Some might say community begins with opening up to other people. I believe it begins with transparency before God. Two people, each in a trusting relationship with God, when they come together, have the basis and possibility of real community. If I am open before God and fully trust him and you are too, we cannot help but find a way to trust each other.
The work in a relationship is not in hammering out agreements and contracts. The hard work is making room for Christ in the relationship. And it is not really that hard. It actually takes less effort to include the Lord than to exclude him. On the other hand, a hardened attitude of self-sufficiency is a community killer.
There are steps that we can take to prepare ourselves for dynamic Christ-centered community.
1. Give God everything, the good and the bad. In 2 Samuel 22 David writes: "God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him."
God is ready to act. But he must have all the pieces. To hold back anything from God is self-sabotaging and relationship sabotaging.
2. Give God something new to work with. David said, "When I cleaned up my act, he gave me a fresh start."
New attitudes, new priorities and new values become the building blocks of a fresh start. This is the essence of repentance, which is the only way we have of showing our love for God. Jesus said, "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you" (John 14:15).
3. Examine God's ways and align with him. David goes on, "I've kept alert to God's ways; I haven't taken God for granted. Everyday I review the ways he works, I try not to miss a trick."
Strategic planning that takes no account of God's involvement is no better than aimless living. This principle is expressed beautifully in the following prayer, penned by Russian Orthodox bishop Philaret of Moscow: "Help me to rely upon your holy will at every moment.... Teach me to treat whatever may happen to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that your will governs all."
The story of Job teaches us that while God's ways cannot be second-guessed, they can be discerned with open eyes and ears. Job says, "I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all first hand--from my own eyes and ears" (Job 42:5).
St. Paul also helps us understandGod's generosity in revealing his plans to us who trust him. "God's wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don't find it lying around on the surface.... But you've seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open for you.... The Spirit brings out what God planned all along" (1 Cor. 2:7-10).
4. Cooperate with God's restorative work in you. David put it this way: "I feel put back together, and I'm watching my step."
After the total devastation of his life, and a stern, confrontational conversation with God, Job finally grasps the attitude he needs: "I'm convinced," he says to God, "You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans."
Now, God gives Job a ministry of intercession for the friends whose counsel had not been wise or helpful, and whose own relationships with God were in trouble. Job prays for his friends and God is pleased to answer his request. Why did God require Job to pray? By seeking the spiritual restoration of his friends, Job's active ministry of prayer reestablished him in healthy human community and prepared him to receive the restoration of his former wealth. But now it would be with a fresh appreciation with the proper attitude about the value of people and the value of money. "The good-hearted understand what it's like to be poor, the hardhearted haven't the faintest idea (Proverbs 29:7).
5. Get ready for a new autobiography. David concludes his thought: "God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes."
David was an adulterer and murderer. Moses committed murder in the Egyptian slave camp. Rahab was a prostitute. Paul was a committed persecutor of Christians. Get the idea? Because they cooperated with God's restorative work, the story of their lives was rewritten with the God-glorifying alternate ending.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Correctly discerning the free gift of eternal life
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the last verse in St. Paul's discussion of grace. It is most often quoted to invite people to pray a sinner's prayer and be saved. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 6 defines grace as God's aggressive forgiveness of sin. The phrase aggressive forgiveness helps us understand God as the initiator. Forgiveness comes at a high price, namely the reconciling, atoning death of Jesus. I cannot initiate eternal life with any amount of money or effort. Any life worth living must be lived in God's household on God's terms and from resources that God provides.
Paul clearly believes that God's household has a front door, called baptism. Some people come alone, others with their whole family. To understand verse 23, you have to read it through the prism of the middle of the chapter, say verses 3-9. Here is some of it....
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.... We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.... You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus.
With entry into the household come the lavish resources of God, including the free gift of eternal life.
The economy outside God's household resembles freedom. Each person has totally free will. So, if you spend your life distancing yourself from God, you will pay yourself what you request. We get to do whatever we please and earn the pension of death. On the other hand, as members of God's household we freely choose to consider ourselves dead to sin and thereby receive the pension of eternal life.
I don't believe in transactional baptism. Water is not a magic brew and "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" is not a magic incantation. I believe rather, in covenantal baptism by which something very real takes place in the context of a faith community. Baptism makes present God's "aggressive forgiveness" for the baptized and for witnesses. The other active ingredient is personal desire. If I want God's forgiveness, he freely grants it. Cooperation in the baptismal event signals my desire to God and so he releases his grace in my life.
You can establish a pre-baptismal relationship with God that is based on the baptismal covenant and rooted in God's promise to answer all who call on him. Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known (Jeremiah 33:3, NRSV). Among those "hidden things" are recovery and healing and abundant life (33:6). The baptismal covenant is between God and the community of those who trust him. An unbaptized person can enjoy covenantal blessings simply by association and alignment with the community of those who trust God in Christ. God answers those who call him.
But there is danger to be avoided here: That of reducing water baptism to a mere representation of an inward reality, which logically, would make the whole issue of baptism moot, because it would become optional. It would be correct to regard water baptism as an outward manifestation of certain spiritual realities. First, emancipation from the wages of sin. And secondly, reception into the eternal, committed community of Christ, each one walking in newness of life. This is key: The spiritual reality of forgiveness, community and new life demands an initiation. That is why Jesus mandated it. Therefore, no unbaptized Christ-follower should intentionally delay reception of baptism or consider it to be optional.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the last verse in St. Paul's discussion of grace. It is most often quoted to invite people to pray a sinner's prayer and be saved. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 6 defines grace as God's aggressive forgiveness of sin. The phrase aggressive forgiveness helps us understand God as the initiator. Forgiveness comes at a high price, namely the reconciling, atoning death of Jesus. I cannot initiate eternal life with any amount of money or effort. Any life worth living must be lived in God's household on God's terms and from resources that God provides.
Paul clearly believes that God's household has a front door, called baptism. Some people come alone, others with their whole family. To understand verse 23, you have to read it through the prism of the middle of the chapter, say verses 3-9. Here is some of it....
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.... We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.... You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus.
With entry into the household come the lavish resources of God, including the free gift of eternal life.
The economy outside God's household resembles freedom. Each person has totally free will. So, if you spend your life distancing yourself from God, you will pay yourself what you request. We get to do whatever we please and earn the pension of death. On the other hand, as members of God's household we freely choose to consider ourselves dead to sin and thereby receive the pension of eternal life.
I don't believe in transactional baptism. Water is not a magic brew and "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" is not a magic incantation. I believe rather, in covenantal baptism by which something very real takes place in the context of a faith community. Baptism makes present God's "aggressive forgiveness" for the baptized and for witnesses. The other active ingredient is personal desire. If I want God's forgiveness, he freely grants it. Cooperation in the baptismal event signals my desire to God and so he releases his grace in my life.
You can establish a pre-baptismal relationship with God that is based on the baptismal covenant and rooted in God's promise to answer all who call on him. Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known (Jeremiah 33:3, NRSV). Among those "hidden things" are recovery and healing and abundant life (33:6). The baptismal covenant is between God and the community of those who trust him. An unbaptized person can enjoy covenantal blessings simply by association and alignment with the community of those who trust God in Christ. God answers those who call him.
But there is danger to be avoided here: That of reducing water baptism to a mere representation of an inward reality, which logically, would make the whole issue of baptism moot, because it would become optional. It would be correct to regard water baptism as an outward manifestation of certain spiritual realities. First, emancipation from the wages of sin. And secondly, reception into the eternal, committed community of Christ, each one walking in newness of life. This is key: The spiritual reality of forgiveness, community and new life demands an initiation. That is why Jesus mandated it. Therefore, no unbaptized Christ-follower should intentionally delay reception of baptism or consider it to be optional.
Thursday, July 29, 2004
What Drives Your Life?
Perfectionism is a destructive driver in life and it must be rejected as a part of any endeavor to align with God's plan for my life. Someone might ask, is not a rejection of perfectionism a rejection of a key component of being true to God's will? After all, it was Jesus himself who said, Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.
The key to fulfilling that verse is to embrace God's role in it. Only God can supply what is needed for me to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Perfectionism is rooted in a wrong-headed paradigm wherein I must try to supply, out of my own lack, what is lacking in order to attain god-like perfection. How can I supply what I lack? It is foolish to try. It's like trying to pay bills out of an empty checking account. That is a paralyzing and frustrating plan.
We need a correct understanding of what the Bible means when it uses the word "perfect." Good synonyms would be clean and complete. So Jesus means that, 'I want you to invite God to clean you from the inside out so he can move in and complete your personhood, guiding you to flesh-out the image of God in you.'
Perfectionisn has deep roots at the very beginning of the human story. Eve, and subsequently, Adam were duped into perfectionism. In the Garden, God supplied their every need. They lacked nothing.
Enter Satan the Liar. He was able to convince Eve that her paradigm was off. A few doubt- inducing questions would do the trick. Could God really be trusted for everything? Don't you want to know? You will not die from disobeying God. You will become like him. Don't you want to be like God? Adam and Eve became convinced that they could indeed discover new knowledge from which God had been protecting them. They acted out of a wrong-headed paradigm that their action would meet a need that God had left unmet by not properly lining up the supply of knowledge with their demand for it. There was a fundamental shift in their outlook. It seemed small and sincerely motivated. But they soon discovered the lie. Too late. They had breached their trust with God.
Perfectionism is a self-imposed prison that incapacitates your ability to enjoy God's fellowship, be true to yourself and hear your vocation in life.
We don't "get over" perfectionism. We are rescued from it, because we simply don't have the inner resources to resist its insidious pull. The rescue comes in the person of Jesus who gives us a way back to a relationship with God characterized by total trust that everything we need, he will lavishly provide. Isn't it fitting that the antedote to a selfish partaking of forbidden fruit that imprisons the human soul is the lavish self-offering of God's Son--received in the Eucahrist.
St. Paul wrote to the Galatians: Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? (The Message, 392).
Christ redeemed us from self-defeating (perfectionism). We are all able to receive God's life, his Spirit, in us and with us by believing. (The Message, 393)
The key to fulfilling that verse is to embrace God's role in it. Only God can supply what is needed for me to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Perfectionism is rooted in a wrong-headed paradigm wherein I must try to supply, out of my own lack, what is lacking in order to attain god-like perfection. How can I supply what I lack? It is foolish to try. It's like trying to pay bills out of an empty checking account. That is a paralyzing and frustrating plan.
We need a correct understanding of what the Bible means when it uses the word "perfect." Good synonyms would be clean and complete. So Jesus means that, 'I want you to invite God to clean you from the inside out so he can move in and complete your personhood, guiding you to flesh-out the image of God in you.'
Perfectionisn has deep roots at the very beginning of the human story. Eve, and subsequently, Adam were duped into perfectionism. In the Garden, God supplied their every need. They lacked nothing.
Enter Satan the Liar. He was able to convince Eve that her paradigm was off. A few doubt- inducing questions would do the trick. Could God really be trusted for everything? Don't you want to know? You will not die from disobeying God. You will become like him. Don't you want to be like God? Adam and Eve became convinced that they could indeed discover new knowledge from which God had been protecting them. They acted out of a wrong-headed paradigm that their action would meet a need that God had left unmet by not properly lining up the supply of knowledge with their demand for it. There was a fundamental shift in their outlook. It seemed small and sincerely motivated. But they soon discovered the lie. Too late. They had breached their trust with God.
Perfectionism is a self-imposed prison that incapacitates your ability to enjoy God's fellowship, be true to yourself and hear your vocation in life.
We don't "get over" perfectionism. We are rescued from it, because we simply don't have the inner resources to resist its insidious pull. The rescue comes in the person of Jesus who gives us a way back to a relationship with God characterized by total trust that everything we need, he will lavishly provide. Isn't it fitting that the antedote to a selfish partaking of forbidden fruit that imprisons the human soul is the lavish self-offering of God's Son--received in the Eucahrist.
St. Paul wrote to the Galatians: Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? (The Message, 392).
Christ redeemed us from self-defeating (perfectionism). We are all able to receive God's life, his Spirit, in us and with us by believing. (The Message, 393)
Perfectionism
I tend to be a perfectionist, which is not necessarily a good thing. I'm coming to understand perfectionism as a paralyzing disorder. It's key symptom is theoretical over-analysis. Important things never get done because the analysis phase is unending. Not sure why I have this disorder, but I have to treat it with reality, truth and action.
- It takes as much effort to do something as to do nothing. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus to learn what was expected of him, Jesus called him to radical action. "Sell what you own and follow me." The young man rejected the call. His expended effort was different in outcome, but not really different in amount. Selling is not harder than keeping.
- God is guiding me. He is beyond my analytical capabilities, so simple trust is called for. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. (Ephesians 3:12, The Message)
- If I act on what I believe God wants me to do, I cannot make a mistake. Abraham misunderstood God when he set out to sacrifice Isaac. God prevented the mistake of human sacrifice, but rewarded Abraham's faith nonetheless.
- Improvement, not perfectionism, is the building block of accomplishment. To be perfect, in the Christian sense, means that nothing is lacking, because God is present. Perfectionism, on the other hand, is the attempt to supply what only God can. We improve our Christian effectiveness by relying on God more and on ourselves less. God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. (Ephesians 3:20, The Message)
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Not my job to find and anoint the true church
Does the Lord really expect all believers to correctly choose the ecclesial community that is the one and only true one? For a long time I have felt that burden, until it paralyzed me spiritually and robbed me of joy and hope.
There is much to love about Orthodoxy: the worship is Christo-centric and there is valid claim of historical precedence and faithfulness to the Gospel. I can be at home in an Orthodox community.
There is no shortage of vibrant local Roman Catholic parishes, in the sense that the worship is vibrant and social justice is on the agenda. Catholic parishes don't get community, by my observation. Holy Family in Inverness is the exception.
Protestant churches are all over the map theologically and very few get the Biblical teaching about the Eucharist right. You would think it would be very easy to believe Jesus' own words. Instead every effort is made not to appear to be catholic. But the evangelical churches do seem to have a handle on community. When I attend an evangelical church, I often have the unmistakable sense that "these people care about me."
It is clear to me that every one of these Churches is full of people who love the Lord and seek to please him.
Last Sunday, at Holy Family Catholic there was an altar call after the service. We were invited to place our hands on the altar and leave our spiritual burdens and take the spiritual blessings we needed. I participated in this exercise and came away with a strong sense that it is not my burden to anoint the true church.
For me the issue has to be about my being open to community. Needing other people and letting them need me. No matter what faith community I invest myself in, I will be in the unique position of being called to help them build bridges to others in the Christian family who may be at different places on the theological spectrum.
There is much to love about Orthodoxy: the worship is Christo-centric and there is valid claim of historical precedence and faithfulness to the Gospel. I can be at home in an Orthodox community.
There is no shortage of vibrant local Roman Catholic parishes, in the sense that the worship is vibrant and social justice is on the agenda. Catholic parishes don't get community, by my observation. Holy Family in Inverness is the exception.
Protestant churches are all over the map theologically and very few get the Biblical teaching about the Eucharist right. You would think it would be very easy to believe Jesus' own words. Instead every effort is made not to appear to be catholic. But the evangelical churches do seem to have a handle on community. When I attend an evangelical church, I often have the unmistakable sense that "these people care about me."
It is clear to me that every one of these Churches is full of people who love the Lord and seek to please him.
Last Sunday, at Holy Family Catholic there was an altar call after the service. We were invited to place our hands on the altar and leave our spiritual burdens and take the spiritual blessings we needed. I participated in this exercise and came away with a strong sense that it is not my burden to anoint the true church.
For me the issue has to be about my being open to community. Needing other people and letting them need me. No matter what faith community I invest myself in, I will be in the unique position of being called to help them build bridges to others in the Christian family who may be at different places on the theological spectrum.
Community
Community is a deeply satisfying experience of belonging. Anyone can experience it because community meets the human need to be accepted in the context of knowing and being known. While the tasks of obtaining food, safety and shelter often mask the need for community, one's deeply satisfying experience of belonging becomes the cornerstone of economic and emotional prosperity. Conversely, sustained avoidance of community is a reliable predictor for economic and emotional disaster.
There was a definite process by which one made people into friends, and it involved talking to them and listening to them for hours at a time.
Rebecca West (1892 - 1983)
There was a definite process by which one made people into friends, and it involved talking to them and listening to them for hours at a time.
Rebecca West (1892 - 1983)
Democratic Convention's Only Pro-Life Speaker Backs Destructive Research
Democratic Convention's Only Pro-Life Speaker Backs Destructive Research
A favorite formula that allows politicians to state a value and take a swipe at the opposition in the same sentence might read: "We can (insert proposition here)without (insert antithesis here)."
For example: We can give health insurance to every American without overburdening the middle class with increasing taxes. Or, We can defend freedom without sacrificing one American life.
Little wonder that politicians are considered to lack basic honesty.
Ron Reagan at the DNC suggested that embryonic stem-cell research can be conducted without killing one fetus. Of course he understands the linguistic loophole he created. For he also must know that the research cannot be done without killing embryos. He is certain that innocent babies labeled embryo have no intrinsic value, a presumption that makes his position defensible in his own view. Such embryos do, in his view, have a only mechanistic value. Reagan took a swipe at the Pope, the Catholic Church and other pro-life Christians when he moralistically scolded those who oppose the sacrifice of human embryos as building their theology to stand in the way of huge medical advances.
What a shame that someone with the Reagan name is confusing moralism, the judging of values, with the moral virtue of standing in defense of defenseless babies.
A favorite formula that allows politicians to state a value and take a swipe at the opposition in the same sentence might read: "We can (insert proposition here)
For example: We can give health insurance to every American without overburdening the middle class with increasing taxes. Or, We can defend freedom without sacrificing one American life.
Little wonder that politicians are considered to lack basic honesty.
Ron Reagan at the DNC suggested that embryonic stem-cell research can be conducted without killing one fetus. Of course he understands the linguistic loophole he created. For he also must know that the research cannot be done without killing embryos. He is certain that innocent babies labeled embryo have no intrinsic value, a presumption that makes his position defensible in his own view. Such embryos do, in his view, have a only mechanistic value. Reagan took a swipe at the Pope, the Catholic Church and other pro-life Christians when he moralistically scolded those who oppose the sacrifice of human embryos as building their theology to stand in the way of huge medical advances.
What a shame that someone with the Reagan name is confusing moralism, the judging of values, with the moral virtue of standing in defense of defenseless babies.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Purpose Driven Life--Its Not About Me
Purpose Driven Life
Inspite of all the advertising around me, how can I remind myself that life is really about living for God, not myself?
This question is ancient. One problem we face today is that old questions tend to be overshadowed by new information of questionalble value. For example, a TV series called "It's Good to Be" never even wonders aloud if celebrity is inherently good, or not. It also does not touch on the downside of cecelebrity. That is saved for another program...E! Hollywood True Story.
People who want to live for God are labled fanatic, or irrelevent, by a culture that lacks a divine perspective. Even the religions and philosopies publically embraced by celebrities ultimately are only about how the philosophy "makes me a better person" or makes me feel better.
I've always wanted to live for God, though I readily admit my abysmal failure at the vocation. Why? Because my efforts have been about making myself feel right or justified in my well informed conclusions rather than being about knowing acting in concert with the persons of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The other evening a hymn from my childhood was rattling around in my head.
When we walk with the Lord, In the light of His Word/ What a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will/ He abides with us still/ And with all who will trust and obey.
How uttlerly orthodox this verse is. I can't think of a saint of the church who could not sing it with complete abandon. In fact, it is perhaps the best prescription for joining their holy ranks!
What can I do be continously reminded that my life is not about me, but about the Giver of Life and his purpose for putting me on this planet?
1. Be skeptical about cultural cues. TV does not add value to bankrupt ideas.
2. Be open to divine promptings and nudges. And act on them.
3. Remember that although history provides clues as to the ways and places of God's activity, he may ask you to do his work in new ways. His mercies never end. They are new every morning.
Inspite of all the advertising around me, how can I remind myself that life is really about living for God, not myself?
This question is ancient. One problem we face today is that old questions tend to be overshadowed by new information of questionalble value. For example, a TV series called "It's Good to Be
People who want to live for God are labled fanatic, or irrelevent, by a culture that lacks a divine perspective. Even the religions and philosopies publically embraced by celebrities ultimately are only about how the philosophy "makes me a better person" or makes me feel better.
I've always wanted to live for God, though I readily admit my abysmal failure at the vocation. Why? Because my efforts have been about making myself feel right or justified in my well informed conclusions rather than being about knowing acting in concert with the persons of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The other evening a hymn from my childhood was rattling around in my head.
When we walk with the Lord, In the light of His Word/ What a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will/ He abides with us still/ And with all who will trust and obey.
How uttlerly orthodox this verse is. I can't think of a saint of the church who could not sing it with complete abandon. In fact, it is perhaps the best prescription for joining their holy ranks!
What can I do be continously reminded that my life is not about me, but about the Giver of Life and his purpose for putting me on this planet?
1. Be skeptical about cultural cues. TV does not add value to bankrupt ideas.
2. Be open to divine promptings and nudges. And act on them.
3. Remember that although history provides clues as to the ways and places of God's activity, he may ask you to do his work in new ways. His mercies never end. They are new every morning.
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