Cradle to Grave
Who isn’t “pro-life?”
That’s the problem with labels. They are deceiving. If you say you aren’t “pro-life” you sound like a monster. Which is why the opposition doesn’t call itself “anti-life.” They call themselves “pro-choice” because who isn’t pro-choice? Especially in America. What kind of monster lives in America, the bastion of freedom and democracy and doesn’t believe in choice? We get so caught up in labels that we often don’t step back to look at what they mean. And sometimes we get so focused on just one thing we ignore everything else. Like being “pro-life.” What does that mean for us as a Christian? Is being pro-life just about abortion? Or from a Christian perspective, does it encompass so much more?
First, let’s get rid of the myth people WANT abortions.
While we might debate whether people should be able to get one or under what circumstances, nobody WANTS an abortion. People aren’t going around, being promiscuous, and saying, “Oh, if I get pregnant, I’ll just get an abortion.” Nobody is saying that. It is a tough decision every woman must wrestle with when they get one and they certainly don’t need the church to alienate them or stand in judgment over them. Most women who get an abortion never had one before (57%), and the number of abortions per year today is lower than it was in the early 70’s right after Roe v. Wade made it legal and a far cry lower than at its height in 1990.[1] This isn’t an epidemic getting out of control. It really is an issue of morality, and we never do well legislating morality.
But as a Christian, being pro-life should be more than your stance on abortion.
It should encompass everything from the cradle to the grave. Here’s how one critic of the pro-life movement who is a pastor put it:
(He said if someone were truly pro-life) “You would want to do more than prevent abortions.
You’d want to prevent hunger and poverty. You’d want to prevent illiteracy and child mortality and forced prostitution. You’d want to prevent racism and bigotry and homophobia. You’d want kids in the “bad neighborhood” to have great schools and teachers just like your kids have there in the “good neighborhood.” You’d want to support single parents and the terminally ill and the mentally ill by helping them carry their oversized burden.
You’d want religious freedom even for people who aren’t Christian. You’d want LGBTQ people to live and work and worship and love as they desire. You’d want people of color not to have to fear law enforcement and not to be disproportionately incarcerated. You’d want fewer guns in the hands of kids and criminals and those with mental illness. You’d want to prevent violence and workplace termination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. You’d want a living wage for all people who work hard, and healthcare for their children that won’t have to replace their daily meals.
I am a person of Life. That is what my faith calls me to be.”[2]
Life encompasses so much more than the nine months we are in the womb.
And we don’t do a good job of even protecting that. Did you know our country has one of the highest mortality rates among like nations for pregnant mothers?[3] Out of 10 similar countries, we are ranked 10th and overall ranked 55th. If “life” is so important to us, why aren’t we better at it? We also have by far the highest number of gun deaths than any other economically advanced country. We are second overall in total number of gun deaths at 37,040 behind only Brazil.[4] In the show, The West Wing, Toby Ziegler says, “I do know that if you combine the populations of Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Australia, you’ve got a population roughly the size of the United States. We had 32,000-gun deaths last year and they had 112. Do you think it’s because Americans are more homicidal by nature? Or do you think it’s because those guys have gun control laws?” Today those numbers are much higher for those countries – a total of 4,072 but the United States still has a gun death total more than 8 times all those countries combined. If we truly want to be pro-life, we must realize its more than just reproductive birth rights. It’s a cradle to grave problem and one we need to pay attention to. At least Jesus thinks so.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “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. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 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.’
44 “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?’
45 “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.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Whatever you did for the least of these.
Jesus cared about EVERYBODY! He cared about people who were homeless; people who were impoverished; people who were in prison; Jesus cared about the sick and those who were food insecure. And Jesus was critical of those who looked down on others, who treated others without regard for human dignity. He overturned the tables in the temple because of the money lenders and merchants trying to make a profit from God in a Holy space. He often criticized the elders and religious leaders for their lack of compassion and rigid ways of thinking. And he warns us, right there in this passage, that if we behave in the same way, we can expect no different. “…[W]hatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” We need to treat people as God created them. As Children of God. And we need to do more for people. We need to help and love our neighbor. Not stand in judgment of them.
We are all pro-life.
Whether we agree on the legality of abortion is not central to who we are as Christians. We can debate from here to live long day about when life begins and whether legislation works. And you can be a person who hopes for a world without abortion AND STILL be pro-choice. But if we are serious about our faith, we have to do more to love and care for everybody from beginning to end – from the cradle to the grave. We need to work on eliminating poverty, homelessness, and hunger. We need to do a better job of supporting and caring for people in times of trouble like divorce, depression, and illness. And we have to love those who are far from Christ and who may never come to Christ. Our job is to be the farmer who sows the seeds, to do the good work, and let God worry about the seed taking root. If we are to take seriously Christ’s call on our hearts to make disciples in his name, we have to do it from a place of love and not a place of fear or judgment or division. Guard your heart from the things of this world and instead model the love of Christ for all to see. Be an advocate for Life! All life.
[1] According to research done by the Pew Research Group and the Guttmacher Institute. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/25/what-the-data-says-about-abortion-in-the-us/
[2] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-conservative-christian-friends-i-wish-you-really-were-pro-life_b_12475464
[3] https://www.vox.com/2020/1/30/21113782/pregnancy-deaths-us-maternal-mortality-rate
[4] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-deaths-by-country ; https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/theres-a-new-global-ranking-of-gun-deaths-heres-where-the-u-s-stands
Life on the Spectrum
Life isn’t black and white.
It’s so easy to label people, but that label is often just one aspect of who they are, and maybe not the most important aspect. And maybe not even entirely accurate. When I was at UCLA, I had a roommate named Wayne who was a really nice guy but could be labeled as racist and if you didn’t know him, you would think it was an apt description. He would often stereotype people and made assumptions about them based on those stereotypes. When we first met, I think he was genuinely surprised I didn’t have a pocket protector or wear button-down, short-sleeved shirts. Wayne had opinions about every ethnicity on the planet and none of them good. If you can imagine a stereotype about Asians, Hispanics, African Americans, or some other ethnicity, Wayne thought of it first. We’d stay up late at night talking about life and he would make the most awful comments about someone based only on the color of their skin or the shape of their face. If you didn’t know him, you’d think he was a hard and fast racist, but the funny thing was, I met most of Wayne’s friends and they weren’t at all what I expected. Instead of the sea of monochromatic faces I expected to find, his friends were a rainbow of different colors. White, black, brown, yellow, red…you name it. I couldn’t figure it out until one day he and I were talking, and he made a comment about “all Asians” and then he looked at me and said, “Except for you, Craig. You’re one of the good ones.” I just said, “Thanks, Wayne.” But in that moment, I knew. I knew what the difference was between me and “all Asians.” Wayne knew me, and because he knew me, I was no longer one of “them.”
“They” are evil.
“They” are what is wrong with the world. “They” are going to ruin things for everybody. But really, who are “they?” If you listen to God, “they” are “us.” When you think about the world from a Christian perspective, there is no “they” because every single one of us is part of the family of God. You don’t have to like them all. You don’t have to agree with them all. They might be that strange aunt who always brings Jello salad to the potluck. But in the end, we are united under this one umbrella of Jesus. We forget that. A lot. I hear pastors and politicians who call themselves Christians saying some awful things about “them.” But those identifiers like race, sexual and gender identity, education, wealth, etc. that we like to use are artificial. They are just things we made up to make life simpler. But at what cost? I think we are seeing that cost play out in the political arena today. We have dehumanized the other into a label and dangerously make assumptions about every person under that label. Democrats, so trapped in their ivory towers, they don’t understand the plight of the common person. They are ruining America. Republicans, so closed-minded and secretly racist, they don’t see what a danger they are to Democracy. They are ruining America. Did I get that about right? Those labels extended to every part of our lives. Race, size, gender identity, sexual orientation – you name it and there is probably a stereotype for it. I actually heard someone on NPR saying trans kids were claiming to be trans so they could compete in sports and have a better chance at winning. That defies all logic. A kid would put themselves out there, subject to ridicule, bullying, and harassment, potentially have their life threatened and at the very least get made fun of and stared at to what end? Win a track and field event? Our fears of the other have grown so large that we don’t even regard them as humans. We don’t think of them as one of “us.” And that’s where we need to begin. We need to stop seeing the world in black and white and instead see it for the rainbow of colors that it is.
Black and white thinking can make our lives worse.
Not just for the people who are the targets of our binary thoughts, but for ourselves, too. It can negatively affect your relationships. It can hurt your self-image. It can hold you back from success.[1] When we talk about living on the spectrum, we usually take it to mean being autistic. But more and more people are using this type of framework to talk about all aspects of life. A concrete example is being left or right-handed. Unless you’re missing a limb, most of us make use of both hands. Only about 1% of the population is truly ambidextrous,[2] but how much we can use both hands varies from person to person. Then there are aspects of who we are that are now being understood as being on the spectrum. Researchers studied narcissism – the tendency to focus on oneself at the cost of caring about others – and found that it is what they call a core “dark trait” meaning something we think of negatively but an aspect that we all have in varying degrees.[3] People tend to think that someone either is or isn’t narcissistic but the truth is there is at least a little bit of it in all of us. It’s what psychologists call a “continuous trait.” Today, gender identity and sexual orientation are understood more and more in this way as being fluid instead of static or binary. People aren’t just straight or gay as we can see from the alphabet soup of sexual orientation. And most younger people today understand intrinsically that gender identity is just as fluid even if that is a completely new concept to older generations. Nothing is truly black or white. Not even the colors black and white. According to Adobe, black and white are just shades and not truly colors. But what’s more interesting, when you create the color Rich Black on Adobe using the color code #000000 the software actually adjusts it to include cyan, magenta, and yellow because to our eyes, it is a darker black than black![4]
It’s time to take off the sunglasses and see the world in all its beauty.
As God intended. God made the world with an abundance of diversity and to God each of us is like a snowflake. All of us are his creation, but all of us are unique beings with our own gifts and graces. I think that’s how God sees us. Not as Asian or White or liberal or conservative. God sees us as Cassie and Craig and Gwen and Red and Lorrie and Marilyn… God sees YOU. Not as a sum of your different parts, but God sees YOU as a whole and complete being. We need to do that more often, to think even of those we don’t know (or don’t like all that much) as people beloved by God so we can set aside our differences, embrace the things we have in common, and get to work making the world a better place. We need to stop feeling threatened by what other people do and instead focus on ourselves and our loved ones and make sure WE are living up to the standards God has set for us. Instead of worrying about what “they” are doing, we should focus on doing right ourselves and not standing in judgment of other people. Paul’s letter to the Romans emphasizes this point. In it, there was apparently a dispute over what people ate. I don’t know if it was in the context of communion or just living styles of different churches in Rome or if Paul was just using this as a minor example, but his point was pretty clear. Modeled after Matthew 7:3-5 where Jesus tells the disciples to pull the plank out of their own eye, Paul the churches in Rome to focus on their own account before God instead of worrying about things that ultimately don’t matter.
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
12So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. – Selections from Romans 14
Who are we to judge someone else?
Don’t we have enough to worry about on our own without getting in someone else’s way? Paul reminds us of what is important and I love the way he says it, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking (and you can insert your own petty argument here), but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” When a new idea doesn’t fit within our life experience, our tendency is to deny it or to treat it as “other.” We condemn it, often without considering it at all. And Paul tells us “…whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.” Today the target of judgment is the LGBTQ community and right now especially transgender kids. I’ve sadly heard Christians condemn their parents or even condemn the kids themselves. And whether you agree or not, I challenge you to hear Paul’s words and then reflect back on other communities Christians have historically attacked as being against the Bible and see where we are now. People of African descent. People of Chinese or Japanese descent. Women. Children. People who had disease. People who were victims of natural disasters. The list is long and sad of how we have condemned these groups and claiming to do so in the name of God. Maybe we should listen to Paul and keep it to ourselves or more importantly, listen to Jesus who told us to pull the plank from our own eye before removing the splinter from another. We have much to learn from each other and when we do so from a place of humility and love, we also share the love of Christ. God created the world in such amazing colors. It would be a shame to limit the beauty of creation with our black and white sunglasses.
[1] https://www.talkspace.com/blog/black-white-thinking-ways-poisons-your-perspective/ ; https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/black-and-white-thinking#risks
[2] https://www.healthline.com/health/ambidextrous
[3] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201601/black-and-white-thinking-in-our-social-worlds
[4] https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/design/discover/is-black-a-color.html
Horses and Water
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
How many of you know someone or knew someone who should not be with the person they are with? When I was in college, I had more than one friend in that situation. Almost always a girl. Why? It’s not because women are more gullible or more dependent. It’s because there are so few guys worth it at that age. And I don’t know how much better it gets as you get older. But if you try to tell them how stupid they are for being with that person or if you try to set them up with someone else or if you try to somehow force them to not be with that person, all you’ll do is ruin your friendship. I can tell you from personal experience it just doesn’t work. Even as a parent, you can only say so much. You can point out the facts. You can share from your own experience. But ultimately, your friend or your child or your family member must choose for themselves a better life.
This is true in other facets of life, too.
Addiction comes to mind as the most clear-cut example. Sometimes an intervention works, but if it does it’s only because the person realizes through the intervention how much love and support they have, and it gives them the courage to leave a life of addiction. But you can’t force an addict to stop being addicted. They have to want it for themselves, or it will never last. Torture is another field where forcing someone to do something just doesn’t work. Some people think torture is justified in some situations; sort of a Machiavellian “end justifies the means.” But if you’re trying to get intelligence you can use, you might be surprised to find out torture doesn’t work, regardless of the end OR the means. In the short-term you might get a confession, but the reliability of that confession is suspect – even when the person being tortured WANTS to cooperate! According to Professor O’Mara, an expert in the field, the stress, pain, and fear that comes from torture impairs recall and cognition and can create false memories that the person believes to be true. Torture also encourages lying instead of telling the truth.[1] You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
But that doesn’t seem to stop us from trying.
I’ve been really disturbed at how some people who identify as Christian have been trying to impose their own agenda thorough politics and using God as an excuse for it. There is a very good reason why the Founding Fathers created the 1st Amendment. It was to explicitly forbid a national religion from forming, while ensuring people had the freedom to worship whoever and however they chose. And they did that because they themselves were often victims of religious persecution. They didn’t want anyone else to have to go through that. It’s one of the primary reasons this country was formed. But more and more we are edging closer to eradicating that line between church and state. In fact, Rep. Lauren Boebert incorrectly said in public that “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church.” She went on to say “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.”[2] I must admit I was pretty stunned how completely wrong she is about all of this. It actually IS part of the Constitution, and it means EXACTLY what it says.[3] But it illustrates how so many Americans completely misunderstood the intentions of the early founders. They specifically did not want a state religion because so many people who came to America were fleeing religious persecution. They didn’t want to be under the thumb of the church, and they saw how bad it could become when a political leader was also de facto the head of the church, and they didn’t want that to happen here. But more and more self-proclaimed Christians are pushing that boundary and are trying to make America an explicitly Christian nation.
Now, is that a bad thing?
No. Our directive from God almighty is to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” It’s right there in Matthew 28. We call it The Great Commission. Ideally, the work we do as a church would turn the entire world into a Christian planet, worshipping God together. But not so we can win. Not so we can rub other people’s faces in our Christianity. But to provide an opportunity for everyone to know the love of God. Making laws that force people to accept our faith is not what God intended.
Yet that’s exactly what has been happening, now more than ever. The Oklahoma State Superintendent mandated the Bible be taught to all students in 5th – 12th grade as part of their curriculum regardless of their religious beliefs. He also said he plans to make the Ten Commandments required learning.[4] You might not think that’s such a big deal, but would you feel the same if you lived somewhere that forced you to learn the central tenets of Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism? Suddenly it might seem like a big deal. Louisiana just mandated that all state schools must display the Ten Commandments. According to Gov. Landry who signed it into law, he said, “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start with the original lawgiver, which was Moses.”[5] First, that statement is false. The original lawgiver was God and Moses’ documents were not the first laws written for a society. Hammurabi preceded Moses by at least 750 years and King Ur created the Code of Ur-Nammu more than a thousand years before that.[6] And second, there’s no proof displaying the Ten Commandments leads to more moral behavior. We hear stories all the time about corruption within the church – child abuse, embezzlement, and adultery to name just a few. The Ten Commandments haven’t stopped humans from being fallible. And that’s just two examples of many that are being introduced in many areas of our country, both big and small. Believe it or not, the Apostle Paul came across this same problem nearly 2000 years ago. At the time of his writing, non-Jewish people (Gentiles) who wanted to become Christ followers thought they needed to become Jewish to truly be disciples. This wasn’t helped by most of the Apostles who also believed people needed to convert to be followers. The biggest obstacle? Male circumcision. A painful process as a baby, it was even more painful for adults who didn’t have anesthesia to help them. But Paul receives a revelation from God and realizes this attitude isn’t God speaking to his people but human beings imposing their own ideas onto God.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. – Galatians 5:1-6
You didn’t have to follow Jewish law to be a Christian.
But that was the popular thinking of the time. And it’s completely understandable why so many made that mistake. Even Peter who Jesus said would be the foundation of the church believed that to be true. But Paul points out to us and the church what he also told Peter. It is not adherence to the law that made one a Christian. It was, and I quote, “faith expressing itself through love.” To me that is such a beautiful statement. Paul reminds both the Jewish people and the Gentiles, non-Jewish people who wanted to follow Christ, that you didn’t need to follow Jewish law and customs to give your heart to Christ. You simply had to live out your faith by showing the love of Christ to the world around you. In fact, by trying to follow the law as it was given to the Jewish people long ago, you were instead putting form and function above faith and that isn’t what God wanted.
Legislating faith is the easy way out.
You can force people to pray. You can force them to read from your holy book. You can force people to memorize the Ten Commandments. But you can’t make them believe. In fact, likely you’ll do the opposite and statistics prove that to be happening today. The more politicized our faith has become, the more people are leaving in droves. According to a Pew Research study, in 1972, 90% of Americans identified as Christian and that stayed pretty steady until the late 80’s / early 90’s when it started to drop. It went from 90% to 80% in that small window and has been declining ever since. In 2021, only 63% identified as Christian. Meanwhile the number of people who are religiously unaffiliated has gone up during that same timeframe. It was pretty steady from 1972 until the early 90’s at around 5% but today, it’s up to 29% who don’t identify with a religion. We call this group “the Nones.”[7] And it’s not like they’re going to other religions. They’re just not engaging in faith at all. That’s because we haven’t done a very good job of giving them a reason to hang around.
We have to do the hard work again.
Like the early Christians who led by example and out of love, who brought people to Christ in droves, we need to do that again. Christianity was not and should not be a political movement. But it is increasingly become so. We need to reclaim our Christianity. Instead of trying to get the government to force people to adopt our beliefs, we need to do a better job of being better Christians. We need to stop attacking others. We need to find common ground. We need to accept that other people have other beliefs and instead of treating them like “the other” to embrace them and learn from them and trust in God to use us as his instruments to show the world a better way. We need to stop using God as an excuse for our own poor behavior. By leaning on Christ and on Christ’s example for our lives we can change the world again.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5325643/#b4
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/28/lauren-boebert-church-state-colorado/
[3] https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights/what-does-it-say
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/27/oklahoma-public-schools-bible-teachings and https://www.akronlegalnews.com/editorial/35317
[5] https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-ten-commandments-displayed-classrooms-571a2447906f7bbd5a166d53db005a62
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_legal_codes
[7] To be fair, there isn’t one reason for this drop in Christians and equal rise in the Nones, but this change correlates with the increasing politicization of Christianity. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades/
What Color is Your Christianity?
What color is your Christianity?
We are still about four months away from Election Day and I’m already tired of hearing about politics. And it’s only going to get worse. As we approach November, we will see more ads, hear more on the news, and come across more billboards, lawn signs, and bumper stickers than we can shake a stick at. And yet, how much does it really matter? According to a Harvard/CAPS poll, more than 70% of voters have already decided who they are going to vote for.[1] And while polls are not always a reliable indicator of reality, it sure feels like this one is true. People have already decided months before Election Day who they are going to punch on their ticket, at least when it comes to the office of the President. Pundits have already divided the country into red and blue states and even red and blue people, but I’m hoping that this coming election season, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, you won’t vote red or blue. Instead, I implore you to vote purple.
Purple isn’t just a combination of red and blue (which ironically it is).
It’s also the color we use to associate with Christ. Purple was a hard color to come by in ancient times. It was obtained by the harvesting of marine snails and was very labor intensive so only royalty or those with authority would wear garments with that color.[2] When Jesus was being crucified, the Roman guards mocked him by putting on a purple robe and a crown of thorns and calling him the “King of the Jews” (John 19:1-5). Because of this and because we believe Jesus to be our one true Lord and Savior, we associate purple with Christ. It’s in that spirit Christians all over the country need to approach not just the coming election but everything we do – with a purple lens. Not with partisan blinders but really being open to where God is leading our country and more importantly his people.
And we forget that too often.
We are ALL God’s children. Democrats and Republicans; Black and White; Christians and Atheists; even Dodgers fans and Giants fans – no matter how misguided Giants fans are – are all equal in the sight of God. God doesn’t say to us he only loves you if you do XYZ or believe this or that. God loves you no matter what and then HOPES you make good choices in life. But his love isn’t contingent on that. Even when you mess up big, God still loves you. And that’s what God expects of us. To love those around us even when we don’t share their thoughts and opinions. Maybe sometimes because we don’t share their thoughts and opinions. We’re supposed to be above the political fray. But instead, it looks we are right in the middle of it with everybody else. When we look at the decline of Christianity, it’s not because the world has grown increasingly agnostic. It’s because Christians haven’t done a very good job of being Christ-like. We’ve become known for being judgmental, hypocritical, and too involved in politics.[3] One young man said, “…twenty years ago, when I was looking at evangelical Christianity from the inside, it seemed like a movement bursting with energy to spread good news to people. Looking at it from the outside today, this message seems to have been lost in exchange for an aggressive political strategy that demonizes segments of society.”[4] Who would want to be part of something like that? If you’re tempted to dismiss this as a young person’s hubris, don’t. It has become our reality and it’s very real.
The solution comes from a story about Jesus’ own life.
In this story below, we find Jesus in Jerusalem. It takes place after he chases out the vendors in the temple court. Jesus is appalled they would desecrate the Holy Temple grounds by turning it into what he called “a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). But it makes him an even bigger target for the chief priests who are thinking of ways to kill him (Mark 11:18). Jesus’ following is growing and growing because they see the power of his words and his teachings. But take a moment and think about that. These are the religious leaders of the Jewish people and they are so twisted up in a knot they ignore one of the most central tenets of their faith – thou shalt not kill. So when our story takes place, they are trying to publicly humiliate Jesus and this is what happens next.
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax[b] to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him. – Mark 12:13-17
Jesus is caught in a classic “no win” scenario.
If he tells them to pay the tax, the Pharisees can discredit him by claiming he is saying Rome has greater authority than God! But if he tells them to ignore the tax, the Pharisees can rat on him to the Roman government and telling them Jesus is inciting people to defy the law. Either way he loses. But then Jesus pulls a WOPR. Like the supercomputer in the movie WarGames, Jesus realizes the only way to win is not to play the game.[5] He tells them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” In one fell swoop he upholds Roman authority AND God’s at the same time. But what I really like about his answer is he not only escapes their trap but elevates his argument by reminding them we answer to a higher calling. That while we are obligated to live by the rules of our society, we have a greater responsibility to live our lives as children of God because ultimately our allegiance doesn’t belong to a man or a party or even a country. Our allegiance rests solely with God. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God first and foremost and shouldn’t forget it.
In our contentious times, we need to remember more than ever to treat one another with love.
We rely on the idea of an eye for an eye, but Christ calls us to turn the other cheek. The ministry of Christ is radical and humble. It isn’t arrogant or proud. And that’s who we need to be in this election season. When we vote for a person or a bill, we need to remember to do it with love. If the people around us don’t agree how we think or how we vote, we shouldn’t degrade them but instead pray for them and treat them with respect. We need to see the world through the lens of Christ and analyze the issues and ideas through his eyes. I’m reminded at this time of President Carter who said he was greatly influenced by something he heard in a sermon as a young man. The pastor said, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”[6] When thinking about the things that matter most to you, consider yourself neither blue nor red but instead the purple of Jesus.
[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4750545-poll-decided-voters-presidential-election/
[2] https://carnegiemnh.org/born-to-the-purple/
[3] UnChristian by David Kinnaman, p.34.
[4] UnChristian by David Kinnaman, p. 166.
A Twist on American History
How well do you know American history?
I don’t mean the obscure stuff you might need to win Trivial Pursuit or if you can name all the presidents. How well do you know basic American history. In honor of Independence Day, I thought it might be fun to have a little pop quiz. Let’s start off with an easy one.
On what day did the Continental Congress declare independence?
Yes, it was July 2nd. “What?” you might be asking yourself. “Everybody knows it’s July 4th!” Although the Declaration of Independence was dated July 4th, the Continental Congress actually voted for independence two days earlier. It just took them a while to write it up and after that it took over a month to get it signed![1]
Who designed the first American flag?
Most of us grew up believing Betsy Ross did it. According to legend, General George Washington came to Betsy’s house and asked her to make a flag, but there is no evidence to show it ever happened. In fact, another person claimed to have designed the flag and even asked Congress for compensation for it – Francis Hopkinson. But he was told by Congress that the design of the flag had been a collaborative effort.[2]
What did Paul Revere say to warn the colonists about the British?
Well, he might have said many things, but he never said, “The British are coming!” It’s a popular misconception because of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, but since many of the colonists still regarded themselves as British, that phrase would have been confusing. He most likely quietly warned his fellow rebels that the “Regulars” were on the move.[3]
Now don’t be too hard on yourself if you didn’t get those right. Had I not been scouring the Internet for juicy myths of American history, I wouldn’t have got them right either. But it just goes to show you, there are many things we believe to be true that simply are not. And things we believe to be false sometimes are actually true. And then there are things we believe to be true, that at one time WERE true, and are now no longer true. Like whether Pluto is a planet. To my dying day I will believe Pluto is a planet.
People often wonder how history will remember them.
They worry about the legacy they will leave behind. But if these questions of historical “fact” prove something, it’s that we can’t trust history to remember ANYTHING accurately. During your lifetime, you’ve probably believed many things you’ve found to no longer be true. And things we believe are super important now, will be completely unimportant within our lifetime. Jesus talked about the impermanence of life with the disciples and told them to focus on what’s truly important. We find that talk in the passage we’re going to read this morning from Matthew 24:1-2. This small passage comes right after Jesus had been grilled by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Both groups are quizzing Jesus in the hopes of getting him to make a mistake so they can denounce him as a fraud, but he deftly manages to avoid their verbal attacks and ends up ripping them apart for their own hypocrisy. After that, he walks away with the disciples and that’s where we pick up our story this morning.
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Of all the things he could have pointed to, Jesus points to the temple.
Of all of the buildings around them, he points to the house of God and says to his disciples even this one day will be thrown down. Even the house of God will stand in ruins. Jesus wants to make the point that the things of this world will not last. Nothing is permanent except for God and his Kingdom. When I was young and would hear the phrase “the Kingdom of God” I would picture in my mind a huge, shining castle with a sprawling city around it. A literal kingdom. But the Kingdom of God isn’t a place. It lies within God’s people. The Kingdom of God isn’t a place, it lies within God’s people. In the rest of the passage, Jesus encourages them to live faithfully because no one knows when their time will come.
Jesus brings up an important image to us – the impermanence of this life.
We so often focus on things that ultimately aren’t important instead of the things that are – loving one another. Love is the only thing that will truly outlast us. Your name will one day be forgotten or if it is remembered, it will be for something you may or may not have done like Paul Revere or Betsy Ross. What will be remembered will only be a shadow of your true self, a representation of an idea instead of who you really are. For most of us, though, we will as the Bible tells us return to the dust from which we were made (Genesis 3). But the love we share with each other is the one gift that will affect a person’s life long after we are gone. As one pastor recounted, “Strangely enough, it usually catches us by surprise to find that the things others considered most about us is not how successful we might have been, but rather, how much we loved them. But it is in loving others that we best show how we love God.”[4] When our loved ones go ahead of us to God, we don’t think about how much money they made or how powerful they were or how famous they are. We don’t ask how many “employee of the month” awards they earned or how their company earned better fourth quarter profits because of their effort. We are remembered for the love we share and for who we are. That is the legacy we will be remembered for, long after our names are forgotten, it is how we loved and how we shaped the lives around us that will make the biggest difference. A material legacy will never last, but a legacy of love can last forever. A material legacy will never last, but a legacy of love can last forever.
This is something the early church understood well.
And it is one of the primary ways the church was built. Not through buildings with stained glass windows or fancy instruments but with love. A pastor once shared this story with his congregation, “Historians tell us that two plagues swept through the Roman Empire while Christians were being horribly persecuted. The Antonine Plague was the first, a little more than a century past the life of Jesus. The Plague of Cyprian came along a century after that. One document says that in Rome, where a million people lived, as many as 5,000 died per day. The bodies rotted on the streets, adding to the environment of disease and filth. The epidemic filled the people with terror. It was so devastating that when the first symptoms appeared some villages simply emptied out, leaving the sick behind. There was no cure. There was no hope. So they left sick family members in their beds and ran for their lives. But Christians didn’t run. They stayed and brought water to the sick. They fed them. They changed their bandages. They spoke kindly to them. They loved and encouraged them. And they got sick in the process. There’s no telling how many people were saved because Christians served, and there’s no telling how many Christians lost their lives because they stayed behind. But the world is different today because in the middle of devastating despair – we might call it overwhelming darkness – those who followed Christ saw their opportunity to shine.”[5] No one remembers these Christians’ names. No one remembers what they did for a living. No one remembers how much they earned in a year. But it was through these acts of love that more of them are around today.
History is a fickle mistress.
It is often said that history is written by the winners and that is often true. We can’t count on history to record our legacy. We can’t count on it to accurately reflect who we are or even what we’ve done. And ultimately, that’s not important. What is important is how we love others. How we devote ourselves to one another. How we treat one another. Those are the things we will be remembered for. Take time this week to reflect on how we can love the ones in our lives better. How is it we can show kindness to one another? How is it we can be gracious to one another? And let us follow the example of Christ by learning to simply love one another.
[1] http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2005/nr05-83.html
[2] http://historyplaces.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/think-you-know-american-history-you-may-be-wrong/ and http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/betsy-ross-flag2.htm
[3] http://www.history.com/news/12-things-you-may-not-know-about-paul-revere
[4] http://www.lifeway.com/Article/sermon-building-a-legacy-that-lasts-mark-12
[5] http://www.lifeway.com/Article/sermon-building-a-legacy-that-lasts-mark-12
Love Without End, Amen
Imagine a world where everyone knew they were loved unconditionally.
In that kind of a world, many of the problems we have today would probably disappear. Not all of them to be sure, but being surrounded by people who loved you just as you are and loved you the way you wanted and needed to be loved would be incredible for anybody. If you have a Bible or a Bible app on your phone, please go to 1 John chapter 4 and we’ll begin reading from verse 7. 1 John 4:7. Unconditional love is the greatest gift in the world. It gives you a sense of self-worth, confidence, and assurance nothing else can give you. People spend their whole lives looking for it. By its very definition, you can’t buy it, you can’t earn it, you can’t do anything to get it. It’s the one great equalizer in society because everyone wants it and whether you get it has nothing to do with wealth, fame, or power. In fact, it’s probably the one thing that’s harder to get the more successful you become because you can’t help but wonder if people love you because of who you are or for what you have. But God loves us unconditionally, no matter how much we have or don’t have, no matter how much we do or don’t do – God loves us anyway. If you would please rise as we read from 1 John 4:7-12, and 19-21. Hear now the Word of God.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
The Word of God for the people of God, and the people said, “Thanks be to God.” Please be seated.
We love because he first loved us.
As parents, we experience the kind of love God has for us most strongly with our children. We feel it right from the moment of their birth. Or even before then. When Cassie was pregnant with Emma, I used to talk to Emma every day. Before bed each night, I’d put my head next to Cassie’s stomach and talk to my little unborn baby girl, telling her about my day, about how I can’t wait for her to come out, and saying “good night.” Sometimes I’d randomly just go up to Cassie’s stomach and just for fun say “Helloooooo in there.” It was probably a bit embarrassing for Cassie, because I’d do it whenever the mood struck – at home, at the mall, in the car – just whenever. One night, Cassie started getting some unusual pains and we rushed to the hospital, worried something had gone wrong. We sat in this cold, sterile intake room waiting for Cassie to get some kind of medical scan done, and I remember holding her hand and just feeling completely helpless. The worst part was when they wheeled Cassie away. They wouldn’t even let me go with her and I sat in this little, tiny waiting room all by myself with Law & Order on the television above me. I remember thinking about how much I loved my little girl who I hadn’t even seen yet except on some fuzzy sonogram, and praying everything would be alright. I had never felt that anxious before. Thankfully, it was just a scare and about seven months later, Emma would come out just fine, but I felt like just for a moment I had a glimpse of God’s unconditional love for us – that deep love of God that reaches out to us even before we realize we need it.
It’s that kind of love John is talking about in this letter to the church.
It’s the love that comes before we realize we ARE loved. In Methodism we call this prevenient grace – the unmerited, undeserved, unasked-for love of God that comes before we even know there IS a God. And it’s this unconditional love that motivates God to send Jesus on our behalf. Not because we behaved particularly well. Not because we did some great deed for God. But because he knew it was what we needed. It’s what we do for those we love. That’s why John writes, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” When John tells us that we need to love one another in the same way that God loves us, this is the kind of love he’s talking about – the unconditional, self-sacrificing, put-yourself-out-there kind of love. We don’t do this because we need to “pay God back” or to balance some kind of cosmic debt. It isn’t love if it requires payment. We don’t do it to store up God’s good will. Again, that isn’t love. Look at what it says in the Gospel of Luke. In Luke 6, Jesus tells the crowd to love their enemies. He says, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” It doesn’t take any effort to love those who already love you because you expect love in return. Real love is being able to offer it without expectation. To love the way God loves us. When we are able to love like that, we have a deeper understanding of God’s love for us.
Love is essential. When we are loved, we do better in life.
As a father, there is a unique role we play in the lives of our children and a reason God created us to be fathers in the first place. It’s not only a duty, but an honor to be a father. As more research is done, it becomes clearer and clearer that fathers are an important part of a child’s development not just because they are a “second parent” but men specifically interact and behave in ways that help their children become more well-rounded, well-developed people.[1] Studies have shown that having a loving, involved father increases a child’s chance of getting A’s in school by 43% and children are 33% less likely to repeat a grade.[2] 43% more likely to get A’s. Children with fathers who play with them on average have higher IQs “as well as better linguistic and cognitive capabilities,” meaning they tend to be more sophisticated in both speech and thinking.[3] Children with involved fathers tend to be more sociable, exhibit better self-control, were less likely to lie, experience depression, and more likely to engage in pro-social behavior. The more we learn about fathers, the more we realize how important they are. Not that mothers are any less important, but too often in society the job of raising children has fallen on mothers. Take for instance Elon Musk’s recent response to a reporter about balancing his work life with being a father. He doesn’t. “Well, babies are just eating and pooping machines, you know?…Right now there’s not much I can do.”[4] Fathers have a deeper responsibility than society gives them credit for or often expects of them, but not less than what God expects. In Ephesians we hear from Paul that fathers are responsible for bringing up their children in the “training and instruction of the Lord” and are called not to exasperate them. In the letter to the Colossians, Paul writes that fathers should not embitter their children, or they will become discouraged. God places upon fathers an expectation of love and encouragement that is important in how they grow up.
Love is a choice.
Love isn’t just a feeling. Love is a choice. We shouldn’t love our children just when we feel like loving them. We shouldn’t love them when they deserve it. We shouldn’t make them earn our love. We should love them simply because they are our children. But what we SHOULD do and what we DO do are not always the same. Ultimately, love is still a choice as evidenced by the unfortunate number of fathers out there who are not involved in their children’s lives. One in four children live in a fatherless household.[5] 48% of those see their children less than once a month. 31% say they don’t even call or email once a month.[6] We choose what’s important in our lives. We choose who to love and how to love even if it’s only ourselves. It is a choice we make moment by moment just as God constantly chooses to love us despite our rebelliousness. And just as we are loved by God, we must also choose to love our children so that when they explore faith for themselves, they have an idea of what it means to have a loving God in Heaven. It’s hard to imagine a loving Father above when ours is absent. Love is a choice. And God chooses to love us everyday. We must choose to love also.
We don’t always realize the importance of the role we play in the lives of our children.
Academically, socially, and spiritually, too. How involved a father is in the faith life of their children influences greatly the future faith of their children as well. Fathers who go to church regularly have a greater impact on the future of their children being in church than their mothers. In fact, if a father goes to church regularly with their mother, 75% of their children will still be in church either regularly or irregularly as adults. If a father doesn’t go to church but the mother does only 39% of their children will go to church at all, with only 2% being regular attenders.[7] As a father, we have a greater responsibility to our children’s well-being than we often think. We influence not just their life here, but their eternal life as well. On this Father’s Day, I want to encourage you to show your unconditional love to the people important in your life. Encourage, embolden, and love your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren so that they may know not only your love but the model of love God has for them.
[1] http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/parenting_roles/the_involved_father.aspx
[2] http://www.thefatherhoodproject.org/10-facts-about-father-engagement/#_edn7
[3] https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/the-daddy-factor-how-fathers-support-development/ originally from childwelfare.gov
[4] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-unique-power-of-dads-in-childhood-development-during-a-pandemic-and-beyond/
[5] http://www.fatherhood.org/media/consequences-of-father-absence-statistics (interestingly this number has gotten better over the years! Not that long ago it was 1 in 3!)
[6] http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/06/15/a-tale-of-two-fathers/ (hopefully these numbers have improved over time, but I couldn’t find a more recent study of male parental involvement like this one)
[7] http://www.christianpost.com/news/fathers-key-to-their-childrens-faith-51331/
What Makes You Beautiful
When I was a little boy, I had a favorite stuffed animal named “Tiger.”
I know. Not incredibly creative. I could have named him “Tony,” after all I loved Frosted Flakes (still do actually) or “Tigger” after Winnie-the-Pooh’s friend, but nope I named him “Tiger” and it stuck. Tiger went with me everywhere. I loved that doll. Now, mind you, Tiger wasn’t the best-looking doll on the block. He wasn’t the biggest or the fluffiest. He was just two pieces of patterned cloth sewn together with synthetic fiber mashed inside. Did any of you have those kinds of dolls? Half of the stuffed animals I had came from a pattern at the local fabric store. Today they are much more sophisticated and intricate, but I’d still choose Tiger any day of the week because he was mine. As kids do, I gave him the same birthday as me. Even after I was “too old” for dolls, I’d still pull him out and wish him happy birthday and give him a big ol’ hug like the old days. I kept him, thinking one day I would pass Tiger on to my child, and when Emma was around three I did just that. That was a significant moment for me. To be able to pass down a treasured keepsake from my past to my daughter was so meaningful. The first time she slept with it felt so special. Side note: Want to hear something funny? At that point I had owned Tiger for over three decades, but when I handed it to Emma I discovered something. Tiger wasn’t a tiger at all. Tiger was a lion! It was the most orange lion you’d ever seen, but there was no mistaking it. Tiger wasn’t a tiger. The mane should have been a dead giveaway. I don’t know how that fact escaped me all those years, but there you go. I’d love to show Tiger to all of you so you could see for yourself, but someone else in our family liked Tiger, too. Our golden retriever, Luke who played with it as any big dog would. Tiger didn’t survive the experience. All that was left of him was a scrap of cloth. Cassie was so nice about it and was like, “Well, maybe you could keep the cloth.”
Tiger had a good life as far as stuffed animal go.
But to most people, he was just an ordinary doll. Not all that remarkable. If you put him in a pile with other stuffed animals, he probably wouldn’t have gone first. Or even twenty-first. But he was special to me. And I’d have picked him first every time. Whether he was a lion or not. I imagine God feels the same way about each and every one of us. No matter what kind of “worth” the world puts on us, no matter how the “world” would judge us, God sees beyond that and loves each and every one of us. We’d all get picked first. And isn’t that really all we want? To know we matter. And you DO matter. In fact, there is passage after passage in the Bible telling you that you matter. We will share some of those together today. We all probably know the most famous verse of this – John 3:16. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That God was willing to give up the life of his son for us, that God was willing to die a mortal death so that we would come to believe in him is a striking example of just how much God loves us. How often would we give up OUR lives for those we didn’t love? From John 15:12-17 – 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Which is exactly what God has done for us. And I love another part of this verse. “You did not choose me, but I chose you…” God loved us first. God took the first step. We didn’t do anything to merit God’s love or earn God’s love, but instead God chose us – to create us, to love us, to be there for us. God chose. We didn’t make God love us. God loved us first. Which is exactly what John wrote in his first letter to the church. From 1 John 4: 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. You didn’t earn God’s love. God gave it freely. God wants you and God loves you for no other reason than God DOES! And even if you reject God, God is still waiting for you. To me, that is probably the most powerful evidence of God’s love – his eternal patience with us. As it says in 2 Peter: 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. If you didn’t matter to God, why would he wait?
God IS love!
The Bible doesn’t give us straight answers about a lot of things – the Internet, space travel, invitro fertilization. But about this it is very clear. God is love. It tells us in many ways, but in 1 John 4 it says it specifically in verse 16. God is love. We only know what love is because it is a part of who God is. God is the living embodiment of love. Our ability to love; our ability to be loved; all of it is a gift of God. And God chooses to share it with us. God knows we are flawed, that we drift away, that we make poor choices from time to time (and sometimes more than that), but God waits because God loves. I had a friend who once thought she wasn’t good enough to be loved by God. That she had done too many things wrong in life to be forgiven, but nothing could be further from the truth. God’s love and grace and mercy is endless. As it says in Romans 8:38-39: 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is only one thing God asks of us.
To love one another. It’s in my favorite verse of the Bible. John 13:34-35:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Love one another. It’s Jesus last command before he dies on the cross. And by the way, it isn’t conditional. If you don’t do this doesn’t mean God will stop loving you. It’s just that God wants us to show the same kind of love he has given us to other people and that way more people will come to know God’s love for themselves. Don’t hoard it all to yourself. God’s love is like the bottomless fries at Red Robin; there is no end. The best way to honor Christ, to give meaning to his sacrifice, is to love one another as Christ loved us. This week, go out into the world and do something to make this a better place to live. Show the love of Christ to someone without any hope or expectation of getting something in return because let’s face it, you’ve already been given the greatest gift in the world – the love of God. Be the incarnation of Christ to someone who needs it. Send a card to an old friend. Pick up the phone and call your mom or your dad or your sister you haven’t talked to in a while. Connect with someone online you haven’t seen in a while or just give a random compliment to a stranger. Pay for a cup of coffee for the guy behind you at Starbucks or McDonald’s. Think of something creative to show the love of Christ for those around you. Here’s a good one. Compliment a stranger on how they look. Don’t make it creepy. Say something nice about their shoes or their hat or the design on their shirt. Studies show that it makes people feel better than we expect, but also makes us feel good in the process.[1] Doing good feels good. For everybody.
I love the song “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction.
It’s all about a guy telling a girl she’s more beautiful than she realizes. And I think most of us feel like that from time to time; that maybe we aren’t as beautiful as we’d like to be or as we once were or as we could be. Maybe it’s what’s inside that feels ugly or unworthy. But let me tell you that you underestimate yourself. God loves you and believes in you. He sees the true beauty within, even when we don’t see it ourselves. If he didn’t why would he wait for you? Why would he love you unconditionally? Especially when we so often are ungrateful and ignore him in our busy lives. But his love is truly everlasting. We should take heart and be encouraged by God’s great love and know we are wanted and valued. My stuffed animal Tiger may not have been much to look at, but he was everything to me. God feels the same about you. Regardless of what you think you look like or if you think you’re worth it, have confidence that you are the most beautiful and most desirable being inside and out to God. Let that knowledge fill you with the confidence you need to share God’s love with those around you.
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/202109/the-psychology-compliments-nice-word-goes-long-way
A Mother’s Heart
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” – Ephesians 6:1-3
Moms are people, too.
That might seem obvious but take a moment to think about when you finally realized that simple fact. Moms are people, too. When we’re kids, we don’t see our moms as being like other people. We don’t imagine them with vulnerabilities or feelings like the rest of us. They are SUPERMOM! Able to leap large stacks of toys in a single bound! Then suddenly our moms seem out of touch. They just don’t get it. Suddenly they transform from knowing pretty much everything to knowing nothing at all. Over time as we grow and mature, we come to realize mom had a pretty good head on her shoulders the whole time. At least that’s how it was for me. Looking back, I don’t know how much I appreciated my mom until I became a parent myself and all of a sudden that veil over my eyes was lifted and I could empathize with her in a whole new way. I also realized how tough it must have been at times to put up with me.
“Honor your father and mother.”
We all know that commandment, whether you’re religious or not. But how well do we do it? How well do we honor our mothers whether biological or not? Because if you think about it, this mandate to honor your father and mother isn’t exclusive to biology and isn’t just talking about your own mother. It includes the mother of our children, too. Paul writes in Ephesians husbands are supposed to love their wives as Christ loved the church – and since Christ was willing to sacrifice everything, it seems we owe the mothers of our children an awful lot.
But how can we honor them the right way?
We can never go wrong by following Jesus’ example. When reading the Bible, we tend to focus on Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God and for good reason. But what if we were to also look at Jesus as the Son of Man and specifically the son of Mary and Joseph. We don’t read much about Joseph outside of Jesus’ birth, but with Mary we have a lot more to pull from. There were three distinct incidents of Jesus throughout his life that made me realize what it meant to honor your mother. Each one took place at a different moment – when Jesus was a child, when he first began his ministry, and on the cross before he died.
The first was when Jesus was in the temple.
This is the only incident we read about Jesus’ life as a kid. The only one. His family traveled from his home in Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival and after it was over, the whole family was headed home, a journey of about 75 miles.[1] And by “whole family” we’re talking about cousins and uncles and aunts and grandparents, etc. It’s the WHOLE FAMILY. After the first full day of travel, Joseph and Mary realize Jesus isn’t with them and immediately head back to Jerusalem to find him. You might wonder why they didn’t notice before, but at Jesus’ age it was just as likely he was walking with some of his other relatives instead of his parents. Any of you with pre-teens or teenagers can probably empathize with that. I imagine they assumed he was with his cousin John or someone else in the family because the Bible tells us they were all traveling together. But at the end of that first day when they are setting up camp for the night, they can’t find him and immediately Joseph and Mary head back to Jerusalem.
I can’t imagine how worried Mary must have been.
I still have nightmares about the time Emma was trapped on the school bus and we had to drive after it like a mad man. The bus driver forgot to let Emma off at her usual spot and just started heading out of town. The next stop would have been 30 minutes away! We drove after her, honking frantically, and waving to try and get him to pull over. Finally, some kids at the back of the bus noticed us and told the driver to stop. He finally pulled over and we got Emma out safely. The next day we bought her a phone – and she stopped taking the bus. We were only missing Emma for a few minutes and that shook us to the core. Imagine how worried Mary must have been to leave her 12-year old all alone in another city overnight, not knowing what was happening to him or if he was even alright. When Joseph and Mary made it back to Jerusalem, Jesus was like a rock star in the temple, dazzling people with his wisdom and insight. But Mary didn’t care about that. She was probably panicked and relieved at the same time. She went up to him and said, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” But Jesus made her proud of him. Not just for his wisdom and insight but for what Luke writes what happens next, “…he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:51-52).” The only passage we have about Jesus’ childhood is one where we focus on Mary and how proud she was of her son.
Then there was that time at the wedding.
It’s the first recorded public miracle in the Bible and it happens because of his mom. Jesus and Mary were at a wedding and the family runs out of wine. Mary turns to Jesus and simply says, “They have no more wine.” Now, I don’t know if Jesus has done this sort of thing before, but I imagine he must have because that’s all she has to say to him and he knows what she expects. Jesus responds with “…why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.” I guess that’s the 1st century version of “Ah, gee, mom. Do I have to?” But Mary knows Jesus will do it, despite his remark and he tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” And they do. Even though Jesus knows it isn’t time for him to reveal himself openly to the world, he does what his mother asks and he turns water into wine. The first recorded miracle happens because of his mother. He honors her by being dutiful.
And then there’s the moment of his death.
As he hangs on the cross, about to die, his mother, along with John the disciple and some of the other women who were close to Christ come to stand with him and give him their support. And right before he dies, he tells John to take care of his mother and asks his mother to adopt John as her own. Why Mary didn’t go to stay with one of her other children or what happened to Joseph, the Bible isn’t clear. But Jesus wanted to make sure before he died that his mother would be taken care of. In those days, a woman without a husband wouldn’t have the means to take care of herself and would end up destitute and alone so before he dies Jesus asks John to take care of her and he does. Only then does Jesus allow himself to die.
In each stage of his life, Jesus honors his mother.
It’s funny because we have no other story about Jesus’ childhood except this moment in the temple. And while most people remark on Jesus’ wit and wisdom, the bulk of the story is about Mary and Jesus. Not about Jesus’ time in the temple but about the relationship between mother and son. And we read that Mary’s heart becomes full watching her son. Then we see Jesus honoring his mother by doing as she asks despite the fact that it wasn’t time for him to reveal himself. Still, he does what she wants and Mary doesn’t have to say any more. And even at the moment of his death, Jesus makes sure that his mother is taken care of. He doesn’t die before he knows she will be alright. Throughout his life, Jesus never disrespected her, always cared for her, and lived a life that brought her honor. Jesus is the very model for how we should treat the moms in our lives.
I hope the life I have lived fills my mother’s heart.
I know my mom’s proud of me, but I hope I have honored the many sacrifices she has made for me in my life. I hope I properly show my appreciation and love because I know it’s so easy to forget. Not on purpose. Not because I mean to disrespect her. But because as a human being, I’m bound to make mistakes. The same is true for my love and appreciation for Cassie. I hope I am the husband she needs me to be, to show her honor and respect for what she does for our family. I hope she knows that even when we disagree, I still love her and am proud she is Emma’s mom. And although I can’t possibly expect to be like Jesus, I can try. Jesus is the model for our lives. He exemplifies for us what we should strive for. On this day, most of all, we should honor the women in our lives who have given so much of themselves to us. And hopefully, we will fill their hearts as they have filled ours.
[1] http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-59/on-road.html
Ideophobia
Would you ban this book?
Before I tell you the title, let me share some of why you might want to ban this book from schools and libraries all over the country. It’s a book about adultery and polygamy. It also includes rape, torture, and genocide. There are graphic – and I mean GRAPHIC – descriptions of sex. One of its protagonists willfully allows the death of the husband of a woman he is secretly having sex with. With all of the book banning being legislated all over the country, it’s surprising that this book is widely accepted in most school districts and is even uplifted as important for kids to read. That book of course is the Bible.[1] But you have to wonder why some parents are challenging school boards all over the country to ban some books and not others. Why a book like the Bible with its many problems is lauded while others are condemned for what would seem to be far less egregious offenses is hard to understand.
Personally, I love the Bible.
I collect different versions of the Bible. And nearly every day I read some passage of Scripture or another in my own search for God’s truth. But the Bible does have its problems, and it would be so much easier for us to just read “the good parts” version and ignore the rest. But it’s the process of wrestling with these troublesome and challenging passages that help us define our faith. We shouldn’t be afraid of Scripture that describes a God we have trouble with. Instead, we need to take time to study it and better understand what God is trying to say to us through it. It’s why we have church. So together we can better understand the God we love. We don’t ban the Bible because for all its difficulties it’s too valuable to discard. In fact, the Bible itself tells us to do this very thing; to take the time to really know it. We’re going to read about that this morning in our passage so if you have a Bible or a Bible app on your phone, please go to 2 Timothy 4:1-5. 2 Timothy 4:1-5.
We embrace the Bible but are so fearful of other books and the ideas they share.
This fear of ideas is called “ideophobia.” The formal definition is the fear (some say morbid fear) or distrust of ideas or of reason. But what are we so afraid of? Here’s an example of books that have been banned or challenged. Some like A Brave New World (#26), 1984 (#79), and Fahrenheit 451 (ironically about book burning among other things) are perennially challenged for a multitude of reasons. Others are put on the list for being of the moment. Right now, a majority of recently challenged and banned books are about the LGBTQ community (26%) or people of color (30%).[2] Why they are being banned is the topic for a whole other sermon but suffice it to say the political moment where fear of the other is being fanned into a wildfire is certainly the cause.[3] Still others are being listed for completely illogical reasons. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak was banned for child abuse and witchcraft.[4] Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. was banned by the State Board of Education in Texas because he shared the same name as a person who wrote a book on Marxism. He didn’t write it and he’s not related. He just had the same name.[5] But here’s my favorite one. In Laytonville, CA they banned The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Not for its leftist agenda or for its pro-environmental stance but because some in Laytonville complained it was “anti-logging.”[6] How many of you read The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank in high school? In 1983 (about the same time I read it), the Alabama State Textbook Committee challenged it because it was “a real downer.”[7] If we start restricting what people are allowed to learn because we don’t like it, we become exactly like those societies in A Brave New World we are so afraid of. Of course, some of you may never know that because you weren’t allowed to read it.
But banning things has never been the way to solve a problem.
Look at prohibition as an example. A failed experiment, it was designed with the purpose to ban alcohol. Instead, it spawned an unregulated, underground industry that caused so many fits they eventually got rid of prohibition. When people were afraid of the Japanese, California created the Alien Land Laws of 1913 which banned aliens from owning land. And when we became afraid of our own history, we created laws like the “Stop WOKE Act” to prohibit the teaching of history when it became uncomfortable.[8] When we become afraid, we resort to tactics of fear and intimidation. But that’s not God’s way. God advocates for understanding.
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. – 2 Timothy 4:1-5
Here are the key words I picked up when reading this passage.
Be prepared. Great patience. Keep your head. Endure hardship. Never once does it say to forbid others or to be judgmental. Instead, God encourages us to hold fast to our beliefs, to be prepared to defend those beliefs, BUT to do so with great patience and careful instruction. And this is where Christians especially falter. We tend to join the crowd and become judgmental. Instead of trying to live by example, teaching our children and investing in their future, we resort to the easy route and seek to impose our will and our beliefs on those around us. Again, we just have to look to the past to see how poorly that turns out. People don’t respond well to judgmental authoritarianism. People do respond to being inspired, being accepted, and being loved. Why don’t we do that instead? Which is exactly what God teaches us.
Yes, there will be people who follow demagogues who tell them what they want to hear.
We see that today! But God challenges us to live a different life. He says it right in this passage. Be prepared by taking time to discern God’s will. Sometimes that means being open to new ideas. Sometimes it means understanding how God is speaking to us in this moment. Be flexible in our thinking and our understanding and then we are prepared to hear how God is speaking to us. We also need great patience and to keep our head. We hold back from imposing our beliefs on others. To dictate how others should think and behave, that’s the easy route. The harder route, and this is where we are called to endure hardship, is to lead by example, to teach with kindness, and to listen to the thoughts and perspectives of others, and thereby show the love of God. That’s how we lead people to Christ. It is not easy. But it is effective. Cassie is a lot more blunt with me now. Being married for 20 plus years will do that. But when we first started dating, she would ask me every week if I wanted to go to church with her. And at first, I said no. I always had an excuse. I was tired. It was a long week. I needed to take “me time.” But she never judged me or forced me to go. Instead, she would simply go by herself. But the next week, she would ask again. And again. And again. Until I finally woke up to how important this was to her and decided to go too. I haven’t stopped going since. Be prepared. Have great patience. Keep your head. Endure hardship.
I owe my life to books.
It’s why I’m so passionate about the subject. Books have helped me learn about the world. Books have helped me to learn about myself. Books have transported me to places real and unreal. When I was going through a crisis of faith, a friend recommended a book, and it started me down a path of healing. When I was at a conference on church leadership, I found a book on guest hospitality that completely changed how I approached the topic. And when I was searching for a better way to show the love of Christ to others, I read a book that blew my mind. When we start becoming afraid of new ideas and new ways of thinking, we are shielding ourselves from the glory of God. How we approach and understand God has changed constantly over the years – our ideas about the blind and those with disabilities, our understanding of people of color, on the equal rights of women and children – none of that has stayed the same. And all of that came about because of people with new ideas who were often persecuted for their beliefs. Not everyone with a new belief is right. But if we shield ourselves from them, we are missing out on so many levels. On how to reach others with different ideas and how God is sometimes trying to reach us. Our challenge living in the world today is to keep an open mind, seek to understand rather than be understood, and to love as God loved us. And do yourselves a favor. Go read a book.
[1] Interestingly, one Utah community actually did ban the Bible in elementary schools. And overall it ranks 52nd in books banned or challenged in the 2010’s according to the ALA. https://theweek.com/book-ban/1024016/how-the-bible-became-conservative-book-bans-unintended-target ; https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019
[2] https://pen.org/report/banned-in-the-usa-state-laws-supercharge-book-suppression-in-schools/ )
[3] Although most are being banned because of the controversies surrounding both topics politically. Laws being enacted banning use of restrooms or participation in sports and laws banning the teaching of racially sensitive topics are fanning the flames and leading to book bans and other retaliatory measures.
[4] https://pen.org/where-the-wild-things-arent-on-the-banning-of-sendak/
[5] https://fgibookmobile.org/10-surprising-banned-books/
[6] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-18-mn-147-story.html ; https://theweek.com/articles/459795/america-surprising-banned-books
[7] https://theweek.com/articles/459795/america-surprising-banned-books
It’s Not Fair!
God isn’t fair. And it’s a good thing he isn’t.
We’ll get back to that. For now, we’ll begin with a reading from Matthew. We like it when things are “fair.” It makes us feel like all is right in the universe. But what is “fair?” In the words of one of my favorite characters, Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The textbook definition of “fair” is “in accordance with the rules or standards; legitimate,”[1] but we intertwine that definition with a sense of justice or righteousness for us. The practical application of “fairness” goes beyond the literal meaning of what is fair. Have you noticed we only call things “unfair” when something doesn’t meet our expectations? When we get MORE than we’re hoping for, we have no problem with “fairness.” It’s only when things don’t go our way we feel life is unfair. Has anyone in history ever complained the IRS gave them TOO much money? Or demanded an umpire reverse a call that won their team the game? Or complain the grocery store was unfair when they gave you extra change? No. Fairness is only called into question when things don’t go our way. And that’s what we see in this passage from Matthew.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” – Matthew 20:1-16
It’s hard not to feel empathy for the people who worked all day.
Working in a vineyard is not easy labor, and if you had been doing that all day long and you saw another group come in at the last instant and get the same pay, you would probably be upset, too. My first thought wouldn’t be, “Oh, what a generous guy.” It would be, “Are you kidding me?” We think to ourselves (and sometimes out loud) they didn’t “deserve it.” But why would we complain? As long as we get what was promised to us, why do we get concerned over what someone else gets? It goes back to our sense of expectation. If someone gets a full denarius for one hour of work, we think in our heads our labor should be worth eight denarius. So even if we got exactly what we were promised, we are no longer satisfied. We feel cheated! Someone else got away with working a whole lot less for the same amount of money. But the truth is, the owner was fair to us. We accepted the deal as is and we got exactly what was promised. And if you were one of the guys who came last and received a full day’s wage, you WOULD think the owner was generous. You would even think he was fair. In fact, more than fair.
So why not just goof off until the last minute?
Why put in the time, the hard work, and the effort if it doesn’t matter? Some people approach faith with just this attitude. Why bother trying to be GOOD, going to church, praying, reading your Bible if all I have to do is say I’m sorry and I’m instantaneously forgiven? Why not live it up? Party hard. Be selfish. Look out for number one. And then at the end of your life, repent. All good, right? By the way, that’s not a new idea. A long time ago, people actually did this. It was commonly believed you were only allowed to repent once and if you blew it after that, you would be condemned to an eternity in hell. Because of this belief, people would wait until they were on their deathbed before confessing their sins so it wouldn’t be held against them in the afterlife. That’s where we get the idea of a deathbed confession. But there are two flaws to that logic; the same two flaws that were in my plan as a kid for surviving a plane crash. All you had to do was wait until the plane was about 10 feet above the water and then jump. Easy peasy. So here are the two flaws; the primary one being, “What if I wait too long?” Same problem with deathbed confessions; if you wait too long, you might be too late. The second problem is gravity. Just because I jump at the last second doesn’t mean I negate all of the speed we’ve already accumulated. Again, same problem with deathbed confessions. Asking for forgiveness right before you die doesn’t negate a lifetime of sin if you don’t mean it. If your plan is to be selfish and greedy and do whatever you want thinking you’ll make it into Heaven through a loophole, you’ve really underestimated God. But for those of us who actually have developed a relationship with God and know God’s character, we know repentance is not a one-time thing. And our reward is not based on our work but on our coming to God in repentance.
Our culture however reinforces this work/reward concept.
We believe the amount of work you put in should equate to what you get in return. That’s why we feel like the people who started working at the beginning got a raw deal. They put in more effort, they should get more reward. But that’s missing the point Jesus was trying to make: It’s never too late to receive God’s forgiveness. No matter when you come to realize you need it, the reward is the same. Jesus is also trying to impress upon us God is fair – in fact, more than fair. It’s only our work/reward concept that holds us back from realizing the reward we are receiving is more than generous no matter when we repent. It’s like salaries for professional athletes. When Alonzo Mourning was playing for the Charlotte Hornets, he was bitter because the team didn’t offer him $13 million a year , they only offered him $11.2 million – which at the time would have made him the second highest paid player in the league.[2] But for him it wasn’t about the money. It was the money IN COMPARISON to what other players were making. That’s why player salaries keep escalating to outrageous amounts. It’s always about what the other guy is making. By the way, Alozno Mourning would only by the 136th highest paid player today. Average salaries for all Americans during this time rose 258% which seems great. And then you compare it to average NBA salaries which were already 63 times higher than the average American and they rose 567%. That’s how out of sync things can get when we focus on what other people get. Let’s be honest. If we were paying people by what they contributed to society, teachers, doctors, and 1st responders would be getting endorsement deals by Nike instead. This concept of “value” the workers in the story are pushing back against is a human concept of self-worth instead of anything to do with God’s fairness.
God is unfair. And I’m so glad he is.
Because God looks at us like we look at our own children. We love them, even when they make mistakes. We hope they don’t repeat them, not because we get anything out of it, but because we want them to live life to the fullest! We are willing to pay the price for our children’s mistakes because we love them and want them to succeed. And that is exactly what God has done for us. Christ paid the price for our salvation, not because we deserved it but because he loves us. If our relationship with God were like a business, we wouldn’t survive because what God has to offer is worth more than we could ever afford. Not just in the afterlife but in this one, too. The workers in the parable don’t realize it, but being a part of the work that God is doing IS a reward in itself. Knowing Christ is its own reward. We are often just too blind to see it.
In the book, Andy tells a story that brings all of this home.
He talks about a time when his children were very young and he had bought a new car. It was a used Infiniti but it was the nicest car he had ever owned. It was in mint condition and he had every intention of keeping it that way. His daughter, however, thought it could use some improvement. He was taking out the trash and as he passed his car, he noticed a big letter “A” scratched into the hood. He was furious! He looked around and demanded to know who had done this! His two sons were standing next to him and suddenly got quiet, so Andy looked at them and his son Garrett, all of five years old, said to him, “Allie did it.” He looked over at Allie, his youngest child and only daughter who was just three and a half at the time and pointed to the car. “Did you do that?” he asked her. “Yes, Daddy” she said. Suddenly, all of these different thoughts went through his head. Would a three-year-old even understand what she had done? Would she understand labor cost, renting a car while this one was fixed, the amount of money it would take to fix it, why having the letter “A” scratched into the hood wasn’t a good thing? Of course not. He could demand she repay him for the damages, because that would be fair. Absurd but fair. So what did he do? This is what he wrote, “I did the only thing I could do for someone I loved as much as I loved her. I knelt down and said, ‘Allie, please don’t do that anymore.’ She said, ‘Yes, sir, Daddy.’ Then she hugged me and went back inside. I continued to love her as much as ever. And I paid for the damage she caused. I wasn’t concerned about fairness. It wasn’t appropriate to figure out what was fair. What was more important was grace and mercy. Even if it meant that I had to pay for what she had done.” That’s what Jesus has done for us. Jesus has paid it all so that we can live a life of love and peace in his company. And it’s not about fairness and it’s not about reward, but about the grace and mercy of God’s love.
[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=definition+of+fair&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest-paid_NBA_players_by_season#1995-1996 – that was even higher than Michael Jordan that year
Craig's Corner 