The Story as I Tell It-- Part Two

Israel failed to do and be what God formed and created them to do and be. In that we hear echoes of the Garden of Eden. Man and woman were formed from the dust of the earth (the desert), placed in the garden, and were confronted with choices signified by two trees. They could go God's way or take their own way. Are we supposed to be surprised by their choice? When we're offered something that's pleasing to the eye, good for food, and good for obtaining wisdom, don't we go for it? As we can see, it isn't always the best choice even though it seems to be the most expedient. Who doesn't want to be like God? But the problem with being like God is that there isn't enough room for the both of you in the status of godhood. One of you has to go, and it isn't going to be God. Off you go, back into the desert.

We may be tempted to believe that the Garden of Eden was a veritable paradise. It was in some ways-- plenty of water, lush foliage, rare and precious gemstones, communion with God. Who could ask for anything better? We may mistake it for a scene from The Lion King, when Simba ran away from home and befriended a warthog and a meerkat living in a jungle filled with sensual delights. Hakuna Matata, no worries, as they say. Even God declared everything to be very good.

Two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, were prominent in the garden. Eat from the former and enjoy lasting communion with God. Eat from the latter and be expelled from the garden. There's talk of expulsion in paradise? What kind of a paradise is this? Isn't paradise supposed to be a place of unconditional well-being and support? I didn't know Shangri-la came with an undercurrent of threat! What happened to Hakuna Matata?

So here's the deal-- If our first parents obeyed God they could stay in the garden. If they disobeyed God they would be expelled. Remember this because it will play prominently a bit later, but doesn't the choice seem obvious to you? Well, maybe it doesn't. That's alright if it doesn't. I'm starting to doubt if I would have wanted to stay in the garden.

But not so fast-- here comes a wily serpent to present the first couple with their options. Options in paradise? Isn't paradise supposed to be a place where one could be free of having to make choices. Having to make choices implies that there's something afoul here, especially when one of the choices had a penalty attached to it. Death. Separation from God. As I said earlier, the problem with being like God is that there's isn't room for the both of you. If you want to be God, and not represent God, you'll have to do it somewhere else.

The serpent analyzed the situation differently. "You won't get thrown out," he said. "God knows that, and God really needs you to stay and entertain him. He's quite an ornery old fellow, you know, and the only ones who can keep him happy are those who are just like him! He won't settle for anything less." How flattering!

They eat the forbidden fruit. Did they become like God? In a strange way they did, having the knowledge of good and evil. Even God admitted as much. But there can only be one God in the garden. Furthermore, no one can ever become God completely. The closest anyone can come to becoming God is to be, oddly enough, reduced (sic) to being a cheap imitation. Perhaps that's why God didn't want them to eat that fruit. God wanted them to be royalty, not court jesters.

Now they must die. This isn't a reference to physical and biological demise. If it were, they would've been struck dead on the spot. No, they must leave the garden to go back to the place from whence they came. To the dust. To the desert. It's barren out there. But there's hope out there, believe it or not. For in the desert dust they could be re-formed and re-created, to have God breathe into their nostrils once again and restore them to the life they once had. To become empty so that they may be filled with God's Spirit and Life. God will say as much through the utterances of the prophets.

Could it be that the desert is more of a paradise than a lush garden?

Part Three next time, but perhaps with a different title.

The Story as I Tell It-- Part One

As you can see, I've made some changes to my sidebar, as the purpose of this blog is ever-evolving. My thoughts on different theological issues are beginning to solidify a bit as I continue to piece together the many narrative threads that comprise the Scriptures. What I would like to do in this post is to give you an idea of the overall picture I see in the pages of the Bible.

Humanity has this uncanny notion that there is something really wrong with everyday existence. In light of the severe weather we had around here yesterday and overnight, our unease becomes more apparent with every flash of lightning and rumble of thunder. Yesterday on the Roe Conn Show on WLS, Roe was talking to a priest and was asking him if we've somehow made God mad that we're being battered by these storms.

That's the essence of what we think is wrong with our existence. God is angry and he punishes us with dangerous weather and other unfortunate events. People have felt this way from time immemorial. Ancient people figured that the only way to appease the meteorological wrath of the gods was to do things to make them happy. And so they invented rituals and religions, sacrificed animals and children, built temples, wrote myths, had sex, codified laws for living, etc. The will to survive is very strong. Personally, I think it's genetic, but that's beside the point. Genetic or not, we carry this angst of having a sense of being under the gun, as it were, to put things right or face the wrath. More often than not we choose to try to fix everything by trying to fix what we feel is wrong with God, or the gods.

"So, what's wrong with that?" you might ask. It seems to us to be a perfectly logical example of cause and effect. If the gods are angry, cheer them up. Problem solved! Right? Not exactly.

Things still don't seem to go right. We are vulnerable to a whole host of terrible misfortunes, even though we try our hardest to thwart them. We pray harder, burn more incense, and try to be good, hoping that the gods will see that we are indeed frightened of what they can do to us when they throw hissy fits. Well, angry gods produce angry and frustrated people who feel more insecure than ever before. And so the people begin to turn on each other. They invade, conquer, pillage, plunder, enslave, and slaughter each other in the hopes of compensating in areas where the gods have fallen short. Perhaps if the gods had more territory, then maybe they won't be so prone to temper tantrums.

Along comes an ancient people, called Israelites, who were given the task of telling a different story, thereby becoming a beacon of light to all of the nations on earth. Their story was about a God who loves people without having to be appeased. This God rescues people from their captors even though they don't build temples or give offerings to this God. This God provides crops without requiring anyone to do a rain dance. This God wants everyone to know who He is so that all nations would be united in Him. It was going to be hard sell, but God equipped the Israelites to be up to the task.

What did the Israelites end up doing? Just about everything the other nations were doing. Israel was supposed to be different. They ended up being the same. Instead of being a beacon of light they just blended in with the darkness. The end result was that God was being treated the same way the nations treated their own gods. God was not going to become known among the nations in that fashion. It's hard to tell who's who when everyone looks the same.

Part Two is forthcoming.

New Look and New Thoughts

I've given this blog a facelift. I like it, and I hope you do too, although I might lighten the text color a bit.

Do they have a mercy rule in the MLB? Did you see the final score of the Rangers-Orioles game last night? 30-3!! That's a football score! I know, I know-- never give up, quitters never win, the tough get going, yada yada. But 30-3? Sheesh!! God is merciful, but apparently human beings in the heat of sports competition will thoroughly spank the other team if given the chance.

Speaking of mercy, I received a question from a young parishioner today about attending worship on Sunday mornings. She wondered if it was bad that she skips worship on Sundays. Her life is frenzied and harried during the week, and she needs time to go somewhere to chill out. So she comes for Sunday School (not exactly a place to relax) and then goes home. She's wondering if this is bad.

What she's really asking, I believe, has to do with her standing before God. If we don't attend worship, does God count it against us? If we do attend worship, does God give us gold stars (or at least a pat on the back)?

I told her that I'm of the mind that people should come to church only if they really want to or if they feel they really need to. That's what people do anyway. But if people are forced to come to church through coercive tactics by church leaders or pastors (such as using Scripture to threaten or to heap guilt trips), they will grow resentful, perhaps even toward God. They may even begin to see God as a hard to please crybaby who has to have everyone's utmost attention. Who's going to want to worship a God like that?

God is not affected negatively by our choices. If He is, shouldn't we be busy thinking of ways to appease Him, or at least try to compensate for those times when we make God angry? What kind of a life would that be? Is that the way God wants to interact with us? Is it possible to be beyond the reach of God's love and mercy? I don't think so! What do you think?

A Codicil?

How do I keep finding all of these weird tv shows? Well, this morning I was flippin' around and came upon the Benny Hinn Show, a show in which the Holy Spirit is not allowed to have his own schedule but must conform to Hinn's. Mr. Hinn's special guest this morning was Pastor John Hagee, who said something that I had never heard spoken before. I'm interested in things like that, new ideas and whatnot. Here's what he said:

Romans 9-11 is a codicil that was added to Romans. Codicils are freestanding documents that are inserted into other documents. Hagee even clarified his interpretation by saying that Romans 9-11 has absolutely nothing to do with chapters 1-8 and chapters 12-16. You can therefore read chapters 9-11 by themselves without any context and still understand them completely.

I don't know about that. It sounds like that hermeneutic was pulled out of a hat for the sake of convenience. He presented little, if any, evidence to support his claim. He just said it and we're expected to believe it.

I find that chapter 9 flows very nicely from Paul's sentiments in chapter 8. At the end of chapter 8 Paul says that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. At the beginning of chapter 9 Paul wishes that he could be cut off from Christ (meaning 'separated') for the sake of his own people, his own race, Israel. He isn't cut off (8:37-39), but he wishes he was if it would mean salvation for unbelieving Jews(9:3). Makes sense to me! I really don't see the necessity of lopping out three chapters of Romans so they stand alone.

One thing Hagee said in support of his interpretation was that one could read to the end of chapter 8, then skip to the beginning of chapter 12, and not miss a beat. Eh, maybe. But I'm afraid that amounts to a non sequitur.

Look out for these TV preacher creatures. They have political agendas and they'll twist and contort Scripture to make it look like God has the same agenda. Always question when they make blanket statements about portions of the Bible!

A Moment With Kahlil

Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

--Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Meaning

Recent events, such as the Utah mine, Hurricanes Erin and Dean, and the Lima Earthquake, have left people wondering and confused. How are we supposed to understand the love of God amongst natural phenomena that seem out of control? Some would say that God is doing these things for the purposes of punishing sin and rooting out evil, as if God is intentionally orchestrating disasters to occur. Others would say that God is an uncaring dolt because God doesn't stop these things from happening and innocent lives are lost, as if God doesn't have a hand in any of these things and turns away in apathy. Neither of these views put God in a very good light and the underlying thinking is that God is an ornery ol' fellow who is greatly affected by things we do.

What does God have to do with natural disaster as far as cause and effect is concerned? I honestly don't know how to answer that question, but I do know that God is neither tyrannical nor apathetic. God cares deeply about what happens. So then, why doesn't God stop earthquakes or at least keep people out of harms way? Why doesn't God steer hurricanes so they don't make landfall? Why did God allow those mine rescuers to be killed while they were doing something very noble?

I wish I had answers to those questions. They are good questions, but I'm wondering if those are the only questions to ask. I think there are other questions, and I also think we must look at the big picture. We tend to get myopic when disaster strikes.

It might be tempting to become a bit envious when we see stories in the Bible of storms being stilled, dead people being raised, sick people cured, and many other things that Jesus did. "Why doesn't he do them today?" we might ask. A different question, one that reflects curiosity of the bigger picture, is "Why did Jesus do these things in the first place?" He wasn't obligated by anyone to do them, and people certainly didn't expect Jesus to do these things until word got around that things were beginning to change for the better.

The significance here is not in what Jesus did, but in what Jesus did meant to the people. The meaning is what must be examined. In order to explore that angle a bit, here are some questions. Suppose God does steer Hurricane Dean out to open sea. What would that mean? Let's up the stakes a bit. What if God sheared the cloudtops off of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 so that her impact would have been severely attenuated? Would it mean that God is now obligated to rescue everyone on the planet from natural disaster by any means necessary? And is that meaning ultimately the one God wants us to have?

So, what did it mean when Jesus cleansed a leper? I don't think it's enough to say that his life was spared, he got his skin back, and he was now happy. That was certainly part of it, but why would that make him so happy? His healing had theological significance (remember, most of the lepers Jesus cleansed were Jews), namely, that he was now restored as a member of God's covenant people and a full participant in the age to come. It meant that God accepted him. That is what ultimately brought joy to cleansed lepers. They were reunited with Israel. To know that you were "in" and an heir of eternal life was a Jewish person's highest goal and joy.

Now, honestly, would averted natural disasters have that same meaning today? Probably not. We need to learn how to think in the overall scheme of God's acceptance of us in Christ Jesus. To believe that we have not been accepted by God or that we are unworthy of the New Covenant in Christ until we do something that is acceptable to God is, by far, the greatest disaster of all. This, I believe, is the greatest malady of our day.

To know that God has set us free from the bondage of works-righteousness systems through Christ was the greatest joy of the New Testament people. To believe that we are "in" because of what Jesus did and not because of some prayer we prayed or some incense we burned brought joy and peace to the hearts of the first Christians. It should also be the same for us!

Atheists Are Cool

I'm dovetailing a bit today off of Kevin's blog to say that I absolutely love and respect atheists. I've talked to many atheists in the past few years, and they are quite honest in their opinions of church life. They can do this because many of them used to be evangelical Christians, so they speak from experience.

I believe Christians become atheists, not because of spite or hatred of Christian people, but because of things they were taught that they found difficult to believe. Many of them were raised on the notion that God is someone to be frightened of because, as they were told, God holds their very lives over a firepit by a shoestring. And God is very angry at them, they were taught, and will remain that way until they repented, said they were sorry, and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. But until then, their situation was hopeless. They would remain sinners in the hands of an angry deity. Many of them were on the verge of insanity looking for ways to placate the wrath of a cosmic sadist and failing at every turn.

So they took leave of God. Can you blame them? If the only version of God available was the one they were fed as kids, then the only other choice was to not believe at all. I think they were given a bad story.

Let's take a cue from atheists and learn how to tell God's story in a way that is true to Scripture. Believe it or not, when an atheist tells you his/her story, he/she is doing you a big favor! Don't react negatively to their thoughts. Learn from them and understand that the version of God they ultimately rejected is a very unscriptural one. We should look to do the same!

No Paths

There are no paths to God, but that doesn't mean God is inaccessible. And just what are paths anyway? Aren't they ultimately just futile attempts to slavishly get on God's good side? If you view God as an angry deity to be appeased, you will try anything to avoid the wrath. Attempting to avoid punishment is hard work and is indicative of a guilty conscience.

Whenever I hear that someone is on a "path", I feel a combination of wonder and pity. I wonder why that person finds it necessary to be on a path. I pity them because I know that they are motivated by fear. Their feeling of angst must be excruciatingly life-sapping. And besides all of that, I know that God loves them passionately, but that love seems alien to them.

But people love their path. There are so many out there. There are even people who are willing to sell their path to you for three easy payments of $19.95 plus shipping and handling. These path "products" are usually nothing more than "to do" lists, giving the impression that God wants everyone to be slaves to the grind.

I'm beginning to understand why Jesus said that no one comes to the Father except through him. To us in the west it sounds like an exclusionary statement, but it's the most inclusionary statement ever made by a human being. It means that we can, all together, join hands and walk out of our slavery and into arms of God. If the cross demonstrated anything at all, it is chiefly this: that we have access to God, not by our humanly devised plans and paths, but by the Way that God himself provided. The Way to God is all God's doing. The only thing left to do is rest from laboriously inventing our own ways. We can stop being so religiously busy and tend to things that are more pressing, like justice, mercy, and walking humbly with God along the Way.

School of The Rock

Can I be frank here? When I was a kid, I hated school and I hated Confirmation. I got good grades, but, honestly, I did not work to my fullest potential. I did just enough to "get by". I only did my homework when it was absolutely necessary to keep my grades up. If homework didn't have any effect on the grade I didn't do it. I know that I wasn't the only one. Most of my schoolmates couldn't stand school. In retrospect I think I know why-- what we were doing to get the grade didn't match our abilities and didn't seem to be a useful way to spend our time.

It was the same thing with Confirmation. I went to a Lutheran school, so my confirmation instruction was during school hours. Pastor would come into the classroom and would recite things that we had to write verbatim. He would pause briefly to explain things, but mostly the class consisted of pastor talking and students writing. We got tested on what we wrote, which means we had to study and remember what we wrote. At the end of the year we were publicly examined in front of the Board of Elders, which meant more memorization.

It's safe to assume, again in retrospect, that after all the memorization and testing was done we promptly forgot what we memorized. There's a difference between rote memorization of facts and figuring out how to put facts to good usage.

Now I'm the pastor. In 13 years of ministry I've noticed that kids still hate school and confirmation instruction. Just about every year I've tweaked and primped confirmation to make it as effective as I possibly could. But the results have been the same-- kids (and parents) who couldn't care less. I think that's why we lose teens after they've been confirmed. They see no value in the knowledge they obtained during their time in confirmation. None of the information was useful. That's not education. That's schooling, and there's a big difference. I believe it's time for a new paradigm.

Here's the big problem I see with traditional methods of confirmation instruction: the pastor is the center of attention. I've thought about what would happen if the students were the center of attention instead of the pastor. What if the students were given the opportunity to match their abilities and talents to concrete ways to grow in their faith? What if I abandoned this notion that teens get confirmed because of what they know and replace it with teens getting confirmed because of who they are? What if I let the students themselves decide what and how they will learn the Christian faith? What if I handed ownership of the class over to the students?

The best I can hope for is to somehow get into the quality worlds of these kids. To them, confirmation instruction is just another version of school, which they can't stand. They won't learn anything by me standing up in front of the room lecturing them. As the addage goes: "Tell me, and I'll forget. Show me, and I'll remember. Involve me, and I'll understand!" Understanding is what confirmation instruction should be all about, isn't it? They'll understand if they are invovled in all aspects of their learning.

So, here's what I'm proposing for Confirmation instruction: no more books, no more lectures, no more worksheets, no more tests, no more rote memorization, no more desks. In their place: total personal interaction by letting groups of kids design and implement their learning. I believe it will be amazing to watch what these kids will be capable of doing. My task would be to listen, to give feedback, to encourage, to guide, to play, to interact. Many people (read "adults") will not like this. We are so accustomed to the old coercive system of schooling that we are incapable of considering the possibility that there's another way. But I have a question for you adults reading this. Why do you think it's right to put your kids through the very thing that you hated as a kid? We hated school when we were in it, and yet as adults we are the biggest cheerleaders for it! I'm finding it harder to cheerlead for something I couldn't stand as a child.

If you want to see a great model of what I'm proposing to do, watch the movie School of Rock, staring Jack Black. Watch what Black's character does with a room full of students. He trusted their natural abilities to be the very best that they could be. He taught them how to rock and roll, not by standing around and talking about it, but by actually doing it! And the kids were completely involved in every aspect of their learning. I know it's only a movie, but it touched on something significant-- that people (including children) thrive in an atmosphere in which they are not forced to do things they have no interest in doing.

Chosen

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.-- 1 Peter 2:9

I'll bet it pained Peter just a little bit to write these words. He was very slow in understanding that God's promises were also for the Gentile nations. It took a heavy dose of repentance on Peter's part to even have the strength to write these words. But because of the Spirit of Jesus his whole worldview was turned upside-down and would never return to upright position.

Perhaps our worldviews need to be shaken up a bit as well.

You may be tempted to think that the above Scripture reference excludes you for whatever reason. You may even have a hard time believing that the adjectives (chosen, royal, holy) cannot possibly describe you because you are treated otherwise.

By what standard do you exclude yourself? Here's a rule of thumb that I use:

Any standard that does not come from the mouth of God is to be ignored.

Not smart enough-- says who? Weigh too much-- did God ever say there's a correct weight? Teeth are crooked-- show me a dentist in the Bible. Nobody likes me-- how do you know? Ya know?!

Who came up with these unreasonable standards? God? I don't think so. Never measure your worth in the eyes of God using others as your measuring stick. God chose you. Period. Don't complicate God's choice with a bunch of stipulations that you cannot possibly live up to.

You are chosen!! Isn't it time to start getting used to it?