So Maybe You Were A Jerk During The Election

Good afternoon folks. I want to thank you. I want to thank you each for the times you have chosen to overlook offenses throughout the past year, it has been to your honor and I am proud of you. Thank you the times you've avoided arguments over disputable matters (Rom 14:1), and have chosen not to judge your neighbor for his or her misdeeds, foul words, and misplaced votes. You have let your light shine (Matt 5:14).

You have also failed. You've been self-congratulatory (Rom 12:3). You've lost your temper (Eph 4:26). You've complained (Phil 2:14), served yourselves (Phil 2:3) and spoken thoughtlessly. You have judged your neighbors (Luke 6:37) and hated your enemies (Matt 5:44). Your limited goodness does not negate your misdeeds.

I'm right there with ya.  We're sinners living in a fallen world.  We mess up a lot, and our God is not amazed or surprised to that we fail and his love is so much greater than our failings.  Throughout our proud and pathetic moments God has remained and will remain good; his never fails (Ex 15:13). God goes to bat for us (1 John 2:1) and continues to guide our steps (Pro 16:9), answer our prayers (Jer 33:3) and cover over our sins. We've been busy for the past while, and life is about to get busy again. Take this comparatively calm moment to think clearly about how you've acted in the days leading up to yesterday's vote, and to understand beyond any shadow of doubt that in spite of anything you've said or done that here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst (1 Tim 1:15).  Etch that saying in your heart and I'm confident you'll have a better chance of not being a jerk in 2016.

RE: Brave and Matthew 18:15-35

Brave exceeded my expectations. I've seen warrior princesses, and I've seen fiery redheads defy their parents wishes, but I honestly believe Brave depicted something new, and even something counter cultural. Brave told a story of forgiveness and reconciliation. It championed community over individuality.

I'm not going to ruin it for you, but I want to say that the ideals of the film were utterly other than those ordinarily pushed in such movies. We're used to stories of independence, where strong willed heroes dodge the consequences of their actions and claim glory for themselves and their ragtag group of friends. Brave is not that story. Brave is better.

I think that the film will struggle with popularity, not because it features strong female characters, but because its message is decidedly not self-centred. There are parallels between Ariel and Merida, and between Mulan and Merida, but Brave's princess is entirely more realistic. She is whiny and rude, and her adolescent defiance hurts her family. Disney traditionally has challenged us to strike out on our own in spite of what anyone tells us. Brave challenges families to listen to one another, to forgive one another, and to believe in one another. This challenge is as much harder as it is better.

I advise you to go see it. Brave is funny and smart, and it was beautiful to see on the big screen. I'm certain I'd only enjoy it more if I had children, but you don't need kids to appreciate it. I saw it with my wife and two single friends, and it sparked great discussions, especially about our mothers.

Challenge:

If you do take your kids to see it, consider reading Matthew 18:15-35 before or after. Talk with them about forgiveness. Remind them how much you love them and will forgive them no matter what, and how Jesus loves them with even greater all-forgiving love.

Dunnottar Castle photo by: macieklew

God speed and happy watching.


P.S.   JW Wartick of Always Have A Reason has written this lovely, and more academic reflection on the film:  Pixar's "Brave" A Christian Perspective

RE: Psalm 34 And The Fear Of The Lord

 

I was parallelized by fear. I had been praying in a field, weeping profuse apologies to a God I thought was too just to listen to my prayers. Then in an instant I felt the mighty presence of the Lord, and he told me to be quiet. I actually stopped thinking thoughts because I was afraid that thinking would violate God's order to be quiet. In the silence that followed, I began to listen.

After about an hour of silent fear, someone else spoke to me. They mentioned a story I'd heard before about unconditional love, and in a single moment my fear evaporated. I comprehended something greater than my inadequacy: the vast and immeasurable love of the God that died to forgive me. Fear left me. My life has never been the same.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” - Proverbs 1:7

Since I first met the Lord I've been surprised to hear Christians speak affectionately of the fear of the Lord. While fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, it is just that, a beginning. Fear of the Lord made me crave reconciliation with God, and I was not disappointed. God reconciled himself to me in Christ Jesus. Since that day fear has held no place in my relationship with God. I have had bouts of fear to be sure, but no more than I have had bouts of sin or doubt. The fact is that I am now God's son, and if he redeemed me when I was corrupt, he will do more now that I am redeemed (Romans 5:8-9).

Photo By Babasteve

The fear of the Lord was the beginning of my journey with him, but as I've gotten to know God my fear has sharply receded. Fear is, after all a lousy basis for any relationship. When a leader is feared we call them a tyrant; fear of a spouse is a sign of abuse, and so too is fear of a parent. God is not a tyrant and God is not abuse; God is love (1 John 4:8). John says perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).

Do you fear the Lord? If you do, then I have some great news. You don't have to be afraid any more. You must have faith in order to fear the Lord. Take that faith a step further and lay your fear down. Once God's people had reason to fear him, and were commanded to fear him (Psalm 34:8-9) But I do not believe that fear must be part of our redeemed relationship with God. Jesus called his disciples friends (John 15:15). I'm not afraid of my friends, and I'm not afraid of my God. God loves me, and there's no fear in love.

RE: A Call To Conscience Chapter Four

I began reading A Call To Conscience with the intention of gleaning wisdom to advance The Orant's Lenten “fast from racism”. In this particular speech Dr. King addressed what he saw as the pivotal issues of racial injustice effecting citizens in the North. Because I am under the impression that racial injustice is no longer legally sanctioned in the United States, I believe these issues to be particularly relevant to today's struggle for racial and social justice.

“Now in the North it’s different in that it [racism] doesn’t have the legal sanction that it has in the South. But it has its subtle and hidden forms and it exists in three areas: in the area of employment discrimination, in the area of housing discrimination, and in the area of de facto segregation in the public schools. And we must come to see that de facto segregation in the North is just as injurious as the actual segregation in the South.” - Dr. King in Detroit 1963

To review, our goal of reading this book is to better recognize and eliminate racism in ourselves. Unless you are an employer or landlord, King's first two issues don't effect you directly. If you are an employer or landlord I admonish you to be just and equitable in your practices, avoiding favoritism of any kind (James 2:9). However the issue of public school segregation is an issue that effects every parent and child in my country.

As a parent, student or taxpayer you are connected to this issue. You and I contribute money each year to a system of education that is tailor made to fit certain demographics, but leaves others out in the cold. A Harvard University study found that schools were more segregated in 2006 than they were in 1991 (read more here at NPR.org). The SAT test, although it is revised regularly, consistently awards black students with lower grades than white students (JBHE.com).

Although the system has real problems, I am convinced that the real solution is to invest in it. The public schools of our communities need our full support, full attention, and full funding. I am convinced that when privileged parents keep their kids out of public schools, they do a disservice to both their children and their communities. If you're a parent who is going to demand excellence from teachers and administration then I want your kid in a public school. If you're a parent that holds your child to a standard of academic excellence then I want your kid in a public school. If you're a parent who cares passionately that your child be raised in the Christian faith then I want your kid in a public school.

If you have the resources to send your children to a private school, or the time to invest in schooling them at home, then you have time and resources that could benefit your kid as they learn side by side with people different from themselves. I attended a parochial school, which means it was a faith-based school that you had to pay in order to go to. Out of my class of thirty five students I had only two black classmates. Although I do not believe the curriculum at my school deliberately encouraged racism, the absence of diversity created an ideal environment for racist ideas to develop and thrive. I labored under some very prejudiced attitudes until my senior year of high school. I believe the de facto segregation represented in my school contributed to those attitudes.

De facto segregation is a real and living remnant of racism in the United States. It exists in virtually every community, and I believe it will continue to do so without widespread intentional intervention.

Parable Of A Lost Sheep - 3rd Tuesday In Lent

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?  And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.”

-Matthew 18:12-14

    Imagine a scrappy young man with a black eye and scraped knees.  Imagine that this disinherited youth has felt the pangs of hunger, the shame of poverty, and knows what it is to have others look down their noses at him.  He knows what it is like to be hit by someone who hits just to feel strong.  This sort of young man, a person acquainted with abuse and suffering will sometimes gain an incredible drive to protect the weak.  Having known much pain, he will strive with all his being to save his loved ones from the pain he has known.
    This is what our savior is like.  The Anointed One, through whom all things were made, has an unparalleled relentless hero streak that is beyond human reckoning.  He is not interested in making a mere show of mercy, but is actually willing that none should perish.

Challenge:  Reflect on your rebellions against our merciful God.  Know that God does not remember those rebellions.  You are covered in Christ's blood, and there is no second death awaiting you.  Jesus Christ has sought you out and found you.  God rejoices over you.

RE: A Call To Conscience Chapter Three– Give Us The Ballot

“Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man. We must not become victimized with a philosophy of black supremacy. God is not interested merely in freeing black men and brown men and yellow men, but God is interested in freeing the whole human race. (Yes, All right) We must work with determination to create a society (Yes), not where black men are superior and other men are inferior and vice versa, but a society in which all men will live together as brothers (Yes) and respect the dignity and worth of human personality. (Yes)”

–­Give Us The Ballot, 1957 Martin Luther King Jr.

Each time I read from King’s speeches I am startled by the boldness with which he proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ, the coming Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus’ command to love and forgive our enemies without condition.  I’m convinced that the heart and action that King advocates isn’t possible to achieve by human striving alone.  Our striving to live as wise and righteous people is as filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6); instead we must be clothed in Jesus’ righteousness and filled with the Spirit of God himself.  Only when our actions are the overflow of  Jesus in us do we have any hope of acting in a way that will benefit our neighbors or bring glory to God (Romans 8:5).

RE: A Call To Conscience Chapter Two

The Birth Of A New Nation introduced me to the story of Kwame Nkrumah (KWAH-me en-KROO-muh), a native of the colony that would become Ghana and a child of two illiterate parents. Nkrumah worked his way to the US; put himself through college working as a dishwasher and a bellhop. He then returned home to lead nonviolent protests which resulted first in his imprisonment and ultimately in the freeing of his nation from British colonialism. I have a new hero.

Powerfully, King praised the righteousness of nonviolent protest, and how it wins hearts instead of battles, though he promised that no oppressor ever voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. King promised that any nonviolent protest must expect some violent opposition. Referencing the story of Israel’s Exodus he observed that when you leave Egypt, you have to face a wilderness. The whole time he kept reminding me of Jesus telling his disciples that following him would mean facing persecution.

King also spoke very critically of the Church of England, and though he pulled no punches he quickly moved past criticism to praise God that inaction on the part of a church can never mean inactivity on God’s part. The following excerpt is long for a quote, but I copied it by hand into my notebook because of how deeply empowering I found it. I hope it empowers you.

“I thought of many things. I thought of the fact that the British Empire exploited India. Think about it! A nation with four hundred million people and the British exploited them so much that out of a population of four hundred million, three hundred and fifty million made an annual income of less than fifty dollars a year. Twenty-five of that had to be used for taxes and the other things of life. I thought about dark Africa, and how the people there, if they can make a hundred dollars a year they are living very well, they think. Two shillings a day—one shilling is fourteen cents, two shillings, twenty-eight cents—that’s a good wage. That’s because of the domination of the British Empire. All of these things came to my mind, and when I stood there in Westminster Abbey with all of its beauty, and I thought about all of the beautiful hymns and anthems that the people would go in there to sing. And yet the Church of England never took a stand against this system. The Church of England sanctioned it The Church of England gave it moral stature. All of the exploitation perpetuated by the British Empire was sanctioned by the Church of England. But something else came to my mind: God comes in the picture even when the Church won’t take a stand. God has injected a principle in this universe. God has said that all men must respect the dignity and worth of all human personality, ‘And if you don’t do that, I will take charge.’ It seems this morning that I can hear God speaking. I can hear him speaking throughout the universe, saying, ‘Be still and know that I am God. And if you don’t stop, if you don’t straighten up, if you don’t stop exploiting people, I’m going to rise up and break the backbone of your power. And your power will be no more!’ . . . . And I say to you this morning, my friends, rise up and know that, as you struggle for justice, you do not struggle alone, but God struggles with you. And He is working every day.” – King, The Birth Of A New Nation 1957

We never labor alone. We can do everything through Christ, who gives us strength (Phil 4:23)

RE: A Call To Conscience Chapter One

My friend Billy of The Orant recently asked his readers to join him in a personal effort to give up racism for lent. Knowing that prejudice is a malady of perception and that it is difficult to identify racism in oneself, Billy has posted a book list and asked his readers to each pick a book to reflect on and to let him know how it has challenged their perspectives. I picked, A Call to Conscience which is a collection of Martin Luther King Junior’s pivotal speeches. I’ve only read two of the eleven speeches, but I can see I won’t be able to fit my thoughts on the book into a single reflection, so I’ll be updating as I read through the book.

The first speech in the book was given at the inception of the Civil Right’s Movement. It is the address that King delivered to the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) at the start of the famous bus boycotts initiated by the arrest of Rosa Parks. Throughout the talk King encouraged his audience to stand united, he condemned violence and rumors of violence, and gave thanks to God that he lived in a nation that protected the freedoms of speech and assembly.

I was surprised to find that it was not just inspiring but also fun to read. The emotional interjections of those present at the historic meeting are recorded in the text, which makes it easy to imagine hearing King’s words delivered in a crowded meeting hall that simmered with emotion and energy. If I took one thing away from the MIA speech it is the following exhortation to keep God at the forefront and to be Christian in all our actions:

“May I say to you, my friends, as I come to a close, and just giving some idea of why we are assembled here, that we must keep--and I want to stress this, in all of our doings, in all of our deliberations here this evening and all of the week and while, --whatever we do--, we must keep God in the forefront. (Yeah) Let us be Christian in all of our actions. (That's right) But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love, love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. (All right) Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love. (Well)” –King 1955

Pray that we may we ever keep God at the forefront as we seek to correct that which revolts against love.

RE:Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave

Last month I read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and I am very glad I did. It is a short book of only about 100 pages but is very emotionally intense all the same. It tells in his own words, the story of a man born into bondage, who experienced an oppression unfathomable to my mind. Douglas writes, with gut wrenching honesty, about the corruption brought by slavery to the soul of slave holders, he writes with unparalleled eloquence about the power of literacy to free the human mind, and he writes, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, about the discrepancies between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity practised in the United States.

If you are unfamiliar with the book I give it my highest recommendation. A first hand account of a man raised as a slave offers marvellous insight into the human condition, the Gospel of Christ, the power of the written word. If you have a sensitive heart and cannot stand to read the whole bloody story I recommend chapter VII for its it's insights on the power of reading, chapter X which contains Fredrick Douglas' pivotal anagnorisis, and also the appendix, which contrasts Christianity and the religion of oppression.

The full text is available on Project Gutenberg.

Or available at Amazon.

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Blessed Are The Peacemakers - 2nd Monday Of Lent

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” - Matthew 5:9

Have you ever listened to recordings of Martin Luther King Jr? King's voice is low and his vowels shake with an emotional intensity that conveys deep conviction. While King was certainly a flawed man, his eloquent, powerful words and unwavering dedication to non-violence make him one of my heroes. His most dearly treasured belief was that we must love our enemies. While many white Christians called for segregation, and Malcolm X called for revenge, King stood in the gap calling for forgiveness, forgiveness for people who didn't deserve it.

The children of God will do what God does since no servant is greater than his master (John 13:16). King called on abused men and women to forgive their abusers. Christ, who we've crucified, stands in God's presence to intercede for us.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. -2 Corinthians 5:18-21