Serious Business

At times, I've been told that I'm too serious, too intense, and at times, too observant and out-spoken for others' comfort levels, and for their political and financial ambitions. May I propose this: the central idea of Religion concerns the serious nature of life in all its difficulties, relationships and outcomes.

Regarding justice and injustice:  Most of us think of law and consequences when we think of justice. If people we know, or if we ourselves have experienced injustice or criminal behavior, our thoughts may quickly jump to returning fire for fire. Christians may cringe at the images in Psalm 137:9 "Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock."  Many of us cannot imagine wishing such harm to other people's infants and children, much less carrying it out! Taken in the context of the previous verse, the source of pain in this imprecatory prayer becomes clear: "O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!"

The cry of the psalmist is for retributive justice against the perpetrators of the horrible suffering and pain caused to their children, and to them by watching their children die. We cannot ignore these cries from those who are the most abused, the most downtrodden, the poorest, and the sickest among us. Every one of us has experienced some time in life where we have been victimized by others, but few in the U.S. have experienced this particular pain. The message of this psalm should be considered when we consider the pain war and terrorism bring to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. We know that other groups have also victimized the people, but we shouldn't be surprised at the backlash which occurs when US soldiers and military actions kill or injure children and family members. They cry out for justice, and the natural human response is to seek revenge.

If we look at this Psalm's lament, however, we see a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. The psalmist does not claim that the people of Israel will be happy when they take revenge on the Babylonians who have taken them captive and killed their children in front of the parents. The avenging people are an ambiguous, "THEY." Why is that?

We should know ourselves well enough to understand that the enacting of vengeance and the exacting of justice according to human measures harm us. There is no detached "justice"; we can only try to increase the distance between ourselves and those whom we have judged. Distance can be measured in miles: an impersonal missile launched from a ship or a plane may feel "impersonal" to the owner of the hand on the trigger, or the commander giving the order to fire, but the missile's explosive destruction is very personally experienced by the people in the impact zone. Distance can be measured in relationships: a distance of race, gender, political party affiliation, religious system, education, economic status, nationality or ethnicity can permit the perpetrator to depersonalize the offense in her imagination, but the offended party knows exactly how personally wounded s/he is. Distance can be created by lies: liars frequently fabricate a false reality that is a combination of blatant lies, innuendo and semi-truths in order to push the truth or the truth-teller away from the liar's self, or worse, to kill the truth-teller by slander, gossip, libel (all of these are a form of judgment and death).

God-with-us, God-in-Christ, the God who reconciles humans to God and to one another - this God loves the victim and the perpetrator. This God loves Nineveh and Jonah, the Persians and the Israelites, the Babylonians and their captives, the Afghans, the Iraqis and the Americans. Our God knows that distancing ourselves in order to cause pain with words or actions, or distancing ourselves from sensing the pain we cause others inflicts harm on us, not just on those whom we've hurt.

During an internship at the Denver Veterans Administration Medical Center, I saw firsthand the damage done to soldiers by their participation in wars. Perhaps, to the people of Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan, these soldiers may have seemed akin to the Babylonians of Psalm 137. Yet, these soldiers also experience pain from participating in war, even those who joined the Army because a relative or friend was killed on September 11, 2001. Their own physical injuries may be healed or treated medically, but the psychological damage may last and last. One Vietnam vet was broken in ways he'd been able to ignore for most of the 40 years since leaving that country. Then, too, our government's system of treating soldiers and vets refuses, at times, to diagnose psychological harm from combat in the interest of saving money, denying benefits' claims, and maintaining troop levels. A soldier may "justify" their actions because "I was only following orders." Nevertheless, he will know - in his body and person - that his actions killed or injured other people. The more people the soldier kills, the higher the risk of PTSD. Imagine then, the soldier returned home is told by the VA that his experiences of anger outbursts, sleeplessness, nightmares, flashbacks, discomfort or fear in crowded places, anxiety if someone stands behind him, are nothing. Our society believes a myth that we have the resources to heal all ills and to treat everything, and to perpetuate that myth people in authority do lie to the suffering, and will "kill" anyone who endangers their myths.

We need to reconsider our myths! That reconsideration is part of the "serious business" of religion.

The Psalmist knew that any revenge against the captors by the captives would harm the captives, too. The implications of our belief in One God and One Creator of all things, and in humans being created in God's image resonate strongly. If God is truly with us in our experiences of suffering and injustice, and not distant from us in dispensing justice, then the Christian call to be conformed to Christ means that Christians love the victims and speak truth to the perpetrators; we reflect grace and truth to every person just as God-in-Christ has done to us. We know that for all that we have been victims of injustice and suffering, we have also been perpetrators of injustice and suffering. We are responsible, we are accountable, and we face and confess the truth about ourselves knowing that the judgment of God against sin has been lifted from us by Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

Christians and our churches must not participate in the polarizing rhetoric that characterizes our national political debates right now. We should and will testify to justice, against unjust and inequitable systems, to the care our society should give to all people, and to the harm we cause ourselves by our distancing ourselves from one another. Our system of providing medical care only to the rich, the employed, and the dying is akin to passing by on the other side of the road from the poor, wounded and sick. Our strategies that harm others in the name of the harm done to us will always damage us, too.

On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway." ~Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hand in Hand

This video gives us a visual metaphor of how humans need one another. We miss the truth of our interdependency in every regard, not just the physical interdependency which this captures. We miss the holistic interdependency of human and God, male and female, between races, between all ethnic heritages, tribes, nations, humanity and environment, humanity and conditions in which we live. Humans naturally striate and separate themselves from one another, but God's love is found in our unity.

It seems to me that the health care debate is really between those who envision independence and those who are aware of dependence and interdependence. James spoke to this profound reality when he contrasted the partiality being awarded to the privileged with God's choosing of the poor: "My brothers and sisters, you do not hold the faith while practicing partiality. ...Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has God not chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?" (James 2:1, 5)

Hand in Hand

@ TOM

Tom, thank you for your comment. I do believe you completely missed the point that I made, and inadvertently, you strengthened my point. I hear your words as dividing humanity out of people who work in government offices - you characterize them as "bloated, impersonal government bureaucrats" not as people. Any person - whether in a bureaucracy of a governmental entity or of an insurance company - can become "inhuman", as it were, in relation to others. As soon as we stop seeing another person or group of people as anyone we want to be "with", we've divided ourselves from them, instead of listening to and hearing them. I don't trust in a "faceless social responsibility." I hope and work for a society of humans who individually place people's welfare and well-being above self-interest & profit-making.

 

FWIW, it seems unlikely that anyone working in a democratic governmental structure would be able "to corruptly aggregate to themselves more power" at any level that even draws close to the corrupted power among leaders of Wall Street and insurance companies! The myth of free-market capitalism has been exposed in recent years for market leaders' inability to regulate participants' own sinfulness. The insurance company, AIG, was right in the thick of the corruption and dehumanization. Government jobs simply don't pay that well. There are people in government who care about doing their jobs well and ethically. I'm sure there were individual people working at AIG who were dismayed about the directions their bosses were taking, ethically and in terms of risk-taking.

Human sinfulness being what it is, our society, governmental structures, corporate structures, groups and individuals will always need to be adjusting to compensate for the advantage that self-seeking people will try to take of any system. Right now, the profit-making system holds sway. The human leaders of that system who pursued only profits have harmed too many families and individuals with their carelessness for providing care to the poor and the sick. They do not see themselves as being "with" the poor and the sick, or as being part of a society which is mutually interdependent.

Obviously, the same danger may surface with leaders and individuals working in government offices. But, at the least, they won't personally profit by refusing to be "with" the poor and the sick.

I've always tried to listen to everyone's POV, and although I disagree that the "good and workable suggestions" proposed by Republicans are sufficient to deal with this problem, I do think that leaders should heed what's valuable and true about them.

Church Formation?

Internet Monk's post on church de-formation or mal-formation and new formation (my words) are healthy and helpful for those leaving institutions masquerading as "church."

He wrote, "short of a view that certain Protestant congregations are the only portals to eternal life, it is hard to say that those who leave these churches are imperiling their souls. For many people, the peril of their souls is exactly why they are gone."

And…

"The current defense of the church may be necessary, but many of the assertions being made are not necessary and have about them the scent of males in power having far too much fun flirting with infallibility. The Christian ministry is one of the few places in our world that men can assert that they and their institutions must be submitted to in the name of God. That's heady stuff, and I'm not even close to being prepared to buy the bona fides of everyone who claims it."

Those of us who seek to follow Christ each day are bound to run up against hypocrisy – in ourselves and in others. We can't avoid it because we're still imperfectly "crucified with Christ"! The power against hypocrisy is repentance, confession and forgiveness, and any institution embodying self-assurance in and of itself (or in and of the priests' or ministers' "ordination") doesn't embody the self-sacrificing love and service of others which we see in Christ Jesus.

Lord, have mercy!

As Iron Sharpens Iron

Our daughter pulled a sharpening steel out of the drawer, tonight. The rest of us at the dinner table laughed and wondered what knife she was going to sharpen and why!

I was reading articles and posts about philosophical debates, today, too. All of the writings were by men arguing with other men.

Does it occur to us that what passes for "debates" is, too often, one side trying to win vs. another? I.e., the debate's goal seems not pursuing greater truth or exhibiting the "love of wisdom" (philo-sophia), but rather one intellect's victory over another's, one's worldview over another's. The raised arms of victory over another view's "foolishness" crown the conclusion.

Proverbs 27:17 states, "Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another." (NRSV)
In the NLT, "As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend."
The Tanakh translation is a more literal translation, "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the wit of his friend."

The problem I have with many debates is the goal of victory and triumph over any others. Isn't this simply another perverse form of proselytization by academic or philosophical warfare?

Be a Christian! No, be an Atheist! To be religious means you're an idiot. To be a non-believer means you're going to hell! Religion is anti-intellect, anti-logic, and anti-mind. Atheism is anti-god, anti-believer, and anti-order.

To return to the metaphor my daughter pulled out of the drawer...

Anyone who has sharpened a knife by hand realized that if our angle of sharpening is too high, we dull the blade rather than sharpen it. The knife sharpening experts recommend 15/20 degree beveled angles. In other words, the stone or sharpening steel is more alongside the knife than against it. It is counterproductive to confront the knife edge with a harsher angle. The Hebrew isn't impersonal; the one sharpening the wit of another is a companion or friend. In the context of wisdom literature, "love of wisdom" isn't a love of abstract, detached knowledge and logic but love of wise and thoughtful living in the companionship of fellow humans.

So, to those who love debating, may we examine the product of those arguments! Do you gain or lose friends of differing views? (We all know that gathering people of views similar to ours is the norm!) Do we fail at relating well to the person, or do we gain both increasing insight and relationships that last?

Finally, to make a comment on what may have seemed the "coincidence" of men's debates, may I offer another look at the infamous text most frequently cited vs. women?

1 Timothy 2:8, in my opinion, begins a discussion of negative gender paradigms in that culture. Paul began with the men, "I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument..." The Greek word for argument, dialogismos, has the meaning of a "verbal exchange that takes place when conflicting ideas are expressed, dispute, argument." (BDAG)

I've been around enough discussion boards to recognize that the disputes are most frequently dominated by men. There are some women in the fray, but many have told me in "asides" that they are quiet because they don't want to get beaten up in the "discussions."

Guys, please tell me. Is that a coincidence? Or, would you recognize Paul's admonition as countering a particularly male penchant for warfare - whatever the battlefield?

I love wisdom. I find philosophy intriguing, inspiring and provocative, at its best. But, the warfare, folks, the warfare has gotta go. Telling others they're stupid or hell-bent won't win them to your logic, but it may serve to beat them down into submission to your god. (That god isn't mine.) However, loving them and walking alongside them may build up and encourage them in wisdom.

Perception & Reception

An essential lesson that most parents learn - and one they hope their children learn, too - is that while we may correct or restrain our children from doing something dangerous, unethical, selfish, or harmful, those very corrections and restraints aren't received by our children as "love." Their reactions inform parents of their displeasure: temper tantrums, sulking, throwing toys, stomping, door slamming, sibling fights, and the like. As adults, we know the consequences that our children do not. We perceive correction, restraint and discipline as intrinsic to loving our children. We don't want them to harm themselves, others, or suffer the consequences of their bad actions. We want them to consider their actions well before they act. (As they age, the actions assume greater significance, involve more serious consequences, and attain life-changing proportions.) Parentally-imposed consequences of correction, restraint, and disciplinary action when children continue to act destructively, harmfully, selfishly, or carelessly, therefore, are essential to appropriate parental love. The Biblical definition of Love incorporates all of this. God's Love includes truth, justice, consequences, mercy, and the promotion of just actions. (The biblical definition of Love is distinguished here from the folk-religious understanding of love by the use of capital "L".)

The folk-religious, popular and facile definition of love relates love to feelings (e.g., "happiness"), emotions, and self-centered perception. Even the delivery of factual information regarding the inevitable results of one's choices, words and actions, is considered to be "unloving" and "judgmental." Consequentially, any correction, discipline and restraint are out of bounds between adults (even within voluntary organizations such as churches, or in corporations). Correction, restraint and discipline are also increasingly considered inappropriate, even unlawful, between parents and children in many areas.

It is certain that humans would prefer never to be informed that our actions are harmful to ourselves or others, never to be corrected, and never, ever to receive consequences for any act we commit, omit, or any errors we make. Thus, we misuse our reasoning abilities in order to externalize all the results we experience; i.e., we blame other people, circumstances, generalities, and Godself for the natural results of our choices, actions and words.

Pearl Mary-Teresa Richards Craigie (writing as John O. Hobbes): "Men heap together the 'mistakes' of their lives and create a monster they call, 'Destiny'." [NB: the quotation marks around 'mistakes' are mine, and reflect my understanding that many actions we retrospectively call, "mistakes", were intentionally committed at the time.]

The transformation we hope to see in our children, while continuing to parent appropriately and carefully, is the transformation in reception. Children growing into teenagers, and then into adults without this transformation will always tend to misperceive Parental Love. This Love includes boundary-setting, information, reality-checks, and then correction, discipline, consequences and encouragement to exhibit behavioral changes. Children receive that Love in a lump as Judgment. In actuality, judgment is not found in Loving (or even unloving!) discernment of error and warning of consequences. Judgment is realized consequences, whether good or bad. The Hindus name this result, Karma. "What goes around comes around." "You reap what you sow." Christians should not depose God as Judge by becoming judges ourselves, imposing consequences for one's situation, unless we're exercising godly authority in an appropriate position and setting, and being Spirit-led. (cf. James 2:1-7) In fact, without God, we may naturally misread another person's situation itself to be a verdict and judgment, when it's not that at all. (cf. John 9:1-5, or the Hindu caste system, or classism, or racism)

The transformation parents long for is in the reception: "can't you see that I discipline, correct, and restrain you because I love you?" We want our children to be re-wired to receive us as "loving" not as unloving Judges. In the parental role, we should impose just consequences on childish and selfish behaviors. Yet, we need to be judges within the context of Love, and we need to contextualize, interpret, and apply the reality of consequences to their level of understanding. We realize that our children need to grasp that there are good/bad bodily, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual consequences to every action, reaction, word, harbored thought, behavior, and habit. A friend who worked in an inner city high school for troubled youth once told me that all he did, day in and day out, was try to teach teenagers that there are consequences for every action. The older we get, the more baggage we accumulate, the stronger we resist correction, the harder it is to experience the transformation in reception.

There comes a time in each of our lives, though, when the "safer" and limited consequences that healthy parents impose are laid aside because they're overtaken by the harsher consequences that outsiders will carry out or that we receive in ourselves and our families. These consequences occur because we refuse correction in the name of a "happiness" which is marked by a presence of pleasure, with an avoidance of discomfort, responsibilities and self-discipline. Schools and teachers may impose disciplinary procedures upon children. Children may bully, ostracize, and physically hurt others because they don't know appropriate boundaries. Police, courts and prisons may get involved as children become disorderly, uncorrectable young adults. More unwise and untransformed adults form families. Dysfunctional marriages and maltreatment of spouses and children may result, creating a whole new generation of unreceptive, untransformed, unloving people. These people are not only unable to receive or offer Love, they simply cannot even perceive Love. Because of this inability to face themselves internally and assess the real consequences of their own choices, they externalize the blame - they "create a monster they call, 'Destiny'."

They've missed the message of God's holy and holistic Love: "Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature." -- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

We grasp the despair of God lamenting over his children when we lament over untransformed, unreceptive and unwelcoming people around us: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.'" (Matt. 23:37-39)

Let us welcome Love, today!

Warring YouTube Videos

These videos should remind us how important reconciliation is. The status quo is not acceptable. Alienation in all its manifestations is not "peace." Alienation manifests as passive division, active divisiveness, injustice, lies, slander, gossip, divorce, barriers, walls, and wars.

Ephesians 2

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it."

Israeli cell phone advertisement

Palestinian response

How Narrow the Gate

There seems to be a common thread in pastoral conversation with folks in crisis. "But, what will I do if this or that happens?" This is a very difficult question for a pastor to answer because it involves things we cannot know in advance about circumstances, specific situations, or even more problematically, people's choices, reactions, and emotions. As I was pondering the responses I've felt led to give to those seeking my advice for handling a crisis, Jesus' words about the narrow gate struck me afresh.

If a gate is very narrow, consider how difficult it is to see it until you're right smack dab in front of it. In other words, we simply cannot see that gate through which we walk until we're within a few steps of that gate. For we who are naturally planners and controllers of life, the very idea of not knowing where the gate lies to navigate through a situation, a relational crisis or earthquake, an obstacle or conniving person in our professional path, etc., makes us absolutely nuts! "What do you mean, I won't know until I'm there how to handle it? But, you won't be with me in that moment to coach me through the crisis (or the conversation, or the conflict)! I need you to tell me what to do, what to say, and when and where to say it!"

Jesus seems to be saying we cannot know ahead of time; however, we know now that the Holy Spirit is there with us in that moment, at that gate, and ready to guide us, BUT…

Let's look at the context surrounding Matthew 7:13-14 to understand how the Lord wants us to prepare and proceed, and also, let's consider what this narrow gate means to ourselves.

In the immediate context, we prepare ahead by focusing on God: asking, seeking, and knocking at God's door – we may sit quietly, wait patiently, lament with psalms, or request humbly, "please, Lord, help me handle this crisis well!"

We prepare also by focusing on the concerns of the other person, and God's call to love our neighbor as ourselves. With even more impossible a degree of human difficulty, we're called to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44): this is the summation of the commandments and the Prophets – Jesus said, "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you."

Gulp! Now, we're at the narrow gate. We quickly discover, however, that the gate is far too small for us!!! There is no human way we can squeeze through that door. The Greek word, stenos, which is translated "narrow" also carries connotations of being distressed, cramped and confined.

The response I gave to one person who was agonizing over what to do IF and WHEN further crises arose in the grave, life-changing conflict that faced them is indicative of what we need to do when faced with that narrow, impossible to squeeze through gate. I felt led to put my hand on their shoulder, stand next to them and point into middle distance before us: "do you see Jesus' back, there? Follow him!"

We are called to humble ourselves, deny ourselves, die to ourselves, pick up the cross and follow Jesus. Faced with God at the narrow gate, we need to be small enough, humble enough, faithful enough, trusting enough, and willing to die to our selfish interests to get through it. We believe in the God who resurrects new life out of that self-reducing, self-emptying death we must face to love the other, to love the enemy we're facing – even if that enemy is the very one who "promised," "vowed" and is "supposed to" love us forever. (Read the lead-up situations in Matthew 5, prior to Jesus' call to "love our enemies"; the enemies listed which are the most difficult to handle faithfully may be part of our families, workplaces, and communities.)

That narrow gate seems impossible in our minds and to our selfish desires. We want another gate. That "other" gate is in front of us, too. Look, it has another shepherd who appears gentle and innocuous, much less threatening to our instincts for self-preservation! That shepherd makes us feel happy about ourselves and our choices. We feel great relief that we don't have to do the impossible; so, we don't enter that narrow gate.

And so, we begin to journey on that broad and easy road of self-deception when we choose to turn away from the narrow gate that evidences how impossible it is for us to love one another as God loves us.

May we follow Christ, and today be "doers of the Word" – acting on the impossible by allowing God to humble us in the face of our own self-serving and other-denying ways so that we may be "fit" through that narrow gate. May we build upon the rock, trust the invisible God who will show us the way to walk if we've the courage to die to ourselves, our ambitions, and our ideas of how to achieve "happiness."