding of marriage and our keeping of that covenant is to show the world what it means to be in covenant with God.  If the church fails to uphold the covenant of marriage, we lose a significant witness to the relationship with Him. 

Let's spend some time looking at our marriage ceremony together and see how tight the knot is to be tied and how to maintain it.

Marriage

This year, it seems, is the year I have to think a lot about marriage.  My oldest son got married in January and I performed the wedding.  His wife's brother got married in April and I did the wedding.  Our state, North Carolina, just voted on a marriage amendment to the state constitution that caused much consternation locally and across the nation.  Suzanne and I just attended a wedding of the son of some of our best friends last weekend.  I have friends who are struggling with divorce, either their own recent divorces or their friends and family. 

I didn't spend much time thinking about the marriage amendment, I believe that the word marriage is the problem.  If they want to have civil unions recognized by the state that allows for all legal protection and rights then anyone should be able to enter such an arrangement with another human being.  The line can be drawn there because the "state" recognizes something different and important about personhood that doesn't extend to non-humans.  Human beings are the only animals who can write and can therefore enter legally binding contractual arrangements or be sued for a breach of such a contract or who pay taxes for instance.  The governmental authorities have made no move to extend such rights or responsibilities to other animals.  A dog or other kept animal is the responsibility of its owner, if the dog commits a crime the owner is held liable for the damages.

Marriage, however, is something that greatly interests me and concerns me.  I have done weddings in several states and only one, Virginia, has required me to register with the state in order to perform the wedding.  I am clear with potential brides and grooms that when I perform the wedding I am not acting as an agent of the state, I perform such ceremonies under the authority vested in me by God and that means also under the responsibility to explain marriage under God and to only agree to perform such a service when we have a common understanding of marriage.  Virginia troubles me a bit because I am acting also as a licensed representative of the state and what the state gives, the state can also take away if it can determine the confines and definitions of marriage.

Marriage is between a man and a woman in my world.  I get to control the definition under the guidance of the Word of God and nowhere there do we see any other definition of marriage.  I don't have the authority or license to change the definition of marriage and perform such ceremonies or declare God's blessing on a union of anything other than a union of a man and a woman.

Now that the definition, its basis and my thoughts on civil unions are on the table, I have some other things to say in reflecting on marriage and what it means and signifies and our responsibility as Christian leaders and Christians generally.  Sit back and reflect with me, this is going to take a while.

What are we seeking?

As I wrote my other blog this morning I was dealing with three passages, Ecclesiastes 2.1-15, Matthew 13.44-52 and Galatians 1.1-17.  In the first passage we hear Solomon reflecting on his life, essentially saying to whoever will listen, I had it all, I sought all manner of pleasure, and in the end I found it to be nothing more than a chasing after the wind.  My soul was never satisfied with stuff or relationships or anything else.  There was something missing in having everything, so nothing is worth setting up as ultimate.  In the Gospel passage Jesus tells parables of the kingdom of heaven, likening it to a treasure found in a field that the finder then sells everything they own to buy, or the pearl of great price that elicits the same response.  Finally, Paul writes to a church in Galatia he founded but now another group has come and preached a different Gospel.

Paul says that he was "extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers."  His one desire was to persecute and destroy "the church of God."  He had religion but he lacked relationship.  His efforts were to please God, he was on a jihad against the mission of the church that proclaimed Jesus as Messiah.  Unfortunately we can do the same, we can wage jihad in the name of the church and we can do so in two ways.


In our denomination we have some who, like Paul, are extremely zealous for the traditions of our fathers.  We can become traditionalists.  Jaroslav Pelikan defined the difference between tradition and traditionalism this way, ""Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide. Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition."  Traditionalism clings to the past either from superstition, if you change something you will lose the mojo it produces, or from some misguided sense of honoring your ancestors.  Tradition respects what has gone before but seeks to make it intelligible today.  Some traditionalists in our denomination set the traditional liturgy above all else and will dismiss those who do not perform according to the tradition.

The opposite problem is posed by those who will have nothing of the tradition, becoming iconoclasts and losing contact with historic Christianity.  Their mistake is described by GK Chesterton, "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about." 

When he met Jesus, Paul was willing to leave behind those traditions of his fathers and follow Jesus, just like the other disciples.  The traditions of his fathers, however, related primarily to the Pharisaic laws which Jesus frequently violated.  It was those traditions that Paul was zealous for and those traditions which he left behind because he saw Jesus as the pearl of great price.  An encounter with Jesus will reveal that compared with Him, nothing else has value.  Let us hold fast to those things which express His ultimate worth and let go of those things that do not draw us closer and higher but keep our eyes fixed on things "under the sun."

8 April 2012

Psalm148, 149, 150; Exod. 12:1-14; John 1:1-18

While the Israelites have a meal of roast lamb the Spirit of God will pass through the land of Egypt and kill the first born of every family and also of the livestock of Egypt and on all the gods of Egypt the Lord executed judgment.  This was not only a physical judgment it was also a spiritual one on the gods, the fight is never with flesh and blood alone.  The Israelites were also instructed to eat in haste, prepared for flight.  They were to have a short window to get out of Egypt and they needed to be prepared to go as quickly as possible.  This feast, however, would be repeated forever as they entered the land and settled there and then there would be time to linger, to remember this night.  This was the first feast to be commanded of them, it would be the centerpiece of their calendar, the day the Lord delivered them out of Egypt and out of bondage.  Freedom!

The fallen nature of mankind is clear in that Jesus came to His own and not only did they not receive Him, they put Him to death.  The ones who had the Word killed the Word, they chose their own interpretation for God’s interpretation.  This opened the door to become children of God to all who believe in Him.  The Passover for all has occurred and in the resurrection of Jesus we know of God’s love for His Son and through that love, to those who believe in Him.  Is “belief” enough or is there the need to act on that belief?  The Israelites had to be obedient to the command of God regarding the Passover meal in order to receive the blessing.  If they didn’t follow God’s instructions to the letter they would be judged.  Does that mean it is works salvation?  No, it means that we are called to obedience, we are called to a life of faith, following the commandments of God.  If I told you that there was going to be a tornado today that would destroy your house at 3 PM and you should be elsewhere would it be your faith or your actions that saved you?  We take action based on our faith.  Faith comes first but action based on faith matters as well.  Today is a day for believing in the resurrection to life eternal, let it also be a day for acting like you’ll live forever.

Hail thee, festival day!
Blessed day to be hallowed forever;
Day when our Lord was raised,
Breaking the kingdom of death.

Do we really want community?

Everyone says they want community and don't want isolation and loneliness but do we really? 

Hardly anyone would say that isolation and loneliness were things they crave.  I might want a bit of isolation but the reality is that we weren't made for complete isolation.  I read this article last week and wasn't surprised how difficult silence is for us.  Back in the 4th century there were people who decided that they couldn't handle God and people all at the same time so they took to the desert to hide from the world to get close to God.  That is certainly a strange response to the incarnation, God choosing to get close to people by becoming one of us and, in John's words, dwelling among us. 

People and community are difficult.  It is harder to live out faith in community in many ways.  People drive us crazy and can make life far more difficult than it needs to be.  No one knows that any better than God.  Before He created people everything was literally perfect and then we messed up His perfection.  Rather than giving up on people though we see God again and again trying to have community with us.  He promised a people they would be a great nation, they would have their own land, the best land they could imagine, if they would agree to certain not onerous terms and conditions which Jesus says amount to loving Him and loving your neighbor.  Is there anyone that thinks those two things wouldn't make for a better society?  They couldn't do it though, no matter how much He did for them or how much He pleaded with them to turn back. 

Then, He came and lived among us doing miraculous works of healing, raising the dead, forgiving sins, etc.  Our response was to crucify Him.  The crazy thing is that He knew in advance it would hurt and it would be terrible but He chose it anyway and in doing so He chose to expand the circle of those who He wanted in His community to include the whole world who would then also be able to make His life miserable but He did it because He loves the world. 

All it takes to get into God's circle, in fact become His children, is to believe in His Son and that His sacrifice was sufficient to reconcile us to Him.  That transaction doesn't make us perfect though, in fact it means that God will experience more pain because we will continue to disobey Him, fail to love Him and fail to love one another, but He chooses to continue to expand His community with those who will disappoint Him. 

When we choose community rather than isolation, we expose ourselves to the same thing.  The other side of the coin is that we expose others to us, the kind of people who disappoint others, love imperfectly, and even betray people who love us. 

Tent of Meeting

Do you have a tent of meeting like Moses did?  Exodus 33 tells us that he had a tent to which he would go and meet with the Lord.  The people knew when he was going out there and they would all stand at their own tent doors and watch until he entered the tent of meeting.  In that place Moses was alone with God and the people knew it.  They knew that they could trust him because they knew that his leadership came from having spent time with God and hearing from him. 

I am craving a tent of meeting and I think I need to let people know when I'll be there and what God is saying to me in that tent.  I need more time alone with God.  I spend time hiking and praying but the reality is that I also talk on the phone when I hike, I allow that time to be interrupted.  It is often rich and God speaks to me there but not as rich as it ought to be, certainly not as rich as God wants it be. 

I have a kneeling bench in my house that is supposed to be my tent of meeting.  Have you ever bought exercise equipment like a treadmill. stationary bike, bowflex or some other multi-purpose device?  Did you or do you use it much or does it collect dust or do you hang clothes on it?  The kneeling bench collects dust and good intentions primarily but it's time to start using it and develop some spiritual muscle.  Where is your tent of meeting?

Evangelism, Simplified

Sometimes we make missions and evangelism too hard.  We think of it as something that requires us to go somewhere we ordinarily wouldn't go to do something we ordinarily wouldn't do.  I think for most people it is much simpler than that, it is a matter of thinking about all of life, every relationship, whether intimate or casual, in an evangelistic way. 

If you have a job, family, kids whose activities bring you into contact with others, hobbies you share with others, gym membership where you meet other people in any way, if you go to the grocery store, eat in the same restaurants regularly, anything you do that brings you into contact with other human beings who are created in the image of God, you have an opportunity to share the Gospel in some way. 

The old saying is that we should talk to God about our friends and then talk to our friends about God.  That is good advice and a good place to start your evangelism.  If, as I do, you believe in the sovereignty of God and you believe that it is the movement of the Holy Spirit operating in someone's life that brings them to saving knowledge of Jesus is there a better way to start evangelizing than praying that God will move in that person's life?  The most important thing we can do for others is to pray for them, asking the Lord to manifest Himself to them, and then asking Him to grant you the grace to be whatever part in that process that He deems fit.

The other really important thing we can do is to be distinctively Christian wherever we are.  That requires thought and it requires a knowledge of Scripture and of Jesus.  Being immersed in the Word, both written and in Christ, is key to effective evangelism.  If we allow the Word to dwell richly in us and we abide in Him then we are more likely to live Christian lives.  It also helps to have tight relationships with other Christians who love you and whom you trust who can hold you accountable and speak into your life when they see something in your attitudes or actions that is problematic. 

Are you already praying, already in the Word, already in accountability relationships?  If so you are on the right road to be evangelistic.  Now you just have to begin doing all those things, prayer, study and relationships purposefully for the kingdom.  Simple, isn't it?

A lesson in prayer from The Godfather

The movie, The Godfather, opens with a funeral director making a plea for help to the Godfather, Don Corleone.  It seems this man's daughter has been raped and at the wedding of Don Corleone's daughter this man is appealing to the Don for "justice" for his daughter.  Clearly he wants the man or men who did this to be killed and the Don rightly points out that this man is asking for more than justice, his daughter is still alive.  Odd to be getting ethical lessons from a mafia boss but he is right, the man seeks not justice but vengeance.

What got my attention when I watched a portion of the movie for probably the tenth time, was the Don's response to the request: " We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel,for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt."

How often God could say that to me.  For many years I considered myself a Christian because I believed that Jesus had died for my sins but my prayer life looked like this, when I had some trouble in my life I went to the God-Father and asked Him to deal with the trouble for me.  He wanted relationship and I wanted protection and one who would come against my enemies, those who had wronged me.  I still don't invite Him for coffee as often as I should and I don't think of Him as friend often enough.

He has already something greater us than we could have imagined, forgiving our sins, making us not only friends but His children.  We can know that truth, however, and still not be His friends and children because we are afraid to be in His debt.  We take for granted that He can do things for us so we keep Him close enough to ensure availability but no closer.  That attitude is described in the letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, it is being lukewarm and God doesn't like lukewarm or tepid.  We are made for real relationship with Him, friendship.  Why do we settle for acquaintanceship? 


 

Transformation

What I am slowly realizing is that my thinking needs to change at a very basic level.  In that last post about re-racking weights I began with the idea of creating or transforming a culture and ended with the realization that what most needed to be transformed was me.  My attitude towards people was in dire need of change, it was far worse than the behavioral modification I wanted to impose on those who didn't re-rack their weights.

Jesus had a lot to say to the Pharisees about their attitudes towards people.  He called them white-washed sepulchres, fine looking on the outside but filled with dead men's bones.  He said that murder was more than the physical act of killing people, it involves hating them and speaking evil of them. 

It took about three years for Him to get my attention that the real problem was in me not in others.  I don't need a strategy for dealing with the problem of getting people to re-rack their weights, I need a strategy for dealing with the nasty mess that is in me. 

Paul told the Roman church, " Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  Conforming to the world begins at the level of the mind.  I have to learn to think differently about everything if I am to have the mind of Christ.  


The Beatitudes (Matthew 5.1-12) set up Jesus' statement,  “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."  The teachings in those first twelve verses tell us what salt is and the virtues He extols there are not worldly virtues at all, they are completely counter-cultural.  They do, however, take reality seriously.  They tell us that we aren't to accept the way things are, we are to mourn that fact, to be as heart broken over that reality as God is and to pursue the way things ought to be.  


It all begins, however, with pursuing the way things ought to be in my own life.  Until I am ready to see the way things are in my life the way God sees them and to mourn over that, I am not ready to pursue change.  Sometimes it takes a long time for me to see the real need for change because I am a Pharisee.

Pet Peeves and the Glory of God

At the gym I go to there are signs everywhere telling people they need to re-rack their weights. All that means is that if you're using equipment that requires free weights, the big round ones, and you have loaded those onto the bar or the machine, you are expected to remove them to their proper places after you're done with them.  No one does it though or if they do they just put them wherever it is most convenient for them.  It drives me crazy.  It used to make me mad but it happens so much that now I just expect it. 


Between sets of my workout, while I am cooling down from the strain I have exerted I re-rack weights where I know no one is working out.  Even the things that are re-racked I re-rack to make sure they're right, all the same weight hanging on the same peg, not some mixed-up groupings.  I re-arrange the dumbbell rack to put things in their proper order. 

For a couple of years I griped about it, to anyone who would listen and to myself, partially in the hopes that there would be like a movement of people who would care and we would change the culture through our mutual disgust for the people who didn't re-rack their weights but it didn't happen. 

I had really strong feelings about people who didn't re-rack their weights.  I wouldn't talk to those people but I would talk about them.  They were lesser people who shouldn't be allowed to work out on equipment that required weights, they should be allowed only to use machines that have stacks of weights where you use the little pins to set the amount you want to lift.  There is no responsibility in using those but there is a responsibility that attaches to using the equipment I use.

The funny thing is, I am a really messy guy.  My wife gave up years ago trying to get me not to be such a mess.  She has worked it out that if I will put things away everywhere else in the house she will allow me to have a really messy desk so we have an arrangement.  So I don't have any OCD, everything needs to be organized kind of thing in my life.  There is no other aspect of my life that is organized or where I feel the need to organize things but at the gym it is an obsession for me. 


Lately I just decided it was just life and I would just re-rack things without thinking about it or talking about it to anyone.  It didn't seem to matter anyway to many people so it wasn't like I was attracting like-minded people to my cause and it was probably true that I was driving people away by talking about it.  Now I just make it part of my workout to do it and I really don't give it any real thought.

Today it occurred to me that I could do it with a purpose, I could do it because I want to be obedient to Jesus' command to love my neighbor like myself. 

My real motivation from the start wasn't because I think everybody ought to play by the rules, I am definitely not that kind of a guy.  Early on when I started working out I saw women struggling to take 45-lb plates of weight off machines they wanted to use because some inconsiderate jerk didn't take the time to remove them and I always volunteered to do it for the women.  I always wondered if they thought I was probably the inconsiderate jerk and just felt guilty because I saw them struggling so I made sure they knew it pissed me off someone had done that.  So my purpose was to help the women and to talk about the inconsiderate jerks with someone who would surely, given their inconvenience, share my indignation.

Today it occurred to me that I had gotten over the anger thing and that I really was just re-racking weights.  I began to wonder if it was possible to re-purpose my effort and decided that I want to do it to love my neighbor, I want it to be right for them, to make their time in the gym more simple and enjoyable, less frustrating.  I know it sounds trite but I think it will change my attitude and I can do it with a smile on my face because it gets me thinking about all those people who are now my neighbor.

Now I have to work on how I feel about my fellow Christians who don't re-rack their weights because they obviously don't love their neighbor as much as I do.  Sin never ends does it.