Evil.

There are some who disagree. They say this was justice – payback for years of American Imperialism and greed – some even say God’s judgement against us. If you want to decide what’s God’s judgement and what’s not (say for instance you’re John Piper and you like to interpret the weather), more power to you. I don’t claim that prophetic authority, and it is God’s to judge the merits of those who do. For me, one thing was abundantly clear: brutally murdering thousands of men, women, and children is evil. Cowardly, vile, despicable, murderous, and evil.

Many debate the existence of evil. Still others accept that evil exists, but contend that it can be reasoned with and convinced to be less evil-y. The Bible sees evil as a cancer, to be rooted out and purged. Willfully attacked and eradicated. Stood against. Hated. It teaches us that sin entered the world through the partaking of fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Every one of us is born with the innate ability to understand right and wrong, good and evil, righteousness and sin. And god calls us to hate evil and cling to what is good. Without apology, I hate what was done 8 years ago today.

I think my news radio habit started that day. For weeks after, we had the radio playing most of the time at the office, hearing the latest updates from three ground zeroes, hearing the latest speeches and announcements and casualty reports. To this day scarcely a day goes by that I don’t listen to or watch news and talk programs (much to the dismay of everyone who has to ride in a car with me).

This morning as I drove into Seattle in the pre-dawn hours, many had already gathered in New York City to remember 9/11. when I turned on the radio, they were reading the names of every victim, firefighter, policeman, and hero who died that day. I was struck with that remembrance, 8 years later. Not one is forgotten. Not one is left out. And in that recitation I heard the heart of God, who remembers every victim of evil, from the blood of Abel to the end of the age, and promises to never leave us, and that someday this too shall be made right. I was comforted by these words from Isaiah 43:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
       I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 

 ² When you pass through the waters,
       I will be with you;
       and when you pass through the rivers,
       they will not sweep over you.
       When you walk through the fire,
       you will not be burned;
       the flames will not set you ablaze.

Not one who suffered from the evil of that day or any other is forgotten. God promises that when we face evil, He is with us. And the story of the Bible begins and ends with a promise – evil was never meant to rule us, and it will someday be destroyed.

Billy Crockett wrote a song a long time ago inspired by the act of partaking in the Lord’s Table (Communion). His words are appropriate for today (transcribed the best I can remember it):

Pieces of life laid on the table
Here is the bread of life offered for us
Fill this cup, raise it up
Here’s to the Day- remember.

Can you sing for the ones whose voices are silenced?
Can you sing for the ones who’ve never been free?
Can you pray for peace, ache for peace?
Here’s to the Day that’s coming
God speed the Day…

Here’s to the Day – remember.

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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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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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It’s that time again to look to Washington for salvation – from budget crises and overseas terrorists. I wrote before a post called The Politics of Faith about our sometimes obsession as people of faith with political heroes. I won’t rehash it all, but I do want to approach this from another angle…

The hip thing these days is to mock and ridicule the “other side” in politics. This creates an environment where it is tempting to get into wars of words and witticisms, both on TV and around the water cooler. The question, then, becomes “what should people of faith do in such an environment?” Is it our responsibility to determine which candidates are best for our country from a moral and even a spiritual perspective and attempt to thoughtfully defend those candidates around the office and the lunch table? Shouldn’t we be the people who advocate forcefully for candidates that hold to Judeo-Christian principles? Shouldn’t we try to convince people who they should vote for?

It’s a dilemma to be sure. On the one hand, we would like to see things go “our way” (whatever you have determined that to be). But many of us also live in environments that are hostile to our worldview, and choosing our political candidate based on that prism opens us up to heated attack and even ridicule. In a place like Seattle, I am even seeing a trend amongst Christian-types – a concerted effort to rationalize the dispensing of certain moral criteria in order to support candidates that will gain them a little more credit with co-workers and friends.

Who would Jesus vote for?

That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Some of us say he would vote Democrat because of social justice, and anyone who elevates other moral issues above helping the poor is not a real Christian. Some of us say he would vote Republican because of abortion and gay marriage and anyone elevates helping the poor above these issues is not a real Christian. Who would Jesus really vote for?

I think He would vote for you. I’m not saying I don’t hold political views. I do. Strong ones. And I share them vociferously around the house. I am ridiculously well-informed, consuming much media from both sides. I have a view of how the American government should best be managed. But it’s not on my name tag or my backpack or my mini-van’s bumper (I know, a minivan – what a sellout!). That’s because this is not the thing that defines my person-hood. Because it’s all gonna burn. American democracy is the greatest form of government and the greatest nation ever to exist on planet earth, and it is still only a dim shadow of the world that is to come, not worthy even of comparison.

Jesus proved consistently throughout His ministry that he elevated people above politics. He sluffed off political questions, teaching instead that the residents of His kingdom should make every effort to live at peace in whatever regime they found themselves and concentrate instead on advocacy for the truth of His death and resurrection. This is our core issue – Jesus lived a sinless live, died once for the redemption of all who receive Him, was crucified, dead, and buried, rose on the third day, and ascending to the right hand of God. This simple message is enough to gain us scorn and ridicule. leaving aside our politics.

We must not look to Capitol Hill for a savior. We must not look to supporting political views to gain us credibility or likability with friends and co-workers (translation – supporting the latest new hip candidate will not make the story of Jesus more palatable to your friends, any more than your super-hip tattoo or choice to smoke a cigar. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, unless you’re doing it just to look good to people outside of faith. Then it’s vanity at best, hypocrisy at the worst. But I digress). We must look instead to defend and propagate the incredible story of the love of God through Jesus.

Change we can believe in…

…to shamelessly borrow a phrase . General leadership principle: leadership is influence, and good leadership makes deposits into our bank of credibility and influence. Every time we put some one’s person hood before their position, listen to their opinions, spend time caring about what they care about, demonstrate integrity or sacrificial leadership, do what we say, live consistently, or a thousand other goodly things, we build our influence account. It’s like loose change in a piggy bank that eventually accumulates into a new video game (minus the Coin-Star fee). It takes time, but eventually we build up the kind of influence that can be used to persuade someone to make a change.

The real question is, what will you spend your change on? If you have built enough influence to REALLY influence someone, what should you invest that change account into? Most of us don’t think this strategically. We attempt to exert influence all the time, or at unimportant moments. The condition of the soul is far more important than what people invest their money in, who they vote for, or what they do in their free time. This is why Paul, explaining his method of ministry in Corinth, said:

1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

I Corinthians 2

I want to be like Paul. I want it to be clear to everyone who knows me that the truth of Jesus and Him crucified is at the core of my being. When we talk politics, I have something to say, but no axe to grind. When we talk sports, I have thoughts, but no hill to die on. When we talk work, I am diligent and responsible, but my heart is not buried at the office. When we talk faith, I am fully invested, ready with an answer, and willing to spend whatever good will I have to impress upon the listener the centrality of faith in Jesus to our very existence.

Spend your change wisely. It would truly tank to convince someone of your political argument (or convince them you believe the same way politically) and not have any influence left when the talk turns to matters with eternal weight. Save wisely, spend wisely.

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