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There are no Christians in the Old Testament. You can’t have Christians without Christ, so Christians were not around until Christ’s coming in the First Century AD. But that does not mean that Christians can forget the thousands of years of human history prior to that. In particular, we cannot forget the roughly 1700 years of Jewish history prior to the coming of Jesus. Paul calls us Gentile Christians the wild branch that was grafted into the tame Jewish root and trunk. We are not the replacement for the Israelites, but we are their spiritual descendent. Yet too many Christians seem to forget this fact. It’s time we remember it.
Sometimes Christians are accused of “being so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.” It is often a fair assessment. But if we remembered our Jewish roots, we would not have that problem. A quick look through the Old Testament reveals none of the Christian concepts of heaven and hell that we are familiar with. Instead, there is only a shadowy place usually transliterated as “sheol” or translated to “the grave.” Little is said about it, but one gets the feeling of a dark, musty basement with little chance to get out. Rather than trying to get to heaven, ancient Jewish theology is centered on how one is to live here on earth. Granted, we don’t live by the Jewish system of cleanliness and sacrifices any more, but the Old Testament gives us some clues about how God desires us to live. When we comb through the Torah and the Prophets, these are the types of principles that guide us: take responsibility for your relatives and neighbors, be honest in your business dealings, strive for uncorrupted government, pursue justice, and honor authority.
What we find most of all is that actions have consequences in this life, both for the individual and for the community, and God does not always save us from either one. Important to this concept is that, to the Jewish mind, God is the source of life. Sin separates us from God and from the life He provides. Paul echoed this thought we he wrote that the wages of sin are death. Sin is rejecting God’s authority and living by our own standards. It only follows naturally that moving away from God will eventually kill us just as moving away from a fire will eventually make us cold. In the Old Testament, we find people sinning and bringing death on themselves. We also find the nation of Israel moving away from God who then removes His hand of protection just as parents no longer protect their kids who move out in rebellion. They then become enslaved by the nations around them.
Individuals did not fail because they fell through society’s cracks. They failed because they did not follow God and His principles. Nations failed not because of poor economics or bad foreign policy. They failed because they did not trust God enough to follow His principles. The prophet Amos called out the northern half of Israel for failing to bring justice to the poor and oppressed as part of their overall moral failing. Their failure resulted in their deportation to Assyria. Micah prophesied against the oppression of the poor in Judah, and that nation was later taken captive by the Babylonians.
So what lessons can we draw from this look at the Old Testament and Jewish theology? In our present time, some Christians lament the lack of social influence of the Church, comparing it to the influence in times past in America. The Church was influential in everything from abolishing slavery in the mid-Nineteenth Century to censoring movies in the mid-Twentieth. Today, church attendance numbers actually appear to be declining as a percentage of the population for the first time in American history. Perhaps the Church has failed because we have not trusted God enough to live by His principles in our lives. Perhaps we have failed because we have forgotten that one other pattern in the Old Testament. The line between spiritual and secular was not nearly so defined as it is today. The point is not the have some sort of theocracy. Rather, the point is to live with justice and mercy in such a way that we again become the lights that God called us to be.
Being relevant in the world of blogging can be a problem.
If you don’t post your ideas or thoughts often enough then your blog drops in the search engine and people aren’t able to hear what you have to say. If it isn’t read, then it is as if they were never said, or thought. It is like the old adage, “If a tree falls in the wood, but there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Sometimes people can feel like this, irrelevant – not connected with or relevant to something. I’ve heard, and even used the saying – “It’s as if I am talking to a wall.” We’ve all been there – especially if we have had children, or spouses. I sometimes wonder if that is what God thinks sometimes when he watches us make the same mistakes year after year, century after century.
He tried to tell us what he wanted from us, he tries even now to explain how we should best live together and grow closer to him in this fallen world – through the Bible, his living word. Every time it is read, something new can be gleaned from it. Why don’t we read it more? We humans are a stubborn and willful group. It is like he is talking to a wall.
Funny thing is, God finds us extremely relevant. So much so, that he became flesh through Jesus and died for us. Why? So that we could be with him for eternity. It was a gift. He is handing it out now, why don’t you take it?
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Sometimes I hear people, both Christians and non-Christians, say that they cannot believe in a God who would let people go to hell for eternity. If God truly is love, He wouldn’t let people suffer that way. It’s a belief known as universalism. People universally get into heaven, or at least they are allowed the opportunity whenever they wish. It’s a view that’s been held by many prominent Christians throughout the centuries. Probably the most prominent believer in recent memory was C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia.
But this view of heaven and God’s love ignores another, equally important, part of His character. God is not only a God of love but of justice. Heaven without justice would be hell for a lot of people, and God without justice would not be a God that we would want to be around. Let us take the example of a rape victim and the rapist which was never caught. This woman goes through life, dies, and ends up in heaven. God accepts her into His arms, and life is good. But around the same time, the rapist dies as well. At some point, she runs into him in heaven. She doesn’t understand how he could be there. She asks God why this predator could be there having never received any consequences for his actions. God dismisses her pain by saying, “I just love him so much. I couldn’t do anything else.” What has God just told this woman? Her pain means nothing. She must accept the consequences of the man’s actions, not him. He gets off free and clear. What would that woman now think of a God who allows and even encourages this sort of thing to happen?
Now consider the scenario a different way. We have the same woman and the same man. They meet in heaven. The woman goes to God with the same question. This time, He replies with a serious tone, “My Son died to pay the price for his sins, just like He died for yours. He is here because he chose to accept My Son and become a new person through My power.” Love has been satisfied because people can be accepted and welcomed into heaven. Justice has been satisfied because the consequences of sin have been paid by Jesus.
To borrow a metaphor from the current justice system, God has arranged a plea agreement. A standard plea bargain is to plead guilty and accept a lesser sentence in order to avoid a lengthy trial. But in this case, the bargain is to plead guilty and accept that someone else has already served the sentence so that we can overcome the sinful nature on this earth and enter into the joys of heaven. Yet some of us continue to reject the plea agreement. Some of us don’t want to admit that we’re guilty. Others don’t want to agree that there is a higher authority that we have to answer to. After all, justice implies that there is an authority that we submit to that decides what is right and what the punishment for wrong is.
A lot of people prefer to be their own judges rather than accepting the judgment already handed down by the Judge of the universe. In his book The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis makes the point that we can find many reasons to avoid God’s justice and love for us. At the beginning of the book, people who are already dead are given the opportunity to take the journey to heaven. But the vast majority reject the opportunity with increasingly flimsy excuses. For some people, the benefits of heaven outweigh the costs. It’s sad, but I can’t argue with someone who would prefer to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.
But that is also part of God’s love. We are given the chance to get what we want. He doesn’t make us go somewhere we don’t want to, even if it is better for us. But Jesus did come to die for our sins in order to give us that opportunity. And that is what we have to remember about God. Jesus came for love, but He died for justice.
THE MIRROR OF LOVE
I was reflecting one day on 1st Corinthians 13. It is often called “The Love Chapter” due to all the identifying signs Paul uses to describe love. He writes, “4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
A few verses later Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” That’s when the pondering kicked in. I asked myself, “What does this stuff about kids have to do with the over-all theme of love?” On a side-note, let’s acknowledge up front that there is a vast difference between being child-like and being childish. We should also recognize the fact that growing old doesn’t mean growing up. Longevity should never be confused with maturity. A person can be advanced in years and childish in behavior.
Knowing these things, it becomes easy to grasp Paul’s intent. The Love passage can be rendered, “Grown-ups do not boast, keep no record of wrongs, rejoices with the truth. Grown-ups always protect, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres.”
People who have never grown-up do envy, are selfish, and have a list of everybody who has ever wronged them.
I had a list. Once I realized that I would never be a “real man” as long as I held onto that list I met with some dear friends and we cleaned house. I would air a grievance, then they would pray with me that I would be able to sincerely forgive the one who had wronged me. It took the better part of a day, and my list wasn’t all that long. A lot of festering wounds were exposed to the light. They were lanced and drained and the healing balm of the Holy Spirit was applied. The reality is I still have scars from these wounds—but I no longer have the wounds.
I can’t stand and arrogantly say “Today I am a man.” There’s still a lot of little boy in me. But it’s a boy who is free at 59 years old to finally grow into manhood. And that little boy has never experienced as much peace as he does right now.
Over the years, I have heard a lot of people describe Christianity as a crutch. They imply that only weak-minded people who can’t handle life will believe that there is a God out there Who will save them from all of life’s craziness. There is something to that idea. The Bible does have a lot to say about healing: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. It also says a lot about God helping us in our times of trouble. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But please notice that it is still a burden and a yoke. Yokes are used to pull a plow, a wagon, or other heavy loads, and in that use of the yoke is the truth found.
Thinking a person is weak for coming to Jesus is like calling a person weak for going to a doctor. But Jesus is a funny kind of doctor. First, He gets you better, then He tells you that He has things for you to do which might get you hurt again. Rather than a crutch, Christianity is a challenge. We’re called to love the unlovable, pray for those who hurt us the most, and stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. It’s the toughest job and heaviest burden in the world. But Jesus calls it light because we don’t carry it alone. He carries it with us, and He has a lot of other followers who are carrying the same burden.
But why carry a burden or pull a yoke at all? Wouldn’t life just be easier if we dropped the mission and lived by our own rules and to our own interests? Well, yes, it would be. At least at first. But then we discover that the consequences of our own actions become a burden on their own. Some of us try to get ahead or get rich, and work becomes our burden. Some of us try to just have a good time, and our self-inflicted wounds to our health become a burden. Some of us wander aimlessly, jumping from one seemingly self-fulling activity to another, and that lack of purpose and direction becomes a burden on our souls. And the worst part of all these burdens is that no one is helping us carry them. Some people try to call themselves strong because they can carry it on their own. But is it strength or short-sightedness? Is a person really strong who carries a burden needlessly? And how long can that person remain strong if he keeps heaping burden upon burden on himself?
Coming to Jesus isn’t getting a crutch to hobble through life with. It’s getting a burden removed and becoming whole so that we can spend our strength on what truly matters.
It has been in vogue the last couple of decades to split the world into cultures. From these cultures, we see how people develop their senses of self, self-worth, and morality. One culture is not supposed to be any better than another, and we end up with the concept of “cultural relativism.” Whatever a person does or believes does not matter so long as it conforms to the norms of this particular person’s particular culture. Only within a culture can we make value judgments.
But this concept hinges on the definition of culture, and it turns out that it is much more of a fluid concept than we would would like or imagine. Let us start with how large a culture has to be. Is a culture of one just as valid as a culture of one billion? If it is just as valid, it creates a huge loophole. I can claim that I am a different culture than those around me, and they no longer have any ground to judge my actions or beliefs. I can also, in certain situations, force others to make allowances for my culture.
Every once in a while we hear a story of someone in a prison saying that his religion requires him to eat ice cream on a regular basis and expecting his request to be granted based on freedom of religion. That is one example where we the taxpayers would be forced to make allowances for this singular cultural practice. If a culture of one is not valid, then how big must a culture be to be counted? Will minority cultures always be subject to the whims of the majority? That is a scary thought.
The concepts of majority and minority bring up another point. What do we do when we have multiple cultures in one area? In America, we talk about sub-cultures on a regular basis. Those sub-cultures can be based on age, occupation, gender, religion, ethnicity, or any number of factors. Which of these sub-cultures do we pay attention to? Which set of values is a person held to when the prevailing culture differs from the sub-culture? And how far can these sub-cultures be subdivided until the concept becomes meaningless? What happens when culture devolves into just another word for personality?
One set of sub-cultures in America bring up more points. What is required of immigrants? Are they required to conform to their original cultures or to the culture which predominates where they moved to? The general theory today is that people are free to keep the culture from which they came. But are there limits to this indulgence?
Once or twice a year now, we read a story about an honor killing where a male of Muslim origin has killed a female relative for anything from running away from home with a man to dressing in a way that this male did not approve of. These men are then prosecuted in our justice system and convicted of murder or some similar offense. If they are allowed to keep their original cultures, and if their cultures allow for this type of behavior, on what basis do we judge them?
Culture is just too fluid a concept to use as the foundation for such a heavy category as right and wrong. But then what is our alternative? We need some foundation outside of people to use as a fixed reference point to define what is good, true, and beautiful and what is evil, false, and ugly.
Christians use the reference of the Bible as God’s revelation of Himself and what He deems is important since He created it all. Anything which does not meet up with the standards set forth in the Bible must be discarded.
But going back to the idea of culture, we also need to remember that there is a third category of behavior: that which is neither prohibited nor required but is permissible. And when we allow ourselves to read the Bible with open eyes, we see that there is a lot in culture that falls into this category.
Does music have to be made by an organ, or is a guitar better? The Bible doesn’t say. Should men be circumcised? The Bible doesn’t say. Should we be vegetarian or eat meat? The Bible doesn’t say. The Bible is much more concerned with topics like loving and respecting other people, obeying the Lord, and spreading the gospel throughout the earth. Within that framework, there are many things which are permissible.
In the words of Francis Schaeffer, there is both form and freedom. Only in this way can we have freedom without chaos and form without conformity.
CHANGE
One of the aspects of inter-personal relationships that I have had a hard time coming to terms with is the fact that people change. Sometimes that change is due to growth and new experiences factoring in to the chemistry that allows the individual to be who they are. Sometimes what appeared to be friendship was deeper on one person’s part and of less value to the other. Fickleness and superficiality play a far greater role in human interaction than most people acknowledge. One day a person can be part of the group (whatever that group may be) and when the sun comes up the next day, for some unfathomable reason,that same person can be butt of all the jokes.
That is one reason why, when I was young, books and movies and music became the elements with which I bonded. I just got tired of people changing on me and hurting me. No matter how much time passed or whatever else was going on in the world Tom Sawyer is not going to stop being the rascal who visited the graveyard at midnight just to swing a dead cat. D’Artangnan is going to preserve the Queen’s honor every time. Nothing on earth is going to alter the fact that Will Kane will shoot it out with Frank Miller’s gang as soon as the clock strikes High Noon.
I will admit that some movies (let’s focus on movies) have more importance to me. I have come to realize that it has to do with me caring about the characters. The emotional involvement I otherwise might have invested in human beings has been given to unchanging celluloid counterparts. I sometimes wonder what George Bailey did the day after Christmas. “It’s A Wonderful Life” is complete in and of itself and no amount of watching changes that warm fuzzy feeling that rises at the end—but still sometimes I wonder.
That’s one reason why I haven’t liked many sequels. The character’s life seldom evolves the way I had envisioned it happening, and unless I am given new reasons to invest in a relationship with the character, I will usually pass—because in the sequel the person has changed. They aren’t the same person I had a relationship with in the earlier effort. The exception to this rule is where all the chapters (so to speak) have surfaced before I begin my relationship with the character. An example of this is Johnny Weissmueller as Tarzan. He made twelve films as the Ape Man and I can watch them all in a row without losing my affection because they are twelve episodes of a whole, not twelve individual films.
I have invested so much of myself into movies and books that when engaged in conversation, I find myself quoting chunks of dialog from obscure films and hoping no one recognizes that I have very few opinions that I didn’t get from the silver screen. And I will admit having plagiarized the very best. Much of what other’s view as intelligence is courtesy of MGM.
Why does this matter? The short answer is I have hidden from people and held them at arm’s length because people change and I don’t handle change well. But upon examination the truth is that as long as Tom Sawyer doesn’t change, I don’t have to change either. He and I can go along as we’ve always been. The bottom line is, I don’t want to change. I don’t always like who I am, but I’m comfortable being who I am. At least I know who I am. If I should evolve I don’t have a clue who I will become, and frankly that scares me.
The problem has arisen becauseI find myself in a relationship that requires change on my part. It is not a new relationship and change has always been a constant, but once the heady newness of the relationship wore off, the changes have been incremental to the point of being unnoticeable. But things are starting to escalate to where I am needing a map and a flashlight in order to just find the general region of my comfort zone. But as much as I don’t like change, I despise lying even more. I told Jesus I would serve Him, follow Him, go with Him wherever He chose to lead me. I wasn’t really aware of how much change was required, but I signed on for the long haul and have no intention of fossilizing. (A fossil is a being that couldn’t make the change.)
Who knows, by the time it’s all over, I might even find myself trusting people, ever changing, ever unknowable people. Now that would be a real change.
HE IS RISEN
My job allows me the opportunity to listen to music on my computer as I am engaged in my varied responsibilities. I used to bring bags of CDs back and forth from home, but recently I was introduced to the advantages of using a flash drive. I have a 4gig unit that holds almost a thousand songs. As I write this, one of the songs is “The Easter Song” by The 2nd Chapter of Acts.
Listening to the declaration“He is risen—Hallelujah”, I am reminded of the present-tenseness of that statement. Confined as we are to time and space, it is legitimate to say He was raised. After all, the resurrection is a historical event that happened at a specific place at a specific time. The word “was”, however, implies that the event is done; that it was yesterday’s news and we need to look for something new for today. But that’s from our perspective.
In the throne room of grace,where time has no meaning, the resurrection of Jesus is part of the ever constant now of the Father’s perfect love expressed to His children. It’s as if the event has an on-going freshness to it that makes it front page-lead story, hot off the presses news.
As I contemplate this, I am staggered by the idea that my opportunity to “rise to walk in newness of life” is just as new, just as fresh, just as present tense. Yesterday’s hindrances, yesterday’s grave clothes need not be obstacles to the “is” of the Father’s plans and purposes.
So I can state, here on the 28th of November, that which we usually say at Easter—He is risen, indeed. (And so am I.)
I love Thanksgiving. I love Christmas. But that period in between the two is terrible. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Men’s Last Minute Shopping Day (Christmas Eve). Sale after sale after sale. Since when did Christmas become about the presents instead of about the holiday in general and why we celebrate it in particular? At the first Christmas, the angels sang, “Peace on earth and goodwill to all men.” From what I’ve seen and read, there is very little peace or goodwill running around during this time of the year.
The funny part is that Jesus and the Bible never made a big deal of what we now call Christmas. Two of the Gospels don’t even mention it. The other two don’t even give us a date. Matthew describes it only so that he can use it to show how Jesus was the prophesied Jewish Messiah. Luke uses it to show that Jesus is the Son of God. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter. The only holiday that Jesus tells us to celebrate is His death. Not even His resurrection. Granted, the Bible doesn’t give us a date for His death, either. But we can figure it out pretty easily from the Passover dates. How many of us spend as much time or effort on our Good Friday celebrations as on our Christmas festivities?
Of course, there is no law in Scripture that we can’t celebrate Christmas. But what is an appropriate celebration? The general theory is that we give gifts because that is what the Magi did (Matthew 2:11). But let’s examine those gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold is fairly obvious as a unit of money. But who would likely have the most gold at this time period? Kings and other high officials would be the only ones with large amounts of gold. Most people saw very little money at this time (currency of any form didn’t become a common unit of exchange until the late Middle Ages), and most of the money that they did see was likely silver, bronze, or copper. In other words, giving gold was likely a way of acknowledging that Jesus was a king. Do we spend much time on Christmas acknowledging Jesus authority over our lives? Second, frankincense is a resin primarily uses in perfumes. But according to Jewish tradition, frankincense was also one of the ingredients used in the Tabernacle and Temple incense. The Bible is also clear that incense is a symbol of prayer. How much time do we spend in prayer on Christmas? Third, myrrh is a another resin commonly used in perfumes and incense. But it was also used in embalming. Giving this gift to an infant had to be symbolic of the purpose of His time on earth: to die for the sins of mankind. How much of our time on Christmas do we spend looking ahead to Good Friday?
As we move into the Advent season, let us consider that, while there is nothing wrong with gifts, Christmas is not just about giving gifts and celebrating the wonders of capitalism and consumerism. Perhaps we might actually find a little peace and goodwill if we focus on why we celebrate the holiday instead of how we celebrate the holiday. One group of churches in Houston came up with the bright idea that, since Jesus came to serve, they should spend the time before Christmas serving others. Instead of Black Friday, it would be Bless Friday: http://www.christianpost.com/news/bless-friday-helping-others-new-way-to-spend-black-friday- 61767/. Doesn’t that sound like a better way to celebrate the One who came to give Himself for others rather than wearing ourselves out giving our money for earthly possessions which won’t last?
REFLECTIONS ON A DAY FOR GIVING THANKS
The first thing that comes to mind is, obviously, the great multitude of things and more importantly, people, for which and whom I am indeed thankful. I think I share that with all who have yet to be assimilated by the Borg—the ability to give thanks. The question that comes on the heels of this is “Why do I need a day set aside for Thanksgiving to remind me to be thankful?”
I must confess I am too often lacking in the gratitude department—or at least in the expressing of gratitude department. Because of my bad knee I sometimes stumble because the joint buckles. After one such occurrence, I was face down on my garage floor wondering how long I could lie there before my putrefying carcass got my neighbor’s attention. (It’s amazing the morbid thoughts that go through your mind when you’re in pain.) As it was, using my cane and an easily accessible door handle I was able to leverage myself upright and into my van. My knees and elbows hurt from bouncing on the concrete, but not as much as they would probably hurt the next day, so I decided to go to work while I still could. Sitting in the employee parking lot, I started whining and sobbing, “How much longer am I going to have to put up with this stuff? When are you going to heal me?” The Holy Spirit took that occasion to remind me of a few things. Even though I fell, I was positioned in such a way that I could reach the van door and get back up again. I had a van that I could enter and exit without putting pressure on my knees. I had a job to come to. But most of all, there were people who eventually would have missed me and would have come looking for me. As I sat there, humbled by these reminders, I said, “Lord, I have not been thankful for Your provision. Please, forgive me.” Then I started singing praise to Him for His goodness to me in the land of the living. Heaven isn’t just a destination on the other side of the pearly gates. If heaven is where Jesus is, then experiencing heaven is possible any time you enter the throne room via praise and adoration. I had a little bit of heaven that afternoon in my van.
An interesting side-note: I wasn’t very stiff at all the next day. And I don’t think it was the result of my little glory session in the front seat of my van. I seriously believe that was His gift for me, not because I thanked Him for the good things in my life, but because it is His nature to bless and continue to bless. His blessings aren’t earned—we don’t receive them because we deserve them. Had I not had a day without pain, the glory session still would have been worth it, because the bottom line is—it isn’t what I deserve, it’s what He deserves, and He totally deserves thanks and praise.
But I still forget to give Him the thanks He deserves. The Scripture says, “His mercies are new every morning.” That being the case then my thankfulness ought to be new every morning also. To my embarrassment, it isn’t. But at the same time I am not going to let this flaw become a toe-hold for the enemy. I repent and move on. I repent and move on. How ever many times it takes, I repent and move on.
