Perspective: How to Truly Keep Christ in Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Wayside!

How to Truly Keep Christ in Christmas

Scripture:

I was hungry and you gave Me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed Me. I was naked and you gave Me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of Me. I was in prison and you visited Me.

I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you have done it for Me.

Matthew 25:35-36,40 (CEB)

You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.

1 Corinthians 12:27 (CEB)

Where are you Christmas?
Why can't I find you?
Why have you gone away?
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me?
Why can't I hear music play?

From "Where Are You Christmas?" by Faith Hill

Christmas means many things to many people. For many, it means celebrating the birth of their Savior in a manger under very adverse circumstances. For many, it means sitting down at the dinner table to share a feast with their loved ones. For many, it means gathering around the Christmas tree to give and to receive gifts. For many, it means decorating the house, setting up nativity scenes, and hanging up stockings. For many, particularly children, it means writing letters to Santa. For many, it means crowded malls and traffic jams. For many, it means that their radio stations of choice will play nothing but Christmas music for nearly six weeks.

In the last few years, Christmas has become a time of "righteous" anger for a lot of Christians. Many are outraged that people who work at retailers and restaurants are ceasing to say "Merry Christmas!" and are instead offering a more generic "Happy Holidays!" Many are angered by the fact that some people choose to write the holiday "Xmas."¹ In both ways, they feel as though Christ, whom they consider to be "the Reason for the Season," is being left out of Christmas.

Though I am a Christian, I do not think it is a big deal if someone wishes me "Happy Holidays" or if someone gives me an "Xmas" card. What bothers me more is the fact that so many professing Christians are getting so wrapped up in arguments over such matters. I feel that by focusing on such things at Christmas, we miss out on something a lot more important. I believe that there is much more to "keeping Christ in Christmas" than simply making sure that the word Christ is somewhere in everyone's greetings.

Christmas is first and foremost a celebration of the Incarnation, the belief that nearly two thousand years ago, the Son of God left the glory of Heaven behind to take on frail human flesh and bone here on Earth. In Jesus Christ, God reached out to a fallen humanity right where it was. Christ lived, died, and was resurrected so that we might be reconciled to God and to each other.

I believe that experiencing the Incarnate Christ here and now is infinitely more important than what anyone chooses to call Christmas. I believe that one of the best ways to experience the Incarnate Christ at Christmas or at any time of the year is through acts of kindness and love.

Jesus, in one of His last teachings before He was crucified, said that, when He returns, He will say to the kind and the loving, "I was hungry and you gave Me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed Me. I was naked and you gave Me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of Me. I was in prison and you visited Me." When they wonder when they ever did those things for Christ, He will say, "I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you have done it for Me."²

Jesus is saying that, whenever we do something to help someone in need, we are essentially doing it for Him. Mother Teresa devoted her life to serving the poor, the sick, and the dying in Calcutta, India. In an interview with Time, she said, "The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved - they are Jesus in disguise."³

St. Paul, in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, said that the Church is the Body of Christ and that each follower of Jesus Christ is an individual part of the Body.⁴ This means that collectively, the followers of Christ are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the work of Christ here on earth. Each of us has been called by Christ to carry on the ministry He began so long ago.

Though Christ physically ascended to Heaven nearly two thousand years ago, the teachings of Christ and the teachings of Paul remind us that the Incarnate Christ is still among us in the people all around us. Someone who does an act of kindness for another person experiences the Incarnate Christ in that person, as Christ said that whatever someone does for "the least of these" is done for Him. A recipient of an act of kindness experiences the Incarnate Christ because the person who does the act of kindness is acting as the hands and feet of Christ.

If you truly want to keep Christ in Christmas, don't argue with people about how they choose to greet each other this season or about how they choose to write Christmas. Instead, remember the teachings of Christ and seek to embody them in your own life. Take your place in the Body of Christ, and do your part to carry on Christ's ministry. This Christmas I challenge you to reach out and show the Incarnate Christ to somebody who needs to see Him, and I also challenge you to see the Incarnate Christ in that very same person.


Notes:
1 - The letter X is similar in form to the Greek letter chi. Chi is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. It has been used as a symbol for Christ for centuries.
2 - Matthew 25:31-46
3 - Edward Desmond. "Interview with Mother Teresa: A Pencil In the Hand Of God." Time, December 4, 1989.
4 - 1 Corinthians 12:12-31


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Perspective: Sacrificial Love

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

Sacrificial Love

Scripture:

So the LORD God put the human into a deep and heavy sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh over it. With the rib taken from the human, the LORD God fashioned a woman and brought her to the human being. The human said,

"This one finally is bone from my bones
and flesh from my flesh.
She will be called a woman
because from a man she was taken."

This is the reason that a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife, and they become one flesh.

Genesis 2:21-24 (CEB)

To lead them with strong hands
To stand up when they can't
Don't want to leave them hungry for love
Chasing things that I could give up

I'll show them I'm willing to fight
And give them the best of my life
So we can call this our home
Lead me 'cause I can't do this alone

From "Lead Me" by Sanctus Real

Not too long ago, a very popular person in the media, after a heavily publicized wedding, decided to file for divorce from her husband after less than three months of marriage. The reason she gave was "irreconcilable differences." I don't like judgmental people, and I try not to be judgmental myself, but, given the brevity of the marriage, I cannot help but think that she did not try very hard to reconcile her differences with her husband.

According to data from the Center for Disease Control, each year from 2007 to 2009, given the number of people in the United States who got married, almost half as many people got divorced.¹ I wonder if people, by and large, have lost sight of what marriage is all about. Monkish as I am, I must acknowledge that I am by no means qualified to write about marriage. Still, I feel as though I have some insights to share.

St. Paul, in the fifth chapter in the letter to the Ephesians, writes that "wives should submit to their husbands as if to the Lord."² To husbands, he says, "Love your wives just like Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her."³ Many times, this particular passage of Scripture is used by church leaders - usually male ones - to subjugate women by basically giving husbands lordship over their wives. I don't believe that this is at all what Paul intended. If you read earlier in the passage you will see that Paul is using the marital relationship as an example of how followers of Christ are called to "submit to each other out of respect for Christ."⁴

I am sure that women have heard enough about how wives are supposed to submit to their husbands, so I want to focus more so on what it means for husbands to love their wives "just like Christ loved the church." How exactly did Christ love the church? What does this kind of love look like?

Christ said that He "didn’t come to be served but rather to serve."⁵

Christ knelt down and washed His disciples' feet.⁶

Christ, as He awaited the time of His own execution, sweat blood while He prayed that He would not have to face the cross. At the same time He prayed to God, "Not My will but Your will must be done."⁷

Christ was arrested, mocked, beaten, stripped naked, and nailed on a cross to die.⁸

Jesus Christ was the Son of God, so glory, honor, and power were rightfully His. Instead He put all of that aside and Humbled himself, becoming a servant.⁹ He did things that were not becoming to a deity, such as washing dirty feet and touching diseased lepers. Christ did not want to face the cross, but was willing to go through a living hell for the sake of a fallen humanity. This is how Christ loved the church!

It is truly ironic that people try to use Paul's words to subjugate women, when Paul is actually calling husbands to a level of submissiveness greater than that to which he calls their wives. A wife is called to submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ, but, if the husband is really called to love his wife as Christ loves the church, he is called to submit to her to the extent of dying on a cross for her! The submission that Paul calls for in a marriage is mutual. Paul is calling for husbands and wives to surrender their wills to each other; he is not calling for husbands to impose their wills on their wives.¹⁰

Before I go further, I want to state that submission within marriage has nothing to do with becoming a doormat or allowing oneself to be abused in any way. Abuse of any kind is harmful not only to the abused but to the abuser as well.

In recent years, popular culture has stressed the importance of compromise in a marriage. In the sitcom Home Improvement, for example, when the lead characters Tim and Jill have a clash of wills, they end up giving up part of what they want in order to reach an agreement with each other. Compromise is a good thing, but I don't think it necessarily goes far enough. Compromise is still concerned with one getting what one wants, if not completely, then partially. What if a compromise is simply not possible? I think that what is key in a marriage is not compromise, but sacrifice.

O. Henry illustrates sacrificial love within marriage beautifully in his Christmas story "The Gift of the Magi." In this story, Della has very little money with which to buy her husband Jim a Christmas present, so she decides to sell her long, beautiful hair to a wig maker. She then goes on to buy him a platinum chain for his prized gold watch. Little does she know that Jim has sold his watch, a family heirloom, to buy her adornments for her long hair.

Both Della and Jim give up things that were important to them so that they can give Christmas gifts to each other, and, because of their sacrifices, neither of them can use the gifts they receive. At the end of the story, O. Henry notes, "Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest." The true gift they give that Christmas is in the selfless, sacrificial love that they show for each other.

I feel as though the spirit of self-sacrifice as shown in "The Gift of the Magi" has become rare in our individualistic society. Life is not always about getting we want or what we think we deserve, and I think that this is especially true in regards to marriage. Sometimes it is necessary, for love's sake, to put aside what one wants in order to do what is right for one's beloved. Both husbands and wives must put aside their own desires for the sake of the family as a whole. This is what it means for husbands and wives to submit to each other as followers of Jesus Christ.

I think that the lack of sacrificial love in our society stems partially from the fact that people often think of love as a "warm, fuzzy feeling." I believe that, though love can be felt, love is not itself a feeling. C.S. Lewis notes that a married couple is "one flesh" regardless of whether or not they are happily married.¹¹ Feelings come and go, but true love never dies. Furthermore, if you are basing a marriage or any relationship on how you feel, then the relationship is, by nature, selfish. The relationship is not about giving of yourself to the other person but about giving yourself an emotional high. True love is selfless: it is less concerned with receiving and more concerned with giving. Love is not a "warm, fuzzy feeling." In fact, true self-sacrificial love can even be painful at times.

Christ did not want to face the cross, but He loved His bride, the church, so much that he was willing to go through heartache, humiliation, pain, and even death for her. If we are to truly follow in Christ's footsteps then we must realize that life is not about getting what we want, and we must realize that love is sacrificial. In the words of St. Paul:
Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.¹²


Notes:
1 - http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_25.pdf
2 - Ephesians 5:22 (CEB)
3 - Ephesians 5:25 (CEB)
4 - Ephesians 5:21 (CEB)
5 - Matthew 20:28 (CEB)
6 - John 13:3-4
7 - Luke 22:39-44 (CEB quoted)
8 - Matthew 26:47-27:56, Mark 14:43-15:41, Luke 22:47-23:49, John 18:1-19:30
9 - Philippians 2:6-8
10 - Rob Bell. Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality. 2007, Zondervan. Chapter 6: "Worth Dying For."
11 - C.S. Lewis. The Screwtape Letters. Letter 18, paragraph 6.
12 - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (CEB)


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Introspection: Homecoming

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


Homecoming

Scripture:

Don't remember the prior things;
don't ponder ancient history.
Look! I'm doing a new thing;
now it sprouts up;
don't you recognize it?

Isaiah 43:18-19a (CEB)

We've seen our share of ups and downs
Oh, how quickly life can turn around
In an instant
It feels so good to reunite
Within yourself and within your mind
Let's find peace there

From "My Sacrifice" by Creed

Last month, while enjoying a long walk at one of my favorite places, I began to notice, for the first time this autumn, the colors of the changing leaves. The glorious blend of green, red, and orange reminded me of something I might have seen on the old PBS show The Joy of Painting, starring Bob Ross. If an artist were to paint the tree I saw, perhaps she would begin by painting the trunk and the branches. Next, she might paint the leaves with splashes of green. Last, she might apply highlights of red and orange to represent the changing colors.

I began to wonder if God works in a similar way. Maybe the changing of the seasons marks the times when God gets His paints back out. Perhaps spring is the time when God paints the green leaves on the trees, and perhaps autumn is the time when God highlights the trees with the beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows we enjoy every year. At the very beginning of the Bible, it is said that God created the world in six days. Of course, when God stopped to rest on the seventh day, He didn't put His paints away for good. I believe that God continues to create and to re-create in every moment of every day.

Perhaps the very essence of change is something that God "painted" into His creation from the very beginning. From the changing leaves we enjoy every autumn to the supernovas that occur light-years away from our planet to the electrons that orbit the nucleus of an atom, all of God's creation is in a constant state of change. Of course, human beings and human lives are no exceptions. It has even been said that the only constant in life is change.

During autumn of last year, I was contemplating a very painful but very necessary change in my own life. At that time, I was still a regular part of my college faith community even though I had graduated over three years earlier. Because I was in a very different situation from the students, I was beginning to feel more and more as though I didn't belong. One year ago, when I realized that I could no longer be a part of my college community to the extent I wished to be, I knew that the time had come for a change. My mother had told me about a young-adult Bible study group at a large church downtown, so I finally decided that it was time to "put away childish things" and to visit the group.¹ The good people in the group immediately welcomed me with open arms and made me feel at home.

The months passed, and I began to have conflicting feelings about both my college community and my new Bible study group. Sometimes I thought about all the good experiences I had with my old community and began to long for those times. Other times I thought about how disconnected I had become with the people from that community and became resentful, wondering if I ever even belonged there at all. There were also times I compared my new community to my old community and became discouraged, particularly in regards to the shortage of other "single" people in the group.

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend homecoming at my alma mater, and that week I feel as though God taught me a number of lessons about life and the changes it brings.

A number of people in my Bible study group play for the church's softball team. That Thursday, I decided that it was high-time that I went to a softball game to cheer my friends on as they played, especially since it was the last game of the season. That night, I had the pleasure of cheering for my friends from the dugout, and I was invited to join them for dinner afterward. It was a blessing to draw closer to my new community.

Friday night, I went to the homecoming carnival, as I do every year. Instead of riding the rides and playing the games, I typically walk back and forth looking for people I know. What made this year unique is that, though I saw people from my old community, I actually spend more time with people from my new community. I also ran into someone I know from my current job and had a rather long conversation with her and her husband.²

Saturday morning, I joined some of my friends from my college community for breakfast. Afterward, I headed over to the university to visit the Biology, Mathematics, and Computer Science departments.³ Next I went to the tailgate held by my previous community where I reconnected with fellow alumni and with friends who are current students. Instead of watching the football game, I went with some others for a walk around the campus. That night a bunch of us went downtown for dinner and dessert.

In the events of those three days, I feel as though God was addressing the feelings I had been experiencing. In the time I spent with my friends from my new community, I feel as though God was telling me, "Don't long for your past, because your present is good." In the time I spent with my friends from my old community, I feel as though God was saying, "Don't resent your past either, because your past was also good." In the time I spent with my old friends and in the conversations I had with them, I feel as though God was reminding me that some things, like true friendships, I will always have with me.

Typically we tend to divide time into three parts: the past, the present, and the future. The truth is that only one of these truly exists. The past does not exist any more. The only parts of the past that remain are the parts that we carry with us in the present, things like memories. The future does not exist yet. Furthermore, the future is amorphous: we do not know what shape the future will actually take. All that truly exists for us is the present, more specifically, this instant. As a gambler said in the movie 21, "Yesterday's history; tomorrow's a mystery. It's all what you do in the moment, baby."

Sometimes we fear change and try to hold on to the past for dear life. Sometimes we even try to re-create the past in the present. Living in the past, though, costs us the here and now. If we refuse to let go of the past, we sacrifice the blessings God wants to give us in the present.

Though sometimes we need to let go of the things of the past in order to embrace the present, it is important that we do not forsake the past. Sometimes, as we journey on the road of life, we get a chance to stop at the wayside to look back on where we have been. Sometimes life even gives us opportunities to retrace our steps at times like homecoming. These times allow us to remember how God blessed us in the past and to remember the things that have made us who we are today. This is the purpose of holidays. The Jewish people, for example, celebrate Passover to remember that God delivered their ancestors from slavery, guided them through the wilderness, and led them into the Promised Land.

Are you holding on to the past too tightly? Remember the blessings of the past, and be thankful for them. Just don't try to live in the past. If you do, you do so at the expense of the blessings that God wants to give you in the here and now. Remember what God told the people of Israel: "I know the plans I have in mind for you... they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope."⁴


Notes:
1 - I am not calling my former community childish, rather my attachment to it.
2 - Incidentally, her husband was a professor I knew from my job when I was in college.
3 - In college, I worked in the Biology department for more than two years and got to know the Biology faculty and staff. Though I never took a biology class, I was considered an honorary biology student. I studied Computer Science and, to a lesser extent, mathematics.
4 - Jeremiah 29:11 (CEB)

The picture featured in this introspection was taken by me at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Perspective: Blessed

Adapted from a Sunday School lesson delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church in West Greenville, South Carolina on October 30, 2011.

I recently listened to a series of sermons about the Beatitudes, from Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan from late 2009. This series changed the way I looked at the Beatitudes, so I decided to share the things I learned with my Sunday School class. Here and now I share these things with you, the reader. Contributors to the series are Rob Bell, Robert Sirico, Ed Dobson, and Kent Dobson. The Mars Hill Bible Church podcast can be found here.¹

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


Blessed

Scripture:

When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. Then He began to speak, and taught them, saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Matthew 5:1-12 (NRSV)

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus

From "Cry Out to Jesus" by Third Day

At the beginning of Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount is a series of blessings commonly called the Beatitudes. Often we read the Beatitudes as a series of states to attain if we want to receive God's blessing. While it is true that some of these blessings are indeed calls to change, most of them describe situations in which we simply would not want to find ourselves. For example, while we should seek to be merciful and pure of heart, we would not want to mourn or to be persecuted. A number of the Beatitudes are simply announcements of God's blessing.

Often we fall into the trap of believing that the good people, the happy people, or the successful people are the ones whom God has blessed. The Beatitudes break us from this line of thinking. According to commentator Frederick Dale Bruner, "First and literally, the Beatitudes are Jesus' surprisingly counter-cultural God-bless-yous to people in God-awful situations."² The Beatitudes are Jesus' announcements that, as Rob Bell would say, "God is on your side!"

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

The poor in spirit are people who are spiritually impoverished, or, as some might say, morally bankrupt. The first blessing runs contrary to the common belief that God favors good people. Jesus said that "the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."³ It has been said that lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for. In Christ, God came to earth to fight for the lost causes, the people on whom the world had already given up. In the parables, God is portrayed as a woman who turns her house upside down to find a lost coin,⁴ a shepherd who leaves behind ninety-nine well-behaved sheep to find the one that got lost,⁵ a gardener who would not give up on a tree until he gave it every chance to bear fruit,⁶ and a father who celebrates the return of his wayward, immoral son.⁷ The first blessing reminds us that Christ meets us where we are, even in our sin and moral bankruptcy and invites us into the Kingdom of God.⁸

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

I would wager that every person has been touched by suffering. This world is full of injustice, violence, and sadness, so life gives us many opportunities for mourning. It was a common misconception in Jesus' time that suffering was a sign of God's disfavor. The Disciples once asked Jesus regarding a blind man, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"⁹ I think that sometimes we fall for the same misconception in our time. Jesus, in his ministry, healed the ailing, cleansed the lepers who had been rejected by society, and even raised the dead. The second blessing reminds us that there is room in the Christian life for tears and that Christ meets us in our suffering to offer us hope and comfort.¹⁰

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

This world operates by the law of "the survival of the fittest." When we look at the world around us, it often appears that the most aggressive and the most ruthless are the people who succeed. The meek whom Jesus declares blessed in the third Beatitude include the weak, the powerless, the quiet, and the timid. They are the ones who are ignored, silenced, forgotten, or swept under the rug. They are the ones who are trampled under the feet of those who make it to the top. They are the ones who are not even aggressive enough to get their own fair share in the world.

Someday, God will reign on earth as in Heaven. God does not operate by the law of "the survival of the fittest." The world to come will not operate as the world does now. Things like greed and aggression will be done away with, and people will no longer step on each other to get ahead. The third blessing reminds us that, though the meek may be forgotten and pushed aside now, they will inherit their place in the Kingdom of God.¹¹

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Many think of the people who "hunger and thirst for righteousness" as people who seek to be righteous with all their being. This is a good quality to have, but do not forget the true nature of hunger and thirst. Hunger is what we feel when our stomachs are empty. Thirst is what we feel when we are dehydrated. Hunger and thirst are the painful feelings we experience when we are lacking something essential, namely food or water. If someone truly hungers and thirsts for righteousness, then he or she must be, by definition, without righteousness. This blessing is for the people who experience a lack of righteousness in their own lives. This blessing is also for the people who experience a painful lack of righteousness in a world full of injustice and violence.

St. Paul wrote a great deal about the grace God extends to us in our need for righteousness. In his letter to the Romans, he wrote, "God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us."¹² To the Corinthians, he wrote, "For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."¹³ The fourth blessing reminds us that Christ offers transforming grace to those who experience such a lack of righteousness that they ache for it.¹⁴

At this point in the Beatitudes, there is a transition. The first four blessings describe how Christ interacts with us in our own brokenness, but the last four deal with how we interact with others in a broken world.¹⁵

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

The fifth Beatitude is only one instance in Scripture that links the mercy we receive from God to the mercy we extend to others. Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." He goes on to say, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."¹⁶

William Barclay defines mercy, "to get inside someone's skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings" and "to move in and act on behalf of those who are hurting." A good example of someone who was merciful is the Good Samaritan, who helped the battered Jewish man, a man who would have normally been his enemy, when the man's two priestly, Jewish brethren would not.¹⁷ The fifth blessing calls us to be merciful to other people just as God has shown us mercy.¹⁸

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

In our world, we often fall into the tendency to put on a spiritual act for other people; the sixth Beatitude, however, reminds us that true purity or impurity is found, not in what we show on the outside, but in our hearts. On one occasion, Jesus is criticized because His disciples do not wash their hands before eating. To this, Jesus replies, "For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile."¹⁹ Another time, He tells the Pharisees, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean."²⁰ The first step to for us to become pure of heart is to admit to ourselves and to others our own impurity of heart. The sixth blessing calls us to be pure, not just on the outside, but on the inside.²¹

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

In the seventh blessing, Jesus indicates that pursuing peace is a characteristic of being a child of God. Jesus makes this link in a similar way later in this sermon, saying, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven."²² Often we do not share this ideal, for our tendency as humans is to split ourselves into opposing opposing groups. We end up with an "us-verses-them" mentality, and often Christians can be the worst about this.

God does not operate in this way. As I noted earlier, Paul points out that, in Christ, God reached out to us while we were still sinners. Paul goes to far to say that we were enemies of God, but God still reached out to us in love.²³ As followers of Christ, this is how we should seek to relate to each other. When we follow Christ, we put aside the differences that divide us from each other and seek reconciliation with each other. The seventh blessing reminds us to seek peaceful relationships with each other just as our Father in Heaven sought to bring us back into a peaceful relationship with Him.²⁴

Rob Bell points out that there is a beautiful progression to the Beatitudes. The first four Beatitudes show us that Christ extends grace to us, meeting us in our spiritual poverty, in our mourning, in our meekness, and in our need for His righteousness. When Christ touches our lives like this, we are transformed by God's grace. We begin to relate to others differently as highlighted by the next three Beatitudes. We become merciful to others as Christ was merciful to us; we become more pure of heart and more genuine in our love for others; and we no longer take sides against each other but instead try to bridge the gaps between us. This brings us to the last of the Beatitudes.²⁵

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

When we are transformed by God's grace, we seek to do God's will on earth as it is done in Heaven. The last blessings point out that we will be met with resistance. There are many who will refuse to give up the ways of greed and violence and who see the ways of Christ as a threat. It is from such people that we can expect to face resistance for following Christ. I believe that this is part of what it means to take up our crosses and follow Christ. Christ Himself was executed on a cross by those who saw His message as a threat to their ways and to their place in society. According to commentator Eduard Schweizer, this blessing "extols not the strong, who, to the admiration of all, heroically defend their faith, but those who are defamed and go down to ignominious [or shameful] defeat."²⁶

Notice that Christ says regarding both the poor in spirit and the persecuted that "theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." The final blessings bring us full circle. The persecution we face for doing what is right brings us to a lowly, powerless state not unlike the one in which Christ first met us. The final blessings remind us that Christ continues to meet us where we are and that we are not alone in our struggles.²⁷

Wherever you are right now, whether you are spiritually poor, mourning, meek, or desperate for righteousness, may you know that God's blessing is upon you. May you accept God's transforming grace to become more merciful, more pure of heart, and more of an agent of peace. May you know that God is with you, even if you feel as though everyone else is against you.


Notes:
1 - This particular sermon series is no longer available on the podcast, but it can still be purchased here.
2 - Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew, a Commentary: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12. 2004, Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 165
3 - Luke 19:10 (NRSV)
4 - Luke 15:8-10
5 - Matthew 18:12-14 or Luke 15:3-7
6 - Luke 13:6-9
7 - Luke 15:11-32
8 - Basis for this section: Rob Bell, "Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 09/13/09.
9 - John 9:2 (NRSV)
10 - Basis for this section: Robert Sirico, "Whistling Past the Graveyard." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 09/20/09.
11 - Basis for this section: Rob Bell, "Blessed Are the Meek." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 09/27/09.
12 - Romans 5:8 (NRSV)
13 - 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NRSV)
14 - Basis for this section: Rob Bell, "Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 10/04/09.
15 - The idea of a progression in the Beatitudes is a recurring theme in Rob Bell's sermons in the series.
16 - Matthew 6:12,14-15 (NRSV)
17 - Luke 10:25-37
18 - Basis for this section: Ed Dobson, "Blessed Are the Merciful." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 10/11/09.
19 - Matthew 15:19-20 (NRSV)
20 - Matthew 23:25-26 (NRSV)
21 - Basis for this section: Kent Dobson, "Blessed Are the Pure in Heart." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 10/18/09.
22 - Matthew 5:43-45a (NRSV)
23 - Romans 5:6-10
24 - Basis for this section: Rob Bell, "Blessed Are the Peacemakers." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 10/25/09.
25 - Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 10/25/09.
26 - Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew. 1975, Westminster John Knox Press. p. 96
27 - Basis for this section: Rob Bell, "Blessed Are the Persecuted." Mars Hill Bible Church podcast, 11/25/09.


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Sermon: Bigger than Taxes

Delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church in West Greenville, South Carolina on October 16, 2011.
I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

Bigger than Taxes

Scripture:

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Him in what He said. So they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for You do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what You think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting Me to the test, you hypocrites? Show Me the coin used for the tax." And they brought Him a denarius. Then He said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then He said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left Him and went away.

Matthew 22:15-22 (NRSV)

Who I thought I was
And who I thought I had to be
I had to give them both up
'Cause neither were willing to ever believe

I am not who I was
I am being remade
I am new
I am chosen and holy
And I'm dearly loved
I am new

From "I Am New" by Jason Gray

During the fall of 2004, I was a sophomore at Furman University. Incidentally, at that time I found myself enrolled in a political science class in the midst of the 2004 presidential election. The election gave my classmates and myself the opportunity to see in action the principles we had discussed in class. One major factor in that particular election was what people might call "wedge issues."

In a typical political election, there are two main candidates, both of whom are on opposite ends of a political continuum. By this, I mean that typically one candidate is a Democrat while the other is a Republican. One is liberal, and one is conservative. The problem for many people is that they do not find themselves on either end of the political spectrum but rather somewhere in the middle. Perhaps these moderates agree with conservatives on some issues and with liberals on others issues. To gain the votes of these "swing voters," politicians will employ wedge issues. A wedge issue is a subject about which almost everyone has strong feelings one way or another. Some popular examples are abortion and gay marriage. These issues effectively "wedge" moderate voters to one side or the other.

Jesus, throughout His ministry, never failed to rub the Pharisees the wrong way: He ate with the wrong people; He didn't follow all of the rules they followed; and His subversive message about the Kingdom of God was drawing people away from the stringent legalism they preached. They started asking Jesus loaded questions in the hopes of tripping Him up. Jesus, ever keen to their malice, would either flat-out refuse to answer their question or give them answer that left them scratching their heads. Desperate, the Pharisees sought out help from unlikely allies, namely the supporters of King Herod, and attempted to trap Jesus in a wedge issue of the day.

One day, some Pharisees along with some of Herod's supporters confront Jesus. First they try to butter Him up, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for You do not regard people with partiality." After that they go in for the kill, asking Him, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" The Pharisees' plan is perfect. If Jesus says that it is wrong to pay taxes to Rome, He will find Himself in trouble with the Roman Empire which was occupying Israel and with Herod whom the empire had allowed to act as king of Israel. On the other hand, if Jesus says that it is right to pay taxes to the Caesar, He will find himself in hot water with the people of Israel, particularly those who oppose the Roman Empire.¹ One way or the other, He is in serious trouble.

Of course, Jesus is wise to the tactics of the Pharisees. He sees past their flattery and their seemingly innocent inquiry to the malice they harbor in their hearts. He calls them out for their animosity, saying, "Why are you putting Me to the test, you hypocrites?" He then demands, "Show Me the coin used for the tax." When someone hands Him a coin, He asks, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" Someone answers that it is the emperor's, and Jesus says "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." The dumbstruck Pharisees and supporters of King Herod walk away astonished.

Jesus' answer was a far cry from the simple "yes" or "no" that the Pharisees wanted to hear. Furthermore, He did not specify what rightfully belonged to the Caesar. And why did Jesus bring giving to God into the answer? All the Pharisees and Herodians wanted to know was whether or not Jesus thought it was right to pay taxes to Rome.

If you would indulge me for a few minutes, I would like to put this story into a more familiar context.

* * *

It's a sunny day downtown, and Jesus and His disciples are walking down Main Street. As they near the park, they notice a large political rally. The conservative Tea Party movement had organized the event because of the new tax bill that is before Congress. Just across the street, they notice a second gathering. Apparently, people of a more liberal political persuasion caught wind of the Tea Party's rally have come together for their own rally. Tensions are high as opposing chants and shouts fill the air over an array of signs and "Don't Tread on Me" flags.

A short distance away from the fray, people who have broken away from both gatherings are having a very heated discussion about whether or not the tax bill is actually fair. One from this group, a man who identifies himself as a conservative, notices Jesus and the Disciples and says, "Look, there's Jesus! Let's ask Him whether or not the bill is fair. He'll tell us that it's wrong for the government to overburden the hard-working American people!"

Another from the group, a woman who identifies herself as a liberal, says, "That shows how little you know! If the government has to cut spending, you know that the programs that help those in need will be the first to be cut. Have you never listened to Jesus when He speaks? He wants us to help the poor!"

With that, the group walks toward Jesus and the Disciples. One debater speaks up and says, "Jesus we have a question for you. Is the new tax bill fair or not?"

Jesus looks each person from the group in the eyes and says, "Would someone please hand me a dollar bill?" One man from the group pulls out his wallet and hands Jesus a bill. Jesus takes the dollar, holds it out in front of Him, and says, "Whose portrait is in the middle of this bill?"

"Washington!" one answered.

Jesus then says, "Give to Washington whatever belongs to Washington, and give to God whatever belongs to God." Jesus returns the dollar bill to its owner, and He and His disciples go on their way. The small group of debaters is left speechless.

* * *

You will notice that I did not change Jesus' actions or response, because I believe that Jesus would have said and done the same thing in either situation.

As human beings, we have a tendency to segregate ourselves into diametrically opposed groups. In Jesus' time and culture, the divisions were between Israel and Rome, and between Jews and Samaritans. In our time, the divisions are numerous.

Democrats and Republicans

Conservatives and liberals

Upper class and lower class

Black people and white people

Catholics and Protestants

Methodists and Baptists

Christians and atheists

Jews and Muslims

Tigers and Gamecocks²

Us and Them

We take sides, and we use such divisions to label ourselves and to label each other. Worse yet, we put up barriers between ourselves and those who do not share our particular point of view.

Sadly, a Christian who decides takes one side over the other will often try to force Christ into his or her particular side. One day, my friend Sam was browsing the religion section of a bookstore where he saw a book titled Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America. His problem with the book's title was that it implied that liberals were opposed to God, so God was on the side of the conservatives.³ Not too long afterward, I went to a bookstore and happened upon the very same book that my friend had mentioned. Not too far away from it, I spotted another book titled Jesus Was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All. At the time of the 2004 election, at least one clergy member told people that if they voted a certain way then they needed to go to confession and repent.


When the Pharisees confronted Jesus with the question about paying taxes, they were basically trying to do the same thing: they were trying to force Jesus to take one side or the other. The conflict was already there, and the battle lines had been drawn long before that day. They were essentially saying, "Whose side are You on, Jesus? Are You one of us, or are You one of them? You can't be both. So, what will it be?"

I think that Jesus made a powerful statement in the way He chose His disciples.⁴ One of the Disciples was a man named Simon. This was not Simon Peter, but another Simon whom Scripture identifies as a Zealot. In Jesus' time, the Zealots were Jewish people who sought to drive the Roman Empire out of Israel by means of a violent uprising.⁵ Simon was what one might call a terrorist - or a patriot, depending on one's particular viewpoint. Another Disciple was a man named Matthew who, by contrast, worked for the Roman Empire as a tax collector. Tax collectors were despised in Jesus' time, just as the IRS is despised in our time.

Matthew and Simon were two people who normally would not have associated with each other were they not both called to be Jesus' disciples. To Matthew, people like Simon were a violent threat to people like him who associated with Rome. To Simon, people like Matthew were sell-outs, traitors to God's chosen people. If we put things in modern political terms, it could be said that one disciple favored small government and low taxes and that the other disciple favored big government and high taxes. Essentially, both the political right and the political left were represented among Jesus disciples. Dinner conversations between these two must have been just delightful. I am sure that, more than once, Jesus had to say, "Alright, boys, settle down."

Simon opposed the Roman Empire with a raised fist, but Matthew depended on the Roman Empire for his livelihood. Simon and Matthew had taken sides that were so opposed to each other that, in our typical black-and-white thinking, both could not have been right at the same time. Never once, though, is it recorded that Jesus ever said to these men that one side was right and that the other was wrong. Jesus simply said to both men, "Follow Me."

God is bigger than our prejudices, bigger than our opinions, bigger than our divisions, bigger than our politics, and bigger than our doctrinal differences. St. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, wrote, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."⁶ When we accept Christ's invitation to follow Him, the things that we once let separate us fade away as we are united by one Lord and Savior. The labels we once placed on ourselves and on each other are forgotten as we take on our new names - Children of God and Disciples of Christ. Both Simon and Matthew left everything behind including their former labels when they accepted the call to follow Jesus.

Soon after Christ ascended to heaven, God called the apostle Peter to minister to a man named Cornelius. Cornelius was a Gentile, so normally a Jewish man like Peter would not have associated with him. Furthermore, Cornelius was a centurion, a leader in the Roman military, so Peter would have most likely regarded him as the enemy. When the two met, Peter realized that the Holy Spirit had brought them together and that God was calling both Jews and Gentiles to be the Church, to be the body of Christ.⁷


When the Pharisees asked Jesus whether or not it was right to pay taxes to the Roman Empire, Jesus' answer left something to be desired. Though Jesus said to give to the government what belongs to the government, He did not say what rightfully belongs to the government. I wonder if Jesus was telling the Pharisees that they were asking the wrong question in the first place. Obsession with political matters or with money could be a sign of misplaced priorities or anxiety about the future. Such things indicate a lack of trust in God.

Christ teaches us not to worry about the future but to trust in God. In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."⁸ Christ taught us not to worry about or daily needs but to pray for our "daily bread," as we do at church every Sunday. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, reminds us that no human leaders or rules would have any authority if it were not allowed by God.⁹ Ultimately, God is in control; therefore, we should not be anxious about how much money we have or about who is in office.

Jesus said to give "to the emperor the things that are the emperor's," but He follows this up by saying to give "to God the things that are God's." Not only does He leave us wrestling with the question of what rightfully belongs to the government, He also gives us a second question to ponder: what belongs to God? C.S. Lewis, in his work The Screwtape Letters, points out that God wants us to be less concerned about what happens to us and more concerned about what we do.¹⁰ If the question about taxes was the wrong question to ask, then maybe this second question is what Jesus really wants us to consider.

I am not going to attempt to tell you specifically what God is calling us to give, because the answer is different for each of us, and the answer may be different from day to day. Many Christians give to God by giving a tenth of their income - a tithe - to the church. It is important for us to be generous with our money, but each of us has something to offer that goes beyond money. Christ taught us that when we do something for someone in need, we are giving to God.¹¹ As followers of Christ, we each have spiritual gifts that have been entrusted to us by the Holy Spirit. We each have talents and abilities that we can share. We can give of our time. We can offer someone a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, or a word of encouragement. We can offer our prayers.

Give to the government what belongs to the government. Pay your taxes. Do your civic duties. Try to vote for leaders who will make the best decisions, taking all matters into consideration, not just the wedge issues. Most importantly, pray for the elected leaders. Don't condemn the people who disagree with you, for Christ invites both sides to come to the table with Him. Remember that God is bigger than our differences, bigger than our opinions, and bigger than the issues faced by the world. Give to God what belongs to God. Never cease to ask yourself what God is calling you to give each day.

There is no longer black or white. There is no longer upper class or lower class. There is no longer liberal or conservative. There is no longer us and them, for we have all been called to one purpose in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.


Notes:
1 - Wesley Study Bible. 2009, Abingdon Press. p. 1193.
2 - This is the big sports rivalry in my area. I'm sure there's one in your neck of the woods.
3 - Sam Hunley. Static Truth: "What if God Was a Democrat?"
4 - Matthew 10:1-4
5 - Wikipedia: "Zealotry"
6 - Galatians 3:28 (NRSV)
7 - Acts 10
8 - Matthew 6:25,32-33 (NRSV)
9 - Romans 13:1
10 - C.S. Lewis. The Screwtape Letters. Letter 6, paragraph 1.
11 - Matthew 25


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Sermon: A Crisis of Calling

Delivered on October 16, 2011 to complete a lay speaking course.
I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

A Crisis of Calling

Scripture:

Come to Him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:4-5,9-10 (NRSV)

What's going on inside of me?
I despise my own behavior
This only serves to confirm my suspicions
That I'm still a man in need of a Savior

I wanna be in the light as You are in the light
I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens
Oh, Lord be my light, and be my salvation
'Cause all I want is to be in the light

From "In the Light" by dc Talk

While I was a junior at Furman University, I took a series of courses on the German language. One day the professor asked each of us what we wanted to do with our lives. When my turn came, I asked her for the German word for computer programmer. As she told me that the word was Computerprogrammierer, something inside me asked, "Is that really what you want to do with you life?" I was not passionate about computer programming, but I understood it, and I knew that it was a career in which I could make money.

In the spring of 2007, I graduated with a bachelors degree in computer science. For the summer, I had a part time job at the university, but employment afterward was still uncertain. On top of that, I had a mountain of student loans to repay. It turns out that I didn't have to do much searching at all. During the summer, I received a call from a woman trying to fill a computer engineering position at a small company in town. After an interview and a few follow-up meetings, I was offered the job. I had an uneasy feeling about the company, but I needed a job, and I figured that to receive a job opportunity out of the blue must have been, in some way, a gift from God. I reluctantly accepted the job offer.

What I have not told you about this job is that it was in the gambling industry. My job was to write code for video poker machines and for slot machines. I had never really thought about the morality of gambling before that time, but from day one I was self-conscious about working in that particular industry. The United Methodist Church takes a stance against gambling, and I wondered what my friends or the people at church would think. Still, the money was good, and the job gave me the opportunity to quickly repay my student loans.

Almost one year after I had accepted the job, I realized that the company wanted more from me than I was willing to give, especially to that particular industry. I wanted out, but other potential employers might not hire me if I simply quit, and I wasn't sure if another programming job would have been any better. I didn't know what to do, so I began to pray for God to call me out of this job and to lead me to something that was better for me.

At that time, I had what I have called a "crisis of calling," a time when I began to rethink what God was calling me to do with my life. When I was in college I did not seek out my passion or my calling. Instead, I opted for something that would pay the bills. I began to feel as though I had simply floated through life, like a jellyfish floats through the ocean until it is stranded on the beach to die.

I was feeling a lot of what could only be described as despair. Every weekday morning, I lay in bed praying for God to slow down time, to prolong the time before I had to get out of bed and go to work. One morning before work, I thought about my misery and found myself wishing that I could help ease the misery of others. Another time, I remembered a moment years before when I thought to myself that I didn't want to become a minster because of the higher standard to which ministers are held. I didn't want to have to be a role model.

It was then that I began to wonder if my true calling was in was in ordained ministry. After all, if I had made an excuse not to do it, then the thought must have already been in my head. I knew that this was not a choice to take lightly, so I began testing the waters at my home church. I preached a few times, and I began teaching Sunday school.

Months past, and my prayers were finally answered. The company for which I worked consolidated offices and moved operations out of state. Because I was unwilling to relocate, I was laid off. I was still not sure if ordained ministry was truly my calling, so I began searching for another job in computer programming. This time, though, I was a little more intentional about my job search. I began sending applications and resumes to colleges and universities in the area. If I was unable to find a job in higher learning, I would seek employment within the hospital system. I wanted a job where I could use my skills for the benefit for my fellow human beings. Three months after I was let go from my job, I began my next job as a computer programmer at Greenville Technical College.

Since then, I have realized that my job in the gambling industry was indeed a gift from God - in the same way that the big fish that swallowed Jonah was gift from God. It was my wake-up call. I learned that, if nothing else, my calling was to not simply float through life, but to take hold of my life and to do so something with it that will glorify God. I also learned that, regardless of whether or not I am an ordained minister, I am still called to a higher standard as a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that these things are true, not just for me, but for all of us.

It has been almost two years since I began my new job, and I am happy to say that I am not praying for God to lead me out of it. In the past few months, though, I have found myself stressed, irritable, depressed, angry, and all-around miserable, not with my job, but with life in general. Working through lay speaking school, I realized that I have forgotten my calling to glorify God with my life. I have let small frustrations, minor setbacks, and less than preferable circumstances overshadow my sense of purpose.

I have realized that my crisis of calling is not yet over. God called me out of job enabling people to waste their hard-earned money and into a job serving students and teachers. Now, God continues to call me out of a stagnant, desolate, miserable life and into a life of love and service.

Often, our tendency is to associate our calling with our careers. While our careers are certainly part of our calling, our calling lies not only in our nine-to-five jobs, but in the day-to-day aspects of our lives. St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthian church, wrote, "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God."¹ Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind," and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."² These are not nine-to-five commandments but 24-7 commandments.

St. Peter wrote that we have been called out of darkness and called into God's marvelous light to be a chosen people, a holy nation, and a royal priesthood. We have been called out of destructive patterns and out of a meaningless existence. We are called to live our lives a witness to Christ. We are called to a life full of love and service both to God and to other people.

At this time, I am blessed with the opportunity to participate in a study of C.S. Lewis's work The Screwtape Letters. A recurring theme in this book is the intentionality essential to live a life of faith, as the demon Screwtape constantly advises his nephew Wormwood to divert his human subject's attention away from God. So often the temporal aspects of life distract us from our calling in Christ. Just as I had to learn the importance of being intentional in regards to my career, we all need to learn to be intentional in our day-to-day walk with Christ.

Theologian John Wesley offered us three simple rules for living. The first is to do no harm. The second is to do good. The third, to use Rueben Job's words, is to stay in love with God.³ Each of these three rules requires intentionality. First, we must be on guard against things within us that would cause us to be unkind, hurtful, or insensitive to other people. Second, we must actively seek ways to serve our neighbors. Third, we must be intentional about being in constant prayer, studying the Bible daily, and engaging in worship frequently, for these are the ways in which we stay in love with God and in which we keep our lives centered on God.

In the Gospels there are numerous instances of Jesus saying to people, "Follow Me." Christ offers us the same invitation to follow Him day by day. Christ said that He "came that [we] may have life and have it abundantly."⁴ This is a life free from shame and free from the destructive tendencies that weigh down our hearts. This is a life full of purpose and meaning. Christ offers to lead us to this abundant life if we will only follow Him.

Amen.


Notes:
1 - 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NRSV)
2 - Matthew 22:37,39 (NRSV)
3 - For more about John Wesley's rules for living, see Rueben Job's book Three Simple Rules. (2007, Abingdon Press)
4 - John 10:10 (NRSV)


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Perspective: Two Paths

Developed from a Sunday School lesson delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church in West Greenville, South Carolina on September 11, 2011.¹

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

Two Paths

Scripture:

Your word is a lamp before my feet
and a light for my journey.

Psalm 119:105 (CEB)

Forgive me now 'cause I have been unfaithful
Don't ask me why 'cause I don't know
So many times I've tried but was unable
This heart belongs to You alone

Now I'm in our secret place
Alone in Your embrace
Where all my wrongs have been erased
You have forgiven

From "Forgiven" by Skillet

At the very beginning of the Bible is story about the first two human beings, Adam and Eve. In this story God gives them the beautiful Garden of Eden to tend and to enjoy. God also gives them a choice. In the middle of the garden are two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If Adam and Eve eat the fruit from the Tree of Life, they will live forever. On the other hand, if they eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge as God has forbidden them, they will gain an understanding of evil.

Adam and Eve choose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and they end up paying dearly for it. God drives them out of the Garden of Eden, and, because they are denied access to the Tree of Life, they will eventually die. Worse yet, their actions expose not only humanity, but the whole world to evil.²

Toward the middle of the Bible is a book of wisdom called Proverbs. Common themes in this book are the difference between the ways of the wise and the ways of the foolish and the difference between righteous people and wicked people. The Book of Proverbs consistently shows us that the ways of the good, the wise, and the just lead to prosperity, while the ways of the wicked, the foolish, and the corrupt lead to ruin. Consider the following examples:

Those who do right
are saved by their righteousness,
but the untrustworthy
are caught by their own desires.³

A slanderer walks around
revealing secrets,
but a trustworthy person
keeps a confidence.⁴

The lazy have strong desires
but receive nothing;
the appetite of the diligent
is satisfied.⁵

Poverty and shame come to those
who don’t care about instruction;
honor belongs to those
who heed correction.⁶

Later in the Bible, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Go in through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to destruction is broad and the road wide, so many people enter through it. But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few people find it."⁷

Throughout Scripture, we are taught that there is more than one way to live - that there is more than one path through this life. We are also taught that it is up to us to choose which path we will take through life. It has been said, "We make our choices, and then our choices make us." The path a person chooses to follow will, in turn, shape the person he or she will become. Some paths are wise and other paths are foolish. Some paths are life-affirming, and other paths are destructive. Some paths lead us to God, and other paths lead us away from God.

It is my belief that God wants only what is best for all of us and nothing else. Because of this, we can always trust in God to lead us on the path we should follow if we will only take His hand and follow Him. We can trust God to show us the path that will shape us into the people He truly created us to be.

Unfortunately, we all have weaknesses that burden us, and we all have demons that haunt us. As the old adage goes, "Nobody's perfect." Jesus wasn't kidding when He said that the path to life is difficult. It seems as though no matter how hard we try to follow the path on which God is leading us, there are things that trip us up and lead us astray. Time and time again - perhaps on a daily basis - we stumble on the path that leads to life and veer into the path that leads to destruction. Years ago, I heard a prayer that illustrates this point well:
So far today, I've done all right. I haven't gossiped. I haven't lost my temper. I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or overindulgent. I'm very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed; and from then on, I'm probably going to need a lot more help.⁸

It is important to remember that even if we lose our way and end up on a destructive path, we do not have to stay on this path forever. We can always turn around and return to the path of life.

Jesus, on the evening before He was executed, ate supper with His disciples. That evening, He broke some bread and gave it to His disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you." He also gave His disciples a cup of wine, saying, "This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you." Jesus asked His disciples to break bread together and to share a cup of wine together to remember Him.⁹

I think that one reason that Jesus wants us to share the bread and the wine is because this act helps to bring us back to the path of life to which God has called us. Every so often, churches will observe this very act, commonly known as Holy Communion. Typically churches observe it once every month or once every quarter of a year; however, theologian John Wesley recommended that people share in Holy Communion at least once every week. I think that Wesley realized that we constantly stumble and deviate from the path of life.

In my church, at the beginning of the Holy Communion service, we confess that we have not been obedient to God and that we have not loved God and other people as we should have. Throughout the Communion service we are reminded that by God's grace we are forgiven for our failures. When we share the bread and the wine, we remember that Christ's body was broken and that Christ's blood was shed that we might be reconciled to God. By confessing our shortcomings and by experiencing God's grace anew, we return to the path that leads to life.

Of course we don't have to wait for a Holy Communion service to realign ourselves with God: this is something we should do every day. One way to align ourselves with God and with the path to life is studying the Scriptures. To the Israelite leader Joshua, God said, "Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."¹⁰ On the same subject, one ancient poet wrote:

How can young people
keep their paths pure?
By guarding them
according to what You’ve said.
I have sought You with all my heart.
Don’t let me stray
from any of Your commandments!
I keep Your word close, in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against You.¹¹

Another way to align ourselves with God is through prayer. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus promises that if we ask God for guidance, we will receive it. He says, "Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door is opened."¹² St. Paul found prayer so important that he encouraged one church to "pray continually."¹³

Two paths lie before you: one path that leads to life and another path that leads to ruin. May you choose the path that leads to life, and may God bless you on it. If you have strayed from this path and ended up on the path to ruin, may you realize that it is not too late to turn around and return to the path where God is leading you. May you realize that God is always there to lead you as you journey through this life.



Notes:
1 - The original basis for the Sunday School lesson was:
Simon Peter Iredale. "From Generation to Generation", Adult Bible Studies Fall 2010. Cokesbury. pp. 13-19
This perspective is developed from elements I added to the original lesson.
2 - For the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, see Genesis 2-3.
3 - Proverbs 11:6 (CEB)
4 - Proverbs 11:13 (CEB)
5 - Proverbs 13:4 (CEB)
6 - Proverbs 13:18 (CEB)
7 - Matthew 7:13-14 (CEB)
8 - http://www.oneliners-and-proverbs.com/engels/D_d.html
9 - For one account of the Last Supper, see Luke 22:14-20. (CEB quoted)
10 - Joshua 1:8 (TNIV)
11 - Psalm 119:9-11 (CEB)
12 - Matthew 7:7-8 (CEB)
13 - 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (CEB)

The photograph featured in this perspective was taken by me at Table Rock State Park in Pickens, South Carolina.


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