Children in the Marketplace - Luke 7:28ff

We who are human don’t always want to grow up. We want to squabble like children over who did what to whom when the matter is trivial and avoid talking about it when the matter is serious. We act like children when we tattle to others instead of going directly to the other when we have a problem. We act like children when we blame the other for our own failings. We act like children when we don’t take responsibility for what we do. We act as children when we refuse to grow and mature. We act as children when we want simplistic answers rather than the simple answers that come from going through the complexities.

We are called to love God with our heart and soul and mind and body. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. In these are contained the whole of the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37ff paraphrased) But too often I hear the words of love without love. What is said to be love is really self-deception and self-centeredness.

I hear groups like Focus on the Family and Love in Action saying they love the homosexual without listening to scripture or the homosexual. They spend their time promoting their own idea of family without looking at what families are actually like and the say that they love while causing hurt to many of the people who pass through their programs. They are like children in the marketplace pretending that something is wrong (like a funeral) when it is of their own imaginations and desires.

These places do provide a relief. They may be the first place that someone can talk about their desires and hopes. But where they go wrong is in trying to fit everyone in a particular mold. God may will some people to have a change in orientation from gay to straight, yet that doesn’t mean that is God’s will for everyone nor that changing from gay or giving up same-sex sexual actions is right for everyone. These places go for the quick and simplistic rather than the thoughtful and righteous. Their love is in words, but not in their actions. And they are like the ones Jesus talked about who put heavy burdens on the back of others that they themselves are unwilling to bear.

We are called to grow up. We are called to become mature. We are called to take the road less followed and yet more beautiful. God knows that I adore the quick and easy answer myself. I would like to pick up any task and perform it perfectly in a short time. Yet there are some tasks for which I am not gifted and others which require much practice and sustained effort.

For every minute I spend preaching in a worship service or speaking in a public place, I spend one to two hours in direct preparation and more in continued work to educate myself. For every piece I perform as a musician I spend hours learning the notes, the rhythm, trying different ways, checking the acoustics of the performance space and more. In every piece I write or compose I spend hours re-reading and changing a word or a note, then changing it back.

And that what growing up is about. And that is what it means to become mature. We examine and look and revise and become who God creates us to be.

I adore the certitude of the fundamentalist and sometimes wish I could become that narrow. Yet, in my heart I know that I am called to examine doctrine and creed and interpretation of Scripture to make sure that I am following God’s will and not my own. And while I am called to look at the tradition which has been handed down I am also called to examine that tradition for where it has gone astray (I John 4:1 paraphrase). Too often I hear the Christianist viewpoint of those who believe that they are following the whole of the tradition when what they want is what they heard as children. And that wanting to have the same faith as what we heard as children is as empty as children playing in the marketplace.

Yes, we are called to have faith as a child, but we are called to mature and understand that faith as adults. We are in the process of being perfected rather than being already there. We who can call ourselves born-again Christians sometimes look back on that life-changing experience and stop there. But we are not to stop on the road to Damascus; (referring to Acts 9) we are called to go further in our faith to challenge ourselves and others to grow.

And then there’s the whole idea that being a Christian will bring health and wealth. Most preachers are more sophisticated than that and I don’t deny that some will find health and wealth in following the gospel, but more will face persecution and derision. The road of a Christian is that of being refined like gold purified in the fire. The road of the Christian is that of the athlete who trains daily to run the race and will be exhausted and sweaty with sore muscles and the possibility of strains and broken bones.

And while there are moments of perfect joy and completion in worship and work for God there are also dark nights of the soul where we cry out that we are alone and no other is left but us (I Kings 19) or when we say all that we have done is worthless (Ecclesiastes 2).

The road of a Christian is filled with thorns and brambles, with pits and traps, with sloughs and marshes. The path of a Christian is filled with longing for a home we have not known and a place we’ve never been. The task of a Christian is to be faithful in the midst of despair and a light in the darkest night. And none of that is easy. And all of that is work.

We want the quick answers, the childish tunes, the simplistic ways, but are called to go further into a deeper and richer world.

The one whom we come to follow was called a glutton and drunkard so we should look for those who are said to be promiscuous and unchaste and welcome them into the church and into our lives. The one we follow does not go around with a tightly pinched nose and a belly filled with triumph over another. Rather that one calls us to give up the riches and power to be with the poor in their slum and the prisoner in jail. The one we follow loves indiscriminately and does not count the words above the actions. The one we follow welcomes those of disparate lives – rich and poor, weak and strong, black and white, from all nations and races.

All are called to the feast, the table of our Lord. All are to come to the mountain where God dwells (Isaiah 65, 66). And in the end we will know the truth.

But we are not yet at the end of days even though we have been expecting it for over two-thousand years. We are in the time of ‘not yet’ where we know that God is coming – the signs are all around us – but are still preparing. And so for those who are Christian we live ready for a thousand years or a single day, for the next moment and for centuries of longing. And we work for the truth, to bring in the light.

The reason I mentioned Focus on the Family, Love in Action (and there are many more) is because of their emphasis that they have the answer in face of evidence to the contrary. Augustine in his book on the Literal Meaning of Genesis writes that there is nothing more damning to the spread of Christianity than those who take their self-understood views of what is in Scripture against the evidence that the pagan knows for it is in their field of expertise.

We see this happening also in the Creationist/Intelligent Design dressing up religion as science as well as the reparative and change therapies dressing themselves up as psychology. Even if they are correct the way in which they challenge other points of view without putting themselves under that same examination is anathema to following the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

We Christians are about the Truth even when it is difficult and hard. We Christians know that there are many who proclaim that they have the truth and who are unwilling to go through the effort of examination to see if they are following the truth or their own desires. We Christians test the spirit and examine the evidence. We Christians may express things simply but realize that there is more to know and deeper understanding to follow and that the simple expressions of love for neighbor are seen in the cup of water to the thirsty, the visit to those in prison, the walk with those who are stumbling, the clothes to those who are naked, the presence with those who are ill and more.

We are sometimes children in the marketplace screaming in anger that ‘they’ aren’t playing our game. But those who follow Christ give up that play time – though not the joy – in favor of learning more and being with and celebrating the love of God for each individual and the whole world.

We are sometimes children in the marketplace, but we Christian know it is time to grow up and become what God desires us to be.

We are children in the market place, but we are becoming mature and look forward to that day when we shall see in full.

Luke 7:28-35 [28] I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." [29](And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. [30] But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves.) [31] "To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? [32] They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.' [33] For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon'; [34] the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' [35] Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children."

Lectionary thoughts from Psalm 63

From Psalm 63

My soul thirsts, my flesh faints
as in a dry and dreary land,
My breath fades, my muscles fail
as after many sleepless nights --
without you, O my God,
without you there is nothing.
Without your will I have no breath.
For you, O God, are my life.
Without your will I have no joy.
For you, O God, are my strength.

copyright Roger Victoria, 1999

On What Foundation? or If you think you are wise

If you think you are wise....

There’s something to be said for preaching against the follies of this world, but there’s also a point where one can be trapped by the follies of this world and preach as if one were against them. And the latter is where I see much of the religion that is on TV. It’s not that they sometimes get things wrong – all of us sometimes get things wrong – but the essential message is that through God all things will be well and to the persons satisfaction.

I’m more of the mind of Thomas Merton, “Certainly we know that all will be well, but the ways in which God makes it well are apt to be difficult for us.” Our plans, our desires for the future may not be in line with God. The power and wisdom that comes from God may include wealth and status on this earth, but may be a life of degradation, shame and lack of status. To quickly proclaim that God’s power will conquer all is to ignore the call to do God’s will.

Our foundation is in Jesus Christ. It is not in buildings where hundreds come to worship. Our foundation is in Jesus Christ. It is not in being known in the hallways of prestige. Our foundation is in Jesus Christ. It is not in a doctrine or creed or any edifice of knowledge or philosophy. Our foundation is in the one who saves us through his life and death.

If we boast in the fact that we are evangelical or feminist or both, then we’ve fallen into the trap of the Corinthian church of looking to someone other than Christ. If we’ve proclaimed ourselves to be servants of Christ and deny the faith of another because they don’t follow our particular understanding, then we’ve deceived ourselves into thinking we’re wise. If we say we must go back to this time or that when everything was better, then we’ve fallen into the ways of the world.

One of the many ways we fall into the ways of the world is by denying the truth. And there are many who deny the truth even as the proclaim that they are preaching the truth. As Inigo Montoya said: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." And while his word wasn’t that word, the quotation still applies.

A recent example from people who call themselves Christian and worship regularly is from the Dover trial. Buckingham lied in his deposition. He said he did not know where the money for the ‘Panda’ books had come. He, himself, had asked for donations before the beginning of worship at his congregation. He had collected the money from his mail box at the church, deposited it in his account, wrote a check and gave it to another member of the Board (Bonsall) for Bonsall’s father-in-law to make the purchase. As is clear in the court records ( p. 114) In other words to put religion back in the schools Buckingham and Bonsall lied all the while claiming to be good Christians.

They deceived themselves and the truth was not in them. And that is what happens when you let your desires for what you think should be overpower your love for the truth. And they’re not the only ones. We who call ourselves Christians have deceived ourselves about the truth many times over the ages. Augustine in his On the Literal Meaning of Genesis writes:

even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. … If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books.

And I would say, there are truths that cannot be explained by facts, there are truths that are beyond facts, but there are no truths that contradict facts. And while one could quote Ralph Waldo Emerson in contradiction, “...consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines” using that quote to contradict facts is not what Emerson intended. There is a difference between sticking to what one believes to be correct no matter that the information backing that assertion is misunderstood or wrong or mistaken or… which takes consistency to the extreme of denying what is in plain view which is what Emerson talked about versus calling people to look at what is in plain view which is the consistency of looking for the truth no matter what creeds and beliefs may fall.

If we are wise in the ways of the world we are seeking our own advantage. And while it’s not wrong to look out for our own needs we need to be asking whether we are looking out for ourselves on the backs of other people.

Here’s a real test for whether or not one has a bit of wisdom. Don’t look at those who cite themselves as the authority – no matter that the sound as friendly as ‘Pastor Larry’. Look at whether they think they still have much to learn. The citation of qualification after qualification (unless one is doing an academic curriculum vitae) is a sign of insecurity. The one who can learn, even when they disagree, is the one who has the roots of wisdom. The one who can tolerate and respect dissent, while still being clear about what they believe, sits at the feet of Jesus.

We are, each of us, a temple. And God’s spirit is within each of us. We are like blind men examining one part of the elephant. One of us can touch the leg and say it is like the tree trunk; another will touch the trunk and say it is like a snake; a third may touch the side and say it is like a wall; yet one more will touch the tusk and say it is like a bow. Together we know more than if we take our own view as the only part that is worth anything. Together we can see more of what God places before us.

The foundation of our faith is revealed when we pass through the times of test. Is it in a particular idea or understanding or is it in Jesus – the one who is our Christ? I can only believe if the Bible is true as I understand it to be true – that’s not a solid foundation. I can only believe if Intelligent Design is more true than the theory of evolution – that’s not a solid foundation. I can only believe if – starts a sentence that places conditions on belief. And when we place conditions on our belief we reveal that the foundation of our belief is not in the one whom we call Savior, but in something else that is fragile.

Who is wise? The one who knows however much they know it is still less than a drop of water in the sea. Who is wise? The one who worships God daily and welcomes all who come while letting them worship as they understand. Who is wise? Well not the one who places demands on others that they are unwilling to bear themselves. And not the one who forces others to worship with creeds and verbal formulations. And certainly not the one who puts anyone other than Christ at the front of worship. Who is wise? It can be seen in many different things. It can be seen in the fruits of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – from Galatians 5. And where there is greed, pride, flattery, the sacrifice of others – well there is something, but it’s not wisdom.

There are follies of this world. But they’re not the things about sexual orientation or lack of prayer in school. There are follies in this world and they are about self-absorption and lies. The foundation we lay should be on the stones of truth, love, and worship of Jesus. Any other stone is dross that will be burnt in the fire and disappear like chaff in the breeze.

On what foundation are we building? One that seeks the truth no matter where it leads? Or one that puts our own desires in the first place? One that respects our neighbor and the stranger? Or one that seeks place of honor and walks over any in our way? On what foundation do we build?

1 Corinthians 3:11-23

[11] For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw--[13] the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. [14] If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. [15] If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire. [16] Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? [17] If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

[18] Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. [19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness", [20] and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." [21] So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, [22] whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--all belong to you, [23] and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Watch out for the spirit I timothy 4

It’s strange how this passage from I Timothy 4 is often used to condemn others, without the one who condemns really explaining why. It is used to say others have followed a false spirit while imposing the same sort of burdens that the passage condemns.

This is, in my understanding, one of the gay friendly passages. Why? Because it says the ones who are in the wrong are those who forbid marriage. Now Timothy was probably not thinking of gay men and lesbians or any other variation of human sexuality, yet… and yet it is clear. Everything created by God is good and as long as we receive it in thankfulness we are using it correctly.

I’ve heard the arguments that homosexuality is unnatural. I’ve read the psychiatry books that claim it is a diversion of the sexual drive or lack of good parenting or a number of other things. And all of the above fail because they don’t look at what actually happens in nature. In the natural world sex is not just about procreation and homosexuality occurs just as does heterosexuality. While the majority of gendered animals, along with the majority of humans, may not have an interest in same-sex sexualities, the lack of a majority preference doesn’t make something abnormal.

Certainly the writer of this epistle to Timothy had in mind heterosexual marriage. But there is fairly clear evidence that marriages between men happened in the Roman Empire. In fact one of the emperors married another man and that man was taken into the households of several other emperors after the death of his husband. (Caligula and the three emperors in one year) The satires were about the emperor dressing as a subordinate rather than the same-sex marriage. So there was certainly information about same gendered marriages for Timothy to confront if necessary.

While this letter may not clearly give evidence in support of marriage for all people irrespective of the genders of the couple, it still is a warning to those who want to set up barriers between the Christian and celebrating the way they are created.

1 Timothy 4:1-5
[1] Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, [2] through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. [3] They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. [4] For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving; [5] for it is sanctified by God's word and by prayer.

Even the dogs - Mark 7:24ff

The story of Mark 7:24-37 is one of my favorites. Jesus learns more of his mission from a Syro-phoenican woman. And that willingness to be corrected by one that Jesus first denies is one of the reasons, I believe, that he is called, among other things, one who always walked in righteousness.

Jesus, the one who is the Christ, was fully human and fully divine. Too many times we want to make the Savior of the world only one or only the other. Yet to be fully human means to learn and grow in knowledge and in strength. Yet to be fully human means that we need to correct ourselves on occasion. And the fully divine is linked with the emptying of self so that the 2nd person of the Trinity would be as the ones whom the 2nd person saves.

When we are talking about Jesus we are talking about the divine immanence and we are talking about humanity and that is a concept that no one, save God alone, can completely grasp. And that is a concept that allows us to recognize that God would want to save us as we are and has the power to actually save us.

Today we sometimes have preachers who concentrate on the healing power of Jesus, on the miracles of grace and similar wishes. And they shouldn’t be forgotten, but they are not the whole of the story. One of my Christology professors made that very clear when he said that the reason the church lost in Northern Africa with the rise of Islam was that with a God that wasn’t fully human the people had no way to relate to God. The gift of Jesus as fully human and fully divine is what was needed to reconcile us to God.

We humans can relate to one who learns and makes mistakes – even while remaining completely righteous – as we can not relate to one who is perfect in every way or only God. The reconciling work is that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. When we, as did the church in North Africa, leave out the fully human dimension of what God has done in Jesus Christ, then we ignore the reconciliation. We are reconciled in God’s own self.

The divine is not less important, but it is not of sole importance. The work of reconciliation is in the life and death of the one who saves us. The work and reconciliation is in knowing that God emptied self, as the 2nd person, to come to us as fully human. The work of reconciliation puts together the power of God with one who is one of us.

Now this isn’t all there is to God and Jesus Christ. It is only a small portion of what I could spend my days in praise. But it is a part that seems to me to be forgotten today in our talk of how God is all-powerful. And that part is the person who heard a woman debate him, listened, responded, changed and taught us all how we are to be as humans.

Mark 7:24-37 [24] From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, [25] but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. [26] Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syro-phoenican origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. [27] He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." [28] But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs." [29] Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter." [30] So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. [31] Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. [32] They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. [33] He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. [34] Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." [35] And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. [36] Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. [37] They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

What defiles a person - Mark 7

When reading the gospels it is clear that Jesus ignored many of the commands, the laws, of the Hebrew Testament. One is defiled if they don’t wash their hands and, yet, for Jesus that isn’t important. The old categories of ritual purity and impurity, of abomination and purification, of offerings to become cleansed are thrown away. The one sacrifice is being made in the birth, life and death of the one who tells the Pharisees that it is more important to note what comes from within the heart than which ritual is performed.

The question to ask ourselves today is who are the Christians who are like the Pharisees and some of the scribes? Are we those people who concentrate on the defiled hands rather than the heart? I hear more and more TV shows where the pastor(s) seem to concentrate on how others ought to live rather than how the he and the people for whom he is pastor ought to live. If we Christians are not correcting our own problems, we cannot and should not speak to the world.

We are as Christians to be a light to the world, but that light shines more brightly when we speak to our own problems as well as to the problems of the world. We are the mantle and the light is from Christ. We need to polish that glass mantle so that the light of Christ can shine through us.

Saying the right things, e.g. I have a personal relationship with Christ, the Scriptures are inerrant, and more from all sides, is about honoring with our lips. But if our actions are a rejection of other people then we are not honoring with our hearts. If our actions are forcing others to believe (or mouth the words) even if what we believe is correct, then are dishonoring the one we claim to serve.

The harshest words in scripture are not for prostitutes and adulterers – those sexual sins, for tax collectors – betrayers of their country, or those ritually unclean. No, the harshest words are for the religious leaders of the day. And we who are religious leaders in our day should be careful that we are not like those Pharisees and scribes who knew the letter of the law but could not find the heart.

Mark 7:1-23

[1] Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, [2] they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. [3] (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; [4] and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) [5] So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" [6] He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.

“[8] You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

[9] Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! [10] For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' [11] But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God)--[12] then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this."

[14] Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: [15] there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."

[17] When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. [18] He said to them, "Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, [19] since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles. [21] For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, [22] adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

[23] All these evil things come from within, and
they defile a person."

If another, then I

I came a cross a quote from an early Christian today that reminded me of what Martin Luther King Jr. said, "If one person is oppressed then all are oppressed." Jerome said, "The one whom we lok down upon, whom we cannot bear to see, the very sight of whom causes us to vomit, is the same as we are, formed with us from the self-same clay, compacted of the same elements. Whatever another suffers, we also can suffer."

We, as Paul says, are parts of one body. We cannot be whole apart from the rest of humanity. When we pretend that we need to withdraw as a community from the sins of the world to avoid contact with all that is immoral or otherwise distressing, then we miss our call as Christians to work in and along side of each other helping the birth of the new creation.

God is bringing into being something that is new, a world that has not yet been seen. And we are in the midst of the birth. The water has broken and we are the midwives or Lamaze partners supporting and encouraging what is already happening. And we are connected.

We cannot get there by ourselves thinking that is 'my' experience that saves me. Even if it is an experience of God that 'I' have had - an overwhelming happening that causes 'me' to recognize God's presence in my life - it is not the 'one' who is being saved, but the whole world. And that is what Jerome, Martin Luther King Jr., scripture and saint through the ages have called people in the church to recognize. We are not alone. We are not saved by ourself. We are called forth as a people of God and we minister to those around us.

Who is the neighbor is the question in the story of the Good Samaritan. And how will we answer?

Before we were, we are chosen

Every once in awhile I hear the passage from Jeremiah 1:4-10 used in the pro-life/pro-choice argument. I think that’s a misuse of the passage. The passage doesn’t talk about when a child becomes human or when a fetus becomes human or anything close to that. This passage is about God knowing us before we knew ourselves. The passage is about God calling us to work before we could understand work. This passage is about foreknowledge and predestination (at least for those the reformed traditions), but it is not about when a collection of cells becomes human.

This is a passage of wonder at God’s power. God calls us and supports us. It is not that we are a boy – we cannot use our lack of power as an excuse – for God calls us as we are. We speak a word in or out of season to those who are powerful. The weak are lifted up and the mighty fall from their thrones. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Every man [sic] I meet is in some way my superior.” An appropriate sense of wonder allows us to find that way in which every one we meet is our superior.

We are chosen and we are a royal priesthood yet we are also called to be with the humble and weak. That we have been lifted up should be a sign that we have taken up our cross daily. That we were known before we are born is a call to live faithful lives. If we use this passage to condemn others, then we condemn ourselves along with those others.

The one in whose name we are lifted up, called from the cross “My God, My God why have you forsaken me.” And because the one without sin took the road to the condemnation of the cross, we who are with sin should avoid casting the first stone or any stone of judgment towards another.

The passage from Jeremiah is not one that should lead us to one side or the other with the issue of abortion. Rather it should lead us to a celebration of God’s gracious gift in choosing us before we were born and before the worlds began. And it should be a call to live our faith no matter how young or old we are, no matter our life condition, no matter our status. This passage is not one from which we should exalt ourselves as better, but to call ourselves to service of each other in the name of the One who created us.

Jeremiah 1:4-10 [4] Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, [5]
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I
consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." [6] Then I said,
"Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." [7] But
the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to
whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, [8] Do not be
afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." [9] Then the
LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. [10] See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build
and to plant."

And God has not divorced us - Isaiah 50

Isaiah 50 is one of the passages that talks about why we have faith. And we have faith because of God’s faithfulness. No matter what we do God will not divorce us. No matter what happens God will not abandon us. We may be rebuked and chastised, but that will not be forever. We are chosen; we are saved, we are children of God and will be so forever. And so the rough times will not be forever.

And we will go through times that are problematic. Whether it is the Babylonian exile or a depression; whether it is serious illness or loss of people one loves; what ever happens we will be in some turmoil during our lives. What Isaiah reminds us of is that we are never abandoned by God even in the roughest patches. We aren’t promised a life of ease. We are told that God is there with us through all that happens.

There is no bill of divorce from God. God with us is the Emmanuel promise of the Greek Testament and the hope of the Hebrew people through the matriarchs and patriarchs, the prophets and priests, through long generations of hope unseen. As Hebrews 121so eloquently puts it, by faith all these people moved to follow where God led.

And as Isaiah says, in so many words, don’t worry God has not left any of us behind.

.

Isaiah 50:1-11 [1] Thus says the LORD: Where is your mother's bill of
divorce with which I put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have
sold you? No, because of your sins you were sold, and for your transgressions
your mother was put away. [2] Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one
answer when I called? Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no
power to deliver? By my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert;
their fish stink for lack of water, and die of thirst. [3] I clothe the heavens
with blackness, and make sackcloth their covering. [4] The Lord GOD
has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary
with a word. Morning by morning he wakens--wakens my ear to listen as those who
are taught. [5] The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did
not turn backward. [6] I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to
those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
[7] The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore
I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; [8]
he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up
together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. [9] It is the Lord GOD
who helps me; who will declare me guilty? All of them will wear out like a
garment; the moth will eat them up. [10] Who among you fears the LORD and
obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet
trusts in the name of theLORD and relies upon his God? [11] But all of you are
kindlers of fire, lighters of firebrands. Walk in the flame of your fire, and
among the brands that you have kindled! This is what you shall have from my
hand: you shall lie down in torment.

Even the dogs

The story of Mark 7:24-37 is one of my favorites. Jesus learns more of his mission from a Syro-phoenican woman. And that willingness to be corrected by one that Jesus first denies is one of the reasons, I believe, that he is called, among other things, one who always walked in righteousness.

Jesus, the one who is the Christ, was fully human and fully divine. Too many times we want to make the Savior of the world only one or only the other. Yet to be fully human means to learn and grow in knowledge and in strength. Yet to be fully human means that we need to correct ourselves on occasion. And the fully divine is linked with the emptying of self so that the 2nd person of the Trinity would be as the ones whom the 2nd person saves.

When we are talking about Jesus we are talking about the divine immanence and we are talking about humanity and that is a concept that no one, save God alone, can completely grasp. And that is a concept that allows us to recognize that God would want to save us as we are and has the power to actually save us.

Today we sometimes have preachers who concentrate on the healing power of Jesus, on the miracles of grace and similar wishes. And they shouldn’t be forgotten, but they are not the whole of the story. One of my Christology professors made that very clear when he said that the reason the church lost in Northern Africa with the rise of Islam was that with a God that wasn’t fully human the people had no way to relate to God. The gift of Jesus as fully human and fully divine is what was needed to reconcile us to God.

We humans can relate to one who learns and makes mistakes – even while remaining completely righteous – as we can not relate to one who is perfect in every way or only God. The reconciling work is that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. When we, as did the church in North Africa, leave out the fully human dimension of what God has done in Jesus Christ, then we ignore the reconciliation. We are reconciled in God’s own self.

The divine is not less important, but it is not of sole importance. The work of reconciliation is in the life and death of the one who saves us. The work and reconciliation is in knowing that God emptied self, as the 2nd person, to come to us as fully human. The work of reconciliation puts together the power of God with one who is one of us.

Now this isn’t all there is to God and Jesus Christ. It is only a small portion of what I could spend my days in praise. But it is a part that seems to me to be forgotten today in our talk of how God is all-powerful. And that part is the person who heard a woman debate him, listened, responded, changed and taught us all how we are to be as humans.

Mark 7:24-37 [24] From there he set out and went away to the region of
Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he
could not escape notice, [25] but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean
spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.
[26] Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syro-phoenican origin. She begged him to
cast the demon out of her daughter. [27] He said to her, "Let the children be
fed first, for it is not fair to take the children=92s food and throw it to the
dogs." [28] But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the
children’s crumbs." [29] Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go—the
demon has left your daughter." [30] So she went home, found the child lying on
the bed, and the demon gone.

[31] Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. [32] They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. [33] He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. [34] Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." [35] And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. [36] Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. [37] They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

And who is welcome?

We are a people in a strange land, that is, if we are Christians. At least that is one of the ways in which Christians have used this passage. We may love the country in which we are born and have our legal citizenship. Yet, Christians are longing for another home and working to make where they are more like that other home.

We sing aloud and rejoice because we have been redeemed (allusion to Zephaniah 3:14). The penalty for our sins has been paid. It was not our doing, not our own effort, but nonetheless the salvation has happened. We were trapped in bondage and there was no way we could earn our way free. Our works were insufficient and by the time we have paid for one sin we’ve accumulated more debt from other sins. The debt we owe is great and increasing faster than we can pay it off. The slavery to sin I s such that we cannot be redeemed by our own efforts and then someone else redeems us. We sing and rejoice. We dance and praise the one who paid the price.

Now here’s the question – do we really recognize that we were not saved by our own efforts? There are some who claim that but in their talk and actions show that they believe it was due to their merit that they were saved. It is the Christianists who require a specific wording or action such as “I have a personal experience with Christ” or “I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture” or have they been slain in the Spirit or do they speak in tongues or …. Putting the burden of a particular turn phrase or a certain doctrine on someone else shows that we do not believe that Jesus – the one who is our Christ – came to save us.

And yes, there are some beliefs that I do not consider Christian. There are some denominations and cults that I believe have strayed from Christianity. Yet the question of who is saved is best left up to God. Talking of particular doctrines as more or less Christian and talking of particular actions as more or less aligned with Christian beliefs is different than pinning salvation on particular actions or beliefs.

Yet what we live by is not statements of belief or actions. We, who are Christian, live by faith in Christ. (Galatians 2:16) And living by faith in a person or a being is very different than living by faith in the law or a doctrine or a set of actions or a set of beliefs. The one you can count whether you’ve been faithful and someone else is faithless. The other is more difficult.

And who is welcome? In God’s realm it is everyone. And we should attempt to do the same.



Zephaniah 3:14-20 [14] Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! [15] The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. [16] On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak. [17] The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing [18] as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. [19] I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. [20] At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the LORD.

Galatians 2:11-21 [11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to
his face, because he stood self-condemned; [12] for until certain people came
from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back
and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. [13] And the
other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by
their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with
the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a
Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to
live like Jews?" [15] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile
sinners; [16] yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law
but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus,
so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of
the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. [17] But if,
in our effort to be justified in Christ,we ourselves have been found to be
sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! [18] But if I build up
again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a
transgressor. [19] For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live
to God. I have been crucified with Christ; [20] and it is no longer I who live,
but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not
nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then
Christ died for nothing.

How many revisted

I posted this last week (or before) but kept thinking and so have a couple more paragraphs added.

I’ve been asked the question of “How many people have you brought to the Lord?” And my answer is none. That confuses the Christians (and some of them are Christianist) who ask the question. But the answer relates to my understanding of the task and purpose of each Christian. I cannot save anyone or bring him or her to Christ. That was done about 2000 years ago by the only human without sin. That is the human who is fully human and fully divine.

When I read passages such as John 3:16 my understanding is that salvation and redemption were done for the world. My task, my purpose is about spreading the good news of that salvation, but bringing someone to the Lord is what God does. I serve and enjoy the one who saves me. But since I cannot and could not save myself, it is the height of arrogance to believe that I can bring another to salvation.

And the numbers game, however played, is not what faith in Jesus – the one who is fully human and fully divine – is about. The Jesus I worship came to save the world. And that salvation was God’s gracious gift rather than anything I could do by myself for myself or for anyone else.

John 3:16 is often quoted as the verse about how God saves us. It is important to note that individual salvation is not mentioned here. The Son of God came to save the whole world and I’m included in that, but I’m not the one who does the saving. Paul talks of creation groaning as the change happens in the travails that are birth pangs. To limit salvation to one person at a time is to ignore what is happening all around us and in scripture. We are all part of the process.

That some people are saved and some are damned is a part of my belief. That I am being saved or damned is part of what is happening. Yet to suggest that I am saving someone or my lack of telling the good news is damning another is arrogance. It arrogates for myself power that belongs to God. I am not so bold as to do that.

God has given me gifts to use in service. My song and preaching have moved people to experience a closer relationship with God. Yet that song, that prayer, that sermon, that caring moment with a cup of cold water cannot and does not save another or bring them to belief. God has given me many gifts, but not the gift of salvation. Salvation is from God alone.
How many people have I saved? None. How many people have I told about the Savior? I don’t know. Do I tell the good news? Yes and I will continue to do so in this life and beyond.

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What Defiles a person? - revisited again

I post some of my notes to a meeting that I have started on ecunet called Christian Theologies And.... And my friends their often have good comments.

One friend concentrated on the law, but another asked questions about our attitude. The Pharisees were trying to protect their worship, their God, their religion with their strict adherence to the law. Yet often they took the law (and their interpretation of the letter of the law) as more important than what is behind the law. But some of us struggle with the purpose of the law.

It's so much easier to preach about someone else and blame the 'decline in morals from others' rather than asking who we are and what we are doing. And it gets, or at least in my observation does so, more people in the pew if you blame others outside the congregation. But "who are we?" or, more importantly, "whose are we?" is the important question.

And that fact of being willing to ask and struggle with the question is in itself that we haven't fallen into the self-delusion that Jesus condemns in the Pharisees. It is when we are so convinced of our own righteousness that we fall into error rather than when we ask are we righteous or self-righteous.

Haggard comes to mind. His setup of the church organization was/is used as a model by many non-denominational congregations. Yet that model really provides no opportunity for correction of problems. The pastor is either in charge or out of the congregation. There is no in between.

But most of our denominational models provide for various varieties of failure. There are some actions for which people are removed from office, others for which they may be censured or reprimanded, others for which some action of change/restitution is required. I think having a nuanced view is more helpful than unilateral in charge or out of office model that Haggard set up and that many have followed.

I tend to think the nuanced view is more biblical as well, but that could be my own prejudices talking.

RE: What Defiles a person?

I had a friend note that in my writings about 'What defiles a person' a few days ago my statement that Jesus ignored was over the top. And so, he's correct. It may be more accurate to say re-interpret. Jesus did interpret and re-interpret the law in a different fashion than many of the Pharisees and scribes. I was writing more polemically - to wake the reader up - rather than academically, but the point is a good one. And in many ways Jesus was very close to the Pharisees, certainly closer to them than the other religio-political parties.

The question Jesus asks is more along the lines of "What is the purpose of the law?" and the Pharisees seem to be interested more in "What is the letter of the law?" Both are useful questions, but taken alone both questions lack a certain something that leads to a fullness of understanding. I, myself, have made quips and more determined examinations about the letter of the law as in when Leviticus says "You shall not lie with a man as awith a woman." saying I have no interest in lying with a man as with a woman, I want to lie with a man as with a man.

Yet the understanding of the law rests on more than quick summations and sarcastic retorts. There's a deeper understanding that comes from looking at the letter and the purpose that we should be seeking whenever we intepret what the law is.

I've seen some so interested in the purpose of the law that they forget to apply the law when something is clearly wrong and others so interested in the letter of the law that they forget the purpose of the law when the letter clearly harms both victim and victimized.

A news report the other day was about a woman who was raped. On the way to the station they found out she had a couple of warrents out. She had taken part one of a drug that prevents pregnancy/implantation, but in jail one of the attendants did not let her take the second part of the drug regimen to prevent pregnancy. The victim in this case was victimized by someone who thought they were upholding the law.

Paul, for all his emphasis on the law, does have an understanding - only after a knock on the side of the head on the way to Damascus - of what the law can and cannot do that we sometimes miss. My friend was correct to point that out. The law was given for our health and our support, but taken as the end of everything is death producing as you point out with your citation of 2 Cor 2:6

Mark 7:1-23

[1] Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from
Jerusalem gathered around him, [2] they noticed that some of his
disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

What defiles a person?

When reading the gospels it is clear that Jesus ignored many of the commands, the laws, of the Hebrew Testament. One is defiled if they don't wash their hands and, yet, for Jesus that isn't important. The old categories of ritual purity and impurity, of abomination and purification, of offerings to become cleansed are thrown away. The one sacrifice is being made in the birth, life and death of the one who tells the Pharisees that it is more important to note what comes from within the heart than which ritual is performed.

The question to ask ourselves today is who are the Christians who are like the Pharisees and some of the scribes? Are we those people who concentrate on the defiled hands rather than the heart? I hear more and more TV shows where the pastor(s) seem to concentrate on how others ought to live rather than how the he and the people for whom he is pastor ought to live. If we Christians are not correcting our own problems, we cannot and should not speak to the world.

We are as Christians to be a light to the world, but that light shines more brightly when we speak to our own problems as well as to the problems of the world. We are the mantle and the light is from Christ. We need to polish that glass mantle so that the light of Christ can shine through us.

Saying the right things, e.g. I have a personal relationship with Christ, the Scriptures are inerrant, and more from all sides, is about honoring with our lips. But if our actions are a rejection of other people then we are not honoring with our hearts. If our actions are forcing others to believe (or mouth the words) even if what we believe is correct, then are dishonoring the one we claim to serve.

The harshest words in scripture are not for prostitutes and adulterers – those sexual sins, for tax collectors – betrayers of their country, or those ritually unclean. No, the harshest words are for the religious leaders of the day. And we who are religious leaders in our day should be careful that we are not like those Pharisees and scribes who knew the letter of the law but could not find the heart.

Mark 7:1-23

[1] Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, [2] they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. [3] (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; [4] and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) [5] So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" [6] He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; [7] in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.

"[8] You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

[9] Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! [10] For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' [11] But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God)--[12] then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this."

[14] Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: [15] there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."

[17] When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. [18] He said to them, "Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, [19] since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles. [21] For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, [22] adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

[23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

He wasn't very nice - Luke 4:21-30

Jesus is not very nice to the people in his hometown. He flat out says he won’t be accepted and then, a little bit nastily, alludes to the stories of two prototypical prophets healing a foreigner and receiving help from a stranger. (Luke 4:21-30) This doesn’t say a lot for how humans receive news that someone they’ve known is acting differently than how they expect.

It does serve as a warning to us. How do we receive messages that we aren’t the way we should be – especially when they come from people we think we know? Are we going to welcome or hinder? Are we going to greet or despise? Are we going to be who we say we are? Or show that we’re hypocrites.

John Boykin said, “Time is life--nothing more, nothing less. The way you spend your hours and your days is the way you spend your life.” (I don’t have the source for this quote – I got it from a meeting on ecunet.org called Quotes to live with) The quote in many ways sums up the questions in this passage.

We who claim the name of Christian are asked to live our lives in service to that one. Yet some of us who are most familiar with the words seem least familiar with putting those words into action. The way we act towards each other and towards the stranger is a reflection of what we truly believe.

Are we going to throw the bearer of news off the cliff (at least try to) or will we have ears to hear?

And I’m not so sure I like the answer when I look at myself.

Luke 4:21-30 [21] Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture
has been fulfilled in your hearing." [22] All spoke well of him and were amazed
at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph’s
son?" [23] He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb,
'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the
things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" [24] And he said, "Truly I
tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. [25] But the truth
is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was
shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the
land; [26] yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in
Sidon. [27] There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet
Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." [28] When they
heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. [29] They got up, drove
him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was
built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. [30] But he passed through the
midst of them and went on his way.

How many

I’ve been asked the question of “How many people have you brought to the Lord?” And my answer is none. That confuses the Christians (and some of them are Christianist) who ask the question. But the answer relates to my understanding of the task and purpose of each Christian. I cannot save anyone or bring him or her to Christ. That was done about 2000 years ago by the only human without sin. That is the human who is fully human and fully divine.

When I read passages such as John 3:16 my understanding is that salvation and redemption were done for the world. My task, my purpose is about spreading the good news of that salvation, but bringing someone to the Lord is what God does. I serve and enjoy the one who saves me. But since I cannot and could not save myself, it is the height of arrogance to believe that I can bring another to salvation.

And the numbers game, however played, is not what faith in Jesus – the one who is fully human and fully divine – is about. The Jesus I worship came to save the world. And that salvation was God’s gracious gift rather than anything I could do by myself for myself or for anyone else.

Can't we all just get along?

I’ve heard the question ‘can’t we all just get along?’ more than once in a discussion/fight within the church. And the questioner seems to assume that Christians in some mythic age of purity all got along. Since we have this passage about Paul correcting Peter and many where the twelve misunderstand and disagree with Jesus, the answer is “No, we can’t all just get along.” There are times when we’re going to disagree and argue.

What we can do is respect each other in the midst of the disagreements. But getting along is just not going to happen, at least not in the sense of avoiding arguments and heated discussions.

When we have fights and think someone else is going wrong we can talk to them openly and try to do so without rancor or condescension. The Christian shouldn’t be too quick to fall into an argument nor too eager to avoid dissension.

Practicing our faith is often difficult. The correct path for the particular occasion can be difficult to see. Have we talked about the issue in private with the person? Do we need to go a step further and talk with leaders in the church? Do we need to go together to confront he problem? And is it really our problem to confront?

Confrontation is necessary as when Jesus overthrew the tables in the temple or Paul confronted Peter about his actions. But I often think we need to use our brains more when we talk to someone about what we see as problems. Is the right approach a dramatic lying on one’s side in the street for days as did Isaiah? But too often our approach is the type that causes Mark Twain to say: Fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” Rather our example should be that of Francis de Sales approach: “Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.”

The question about ‘Can’t we all just get along’ seems to presuppose that someone has to change and should do so without any discussion or argument – the one person gives in so that there’s no conflict with the other person. Yet if there are passions and beliefs involved not expressing an opinion and not letting the other know what one believes is a form of negating self that is unhealthy.

The mystic loses self in contemplation of God. But the ‘I just want to get along’ crowd loses self in order to achieve a spurious harmony between people. The mystic doesn’t give up their opinion, but subsumes their opinions in a search for the truth or in a search for something beyond self. Not voicing an opinion so that there’s no argument is a different matter entirely.

We who are Christians are called to set a good example, but the good example should not be of the Pharisee who thanks God that he is better than that tax collector over in the corner. That Pharisaism is what Twain is talking about in the ‘annoyance of a good example.’ It is an example that claims to be good while doing it for the admiration of others. And that is the wrong example of faith.

When Paul confronted Cephas he did care about the opinions of others. But not whether the opinions of other people were to his own benefit or detriment. Paul cared about how the opinion of what Christians should do was influenced by the actions and words of all Christians. And so Paul confronted Peter on how he did one thing for some people and another thing for other people.

We are called to live as who we are and doing what we believe. We are called to do so with respect and care for each other, but not avoiding or seeking disagreements. And we’ve all seen the people who are too anxious to find something wrong – such as figuring out who doesn’t say ‘men and women’ or ‘he and she’ on the one side vs. the people who ask about your ‘personal relationship’ or ‘inerrancy of scripture’ – so as to exclude someone from the group. And on the other hand we’ve seen of those who are too ready to placate the disagreements – such as making excuses for genital mutilation as a cultural ritual or caning as not being the beating that it actually is.

This is not an issue of whether the right or the left is correct, but of living what we believe as we call people (whatever side of the issue they’re on) to account for their words and actions. And when we call people to account there will be disagreement and we just will not all get along.

Certainly there are times when we need to put aside our differences and welcome each other. We will need to show that we stand in solidarity with some people as we disapprove of some of their actions. But that is different from the ‘can’t we all get along’ question.. That is going along with H. L. Mencken saying, “I detest what you say but support your right to say it” or the ACLU supporting the right of free speech for organizations that denounce the ACLU. That is standing up for one’s beliefs even as it may hurt one’s cause.

And standing up for one’s beliefs is what being a Christian is all about. And having the humility that recognizes even long held beliefs and doctrines can be wrong is also what it is about when one follows the Christ. We have the example of Paul on the road to Damascus, of Peter and his vision of unclean foods, of Paul castigating Peter for going back on his earlier example and more of Christians – of good people – trying to do their best and getting it wrong.

And that fact, which is illustrated through the whole of Scripture, is why we should not just remain silent so that we can all get along. We should stand up for our beliefs with the understanding that with God’s grace and the help of others they will be tested, found to be true or wanting, and once we figure out which we can go on continuing to live in Christ.

Galatians 2:11-21

[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; [12] for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. [13] And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

[15] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; [16] yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. [17] But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ,
we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant
of sin? Certainly not! [18] But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. [19] For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; [20] and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

by Thomas Brodie

I found a book on the Elijah-Elisha cycle that I like. Back in seminary my professors tended to concentrate on the socio-economic side of the story, but this book looks at it from a literary standpoint. The book is called, The Crucial Bridge: The Elijah-Elisha Narrative As an Interpretive Synthesis of Genesis-Kings and a Literary Model of the Gospels - a mouthful - and concentrates on the literary forms interelate and play against and for each other. It is, I believe, acessible to those at an upper high school or college level and work using in a church class for those interested in serious study of scripture.