Inwardness

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Sorry for the lack of posts lately.

I just got a new computer, and it's had some kinks.

Hopefully I'll have another one next week.

Take It Personally!

I do a lot of apologizing.

Those who apologize have little right to criticize the person they apologize to. And they have little ground to accuse the person they have wronged of insulting them.

There are exceptions to this.

Sometimes when I apologize to people, I hear them say, "Oh, it's okay. I didn't take it personally."

You didn't? Did you take my apology personally?

Really, it's the same thing as if they had said, "Oh, it's okay. I didn't take your actions seriously."

Does God to our actions personally? Does God take our actions seriously?

But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, `Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'

And I answered, `Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, `I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.'
Acts 22:6-8

Perhaps in Saul's mind he saw a difference between opposing and harming this new sect of believers and opposing and harming God's work on earth.

But whatever Saul was or was not thinking, God took the opposition against His work personally. Very personally indeed.

Not only is it easy to pretend as though our actions have no personal importance to us, it is sometimes considered to be the highest virtue.

"Don't take it personally."

But God takes our words, our thoughts, and our actions very seriously.

Just to name a few examples, Christ said that whatever we do unto the poor we are doing unto Christ himself. The Bible says that those who lend to the poor lend to God. When Annanias and Saphira kept a portion of the money after they sold their house and left another portion at the feet of Peter, he rebuked them saying, "You have not lied to men but to God."

And Christ himself has said that there will be many who will cry out to him, "Lord, Lord" -some of whom have performed miracles in Christ's name and cast out demons- who Christ will tell, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness."

And just as God warns us that he takes our actions personally, he also promises to personally recognize us for the things we have done.

And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.
Matthew 10:42

In God's economy, there is not a separation between the way we treat the least of people and the way we are treating God.

So we should remember to take our actions seriously, and personally, because God takes our wrongdoings and sins personally. And we should remember also that he takes personally the good things we do to our neighbor and to the least.

Going Beyond

Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
2 John 1:8-9

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
1 John 2:29

Johns letters warn believers about the dangers of going "beyond" the teachings of the gospel.

In our day it is easy to see how people get caught up in the promises of going beyond Christianity. They hear about how it would be great to not only have Christianity but to also go beyond it and have a large family, or to have a career, or to have science.

Or to have good political views.

Do these pursuits which on occasion pretend to go beyond Christianity offer promises we really believe to be higher than the claims of Christ?

I wonder, if a person were to be gravely wounded in a traffic accident (to the point where someone had sent for a priest), would such a person in their final moments instead call out, "No! Send for a scientist! I want to hear about the amazing wonders of green energy!"

Perhaps we do not really believe these alternative pursuits offer us something as valuable as Christianity, but we lack the faith to believe the rewards offered to us from God are real.

In the absence of visible confirmation and esteem from our friends we turn ourselves like sheep gone astray down paths with obvious rewards and obvious comforts instead of being truly rewarded and truly comforted.

A Matter Of Want

And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
Matthew 20:32

These days the words of our Lord are rarely meditated on as they were originally intended. Instead of searching for the depth that strengthens and fulfills, people try to search out everything and instead find nothing.

However unlikely it may be to find a verse like this mentioned in a sermon today (and even less likely to be commented on), an ordinary sermon would probably be content to note that Jesus cared about the needs of others and served them for the single and solitary purpose of setting an example for us to love others.

And not ourselves.

Yes, it is true. Jesus does want us to care for those God sends to us. This is perhaps the most successful way of expressing God's kingdom on earth. More imporantly than caring for others, however, is caring for others in a particular way:

The way we want to be cared for.

And so the cursory examination of the verse -which settles for mere appearances- fails to grasp the fullness of God's message. In this way we altogether miss the assurance He provides and the audacity with which He provides it to us.

Perhaps it would be easier to understand the audacity of Christ's question by contrasting to other questions, particularly the questions we ask.

'What do you need me to do for you?'
'What do you need me to do for the poor?'
'What does the community need me to do for the uneducated?'
'What does the world need to do to reform pollution standards?'

And so we spiral farther and farther from the heart of God as our questions lose their relevance to the godly desires God has placed in the center of our hearts.

The word translated to English as "need" does not appear very often in the Gospels.

When Jesus gave the sermon on the mount he noted the pagans desperately search for physical provisions: food, clothes, and shelter. The spirit of paganism is continually focused on needs and not on wants, and Jesus rebuked this spirit when he said, "your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things".

And again there was an occasion where many followers of Christ were listening to him preach and the disciples asked Jesus to let them go find food to eat. Their thoughts were on how people need physical food more than they need Jesus. But Jesus responded saying, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" Again, putting the emphasis on something other than what commonly passes for "needs".

But if there was one disciple who appealed to the needs of others more than anyone else it was Judas.

When the prostitute came and emptied the pure nard -the very expensive perfume- on the feet Jesus, it was Judas who suggested the perfume should have been sold and the money given away to the poor.

By the standards of this generation, Judas was a praiseworthy fellow. If such a person lived in our day he would be cajoled into running for office and have his face put on the cover of every magazine.

Yet, the person who appealed the most to the physical needs of others failed to recognize his own inner longing. Unlike the sick who came to Jesus to be healed, Judas had no knowledge of what he wanted Christ to do for him.

Unlike the gift of the woman which the Scriptures called "pure", Judas instead gave a suggestion in thievery which was corrupt. The woman received what she wanted from Jesus, and Judas also received his cravings: money.

May the children of God reflect on the power of their Lord to richly supply them with every gift for their pleasure as they meditate on and consider how strongly their weak and passing frames wish and long to serve and be with their master forever.

Amen.

Devotional Lives

Sorry I've been away so long. School is coming to an end.

I've been making some pictures of some of my heroes.

I made them to be displayed at a smaller size, but I think they look good large also.

Hit the jump for the third picture.






They're supposed to be mother Theresa, Soren Kierkegaard, and Mr. Rogers.

Three Excellent Stories

If you would have told me when I was putting this site together that I would spend a couple posts discussing women's beauty pagents, I would not have believed you. In addition to covering Katie Stam's Miss America victory -where she performed an interpretive dance to Via Dolorosa- I would like to say a few words about Carrie Prejean in the Miss USA pageant.

Carrie was asked by a blogger judge if she supported the legalization of homosexual marriage in the United States. The fact that this particular blogger judge -a militant homosexual- is a major scandal in itself. Carrie gave a very honest answer:

Well, I don't think that's right; I think marriage is between a man and a woman.[1] [2]

She was booed, heckled, and attacked. The blogger himself acknowledged she was the frontrunner and would have won if she had not answered that question. Some have spoken well of her for sticking up for her beliefs (and I share their opinion). Carrie is a student at a San Diego Bible college and works with charities to help disabled children while the blogger judge is known for little more than schmoozing with celebrities. It reminds me of this passage in Luke 6:24-26:

But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

Another excellent story has been penned by a theology professor who still teaches at my old school Biola. In it, he discusses the early period of Karl Barth's ministry when he was still very much involved in watering down Christianity.

During those years, Karl Barth wrote a piece on the recent sinking of the Titanic. You should read some of the excerpts:

There is a way of using technology, that cannot be called labour any more, but playful arrogance. It is arrogance to install theatres and fish-pools on a vessel exposed to these sort of risks … God will not be mocked. He certainly intends us to work and to achieve something in the world. But he does not intend us to act as though we were done with working, and could now go fooling around

The story ends with Karl Barth realizing his error: he was making Christianity out to have worldly importance, when those who truly understood Christianity found something in it that surprassed all worldly comparisons.

Barth's transformation involved setting aside his political views about how the government and technology are supposed to give us meaning in life. In the void of these visible, worldly things, he presented to his audience a person I believe to be the real Jesus.

The third story of this post involves a woman who decided to give up stripping to become a nun. The writer of this article is obviously poking fun at this woman, but there is something in his title worthy of note: "anything can happen".

"I was throwing away my life dancing for men. I was being used as a drug by people who wanted to see me dance."

Next week she will be in Rome to perform a ballet called Holy Dance, dedicated to episodes from the Bible, for senior cardinals and bishops.

In the ocean of scoffing, I saw many attacks on her physical beauty or accused lack thereof. I was surprised I didn't read anyone saying that it was easy for her to give up her stripping career now that she had become so old.

Although not a woman myself, I have seen something of the low esteem they often hold for themselves. Most women, I believe at that point in their lives would say, 'I've become worthless to God long ago, and now I'm worthless to the world!' But the way I read the story, the woman abandons the world's approval and clings in faith to God's strange and wonderful redemption of her life.

Three stories of mere devotion: a woman who lost all worldly approval for standing by her convictions, a preacher who learned how to look past the surface of world historical events, and a woman who learned to value herself by following Christ's example. Each story has something to teach those with ears to hear, to those who wish to learn the secrets of mere devotion.

Plus Ultra

A certain Hollywood actor made a name for himself playing biographic roles of famous people. The studios were won over by his talent, but when he was approached to play himself in a film about his own life he replied, "That is the one character I have no wish to play!"

Do idiots go to swim with crocodiles? No, not even idiots do that. Even idiots are full of schemes and calculation, and they stay away from the swamps were the crocodiles lurk. The only people who go to find the crocodiles are scientists and those who have given up on life.

Do not be eager in your heart to be angry,
For anger resides in the bosom of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:9

Plato and Diogenes went to the supermart together. As they were strolling down the aisle Plato saw Diogenes look at some cereal on the top shelf, and so he asked him, "Diogenes, tell me: is it better to have a long ladder or a short one?"
"You appear to have some ready answer." Replied Diogenes.
Brushing his observation aside, Plato told Diogenes that with a longer ladder you can reach higher and grab higher objects. Plato moved a store ladder to the cereal and climbed it -going up much higher than he needed to reach the cereal. "... And ... you will be closer to the gods."
As Plato finished his words he flourished a smile, but the smile disappeared quickly as the ladder tilted and he fell -crashing to the ground.
Diogenes found a stool down the aisle, moved it beside the ladder, and grabbed the box of cereal easily. Then he noted to Plato that low chairs are more sturdy because they are the closest thing to keeping your feet on the ground. "... And ... perhaps the God has come down to dwell among us."

If you're okay with a superficial salavation, then go ahead and lead a superficial life!