Lenten Perspective: Saying the Right Thing Wrongly

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Saying the Right Thing Wrongly

Don't be quick with your mouth or say anything hastily before God, because God is in heaven, but you are on earth.  Therefore, let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 (CEB)

Be careful little lips what you say

For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray

From "Slow Fade" by Casting Crowns

For nearly four years, I have been using the daily readings from the Revised Common Lectionary as a plan for my daily Scripture reading.  For each day, there is a Psalm, a passage from the Old Testament, and at least one passage from the New Testament.¹  I do not read all of the assigned passages for the day: typically I choose only one of the passages for reading and reflection.  If two or more days have consecutive passages, I might read them together on one day.

In the Past, I have been hesitant to read any assigned passage from the Book of Job.  I might make an exception for passages taken from the prologue, which sets the stage for the rest of the story, or from God's monologue at the end, which is mostly made up of questions directed at the titular character.  Throughout most of the book, Job and his friends talk with each other about God, until they finally find out that they didn't really know what they were talking about all along.  After God finally speaks at the end, Job confesses that he had been speaking out of ignorance, and then God chastises Job's friends for speaking wrongly.²

I believe that the Book of Job, as a whole, teaches us some important lessons, but I did not want to read a passage out of context and and reflect on potential falsehoods about God.

For the last few weeks, I've been participating in a somewhat intensive study of the New Testament at my church, so I've limited any of my readings from the Lectionary to the selections from the Old Testament.  To my dismay, some of the Old Testament selections for the last few weeks happened to be from the Book of Job.  I decided to wade into the murky waters of this story, reading with a critical eye to see if either Job or his friends actually say anything of worth, always keeping in mind what they learn at the end of the story.

At the beginning of the story, Job tragically loses his wealth, his health, and his children.  Three of his friends come to visit him, and they sit with him in silence for seven days, until Job finally speaks, cursing the day he was born.³  Ever present in this story is the assumption that suffering is punishment for sin.  Job, unable to think of anything he did wrong, believes that God has acted unfairly toward him, but his friends, who do not believe that God would ever act unfairly, believe that Job must have done something displeasing to God.

The first of Job's friends to speak is a man named Eliphaz.  First Eliphaz points out that, for someone who has ministered to people who were suffering, Job is not being very patient in the midst of his own suffering.  He then asks if God has ever punished an innocent person, arguing that people reap what they sow.  Eliphaz goes on to ask if there is anyone who is truly righteous before God.  If God holds even the angels accountable, then how can mere mortals expect to get away with wrongdoing?⁴

Eliphaz advises Job to turn to God, who provides rain to nourish the earth, lifts up the poor and the humble, and brings down the arrogant and the wicked.  He then encourages Job not to resent correction from God because it is for his own good.⁵

I don't think that Eliphaz is totally wrong in what he says to Job.  Much of what he says can be found in other parts of Scripture, particularly the Book of Proverbs.  God does indeed side with the poor and the humble over the wicked and the arrogant.  We read in Proverbs,

The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked,

but he blesses the abode of the righteous.

Toward the scorners he is scornful,

but to the humble he shows favor.⁶

Eliphaz's advice isn't that bad either.  We should always turn to God, regardless of our circumstances, and, if God does discipline us, we can trust that God only has our best interests in heart.  Again, we read in Proverbs,

My child, do not despise the Lord's discipline

or be weary of his reproof,

for the Lord reproves the one he loves,

as a father the son in whom he delights.⁷

As I see it, sin does indeed cause suffering, in one way or another.  I think that perhaps the main reason that God hates sin is that God loves us and does not want us to inflict suffering upon ourselves or others.  Also, we do tend to reap what we sow.  We might get away with wrongdoing for a while, but, if we persist in a destructive path, we will inevitably suffer the consequences for it.  That said, I do not think that all suffering is necessarily caused by sin.  Sometimes we suffer because of our own choices; sometimes we suffer because of the choices of others; and sometimes we suffer for no other reason but unfavorable circumstances.

I once heard Rob Bell say that there can be rightness in our wrongness and wrongness in our rightness.  I would say that the latter is true of Eliphaz.  I do not think that Eliphaz says anything wrong; rather, I think he is wrong to say what he says because what he says is not appropriate for Job's situation.  His statements are right, but his underlying assumptions are wrong.  Job is not being punished for wrongdoing, nor is he being disciplined by God.  We know from the prologue of the story that Job has not done anything to warrant divine punishment.  We can almost hear the delight in God's voice when God says, "Have you considered my servant Job?  There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil."⁸

Eliphaz rightly says that people reap what they sow, but he has wrongly assumed that Job is reaping what he has sown.

Eliphaz rightly says that Job should turn to God, but he has wrongly assumed that Job had somehow turned away from God.

Eliphaz rightly says that God sides with the poor and the humble over the wicked and the arrogant, but he has wrongly assumed that Job is in the latter group.

Eliphaz rightly says that Job should accept discipline from God, but he has wrongly assumed that Job's suffering is discipline from God.

Sometimes we're guilty of saying the wrong thing, but sometimes we guilty of saying the right thing wrongly.

I think that far too often Christians use the call to "speak the truth in love"⁹ as an excuse to speak hurtfully just because they believe what they say happens to be true.  Sometimes it is appropriate and even necessary to be brutally honest with someone, but it is never appropriate to be unnecessarily brutal, no matter how accurate or honest one's statements happen to be.  When we feel the need to "speak the truth in love," we need to check our motives to be sure that we really are speaking in love.

Like Eliphaz, we might end up saying right statements at the wrong moments because we have made the wrong assumptions about a person or about his or her situation.  Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, warns us not to judge others, because our judgments have a way of coming back to haunt us.¹⁰  St. James encourages us to be "quick to listen" and "slow to speak."¹¹  It has been said that each of us has two ears but only one mouth because we are meant to listen twice as much as we speak.

It is currently the season of Lent, a time on the Church calendar marked by self-examination and repentance.  This season is a good time to examine why we say the things we say and to repent of any ways in which we speak hurtfully to others.  A good friend of mine likes to say that whatever does not build up breaks down.  In the words of St. Paul, "Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear."¹²


Notes:

1. http://www.commontexts.org/publications/
2. Job 42:1-9
3. Job 1-3
4. Job 4
5. Job 5
6. Prov 3:33-34 (NRSV)
7. Prov 3:11-12 (NRSV)
8. Job 1:8 (NRSV)
9. Ephesians 4:15
10. Matthew 7:1-2
11. James 1:19
12. Ephesians 4:29 (NRSV)

The photograph above is of a fresco of Job and his three friends, painted in the 1500s in the Cathedral of the Annunciation.

Sermon: Into the Wilderness

Delivered at McBee Chapel United Methodist Church in Conestee, South Carolina on February 18, 2018, the first Sunday in Lent

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Into the Wilderness

Audio Version

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Mark 1:9-15 (NRSV)

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice

From “The Journey” by Mary Oliver

Have you ever felt that you were meant for more than the life you were living?  Have you ever felt that your nine-to-five job was not your calling, that what you did to pay the bills was not what you were put on this planet to do?  Have you ever sensed a purpose that was too far away to see clearly that still somehow tugged at your heart from a distance?  If you have ever felt that way, you are not alone.  I suspect that most, if not all, of us have longed to live for a higher purpose at some point in our lives.  Lately I've wondered if maybe Jesus felt this way in the first thirty years of His life, before He began His ministry.  I've wondered if He always knew who He was and what He was born to do or if maybe He had to discover these things, like the rest of us.

---

Biblical scholars generally agree that the Gospel of Mark was the earliest of the four Gospels, written sometime between AD 60 and AD 70, and that it served as the main source of material for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  Church tradition tells us that St. Mark, the author, was someone close to St. Peter, perhaps an interpreter.¹  Mark's Gospel is the shortest of the four.  It does not contain the lengthy discourses we read in Matthew's Gospel or the fleshed-out narratives we read in Luke's Gospel.  There is a recurring theme of secrecy throughout Mark's Gospel: Jesus constantly tells people not to tell anyone what He did for them or who they believe He is.  The Gospel of Mark is probably the most fast-paced of the four Gospels.  The word immediately occurs twenty-seven times in the New Revised Standard Version, and Jesus always seems to be on the move.  Consider how much action is packed into the passage we just heard, which consists of a mere seven verses.

At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, we read about a prophet named John.  He was a rather eccentric man, to say the least: he lived in the Judean wilderness, away from civilization, foraging for food and making his own clothes.²  He challenged the people of Judea to repent of their sins and offered them the ritual of baptism as a means of expressing their repentance.  The people flocked to John in the wilderness to listen to his message, to confess their sins, and to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.  Mark describes John, using the words of an ancient prophet, as a messenger, “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'”  John spoke of someone who would come after him, someone greater and more powerful, whose sandals he was not worthy to untie, someone who would baptize the people not with water but with the Holy Spirit.³

Meanwhile, Jesus had been working as a carpenter in the town of Nazareth.⁴  Justin Martyr, an early church historian, reported that Jesus constructed farm equipment like plows and yokes.⁵  Jesus realized that what He had been doing to make a living was not what He was born to do: He knew that He was meant for something more in life than building farm equipment.  Scholar William Barclay suggests that the emergence of John the Baptist and the Godward movement he represented was perhaps a signal to Jesus that the time had come for Him to do what He had been put on the earth to do.  It was the kind of movement with which He wanted to identify Himself.⁶

Jesus traveled from His hometown of Nazareth to the Judean wilderness to be baptized by John.  He had no sins of which He needed to repent, but His baptism was still for Him a turning point and a symbol of a new beginning.⁷  As Jesus descended into the water, His life as a carpenter came to an end, and, as He ascended from the water, His new life with His new calling began.

So what exactly was Jesus being called to do?

As Jesus ascended from the waters of baptism, He looked up and saw the heavens ripped open.  He saw the Spirit of God descend upon Him in the form of a dove.  What Jesus was being called to do would require power from Heaven.  Up to this point in the Biblical narrative, the Spirit of God was endowed to the leaders and prophets who had been entrusted by God with a special task.  The Spirit's descending upon Jesus meant that He was being equipped by God to do what He was called to do.⁸

Jesus then heard a Voice from Heaven call out to Him, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  On the surface, the message from Heaven contained three affirmations that every child needs to hear from her parents.  Every child need to know that she is claimed by her parents, that her parents love her dearly, and that her parents are proud of her.  Jesus heard these three affirmations directly from God, but, as someone who was familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, He would also have heard a couple of additional revelations.

The first part of the message from Heaven - “You are my Son, the Beloved” - calls to mind the second Psalm, in which God's anointed one hears from God, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”⁹  This Psalm was thought to point to the Messiah, the long-awaited leader who would deliver the Jewish people from oppression and usher in an age of peace and prosperity.  The second part of the message - “With you I am well pleased” - calls to mind particular sections of the Book of Isaiah which describe a certain servant of God.¹⁰  The first of these “Servant Songs” begins, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”  This servant of God would be empowered by the Spirit to “bring forth justice to the nations” and to show mercy to the weak and the broken.¹¹  A subsequent Servant Song tells us that this servant of God will suffer greatly on behalf of his people.¹²

In short, Jesus was told by God that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Suffering Servant.

Having received both the power of the Spirit and the approval of the Father,¹³ Jesus was immediately driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He remained for forty days.  Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark leaves almost everything about Jesus' journey through the wilderness to the reader's imagination.  Given that Jesus had just heard that He was the beloved Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah, and the Suffering Servant of God, I think it is safe to say that He had a lot to process and ponder during those forty days.

The author does offer us a few details about Jesus' wilderness experience.  He writes that, in the wilderness, Jesus was “tempted by Satan.”  John Wesley writes in his notes on the Gospel of Mark that “in all the children of God, extraordinary manifestations of his favour are wont to be followed by extraordinary temptations.”¹⁴  The author does not tell us the specific nature of the temptations Jesus faced, but we can logically assume that they somehow concerned how He would carry out His mission as the Messiah and how He would use the power and authority He was given.  I suspect that remembering the voice of the Father helped Jesus to withstand the voices of temptation.

The wilderness, figuratively speaking, is a dry, desolate, difficult, lonely place in life, far from anything familiar.  We rarely go into the wilderness willingly; rather, we are driven into it, as Jesus was driven.¹⁵  The wilderness experience teaches us who we really are, for it strips us of everything we are not.  It is quite often where were are unknowingly prepared for whatever comes next in our lives.  The author tells us that, in the wilderness, Jesus “was with the wild beasts” and that “the angels waited on him” there.  The wilderness is a place of peril, symbolized by the wild beasts, but it is also a place of Providence, symbolized by the angels.  Jesus was never alone in the wilderness, for the same Spirit who drove Him into the wilderness remained with Him as He journeyed through it.¹⁶

By the time Jesus returned to civilization, John had caught the attention of the wrong people and had been arrested and thrown into prison.  It was now up to Jesus to come after John and to take up the task of calling people to repentance, or else the movement John represented would begin to lose momentum.  Unlike John, who taught the people who came to him in the wilderness, Jesus took His message directly to the people.¹⁷  He traveled throughout the region of Galilee, proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  It was this very message and the urgency it warranted that kept Jesus constantly on the move throughout His ministry.

The word Jesus used to describe His message, which is translated into English as either “good news” or “gospel,” is the Greek word euangelion, from which we get the word evangelical.  The word was originally used to describe a proclamation from the Jewish people's Roman oppressors, perhaps news of some imperial victory.¹⁸  Jesus' royal proclamation was that God was doing something new in the world.  In the eloquent words of scholar N.T. Wright,
This was what all Israel had been waiting for.  It wasn't a new piece of good advice.  It wasn't a new political agenda.  It wasn't a new type of spirituality.  It might eventually lead to advice, agendas and certainly to prayer, but it was itself something more than all of these.  It was the good (and extremely dangerous) news that the living God was on the move, was indeed now coming into his kingdom.¹⁹

The Kingdom of God is what God had in mind for humanity since the very beginning.  It is, one might say, a Kingdom “not of this world,”²⁰ a Kingdom fundamentally different from any earthly kingdom that has ever existed.  It is a Kingdom different from the Roman Empire, which maintained peace by crucifying anyone perceived as a threat.  Everything Jesus went on to do throughout His ministry – teaching the crowds, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, enabling the lame to walk, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, feeding multitudes, and calming storms – was a manifestation of the reign of God.²¹

Wright points out that Jesus' good news “demanded a definite response,”²² and this response, according to Jesus, was to repent and believe.  The Greek word translated into English as “repentance” is metanoia, which literally means a change of mind.  It is used to describe a change of mind and heart that works itself out as a change of conduct.²³  Jesus' royal proclamation demands a change of mind, for if God is indeed doing something new – something the world has never known – then we must be willing to reconsider everything we think we know.

---

A poem by Mary Oliver titled “The Journey” begins, “One day you finally knew / what you had to do, and began, / though the voices around you / kept shouting / their bad advice...”  After years of working as a carpenter, Jesus knew what He finally had to do, and He took the first steps of His journey when He stepped into the waters of baptism.  As He emerged from the water, He received the power of the Holy Spirit and the approval of the Father, both of which He would need on His journey ahead.  The Spirit then drove Jesus into the wilderness, where He faced voices of temptation that attempted to sway Him from doing what He had to do.  He did not heed the voices or their bad advice, for He had already heard the voice of the Father, the only voice He needed to hear.  In the end, the temptations He faced only strengthened His resolve, and, when He returned from the wilderness, He began to make His own voice heard.

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, the season on the Church calendar marked by self-denial, soul-searching, and repentance, during which we follow Jesus into the wilderness, figuratively speaking.  During Lent, many chose to give things up – especially those things they tend to use as a crutch – so that they can grow in their reliance on God as they fight temptation.  Some take up new spiritual practices so that they may grow closer to God as they become more disciplined.

I think that this wilderness season is a good time to ponder some of the questions that the story of Jesus' baptism, wilderness experience, and return to civilization might present to us.

What is God calling you to do right now?

What journey do you need to take?

What voices do you need to heed?

What voices do you need to tell to be quiet?

What new thing is God doing in your life or in the world around you?

What changes do you need to make in light of what God is doing?

Consider what you are learning as you journey through the wilderness and what you will do with it when you return.

All of us will journey into the wilderness at various times in our lives, whether it is the wilderness of Lent or a particularly dry and difficult season of life.  When you find yourself in the wilderness, may you listen to the voice telling you that you are a beloved child of God, and may you block out any voice telling you otherwise.  May you know that you are not alone in the wilderness, for God journeys with you.  May you emerge from the wilderness, strengthened in your faith, ready to serve God, as you are equipped by the Spirit.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Adam Hamilton.  Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today.  2014, Harper One.  pp. 97-99
2. Brian Zahnd.  “A Burning and Shining Lamp.”  Word of Life Church Podcast, 12/10/2017.
3. Mark 1:2-8 (NRSV)
4. Mark 6:3
5. Justin Martyr.  Dialogue with Trypho.  ch. 88
6. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 20
7. Barclay (Mark), p. 21
8. Barclay (Mark), p. 22
9. Psalm 2:7 (NRSV)
10. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 46
11. Isaiah 42:1-4 (NRSV)
12. Isaiah 53
13. Barclay (Mark), p. 22
14. http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/john-wesleys-notes-on-the-bible/notes-on-the-gospel-according-to-st-mark/
15. Shane Hipps.  “Driven into Wilderness.”  Trinity Mennonite Church, 03/05/2006.
16. ibid.
17. N.T Wright.  Mark for Everyone.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 9
18. Rob Bell.  NOOMA You | 015.  2007, Zondervan/Flannel.
19. Wright, p. 8
20. John 18:36
21. Richard Byrd Wilke and Julia Kitchens Wilke.  Disciple Fast Track: New Testament Study Manual.  2016, Abingdon Press.  p. 19
22. Wright, p. 8
23. Wikipedia: “Metanoia (theology)”

Christ in the Wilderness was painted by Ivan Kramskoi in 1872.

Perspective: An Easy Yoke or a Heavy Cross?

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

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

An Easy Yoke or a Heavy Cross?

And going a little farther, [Jesus] threw himself on the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want."

Matthew 26:39 (NRSV)

Your love it beckons deeply

A call to come and die

By grace now I will come

And take this life, take Your life

From "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall

One day, Jesus proclaims to a crowd,
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.¹

Some time later, Jesus begins to tell His disciples about the suffering He will have to face in the not too distant future.  One of His disciples objects to what He says, so He scolds him.  He then says to His disciples,
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.²

How can Jesus invite weary souls to come to Him and trade their heavy burdens for something lighter and easier and then tell His disciples that anyone who wants to follow Him has to carry a cross?

There is nothing light or easy about a cross.  When Jesus tells His disciples about the suffering He will have to face in days to come, He means that He will have to carry a literal cross, the instrument of His own execution.  When the time comes for Him to pick up this cross, somebody else will end up carrying it for Him, perhaps because He will have already endured so much torture He cannot carry it for himself.³  It is only logical to assume that, if the journey of Jesus leads to suffering, then following in His footsteps will also lead to suffering.

Is Jesus trying to pull some sort of spiritual bait-and-switch scam, advertising one thing in order to sell something else?  That's what I started to think several years ago, when I felt that doing what I was supposed to do was becoming unnecessarily difficult.  I became angry, wondering why the easy yoke I was promised felt more like a millstone fastened around my neck.

I think Jesus' seemingly contradictory sayings force us to face certain realities about life.  When Jesus invites us to come to Him and trade the heavy burdens we've been carrying for something lighter and easier, He is inviting us to trade the life we've been living for the life we're meant to live.  Naturally, the life we're meant to live is better than the life we typically end up living.  At the same time, the world is not as it should be, so living the life we are meant to live will often mean going against the flow.  Going against the flow is never easy.

Following in Jesus' footsteps will mean carrying a cross, but Jesus is not the one who will lay the cross on His followers' shoulders.

If Jesus had come into a perfect world, He never would have been nailed to a cross, because He never would have faced any opposition.  Unfortunately He didn't come into a perfect world, so, when He stirred the pot, people weren't happy with Him.  Doing the right thing is difficult because of the resistance we face, whether it comes from the world around us or from our own inclinations.

As for me, catching glimpses of the life I was meant to live has brought me joy over the years.  The pain comes whenever I start to confuse what God invites me to do with what other people want me to do.

So why should we take Jesus up on His invitation if we know that it will lead to suffering?  Why shouldn't we spare ourselves the pain and just keep going with the flow?  Going with the flow never changes anything.  If we just go with the flow, we will never change, and we will never have any impact on the world around us.  Furthermore, we have hope, for we know that, though Jesus' journey included a cross, it did not end with a cross.  We can hope that goodness and justice win in the end and that new life lies beyond the crosses we face.


Notes:

1. Matthew 11:28-30 (NRSV)
2. Matthew 16:24-25 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 27:24-32

The photograph of the crosses was taken by Lubos Houska and has been been released into the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.