Category: identity

Posted on

Blast From the Past: The Prodigal Son: Becoming the Father

This is the fourth post in the series I wrote a few years ago. In The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri Nouwen writes that the challenge for him is to become the father. It is a challenge that is full of difficulties. When we look again at the Father in our own stories, we can see how daunting it is.

Our Father is gracious and loving without condition. He gives us many good gifts, but the most important gift he gives is himself. The Father is reckless in giving himself to us. Jesus, who is the image of the Father, gave his very life for us, pouring out his blood for our salvation. We are granted grace and mercy without measure from an eternal, inexhaustible love. There is nothing our Father wouldn’t do for our good.

As children of God, we are called to be like him. When I look in a mirror, I see my dad. The eyes, the facial features, the hair (or lack thereof), the voice, all show whose son I am. The same is to be true of those who are children of the heavenly Father. As God is loving and compassionate, so we are to be loving and compassionate. As God is gracious and merciful, so we are to be gracious and merciful. As God gives himself, so we are to give ourselves. You get the idea.

In my late twenties my life changed as I became a father. Even though I was still a son, I was now a person with a child. That brought a change in responsibilities, and a change in perspective. As we mature in Christ, we are to leave both the prodigal and the elder son behind. We are still in need of fathering from God, but our vocation changes. We are now called to be the father. As I look at the father in the story, I see some things that will be true as we become the father. Nouwen states that the three ways to compassionate fatherhood are grief, forgiveness, and generosity.

We grieve over those who have left home, we grieve over the injustice and abuse in the world, and we grieve over our own weakness. One aspect of grieving is realizing that we cannot save the one who has wandered away. The father in the story didn’t go after his son, but he watched and waited for him to return. So it is with us. Many times, all we can do is pray that God will turn the prodigal around. We can not go into the far country and drag them back. All we can do is wait and be ready to welcome them home.

This grieving makes us sensitive to others who are hurting, and the sensitivity leads us to forgive those who wrong us. As the father did, we forgive without question any and all who return. As Jesus said, we forgive, and forgive, and forgive, and forgive, and so on. True forgiveness also reconciles. The father didn’t say to the prodigal, “I forgive you, but I think I’ll just keep you on as a servant.” He accepted him back as his beloved son. No strings attached.

The third way to compassionate fatherhood is generosity. The father spared nothing to celebrate his son’s return. He gave the best of everything, including himself. We are called to give ourselves to others in the same way. Yes, we may get hurt. I’m sure the father was hurt when the elder son refused to join the party, and I would guess the younger son wasn’t perfect after he was restored. He may well have cause his father more pain. We are to remember the hurt we have caused our Father and the grace he gives us regardless, and do the same for others.

May the Father enable us to be as gracious, loving, and compassionate to others as he is to us.

 

 

Posted on

Little Shop of Horrors?

Earlier this week, I drove a busload to a local high school to see a performance of “Little Shop of Horrors.”  It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and it even provoked some thoughts. Disclaimer: my thoughts are not always normal.

The play is set in a failing flower shop on Skid Row. One of the employees, a young man named Seymour, comes into possession of an unusual plant that looks somewhat like a Venus Flytrap. The plant appeared mysteriously after a total eclipse. After the plant is displayed, the shop begins to do a booming business. Seymour soon realizes that keeping the plant alive and growing requires human blood.

As time goes on, the shop begins to prosper more and more, and Seymour himself begins to be famous. He is in high demand, and begins to fall into the “end justifies the means” trap. After a couple people end up dead and eaten, Seymour realizes that things are beginning to get out of control. However, he doesn’t know how to get himself out of this mess that he is in. After losing the woman he loves to the plant, he tries to  kill it and ends up being eaten himself. Because of an earlier deal Seymour had made with a grower, the plants are propagated and end up taking over the world.

As I watched the performance, I began to think about the Church, and its relationship to politics. Those of us who claim to follow the King of Kings are subjects of a Kingdom that transcends earthly kingdoms. The problems come when the Church, like Seymour, latch on to things that we think will bring power and prestige and allow us to influence others. We think, like Seymour, “What’s a little blood? It doesn’t take much, and it’s helping the cause so much!” We don’t realize that, like the plant, the systems of this world will not be satisfied with just a little blood. They continually cry, “Feed me!,” and demand greater and greater allegiance.

Look at the times when the Church has mixed with the state, from Constantine through the religious wars of Europe, through Germany in the 1930s and on into today’s struggles in Europe and the United States. The Church (Seymour) has enjoyed some brief periods of power and influence, but ultimately it’s been the state (the plant) that has come out the winner. The lure of using the power of the state to promote the Church is seductive, and it does make things better for some, for awhile. But the cost is far greater than we realize.

We are called to proclaim that Jesus is the True King, that he calls us to follow and obey him, and that he will return some day to consummate his Kingdom and set everything right. As part of that, we are called to speak the truth, whether that is to our neighbors, or to those in positions of power. We cannot speak truth to those in power if we are tangled up with them. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

Since our allegiance is to be given to the King of Kings, we should stay away from entangling ourselves with the powers of this world. It may be satisfying for awhile, but eventually they will eat us.

Posted on

Maundy Thursday: The King Prepares His Followers

On this night, some two thousand years ago, Jesus sat down with his disciples for a meal. It was Passover, and it was time to commemorate the time when the nation was rescued from their bondage in Egypt. Per God’s command, they had been keeping this meal for a long long time. Things would be a bit different at this Passover meal. This was the final one that Jesus would have with his followers and he added a couple of things to fit what this particular Passover would mean to them.

During the meal, Jesus added a little something. He took some bread, broke it, and passed it around, telling the disciples that this represented his body which was going to be given for them. He then passed  them a cup of wine that represented his blood which would be shed for them. After supper, Jesus got up, took off his outer garment, and wrapped a towel around his waist. He then poured some water into a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet. This was no ordinary task. Washing the feet of guests was a job that was usually reserved for the lowest servant in the house, and for good reason. First Century Palestine didn’t have paved roads and sidewalks. It was all dirt, and mixed in with the dirt were any number of nasty things. So, a person’s feet would be quite filthy after walking around for a few hours.

It’s interesting that none of the disciples offered to wash the feet of Jesus or their friends. Remember, this is the group who argued over which one of them would have the highest positions in the Kingdom. To be fair, I doubt that I would have been the first one to jump up and offer either. It’s comforting to know that those closest to Jesus could be just as selfish as me.

When Jesus finished the job of washing their feet, he told his disciples that they were do do the same for their fellow disciples. Over the centuries, people have had different opinions as to whether Jesus really wanted his followers to literally wash each other’s feet. I don’t hold to that, but I do believe that Jesus calls us to be willing to take the lowest position and serve others. When the disciples were arguing over who should be highest, Jesus told them that they were not to be like the people of this world, who climb up by treading on others, and then use their position to control them. He said that is what the rulers of this world do, but that we are not to be like that. In his Kingdom, those who are the lowest will be brought up and those who are the highest will be brought low.

As followers of the King, we are commanded to love others as we love ourselves, and to seek to serve rather than to be served. Even further, we are commanded to love fellow Christians as Jesus loved us. In case you haven’t paid attention, Jesus laid down his life for us. That means we are to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in Christ and love others (even the “sinners”) as we love ourselves.

As I look around at the Christian world, whether on social media or in real life, I don’t see a whole lot of self-sacrificial love or desire to serve others (I know, “pot, meet kettle”. I struggle with that too). If we are going to call ourselves followers of the Prince of Peace, should we be so quick to attack those who may disagree with us, whether verbally or physically? As subjects and representatives of the upside down Kingdom, the way we do things should look radically different from the kingdoms of this world, i.e. Babylon. Those who would have power and influence in Babylon must prove themselves to be stronger, more capable of defeating others. Babylon operates by using a sword. Those who would be first in the Kingdom of God must be servants who willingly lay down their rights, privileges, their lives in sacrificial love for others. The Kingdom of Jesus comes with a basin and a towel.

I fear there will be some who will stand before the King and say, “In your name, we beat our political foes. In your name we passed laws that made people act right. In your name we built a great country,” and he will say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” May we be those who hear, “Well done. Because you loved the least of these, you loved me.”

Posted on

Palm Sunday: The Coming of the King

On Palm Sunday, Christians commemorate Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem. It was just before the Passover celebration and the city was full of pilgrims who had traveled many miles to participate. The city was also full of Roman soldiers who were brought in to keep the peace. Tensions ran high, as many of the Jews were hoping that this year would be the year that the Messiah would come and lift the boot of Rome off their necks.

As Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, the crowd hailed him as the King who was prophesied.  They thought he would call all Israel to himself and send the Romans back to where they came from, restoring the glory that Israel had back in the days of David. After all, it was prophesied that a descendant of David would come and take the throne.

The people were correct. Jesus was the King that they had been waiting for. What they didn’t understand was the kind of King he was. They were looking for a King who would drive out the oppressors, who would rule a kingdom where everyone kept Torah, who would make Israel great again. Their focus was on an earthly king and an earthly kingdom. Pilate misunderstood too. He put a notice at the top of the cross proclaiming that this man being crucified was “Jesus, the King of the Jews,” in effect telling all who saw that Rome was powerful enough to do this to any would be king who challenged their authority.

I fear that many Christians in the West suffer from the same misunderstanding of Jesus. Yes, he is King. Yes, he is going to return and set everything right. But, his kingdom is still not a kingdom of this world, and it does not come by earthly means. We can not bring in the kingdom at the ballot box or in the halls of government. No government or nation can lay claim to being a “Christian” government or nation. No matter how good a nation may be, it is still a kingdom of this world. Babylon still exists in different forms around the world, and those who follow the True King are not to put their hopes in, or give their allegiance to Babylon. Our allegiance is only to Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Followers of Jesus realize that when he returns, it will be on his timetable. We can not work to arrange things in order to speed his return. None of that is in our hands. It’s a good thing, because we would royally screw it up.

Involvement in government is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it does not take the place of doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly with God, loving God with all our being, and loving others as ourselves. These days, that may be the most subversive, revolutionary thing we can do. It may get us in trouble in some circles, but we are called to follow our King wherever he leads, just as the early Christians did.

How many of us are willing to do that?

 

Posted on

Christian Nationalism?

Back in the early 80s, (yes I am that old) I was what you might call a Reagan Republican. I was a pretty conservative evangelical who believed that it was the Christian’s responsibility to influence government in ways that reflected God’s kingdom. I remember voting pretty much straight ticket Republican, except for the Senate race where the Democrat was more conservative than the liberal Republican. I was a teacher in a small Christian school affiliated with the Accelerated Christian Education folks. The writings of North and Rushdoony came across my desk and I earned a Master’s degree in Public Affairs, with an eye of possibly going into government. Of course, that was the time when the federal government put a freeze on hiring. I spent a summer carrying my resume all around downtown Washington in stifling heat in a futile attempt to convince someone that they should hire me. We moved to another town, and that idea disappeared.

The idea of “Christian Nationalism” was something confined to a few writers who believed that the country should be governed under Old Testament law. Fast forward to today. The words “Christian” and “Nationalism” have been combined to describe a philosphy that believes that the United States is and always has been a Christian nation and Christians should seek to take control and govern the country according to the Bible. Many believe that America is a special nation that has been blessed by God and that we must bring America “back to God.” A few years ago, I might have agreed with at least some of that thinking. Something happened though. I began to read the New Testament, especially the gospels, and in particular the teachings of Jesus.

Now, I still believe that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is true, that all Scripture is given by God for us, but I have come to believe that the teachings of the apostles found in the New Testament are not simply stand alone writings. They are the teachings telling the early Christians, and us, how to practically live out the teachings of Jesus. The teachings of Jesus in the gospels is where we start. Jesus didn’t come to earth just to die on a cross. He came to teach and to show us who the Father is. He spoke of a Kingdom that is not of this world, of how to enter that Kingdom, and of how to live as a subject of the true King. Not once can you find Jesus telling someone to ask him into their heart, but you can find many times when he told folks to follow him. That meant more than just going around the countryside with him and listening to what he said. To follow a rabbi as disciple meant to become like the rabbi. Jesus even said that those who did not obey his teachings had no place in his Kingdom.

The early Christians got in trouble with the Roman Empire, not because they were preaching that you had to accept Jesus in order to go to heaven when you die, but because they were proclaiming that this man from Galilee that the Romans executed had risen from the dead and was the one True King. That meant that Caesar was not the true king. The early Christians obeyed the laws of the empire, but they refused to pledge allegiance to Caesar. This continued for roughly three hundred years. Then Constantine claimed to have seen a cross in the sky, and made Christianity a legal religion. You could say that he was the first politician to use the Church for his own political ends. The next step was the decree by Theodosius I that Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. It was downhill from there.

History has shown that combining church and state tends to benefit those in both who are willing to use the other for their own ends, but it has also shown that while the state and the offical church gain, those who follow Jesus are often persecuted like those in the early Church. The state and the church wash each other’s backs and anyone who doesn’t go along with them is out. The founding of the United States was an attempt to end that, with the exception of those that saw this new land as a sort of a “new Israel.” For the most part that separation of church and state was successful for a couple hundred years. Now, that seems to be changing, at least in some circles. There are people who are calling for the Church to lead the state, for the laws of the country to favor one religion (“Christianity”) over all others. Many are using words and phrases that are only properly applied to Jesus Christ. “The best hope for mankind,” “The savior of our country,” among others.

In the first half of the last century, a man sought to gain power by promising the people that he would restore the nation to its formet glory and lead them to even more greatness and power. He promised a regime that would last a thousand years, surpassing even the Roman Empire. That man was Adolf Hitler. One of the groups supporting Hitler was something called the “German Christian Movement”. (sound familiar?) They saw him as someone who would end the decadence in Germany and purify it. A poster from the time features an image of Martin Luther, along with a swastika and the words, “Hitler’s fight and Luther’s teaching are the best defense for the German people.” Of course, we know how that pairing of church and state turned out.

The Kingdom that we belong to as followers of Jesus is a Kingdom that is not from this world. It is a Kingdom that comes through love and service, rather than power and force. It is a Kingdom that works from the inside out, not through law and coercion. It has been said that the Kingdom of God comes, not through a sword, but through a towel. Unfortunately, the Church has forgotten that through the centuries, and has aligned itself with the kingdoms of this world in an attempt to bring God’s Kingdom to this earth. Instead, these unholy unions have only brought war, bloodshed, and oppression. The nations have disappeared or been greatly reduced and the church has suffered. What would lead us to think that the results would be any less disastrous in our day.

Some (many?) of you may disagree with me. That’s your prerogative. I would only ask that you look at the history of the early Church. I would especially ask that you look at what Jesus himself said about his Kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start.

Posted on

Blast From the Past: Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given, Part 4

In Life of the Beloved, Henri Nouwen writes about the four words that helped him identify the movements of the Spirit in his life. Those words are, taken, blessed, broken, and given. In previous posts I have looked at the first three. Today, I want to look at the fourth word.

As followers of Jesus, we are to be bread for the world. As such, we are taken (chosen) to be blessed. We are blessed so that we may be broken. We are broken so that we may then be given. The chosenness, blessedness, and brokenness are not just for our benefit, although we do gain from it. These things happen to us so that we might be a blessing to others. The communion bread is given for the benefit of others. It is to be the same with us. We do not live for ourselves, we live for others.

Jesus commanded us to love others as he loved us. That means we are to lay down our lives for others. We are to live lives of sacrificial love. Ephesians 5:1 & 2 calls us to imitate our Father by living a life that is characterized by the same love that he showed to us. The Father’s love for us is a giving love. Abba loves us simply because he loves us. He gives us his grace regardless of what we do. We are his beloved children and he is pleased with us. Therefore, he loves us.

We are called to that same love that gives. If I do something for someone with an expectation of something in return, I am not showing love. That is a lesson that can be very difficult to learn, but it is necessary. Nouwen states that we find our greatest fulfillment in giving our self to others. I think he is right. After the fulfillment we find only in God, our greatest sense of worth comes when we are able to show God’s love to another individual. We can see this sense of fulfillment in those who don’t know Christ yet give to others.

This giving must be a conscious, deliberate thing. It is not going to happen automatically. We must determine day by day to give ourselves away. We can do this as we embrace being chosen by the Father, being blessed by him, experiencing brokenness, and realizing that all of this is so that God can give us to others. Paul writes that it is Christ who lives in us. It is Jesus who empowers us to give ourselves.

The giving can take many forms. It can be helping someone move, or repairing something around their house. It can be having them over for a meal. It can be something as simple as just spending time with someone and really listening to them without judging or trying to “fix” things (That’s hard for some of us). It doesn’t matter what form the giving takes as long as it is done for the good of another without expecting anything in return, simply because we love the other person. Being in community with other believers and sharing our lives with them will teach us to give, and to receive, as we interact as brothers and sisters.

As we live a life of sacrificial love, we can even give to others in our death. Our legacy can inspire others to give themselves as they remember the love that God showed them through us. A few years ago, a commercial for a pizza brand asked, “What do you want on your Tombstone?” A good thing for a Christian to be able to have on their tombstone when they die would be, “He showed us Jesus.” That would sum up a life lived as one taken, blessed, broken, and given.