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God’s True Desire

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God’s True Desire (CaD Ezk 14) – Wayfarer

…even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 14:14 (NIV)

There was a credit card company who used to use the tag line: “Membership has its privileges.” And, there are certain places in life when this is true. After three decades of regular business travel, I now have certain lifetime perks as a member of various hotel and airline loyalty clubs. It certainly makes travel a little easier.

I have observed along my life journey that it’s easy to think that being a member of a church or denomination has its privileges, as well. There is, however, danger in that line of thinking. Jesus repeatedly reminded the most religious people of His day about this. Just as Ezekiel is doing in his prophetic messages.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel is given a prophetic word for the elders who served as leaders of the exiles in Babylon. God warns them of the people’s continued idolatry and specifies that they have “set up idols in their hearts.” The original Hebrew is, however more aptly translated “set up idols upon their hearts.” It was customary and fashionable in ancient Babylon for people to wear idols and amulets on necklaces. It is possible that the Hebrew exiles had taken up this practice themselves.

In his prophetic message, Zeke mentions that God’s anger was so great that even if “Noah, Daniel, and Job” were present they alone would be spared. To Ezekiel’s listeners, this would have been a brash statement that’s lost on modern readers.

The Hebrews were proud of their status of being children of Israel, referring to Israel (aka Jacob), the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. But before Israel or the people of Israel existed, there were characters of antiquity regarded for being righteous. They were never considered Hebrews because they existed before the Hebrews existed and were therefore considered non-Jewish gentiles.

Two of these characters we know from the Great Story itself. Noah and Job. The third figure, Daniel, is not the Daniel we know. That Daniel, of the lion’s den fame, was a contemporary of Zeke, and his story is being lived at the same time Zeke is delivering his prophesies. The Daniel Zeke is referencing is found in non-Biblical ancient texts from Canaan. They mention an ancient king from the region named Dan-el who was a man known for his incredible righteousness and justice. He cared for the widows, the orphans, and ruled with unparalleled goodness.

I find two important lessons in Zeke’s reference to these three men.

First, they were characters renown for their righteous faith and corresponding lives. Noah was a man of righteousness and goodness while the world around him was going to hell in a hand-basket. Job, despite his incredible suffering at the hands of the evil one, refused to curse God and held fast to his faith in God despite the physical, mental, and spiritual trials his suffering put him through. Dan-el was a man of justice who cared for the poor, the needy, and the outcast.

Throughout the prophets, it’s easy to focus on the idolatry that is the surface problem the Hebrews are dealing with. But it’s not just the idolatry that God is mad about. It’s the consequences of the idolatry in which the people have become self-centered, arrogant, and immoral. They aren’t doing the things that God desires most: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him.

It’s important to recognize that in referencing three gentile characters from antiquity who were not Israelites, Zeke was making the point that even gentiles who didn’t have the Law of Moses acted more righteously than God’s people were. They should not expect that simply being a member of God’s people to mean they had the privilege of escaping God’s judgment. It would not shield them from God’s anger because God even considered non-Jewish gentiles more righteous than they.

I’m reminded in the quiet this morning that even today it’s easy to fall into the trap of dutiful religion (e.g. being member of a church, throwing a buck in the plate, volunteering) while ignoring the things that God tells us He really cares about. God’s true desire is that I live daily life in a way that reflects His love, generosity, mercy, and righteousness. That includes how I treat my wife and family, how I live with my neighbors, how I conduct my business, and how I conduct myself in every situation. If my heart isn’t seeking after God’s Kingdom and His righteousness, then my religious acts and church membership are a hollow waste of time.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Big Brother Mentality

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Big Brother Mentality (CaD Rom 11) – Wayfarer

And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Romans 11:6 (NIV)

Last week, I gave a message to our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. I kicked off the message by stating that I’ve long had the idea for a book about the things that Christians always get wrong. In that message, I talked about God’s presence. My entire life I’ve listened to people pray for God to “be present” or to “Come to us.” If we really believe what we say we believe, that is the most illogical thing to pray for. If you want to know why, I encourage you to listen to the message because that’s not the subject of today’s post.

One of the other chapters of my proposed book is the subject of today’s post. Along my life journey, I’ve observed that while Christians say we believe that salvation is “by grace through faith,” we still act as if there’s a bit of meritocracy mixed in. I like to think of this kind of thinking as “Grace Plus.” “Yes salvation is by grace through faith, plus if you were really “saved” you wouldn’t [fill in the blank with a behavior that, in your mind, a real Christian wouldn’t exhibit].

In today’s chapter, Paul addresses an implied question in his letter’s argument about salvation being for both the non-Jewish Gentiles as well as the Jewish people: “Has God rejected His people?” I am always amazed at how given we human beings are to binary, either-or, thinking. The Jewish people of Paul’s day were so proud of being “God’s chosen people” that they wanted to maintain exclusivity. Rather than perceiving the inclusion of Gentiles as followers of Jesus as God’s merciful generosity flowing from its Jewish roots, they concluded that God’s love of Gentiles must mean rejection of Israel. This attitude, by the way, is the same as the older brother in the parable of Prodigal Son. Like the father in that parable, Paul explains that God loving the “prodigal” Gentiles and celebrating their homecoming into salvation does not negate His love and purposes for “big brother” Israel. It is not an “either-or” but a “yes-and.”

The “Big Brother” thinking that Paul is addressing with his Jewish brothers and sisters is a form of the same problem that exists with those I observe with “Grace Plus” thinking. It’s a form of self-righteousness that mentally assents to God’s love as gracious and merciful, but at the heart of it still clings to the notion that our good works have some merit in making us more worthy than the dirty sinner.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking of the fruits of the Spirit that Paul lists in his letter to the believers in Galatia. I thought through Big Brother’s reaction to his father’s grace and mercy toward the sinful little brother:

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’“

Then I tried to determine which of the Fruits of the Spirit he displayed in his reaction:

  • Love
  • Joy
  • Peace
  • Patience
  • Kindness
  • Goodness
  • Faithfulness
  • Gentleness
  • Self-Control

How about the Prodigal’s father? Yeah, Pops was exemplifying them all.

As a child of God, I want to have my Father’s heart which is gracious, merciful, generous, and truly loving. This means, however, that I have to surrender all of my meritocratic notions. God’s generous and gracious love for others does not diminish His love for me, it just means there’s more love to go around than I ever thought possible.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Rules and Rifts

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Rules and Rifts (CaD Rom 3) – Wayfarer

…and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:24 (NIV)

Wendy and I get along remarkably well despite the fact that we have very different temperaments. Wendy is an Enneagram Type Eight (the Challenger) and I am an Enneagram Type Four (the Individualist). The Enneagram Institute calls this relational combination the most “inherently volatile.” Nevertheless, Wendy and I somehow manage to be around one another pretty much 24/7/365. Not only have we not killed one another, but we actually enjoy our perpetual proximity. The Enneagram Institute goes on to describe the Eight/Four coupling: “Both types bring passion, intensity, energy, and deep (often unconscious) feelings to all aspects of the relationship.”

Wendy and I have also found ways in which we are very different. This occasionally creates rifts between us. For example, I was raised in a home where the rule was “the door is always open and everyone is welcome at any time.” My dad would be happy to regale you with countless stories of my friends, and the friends of my siblings, stopping by at all hours unannounced.

Wendy, on the other hand, believes firmly in the rule that the kind thing to do is always let people know in advance that you’d like to stop by. Thus, we had a rift that would regularly present itself in conversation while on our way to Des Moines to visit my parents. It started like this:

Wendy: “Did you call your parents and tell them we’re coming?”

Tom: “No.”

I’ll let you imagine the rest of the conversation.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to address the rift between Jewish and Gentile believers. The rift was rooted in the Jewish preoccupation with being rule-keepers. They had been given God’s rulebook through Moses, and good religious Jews were obsessed with keeping the rules. This presented a problem, however. It was a historic problem that presented itself almost immediately after the Law had been given. It then continued through the period of the Judges and the period of the Kings and perpetuated itself during Jesus’ ministry. Jesus confronted this problem time and time again.

The problem was relatively simple: People chose which rules they wanted to follow, and which rules they wanted to conveniently ignore. The rules that they chose to follow were the rules that others could clearly see with their own eyes.

Did you keep the sabbath?
Did you make your prescribed offerings?
Did you go to the Temple for the feast?
Did you circumcise your male children?

The rules they ignored were easier to hide and corporately convenient to simply sweep under the rug.

Did you love the foreigner in your midst and honorably treat them as you would want to be treated?
Were you generous, refusing to get rich at another’s expense?
Did you treat others lovingly and with equity?
Did you take care of the poor, the needy, and the outcast?

Jesus spent his entire three-year ministry trying to get His good religious Jewish brothers and sisters to see the problem. They cared more about Jesus keeping the rule about not working on the Sabbath (which is easy to see) and failed to see that the rule was never intended to keep them from doing something good for someone (e.g. healing, helping, lending a hand). Having God’s rulebook didn’t make the Jewish people righteous. It didn’t make them better at anything other than learning to keep up appearances with some rules while clandestinely skirting other rules for their selfish gain.

This cultural obsession with rule-keeping was deeply ingrained in them. Jews who became followers of Jesus and had been raised in this culture had a hard time not demanding that everyone be a rulekeeper. They looked down on those non-Jewish believers who never had the Law of Moses (and didn’t really care). Thus the rift.

In the quiet this morning, my mind drifted back to Wendy and me in the car on our way to Des Moines. One of the things we’ve learned about the rifts that appear in our relationship is that it’s rarely, if ever, an “either-or” issue in which one is right and the other is wrong. It’s often a “both-and.” My parents’ hospitality and generosity were wonderful aspects of a home that blessed countless people. It’s nice to know that they were always open to welcoming someone unexpectedly knocking at the door. Also, it is always a kind thing to call ahead and let people know you’re planning to stop by.

Paul is making a similar “both-and” argument for the rift between the Jew and Gentile believers. Yes, the Jews were blessed to have been given God’s rulebook, AND having the rulebook didn’t make them more righteous than the average Gentile. Both Jew and Gentile have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, AND both Jew and Gentile are justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus alone. The spiritual realities they share are greater than the differences they experience in the rift about rules.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Kindness Not Condemnation

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Kindness, Not Condemnation (CaD Rom 2) – Wayfarer

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
Romans 2:4 (NIV)

Every year our town has a three-day Tulip Festival that draws giant crowds from all over the world. For the past several years, a street preacher has set up his microphone on a corner right in the middle of the festivities and spews hellfire, damnation, and condemnation to all of us sinners. While I honor everyone’s freedom of speech, it’s really annoying on multiple levels. Most of all, it’s annoying because it is contradictory to the example Jesus set and His teaching. It misrepresents what Jesus’ message is all about.

In yesterday’s chapter, I pinpointed the “one thing” that Paul wants to communicate to the Roman believers in his letter. He said he wasn’t ashamed of Jesus’ Message because it was the power of God to save all people, both Jew and Gentile. The early Jesus Movement was a cross-section of those who had been Jews their whole lives and those who had never been Jews (a.k.a. Gentiles). This created significant rifts within local gatherings of believers. Much of this letter is intended to address those rifts.

One of the most predominant rifts was the fact that the Jews felt superior because they were “God’s people” who had been given “God’s Law” through Moses. Despite the fact that the Law commanded the Jews to love their neighbors and treat them as they would want to be treated the Jews of this period had been culturally raised to see themselves as superior and all non-Jews as inferior.

To address this, Paul begins by laying down the foundational understanding that Jews and Gentiles, indeed all human beings, are equally sinners. He then points out that there are Gentiles who, despite not having the Law of Moses, live as if they did. Likewise, the Jews who boast about having the Law of Moses continue to sin and break those laws. Therefore, no one has the standing to condemn anyone else. In fact, self-righteous condemnation of others is showing contempt for God’s love:

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

When James and John wanted to call down hellfire from heaven and burn up a town that had not welcomed them, how did Jesus respond? Did He condemn the town and burn them up? No, He condemned James and John for suggesting such a thing.

That same John would later write his own version of Jesus’ story in which he points out: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

So, in the quiet this morning I remind myself that the behavioral outcomes of being one with God’s Spirit include love, kindness, gentleness, and patience. Nowhere on the list of those behavioral outcomes (Gal 5:22-23) will you find judgment, condemnation, threats, or warnings. In fact, what Paul is pointing out so clearly is that the way to help lead a sinner to repentance is by being extraordinarily kind to them. That’s the very thing Jesus prescribed when He said that if someone steals your coat, give them your shirt as well. If someone asks you to walk a mile for them, walk two miles. It’s kindness that leads a sinner to repentance.

The street preachers at Tulip Time are misled and mistaken. But my response toward them is no different than with any other sinner. I am called to be kind, not condemning.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Members Only (or Not)

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Members Only (or Not) [CaD Gal 1] – Wayfarer

I did not receive [the Gospel] from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:12 (NIV)

I have an issue with church membership.

Let me explain.

Many years ago I was hired to be the pastor of a church. I accepted the call, moved my family, and began leading a wonderful group of people. About a year-and-a-half into my three-year commitment, I received a call asking for an emergency meeting of the church elders. For those of you who have never been on the staff of a church let me tell you that an emergency meeting of the elders is never a good sign.

I joined the elders in my office and found out that the “emergency” was that I, the pastor that they asked to lead them and had been doing so for over a year, was not a member of the church. What the elders with their undies in a bunch were getting at is that I had not gone through the official, denominational bureaucratic hoop-jumping steps of church membership. Forget that they hired me to be their pastor and that I had been faithfully and passionately serving them for over a year. I hadn’t checked a legalistic denominational box which called my loyalty and leadership into question.

At the next congregational meeting, I officially and dutifully jumped through the hoops and requested that I be accepted into membership of the church. I’m happy to say that my request was almost unanimously approved.

I wish I could say that this was a one-time anomaly. Actually, I have two almost identical stories involving churches in different denominations and locations. I’ve learned that church “membership” carries a lot of weight with some people despite it being a human institutional invention with no Biblical authority or priority. My struggle is not that the institution wants to do things that bring order to the organization. I get that. My struggle is that somewhere along the line individuals place a greater priority on institutional human rules than the clearly stated life priorities God gave us in His Message. It’s at best silly and at worst an indicator of deeply messed up spiritual priorities.

This morning, our chapter-a-day journey enters Paul’s letter to believers in the region of Galatia today. These are local gatherings of Jesus’ followers whom Paul founded when he traveled through there years before. It was Paul who preached Jesus’ message to them. It was Paul who lived among them and helped them establish and organize their local gathering. Paul is writing to his spiritual children.

But there’s a problem.

The Jesus Movement came out of orthodox Judaism. Paul himself was an orthodox Jew. The believers in Galatia, however, were mostly non-Jewish Gentiles. Some orthodox Jewish believers from Judea began visiting these local gatherings in Galatia with their undies in a bunch and calling emergency meetings of the elders. They proceeded to claim that 1) Paul was not an officially and institutionally sanctioned apostle of the Jesus Movement and that 2) If any non-Jewish person wanted to be an official believer in Jesus they must first go through the orthodox Jewish hoop-jumping steps to get their orthodox Jewish membership certificate, and only then would they be official, card-carrying members of the Jesus Movement. What were the hoops they had to jump through? For men, the major hoop was having the foreskin of your penis cut off.

As you might imagine, this stirred up some conflict and confusion.

These are the circumstances in which Paul picks up his papyrus and stylus to write his friends back in Galatia.

In today’s chapter, Paul addresses the concerns raised about him not being an official apostle of Jesus. Paul reminds the Galatian believers that he was once more zealously orthodox in his Jewishness than any of those who were questioning his authority. He then establishes that it was the risen Jesus who appeared to him and called him to take Jesus’ message to the non-Jewish people. Third, Paul explains that while he had established a relationship and understanding with Peter and James (the recognized, apostolic leaders of the central Jesus Movement in Jerusalem) he was largely unknown to those who were now questioning his card-carrying membership in the Movement.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on the tension between divine purpose and human organization. When I was a child, most of those who considered themselves Christians were certificate-wielding members of large denominational institutions of human origin. Most of those institutions have now fractured and imploded into small fragmented networks of like-minded congregations. Many believers have abandoned denominational loyalties. I have personally found it fascinating to observe and experience. I don’t grieve the change.

The Apostle’s Creed states, “I believe in the holy catholic church.” “Catholic,” by the way, translates to “universal.” It is not a reference to the institution of the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, it means that I am part of the Church (capital “C”) made up of every other believer in the world as determined by the indwelling Holy Spirit in each believer and having nothing to do with jumping through hoops, attending a class, and receiving a certificate of church membership. It means that I am part of what God is doing in the Great Story on a grand scale and that I have a Church family made up of all believers, regardless of human denomination, nationality, tribe, ethnicity, political views, or local church (lowercase “c”) membership.

Along my spiritual journey, I have personally been led not to sweat my church membership, and to prioritize being a part of what God is doing in His

Along my spiritual journey, I have personally been led to not worry so much about my local church membership certificate, and rather prioritize being a part of what Jesus is doing in His Church.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Note: The featured photo is of an editable church membership certificate that can be purchased and downloaded at Etsy.

Chapter-a-Day

The Inclusive Exclusivity Problem

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“…there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.”
Romans 3: 30 (NIV)

A few years ago on this chapter-a-day journey I wrote that the first century conflict between Jewish followers of Jesus and Gentile (non-Jewish) followers of Jesus was actually a foreshadowing of the great Dr. Seuss’ story The Sneetches:

Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars. 

But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the Beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!” 

In the case of the Jewish and Gentile believers, it was circumcision and the Law of Moses (a.k.a. Leviticus) that became the metaphorical star on their bellies.

As a 21st century follower of Jesus journeying through this letter of Paul to the Romans, it is critical that I understand this underlying tension and conflict. It is the driver and motivation for Paul’s letter. For centuries the Hebrew people had leveraged their gracious appointment as “God’s people” into creating and maintaining a theology of exclusion. They were the star-bellied Sneetches maintaining their private section of the beach and no one without a star on their belly was allowed. The Jewish followers of Jesus had spent their entire lives inside a cultural tradition that was thousands of years old telling themselves that they were exclusive.

The Gentile believers, on the other hand, had spent their entire lives knowing that the Jewish people lived, by-and-large, in their private culture and excluded anyone who wasn’t one of them.

As the Jesus movement rapidly expands across the known world, attracting followers of both the Jewish and Gentile camps, you’ve suddenly got star-bellied Sneetches and the Sneetches with “no stars upon thars” thrust together and co-habitating a “no-man’s land” section of Spiritual Beach.

Paul in his letter, is addressing this divide by explaining to the Jewish believers that God’s Message all along has never really been a theology of “exclusion” but one of “inclusion.” He’s walking a theological tight-rope, hearing the voices of his fellow Jews arguing with him about the law (i.e. “So you’re saying the Law is nothing?“), and hearing the voices of the Gentiles making counter arguments on the other side (i.e. “Well if more sin means there’s more of God’s grace to forgive me, then why don’t I just sin more so that there will be more grace?!“), and through it all he’s trying to bring them all together by laying out an inclusive understanding of what God has been doing all along in the Great Story so as to realize the end of Dr. Seuss’ yarn:

[That] day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars
And whether they had one, or not, upon thars. 

This morning in the quiet I find myself admitting that we human beings have a penchant for systemically creating social  and personal exclusivity. We’ve been doing it since the beginning of time in our tribes, our religions, our country clubs, our street gangs, our political parties, our families, our races, our racial ghettos, our denominations, our social systems, our church groups, our middle/high school cliques, our small town and big city attitudes, and et cetera, and et cetera, and et cetera.

Jesus came to change all that.

And, we’ve messed that up, too.

Which means that this morning I have to confess and admit the ways I’ve gone all “star-bellied Sneetch” in my own ways (and there are multiple ways I have done so) along this life journey. Paul reminds me in today’s chapter: We’ve all (that would be inclusive) fallen short of God’s design and desire.

Maybe when I was younger I was ignorant and didn’t understand. I can’t claim that anymore. I am a mature adult. If I am going to follow Jesus. If I’m going to really follow the heart of Christ, then I have to stop shutting people out, pushing people away, and ignoring people who are uncomfortably and inconveniently different.

In that regard, the message of Paul to the Romans is every bit as relevant today as it was then.

Chapter-a-Day

Change, Action, and Reaction

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The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
Acts 11:1-3 (NIV)

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of presenting Letters from Pella, a one-act play I wrote some years ago to an academic conference. The academic conference celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of H.P. Scholte, the founder of our town. Scholte, a secessionist pastor in the Netherlands, led hundreds of Dutch immigrants to carve out a new home on the Iowa prairie in 1847. Historians from both the Netherlands and the U.S. participated in the conference.

At the Scholte Conference with Dutch historians Leon van den Broeke, Ron van Houwelingen, Michiel van Diggelen, and George Harinck

Each year in our town’s annual Tulip Time festival we celebrate a polished narrative about our founders, but as I researched the actual events that transpired in those first years I found a very different story. Letters between the first immigrants and their families back in the Netherlands gave evidence of anger, conflict, discord, and disagreement. I sought to give voice to that story in my play.

Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an opposite reaction. Along my life journey I’ve observed that there are, at times, parallels between physical and human interactions. As both leader and participant in many human organizations I’ve observed that any action or initiative that introduces change to a human system will create a reaction from that system.

In today’s chapter, Peter returns to Jerusalem from his experience of being called by God to the home of a Roman Centurion named Cornelius. Cornelius and his entire household became believers. They had been filled with Holy Spirit and Peter realized that God was doing something “new” in this rapidly growing Jesus movement. The movement was expanding beyond the Jewish tribe to include non-Jewish “Gentiles” whom Jews found religiously unclean. There was a general attitude among the Jewish people of that day despising and looking down on anyone who wasn’t born Jewish.

In going to the home of a Roman Centurion and befriending Cornelius and his household, Peter had crossed a whole host of religious, social, and political lines that his tribe religiously held with systemic rigor.  Now he returns to Jerusalem and the Jewish believers hear what happened, they criticize Peter for what he’s done. Peter’s action has created a powerful reaction.

Peter provides his defense, explaining his vision, God’s call for him to go with the three visitors, and his experience in Cornelius’ household. According to Luke’s description, the believers in Jerusalem “had no further objections.” The Greek word translated “no further objections” is esuchasan which is defined as “quieting down,” “rest,” and “becoming silent.” In other words, no one pushed the issue with Peter, but my experience as a leader tells me there were those who kept their mouths shut publicly and began to whisper their questions and criticism of Peter behind his back. Radical change to deeply rooted human system doesn’t quickly result in “no further objections.” This Jew-Gentile conflict is not going to go away.

This morning I’ve been thinking about some of the “reactions” to systemic change that I’ve observed and experienced over the years. Some of them are instructive. Some of them are tragic. Some of them are downright comical. Yet this spiritual journey had taught me that spiritual growth always necessitates change. God is always calling me and challenging me to love more expansively, forgive more deeply, and to be more sacrificially generous. Those things don’t happen unless there is a willingness within my spirit to things changing, sometimes in uncomfortable ways.

H.P. Scholte certainly experienced his share of “reactions.” Twice the pastor was thrown out of the pulpit by his own congregation when they didn’t like the changes he had introduced into their social and religious system. They called him a scoundrel. Those are the things our town politely forgets to talk about. Yet, all of those radical, uncomfortable changes brought about a really bright future for our town.

Growth happens through change and struggle, while human systems tend to cling to a comfortable status quo. I see this paradigm wherever God is working in the Great Story. If I want to grow, I have to  prepare myself for the reactions I know will be coming my way.

Chapter-a-Day

The Pros and Cons of Tradition

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Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10 (NIV)

Wendy and I went to see Union Street Players’ production of Fiddler on the Roof yesterday afternoon. It has been a long time since I’ve seen the show. I was a bit surprised how the musical, about changing times within a small, Russian Jewish community in the early 20th century, resonated with me.

We live in a small community with very deep Christian convictions, and our “Traditions” are very much like those of Anatevka, the community portrayed in Fiddler. For many, our Christian traditions provide a deep sense order and temporal peace in a rapidly changing world. When our traditions are threatened by change, it usually meets with loud and passionate objections fueled by anxiety and fear. As with Anatevka, there has historically been strong societal pressure to conform to the community traditions.

Paul was dealing with a very similar situation when he wrote to Jesus’ followers in Galatia. Most of Jesus’ early followers came from Jewish traditions which were then being threatened by non-Jewsish (a.k.a. Gentile) believers. The changes this wrought within these fledgling communities of believers was immense and the passionate divisions it stirred was intense. Those from Jewish traditions saw their faith in Jesus as a mere extension of their Jewish traditions.  Those from Gentile traditions did not wish to adopt Jewish traditions to be followers of Jesus.

Paul, addressing these divisions, makes it clear that he has no interest in doing things simply to bow to human traditions and become a people pleaser. As Tevye and the residents of Anatevka discover in Fiddler on the Roof, the times, they are a changing. Paul makes it clear that he will follow Jesus, even if it means abandoning many of his traditions and raising the ire of the society in which he was raised and from which he came.

Today, I’m thinking about my own traditions, the ones passed down to me by family and community. Some I honor and obey because I feel Jesus clearly commands His followers to do so. Some I honor and follow because I find them beneficial to me and to my life, relationships, and community. Some, I find silly and don’t care about whatsoever. Traditions are a good thing right up to the point they become more about keeping up appearances and pleasing the community than they do about sincere faith and personal spiritual benefit.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Acts 22

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Sign for "colored" waiting room at a...
Sign for “colored” waiting room at a Greyhound bus terminal in Rome, Georgia, 1943. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The crowd listened until Paul said [the word “Gentile”]. Then they all began to shout, “Away with such a fellow! He isn’t fit to live!” Acts 22:22 (NLT)

It’s amazing how one racially charged word can incite an entire crowd to violence.

In America we are constantly reminded of the historic racial tensions between whites and blacks that have framed our history and our existence for hundreds of years. As a young person I naively thought that Americans were the only people in the world who had such a struggle. Along the journey I’ve discovered that racism and prejudice run deep and wide in the human experience.

In today’s chapter the Jewish people in Jerusalem showed their prejudice against non-Jews. Of course, the Jewish people know what it means to be shunned and oppressed. Anti-semitism existed then and still exists to this day. When I visited Jerusalem several years ago I was amazed at the racial tensions that continue to exist within the city. The city felt to me like a powder keg of racial and religious tension with a very short fuse.

At the heart of Jesus’ teaching was the truth that God’s Kingdom does not exist for one particular racial, ethnic, or national group, but for all people and nations who will believe and follow. To this end, the two strongest leaders (Peter and Paul) were sent by God to share God’s Message with the non-Jewish Gentiles and begin the process of obliterating the wall of prejudice that stood between the two groups. The book of Acts sets the stage for the emerging historical record. Over the first few hundred years after Jesus’ resurrection, the Message would be boldly carried by believers throughout the known world and shared with any who would listen regardless of race, creed, or nationality.

Today, I’m thankful to serve a God whose Kingdom exists above human limits and weaknesses, and who calls us to ascend out of our Earthbound prejudices to enter in.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Acts 11

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from Shayan via Flickr

And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?” Acts 11:17 (NLT)

We can scarce understand what momentous paradigm shift Peter and the early believers experienced in the events chronicled in the past few chapters. It was deep, profound social unrest. The walls the Jews had built up between themselves and the non-Jews (Gentiles) through the centuries were tall and thick and seemingly impenetrable. As Jews, the 12 apostles of Jesus were comfortable keeping Jesus’ work and teaching within the clearly defined boundaries of the Jewish law and culture. As had happened so many times in the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, God had other plans; Plans that would obliterate their own personal agendas.

Peter walking into Cornelius’ house and ministering to him and his family is not unlike a southern Ku Klux Klan member in 1930s America walking into an African American’s home for a meal. It’s like an Irish Catholic walking into a Protestant’s home in Northern Ireland and embracing them. It was radical and it was sure to reverberate through the young Christian community with conflict, dissent, and boisterous protest. And, it was clearly the work of God.

As the arguments rose in crescendo, Peter asked the crucial question: “Who was I to stand in God’s way?”

Throughout my life journey I’ve witnessed God doing the inexplicable, and I have stood in the center of the resulting maelstrom of vehement disbelief, anger, and dissent. I have run into individuals and groups who want to dictate what God will do, when He will do it, and how He will go about doing it. They want God to fit nicely inside the box of their own design and cultural or denominational comfort zone. I have watched people stretch and twist God’s own Word to defend and justify their prejudiced views. Like Peter, I have even been guilty of it myself.

Increasingly I find myself desperately desiring that God’s will, not mine, be done. The only boundaries I desire to place on God are those that God Himself has ordained and set in place. I want God to have free reign in my heart, my life, my home, and my community. God forbid that I should ever stand in the way of what He is doing, but grant that I may free fall into it.