Rabbi, who sinned…

Frank

…this man or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:1-2)

I grew up with this personal theology. If I tripped and fell in the playground, it must’ve been because of the white lie I told my parents to get out of cleaning my room. If my knee was skinned really bad, then it must have been a sin much worse. This theology led to a religious paranoia and paints God as the cosmic puppet-master instead of the loving Father that he is.

But this theology is also applied to prop up one’s personal politics and biases. I sat in on a class on Abraham’s Covenant with God yesterday and I was reminded that there is no covenant between God and my country. Despite what some may preach, the United States is owed no special favor by God. Likewise, God owes us no special punishment for violating the terms of his covenant. Tell that to the talking heads after Hurricane Katrina or 9/11. Some were quick to assign motive to these tragedies while justifying their personal theology.

It’s a shame these recognized representatives of American christianity (TM) are not Ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor 5:20, Eph 6:20) instead because Jesus addressed this very issue in Luke, chapter 13: “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them- do you think they were more guilty than all the to others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.‘” (Luke 13:1-5)

These two tragedies, the Galileans whom Pilate killed and those who died in Siloam could be justified by the religious at the time because of their political ties. The Galileans were likely leading in a revolt against Roman authorities while the tower in Siloam was part of the aqueduct Pilate was constructing so those who died were in the employ of these same authorities. Jesus’ reply was much like the traps the Pharisees and teachers of the law would try and catch Jesus in by trying to force him to take a side. But much like his replies to these traps, his reply here emphasised that which side doesn’t matter. We should be concerned about our the condition of our own souls.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t preach against sin (despite the common strawman: judge not, lest ye be judged). But we should be preaching the Gospel of salvation, not the religion of condemnation. And we should never assign motive to what God chooses to do or not to do. I could close by saying something about why we shouldn’t assume. But you know how the rest of that goes.

(more on Abraham’s Covenant in tomorrow’s blog carnival)

K.I.S.S.

Frank

Keep It Simple, Stupid. It’s a sound principle in management, but it’s also worth applying to our own Christianity (though maybe leave the ‘stupid’ part out).

I’ve had a serious bout of writer’s block over the last week, so I’ll leave it to others to make my point for me. The bottom line is that we don’t need gimmicks or flash to live out our faith and spread the Gospel.

What we don’t need: christian products that rip off popular culture or a hip approach to Christianity.

What we do need: humble ministry.

What we really need: The Gospel of Jesus, period.

K.I.S.S.

Frank

Keep It Simple, Stupid. It’s a sound principle in management, but it’s also worth applying to our own Christianity (though maybe leave the ‘stupid’ part out).

I’ve had a serious bout of writer’s block over the last week, so I’ll leave it to others to make my point for me. The bottom line is that we don’t need gimmicks or flash to live out our faith and spread the Gospel.

What we don’t need: christian products that rip off popular culture or a hip approach to Christianity.

What we do need: humble ministry.

What we really need: The Gospel of Jesus, period.

Hand Up or Handout?

Frank

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27

I recently brought up my involvement in an addiction recovery ministry. I thank all of you for your encouraging comments. Truth is, I wouldn’t be involved in that ministry if I didn’t need it myself. Besides my character, I have learned much about the human condition and those things that drive us to our drugs of choice. I’ve also learned that in order to overcome our addictions and surrender our will to God, we need to “hit bottom”. This means we’ve reached our lowest point and that realization motivates us to change. Recovery “raises” that bottom, so our motivation for sobriety moves from being afraid of the worst that could happen to desiring the best that God has in store for us. The temptation for many is to prevent a loved one from reaching their bottom. We don’t want to see them suffer. We want to save them. But suffering is exactly what they need to find the desire for recovery.

This creates a paradox to the Christian. There is no sin so horrible that God can’t forgive. “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear” (Isaiah 59:1) And we are commanded to “forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13b) Likewise we are commanded to “carry each other’s burdens” because “in this way you will fulfill the Law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)

It’s easy to forgive an addict without enabling him. But where do you draw the line when carrying his burdens? On one hand, he needs to suffer the consequences of his decisions. But that does not mean we cannot help. Picking him up from the bar at 2:00 AM because he can’t drive home is not carrying his burdens. But “sponsoring” him at a meeting is.

With addiction, that line is more clear than when dealing with other sins. What about a single teenage mother? Is offering to babysit while she searches for a job enabling, or sharing her burden? This is something my wife and I are currently battling. There are a couple of single moms that we’ve been reaching out to and opening our home to. When we bring them to church, the stares we get say, “why would you help her? It’s her fault she’s in the situation she’s in.” Are we preventing them from hitting their bottom? I’d like to think instead we’re offering a safe environment in which they can work out their issues. Much like a recovery meeting.

Sadly, this perspective doesn’t seem to be shared. To some, we are offering a handout instead of a hand up. I am moved to pray the lyrics to Brandon Heath’s song, Give Me Your Eyes,

“All those people going somewhere,
Why have I never cared?

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see”

I can then follow up with Leeland and Brandon Heath’s Follow You,

“Faith without works is dead
On the cross your blood was shed
So how could we not give it away so freely?”

I only pray others may see the world in the same way.

Hand Up or Handout?

Frank

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27

I recently brought up my involvement in an addiction recovery ministry. I thank all of you for your encouraging comments. Truth is, I wouldn’t be involved in that ministry if I didn’t need it myself. Besides my character, I have learned much about the human condition and those things that drive us to our drugs of choice. I’ve also learned that in order to overcome our addictions and surrender our will to God, we need to “hit bottom”. This means we’ve reached our lowest point and that realization motivates us to change. Recovery “raises” that bottom, so our motivation for sobriety moves from being afraid of the worst that could happen to desiring the best that God has in store for us. The temptation for many is to prevent a loved one from reaching their bottom. We don’t want to see them suffer. We want to save them. But suffering is exactly what they need to find the desire for recovery.

This creates a paradox to the Christian. There is no sin so horrible that God can’t forgive. “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear” (Isaiah 59:1) And we are commanded to “forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13b) Likewise we are commanded to “carry each other’s burdens” because “in this way you will fulfill the Law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)

It’s easy to forgive an addict without enabling him. But where do you draw the line when carrying his burdens? On one hand, he needs to suffer the consequences of his decisions. But that does not mean we cannot help. Picking him up from the bar at 2:00 AM because he can’t drive home is not carrying his burdens. But “sponsoring” him at a meeting is.

With addiction, that line is more clear than when dealing with other sins. What about a single teenage mother? Is offering to babysit while she searches for a job enabling, or sharing her burden? This is something my wife and I are currently battling. There are a couple of single moms that we’ve been reaching out to and opening our home to. When we bring them to church, the stares we get say, “why would you help her? It’s her fault she’s in the situation she’s in.” Are we preventing them from hitting their bottom? I’d like to think instead we’re offering a safe environment in which they can work out their issues. Much like a recovery meeting.

Sadly, this perspective doesn’t seem to be shared. To some, we are offering a handout instead of a hand up. I am moved to pray the lyrics to Brandon Heath’s song, Give Me Your Eyes,

“All those people going somewhere,
Why have I never cared?

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see”

I can then follow up with Leeland and Brandon Heath’s Follow You,

“Faith without works is dead
On the cross your blood was shed
So how could we not give it away so freely?”

I only pray others may see the world in the same way.

Won’t Somebody Think of the Children, Again!

Frank

I’ve been down this road before regarding ‘Octomom’ and touched on it with the Gosselins, but there is a steep price to pay by our children in the pursuit of our own celebrity. This scripture bears repeating:

It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. -Luke 17:2

In the past week you were probably glued to your TV when you heard about “balloon boy”. As a parent, my heart ached thinking of a 6 year-old 7000 feet in the air, all alone. In case you’ve been living under a rock, it turns out the whole thing was a hoax. Sadly, the 6 year-old is caught in the middle of it all, spilling the beans (literally and figuratively) on the whole thing on national TV. You know you’re putting your kid under too much pressure when he throws up on camera. Sadly, kids are put through the ringer all the time for the sake of ‘reality TV’. Jon and Kate, I’m looking at you.

But that’s not the only forum where children are the victims of their parent’s pride and selfishness. Unfaithfulness not only tears marriages apart, but tears the children apart also. This is no more evident than the recent case of ESPN’s Steve Phillips. His affair with an “assistant” led her to confront his wife and his son via Facebook in what the media is comparing to “Fatal Attraction”. In Phillips’ statement to the police he said, “I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself.” If he cared so much for his kids, he should’ve kept it in his pants. Sorry to be so blunt, but this is his second known affair. The first cost him his job as GM of the Mets. This one is going to cost him his wife. I don’t know what will happen with his kids after the divorce, but one thing to be sure of, there will be cameras rolling when that decision is made.

Won’t Somebody Think of the Children, Again!

Frank

I’ve been down this road before regarding ‘Octomom’ and touched on it with the Gosselins, but there is a steep price to pay by our children in the pursuit of our own celebrity. This scripture bears repeating:

It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. -Luke 17:2

In the past week you were probably glued to your TV when you heard about “balloon boy”. As a parent, my heart ached thinking of a 6 year-old 7000 feet in the air, all alone. In case you’ve been living under a rock, it turns out the whole thing was a hoax. Sadly, the 6 year-old is caught in the middle of it all, spilling the beans (literally and figuratively) on the whole thing on national TV. You know you’re putting your kid under too much pressure when he throws up on camera. Sadly, kids are put through the ringer all the time for the sake of ‘reality TV’. Jon and Kate, I’m looking at you.

But that’s not the only forum where children are the victims of their parent’s pride and selfishness. Unfaithfulness not only tears marriages apart, but tears the children apart also. This is no more evident than the recent case of ESPN’s Steve Phillips. His affair with an “assistant” led her to confront his wife and his son via Facebook in what the media is comparing to “Fatal Attraction”. In Phillips’ statement to the police he said, “I have extreme concerns about the health and safety of my kids and myself.” If he cared so much for his kids, he should’ve kept it in his pants. Sorry to be so blunt, but this is his second known affair. The first cost him his job as GM of the Mets. This one is going to cost him his wife. I don’t know what will happen with his kids after the divorce, but one thing to be sure of, there will be cameras rolling when that decision is made.

Leap of Faith

Frank

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. -Hebrews 11:1

I know the theme of this blog carnival is ‘trust’, but I can’t think of trust without thinking about faith. Faith is more than just believing ‘in’, it also includes believing ‘on’ (or unto, for you King James fans). The former is intellectual, the second results in action. It’s like believing in Santa Claus- you may believe he lives at the North Pole and keeps a list (and is checking it twice!), but you trust that if you’re good he’ll bring you lots of presents.

Unfortunately, for many our faith in God is like our children’s faith in Santa Claus. We behave a certain way ‘trusting’ that we’ll get something good in return. Even though “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), what is ‘good’ for God isn’t necessarily good for us. After all, Jesus still suffered and died, but we insist that was good.

So we have to trust when whatever we’re going through, God is in control. Easier said than done.

“As they were walking along the road, a man said to [Jesus], ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’

Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’

He said to another man, ‘Follow me.‘

But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’

Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’

Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’

Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.‘” (Luke 9:57-62)

Interestingly, right after this passage in Matthew 8, we are told the story of Jesus’ disciples being afraid while caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. What was Jesus doing at the time? Sleeping. After they woke him up, his response was simple, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26)

Nowhere is trust and faith more evident than in the addiction ministry in which I serve. The biggest challenge for any addict is to resign control and trust in God. (In AA, the first 3 steps are based on this truth.) Recently we told one young man that he needed to make a very specific, and challenging, lifestyle change. He balked at the suggestion. Instead of beating him over his head with ‘why’, we simply encouraged him to go home and pray about it. Reminding him that God knows what he needs better than he does or we do.

The brother who leads that ministry likes to use his own personal example. Before he became a disciple of Jesus and committed to carrying his cross daily, he was afraid of the implications of such trust. (In fact, this was when he was struggling with the third step in AA.) He thought, “If I commit to God, he’ll send me someplace like China and I don’t want to go to China.” A few years later, he was in China to adopt his daughter. He says, “not only did I want to go, I was praying to get there sooner!”

Who knows where our next step will take us? Who knows what God has in store? But that’s trust. Stepping out on trust requires a leap of faith.

Leap of Faith

Frank

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. -Hebrews 11:1

I know the theme of this blog carnival is ‘trust’, but I can’t think of trust without thinking about faith. Faith is more than just believing ‘in’, it also includes believing ‘on’ (or unto, for you King James fans). The former is intellectual, the second results in action. It’s like believing in Santa Claus- you may believe he lives at the North Pole and keeps a list (and is checking it twice!), but you trust that if you’re good he’ll bring you lots of presents.

Unfortunately, for many our faith in God is like our children’s faith in Santa Claus. We behave a certain way ‘trusting’ that we’ll get something good in return. Even though “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), what is ‘good’ for God isn’t necessarily good for us. After all, Jesus still suffered and died, but we insist that was good.

So we have to trust when whatever we’re going through, God is in control. Easier said than done.

“As they were walking along the road, a man said to [Jesus], ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’

Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’

He said to another man, ‘Follow me.‘

But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’

Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’

Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’

Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.‘” (Luke 9:57-62)

Interestingly, right after this passage in Matthew 8, we are told the story of Jesus’ disciples being afraid while caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. What was Jesus doing at the time? Sleeping. After they woke him up, his response was simple, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26)

Nowhere is trust and faith more evident than in the addiction ministry in which I serve. The biggest challenge for any addict is to resign control and trust in God. (In AA, the first 3 steps are based on this truth.) Recently we told one young man that he needed to make a very specific, and challenging, lifestyle change. He balked at the suggestion. Instead of beating him over his head with ‘why’, we simply encouraged him to go home and pray about it. Reminding him that God knows what he needs better than he does or we do.

The brother who leads that ministry likes to use his own personal example. Before he became a disciple of Jesus and committed to carrying his cross daily, he was afraid of the implications of such trust. (In fact, this was when he was struggling with the third step in AA.) He thought, “If I commit to God, he’ll send me someplace like China and I don’t want to go to China.” A few years later, he was in China to adopt his daughter. He says, “not only did I want to go, I was praying to get there sooner!”

Who knows where our next step will take us? Who knows what God has in store? But that’s trust. Stepping out on trust requires a leap of faith.

Harassed and Helpless

Frank

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35-36)

Harassed and helpless is how the Gospel of Matthew describes the crowds, and thus describes us the same. You could replace that with going to ‘Hell in a hand basket’ for another alliteration that describes us pretty well. No doubt the news is depressing. Maybe it’s becoming more so, or the instant access to information that the Internet and 24-hour news brings more of the worst to light. But as has been true for two thousand years, our world acts as sheep without a shepherd.

There’s been a string of tragedies that show just how helpless we are without Jesus. You’ve no doubt heard about the student at Yale who was killed by a ‘control freak’, or the honor student in Chicago that was killed for only being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But those headlines were followed by a case at UCLA similar to that at Yale, and a group lighting a teen on fire because he stopped some other kids from stealing his dad’s bike. Fortunately in the last two cases, the victim survived.

I wrote before about ‘hate crimes’ and how really any crime can be a hate crime, regardless of race or sexual orientation. In context of Jesus’ teachings, hate and anger equate to murder, even if that act isn’t carried out. It’s easy to look at the above crimes as hate-filled, but that won’t qualify them as ‘hate crimes’.

Maybe we’re wrong to focus on hate. I’ve heard this before, but Chrystie’s post in response to Peter’s blog carnival reminded me that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. The way I remember hearing it before is that the opposite of love is apathy. Maybe there should be ‘apathy crimes’ legislation?

I say this because most crimes like those above are completely indifferent to the victim. The motive of the accused range from emotional impulse to territorialism/tribalism. At either extreme is a disregard for the sanctity of human life. Pope John Paul II often preached on overcoming the “Culture of death” with a “Culture of Life”. Often that message was narrowed down to abortion and euthanasia. But it extends further to crimes against our fellow man and acts such as abortion and euthanasia are only symptoms of the culture. Why would we bring a child into this world if we can’t afford him or if she would be an inconvenience? Obviously that shows a lack of value of life. Why shouldn’t I kill this woman because she turned me down or why shouldn’t I light this kid on fire because he kept me from taking what I want? Again, the same attitude in the heart.

So what do we do? We need to view the world through Jesus’ eyes and see all life as being sacred. No possession, emotion, or political issue is worth another’s life. All of us are just sheep. Let’s keep from slaughtering each other.