Perspective: Unraveling Fear

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Unraveling Fear

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom...

Psalm 111:10a (NRSV)

---

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear...

1 John 4:18a (NRSV)

'Twas grace that taught my hear to fear

And grace my fears relieved

From "Amazing Grace" by John Newton

Because we live in a broken world, doing what is right can potentially cost a person dearly, especially if he or she clashes with systems of injustice.  Jesus knew that He would someday pay the ultimate price for taking a stand against the corrupt and oppressive systems of His time.  He also knew that, as people who follow in His footsteps, His disciples could very well face the same consequences, so He exhorted them not to be afraid of the powers that be or of anyone else who could threaten their lives.

Jesus says,
I tell you, my friends, don't be terrified by those who can kill the body but after that can do nothing more.  I'll show you whom you should fear: fear the one who, after you have been killed, has the authority to throw you into hell.  Indeed, I tell you, that's the one you should fear.¹
These words can be either frightening or freeing, depending on the way we read them.

Jesus' exhortation could easily be read as a threat that, if we succumb to fear, there will quite literally be hell to pay.  In this particular case, the Greek word translated into English as hell is Gehenna.  Gehenna is another name for the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, a place just south of Jerusalem that has a very dark history.  At one time, people who were unfaithful to God sacrificed their children to false gods at this site.²  Eventually, King Josiah of Judah desecrated this place to put a stop to the horrific practice.³  At some point, this site became a place where garbage and dead bodies were burned.⁴

To throw something into Gehenna is to dispose of it as garbage, like throwing it into an incinerator.  Basically, Jesus tells us to not fear the people who can only kill us physically but rather to fear the One who is able to dispose of our souls like rubbish.  Only God has any authority over what happens to our souls.

I suspect that, by unpacking the word hell, I have done very little to make Jesus' exhortation seem any less threatening; in fact, I have probably made it seem even more threatening.  Still, I do believe that these words, if read properly, are actually meant to liberate us from fear.  It is easy read Jesus' words as a threat if we stop reading at the wrong point.  Christians have a really bad habit of proof-texting, in other words, plucking a Bible verse or two out of context in order to prove a point.  When Jesus tells us whom we should fear, He is not finished speaking.  If we want to find the hope in His instruction, we must keep reading.

Jesus asks, "Aren't five sparrows sold for two small coins?"⁵  In a parallel version of this speech, He asks, "Aren't two sparrows sold for a small coin?"⁶  Apparently, at that time, a person could buy four sparrows and get one free.  Basically, Jesus is pointing out that sparrows are rather inexpensive.⁷  He then says, "Yet not one of them is overlooked by God."⁸  Though sparrows are cheap to humans, they are still quite important to God.

So what does the value of sparrows have to do with us?  Jesus goes on to say, "Even the hairs on your head are all counted.  Don't be afraid.  You are worth more than many sparrows."⁹  Everything God created, including the sparrow, is a masterpiece, but humanity is God's magnum opus, created in the very image of God.  Sparrows are important to God, but human beings are extremely important to God.  One does not throw a priceless work of art into the incinerator like so much worthless garbage.

To summarize, Jesus tells us not to be afraid of other humans who can only destroy our bodies, but rather to be afraid the One who is able to destroy our souls like garbage.  He then tells us not to be afraid, because God, the only One who has this ability, values us more than garbage.

A quick glance at the news will remind us that there are many people who make the world a scary place.  Such people can only do so much harm to us, for, though they can kill us physically, they are utterly incapable of destroying what is eternal about us.  There is only One who has the power to destroy our souls, and this power demands infinitely more fear than the power to kill the body.  The only One who has the power to destroy our souls actually loves us dearly and has no interest in destroying our souls.  If we are loved by the only One we have any legitimate reason to fear, then do we have any reason to fear whatsoever?

The Psalmist proclaims, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but St. John writes, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."  In the words of Shane Hipps, "Wisdom may begin with fear, but it does not end there."¹⁰  God created us to love, but, when we fail to love each other, the fear of punishment or retribution is sufficient to prevent us from destroying each other.  As St. John writes, "Fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love."¹¹  I do believe that there is a proper fear of God, which is less of a fear that God might smite us and more of a sense of reverence, wonder, awe, and humility before God.

The Bible can be used to strike fear into our hearts, or it can be used to set our hearts free.  I, for one, have decided to read the Gospel of Jesus Christ as if it actually is good news, as its name implies.  Christ came to save us from the things that bind us, including our fears.  Our fears are totally unraveled by the perfect love of God, revealed to us in Christ.


Notes:

1. Luke 12:4-5 (CEB)
2. See 2 Chronicles 28:3.
3. See 2 Kings 23:10.
4. Wikipedia: "Gehenna"
5. Luke 12:6a (CEB)
6. Matthew 10:29 (CEB)
7. William Barclay.  The Gospel of Luke, Revised Edition.  1975, Westminster Press.  p. 161
8. Luke 12:6b (CEB)
9. Luke 12:7 (CEB)
10. Shane Hipps.  Selling Water by the River: A Book about the Life Jesus Promised and the Religion That Gets in the Way.  2012, Jericho Books. p. 80
11. 1 John 4:18b (NRSV)

The image of Gehenna is from the Jewish Encyclopedia.

Perspective: Luke the Storyteller

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Luke the Storyteller

We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.

1 John 1:1 (CEB)

Whenever you run away

Whenever you lose your faith

It's just another stroke

Of the pen on the page

A lonely ray of hope is all that you'll need

To see a beautiful history

From "Beautiful History" by Plumb

Not long after Jesus began His public ministry, He started calling people to be His disciples, people who would shadow Him over the next few years and would eventually carry on His ministry after He was gone.  According to the Gospels, the biblical accounts of the ministry of Jesus, the first four of these disciples were a group of fishermen whom Jesus met at the Sea of Galilee.

The earliest of the Gospels is attributed to St. Mark and is believed to have been written sometime between AD 60 and AD 70.¹  In Mark's Gospel, we read the basic facts regarding the first disciples' encounter with Jesus.

• Jesus is traveling past the Sea of Galilee.
• He sees Simon and his brother Andrew fishing.
• He says, "Come, follow me, and I'll show you how to fish for people."
• Simon and Andrew leave their nets and start following Jesus.
• Jesus sees James and John repairing their fishing nets.
• He invites them to follow Him.
• James and John leave their father in his boat and start following Jesus.²

In the decades after Mark's Gospel was written, two other Gospels were written.  These Gospels, which are attributed to St. Matthew and St. Luke, are both based in part on Mark's Gospel but also contain information gathered from additional research.^3 4  Regarding Jesus' calling of the first disciples, Matthew reports the same basic facts that Mark reports.  In fact, Matthew's account, as it appears in English translations, is almost a word-for-word copy of Mark's.⁵

Luke, on the other hand, does not simply report the facts of the first disciples' encounter with Jesus in his Gospel.  Instead, he tells us a fishing story.

---

A massive crowd has gathered around Jesus by the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus tries to teach, but the people are so eager to hear Him that they crowd around Him, leaving Him without even enough room to breathe.  Jesus eyes a couple of fishing boats on the shore.  The fishermen who own them are cleaning their nets after a night spent not catching fish.  Jesus climbs into one of the boats, the one that happens to belong to a fisherman named Simon, and asks him row outward a little bit.  Simon obliges Him, and, from the boat, Jesus is able to teach the crowd.

Once Jesus finishes teaching and dismisses the crowd, He instructs Simon to row out to where the water is deeper and to throw His nets into the water.  At first Simon doesn't see the point, reflecting on the bad luck he has had all night, but reluctantly he decides to follow Jesus' suggestion.  Simon and his brother Andrew row out a little a bit further and throw out their nets.⁶  Simon then gets the greatest catch of his life: there are so many fish that the nets begin to break.  He signals his associates, James and John, who row out in their boat to help him.  They fill both of the boats so full of fish that they start to sink.

All of the fishermen are awestruck.  Because of this miraculous catch of fish, Simon can see that this mysterious teacher is indeed a man of God.  He throws himself down at Jesus' feet and cries out, "Leave me, Lord, for I'm a sinner!"

Jesus replies, "Don't be afraid.  From now on, you will be fishing for people."

The four leave their fishing business behind and become Jesus' first disciples.⁷

---

Luke's account of the first disciples' encounter with Jesus contains most of the same information contained in Mark and Matthew's account, but, instead of merely reporting basic facts, Luke tells us a story that I think is a lot more interesting and compelling than bare facts.  Many people theorize that St. Luke was a physician.  It seems to me that Luke was also a person who understood the value of a good story.

Stories are important, because our stories make us who we are.  In some cultures, especially in the years before they had written languages, certain people were chosen to be storytellers.  Through their craft of storytelling, it was their responsibility to safeguard the history of their people from oblivion, passing on to future generations the stories of those who came before them and the values contained therein.⁸

We can see from the Gospels that Jesus himself knew the importance and power of story.  His teaching shows that He was very familiar with the stories of His people, and He used parables to convey profound truths that perhaps cannot be expressed directly.  Interestingly, two of Jesus' most moving parables - the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the Parable of the Prodigal Son - are exclusive to Luke's Gospel.⁹  Of course, Jesus was not the first teacher to instruct through storytelling.  For example, when King David destroyed the lives of two of his subjects through his abuse of power, the prophet Nathan used a story to make him see the cruelty of his actions.¹⁰  Even modern-day preachers know the importance of telling stories, for it is the stories that a congregation is likely to find most memorable.¹¹  Stories put flesh and bone on otherwise abstract teachings.

So often we try to read the Bible as a book of doctrine or a handbook for living.  The Bible, in which we read the different accounts of the ministry of Jesus Christ, is, first and foremost, a collection of stories that together make up an overarching narrative of brokenness and redemption, a story in which we all find ourselves to be characters.  The power of Scripture then is the power of story.¹²  Rules give us a reason to be rebellious, and doctrines give us a reason to be skeptical, but stories captivate us.

I believe that story is an extremely important part of one's faith.  Though many Christians like to quote Bible verses, I think it might actually be better to tell Bible stories.  Christians are called to share their faith with others as "witnesses" of Christ.  Though many are taught to "witness" through the use of arguments or doctrine, sharing our faith is more about sharing what God's love and grace means to us personally.  I've heard one preacher say that we are called to be Christ's witnesses and not Christ's lawyers.¹³  We are not called to make cases or arguments for Christ but are rather called to testify to what we have seen and heard for ourselves.

St. Luke is perhaps best known for his concern for the marginalized, and this concern is reflected in the stories he tells about Jesus' love for the people on the fringes of society.  Luke's Gospel was written to share the message of Jesus Christ with people who, at one time, would have been considered outsiders by some of Jesus' own people.  For these reasons, Adam Hamilton sometimes refers to Luke's Gospel as the "Gospel of the Nobodies."¹⁴  Luke's concern for the marginalized and his apparent love of story are not unrelated.  Stories have a way of breaking down the barriers that divide us.  It has been said that "an enemy is one whose story we have not heard."  If you want keep on judging and othering a person, then I would recommend that you do what you must to shield yourself from his or her story; otherwise, you might find that you are not so different.

Stories are very important, for it is our stories that have made us who we are.  As someone who has found great joy in sharing his story, I encourage you, the reader, to reflect on your own story and to consider ways that you can share it with others.  Sharing your story might be difficult, as it would require great vulnerability on your part, but your story might very well be one of the greatest gifts you can give a person.


Notes:

1. Adam Hamilton.  Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today.  2014, Harper One.  p. 97
2. Mark 1:16-20 (CEB)
3. Making Sense of the Bible, p. 97
4. By the way, there is a fourth Gospel which is attributed to St. John, but it is very different from the other three.
5. Matthew 4:18-22
6. Luke does not name Andrew in this story, but the use of plural pronouns in Luke 5:6-7 suggests that Simon is not the only fisherman in the boat.  My assumption that Andrew is in the boat with Simon is based on Mark and Matthew's account.  My focus in this blog post is on what Luke contributes and not what he leaves out.
7. Based on Luke 5:1-11 (CEB)
8. Ray Buckley.  Dancing with Words: Storytelling as Legacy, Culture and Faith.  2004, Discipleship Resources. ch. 1
9. Luke 10:25-37 and Luke 15:11-32
10. 2 Samuel 11:1-12:15
11. Adam Hamilton.  The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus.  2012, Abingdon Press.  p. 75
12. See N.T. Wright's lecture "How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?"
13. Jerry Temple.  "The Big Five: Your Witness."  Buncombe Street United Methodist Church, 10/18/2015.
14. See Adam Hamilton's sermon series on the Gospel of Luke.

La Pêche Miraculeuse was painted by James Tissot in the late 1800s.

Easter Perspective: Our Place in the World

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Our Place in the World

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under their feet...

Psalm 8:3-6 (NRSV)

This is the world we live in

And these are the hands we're given

Use them, and let's start trying

To make it a place worth living in

From "Land of Confusion" by Genesis

Many centuries ago, a certain poet looked up at the night sky and gazed at the moon and the stars, and he started to feel small and insignificant, like a tiny speck of dust.  He then remembered the stories he had heard about the origin of the universe, and he began to contemplate humanity's place in it all.  He remembered that God created humans just "a little lower" than the heavenly beings and graciously honored them by entrusting to them a great responsibility.  The ancient poet then took his pen and began writing.¹

---

At the very beginning of the Bible, we read a poetic interpretation of the origin of the universe.²  We read that, day by day, as God is in the process of creating, God takes a look at the work in progress and sees that it is good.  Toward the end of this narrative, we learn that God creates one special kind of creature.  This creature is made in God's own image to be the caretakers of the Earth and of everything that dwells therein.  Humanity is God's magnum opus, for it is not until human beings are created that God looks at creation and sees that it is very good.

In a second account of the creation of the Earth, we learn more about humanity's place in it all.³  We read that when God created human beings, God made them the stewards of a garden.  Gardeners do not simply watch plants grow and pick vegetables: they use their ingenuity and creativity to care for their plants, to help them to produce more fruit, and to arrange them in aesthetically pleasing ways.  God also gave humans the task of naming the animals, a task that requires observation, thoughtfulness, and creativity.

One way in which human beings are created in the image of God is the fact that they are co-creators with God.  Human beings are creations of God who are themselves creative, and they are invited by God to contribute to the ongoing creation of the world.  Reflecting on the biblical creation stories, Rob Bell writes in his book How to Be Here about the creative task of the first humans:
They find themselves in the midst of this big, beautiful, exotic, heartbreaking, mysterious, endlessly becoming, unfinished world and they're essentially told, "Do something with it!  Make something!  Take it somewhere!  Enjoy it!"⁴

As we read a little further into the biblical narrative, we see that everything did not go according to plan.⁵  Through a strange story involving a talking snake and a forbidden piece of fruit that may or may not have been an apple, we learn that, even though God gave humanity a special place in a good world and provided for all of humanity's needs, we humans, in our infinite wisdom, thought that we could somehow do better.  As a result, sin entered the world, and God's good creation was broken.

With the emergence of sin came great consequences for humanity and for the Earth.  Humans were set at odds with the Earth.  We abuse the Earth and exploit its resources, and we cause sickness and suffering for many people as a result.  Men and women were set at odds with each other.  Women have been subjugated as a result of men's quest for dominance.  Human beings were set at odds with their work.  It is not hard work but toil that is the result of our sin.  Instead of doing the satisfying, creative work we were meant to do, so often we toil meaninglessly like cogs in a machine so that a select few can become wealthy while many remain in poverty.⁶

---

Overwhelmed by creation, the ancient Hebrew poet reflected on the creation stories handed down by his people and wrote what is now known as the Eighth Psalm, a poem about the majesty of God, the vast universe God created, and the great honor and responsibility God graciously gave humanity.  He wrote that God essentially gave humanity control over the world God created.  Centuries later, an early Christian theologian quotes a few lines from this poem and remarks that it doesn't really seem that the world is actually under our control.⁷

The truth is that we have not been the divine-image-bearing stewards who cultivate the Earth and live harmoniously with it and with one another, as God intended us to be.  Instead, because of our sin, we have become plunderers who pillage and pollute, living at odds with the Earth and in conflict with each other.  One writer has gone so far to say that, though we so often want God to explain to us why there is so much suffering in the world, God really has more of a right to ask us why there is so much suffering in the world.⁸  God didn't fail to take care of the world: we failed to take care of the world God entrusted to us.

The early theologian goes on to say that Jesus Christ, the uniquely divine Son of God, became "a little lower" than the heavenly beings, like the human sons and daughters of God.  He took on human flesh and blood, so that he could become like His flesh-and-blood sisters and brothers.⁹  He who is fully divine became fully human - or, perhaps I should say, perfectly human.  By entering into human physicality, Christ also shared in the suffering caused by the sin of a fallen humanity, even suffering a wrongful death.  His story did not end with death, for God raised Him from the dead.

According to this theologian, Christ did all of these things to make us holy - in other words, to restore humanity to it's rightful place as the divine-image-bearing caretakers of the Earth.  By confronting death and rising from the grave, He effectively triumphed over the consequences of humanity's failures and banished all fear, so that we may fearlessly follow His example.  God redeems our suffering, as God redeemed Christ's suffering, using it to transform us more and more into what we were created to be.¹⁰

In the beginning, God created the Earth.  God created human beings to take care of the Earth and to participate in its ongoing creation.  Since the dawn of human existence, we have given God innumerable reasons to be disappointed in us, and we have given each other innumerable reasons to be cynical.  Despite everything, God has apparently not lost faith in us, for God has not given up on the original plan for us to be the caretakers of creation.  God sent Christ to the Earth to triumph over the consequences of our failures and to restore us to our rightful place in the world.  The restoration of humanity means restored relationships between humans and each other, between humans and the earth, and between humans and their work.


Notes:

1. This is how I imagine David was inspired to write the Eighth Psalm.
2. Genesis 1:1-2:4a
3. Genesis 2:4b-25
4. Rob Bell.  How to Be Here.  2016, Harper One.  pp. 8-9
5. Genesis 3
6. As you can probably see, I read the curse of Genesis 3:14-19 descriptively and not prescriptively.
7. Hebrews 2:5-8
8. Francis Chan and Denae Yankoski.  Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.  2008, David C. Cook.  p. 33
9. Hebrews 2:9-11
10. Hebrews 2:10-15.  See also the notes for this passage in the Wesley Study Bible.  2009, Abingdon Press.

The photograph of the night sky over Arches National Park was taken by Neal Herbert of the National Park Service and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Easter Perspective: Are We Easter People?

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Are We Easter People?

Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He isn't here, but has been raised.

Luke 24:5-6 (CEB)

Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!

Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!

Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

From "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" by Charles Wesley

On the second day after Jesus' wrongful execution, a group of women go to the borrowed tomb in which Jesus' body had been placed temporarily, so that they can prepare the body for a proper burial.  When they arrive, they see that the tomb is opened, and, when they go inside, they discover that the body is missing.  They are startled when they suddenly see two men dressed in extremely bright clothing standing with them.

The two strange men - perhaps they are angels - ask the women, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"

That is a good question.

The women report everything they have just seen and heard to Jesus' disciples, but nobody believes them.  The disciple Peter then goes to the tomb to check things out for himself.

Later that day, two of Jesus' followers leave Jerusalem and head toward the town of Emmaus, and, as they walk down the road, they begin discussing the events that have unfolded over the last few days.  At one point on the journey, they are joined by a stranger who asks them what they are talking about.  Wondering where the stranger has been hiding for the last couple of days, they get him caught up to speed about Jesus, their hopes that He would be the one to save their people, His untimely demise, and the news that His body is missing.

The stranger then asks the travelers, "Wasn't it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into His glory?"

That is another good question.

The travelers eventually realize that the stranger in their midst is not a stranger at all, and he suddenly vanishes.  The two run as fast as they can back to the Disciples and learn that others have had similar experiences.  Suddenly, Jesus appears among them and says, "Peace be with you!"  Understandably, everybody begins to freak out, thinking that they're seeing a ghost.

Jesus then asks, "Why are you startled?  Why are doubts arising in your hearts?"

Those are also good questions.

The story of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ presents us with a number of questions.¹  These questions still challenge us as followers of Christ living nearly two thousand years after the event.

---

When the women go to the tomb and find that Jesus' body is missing, the two angels who appear ask them why they seek the living among the dead.

Why do we waste our lives on things that are not life-giving?

Why are we so hesitant to listen to a new word being spoken?

Why do we not leave behind what has always been so that we can pursue what could be?

When the two travelers tell the "stranger" with them about the recent events that have left them feeling bewildered, He asks them if it wasn't indeed necessary for the Messiah to suffer.

Why are we so afraid of suffering?

Can we not trust that times of suffering will eventually give way to times of joy?

Do we not believe that God is present with us in our suffering?

Do we not believe that God brings good out of suffering?

When Jesus appears alive and well amongst His followers and watches everyone freak out, He asks them why they are startled and why they doubt what they are seeing.

Why are we so surprised when good things happen?

Do we doubt the goodness of God?

More than once, Jesus explicitly told His followers that, when He arrived in Jerusalem, He would be arrested by the powers that be, suffer at their hands, be killed, and then be raised from the dead a few days later.  After Jesus' tomb is found to be empty, people have to be reminded again and again what had been said all along.

Perhaps we believe in Jesus, but do we actually believe Jesus?

Do we take seriously the things Jesus said?

I would say that there is one major question that the Easter story presents us:

Are we Easter people?

---

Philosopher Peter Rollins has a tendency to raise eyebrows with his rather unconventional views of the Christian faith.  One day, someone saw it fit to ask him if he denied the Resurrection of Christ.  Rollins replied,
Everyone who knows me knows I deny the Resurrection.  I do deny the Resurrection, every time I do not serve my neighbor, every time I walk away from people who are poor.  I deny the Resurrection every time I participate in an unjust system.  And I affirm the Resurrection every now and again when I stand up for those who are on their knees.  I affirm the Resurrection when I cry out for those people who have had their tongues torn out, when I weep for those people who have no more tears to shed.²
Basically, we deny or affirm the Resurrection of Christ by the way we live in response to it.

The Easter story reminds us that Jesus Christ, the Savior of all humanity, went to the cross to face death, the greatest enemy humanity has ever known, and then emerged from the grave triumphant.  The Resurrection of Christ is at the center of a God-sized plan to set all things right and to breathe new life into the world, and that plan involves the redemption of each of us.  The story of the Resurrection is our defining story as followers of Christ, meaning that it should affect everything about us.

May we live as Resurrected people.


Notes:

1. This telling of the Easter story is based on Luke 24 (CEB).
2. https://vimeo.com/19258866

The Holy Women at the Tomb was painted by William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1876.