Howdy, Neighbor

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed. -- Proverbs 19:17

I would expand upon this verse a little, and you are going to think I’m weird for bringing these two things together.  I am weird, so it’s OK:

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Corinthians 11:29); and, So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Once we begin to realize how connected and “one” the cosmos really is we experience liberation.  The old burden, bondage, and limitations of the sin nature are removed in Christ.  However, though, as Jesus said in His offer of rest to us, His yoke is easy and His burden light, we have a new and proper responsibility that goes with our new freedom.  We must recognize that we are always living, working, acting, and speaking to the Lord, on the Lord’s behalf, and for His glory.  Those are God’s children we are teaching; it’s a person made in the image and likeness of God that cut us off in traffic; and, when we help someone financially or in other ways, if we are willing to acknowledge and accept it, we are, as the proverb puts it, lending to the Lord.  

If we can put aside self, our penchant for self-aggrandizement, and our selfish motives, it may not change our actions all that much.  A lot of times we do the right thing, yet the veil is over our hearts and we fail to discern the Lord behind the one He has brought into our path or fail to recognize that He has opened this door for us to know Him more intimately.  

As we have talked about before, sometimes we pass by the guy with a cardboard sign while other times we might find ourselves handing him a dollar or two.  Rather than concerning ourselves with whether he is going to buy a bottle of Night Train or a bag of beans to feed his kids, we know we have given it to the Lord.  The other soul, like us, is a free moral agent who must give account for his own actions and intentions.  

None of this makes me passive or a pacifist.  Sometimes the Way (still reading The Tao of Christ) leads us into confrontation, but we are not defending or protecting self.  We, as Paul told Timothy, may have to be God’s instruments to reprove, correct, and train in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).  Sometimes the righteous have to defend the innocent against those who have chosen to make their good the doing of wickedness.  Sometimes we all need our butts kicked.  Sometimes wickedness must be stopped.  Nevertheless, regardless of the means we have to use, we are to do it God’s way, at His time.    

As Jesus explained in the parable of the Good Samaritan, if we are walking down the road and see a guy in the ditch, we can be sure right away that he is our neighbor.  God didn’t throw that man into the ditch, but He did put us on that road.

     

Our Father's World

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.  – Galatians 4:1-2

With regard to these verses commentaries focus on the distinction between Israel – the called of God, under the law and the called and chosen under the New Covenant in Christ.  I was immediately reminded of one of my top five most-quoted passages, Ephesians 4:11-16, and in particular verse 13 which asserts that God gives us leaders and teachers … until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.   We can understand the historic perspective, but we should also see the personal application.  Individually, we start out in Christ needing a lot of help, a lot of support, teaching, and discipline.  We are, in effect, “under the law” for a time until our ability to communicate with God develops and matures.  Even after we have grown in the faith, there are often times when we need others to come alongside to encourage or correct us.  Sometimes I need a rebuke or reproof as 2 Timothy 3:16 says. 

We see something else inherent in this passage, though.  We have been adopted by the Father who “is the owner of everything”, and, that, as Paul points out, makes us the “owners” of everything as well.  Man was created and commissioned to rule in this world.  Adam lost his position through sin, and so we all have suffered in our fallen state.  We have been rained on where we should have reigned.  In Christ, our enslavement and servitude to the elements and powers of this world come to an end. 

I don’t know about me.  I believe there are saints who have overcome and matured in this life to the point that they rule and reign in this life.  I may have to wait until the next one – which is all right.  I don’t mind being in school all my life.  It seems to me that too much authority and power is kind of dangerous both for myself and for those around me.  Nevertheless, I think we need to realize we are part of the hierarchy, part of the ruling family, whether we are responsible for running much of the show or not. 

We all have spheres of authority, influence, and control.  Like the servants who were entrusted the talents, it may be small or large.  We are obligated to care for that with which the Lord has entrusted us to His glory and in His honor.  My wife always considered the condition of her house, her car, her lawn, whatever, as a reflection on Christ.  She kept things neat and orderly, clean and in good repair because a) she’s German; and b) it’s all the Lord’s stuff.  I believe that she was right in that we owe it to God to do the best we can where we have been placed. 

I also think it is a mistake to be silent and passive concerning the issues of the day.  This is especially true when it comes to children and education, but we ought also to stand up to oppression in every area where we can make our voices heard.  This is our Father’s world.  It’s never going to be utopia, Disneyland, or heaven, but it’s His, and we should live, work, and speak with that in our minds.   

Plate Spinners

As for you, son of man, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it. When this comes-and come it will!-then they will know that a prophet has been among them.” — Ezekiel 33:30-33

Again we are considering how people respond to the word of God. Now, obviously, Ezekiel was a true prophet, called and empowered by the Spirit to speak the truth and bear witness with regard to the plan and purpose of God. A part — possibly the main part — of a prophet's job is to convey the meaning and significance of events. Ezekiel was telling his people that the capture of Jerusalem and the deportation of its inhabitants was more than merely a demonstration of Nebuchadnezzar's military prowess. God had sent Babylon against His own people as a chastisement, a means of confronting with their failures and of correcting them.

Paul reflects upon the purpose of Scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16, saying, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness ...". The Bible is great literature, though the beauty of its truth far surpasses the beauty of its words. It contains some history, but, more importantly, it contains historical insight. It gives a truthful and reasonable revelation of the creation of man (though not a scientific explanation), but it also shows the end and destiny of man, which is far more vital.

Those who are preaching the truth are generally compelling, though not necessarily dynamic speakers. We are all familiar with Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" as a seminal work of American literature. As a Baptist kid I would have imagined Edwards declaiming with characteristic preacher "ah-oooom" sing-song style. I was a little amused when I later learned that Edwards would never have done anything so crass. He read his sermons directly off the page, rarely even looking up at the congregation. There was no drama in his delivery. He would have considered such a thing ungodly. Edwards simply used the power inherent in Scripture to bring his congregation to its knees. The story goes that many hearers were stricken with conviction and/or terror to the point that they clung to the columns in the church, so vivid was their fear of falling into hell.

But even the preaching of "hellfire and brimstone" can become more entertainment than enlightenment. This was the case with those who heard Ezekiel. He was not preaching easy, smooth, or pleasant things, yet people who listened to him were not being transformed nor were they being prompted to obedience by the unalloyed truth. Ezekiel was merely an entertaining novelty act, a plate-spinner. How many can he keep in the air at once? How many will fall and break? Though mesmerized by his "act", they put no more value his message than they would have on a clever song. Some people seem to think that having a pastor or teacher who talks really tough and is uncompromising a kind of evangelical status symbol. Others may flock to churches where holiness is emphasized in order to inoculate themselves against either hell or conviction.

No matter how hard a person preaches or how much the sermons center on our sinfulness, our need for redemption, the power of the Cross, or any other biblical truth, the word will have an impact on us only if we take it personally and seriously. I have some family members who are following a very questionable and detrimental path of conduct. They are, nonetheless, prominent members of a local church. One of the neighbors who attends the same church remarked that the pastor "preaches right at them", but it elicits no apparent conviction or response. This brings to mind a couple of points. The first is that it would be much more effective for the church to ask them to step down from positions of leadership and influence until their behavior is consistent with their testimony. That's not going to happen since they currently control the deacon board.

(As an aside, I hate deacon boards in the typical Baptist/Assembly of God church since they are really "boards of directors". Biblically, deacons are servants under leadership — not decision-makers.)

The second thing that bothers me about the neighbor's statement is that she needs to receive the word on her own. I am not saying that this person is not living in obedience. Rather, it is always a distraction and a temptation to judge others when we start to think that someone else needs to hear what is being said or read. If God is speaking to me from Scripture or through someone else, my first thought should be to figure out how the word applies to me. I will not say that I have never received a "word" for another person — but usually it will be a word of encouragement rather correction or reproof.

If I find out a friend is involved in some flagrant misbehavior such as cheating on a spouse, I need to tell that person that he or she is wrong. That is pretty obvious. Paul tells us that if someone is caught in any transgression, the spiritual should "restore him in a spirit of gentleness". He tells us to be careful for such actions are dangerous for the one doing the restoration, "Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."

We have to be careful at all times to maintain an attitude of humility, to never think we are better than the ones who are failing and faltering. Nor are we to think that we are immune to such transgressions. As the old song goes, “it is me, Lord, standing in the need of prayer.” Jesus did not say not to help our brother get the mote out of his eye. He simply warned us to, first, remove the log from our own that we might see clearly to help. If I realize that I am blinded by the massiveness of my own problems, I may be less likely to criticize others for their minor irritations. If I cannot see, I have to hear.

Portait of a Saint in a Cloud of Smoke

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the LORD sees, for man sees what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart." — 1 Samuel 16:7

I want to thank you all for your prayers with regard to the death of my brother-in-law. My wife's mother has now lost two of her five children in the last eighteen months. I can't imagine the pain of losing a child — even when the child is well-past middle age. Because my brother-in-law lived about seven hundred miles from where he was buried, there was a memorial service in his church with his pastor before the body was brought down here. The family asked me to speak at the funeral — I can't say I was happy to do it, but I knew him well. We didn't have to resort to a generic message brighten with a few personal sprinkles.

The truth is that my wife's brother was a troubled person. Dealing with him could range from frightening to frustrating to absolutely hilarious. I once knocked him flat on his back and bloodied his nose in the corridor of a VA hospital. As he started to sit up, he said, "That's all right. No, that's all right. I had that coming." And he did. On the other hand, he was the life of any party. He loved people and crowds and food and women. I started to say "pretty women", but, rather like Robert Heinlein, I don't think G. ever saw an ugly woman. If a person didn't know him, it was easy to think he was some kind of monster. He asked the wife of one of his nephews for a date, which would have been merely amusing, except it was at his own wife's funeral.

Still, the words that came to mind when I was told of his death were not words of criticism. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous money so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings. He loved to give. Even after he stopped drinking, he would buy a round for the house. He wanted to pay for every meal — including home-cooked ones. You couldn't give him a birthday present without fighting off payment. He handed money to strangers on the street. In one restaurant he frequented, the manager asked him to stop tipping so extravagantly because it made the waitresses uncomfortable.

Given his often questionable behavior, not to mention his outrageous words, it would be easy to question G.'s Christianity. He certainly professed his faith in Christ publicly and profusely. But the life of Christ in us, "the Master's indwelling", should have a transforming impact on our words, our worldview, and our actions. We should not amen the man who said, "It's true that I got drunk and slashed with my razor a fellow who caught me shooting craps with loaded dice, but, thank God, I've never lost my religion." It's not that we don't need to take thought for our deeds; we, and those around us, benefit from our attempts at self-discipline. God has given us a spirit of power, love, and good judgment. We as the Body of Christ should hold one another accountable for bad judgment and indifference to the sensibilities of others. Paul told Timothy that Scripture is useful for rebuking, correcting, and instructing.

Nevertheless, Christianity is not primarily a moral teaching or a program of social reform. Genuine Christian conversion takes place in the innermost part of the human soul and gradually — with the help of sacraments, ordinances, and disciplines, works its way out. Aside from a few months in the Marine Corps, G. never had fifteen minutes of discipline in his life. He had a dozen Bibles that he never read because he didn't like to read and "couldn't understand it". He no doubt prayed at times. He had been baptized. He occasionally took Communion. A Catholic by nature, he was poorly served by our evangelical protestantism. Had he been left alone by his sisters to follow the tradition of his grandparents and his father, he would have had the confessional and the Eucharist for his comfort and Mary and the saints for his devotion. Catholicism would have been as hospitable to him as it is inimical to me.

(That, too, is in God's hands. I am wrong. He was where he needed to be. Perhaps the benefit the rest of us received from his life and his struggles would not have been effective had G. remained a Catholic. God's connections always flow both directions.)

I think a funeral ought to comfort the living, but it ought also to make an initial assessment of someone's life — to give a brief first draft of their history and help those who remain gain a little perspective. I'd like to think G. appreciated my attempt to do that for him. I hope when I'm gone someone will do the same for me. My brother-in-law had many issues, but they were all at the surface. If he had only understood how to shut up and stop the mental traffic, he would have realized his sainthood. He was like the bush that got Moses' attention. He seemed to be on fire with passions and craziness, but the core of his life was serene and sanctified. When death finally extinguished the smokey, sputtering life of flesh, the holy inner man was left -- to be welcomed into eternal dwellings.