1Thessalonians 1:2-10
"2We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."
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My parents both grew up in a city in WV named Huntington. My mother’s father was a chemical engineer at a nearby nickel processing plant, and my father’s father owned a soda fountain and sundries store in downtown and never even owned a car. I blame these facts when it comes to light how little I know about cars. Growing up my dad’s family never even owned a car, and my mother was the girl in her family and in addition I’m not sure that my grandfather knew anything to teach her about cars regardless. So my brother and I grew up without the knowledge, though I remember many times my brother, dad, and I would go to car shows at the mall and goggle at the sleek designs. Cars were appreciated, but more for their aesthetics than their engines.
By the time I was 13 or 14, I took the fascination with the chasse to a different level. I started making model cars. Not running models mind you, but even those plastic ones had an engine you were required to assemble, to some degree, and I was able to come out of it with a rudimentary knowledge of the inner workings. At least enough not to embarrass myself in front of friends. At least enough to stand in front of a temperamental vehicle with the hood up and stare thoughtfully into it. “Well, you see ah, that’s the serpentine belt, and that looks ok. And that’s your oil filter down there, and the air filter. This is wear the sparkplugs are, alternator…” “So do you know why it won’t start?” “Nope. Not a clue.” I think that most men think that people will assume you know what you are doing if you stare thoughtfully at something long enough.
But, models are good at teaching us. We can perhaps remember some sort of physiology model from our classroom days, the human torso, or the human eye. In something of that same way, we can learn from this lesson that Paul has written about the church of Christ.
For a little background on the text let me tell you that Thessalonica was the capitol of Macedonia, which was one of the two Grecian provinces the Romans had established. The northern was Macedonia and the southern was Achaia. The church was fairly early in its time away from Paul, who has fled the city to avoid persecution, thinking that the church would be better off. What happened was much the opposite and the church there is one of the most persecuted. Yet, at the time of Paul’s writing the church is flourishing. In later passages Paul says that the church is our (meaning he and Silas and Timothy) “glory and joy,” and in several passages he seems just to be reminding them of things he knows that they knew. There is a point where he states, “on the teachings of brotherly love—you have no need of them!”
We are in luck to be studying the first part of this passage that basically outlines for us the point of pride that Paul feels in this church. According to Paul this is a model church, and he goes on to describe four (4) benchmarks that are part of what makes them such.
(1) It starts in earnest with verse 6. “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord.” This is the aspiration of every preacher, pastor, deacon, elder, and member—all Christians strive to become true imitators of the true source. Martin Luther dubbed believers ‘little Christs,’ the connotation in German being that we should basically be ‘chips off the old block.’ To me, and my warped science fiction loving brain, I think of it as a genetic sample. Every genetic sample of any person or living things keeps, in tact, the entire genetic code of the original. If we then, being creations of the living Christ, pieces of His makeup, we should retain the entire code of behavior and ethics. Of course in reality it is only through continuing study and the leading of the holy spirit that we can discern the nature of Christ, and often times this may involved heavy revision in our thinking from time to time. So in the first point Paul shares with us that the model church has ministers – a job for all believers’ not just ordained clergy – who preach the word, live it and dwell within the Holy Spirit, as we know Christ and Paul did.
(2) Immediately after that Paul hands us the second aspect of the model church. “…for you received the word, in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” The Bible in basic English states it “after the word had come to you in much trouble, with joy in the Holy Spirit.” What this boils down to is the persecution the church is suffering, as I said before. Christianity was not an easy religion in those times. I find it most difficult to imagine not only the theological and life changing implications of a life as a Christian but also to heap upon that the physical hardship or doing it behind the roman’s backs. I don’t know if anyone here has ever traveled to China or Russia before the fall of Communism, but there too is a taste of what the Thessalonians are dealing with daily. And yet, we find that they are not only receiving the text and embodiment of the Word of God , but are also finding in that their joy.
I am often shammed by the actions of people in countries much less prosperous than my own. When I first got out of college some of my family and I went to Palestine to see Bethlehem and some of the other Holy sites. While we were there we also visited an acquaintance of my uncle’s who was a Melkite priest in a town named Iblin. Over the past 10 years or so he had built a school there, during a time when the Israeli government was destroying not building. He went through channels and got the required permits and his school now thrives. While we were there I met a girl who was graduating with high honors and hoped to attend a college in Europe. Later the priest told us that she and her brothers walked 6 miles one way through 2 security checkpoints to get to school. It took them nearly 2 hours, 4 hours total a day. I was never more embarrassed of my “B” average than I was at that moment.
So it is with the early church. They are dealing with a strife and life of secrecy that we will never know, and yet they do it anyway, and more so meet it with joy. We in the church today know persecution as well, but to compare with my friend in Palestine, I too had to walk to school growing up as she did—it took me 6 minutes at the most.
(3) The third piece of our puzzle is that the members of the church in Thessalonica are a blessed example. Paul says that they “…became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” Remember that these are the two provinces of Greece. North and South. Paul then goes on to say that their “…faith in God has gone everywhere, so that we need not say anything, for they themselves report…” The word is out about the church in Thessalonica! Being the lamp on the lamp stand giving light to the whole household is a integral part of being the model church. Paul has internalized the truth of Christ’s teachings and knows that a healthy church of Christ is not complete, or whole, or righteous unless they are a beacon to the rest of the world of everything that God holds dear. As Paul describes it he doesn’t even need to pick up a newspaper or get an emailed report about the things that the church there in Greece is doing—he hears it from everyone.
For the span of Christ’s teachings, by that I mean the three years he was in ministry on earth, we have relatively little to go by. That can only mean that every word we have is precious and written and said with power and the spirit behind them. Christ makes not one but two separate examples of the Christians duty to the world. Illuminate it—Flavor it! When it’s pitch dark out and someone flicks on the light, you know it’s there you can zero in on it! When you are cooking and leave out the salt—you know that it is missing! These are the instructions for each Christian and the church then; be known in the world; make the world miss your presence when you are gone; be something that world yearns for.
(4) The final note is one concerning God’s sovereignty. Though I didn’t notice it was until I read from another author. Paul tells of how the church “…turn[s] to God from Idols to serve…”
John Walvoord in 1973 made the note that the order of the phrase in Greek dictates that Paul meant the people of the church turned to God first, and then turned from their idols.
This is the only way that we as individuals can come into the power of God. We must never wait on our own goodness. We cannot try and persevere to be better people before coming to God or the church. That is a reliance on our own power and I tell you a profanity to the nature of our faith. Instead, we must turn to God first, allowing His power to not only transform us but to strengthen us truly, from within, from the wellspring of His power, and then, with that in our spirits, turn from the daily idolatry with which we deal. To do any less would like taking a beautiful piece of cherry to a master cabinet maker and then, while he waits, picking away burs or nettles or sanding imperfections that you think you see in the wood. We will never have the Master’s eyes for the wood. Only His expertise can bring the truest beauty of the grain to the surface in a sturdy useful structure.
These four things then have earned the church of Thessalonica the praise of Paul. In his absence the church is still thriving, still holding to the precepts that he laid down for them, meeting in joy, receiving the Word of God, being examples to all others, and accepting God in the midst of their imperfect with truth and the want for a closer kinship with God.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Friday, September 16, 2005
What the Blizzle
Here's some interesting thoughts I gleaned from a "documentary" called What the bleep.
--The brain input does not distinguish between reality and imagination. Only reasoning that processes the information does that.
--Read up a little more on Quantum Superpositiong, interesting stuff...
--also Schrödinger's cat if you've never heard of that before...
--Dr Emoto, has performed experiments with water and darkfieldd microscopes that make me twitch with the sureality of it... Basically he snaps a pic of the molecules before and after they are blessed, talked to, berated, or have "happy thoughts" written on their canister..... THE MOLECULES CHANGE MAN... Take a look on his site. It'slikek the slime from Ghostbusters 2 only for REAL MAN.
--IF we know that basically nothing on the quantum level is "real" until it is observed, then it could be said that "reality" needs an observer to make it actual. You need to observe something in order to collapse theinfiniteepossibilitiess of that particle... Then I put it to you that the universe and this PMP are here only because of the Great Observer, God himself...
--The nerve cells in our brains actually form closer bonds to other nerves as we uses them. If we think the same thing over and over and over then the nerve actually reaches closer to the other. If we cease that repeated thought then the nerves grow further apart... For more mind blowing thoughts on this line read A Wind in the Door
--do individual cells have a consciousness? Cells have receptors forneurall peptides created out of emotion in thehypothalamuss I'mm pretty sure). The actual cell, as it replicates, can predisposition itself toreceivee one type of peptide that comes as a result of particular emotion. We can become PHYSICALLY addicted to a certain emotion, just like you can be addicted to heroine. The question then is: do we simply act, or create emotional situations at the behest of our own CELLS?
--The brain input does not distinguish between reality and imagination. Only reasoning that processes the information does that.
--Read up a little more on Quantum Superpositiong, interesting stuff...
--also Schrödinger's cat if you've never heard of that before...
--Dr Emoto, has performed experiments with water and darkfieldd microscopes that make me twitch with the sureality of it... Basically he snaps a pic of the molecules before and after they are blessed, talked to, berated, or have "happy thoughts" written on their canister..... THE MOLECULES CHANGE MAN... Take a look on his site. It'slikek the slime from Ghostbusters 2 only for REAL MAN.
--IF we know that basically nothing on the quantum level is "real" until it is observed, then it could be said that "reality" needs an observer to make it actual. You need to observe something in order to collapse theinfiniteepossibilitiess of that particle... Then I put it to you that the universe and this PMP are here only because of the Great Observer, God himself...
--The nerve cells in our brains actually form closer bonds to other nerves as we uses them. If we think the same thing over and over and over then the nerve actually reaches closer to the other. If we cease that repeated thought then the nerves grow further apart... For more mind blowing thoughts on this line read A Wind in the Door
--do individual cells have a consciousness? Cells have receptors forneurall peptides created out of emotion in thehypothalamuss I'mm pretty sure). The actual cell, as it replicates, can predisposition itself toreceivee one type of peptide that comes as a result of particular emotion. We can become PHYSICALLY addicted to a certain emotion, just like you can be addicted to heroine. The question then is: do we simply act, or create emotional situations at the behest of our own CELLS?
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
The Judge
Exodus 14
19Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night[a] without one coming near the other all night.
21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25clogging[b] their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians."
26Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." 27So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw[c] the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 29But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.
Romans 14
1As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master[a] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11for it is written,
"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess[b] to God."
12So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
When I was in college, a favorite pastime of my friends and I was to challenge each other in coming up with the very best jabs for one another. One such time, my roommate made a comment to another friend, and before I could stop myself, I said, “That’s not funny.” Now not in a reprimand mind you, but instead in the voice of total authority. My roommate turned to me and questioned, “What are you, the Judge of Funny?” Thus for many months afterward I was dubbed “the Judge of Funny,” and if any joke was uttered in my presence my friends would stop and say, “wait wait, don’t anybody laugh--we’d better clear this with Chris first.” It was a friendly poke at my expense and good natured. But it was revealing. It showed a side of myself I can still feel poking out every once in a while even now. I’m the judge.
I don’t know if it was because of my being the first born, or some deep sense of justice my mother passed on to me, but my whole life, I have struggled not to pass judgment, or at the very least not express my feelings on it.
In another example, I will relate a story my Dad is often fond of recalling. Dad is and was a teacher of gifted students in the county where we grew up. I was in several of his classes, but one of the first, when I was in fifth grade, was an elementary physics class. Our first project in our first class was a group challenge. Two groups pitted against each other in a race to balance a broom on the top of a chair. We were given no further instruction or hints and were given creative reign to solve the problem as best we saw fit. I had the benefit of learning about an object’s “balance point” earlier in life with dad in some random summer afternoon, and recalling that saw that this was much the same exercise. After listening to some of my other peers solutions, which were not working, I finally lost all patience, snatched the broom out of a girl’s hand, laid it on top of the chair, balanced it perfectly, and shouted at her, “All you have to do is find the balance point.” Well, she burst into tears, and Dad immediately called me into the hallway. Not to detail my punishment, but suffice to say neither my brother nor I ever found favoritism in dad’s classes. But I had judged this girl and found her wanting and doled out her retribution. Dad always said she never recovered and is probably living in some commune in Wyoming trying to find inner peace.
It can be hard not to judge people. My defense to my Dad in the hallway was something to effect of, “but they were WRONG!” It seemed unfair that I should suffer for getting it right.
We are lucky to have the opportunity in the lectionary to take a look at the teachings of Paul to the Romans. In this letter, he takes care to outline instructions for everyday life; instructions that lead to wholeness of not only the faith community but of the individual. He is righting not only for the Jewish believer converted out of the idea that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, but also to the group of gentiles that reside there. To them, Jesus is a completely new and radical way of thinking. They are taking the leap not from Hope in Prophecy to Prophecy Fulfillment, but the leap from a myriad of gods and goddesses to the belief in One true Creator and the path to Life through a man who was that Deity’s Son--Love Incarnate on Earth. Of course, Paul is also dealing with two very distinctive groups of people who are having trouble getting along.
Poor Paul. He’s trying to bring them eternal, everlasting spiritual truth, and they are arguing over dietary nuances.
For the Jews their way of life is truly changing in the light of Jesus’ teachings. Through Paul’s interpretation through the word and the Spirit he sees, and rightfully so, that Jesus as messiah is for the whole world, not just the Jews. He is the fulfillment not only of prophecy, but with the greater promise spoken first to Adam and to every living human on the planet. This is, I love you. I want us to be together.
The Jews of Rome are dealing with judgment.
For so long they have been accustomed to being God’s chosen people. His only chosen. He chose them to inhabit Israel, above the others who were already living there. He chose them to carry his promise, above all others who dwelt in the Fertile Crescent. He chose them to come out of Egypt, above all the other nations that had been made slaves by that empire. And now, suddenly, the Day of Glory has come… but it has come for all people and all nations. Talk about your big let downs.
Suddenly, God doesn’t have favorites. He has redeemed all by the blood. Paul sites several things in the passage. One of the first is his question to the Christians of Rome—Has GOD not owned all those who profess belief in Him and IN Christ? Then who are we, to disown them? To do so, to pass that judgment on people, is to USURP the place of God. He warns too against the feelings between the strong and the weak. Again, we have divisions in the early church, not only between Gentile and Jew, but between those who are strong and secure in the faith and those who are new and weak. Judgment can come out in so many ways. Condescension is one of the most often used tools of Judgment.
But it is hard not to judge.
I can feel for the Jews. After millennia of belong the teachers pet in every way, they suddenly have to give that up. They are just like everyone else. And even if they attain a solid faith—what is their reward? Sameness. There is NO HIERARCHY in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Methodist church I grew up in, they have conference Bishops who are elected by the ministerial body and rule over the general sessions. I was amazed at one General Assembly in which the bishop came down from the dais and washed the feet of my friends and I who were attending. My pastor who was with us, saw me and said simply, “We are all believers, struggling to come closer to God.” The words of the Disciples to Christ rang out, “No teacher, surely you will not wash our feet.” It is only our Human Perception that creates the feudal system of believers.
Paul reminds the Jews especially of God’s words from Isaiah, a book they more than likely knew very well. Chapter 45:23 says “EVERY knee will bow before me…”He says to them in this letter. Just before that in Isaiah 45: 22, God speaks of “the Ends of the Earth” turning towards Him to be saved. Paul reminds them that even in the prophecy God addresses every nation when it comes to salvation.
I feel like I will short you if I don’t interject here the line I drew from this text to our Old Testament reading.
In re-reading this passage, I was reminded of a wonderfully epic theater experience that I was treated to in the movie “The Prince of Egypt.” You can sometimes do in a cartoon what your budget will not allow you to do in live action. Moses, upon God’s command stretches out his hand and the water ROLL BACK in an awesome display. Dolphins and fish can bee seen silhouetted in the water as the nation walks by them. In scripture, however, we must imagine something more than that even. Not only did the waters roll back, but a powerful wind came and DRIED the land that was the bottom of the sea. In addition, look at the chronology of the miracle. Moses with God’s power allows SOME of the water to come back on and destroy the Egyptian chariots. While the nation is still in the trough with them. Yet they continue, unfettered. At the end of the verse we are blessed by the understatement, “Israel saw the great power of the Lord… so they were in awe of Him and believed.”
This is what it takes to be the judge. This kind of might, this kind of mind boggling power. Do you have what it takes to fulfill the role of God as judge? I surely do not.
So then. We are called and commanded to not pass judgment on our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are all people. We can use the verse from Isaiah as a mantra if we must: “Every knee will bow, every tongue confesses.”
What then is the action verb to go along with this omission in behavior? Paul goes on in Romans immediately after this verse with a resolution: “Make up your mind not to be a stumbling block.” This is active opposite of not judging. He asks us in this to not place anything in the path of those who are trying to come to the Lord. To resolute ourselves to not create an obstacle course to the loving arms of God. But there is more to it…
Recently, Clyde Albright was letting me in on a little piece of farm lore concerning cows. If cows are looking down and there is anything in their way, they will stop. Be it a body, a car, or a twig they are immovable. So then I’ll paint you a scenario, a parable, with that in mind. It’s a bitter winter and the cattle need to spend the night in the barn. The father entrusts his son and his daughter to put them there. Now, they put out fresh hay, open the doors, and see the cows within sight of the barn coming toward it. The next morning the cows are all dead. Bringing the two children out to dead animals the farmer shows them a branch that was in their path to the barn. Being cows, they had stopped and frozen to death. The boy is indignant and says, “But father, we didn’t put that branch there!” And on the way to the woodshed the father replies, “But neither did you remove it.”
Paul’s real objective in all this is to build a more perfect Christian community. Not being a stumbling block is not only to not become a detriment to someone else’s spiritual life, but also in the obverse to do everything in our power to better it. In verse 19 of the same chapter Paul charges the church to make EVERY effort to do what is mutually up building of one another.
I’ve heard repent means to make an about face from a sin or wrongdoing and face God or His loving will. The repentant opposite then of Judgment is this mutual up building that Paul is talking about.
Like I said tough; it’s hard not to judge. We must all be ever vigilant to turn away from those self righteous temptations and instead reach lovingly out to those weaker in the faith and bring one another into a place of mutual up building. It’s this that makes the Church and our faith strong. It’s this that allows the church to grow in love and rightness toward God.
19Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night[a] without one coming near the other all night.
21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25clogging[b] their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians."
26Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." 27So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw[c] the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. 28The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 29But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.
Romans 14
1As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master[a] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11for it is written,
"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess[b] to God."
12So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
When I was in college, a favorite pastime of my friends and I was to challenge each other in coming up with the very best jabs for one another. One such time, my roommate made a comment to another friend, and before I could stop myself, I said, “That’s not funny.” Now not in a reprimand mind you, but instead in the voice of total authority. My roommate turned to me and questioned, “What are you, the Judge of Funny?” Thus for many months afterward I was dubbed “the Judge of Funny,” and if any joke was uttered in my presence my friends would stop and say, “wait wait, don’t anybody laugh--we’d better clear this with Chris first.” It was a friendly poke at my expense and good natured. But it was revealing. It showed a side of myself I can still feel poking out every once in a while even now. I’m the judge.
I don’t know if it was because of my being the first born, or some deep sense of justice my mother passed on to me, but my whole life, I have struggled not to pass judgment, or at the very least not express my feelings on it.
In another example, I will relate a story my Dad is often fond of recalling. Dad is and was a teacher of gifted students in the county where we grew up. I was in several of his classes, but one of the first, when I was in fifth grade, was an elementary physics class. Our first project in our first class was a group challenge. Two groups pitted against each other in a race to balance a broom on the top of a chair. We were given no further instruction or hints and were given creative reign to solve the problem as best we saw fit. I had the benefit of learning about an object’s “balance point” earlier in life with dad in some random summer afternoon, and recalling that saw that this was much the same exercise. After listening to some of my other peers solutions, which were not working, I finally lost all patience, snatched the broom out of a girl’s hand, laid it on top of the chair, balanced it perfectly, and shouted at her, “All you have to do is find the balance point.” Well, she burst into tears, and Dad immediately called me into the hallway. Not to detail my punishment, but suffice to say neither my brother nor I ever found favoritism in dad’s classes. But I had judged this girl and found her wanting and doled out her retribution. Dad always said she never recovered and is probably living in some commune in Wyoming trying to find inner peace.
It can be hard not to judge people. My defense to my Dad in the hallway was something to effect of, “but they were WRONG!” It seemed unfair that I should suffer for getting it right.
We are lucky to have the opportunity in the lectionary to take a look at the teachings of Paul to the Romans. In this letter, he takes care to outline instructions for everyday life; instructions that lead to wholeness of not only the faith community but of the individual. He is righting not only for the Jewish believer converted out of the idea that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, but also to the group of gentiles that reside there. To them, Jesus is a completely new and radical way of thinking. They are taking the leap not from Hope in Prophecy to Prophecy Fulfillment, but the leap from a myriad of gods and goddesses to the belief in One true Creator and the path to Life through a man who was that Deity’s Son--Love Incarnate on Earth. Of course, Paul is also dealing with two very distinctive groups of people who are having trouble getting along.
Poor Paul. He’s trying to bring them eternal, everlasting spiritual truth, and they are arguing over dietary nuances.
For the Jews their way of life is truly changing in the light of Jesus’ teachings. Through Paul’s interpretation through the word and the Spirit he sees, and rightfully so, that Jesus as messiah is for the whole world, not just the Jews. He is the fulfillment not only of prophecy, but with the greater promise spoken first to Adam and to every living human on the planet. This is, I love you. I want us to be together.
The Jews of Rome are dealing with judgment.
For so long they have been accustomed to being God’s chosen people. His only chosen. He chose them to inhabit Israel, above the others who were already living there. He chose them to carry his promise, above all others who dwelt in the Fertile Crescent. He chose them to come out of Egypt, above all the other nations that had been made slaves by that empire. And now, suddenly, the Day of Glory has come… but it has come for all people and all nations. Talk about your big let downs.
Suddenly, God doesn’t have favorites. He has redeemed all by the blood. Paul sites several things in the passage. One of the first is his question to the Christians of Rome—Has GOD not owned all those who profess belief in Him and IN Christ? Then who are we, to disown them? To do so, to pass that judgment on people, is to USURP the place of God. He warns too against the feelings between the strong and the weak. Again, we have divisions in the early church, not only between Gentile and Jew, but between those who are strong and secure in the faith and those who are new and weak. Judgment can come out in so many ways. Condescension is one of the most often used tools of Judgment.
But it is hard not to judge.
I can feel for the Jews. After millennia of belong the teachers pet in every way, they suddenly have to give that up. They are just like everyone else. And even if they attain a solid faith—what is their reward? Sameness. There is NO HIERARCHY in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Methodist church I grew up in, they have conference Bishops who are elected by the ministerial body and rule over the general sessions. I was amazed at one General Assembly in which the bishop came down from the dais and washed the feet of my friends and I who were attending. My pastor who was with us, saw me and said simply, “We are all believers, struggling to come closer to God.” The words of the Disciples to Christ rang out, “No teacher, surely you will not wash our feet.” It is only our Human Perception that creates the feudal system of believers.
Paul reminds the Jews especially of God’s words from Isaiah, a book they more than likely knew very well. Chapter 45:23 says “EVERY knee will bow before me…”He says to them in this letter. Just before that in Isaiah 45: 22, God speaks of “the Ends of the Earth” turning towards Him to be saved. Paul reminds them that even in the prophecy God addresses every nation when it comes to salvation.
I feel like I will short you if I don’t interject here the line I drew from this text to our Old Testament reading.
In re-reading this passage, I was reminded of a wonderfully epic theater experience that I was treated to in the movie “The Prince of Egypt.” You can sometimes do in a cartoon what your budget will not allow you to do in live action. Moses, upon God’s command stretches out his hand and the water ROLL BACK in an awesome display. Dolphins and fish can bee seen silhouetted in the water as the nation walks by them. In scripture, however, we must imagine something more than that even. Not only did the waters roll back, but a powerful wind came and DRIED the land that was the bottom of the sea. In addition, look at the chronology of the miracle. Moses with God’s power allows SOME of the water to come back on and destroy the Egyptian chariots. While the nation is still in the trough with them. Yet they continue, unfettered. At the end of the verse we are blessed by the understatement, “Israel saw the great power of the Lord… so they were in awe of Him and believed.”
This is what it takes to be the judge. This kind of might, this kind of mind boggling power. Do you have what it takes to fulfill the role of God as judge? I surely do not.
So then. We are called and commanded to not pass judgment on our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are all people. We can use the verse from Isaiah as a mantra if we must: “Every knee will bow, every tongue confesses.”
What then is the action verb to go along with this omission in behavior? Paul goes on in Romans immediately after this verse with a resolution: “Make up your mind not to be a stumbling block.” This is active opposite of not judging. He asks us in this to not place anything in the path of those who are trying to come to the Lord. To resolute ourselves to not create an obstacle course to the loving arms of God. But there is more to it…
Recently, Clyde Albright was letting me in on a little piece of farm lore concerning cows. If cows are looking down and there is anything in their way, they will stop. Be it a body, a car, or a twig they are immovable. So then I’ll paint you a scenario, a parable, with that in mind. It’s a bitter winter and the cattle need to spend the night in the barn. The father entrusts his son and his daughter to put them there. Now, they put out fresh hay, open the doors, and see the cows within sight of the barn coming toward it. The next morning the cows are all dead. Bringing the two children out to dead animals the farmer shows them a branch that was in their path to the barn. Being cows, they had stopped and frozen to death. The boy is indignant and says, “But father, we didn’t put that branch there!” And on the way to the woodshed the father replies, “But neither did you remove it.”
Paul’s real objective in all this is to build a more perfect Christian community. Not being a stumbling block is not only to not become a detriment to someone else’s spiritual life, but also in the obverse to do everything in our power to better it. In verse 19 of the same chapter Paul charges the church to make EVERY effort to do what is mutually up building of one another.
I’ve heard repent means to make an about face from a sin or wrongdoing and face God or His loving will. The repentant opposite then of Judgment is this mutual up building that Paul is talking about.
Like I said tough; it’s hard not to judge. We must all be ever vigilant to turn away from those self righteous temptations and instead reach lovingly out to those weaker in the faith and bring one another into a place of mutual up building. It’s this that makes the Church and our faith strong. It’s this that allows the church to grow in love and rightness toward God.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
I never thought I'd want more gas...
So, agreed, this is THE best way to get people to do all of those things. The only problem with that is the US has been so backward for the past 50 years we have NO mass transit system upon which to fall back.
So that leaves the population of the US where? Shit City, that's where. With NO OTHER WAY to get places we need to go we are left high and dry until state and local government decide to get on with it. Busses, trains, inner city trams, we need 4 times as many as we have now and with double the running times and locations to even approach the state in which we will be able to function normally.
How about instead of foreign aid for New Orleans the countries of Europe come over and build us a transit system that doesn't suck balls.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
The dragon
As promised here are some pictures of "F'neir" a dragon I build for a Kids Festival for my wife.
and this last one is some of the kids painting him...
I think I'd like to do a bigger one, myabe one that is standing. And one of course that I would paint myself... Ha. It was nice for the Kids Fair, but... I mean. Well you know. It was for fun for them, not for art... or not to actually end up looking like a dragon... Ha ha... Or maybe it is what a dragon looks like for all we know.
and this last one is some of the kids painting him...
I think I'd like to do a bigger one, myabe one that is standing. And one of course that I would paint myself... Ha. It was nice for the Kids Fair, but... I mean. Well you know. It was for fun for them, not for art... or not to actually end up looking like a dragon... Ha ha... Or maybe it is what a dragon looks like for all we know.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Welcome America!
I feel like some of the other places in the world should hold up signs like that all over.
I was looking at the news the other night and they were covering living condition in the West Bank(Palestine), people in Darfur, people struggling in Iraq, and people in New Orleans. For the most part I could tell no difference at all.
It seems some kind of ironic justice for the American populace. Maybe that's not quite right, but what I do mean is that people in that area are really getting a taste of what hundreds of places around the world deal with every day, every year, for their entire lives. And unlike the people of the Big Easy they have no parent government who is bailing them out, looking for their best interests etc.
And never in my life have I seen a bigger bunch of complainers. It's like the handout mentality all over again. "Why isn't the government doing for me what I should be able to do for myself?" Boo hoo hoo... People in other nations have been refugees their ENTIRE LIVES. What the hell are you complaining about?
And get ready refugee states, your are going to be stuck with the detritus of those affected areas. They have no means with which to "start over." The poor and unemployed are going to cast themselves like leavings on the shores of every other surrounding town and state. Steel yourselves and your welfare programs.
Meanwhile the nation deals with a poverty increase. Now keep in mind that this is poverty, not just someone who is poor, OR on welfare. The actual percentage of that is .2%--but keep in mind that means 1.1 MILLION people are NEW to poverty in the last YEAR. Now don't get me wrong, I am not so moon eyed as to think there is such a society where poverty does not exist. Human failure, human nature, and greed will always see to that. However, the trend we are missing is that it is on the rise. And we must take into consideration that, as I said these are not the working poor, which society MUST HAVE in order to function. These instead are the working poverty, which are a burden on every facet of functional government. Unemployment has peaked at somewhere near 6%, yet poverty continues to be on the rise.
This means only one thing. That the jobs people hold are not paying a LIVING wage. Right now "poverty" is anyone making less than $19,307. For fun lets divide up a salary of $20,000. Rent,$6000 (500/mo) Food $1,200 (100/mo) Car $1,800(150/mo) Clothing $600 ($50/mo. That seems like pleanty right?! Well, this is about the barest most frugal budget in the world, and for ONE person it would work out pretty ok. You COULD survive somewhere and still have something left for a movie or a night out every once in a while. Of course on top of these things most people have medical expenses which could be 8-10K a year. And the other issue is that FAMILIES are trying to survive on that income.
So we have two choices. And these choices will invigorate the economy, drive down violent crime, and increase state tax coffers and commerce.
Either A) Pay workers a living wage for family life, or B) Sterilize the poor so they will cease breeding what they cannot hope to support.
CHOOSE America. Stop nancying around and grow some balls.
Or New Orleans and the death of the poor there will be only the beginning.
I was looking at the news the other night and they were covering living condition in the West Bank(Palestine), people in Darfur, people struggling in Iraq, and people in New Orleans. For the most part I could tell no difference at all.
It seems some kind of ironic justice for the American populace. Maybe that's not quite right, but what I do mean is that people in that area are really getting a taste of what hundreds of places around the world deal with every day, every year, for their entire lives. And unlike the people of the Big Easy they have no parent government who is bailing them out, looking for their best interests etc.
And never in my life have I seen a bigger bunch of complainers. It's like the handout mentality all over again. "Why isn't the government doing for me what I should be able to do for myself?" Boo hoo hoo... People in other nations have been refugees their ENTIRE LIVES. What the hell are you complaining about?
And get ready refugee states, your are going to be stuck with the detritus of those affected areas. They have no means with which to "start over." The poor and unemployed are going to cast themselves like leavings on the shores of every other surrounding town and state. Steel yourselves and your welfare programs.
Meanwhile the nation deals with a poverty increase. Now keep in mind that this is poverty, not just someone who is poor, OR on welfare. The actual percentage of that is .2%--but keep in mind that means 1.1 MILLION people are NEW to poverty in the last YEAR. Now don't get me wrong, I am not so moon eyed as to think there is such a society where poverty does not exist. Human failure, human nature, and greed will always see to that. However, the trend we are missing is that it is on the rise. And we must take into consideration that, as I said these are not the working poor, which society MUST HAVE in order to function. These instead are the working poverty, which are a burden on every facet of functional government. Unemployment has peaked at somewhere near 6%, yet poverty continues to be on the rise.
This means only one thing. That the jobs people hold are not paying a LIVING wage. Right now "poverty" is anyone making less than $19,307. For fun lets divide up a salary of $20,000. Rent,$6000 (500/mo) Food $1,200 (100/mo) Car $1,800(150/mo) Clothing $600 ($50/mo. That seems like pleanty right?! Well, this is about the barest most frugal budget in the world, and for ONE person it would work out pretty ok. You COULD survive somewhere and still have something left for a movie or a night out every once in a while. Of course on top of these things most people have medical expenses which could be 8-10K a year. And the other issue is that FAMILIES are trying to survive on that income.
So we have two choices. And these choices will invigorate the economy, drive down violent crime, and increase state tax coffers and commerce.
Either A) Pay workers a living wage for family life, or B) Sterilize the poor so they will cease breeding what they cannot hope to support.
CHOOSE America. Stop nancying around and grow some balls.
Or New Orleans and the death of the poor there will be only the beginning.
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