Unlearning church-speak about sin

"If you don't forgive others, God won't forgive you."

"Your sin is separating you from the love of God."

"God is just waiting on you to turn back to Him so that He can love you."

"You can't draw near to God while you're in sin."

If any of these statements (that I heard all of my life in church) are true, then I'm doomed.  If I have to "straighten up my act" or "get it right," then I have no hope.  Perhaps more importantly, if any of these things are true (if I'm capable of forgiving others first;  if I'm capable of casting aside my sin) then why did Jesus die?

Do we, as parents--who love very poorly compared to God, stop loving our children because of their sinful behavior?

Are we waiting constantly (maybe not patiently, but constantly) for our children to return to us?

Does the sin of our children cause us to turn away from them?

No.  Nor does our sin cause God to turn His back on us.  God is constantly, and patiently, loving us. God isn't shaking His finger at us, or saying:  "tsk, tsk."  In fact, the only reason that God wants us to stop sinning is for our own good.  It's not so that God can love us--He already does.  Our sin doesn't separate us from His love--at least from God's perspective.

Sometimes, maybe oftentimes, our love separates us from God--but only from our perspective.   We don't want to go to God in our shame, in our helplessness, in our despair.  We want to get it right before we turn to Him.  When this is our view, the day of turning back to Him never comes.

As a friend of mine said to her husband, upon hearing PZ preach for the first time:  "Wow, Christianity is 'sola gratia' not "sola bootstrapa.'"  She further said to him:  "Why have we never heard this in the church?"  They immediately joined the Advent.

This is why I go to church--to have it proclaimed that I can't out-sin God's love, that He never turns His back on me, that He is never surprised nor disheartened by my sin.  Then, and only then, does my sinful nature lessen.  It lessens not because of admonition, shame, or exhortation.  Rather, it lessens out of thankfulness to the One who never turns His back on me--whose character is always to have mercy--the One that came to earth to ensure that I fully understand this message of One Way love.

My dialogue with atheists/agnostics--Part 2--a response

Obviously, if one stops with merely questioning God, one's life is hellish.  (Actually, all of our lives are hellish, but some are more than others.)  Can we live in hellish surroundings with peace and joy? Yes, but only if we come to believe in a loving, providential God.  "Taste Him and see that He is good."

Thesis 1--God is providential.  When James was 7, I told him the story of how Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, how his father (Jacob) and brothers were then saved from the famine, how the descendants of Jacob became the nation of Israel while enslaved in Egypt.  James's response:  "My gosh, we're God's chess pieces."

Thesis 2--God is good.  A friend of mine recently expressed her exasperation with her prayer group at church:  "If we pray for someone's 115 year old aunt again, I'm going to scream.  If we believe in heaven, maybe we shouldn't be praying for her good health.  I want to pray about real issues--broken marriages, unloving parents, etc."  Indeed, do we believe in heaven--or stated more helpfully to me--"Do we believe in a loving eternal God?  If so, we can believe that He wants to spend eternity with us."  (This idea came from Tim Keller).  So, ultimately every tear is going to be dried from our faces.

Answer--"Taste and see that He is good."  One of my best friends growing up has had much more death in his immediate family than me.  He doesn't profess Christianity--he is Jewish.  But he believes in a merciful God.  He told me that if God is not for us, then we're screwed anyway.  So, he chose to believe that God is for us.  Then, as he lived his life with this belief, he came to find that it is true.  Indeed, he is not offended by Jesus, and probably understood Jesus' radicality more than I did for years.  My friend told me that he received a Christmas present this year--"a pope that actually lives out what Jesus said."

My dialogue with atheists/agnostics--Part 1--greater love for God

I was telling a Christian friend of mine about how helpful my dialogue has been with some of my atheist/agnostic friends.  The dialogue obviously centers around whether there is a God and, if so, is he good?  My friend said that this question is one of those freshman-dorm type questions--one which can't be proven one way or the other.  Therefore, why discuss it?

In discussing this issue with atheists and agnostics, I have heard their plaintive cries--which have become my plaintive cries:  If there is a God, why God why?  Why is the world so f___'ed up?  Why doesn't my wife love me?  Why is my boss an asshole?  Why is my child mentally retarded? If there is a God, why did he allow Hitler to slaughter my people?

I never had this depth of emotion before.  I said blithely: "Jesus died to save me.  Therefore, everything is going to be okay." While true, it is superficial.  While true, it is only lip-speak.  If you don't acknowledge and grapple with your broken heart, then you will never fully know Jesus.

Atheists and agnostics are willing to discuss these difficult issues, because it is these very issues which cause them either to reject or to doubt God.  But the same is true for Christians.  We all doubt God's goodness at some point, often at many points.  Yet, for years, this seemed to be a taboo topic for me.  It's not taboo for atheists and agnostics.

As I have discussed this world's brokenness, the inhumanity of man towards man, it has taken it's emotional toll upon me.  But rather than ignoring or dealing superficially with this difficult "freshman-dorm" question, I have come to believe more than ever before that this radical, enigmatic, friend to the sinners is the only answer.  He is the only answer, because He reveals that God's disposition towards man is one of mercy.  God has lived through, embraced fully, this fallen world.  God has been the victim of this fallen world.  Yet, He is our friend--a friend of sinners.  Yet, He brings us life--now and forevermore.

Praise God for those who question Him.  For only they can come to truly know Him in all of His mercy and grace.

Hope for the dying (which is everyone)--mercy times 490

"Jesus, how often shall I forgive? 70 times 7."

Proclaiming forgiveness for those who killed Him: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

In Paul Zahl's latest book, "PZ's Panopticon," Zahl says that the primary word from God is mercy--and not just mercy to some--but mercy to all.  Zahl writes his book from the view of a person who is having a "near death" experience.  The thesis is: what do different religions have to say to a person who is near death?  With Christianity, the message is one word--mercy.

Zahl seeks to unearth this message from the 2000 years of subjugation, minimalization, obfuscation, and bastardization that this message has received from the Church and others  (These are my words, not Zahl's).  Zahl, as always, says it in a more compelling fashion than anyone else:

"Christianity seems almost 'tailor made' to be a help in time of need for people like our main character, near dead and spelling out a message of invincible pain.  But Christianity is often understood as the opposite of that.  In fact, so different has Christianity become in presentation from what it is in essence, that the contrast could almost make you believe in the existence of Satan. What?

To our near-dead victim of life, it is not likely that he has known Christianity to be anything other than the Grouch-Religion of the world.  He has probably been so shaped by the invisible force-field of attitudes and assumptions that surrounds him, that he has barely been able to give a hearing to Christianity in its core form, which is a religion of mercy and forgiveness.

I said "Satan" above--and I mean by that, something malicious, a dog in the manger, a "horse with no name (America)--because it becomes malice when a genuine possibility of help is actively prevented from getting to where it is needed.  It is like blocking the road to a fire so that the fire-engines can't get through...

The mercy intrinsic to the teachings of Christ is something that is there from the beginning to the end.  It is the crowning feature of what turned into the world's most populous religion.

For quite a few people, there is something upsetting about the 100%-with-no-exceptions forgiveness that Jesus talked about.  It is a feature that upsets conservatives.  But it also upsets liberals.  There is something in it to offend everybody.  Except the person who needs it at the time."

This is Ellis again--to all of my friends and, indeed, anyone reading this--May you know the 100% with-no-exceptions forgiveness that God has proclaimed through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His only-begotten Son.

Fear: King Ahaz's and Our Unholy Alliances, and God's Peculiar Response

I have new-found respect for Barbara Walters.  She acknowledged, much to the chagrin of many of her friends, that she and others had thought that Obama would be the "messiah."  That's right, she used the word "messiah" to denote a political leader.  But it's not only liberals who think that the right political leader will lead his or her people into a new land of prosperity and/or equality.  The Republicans felt the same way about Ronald Reagan.  Many would exhume Reagan from the grave if life could be breathed back into him.

In looking to a political leader as the "messiah," what is motivating people?  Chiefly fear.  We want a political leader to protect us from things we fear: poverty, terrorism, inequality, threats and injustice of all manner.  But fear motivates us not only in our choice of political leaders, but in all aspects of life.

Due to fear, we work too many hours--placing our work above relationship with our families.

Due to fear, we "helicopter" parent our children--leading to self-focused, incompetent teenagers and adults.

Due to fear, we make unholy alliances supporting splinter groups in the Middle East who now turn our weapons upon us.

Due to fear, we seek human remedies, not divine ones.

Our shallow, faithless reactions to fear have plagued man since the Garden of Eden.  Remember the apple--it reflected man's desire to be his own savior.

In Isaiah 7, we learn that King Ahaz, king of the southern kingdom (Judah) was fearing an attack from the northern kingdom--Israel.  In order to protect his country, Ahaz made an alliance with Assyria--a pagan nation.

As PZ often preaches:  This really happened.  In fact, there is an obelisk in the British Museum which shows envoys from Judah bringing riches to the Assyrians to obtain their protection--protection against their own people--the Jews of the northern kingdom.  The Assyrians were a strong nation and greatly feared.  They also believed in child sacrifice.  So, Ahaz basically cut a deal with the devil to protect himself and his people.

At this point, Isaiah is given a word from the Lord to speak to Ahaz.  We would expect Isaiah to chastise Ahaz for his unholy alliance and to proclaim that God will fight Ahaz's battle if Ahaz will turn to God.  But this isn't what Isaiah says.  Isaiah instead proclaims the Gospel--the word of man's rescue by a Divine Being which we have heard since Genesis 3.

Isaiah proclaims to Ahaz and to the people of Judah:  "A virgin shall bear a child and his name shall be Emmanuel."  What a peculiar proclamation.  What a seemingly non-responsive, unhelpful word from God--a virgin birth of a child called Emmanuel.  How will a child protect the citizens of Judah from their neighbors to the north?

How would Ahaz have interpreted this?  Ahaz likely believed that Isaiah was proclaiming that a man would be borne who would solve Judah's problems from a worldly standpoint.  This was part of the Jewish messianic tradition.  This was Ahaz's concern (and not an improper one)--resolving the current problems of Judah.  He believed, like we all tend to believe, that the right man can save us--whether it be King David, King Solomon, Reagan, Obama, or Hillary.  This, thankfully, is not the word that we receive from God.

Instead of proclaiming a savior riding a white charger and leading God's army, Isaiah proclaims the birth of a child--from a virgin no less.  A birth which is from a virgin and, therefore, divine in origin.  God's entry into our world.  What's more, the name of the child would be Emmanuel--"God with us."  Isaiah was proclaiming that God would enter the world through a miraculous birth and would live amongst us.  No god had ever deigned to live amongst men.  No wonder Ahaz didn't understand the proclamation. We are fortunate that we have Jesus' birth and life.  We can see the true meaning through the rearview mirror of time.

Ahaz's salvation, and that of his people, would not come from a warrior king, but instead from a child king.  How could a child king save anyone?  He couldn't from a worldly standpoint.  But given his descent from the realm of the divine, he could save man from his greater problem--the fact that our presence in the worldly realm is very short-lived.  By joining us in this world, the child king can guide us into the next.  He can deliver us from the fears we experience in this life and the fear of what is to come.

Let the Dead Bury the Dead--Death at Thanksgiving and Good News

One of my partners, Ed Ashton, has sent me back to the Gospels.  I've been thru many phases in my search for God.  Growing up I wanted God to bring me worldly success, so I read the Bible as a self-help book.  Then, I met Paul Zahl who introduced me to a God who was more interested in my failures, than my successes.  He was a great friend of Luther, so I began reading Luther day and nite.  Luther presented a picture of God as omnipotent but merciful--declaring that God's grace wasn't only necessary for salvation, but also sanctification.  Luther said that, until we die, we will be part saint but also part sinner.  Then, thru a Bible study with Alan Ross, I became enamored with the grace found in the OT.  It began to seem that God's character was merciful and changeless.  Now, because of Ed, I'm going back to the Gospels.

Ed said that the Jesus of the Gospels is not someone that you can always cozy up to.  Yes, Jesus proclaimed that the meek would inherit the earth, that the poor would find joy.  But other statements by Jesus seem uncaring and hateful:  "If you do not hate your family, you do not love me."  "Let the dead bury the dead."  

What are we to make of these enigmatic sayings of Jesus?  Do we throw them out, because they seem incongruous with His other teachings? No, because they are off-putting, they are that much more likely to have been accurately recorded.  (If people are creating a religion, they wouldn't list Jesus' enigmatic sayings, just as they wouldn't reflect the disputes between Paul and Peter as the leaders of the new religion.)  Many of Jesus' pronouncements were similar to those of the prophets, but these two were not.  So, how do we read these two?  Are they Good News?

Last year, on the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, we lost Butch Smith, my children's godmother and probably my wife's best friend.  This year, on the night before Thanksgiving, we lost Debbie's dad.  If you take Jesus' sayings literally, then Debbie shouldn't love her family--"hate your mother and father."  If we take Jesus' sayings literally, then Debbie should let others tend to burying her father.  Obviously, these sayings are not to be taken literally.  If we don't take these sayings literally, how do we read them?  We read them in the context of Jesus' reason for coming to earth and living amongst us.

Jesus came to proclaim the everlasting Kingdom of God.  So that we would know what type of kingdom God ruled, Jesus came to reveal God's attributes.  We tend to believe that God is not approachable--how could mere man approach his creator, indeed the creator of the universe?  Jesus came to demonstrate that God is approachable.  Jesus was born a baby in a manger, not a palace.  Who can't approach a baby born in humble circumstances?  Jesus began his life in a backwoods town--Nazareth--the son of a carpenter.  Again, not someone who is unapproachable.  Jesus' last years were lived as a homeless, itinerant preacher--approachable.  Finally, Jesus was subjugated to the desires and whims of the political and religious rulers of His day and hung upon a cross.  Again, approachable.

Jesus wasn't just approachable however.  He lived a life filled with mercy.  He showed mercy upon women, prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors, Roman soldiers, Gentiles, Samaritans--virtually every group that was on the "outs" in Roman--occupied Israel.  Jesus broke through social, political, and economic boundaries.  He was the "friend of the sinner."  He was acquainted with our griefs and sorrows.  So, how do we read his sayings which appear to reflect that He is unconcerned with our sorrows? It all goes back to His purpose--declaring the advent of the Kingdom of God and the character of the Kingdom.

In the Kingdom of God, familial relationships will pale in comparison to the love flowing from Jesus to us and then to all mankind.  Indeed, at Thanksgiving, we recognize that familial relationships are often based upon past hurts, rejection, bitterness, jealousy, and other life-sapping emotions.  So, if familial relationships are as good as it gets, then maybe we should look for another Kingdom, for another God.  But the Good News is that Jesus tells us that relationships in the Kingdom will make worldly familial relationships pale, absolutely pale, in comparison.  We can rejoice in the expectation, and the enjoyment, of such relationships.  My very best friends are those that also believe that God's character is always to have mercy.  (Denominational issues do not occlude our relationships).  Yet, friendships don't end there.  In the Kingdom, we can actually love our enemies.  In doing so, we often find that they are not truly our enemies or, often times, they become friends.  So, it's not that we are to  "hate our mothers and fathers," it's that a relationship with Jesus, and Kingdom relationships, are just that much better.

What about letting the "dead bury the dead?"  Jesus spoke these words as he was calling one of His disciples to join Him in His work of proclaiming the advent of the Kingdom.  Jesus' words connote, not that He was uncaring about a dead father, but that the news about the Kingdom is so wonderful that time should not be wasted in proclaiming it.  Indeed, the news about the Kingdom is a balm, indeed the only true balm, to those who have lost loved ones.  For the Kingdom is ruled by a merciful eternal King--one who is acquainted with our sorrows and is "making all things new"--even unto and after worldly death.

One-way Love (grace) reverses the "Kramer"--A brief tribute to PZ

Christian terms--such as grace, mercy, atonement, justification--often fall upon deaf ears.  This deafness could be due to the person listening, or the deafness could be because of the message delivered.  Paul Zahl realizes this, and he is constantly using new terms to describe Christian principles--this allows me and others to hear Christianity afresh.  This allows the Good News to work upon my egotistical, Pharisaical heart.  So, what is the "Kramer?" (I presume that Kramer is PZ's take on Karma.)

The "Kramer" in PZ's parlance is the "generational curse."  You can see the sins of the parents visited upon the children.  Parents who commit suicide have children who commit suicide.  Parents who are controlling have children who are controlling--and turn the control back against the parents when the parents age.  Parents who go to prison have children who go to prison.  The list goes on and on.  My view of God dictates that it is not God who visits the curse upon the future generations, but rather the parents.  This is also my experience.  This is also the road that I was headed down--visiting my sins upon my children.

PZ says that our purpose in life is to reverse the Kramer!  He says that this can be done by expressing to others the grace that God has expressed to us.  This often takes the form of courageous action in the face of long-standing, psycho-genetic patterns which reap destruction in families.

Thanks to the message of One-Way Love (PZ's term) that I heard from PZ commencing in January, 1998, and continuing through mid-2004, in his Thursday morning Bible study, the Kramer has been reversed, and is being reversed, in my family--not just with our children but also with a prior, and within the same, generation.  I'm cautious about saying this, because I think we are foolish to claim temporal victory over the wages of sin.  As Luther said (paraphrasing): "We will be sinners until we die, but we are at the same time justified."  The victory doesn't mean that my children are going to turn out perfect--they won't.  I'm not perfect, and they won't be perfect.  It doesn't even mean that they won't have significant issues in life--that is part of living down here.  But they seem to understand One-Way Love--they seem to understand the Good News--they seem to love others in a way that I never did at their age.

This breaking of generational curses doesn't happen without a spouse that is on the same page.  PZ says that his wife, Mary, has been a huge influence on their sons.  He attributes their goodness to Mary.  Notably, each of their sons is in full-time Christian ministry.  More importantly, each of their children proclaims the radical grace of God in the face of man's innate sinfulness--that is the true message of Christianity.

Debbie has been my stalwart help-mate in beating back the Kramer.  (In calling her my help-mate, I am exalting her, not subjugating her role to mine.  The term used for help-mate in Genesis (ezer) is the same term that Abraham used in describing his relationship with God.  God was Abraham's help-mate.)  Debbie shocks me sometimes with the degree to which she gets grace.  It is so helpful to each of us to view a situation or relationship with two sets of eyes that are looking through grace-colored glasses.

In our family, grace has not only impacted our children but also our siblings and parents.  Grace has a way of going places and rectifying relationships that seem intractably broken.  Grace has a way of going places where it's not even wanted.  I am so thankful to God for exposing me to the message of One-Way Love that PZ has steadfastly proclaimed in the face of opposition, criticism, and worldly failure.  This message has revolutionized our relationships with our parents, siblings, friends, and co-workers.  This message has now been taken up by Paul and Mary's sons in immensely powerful ways.  This message is now making inroads into institutional Christianity.  This message is the only hope for the world.