What evil lurks in the heart of men?… February 26, 2009

The 1930’s radio show “The Shadow” began with the provocative question, “What evil lurks in the heart of men?”  And it immediately answered itself, “The Shadow knows!”  This flashed in my mind when I read a statement in my Logic textbook.  The Logic book said that Orthodox Christianity does not believe in the existence of evil in itself.  In other words, evil is not a creative force, but a corrupting force.  Evil is the absence of the Good thing that should be there.  Evil is not something that God created to balance out Good.  Evil is a corruption of Good.  Evil is the shadow cast when something stands between the action and it’s Goodness.  In other words, there is little to nothing that can be considered “sin” or “evil” or “wrong” in and of itself.  On the surface “killing” and “murder” look the same, but they are worlds apart when it comes to the heart motivations, and reasons.

One would be hard pressed to find anyone who wakes up in the morning and decides, “today I’m going to be as evil as I can possibly be.”  Sure, you may find plenty who rebel against a competing moral code.  Someone may say in so many words, “I’m going to go against the Christian morality.”  Or possibly someone may say, “I’m going to be intentionally evil by the standards of liberal intellectuals.”  However, people don’t generally decide, “Today I’m going to behave intentionally opposite of my own deeply held beliefs and morals.”  John Wilkes Booth didn’t think he was murdering the Great Emancipator.  He believed he was destroying a tyrant.  Adolph Hitler didn’t believe he was murdering masses of God’s children.  He believed he was creating a super race of humans and working toward the greater good.  Even when we know we are doing wrong we find some reason why in this circumstance our wrong is really the only possible way we could behave.  But, we do not commit real evils just for the sake of committing evils.

So, how does this apply in real life?  I mean, it’s well and good to realize that evil is a shadow version of good, but what do I do with that?  The answer is twofold.  Forgiveness and watchfulness.  The Bible teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  C.S. Lewis aptly points out that when we love ourselves it does not mean that we feel warm and fuzzy towards ourselves.  We don’t always like ourselves or our actions.  We truly desire correction and discipline.  But with others we tend to favor condemnation and punishment.  If we are going to love others the way we love ourselves, then we are to give them the same benefit of the doubt that we give ourselves.  We are to forgive.

Forgiveness does not mean that we shield anyone from the consequences of their actions.  This does not mean that we allow a non-repentant person to continue to behave in a way that is destructive to those around him.  But forgiveness does mean that we avoid viewing that person as “evil.”  It means that we look at our neighbor who is behaving in an evil way as exactly the same type of broken person as we are.  We do our best to consider how we might act in that person’s circumstances.  We do not condecend.  We realize that it is only God’s Grace that keeps us free from that sin, and only God’s Grace that keeps others free from our own sin.

The other aspect is watchfulness.  When we realize that even the ones who have done the most heinous actions were behaving in ways that they believed to be just and moral (or at least excusable), we can start to look at our own motivations a bit more closely.  We can be more aware when we are making excuses.  We can be more aware of our own hidden motivations that turn our Good into Evil.  We can, with the help of the Spirit, begin to discern exactly what it is that is turning our righteousness into filthy rags.

“The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.” – Proverbs 20:5

The One and Only Way? (reposted)… February 6, 2009

I have been having some conversations on this subject with some friends recently.  After revisiting this post from last year, it seems like now  might be a good time to re-post it.  I hope you enjoy the re-runs.

————————————————————–

This guy makes some pretty crazy claims. He says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” I have to admit, I have a hard time with this one. I really don’t like being told what to do. And I really hate being told that there is only one way I can go. That basically makes me want to say, “Okay, fine. I didn’t want to go to the Father anyway!”

That was my attitude for the longest time. Even after coming back to Christianity after a very long absence, I still struggle with this claim of exclusivity. How can it possibly be that God is going to punish a person for not choosing to walk down the path of Jesus? Especially when the moral code of most religions teach the same basic things. When you look at it, the basic tenets of Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam, Sufism, Wicca, (etc…ad nauseum…) are basically the same. Love each other. Love God. Do good things. Don’t do bad things.

But still we’re left with this claim of exclusivity. So what do you do with it? Christianity does have the same basic moral code as the other religions, but it also has more. Jesus doesn’t claim to have spoken with God. He says he is God. He does not claim to have discovered a Way. He says he is the Way. He does not claim to point others to Truth and Life. He says he is Truth and Life. This is not something that is easy to swallow.

This weekend a visiting pastor, Mark Whipple, was discussing this verse, and he showed a clip from Forrest Gump. He showed the scene in Vietnam in which Forrest is looking for his friend Bubba. He keeps running in to find Bubba, and in the process keeps seeing people who are injured, and have no hope. He grabs them up and carries them out of the woods to safety. Mark said this is a better representation of Jesus as the Way. Finally it clicked in my head.

I have spent my entire life reading that verse with the attitude of “many paths, one way.” But it is not like that at all. Religion is a path to walk. It is something that we do of our own power. It is a series of hoops to jump through. What Jesus offers is totally different. It is like trying to drive a car to the moon. There are some roads that take you into valleys which are farther from the moon. There are some roads that take you up on mountain tops for a better view of the moon. But Jesus says He’s the space shuttle! It is not a claim that He is a better kind of road that we can scurry about on. It is a claim that what we need is not a road at all. If we stay on any road, we are ultimately driving in circles. It is a complete shift in transportation.

To put it another way, we are like a person who has been in a wreck. There are so many onlookers telling us different directions to the hospital. We are still lying there bleeding, and everyone is telling us that if we just follow their particular set of instructions, then we could get ourselves up and get to the hospital. Then comes the ambulance driver. He does not deny that these directions might get us to the hospital. But He also knows that in our condition, we have no hope of ever being able to follow them perfectly enough to get us where we need to go. So, He lifts us on His shoulders, cleans our wounds, and follows the directions perfectly for us. Our job is to stop fighting and trying to get there on our own, and just let Him save us.

If Jesus is just another path to walk down, then He is nothing. A path is something that is beneath us. It is something that we can choose out of our own power. And if ours is the True path, and everyone else’s is wrong, then we can be proud of how smart we are, and feel sorry for how stupid they are. Or worse, we can drag people kicking and screaming toward our path, and kill them if they refuse to walk it with us. Jesus is not just another path. He is not a set of rules to follow to achieve perfection. Jesus is the rescuing hero. He comes along side of anyone on any path who is willing to let Him, and He takes them with Him and says, “There, weren’t you tired trying to do this all alone?” And takes them Home.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

When the Shades Get Thrown Back… February 5, 2009

When the shades get thrown back
I don’t want to be a shadow…

Though all I’ve ever known has been
the sneaky gray creature,
the darkness cast when that light
shines on my ego.

When the shades get thrown back
I don’t want to be a shadow…

Still, what I see when I look at me
Is a once longer shadow…
But it’s getting nearer to noon,

And when the shades get thrown back
I don’t want to be a shadow…

So we chisel and file,
And I crawl
Inch
by
mile…
While I shudder and cry,
While I watch it all die…
But it’s nothing to grieve
What was “me” wasn’t Me,

And when the shades get thrown back
I will not be a shadow!

Someone else’s words… February 3, 2009

Okay, so I’ve been slack on the blog of late.  I have an excuse.  Seminary is turning out to be more time consuming than I originally anticipated.  I have some things to say, but no time to say them right now.  For now enjoy some words from Tim Keller that really spoke to me…

“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27

“Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.

Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.

The Bible’s really not about you — it’s about Him.”

(quoted by Tim Keller at a Resurgence 06 seminar entitled “Preaching the Gospel”)”