Friday, August 29, 2014
8 EZ Steps To A Comfortable Theology
1. Approach the Bible as if it is primarily a book of doctrine because that is God's purpose for it and the basis of any solid theology.
2. It is significantly easier if you begin with a theology already in place... probably what you were taught in the past.
3. Continues to use old terms to communicate old understandings. These are reliable.
4. When you find scripture that doesn't fit your theology either ignore it or use a hammer. Hammers are the best.
5. In a similar manner, never listen to anything that doesn't fit your theology. The Spirit has already confirm that you are right.
6. Try to keep God as far away as possible from your theology. Remember God likes to throw wrenches.
7. Never forget that the Bible is a monologue. Don't talk back to God.
8. Finally, continue to tell yourself, unconsciously if possible...If I am wrong then Christ disappears...if I am wrong then I can't trust Christ...thoughts like these will keep you passionate.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Forgiving Our Enemy
In spite of the claims of pop psychology, Biblical forgiveness is never predominantly "for me", even though I may be its primary benefactor. If we seek to forgive another person because we want to feel better, then neither is likely to happen. For a Christian, forgiving others is an existential response to the cross of Christ and to our prior forgiveness in him. It is rooted in humility and gratefulness and is born out of the hard earned recognition that the face of my enemy is also my own face.
And by that I don't mean that "I am my own worst enemy", though in many cases that may be true. Rather, I mean that there is no sin that a person commits that is not protentially in us all. Or to put it another way, we must be able to look into the face of a murderer and see our own murderous heart, as well as looking into the face of our unthoughtful neighbor while seeing our own unthoughtful spirit. When we can get to that point, then our self-righteousness falls away and we cry out for God to have mercy on us both.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Tears--Revelation 21:4
Revelation 21:4... He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, Death will be no more. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away.
This verse reminds me of an old preacher-theologian that I first heard about in seminary in the mid 1980s. For the life of me I cannot remember his name but I do still remember a thought in one of his books that has stayed with me all these years. He said that the greatest repentance comes not at the beginning of the Christian life but at the end of it. And what I take that to mean is that as we increase in our knowledge and love of God then we will also increase in our awareness of how far we have fallen short of them both. So perhaps our first full vision of the holiness and love of God will shatter us into tears before the beautiful Lamb of God will compassionately wipe them away for ever. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the tears of the world!
This verse reminds me of an old preacher-theologian that I first heard about in seminary in the mid 1980s. For the life of me I cannot remember his name but I do still remember a thought in one of his books that has stayed with me all these years. He said that the greatest repentance comes not at the beginning of the Christian life but at the end of it. And what I take that to mean is that as we increase in our knowledge and love of God then we will also increase in our awareness of how far we have fallen short of them both. So perhaps our first full vision of the holiness and love of God will shatter us into tears before the beautiful Lamb of God will compassionately wipe them away for ever. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the tears of the world!
Monday, August 25, 2014
Homecoming
Everyone knows the great story in the Gospel of Luke about the prodigal child and for many it is an all time favorite. A rebellious son leaves home taking all of his money and a lot of his father's money as well to see what life was like in the big city. Like all young people he had high hopes of great adventures and of carving out a name for himself as he took off. He was so excited that he could taste it and his step had that extra bounce of energy and confidence because he was going to be a success. Absolutely.
No one knows for sure how it started... maybe with the loss of a job or a break-up with a girlfriend...then a little too much alcohol here and there...a drug or two to enhance the effects...a midnight visit to a prostitute to ease the pain of loneliness... However it started we know how it ended. He spent all his money and didn't have a penny left and to complicate matters there was a big famine in the land and he began to starve. At that time there was something like a Rent-A-Slave business and he hired himself out so he wouldn't die, but he almost did anyway. Still starving while on the job he wanted to eat the pig slop that he was feeding the pigs but he was not even allowed to do that.
So there he was...alone in a foreign country...with no friends or loved ones to help...skin and bones and a swollen belly when he finally came back to his senses. He was obsessed with one thought only...If I can just get back home again...If I can just see my father and mother one more time...I'll be okay. ..I'll be alright. And so he took off running as fast as his feet would take him.
He had no idea that long before he wanted to return, while there was still some glitter and gloss in his life, his father had never quit looking at the road. And so it was that he saw his son way out on the horizon. The father was old but he could move pretty fast and he scampered along as quickly as his two spindley legs would take him...then throwing himself upon his son he pulled him so close that the boy could hardly breathe.
And then he wept. Not the polite male tears of a grateful father but the long, uncontrollable, outbursts and sobs of a father who sees a dead child raised back to life...a child he never dreamed he would truly see again. Then pulling back just enough he kissed his son messily and one old preacer noted that "the kiss of forgiveness was given long before the words of repentance were spoken" because that's how love is...It doesn't keep a record of the wrongs done says the Apostle Paul.
Of course the father threw a huge party to celebrate his sons return, a feast actually, down home cooking and music and dancing that probably went on for days. But you get the feeling when reading the story that none of that mattered because all the son really wanted was to be back home again... Not the home that was a location somewhere in Israel, the home where he grew up, but the home that most of us mean when someone says, "Home is where my mother is...home is where my father is"...home is where we all belong.
No one knows for sure how it started... maybe with the loss of a job or a break-up with a girlfriend...then a little too much alcohol here and there...a drug or two to enhance the effects...a midnight visit to a prostitute to ease the pain of loneliness... However it started we know how it ended. He spent all his money and didn't have a penny left and to complicate matters there was a big famine in the land and he began to starve. At that time there was something like a Rent-A-Slave business and he hired himself out so he wouldn't die, but he almost did anyway. Still starving while on the job he wanted to eat the pig slop that he was feeding the pigs but he was not even allowed to do that.
So there he was...alone in a foreign country...with no friends or loved ones to help...skin and bones and a swollen belly when he finally came back to his senses. He was obsessed with one thought only...If I can just get back home again...If I can just see my father and mother one more time...I'll be okay. ..I'll be alright. And so he took off running as fast as his feet would take him.
He had no idea that long before he wanted to return, while there was still some glitter and gloss in his life, his father had never quit looking at the road. And so it was that he saw his son way out on the horizon. The father was old but he could move pretty fast and he scampered along as quickly as his two spindley legs would take him...then throwing himself upon his son he pulled him so close that the boy could hardly breathe.
And then he wept. Not the polite male tears of a grateful father but the long, uncontrollable, outbursts and sobs of a father who sees a dead child raised back to life...a child he never dreamed he would truly see again. Then pulling back just enough he kissed his son messily and one old preacer noted that "the kiss of forgiveness was given long before the words of repentance were spoken" because that's how love is...It doesn't keep a record of the wrongs done says the Apostle Paul.
Of course the father threw a huge party to celebrate his sons return, a feast actually, down home cooking and music and dancing that probably went on for days. But you get the feeling when reading the story that none of that mattered because all the son really wanted was to be back home again... Not the home that was a location somewhere in Israel, the home where he grew up, but the home that most of us mean when someone says, "Home is where my mother is...home is where my father is"...home is where we all belong.
Judas and I
Traditionally Judas has never received much sympathy in the Christian tradition. He gets a bad wrap most of the time and I am not saying that much of it is not deserved but neither am I quite certain that he is simply the devil in disguise. After all, Jesus saw something human enough and worthy enough to choose him as a personal disciple. I also have a feeling that today he would make a very shrewd businessman.
I have been thinking about him for the past several days and I don't think he is that different from me really, probably not much different than any of us. Anyone who was raised with little money or with an eye towards saving can see why he was critical of the woman who spent a year's salary on perfume and then lavishly and extravagantly poured it on Jesus' feet. Judas was a pragmatist like many of those who build multi-functional church facilities these days instead of beautiful and hallowed places of worship. There is nothing wrong with being pragmatic and I learned a long time ago that we all have ways that we splurge and we all have ways that we save so I'm probably better off suspending my judgement.
Of course that is not why we find Judas so unforgivable. The reason is that he betrayed Jesus, not just with his actions or with his words but with the intimacy of a kiss. And even though he regretted it so much that he gave back the money and killed himself over it yet, still, it doesn't seem quite enough.
One of my professors in seminary used to say that "sin is wishing God were dead", and if he is even close to the truth, then Judas simply did what all of us wish we could have done. So in the end, it was not just the Jews or the Romans or Pontius Pilate or Peter or Judas who betrayed and killed Jesus... No... In the end it was me... And many times I did it with a kiss.
The Repugnancy of the Cross
The scandal of the cross is not that some will be saved while others lost, that the righteous will be with God while the unrighteous will not...Islam and many Chritians believes that. Nor is it that the oppressed will be vindicated while the oppressors judged...Judaism and many Christians believe that. And it is certainly not the belief that the good will be rewarded while the bad will be punished...Hindus, Buddhists and the world in general accept that.
Finally, It is not even the belief that everyone on earth will, in the end, be with God though that is scandalous to many. No...the utter repugnancy of the cross is that the entire world is judged and found wanting but the grace of God redeems both, the righteous and the unrighteous, the victims and the victimizers, the oppressed and the oppressors, the Christians and the non-Christians and THAT is an intolerable message for all.
Finally, It is not even the belief that everyone on earth will, in the end, be with God though that is scandalous to many. No...the utter repugnancy of the cross is that the entire world is judged and found wanting but the grace of God redeems both, the righteous and the unrighteous, the victims and the victimizers, the oppressed and the oppressors, the Christians and the non-Christians and THAT is an intolerable message for all.
Rehumanizing With Words
Sometimes the most politically radical act and noblest expression of faith occur when we simply speak a few kind words to an invisible person. Usually the people we see but never see... The person who cleans the bathrooms at work... The guy that sells newspapers on the side of the road... The old lady who comes out every day to get her mail... Look a bit harder and you will see them. And if you really want to be transformative-- have a complete conversation. Thoughtful words spoken from the heart have the power to rehumanize dehumanized indivuduals. I know this from being on the receiving end.
How AA Taught Me To Pray
When I first started my AA odessey, about 23 years ago, I was a broken human being and so was my Christian faith. It took me a while before I could let "those people" teach me anything about God...I should be teaching them. But that is not what happened.
The teacher had to become a student. These people found the way to quit drinking and drugging but I could not. So there God was doing something for them that mine could not or would not do. That was my thinking at the time. Of course I believe there is only one God but that's a different story entirely.
So after enough pain I finally broke down and got a sponsor (an AA mentor) and we started working the 12 steps of AA. After a while I went to him with a problem that I was having with someone and this is what he told me that transformed the way I pray for others.
He said Larry...everything you want for yourself you have to pray for them...you have to pray that they will find peace and that their lives will prosper and their souls will prosper.
He might have said a little more but what he said was enough for me...it was more than enough at the time...I took the ball and ran with it. I looked at my life and I prayed and pleaded that they would have everything I needed... A peaceful heart... Deep healing of old wounds... A greater ability to give love and to receive love... A large spirit and a builder of hope in others... Strength to get through this journey... And unimaginable grace to forgive themselves and the mistakes of others. I could go on of course...I could go on and on and on and I often do while praying for those who hurt me the most. Because in praying that way for them I find healing.
But what I no longer do after that day is to pray for others what I think they need, because I think they need to quit being stupid! I think they need to humble themselves and get off their throne and stop being so completely self-centered in their life. What they need is to come to God and get their life right and it would solve all their problems... Most of them anyway. What they really need is... Once again I could go on and on and on...
In praying the way that my sponsor taught me I learned and am learning still to keep ego out of my prayers... To try and keep self-will out of my prayers... And finally to pray that "Thy will not mine be done"... At least in my prayers for others.
The teacher had to become a student. These people found the way to quit drinking and drugging but I could not. So there God was doing something for them that mine could not or would not do. That was my thinking at the time. Of course I believe there is only one God but that's a different story entirely.
So after enough pain I finally broke down and got a sponsor (an AA mentor) and we started working the 12 steps of AA. After a while I went to him with a problem that I was having with someone and this is what he told me that transformed the way I pray for others.
He said Larry...everything you want for yourself you have to pray for them...you have to pray that they will find peace and that their lives will prosper and their souls will prosper.
He might have said a little more but what he said was enough for me...it was more than enough at the time...I took the ball and ran with it. I looked at my life and I prayed and pleaded that they would have everything I needed... A peaceful heart... Deep healing of old wounds... A greater ability to give love and to receive love... A large spirit and a builder of hope in others... Strength to get through this journey... And unimaginable grace to forgive themselves and the mistakes of others. I could go on of course...I could go on and on and on and I often do while praying for those who hurt me the most. Because in praying that way for them I find healing.
But what I no longer do after that day is to pray for others what I think they need, because I think they need to quit being stupid! I think they need to humble themselves and get off their throne and stop being so completely self-centered in their life. What they need is to come to God and get their life right and it would solve all their problems... Most of them anyway. What they really need is... Once again I could go on and on and on...
In praying the way that my sponsor taught me I learned and am learning still to keep ego out of my prayers... To try and keep self-will out of my prayers... And finally to pray that "Thy will not mine be done"... At least in my prayers for others.
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