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.

     

Matters of Conscience

The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. -- Romans 14:2

 A brief riff on yesterday's post:

This is the American verse in Romans 14, which is the probably the American chapter of Romans, which may be the most American book of the Bible.  We belong to different denominations and hold different views on church authority, on communion, on all kinds of things.  People have killed other people over transubstantiation.  I believe what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:29, For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself, but I would not say that means exactly the same thing to me that it means to the average devout Catholic.  That would be a matter of faith that I have between myself and God. 

Being in one accord doesn't require that we have exactly the same understanding of everything.  The error of most varieties of ecumenicism is that they end up saying our matters of faith do not matter when they matter very much, just not in the horizontal.  What matters in the arms of the Cross is how we treat one another.  We ought always to humble ourselves and give preference to the wants and needs of others.   

As long as a person who claims to be a believer is not actually doing anything to bring shame to the Name of Christ, it is not our concern.  Certainly when someone is living and acting in a way that everybody knows is wrong -- like the man in Corinth who was sleeping with his mother, or a woman who cheats on her husband, or a man who gets drunk and beats his wife or causes a car wreck, a thief, a liar, a glutton, or a gossip -- we should call them out.  If they claim to be in Christ while living in open, obvious contradiction to Him, we should have nothing to do with them and not allow them into our communion until they repent and step away from their egregious sin.

Otherwise, I believe what I believe.  I may think someone is wrong about some point of doctrine, and I will hold to my belief, but I will let God deal with both me and my brother.  We could both be wrong.  Or both right.

Picture Windows

And he marveled because of their unbelief.  And he went about among the villages teaching.  -- Mark 6:6

We have talked about this before, but faith gets a lot of coverage in the Bible, and I reckon there’s a good reason for that.  The people who caused Jesus to marvel were those from His hometown, and it brings us back to the point of faith being a matter of the object of attention.  The crowds in Jerusalem and around the rest of the country saw the miracles.  The people of Nazareth saw the boy who had lived among them and grown up.  Both missed the point.

Many followed Jesus because He fed them and healed them.  They listened to His teaching because, though He was saying many of the things they had heard before, it was coming across on a different frequency and bringing something else with it.  It had a life to it that went through them like a current.  It is the difference between an apple you pull off a tree and the processed and packaged “apple pie” at the fast food dispenser.   Eat raw fruit or vegetables and you can feel a surge that you never get from eating something that has been pre-digested. 

I have had conversations about why miracles no longer happen.  First, I reject that premise as I have been witness to a number of them.  But let’s accept that we do not often see people healed by the Pope’s shadow – as was the case with Peter.  Some suggest that the difference is the absence of the Incarnate Christ.  There, though, Jesus was walking around in the flesh, yet no great healings or miracles were taking place.  What was the problem in Nazareth?  They could not get past the meat of the Incarnation.  They could not see the IN. 

Paul warns against engaging in Communion without discerning the Body.  In another passage, he tells us that the letter kills while it is the Spirit who gives life.  If we can’t get past the forms, the rituals, the pictures, and the letters, we are trapped.  We can become bound in the rope God has thrown us to climb.  Look through the window – not at it. 

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).  We hear the truth, and we see, no longer, the person but the Person; we get past the vehicle.  “Look a talking donkey!”  Yes, but old Balaam needed to know what the donkey had to say, which is why she started talking.  When he heard it, his eyes were opened and he saw the destruction to which his path led. 

Through the Cross, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus brings to us a new kind of life.  We become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, branches of the Vine.  When you look around at everybody else and even when you look in the mirror, you need to be looking through the window, past the meat, to the Light and the Life. 

Honey and Chicken

A person who is full tramples on a honeycomb, but to a hungry person, any bitter thing is sweet — Proverbs 27:7

Jesus told us if we will hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled. The requisite to being filled is to be empty. It is the essence of any Zen practice. As long as we think we have the answers, the answer will remain elusive to us. We may nibble around the corners, like the Hobbits toward the end of Bilbo's birthday feast, but we'll be picky and selective about what we are nibbling.

On an outdoor forum I used to frequent, one poster had for his signature line, "Hunger is the best sauce." I have a particular aversion to chicken. I have no real idea why that is. All I know is that the smell of chicken frying or baking, though appealing to most people, is almost nauseating to me. I think I could eat chicken if I couldn't smell it. Early one summer I hired on with a crew to haul hay at two cents a bale. I made $48.00 that day between about 8:00am and 11:00pm. Mom's breakfast kept me going until the shadows were long in the hollows. At last we paused for supper. It was fried chicken. I almost wept. Fortunately they had a few beans as well, but it was a mighty small serving. Knowing it would be hours yet before I got anything else to eat, I managed to not breathe and choke down most of a drumstick. I was hungry.

All of us have bitter, negative experiences from time to time. If our hearts are longing for truth, we will find the presence of God, even in the midst of unpleasantness. To the hungry heart, there is as much nourishment in the bitter as in the sweet. The Shepherd's Psalm talks about the Lord preparing a table for me in the presence of my enemies. It is the communion with Him that satisfies us. It is the Lord Himself Who satisfies my longing and renews my strength when I am under pressure and in the midst of trials. Bitter, sweet, rich, or plain, it doesn't matter if we "recognize the body [of Christ]" in that which comes to us.

The person who is full of self and self-satisfied will show disdain for all the gifts of God. They may ignore God, reject God, or demand that He conform to their requirements. They may call themselves Christians and run from church to church, event to event, claiming to seek the very truth they trample underfoot. For those obsessed with critiquing the music, the order of service, and the preaching, the problem is likely that they are not really hungry enough. When I am too full of flesh, I will not appreciate manna.

Like the Prodigal, I may need to recognize that I could have something better than husks and hog-slop. It may look like a long, empty road home. I may dread the humiliation of admitting that I am not all I thought I was. At the end, though, I will find my Father watching, waiting, and ready with all that is Good to fill the empty heart.