The Demise of Guys

I posted this on FB a while back. It's too good not to put up here:

Smoke, Drink, Cuss, & Chew

What if you never got drunk? Never smoked? Never cussed? Never "went too far?" Some people would applaud you, after all, these are the characteristics of a "godly person."

But what if upon further examination the products you consumed made you guilty of far greater evils? What if the phone you used, the clothes you wore, and even the food you ate, did tremendous harm to people both here in the U.S. and abroad?

Would you still be righteous? Would you still look godly? Often the acts that do the most harm are those that go unseen or unnoticed, but how do we most often judge people's character?

It is interesting to me that Jesus' strongest condemnations were against those who "looked" pious and godly, but were involved in systematic evils that robbed people of their humanity. 

Are we living the life that we are called to in all of our choices, or just those that are made public, that make us look good?

People of the Book

The book of Ezra-Nehemiah tells the story of the Israelites return from the Exile, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the commitment of the community to be a "people of the Book."

It details how Israel vowed to break the cycle of disobedience that brought about the Exile, by focusing on Torah.

Torah is the name of the first five books of the Bible and contains the 613 commandments (Hb. mitzvot) Yahweh gave to Israel. These laws outlined the way Israel was to live in order to be blessed by God and in turn be a blessing to the whole world (Gen 12).

Among the many laws, the Israelites were called to love each other, to care for the immigrants living among them, and to worship only one God. This set them apart as minorities in a polytheistic world that did not live by such ideals.

Part of being a "people of the Book" was understanding how the Book applied to their lives. This was especially challenging because it had been over 700 years since the Torah was given. So we read in Neh 8.8 that, "they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that people understood the reading."

We are called to be a "people of the Book" as well; people who center our lives around the ideas and events of Scripture.

So we, living thousands of years after the Bible was written, have to wrestle with the text to interpret and apply it. But this just may be what it means to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind and there is no greater mitzvot than that! 

For a couple interesting examples of the Bible interpreting the Bible, see Ex 21.2-11 vs. Deut 15.12-18, as well as this post.

What's Next?

Bishop Mark Dyer has said that "every 500 years, the church has a rummage sale." Phyllis Tickle expands on his thesis in her book, The Great Emergence.

I have not read the book, but do find Dyer's thesis intriguing: 500 years ago the church experienced the Reformation and the beginning of the Protestant Church.

500 years before that was The Great Schism, which split the state church of the Roman Empire into Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches. Later they would be known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively.

500 years prior was the Council of Chalcedon and the Fall of Rome. And 500 years earlier than that, was the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

It should be noted that this is a Judeo-Christian phenomenon, as the Fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity came 500 years before Christ, ending the 1st Temple era and ushering in the 2nd. And 500 years prior to that was the United Monarchy of Israel.

I certainly see the pattern, and notice that major events have occurred regularly for the past 2500 years, but I'm not sure I would call them all "rummage sales." So what do you think? Are we on the cusp of another radical shift in the Church?

People Don't Like You

It's OK if people don't like you. It took me a long time to come to grips with that. I think mainly because I struggle with basing my self esteem on what others think of me.

My wife has a brilliant saying, "If everyone likes you, you are not being true to yourself."

Jesus warned his followers of this in John 15, "If the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you."

The Greek word for "world" here is kosmos, which literally means "something ordered" or "ordered system." We get our English word cosmetic from it, which means to "order one's face."

When Jesus uses this term he is speaking about a way of "ordering the world" that does not harmonize with God's way.

Jesus told his followers they will be hated by people who build themselves up by stepping on others; who abuse the poor and only love those inside their "circle."

If you are hated because you reject a system that marginalizes others and has no room for love, grace, and mercy - Congratulations! You are in good company.

Their World

There are multiple creation stories in the Bible. Most are familiar with Genesis 1 and 2, but Job 38-39 and Psalm 104 also speak of God's creative activity. 

Ps 104 has God setting the "earth on its foundations" and establishing boundaries for the mighty waters (cf. Gen 1.2). Water was a symbol of chaos in the ancient world and the Bible makes very clear that God controls all such forces. 

Foundations of the earth are also mentioned in Job's references to creation (Jb 38-39; cf. Is 48.13; Hb 1.10).  When we investigate these passages on their own turf, without projecting our understanding of the cosmos on them, we get an image of the ancient world that looks like the picture below:

You can see in the image the "highest heavens" and the "waters above heaven" (Ps 148.4). Notice the dome of Gen 1.6-8, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters that separate waters from the waters."

When we look at this image we see a world very different than our own. Which makes perfect sense because the Bible was not written "to us" but is written "for us." 

We recognize that this means that to get the most out of our Bible reading, we must study the world of the Bible. In doing this, we see that God spoke to people according to their understanding of the world. 

This is yet another example of God meeting us right where we are; of him being intimately concerned with our lives and wanting each of us to know him in a way we can comprehend.

Baggage

Is it possible to meet people without bringing the "baggage of the past" into our interactions with them? In other words, do we allow each of our encounters with others to be fresh, unstained by people's past shortcomings? 

This isn't to say we should return naively time and time again to a merchant that rips us off, or to a significant other who abuses us, but we should allow people to change. 

This might be a great opportunity to treat others as we want to be treated; to give people the benefit of the doubt. 

Many of those who have wronged us may have no idea how their actions affected us. In this way it would be unwise for us to assume that they are constantly malicious - that attitude would only increase the distance between us. 

The Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 is followed by a line that should cause us to pause: "For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive you."

Meeting others fresh, forgiving them for harm they have done us, is foundational to the health of our lives and our communities. May we have the grace and mercy to forgive as we have been forgiven.

Liberated From Ignorance

There are at least two sides to every story. But tragically most of us don't take the time to learn the other side. 

We become comfortable with our way of looking at the world. We get lulled into apathy, forgetting the necessity of being stretched, of growing.  

But we must fight against this. We must surround ourselves with people who think differently than we do. Who challenge us. We must read books from authors not in "our camp," and dialogue with those of different backgrounds.

We must educate ourselves, for education has the incredible ability to liberate us from ignorance.

We must investigate both sides of all issues - including issues between us and other people. We must seek advice from others, for it is the "fool that thinks his own way is right" (Pr 12.15).

We must especially undertake this challenge in the volatile area of religion. When a person feels God is on his or her side, there is nothing that can stop him or her. And this is scary. History testifies that religious extremism is responsible for all sorts of horrific evils. 

Let us break the cycle of ignorance-fed hatred; of the US vs. THEM mentality that leads to so much destruction. And above all, let us love for there is no greater virtue (Col 3.14).

Competing Powers

Constantine

Two of Jesus' disciples ask him for a favor, "Can we sit at your right and left in your glory?" (Mk 10). To which Jesus replies, "You have no idea what you're asking." 

The disciples were waiting for Jesus' revolution; counting down the days until he gathered up his army and kicked the mighty Romans out of Israel once and for all. They wanted to make sure they that were all set to help Jesus rule in his new kingdom. 

But in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus' "glory," or the coming of his kingdom, was his death, and thus to "sit at his right and left" was to occupy the crosses to his right and left as he was crucified. This is why he tells them they have no clue what they are really asking for. 

He goes on to explain that the Kingdom of God doesn't work like earthly kingdoms. There would be no rulers in this new community and the would-be leaders were to be servants, looking to the needs of others before their own. 

Followers of that Kingdom would experience the power of selfless living, looking out for the marginalized, caring for the poor, and renouncing violence (Mt 5). Their commitment to these values in a culture of oppression and violence, brought upon the early church decades of persecution. 

This meant that on a national scale it was easy for Christians to live by Jesus' power narrative - they had no power. But this all changed in the 4th century CE, when the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian and effectively made it illegal not to be one.

From that point on, western Christians would struggle with a question of loyalty:  Do we buy into God's definition of power, where we lay down our lives for others, or do we remain loyal to this world's definition, where we gain through others' loss?