Bible for Thinkers

If you're bored

2008-11-17T21:25:00.001-05:00

Here's something I didn't write but wish I did.

Check out Noah's blog

On God and Weather

2008-08-31T13:01:00.003-04:00

Another selection from SpiritWalkers on the ridiculous battle between Focus on the Family columnist, Stuart Shepard, Hurricane Gustav, and the Republican convention.

Matthew 5:45b “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”

I think one of my biggest hopes for the next administration, whoever might be at the helm, is that there will be a moratorium on giving the national microphone to religious nutcases. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (the early 1980’s in Rhode Island) I used to listen to the Focus on the Family radio show with Dr. James Dobson. Back then the show was about psychology, which is Dr. Dobson’s area of expertise, and it focused on applying psychological insights to family life. I actually used some of those insights throughout my ministry as I did pastoral counseling with distraught couples and families.

Sometime between 1980 and today, something went haywire and Dobson’s organization came to believe that what defines us as Christian is not our profession of faith or our baptism but rather the way we vote on certain issues. God apparently then went on sabbatical and left Dobson in charge of what those issues are. Just how far the esteemed doctor has come over these past decades was evident last week with the posting of a video on the Focus on the Family website by one of their columnists, Stuart Shepard. The video encouraged everyone to pray for torrential rain in Denver on the night of Obama’s acceptance speech in the outdoor Mile High Stadium—rain bad enough to make it impossible for the cameras to film or any but the most determined supporters to attend. It was so over the top that even Focus on the Family supporters complained and the site pulled the video. But of course it was first snagged for YouTube and you can watch it here: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=IJY0NuBC7vo.

Of course that night in Denver was as perfect as it gets, although some have noted with irony that the Fox News skybox was flooded by a sprinkler system failure. Of course now the bigger rejoinders come from the left, noting that God seems to have answered Mr. Shepard’s prayer against the Democrats by disrupting the Republican convention with a hurricane. Ironically there are even atheists cheering for God in this turn of the debate. Some on the right have shot back, as they did after Katrina, saying that God is again targeting New Orleans because they had a gay pride parade scheduled. The left notes that most hurricanes seem to hit red states. And so it goes.

All I can say is, STOP!!!

Nobody on either the left or the right should be cheering for something as devastating as a hurricane. And nobody who professes to let the Gospel guide his or her life should make any proclamation about how God is using weather events to express a preference or inflict a punishment. Probably people did the same thing in Jesus’ day, which is why Jesus also said, “Stop!” in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus tells us quite plainly that the weather is just the weather. God created it, yes, but God does not use it as either a carrot or a stick. God makes sure that both the evil and the good get sunny days and that both the righteous and the unrighteous get rain.

I’ll tell you what I pray for. I pray for a nation driven by intelligent compassion rather than ideology. I pray that we will lose our national taste for shock jocks of both the left and the right so that media outlets will find their ratings go up when they feature respectful dialogue on important issues and down when there’s a shouting match between ideologues. I pray that Christians of red stripes will recognize the face of Christ in Christians of blue stripes and vice versa and work together to bring the Kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven. And, in my baser moments, I pray that all those who cheer the devastation of others have their toilets back up!

Like a Rock

2008-07-06T13:43:00.002-04:00

Just did this take on the parable in Matthew 7:24 about the guys who built on rock and on sand for SpiritWalkers, so I thought I would post it here as well.

Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

The message in this parable from the Sermon on the Mount is quite clear. The first man builds a house on a rock. The second man builds his house on the sand, and the coming flood proves the wisdom of the first and the folly of the second. The moral of the story is this: Base your life on Jesus’ teaching, and your faith-house won’t get washed away.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to have a builder certify your home’s foundation than it is to follow Jesus’ advice. Some of Jesus’ words are clear and just very hard to put into practice. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matt. 5:44) for starters. But Jesus is also notoriously unclear in many places, as the miles-long trail of conflicting commentaries on his words would indicate. Some decide to take his words literally. But consider this: “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” (Mark 9:47) “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yea even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26) And that’s before you get into murky parables that praise corrupt managers and boot wedding guests who aren’t dressed properly even though you just pulled them in off the street. Literalism is a “sand” choice. Been there, done that. My house still fell.

I completely agree that “What would Jesus do?” is the correct question to ask. I just don’t believe that the question is so easily answered. I have tried my entire life to put Jesus’ words into practice, and it seems every time I answer the doorbell, it is the wrecking crew coming to take down my house again. And that doesn’t leave me too happy with the dualistic choice of “wise” or “foolish.” While I try to do due diligence in my life choices, whether I end up on rock or sand is often a crap shoot. Maybe God could see it coming, but I sure couldn’t, and I resent that guy on the rock sitting there gloating at me. So…I’ve added some guys to the parable.

The wise man builds on rock, the foolish man builds on sand, but I think there’s a third guy--the moron. The moron builds on sand, has his house washed away and builds again in the same place! And then there’s my favorite—the fourth man—the teachable man, who builds his house on the sand, has it washed away, learns from his mistake, and builds the next time on rock. With the addition of the moron and the teachable man to the metaphor, I have a much better shot at getting to that rock and earning the wisdom title.

These four possibilities were all lived out before our eyes over the past month as the Mississippi had its second 100-year flood in the span of 15 years. First we have the obvious comparison—those who built (individuals, businesses, and towns) in a flood zone and those who did not. Sand and rock. But the second set of builders was also in evidence. Of course we saw the reports of those who rebuilt in the same location after the flood in 1993 and once again had the mighty river conquer their efforts. But I was really struck by the news reports about Valmeyer, Illinois.

In the first round, they were sand builders and 1993 washed away their entire town. But they were not content to be labeled so simply by the metaphor. The whole town of Valmeyer decided that it was teachable, and the whole kit and caboodle picked up and moved two miles east and hundreds of feet up. They rebuilt the entire town on higher ground. The flood came again last month, again submerging their old town limits. But the new town stayed high and dry with not a single resident losing anything to the flood. The teachable man. It was hard-won, but the town of Valmeyer is now “wise.”

Of course you can keep adding people to the metaphor. The complete idiot who rebuilds on the sand time after time. The slow learner who finally gets to the rock after multiple sand castles. The latter was certainly the story of Jesus’ own disciples who had to be taught and re-taught so often that Jesus finally says to Peter in frustration, “Are you still so dull?” (Matt. 15:16).

That gives me hope. An initial choice might land me in either the wise or the foolish category, but I don’t have to just sit there like a lump. I can learn…maybe slowly, but if “dull” Peter can become the “rock” on which Jesus would build the church, then maybe this slow learner can do the same. Now to go remove some sand.

The face of God

2008-06-14T13:08:00.002-04:00

I'm working on a third book. It's coming along all-too-slowly, but I am learning as I go. The book deals with the way in which our human relationship issues often transfer to our relationship with God, so I'm working through all the different types of human relationships in turn.

Most recently I've been working on the Sibling Rivalry chapter, and the biblical example I chose for this is the story of Jacob and Esau. While working through the reconciliation of that relationship at the Jabbok River in Genesis 33:1-11, I saw for the first time a broader parallel to another story.

In the Jacob and Esau narrative we have two brothers, sons of a wealthy man. There is an inheritance issue, and one son grabs the inheritance and runs to a far off country. While away from home, that son serves another man as a servant for many years. When he finally decides to return home, he sees the one whom he has wronged and approaches him bowing and scraping in submission. But Esau ignores that and in Gen. 33:4 "But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept." Jacob then says to his brother, "For truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God--since I have received such favor."

What other Bible story does that remind you of? I'm sure I'm not the first to discover this, but all of a sudden it struck me how like the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 this was. It has so many similarities, in fact, that I wonder if Jesus--who like any good student in Hebrew School would have been steeped in the Jacob and Esau story--wasn't giving his listeners a midrash on the story when he told the parable. Some of the details are changed, of course, but the issue of inheritance, feuding brothers, forgiveness, and the grace of God are still dominant themes.

The truth of both stories are the same--contrasting the way we typically act in human relationships (especially in our families) with the unmerited grace and unconditional love of God. In the story of Jacob and Esau, it is the wronged brother whose face mirrors the face of God. In the story of the Prodigal it is the wronged father who runs to welcome his errant son. But in both cases, the Gospel message is told. The Kingdom of God is here...standing in our midst, wearing the most unlikely of faces. The face of a sibling. The face of a parent. The face that we are afraid to look at directly because we know the wrong we have done them.

And yet, when we muster the courage to look, our fears of punishment are washed away as fast as that other person can run, and we find ourselves not in hell, but in God's loving embrace. The God of the Old Testament is no different than the God of the New. Maybe that's part of what Jesus was saying in that parable. I don't know how I missed it.

Psalm 137

2008-05-17T22:40:00.002-04:00

Psalm 137 is a problem for a lot of folks. It starts out as a lament...wondering how a captive people can go on in exile. I can't read those first lines...especially starting at verse 2..."On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs..." without hearing the haunting song from Godspell taken from this Psalm.

But not even Godspell could deal with the last verse, as the Psalmist moves from lament to anger against conquering Babylon: "Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!" And there the Psalm ends.

In my experience, people freak out when they get to this verse. It's a reason many people decide that the Bible isn't for them. Worse, it is the reason some who call themselves Christians have felt justified in killing the children of their enemies...like this is some sort of divine permission for infanticide.

I have actually used this Psalm in worship. I used it at a candlelight vigil on September 14, 2001, three days after America discovered what it feels like to live in many other parts of the world. I didn't use it to encourage vengeance or to glorify the horrible act it portrays. I used it because it told the truth about the rage and anger that rose in our hearts that week. The ugly, ravaging truth.

That's what the Psalms are for. They are prayers...prayers that were sung to God in private and in public...prayers of saints and sinners alike. They aren't shining examples of how God's people SHOULD pray, they are gritty, amazing records of how the people of God DO pray in all sorts of circumstances.

The Psalms have glorious odes of praise like Psalm 100. There are deep words of comfort like Psalm 23 and pleas for mercy and forgiveness in the wake of sin like Psalm 51. There is lament, awe, confusion, joy, resentment and...yes...even the extreme and brutal anger of a brutalized people.

I think we need Psalm 137 to remind us of what is in the human heart, even when it is not pretty. And I think we need Psalm 137 to remind us that God is big enough to handle even the darkest corners of our hearts without striking us with lightning. Such thoughts do their greatest damage when they are hidden and repressed, only to surface in some sudden, horrid action that we cannot even explain to ourselves. Far better that we pull them to the surface and give them over to God, who can take our cries of "Crucify him!" and turn them into "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing."

God and Harry Potter

2007-08-06T18:58:00.000-04:00

This poor blog has been so neglected. So I'm posting my SpiritWalkers from the week that Harry Potter came out. Beware...this has spoilers. If you're still reading, come back to this later!

Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”

There are lots of ways to approach this verse, but the thing that moves me this week is the idea, evident in many parts of Scripture, that God and God’s messengers are not always easily recognized. You can, in fact, have angels staying in your home, eating breakfast and snoring on the couch, and not see them for who they really are.

Jesus, of course, is the most obvious example of this, but all the way back to Abraham, the Bible has been telling us that God does not show up with a nametag. Mother Teresa talked about the “distressing disguise” of the poor and Jesus talked about being present in the sick, the hungry—even those in prison—when people didn’t realize it. In preferring to be anonymous, God encourages us to treat everyone with charity. Because, after all, you never know.

And so it is with Harry Potter. Those of you who know my bent toward the fantastical will not be surprised that I am a fan, nor will you be surprised that I get infuriated with Christians who simply cast off the books as evil because they happen to have magic in them. This is a life-long frustration, as I had my first article published (back in my twenties) about how fantasy literature had shaped my faith. The letters to the editor blasted me for being a heathen and an agent of Satan for finding faith in…ummm…Narnia and Lord of the Rings. The Christian Right is a bit more educated now, and they reserved blocks of seats at the Narnia movies. But the lessons don’t seem to carry forward to poor Harry.

Ironically, it comes from the other side as well. I read a piece in the Globe a couple weeks back that talked about how (unlike Narnia and Lord of the Rings) there was no God in Harry Potter. It wasn’t a Christian-Right piece, it was a secular writer eager to have fantasy literature without religion in it.

Well, God is not wearing a nametag in the Harry Potter series. But I smiled as I read book 7. They weren’t identified as such, but two important quotes are directly pulled from the Bible. Verbatim. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:26) and “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21) And, let’s see. The whole series has been focused on love as the greatest power (1 Cor. 13) and the willing sacrifice of self to save others. Gee, isn’t that pretty central to Christian faith? Oh yeah, there’s life after death for good and evil alike (although in different conditions) and resurrection.

The great evil of Voldemort is driven by the fear of death. He abuses power, seeks to harm the meek and lowly, and distinguishes some races as more worthy of life than others. He has no remorse, no empathy, and will even splinter his own soul in an attempt to ensure immortality. Author J.K. Rowling said in a post-release interview that all of the characters could be defined by their attitude toward death. Voldemort will do anything to avoid it. Harry embraces it for the sake of others and virtually every other “good” character in the series is willing to do the same—not eagerly like those with a martyr complex, but if love can find no other way. Harry’s sacrifice, like his mother’s, does not turn out to be foolish. It saves. And then he comes back. Gee, where have I heard that story before?

Do show hospitality to Harry Potter. I’m pretty sure you’re entertaining angels.

Response to atheism

2007-06-12T15:23:00.000-04:00

I did a response to atheism that has been posted on Theolog, the blog for Christian Century. Here's the link: http://www.theolog.org/blog/2007/06/atheists_define.html#more.

Planets

2006-08-13T22:06:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this isn't a Bible issue, per se, but I just read that beginning tomorrow in Prague there will be a 12-day meeting to decide if Pluto is really a planet. Huh? So, if it doesn't meet some random criteria it won't be able to get federal funding or something? For the life of me I can't figure out why that would be important. We've been calling Pluto a planet since 1930. I wonder how much it's costing to question whether it qualifies? I wonder how many people that amount would feed? I wonder if Jesus would spend time having an international meeting to decide if a random batch of matter could properly be called a "planet." Suppose we've been duped all these years and Pluto is really a moon of Neptune or something. Will they take away my high school diploma?

Sometimes I think our world is really on Pluto...unsure of what it is and at the far extreme end of the solar system...

Peacemakers

2006-07-30T17:57:00.000-04:00

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." I have always had visions of the types of behavior that meant. But now, day after day on CNN, I hear retired generals talking about the difference between the UN force in Lebanon now, who they call "Peacekeepers," and a new UN force who would be "Peacemakers." The generals have then gone on to explain how those "peacemakers" are different. "They are the ones who have to go in and fight, who have to be willing to kill people," said one. "They are the ones with the guns, shooting," said another. Huh??? That's what a peacemaker does? Kills people? Then why didn't Jesus hand out swords after the Sermon on the Mount? He could have had peace in an afternoon!

I don't understand our nation anymore. At least I hope it's just that I don't understand it. The signs are similar to things I do understand, but would hate to name as the dominant philosophy for our country. So I prefer to say I don't understand. The president veotes stem cell research to protect life in a petrie dish, but when pressed for a cease fire, the Secretary of State says, "I don't see the point." Well, the people with bombs dropping on them see the point. Life is the point.

Yes, Hezbollah sets up in civilian areas. That means in most cases that you can't get them out with air attacks...because you will kill too many civilians. It means if you want them out and insist on going to war, you have to risk going house to house on the ground. But I still don't think that's how real "peacemakers" would do it.

I believe we...meaning America...are done. We have lost all our moral authority in the world. It was only hanging by a thread after Iraq anyway, but it's all gone now. This could be a new defining moment for the UN. Since there is a leadership void in the region, they could step up to the plate and make a difference. I have no idea if they either can or will, but the opportunity is there.

When the peacemakers are defined as the ones who "have to be willing to kill people," then we are too far gone. We can only pray that other countries will not follow our war policy example when war eventually comes to our shores.

I'm disgusted with our ineptitude and callousness.

Manuscripts

2006-07-25T21:38:00.000-04:00

Check out this find of a medieval manuscript...very cool.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/25/ireland.psalms.ap/index.html

Gloating

2006-06-10T20:25:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted the SpiritWalkers devotion here for a couple of weeks, but I've still been doing them. Head to my website if you want to catch up with that. I'm just back from a conference and this is the first chance I've had to express my disgust at how we celebrate death. I don't mean the celebration of life at funerals. I mean Al-Zarqawi and others like him.

Not that I want to minimize for a minute the horrors he has inflicted on others, and I admit to a sense of relief in knowing he is no longer in the world plotting harm to innocents. But after the initial flush of relief, I knew I couldn't turn on the television for days because people would be gloating and rejoicing in his death.

I just don't believe that God ever rejoices over the loss of a life. In the case of an Al-Zarqawi or Hitler or Bundy, I think God grieves deeply for a life gone terribly wrong...for a soul that could not accept the love God had for him or her. But I don't think God is ever pleased that the chances for turning that life around have ended.

It's easy to glide by the little book of Obadiah. It only has one chapter with 21 verses. But verse 12 speaks volumes to this, I think: "But you should not have gloated over your brother on the day of his misfortune; you should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah on the day of their ruin; you should not have boasted on the day of distress." It goes on like that for another couple of verses, but you get the point.

Yes, Zarqawi gloated over the brutal deaths of others. So do we sink to that level? Aren't we trying to be part of the Kingdom of God rather than the Kingdom of this world? Why do we cheer the death of anyone made in God's image? Well, I shouldn't say that. I know why. It's perfectly understandable, especially for those who have been directly affected, like the family of Nick Berg and others.

But still, I think Jesus calls us to the hard and narrow road of mourning even the deaths of our enemies. God gave each of them gifts to be used in the world for good. They refused and put those gifts to evil purpose. That is something to be grieved...both for them and for the world. We are lesser for it. I also mourn the fact that we could not provide a circumstance that could change their hearts...or help prevent those hearts from becoming hard in the first place. When an innocent babe grows to become a ruthless killer, society has failed. Communities of faith have failed. And I mourn our failure as well as the soul that was lost.

Speaking in Tongues

2006-06-03T22:37:00.000-04:00

Acts 2:11b “We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

The description of the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 is a pretty wild affair. The disciples are gathered together for the Jewish festival of Pentecost…the celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. But on this day, 50 days after the Passover that was the Last Supper of Jesus, things take an incredible turn. There’s a violent, rushing wind…inside the house! Flames seemed to be hovering over each of the disciples, and then they all started to speak in different languages…the languages of all the foreign visitors to Jerusalem.

For most of us, all of that is not a common occurrence. We’re not really told what the disciples thought about the situation, but it did create quite a buzz in the crowds in Jerusalem that were around for the festival. The people watching were amazed. They knew the disciples were, for the most part, simple fishermen from Galilee…not the sorts you would expect to be fluent in all the languages of the known world. What did it all mean? Some of the people present decided that the disciples were just drunk, although I have yet to hear anybody who was drunk suddenly start to spout Mandarin, unless it was the language of their birth. They often do spout a number of things, but it’s not generally a description of the wonders of God in another language.

Many people believe this is the phenomenon known as “speaking in tongues,” that is practiced in some churches today. That’s why many of those churches have “Pentecostal” somewhere in the title. Others believe that the miracle was not in the speaking but in the hearing…that the disciples spoke just as they always had and God allowed it to be heard in the language of each of those listening. But whatever happened technically, the meaning of the event seems clear. God’s message is not just for one people in one place at one time. The Gospel of God’s love is meant to be shared in every tongue and in every land.

We’ve seen this from the very beginning. When God called Abraham way back in Genesis 12, God’s intention was that through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus’ parting command to his disciples in Matthew 28:19 is to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” God has never called people to stay put and let those who are interested come to them. God sends those God has called. We have to go out. We have to go to where the crowds gather and we have to speak in their language, not make them speak ours.

Suppose we took this seriously in our churches. Suppose church wasn’t focused on getting people in but in sending people out? Supposed we really cared about speaking the language of the foreign visitors? I don’t just mean those literally from other countries who speak other languages, although we aren’t very good even at that very obvious application. But we also need to tell of God’s wonders in music that may sound foreign to our ears or through styles of worship that don’t have the same comfort to us as “home.” Pentecost reminds us that it’s not about us. The story doesn’t tell us how the disciples felt about all of this. It simply tells us that the purpose of receiving the Holy Spirit was to give the disciples the ability to communicate the Gospel in a way that those native to other lands and cultures could relate to and receive.

It hasn’t changed. The calling of Abraham wasn’t about Abraham. It was about the nations of the world that were to be blessed by his faithfulness. The calling of the disciples was not about them. It was about the nations of the world that would learn about the wonders of God through their preaching and teaching. God does not fill me or you or anybody with the Holy Spirit just so we can have an intense religious experience or miraculously pass a language exam. God gives us the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost for the same reason the disciples got it back then—to declare the wonders of God to the world. It’s been over 2000 years. It’s high time we got back to doing our job…even if others do think we’re just drunk.

Da Vinci Code

2006-05-25T18:45:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to weigh in here on The Da Vinci Code. I saw the movie Friday night (read the book years ago) and thought the critics were unfair. I thought it was pretty good. I've written about the controversy in two places. You can read them at:

Explorefaith.org: http://www.explorefaith.org/daVinci/robertson.html

Or the Westford Eagle: http://www.townonline.com/westford/opinion/view.bg?articleid=501318

Congress limiting Fred Phelps

2006-05-25T18:33:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to register my delight that Congress is going after Fred Phelps and his hateful cult. Of course they're only keeping him away from funerals, but perhaps more restrictions will come.

Of course anybody is entitled to their opinion, but to claim such vile hatred represents the God of Jesus Christ is beyond the pale. If you want to hear just how bad he gets, go to www.annerobertson.com/controversy.html. That's where he attacks me in a sermon he preached last may in response to the publication of my book.

Not that his hatred has hurt me...I got more fan mail for making the hate list of Fred Phelps than for anything else I've done. And when he picketed the church I was serving in Dover, it was the best Sunday of my ministry. Everybody was really pumped to come to church and to stand up for the message that "God is love."

So, his extremism has done me some good. But I'm glad he's finally come to national attention and that steps are being taken to limit his vile activities.

The good news is that if he is right and he is going to heaven and we are all going to hell, then hell is going to be a much more pleasant place for his absence!

Truth and The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-20T18:14:00.000-04:00

WARNING: DA VINCI CODE SPOILERS BELOW. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK OR SEEN THE MOVIE AND PLAN TO DO SO, WAIT TO READ THIS UNTIL AFTERWARDS.

John 8:32 “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

When I graduated from High School, every senior was asked to put a quote with their yearbook listing. The above passage from John was mine. Of course at 17 I had a much more limited sense of what “truth” could mean than I do now, but still, 30 years later, I still think this verse is critically important. And that’s why I have no issues with the Da Vinci Code.

I’ve read the book, seen the movie, and spent 6 hours of today talking with a group at church about the issues it raises. Sure there are some factual mistakes. But hey, it’s fiction, and the primary advocate of the theories that have many people so upset is the chief villain. If you’re going to go looking to villains in novels for your church history, you deserve what you get. I’ll grant you that I was more inclined to believe the movie version of Teabing because he is played by Ian McKellan and I couldn’t quite get Gandalf out of my head…but still, he makes some critical errors.

In the book, hero Robert Langdon goes along with Teabing’s history, but Ron Howard and Dan Brown apparently heard the criticisms of their “facts” and in the movie Langdon argues some of those points (like what really happened at the Council of Nicea) instead of merely assenting. Of course the central factual error that Teabing makes (and that Langdon doesn’t seem to have enough knowledge of Christian doctrine to contradict) is the notion that if it were proven that Jesus had married and fathered a child, that the divinity of Jesus would be disproven. That is not so.

The creed that the Council of Nicea adopted as orthodoxy for the Church says that Jesus is “true God from true God,” and also that Jesus, “was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.” Fully God, fully human…both at once. If someone were able to prove that Jesus was married and had a child, that proof would merely support the part of the Nicene Creed that claims he was truly human. It would say nothing at all about whether he was also truly God…and probably there is no factual evidence that can prove such a thing. As Langdon correctly asserts in the movie, the divinity of Jesus is a matter of faith.

To listen to the debates surrounding the book and movie, you would think that “truth” was a set of facts that could be proven or disproven, given enough evidence. The novel itself makes that mistake by assuming that revealing a set of documents would be to reveal the truth. The Gospel of John tells a different story.

In John, the “truth” is not a what, but a who. Jesus says in John 14:6 that he is the truth. He doesn’t say he understands the truth. He says he IS the truth. The truth is a person, and that is hinted at in John 8:32. “You shall know the truth.” The word for “know” is ginosko. It does imply learning, but it is the kind of learning that comes with experience of a thing. Ginosko is the word you use when you talk about knowing a person, as in “Do you know Jerry?” It is also the word the Greeks used when they wanted to imply sexual union. The Hebrew word for knowing has the same underlying sense.

Jesus in John is not saying that if you manage to learn a set of intellectual propositions and doctrines that such knowledge will set you free. He is saying that if you get to know Jesus…if you form a close, intimate relationship with Jesus…you will be set free. Free from what? Free from the sins that are bred when we get to thinking that faith is all about doctrine and law rather than about relationship and grace.

All sides of the Da Vinci Code debate, as well as the novel itself, miss that point. They are all arguing about doctrine…who is right and who is wrong…while the person of Jesus sits twiddling his thumbs and waiting for us to remember he is there, ready to free us from slavish adherence to a law that cannot save us and the sins that keep us arguing with and killing each other. Just like everyone in the novel is bent on finding the documents while the heir of Jesus walks unknown among them, so we chase after the wind, while the Truth patiently waits for us to tire of our chase and lean our head upon his shoulder.

So…pass the popcorn and be careful not to mistake any set of facts for the Truth.

Can God's Promises Be Trusted?

2006-05-13T16:48:00.000-04:00

1 Samuel 2:30 “Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and your father’s house would minister before me forever.’ But now the Lord declares, ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.’”

The God of the Bible is not static. While God’s fundamental nature never changes, there are many places in Scripture where God shifts policy and promises based on what’s happening in the world or how certain people are behaving. We already have seen that God gave the world a bit of a break by saving Noah and family rather than destroying the world entirely, that Abraham negotiated with God over Sodom and Gomorrah, and that God cut Israel a good bit of slack when Moses interceded for them.

In this case, God is shifting in the opposite direction. In Exodus, God promised Aaron that he and his descendants would be priests before God forever…a high honor. Eli is one of those descendants. But Eli’s sons were a disgrace and brought dishonor to both the priesthood and to God. God doesn’t take that lightly. Eli’s sons pay for their abuse of the office with their lives, a curse that extends to their descendants.

So what do we make of this? Can we trust God’s promises? Well, it depends on how you look at it. The overall promise to have the descendants of Aaron serve as priests remains, but the promise as it applies to specific individuals, seems to be negotiable.

I think it is a helpful reminder that our relationship with God is not a one-sided affair. It is a covenant relationship, and a covenant takes two. God makes certain promises, but those promises are conditional on our keeping up our side of the bargain. Look back through the promises God makes to Israel. They tend to be “if…then” clauses. “If you live righteously, then I will bless you” is the gist of most of them, along with the corollary of “If you live like devils, I’ll wipe you off the face of the map,” or words to that effect.

Like it or not, it doesn’t seem to be reality that we can simply claim God’s promises for ourselves and live as we please. There is forgiveness and a true desire on God’s part to honor any sincere intention to live rightly, no matter how far short of the mark we might fall or how late in life we might decide it. But if we think that claiming the name of Christ is some sort of magic act that allows us to hide a deceitful or unrepentant heart from God’s penetrating gaze, we’ve made a tragic mistake.

God’s promise of salvation, grace, and forgiveness for the world continues to stand across the millennia. But it is not a magical guarantee, it is the offer of a covenant. As the old hymn says, “Whosoever will may come.” God doesn’t care who you are or what you’ve done. Osama bin Laden can come, if he wants. But we who come only inherit the promise when we have the honest intention of living up to our side of the agreement. And what is that? The prophet Micah tells us clearly: to live justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. Jesus tells us clearly also: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

And so, heed the warning of the sons of Eli. God’s grace is not something to be cast in the mud. We cannot box God in by saying, “It doesn’t matter what I do, you have to bless me…you promised.” God offers us a covenant relationship, and a covenant takes two.

The Jawbone of an Ass

2006-05-06T12:12:00.000-04:00

Judges 15:11b “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

The Judges we are reading about in this part of the Daily Walk are not the same sort of judges we have in our courts today. The Judges in Israel were charismatic leaders who rose to lead Israel at a time of crisis. Usually this was a military crisis and, in that day and time, that military crisis usually involved the Philistines. These “judges” were not elected or appointed by any outside human authority. They were skilled leaders whose ability to rally the people and defend Israel from outside threat convinced the people that God had selected and blessed that leader for the job.

Like with the later kings of Israel, however, being a Judge (even a divinely appointed one), did not exempt people from either sin or stupidity. I’ve never heard this in a Bible trivia game, but I think if I were asked to name the dumbest person in the Bible, Samson would have to get my vote. Samson doesn’t seem to be conniving like Jacob or as prone to sin as King David who comes later; but Samson is dumb as a post. He falls for the same trick time after time, which both puts his country in danger and ends up costing his life.

When it comes to leading Israel, his national policy isn’t too swift either. Samson is vengeful and hot-headed; and when the Philistines treat him badly, he is right out there ready to return the favor. “I merely did to them what they did to me,” he says. Just two verses before this, the Philistines announce that they have come to take Samson prisoner, “to do to him as he did to us.” It is a vicious cycle where no one wins, and Samson is not doing Israel any favors in leading Israel on a tit-for-tat crusade.

What we see here is a Biblical principle being played out. Both in the Old and New Testaments it is quite clear that God’s justice and mercy are perfectly combined in the principle that we are treated according to the way we treat others. The measure you use is the measure you receive, Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:2, just one of many passages bearing such a message. It’s even in the Lord’s Prayer… “forgive us our trespasses AS WE FORGIVE those who trespass against us.” So, because that’s the way it works, it is in everyone’s best interest to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves, not simply to give what we get. We call it the “golden rule” for a reason, and it applies to both individuals and to nations.

The principle that we reap what we sow is both scary and encouraging, depending on how we behave. If we are nasty to others, we’ll get it right back. If we demand that others hold to the letter of the law, the same will be expected of us. But if we break the cycle, as Jesus encourages, and love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us; if we forgive wrongs instead of avenging them; if we show mercy to those who don’t deserve it; it seems that God is taking notes and will decide what to do with us and our transgressions according to the decisions we have made about others.

When Samson’s father-in-law gives his wife to someone else, Samson responds by burning his fields. They respond by killing the woman. He responds by slaughtering more Philistines; they respond by coming to take Samson prisoner; he responds by killing a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey; and so it goes on forever…quite literally as the descendants of both nations still fight each other today after more than 3,000 years. The Samson story gives us a nice foil to the story of Jesus, who responds to his own brutal execution with the words, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” That act saved the world and we now look to Jesus as the greatest of all the Judges.

And so the choice is before us. We can go by the old eye-for-an-eye standard and end up killing both ourselves and our enemies; or we can adopt the more difficult way of Jesus and return evil with good. It is just important to remember that the response we choose is the response we are electing to receive for ourselves.

*****
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Things That Go Bump In The Night

2006-04-27T19:52:00.000-04:00

Judges 7:22 “When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords.”

As I write this, I am on vacation, up in my New Hampshire cabin. It is out in the woods, but is not entirely isolated with some residents just across the street and down the road. Last night, a little after 9:30 pm, I heard a sound that in all my years of camping and living in the country, I have never heard. Ruckus was barking like the world was about to end, and even through all of that I could hear what sounded like a man in distress. I listened more and became frightened. It sounded like a man somewhere across the street was in terrible trouble and crying out loudly in pain. What could be happening to a man to cause him to make such incredible sounds? Of course it didn’t help that I had been watching the news, and terrible possibilities flooded my mind. I called the police.

Well, it seems that I called the police on a bellowing moose. I don’t think it’s general practice to arrest a moose for disturbing the peace, so no one is in custody this morning; but the whole thing caused me to have a deep sense of camaraderie with the Midianites whose army got frightened and killed each other when they heard Gideon’s men blowing trumpets and smashing jars.

The themes of fear and trust run throughout this military tale. God wants to teach Gideon that it is God and not military might that wins the battle. That’s a good thing, because when Gideon offers that anyone in Israel’s army who is afraid can go home, two-thirds of them leave! Still, however, if 10,000 brave men fight the Midianites, they might still think it was the strength of the army that won the victory. So God gives them the odd water-lapping test and with that, God whittles the number down to 300.

Three hundred men can’t possibly defeat an army by their own might, and in the end, the battle is won just by causing enough strange noises in the dark to frighten the other army into self-destruction. The men of Israel are only used for the cleanup operation.

Yes, it’s one of those bloody, heads-on-a-platter Old Testament stories, but then it was written in a bloody, heads-on-a-platter type age. The war tactics are not the message. The message is to trust God to keep promises. God promised to make a way into the Promised Land for Israel, and God will do just that. They don’t have to do it themselves. If Gideon hadn’t listened to God and had marched on Midian even with all of his 34,000 men, they would have fallen in defeat. But instead, they trust. The fearful ones who might act impulsively are sent home and the brave follow orders…even weird ones. Probably they didn’t cover jar-smashing in boot camp.

And that’s still the challenge to us today. Do you let fear or trust rule your life? Fear led to the Midianites turning on each other…and to me trying to have a moose arrested. Trusting in God gave Gideon the victory.

The Kingdom of God

2006-04-15T21:33:00.000-04:00

Luke 17:20-21 “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

Therapists and self-help gurus are always reminding us that the source of our happiness has to do with what is happening inside of us and not what is happening outside. For Christians, this should not be news. Jesus indicated as much two thousand years ago in the passage above. He’s talking to the Pharisees here, who are all keyed up waiting for the final and glorious reign of God to come.

That’s not too different from those of us completely focused on the second coming of Christ. It’s going to be glorious, we just know it, as soon as God wipes out all those sinners and it’s just us righteous ones living the way God intended. Then everyone will see things just as we see it because, after all, we’re the righteous ones so we see it correctly. Then we will be happy because God will set everyone straight and we won’t have to deal with those other people causing us trouble anymore.

But Jesus has some unsettling words. I don’t think he means to deny a time when he comes again in glory, but it seems that the joys of the kingdom of God are not necessarily something out there in the future that Jesus will bring with him when he comes. Apparently, it is already here, within us. Like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, we’ve had the means to that joy with us all along. It’s not a matter of finding a time or place where everyone does things the way we like them done or treats us the way we like to be treated. It’s not a matter of finding a company of people that think just like we think or vote like we vote or believe the same things in the same way. It’s a matter of taking the love of Jesus and letting it unlock the door to our hearts so that the kingdom of God can be felt right now, right where we are.

Christianity is about how we behave toward others, but it is equally about our own self-awareness. It is about recognizing our sinful tendencies as well as recognizing the light of the kingdom that shines in our core. Ultimately, it is about letting that inner light come to the surface so that our outward actions come from the motivation of a loving and true heart. When the kingdom within remains locked, the kingdom without doesn’t feel quite right. It feels like the religion of the Pharisees, focused on the letter of the law as a means to salvation rather than the spirit of the law taught in the Torah…to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the kingdom of God is over here or over there. We carry the kingdom wherever we go…it is within us. Our only job is to let it out.

The alien living in your towns

2006-04-08T17:56:00.000-04:00

Deuteronomy 24:14 “Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.”

Some of the Old Testament laws sound really bizarre, and we scratch our heads about why they’re there. Others seem unduly harsh. If the Old Testament laws were still in force, there would not be many children left in Westford…it seems like they were sentenced to death for the slightest infraction! But then there are other laws that seem as current as the nightly news, and this one from Deuteronomy 24 is a prime example.

Immigration reform has been all across the headlines in these last weeks. People are entering the United States illegally every single day and especially our border towns are groaning under the weight. Of course we asked for it. There’s this statue in New York harbor that proclaims, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Millions have taken us up on that offer, and now we’re not sure what to do.

I don’t pretend to have the answers for what specific legislation ought to be passed. That’s not my strength. But there are Biblical principles that can guide Christians who wrestle with the questions. The first of those principles is in this law from Deuteronomy. When the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” arrive here—legally or otherwise—we are not to exploit them for cheap labor. If we are going to be freed from the issues surrounding illegal immigration, we have got to be willing to let go of our greed. Corporate greed that wants to be freed from paying a living wage or benefits must be stopped, and we consumers must be willing to pay a bit more for our goods and services so that businesses truly struggling can treat workers fairly and stay afloat.

When our Daily Walk program starts reading in the prophets in a few months, you’ll see that they yell about the lack of justice for the poor a lot. At the root of that is often the reminder for Israel that they were once slaves in Egypt. The descendants of Jacob poured across Egypt’s borders because there was a great drought in Canaan that had resulted in years of severe famine. Israel was once the “wretched refuse” of Canaan’s shores, and they ran to Egypt to be fed. Their end was slavery. There is a special place in the laws of Moses for the alien living in the land because they remember what it was like.

It also seems obvious that we should not be faulting the hungry for going to a place that promises bread. I often wonder what would happen if the citizen militias who have taken it on themselves to patrol our southern border put as much effort into boosting the economy of Mexican border towns. Suppose we worked to make Mexico a prosperous place that no one felt they needed to run from? Wouldn’t everybody win?

Probably there are a thousand reasons why that won’t work…just like there are thousands of reasons why “love your enemy” is not a practical philosophy. But I think that, practical or not, the principle of not exploiting the poor, even the “alien living in one of your towns,” is still the standard we are called to live by, and our Christian duty to care for the poor doesn’t stop at the Mexican border. Certainly we need secure borders to defend against terrorism and to keep out smugglers, gangs, and others seeking our harm. But I think there must be a better way to deal with those we have expressly invited…the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Both Moses and Jesus call us to a higher standard.

Remember the Sabbath

2006-03-31T20:03:00.000-05:00

Deuteronomy 5:12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.”

Here in Deuteronomy we get a run down on the Ten Commandments a second time. The first was back in Exodus 20, and we heard about them then as if we were listening in at the smoking, shaking foot of Mt. Sinai. Now we hear them as a reflection back from a later time as a reminder of the founding principles of the nation of Israel.

For the most part, the rendering is the same as in Exodus, but there is one change. Both places command that the Sabbath be observed as a day set apart, a command that was unique to the law codes at that time. But here in Deuteronomy, the reason for keeping the Sabbath has changed. In Exodus, the rationale for keeping the Sabbath was that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. In Deuteronomy, that is not mentioned. Instead it says, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” In Exodus it is a gift of rest to weary travelers. By the time of Deuteronomy, the focus has shifted to justice.

So, which thing did God have in mind? I think it is both. In this 24/7 world, we are too harried and run down. We don’t get enough sleep. We don’t get real days off. We work round the clock and both our productivity at work and our joy at home suffers. Tossing out the Blue Laws without putting anything else in their place has not helped us any. There are still 24 hours in every day, but it feels like less. We fill every moment. We believe the world will stop spinning, our company will fold, and our children will grow up to be lazy buffoons if we should take a day off each week. Exodus says, “Hey…even God took a day to rest. If God can take a day off, so can you.” We need to hear that message in our workaholic world.

But Deuteronomy has a message that is equally important. By pointing back to a time when Israel was enslaved in Egypt and didn’t have the option of a day of rest, Deuteronomy reminds us that Sabbath has a justice component. Those of us on salary with benefits can take some time away. Those of us with means can afford a vacation and won’t miss a meal because we’ve missed a day of work. But for a growing number of people, a day off means that there isn’t enough to pay the bills. Some have to work two or three jobs just to make very modest ends meet. No one should have to choose between a day of rest and food or shelter; and yet many face just such a choice every week. Even a sick day might be all that is standing between some people and homelessness.

Remembering the Sabbath means thinking about our own need for rest, but it also means looking out for our neighbor and working for a society where everyone can have a day off without unduly suffering for it. Both Exodus and Deuteronomy are clear that the Sabbath is for everyone…you, your children, your servants, work animals, and “the alien within your gates.” We are called to make it holy…set apart…for ourselves and for others.

Let Down Your Nets

2006-03-25T10:12:00.000-05:00

Luke 5:5 “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Peter was a fisherman by trade. Although the Bible reports that when Jesus said, “Come, follow me” Peter and others left their nets and did so, it’s clear that their fishing skills helped to provide for the disciples from time to time. Here, they have been doing that all night…not the glamorous work of healing or listening to Jesus’ teaching, they have been fishing through the night so that there would be food. As the sun comes over the horizon, Jesus shows up.

Remember that Jesus grew up in the carpentry trade. Maybe he had done a little fishing, we don’t know, but his human expertise was with wood, not fish. Peter, however, is a pro and had probably been fishing since he could stand on a boat. So you can imagine what it sounded like when Jesus sauntered up to Peter, who had been up all night and hadn’t caught a thing, and says, “So, why don’t you cast the net over there instead.” Peter is probably exasperated when he says, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.” Perhaps Luke deleted some expletives in his account, but the bottom line is that, as much as Peter might have felt is was silly or useless or maddening to have a carpenter telling him how to fish, he did what Jesus suggested. “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Of course they come up full of fish.

This is told as a miracle story rather than a parable, but I think it has some of the same sorts of lessons that the parables have to offer. Too often we rely only on our own expertise and knowledge. Even when that doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere, it can be hard to imagine that those outside of our specialty can offer any insight or guidance. We are the trained ones. We are the ones who know. More and more, universities are beginning to wake up to the limitations of this. Gradually they are coming to realize that psychologists have something to offer to biologists and that theology belongs in conversation with medicine.

And it’s the same in our personal lives. Sometimes it’s our children that have the answer. Sometimes it is the one not caught up in the dilemma who can see what is going on. Often it is the person who is not blinded by personal investment in a situation who can see the obvious.

Most pointedly, however, this story reminds us that following God’s direction is what will yield a net full of fish. We might well be experts and know that just putting down the net over here instead of over there is not going to make the first bit of difference. But we would be wrong. If God says, “Do it,” then there will be mighty results. Maybe those results, like the fish, will be immediately obvious. Maybe the effect of God’s command will never be revealed to us. But this story teaches us to act in faith. Even if we think God is off his rocker or doesn’t know this world half as well as we know it, we will be successful and the world will be blessed if we let down our nets as God asks.

Talking Donkeys and Other Indignities

2006-03-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

Numbers 22:27 “When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff.”

I know I’ve been focusing a lot on the Old Testament, but as an animal lover, I just can’t turn my back on Balaam and his faithful, talking donkey. This part of the story is an odd little vignette. God has just told Balaam that it’s okay for him to go along with Balak’s men, and as soon as poor Balaam saddles up his faithful steed to do just that, there’s an angel threatening to kill him if he doesn’t stop. You have to wonder if the angel forgot to check his e-mail or something to know that this trip had been authorized. Nevertheless, he is there, sword in hand.

The trouble is, Balaam doesn’t see the angel. The donkey sees the angel and keeps trying to go another way. She turns into a field and gets beaten. She presses close to a wall, crushing Balaam’s foot, and gets beaten again. Finally, when it is obvious that the angel means business and isn’t going to let them go anywhere, she simply sits down. When she is beaten again for this last bit of disobedience, God does a marvelous thing. Before God opens Balaam’s eyes and allows him to see the angel, God opens the donkey’s mouth and lets her speak up for herself. As it turns out, she has saved Balaam’s life, and Balaam acknowledges that his donkey is more righteous than he. He is the prophet of the Lord and she is a donkey, but she could see what he could not.

I think sometimes we ride through life like Balaam on his donkey. Others try to warn us about our path but we beat them and berate them, never thinking that they might be able to see something we don’t. We discount them and their warnings because we are the Christian and they are not, or because we are the educated and they are not, because we are the powerful master and they are the lowly servant, or sometimes because they aren’t rich enough to buy the right to speak.

We ride through life and believe we know what God wants and that we are doing the right thing. But even “What would Jesus do?” is a complicated and often murky question. If you stood the woman taken in adultery (in John 8) next to the moneychangers in the temple (in John 2) and asked them how Jesus deals with sinners, you would get two very different answers.

I think the story of Balaam and his donkey reminds us to be alert to all the messages around us. It is a call to humility and the recognition that no one has a corner on discerning the will and presence of God. Sometimes even the beasts of the earth can teach us the ways of God. Sometimes those we believe have no business talking are the ones who can truly see the Lord.

So near and yet so far

2006-03-11T15:52:00.000-05:00

Numbers 12:32b “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.”

This was an unfortunate report. God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and showed them sign after sign to prove that God was with them. God miraculously saved this rag-tag bunch of slaves from the mighty armies of Egypt, led them across the fierce desert by providing manna and quail and water when it seemed there was none to be found. So here they are, at the edge of the land God promised to them. The desert time is behind them, and the land of milk and honey is just over the border. So they send out some scouts to look at the place.

It is every bit as good as was promised. The scouts bring back fruit and tales of abundance. But they don’t stop with that description. The scouts come back fearful. They tell stories of giants that live in the land and warn the people not to try to go in there…that the people are too big and too strong. Fear grips the Israelites in response to the report. They complain loudly to Moses that he has brought them to their doom and they start wishing they had never left Egypt. Even after all they have seen, they refuse to trust that God can give them what God has promised, and Moses gets an earful. God gets angry at their lack of trust and vows that only the two scouts who tried to remind the people of God’s faithfulness…Caleb and Joshua…will ever enter the promised land. God sends them all back out into the desert for 40 years.

If it wasn’t for their fear, Israel could have experienced God’s blessings and abundance 40 years earlier. If they had only been willing to trust God, they could have spared themselves all those years of harsh, desert living. Some time in the desert was necessary for their formation, but it was only 40 years because they refused to trust in God. How often our own lives are like that. Hard times come to all of us, but often we make those hard times longer or harder because we will not trust that what we see as insurmountable boulders in our path are mere pebbles to God. Lots of times we make our suffering worse by believing that God is working for our harm or punishment rather than our salvation. We think God has shut us out of happiness, just because we don’t see how God can get us there.

The story of the Israelites reminds us that God is the one who provides for us. It also reminds us that we can refuse that provision and stay in the desert if we so choose. The key that opens the door to the promised land of our lives is trust…trust that God can do things that we cannot. Trust that God is at work for our good. Trust that if God says, “Step out,” God will provide solid ground under our feet.

Loving Myself

2006-03-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

Leviticus 19:18b “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

For the longest time I thought that the order of things in the universe was God at the top, everybody else next, and me at the bottom. Needless to say, that outlook gave me some self-esteem problems. Then one day I really read this verse and realized that it doesn’t say “love your neighbor and hate yourself.” It doesn’t say, “love your neighbor more than yourself.” It says, “Love your neighbor AS yourself.” Love of neighbor and love of self are equal in importance. I was blown away.

First of all, there was a commandment to love myself. It wasn’t an option. Secondly, love of neighbor and love of self serve as a balance for each other. I find that most people are better at one side of that equation than the other. Some tend to focus on others and neglect themselves. Others focus on themselves and neglect others. In my old way of thinking, loving others was right and loving self was wrong. But when I realized what the verse actually said, I could see that both types of people had it half right. Those who did a good job of loving themselves didn’t have to stop that. They didn’t have to love themselves less, they just had to love their neighbors every bit as much. On the other side, I didn’t have to love my neighbor any less, I just had to bring my love of myself up to the same caring level.

This verse from Leviticus is easy to miss in the long litany of God’s commands to Moses. It’s only half a verse long. That goes to show how well Jesus knew the Scriptures. When Jesus was asked (in Matt. 22:36) which of God’s commands was the most important, Jesus picked two…neither of which is part of the Ten Commandments. He selected the verse from Deuteronomy 6 that says we should love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and he picked this little half verse in Leviticus, saying that this verse was “like unto” the Deuteronomy verse.

The way that Jesus groups these two verses together gives us some great information. Jesus is implying that both verses say essentially the same thing…that there is little to no distinction between loving God, loving our neighbors, and loving ourselves. The more I grow, the more I have come to believe that is true. Loving others and loving myself are two different expressions of the love of God. God made both me and my neighbor. In treating all that God has made with love, we are expressing complete and total love for God. Self-hatred and abasement is not a required act of humility. It is evidence that our love of God is not yet complete.

It wasn’t easy to learn to love myself, and I’m still not sure that the two things are perfectly in balance, but they’re a heck of a lot closer than they used to be, and I no longer feel so guilty about doing something to care for myself. I am a healthier person, which also makes me better able to care for others. And those two things together move me closer to being able to fulfill the greatest commandment to love God with my all.