your doctrine doesn’t matter (or maybe it does) compared to your life

All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged in accordance with the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified. When gentiles, who do not possess the law, by nature do what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God through Christ Jesus judges the secret thoughts of all.

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.”

Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.

Romans 2:12-29; NRSVue

“No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts, for what is prized by humans is an abomination in the sight of God.”

Luke 16:13-15; NRSVue

Paul does not downplay correct teaching or as it’s called, doctrine. All is about or connected to the good news in Christ. And Jesus’s teaching is a core part of the meaning of the coming of God’s good news and rule, though it’s often downplayed or ignored today. I for one believe that many who don’t know the name of Christ are in, while many who do profess that name may be sadly out. What I’m trying to say is that what we hold to in our understandings, be they religious or otherwise is actually less important than how we live. How we live ought to affect our thinking so that we would be open to someone who lived, taught, indeed died like Jesus did.

The common “turn or burn” teaching is basically your ticket, or as someone said, barcode to heaven if only you will believe. But just what are we hearing from those teachers? And I mean all of it. Perhaps their teaching like the religious leaders of old ends up being suspect. Why? Because their lives are suspect. And just perhaps that’s little if at all realized since after all, they have their religion or Bible understanding in order. But even if the teaching might be in apple pie order, does what follows give the lie to it?

Give me an atheist anytime who actually expresses concern for others, and attempts to live it out, and I’m sure Jesus would say that they’re not far from the kingdom of God. But take a professing Christian who gives little thought to any of that except to be assured of their eternal life while embracing values antithetical to Jesus’s life and teaching, and you have another story. Yes, well meaning people consign multitudes to everlasting torment whose lives might actually show more grace, and often do, than many of the former.

Regardless of the accuracy of what I say here, I think the point stands. It’s our lives that matter now and in the end. Christ is the fulfillment of what life is meant to be, how it’s to be lived. Emphasis on correct doctrine enters into what James warns is deceptive. Do it, or sadly, perish (or, it will be a hard row to hoe).

the privileged and the down-and-outs

Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.

Romans 12:13; NRSVue

Admittedly, the above passage doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what I want to think a little on today, though it could. I was thinking how so many of our efforts are often with reference to “first world problems” though in the United States where I live, there are people and situations which don’t seem to be included in the “first world.” But my point is that often we pour so much effort in prayers and good works for people who yes, can use the help at certain times, and this is not necessarily bad at all. But what slips off the radar are people and situations which are in grave need, be it homelessness, marginalization and rejection, abject poverty, fleeing from war and threats of violence, and the list goes on.

Should we curtail the prayers and help we give to the privileged? Not at all, not by any means, they need prayer and help, we all do, and no one is ever beyond that need. But we don’t want all of our focus to be just on that, perhaps just on our own world, what we’re aware of. Our heart and concerns need to include other things as well. Jesus in Matthew 25 talks about the division in the final judgment between the sheep and the goats. And what does it have to do with? About the down-and-outs, about those we can easily dismiss as just too many, the need too great for us to even wrap our mind around, or do anything.

While we can have a concern for everything, and indeed should, we certainly can’t help in everything. We need to pray and look and start somewhere. Giving to a trusted charity which does good work. In our case we have given to Mennonite Central Committee which does important relief work around the world. But there are other good organizations as well, doing various needed good works to help those in need.

We don’t leave the privileged behind, never. But we also must look around and consider people and situations in dire need. We might even find such in our own circle, but we need to look beyond as well, expanding our circle so to speak, finding perhaps neglected places, people, and situations in which we can lend a hand along with our prayers, our hearts and lives.

holiness

Pursue peace with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14; NRSVue

Holiness has to do with being set apart, other, distinct and different in ways that matter. Some of that will make sense in the world, but some of it will not. God is by definition or description in part, Other. God’s holiness in part is understood that way. And yet somehow we’re to share in that holiness.

So often in the churches holiness is taught to be about moral purity, and especially as it relates to the sexual side. And with that comes all kinds of baggage: from the problems of the purity culture to unchecked scandals in leadership and families. And of course often with an emphasis on the culture war, now turned against transgenders. This is completely misguided. It is interesting that strangely enough, you’ll find queers who are as concerned if not more so about holiness than most straights who often seem to give little thought to it. It is after all, a bit out of fashion.

But we’re told in this passage that without holiness, no one will see the Lord. I take that to mean that it is indeed a prerequisite, required to know and be in fellowship with God. And the difference holiness makes is all the difference. It’s not so much about moral purity, though understood rightly that’s certainly included. At its heart is a love which is just and kind and trusts that there’s always the good to do, the good to become.

If we’re holy, then like God we’ll be different. It’s an “in Christ” difference. But that difference will be about what ultimately unites all humanity: the reality and life of God. And that for all of life. Something we’re called to pursue, and which God will help us find and more and more settle into.

yes peace, for Christ’s sake

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.“

Acts 10:34-36; NRSVue

I don’t know how we can’t be more than hoping for peace, peace, and more peace in this war torn, angry, divisive, hate-filled, deceived and deceptive mess which is too much of this life and world. We long, long, long for peace. But is it good enough to just have peace?

If we define peace as absence of conflict, wouldn’t that be wonderful? If we add to that definition justice in human flourishing on an individual and communal as well as systemic level, then we’re getting closer to the Biblical meaning of peace (shalom, שָׁלוֹם).

Peace in and of itself is not enough. There was Pax Romana and we’ve heard “peace through strength.” Sometimes something like that has been justified on the basis of an acceptance of something akin to Christendom or a Christian nationalistic ideal which somehow justifies imposing peace through physical force. Many problems, even dangers result. One is the cycle of violence. Violated peoples don’t forget, and once given the chance, will seek revenge.

Christ came in large part to put an end to that violence through the peace given by the blood of his cross, his death. This is a peace which ultimately reconciles all peoples. Too many will say, in the sweet by and by. Yes, there too. But it’s meant to challenge the powers that be now. Only we in Christ carry that peace. Not to say that Christ’s peace isn’t somehow disseminated in the world through those who perhaps don’t know his name. But Christ is always and forever the source of that one true lasting forever peace.

But here on the ground we have to learn to do the hard work of bringing that peace into the most difficult situations. Yes, it won’t always work, especially among those who are set in their ways, be it religious, political or otherwise. But we must press on together in Christ to work at bringing in the peace that only Christ can bring, amongst ourselves and for the world. For the world’s sake, and for Jesus’s sake as well.

against a passive, non-activist faith

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 1:27

For true evangelical faith is of such a nature that it cannot lie dormant; but manifests itself in all righteousness and works of love; it dies unto flesh and blood; destroys all forbidden lusts and desires; cordially seeks, serves and fears God; clothes the naked; feeds the hungry; consoles the afflicted; shelters the miserable; aids and consoles all the oppressed; returns good for evil; serves those that injure it; prays for those that persecute it; teaches, admonishes and reproves with the Word of the Lord; seeks that which is lost; binds up that which is wounded; heals that which is diseased and saves that which is sound. The persecution, suffering and anxiety which befalls it for the sake of the truth of the Lord, is to it a glorious joy and consolation.

Menno Simons

So much of what I’ve seen in evangelical Christian faith is more than less totally about one’s individual relationship with God through Christ with an emphasis on being assured of eternal life, and the best of that, an emphasis on knowing God’s love in one’s own life. Most of that I’ve found good insofar as it goes. But it simply doesn’t go far enough if we take all the pages of Scripture seriously.

If we have the faith of Jesus, we’ll be active on the ground, and that, especially together. This is not a life any of us can live on our own, by ourselves, because the life of Christ is mediated primarily through Christ’s body, the church. In and from that, we can live honoring lives in the love of God and neighbor and enemy as well.

Let’s clarify a bit where that activity nowadays should be. To be concerned about all the injustice that has been meted out and remains even to the present day. To let it be known that this is not acceptable. To do the necessary work in which we’ll mostly be unseen, with the willingness to work in changing systems, in many cases advocating for something entirely new. And all of this simply the natural outworking of our faith. An expression of who we are in Christ.

Yes, we’re totally loved, completely accepted, and helped in every way possible in our life in Christ, and that especially so together. Even as we do struggle due to our human limitations and ongoing resistance by the spiritual and physical principalities and powers. But our faith is active, in good works for the poor and mistreated, not just to bandage the wounds, but stop all that is wrong and work to bring about new beginnings, as well as reparations in the quest for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven.

Yes, we have the hope that Christ will return. But a major part of being ready if I understand all of Scripture correctly will to be about our God’s business right now, which means a passion to see that light of Day make needed differences in the here and now. That as I understand it is what the true evangelical faith looks like.

what does true Christian compassion in the United States and elsewhere look like?

These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to your dreams that you dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 29:1-9

We in Christ are exiles in this present world. We’re scattered all over the earth, and like what follows after this passage, we await God’s visitation, the return of Jesus Christ to bring God’s promises into complete, final fulfillment. In the meantime, again we live as strangers and exiles in whatever nation we live.

God told God’s people through Jeremiah in days of old to settle down and live faithfully in Babylon. We see Daniel doing the same thing. It’s interesting that they were not called to make the worship of God the law of the land in Babylon. They were simply to be faithful to God regardless of what was happening in the world. Yes, it was judgment, but mercy too. But they were to live out their faith in a foreign land. Remember Daniel’s example? Daniel didn’t try to convert Babylonians, but his example spoke volumes.

Fast-forward to today where I live in the United States. Christians are known here for wanting to take over the levers of power everywhere and not just push hard their agenda, but force and enforce it on others. Not at all anything like what we read about in Jeremiah 29. It leaves me wondering many things, and simply strongly disagreeing on many things more. But one question I might ask is simply this: Where is compassion in all of this, and specifically, Christ’s compassion which we’re called to bring and to be to others?

It seems like we want the same thing the Jews of old wanted. No exile, God’s visitation now, and everything just as we think it ought to be. But if you take Scripture seriously, we all know that only at Christ’s return will that begin to take place. In the meantime, what should we do now?

God’s people are the church together and in different places. We’re to show compassion in thoughtful, discerning ways, not only by handouts, but trying to understand the big picture, and what can be done to get rid of injustice in society, both individual, and especially systemic. Both. We have to keep working on that, because really the problem can be us, or at least we’re not apart from the problem. That is all a part of this, whether we like it or not. And we honestly ought to, because if the Christian life is anything at all, isn’t it a life of ongoing repentance?

The gospel is the power of God for salvation, not state power. That salvation is for individuals, yes, but also it should enable us to encourage the best for the nation-state in which we live. And to be relaxed within our pluralistic world, even as Israel was to live in the Babylonian world. Finding the good in it, and being an influence for good through Christ, being good and human.

Power politics and forcing and enforcing our way is not God’s way. At least not as evident in Jeremiah 29 and the gospels and what follows.

presence and deeds of love in Christ begin with prayer

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. The God of peace be with all of you. Amen.

Romans 15:30-33

“Thoughts and prayers” has understandably gotten a bad wrap. It’s so easy just to throw a prayer and some money at a problem, but not really be seriously engaged in it. If our hearts are in anything, than our minds and bodies will follow somehow in someway. It’s not that we can act on everything that moves us. There are surely more issues and problems than we can even keep track of, much less expect to follow up on.

But as we can read from Paul’s words here, for us who are of the family of believers, we should be moved in love to pray, or our prayers will be helped by love, the love of the Spirit. We pray for faith in the world and the ongoing witness and sharing of the good news in Christ. That people will be set free from bondage to the powers, and liberated to live in the full life in Christ, which somehow in some ways begins even now.

This kind of prayer is certainly not relegated only to the advance of the gospel. And we must be careful there, because this is not about cultural advancement, but solely about the good news of Christ for all humankind and all creation. This kind of prayer is also about all that is related to that. The desire for justice, peace, and human flourishing is at the heart of this message. Our prayers and advocacy should also be for the bearing of the fruit of this good news which again after all is at the very heart of this good news in Christ.

But make no mistake about it, it really does begin in prayer. This is not a self-help, human endeavor. We are not on our own; God is with us in Christ. That can and therefore should make all the difference. It is we who are of the family of believers in Christ who are to take the lead in this. Yes, by the love of the Spirit beginning with prayer.

Advent: hope for a broken, breaking world

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

Luke 2:13-14

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:13-14; KJV

Advent on the Christian church calendar is a season of hope, remembering the anticipation of Christ’s first coming as we long for his second coming when at long last this weary world rejoices.

Most all of us are tired, weary and worn, even as we enjoy the gifts and blessings of this life. But we long for more, much more, and for good reason, considering all the world’s ills. We desire that promised “peace on earth, good will toward men.” According to what’s considered a better textual reading, “peace among those whom he favors!”

Given the evil found all over the world, it seems sadly that the only way shalom, or peace is possible is through final judgment. Judgment comes from grace and precedes salvation. We have to be saved from something threatening or hanging over us, victimizing us and others, to be saved to something better, the full restoration of humanity and creation as God intends.

This is at the heart of the hope of Advent. We know the best that can be accomplished in this world can’t measure up to that. Though part of this Advent hope includes a willingness to try to find God’s light in this darkness to address issues such as war, famine and starvation, climate change, the disparity between the rich and the poor, etc. That is if we follow the concern and passion found in the Bible. Otherwise we might settle for a Platonic salvation in which heaven is what ultimately matters since this world is to be burned anyhow.

Instead we need to see that God’s care is for all creation, indeed that God loves all that God has made. And that followers of Christ along with the rest of humanity should work towards a better world. And that what we do now somehow in God’s will makes a difference that ends up being eternal since matter is just as much a part of the world to come as is spirit.

We who are followers of Christ bear witness to the hope promised, that the God who made all things in the first place, has promised to remake all things in Christ, which actually is beginning even now. Advent a wonderful season to reflect on that.

it will come

I will stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me
and what he will answer concerning my complaint.
Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faithfulness.
Moreover, wealth is treacherous;
the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves
and collect all peoples as their own.

Habakkuk 2:1-5

This prophetic, poetic book is poignant for our times. We too live in the midst of destructive, even self-destructive machinations on the part of nations as well as tribal allegiances in such nations. And in this, as well as in so much of the world’s history, God seems all but absent.

But as I was reminded recently in our church fellowship, we have hope as a discipline, and indeed like in the case of Habakkuk of old, that hope is given to us from God. Hope, as Paul tells us elsewhere (Romans 8) is not something we already possess, but rather something that we wait for. But somehow such hope sustains us.

All the while we continue in the struggle for what is good, just and true in the sphere of a sustained, responsible, whole love which in the end is for the very best for everyone and for all.

the church and war

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come
the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the LORD!

Isaiah 2:1-5

It used to be that after Christians returned from war the church made them do penance. There was an understanding that there is something intrinsically wrong, sinful about the enterprise, and that no one could participate in it without somehow being sullied. Or at least the idea that in fulfilling such responsibilities, sin is inescapable. In the early centuries Christians rarely participated in the military not only because the Roman Empire was at least averse to Christians participating, but because the early church fathers were univocal in their opposition to Christian participation in killing and war.

All of that has been long lost. Nowadays participation in war and preparation for such is more or less celebrated in all churches except for “peace churches.” It is one thing to respect and honor those who have served, but it’s quite another to see war as a necessary evil. To some extent given the world in which we live there has to be a forceful stopping of violence at times. But I think Christ followers should advocate for the end of war even now, for a worldwide commitment to settling disputes in any number of ways, as well as for understanding and addressing the problems which underlie violence in our communities. In our world in which cycles of violence are very present and seem to be held back only by force, this may not make sense and may even be resisted by some in power, though I think most governments would welcome such efforts. A regular answer to this problem is that such an ideal will occur only when Christ returns. Granted there’s some important truth in that. But followers of Christ ought to be committed to and be known as advocates for a peace which takes justice seriously in the path toward reconciliation.

The world hasn’t gone mad, it has lived that way for century after century, although violence has abated in some places. It doesn’t help when a renowned Christian writer and theologian sees war as not only inevitable, but pictures Christians on opposite sides shooting each other and then meeting in an embrace in heaven. Christians killing other Christians and non-Christians makes no sense. But neither does letting violence go make any sense. Following Christ which means taking the way of the cross, and loving enemies is never going to make sense in the world. But if we’re to take the witness of the gospel in scripture seriously, especially the gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with the rest of the New Testament including a correct reading and interpretation of Revelation, then it seems to me that we’re left with no choice but to so follow and show the world the better way. At least that will be a true witness of Christ.

I honor veterans myself, remembering that my own father was in harm’s way in a tank in WWII. Many good Christians and good people have served honorably in the military. But what if we Christ-followers would honor conscientious objectors who served their country honorably? And we need to be advocates for peaceful means of ending conflicts. Mennonites have been among those at the forefront of helping groups work through conflict resolution in a way that addresses wrongdoing and works to end the cycle of violence.

Peacemaking in this world will always involve struggle. It is macro and micro. Our witness to peace through Christ means little if we don’t live at peace in our families and church communities. And that will involve working through disagreement and conflicts, learning to live together in peace. And learning to extend that peace to others whose hearts may be full of war. Always in the way of Christ, not physically resisting evildoers, but resisting the evil itself through love with acts to bring healing, and good works. In and through Jesus.