Settling My Own Problems

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. --  1 Corinthians 6:9-11

This looks like it is turning out to be our theme for the week.

Being a libertarian, I like to let people mind their own business.  As John Wayne, in the character of John Bernard Books put it in The Shootist:   I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them.

What a person wants to do, so long as he or she is not harming or taking advantage of anyone else, is between that person and the Lord.  The kingdom of God is made up of all kinds of former sinners.  Being a former sinner is rather like being a former single person who is now married or a former civilian who is now in the military.  We have entered into a contract or covenant that controls in a new way what we do and how we have to think.  So, as former sinners, we have entered into the fellowship of the saints, being, by the Spirit, in covenant through Christ.  Our outlook and our behavior will be no longer the same. 

We also appreciate another Duke quote, this time through character Tom Doniphon from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance:  Out here a man settles his own problems.  We might add, “By the grace of God through faith”, but otherwise, what good is a man or woman who refuses to face up to the difficulties at hand?  Assuredly -- except possibly for the fictional John Ford cowboy, we all need others to lend a hand from time to time; no one can stand alone against evil. 

Yet, alone, we must peer into our hearts:  Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!  

There is a traitor in our midst, one who cannot be trusted, who must be locked down and guarded.  Release the old man from confinement, and he will jump your claim, poison the waterhole, bushwhack and back-shoot you.  He will swear his allegiance and tell you how much you need his help, but all your valiant efforts, good intentions and best-laid plans will come to naught so long as he is involved. 

Thus, if we see someone who claims to be a Christian yet remains in thrall to the old Adamic nature, we are right to question that one’s sincerity or understanding, or both.  Some of the items in Paul’s list may cut a little close to some of us.  We know our weaknesses, where we are most likely to stumble and fall, but we also know the way out of our temptations and even our failures.  The Apostle John puts it like this:  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  In here a man settles his own problems:  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

The mistake the people in Corinth were making was to suggest that what they were doing and how they were living was unrelated to their “state”.  We cannot claim that sin doesn’t count or that, because we are the ones doing it, it is not sin.  No exemptions:  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

To stand together with our brothers and sisters against evil in the world, we must first stand with Christ alone against the evil in our hearts.

Every Pearl Has Its Price

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’ … See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. – Deuteronomy 32:35,39 (ESV)

Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you. – Proverbs 20:22

John Wayne movies are practically a genre unto themselves. From Stagecoach to The Shootist, Wayne looms over the history of American cinema as few other figures have. Almost all his films are entertaining, even if, like me, a person has seen them multiple times. A few are really bad. Many are classics: Liberty Valance, Stagecoach, The Searchers, The Sands of Iwo Jima, Red River, and the list could go on. Some of the flaws in a typical John Wayne movie are really flaws in a typical John Ford movie, but even the flaws can be enjoyable. Someday, perhaps, I will do an entire post on what John Wayne and John Ford mean to me. But I really want to talk about today is True Grit, the 1969 film for which John Wayne won an Oscar and which was remade by the Coen brothers last year.

I did not go see the new True Grit in the theaters as Joan recommended, but I did pick it up last week on Blu-Ray. Directed by Henry Hathaway in 1969, the first iteration of True Grit is very much a John Wayne vehicle. It is the tale of an adventure seasoned with masculine comedy absent any vulgarity, slightly over-the-top, and positive. Adapting from Portis’ 1968 novel rather than the first movie, the Coen brothers created a film that is, in many ways, superior, with better performances by several of the cast embedded in a narrative that is both richer and more satisfying but also more troubling.

At the very beginning we hear the voice of Mattie Ross telling us, “You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothing free except the grace of God.” In the context of the flight to escape by the murderer of Mattie’s father, we naturally think that Tom Chaney is the one who must pay for his crime, and that is true. Chaney does pay, but so do all those who live in this world. Mattie must pay her way. She pays for the help she needs to track down her father’s killer with money, but she also pays with a loss of her childhood innocence. Though she is by nature extremely intelligent, serious and sober, she possesses noble, if slightly unrealistic, notions of justice and righteous action. Her view, at least initially, is Old Testament-based in that she believes the justice of her cause alone will enable her to prevail. This is a naïve view, not so much with regard to prevailing but with regard to the cost of prevailing.

The climatic confrontation takes place in the significantly name Winding Stair Mountains. Our ascent through this life, though the old King James calls it ‘strait’, is hardly straight. The path to life and to grace has many strange twists and turns. All actions in this fallen world have reactions. Our best efforts often recoil back upon us in ways we could not anticipate. Even when we possess the wisdom to foresee, we sometimes feel constrained to carry through despite the consequences. Most of us know or will learn a “secret” which is that a person can have and do about what he or she wants -- only one must accept the cost. Like Mattie, God is a flawless bookkeeper. The books will balance in the end, and they will balance on every individual account regardless of how we may justify our actions.

If the law of action and reaction, of karma or whatever one chooses to call it were all then we would be trapped in a deterministic universe, hopeless in the face of infinite chain reactions and falling dominoes. But one thing is truly and truthfully free, and that is the grace of God through Christ Jesus. Christ alone is able to write, from His infinite store of righteous obedience, Paid In Full upon the account of each and every one of us. He is able to break the chain of consequence and release us from the bondage of ricocheting reactions.

Whether a person chooses to call Mattie’s actions vengeance or justice makes little difference. Externally the results can be indistinguishable. It is our internal balance that determines whether we keep our footing or are cast down into a pit of death. The toxin of vengeance is deadly indeed. Unchecked it will destroy us completely. Even when dealt with quickly, the damage is often extensive and the losses heartrending. But the grace of God does not abandon us.

Our journey, like Mattie’s, can become nightmarish, surreal in its horrors, flooded with fear, pain, and dread. Yet it is here most of all that we find ourselves in the “Everlasting Arms” of God’s grace, carried by Him, the karmic chain sundered. We are the Cross of Christ, and He bore us in it from death to life. “There is nothing free except the grace of God.”

Cheap Sunglasses

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable – if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise – dwell on these things. Philippians 4:8

Look at that verse. Turn it around in your mind. Imagine if the Apostle had said, “Whatever is false, dishonorable, unjust, filthy, ugly, and despicable – if there’s anything reprobate and if there’s any complaining – dwell on these things.” Who would want to do that? I know there are the usual suspects – the Obamas, Rev. Wright, and Jimmy Carter. But I’m talking about normal people. Why would anyone want to dwell on the dark, nasty aspects of life?

Being happy is just as cheap as being miserable. They do not charge positive, bright-side people any more at that gas station than they charge bitter Obama supporters clinging to their victim status and their government cheese. No, everything does not go my way, but it doesn’t go my way whether I’m fretting, miserable, and angry, or whether I’m happy, upbeat and peaceful. The only difference is that in the latter case I’m happy and in the former I’m unhappy.

Maybe it’s like people used to say: “My future’s so bright I have to wear shades”.

The world can be a difficult place and our place in it can be uncertain. We do not have all the answers. Perhaps shading our eyes with a little pessimism takes some of the harshness and contrast out of what we see. We use negative thinking to moderate our losses and hurts and failures. If the thing that happens is not as bad as what we imagined might happen, it may be easier to take.

I suppose that would be all right except that our shades also moderate what is good. Meditating on all the ugly keeps us from look for and seeing the beautiful. We have a better option. Instead of wearing cheap, black frames of pessimism, we can rest our eyes upon the eternal. Put on the sombrero of salvation and crank the front brim down a little.

With an eternal perspective, the pains of this world ease. We realize our losses are not permanent. We understand that life has a purpose beyond life. The beauty in this life is a foretaste of its ideal manifestation in the Real. It brings us joy here and now because it connects us with the eternal. Paul’s admonition is to meditate on those things that will fill us with the light and perfection of the Divine.

We need not burden ourselves with falsehoods, lies and deceptions. We can turn off the evening news. We can read great books and listen to good music. We can find truth in the Bible certainly, but also in the Upanishads, The Silmarillion, or Treasure Island. There is purity in music.

And, of course, there are John Wayne movies.

If you wanted to teach a child about nobility, loyalty and redemption you could do a lot worse than to show them Stagecoach. Who cannot see the beauty in Red River, The Quiet Man or The Searchers? Where in all the world is moral excellence seen if not in Rio Bravo or The Cowboys? Where is honor if not in True Grit?