It’s easy to see why. There is a lot of unavenged evil in the world. Sometimes it seems like the purveyors of injustice get a free pass. And it’s easy to believe that it would be nice to see some “enforced justice” handed out. Like the Charles Bronson / Dirty Harry / Punisher sort.

In American Cinema, this is a much-celebrated concept – the lone hero who, avenging the murder of his wife / girlfriend / niece / distant cousin, metes out justice from the barrel of a .45. The judge, jury, and executioner who prowls the city looking for evil-doers and gives them what they’ve got coming. The Paul Kersey, Wyatt Earp, Rifleman,  Regulators, William Munny, most of Schwarzenegger’s characters, and Denzel Washngton in “Man on Fire” – types. Guys who know how to set things straight.

And always the unspoken rule of film vigilante justice is this: If sufficient cause can be established, no amount of punishment is excessive. For catharsis to be cathartic, it has to be limitless in its brutality. After all, the bad guys had it comin’ (say it with me, “we’ve all got it coming, kid.”).

Sometimes we people of faith don’t veer far from this script. We know from God’s words that He hates sin and injustice. So do we. We’re sure there is a special place in hell for the perpetrators of evil. Murderers, rapists, child molesters, investment bankers – all have a day of reckoning ahead. We tremble with anticipation at the thought. Some day, this too shall be made right. We envision the Action Avenger Hero Jesus, dispatching the wicked to the lake of fire with a pithy send-off line (“You’re fired!” or “The heat is on!” or “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen!” I’ve got a thousand of these).

That’s why it’s such a big let-down when God doesn’t take the kill shot.

We have this heart in common with Jonah. You know – “Go to Nineveh! No, I will run away! (Jaws music). Big fish digestive tract. Okay I’ll go! Fish blows chunks” – that Jonah. My favorite part of that story is not the barfing fish. It’s the tantrum in Jonah 3-4.

  ¹⁰ God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn’t do.

^1-2Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! ³“So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!”

Up to this point, it’s a pretty good film script. Sort of “Jaws” meets “The Perfect Storm” with a promise of a disaster movie finale (think “Armageddon” if the nukes hadn’t saved everyone because the asteroid was heading for ancient Assyria and Space Shuttles, nukes, and Aerosmith hadn’t yet been invented). Then God has to go and NOT take out the bad guys. It’s like the Dark Knight has the Joker cornered and Jokie says “you know, I’m really sorry for what I’ve done” and Batman says, “oh, well in that case, go about your business. See you at the company picnic.” Good film. Bad ending.

The analogy fits because the Assyrians (Nineveh being their capitol) were no slouches in the “perpetrating evil” department. They were well-known for their brutality, and Israel had most likely just recently thrown off their domination. Jonah is sent to tell his former oppressors they can be saved from judgement. He’s hoping to be an abject failure in persuading them to repent.

But the hero of our story is not the amoral avenger. He is not the merciless exacter of punishment. He is not a blunt instrument of vengeance. He is not Klaatu, sent to dispassionately wipe us out for our naughtiness. He is our Father, and we are His children.

Detractors to faith often say they have a problem with the Old Testament “fire and brimstone, bloody God” who kills at a whim and spares no one. But the crux message of the prophets was not God’s judgement, but the possibility of God’s mercy. Not a judgemental God, but a relenting God. We miss this because of our modern American narcissism and over-wrought self-esteem. We place the burden of proof on God – prove to me that I am worthy of judgement. The Old Testament writers presumed the opposite, that since the Fall we are all guilty. Getting what we deserve is a metaphysical inevitability, as sure as “what goes up must come down.” God NOT judging us is worth taking note of.

And He wants us to love mercy because HE does. You would think He, like us, would love judgement, because it sets things right. But it doesn’t. It never could. Because that’s not the way He built the universe. He always wanted to be our Father, to gather us close, to shelter, protect, provide, and give and receive love. But we would not. We ran. He pursued. We fought Him. He gave everything to buy us back.

 Jonah ends abruptly with God justifying his kindness (“Should I not be concerned about that great city?”). What a weighty thought – that God would have to explain that He is actually being good for not wiping out a city. What does a deity have to do?! But not so surprising really. Maybe our greatest modern sin is that we have conjured up a vengeful, spiteful God, then cursed Him for not living up to our expectations. We shake our heads at His perceived blood-thirst in the Old Testament, then shake our fists because He has not eradicated evil in our day.

The truth is that He is holding off on judgement as long as possible because He loves mercy. And so should we.

I am praying that I will see the world like Jesus. Not like Jonah. Or Charles Bronson.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here’s where this particular sub-thread began – it’s kind of a serial-blogging (or serial killing of the concept of blogging), so I like to link back to touchstones…

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Global justice is a big chalupa. Economic, social, political, and religious inequities abound. I am increasingly convinced that during this moment of grace we live in – somewhere between the Resurrection and the Final Judgement, injustice will continue to abound. This is not to say I am fatalistic about the subject. God commands us to pursue justice, and we must, even if we can’t fix it all. 

But I find in Scripture a profound emphasis on another term that find itself in vogue today – personal responsibility. Simply put, justice begins with me. God’s heart is that I first and foremost consider my own actions. Have I marginalized, oppressed, manipulated or misused? Have I gone out of my way to use money, position, relationship, and authority in ways that honor, benefit, and respect others? Some proof texts are included below.

There is, however, a seemingly subtle yet vital distinction that could be a danger here. We must seek to rid our lives of prejudice, bigotry, hatred, and injustice. But we must not define these concepts or allow them to be defined by our own experience, pre-conceived notions, or soceital norms. Our culture does not define justice. Justice does not conform to our personal history, moral equivalence, social contruction theory, or any other relativistic norm.

God defines justice.

In this area, we are most fortunate, as we have been given ample evidence in the form of Scripture to help us understand how God sees the world. He teaches us to love people and use money, not the other way around. He teaches us to be always mindful of the poor and weak and do what we can to help. He commands us to defend the powerless.

And for the most part, He begins and ends the discussion with each of us, individually. John the Baptist criticized the local governor for his sexual immorality (and was imprisoned an eventually executed because of it), but he spent most of his time talking to individuals about repentance and personal change (Luke 3). Jesus skillfully and purposefully skirted questions about the evils of government systems and insisted on focusing hearers on the one thing they could control – their own actions (Matthew 17:24-26, Matthew 22:16-22, Matthew 5-7). The New Testament writers taught their readers to do good, obey those in authority, and concentrate on individual righteous acts (Romans 13:1-8, Titus 3:1-8, 2 Peter 2:13-25, and pretty much the rest of the epistles).

I am not saying that we should not concern ourselves with global issues. We should. I am not saying we should not be aware of political issues, form opinions, and support causes. We should. I AM saying that our causes, opinions, and actions proceed out of the understanding of what God’s view of justice really is, as demonstrated in Scripture, and begin with our own family, friends, and sphere of influence.

And the Bible makes it clear that God will judge the nations. The powerful New Testament imagery of that judgement involves sickles, winnowing forks, fire, wheat, chaff, and the like. Jesus promises “…the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.”

If we pursue justice individually, we are able to provide to others an example of how God sees the world and how the Kingdom of God operates. And the world around us may well change. To that I say  Amen (let it be so).

A disturbing trend I am noticing, however, is that some people of faith are more concerned with public opinion or cultural relevance than actual Scripture-centric justice.

For instance, the fact that I do not agree with our culture on a certain social or political issue does not, by definition, make me a racist, sexist, bigot, hatemonger, or otherwise unjust person. It does not mean I am marginalizing someone else, even if my culture accuses me of it. It simply means that God’s laws are in contradiction with culture’s rationalizations. When questioned, I have to point this out.

This also does not mean we are called to crusade against culture. We are called to love, extend grace, and practice mercy. We love people. We accept everyone. When we have to speak the truth, we do it with gentleness and respect. But within our communities of faith, we also seek to establish norms of righteous behavior. Not everything is up for interpretation.

I am really arguing for balance here. There is a whole other discussion to be had about how moral issues should be approached with those who are not Christ followers and those who claim to be. Paul says we should not, for instance, blindly ignore egregious, public  sexual sin perpetrated by a fellow believer in the name of being gracious ( “I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler.“ ), but makes the distinction that this “hand them over to Satan” approach is NOT for those outside of faith (“I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral…In that case you would have to leave this world… ¹²What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³God will judge those outside.“).

But beyond that debate, when we talk about justice, I have two great concerns:

1. We must understand that justice, in God’s eyes, begins and ends with me and the things I have power over.
2. We must not allow culture or experience to dictate what is just. We must seek to understand God’s view of justice.

You may be thinking that I got off of the subject of justice and strayed into the minefield of morality, culture war, and church discipline haphazardly and incongruously. But I am seeing these things are becoming increasingly intertwined in our world.

“Social justice” as defined outside of a framework of faith is being used to normalize abhorrent behavior, and many well-meaning Christians are co-opting these ideas in an effort to be culturally relevant, to have a voice in the dialog. I understand the arguments and empathize with the desire to love the world without judgement and condemnation, just as Jesus did. But that desire can’t translate into a normalization within communities of faith of practices the Bible specifically calls out as sin or the celebration of culture that promotes them. We must affirm within our communities that certain things are wrong and those who practice them within the community should be confronted, and those who do so outside the community should be invited to become disciples of Jesus so that they may be freed from such bondages. And I use the word bondage on purpose – the Bible uses the same terms for sin – bondage, slavery, etc.

Social justice that normalizes and elevates to acceptability destructive, sinful behavior is the worst kind of false hope – it promises freedom and delivers slavery and death.

You will note that I have carefully not mentioned specific issues. This is because the issues themselves are so controversial, mentioning them would distract from the point I am making. In conclusion, I should restate that point:

We must, as people of faith, seek justice. We must speak out against injustice perpetrated by individuals as well as by our and other governments. We must attempt to affect positive change. The basis of our understanding of what is just must be what God has said, not what our culture says. And the most important concern for each of us is what we can best control – how we treat those in our direct sphere of influence. That last part I am praying a lot about. Here are my questions, in case they are any help to you:

• Do I love people and use money, or love money and use people?
• Do I make judgement calls about those around me based on race, sex, creed, or past actions? If so, are these in line with Scripture?
• Have I taken advantage of others, or gone out of my way to treat others fairly?
• For those whom I occasionally employ, do I compensate fairly and deal honestly?
• Am I complying with both the spirit and the letter of the laws of our land whenever possible (except in clear cases where the law contradicts God’s law, and in those cases is my response or resistance in keeping with Biblical teaching)?..and the most important question of all:
• Have I just lied about, mis-stated, justified, rationalized or otherwise been less than entirely honest about any of these issues?

That is our journey as sinful, fallen people in a sinful, fallen world – try to find out what God is like and be like that. Here’s to the Day.

I hope someone out there agrees or disagrees with something written here and posts a comment (hint, hint, whine, sniffle sniffle, guilting) .

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Continuing a thread about what I think we oughta be thinking about (See this post for the intro to this section). This is a direct follow-up to the last post (aren’t they all?). I seem to have painted myself into a bit of a corner on this one. The first item in this list is justice, a huge concept to be sure, and one I have been actively working to understand in the last year. You should know I have written and re-written this post many times, and I’m not sure I even like this final result. That’s why we call it “Raw Thoughts ”.

I could cheat and go on to kindness – a lot easier to dissect – but justice comes first in the list, so I have to deal with it. Two months of no posting is too much time, so I am going to try to take this in small chunks. Just for fun, I’d like to propose a bunch of questions I’m not sure I know the answer to, then propose a bunch of answers I’m not sure I agree with. Sound like a good time? Here…we…go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been stuck on the question of justice in a global sense. As I become more aware of the social justice movement, both inside and outside of church-folk circles, it has become apparent that “justice” is far more than a buzzword – it is a rallying cry. To be sure there is a lot of evil and therefore a lot of injustice in the world. Think sweat shops, political and religious persecution, caste systems, racism, child and sex trafficking, abortion, ethnic cleansing, and on and on. And it is clear from Scripture that God cares very deeply about justice – I don’t think I need to proof-text that one. We are clearly called to pursue justice and come to the aid of the helpless, powerless, and marginalized.

The thing I am having a hard time figuring out is the line between justice, fairness, and equal results.

Fairness is a bit arbitrary – we all have thoughts as to what is fair and what is not (ask any three year old). Justice is clearly a matter of right and wrong. But is it possible that some people confuse fairness with justice? One diagnostic question for me is “What is the end game?” If we had out way, could snap our fingers and make justice a reality, what would that look like? Some things that might be nice:

• Everyone would have the same amount of wealth (or poverty).
• The Star Trek Utopian Model – no money needed.
• Everyone would have the same opportunities.
• No one would suffer.
• All nations would have equal standing, wealth, and power. There would really be no need for separate nations, since all would be the same.
• There would be no difference between genders, races, colors, etc.
• No masters or slaves (also no labor or management).

I think the world Jesus and His followers tell us to look forward to contains these features and more than we can imagine. But the world God has left us in is very different. And that’s where I am grinding gears trying to get traction on this thing. Here are some questions:

• Does God expect us to act as though that world has already come, or are there different realities in the presence of an evil, fallen, sinful planet?
• Why does God give gifts, abilities, and grace in different amounts? Some have more talent. I am a classically trained vocalist, but I’ never make it to Hollywood Week on American Idol – the limits of my natural ability would stand in the way (plus I’m too old now, and not nearly cute enough . Why are some blessed with greater ability or more money or better opportunities?
• If I achieve a level of success in position, wealth, or authority, have I by definition marginalized someone else (since I now have more than them)?
• If we are to pursue justice, can that pursuit always be perpetrated in the absence of physical force? Is it not sometimes necessary for the strong to protect the weak forcefully?
• Is the existence of suffering inherently unjust? How can anyone who is being violently marginalized and exploited believe in a just God?
• What is God’s definition of equality (thanks to Rex for adding that one to my overfull head).

There. That should be enough to make my head explode (and maybe yours). I don’t propose that I will satisfactorally answer all these questions, but I am going to publicly process some of them. You are welcome to comment as well. I want to listen…

Next post – the things I am mostly almost pretty sure are true about justice. Maybe.

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In the Church world, we obsess about sin. Sin is the subject of our programs, policies, and procedures. Identifying and confronting the sin in ourselves and others is our chief industry and most common consideration. We spend a lot of time talking about who is wrong in their beliefs and practices and making sure ours are not also wrong or sinful. We can study, dissect, and disseminate the minutia of sin. We’ve got that kind of time on our hands.

It’s almost like we think Jesus died to keep us in the sin business.

I don’t mean “the business of sinning.” I mean the study of sin. How to avoid all sin. How to show others they are sinful. I think I take issue with that obsession. If I understand what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, I think it was primarily His job to convict the world of sin and righteousness. I am not saying we should never say “that is wrong.” For sure Jesus teaches us to correct one another (provided we have first removed the plank in our own eye) But if that is all we spend our time on, we may just have missed the point of the cross.

There’s no good acronym for “justice, mercy, humility.” JKH wouldn’t look good on a t-shirt. But it’s what God wants. He lays it out in Micah 6:

What God Requires of Man

    ⁶With what shall I come to the LORD
         And bow myself before the God on high?
         Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings,
         With yearling calves?
    ⁷Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams,
         In ten thousand rivers of oil?
         Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts,
         The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
    ⁸He has told you, O man, what is good;
         And what does the LORD require of you
         But to do justice, to love kindness,
         And to walk humbly with your God? 

Put it this way – Jesus died for our sins so we could get back to the real reason we were created.

Do justice, love kindness,
         And walk humbly with your God

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Also in that intervening time I have been putting much thought and action into these faith concepts. Since not many people currently read this and no one is dying without new content, I am finding it more important to write something well-crafted than to just write something. But I am also going to try to keep these shorther – people got lives .

All preliminaries out of the way – I have been thinking a lot of how Jesus teaches us to do good things. It seems from the things He says that He is not only interested in what we do, but why and how we do it. Here’s an example:

Matthew 6

Giving to the Needy

 ¹“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

 ²“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Obviously it’s impossible to do every act of righteousness in complete secrecy. But the intent is clear (from this and many other verses) – Jesus’ command is that we think carefully about our motives for doing the good we do.

This is what makes people of faith so different than other activists. Our primary audience is Jesus, not public opinion. While we are certainly interested in teaching others to participate in the same activities, this is not our primary purpose for doing it. And whether or not someone participates in the same activities does not change our opinion of their importance – we are doing what Jesus told us to, not what we in our infinite wisdom have decided is important.

As such, it becomes very easy to recruit others to the same world-view – it isn’t ours, so we don’t have to be defensive, reactionary, or militant. We simply show by our humble service a better way to live and interact with the world as God intended. And that is not only radical and revolutionary, but also very infectious.

Let me give an example from a completely unrelated field that should bring this into sharp focus. There are three main rivals in the computing platform space – PCs running Windows, PCs running Linux, and Apple computers running the Mac OS. For the sake of argument, let’s leave out the open-source guys and compare the two you have to pay for (oooh – maybe I’ll get flamed by Linux enthusiasts!). Most Windows users use Windows because that’s what the computer came with that they were provided for work or school or from grandma for Christmas. Most Mac users use a Mac very deliberately – they have specifically chosen to spend more on the hardware and software and deal with lack of Mac support in the business space because they want to own and use a Mac.

Both have their reasons, but since Mac folk have made a conscious choice, they tend to be far more opinionated on the subject. This has lead to the birth of many a “Mac Evangelist”, most famously skewered in what is arguably the best Simpsons episode ever. 

I have no issue with Mac. In fact, I have great appreciation for the platform, the hardware, and salivate when I see an iPhone (curse you, two year contract with another cell phone company keeping me and iPhone coolness apart!). I do, however, use PCs exclusively in my work, and do so by choice, even though I work in the graphic design / video production / web world, and two out of three of those worlds are primarily peopled by Mac dudes and dudettes.

I have my reasons. First, I was too broke and too cheap in the beginning of my career to afford Macs. Now that I can, I have too much invested in PC software and gear to switch over (cause I’m still cheap). And in the Web space, which occupies 90% of my time now, there are a lot of things you just can’t do on a Mac (unless you boot it into the evil Windows OS).

These arguments hold no water with the Mac pushers. They openly mock my choices and deride my sad subservience to the evil, monolithic Microsoft Corporation (’cause Apple is far more open-source and non-monopolistic, unless of course you want to use your iPhone on another cell phone service. But I digress). Their scorn of my non Mapple-ness (see Simpsons clip above) does not make me want an Apple more. It makes me want to defend my lack of one. And it leaves a little twinge of unhappiness, cause if I could, I would join the club.

I don’t spend a lot of time trying to evangelize people in the way of the PC. Since you can get one almost for free these days and everybody’s got ‘em, I don’t have to. I also don’t actively look around for Mac users to tell them how silly they are for using a platform I don’t. But if someone observes the work I do, and asks me what I use, and then asks me why, I am glad to give my reasoned defense. And I often have more productive conversations in that scenario than I do trying to defend myself from angry Mac-abees, flaying me with their white iPod earbuds, because a person who asks a question is usually interested in the answer.

I think the reason so many folk think people of faith have a “I’m better than you because of the good stuff I do” attitude is because…well…we sometimes do. Rather than beat people over the head and try to advance our own sense of self-worth by displaying our righteous acts like an iPhone whipped out at a client meeting, the goodness God calls us to is to be evident to everyone, but the main target audience is Jesus Himself. It can’t be hidden, but we also can’t do it just to be seen. In the process of living like Jesus taught us, lots of folk will see it and ask questions. and then we have the chance to have a real conversation with someone who wants to know, not just an innocent PC-toting bystander.

This is of course where the analogy falls a bit short – we are also instructed clearly to purposefully go out and make disciples, which means we have to do more than passively do good and hope someone will ask about it. But most of our evangelizing is wasted on those who aren’t listening, and some attention to soil preparation and tactfully waiting for the right moment wouldn’t hurt our chances – might help quite a bit.

Long way to say a simple thing. But that’s how I roll. Gotta go reinstall Windows on a PC with the blue screen of death now. Stupid PCs.

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DISCLAIMER: Just about everything in this post is mostly for me. I am not writing to anyone external, I am writing to myself. If you find yourself in the same boat, so be it. And I don’t think I am doing ANYTHING right on this topic in my own life. Think of this as sermon to me, at the end of which I responded to call to repentance and said “yep, that’s me. I suck.”

The early church in Jerusalem for a time had a very communal approach to life. There isn’t definitive evidence that the extreme level of sharing they were practicing extended to every community of faith, but it IS very clear from Church history that concern for the needs of others – especially “the poor” was paramount. Paul even recounts Peter, James and John’s only instruction to him, when they gave him the right hand of fellowship (a phrase we really ought to revive) was to “remember the poor“.

The debate now is fascinating – many Christians have come to believe that a government that cares for the needs of the “poor” or “poorer” (however you define that) by means of taking money from the “rich” (however you define that) is a righteous form of government, and making sure our leaders push through that agenda is more important than any other moral issue. Many Christians believe helping the poor should be the work of the Church, so government should stay out of it and leave the giving to us. Inexplicably, many of the people in camp #2 fight for less taxation and then do very little or nothing at all to directly help the poor (beyond small donations to their local church or some other “distance giving” activity). Which makes the people in camp #1 think the gov. should take their money so they would be forced to do the right thing.

I think both entirely miss the point. It doesn’t really matter to Jesus what your government does. It matters what you do. Let us go to the tale of the tape (old school football reference, y’all):

Luke 14:12-14 (New American Standard Bible)
 12And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment.  13″But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,

 14and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

And then there’s this one:

Matthew 5:40-48 (New American Standard Bible)
 40″If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41″Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.  42″Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.  43″You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’  44″But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  46″For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  47″If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Jesus’ very simple assertion is that the kind of life that marks the sons and daughters of God on the earth is one that does more than is required. And He defines the kinds of actions that cause Him to know us in strikingly specific detail:

The Judgment
31″But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32″All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34″Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35′For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37″Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38′And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39′When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40″The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

 41″Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

We all know the rest. The bad guys did NOT do all that feeding and clothing and visiting. A few conclusions we can draw:

1. Jesus cares very deeply (in an eternal fire sort of way) about how we treat the hungry-thirsty-naked-stranger-sick-prisoner types.
2. There seems to be no discussion of the worthiness of the beneficiaries of this care, and no consideration of what everyone else was doing to alleviate their suffering.

In America, we make these distinctions. First, those who get help must first be worthy of it. We think what Jesus really meant was “I was hungry – even though I have a job and work really hard everyday for minimum wage, I was sick – but not the kind of sickness caused by my own bad choices like aids or cigarette-induced lung cancer, I was in prison – but I was wrongly convicted or I was rightly convicted but I’m really sorry and trying to change my ways.”

Some of us think the “brothers” Jesus is referring to are people who believe in Him – hey Bible scholars – can any of you lurkers out there prove He was only talking about Christians? Or that He wasn’t?

Some of us think He meant “I was in need and no one else was trying to help me.” Those of us in this category think that our responsibility begins where there are gaps in government programs. We adopt the Ebenezer Scrooge mentality that says the poor should avail themselves of the services provided, and if there are no services, we can then be asked to help them (“are all the poor houses out of business?”).

Even more of us think the help should be conditional and, we say, redemptive. We don’t want to just give handouts to those who do not work, because then they will always rely on handouts. We don’t want to enable and perpetuate their negative cycle.

All of these things are fine and well when discussing public policy, but that is not what Jesus is discussing. He is discussing you. And me. And our private policies. And He is telling us to act like God does.

And God does what He does not have to. He goes beyond what is required. He sets up a universe with laws and consequences for actions, and when we choose death, he allows the laws to remain and destroy our bodies, but gives His only Son to save our souls. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. He freely gives mercy to those who will openly mock it and reject Him. He loves those who hate him. He redeems those who have made themselves His enemies, not by accident, but by conscious choice.

Jesus is saying that caring for others is not about what it does for THEM, it’s about what it makes YOU. It makes you like Him.

It’s easy to see what we ought to do, then. I think we should all discuss openly the role of government in our lives, since we live in a democracy and have that right. And after we have cast our votes and paid our taxes, we should take some of the resources Uncle Sam leaves us and use them to invite strangers to our homes, and the poor to our parties, and visit the sick and imprisoned, and clothe the naked.

Of course we must attempt to bring about real change and redemption whenever we can, but we must actively seek out those who do not deserve our help, who do not qualify for our programs, who can give us nothing in return – not even the self-satisfaction that we have helped someone get their lives straightened out with our giving. Jesus said we would always have the poor with us. Because there will always be junkies and criminals and fools and drunks who just can’t seem to get it together. And to love them, with no hope of seeing anyt change in their condition is to hear the heartbeat of God and become His sons and daughters.

Many will say, “Jon, you can’t help people who don’t want help.” I agree. You can’t make anyone do anything. “Aha!” you will then say, “so shouldn’t we focus our finite resources on those we CAN help?” Only if you believe that the goal of Jesus’ story was to get us into the business of rehabilitating the least in our society. But I don’t think so. I think He wants us to do these things to rehabilitate US.

How about this: rather than decide who to show compassion on, let’s decide first to show compassion, then ask God to show us who the target is. You might be shocked to find He picks some very undeserving, unrepentant, unfix-able folk. Don’t worry about that. That’s his problem. The same God who told Hosea to marry a prostitute who would be unfaithful to him the rest of his life might ask you to take care of someone who never says the Sinner’s Prayer. The time will not be wasted. It’s about His agenda, not yours.

In part two, we will discuss how to do all this without becoming self-righteous (or at least attmepting not to become so). But to summarize part one, Jesus commands us simply:

In loving others, go beyond what is required (or even reasonable).

And that can and must be done under any government – socialist, Marxist, totalitarian dictatorship, left-wing, right-wing, Republican, Democrat, Utopian, or even Roman. Because love is not against the law. And loving like Jesus makes us more like Jesus. And that is His point.

As always, if you disagree (heck, even if you agree), puh-leeeze post a comment.

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Is there any word in English that has a more negative connotation than “preach”? Okay, I can think of a few (and no, I am not going to list them here – the internet is forever). But no one ever says “I wish someone would preach at me.” Movies that are too heavy-handed in promoting an agenda are called “preachy.” When I was a kid there was even a song by Madonna (sing it with me…”papa don’t preach…he’s been good to me”…HA! Now that is stuck in your head!).

So I will use the word tell. But I mean preach. In a less negative context. I hope.

The signs of the times…

That’s the problem – we people of faith have gotten the connotation way wrong ourselves. I was at a Seahawks game a couple of weeks ago. As my friend and I walked through the mass of screaming, chest-beating, liberated Seattle-ites (Hawks games and WTO meetings are the only times Northwesterners are allowed to express emotion) along the side of the stadium, looking in vain for a souvenir that cost less than my house, we saw the “you’re going to hell” sign guys. To be fair, I don’t remember what their signs said, but it was something like that – maybe “trust Jesus” or “John 3:16.” But a big sign being held by a strange-looking dude. We’ve all seen these guys. We’ve even seen the more festive variety that shouts the good news at you on the way by.

And on Sundays we assign preachers to preach sermons to us. Some are more entertaining than others, but all follow a familiar format – a lone gunman lecturing the masses, firing shots of truth across our bow, occasionally hitting near the heart. The distinct advantage Sunday Preacher has over Sidewalk Preacher is the willingness of his audience – most of them chose to be there. But to the casual outside observer, both are similarly didactic – telling us what we ought to do, know, and act like.

Preaching has a bad rap on several fronts. For one thing, a lot of those we assign to the task lack the preparation or the aptitude to deliver compelling, informative orations and end up about as effective as Reverend Lovejoy on the Simpsons. On the other end, there are a lot of crazies out there who think preaching as a public contact sport will be effective in modern American culture. And in an increasingly secularized, post-modern culture, the idea of sitting down to listen to someone tell me what’s what is losing traction – we want to be heard and have our ideas on things (no matter how uninformed our opinions) given equal weight with the words of the dude upfront.

Just words…

Sometime soon I will spend some time on the irreplaceable value of gathering together and preaching / teaching in that context. Short version – it is vital. But each of us as individuals has a greater responsibility to tell others the story of Jesus. We have long relegated the task of “telling” to the professionals. But I don’t think that was Jesus’ intention.

Each of us has a unique path in life – we all have a different sphere of contact and influence. And our journey through life makes us unique. In the mosaic of people of faith, there are a million stories of how we came to believe there was a God and accepted His revelation of Himself through Jesus. Some of us came through logic, others through emotion. Some surrendered to Jesus at the top of our game, some at the bottom of the pit. And Jesus’ command was to go into the whole world and make disciples, teaching them to do do what He said. All of us.

The purpose of pastors and teachers is to equip us for such activities – they are to study and prepare and teach us what the Bible says and what it means and how to grow in our faith so we are armed with knowledge, wise from our experience, and ready to tell others who Jesus is and why we serve him. OUR words – not just the words of vocational ministers – are powerful in this regard. Many who will never set foot in a church will come in contact with us, and we may be the only voice amongst thousands they hear that speaks of the truth we have come to know.

People get ready…

We must, then, be educated. We must be seeking more and more knowledge and depth of understanding and wisdom and insight and maturity. And those gifted to the church as pastors and teachers must be focused as well – not on teaching us how to get people to come to church (many never will, many more would be more confused if they did), but teaching us how to tell our story, explain our faith, point to our Savior, demonstrate a living Jesus. As Peter puts it:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

How can anyone believe without a preacher? How can anyone preached to receive unless the message comes from someone they know and respect (I know, there are exceptions to this, but the norm is also important)? So number four – we must  – ALL of us – find a way to tell.

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Now Dog is not always what you would call a sympathetic character. He dresses oddly. He makes baffling hairstyle choices. He and his entire family are arguably three fries short of a happy meal. He vacuums for fun. He has been recorded using racial epithets (an item near the top of the list of  ”public persona unforgivable sins” – a list that does not seem include cheating on your wife or driving while drunk. But I digress).

There are a million things I could say to mock Dog. Most of them are far too obvious to make it worth the time. And for the record, I am not a hard-core Dog-fan, Dog-defender, Dog-catcher, Dog-pound member, whatever you want to call it. I couldn’t tell you when the show is on or what channel. But since confession is good for the soul, I have to admit that on at least four occasions, I have been flipping by that channel and been drawn into an hour of Dog-watching. And he always makes me want to cry.

Let the mocking begin.

The Weird Arm of the Law

Let me give you an example of what gets me every time. Dog and the family chase down some criminal. The entire show they’re cussing him out, angry that he keeps evading them. This particular guy is a smackhead who is selling smack, so they really want to get him. And they finally do. When the bring him out, a number of people from the apartment complex he has been holing up in gather around and start chanting to have him thrown out. Like Dog, they think this guy is scum and they want him out of their neighborhood.

But things have changed for Dog. As soon as he gets the cuffs on whoever he is bounty-hunting, his heart kicks in – it’s amazing to watch – like someone else is suddenly inhabiting his body. And this someone understands redemption. Dog walks over to the crowd and gathers them in a circle. He says (I will paraphrase – I don’t own the DVD box set), “He’s a bad guy and he’s going to jail. I know you want him out of your neighborhood and I agree, but I know you don’t want him dead. So I’m going to bring him over here so you can tell him you forgive him.”

Come again?

If you’ve ever seen the show, you know Dog’s ride to jail after catching a perp is epic. He lets them have a smoke. He lets them call whoever they want and let them know they’re okay. He prays with them. He promises to get them help. He basically gives them dignity and respect and grace and talks non-stop about redemption.

On this day, he brings smackhead scumbag over and lets the people of the neighborhood talk to him. And something amazing happens. They start to show mercy and compassion and talk about redemption.

“I lost my dad to drugs, and I don’t want to see that happen to you.”

“I’m raising my kids alone ’cause their mom had to go to jail.”

“We’re glad you got caught but we hope you get some help.”

And the guy starts to cry and tells everyone he’s sorry. And then Dog has them join hands and he leads in prayer.

Grace is Only for the Truly Sorry. And People With Good Jobs.

That’s not how we do redemption in church. In the first place, only people who have it all together have the right to tell other people to stop doing wrong.  Dog doesn’t qualify. And those be-suited better-than-thous know one thing – you can’t just forgive people and hope they’ll reform. You tell them what they did wrong, tell them how to get things straight, then wait for them to do so. If they change their life, you can embrace them as part of your community.

Dog says “we hate what he did, but we don’t want him dead.” Later that night after catching “Patty”, he goes home to his 7 year old, who is excited that we “got Patty.” Dog pulls her aside and says “Patty is really sad tonight cause she had to go to jail. So when you pray before bed you need to pray for Patty.”

The work of Jesus on the cross was to purchase our redemption. Redemption in its simplest sense is exchanging the valuable for the worthless, and in so doing making the worthless valuable again.

Galatians 4:4-6 (New International Version)   
4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

1 Peter 1:18-19 (New International Version)
18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Dog understands that that kind of redemption doesn’t begin with people on the right path. It starts with all of us as fugitives, running form God, running from truth.Until someone chases us down and throws us into the SUV and asks if we want to call our Mom before we head to jail. The story of Scripture is the story of a God who pursues us, chases after us, gives His Son to die for us – whatever it takes to win us back (if you want to see a gut-wrenching glimpse into the heart of God, read Hosea, which begins with God telling Hosea to “take an adulterous wife”).

He also understands that it begins with the redeemer, not he redeemee (that second one is not a word, I know). It starts with loving the unworthy, pursuing the evil, and giving dignity to the undignified.

Now lest you think that I think Dog is the perfect example we should all try to emulate, I don’t. But truth can be found in the strangest of places,  and every time he sits a crackhead down and makes them cry with his kindness, I see Jesus in that mulleted whack-job, and it reminds me that redemption is messy work, and not a black and white encounter. We are accepted long before we do anything remotely worthy of it. While we were still God’s enemies (fugitives from Dog for the dyslexic), Jesus died for us.

And He invites us to participate in the work of redeeming the world – not just to receive redemption, but to help redeem others. He asks us to understand and strive to have His heart, the heart that relentlessly pursues then relentlessly loves the most wretched among us. Jesus even tells us countless parables to help us understand He feels this way about every human being on the planet – The pearl of great price, the treasure in the field, the lost sheep, the lost son, and so on, and so on.

He also teaches us that receiving grace and giving grace are tightly linked. Remember the unmerciful servant? Sure, Jesus didn’t save me from my life as a street pimp. But there’s evil in my heart, just under my middle-class clothes. And the God who redeemed me wants me to assist in redeeming others. Which means I have to forgive and love and pray for the worst of the worst. Cause I’m one of them.

Thanks, Dog.

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• One: Repent.
• Two: Believe

Since One was “repent”, I think I should. I have neglected blogging (this is bad for me, not for you necessarily). I am trying to be more disciplined in weekly schedules and such. The advent of a new baby on the way and some big work projects (plus summer in general) have held me up a bit. To repent is to turn from your current path, so my deeds showing my repentance will be blogging in nature…

The second thing I think God asks of use is to believe. And I think these may be in reversed order. Maybe you have to believe first, otherwise repentance is fairly hollow. You don’t have to repent if you don’t believe in moral authority. If “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” then acknowledging God exists has to be the starting point of our approach to Him.

And that’s the real issue, isn’t it? God seems to have made a frustrating decision to base most of our interactions with Him on faith alone – not observable, provable, scientific-y stuff. “Why for?” you may ask (and I have done so many times).

Here’s what we know – the Bible lays out the case that one of God’s key desires is for us to have faith in Him. The highest concentration of knowledge on this single subject, arguably, is contained in Hebrews 11. Side note – good to think about the target audience of Hebrews – namely the “Hebrews” . The writer takes great pains to remind the targeted Hebraic folk of the importance and centrality of faith. One would assume the entire basis of the Jewish faith is..well…faith. And yet the writer (we don’t know for sure who wrote the thing) spends a good percentage of the book encouraging his readers not to lose faith, including this entire chapter. Curious, isn’t it? We’ll come back to that. But I digress…

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

God insists that we believe He exists in order ot draw near to Him. Faith being defined here as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” combined with Paul’s assertion that “…hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” leads us to this conclusion: God asks us to believe in Him, and makes no promise to prove His existence first.

This is the sticking point for most folk these days. We take the Han Solo approach -

“Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field controls my destiny! It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.”

(Which is not as fun to quote as these.)

We all learned the scientific method: “To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.”

And God does not fit into our box. Or our test tube. He rarely does the same thing the same way twice. Moses learned all about that – he tried to repeat a miracle with disastrous results. God refuses to be quantifiable. He refuses to do what we tell him to. We lay in bed at night and say “God if you’re real, turn my lights on right now” (come on, you know you did). Or “if you’re real, help me out with my major problem”.

T’would be a lot simpler, twouldn’t it, if God would just prove Himself by our methods? But He instead chooses his own proofs. Rocks and trees and planets and the wonders of the world around us (the “things that have been made“). A still small voice in our most desperate hours. The knowledge of right and wrong hard-wired into the fiber of our being. That lingering feeling we all wrestle with – the one that says there must be more to the universe than what I can taste and touch and see and hear and smell.

But these are not proof by our definition. And in the end God leaves us just short of being able to test, observe, and repeat. And then tells us to have wisdom and knowledge and really see Him, we must first believe. And then tells us that if we would just believe, we will receive all the proof we need.

I don’t know what it was that made me first believe. Probably the same reason I believed in Santa for a bit and the tooth fairy ever so briefly (until the cheapskate didn’t pay up) – I was a kid and someone told me it was true. The good news for me is that I got over the big hump – just believing – due to ignorance and innocence. And God delivered. Santa and the other fairy tales dried up, but God was different. I have seen miracles. I have heard God speak. I have observed the impossible (and never repeatable). And in the depths of my soul is the eternal, inescapable witness that He is, and that He rewards those who look for Him.

But I can’t prove it. Neither can you. A lot of Christians spend their lives trying. Not to say that apologetics is a bad thing. You can get very close with logical arguments, ontology, cosmology, and other -ologies. But you can’t get the whole way. God has left a gap that can only be closed by accepting that there are forces in the universe that don’t fit into my methods of proving.

And God is the ultimate example. He chooses to be so. He chooses to reveal himself to us personally, intimately, uniquely, inescapably, unequivocally, and unprove-ably (hey ma – I made up a word!). We say the proof of God is in our changed lives – and we are right, but that can be explained away. Many atheists and agnostics are fond of saying that religion is good thing because it makes people do good things. in fact, they will say they support your beliefs if they cause you to act in a socially responsible way. But they do not prove God exists.

Jesus tells a fascinating story about faith. A rich man dies. He is in torment in hell. He asks that first he, then someone else be sent to warn his brothers. Abraham tells him “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” That doesn’t compute. Most people today say “I won’t believe unless I see something miraculous.” Jesus says you’re a liar. You’d explain that away too. So would I. Unless I choose faith.

So what makes us leap from disbelief to faith? I think the answer is different for all of us. Sometimes a convincing argument, more often an experience – good or bad. The birth of a child, the death of a friend, the ups and down and ins and outs of life that make us stop and think about the weightier matters. But whatever it is, there is one thing that is clear – we have to leap. And leaping requires the humility and honesty to say “I’m not Han Solo. I haven’t seen it all. There might be more to life than I know.”

It’s utter vulnerability, really. A huge risk. It’s different than challenging God (“prove yourself if you want me to believe in you”). God chooses to miraculously prove Himself to some people some of the time (no, I don’t know whay some people get the “special” treatment). But for most of us, we have to set aside our overinflated view of our own ability to figure stuff out and decide to just believe.

And that’s where it all starts.

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I think one of the first things we are asked to do in the Bible is repent. God’s words to us often begin with an invitation to change our course and a promise of restoration, redemption, and reconciliation (hey ma – I used a big word!). 

Mr. Dictonary says to repent is:

1. to feel sorry, self-reproachful, or contrite for past conduct; regret or be conscience-stricken about a past action, attitude, etc. (often fol. by of): He repented after his thoughtless act. 
2. to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one’s life for the better; be penitent.  

It is no mistake that John the Baptist and Jesus’ main message was repentance…

Mark 1:4
And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

…and that Peter’s message to the crowd at Pentecost was first to repent, then be baptized…

Acts 2:38
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, a dominant message of the early church throughout the book of Acts is the call to repent. The early church taught that salvation began with a change of heart and actions, then was followed by a public declaration of faith (“repent and be baptized” – the order was important).  And Jesus last recorded words to the churches of John’s day were extended calls to repentance…

1. Revelation 2:5
   Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
   Revelation 2:4-6 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
2. Revelation 2:16
   Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
   Revelation 2:15-17 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
3. Revelation 2:21
   I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
   Revelation 2:20-22 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
4. Revelation 2:22
   So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.
   Revelation 2:21-23 (in Context) Revelation 2 (Whole Chapter)
5. Revelation 3:3
   Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
   Revelation 3:2-4 (in Context) Revelation 3 (Whole Chapter)
6. Revelation 3:19
   Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
   Revelation 3:18-20 (in Context) Revelation 3 (Whole Chapter)

And your point is?

The call to follow Jesus begins with a call to repent – and the evidence is strong that this is not a one-time event. We are, in fact, taught to live a lifestyle of repentance, to be people that are continually aware of our sinfulness and are quick to turn from wrong when it is recognized.

We live in a culture that barely recognizes the concepts of right and wrong, and we are certainly not quick to accept responsibility for our wrongs. Imagine the imapct that humble repentance has on a world obsessed with shifting blame.

It would be gratuitous (and self-aggrandizing in a weird backwards way) for me to list the things that have come to mind I am in need of repenting of just while researching and writing this post. Suffice it to say that there are lots of things to repent of…lots and lots…

I think the Bible says to repent so many times because our core issue is breaking God’s law, and only in humilty and repentance do we find the proper perspective on who we are and who He is and begin to understand to amazingness of His grace. If we live lives of humility and repentance, we walk a path 180 degress from our culture. Without changing our clothes, hair, or body art, we make a powerful statement.

I have to DO something…

That is, of course, if our sorrowfulness is accompanied by action – we not only have to recognize the wrong, but make it right. As Paul told King Agrippa he had preached…

Acts 26:20
First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.
Acts 26:19-21 (in Context) Acts 26 (Whole Chapter)

Proving repentance by our deeds is harder than just realizing our wrong. It requires a physical change. If I treat a co-worker poorly, I have to not only admit it, but change the way I treat that person. If I realize I am prayerless, I have to begin to pray. If I do nothing to love the people Jesus loved the most (those outside the mainstream, “in crowd” of society), I have to begin to DO something differently.

To follow Jesus begins with the simple admission – “you are God, I am not.” We begin by facing the ugliness that is our true selves, and we keep facing it, day be day repenting of what we see and living differently.

I’m not sure I live a life of repentance right now. So I think I’ll begin by repenting of that .

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