These days, I'm reading Proverbs for my daily quiet time with God. (I'm using The One Year Chronological Bible and am once again be reading the Bible over the course of the year.
Today, I was struck by several passages that, despite not being situated together, seem to go together, each successive couplet of two proverbs building on the previous one and forming a more complete picture.
Take a look at them here to see what I mean.
"Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off." (Proverbs 23:17-18)
Anyone who seeks to humbly follow God and love their neighbor has had those moments when, like Jeremiah, in one way or another, they ask God, "Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?" (Jeremiah 12:1)
We can ask these questions self-righteously, seeing the splinter in our neighbor's eye without acknowledging the log in our own, as Jesus says. (I know that I do anyway.) We wonder why some people seem to "get away with murder," doing cruel things, saying cruel things, and yet enjoying ease and sometimes, the approval of the world.
But what the verses from Proverbs tell us is that we shouldn't fall prey to anger at the evil people in the world for their prosperity or other advantages.
We need to remember that all who daily repent of sin and keep on trusting in the God we now meet in Jesus, God the Son--all who keep pursuing Christ and endure in trusting in Him--have infinitely and eternally more than the arrogant rich and powerful of this world.
The apostle Peter says that believers in Jesus have "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Peter 1:4-5)
To waste our time on envy of the evil people who gobble up more of the dead and dying stuff of a world ticketed for destruction doesn't make sense.
(By the way, as our current Facebook study of 1 John reminds us that some of these evil people we might be tempted to envy claim to be Christians themselves. They're the folks who twist the truth of the Gospel or exploit Christians to get the earthly things they want, like power, wealth, and advantage. John says that people like these are among the "many antichrists" that do evil in these last days [1 John 2:18-29] and who we need to ignore.)
The next couplet of verses from Proverbs that seems to go with the one mentioned above is Proverbs 24:1-2: "Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble."
While in Proverbs 23:17-18, we're told that it's ridiculous for those who trust in the God now revealed to all in Jesus to be envious of evil people because we know that God stands with those who trust in Him always, here we're told to stay away from the wicked because of the rotten things they say and do.
When we see the wicked exploiting others for big bucks or manipulating people to get or keep power, we may be tempted to befriend them. We may think that we can get some of their money or power for ourselves.
But these aren't good people. They spend their time devising ways to hurt people or stir up chaos to their own advantage. If we associate with people like these, they're likely to exploit us or, even worse, influence us to become like them!
Proverbs warns us to stay away from evil people who view others either as objects they can use or can discard.
We can pray for people given over to evil like Proverbs is talking about, asking that their hearts will be changed.
But we should never envy them.
We shouldn't do business with them.
We shouldn't trust them in any way.
We shouldn't emulate them and we shouldn't even mention their names in public.
And we shouldn't, by entering into their orbits, allow them to take us to hell with them.
The third couplet of verses from Proverbs that seems to go with the previous two is Proverbs 24:19-20: "Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out."
The idea here seems to be: Don't spend a moment stewing over the advantages that evil people may have in the world. Fight for justice and fair treatment for your neighbor, by all means. That goes with loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
But our call is to get on with lives by trusting in Jesus, Who empowers us to live in love toward God and others and to share the good news of new and eternal life for all who entrust their lives to Jesus.
For us to spend any time being resentful of the evil is a waste.
They're on the losing side of history no matter how much they may think they're winning.
Do what you can to keep these types from hurting your neighbor.
Pray that God will bring them to faith in Christ.
Pray even that you might have the chance to share Christ with them.
Otherwise, give them no thought. And don't be envious of them!
These six verses seem especially appropriate for me to heed today.
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
Monday, June 01, 2020
Martin Luther King Jr. and the Language of the Unheard
Some food for thought and prayer.
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, "A riot is the language of the unheard." King, the leader and architect of the non-violent Civil Rights movement, said this by way of explaining the pent-up grief and rage of African-Americans in the mid-60s that led to riots. King wasn't condoning rioting; he was explaining it.
The murder of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street has set off a variety of reactions: peaceful demonstrations at the killing of another innocent black man; rioting and looting by some genuinely aggrieved and harmed by a system of justice that puts targets on the backs of African-Americans, with whites often facing no punishment for perpetrating murder; rioting and looting by opportunists, white and black; and, as so often happens, those effectively condoning systemic racism by saying things like, "What happened to George Floyd was wrong, but what 'they' did to that Target store was awful."
I do not condone rioting and looting. But to put that on the same plain as the systemic, constant, and historic danger to which African-Americans are subjected each day is a false equivalence. For African-Americans, it's dangerous to walk on the street, drive in a car, go to a restaurant or a store, do bird-watching, or pray in their church, among other things. The sin of racism causes white people to threaten and call the police on African-Americans engaged in the innocuous activities of everyday life and to see many George Floyds, although not so publicly, killed with sickening frequency.
Can we white Americans muster sufficient empathy and can we who confess faith in Christ, ask God to create enough love for our neighbor for us to see how centuries of being unheard could lead to grief, sadness, distrust, anger, rage, and even rioting?
There ARE opportunists among those who have been stealing merchandise, destroying and defacing buildings, menacing people, and, in at least one case, with the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, destroying history. Some of those opportunists are white, many doing their desecrating work as part of a "cause" while blacks beg them to stop.
But if we allow our minds to wander from the real issue here, we only stoke the fires of more frustration, anger, and rioting in the future.
The real issue is that it isn't safe for African-Americans to live in the United States.
It isn't safe for my great-niece and my great-nephew, whose father is African-American, to live in the land of their birth, where they've already achieved so much. All they have to do is be at the wrong place at the wrong time--African-Americans who dare to live and breathe--and they can be harassed, arrested, or worse.
How do people speak who haven't been heard, when all the modes of expression that others enjoy are blocked to them?
It's long past time for we white Americans to listen.
And for Christians, the act of listening is a faithful way to heed our Lord's call to love our neighbor.
We need to demonstrate by our commitment to love and justice that we value life more than we do property or convenience.
Every life.
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, "A riot is the language of the unheard." King, the leader and architect of the non-violent Civil Rights movement, said this by way of explaining the pent-up grief and rage of African-Americans in the mid-60s that led to riots. King wasn't condoning rioting; he was explaining it.
The murder of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street has set off a variety of reactions: peaceful demonstrations at the killing of another innocent black man; rioting and looting by some genuinely aggrieved and harmed by a system of justice that puts targets on the backs of African-Americans, with whites often facing no punishment for perpetrating murder; rioting and looting by opportunists, white and black; and, as so often happens, those effectively condoning systemic racism by saying things like, "What happened to George Floyd was wrong, but what 'they' did to that Target store was awful."
I do not condone rioting and looting. But to put that on the same plain as the systemic, constant, and historic danger to which African-Americans are subjected each day is a false equivalence. For African-Americans, it's dangerous to walk on the street, drive in a car, go to a restaurant or a store, do bird-watching, or pray in their church, among other things. The sin of racism causes white people to threaten and call the police on African-Americans engaged in the innocuous activities of everyday life and to see many George Floyds, although not so publicly, killed with sickening frequency.
Can we white Americans muster sufficient empathy and can we who confess faith in Christ, ask God to create enough love for our neighbor for us to see how centuries of being unheard could lead to grief, sadness, distrust, anger, rage, and even rioting?
There ARE opportunists among those who have been stealing merchandise, destroying and defacing buildings, menacing people, and, in at least one case, with the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, destroying history. Some of those opportunists are white, many doing their desecrating work as part of a "cause" while blacks beg them to stop.
But if we allow our minds to wander from the real issue here, we only stoke the fires of more frustration, anger, and rioting in the future.
The real issue is that it isn't safe for African-Americans to live in the United States.
It isn't safe for my great-niece and my great-nephew, whose father is African-American, to live in the land of their birth, where they've already achieved so much. All they have to do is be at the wrong place at the wrong time--African-Americans who dare to live and breathe--and they can be harassed, arrested, or worse.
How do people speak who haven't been heard, when all the modes of expression that others enjoy are blocked to them?
It's long past time for we white Americans to listen.
And for Christians, the act of listening is a faithful way to heed our Lord's call to love our neighbor.
We need to demonstrate by our commitment to love and justice that we value life more than we do property or convenience.
Every life.
Monday, November 26, 2018
About the new 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Play
When I saw this 60 Minutes report on the new To Kill a Mockingbird play, I couldn't help thinking, "Why didn't Aaron Sorkin write a completely new work to address the issues of race and justice in a modern context, as he says is his purpose?"
I've loved Sorkin's and Jeff Daniels' work through the years, but truly if they want to turn Atticus Finch into a clueless, post-modern anti-hero, they're not really doing To Kill a Mockingbird.
This production seems like little more than the exploitation of an established work of art to me. I wish that Lee's estate had not to have settled on their case against it.
(Plus: Daniels, two years younger than me, is too old for the part of Atticus. He's 63.)
I've loved Sorkin's and Jeff Daniels' work through the years, but truly if they want to turn Atticus Finch into a clueless, post-modern anti-hero, they're not really doing To Kill a Mockingbird.
This production seems like little more than the exploitation of an established work of art to me. I wish that Lee's estate had not to have settled on their case against it.
(Plus: Daniels, two years younger than me, is too old for the part of Atticus. He's 63.)
Tuesday, October 02, 2018
Glimpsing God: Giddy with Grace and Love
Below are reflections from my quiet time with God today. For ten years of my life, I was an atheist. But in Jesus Christ, I saw God and came to trust in Him. I'm still a sinner, but one who daily trusts in the Lord Who has conquered the power of sin and death over my life through His death and resurrection. I hope that you know and follow the God Who saves us from ourselves, from sin, death, and futility, through the faith in Jesus Christ that He enables even former atheists to experience.
Look: “The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.” (Isaiah 16:4b-5)
God’s people and the Moabites had what might be termed an ambivalent or mixed relationship. On the one hand, Israel’s King David was descended from a Moabite woman. On the other, Israel and Moab occasionally warred with each other, the latter frequently paying tribute to the former.
When Moab fell into idolatry and, as a result, unchecked injustice (idolatry always brings social injustice), God both condemned and lamented Moab’s resultant deterioration and subjection to foreign conquerors. Earlier in Isaiah 16, God tells His people through the prophet to welcome the refugees who crowd Israel’s borders. God always expected His people to welcome the refugees from oppression in light of the fact that God’s people had once been delivered by God when they were refugees from oppression. This openness to others is also commanded of modern-day Christians. “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it,” Hebrews 13:25 says, alluding to the incident recorded in Genesis 18:1-15.
But, as often is the case when one of ancient Israel’s prophets delivers God’s Word, there’s a sudden expansion of the prophecy for more than just the time in which the prophecy was delivered, in this case the eighth century. It’s as though God can’t restrain Himself from telling the Moabites and the Israelites and the entire world that one day, He will bring a new King to sit on David’s throne, a King Who will make all things right. Verse 5 says, “In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.”
The King will end injustice, another word for which, in both the Old and New Testaments, is unrighteousness.
He will also speed “the cause of righteous.”
In other words, the King being foretold will condemn sin, but will also justify sinners who trust in Him. Jesus is that King!
Though Jesus is God, He is also God in human flesh: true God and true man. As a man without sin, He bore our sin on the cross, accepting the rightful condemnation for our sin--our unrighteousness, our injustice--so that He could make righteous all who turn from sin and trust in Him. When Jesus returns to the earth to fully establish His Kingdom, the “oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land.”
Listen: It’s telling to me that in this verse, as in others in which God addresses the immediate situations of His and another people, His thoughts move to His redemption for all people around the world who dare to welcome the King He sent us in Jesus.
God’s redemptive work with ancient Israel was simply the prelude or the first act of His rescue mission for the whole human race.
Tragically, many reject God’s rescue in Christ, but God delights in the idea of offering salvation to all His children. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39)
Respond: In this verse in Isaiah, Lord, I spy You becoming giddy with Your love for the whole world, even for me. You can't contain Yourself! I see that You are a God filled with the joy of love for all of Your children, every one of whom You want to return to You for love, power, grace, forgiveness, and life!
Thank You that even in our darkest or most rebeliious days, You never forget Your promise, Your grace, or Your intentions to overcome the injustice and sorrow that result from human willfulness and idolatry. You keep offering us forgiveness and new life through faith in Jesus Christ!
You are giddy with the very idea that after all is said and done, Your grace and power and love will make all things right!
Just as You never tire of loving us, Lord, help me to never tire of thanking You. In Jesus’ name. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Look: “The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.” (Isaiah 16:4b-5)
God’s people and the Moabites had what might be termed an ambivalent or mixed relationship. On the one hand, Israel’s King David was descended from a Moabite woman. On the other, Israel and Moab occasionally warred with each other, the latter frequently paying tribute to the former.
When Moab fell into idolatry and, as a result, unchecked injustice (idolatry always brings social injustice), God both condemned and lamented Moab’s resultant deterioration and subjection to foreign conquerors. Earlier in Isaiah 16, God tells His people through the prophet to welcome the refugees who crowd Israel’s borders. God always expected His people to welcome the refugees from oppression in light of the fact that God’s people had once been delivered by God when they were refugees from oppression. This openness to others is also commanded of modern-day Christians. “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it,” Hebrews 13:25 says, alluding to the incident recorded in Genesis 18:1-15.
But, as often is the case when one of ancient Israel’s prophets delivers God’s Word, there’s a sudden expansion of the prophecy for more than just the time in which the prophecy was delivered, in this case the eighth century. It’s as though God can’t restrain Himself from telling the Moabites and the Israelites and the entire world that one day, He will bring a new King to sit on David’s throne, a King Who will make all things right. Verse 5 says, “In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.”
The King will end injustice, another word for which, in both the Old and New Testaments, is unrighteousness.
He will also speed “the cause of righteous.”
In other words, the King being foretold will condemn sin, but will also justify sinners who trust in Him. Jesus is that King!
Though Jesus is God, He is also God in human flesh: true God and true man. As a man without sin, He bore our sin on the cross, accepting the rightful condemnation for our sin--our unrighteousness, our injustice--so that He could make righteous all who turn from sin and trust in Him. When Jesus returns to the earth to fully establish His Kingdom, the “oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land.”
Listen: It’s telling to me that in this verse, as in others in which God addresses the immediate situations of His and another people, His thoughts move to His redemption for all people around the world who dare to welcome the King He sent us in Jesus.
God’s redemptive work with ancient Israel was simply the prelude or the first act of His rescue mission for the whole human race.
Tragically, many reject God’s rescue in Christ, but God delights in the idea of offering salvation to all His children. “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39)
Respond: In this verse in Isaiah, Lord, I spy You becoming giddy with Your love for the whole world, even for me. You can't contain Yourself! I see that You are a God filled with the joy of love for all of Your children, every one of whom You want to return to You for love, power, grace, forgiveness, and life!
Thank You that even in our darkest or most rebeliious days, You never forget Your promise, Your grace, or Your intentions to overcome the injustice and sorrow that result from human willfulness and idolatry. You keep offering us forgiveness and new life through faith in Jesus Christ!
You are giddy with the very idea that after all is said and done, Your grace and power and love will make all things right!
Just as You never tire of loving us, Lord, help me to never tire of thanking You. In Jesus’ name. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Saturday, July 07, 2018
Wednesday, April 04, 2018
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I vividly remember the night of April 4, 1968.
I was fourteen and watching TV when a special bulletin interrupted the programming to say that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis.
1968 was a year haunted by violence that started in January with the bloody Tet offensive in Vietnam, resulting in the deaths of thousands, including Americans engaged in a war that not even its chief prosecutor, President Johnson, thought could be won.
Two months after King's death, Senator Robert Kennedy, an opponent of the war trying to regain political ascendancy after Senator Eugene McCarthy's performance against the incumbent president in the New Hampshire primary hinted that the Democratic nomination could be wrested from the Johnson, would be gunned down in a Los Angeles hotel.
Throughout the year, tensions over civil rights and the war led to sometimes violent confrontations between demonstrators and the police on American streets. The Kerner Commission, appointed by Johnson to look into what led to the bloodshed in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, concluded it was the result of "a police riot," the first time I remember ever hearing that term.
It seemed to me sometimes in 1968, that America was losing its mind.
But towering above that bloody year, despite the imperfections he shared with the rest of the human race and that had cut him down in the spring, stood Martin Luther King, Jr.
Historically, King was the descendant of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and the Union Armies of the Civil War. Like them, he insisted that the American compact, embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, distantly descended from the truths of the Bible, was built on a simple principle. That principle King summarized in a single sentence: "No man is free until all men are free."
True freedom is built on reciprocity with and mutual accountability to my neighbor. When I enslave others--physically, spiritually, economically, or in any other way, I also enslave myself. When I set others free, I am free myself. When I voluntarily cede my "right" to hold others down, I lift them and myself up.
If I insist on enslaving my neighbor, treating him as my inferior, or being indifferent to his yearning for freedom from fear, discrimination, or violence, I am enslaving myself...to ways of life that retain my status at the expense of others, to moral putrefaction, to constant fear that my sins will catch up with me, knowing, deep in my soul, that there must be a reckoning, to the disintegration of the lives of each and every one of us.
King called whites and blacks and all Americans away from the selfishness that would enslave all so long as they failed to recognize and pursue this foundational tenet of the American creed that King had crystallized:
No man is free until all men are free.
No citizen is free until all citizens are free.
No human being is free until all human beings are free.
Over the past several weeks, my wife and I have re-watched Ken Burns' beautiful documentary on the Civil War and, last night, Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln. It struck me as I watched these two works that America's Civil War has never ended.
After Appomattox, the war has taken its casualties and deaths: Lincoln, King, the thousands lynched in the South while the North turned the other way, and countless others.
The war is no longer regional and not just racial. You will find whites and blacks and others in all regions of the country anxious to keep faith with America's freedom creed. You will find others in all regions of the country rebelling against that creed.
There still are the haves and the have-nots, the marginalized and the beautiful people, the accepted and the disdained. We are still, in this great American experiment, finding out whether any nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" "can long endure."
Much of what is happening in America today--the fissures, the overt hatred, the refusal to be confused by facts--is an extension of the Civil War, battles to be added to the bloody list of Antietam, Gettysburg, Ford's Theatre, and the streets of Charlottesville in 2017. Each stand as witness to the very treason against the American compact exhibited when the first Rebel cannonball was shot at Fort Sumter. And it was this same treason, embedded deeply in the American soul, that caused James Earl Ray to murder Martin Luther King, Jr.
As a Christian, I have no illusions that the Kingdom of God in which there is perfect harmony between God, the human race made in His image, and God's creation, can be ushered in through political activism, laws, or wars.
The Kingdom of God is only experienced when sinners (like me), daily turn from sin and daily entrust their lives to Jesus Christ. As the man for whom King was named, Martin Luther writes in The Small Catechism of the petition of the Lord's Prayer taught by Jesus--"Thy kingdom come":
But God doesn't leave us stranded in complete chaos. God's Word is clear that God establishes governments in this fallen world awaiting the final consummation of God's Kingdom given through Christ. God does this because it's inborn to we human beings to only refrain from self-worshiping violence when there is a coercive force to rein in human thuggery.
Governments are meant to ensure simple justice. This is what King called the government and the society of his day to do. That call cost him his life. It's a call that still needs to be heard and heeded.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
I was fourteen and watching TV when a special bulletin interrupted the programming to say that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis.
1968 was a year haunted by violence that started in January with the bloody Tet offensive in Vietnam, resulting in the deaths of thousands, including Americans engaged in a war that not even its chief prosecutor, President Johnson, thought could be won.
Two months after King's death, Senator Robert Kennedy, an opponent of the war trying to regain political ascendancy after Senator Eugene McCarthy's performance against the incumbent president in the New Hampshire primary hinted that the Democratic nomination could be wrested from the Johnson, would be gunned down in a Los Angeles hotel.
Throughout the year, tensions over civil rights and the war led to sometimes violent confrontations between demonstrators and the police on American streets. The Kerner Commission, appointed by Johnson to look into what led to the bloodshed in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, concluded it was the result of "a police riot," the first time I remember ever hearing that term.
It seemed to me sometimes in 1968, that America was losing its mind.
But towering above that bloody year, despite the imperfections he shared with the rest of the human race and that had cut him down in the spring, stood Martin Luther King, Jr.
Historically, King was the descendant of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and the Union Armies of the Civil War. Like them, he insisted that the American compact, embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, distantly descended from the truths of the Bible, was built on a simple principle. That principle King summarized in a single sentence: "No man is free until all men are free."
True freedom is built on reciprocity with and mutual accountability to my neighbor. When I enslave others--physically, spiritually, economically, or in any other way, I also enslave myself. When I set others free, I am free myself. When I voluntarily cede my "right" to hold others down, I lift them and myself up.
If I insist on enslaving my neighbor, treating him as my inferior, or being indifferent to his yearning for freedom from fear, discrimination, or violence, I am enslaving myself...to ways of life that retain my status at the expense of others, to moral putrefaction, to constant fear that my sins will catch up with me, knowing, deep in my soul, that there must be a reckoning, to the disintegration of the lives of each and every one of us.
King called whites and blacks and all Americans away from the selfishness that would enslave all so long as they failed to recognize and pursue this foundational tenet of the American creed that King had crystallized:
No man is free until all men are free.
No citizen is free until all citizens are free.
No human being is free until all human beings are free.
Over the past several weeks, my wife and I have re-watched Ken Burns' beautiful documentary on the Civil War and, last night, Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln. It struck me as I watched these two works that America's Civil War has never ended.
After Appomattox, the war has taken its casualties and deaths: Lincoln, King, the thousands lynched in the South while the North turned the other way, and countless others.
The war is no longer regional and not just racial. You will find whites and blacks and others in all regions of the country anxious to keep faith with America's freedom creed. You will find others in all regions of the country rebelling against that creed.
There still are the haves and the have-nots, the marginalized and the beautiful people, the accepted and the disdained. We are still, in this great American experiment, finding out whether any nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" "can long endure."
Much of what is happening in America today--the fissures, the overt hatred, the refusal to be confused by facts--is an extension of the Civil War, battles to be added to the bloody list of Antietam, Gettysburg, Ford's Theatre, and the streets of Charlottesville in 2017. Each stand as witness to the very treason against the American compact exhibited when the first Rebel cannonball was shot at Fort Sumter. And it was this same treason, embedded deeply in the American soul, that caused James Earl Ray to murder Martin Luther King, Jr.
As a Christian, I have no illusions that the Kingdom of God in which there is perfect harmony between God, the human race made in His image, and God's creation, can be ushered in through political activism, laws, or wars.
The Kingdom of God is only experienced when sinners (like me), daily turn from sin and daily entrust their lives to Jesus Christ. As the man for whom King was named, Martin Luther writes in The Small Catechism of the petition of the Lord's Prayer taught by Jesus--"Thy kingdom come":
The kingdom of God comes indeed by itself, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may also come to us.And:
God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy Word and live a godly life now and in eternity.It's Jesus and only Jesus Who can bring the Kingdom of God into this world, in the hearts and lives of His disciples, even as the world swirls madly in violence and hatred around us. We know this from Jesus Himself: "No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Even if we don't accept Jesus' Word for it, history and human experience make clear that all human attempts to establish a kingdom of harmony between God, humanity, and the Creation fail. Only God can bring His kingdom to us.
But God doesn't leave us stranded in complete chaos. God's Word is clear that God establishes governments in this fallen world awaiting the final consummation of God's Kingdom given through Christ. God does this because it's inborn to we human beings to only refrain from self-worshiping violence when there is a coercive force to rein in human thuggery.
Governments are meant to ensure simple justice. This is what King called the government and the society of his day to do. That call cost him his life. It's a call that still needs to be heard and heeded.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Thursday, December 01, 2016
Dialogue Part 1 and 11 by Chicago
This song is as relevant today as when it was first released on the phenomenal Chicago V LP back in 1972.
No matter how we close our eyes to injustice, it still exists. And our chosen blindness doesn't impress the God we know in Jesus Christ.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46)
Thursday, July 07, 2016
Racial Indifference...and My Repentance
The Barna Group has released this bit of polling: "73% of adults agree that Christian churches play an important role in racial reconciliation."
Even granting that some of those Americans are clueless about the Church, its message, or its role--including many Christians--I think that this sizable majority of our neighbors (a way larger number than the number of people who will vote for the winning candidate in this presidential election) are right.
We Christians and we of the Church do have a role in working for racial reconciliation.
My efforts in this area have been in fits and spurts for years.
And I still think that political action is the least important thing that individual Christians can do on any social issue.
Mostly, I believe, that if we can teach, preach, and live the whole truth of Scripture--that all people are sinners in need of the forgiveness and life-changing grace God offers through the crucified and risen Jesus Christ--hearts, minds, wills, and racial attitudes will be changed.
But we are also called to speak words of justice. And in this, I find myself wanting.
As a boy, I was taught to sing, "Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight." I believe that...with all my heart. I preach that. I teach that. I believe that it's a truth that comes straight from my Savior, Who is Lord of all peoples.
And yet, there is more to be done. Not necessarily by the Church or by pastors, but by all Christians energized by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And not necessarily, as I say, by political actions, but in actions of all kinds streaming from hearts made clean and new and eternal by Christ.
I suspect that many of us need to repent when it comes to our racial attitudes, whether they're the attitudes of indifference buttressed by remaining enveloped in our own race cultures or racism itself. Indifference may be the worst of these two things, as horrible as racism is, because, as has been observed, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.
In my heart, I'm not indifferent. But I have been indifferent in my praying and, in recent years, in my living. For that, I repent, and ask that God would show me what I can do through Christ, to bridge the chasms between people.
Tonight, my heart is broken by, among other things, the ongoing tensions between black and white America, the continuation of racism and injustice, which we must acknowledge, I think, whether it's determined that what happened in Louisiana and Minnesota were justified police actions or not.
Speaking for myself and, I believe, the wonderful police officers I've known throughout my life, the videos of those two incidents are horrifying. Horrifying! (I think especially of the little four year old girl who was in the car when four bullets ripped into the body of the man behind the wheel.)
But even beyond these incidents, we must acknowledge that there is a barrier between blacks and whites. If you are a Christian--conservative, liberal, whatever, you and I know, brothers and sisters, that, among us at least, race should not be a barrier.
Jesus died for all.
Jesus rose for all.
And all who trust in Him, whatever their race, can have life with Him as they turn from their sin and follow Him.
Tonight, I ask Christ to help me to turn away from my past racial indifference and to show me the way living my life with less indifference and more of the love of Christ.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]
Even granting that some of those Americans are clueless about the Church, its message, or its role--including many Christians--I think that this sizable majority of our neighbors (a way larger number than the number of people who will vote for the winning candidate in this presidential election) are right.
We Christians and we of the Church do have a role in working for racial reconciliation.
My efforts in this area have been in fits and spurts for years.
And I still think that political action is the least important thing that individual Christians can do on any social issue.
Mostly, I believe, that if we can teach, preach, and live the whole truth of Scripture--that all people are sinners in need of the forgiveness and life-changing grace God offers through the crucified and risen Jesus Christ--hearts, minds, wills, and racial attitudes will be changed.
But we are also called to speak words of justice. And in this, I find myself wanting.
As a boy, I was taught to sing, "Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight." I believe that...with all my heart. I preach that. I teach that. I believe that it's a truth that comes straight from my Savior, Who is Lord of all peoples.
And yet, there is more to be done. Not necessarily by the Church or by pastors, but by all Christians energized by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And not necessarily, as I say, by political actions, but in actions of all kinds streaming from hearts made clean and new and eternal by Christ.
I suspect that many of us need to repent when it comes to our racial attitudes, whether they're the attitudes of indifference buttressed by remaining enveloped in our own race cultures or racism itself. Indifference may be the worst of these two things, as horrible as racism is, because, as has been observed, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.
In my heart, I'm not indifferent. But I have been indifferent in my praying and, in recent years, in my living. For that, I repent, and ask that God would show me what I can do through Christ, to bridge the chasms between people.
Tonight, my heart is broken by, among other things, the ongoing tensions between black and white America, the continuation of racism and injustice, which we must acknowledge, I think, whether it's determined that what happened in Louisiana and Minnesota were justified police actions or not.
Speaking for myself and, I believe, the wonderful police officers I've known throughout my life, the videos of those two incidents are horrifying. Horrifying! (I think especially of the little four year old girl who was in the car when four bullets ripped into the body of the man behind the wheel.)
But even beyond these incidents, we must acknowledge that there is a barrier between blacks and whites. If you are a Christian--conservative, liberal, whatever, you and I know, brothers and sisters, that, among us at least, race should not be a barrier.
Jesus died for all.
Jesus rose for all.
And all who trust in Him, whatever their race, can have life with Him as they turn from their sin and follow Him.
Tonight, I ask Christ to help me to turn away from my past racial indifference and to show me the way living my life with less indifference and more of the love of Christ.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]
73% of adults agree that Christian churches play an important role in racial reconciliation pic.twitter.com/lRXmb17YVC— Barna Group (@BarnaGroup) July 7, 2016
Friday, July 03, 2015
'Become America' by The Call
The Call was an American rock band that came to some level of popularity at about the same time as an Irish group called U2. As I've written elsewhere, the bands had a few things in common. While mining different strains of rock music, they both evidenced: a passion for life, a passion for justice, and faith in Christ.
The death at age 60, of Michael Been, the Call's lead singer and main composer, in 2010, brought an end to the band and silenced an important voice.
This song, born partly of faith and partly of patriotism, is a non-ideological, but forceful, call to America to live up to its promise.
It seems appropriate for this Fourth of July weekend.
(Frankly, I paid no attention to the visuals in this fan-created video. The song itself is what's important to me. So, I'm not sure what's in it.)
A blogger, Rick Klau, who like me just now, looked in vain some eleven years ago for the lyrics to Become America, online. So, he presented them on his blog. I post them below, with thanks. Klau's blog was the only place I could find the lyrics.
The death at age 60, of Michael Been, the Call's lead singer and main composer, in 2010, brought an end to the band and silenced an important voice.
This song, born partly of faith and partly of patriotism, is a non-ideological, but forceful, call to America to live up to its promise.
It seems appropriate for this Fourth of July weekend.
(Frankly, I paid no attention to the visuals in this fan-created video. The song itself is what's important to me. So, I'm not sure what's in it.)
A blogger, Rick Klau, who like me just now, looked in vain some eleven years ago for the lyrics to Become America, online. So, he presented them on his blog. I post them below, with thanks. Klau's blog was the only place I could find the lyrics.
When will America, become America
When will America, become America
When will the home we love
Mean freedom for everyone
When will America, become America
When will the killing stop
When the last child has dropped
How long must mothers’ tears
Rain down on streets of fear
When will the home we love
Mean justice for everyone
When will America become America
(Chorus)
When will the struggling poor
Walk with their heads held high once more
Children playing on haunted streets
Politicians weave their spell
Promise spoken from the mouth of hell
When will America become America
(Chorus)
With their very lives they gave
Soldiers, the young and brave
Shame for the world to see
A mystery to you and me
Angels will keep their watch
Heaven will count the cost
When will America become America
(Chorus)
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
One of My Biggest Mistakes: Running for Political Office
One of the biggest mistakes I've made as a pastor came when I ran for political office nearly a decade ago.
I have come to believe that pastors should never run for political office. And most of the time, we (I) should keep our mouths shut on political matters.
A study we've been doing at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church, looking into The Augsburg Confession, a basic statement of the Lutheran understanding of Biblical Christian faith, has underscored what a bad mistake it was for me to run for office.
As mentioned in last Sunday's sermon, the Bible teaches that God rules the world in two ways, through two kingdoms.
One kingdom is the kingdom of God, a kingdom whose citizens have been transformed from enemies to friends of God by God's grace granted to all with faith in Jesus Christ.
Authority in this kingdom is wielded through what Jesus calls "the Office of the Keys," through the use of the "weapons" of the Word and the Sacraments (Holy Baptism and Holy Communion). These weapons are misused when exercised in the pursuit or maintenance of worldly power. In this kingdom, power is exerted not by coercion, but by grace, by the declaration of forgiveness to the repentant and the withholding of that declaration from the unrepentant.
The other kingdom over which God rules is the kingdom of the world. In this kingdom, power is coercive. It includes governments and their powers to make war, police, and enforce laws, codes, and regulations.
Pastors, called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, should refrain from political engagement except when governments command idol-worship or when they act unjustly.
Even then, pastors (and the Church) should not presume to take control of political power nor even attempt, even by lobbying or by political activism, to impose their own versions of God's kingdom on a pluralistic society. (Only God can usher in the full expression of God's kingdom, by His devices and according to His timing, anyway.)
When I ran for the State House of Representatives, I tried to make clear that I wasn't running as a Christian candidate for office. I also made every effort to point out to people that all of my opponents were Christians too.
Yet, I'm sure there were some people who voted for me because I was a Christian pastor. This in itself was a misuse of my authority as a pastor, seeming to imbue my views on things like school funding (the issue that most motivated me to run), with God's stamp of approval.
More significantly, my candidacy was a tacit laying down of the superior authority of God's eternal kingdom in favor of the inferior time-bound authority of the kingdom of this world.
Except in the instances mentioned above--command to idolatry or injustice--the Church should stay out of politics.
To me, it's breaking faith with God when we do.
When bishops and pastors, in essence, throw in the towels and endorse political candidates, pieces of legislation, or particular budget figures for appropriations by government or run for offices themselves, we tacitly say, "We no longer have faith that God can transform lives through preaching God's Word about Jesus Christ or by administering the Sacraments. We no longer accept the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives by the simple witness that sin, death, and the devil have been defeated for us for all eternity by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead of patient faithfulness to God's call to make disciples, we instead are taking up worldly authority and will try to coerce people into living Christian lives."
But even when such political endeavors--whether by conservative or liberal Christians--are successful, the fact remains: Changing people's external behaviors will not change their internal attitudes or their eternal destinies. For the latter changes to happen requires the grace of God, given through Jesus Christ to those who turn from sin and trust in Christ as their God, Lord, and Savior.
Besides, the surer path to greater justice in any society is not through the Church being in charge. History adequately demonstrates that, I think.
The surer path to justice is to preach and teach the Word about Christ and to administer the Sacraments, unleashing the Holy Spirit's power to create and sustain faith in Christ, encouraging people in a life of daily repentance and renewal whereby they seek to live out their faith in Christ in their daily lives, including the ways in which they view society and politics, the ways they vote.
I can't say with any certainty what specific policies God may want to institute in government to further His aims for people's lives. My politics are my politics and I have no right as a Christian or as a pastor to implicate God in political views that are undoubtedly riddled with my faults, sins, and blind spots as a human being.
It's a mistake for the Church to not keep its eye on our only mission: making disciples of Jesus Christ.
And it was a huge mistake for me as a pastor to run for political office, for giving up on God in that way, and for, in effect, taking His Name in vain by, however unintentionally, presenting myself as God's spokesperson in the political arena.
Thank God for the forgiveness I have in Jesus Christ.
I have come to believe that pastors should never run for political office. And most of the time, we (I) should keep our mouths shut on political matters.
A study we've been doing at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church, looking into The Augsburg Confession, a basic statement of the Lutheran understanding of Biblical Christian faith, has underscored what a bad mistake it was for me to run for office.
As mentioned in last Sunday's sermon, the Bible teaches that God rules the world in two ways, through two kingdoms.
One kingdom is the kingdom of God, a kingdom whose citizens have been transformed from enemies to friends of God by God's grace granted to all with faith in Jesus Christ.
Authority in this kingdom is wielded through what Jesus calls "the Office of the Keys," through the use of the "weapons" of the Word and the Sacraments (Holy Baptism and Holy Communion). These weapons are misused when exercised in the pursuit or maintenance of worldly power. In this kingdom, power is exerted not by coercion, but by grace, by the declaration of forgiveness to the repentant and the withholding of that declaration from the unrepentant.
The other kingdom over which God rules is the kingdom of the world. In this kingdom, power is coercive. It includes governments and their powers to make war, police, and enforce laws, codes, and regulations.
Pastors, called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, should refrain from political engagement except when governments command idol-worship or when they act unjustly.
Even then, pastors (and the Church) should not presume to take control of political power nor even attempt, even by lobbying or by political activism, to impose their own versions of God's kingdom on a pluralistic society. (Only God can usher in the full expression of God's kingdom, by His devices and according to His timing, anyway.)
When I ran for the State House of Representatives, I tried to make clear that I wasn't running as a Christian candidate for office. I also made every effort to point out to people that all of my opponents were Christians too.
Yet, I'm sure there were some people who voted for me because I was a Christian pastor. This in itself was a misuse of my authority as a pastor, seeming to imbue my views on things like school funding (the issue that most motivated me to run), with God's stamp of approval.
More significantly, my candidacy was a tacit laying down of the superior authority of God's eternal kingdom in favor of the inferior time-bound authority of the kingdom of this world.
Except in the instances mentioned above--command to idolatry or injustice--the Church should stay out of politics.
To me, it's breaking faith with God when we do.
When bishops and pastors, in essence, throw in the towels and endorse political candidates, pieces of legislation, or particular budget figures for appropriations by government or run for offices themselves, we tacitly say, "We no longer have faith that God can transform lives through preaching God's Word about Jesus Christ or by administering the Sacraments. We no longer accept the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives by the simple witness that sin, death, and the devil have been defeated for us for all eternity by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead of patient faithfulness to God's call to make disciples, we instead are taking up worldly authority and will try to coerce people into living Christian lives."
But even when such political endeavors--whether by conservative or liberal Christians--are successful, the fact remains: Changing people's external behaviors will not change their internal attitudes or their eternal destinies. For the latter changes to happen requires the grace of God, given through Jesus Christ to those who turn from sin and trust in Christ as their God, Lord, and Savior.
Besides, the surer path to greater justice in any society is not through the Church being in charge. History adequately demonstrates that, I think.
The surer path to justice is to preach and teach the Word about Christ and to administer the Sacraments, unleashing the Holy Spirit's power to create and sustain faith in Christ, encouraging people in a life of daily repentance and renewal whereby they seek to live out their faith in Christ in their daily lives, including the ways in which they view society and politics, the ways they vote.
I can't say with any certainty what specific policies God may want to institute in government to further His aims for people's lives. My politics are my politics and I have no right as a Christian or as a pastor to implicate God in political views that are undoubtedly riddled with my faults, sins, and blind spots as a human being.
It's a mistake for the Church to not keep its eye on our only mission: making disciples of Jesus Christ.
And it was a huge mistake for me as a pastor to run for political office, for giving up on God in that way, and for, in effect, taking His Name in vain by, however unintentionally, presenting myself as God's spokesperson in the political arena.
Thank God for the forgiveness I have in Jesus Christ.
Monday, May 02, 2011
Forgiveness, Vengeance, and Justice
Some thoughts I had regarding the London bombings six years ago, seem relevant today. Vengeance is always wrong; justice is right. Forgiveness is always right; forgetting can be foolish.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Forgiving the 9/11 Perpetrators?
A commenter on a friend's Facebook page said that, irrespective of what Christians are called to do, she would never forgive the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. Another commenter suggested that if a person can forgive the terrorists, "then you need to check yourself."
I understand their sentiments, of course. In the days following the 9/11 attacks, my wife and I were fond of the political cartoon showing an American eagle sharpening its talons preparing to respond. We liked it so much that we posted it on our refrigerator. Without getting into the specifics of endorsing or condemning any particular policies, my wife and I, like hundreds of millions of others thought that some response to the September 11 outrages had to come.
But I didn't agree with the commenters at my friend's site today when it came to this business of forgiveness. This is what I wrote:
I understand their sentiments, of course. In the days following the 9/11 attacks, my wife and I were fond of the political cartoon showing an American eagle sharpening its talons preparing to respond. We liked it so much that we posted it on our refrigerator. Without getting into the specifics of endorsing or condemning any particular policies, my wife and I, like hundreds of millions of others thought that some response to the September 11 outrages had to come.
But I didn't agree with the commenters at my friend's site today when it came to this business of forgiveness. This is what I wrote:
There's a difference between forgiveness and heedlessness. In an imperfect world where people do evil things, God has provided for the establishment of governments in part to pursue justice--whether through domestic police powers, economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, imprisonment, or armies. The government that is heedless of injustices like the September 11 attacks would not be doing its job.[Similarly, the woman, for example, who fails to get out of an abusive relationship or fails to take the necessary legal steps to keep an abuser from continuing to harm her, is not doing the right thing. She will be right to forgive, but she will be reckless to take no action, to be heedless of the threat her abuser poses in her life. She must do something to stop her abuser!]
But Jesus leaves no question as to whether we should forgive. Not forgiving will, if allowed to prevail in our lives, make us monsters who also commit injustices against others.
Forgiveness is hard to do. It requires supernatural power given to us only by God, which is why Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
Vengeance is not the same thing as justice.Forgiveness is not the same thing as excusing.Release (aphiemi is the word in the Greek in which the New Testament was written) is one word for forgiveness used in the New Testament. [When we forgive,] we not only release others from their indebtedness to us, we release ourselves from the corrosive, hellish feelings that accompanying holding onto hatred, vengeful sentiments, and putting ourselves on God's throne of judgment.[Government leaders can only think clearly about how best to mete out justice, including the possibility of waging war, by getting all notions of revenge out of their minds. When armies wreak vengeance, they violate one of the most important principles of Christian belief on what constitutes a just war: proportionality.[We similarly escalate relational discord in our own lives when we seek revenge rather than justice.]
I'm only a student of the lessons God wants us to learn, by the way.
What I try to do when faced with my inability to forgive or love others is to ask God to forgive or love them through me, in spite of my feelings. [Imperfectly,] I try to follow as Savior Who, as He died at the hands of hateful, violent people, against all common sense and evidence to the contrary, put the most charitable construction on his murderers' actions and prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!"
If Jesus can do that in His own power, maybe He can do it through [me in spite of] my weakness.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
The Preacher, the Church, and Justice
The Christian preacher has a responsibility to speak for justice.
Pastor John Ortberg underscores this in a challenging article in the latest issue of Leadership Journal, Preaching Like the Prophets. There, he looks to the prophets of Old Testament times to show how important the quest for justice is for followers of the God Who revealed Himself to Israel and ultimately, in Jesus of Nazareth.
Writes Ortberg:
Most importantly maybe, Ortberg in this very good article, says that in preaching about justice, church leaders "will have to explain that the values embedded in the Bible do not necessarily have a straight-line translation into legislation." He writes:
Justice is an important element of the Christian's relationship with Jesus Christ. This is something we acknowledge in our Lutheran tradition, among other times, on the occasion of Confirmation, or Affirmation of Baptism, when adolescents or adult converts who have been baptized and trained in the faith publicly affirm their intention of living as faithful followers of Jesus Christ in their daily lives. Toward the end of the rite for Affirmation of Baptism, each individual is addressed and challenged to do just that:
The message of the prophets was, in a nutshell, "Turn from sin, including injustice, and turn to God." None of them laid out specific political programs, recommended particular outlays of money to address specific issues, or commended particular laws. They trusted that if they shared God's Word, including the call and the command to seek justice, God would help the people see what they needed to do.
Today, preachers (and denominational groups) are called to preach justice and trust God to do the rest.
*Shalom is a Hebrew term. It means more than peace. It has the idea of our enjoyment of peace with God and all the good things--including justice and love--that flow from it in our relationships with others. Such peace begins in a relationship with Jesus Christ in which Jesus is our Lord, God, and Savior. As Paul writes in Romans 5:1, "...since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..."
[UPDATE: Just today, Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA, released the text of a letter in which he got deep into the weeds of immigration reform, not my idea of what the bishop is best at or called to do.]
Pastor John Ortberg underscores this in a challenging article in the latest issue of Leadership Journal, Preaching Like the Prophets. There, he looks to the prophets of Old Testament times to show how important the quest for justice is for followers of the God Who revealed Himself to Israel and ultimately, in Jesus of Nazareth.
Writes Ortberg:
Events that horrified the prophets go on every day in our world, but we just get used to it--like you get used to wearing your watch. After awhile--we don't notice any more.Ortberg goes on to say that there are certain perils associated with preaching about justice, particularly in these times. "Our society has become so politicized," he points out, "that people often hear words like justice or life or the poor or compassion as code words for a partisan political allegiance in one direction or another." Also, he notes that preaching about justice can devolve into "self-righteous moralism" on the part of the preacher. But for all the perils it may entail, the preacher is still called to talk about justice as an outgrowth of Christian discipleship.
The prophets noticed. The prophets never got desensitized to sin. Injustice is sin. Justice is central to shalom.* We omit justice from our preaching at peril of our calling, and of our congregation's health and ability to see the reality around them.
Most importantly maybe, Ortberg in this very good article, says that in preaching about justice, church leaders "will have to explain that the values embedded in the Bible do not necessarily have a straight-line translation into legislation." He writes:
For instance, all followers of Jesus are obligated to be concerned for the poor. But that does not mean that they should all be committed to passing a higher minimum wage law. Very bright economists disagree about whether such legislation actually results in helping the poor. As preachers, we do not further the cause of the authority of Scripture when we pretend to be experts over fields we have not mastered.Amen!
Justice is an important element of the Christian's relationship with Jesus Christ. This is something we acknowledge in our Lutheran tradition, among other times, on the occasion of Confirmation, or Affirmation of Baptism, when adolescents or adult converts who have been baptized and trained in the faith publicly affirm their intention of living as faithful followers of Jesus Christ in their daily lives. Toward the end of the rite for Affirmation of Baptism, each individual is addressed and challenged to do just that:
You have made public profession of your faith. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism: to live among God's faithful people, to hear His Word and share in His supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?The confirmand is then asked to respond with the words, "I do, and I ask God to help and guide me."
The message of the prophets was, in a nutshell, "Turn from sin, including injustice, and turn to God." None of them laid out specific political programs, recommended particular outlays of money to address specific issues, or commended particular laws. They trusted that if they shared God's Word, including the call and the command to seek justice, God would help the people see what they needed to do.
Today, preachers (and denominational groups) are called to preach justice and trust God to do the rest.
*Shalom is a Hebrew term. It means more than peace. It has the idea of our enjoyment of peace with God and all the good things--including justice and love--that flow from it in our relationships with others. Such peace begins in a relationship with Jesus Christ in which Jesus is our Lord, God, and Savior. As Paul writes in Romans 5:1, "...since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..."
[UPDATE: Just today, Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA, released the text of a letter in which he got deep into the weeds of immigration reform, not my idea of what the bishop is best at or called to do.]
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Without comment...
Psalm 73:
1Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.
2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.
3For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.
5They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.
6Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.
7Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.
10Therefore the people turn and praise them, and find no fault in them.
11And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
13All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
14For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.
15If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,” I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
16But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.
18Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
19How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
20They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms.
21When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
22I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.
23Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor.
25Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27Indeed, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to those who are false to you.
28But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.
Friday, February 02, 2007
How Christians Might Think About the 2008 Presidential Election, Part 3
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
In these posts, I don't intend to push a particular political agenda. Instead, I want to present a series of windows through which Christians might look at 2008 Presidential election.
In the first post, I suggested that the first lens through which Christians might look at the election is the Bibical call to care about what happens in government, as a practical way of enacting the Christian's call to love God and neighbor.
In the second post, I talked about as second lens, the Christian belief in upholding the rule of law for the sake of the neighbor.
Now we come to Lens #3: God's call for justice and for believers to pursue it.
These days, the Bible's emphasis on justice is often overlooked. To some extent this may be understandable: Much of what might be appropriated directly from the Scriptures on the subject shows up in the Old Testament, coming from a time when Israel, God's people, were part of a theocratic nation. No nation in the world today is a Biblical theocracy, making the mandates for Israel's judges and kings found on the Old Testament's pages difficult to apply, especially in religiously-diverse Western democracies.
Complicating our view through the Bible's "justice window" is that in the New Testament Greek, the word for justice never appears. Its Hebrew equivalent shows up only infrequently in the Old Testament.
But, the variations of a word related to justice appear frequently in the Bible: righteousness (diakaiosune). It has the notion of rightness in our relationships with God and one another. (In fact, when the New Testament speaks of repentant sinners being justified by Jesus Christ, it uses a form of this word.)
But the relative absence of the word justice doesn't denote an absence of concern for it on God's part. The concept of just treatment of others permeates much of the Old Testament law and prophecy, addressing not only the actions of kings, but also interpersonal relationships. And a commitment to justice is certainly apparent in Jesus' teaching, even in His voluntary death and resurrection for a human race weighed down by the curses of sin and death.
To understand the Biblical mandate for justice, we need to study another key Biblical concept.
When asked what the greatest of God's commandments are, Jesus responded that there were two of equal importance: to love God completely and to love one's neighbor as one loves one's self.
In this response, Jesus was summarizing what the reformer Martin Luther described as "the two tables" of the Ten Commandments. By the traditional reckoning of the commandments brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses, the first table is composed of the first three commandments:
The second table is made up of the remaining seven commandments, as traditionally reckoned:
Love, in the Biblical understanding of the term, has a lot in common with what we mean today when we talk about justice. For the Biblical writers, love has little to do with what we feel and a lot with what we do. Love, from the standpoint of God's Word, relates to the way we live out our relationships with others. Specifically, it has to do with whether they're marked by a commitment to do for others what we would like others to do for us.
In addition to not seeing love as primarily an emotion, contrary to our usual contemporary view, the Biblical writers would also be uncomfortable with our post-Enlightenment notions of justice, which are rooted in ideas about rights and entitlements. They would prefer to speak of the mutual responsibilities each of us have to share the undeserved blessings of God with others and to treat others with respect.
In fact, at the outset of Paul's famous commendation of servanthood rooted in the example of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:4-11), he encourages believers by saying, "let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others."
Christians are called to do this and empowered by God's Holy Spirit to do this, no matter what the circumstances of our lives. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians:
The reality of God's grace operating in the lives of people who follow Christ is an objective truth, irrespective of the circumstances of our lives. It's a solid foundation that frees Christians to risk loving their neighbor. In practical terms, that means enacting God's love and justice in the ways in which we live, vote, buy and sell, trade, hire and fire, and so on. In elective political terms, it means that Christians should vote less on the bases of self-interest and more on the bases of the interests of our neighbors, far and near.
Of course, no Christian ever embodies love of neighbor completely in his or her life. The siren call of inborn sin keeps on wailing in even the most saintly of Christians. (see here) The awareness that every Christian has that she or he is a sinner saved from death because of the gracious intervention of Christ on their behalf only gives us added incentive to love our neighbor and to press for justice. Saved by grace, we express our gratitude by loving others. (See here, here, and here)
The Old Testament prophet says that God finds worship which is composed of words alone tiresome. He wants people to worship Him also by the way in which they love their neighbors:
[In the next installment, which I hope to post on Monday, I'll delve into a Christian perspective on how campaigns are waged.]
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
In these posts, I don't intend to push a particular political agenda. Instead, I want to present a series of windows through which Christians might look at 2008 Presidential election.
In the first post, I suggested that the first lens through which Christians might look at the election is the Bibical call to care about what happens in government, as a practical way of enacting the Christian's call to love God and neighbor.
In the second post, I talked about as second lens, the Christian belief in upholding the rule of law for the sake of the neighbor.
Now we come to Lens #3: God's call for justice and for believers to pursue it.
These days, the Bible's emphasis on justice is often overlooked. To some extent this may be understandable: Much of what might be appropriated directly from the Scriptures on the subject shows up in the Old Testament, coming from a time when Israel, God's people, were part of a theocratic nation. No nation in the world today is a Biblical theocracy, making the mandates for Israel's judges and kings found on the Old Testament's pages difficult to apply, especially in religiously-diverse Western democracies.
Complicating our view through the Bible's "justice window" is that in the New Testament Greek, the word for justice never appears. Its Hebrew equivalent shows up only infrequently in the Old Testament.
But, the variations of a word related to justice appear frequently in the Bible: righteousness (diakaiosune). It has the notion of rightness in our relationships with God and one another. (In fact, when the New Testament speaks of repentant sinners being justified by Jesus Christ, it uses a form of this word.)
But the relative absence of the word justice doesn't denote an absence of concern for it on God's part. The concept of just treatment of others permeates much of the Old Testament law and prophecy, addressing not only the actions of kings, but also interpersonal relationships. And a commitment to justice is certainly apparent in Jesus' teaching, even in His voluntary death and resurrection for a human race weighed down by the curses of sin and death.
To understand the Biblical mandate for justice, we need to study another key Biblical concept.
When asked what the greatest of God's commandments are, Jesus responded that there were two of equal importance: to love God completely and to love one's neighbor as one loves one's self.
In this response, Jesus was summarizing what the reformer Martin Luther described as "the two tables" of the Ten Commandments. By the traditional reckoning of the commandments brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses, the first table is composed of the first three commandments:
- You shall have no other gods.
- You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.
- Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
The second table is made up of the remaining seven commandments, as traditionally reckoned:
- You shall honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not kill.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
- You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his.
Love, in the Biblical understanding of the term, has a lot in common with what we mean today when we talk about justice. For the Biblical writers, love has little to do with what we feel and a lot with what we do. Love, from the standpoint of God's Word, relates to the way we live out our relationships with others. Specifically, it has to do with whether they're marked by a commitment to do for others what we would like others to do for us.
In addition to not seeing love as primarily an emotion, contrary to our usual contemporary view, the Biblical writers would also be uncomfortable with our post-Enlightenment notions of justice, which are rooted in ideas about rights and entitlements. They would prefer to speak of the mutual responsibilities each of us have to share the undeserved blessings of God with others and to treat others with respect.
In fact, at the outset of Paul's famous commendation of servanthood rooted in the example of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:4-11), he encourages believers by saying, "let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others."
Christians are called to do this and empowered by God's Holy Spirit to do this, no matter what the circumstances of our lives. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians:
I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. (Philippians 4:11-12)Gratitude for God's grace and a commitment to love others as Christ has loved us is at the center of the Christian value system, no matter how our lives may be going at a particular time. Through Jesus Christ, Christians live in the confidence that they have a place in eternity. We have the assurance that a God Who, when He came to earth, didn't shirk the cross and then rose from death to give us life, will always be by our sides (Matthew 28:19-20; Romans 8:31-39; Acts 2).
The reality of God's grace operating in the lives of people who follow Christ is an objective truth, irrespective of the circumstances of our lives. It's a solid foundation that frees Christians to risk loving their neighbor. In practical terms, that means enacting God's love and justice in the ways in which we live, vote, buy and sell, trade, hire and fire, and so on. In elective political terms, it means that Christians should vote less on the bases of self-interest and more on the bases of the interests of our neighbors, far and near.
Of course, no Christian ever embodies love of neighbor completely in his or her life. The siren call of inborn sin keeps on wailing in even the most saintly of Christians. (see here) The awareness that every Christian has that she or he is a sinner saved from death because of the gracious intervention of Christ on their behalf only gives us added incentive to love our neighbor and to press for justice. Saved by grace, we express our gratitude by loving others. (See here, here, and here)
The Old Testament prophet says that God finds worship which is composed of words alone tiresome. He wants people to worship Him also by the way in which they love their neighbors:
Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.(Amos 5:23-24)So, what is Biblical justice? Father Walter Burghardt, a venerable Roman Catholic priest whose ministry has centered on justice for decades, is helpful on this point:
...the philosopher can tell you what his mistress, naked reason, demands: Give to each what is due to each, what each can claim as a human right. The jurist can tell you what his blindfolded Lady Justice demands: impartiality, no favoritism, simply the law on the books. Neither--neither philosopher nor jurist--can command that we love. Only God can demand love. Only the Jesus of Bethlehem's cave and Calvary's cross can demand that we love as he loved. Such is the justice that rises above the ethical and the legal, the justice that is divine, the justice of God.Christians may not demand that a pluralistic society see things their ways. But as they live their everyday lives, including the responsible exercise of their vote, they can and should make Biblical justice, loving neighbors in substantive, unsentimental ways, should be a major consideration. (See here.)
[In the next installment, which I hope to post on Monday, I'll delve into a Christian perspective on how campaigns are waged.]
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