Humility: Trading Status for Glory

Years ago I was part of a puppet show done for neighborhood kids at a church. For one show, a good friend of mine, Scott Homesly, was playing the part of the "tax collector" who, when he prayed, "would not even look up to heaven, but would beat his breast and pray, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'" Scott's puppet character would slowly beat his breast with his chubby little cloth hands and bow his head with obvious shame, creating a perfect visual of what it means to be humble. I think of this visual every time that I read Luke's account of Jesus parable.

Jesus ends his parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee by saying that God justifies and exalts the one who is humble. From this parable, I think that we can understand that humility means acknowledging our sinfulness, our need of God and our complete lack of judgment of others. The tax collector prays away from the others because he considers himself unworthy to be around them. It is God's business to judge them for hypocrisy, not his. He is so aware of his own shortcomings that he has no time, place, nor inclination to consider theirs.

I do not believe that God wants the focal point of our lives to be our own sinfulness. Our focal point should be thankfulness for the goodness and greatness of God that is shown daily in his love and mercy. At some point, to focus on our own wretchedness becomes a selfish act and even denies the all-sufficiency of God. But just the same, humility is key to our relationship with God. Isn't it great to know that the key for us is not how much we love others, how well we serve, or how well we use our gifts? The key thing for us is to realize the truth from the bottom of our hearts: we are sinners; we deserve nothing. This is precisely the point at which God can justify and exalt us.

Ok, so what do I do right now?

I have been an "ok, so what do I do right now?" kind-of-guy for some time. Maybe always. This has been my gut response to anyone who claims to have some kind of teaching that I am supposed to embrace or, more generally, some kind of sermon/harangue that they wield. What is it that I am supposed to do right now if what you are saying is true? The fact is if there is nothing that I am supposed to do in response to a lecture, I am not inclined to keep listening.

When I began hearing God for what seemed like the first time, it was immediately obvious what I was supposed to begin doing right now. I was to stop living so selfishly and being so full of pride and began loving other people, looking after their interests instead of mine own. Begin loving right now. Start being kind. And gentle. And everything else that I'm supposed to do and be but don't and aren't.

Another thing that I began to do, another heuristic that I began to live by, was to be a servant. Join into God's work of by being a servant. It is the way that God was teaching me to express love, serving others instead of myself.

To love and to serve others is not a bad way to try to orient your life. Loving and serving is what Jesus did and does. But my thinking is continuing to grow as I think about some of the things that N.T. Wright says in Simply Jesus, his new book in which he tries to get us to think about and respond to Jesus in a fresh way. Jesus rules. How did that happen, how does he exert his rule now and what is our part in that rule right now?

So what about you? What is it that you live by? What is your response to Jesus right now?

Sad but True

With as many serious problems that there are in the world, some people are incredulous at the thought that the use or non-use of instruments in a church assembly would be a grave matter for anyone. But I know that it is extremely important for some folks.

I wish that I could persuade everyone for whom this is a concern, to apply these words from Paul to this issue:  

    ....Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
      Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. 
                                                                       Romans 14

Right now, I can't think of a better passage than this to address the instrumental music "issue." I cringe just writing the sentence, because it feels like defeat to even consider the use instrumental music in a church gathering an issue - aren't there better, more significant things to occupy ourselves? Still, this is an honest concern for some, especially, if not exclusively, those who on Sundays go to buildings marked "Church of Christ" to sing, pray, listen to preaching, etc. with other believers.

To get a perspective on this issue, let's rewrite the initial passage of Romans 14 and see if it doesn't ring true to the original:

  

       Also those who use instruments in their assemblies, use instruments in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain from the use of instruments, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. 

Now let's look at what Paul said earlier using this "update:"

         Those who use instruments in their assemblies must not despise those who abstain from using them, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who use instruments; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

I think that there is a reason why this understanding of the Romans passage escaped the notice of that particular branch of the Restoration from whom we in the Churches of Christ descend. In essence, they believe that a passage from Ephesians 5 is a clear, unambiguous command regarding assemblies hat trumps Romans 14. 

Let's take a quick look at the Ephesians 5 passage:

         Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It seems hard to believe that someone could think that this passage is about not using instruments in assemblies, but that is what I was taught and what I believed when I was young. For many years now it seems clear to me that in this passage Paul gives us a way of living during evil days. He is saying, "Don't get drunk, filling yourself with wine. Instead, fill yourself with God's Spirit. Instead of living in debauchery, you should live in praise." 

I believe that mangling this passage into a command that tells us not to use instruments in our assemblies constitutes a serious misreading of the passage. To make the English translation (Southern dialect) conform more closely to the Greek, "Consider how ya'll live," and "Ya'll give thanks to God the Father at all times." Not only do these words address how all of us should live instead of what we should do when we are in assembly, they do not forbid the use of instruments or anything else -  except to forbid being foolish (which, of course, includes "getting drunk on wine").

But what does Paul tell me that my attitude should be toward those brothers and sisters who strongly believe that they must abstain from the use of instruments in assembly? Taking my clue from Paul in Romans 14, I think that the answer is clear.

   

        

Since I Don't Preach: It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfun...

Since I Don't Preach: It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfun...: This past week you probably heard the stories of animals in the northeast that sensed the earthquake before it arrived. Lemurs sounded an al...

It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfunkel once told us)

This past week you probably heard the stories of animals in the northeast that sensed the earthquake before it arrived. Lemurs sounded an alarm, apes abandoned their food, flamingos rushed into a huddle, and a gorilla let out a shriek before the magnitude 5.8-quake. I also saw on ABC news videos of dogs that before earthquakes rushed to get out of rooms or began barking excitedly.

This fascinates me and apparently fascinates our newscasters. How did these animals know? What is this sixth sense that these animals have?

Maybe why this fascinates us so much is that it points to realities that we cannot see or feel or hear. But those realities definitely exists. There are ways of knowing things that not only can we not use, we don't even understand. There is a dimension to reality that we remain oblivious to.

Two things to note: Apparently, not all animals, maybe even the vast majority of animals noticed anything. I saw interviews with various pet owners that said their pets basically slept through the quake or were just as startled as themselves when it occurred. Evidently, not everyone was paying attention to what they could have known. Second, there was obviously a lag time between the animals alerting and the earthquake that caused them to alert. The reality that was true and real to them was invisible to the rest of us and there was no way that they could "prove" it.

There has to be a lesson here somewhere.

This is in the Bible?

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

 Those born of an illicit union shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

 No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. (Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.) You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live. 

                                                                                    Deuteronomy 23: 1 - 6

I do not know how the Jewish people interpreted this passage of scripture during Jesus' time. I know that unlike our times, every Jewish male had memorized this passage along with the rest of the Pentateuch. This passage was not unfamiliar to them. I know that for "hardliners" the statement, No… Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord – even to the tenth generation shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord… You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live, must have been something of a problem scripture as they tried to reconcile it with the story of Ruth, the wonderful Moabite woman whose welfare was very directly promoted by the Jew, Boaz. And it was the third generation from her that David, the greatest king of Israel, the friend of God, was born.

We may think that whatever we read between the covers of the Bible has to be accepted in a completely straightforward way, but obviously, the writers of the Old Testament did not feel that way as can be seen in the story of Ruth. It appears to me from the way that scripture is sometimes understood in scripture itself that discernment is needed in the way that we understand the its authority. God revealed himself to Moses, spoke to Moses and Moses gave us God's words. But Jesus distinguishes at times between what God says and what Moses says. (See Mt. 19, It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.) 

Understanding God's will can confuse us. But Jesus was not confused. He knew that this command in the Old Testament that said, You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live, was not meant to keep him from loving everyone, no matter their ethnicity, religious background, their appearance, or their customs. It wasn't meant to keep him from dying for them. What if we thought that everything in the Bible needed to be understood through Jesus and the two commands that Jesus gives us, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves? His love is the authority by which we understand what God’s will is.

Learning How to Pray, Part 3

There are two other "prayers" that I have learned to make part of my daily prayers. The first one is  "Lord have mercy on me" and is called "The Jesus Prayer." I think that I first saw it in the book, The Way of the Pilgrim. Some people take it from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, others from the Canaanite woman who had a sick daughter, and still others from Bartholomew, the blind man outside the city of Jericho. It seems to have become a prayer of the early desert fathers and from there, it became important in the Orthodox churches. Many people have used it as a "centering prayer," one that they repeat over and over. I, instead, try to make it a point to pray those words early in the morning. It is designed to open my heart to God as I realize that I am like everyone else who comes to him, in need of mercy.

The second "prayer" I got from what I understand is a Jewish custom. Scot McKnight says that three times a day, people who are serious about their Jewish faith will repeat the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." But we know that Jesus added something else to this foundational scripture. Jesus said that there is a second commandment that is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This was a scripture found in Leviticus 19: 18, tucked away with a lot of dos and don'ts that make Leviticus a tough book to get through. But Jesus says that this little command is like the great Shema. 

So,  I also have made it my practice to pray the two commands that Jesus says that "all the law depends on." It is a reminder and my prayer to God to help me love him and love others - that boils our task down to the essentials, doesn't it?