Apophatica

            My God fails me every day.  Every time I expect something to happen and have faith that things will go my way, they don’t.  My God never fails to fail me.  If we are truly honest with ourselves I would imagine that we all have the same experience.  Whenever I count on my God to deliver me from some sort of suffering or to give me something that I want and maybe even think I need, I can pretty much rely on the fact that my God will not provide.

Am I down on God?  No way!  I have gotten used to it and come to even expect it.  Why?  Notice that I said it was my God who fails me.  What else could I expect?  If I am going to create God in my own image and develop an idea of God that is not real, then I should plan on being disappointed.   There are so many things in life that we create attachments to such as a cold drink on a hot day, a good day at work, a smooth traffic-less commute, a call from the HR person where we interviewed for a job, and so on.  More often than not, we throw “up” a prayer to God to let us have what we want.  When this wish does not come to fruition we get frustrated and assume that God is letting us down once again.  It’s an amazing thing that along with the mundane parts of life that we could create attachments even when it comes to God.

When God lets us down enough times we start to develop a view of God that tells us that the Divine is uncaring, or even worse – malicious.  It occurs to us that God may not have our best interests at heart and is not even concerned with our well-being.  If we stop and think, however, it becomes apparent that this God who constantly “lets us down” is a God of our own creation.  Money.  Cars.  Houses.  Status symbols.  Even health.  They all become attachments that we create and equate with happiness and well-being.  Let us picture in our minds even for a moment how our lives would be if we did not have so many things that we “had” to have in order to enjoy life.  Imagine if we were just satisfied to have our daily bread.  Wouldn’t at least half of our suffering and discomfort disappear without those unnecessary attachments?   This seems to be what the contemplative Trappist monk Thomas Merton discovered when he penned these words:

“For I knew that it was only by leaving [my attachments] that I could come to You: and that is why I have been so unhappy when You                   seemed to be condemning me to remain in them.  Now my sorrow is over and my joy is about to begin: the joy that rejoices in the deepest    sorrows.  For I am beginning to understand.  You have taught me and consoled me, and I have begun again to hope and learn.”

I would like to propose another way of approaching God.  How about we just let God be God?  Not the God that we create in our minds, but instead the God that actually is.  Perhaps God is not the personage that grants magic wishes that we have made God out to be, but rather is the ever-present solace within us that reassures us that regardless of what the outcome is, we are going to be ok.  There is no question that it is extremely uncomfortable and sometimes almost painful to sit and wait for the response to a job interview or the outcome of a doctor’s visit.  It is much easier to beg God to deliver us from our tension and give us the answer that we seek.  Unfortunately, although there are prayers that are somehow answered, it seems apparent that God does not always work that way.  Instead, we are reassured that God dwells with us and in spite of the wait or even the bad news, God will never leave us nor forsake us.  Perhaps that is why the scripture does not say that we should understand God, but instead, to “Be still and know that I am God.”

In his book Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales, Peter Rollins writes a parable about a community of people in the desert far outside of Jerusalem.  These people were present during Jesus’ crucifixion and left after he died.  Their descendants had been living there for over a hundred years when missionaries showed up and shared with them the “good news” that Jesus had been raised and was in heaven with God.  The people left Jerusalem after the crucifixion before the resurrection story began to spread and only knew that Jesus had died.

One of the missionaries noticed that the elder of the community had been missing for some time and upon looking for him, found him “crouched low in a small hut on the fringe of the village, praying and weeping.”  The missionary was amazed that the elder could be sad at such a time as this having heard the great news that Jesus had not remained dead.   The elder informed the missionary that they had lived as a community despite the fact that they understood Jesus to have been defeated by death and that “death would one day defeat” them also.  The elder then “looked the missionary compassionately in the eyes” and said the following:

Each day we have forsaken our very lives for him because we judged him wholly worthy of the sacrifice, wholly worthy of our being.  But now, following your news, I am concerned that my children and my children’s children my follow him, not because of his radical life and supreme sacrifice, but selfishly, because his sacrifice will ensure their personal salvation and eternal life.

 The people of this community had been following and being like Jesus, not because they expected a reward, but because this was what Jesus had taught them to do.  Where many of us see the resurrection of Jesus as a great thing, this elder was afraid that it would in fact become a stumbling block for the people who had been so successfully incarnating the teachings of Jesus.  Having no knowledge of an “eternal hope” the people lived in compassion toward one another despite having only a temporal hope that could only come by them creating it here on earth.

After I read this, I happened to be walking a labyrinth and thinking about the church calendar and where it placed Easter and Pentecost.  Suddenly, it occurred to me how brilliantly it was laid out.  I realized as I walked the seemingly endless circles of that sacred maze that Easter gives us the opportunity to celebrate a cosmic hope of resurrection while Pentecost actually was that resurrection.  I can just imagine how the community of believers who had been dejected and saddened by the death of Jesus were filled with the spirit of hope once again and decided that despite Jesus’ death, they were going to live their lives in community modeled on the life and teachings of the one whom they had been mourning.  During the church calendar, we get to pray and ponder the hope of resurrection during Eastertide, but it is at Pentecost that we celebrate the actual resurrection that still takes place around us!

I realize that this is all easy to say and that it is not necessarily easy to envision what such a resurrected community would look like as it does life and is the church.  Rollins does not paint much of a picture, but makes it clear that we are not called to do church, but rather to be the church as we do life the way Jesus taught us to.  Fred Craddock, (the eminent preacher and professor) however, paints a very vivid picture of what this community would look like.

In his book Saving Jesus from the Church, Robin Meyers recalls a story told to him by Craddock about a community of folk in Appalachia that Craddock was working with who would do their baptismal services en mass at the banks of a river at sundown.  This was a small rural mission that contained some of the poorest people in the United States.  The candidates would be baptized and then would come out and get dried off to share in a large meal that was cooked along the banks of the river.  A fire would be lit to warm them and before dinner, they would all gather around the fire.  The other members of the community would gather in a large circle around them and would one by one introduce themselves to the newly baptized.  With their introduction, they would state what they could do for those people when in need.  “My name is . . . and if you ever need somebody to chop wood . . .”  “My name is . . . and if you ever need someone to repair your home . . .”   Afterward they would all share a large meal and have a huge square dance. When Craddock was asked by the city folk whom he was telling the story to what he called such a thing where he came from, he said, “I don’t know what you call it where you come from.  But where I come from we call it . . . church.”  May God grant us the strength, compassion, and wisdom to be that church.

On Thursday night, my theology class was talking about the different views of atonement.  In other words, what did Jesus dying on a cross really do for us?  Was this a payment to God on behalf of us?  Was it a payment to the devil as the ruler of this world for our redemption?  Was it an example of complete sacrifice that we should learn from and therefore practice humility?  Numerous theologians came up with numerous views.  Those views that did not agree with the majority, i.e., the church universal (Catholic) were deemed heretics.  In the above picture, we see one of those “heretics”, Arius.  Arius believed that Jesus was not necessarily divine, but he was God’s greatest creation.  The church (in the 2nd and 3rd centuries) argued that God and Jesus were of the same substance and that they BOTH existed since the beginning.  Arius argued that there was a time that Jesus (the Son, the Logos) did not exist.  This got him branded as a heretic by the powers that be.

Because there were so many different theologies around, the church made an official statement that they would be the ones to decide what was right and what was wrong.  As the church universal (the right and true church) they would dictate what was true about God and what theologies were tolerable.  They claimed that through apostolic succession their authority came all the way from Jesus.

One would think that such heavy handedness would be long gone by now in a world with so much diversity and so many different voices.  Unfortunately, however, we can still see the church (numerous local churches and denominations) claiming that they held the truth and everyone else be damned.  A perfect case in point happened during the theology class that I mentioned above.  One of the views of atonement was set forth by a man named Socinius.  His view was that Jesus was not divine, but rather a prophet that taught love and forgiveness.  He believed that Jesus dying and being resurrected was a beautiful example of dedication to God.  This view shows Jesus as doing what Micah 6:8 calls for: to do what’s right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

The professor went around the room and chose people at random to see which of the seven theories of atonement that had been introduced the student most adhered to.  Luckily (or unluckily) I was not called on.  The professor said that “of course” no one would choose the Socinian view because it was just too ridiculous.  Well, then, call me ridiculous.  Apparently we still live in a time when those of us who do not agree with the main stream are heretics.  It makes me wonder what it is they are so afraid of.  It seems like a sort of religious xenophobia because God forbid people should believe differently (and even worse!) what if there is some truth to what they believe!?

If you Google or check on You Tube for “Emergent church” or ”Emerging church” you will find as many rants about how wrong and evil it is as there are actual samples.  How can the church be relevant if it does not even acknowledge the changes that are taking place around us?  People have given up on the theology that tells us a ruthless God will wipe us out eternally if we do not believe that he killed his son.  Ok, I’m admittedly being harsh here, but I think it is time for a worthwhile dialogue between those who claim to hold the keys of truth and those who have moved on.   It’s my prayer that this conversation will happen soon and that society can once again see that church is a safe haven where people can be different and seek the Divine in community without worrying about our differences.  Rather, we focus on our likeness – that of God and the desire to do right by one another, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

I knew a leper once. Not in the sense that his skin was flaking off or that he had a contagious disease, but in the real sense of the term – he was estranged from the community. Nobody in my generation wanted to be near him and I think those of my parents’ generation and beyond had forgotten him. I was born in and went to high school in a small town of about 9000 people and I lived about 10 miles north of town in an even smaller town of about 150 people. The only time I would get a chance to see people then was when we went to town for groceries or when I was walking around at lunch time during high school. I would occasionally see this man who was slightly hunched over and had a strange voice. He would walk with his elbows pushed back and there wasn’t one of us who hadn’t imitated him at one time or another. The girls would run away and scream when they saw him and would say things like “Ooh gross!” He generally slept at a rundown motel near the high school. If you have ever seen Sling Blade with Billy Bob Thornton, he was kind of like that.

Whenever I would encounter him he would be perfectly pleasant and ask how I was doing. I think he even asked me for money once so that he could pay his motel fee that night. It was not until around my Sophomore year when I was at a community recovery meeting with my grandmother in a kind of Bible study/ 12-step recovery group. Kind of like Bill W. meet Billy Graham when I started to wonder who he was. Until then I had thought he was just the town Quasimoto and I didn’t really care who he was or what his story was. We would go around taking turns reading from the Bible and I have to admit that in kind of a snarky way I was looking forward to when it was his turn to read. I wasn’t even sure if he could read. I half expected him to pass when it was his turn. He took the Bible, ran his finger down the page to find where the last person had left off, and there it was. I couldn’t believe it. He read it in as normal and clear of a voice and just as succinctly as anyone else. I still can’t explain it and I don’t put any meaning behind it, but I still think it was the strangest thing.

When I got home I asked my mom about him and she knew right away who I was talking about. She said, “Oh, that’s Dennis Swanson. I used to have such a crush on him. Then again, so did all the girls.” I just looked at her thinking, “Way to go mom. Way to keep those standards up there.” I asked her if he was born like that and she said no, not hardly. You see, Dennis Swanson had been an all-state wrestler. Oh, so he was a jock. Not necessarily ever too bright. I see. No, no, she told me. He was our valedictorian. What!? I could hardly believe it. What happened to him? Well, she told me. He got too popular, too good, and he thought he was untouchable. He started dabbling in drugs (it was the early 70s, after all) and ended up getting a bad batch. Someone had thinned the product out to make more money and had used some chemical that wasn’t made for human consumption. It fried Dennis’ brain and he became the town leper. Just like that. Most liked, respected, and envied guy in town and over night he became an outcast – estranged from his community. Everyone wants to hang out with you when you’re cool, but as soon as your brain turns into a fried egg on a skillet, the party’s over.

I wonder if that’s how it had been with Naaman. We know that he was a top dog. Commander of the Aramean army, subjects under him, only answered to the king. Then, something happened that estranged him from the rest of the community. Was he too big for his britches? Did he alienate the wrong people? Who knows? The text doesn’t tell us that. What we do know is that Naaman thought pretty highly of himself, so it is plausible that it was his pride that alienated him from everyone else. We know people like that, don’t we? Usually they are the insecure ones who always brag to get affirmation from those around them but all it does is make people tired and not want to be around them. The next thing you know, the person who thought he was better than everyone else is an outcast.

One day Naaman decides, ok, this has gone far enough. It’s time to be healed. I’m tired of the situation. So the young girl from Israel suggests that he go see the prophet in Samaria and he does. We quickly see, though, that although Naaman wants to be healed and reconciled, he doesn’t want to deal with that that got him estranged in the first place. Elisha seems to know what it was though. He doesn’t even come to the door when Naaman arrives and believe me, Naaman notices. Elisha sends a messenger to tell Naaman to wash himself seven times in the River Jordan and he would be good as new. Does he do it? Of course not!

Infomercials tell us that we can make easy payments, software and apps are created to make our lives easier, car dealerships tell us how easy they are to get to, and even Staples has an Easy button. I’m not sure about that one. Maybe a fairy pops out and waves her wand making everything easy. When things are actually easy though, we feel like they’re not complete like we should have to work for the real stuff. Naaman apparently feels this way because he complains that his waters back home are so much better and Elisha didn’t just come out and wave his hand and make him better. I don’t have to tolerate this. Doesn’t he know who I am? I’m going home. But his officers say hey, we’ve come this far. If he would have told you to do something difficult you would have done it – to show how great you are and how it was through your own doing that you were healed. What the heck, why not give it a try? Here. Here’s the Easy button. And so he does, and so he is healed. The key here is that he seems to get what had made him this way in the first place. He submits to God and asks that he not have it held against him when he bows with his king at the altar. Finally, Naaman sees why he got where he did.

After being healed, the job wasn’t over. Naaman had to go back to Elisha. Just like in the Mark passage Jesus tells the leper to go to the priest after he heals him. The priest has to declare him ritually pure so that he can be reconciled and reintegrated into the community. The text there in Mark says that Jesus was moved to pity and healed the man, but you may notice an asterisk. The Greek word here may have been mistranslated and what Jesus felt was not pity, but in fact anger! Why? Maybe it’s just because Jesus was trying to rest and have the crowds not bug him. Perhaps it’s because Jesus realized that the man wasn’t really dealing with the issues that got him there in the first place. Jesus tells him to keep his mouth shut and go to the priest so that he can be declared ritually clean so that he can be reintegrated into the community. There are rules to live in society and at that time the rules were the Law of Moses. Instead, the man chose not to follow the rules and went and flapped his jaws anyway and Jesus was angry because he knew that the man was not really willing to do what’s right and that he would be right back where he started. But notice that the ones who have the affliction are steered clear of, but the purest one, Jesus, is the one that they all flocked to.

We are left in the dark in these two stories because we assume that somehow these two – Naaman and the other leper in Mark – broke the rules of society either with their pride or something and became outcasts, lepers. There is no complete evidence so we just have to guess. But wait. You see, the lectionary cuts off the story at 2 Kings 5:19 when Naaman goes home. But the story actually continues and I think the writer of Kings makes his point here. Gehazi is the servant of Elisha and he gets a bright idea. Elisha had turned away all of the gold and silver and robes that Naaman brought to him, but Gehazi thinks, hey I can get those for myself. So he chases after Naaman and says, you know, on second thought, we’ll go ahead and take those off your hands. Elisha busts him and curses him. Now YOU are the leper. You and your descendants will suffer NAAMAN’S leprosy forever. He broke the rules and became an outcast.

The man that Jesus healed refused to follow the rules and we can assume that he wasn’t completely reconciled to the community that he had been cast out of. Naaman got it. He got healed AND realized what had caused his leprosy in the first case and made amends. Isn’t that the most important thing? Isn’t that the key? Realizing what caused the estrangement in the first place and making amends there. Gehazi? He lost his chance to make amends. What about Dennis? Well, I think Dennis is a perfect example of the fact that it is not always the sick, the outcast, the leper who has to make amends. Sometimes it’s the community around him who needs to realize that none of us is perfect and that if someone is different, even by fault of their own, sometimes it’s the community that needs healing so that they can except that brother or sister back in. This shows how much of a community event healing is rather than an individual one. One of my classmates said it best when explaining how she had been healed of an illness, but took issue when the healing was mentioned publically because she felt somehow her privacy may have been violated. She said, “I admit that I am still dealing with how to reconcile its (the healing’s presence as a story of wonder in our community—that, partially, because God was involved in the healing of my body, it is a story that belongs to the community, for the betterment of us all seeing God at work.” It couldn’t have been said more beautifully.

Advent. D.D. Murphy calls it the “three-fold coming (adventus) of Christ – as baby refugee, as Word and Sacrament, as glorious Lamb of God”. We think of this season as one of hope. Hope for a persecuted people whose messiah was someone they never dreamed of born in a way they never imagined. Hope for the forgiveness of sins for the entire world after dying and raising from the dead. Hope for a warrior on a white horse who will defeat evil and eradicate death and tears from the Earth forever. Hope for each of us that somehow when we wake up Christmas morning things will all be different. It won’t be just the presents under the tree that we stayed up all night wrapping for the kids, but that there will be something there for us, too. Maybe something in the form of peace in knowing that we have made right choices or that everything is somehow going to be ok. But this isn’t our first advent and we’ve seen this movie before. In fact, we’ve played the leading role.

Come Christmas morning everything will still be the same. The same doubts and fears. The same uncertainty and foreboding that we went to bed with the night before will still be there. Somehow the bills will still need to get paid and our loved one’s prognosis will not have changed. We’ll wonder when all of these magical promises will come true and when our prayers will be answered and everything will be alright. When will this man who died and rose come again and take away all of the pain from the world? We find ourselves then in a place where there is no hope and we feel like we have been lied to and made the butt if a cruel joke. What if, though, we just read the story wrong? What if the key was not in the stuff about a sweeping victory that we have to wait for to come some day, but instead the key was in the talk of loving our neighbor and letting our works be the proof of our faith? What if Jesus wasn’t just speaking in parables when he said whatever we do for the least of these we do for him? Maybe then, there is a much greater hope for us this advent – one that we don’t have to wait for in painful expectation. Instead, it is a hope that can be realized right here and right now by living the example set by Jesus in feeding, clothing, and loving one another.

Yes, everything will be the same. Or will it? This advent season, let’s prepare and make way for a new and real realization of our hopes brought about here in our time by the hands and feet of Christ. Let us wake up this Christmas morning with a smile on our faces and reassurance in our hearts that Jesus is doing what he said he would – through us – one broken heart at a time.

Since I have been doing my blog at http://www.thecrossingchicago.org, I am not sure if anyone is still reading this blog, so if you are, please let me know. Thanks! 🙂

I have always been guilty of polarized thinking. I am usually too absolute and extreme in my logic which leads to a great reduction in perceived possibilities. Those things that are left then after some mental sorting can sometimes then seem daunting. For example, if I am considering a job, but really have my heart on starting a business, I may come to the conclusion that if I work full time, I won’t be able to build the business. This leaves me in a position where I think I either need to sacrifice my dream or go through a tough financial period until I get the business up and running. In reality, having the job will give me more capital to get the business running faster and will force me to use my time more wisely as I do it which will undoubtedly pay dividends in running the business.

So, why do I say all of this? Many people are now unemployed or are in jobs that they no longer have a passion for. Some ask themselves on a daily basis – How is the world a better place because I am selling vacuum cleaners? How am I making a difference crunching numbers at a desk all day? Possibilities abound anywhere you turn and it is never necessary to limit them. Regardless of where you are at in your life’s journey, don’t make the same mistake that I occasionally do and pin yourself into a corner. We may not be able to attain our dreams tomorrow, but if we are always making measurable progress toward a specific goal, we will eventually get there. It will not be the quickest path, but on the journey we will learn and be aware of so much more than we could have if we rushed through it.

Just a thought . . .

I’ve got great news for everyone! I’m sure there are some of us who have our concerns about our eternal fate so I want to put our minds at ease.

Thousands of years ago, an old fisherman saw the suffering that humans were enduring as they wondered what would happen to them when their lives on earth were over. So he vowed to do what he could to ensure that they would experience eternity in paradise. Because of his compassion, he became enlightened and could cross into eternal paradise. Because he was so compassionate, however, he vowed that he would wait until the last sentient being was saved before he would cross over into paradise. His name is now known as Amida and if we, even in our dying breath, say the words “Namu Amida Butsu”, we will be saved and be able to enter in to paradise. Isn’t that great news!? Now you do not have to worry about what lies ahead for us after our lives here are over!

If anyone hearing that story actually felt relieved, well, good for you. Most of us, on the other hand, most likely felt like “Huh? What in the world are you talking about?” This is the way that most people feel when we share the gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent his son to die for our sins and so Jesus emptied himself of divine power and allowed himself to be nailed to a cross. He was dead for three days and then was resurrected by God and now sits at the right hand of God. We commemorate this event by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus. Some day all of the dead people will be resurrected and Jesus will come back and we will be with him in Heaven after a time of tribulation and a millenium of peace. Do we ever stop and think how crazy this sounds? Don’t get me wrong – we believe it to be true and we stake our very existence on it, but really – do we think this sounds any more rational to others than the story of Amida sounds to us? It is important that we realize that we no longer live in a Christian culture. We live now in what has been called Post-Christendom. Most people do not go to church and do not relate to the story of Jesus that we call the gospel. The story of Amida is one from another culture to us just like the story of Jesus comes from a culture foreign to people living in Post-Christendom/ post-modernism today.

This disconnect is nothing new. When Paul was writing to the people of the church at Corinth he said in 1 Cor. 2:14: “But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.” We need to adopt a new way of speaking for those who do not understand the message. Is it wrong that they do not understand? Of course not! How could they? So how do we show people that the gospel is true? That’s just it – we SHOW them. Paul says in the same chapter in verses 1 – 5. He first says that because the people of Corinth did not at first have the Spirit, “I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.” Instead, he said “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” In DEMONSTRATION of the Spirit. We cannot do much with magical words that people do not understand, rather we must demonstrate the gospel in how we live our lives as a testament to that truth.

We see where a lack of wisdom affects those outside the church. One area in which not necessarily a lack of wisdom, but a lack of using that wisdom leads to trouble is within the church. In 1054 we had the Great Schism that led to one of the biggest splits ever in the history of Christianity. This was the split over theology (or the Filioque to be specific – let me know if you want to hear more about this one). Most of us, we assume, would have sided with the west on this debate which means we side with the Roman Catholic Church. But wait! Most of us are Protestant after another huge split in the church – The Reformation. We don’t agree with the Catholic church. And on and on it goes with splits within denominations over same sex unions, ordination of homosexual pastors, ordination of women, issues of charisma, etc. etc. ad nauseum. This is like a story that Emo Philips told that I get a laugh out of:

(In a conversation with a suicidal man threatening to jump off a bridge)
“I said, ‘Are you a Christian or a Jew?’ He said, ‘A Christian.’
I said, ‘Me too. Protestant or Catholic?’ He said, ‘Protestant.’
I said, ‘Me too. What franchise?’ He says, ‘Baptist.’
I said, ‘Me too. Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?’ He says, ‘Northern Baptist.’
I said, ‘Me too. Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?’ He says, ‘Northern Conservative Baptist.’
I said, ‘Me too. Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist or Northern Conservative Reformed Baptist?’ He says, ‘Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist.’
I said, ‘Me too. Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist, Eastern Region?’ He says, ‘Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region.’
I said, ‘Me too. Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879 or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?’ He says, Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912.’
I said, ‘Die, heretic!’ and I pushed him over.”

Pretty ridiculous, eh? But how far is this from where we are at? Paul said in vs. 11 “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ” So let’s not assume that we understand what another party is thinking as we base our argument. Is there any hint of how we can start agreeing on things and being of like mind? Paul thought so. He said in vs. 12 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ” What if, for example, when we get to Heaven that God chides us for assuming that Rob Bell was heretic by saying that God has too much love for there to be a hell? What if God says, “Did you really think that I, in my infinite love, could do something so cruel to my children?” Who knows what the truth is here, but we need to seek wisdom through the Spirit since it has been given to us freely rather than assuming we already have all the answers.

Let’s pray that since we have the mind of Christ (as Paul says in vs. 16) that we can use it and get a glimpse of what is truly right. Let us also remember that when we use God-speak on a skeptic they will just hear something like the teacher on Charlie Brown. But if we SHOW them by how we live and DEMONSTRATE the gospel, then they will hear, see, and experience something truly beautiful.

In our culture of super heroes and wise folk, we hate to be seen as weak or foolish. It frustrates us when we are not the strongest of the group or the wisest. 2000 years later, it is not any different than when Paul wrote to the people of Corinth and gave them an earful on just this topic. The people of Corinth were hellenistic people who relished knowledge and wisdom, but who ironically (at least the members of the church) originally were not the brightest bulbs on the porch. In 1 Cor. 1:26, Paul says that not many of them were “wise according to worldy standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” When they received the wisdom from the Holy Spirit, they began to think that they were better than everyone else. (As we will see in 1 Cor. 2) They finally had something to brag about and brag they did.

Paul mentions that “God chose what is foolish in this world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:27-29). So does this mean that we should not strive for strength or wisdom? Of course not! It does mean, however, that we have to strive for the right kind of wisdom.

Let’s think about this for a second . . . God became a human in the form of Christ and although he was able to perform miracles and had access to his Godly powers, he chose to leave them. He was punched, beaten, stabbed, whipped, and nailed to a cross with a broken and battered body. He was weak by choice because he knew he had to suffer in our place and with out dying, he could not be raised. BUT, God raised him from the dead with power and he now sits at the right hand of God the Father. Paul even calls this logic foolishness for those who do not understand it. Of course it’s foolish! It goes against everything we are conditioned to know in this world.

Imagine, though, that we seek our wisdom and strength from God and in turn get the only real lasting wisdom and strength that exists. In our lives we are sometimes literally beaten down and battered and other times we just feel like it. Sometimes we are not the smartest person on the block, and other times we are just having a dull moment. We can even embrace these moments! I am not saying that we should try to suffer or make ourselves weak in all situations, but when we are there anyway, let’s be glad that we have a God who chose to do this with us who has prepared a place for us where weakness, suffering, and foolishness will exist no more.

If this is you today who is feeling that the world has beaten you down and taken away any piece of wisdom that you may have once had, just remember that these things cannot last anyway. Let’s not be like some of the people at Corinth who thought the idea of a suffering savior was so foolish that they even swept the crucifixion under the rug! Instead, let’s remember that if God himself chose to suffer (and did so out of true strength and wisdom), and because we certainly are not above God, then let us not focus on our own strength and wisdom and ask God for some of his.

Just to be up front, I would say the answer to this is (drumroll please . . . ) BOTH. There is no doubt that being saved from our sins by Christ is something that happens on an individual basis when we accept to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, died for our sins, was raised on the third day, and sits at the right hand of God the Father. BUT, do we not forget that there are three parts to salvation? How do we discuss salvation with non-believers? Are we doing a good job? I would submit that salvation must occur at both the individual and communal level.

Salvation consists of justification, sanctification, and glorification. We have probably heard these terms somewhere before, but in rarely in church these days. I used to believe that it was a good thing that these terms are not mentioned because it makes Christianity seem too “weird” or “unrelatable” to unbelievers that we are trying to reach. I feel now, however, that the church should explain salvation, but do so in a way that we can all understand.

Justification is the deliverance from the penalty that we would otherwise receive had not Jesus taken that for us on the cross. Regardless if one believes that “sin entered the world through one man, Adam” as Paul says in Romans, there is no doubt that we are incapable of being perfectly righteous. If you don’t believe me, try it. Try to live for one day in which you do not say, think, or do anything that is impolite, rude, malicious, or just plain bad for someone else. We are justified before God because the only perfect person to walk this earth – Jesus – became like the Old Testament sin offerings and died (hence the term “Lamb of God” or “Agnus Dei”) in our place. Justification is discussed in Galatians 2:16: Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.

Sanctification is the thing that we cannot seem to get right. That is, no matter how hard we strive to be perfect, we cannot do it. Sanctification is the process (and this is important to note – it is a process and not an instantaneous event) by which we try to be more Christ-like. Step-by-step we try to reform ourselves and our lives so that they are more like the way that Jesus lived. Sanctification is NOT obeying the law (or at least because we have to) since we have been saved from the law. Paul mentions this throughout his letters, especially in Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians. One very important thing to note here is that sanctification becomes possible (in as much as it is possible) BECAUSE of justification. Oftentimes we try to become better people on our own to be righteous. This simply isn’t possible. Since we are justified before God (NOT of our own doing, but because of Jesus’ death and resurrection), we embark on the journey of sanctification out of gratitude – NOT necessity to be right before God.

Sanctification is a transformation. It is one of the most frustrating aspects of salvation because we expect that the moment we accept Jesus that we should become saintly people. When we find that we still do the same foolish things that we used to, we get discouraged and want to give up. That is why it is so important to remember that sanctification is a process. This concept can be seen in Romans 6:22: But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

Glorification is what will happen after Jesus returns and all of the dead have been resurrected. We will all have “glorified” bodies that will have no ailment or blemish. These bodies will be permanent and we will also be righteous in thought and action. It is what we are striving for in the sanctification process and what we ultimately achieve by God’s doing when the old earth has passed away and the new heaven and new earth are brought to be. Paul mentions this in Philippians 3:21: [Christ] will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

So, having said all this, why is it so important that salvation is seen as a communal event? Fast forward through the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and modernism, and we find ourselves today in our current post-modern, post-Christian culture. We ask a person if they are saved and if they are not, we turn our noses up and tell them that they better get saved quick or risk hellfire. Isn’t that attractive? Or do we have a better way to speak such an important truth? I believe this attitude came from post-modernism where MY view of truth is right and good for ME. I get to decide what is true and what isn’t because everything is relative. Everything starts to become about the individual and eventually our thinking about salvation is eroded into something that is JUST for me. Like I said before, I do believe there is an important personal aspect to salvation, but that is not the ONY aspect of salvation.

Jesus died for all of our sins. He went to the cross because none of us could get rid of sin ourselves or stand righteous before God. ALL of us who chose to accept this fact are justified. Next comes sanctification. If we are, out of appreciation, to strive to be more Christ-like (which is ironic, I know, because we are incapable of becoming perfect and trying to do so says the Law is better than grace, but yet Jesus was perfect and that is how we are supposed to be . . . ok, I digress) and it is impossible for us to be completely Christ-like then how can we even make any progress in sanctification. This can only happen, I would argue, by living in community with others who are striving toward the same goal. By being accountable to one another and by experiencing salvation together in community, we learn each other’s ways and slowly are transformed into people who genuinely care for others before ourselves. Finally, we are ALL glorified before God and share together in the resurrection and the great banquet in the kingdom of God as brothers and sisters in Christ.

So, if salvation is communal, are we acting like it . . .?
In post

One of the biggest reasons for not achieving the tasks or reaching the goals that we set for ourselves is a lack of confidence. We hear that little devil on our shoulder telling us that we cannot achieve what we have set out to do and that we are doomed to fail. Unfortunately, the little angel on the other shoulder isn’t loud enough in telling us that we CAN do it. We always have the “yeah buts”. Every time we think that we have reached a point where we have all the answers and are confident and ready to go, a little voice says “yeah but” and gives us some excuse as to why our idea could never work or at least not work in the way that we envision it.

When we are doing something for our own good, it is often difficult to get going. That is why it is helpful to remember that it is not only pastors who are called. There is a priesthood of ALL believers and each Christian is called to mission to bring about God’s kingdom in different ways. This can be done through our work and does not always mean volunteering (although sometimes it does). If we can each find our calling – what it is that God wants us to do to bring good news to the poor, heal the sick, etc. – then our endeavors and goals will take on a whole new meaning. When this happens, we see our goals as not for our own gratification, but rather as a duty to God. It’s always easier to be complacent when something is for our own good, but when it is commanded by God it’s a little harder to ignore!

Throughout the Bible, God has called people who were reluctant or who felt inadequate. Moses didn’t feel he could speak well enough to convince the Pharoah to let the Israelites out of Egypt, Isaiah felt he was unclean, Jeremiah didn’t think he had what it takes, and Jonah just plain did NOT want to go to Ninevah because he knew there would be repentance and he didn’t want that. It has almost become cliched, but God does not call the equipped, he equips the called. If we realize our calling, accept it, and then take the first step with faith in God and compassion toward our fellow humans, then our work WILL be blessed and we WILL succeed!

I pray blessings and strength over everyone today and pray that God makes your calling clear. Some of us already know what that calling is but are still frozen in place . . . 🙂 You’ve been called by God to a great work, now let’s go!!!

“And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.” Phil. 1:6