Perspective: Could You?

I do not expect you to agree with everything I write in this blog post, but I do hope that you will read it with an open mind and allow it to challenge you.

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

Comments are always welcomed.

Could You?

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; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

Matthew 5:43-45 (NRSV)

---

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2:12 (NRSV)

Promise me you'll try

To leave it all behind

'Cause I've elected Hell

Lying to myself

Why have I gone blind?

Live another life

From "You" by Breaking Benjamin

I've never been a fan of "hellfire-and-brimstone" preaching.  At a young age, I was taught that unless I took certain actions and believed certain things, I would suffer forever and ever and ever in the fires of Hell.  Maybe you have received such a message yourself.  Maybe someone has started a conversation with you by asking the question, "Are you certain that, if you died today, you would go to Heaven?"  Maybe you have been given a pamphlet telling you that you can be "saved" by (A)dmitting that you are a sinner, by (B)elieving that Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins, and by (C)onfessing your beliefs to others.  Maybe you have seen a crowd of Christians holding signs, warning unbelievers to "turn or burn."

This message frightened me at a very deep level when I was a child, and the fear has followed me into my adulthood.  This wasn't a message I ever wanted to share with other people.  I never wanted to instill in others the fear I felt, and I never wanted to use fear to coerce someone into believing in Jesus.  I still believe in Hell, but I don't believe in Hell in the same way that a lot of other Christians believe in Hell.¹

Adam Hamilton, in his book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, points out that "most of what Jesus says about Hell seems reserved for those who are religious."²  Maybe the people who most need to heed Jesus' warnings about Hell are not the people whom Christians are generally trying to convert but rather the Christians themselves.  Maybe the people who call themselves Christians are the ones who need to "turn or burn."  I am beginning to think that maybe Heaven and Hell should be discussed in a way that "comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable."

Jesus once told a story that still "disturbs the comfortable" to this day.

There was once a poor beggar named Lazarus who lived on the street near the house of a rich man.  The rich man lived a life of luxury, and, even though he had much more than he needed, he never did anything to help the poor man.  Over time, the rich man and Lazarus both die.  Lazarus is taken up to Heaven to stand at the side of Abraham, the revered ancestor of the Jewish people.  The rich man, on the other hand, descends into Hell, presumably because of his indifference toward people like Lazarus.

In agony, the formerly rich man calls out to Abraham saying, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames."

Abraham answers him, saying, "Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.  Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us."

The formerly rich man cries out to Abraham again, saying, "Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house - for I have five brothers - that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment."  He reasons that his brothers will believe someone who has come back from the dead.

Abraham replies, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."³

One often overlooked detail about this parable is the fact that, even in the fires of Hell, the rich man never changes.  He's hot and thirsty, so he wants Lazarus to drip water into his mouth.  He's worried that his brothers might suffer the same fate he has, so he wants Lazarus to warn them.  The rich man does not ask to go and get water for himself, nor does he ask for the chance to warn his family for himself.  Instead, he believes that Lazarus is the one who should be carrying out these tasks for him, proving that he still believes that he is superior to Lazarus.⁴  Notice that he doesn't even ask Lazarus directly; instead, he asks Abraham to send Lazarus out to run errands for him.

The rich man is dead; his money is gone; and he is suffering the consequences of the way he lived his life.  Still he has not let go of his decadent lifestyle, nor has he let go of his supposed place in society.  So I ask, is the "great chasm" that separates the rich man from Lazarus some boundary between Heaven and Hell, or is the chasm something within the rich man's heart?⁵  The great Christian thinker C.S. Lewis writes, "I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of Hell are locked on the inside."⁶

When Jesus began His public ministry, one of His first messages was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."⁷  The word translated into our English Bibles as "repent" or "repentance" is the Greek word metanoia, which means "a change of mind," particularly one that results in a change in a one's behavior and attitude.⁸  If we want to take part in the Kingdom of God then we need to change the way we think about ourselves, the way we think about our actions, the way we think about each other, and the way we think about the world around us.  We need to reconsider our actions or inactions that might directly or indirectly contribute to suffering in the world.

The rich man in Jesus' parable refused to change the way he thought about himself, Lazarus, and their places in the world.  He would not change during his lifetime, nor would he change in the afterlife.

Poet John Milton once mused, "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, [and] a Hell of Heaven."  One of my favorite stories beautifully demonstrates this concept and illuminates the need to change the way one thinks.  It is not a biblical story, but I cannot help but think that it contains a lot of truth.

There was once a man who had the chance to travel to both Heaven and Hell.  He traveled first to Hell where he saw tables covered with food; the people gathered around the tables, however, were skin and bones.  The man took a closer look at the people and noticed that wooden splints immobilized their arms.  Because they were unable to bend their elbows, they could not get any food to their mouths.  They were wasting away, unable to feed themselves.

The man then traveled to Heaven, where he saw a banquet just like the one he saw in Hell.  He noticed that the people of Heaven also had splints on their arms, but, unlike the people of Hell, they appeared healthy and happy.  The man watched the people closely to see why they fared better than the people in Hell.  He watched as one resident of Heaven reached across the table to feed the person across from her.  The people in Heaven realized that, though they were helpless to feed themselves, they could still feed each other.

The man then traveled back to Hell.  To one emaciated person, he said, "It doesn't have to be this way.  Feed the person across from you, and he will feed in return!"

The denizen of Hell barked back, "Why should I feed that lowlife?  I'd rather die!"⁹

In this story, there is only one difference between Heaven and Hell.  In Heaven, people are doing exactly what Jesus taught people to do: they have learned to love one another.  In Hell, people don't love each other.

Now I ask you, the reader, to take a moment to examine your own heart.

Imagine that you are sitting at a table at the otherworldly banquet described in this parable.  Could you feed the people around you?  You might think about the people in your family, the people at your church, or the people in your neighborhood and think, "Of course I could!"

Now imagine that you are sitting at the table surrounded by the people you hate the most.  If you don't think that you hate anyone or if you don't want to admit that you hate anyone, then imagine that you are surrounded by the people you dislike the most.

Maybe the people around you have a different color of skin than yours.

Maybe the people around you are people whom you consider sinful because of their sexuality.

Maybe the people around you practice a religion that is different from yours.

Maybe the people around you are bank CEOs, insurance adjusters, politicians, lawyers, fundamentalists, rich people, atheists, Democrats, Republicans, egotistical megachurch pastors, or undocumented immigrants.

Maybe the people around you are former friends or estranged family members who did you wrong in the past.

Imagine that you are sitting at the table, surrounded by those people, whoever those people are in your case.

Could you feed them?

Could you lift a spoon to their mouths?

Could you let them lift a spoon to your mouth?

If the answer is no, then you need to repent.

God knows that I do.

I wonder if some Christians believe what they believe about Hell because they don't want to spend eternity with the people they hate - because they think that those people are unworthy.  Nobody really knows what happens when we die, but there is a reason that Jesus places a great importance on love.  There is a reason that Jesus tells us to love our enemies.  There is a reason that Jesus urges us to forgive each other.  According to Parker Palmer, "True community might be defined as that place where the person we least want to live with always lives."¹⁰  I wonder if the same might be true about God's community.

C.S. Lewis, in his brilliant novel The Great Divorce, writes,
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done."  All that are in Hell, choose it.  Without that self-choice, there would be no Hell.  No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.  Those who seek find.  To those who knock it is opened.¹¹

I do not believe that God's goal is simply to "sift the wheat from the chaff" or to "separate the sheep from the goats."  I believe that God's goal is, in the words of St. Paul, "to reconcile to Himself all things."¹²  If we won't be reconciled to the rest of humanity, then we will be the ones missing out.  We will be the ones putting ourselves through Hell.


Notes:

1. I make my case for Hell in my perspective "The Gates of Hell."
2. Adam Hamilton.  Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics.  2008, Abingdon Press.  p. 116
3. Based on Luke 16:19-31 (NRSV)
4. Rob Bell.  Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.  2011, HarperOne.  pp. 74-76
5. ibid
6. C.S. Lewis.  The Problem of Pain. ch. 8
7. Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)
8. Wikipedia: Metanoia (Theology)
9. Wikipedia: Allegory of the Long Spoons
10. Parker Palmer.  "A Place Called Community."  Christian Century, March 16, 1977.
11. C.S. Lewis.  The Great Divorce. ch. 9
12. Colossians 1:20 (NRSV)

The photograph of the soup spoon was taken by Donovan Govan and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Introspection: God of the Valley

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

Comments are always welcomed.

God of the Valley

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

Psalm 139:7-8 (NKJV)

So let's go there

Let's make our escape

Come on, let's go there

Let's ask, "Can we stay?"

From "Higher" by Creed

Some of my happiest experiences during my college years and the years immediately afterward were the retreats I attended with the Wesley Fellowship, the United Methodist group at my alma mater.  These retreats gave me the opportunity to put aside the cares of my life and to simply enjoy some time with my friends.  On the last day of one retreat, right before we went home, my friend, the campus minister, read a particular story about Jesus.

One day, Jesus and three of His disciples hiked up a mountain to pray.  While Jesus was praying, He took on a heavenly appearance: His face changed, and His clothes turned brilliantly white.  Suddenly, Moses and Elijah, two important figures from Jewish history, appeared and started talking with Him.  It was a vision of Heaven.¹

Always the first to speak up, the disciple Peter made an odd suggestion.  He said, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  The Bible tells us that Peter was babbling because he was so awestruck by what he saw.  The campus minister suggested that perhaps what Peter was really trying to say was, "Let's all stay up here."  Perhaps Peter didn't want this brief intersection between Heaven and Earth to end.

It was a fitting passage to ponder at the end of a "mountaintop" experience like a retreat.

Sometimes we grow weary of the trials and tribulations life brings us, so we pursue a transcendent God - a God "up there," high above the world and the chaos that inhabits it.  We seek mountaintop experiences in order to connect with the God "up there."  Often churches work to facilitate such experiences through retreats and emotional worship services so that we might feel as though we are close to God.  Mountaintop experiences are wonderful, but the bad thing about them is the fact that they can be few and far between.  Furthermore, mountaintop feelings are unsustainable: inevitably we have to come down from the mountain and enter the valley.

On one Sunday evening, after I had returned home from a another retreat, I experienced a rather brutal comedown as I began to anticipate returning to work the next day at a job I hated.  I didn't hate my job when I first accepted it, but what began as a lingering shame for working in a corrupt industry had mutated into a hellish mixture of anxiety, belligerence, and despair that had all but taken over my life.²

One of the most well-known and cherished parts of the Bible is the Twenty-third Psalm, the poem that begins with those beloved words, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."  The psalmist David begins this psalm with imagery of "green pastures" and "still waters," but the psalm soon begins to take on a darker tone.  David writes, "Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for You are with me."  Some versions of the Bible refer to the "darkest valley" as "the valley of the shadow of death."  David then writes, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies."³

I have known this passage of Scripture ever since I was a child, but what strikes me about this psalm nowadays is the fact that David acknowledges God's presence with him in both the good times and in the bad times - on the mountaintops and in the valleys.  He knows that God will not shield him from the dark valleys of life.  He knows that God will not kill all of his enemies and eliminate all of his problems for him.  Still, David knows that God is with him in the midst of it all.  He knows that God's presence does not depend on his circumstances or his feelings.  He knows that God is with him whether he is walking by a peaceful stream or walking through a valley as dark as death itself.

David realizes that the God of the mountaintop is also the God of the valley.

If you attend a more traditional church, you might witness an acolyte bringing in a flame to light the candles at the front of the sanctuary at the beginning of the service.  The flame is a reminder that God is present in the midst of the worship service.  At the end of the service, the acolyte will extinguish the candles and take the flame out of the sanctuary.  This action reminds us that the presence of God is not confined to the church building and that God is leading us out of the safety of the sanctuary and back into the world.

Perhaps we cannot truly encounter God by constantly retreating to our proverbial mountaintops.  If our relationship with God depends on our feelings, then our faith is nothing but a house built on a foundation of sand.  Perhaps it is only when we confront and embrace the fullness of life's journey - both the mountaintops and the valleys - that we truly encounter God.  God is not "up there," far removed from the difficulties of life: God is "down here" with us in the midst of them.  So often, when we pray to God for help, we pray that God would take away the storms of our lives.  Perhaps we should instead pray for the strength to weather the storms.

I have faced a number of valleys in my life, and, had I known these valleys lay ahead of me, I probably would have taken a detour.  It is only when I look back on these times of trial that I realize that God was with me the whole time and that God was even bringing something good out of these trials.  Wherever you are right now, whether you are on a mountaintop or in a valley, I pray that you realize that God is with you, regardless of how you feel.


Notes:

1. Luke 6:28-36 (NRSV)
   The story of the Transfiguration can also be found at Matthew 17:1-8 and Mark 9:2-8.
2. What happened that evening is described in my early introspection "Praying Outward."
3. Quotations from Psalm 23 were taken from the New Revised Standard Version and the King James Version.  Italics were added for emphasis.

The image featured in this introspection is public domain.

Perspective: Shabbat, Smart Phones, and the Reason We Have Rules

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

Comments are always welcomed.

Shabbat, Smart Phones, and the Reason We Have Rules

One sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way His disciples began to pluck heads of grain.  The Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?"

Then He said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

Mark 2:23-24,27-28 (NRSV)

Have you been standing on your own feet too long?

Have you been looking for a place where you belong?

You can rest

You will find rest

From "Let It Fade" by Jeremy Camp

In Jesus' day, one of the most guarded and tightly-held parts of the Jewish faith was the commandment to observe the Shabbat, the Sabbath day.  According to the fourth of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath day was to be holy, or, in other words, "set apart."  The Jewish people were commanded to work diligently for six days out of the week but to set apart the seventh day solely for rest.¹  By Jesus' time, the religious scholars and the teachers of the law had developed a series of guidelines regarding when the Sabbath day started, what was considered work, and how far a person was allowed to walk on the Sabbath.  One sect held the observance of the Sabbath so stringently that they even refused to use the bathroom on the Sabbath.

Jesus butted heads with the religious establishment a number of times over this commandment.

The Israelites first received the Ten Commandments while the camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  Not long before this, they had endured backbreaking slavery in Egypt.  When Moses first demanded that the Pharaoh let the Israelites go, the Pharaoh responded in anger and increased their workload.  Though they were previously provided the materials to make bricks, Pharaoh demanded that they now gather their own materials and still produce the same number of bricks in one day.²  In Egypt, the Israelites lived not as human beings, but as machines.

In Egypt, the Pharaoh demanded more and more productivity from the Israelites, but at Mt. Sinai the Israelites met a God who demanded that they spend an entire day not producing anything.³  This day of rest is a gift from God, intended to protect people's humanity.  The Sabbath day provides a necessary balance between work and rest: six days for doing and one day for simply being.  The Shabbat became a vital part of the identity of the Jewish people.  Jewish thinker Ahad Ha'am once said, "More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews."⁴

Whether we are Jewish, Christian, or none of the above, I believe that it is still important that we set personal boundaries to maintain the balance between work and rest that the Sabbath day offers us, especially since the existing boundaries between our jobs and the rest of our lives have slowly eroded over time.

Imagine that you had a rough day at work and that, after you went home for the day, you decided to take a walk around your neighborhood to clear your head.  Now imagine that your boss called you while you were taking your walk.

A few decades ago, your boss would just have to catch you while you were at home.  In the 1980s, the answering machine became popular.  If you had an answering machine, your boss could leave you a message, and you could call him back as soon as you returned home from your walk and listened to his message.  Later on, the beeper became popular.  If you had a beeper, your boss could call your beeper number so that, while you were still on your walk, you would know that your boss was trying to contact you.  You could return your boss's call once you reached a payphone.

In the 1990s, more and more people purchased cellular phones.  If you had a cellular phone, your boss could actually reach you while you were still taking your walk.  The latest generation of cellular phones, often called smart phones, have productivity apps that allow you to send and receive emails, access your important digital files, and even log into your office computer remotely.  Not only could your boss reach you while you were taking a walk, you could also continue to work while you walk.

What will they think of next?

When I worked in the gambling industry, I witnessed firsthand what can happen when people do not maintain a healthy balance between work and the rest of their lives.  My boss and his wife lived on different continents because of their careers.  I saw another marriage fall apart, and I suspect that workaholism played no small part in its demise.  My supervisor regularly worked into the early morning hours, and for one stretch of time he was even required to work out of state week after week.  He once joked that he forgot what his children looked like.  I didn't find his joke very funny.

One day, Jesus and His disciples passed through a field of grain.  The Disciples were hungry, so they picked some grain to eat.  It just so happened to be the Sabbath day, and picking crops was defined by the religious scholars to be work and, therefore, forbidden to do on the Sabbath.  The religious leaders questioned Jesus about this, and He reminded them that one of their heroes, King David, broke religious rules because he and his friends were hungry.  He then said, "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath."⁵

On another Sabbath day, Jesus was speaking at a synagogue when He saw a man with a deformed hand.  Jesus was known for healing people with physical and mental problems, and works of healing were also forbidden on the Sabbath.  The religious leaders, who were already out to destroy Him, watched Him closely to see if He would heal the man.  Jesus asked them, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?"  He then healed the man's hand.⁶

On yet another Sabbath day, Jesus encountered a sick man, and, once again, the religious leaders were watching Him.  Jesus healed the man and asked his critics, "If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?"⁷

These stories show us that Jesus held the Sabbath day a bit more loosely than His contemporaries.  To better understand what He is teaching us through these stories, I think that we should take a step back and look at the purpose of rules in general.

Jesus once said that the two most important commandments in the Jewish Law are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" and to "love your neighbor as yourself."  He goes so far as to say that all other commandments are grounded in these two.⁸  In Selling Water by the River, Shane Hipps writes that these commandments to love are the lens through which Jesus views the entirety of the Scriptures."  Hipps goes on to say that love is like the keystone of an arch, for it holds together the structure that is the Scriptures.⁹

It is out of love that God gave us the Sabbath Day, and it is out of love that we respect each other's time of rest.  Jesus said that "the Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath."  I would go so far as to say that people were not created to keep rules but rather that rules were created to keep people.  Rules provide necessary boundaries that protect us; however, if we follow the rules too strictly, they can actually get in the way of love.  Sometimes, bending or breaking the rules might actually be the right thing to do.¹⁰  Consider what would have happened if Jesus had followed the Sabbath rules and regulations as closely as the religious leaders did: His disciples would have been forced to suffer the pangs of hunger, and a number of hurting people might have never experienced healing.

The purpose of the Sabbath day and of the Jewish Law in general is to uphold and protect the humanity of all people,¹¹ but the strictness of the religious leaders in Jesus' time made the Law a burden difficult for people to bear.  Though Jesus offers us freedom from the letter of the Law, we should not use this freedom to forget the spirit of the Law.  I don't think that Jesus would ever deny the importance of rest.  He did a lot of good things for people in his life, but He also sought times of solitude for prayer and renewal.  We should always seek to do what is right, regardless of what day it is, but we must not neglect the the fact that we all need rest.

If you are not currently taking a Sabbath day, I hope that you will consider incorporating a day of rest into your weekly routine.  Taking a day of rest requires intentionality.  It is important that you work diligently to complete your work in six days so that you can set apart the seventh day for rest.  It is also important that you be intentional about how you spend your day of rest so that you effectively recover from the week and renew yourself.  Remember that God gave us boundaries to protect us, but remember also that what God values most of all is love.


Notes:

1. Exodus 20:8-11
2. Exodus 5:1-18
3. Rob Bell and Don Golden.  Jesus Wants to Save Christians.  2008, Zondervan.  p. 191
4. Judith Shulevitz.  "Remember the Sabbath."  The Jewish Daily Forward, 04/09/2010.
5. Mark 2:23-28 (NRSV)
6. Luke 6:6-11 (NRSV)
7. Luke 14:1-6 (NRSV)
8. Matthew 22:34-40 (NRSV)
9. Shane Hipps.  Selling Water by the River.  2012, Jericho Books.  p. 20-22
10. I develop this idea further in my perspective "Rebels with a Cause."
11. Bell and Golden, p. 33-35

The photograph featured in this perspective is public domain.