Perspective: Do You Want to Believe?

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

Do You Want to Believe?

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to Him, "Are You the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"  Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them."

Matthew 11:2-5 (NRSV)

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

From "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath

I am starting to believe, more and more, that an encounter with God requires an open mind.  Sadly, open-mindedness is not always regarded as a virtue within religious circles.  In fact, Christians are generally encouraged to defend the faith and to fortify themselves against anything and everything that might challenge or stretch their beliefs.  Some even criticize open-minded people, saying things like, "Some people are so open minded, their brains are going to fall out!"

As I noted in my previous blog post, Jesus didn't always get along with the religious leaders of His day.  One day, a group of religious leaders approached Him and demanded a sign from Him, some proof that He was who He said He was.  Jesus rather harshly replied, "An evil and unfaithful generation searches for a sign."¹  Later on, another group of religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign from Heaven, and He remarked that, even though they could look at he sky and predict what the weather would be like in the next few hours, they couldn't see the signs that were all around them.  Again He said, "An evil and unfaithful generation searches for a sign."²

Did the religious leaders' requests for a sign really come from a search for the truth, or were they actually challenging Jesus?

Not long before Jesus began His public ministry, there was another traveling teacher and prophet, a rather eccentric man named John.  John traveled throughout the region, calling people to repentance, and he invited people to engage in a ritual cleansing - a baptism - as an outward sign of their repentance.³  As I have written elsewhere, the Greek word translated into English as repentance is metanoia, which describes a change of mind, particularly one that results in a change of behavior.⁴  John was asking people to change the way they think about things.

John always spoke of One greater than he who would succeed him.  When John was born, his father prophesied that he would be the one to prepare the way for the Messiah, the long-awaited leader sent by God to bring freedom to Israel.⁵  John was described, in the words of the ancient prophet Isaiah, as "A voice crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight.'"  Perhaps John fulfilled this prophecy and prepared the way for the Messiah by calling people to open their minds and to change the way they think.

John believed that Jesus was the Messiah.  When Jesus entered the scene, He had no interest in maintaining the status quo or in telling people what they already believed.  Shortly after Jesus was born, an elderly man named Simeon prophesied that Jesus would be the cause of the rising and falling of many people.⁶  More than once, Jesus stated that in the Kingdom of God - the Kingdom He came to usher in - the last would be first and the first would be last.⁷  Needless to say, following a leader so committed to such radical change would require an open mind.

Like John, many people came to believe that Jesus was their long-awaited messiah.  The religious leaders, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with such a notion.  Their demand for proof came not from a desire to believe but from a resistance to believe.  The religious leaders were so hard-hearted and stubborn that one day, when Jesus performed a miracle, they attributed His miracle to the devil.⁸

I think that, for the most part, people believe what they want to believe.  Peter Rollins makes the observation that people don't usually form their beliefs based on the evidence and arguments presented to them.  Instead, people typically seek out evidence and arguments to justify and reinforce the beliefs they already have.  This process is called rationalization.⁹  People who want to believe in something don't need a reason to believe, they just believe.  As Jesus points out, anyone who actually wanted a sign that He was the Messiah could have easily found one.  The religious leaders, on the other hand, continued to demand a sign because they simply didn't want to believe in Him.  People who want to think they have it all figured it out generally aren't inclined to be open-minded.

The religious leaders didn't believe that God's work of Salvation had come through Jesus because He didn't meet their expectations for the Messiah, nor did He even meet their expectations for a good Jew.  They were expecting a mighty warrior King who would drive the Roman Empire out of Israel.  Jesus, by contrast, was a wandering teacher who had some crazy ideas, associated with the riff-raff of society, and didn't follow the religious rules quite as carefully as some people would have preferred.

I don't believe that Jesus' harsh criticisms for people who wanted a sign were directed toward people who were struggling to believe but rather toward people who flat-out refused to believe.  As prophets are wont to do, John drew the ire of the powers that be, and, as a consequence, he was incarcerated.  As he sat in jail, his own faith in Jesus began to falter, and he sent some of his associates to ask Jesus whether or not He actually was the Messiah.  Jesus said to them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them."  Jesus basically said to John what He would later say to the religious leaders: the signs were there if he wanted to believe.

In the same way that people who lived in Israel two thousand years ago needed to have an open mind to see God at work in Jesus Christ, we need to have an open mind if we want to see God at work in our day and time, for so often God does not conform to our expectations.  Rachel Held Evans, in her memoir Evolving in Monkey Town, writes,
The longer our lists of rules and regulations, the more likely it is that God Himself will break one.  The more committed we are to certain theological absolutes, the more likely we are to discount the work of the Spirit when it doesn't conform to our presuppositions.  When we cling to our beliefs as children cling to their favorite toys, it is hard for Jesus to take us by the hand and lead us somewhere new.¹⁰

I have come to believe that, wherever we look, God is hidden in plain sight.  Seeing is believing, and if you want to see God, simply open your eyes and look around.  St. Paul writes, "Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."¹¹  Perhaps Paul offers this exhortation because it is in such things that we can see God in the world.  If we're closed-minded, we run the risk of missing God, but, if we open our hearts and minds, perhaps we'll experience God in ways we wouldn't expect.


Notes:

1. Matthew 12:38-39 (CEB)
2. Matthew 16:1-4 I(CEB)
3. See Matthew 1:12 and Luke 3:1-17.
4. Wikipedia: Metanoia (Theology)
5. Luke 1:61-80
6. Luke 2:34
7. See Matthew 19:16-30 and Matthew 20:1-16.
8. See Matthew 12:22-32.
9. Peter Rollins.  Insurrection: To Believe is Human, To Doubt, Divine.  2011, Howard Books.  p. 10-11
10. Rachel Held Evans.  Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions.  2010, Zondervan.  p. 154
11. Philippians 4:8 (NRSV)

The photograph featured in this perspective was taken by Wikimedia user Saperaud and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Introspection: A Heavy Load to Bear

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

A Heavy Load to Bear

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.  They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.  They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.  They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.  But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.  And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father - the one in heaven.  Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.  The greatest among you will be your servant.  All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Matthew 23:2-12 (NRSV)

I focused on the score

But I could never win

Trying to ignore

A life of hiding my sin

 

To label me

A hypocrite would be

Only scratching the surface

Of who I've been known to be

From "Undo" by Rush of Fools

Don't you hate it when you read a passage or a story from the Bible and realize that you have more in common with the supposed "bad guys" than you do with the "good guys"?

Time and time again, Jesus butted heads with the religious elite of His day, especially the Pharisees, a group of Jewish people who dedicated their lives to following their religious Law and to teaching the Law to other people.  Not long after Jesus rode into Jerusalem as if in a royal procession and made a scene at the temple,¹ the Pharisees and other religious groups began hammering Him with loaded questions, trying to collect enough ammunition to bring Him down.²  Fed up, Jesus issued forth a series of scathing critiques directed toward the Pharisees and the religious scholars.³

Though Jesus had a lot of criticisms for the Pharisees and the scholars, it is worth noting that His criticisms generally didn't involve their teachings.  He probably agreed with them on most issues.  In fact, Jesus even said that the people should follow their instructions because they "sit on Moses' seat."  Moses is the one who originally received the Law from God and taught it to the people, so, by saying that the Pharisees "sit on Moses' seat," Jesus is basically affirming them as teachers of the Law.

Jesus' conflict with the Pharisees and the religious scholars stemmed not from their teachings but rather from the fact that they did not follow their own teachings.  Jesus remarked, "They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them."  The Pharisees knew that the Jewish Law was extremely difficult to follow, but, instead of being honest about their own struggles, they faked it.  Over and over again, Jesus called them "hypocrites."  The word hypocrite is derived from the ancient Greek word hupokrites which means "actor."⁴

I believe that Jesus might have some similar critiques for modern-day Christians.  Like the Pharisees, Christians have a nasty tendency to place more importance on orthodoxy - right belief - than on orthopraxy - right behavior.  For example, one preacher can be judged and condemned as a "heretic" regardless of the kind of life he or she lives, while another supposedly more "orthodox" preacher can be lifted up as a man or woman of God despite being a generally contemptible person.⁵  Churchgoers who find themselves in disagreement with what their pastor teaches will leave their church and seek another one, and entire denominations have even split over matters of doctrine.

Can we Christians honestly say that we place such an importance on what the church actually does?

So often, Christians, myself included, are a lot more concerned about being right than doing right.  Simply being right doesn't make a person any better than anyone else.  It doesn't matter what we know if we don't put what we know into practice.

As someone who tries to pass along insights into the Christian life though Sunday school lessons, blog posts, and occasional sermons, I feel as though I, like the ancient Pharisees, place heavy loads on people's shoulders.  To use a pole-vaulting analogy I sometimes set the bar so high in my writings that I cannot clear it myself.  For example, not long ago, I delivered a sermon about how we would do well not to say, "Why bother?" yet, a few days ago, I found myself thinking these very words.  I like to remind people that all religious instructions boil down to two "simple" rules - love God, and love each other.  These two rules are easy to remember, but at times they can be damn near impossible to follow.  It's easy to preach, and it's easy to teach, but putting into practice what one preaches and teaches is an altogether different story.

When the Pharisees did practice what they preached, they did so for the sole purpose of impressing people.  For example, Jesus made the observation that they "make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long."  Phylacteries were little boxes attached to straps that Jewish people would wear on their arms or on their foreheads while praying.  Inside the box was a tiny scroll on which a Scripture passage was written.⁶  The fringes of which Jesus speaks were the tassels on the corners of a prayer shawl.  Both of these things were meant to remind the wearers of their duty to follow the Law.⁷  If Jesus wanted to make a similar observation about showy Christians in our day, He might say, "They wear T-shirts with Bible verses, and WWJD bracelets, and large shiny crosses on their necklaces."

Jesus remarked that the Pharisees, "love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them 'rabbi.'"  As someone who also finds himself preoccupied with his own self image, I must confess that I can relate to the Pharisees in this respect.  Last year, a friend of mine introduced me to several members of his church, saying that I was "a preacher."  Being called a "preacher" made me feel pretty good about myself, proud even.  I felt as if I had accomplished something I had set out to do.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, then you know that, a few years ago, while I was working at my previous job, I began to flirt with the possibility of going into the ministry.  Though I desired to do something more with my life than to write software for gambling machinery, looking back, I am beginning to think that some of my motives might not have been so pure.  I think that maybe I considered going into the ministry because, in the circles in which I was traveling at the time, that was what all the "cool kids" were doing.  I think that maybe I wanted to be someone special - to be part of the club, so to speak.  I'm only a little bit ashamed of this fact.  I have no regrets because I know that God was at work, for it was through the journey I started back then that I discovered my spiritual gifts.

To be perfectly honest, I have discovered that doing the things I started doing since that time - teaching Sunday school, delivering sermons, and publishing blog posts - can be an ego trip.  Hearing that I gave somebody "something to think about" always gives my pride a shot in the arm.  It does my ego good to stand at the pastor's podium, delivering a message to an entire congregation, and to stand in the church foyer afterward, shaking people's hands and hearing people tell me that I did a great job.

Though the Pharisees and the religious scholars liked to be called "rabbi," Jesus said that we should not call anyone "rabbi" or "instructor" because ultimately we have only one teacher, Christ Himself.  He then reminded the people that, in the Kingdom of God, the first will be last and the last will be first, as He had already said more than once.  This is not to say that nobody serves as a teacher in the Kingdom, but that to be a teacher is not to have a title of honor to flaunt but to have a responsibility to other people.

In the Kingdom of God, all of us are equal before God.  The fact that some of us have the audacity to try to teach spiritual truths to others doesn't make us experts in such matters.  Pastors, preachers, and Sunday school teachers put their pants on one leg at a time just like everybody else: they have the same struggles as everyone else.  The fact that the Pharisees put a heavy load on other people's shoulders was not the problem, for spiritual truths can be very difficult to bear.  The problem was that they made themselves appear to be more spiritual than they were, when they should have admitted their own struggles and tried to help others to bear the load.

I think that we all have a basic understanding of what is right and wrong, but, deep down, we all know that it can be difficult to do what is right.  I think that, like the Pharisees, we all have trouble practicing what we preach.  As Christians, we are all called to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and we call other people to do the same.  Following Christ is indeed a heavy load to bear.  We are not called to simply dump this load on each other's shoulders but to help each other carry the load.  We must be honest about our own struggles, willing to help others carry their loads, and humble enough to let others help carry ours.


Notes:

1. See Matthew 21:1-17.
2. See Matthew 21:23-27 and Matthew 22:15-40.
3. See Matthew 23:1-36.
4. Wiktionary: Hypocrite
5. Benjamin L. Corey makes such an observation about a number of high-profile preachers on the fourth episode of the podcast That God Show.
6. Wikipedia: Tefillin
7. See Deuteronomy 11:18 and Numbers 15:38-39.

Christian Reading in His Book was painted by William Blake.

Introspection: Not in Kansas Anymore

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

Not in Kansas Anymore

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Jeremiah 29:7,11 (NRSV)

My life has led me down the road that's so uncertain

Now I am left alone and I am broken

Trying to find my way

Trying to find the faith that's gone

From "Revelation" by Third Day

The year was 597 BC, ten years before the Babylonians razed the city of Jerusalem and burned down the Temple of the Lord.  It was a time of political turmoil for the Kingdom of Judah: King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon attacked Jerusalem, plundered the temple, and took a significant part of the population of Judah into captivity, including King Jeconiah.  Nebuchadnezzar then installed the king's uncle Zedekiah as a puppet ruler.¹  A few years later, a self-proclaimed prophet named Hananiah began claiming that the Jewish exiles in Babylon would be returned to Judah within two years.²  Hananiah was not a prophet but a liar: like far too many people in the world, he used his status as a supposed man of God to gain popularity for himself.

If the Jewish exiles in Babylon were under the impression that they would be returning to their homeland within a couple of years, then they would probably be tempted to put their lives on hold, circle the wagons, and bide their time until they got the chance to go home.

It's not such a bad plan for a people in exile - as long as they could be absolutely certain that their situation would soon return to normal.

But what if their situation didn't return to normal?

Still in Jerusalem, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the people in exile to let them know that things would not return to normal anytime soon and that they would be in Babylon a lot longer they thought, decades even.  He encouraged them not to put their lives on hold but instead to adapt to their current circumstances.  He told them to build lives for themselves in Babylon by building houses and planting gardens.  He told them to get married, to have children, and to help their children get married, in other words, to "be fruitful and multiply."  He told them to engage with the city where they found themselves and to seek the common good there, for their own welfare depended on it.³

If the Jewish exiles in Babylon did not follow Jeremiah's instructions, then they would have inevitably died out, and there would have been nobody to return home to Judah when Babylon did eventually fall.

According to Shane Hipps, exile is not merely a matter of location but rather a state of the heart.  Exile can be described as an experience of dislocation and disorientation.  Exile is a time when the things one thought to be true and certain no longer seem to hold up.  It is a time when what is normal in life is redefined.  Anyone who has ever lost a job, gone through a divorce, been forced to relocate, lost a loved one, gone through a major life change, or had any kind of traumatic experience knows what it is like to enter into exile.⁴

Exile is finding yourself a "stranger in a strange land," literally or figuratively speaking.

Exile is the realization that you are "not in Kansas anymore."

When you go through an experience of exile, you have two options, the same two options the Jewish exiles in Babylon had.  You can put your life on pause and wait for things to go back to normal, or you can adjust to your new surroundings.  You can wait for your circumstances to change, or you can change yourself.  If you opt for the former choice and sit back and wait for your life to go back to normal, then you run the risk that your life will pass you by as you wait for a day that will never come.

I have experienced exile a number of times in my life.  I experienced exile when, after nearly two decades of education, I was thrust into the 9-5 working world, working at a job I came to hate.  I experienced exile two years later when I lost that first job and began seeking another one, unsure that I even wanted to stay in my current field.  I experienced exile again when I realized I had outgrown my college faith community and needed to move on.  I experienced exile last year when I began to question things I once believed about myself.

If the desert of exile has taught me anything, it is that, as the old adage goes, "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger."⁵

The experience of exile can come in any number of shapes and sizes.  In fact, entire church congregations can go through times of exile.

My home congregation, Bethel United Methodist Church, was planted in 1895 by members of a large downtown church to minister to the people of a textile mill village in West Greenville, South Carolina.⁶  The church peaked in membership at over 400 members somewhere between the late 1950s and the early 1960s.  In 1967, the mill village was demolished, and, around this time, Bethel's membership and attendance began to decline.⁷  As the years passed, the community surrounding the church became very different from the community the church was founded to serve.

It could be said that Bethel UMC is church in exile.  Though the church has not changed its location, the church's location has changed around it.  Like many church congregations in exile, mine has been slow to realize the need to adjust to a changing culture.  I am hoping that the people of Bethel are starting to heed the prophetic word Jeremiah relayed to his own people in exile: the future of Bethel UMC is tied to the community around it, so we must be fruitful within the community.  The mill village is never coming back, but, if we are fruitful as a church in exile, we just might find ourselves at home in the community, and the people of the community just might find a home in Bethel.

Jeremiah offers a message of hope to anyone going through exile: "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."  I believe that God has a purpose and a plan for all of us, wherever we find ourselves, as long as we are open to it.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: Siege of Jerusalem (597 BC)
2. Jeremiah 28:1-4
3. Jeremiah 29:1-14
4. Shane Hipps.  "Clay Hearts."  Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast, 09/05/10.
5. Attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche
6. The church, at the time of its founding, was named Bethel Methodist Church.  The United Methodist Church was not established as a denomination until 1968.
7. http://scmillhills.com/mills/american-spinning/churches/

The photograph of Death Valley is public domain.