Buried in Laws

Recently it struck me that it is weirdly incongruous that the community that teaches salvation by faith alone (i.e. actions do not count toward salvation), is one of the most tightly regulated with dress codes, limits on what can be watched and consumed, and who to hang out with.  It also spends an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to enforce those rules on the communities around them.  In the USA, some are starting to push back – hence the rapid change in generally accepted perceptions about homosexuality, abortion, and drugs.

In an age of culture wars, I have long wrestled with the question of what basis Christians have to enforce their morality on a nation that does not hold the Bible as a source of authority.  They may argue about science and sociology, but Christians base their thinking on Scripture.  However, discussion about what is good and right with someone who disdains scripture is hard, because there is no common point to work from, nor a superior authority to refer to.

More recently I have watched people who grew up in a christian community start to question the plethora of rules their lives have been governed by.  Some have concluded that the rules are invalid and walked away from the church.  In some cases, it would seem that their lives were about the rules, not Jesus, and all their flaws and failures were papered over; inevitably doomed to fail.

I am also seeing teenagers rebel against the constraints they have been living under, rejecting their parents and everything they stand for, encouraged by their unchurched peers and media who view the rules as simply a means of exterminating all the fun in their lives.  The joy and freedom of Christianity has been lost, hidden behind a plethora of behavioral codes.  Indeed, freedom (that widely vaunted American privilege) has been completely turned around from “freedom to serve others regardless of what it costs me” to “freedom to serve me regardless of what it costs others.”

So how do we balance grace with holiness, freedom with righteousness? Generations of far smarter people have wrestled with this question, including Paul.  But let’s try and play it out in the culture we find ourselves in now, including some navel gazing.  Before we look at ourselves however, lets refresh our understanding of God.

He is by nature: holy, good, righteous, sovereign and loving (among many other attributes).  He cannot change.  He cannot be persuaded to bend a little.  This is who he is.  Even in this truncated list there are some challenges: e.g. how can a perfectly righteous being love sinners?

Now me.  A sinner, meaning that I cannot come into the presence of that Holy God.  Finite, limited – especially in self-control.  Indeed, I have no control over most of the important things in my life like my selfishness, the economy, my longevity, or the behavior of people around me.  As Paul noted – “wretched” (Romans 7:24).

Then I meet Christ.  As a full member of the godhead, He is the answer to the conundrum presented above.  By the humiliation of taking on human form, allowing himself to be tortured and killed, and raising himself from the dead, we have a person who can usher us into the presence of the God described above (Romans 5:1).  In so doing we are changed (by Him) from sinner to holy (Romans 6:6).  The key point here is that it is never about the (pleasure killing) rules.  God’s standards are far out of our reach and any striving to achieve them on our own will always lead to burn-out and failure.  Instead, He takes on the responsibility of changing us.  So now we are not trying to obey rules, but our renewed natures drive us to embrace the satisfaction Mick Jagger never found.  Words that apply include rest, joy, fulfillment, peace…  Sounds good right?  And it all comes from within; without the need to lash ourselves for being failures.  Yes, discipline is needed, because we are not in heaven yet, and still have work to do, but we are not striving to be good.  The good is striving to change us.  Tricky to comprehend – but very freeing.  

One way to avoid getting arrogant about our status in Christ is to remember that I am a sinner.  Forgiven, redeemed, yes.  But still a sinner – so no better than all the other sinners around me.

Next layer out from my own navel – what about my kids?   Ephesians 6:4 invokes me as a father to “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”  There is that tricky discipline thing again.  First – can any of us make our kids perfect?  Of course not – we can’t even make ourselves perfect!  Can we make them into Christians?  Nope – that is Gods job.  So, what is the goal then?  Scripture does not seem to be very loud about this.  Look again at verse 4.  It starts with “don’t provoke them.”  What does that mean?  I am reaching the conclusion that excessive “rules” are provoking.  I know that as an employee of a large bureaucracy I am provoked by busywork and policies and rules I have to comply with at work.

We have to teach them the Gospel described above. We do also have to teach them to be good citizens – i.e. to look out for others and to avoid activities that will hurt or inconvenience others around them: to be loving (Matt 22: 35).  I am coming to the conclusion that the root of misery on the planet is rooted in selfishness (i.e. the love of money).  It is not for nothing that most two-year-olds have a limited vocabulary dominated by “why?”  Instead of responding with “because I said so” (rules), lets explain the why behind the need to love, because that is the route to fulfillment (relationship).  As Ted Tripp wrote years ago - work on their hearts, not their behaviors.  While we demonstrate God’s standards and love in our own lives without hypocrisy, and pray for their souls, we hope that God chooses to save them.  

And finally – last ring out – the community around us.  Much the same as our kids, we demonstrate Christ’s love (John 13:35) and so provoke them into asking what makes us different.  I am increasingly convinced that beating them over the head with laws and rules will not lead them to Christ.  I am regularly seeing posts by non-christians on social media calling out christians for their hypocrisy, and they are not wrong.

Faith and the control freak

A presenter at a recent conference stated that civil engineers are typically leaders, assertive, take-charge kind of people.  She also said that most of us are somewhere on the autism spectrum.  I couldn’t argue. I would add that many of us are control freaks. 

In many ways, these characteristics are what make us good at our jobs.  Attention to detail, strategic planning, problem solving, ability to analyze and deal with complex problems, and the compulsion to ensure that work is done right, are all critical to ensuring that the infrastructure civilization depends on is reliable, safe and affordable.

The policy in my organization is that no publication, design or drawing goes out until it is reviewed by several people.  We do this because we know that mistakes can happen, and the consequences of mistakes can be expensive and deadly.  We trust each other, but we also question and verify.  Striving to be in control of everything in our purview is a good thing.

But…

Jesus calls his disciples to trust Him.  We are to allow him to govern every detail of our lives.  Everything has to be submitted to his authority.  But, God created me and imbued me with my character and skills.  He made me a control freak.  Do you see the tension here?

Trusting is also hard because He does not often tell us what the plan is, so we are flying blind through both bad times and good. 

To make it all the more complicated, we are also told that we can’t sit back on a recliner and do nothing.  While giving control to God, we are still required to live our lives, make decisions, and do good things.  We have to actively love.  We are not permitted to allow life to drift past us.  Passive fatalism and idleness are not God's intent.

So where do we go with this?  Are we to be two people, one in control at work and another letting it all go at home?  Sounds dangerous.

To start, we have to absorb that God is infallible, so we don’t need to verify His work.  He is also good, in fact, He defines what is good.  He is all-powerful, meaning He can do whatever He wants.  He also loves everyone, including me, more than we can imagine.  This is proven by his incarnation, death and resurrection.

We are able then, to let go the things that we can’t influence to this sovereign, loving, intimate God, while we have to work on the things we can. Sounds trite, but it is true. The real challenge is knowing where the boundary is between these two.  We control freaks will tend to bias toward interfering in things we shouldn’t.

So, please be kind to, and pray for, us while we wrestle with finding the balance between delegation and action. 

 

 

Stayin' alive, stayin' alive

 Last week was rough.  In the midst of dealing with the pain of losing my ministry and many friends, I found myself under intense pressure to deliver far more than I have resources.  Coupled with health issues, I was pretty well done with life.  One evening, I yelled at God and told him that if I did not wake up the next day, that would be gain.

Waking up was indeed a disappointment – but I got out of bed and started on chores to stay distracted.  Working in the forest at the bottom of our garden I slipped and fell, and bashed my head on a tree stump.  It was the hardest hit I have ever experienced.  When my wife and son saw the blood, they shoved me into a car and rushed to the ER. Two hours, a CT scan, and four staples later I was told I still have a brain and it seemed to be working OK.  My whole right side hurt like crazy with bruises and scrapes. 

Later that evening we walked back down to the scene of the crime to find my shoes.  We wondered at how lightly I had got off, considering the height I had fallen and the shape of the stump I had hit.  It was surprising that I had survived at all.

I can almost hear God snickering.  He took me to (indeed, beyond) the edge, and then protected me.  He heard my demands – and said “No!”  He wants me alive, even if hurting.  For what purpose I have no idea. 

Time to be still and listen for directions…

 

Irony

 Has anyone else noticed the irony that the communities that are most rabid about imposing their morality on others are those that preach salvation by grace alone?

Why?

Because Christians are supposed to be Holy.

And striving for Holiness leads to legalism.

But Holiness is not what you do, it is what you are, changed by the Holy Spirit.

So cease striving, know God, and love.

 

A Good Person

What do we aspire to be known by? What is our legacy?  How do we assess the people that influence us?  Who do we want to emulate? Those that are great on a stage, pulpit or sports field, or the rich and powerful?

The results of a non-exhaustive review of people commended as “good” in the new testament are intriguing.

• Start with Stephen.  He is described as full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, (Acts 6:5).  He goes on to be martyred.
• Then we meet Cornelius who was “a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God” (Acts 10:1).  But wait – a Roman!  Culturally he deserved to be hated and shunned.  But not by God.
• Barnabas was “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24).  Paul’s companion and mentor, who lived up to his name as a Son of encouragement – although they didn’t always agree.
• Phoebe was praised as a servant of the church and a patron of many including Paul (Romans 16:1).
•  Epaphras was commended by Paul as always struggling on (the Colossians) behalf in his prayers, and working hard for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis (Colossians 4 12).  Other than that he was also imprisoned, we know little about him (Philemon 23).

Therefore, the key characteristics defining a good person appear to be:

•           Spirit-filled
•           Faithfull
•           Prayerful
•           Generous
•           Hard working
•          A servant

Explicitly excluded as important are

•          Nationality (or political opinion)
•          Gender
•          Class (or wealth or race)

What do we aspire to be known by? What is our legacy?  How do we assess the people that influence us?  Who do we want to emulate?

 

Beware of the mob

Going through the Gospels and Acts recently, I was struck by how fickle the crowds were in their response to Jesus and his disciples, and more tellingly, how that fickleness was manipulated by a small cabal.

Let’s start in early Matthew.

Matthew 4:25 And great crowds followed him [Jesus] from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. (All references from ESV)

His miracles drew a crowd: people seeking answers to their needs – health care, food, and justice (sound familiar?)  Then the politics creeps in:

Matthew 21:8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

This crowd was seeking freedom from Roman oppression - political freedom (sound familiar?)  But when he does not deliver what they want – it gets ugly. They flip from worshiping him to calling for his death – which they get because they were able to bully a so-called dictator.

Matthew 27:24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”

Not only do they see him killed, they mock him (sound familiar?)

Matthew 27:39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

But even as the sentence is carried out – many were lamenting – another flip.

Luke 23:26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

So, a question is, was it the same rent-a-mob flip-flopping between extremes – or different groups?  We don't know.  Regardless, the range of passion in a few days is stunning.  What was driving this?  A clue is in:

Matthew 26:59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’”

The same Pharisees that were threatened by Jesus because he challenged their power, also manipulated the crowd to kill Steven.  Paul had a similar experience in Ephesus (Acts 19).

Acts 6:10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he [Steven] was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council,

So, we have a mob that can overrule leadership, manipulated by a few liars that would retain their power (sound familiar?)

The key questions then, are – are we being manipulated?  Who is telling the truth?  And how do we respond?

Let's look at Jesus' response.  He was well aware of the shallowness of the crowd.

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Even so

Matthew 14:14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

It is notable that every defense speech in Acts by Paul, Peter, or Steven, runs on similar themes:

• It is not about the speaker - the focus is on Jesus.  In the end, all of these men were martyred.
• They refer to scripture as the definitive source of truth.
• They are not swayed by the crowd.
• They appealed to the crowd to repent.

Pretty good guidance when someone gets in your face spewing conspiracy theories and rousing the rabble.  Is this what you are hearing from your sources?  If not: beware.