Sanctification and the Cement Pond… October 31, 2008

“If you mould a cup, you have to make a hollow: it is the emptiness within that makes it useful.” – Lao Tzu

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” – Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

I was involved in a pretty interesting discussion about sanctification last night.  One man said that he had always believed that sanctification should be a steady upward growth.  He expressed that he was in a place where he was looking back at certain places in his life and feeling like he was closer to God back then.  But then, he also felt that he wouldn’t want to go back to those times either.  One thing I wanted to say (but the discussion moved away from this before I got the chance) was that sanctification is measured more like weight loss.  A person, and even those nearby, are ill equipped to notice any change because it is so gradual, and there are so many fluctuations.  It is when you see someone who hasn’t seen you in a while that they remark, “Wow!  You’ve really lost a lot of weight!”  Or when you see a picture of yourself from a while back and think, “Wow!  I was really fat!”

I really see sanctification like digging a swimming pool.  Your yard will have its value increased by digging this pool.  But in order for your yard to be improved, you have to dig out a lot of dirt that had previously been identified as “your yard.”  Even with machines, this digging is a painful, messy process.  Sometimes you hit rock that you have to break through.  Sometimes you hit a septic line and a lot of horrible stuff you’d hoped to have flushed away will come flooding out.  Very often, in the process of digging it out, a lot of dirt keeps falling back into the hole.  It is only with patience and perseverance that you finally hollow out a space.

As you dig the hole, the rains come and begin to fill the hole.  At first the water is pretty polluted by the dirt and trash that you are still digging out.  But, as you keep digging, you are able to keep more and more trash out, and keep the water more and more pure.  Eventually you start putting in concrete floor and walls.  You line it with things to help hold in the good water.  You begin to fill it with pure, fresh, clean water.  If you leave it like it is, the water will spoil, dirt and bugs will climb in.  You have to constantly filter the water, scoop out the trash, and re-fill it when the water seeps out or evaporates.  And most of all, you have to swim in it and enjoy it…otherwise, what’s the purpose?  How many of us are digging pools that we never enjoy?

James 1:19-21 – The Gospel of Bob and Fred… October 27, 2008

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.” – James 1:19-21

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” – Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha

“One-half of the ills of life come because men are unwilling to sit down quietly for thirty minutes to think through all the possible consequences of their acts.” – Blaise Pascal

“When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.” – Mark Twain

As the saying goes, “God gave you two ears and one mouth because you are supposed to listen twice as much as you speak.”  These three verses, probably more than anything I’ve ever read, ring true and frustrate me at the same time.  The default of my heart is anger.  But when I sit down and really look at it, what is that anger?  It is nothing more, and nothing less than my inflamed ego.  There is a time and a place for righteous anger.  There is a time when the only correct course of action is to pick up a cat-of-nine-tails and start turning over tables.  But 99.999% of the time our anger is nothing like righteous anger.  We get angry because so-and-so gets such-and-such and they don’t deserve it.  We get angry because someone says something out of the way to us, or about us and got away with it.  We get angry because we didn’t get our way.  In other words, we get angry because we are jealous.  We get jealous because of our pride.  And our pride is the basis of every other sin that we might commit.

Robert Anton Wilson said, “Most people live in a myth and grow violently angry if anyone dares tell them the truth about themselves.”  This is what we need to understand.  James tells us that our anger stands in the way of the righteousness that God has for us.  Our anger keeps us from, as Bob Wilson so aptly pointed out, hearing the truth about ourselves.  More often than not, our anger flares up in the presence of anything that tries to pull off our mask and expose the self we want so desperately to hide.

There is an interesting thing that James adds at the end of these verses.  After telling us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, he tells us to get rid of moral filth that is so prevalent.  This idea is a “therefore” to the idea of being slow to anger, etc.  In other words, he is telling us that the way we can accomplish the first part, is in doing the second.  We are to get rid of moral filth in our lives, be humble in accepting the Word of God, and this will be the way that we are able to do the first part.  You want to know how to tell when a person knows what they are doing is wrong?  Watch for the things that make them angry.  Tell an alcoholic that they need to watch their drinking.  Tell a legalist that they need to be more loving.  Tell a “free-spirit” that they need some boundaries.  You will find out pretty quickly when a person isn’t so sure that what they are doing is right.

I’ll take it one step further.  In general, the thing that a person thinks is “the worst” sin, is the thing that that person struggles with the most.  And it comes back, once again, to the pride of Lucifer that we all share.  A person who thinks that being a drunk is the worst thing you can do is typically someone who has fought very hard to overcome drunkenness.  That person is then putting their pride in their ability to stop drinking, and thinks “I did it, why can’t you?”  A person who struggles with lust may think that infidelity is the worst thing you can do.  A person who struggles with anger may think that violence is the worst thing to do.  The list could go on forever.  The point is that James’ advice here is twofold.  We are to get rid of our moral filth.  That’s the part that our friends I’ve listed above have done.  But the second part is that we are then to “humbly” accept the Word of God which can save us.  And there is the kicker.  Once we realize that any ability that we have to overcome this moral filth does not come from us, but from God’s Word planted in us, then we see things in a new light.  When we realize that we, like these poor saps we are so angry with, are completely helpless to do anything about our sinful selves, then we become a lot more eager to forgive them.  When we realize that we are no better than they are, then we give them the benefit of the doubt.  Jesus puts it in positive terms when He tells us to love our neighbor as our self.

One of the most devastating, and humbling experiences that a person can have is to realize that you are exactly the thing that makes you the most angry.  It is so easy for us to look at the Swaggarts and Bakkers of the world and say, “you fought so hard against this thing in public, but look at your private life.”  But if we are honest with ourselves, we are absolutely no different.  Robert Anton Wilson again stumbled on something close to the truth when he said, “You are precicely as big as what you love and precicly as small as what you allow to annoy you.”  The downfall of these men, and the downfall of us all comes when we try to correct our own actions by just trying harder.  We think there must be some program, some method, some path that we can, on our own efforts, do to overcome.  But the fact is that we are totally and completely ill equiped to do this on our own.

In the end, like every other issue, it comes back to the two things that Jesus Himself told us to do.  This “word planted in you” that James refers to is that of Jesus, The Word Himself.  We are told to love God with all that we have and all that we are.  And we are told to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  This means that we humbly listen to what God tells us.  And what God tells us is that we need His help.  It also means that we are to love our neighbors by giving them the same forgiveness and the same benefit of the doubt that we give ourselves.  Even when we beat up on ourselves, and wallow in our “wrongness,”  we are really doing so out of some sense of pride in our ability to admit that we are so wrong.

The beauty and the freedom of the Gospel is that we don’t have to change other people.  When Jesus told Peter vaguely how he would die, Peter’s first response was, “What about John.”  Jesus, in the Grace and Truth way that only He could pull off said simply, “What is that to you?  You must follow me.”  Let that play in your mind the next time you are angry.  The next time you think, “So-and-so just said blah-blah-blah to me!”  Think, “what is that to me?  I must follow Jesus.”  The next time you wonder, “why did so-and-so get away with doing whatever-it-is?”  Remember, “What is that to me?  I must follow Jesus.”  And the next time you are faced with the choice to do the whatever-it-is that tempts you.  Remember, “What is that to me?  I must follow Jesus.”

“How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us.” – Fred Rogers

waiting on the miracle… October 15, 2008

“One time, I was at this party… and I was sitting on the couch with Amanda McKinney. She was just sitting there, looking beautiful. So, I lean in to kiss her, and I realize I have gum in my mouth. So, I turn to spit it out and put it in a paper cup. I turn back, and Amanda McKinney throws up all over herself. I knew the moment it happened, it was a miracle. I could have been kissing her when she threw up. It would have scarred me for life. I may never have recovered.” – Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) in the movie “Signs” explaining why he believes in miracles.

“There is not to be found, in all history, any miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against all delusion in themselves.” – David Hume explaining why he doesn’t believe in miracles.

“Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.” – John 20:29-30

Something I hear, probably more often than anything else, in denying God’s presence in a modern world is this idea that He did miracles in the Bible, but doesn’t do miracles today.  I don’t see it.  I hate to generalize, but it seems that often the folks who don’t believe that miracles happen today are the same folks who don’t believe that miracles happen at all.  There is a story of certian Indigenous tribes in North America who, when Columbus’ ships were arriving, could not see them.  It is said that it was their shaman’s who alerted them to the arrival of these ships.  The reason they couldn’t see them was because they had no concept of them.  There was no notion whatsoever in their minds of these huge ships arriving from over the horizion, and so their minds just blanked them out.

I don’t know if that’s true.  A huge part of me doubts it very much.  For the most part I think it’s a very condescending way of looking at Indigenous culture.  But I think what we can learn from this story holds very true.  If you don’t believe in miracles, you will never see one.  People are looking for a miracle.  People want signs and wonders.  But they want them to be scientifically explainable.  They want miracles that can be repeated in a lab.  But if that’s the only way to believe in a miracle, then you’ve negated the miracle.  Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magick.”  What follows in the scientific mind is the idea that anything that smells of a miracle must be some form of technology.  In other words, we fear things we can’t control.  If we can label it, if we can prove it, if we can repeat it in a lab, then we are its master.  We have, in effect, taken a miracle and put it in a harness to do our will.  We have said to God, “you will serve me.”

So, the question is not, “does God still perform miracles?”  The question is, “Do you believe that God ever performed miracles?”  If He did, then He still does.  We just need to look with different eyes.  If He didn’t, or if you don’t believe in things that can’t be proved by science, then is it fair to require proof of something that is not provable?

The thing that I hear most underlying this idea of miracles, though, is the idea that God doesn’t perform miracles because I can’t do magick.  In other words, Jesus and others in the Bible spoke and healed the sick and raised the dead.  If I don’t have that power here and now, then must it mean that God doesn’t work that way, or that He never did?  Of course not.  Before I sound too harsh towards people who want to do miracles, let me say one thing.  What really leads to this mentality is the good and honest belief that there is something wrong with this world.  This world needs to be put right.  The miracles of the Bible, and the miracles that happen today (if we choose to see them) don’t happen every time we think that they should.  They don’t even happen every time that they actually should.  That is the reason that God is re-making heaven and earth.  We have to remember that when Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead, the people did not remain alive and well forever.  Miracles in the Bible were referred to as “signs and wonders.”  They were signs that pointed to a future perfected world without sickness or death.  But they did not last forever.  In looking for miracles we have to be careful that we are looking for a miracle, and not for premature perfection.

I’d like to leave you with a song.  “Waiting for a Miracle” written by Bruce Cockburn and performed by the Jerry Garcia Band.  Enjoy…

isness… October 9, 2008

A few days ago I wrote a post that touched on the idea that the reality of a thing should not be confused with the truth of that thing.  Like trying to ride a donkey down a photograph of the Grand Canyon.  I have spent most of my efforts over the past couple of years, and specifically over the past few months working and writing apologetics.  I think it is an important thing.  It is good to have a rational approach to faith.  As the book of Proverbs says, “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters.  But a man of understanding draws them out.”

God is truly beyond words, beyond rational thought.  Rationality is one aspect of God.  You cannot have a full grasp of the Truth of God without the use of all of your reason.  But you also cannot rely on reason alone to understand the fullness of that Truth.  Tonight I was graced by the presence of God in a way that reminded me of that fact.  My 10 month old son has a cold.  He woke up about 11:30 tonight screaming.  When that happens, often the only thing that will get him to calm down is to take him outside on the porch.  We sat on the swing in the dark.  It was drizzling slightly, and there was that electric cool crispness of the early fall night.  I held him in my arms and hummed the hymns I grew up singing in church.  An unexplainable peace fell silently over the both of us.  I didn’t see any visions.  I didn’t hear any voices.  But as I held my son, comforting his pain and his fear, I had the distinct feeling of being held and comforted by my Father as well.  I know there is nothing in emotional language or experiences that can convince a hard boiled skeptic that there might be something to this God stuff.  But then, it’s not really my job to convince anyone.  I can only bear witness to the change in my life.  It is up to the Spirit after that.  And I suppose that is what happened tonight.  The Spirit washed over me and refreshed this skeptical believer one more time.

october: a haiku… October 7, 2008

tips of the maple

are turning golden yellow.

the goldenrod blooms.

the view from my son’s

nursery window; nature

takes its sabbath day.