Failure

Human history is the story of us trying to make God happy, to make our Father proud of us.  It is by the way the story of our failure.

What sorts of things have we done trying to make Him happy?  The two that show up in big ways classically are sacrifice and ethics.  Both of them come down to giving up something good to get something better.  We give up small things to get big things.  We give up "things" entirely to obtain ethical integrity.  We give up the temporal for the eternal.  Our whole life is an attempt to "trade up". 

Of course, we have Christianized all of our habits, which is the same thing as secularizing Christianity, making Christ and the world agree.  We don't sacrifice anymore we "surrender all", we don't become monks or take vows of poverty, we "live for God", We don't build temples, we do "kingdom work".  We don't put our hope in ethics anymore, after all that is Law.  We put our hope in believing something, in "being in a relationship with Christ", in "growing closer to Christ", in helping others "get saved".  We "get right with God", we "get in the center of His will", and mysteriously we think that this is something other than self-righteousness.

But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our RIGHTEOUSNESSES are like filthy rags Isaiah 64

 Our righteousness, the things we do to get closer to God: our faith, our prayers, our efforts, our church attendance, our charity, our servant's hearts, our evangelism are disgusting to Him(literally "bloody tampons").  We think that because we don't do them to please God, we do them "out of gratitude", or "because we are changed", or because we love people, that somehow they do please Him.  As if, being justified by grace we are sanctified by our own works.  But they are still self-righteousness, we have just put lipstick on our pig selves.  We have traded in God's Law for a new law that we call Christian, which isn't really new it is the same tricks we have been pulling since we stole that fruit in the garden.

I have spent so much effort describing this problem that you are probably expecting me to describe a solution now.  Well there isn't one.  It is always gonna be this way.  You would be better off going fishing than going to church.  Going to church makes our fool selves imagine we are making God happy when it really just pisses Him off.  At least fishing doesn't mean further involving ourselves in works righteousness.  If you can't pray without thinking that makes you a better person, in appropriately Christian terms of course,- and I can't- then you would be better off doing something that you know isn't good.  Am I telling people to sin?  No.  I am telling you that everything you do is already sin and it is better to have your eyes open than to be your own dupe.  It is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of joy.  It is better to lose all hope, to despair, than to think that somehow, someday something you do will be good enough for God.  We aren't even good enough for me and I have pretty low standards.  Nothing you do is ever going to do any good, nothing you abstain from doing is ever gonna do any good.

This is the surprising context in which we hear something that IS new, that IS good.  The only thing that could ever please God is what His Son has done, and that pleases Him immensely.  Now before you get the wrong idea, our "imitation" of Him is just one more works righteousness that pisses God off.  I will say it again, we will never do anything, be anything that doesn't fail before God.  But what if when we keep doing the same dumb stuff, He instead sees His Son in our place.  Instead of seeing me going to church and deceiving all of my friends into thinking I am a pretty good guy; He sees Christ giving His innocent life to save His enemies.  Instead of hearing me praying my filthy selfish prayers; He hears Christ at His right hand interceding for my stupid self.  Instead of hearing my foul-mouthed, self-centered idea of evangelism, He hears "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  Instead of seeing me thinking I am being like Christ when I act with completely different thoughts and motivations; He sees Christ perfectly revealing the true holiness, the glory of the Only Begotten.

Glorification doesn't consist of us being perfect.  It consists of us being covered by Christ.  All of the other parts of salvation consist of the same thing.  Only one more thing remains to be said.  That is that what God sees is the truth.  I don't have any sensation or feeling of being seated at the right hand of God; but, if Christ is, I am.  We are IN HIM.  We are, in a mystery-or in Latin in a sacrament-Christ.  You are what you eat.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.Genesis 2:24

Christ left His Father, joined Himself to my hopeless self, and now we are one.  Doesn't look like, doesn't feel like it, but that is what a mystery is.  It is bread, but it is His body.  I am a miserable sinner, but I am accepted in the Beloved.

Fruit Bearing Hall of Fame

It has been well said that the Christian army is the only one which shoots its own wounded.  I suppose we think that the importance of success in our mission justifies using the Law to pummel our hurting brethren.  Probably nothing has been used to create as much guilt and shame among Christians as the idea of bearing fruit, which we are told is the hallmark of all true Christians and how we can be sure that we really are.

Our Lord has an unmistakable love for agricultural imagery.  More of His parables are set on a farm than perhaps anywhere else.  And this is where we usually go to talk about bearing fruit.  But I do not think that this is the only, or perhaps even primary scriptural picture that we should use to understand what is meant by being fruitful and how it happens.  Perhaps a few examples will serve better than much explanation, so without more delay, The Fruit Bearing Hall of Fame.

The first fruit bearer in human history is none other than Eve.  Yes Eve.  What fruit did Eve bear?  The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil obviously.  This was Eve's master plan to be more like God, closer to Jesus in our terminology.  She took the fruit in her hand and she bore it over to her husband and they ate.  The fruit of her religion was sin.  The fruit in fact of all religion is sin.  The harder we try the worse we fail.  The more determined we are to succeed the more we find ourselves in the miry clay of failure.  The fruit of Eve's plan to be like God is death.  But out of our first parents' death comes the human race.  How can sin create the human race?  Only because where sin abounds grace abounds more.  God doesn't respond to any merit in us; He responds to our need.  The more wicked we are, the better must be that which saves us.  So, Eve's religion bore the fruit of death, but Eve's death bore the fruit of life.  In the day that she sinned she died.  And in that death she received the promise of Messiah.  But before Eve could bear any fruit she had to die.

The next fruit bearer in our Hall of Fame is the very picture of the New Jerusalem, Sarah herself.   

²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, ²⁴ which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— ²⁵ for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— ²⁶ but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children Than she who has a husband.”

²⁸ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. ²⁹ But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. ³⁰ Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” ³¹ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Galatians 4

Sarah didn't get it.  Her attempts to bear fruit through Hagar must have come near to wrecking her marriage,  as our efforts would if Our Divine Husband was such as to let that happen.  When it was finally time for her to bear fruit she didn't believe it.  It sounded like a joke to her, and if the day ever comes that I bear any fruit I think we will all be laughing.  Nobody believed Sarah would ever bear fruit.  Her womb is described by the Apostle as "dead".  And it is this in Sarah that we shall imitate, whether we like it or not.  The religious, like Hagar, have plenty of fruit to show.  They can produce fruit at the drop of a hat.  But the children of Sarah, bear little fruit and that very late after everyone has stopped looking for such a thing.  It will come without any effort or intention on our part, as I guarantee you that Abraham and Sarah were not trying to have a baby on their diamond anniversary.  We must be dead, like Sarah's womb, beyond all hope of success, off of life's hamster wheel, not even trying anymore at all before we receive the promise.  It is to the poor that the Gospel is preached, and it is to the least, the lost, and the last that Christ comes.  It is only the people who walk in darkness that will see a great light .

Which brings us to our Champion Fruit Bearer, Mary, mother of Jesus. And what did Mary do to bear such wonderful fruit?  She didn't do the one thing that she could do to bear fruit; she was a virgin.  The only thing that could ever cause her to bear fruit, she has conspicuously abstained from(not intentionally as she was planning marriage but I am concerned with the facts of the case not her intentions).  Virginity is literally the way of death.  It is the way of no fruit at all.  I need not point out that in traditional cultures, such as first century Galilee, bearing children was absolutely the measure of success of a woman, just as we have made bearing fruit the Christian's measure of worth.  Mary's passivity cannot be a cause of anything.  So what is the cause of Mary's fruitfulness?  Simply that she is, in the angel's words, "highly favored".  The cause of Mary's fruitfulness is not found in herself.  It is found in God's love for her.

I have tried to be very clear that death is the necessary precondition for bearing fruit.  I think that this is the point of Christ's resurrection, His acted out, last parable.  Jesus famously referred to the Pharisee's as painted up graves, full of dead men's bones, such is all of our religion and effort.  Accept it.  You are a tomb.  But in the mystery of the Gospel a tomb is a womb.  And that is our last entry in the Fruit Bearing Hall of Fame, the Garden Tomb.  I have called Sarah dead and Mary passive, but the Tomb excels them both.  We have exactly as much in us as a cause of fruit bearing as a tomb has as a cause of resurrection.

But if we repose our hearts upon the faith that he works in our death, we cannot lose. The astonishing graciousness of grace is that it takes the one thing you and I will never lack - the one thing, furthermore, that no one will ever want to beg, borrow, or steal from us - and makes it the only thing any of us will ever need.-Robert Capon Kingdom, Grace, and Judgment

Holy Crap

Anyone who follows the Reformed branch of Christianity knows that one of the things we really pride themselves on is our high view of the Holiness of God.  We often act as if this is what separates the real Christians, the holy ones, from the nominal Christians, those who are just like the world.  I would like to consider a few points on this subject though.

 Unapproachableness; the state of separation from, and elevation above, things common, profane, or sensual, first in a physical and external, and later in a spiritual, sense; moral purity and perfection incapable of sin and wrong. -The Jewish Encyclopedia

I don't think that I will get any major objections when I point out that the standard Christian view of holiness has no deep differences from the Jewish understanding of holiness.  Holiness means being separate, usually in the sense of moral superiority, from the world.  It is the division of the Universe into Him and Us and is usually developed in such a way that we find a way to be on His side against everyone else.

⁴⁴ For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth. ⁴⁵ For I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. Leviticus 11

Fully accepting the oneness of God is to accept that He is distinct from everything else. It would not suit God’s majesty and glory to associate the limited attributes of His creation to Him because He is not restricted in any way, while His creation is. He is the First with no beginning and the Last with no end. Everything in the universe was created by His will. He is not confined by space or time and He is the only One who is in control and provides for His creation. -from Whyislam.org

This concept is identical to what is known in Islam as Tawhid, or the Oneness(Uniqueness) of God.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Muslims, the Mormons, and the Charismatics have generally gone much farther in behaving morally, and separating themselves from the world, than we ever have or probably ever will.   I submit that this is not because of superior moral effort but because Christianity has always had, and generally hid, deep suspicions about this sort of holiness.  Why have we hid our misgivings?  Because such a concept of holiness is obviously true.  It is clear that God is very different from us and the desire to be on His side is congenital, especially when paired with a fear of judgment for those who fail in this task.  But what is the source of our misgivings?

¹⁰ Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Matthew 9

 ¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”Matthew 11

I can't help but think that it is because of the almost complete lack of holiness teaching in the teachings of Christ and in the Four Gospels.  Almost without exception, in the Four Gospels the word "Holy" is used as part of a name, generally "Holy Spirit" or "Holy One of God" or "the holy angels".  There is almost no unambiguous teaching on holiness in the Gospels.  What we do find are very paradoxical hints about holiness such as those quoted above from Matthew.  Our view of holiness is that God is separate from Creation and especially from sinners.  But the "Holy One of God" is typically found to be very at home in their company.  Christ, quite deliberately, reversed the paradigm.  He snubbed the religious and preferred the sinners.  He clearly taught that God, both personally and officially, preferred the Sinners, the Last, the Least, the Lost.  I said above that traditional holiness teaching, of whatever flavor, is obviously true.  It is.  But this teaching misses half of the point, and I have to say it misses the bigger half.

  I have no objection to teaching the God of Philosophy.  I have no objection to teaching God as He appears to us in the Scriptures.  But I require that both of these teachings submit themselves to God as revealed in the teaching and practice of Jesus Christ.  It is not just we who are fallen, the whole creation is subjected to futility, and that includes reason and logic.  I will not say with Luther that, "Reason is the Devil's whore.", rather Reason has been to us a faithful companion and has fallen even as we fell.  Which means that not only are our ideas about who and what God is going to be wrong most of the time, but that they will be wrong in ways that we cannot explain or understand.  In fact, where we are most sure we are right is where we will be most wrong.  But we continue on, trying to shove Christ into our ideas of what God is like, rather than letting our ideas of what God is like be informed by the revelation of His Express Image.

While we are working so hard to maintain the transcendence of God, we forget the way in which He transcends us the most-His immanence.  The holiness of God in Christ is greater than the holiness of God qua god.  The glory of God is best seen and best understood in the glory of the Only Begotten-full of Grace and Truth, that is Immanuel.  If that is true then what we really need to see in this world is not a Glorified Holiness such as we imagine, but a Militant Holiness such as Jesus Himself practiced.  What does that mean?  It means that holiness is not separate from the world, it is in the ditch with us.  It not only parties with the drunks and loves the hookers, it gives the drunks something to celebrate and the hookers someone who loves them.  It isn't concerned with its own holiness but with making the unholy holy.  It has been well said that cleaning is the task of transferring dirt from the thing being cleaned to the one doing the cleaning and that is certainly true here.  Cleaning us is a job that made God Himself sin(noun not a verb as in "He became sin who knew no sin.).

And that is a nice theology, but here's the rub.  What does that say about sanctification, about personal holiness, about a relationship with Christ?  It at least suggests that such things have nothing to do with an advancement in moral living.  If we begin to live more moral lives as a result of being with Jesus, and based on the lives of the Twelve Apostles we could certainly make a case that we don't, it is at most a side effect, an unintended and possibly undesirable side effect.  Then what does being more like Jesus mean?  What does it mean to be closer to God?  It doesn't seem to have anything to do with being approved of and liked by the religious.  In fact, it involves deliberately pissing them off and doing things that they consider sinful, sometimes just to make the point that you can.  It involves drinking enough wine that fair minded people don't hesitate to call you a drunk.  It involves considering almost all charitable activities hypocritical shows that God despises.  I am simply describing the man you say you want to be more like.  If this doesn't sound like something you want to do, then you are right.  You won't like it.  I don't like it.  It is called a cross for a reason.  It is even a foolish and offensive cross.  I am not going to try and make a case for living this way, or try and make it more palatable.  All I am saying is that it is the way Jesus lived, and it is the only kind of holiness that we will ever see in this world.

The Anti-Tract

So, the story of the Anti-tract began last Friday.  Cheyenne and I were at the Post Office and there was an old couple in the parking lot handing out New Testaments.  I don't know exactly why I went over to them boredom, curiosity, something like that.  They were very nice and I didn't feel the need to explain all of the ways that I think that they are wrong or to push my junk on them at all.  The Gospel can save people who don't get it.  Just look at me.

So, on the ride home I am looking through the Bible and it has various information that fits under the category of "What must I do to be saved".  The main one is this fine tract put out by Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  I want to emphasize that there is a lot of good in this little tract and especially in the nice people who gave it to me, but it inspired me in my own sick little way.  And the result is my creation of the Anti-tract.  Below is presented the tract with my suggested alterations in the appropriate places.  The first half of it needs no edit and so I have suggested none.

Our Response: Despise Christ

We hate and have hated Christ all of our lives.  After 25 years of being a Christian I still find new things to be pissed off at him about every day-especially Sunday.  I don't trust Him, because to be honest the things He does seem completely crazy.  Do I want to invite Him into my life?  Obviously not, He is unimaginably dangerous- a huge threat to everything I want.

What if I don't receive Jesus Christ right now, or ever?  Is the Gospel good enough and powerful enough to save a completely unrepentant jackass?

  Any day of the week - and twice on Sundays, often enough - we will labor with might and main to take the only thing that can save anyone and reduce it to a set of theological club rules designed to exclude almost everyone. -Robert Capon Kingdom, Grace, Judgment

1. When I admit my need it is really a load of bull.  I say I am a sinner because I think saying it will get me something I want or keep me from something I don't want.  But truth be told, I still think I am right.  I still think my way is gonna work out if I just try it one more time.

2. I am not willing to turn from my sins.  I like my sins.  Hell, I love them.

3. I have tried to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.  But I have a better chance of convincing myself I can fly.  If there is one thing I am dead certain of in my heart it is that dead men don't rise.  I am tired of trying to believe something that makes no sense at all.

4. I do not want Jesus Christ to come in my life and control anything.  I don't want anybody to control me.  I don't even want to control myself.

5. Chill out with all of this salvation crud.  Jesus has got it all covered.  He isn't waiting on you to finish His work with a decision or anything else.  He already finished it.  Nothing you can add, nothing you can take away, nothing you can screw up.

In the Bible, as a matter of fact, God does so many ungodly things - like not remembering our sins, erasing the quite correct handwriting against us, and becoming sin for us - that the only safe course is to come to Scripture with as few stipulations as possible. God used his own style manual, not ours, in the promulgation of his Word. -Robert Capon Kingdom, Grace, Judgment

How to Pray:

Jesus, I don't think I am a sinner, and I don't really care if what I do upsets you, because that doesn't really affect me.  I would like to believe that you rose from the dead, but that seems like kind of a pipe dream.  I have tried all of this salvation stuff before and it didn't work.  The only thing that has changed is that I am sick of trying and sick of pretending.  I am never gonna change.  I may hate my life, but changing doesn't interest me at all.  I want to trust you but we are so much different that I don't think that that will ever happen.  But if your Gospel means anything at all, it means that none of that matters.  Your plan isn't about saving people that want to be saved, but saving people who really don't care at all.  You deliberately picked fights with all of the religious people and spent your time with drunks and hookers.  Your best friends weren't any better than me and yet you set them up on twelve thrones right below the throne of God Himself.  They didn't do any of this crap.  I am never gonna do any of the stuff you want me to.  Have you really done it all for me?  Can the Gospel be that good?  If it isn't then I have no hope at all, cause I am never gonna change.  It isn't that we want to go to Heaven and you are standing there to see if we measure up.  The truth is that we have zero interest in Heaven and you drag us there kicking and screaming, because you love us with a depth and passion that I don't get at all.  I have lost all hope.  There is nothing that I can do.  My only hope is that the world is as crazy as you.  I think I am right, but I really, really want to be wrong.  I want dead men to rise, I want your plan to not be the same old shit that everything else is, I want a Gospel that will save me just like I am.

The law of relationship between us humans and God is as follows: Major Premise: There is an infinite, radical, qualitative difference between God and humans. This means that we can achieve absolutely nothing; it is God who gives everything. It is he who brings forth a person’s faith, and so forth. This is grace, and this is Christianity’s major premise. Minor Premise: Although we can merit nothing, unconditionally nothing, we can, in faith, dare in all childlikeness to be involved with God. If the major premise is everything, then God becomes so infinitely great that there can be no relationship between God and the individual human being. The life of the single individual never gets off the ground. It can be fraud to elevate God so high. The difficulty is to have an infinite conception of God’s majesty and of Christ’s glory and then the childlike openness to become involved with them in your own personal life in a wholly childlike way. -S. Kierkegaard

God's Assurance: His Word

Even if you didn't pray this prayer, or you prayed it and it was bullshit, the Bible says...

"You have been given a gift that changes everything.  It has nothing to do with anything you do or don't do.  There is nothing you can do to get it and nothing you can do to lose it.  It is like that so that we all have to shut up and stop acting like we are something we aren't, [especially the religious jerks]." Ephesians 2:8-9  King Jon Bible -bracketed section doesn't appear in some manuscripts

To become an awesome Christian like me you should:

1. Fall asleep on the rare occasion that you actually read your Bible.
2. Only pray when you are pissed off at God and want to let Him know what you really think.
3. Be too much of a wuss to ever say anything about Jesus.
4. Hate church.  You should be kicked out of at least three or four.  Tell all the religious people how lame they are.  I should add to that generally be a smart mouth jerk who doesn't care about anybody else, especially their feelings.
5. Demonstrate your complete apathy and dislike of everyone around you.
6. Exist in a universe ruled by a God who saves people just like you and just like me, a God who smashed His own awesome Law and with it everything else that we could ever fail at, just because it wasn't on our side, who threw all the rules out the window and set us unbelievably free.


We shall have gone deeper than the deeps of heaven and grown older than the oldest angels before we feel, even in its first faint vibrations, the everlasting violence of that double passion with which God hates and loves the world. -G.K. Chesterton Manalive


 When Christianity came into the world the task was simply to preach. Among “Christian nations,” however, the situation is different. What we have before us is not Christianity but a prodigious illusion, the people are not pagans but live in the blissful conceit that they are Christians. So if in this situation Christianity is to be introduced, first of all the illusion must be debunked. But since this vain conceit, this illusion, is to the effect that we are all Christians, it looks indeed as if introducing Christianity amounts to taking Christianity away. Nevertheless this is precisely what must be done, for the illusion must go. -S. Kierkegaard

 


But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise! -George Macdonald Lilith

Motley

One thing it seems I have known all of my life is that what you believe about God is important.  My mom and her parents are all very dedicated Baptists, a deacon, a Sunday School teacher, and the church pianist.  I was there every time the doors were open, even when I got kicked out of children's choir I still had to go cause my mom had to be there.  Yes, I did get kicked out of children's choir and yes having to go hang out there anyway was pretty awkward.  My father's family on the other hand are Catholics.  My father is I guess a non-practicing Catholic not really sure how that works.  And his father was a Jehovah's witness.  When I was about 5, Granddaddy Carl told my dad that we could either become Jehovah's Witnesses or never see him again.  My dad told him to go to Hell, and he since has followed that advice.  The point of all of this is that it was burned into my mind at an early age that religion is the center of human life.

I spent the next 14 years trying desperately to not go to Hell.  I spent everyday trying to stop sinning and trying to believe in Jesus but it never worked.  I definitely didn't stop sinning and anything "spiritual" was a complete mystery to me.  The interesting part of this story happens when I am 19 and away at college.  I was unable to make any friends, basically my only human interaction came when my mom and my brother came and visited me.  And I realized with a cold shudder that neither one of them liked me.  They were nice to me because I was a son, a brother but never because I was me.  And I came to see that this wasn't something awful, it was in fact exactly right.  You see there was nothing likable about me.  And as I looked I realized that there was nothing good about me either.  I came, with great sadness, to see why all of my efforts to be saved had never gotten me anywhere.  You see, me and my sin are inseparable.  My self and my sin are one and the same.  Sin is my essence-in other words I would not be ME if I was not sinning.  If you took the sin away there would be nothing left.  And at that moment I was glad that I was going to Hell.  I knew, for the first time, that Hell was exactly where I belonged.  My damnation would be the removal of a plague from the world.  Damning me is exactly what a real Savior would do.

And so I prayed, harder than I had ever prayed to be saved or to stop sinning with real earnestness for the first time, I prayed that God would kill me.  I had finally found a God worth believing in- one who was willing to damn me for the sake of the world was a God worth worshiping.  I believed that I had screwed up the Gospel, I was the one that the forgiveness of sins could never reach.  I knew then that the Law was good and the commandment good, and holy, and just.  And it entered my mind that such a God could do the impossible.  I had despaired of all of the systems and solutions I had heard about all of my life.  But this one fugitive hope was left to me, the God who does the impossible.

Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? ² For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. ³ So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. ⁶ But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7

I didn't know it, but I had been made free from the Law, by my prayer for death being answered.  I believed then in what is called the "Third Use of the Law", that Christians although they won't be punished for not following the Law are still required to follow it.  You can be a Christian without following the Law just not a "good" Christian.  At the time I still thought that "the Law" only described the written code, actually I thought that the only part of the Law we had truly been set free from was the "ceremonial law" and that the "moral law" was still binding on us.  God had revealed Himself and His salvation to me but they were obscured by the traditions I had been taught in the church.  The interpretations that we give to the Bible had made the Bible itself of no effect.

I know now that the Law cannot be divided.  This is a very imaginative way that we have come up with to make the Gospel meaningless.  As James teaches the Law stands or falls as a whole, if you offend in one point you offend the whole Law.  Nowhere in Scripture are we told to divide the Law or where and how to do such a thing.  We simply made up a division because freedom is too frightening to us.

Another division that existed in my mind was between the Law and Love.  I thought that Moses Law was an old law which had between replaced with a new law, a Law of Love.  But Christ teaches that the whole law hangs-literally "depends"-from love.  Perhaps the sense will be conveyed if we reverse the imagery, Love is the foundation of the Law.  The command to love is a legal command.  And so, I believe that the Law, in Romans 7 as elsewhere, refers not simply to the written code.  It refers to all of justice, all of common sense, everything that is obviously and naturally right.  It is all of those things that have failed us, or rather that once we failed them they were able to do nothing for us.

I hope I have already sufficiently described the goodness of the Law.  Let me be clear, the Law's failure is not a failure of something bad or weak, the Law's failure is the failure of the best created thing.  Higher than any archangel, the Law blazes forth a fire and a light revealing all things, but everything it reveals is corrupt.  It is a light shining on a wasteland where our sins have like locusts destroyed everything good.  The kindly Law sees our misery even when we cannot and would peacefully put us away like a lame horse.  The Law is not helpless, it is armed to fix what is wrong with the world, it is in fact a Savior, saving the universe from me.

Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. Romans 7:13

My sin has corrupted the best thing that God ever made and all lesser things with it.  That is the one true measure of my depravity.  It is so bad that it has made everything that nature and sense can find that is right into a tragedy.  Creation which was once very good; I have made very bad.  But, if all of Creation, all reason and sense are corrupt what remains?  The Creator Himself remains- and so does Nonsense.

When the world was made, good things were obviously good and bad things were obviously bad.  Goodness made sense.  But we corrupted all of that and left nothing to God except for Nonsense.  This is the foolishness of the Cross, and this is why the kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom of Children.  The wisdom of the Greeks is in the same boat as the law of the Jews. And so with Divine foolishness, Our Savior kills men and makes them alive.  The Righteous Judge condemns the Innocent and acquits the guilty, and is all the more righteous for it.  The loving Father murders His Son and the Lord of Hosts sues for peace.  A man ready to murder his son becomes the Father of the Righteous, and an adulterer is a man after God's own heart.  So hear the words of a man who abandoned the zenith of religion to be a joke,

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”;  ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 1 Corinthians 3

 ⁹ For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. ¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! ¹¹ To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. ¹² And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; ¹³ being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. 1 Corinthians 4

 What does all of this mean?  Throw away the systems and the wisdom of Christianity.  Let the Christians do what they will, join the company of the Apostles.  Put on the motley and you will have a place in Heaven for the Fool is always called into the King's presence.  

When Christianity came into the world, it did not need to call attention (even though it did so) to the fact that it was contrary to human nature and human understanding, for the world discovered that easily enough. But now that we are on intimate terms with Christianity, we must awaken the collision. The possibility of offense must again be preached to life. Only the possibility of offense (the antidote to the apologists’ sleeping potion) is able to waken those who have fallen asleep, is able to break the spell so that Christianity is itself again. Woe to him, therefore, who preaches Christianity without the possibility of offense. Woe to the person who smoothly, flirtatiously, commendingly, convincingly preaches some soft, sweet something which is supposed to be Christianity! Woe to the person who makes miracles reasonable. Woe to the person who betrays and breaks the mystery of faith, distorts it into public wisdom, because he takes away the possibility of offense! Woe to the person who speaks of the mystery of the Atonement without detecting in it anything of the possibility of offense. Woe again to him who thinks God and Christianity are something for study and discussion. Woe to every unfaithful steward who sits down and writes false proofs, winning friends for themselves and for Christianity by writing off the possibility of offense. Oh, the learning and acumen tragically wasted. Oh, the time wasted in this enormous work of making Christianity so reasonable, and in trying to make it so relevant! Only when Christianity rises up again, powerful in the possibility of offense, only then will it need no artful defenders. The more skillful, the more articulate, the more excellent the defense, however, the more Christianity is disfigured, abolished, exhausted like an emasculated man. Christianity ought not to be defended, at least not on the world’s terms. It is we who should see whether we can justify ourselves. It is we who must choose: either to be offended or to accept Christianity. Therefore, take away from Christianity the possibility of offense or take away from the forgiveness of sin the battle of an anguished conscience. Then lock the churches, the sooner the better, or turn them into places of amusement which stand open all day long! -S. Kierkegaard

 God's Own Fool
 

The Devil, the Key, and the Steward

When I think about people that I have been told I am like in my life, the most frequent is my dad, and after him my granddaddy, and after him the Devil.  Now, typically I have tried to deny these comparisons, but it seems I am about to have to admit the similarity to the Devil.  I have plenty of sins but that is not what I am thinking of.  I am about to do his job.  He is the Accuser of God's people, and I have a monster of a charge to bring against them.

It was about seven years ago now when it started.  I got a call from my bank, or a letter I don't remember which, but they said they thought there might have been fraud on my account and they needed me to come up there.  When I got there they showed me a check with my signature on it, only it wasn't my signature.  It said my name but I hadn't written it.  Strange but it got even stranger.  I looked at the check, it was my check, for a bill I had paid, with my signature, obviously written by someone else.  After a minute I started laughing and then it began to dawn on me that something serious was happening here that was significant even if it wasn't what I thought.  I told them that I had written the check and that the signature was mine.  Why?  My wife had signed my name on the check.  And after I thought about it a minute I realized that she had a perfect right to.  I gave her my name.  It is hers to do with as she pleases.  She can conduct any business in my name that she wants to.  And that is my beef with the church.

²¹ So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” ²² And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20

The Power of the Keys, the power to forgive sin, has a long history.  Its abuse in the selling of indulgences, and the requirement of confession to a priest was one of the main complaints of Martin Luther and protestants since against the Church of Rome.  And so all too many protestants deny the Power of the Keys altogether.  It is common to be told that only God can forgive sin, the same complaint the Pharisees leveled against Christ right before He healed a crippled man to prove His power to forgive.  But the truth is that Christians of all stripes are using this power all the time, and that is my complaint against them.

Anyone who has been in an evangelical church knows what it is like to try and get them to let go of a sin.  They have the power to release men from sin and the power to bind them to it.  And they choose to bind them.  The truth of the charge is too notorious to need proof.  Denying the Power of the Keys is their one defense, that they aren't really doing anything, that they have no power.

But is that who Christ is, someone who says He is giving us something and the something is nothing?  Is He a big talker, with nothing to back it up?  No.  He was speaking the absolute, plain truth.  The Bride has power to conduct business in the Bridegroom's name, just like my wife does in my name.  The Church is given the power to heal, physical and spiritual, disease.  And the power to cast men into Hell on Earth.  And we have chosen to hang onto their sins.  I can't let go of my sins or anybody else's.  But I want to.  I want to be different than I am.

16 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’
⁵ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred measures^[a] of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.
⁹ “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. ¹⁰ He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
¹³ “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Luke 16

Does this parable fit me?  I have been wasting God's grace just like the steward wasted money.  But more to the point I have been made a steward of the Lord's business-which is the forgiveness of sins.  And so have you.  What am I suggesting?  I am suggesting that the Pope's problem is not that he forgives sins but that he charges for it, and that he retains some sins.  I am suggesting that if the store is going out of business all the inventory must go.  Let's forgive all sins.  Let's forgive sins that no one has ever forgiven before.  Let's charge less for it than anybody has ever charged before.  I have already screwed up my own life about as badly as I can I assume that "what I have coming to me" will be here before long, I am the devil after all.  So I am going to use my power and position while I still can.  You forgive me and I'll forgive you.

How Can It Be?

You Might Be Surprised Who Is In Heaven

Human psychology is a sick, sad, strange, twisted thing.  Because we do not wish to grasp the truth; we have become unable to grasp the truth.  Two of the strongest forces in our minds are what are known as "confirmation bias" and "disconfirmation bias".   

Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities. -Wikipedia

Disconfirmation bias refers to the tendency for people to extend critical scrutiny to information which contradicts their prior beliefs and accept uncritically information that is congruent with their prior beliefs. -psychology.wikia.com

Basically, it is very difficult for us to think a thought which does not agree with what we already believe.  What's worse, even when we see evidence that we are wrong we tend to forget it or think it is unimportant.  Our desperate need to be right has turned on us and imprisoned us in foolishness and lies.  The things we think we know the best, it often turns out we don't know at all...

⁶ So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should, shall rule over it.”
⁸ Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
⁹ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
¹⁰ And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. ¹¹ So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. ¹² When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
¹³ And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! ¹⁴ Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”
¹⁵ And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. Genesis 4

We all know this story.  Righteous Abel is killed by jealous Cain because God prefers Abel and his offering to Cain and his offering.  God then rains down wrath on Cain making the rest of his life a living hell, before presumably going to a literal hell.  I first began to suspect that we might have this story wrong looking at verse 15.

It seems a strange part of Cain's punishment to protect his life, but more than the mere protection of his life, consider the comfort that is here given to Cain.  God tells Cain that He values His life; He tells him that his fears are unfounded, and He gives him a sign by which he may be sure of the promise.  Now, we read this and say that God only acts thus because Cain complained, He showed a fragment of mercy in the midst of overwhelming punishment.  But look more carefully at Cain's prayer-Cain's answered prayer.  Although the Lord had only mentioned a punishment in this world, Cain shows what he is really afraid of when he adds, "I shall be hidden from your face.", before giving any consideration to the earthly punishment.   Also, God said nothing about anyone killing Cain.  Only Cain's own sense of justice could have supplied this idea.  I also find it curious that Cain, the farmer, seems unmoved by the loss of his occupation.  Cain takes no thought for how he will survive in an earthly sense, but is primarily troubled by the thought of falling from grace-losing God's presence and favor-represented by His face, and being overtaken by justice.

Consider this.  If God's punishment of Cain was just, and Cain was correct in saying, "My punishment is more than I can bear.", which we may fairly consider the just punishment of sin to be more than any man can bear; then a just God could not omit or lessen Cain's punishment without the presence of a Substitute.  God doesn't require anything from Cain to save his life, he doesn't tell him to do better, straighten up his act, or even say the Sinner's Prayer.  Cain could go kill fifty more people and still enjoy God's protection.  There are no conditions on this gift.  But somebody always pays for grace.  In fact, many of the older Jewish commentaries(Targums), understand verse 7 to be talking not of sin stalking Cain as our translations suggest, but a SIN OFFERING which would soon be made for Cain's sin.  As much as I would like to drive the point home, I have already overindulged my argumentative tendencies.

So many people talk highly of "soul-searching", of looking deep in your heart to find those secret sins.  Cain had no need to cast a penetrating gaze on his secret motivations to see himself as a sinner.  When Cain felt guilty before God it wasn't because he missed church or forgot to read his bible everyday, the chief sins that we find in ourselves.  And however we understand verse 7, Cain knew for sure that he could not conquer his sin, could not overcome it.  He knew what I know now.  That sin is who we are.  There is no part of me that is not saturated with sin.  There is nothing good in me.  If you are having to look long and deep to find your sin, try this.  Ask anybody who knows you.  If they are honest they will tell you that you are a self-righteous jackass, the kind of person who makes an offering to God with hatred for his brother in his heart-like me, like Cain.

The idea that Cain represents the unchristian world and Abel represents the Christians is self-serving bull.  If you want to see yourself in this story, you are Cain.  And Christ is Abel.  He is the righteous one that was hated without a cause, and me?  I am the bastard that killed Him, and for reasons that make the human brain explode, I am being offered God's comfort and protection.  He has marked me with His mark-the mark of a man who is unmistakably a sinner but divinely protected from his just punishment-the mark of Cain.

"Christianity is not about moving away from vice to virtue.  It's moving away from virtue to Christ."-Rod Rosenbladt

The Unthinkable Thought

I am a slave to ideals.  I have been for a long time.  And for most of that time I have confused my position with Christianity.  But let me back up a little.

There are two kinds of people in this world.  Slaves to circumstances and slaves to ideals, in religious terms we might call them slaves to sin and slaves to the law.  The Slave to Circumstances lives his life in the immediate.  When things go his way, he is happy.  When things don't go his way, he is sad or angry or whatever.  He lives his life like a boat carried by the waves and he is wherever they go.  When I say the immediate, I don't mean that he doesn't make plans or have goals, maybe even "spiritual" goals, but his thoughts are all consumed with obtaining good and avoiding bad, meaning good circumstances and bad circumstances.  Good things and bad things, good places and bad places, good people and bad people.  Using good to refer to things that please us or make us happy and bad to refer to those which fail to do so.  In other words, making ourselves the standard by which the world is judged.

I have looked down my nose at the Slave to Circumstance for a long time.  You see, by the power of ideals, the concept of right and wrong, of justice, of appropriateness we can free ourselves from our circumstances.  When something makes me unhappy, I can comfort myself with the knowledge that even if it doesn't please me it is right.  I can sink all of my pain in the knowledge that a good God rules the universe and makes all wrongs right.  And I mistake that for faith.  The eternal is a pretty good comfort for the loss of the temporary.

And that is the way the world goes.  The slaves of sin are carried about on their miserable destiny and the slaves of the law look and say "I thank you God that I am not a sinner like this publican."  And as far as they go they are right.  Slavery to the law is infinitely preferable to slavery to anything else.  At least the law is just and good and holy.  It will always look out for what is best for everybody and when that isn't what is best for me I can comfort myself by what Kierkegaard calls letting the particular(myself, my feelings, my good) find its expression in the universal(what is good for everybody).  I can be happy under the law, as long as I am content to be happy in this way.  I can watch the good things in my life go away and I can have peace and comfort.

And there is basically nothing in the world to contradict what I have said.  Only a few tiny objections remain to be disposed of by the Slaves to Ideals and we can all go to our own Hells peacefully and quietly.  If only Isaac hadn't come down from that mountain.

When someone chooses to follow the Way of the Law, they need to understand that it is the way of deadness, of sacrifice in the literal sense of killing.  First the law killed my pain, then it killed my sadness, then it killed my happiness, then it killed my joy.  I am left with a still deadness in the core of my soul, as ultimately I became dead to the law.  Eventually the Way of the Law will require me to be dead to my family and even dead to myself.  This might seem strange but the Way of the Law is the way of sacrificing the less for the greater.  I sacrifice happiness for goodness, fun for peace, friendship for truth, my will for God's will, eventually I walk straight into Hell content that it is where I belong, having felt my sinfulness to its utter depths.  When I say I do these things, understand that that is eternity's perspective.  I can do these things if I have the courage to walk the Way of the Law.  But when we see that the last term is the sacrifice of ourselves, we must learn from this that to follow the Law requires ALL that is in a man.  There is nothing left to do anything else.  I believe it was Robert E. Lee who said, "Do your duty.  You cannot do more.  You should not wish to do less."
And so we explain everything in the world with a few principles.  And are left with a single unexplainable prodigy, a miracle in the fullest sense of the word, when Abraham gets Isaac back.

I haven't gone that far, who has but Abraham?  But anyone who has sacrificed for the Law can imagine what it would be like.  To sacrifice what is loved for something that is greater is a path I know very well.  If Abraham had murdered Isaac, had sacrificed not only his love and his son, but his righteousness, his justification by murdering his own son the Slaves of the Law could well admire him.  He would be the greatest of us.  To sacrifice even justification because it is God's will is the highest expression of the ethical.  As I said before, it is to walk into Hell with a just contentment.  It would be on a level with Paul who would give up his own salvation for the salvation of his countrymen.  But what actually happened I can't understand.  I can't admire.  I can't even accept.

 "Resignation[what I have called the Way of the Law] by itself does not require faith. It has only to comply with the eternal. It renounces, but does not gain. Faith, however, does not renounce anything. On the contrary, in faith I receive everything. Herein lies the crucial difference. It takes a purely human courage to renounce the world of temporality in order to win eternity; but it takes a humble and paradoxical courage to take hold of what is temporal and to do so for the sake of the eternal. That courage is the courage of faith. Through faith Abraham did not renounce his claim on Isaac. No, through his faith he received Isaac"

So we have seen that the highest and best a person can reach is slavery to the Law, to eternal ideals.  And I want to point out again, that slavery to a good and righteous master is far preferable to the situation most of us are in.  And slavery to an eternal good doesn't sound so bad at all.  But the Slave of the Law has to give himself entirely to that Law.  There is nothing left.  It requires all of his heart and soul and mind every second of every day.  Therefore faith is a paradox.  It is just when Abraham is saying with his whole heart and soul, "I will plunge this knife into Isaac."  that he does something more.  He says, "But I will get him back, even from the dead."  But he can't.  Every part of him is strained to the breaking point just to be a slave to the law, and at that moment the unthinkable occurs.  There is something else, some alien presence, which is Abraham and is not.  It is Abraham because it is his very heart, the true core of his being, that believes and not another, but it is not because if it was Abraham, that is any man, it would have to subject itself to the Law, it would be under the curse.

If there is one thing that we are certain of it is that dead men do not rise.  The thought doesn't even occur to us.  If I were to suggest that you might see one of your loved ones who has passed on today, not "in Heaven" not in a dream or whatever but walking down the street like everything is normal.  I think you would freak out.  You would probably be pissed off at me.  It takes the distance of two or three thousand years and oceans of ink to make resurrection seem anything less than earth shattering.  It might be the closest thing to a thought that our minds can't think that has ever been found.  And so, when reason can find no place for hope, when like Abraham on Mount Moriah good has turned to evil, when God commands murder, when all the world is truly upside down, then and perhaps only then, are we ready for the foolishness of faith.

jc

When Christianity came into the world the task was simply to preach. Among “Christian nations,” however, the situation is different. What we have before us is not Christianity but a prodigious illusion, the people are not pagans but live in the blissful conceit that they are Christians. So if in this situation Christianity is to be introduced, first of all the illusion must be debunked. But since this vain conceit, this illusion, is to the effect that we are all Christians, it looks indeed as if introducing Christianity amounts to taking Christianity away. Nevertheless this is precisely what must be done, for the illusion must go.

--All quotations are from S. Kierkegaard, mostly from Fear and Trembling, which to a great extent is the inspiration for this post, the other quotes I will not trace their source right now.

Fear Not

Do not fear.  This command is found repeatedly in Scripture.  Almost every time an angel appears these are among the first words the angel says.

²² Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.”

²³ Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” ²⁴ So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Judges 6

I don't remember where I heard it now, but someone once suggested to me that the reason for this must be because angels are very scary and they don't want people to be afraid of them.  I suppose it is that sort of thinking that leads to so many of the angel fetishes that are popular today and are perhaps the first root of idolatry.

But if that isn't the explanation then what is?  It is striking that this is the repeated message of the angels, and in that I think we have the key.  I don't know much about angels.  Neither do you, no matter what you think.  Is this some horrible defect in our theology?  It is an issue exactly on a level with the fact that I don't know the person who delivers the mail.

That is in fact what an angel is, a mailman.  And the only interesting thing about a mailman(considered as such, that is as a mailman), is the mail.  I submit that the "Fear not" we are concerned with is not a mark of the angels concern that we not be terrified by their awesomeness but is the very heart of the message that they were sent to deliver.

And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Genesis 21:17

If we look at what is actually said, we will see that the reason why the recipient of the message should not be afraid, is given in the message itself.  "do not fear, you shall not die", "Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad".  The message is always "Do not fear because God intends good things towards you."  The reason not to fear has nothing to do with the nature of the angel and everything to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I submit that the "do not fear, you shall not die." which was spoken to Gideon does not refer to His allegedly feared imminent death at the hands of the angel and everything to do with being reconciled to God.  I think that is what Gideon wanted us to understand when he marked that location with an altar called "The Lord IS Peace"  He wants us to know that God is not interested in carrying on the war with mankind.  He is offering us a peace treaty.

And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” Genesis 26:24

The message of Fear Not, has everything to do with the peace treaty that God made with Abraham, the Covenant of Grace.  Perhaps even more to the point, it has everything to do with the fulfillment of that covenant, the living, breathing, proof of God's intentions toward us, The Lord Jesus Christ.

 

²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” ²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Luke 1

To this generation of men it seems strange to connect a child with peace, or rather we can't see it the way generations of men before us did.  Our generation is just too far distant from the idea of personal government.  But for most of human history peace treaties contained with few exceptions- a marriage between the warring countries.  The closer to the crown the couple were the more sure the peace was considered.  The thinking behind this isn't obscure or complicated.  It is simply that no one wants to be at war with their family.  We go to war for our family not against them.  If the king of Country A is married to the princess of Country B then there will always be a reason for them not to fight.  But far more significant is the hope of children.  A child, who might be heir to both kingdoms.  For such a ruler to declare war on Country B would be like declaring war on himself-utterly ridiculous.

And this is the heart of God's Covenant of Peace with Humanity.  A child who is heir to both kingdoms.  As God, Christ is King of Heaven, He is life, and peace and righteousness, as the Son of David, He is King of Israel, and the heir to the Law, as the Son of Man, He is the heir to all of Adam's sin and death.  The God of All Peace and the Man of Sorrows are one.  The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.  Not a peace that is signed and then forgotten, an offer of peace continually extended and renewed, so long as Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, an offer of peace that can never be cancelled, annulled, or changed-the Last Will and Testament of Jesus of Nazareth, it became effective on the day of His death, an offer of peace available to us now by the power of His resurrection.

⁵ But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Matthew 28

 So, what is the message that I have for you?  Do not fear, because God is not against you.  He is not out to get you.  He is not setting you up to fail.  Perhaps more importantly if you do fail, even if you are a failure in every sense of the word, it doesn't affect His offer of peace to you.  Your life is not a conflict.  You are not in a competition with the rest of the world for God's love and acceptance.  So long as Immanuel lives there can be no doubt."

If the world you are living in is a world of fear and competition, a world where you have to go to any lengths to avoid failure, a world where you have to be successful, the Good News for you is that that is not the real world.  This is the world where if the good guy loses He rises again the third day, it is the world where you are not judged by your performance, the world of the Power of the Resurrection.  

Loser

If you fail you can't be a Christian anymore.  Or at least you can't tell anyone you are.  Apparently Jesus doesn't like losers.  I guess He is more like me than I ever imagined.

The truth is that I am a terrible elitist, of the particular type usually called a Pharisee.  It isn't money or worldly success that I worship but spiritual success.  I am convinced in the deepest part of my soul that God made us to pass some test, go above some bar, perform in some fashion.  If I don't do Christianity right then I will lose.  Lose what you ask?  Ultimately I think the answer is God's approval.  His acceptance, to be declared "Not a Loser" by the ultimate judge, is the greatest prize of all.  What could possibly be greater or more glorious?  And to that way of thinking the biggest loser in world history would have to be Jesus of Nazareth.  Despite having this amazing setup, two thousand years of prophecy about what a huge winner He would be, star shining on His birth, wise men coming from all directions, the prodigy that set all the teachers scratching their heads He crashed it all in the most epic way imaginable.

The boy with unlimited potential by the age of thirty must have been a massive disappointment.  He spent His time hanging out with His fishing buddies and getting drunk.  Even though He could work miracles few people could stand to be around Him.  I know I have messed up some good things, but how is it that the guy who can heal the sick left and right, multiply food, and raise the dead winds up a homeless drunk?  His miracles are startling failures.  You use divine power to help stretch out a party with more liquor?  Most of His miracles seem to have been worked on the Sabbath deliberately to piss off the church crowd.  There were crowds gathering trying to give Him the throne, they could clearly see that He could whip Rome from one end of the world to the other, if He would just shut up.  The Jews really did try and work with Him I believe but when you insist on your religion being one of cannibalism, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood and live forever" no wonder people think you are in league with the devil.  Kind of an obvious conclusion.

So, the hero of every dream-the great Prince on the White Horse-coming to destroy all the bad guys and rescue all the babes, the ultimate winner, against all odds, in the most stunning display of loserness imaginable, gets arrested, is too stubborn to defend Himself against charges that even the judge said were garbage, is executed like the absolute lowest of society.  And to crown it all, the One He did it all for, His Father, turns His back on Him at the end.  He blacks out the sun as if to cover His shame over what His Son did.

It is surprising how easy that is to write.  You don't have to force any of the facts they all just kind of fall in place.  I think that there can be little doubt that that is the way most of His contemporaries viewed Him, I have done little more than present their complaints against Him.  There are only two things against this opinion, first His Father's own testimony, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." and again, "This is my Son, Hear Him." and second the sequel- the unimaginable resurrection.

But how did we get it so wrong, when it seems so right?  I would like to suggest that our entire premise is wrong.  Not just the premise which I used to write that story, but the premise on which I've based my life.  I think maybe the best way to state that premise is to say that it is the belief that we are made to succeed.  I know a lot of church dorks say that we are making success an idol, but they like me, have just substituted "spiritual" success for more obvious and natural types of success.  Which is probably a move further from the truth and not closer to it.

It is clear, however, that we have some relationship to success, to performance, to all that is called Law, in contrast to Gospel.  If success isn't the measure of a man then what is success' connection to us?  Let us go back to the great champion of failure.

²³ Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. ²⁴ And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
²⁵ But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: ²⁶ how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”
²⁷ And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸ Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” Mark 2

Does this have anything to do with what we were talking about?  If we make the not very great leap of logic that the Sabbath is the representative of the whole law, the whole system of condemnation and failure that has trapped us all of our lives.  Is it fair to stretch what is said about the Sabbath out to the whole law, not just the code of laws but the whole idea of ,"The man who does it shall live by it."?  Well, as both Paul and James tell us the Law stands or falls as a whole.  It is all one thing, it is victory or defeat, life or death, success or failure, love or hatred.

 On the other hand, the Sabbath is in one way very different from the rest of the Law, almost in opposition to it.  The whole law commands, "Perform or die" and the Sabbath says, "Stop trying.  Give up.  Accept defeat."  If that doesn't sound true to you, then imagine anyone in a struggle to the death taking a day off, taking a second off.  So if it seems hard to win this great race, then taking a day off in the middle is definately not going to work.  Isn't that how the hare lost to the tortoise after all?

So, why did God set a huge stumbling block right in the middle of the Law?  For you.  The Sabbath was made for you.  The Sabbath was made to make it unmistakably obvious that we can't succeed and to tell us that that is ok.  God's plan is not to hold a measuring stick-any measuring stick-up to you and see if you make the cut.  I know that He will judge us all one day but everything I know about Jesus Christ and His Gospel convinces me that we have radically misunderstood what that means.

Success, performance, righteousness, are not goals for us to strive after.  They are gifts, robes that Our Father throws on His Prodigals as He sacrifices His lamb to make a party for us.

 Jesus was a Capricorn

Love and peace, jc