Discovering the Real Jesus in Monroe

IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THEN YOU ARE RICH

The silly and heretical “prosperity gospel” (an oxymoron if there ever was one) tells us that God wants to “prosper us” in the sense of making us rich. Or, making us richer. For the “prosperity advocate” the cry “More, Lord!” has to do with money and things.

Consider this absurd scenario. I’m now writing this on my laptop and I cry out to God, “Give me a laptop, Lord!” How odd, because I already have a laptop and am writing on it. Analogously, how odd for an American Christian to cry out for “prosperity” (in the sense of money and things) as they are prosperous already. What’s going on here is simply gluttonous, like a person who has just eaten a 32-ounce steak and then burps, “More steak, Lord!”

Richard Stearns puts things this way. He writes that the good news is: “You’re rich, we’re rich, and the Church in America is rich.” (215) Do you have a laptop? Most people in the world do not have a laptop. A whole lot of people cannot even read, not because they are stupid, but because they are denied an education. If you make more than $25,000 per year “you are wealthier than approximately 90 percent of the world’s population!” (Ib.) Stearns asks us to “remember, of the 6.7 billion people on earth, almost half of them live on less than two dollars a day.” (Ib.) How positively weird and gluttonous to be sitting in a coffee shop looking at one’s laptop with a sense of impoverishment. Think of seeing some church on TV where people wearing nice clothes cry out for God to prosper them.

But a lot of people with a cup of coffee and a laptop don’t feel rich. So what’s going on? Stearns says “if you don’t feel rich, it’s because you are comparing yourself to people who have more than you do – those living above even the 99th percentile of global wealth. It’s also because we tend to gauge whether or not we are wealthy based on the things we don’t have.” (Ib., 215-216)

Yes, there are a lot of people in America who have a newer and bigger car than I have. While that’s simply a fact, if this fact is accompanied by even a slight sense of lack, then I have a deep spiritual problem, since “93 percent of the world’s people don’t own a car.” (Ib., 216) Stearns summarizes: “Our difficulty is that we see our American lifestyles as normative, when in fact they are grossly distorted compared to the rest of the world. We don’t believe we are wealthy, so we don’t see it as our responsibility to help the poor. We are deceived.” (Ib., 216, emphasis mine, and emphasis on me as I am not in the place to write with the experience, compassion, and conviction Stearns writes with.)

Do you ever think about things like this? I am. What the heck is an American Christian like me to do with verses like 1 Timothy 6:17-19? Shall we cut them out of my Bible, as a younger Jim Wallis once wondered? (Ib., 23-24) That would create a great “hole in our Gospel.” God, just what do You expect from us? Whatever else I do with those words of instruction from Paul to Timothy, I cannot waste my time in displays of creative rationalization that end with an appeal to pity on behalf of my own coffee-drinking laptop-surfing poor, deprived self.

I just returned from Bangkok. On the plane ride home I read Stearns’s book. I don’t quite know what to do with myself right now. I’m not panicking. I’m also not running. I take comfort in the fact that Stearns didn’t know what to do, either, as he drove his Jaguar to church faithfully on Sundays and other days. Throughout his book Stearns confesses, ”I feel so ashamed…”

I can choose to do better today. Follow God today. Then, trust God today. I can look at something like 1 Timothy 6:17-19 and use it to guide my next decision.

17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

“Command those who are rich in this present world…” By the way, that’s you and me.

DON’T APOLOGIZE FOR ANYTHING

As Jesus hung on the cross he did not say, “Father, have them apologize, for they don’t know what they do.” This word “apology” has the sense of “making a defense,” as in 1 Peter – always be ready to give a defense (”apologeo”) to everyone who asks you about the hope that is within you, doing so with gentleness and respect.” Apology is a mono-splendored thing. It’s one-sided. Apology requires nothing of the other person.

This is not so with the more robust, relational act of confession and forgiveness. To confess is stronger than to apologize because of its two-fold nature. Which is: 1) I was wrong about….; 2) would you forgive me for this? Just say those words the next time you hurt someone. I think they are harder to say for some very important reasons. But it can lead to: 3) the other cancels indebtedness.

Act I

To confess is to be vulnerable. In pure confession there is not a hint of defense. In “apology” the victim-words ‘but,’ or ‘however,’ are in the room with you. Confession is soul-bareing stuff. “I” am responsible for what I did/said to you. At this point the sealed and secured door into one’s heart is opened. There’s always the risk that the other might drop a grenade into it. Apology seems safer than this. But apology is not as powerful and effective as confession.

Act II

Confession’s second act is the request. Will you forgive me? Will you cancel the debt? I am in bondage to you. I owe you, as I well know. Forgive me. Set me free.

Act III

The offended person says the words, “I forgive you.” I cancel the debt. I won’t make you pay for what you did. You owe me nothing in regard to this. Of course, if money was stolen or a material thing broken the offender must pay this back. If one’s reputation was smeared the offender needs to go to make things right with other people. If an entire tribe is involved that understands forgiveness, then one may have to publicly confess, not for the sake of greater humiliation, but for greater personal and corporate freedom. But it must be noted that the one who does the forgiving could well cancel physical indebtedness as well, if God so leads.

Why cancel the debts of others who have wounded us? Because, by the wounds of Christ, your wounding of others and even your God-and-self-wounding have been cancelled. Those who deeply know this are able to forgive others. This act takes us way beyond the narrow scope of apology into the rarified air of the love of God. For me, at this point, it is instructive to note that I am not there yet, since recently I felt irritated at someone who looked at me the wrong way (as if I could alway judge this!). Years ago the singing group “Out of the Grey” wrote a song called “Three Beautiful Words.” They are not: “I apologize to you.” (I know, that’s four words…)

They are: “I… forgive… you.”

BOREDOM

A person can work at a job for hours and the time is dripping like molasses down the wall like a Salvador Dali clock. One student sits in class bored out of their skull while another student is fully engaged and time is not noticed.

I live in an America where we are all bored out of our minds. Evidence for our cultural boredom is seen in things like: our inability to be still; our non-reflectiveness; the Facebook Nation and its many games; oxymoronish appeals that couple money, sex, and power; the mass marketing of diversions; the loss of true happiness (see Aristotle [eudaimonia], and J.P. Moreland); “church” as entertainment of the masses; the outrageous divorce rate. especially among “Christians”; and the Kierkegaardian herds of people “at loose ends.”

“At loose ends.” Like dangling strings flapping in the wind untied. Loss of integrity. Anomie.

Anomie: a personal condition resulting from a lack of norms. Sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote that “…The state of anomie is impossible whenever interdependent organs are sufficiently in contact and sufficiently extensive. If they are close to each other, they are readily aware, in every situation, of the need which they have of one-another, and consequently they have an active and permanent feeling of mutual dependence.” “Durkheim defined the term anomie as a condition where social and/or moral norms are confused, unclear, or simply not present. Durkheim felt that this lack of norms–or preaccepted limits on behavior in a society–led to deviant behavior.”

Anomie = Lack of Regulation / Breakdown of Norms (Ib.)

The bored person lacks life-meaning. The meaning of “meaning” is: fitness within a context. One reason we don’t get a joke is that we fail to understand the context. Where there is no context there is no joy.

The Christian theistic context is the biblical metanarrative. I believe this metanarrative is true, using, among other things, the logic of inference to the best explanation. This explains how I “fit” into the greater scheme of things.

Be honest now. Some “churches” are boring. Why? They’ve lost their sense of fitness in the Grand Narrative. THE MOVEMENT is not boring.

Here’s from their website: “The Home for Bible Translators and Scholars in Jerusalem, Inc. (HBT) is a nonprofit ministry supporting translators and scholars from around the world to deepen their knowledge of the original Hebrew language and the context of the Old Testament Bible while studying in Israel. The main service offered by HBT is a six-month study program in partnership with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that is specifically designed for Bible translators and consultants. The Hebrew University is fully accredited with about 25,000 students. Since 1995, the Home for Bible Translators has helped train 82 Bible translators, consultants, scholars, and Bible students from 29 countries representing 57 language translation projects. Through God’s strength, HBT-trained translators and their teams will make it possible for over 68 million people to read the Old Testament in their own language.”

Our weekend schedule:

Saturday night, 7 PM – worship + Hal & Mirja teaching on The Culture of Israel and Understanding the Bible.

Sunday morning, 10:30 AM – “Psalm 23 from the Perspective of the Desert” – Hal

Sunday evening, 7 PM – worship + Hal & Mirja teaching on Jewish Understanding of the New Testament.

I am thrilled that Hal & Mirja will be with us. They are both great scholars and passionate Jesus-followers. It promises to be a very rich experience this weekend at Redeemer!

To nourish my soul this week I’m going to:

• take much time alone with God
• re-meditate on John chapters 14-17
• listen to music
• get outside and ponder God’s creation
• remember blessings
• enjoy my family
• eat well
• exercise
• turn off the TV and read
• pray about struggles
• cast my burdens upon God (1 Peter 5:7)
• pray for others
• take pictures (always carry your camera with you)
• laugh
• love others
• be led by God
• remember that I am not alone
• live in gratitude
• write in my journal
• host the presence of God

When you die the world will not stand up and take notice. The event of your expiration will go unattended to, except for a few people who will be the equivalent of, perhaps, a hundred grains of sand on the entire Pacific coast shoreline. Out of those hundred grains of sand most will quickly leave your memory behind as they discuss the fried chicken and potato salad at your funeral luncheon.

What about your family? If you were married and your marriage was a good one, your surviving spouse will grieve your loss. The better your marriage was, the easier they will move on without you. If your marriage was lousy, they will lie awake at night filled with the bitterness of unfinished business, words of love never said, pain inflicted and suffered. At times they may wish they could forget you, but they cannot, and the thought occasionally comes to them that they wasted a lot of years being married to you.

(Monroe)

I was recently sitting in a restaurant reading John chapters 14-17, looking closely at the verses where Jesus tells us to love one another with the kind of love Father, Son, and Spirit have in the perichoretic union. Then a person walks in that I have not seen in many years. When I saw them a feeling of hatred towards them arose inside of me. I remember the things they did a long time ago that hurt a lot of people. I know these things because, though they did not come to my church, they were pointed my way and came for help. This particular person rejected my counsel and continued to make choices that devasted many people. They crucified a lot of people, including their own family members.

Now, coming though the restaurant door, was this person. Inside me there is this feeling. I’ll call it hatred. I am sure no one would have been able to tell what was happening inside of me. But I knew. And God knew. The God-thought that came to me was: “I have a problem with love.” I know. I’ve known about it for a long time. In my recent times with God my love-problem has been focal, especially over the last six months. Add to this the fact that we are now preaching John 14-17 on Sunday mornings and it all adds up to me being unable to get away from the centrality and supremacy of love.

Love, for Jesus-followers, is not optional. It is, simply, the “greatest” (1 Corinthians 13). Without love a person is “nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). Jesus said: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:12-14) It does not take a rocket scientist to understand this logic.

But, I rationalize, this person is not my friend! To this Jesus says, “I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” I hear you Jesus. So just what kind of love do You want from me? Jesus said, “Righteous Father…, I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

I am swimming in the thick, rich teriyaki sauce of God’s deep Triune Love, and gasping for breath, wanting more of it because I have so little God-love in me and because, cognitively, I know that the love of God is the answer for this world today. In Christian theology love comes before power; indeed, before all things. Mercy wins out over judgment. Power-freaks take note: love is the greatest. Power without love is halloween-scary.

I’m asking God to remove the love-mask from my face and transform my heart into His heart. The answer as I now see it is: abide in Him, dwell in Him, trust Him. Jesus’ promise in John 14-17 is that, even though my “love” falls short, He wants to give me His love. “In order that the love you (Father) have for me (Jesus) may be in them (you and me).”

1) Trust – because in areas where one trusts worry is absent. The amount of worry is in inverse proportion to the amount of trust.

2) Trust in God – because one’s object of trust must be able to provide.

3) Provision – needs are what are needed, not wants.

4) Be free of the consumer god – the message of American consumerism is: “You don’t have enough if you don’t yet have this.”

A while ago I received a call from someone who does not attend my church. They wanted my time. I gave it to them. But I did think, “I’m spending my time on someone who will be of no advantage to me, so this seems to be a waste of my time.” Now that is not the heart of Jesus. It comes from, I believe, a lack of trust that produces the sleepless fruit of worry.

When I am completely purged of QW I will be fully free to spend my life on others. That’s my prayer, and I’m trusting that God is doing this in me.

(Masada)

I’m preaching this Sunday on John 14:15-17:

Jesus said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

This week I’m marinating in the teriyaki sauce of these Jesus-words. Here’s one thought…

“If you love me, you will obey what I command,” is a conditional statement. Like, e.g., “If it rains, the ground gets wet.” Both these statements are true. But note this: this statement is not necessarily true – “If the ground gets wet, then it’s raining.” In logic this is called the fallacy of affirming the consequent. So also this statement is not necessarily true: “If I obey what Jesus commands, then I love him.” Maybe. But not necessarily. One could obey, e.g., like the Pharisees obeyed; viz., in some religious sense. The Jesus-idea here is that when one dwells in Jesus (lives within the perichoretic triune-Godhead), then it inexorably follows that one will “obey” what Jesus commands. This is huge, it being all the difference between relationship with God and religious law-abiding duty.