Posts tagged ‘Christianity’
Giving Thanks To The Lord
On this Thanksgiving Day, it is important to take some time and reflect not only on what we are thankful for, but on whom we are thankful to. As Christians, we give thanks to the Lord, for apart from Him and His grace, we would be left destitute. As James reminds us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17). Our heavenly Father provides us with not just some of the things we have, but with all of the things we have. He gives us “every good and perfect gift.”
In an age where Thanksgiving Day is sometimes reduced to little more than a general and foggy sentiment of thankfulness, Abraham Lincoln, in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation of 1863, offers this helpful reflection on whom we should be thankful to:
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God…No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.[1]
May we heed Lincoln’s warning and never be “prone to forget the source from which [our blessings] come.” May we always remember and rejoice that our blessings come from God Almighty.
“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).
[1] Abraham Lincoln, “Proclamation of Thanksgiving” (October 3, 1863).
Where is God in Natural Disasters?
Credit: Charles Sykes, Associated Press
$30 billion. That’s the amount of damage that Superstorm Sandy inflicted on just the state of New York. New Jersey is still tallying the cost of the storm for them. Of course, that is only the price of Sandy in dollars. The price of Sandy in human terms is much higher. More than 110 people lost their lives to the storm. There is also the suffering of the survivors. There is still no power in some areas. Gas, though no longer rationed, is still in short supply. People are still scavenging for basic supplies like toiletries and food. And residents are still picking up the pieces of their shattered homesteads.
Whenever a storm of such magnitude hits, many people begin to wax metaphysical and ask, “Why?” Why did this storm do so much damage? Why did this storm hit in the first place? Why did this storm hit me and ruin my life? Why?
Over the years, Christians have had no shortage of answers – some good and some not-so-good – to the question, “Why?” In Puritan New England, earthquakes were quite common. In 1727, an earthquake of 5.5 on the Richter scale struck the Boston area. In 1755, an even stronger earthquake of 6.2 struck. The pastors of that day took these earthquakes signs of God’s judgment and called people to repent of their sins, specifically the sin of greed. For these clergy, the answer to the “Why?” of natural disasters was quite: God was angry at unrepentant Puritans.[1]
Blessedly, the theological answers given today are usually more nuanced and biblically sensitive, though this is not always the case. (One thinks of Pat Robertson’s theologically inept comments following the Haiti earthquake of 2010 when he claimed the disaster specifically and Haiti’s poverty generally was the result of a pact that Haitians made the with the devil back in 1791.)[2] Generally, however, Christians do not subscribe to such a tit for tat theory of divine retribution. After all, the story of Job unmistakably undermines such a crassly simplistic and moralistic view of retribution.
So what is the answer to the “Why?” of natural disasters, at least as far as God’s involvement is concerned? Two points that will help us gain clarity concerning this question, even it is not fully answerable, are in order.
First, though it is treacherous to point to specific sins as causes of natural disasters, we can point to sin in general as playing a role in natural disasters. This much is clear simply by turning the story of history’s first sin. After Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God says to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you…It will produce thorns and thistles for you” (Genesis 3:17-18). Thorns and thistles, hurricanes and tornados, earthquakes and blizzards are all due to the sinfulness of this world. Before the Fall, such things were of no concern. In this way, natural disasters are not natural at all, but unnatural results of sin.
Second, we must remember that our Lord is concerned about and helps those who suffer the devastating effects of natural disasters. I cannot help but think of the short, but poignant, story of Jesus’ disciples when they were caught in a violent storm:
Then Jesus got into the boat and his disciples followed Him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him!” (Matthew 8:23-27)
Jesus’ peaceful sleep while the waves are breaking over the bow of the disciples’ boat is a picture that grips me. For, on the one hand, such a picture encapsulates the feeling of many when a natural disaster devastates their lives. “Where was Jesus when this disaster hit? Why didn’t He stop it? It feels like He was sleeping on the job!” The disciples of the first century, just like us disciples of the twenty-first century, wrestled with such quandaries. But on the other hand, Jesus’ peaceful sleep can be of great comfort. For it reminds us that Jesus is not rattled or roused by the storms and disasters of this world because such storms and disasters have no power over Him. Quite the contrary. He has power over them! This is why, with one little word of rebuke, He can calm the raging wind and waves.
Because Jesus has prevailing sovereignty over creation, we can take refuge in Him, for we know that, even when natural disasters strike, Jesus has everything under control. As the Psalmist reminds us:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. (Psalm 46:1-3)
The earth may give way, the mountains may fall, the storms may come, but this is still our Father’s world. He has it under His control and, even more importantly, He has it under His care.
Do not be afraid.
[1] For a brief history of the Puritan response to natural disasters, see John Fea, “Seeing the Hand of God in Natural Disasters,” Patheos Evangelical (8.31.2011).
[2] For Pat Robertson’s comments, see Ryan Smith, Pat Robertson: “Haiti ‘Cursed’ After ‘Pact to the Devil,’” CBS News (1.13.2010).
A Nation Divided
The headline I saw the day after last Tuesday’s election says it all: “The Divided States of America.” It’s true. We are a nation deeply divided. For evidence of this, I simply had to peruse my Facebook news feed. Wednesday morning, some people were ecstatic and even gloating. Other people were somber and even angry. What made the difference as to how these people felt? Two letters: “R” and “D.” The “D’s” won. And they were happy. The “R’s” lost. And they were, well, you get the picture.
The division in our nation unsettles me. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Remember e pluribus unum? Before 1956, when “In God we trust” was adopted, this was the de facto motto of our country. If only the Latin rang true. But it doesn’t. Partisanship prevails. When I survey our country’s political landscape, I see not e pluribus unum, but e pluribus plures. “Out of many, many.” We are many. And we act like it. We can’t seem to agree on much of anything.
I suppose it was bound to happen. Trying to unify disparate constituencies with such dissimilar ideologies is no small feat. And even if such a conglomerate of communities is unified for a time, such unity never lasts. For humans, thanks to sin, have a proclivity to fracture from each other rather than to walk with each other.
There is an old story about a man who is marooned on a desert island for nearly a decade. One day, mercifully, some rescuers finally come along. Upon arriving, the rescuers find two shacks. Thinking there is another castaway on the island, they ask the man, “Why are there two shacks? Is someone else with you?” “No,” replies the man. “I sleep under the stars. The shack is where I go to church.” “What about the other shack?” inquire the rescuers. “What’s that for?” “Oh,” replies the man with an edge of indignation, “That’s where I used to go to church.” E pluribus plures. It seems humans will always find a way to fracture from each other – even when there’s only one human.
Our nation wants unity. Our unofficial motto preaches it. But it continually eludes us. So what do we do? Where do we go from here?
As Christians, we go to Scripture. For like our nation, the authors of Scripture held unity in high regard. Consider the apostle Paul’s admonition: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). Paul wants us to have unity. The difference between Scripture’s call to unity and our nation’s motto of unity, however, is that whereas our nation takes the many and in vain tries to make them one, Scripture begins with One – God – and looks to Him to unify many. Paul continues in Ephesians:
There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
Paul uses the word “one” seven times in these verses. For Paul knows that God’s dream and desire for us is that we would be “one” – that we would be unified. But rather than taking disparate, dissident factions and striving to unify them by human effort, Paul knows that God unifies people by beginning with Himself – the perfectly unified Godhead who can bring even the most dis-unified people together. True unity is found not in politics, but in our Lord.
Rally around Him.
Election Day 2012 – It’s Almost Here
Election Day is tomorrow. I am, as I’m sure you are, praying for our country and for her leaders. I am also praying that much of the fear that surrounds this election will be calmed by the peace of God that transcends all human understanding (cf. Philippians 4:7).
This week, my blog is a simple one. Yesterday in Adult Bible Class, I talked about Mark 12:13-17 with a special emphasis on what Jesus says about paying taxes and honoring God in verse 17: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” I wanted to put into transcript form (with some slight editing for the sake of readability) my conclusion from Adult Bible Class. For as we head into voting booths across our land, I think it’s important to reiterate what we talked about – that no matter who occupies the Oval Office, there is only one Occupant on the throne of heaven. And that alone should be enough to quell our fears and give us hope. Here is what I said:
I’m going to go on the record today and say that I think it’s time for us to have a smaller government. But when I say that – before you get too excited or too angry depending on your political persuasion – I’m not talking about tax policy and how we’re going to pay for this or that government program. I’m not talking about what social programs we should or should not keep. I’m not talking about whether we should be for or against the Affordable Health Care Act. I’m not talking about the size of government in Washington at all. I’m talking about the size of government in our imaginations. For government – and its attendant greatness or ghoulishness – has captured far too large a place in our hearts and minds.
Here’s what’s happened: whether Republican or Democrat, many people have bought into this myth that if the wrong guy makes it into office – which always happens to be the guy they’re not voting for – that’s the end of the line. That’s the demise of our nation. That’s the disintegration of everything good and moral and noble and righteous in our world. And people get all revved up and riled up, determined to save what is most important to them by getting their guy into office.
Folks, when this happens, you’re not voting for a president, you’re seeking a Messiah. And that job has already been filled.
I love what a New York Times columnist named Ross Douthat writes about this:
The party in power claims to be restoring American greatness; the party out of power insists that the current administration is actually deeply un-American – heretics in the holy temple of the U.S.A., you might say – and promises to take our country back…And the country keeps cycling through savior figures, hoping each time that this one will be the One that we’ve been waiting for.[1]
Folks, the One we’ve been waiting for has already come. And His name is not Barack Obama. His name is not Mitt Romney. His name is Jesus Christ. And, by the way, not only has He come, He’ll come again.
So cast your vote. Be a good citizen. But remember that even if Caesar gets the coins, Jesus holds your heart.
And that’s what matters most.
[1] Ross Douthat, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (New York: Free Press, 2012), 269.
Being Pharisaical About Being Pharisaical
The other day, I came across an experiment. It was conducted by a Christian guy named Timothy Kurek who, by his own admission, wanted to “shock the Pharisee out of himself.” He had been raised with a quintessentially fundamentalist pedigree, even attending Jerry Falwell’s famed Liberty University as a college student. But something in his fundamentalist upbringing proved profoundly unsettling to him. So he left everything he had known and feigned coming out of the closet as a gay man to his friends and family in an effort to see how his Christian friends would respond to him. Some were loving. Others, sadly, but predictably, skewered him.[1]
As I learned about his experiment, I came to appreciate his moving and sometimes heart-rending experience. What I found somewhat troubling, however, was his characterization of the Pharisees. Tim spoke many of times of his “inner Pharisee” – this voice deep inside his soul full of accusations and vitriol. By the end of his journey, TIm went from having an inner Pharisee to calling himself a “recovering Pharisee.” Part of this journey seems to have included a radical change concerning his conception of sin. He is not nearly so comfortable calling things that have been traditionally called sins, “sins.” After all, this is what Pharisees do. They talk way too much about sin. And he doesn’t want to be like them.
This past weekend at Concordia, we talked about Jesus’ Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Pharisee, in Jesus’ telling, represents everything we have come to hate about these religious elites. He comes across as arrogant, judgmental, and outright smarmy in the prayer he offers on the steps of the Jerusalem temple: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get” (Luke 18:11-12). This guy’s bluster is palpable. Yuck.
Did I mention the irony is also deep? Our reflexive response to this parable all too often sounds something like this: “God, I thank You that I am not like other religious hypocrites – Pharisees, Sadducees, creationists – or even like those unenlightened, bigoted fundies who attend Liberty University. I judge not and am smart enough to realize that my Christian witness to the world has to be nuanced and Huffington Post appropriate.”
Somehow, I’m not sure this is what Jesus intended for us to get out of this parable.
The problem with the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable was not that he was religiously conservative, nor was it that he was concerned with sinfulness. Both of those things are fine and, in many instances, even desirable. The problem was that this Pharisee trusted in the wrong righteousness – his own. Luke’s setup of Jesus’ parable makes this clear enough: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable” (Luke 12:9).
Sadly, many people see the road to killing their inner Pharisee as one paved by downplaying certain sins, thereby demonstrating themselves in-tune and in-touch with our culture’s zeitgeist. But the road to killing our inner Pharisee cannot be paved in this way. Indeed, Jesus Himself was quite comfortable with much of what the Pharisees said about sin and, many times, thought they did not understand sin deeply enough. Just read the Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount or His discussion on human sexuality in Matthew 19:1-12 to see how seriously Jesus took sin. Killing our inner Pharisee is not about redefining sin, but about killing sin by the cross.
So let’s stop trying to slay Pharisees by diminishing sinfulness. That’s simply swapping one form of Pharisee-ism for another. It’s swapping a religious self-righteousness for a cultural self-righteousness. And that simply will not do. For we do not need self-righteousness, we need Jesus’ righteousness. Only His righteousness can cure a Pharisee and save a sinner.
Even a Pharisee and sinner like me.
[1] To learn more of Tim’s story, see Url Scaramanga, “Ur Video: Straight Christian Lives as Gay Man,” outofur.com (10.19.12) and “Timothy Kurek, Straight Christian Man, ‘Comes Out’ And Pretends To Be Gay For A Year,” The Huffington Post (10.13.12).
Eat Up!
In the 2001 remake of the famed heist film, Ocean’s 11, I found my favorite character to be Rusty Ryan, played by Brad Pitt. Do I like him because he has the raw street smarts to pull off a $150 million heist at three Las Vegas Casinos simultaneously? Nope. Do I like him because he is able to coolly keep his partner, played by George Clooney, in check when as he plans this job only to impress his ex-wife? Not really. The reason I like Brad Pitt is because, in almost every scene, Brad Pitt is found chowing down on some piece of junk food. Indeed, this turned into an intentional gag, as Pitt later himself admitted: “I started eating, and couldn’t stop. I don’t know what happened. It’s just the idea that you never have time to sit down and have a meal while you’re trying to pull off this heist, so my character is grabbing food all the time.” Now there’s a man after my own heart. He starts eating and he can’t stop. I know the feeling.
In Luke 14, Jesus seems to be always eating. The chapter opens: “One Sabbath, Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee” (verse 1). From there, the food motif continues. Jesus tells a parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited” (verse 8). He then follows up this food-based parable with another meal metaphor: “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid” (verse 12). What is Jesus’ obsession with food? Is this some kind of intentional gag?
It is indeed intentional, but it is certainly no gag. The majority of people in the Ancient Near East subsided on next to nothing. That is, rather than having a super-abundance of food, they lived on scarcity. One famine, one drought, or one natural disaster could kill hundreds of thousands of people because they had few reserves in place to stymie a crisis. Thus, the Old Testament prophets would often promise a day when people would no longer have to contend with these restricted resources. They would speak of a day of feasting. The prophet Isaiah writes, for instance, “The LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines” (Isaiah 25:6). The Psalmist promises likewise: “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing” (Psalm 92:13-14). In our day, a promise of fatness is hardly desirable. But in the first century, when food was scarce, a promise of fatness was a promise of provision. It was a promise of a lavish feast.
When Jesus speaks of several feasts in Luke 14, He is saying: “I am the fulfillment of God’s provisional promises. With Me, God’s feast has come!” This is why Jesus continues with yet another parable on food:
A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.” Another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” Still another said, “I just got married, so I can’t come.” (verses 16-20)
It is important to understand that the excuses these guests offer as to why they cannot attend this king’s feast are offensive and disingenuous. To turn down any invitation to share in a meal, much less to share in a lavish feast such as this one, would have been unthinkable in that day. But this is what these ungrateful invitees do. Thus, the king responds by ordering his servant: “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (verse 21). This king, one way or another, will have guests at his feast. And these marginalized people will certainly not turn down the king’s invitation. And indeed they don’t. They come to the king’s feast. But even after they come, the servant returns to his king and says, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.” (verses 21-22).
I love these words. Even after the poor, the crippled, the blind, and lame fill the king’s banquet hall, there is still room. There is still room for more feasters. There is still room for more banqueters. There is still room.
The king in the parable, of course, is Jesus Himself. And the invitees to Jesus’ banquet are you and me. We are invited to share in Jesus’ feast of salvation. And here’s the good news: There is still room. There is still room enough for you to share in God’s salvation. There is still room enough for you to share in God’s grace. There is still room enough for you to share in God’s forgiveness. There is still room enough for you. So come to Jesus’ feast and share in His goodness. After all, there is still room enough at His table…just for you.
Kicking Back
They’re doing terribly this year. My fantasy football team, that is. Last weekend, my quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, scored an underwhelming grand total of fourteen points. My wide receivers are putting more points on the board than he is. To add insult to injury, the other day, I caught a few minutes of a game on ESPN Classic when Roethlisberger was still in college playing for Miami University in 2003. I wish he played now the way he played then.
Most people know that I am a football fan. There is nothing like kicking back on a Sunday afternoon taking in an NFL game or two, dozing in an out of consciousness, especially since my Sunday mornings, as a pastor, are generally action-packed! And of course, I love watching my beloved Longhorns take on their toughest rivals. The pageantry and suspense of college football is unlike anything else.
I’m not the only one who loves a good football game. The NFL’s popularity has been rising steadily and startlingly over the years, this year reaching an all time high of 59 percent of Americans who say that they follow professional football according to an annual Harris Poll.[1]
As a football fan, I would be the first to say that there’s nothing wrong with following the game. I would also add that there’s nothing wrong with all sorts of other things people do to kick back and relax – from golfing to finding your favorite movie on Netflix to fishing to surfing the internet. And yet, if these are the only ways we spend our leisure time, we are cheating ourselves out of something transcendent.
The Lutheran theologian Gene Edward Veith wrote an article recently titled, “The Purpose of Work.” In it, he noted a disturbing trend in the way Americans view their leisure time:
In our culture today…most people probably do not use their leisure to contemplate the good, the true, and the beautiful. Our leisure is filled with more entertainment than contemplation.[2]
Veith’s last line is key. When we find leisure only in what entertains us – be that a football game or a golf outing or a movie or a fishing expedition or a favorite internet site – we miss the more profound blessings that leisure has to offer. For a bit of contemplation – on family, on work, on friends, and, most importantly, on God – can yield key and transformative insights for life and engender a thankful heart for all the blessings God has given. But first, we need to take time away from being entertained to think and to thank God.
The Bible’s portrait of leisure can guide our us on our journey from liesure as solely entertainment to liesure that includes contemplation:
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)
Notice that in Israel, the celebration of the Sabbath – a day to rest from the work of the week – is specifically tied to contemplation. The Israelites are to remember their slavery in Egypt and how God brought them out. For Israel, leisure was not just time to be entertained, it was time to spend with God.
How do you spend the bulk of your leisure time? Entertainment is good, but not when it comes at the expense of reflecting on your life and on your Lord. After all, He is the One who gave you that leisure time in the first place. As the Psalmist reminds us, “God gives rest to His loved ones” (Psalm 127:2). Maybe you should use your leisure rest not just to be entertained, but to say “thank you” to God.
[1] Michael David Smith, “Poll finds NFL more popular than ever,” NBC Sports (10.6.2012).
[2] Gene Edward Veith, “The Purpose of Work,” The Gospel Coalition (10.7.2012).
They Need Someone To Tell Them – How About You?
This past weekend, we finished our series at Concordia titled “Heaven.” For the final Sunday of this series, Pastor Tucker and I answered some of the most common questions people have about heaven, hell, and eternity. One of the questions I tackled was, “What about people who have never heard about Jesus? What happens to them?” This question is not a new one. Indeed, questions about how God can consign certain people in certain circumstances to hell or judge them in His wrath are as old as Scripture itself. Already in Paul’s day, people were asking, “Why does God still blame us” (Romans 9:19)? Some people cannot fathom a God who will call to account every sin in every situation. Surely there are instances, these people clamor, where God will just let sin slide. Surely God will not blame us for our sins – at least not all of them.
As I explained this past Sunday, the truth of God’s judgment is this: God will hold someone accountable for every sin in every situation – either you or Jesus. Those are the only two options. There are no others. Thus, one cannot be saved apart from Jesus even if one has never heard of Jesus. For apart from Christ, you will be held accountable for your own sin in hell.
This being said, we also learn that God does not want to hold us accountable for our own sin in hell. He does not want us to perish (cf. 2 Peter 3:9). This is why the task of evangelism is of inestimable importance. For it is through people preaching the Word to other people that God normally reaches out with His love in Christ. As the apostle Paul says, “‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them” (Romans 10:13-14)? People need someone to tell them about Jesus so they have the opportunity to believe in Jesus! This is where you come in.
The other day, I stumbled across an article by the president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, Thom Rainer, titled, “Seven Common Comments Non-Christians Make about Christians.”[1] The last of the seven comments jumped off my computer screen at me: “I really would like to visit a church, but I’m not particularly comfortable going by myself. What is weird is that I am 32-years old, and I’ve never had a Christian invite me to church in my entire life.” Here is a comment from a person who wants to learn more about Jesus – who wants to hear from His Word. All he needs is an invitation to a place where that Word is preached…maybe your invitation.
Thom Rainer concludes:
Non-Christians want to interact with Christians…It’s time to stop believing the lies we have been told. Jesus said it clearly: “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (Luke10:2).
Satan is the author of excuses. There is no reason to wait to reach those who don’t know Jesus Christ. We must go now. The harvest is waiting. And the Lord of the harvest has prepared the way.
I couldn’t agree more.
[1] Thom Rainer, “Seven Common Comments Non-Christians Make about Christians,” www.thomrainer.com (9.15.2012).
Your Opinion Doesn’t Matter To Jesus
Last week, I stumbled across a blog post by Matt Chambers that struck me:
Could you imagine what Jesus’ ministry would have looked like if after giving “The Sermon on the Mount” He immediately checked social media to see how many retweets He got, or if #beatitudes was trending?
Or, before riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, He sat down with His creative team to map out exactly how to create a moment people would remember for thousands of years. (#TriumphalEntry, anyone?)
I wonder what opinion polls would have looked like after the crucifixion…or a big throw down with Pharisees…or a mass healing session. What if He healed certain people more than others because data showed healing someone with leprosy went viral (heh, viral) faster than healing the blind?[1]
As we enter into the home stretch of yet another presidential election, it’s important to value and pray for our leaders, for they are given to us by God as Romans 13:1 so aptly reminds us. But it also doesn’t hurt to chuckle a little at the human avenues and inroads that our politicians regularly leverage to try to garner and sustain power – opinion polls being one of them.
I especially appreciate Matt’s reference to Jesus’ Triumphal Entry (cf. John 12:12-15) and trying “to create a moment people would remember for thousands of years.” This year, both political parties tried – using plenty of opinion polls about their presidential candidates’ relative strengths and weaknesses – to do exactly that at their conventions. Though only time will tell, I doubt memories from these conventions will last thousands of days, much less thousands of years. Jesus, as Matt so wryly notes, took no opinion polls, yet Christians across the world still celebrate Palm Sunday to this day. Apparently, Jesus can create a long-lasting moment without consulting polls on what people think of Him.
Currently, I am teaching a Bible study to a couple of different groups on the Old Testament book of Daniel. In chapter two, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has a dream where he sees a statue made of gold, silver, bronze, and iron mixed with clay. Nebuchadnezzar knows his dream is of consequence, but his astrologers and soothsayers are not able to offer any interpretation of his dream. But Daniel, a Hebrew exile to Babylon, can. Daniel explains that the different materials in the statue represent different kingdoms – the gold being the Babylonian Kingdom, the silver being the Persian Kingdom, the bronze being the Kingdom of Alexander the Great, with the bronze and clay finally signifying the Roman Empire. Most important to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, however, is what happens to all of these kingdoms: “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (Daniel 2:44).
Human kingdoms, no matter how many opinion polls their leaders may consult, never manage to endure. The Kingdom of God, ushered in by Jesus, crushes them all, itself enduring forever – even without the benefit of opinion polls. In fact, it endures in spite of really bad opinion polls – opinion polls so poor, in fact, that they got Jesus nailed to a cross.
As Election Day draws near, we’ll watch kingdoms be built and coalitions of constituents be congealed. But in the midst of all the political intrigue, let’s not forget to which Kingdom we pledge our ultimate allegiance. For that Kingdom has staying power that will last far beyond November 6. That Kingdom will last forever.
[1] Matt Chambers, “First Church of Public Opinion,” www.outofur.com (9.25.12).
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
From CBS News: “An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, Sept. 11, 2012.”
Libya. Yemen. Egypt. Last week was a rough one on the other side of the world. First, in an attack deliberately timed to correspond to the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, Libyan Islamists staged a military-style assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, along with three other Americans. On Thursday, Islamist protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. Riots also erupted in Egypt, with people climbing into the embassy compound in central Cairo and ripping down the American flag.
One of the inciting factors of these protests is an obscure movie with a less than positive portrayal of the Muslim prophet Muhammad titled, “The Innocence of Muslims.” Clips from the low-budget film have been making their rounds in cyberspace for weeks. In the movie, Muhammad is portrayed a womanizing, homosexual, child-abuser. For many Muslims, any depiction of Muhammad is blasphemous – hence, the reason for these violent protests.
As I have watched these protests unfold, two things have struck me. First, I have been struck by the fact that our Constitutional right to free speech does not carry with it a guarantee that such speech will be charitable or even accurate. As Christians, we are called speak charitably and accurately to and about others not because our Constitution legislates it, but because Holy Scripture commands it. As the apostle Peter reminds us, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15). Patently offensive and inflammatory caricatures of other religions, though not civically illegal, are certainly theologically sinful. After all, we, as Christians, do not appreciate having our faith lambasted by flimsy straw-men half-truths. So we ought never do the same thing to other faiths nor should we encourage others who do.
Second, I have been struck by the intolerance – in fact, the violent intolerance – of these Islamist protesters. These protestors breach embassies and kill ambassadors who have no relation whatsoever to those who made this outlandish film except that they all happen to be citizens of the same country. This makes no sense to me. And yet, for a few too many people, it seems to make all too much sense. The headlines tell the story.
In the face of such intolerance, it is important to remember that Christians uphold the value of tolerance and its significance in public life. Granted, the Christian conception of tolerance is not that same as its secular counter-conception. Christians consistently do and have accepted the existence of different points of view. We know that not everyone believes as we do. Moreover, in general, we do not support the suppression – especially the violent suppression – of different points of view. In this sense, then, we believe in “free speech.” What is troublesome for Christians is not tolerance in this sense, but the secular conception of tolerance which not only advocates for acceptance of the existence of different views, but demands the acceptance of the truthfulness of these different views. D.A. Carson explains this tolerance well:
The new [secular] tolerance suggests that actually accepting another’s position means believing that position to be true, or at least as true as your own. We move from allowing the free expression of contrary opinions to the acceptance of all opinions; we leap from permitting the articulation of beliefs and claims with which we do not agree to asserting that all beliefs and claims are equally valid.[1]
Of course, the great irony of this tolerance is that if one refuses to accept this definition of tolerance or play by its rules, that person will not be tolerated! As Leslie Armour, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Ottawa, wryly noted, “Our idea is that to be a virtuous citizen is to be one who tolerates everything except intolerance.”[2]
One of the most striking lessons in true tolerance comes from Jesus in His Parable of the Weeds. Jesus tells of a master who plants some wheat. But while everyone is sleeping, the master’s enemy sneaks in and sows weeds with the wheat. When the master’s servants see what has happened, they ask, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” But the master replies, “Let both grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13:28, 30). The master in this parable, of course, is Jesus. The wheat are those who trust in Him while the weeds are those who reject Him. But rather than immediately destroying those who reject Him, Jesus is tolerant: He allows the weeds to grow with the wheat. Martin Luther comments on this parable:
Observe what raging and furious people we have been these many years, in that we desired to force others to believe; the Turks with the sword, heretics with fire, the Jews with death, and thus outroot the tares by our own power, as if we were the ones who could reign over hearts and spirits, and make them pious and right, which God’s Word alone must do.[3]
Violent oppression of those with whom we disagree is not an option for the Christian, Luther asserts. He goes on to state that if we violently deal with someone who is not a Christian and kill him or her, we take away that person’s chance to trust Christ and be saved by Him. We thus work against the gospel rather than for it. This echoes Paul’s sentiment in Romans where he speaks of God’s tolerance as kindness which leads to repentance (cf. Romans 2:4).
Finally, Christianity teaches an even higher virtue than just tolerance – it teaches love. And after a week that has seen so much hatred, perhaps that is what we need to share with our world.
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