Tag Archives: Slavery

Chapter-a-Day

Uncomfortable History

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Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Colossians 4:1 (NIV)

Late last week Wendy and I read a fascinating article by Coleman Hughes in The Free Press entitled What American Students Aren’t Taught About Slavery. Hughes taught a class for Freshmen at the University of Austin on the legacy of slavery. What he discovered was that most of his students were completely unaware that slavery existed outside of the United States. Hughes writes:

“What I learned from teaching slavery to a group of college freshmen is that many (perhaps most) American kids graduate high school believing, falsely, that slavery happened only in America. Their minds are not blown by rehearsing the brutal facts of American slavery. Their minds are blown to learn that other brutal slaveries also existed all over the world.“

Being a life-long student of the Great Story has forced me to grapple with the uncomfortable realities of history. Slavery is one of them. One of the things I’ve observed along my journey is that many people are wholly dismissive of the Great Story because its contents contain bits that are uncomfortable and politically incorrect to modern sensibilities and ideologies. I consider this tragic and it makes me sad.

Slavery was a common part of every day life and society throughout the world in the first century. There was no emancipation because human civilization itself had yet to mature to a place that it could even envision a world without slavery. Expecting Paul and the early Jesus Movement to have taken up the emancipation of slavery as a cause is like me expecting my granddaughter, Sylvie (who turns 3 this week!) to be able to have an intellectual conversation with me about string theory.

In his letter to the believers in Colossae, Paul addresses six distinct people groups within the local gathering there: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and slave masters. For some reason, those who added chapter and verse numbers to the text put five of the six into chapter three, and started chapter four with the sixth and final group: slave masters. Yet another reminder that sometimes the chapters and verses get in the way of understanding the text. (BTW, a dear friend gifted me The Lectio Bible for my birthday this year. It provides the text without the chapter and verse numbers and it is a fascinating way to read it!)

What is fascinating as I meditated on the text is that Paul expects the faith of the believers in Colossae to inform their behavior within the context of their life realities. And, in fact, based on the teaching of Jesus and practicing the love of Jesus, the Jesus Movement was already moved the ball forward on societal understanding in ways that were revolutionary and radical for their times. When the believers gathered together to share a meal, worship, and learn together everyone was welcome at the table together: Male and female, Jew and Gentile, slave master and slave. This practice, radical for its time, was a seed that would germinate, take root, and eventually bear fruit in the emancipation movement.

In the quiet this morning, as I meditate on these things, I’m reminded that while the societal realities of history are forever changing, the principle of what Paul is addressing with the Colossian believers never changes. My faith in Jesus should make a difference in my behavior and relationships, especially with my immediate and most intimate of human relationships with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and colleagues. Paul tells slaves to serve well and with integrity, considering that they are ultimately serving “Lord Christ.” He then tells slave masters to treat slaves with fairness and justice because they also have a “master” in heaven, Christ, to whom they are ultimately accountable and answerable.

I also find myself regularly in circumstances and in relationships that I don’t control. In the midst of it, as a disciple of Jesus, I am expected to be accountable to control the things that I can: to be loving in my words and actions, to be servant-hearted and forgiving towards others, and to conduct myself with integrity.

This chapter-a-day journey moves to the next of Paul’s “Prison Letters” tomorrow:
Ephesians 1

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

“Why Do We Pray Before Meals?”

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“Why Do We Pray Before Meals?” (CaD Matt 14) – Wayfarer

And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Matthew 14:19-20 (NIV)

“Why do we pray before meals?” Wendy asked me yesterday morning after I had prayed before breakfast.

It was a simple enough question. There are so many things in life that we do because they are habitual or traditional. We rarely stop to ask “Why?”

The question came back to mind as I read the chapter this morning. Jesus famously feeds a hungry crowd of 5,000 followers with just a handful of bread loaves and a couple of fish. Yet, there is so much more to this story than the surface event. It even addresses Wendy’s question.

We are blessed to live in the most affluent empire in human history during the most affluent age in human history. Never in the history of humanity has the simple human need for food been so abundantly satiated on our planet. I’m not saying that there aren’t places and people in the world who are struggling for their “daily bread,” but never in history has that number been so small. That is just the facts. Not only that, but here in America we have long struggled with the opposite problem. Food is so abundantly available that we have a problem with obesity.

Yet, for the crowds following Jesus to an isolated place to hear Him preach, and for God’s people leaving slavery in Egypt and wandering into the wilderness, the need for food simply to survive was critically real. And, this episode in today’s chapter is connected to the story of the Hebrews in the wilderness. It’s connected to the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught His followers to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

For the Hebrews in the wilderness, God provided a miraculous bread from heaven called “manna.” Every morning when they woke up the manna covered the ground like dew. It was always just enough for that day, and if someone collected more than they needed for themselves and their family that day it would grow horribly rotten.

The spiritual lesson of manna, and of the loaves and fish, is profound in its simplicity: Trust God for what you need each and every day.

When I began work for our company, Intelligentics, back in 1994 it was unlike any job I’d ever held. No one in our company, including the founder and owner, has ever drawn a salary. Every person gets paid by the amount of time we charge clients within projects. Which means if we don’t have any clients or projects then no one gets paid. Our founder set up the business this way to mirror the spiritual principle of daily bread.

For over 30 years I have never had the simple assurance of next month’s paycheck or how much it would be.

God has always provided for our needs despite the fact that across the 30-plus years there have been months of proverbial feast and famine. Nevertheless, like the story of the loaves and fish in today’s chapter, there has always been “leftovers” in the end.

As I meditated on this simple life lesson in the quiet this morning, Holy Spirit raised within my memory one of my favorite verses in the entire Great Story. It comes from the time of the Hebrews in the wilderness as God is instructing them in their new way of life. The hard reality of slavery is that your Master has the responsibility of protecting and providing for his investment with housing and food, meager as it might be. Wandering in the wilderness is a very different reality. Freedom required faith that God would provide. And when God did provide, Moses instructed God’s people:

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”
Deuteronomy 8:10 (NIV)

I love the fact that Jesus not only provided a filet-o-fish feast, but Matthew was careful to record that everyone “ate and was satisfied.” Matthew the Quirk was also careful to record the numbers like the math geek he was. Five loaves and two fish feed 5,000 with twelve baskets full of leftovers (that’s one basket for every one of the twelve tribes of Hebrews wandering in the wilderness back in Deuteronomy.

Matthew was also careful to record that Jesus “broke the bread,” giving us the colloquialism that we still use today for gathering together with friends or loved ones for a meal. Jesus also “gave thanks” in anticipation of God’s provision for the “daily bread” God was about to provide. While Matthew doesn’t say it specifically, I know for certain that everyone was obediently obeying Deuteronomy 8:10 and praising God after the fish feast was over that day.

So, there’s the answer to Wendy’s question. We pray before meals because it’s the spiritual pattern God wove into our daily lives. Trust God each and every day for my daily bread. Thank Him for His provision as I break my bread. Praise Him each time I am satiated and there are leftovers.

When I begin to trust and depend on myself for my daily bread, I’ve completely lost the plot.

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

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Cults and Contrast

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Cults and Contrast (CaD Gal 6) – Wayfarer

Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.
Galatians 6:4-5 (NIV)

I have been sick for the past several days with a nasty case of Step throat. So, I’ve been spending a lot of time on the couch in front of the television binging different things. Among them, I’ve been watching documentaries about various cults and cultish leaders. Some of these cultish systems spring from Christian belief systems. Some spring out of Mormon belief systems. Some spring up out of personal growth, self-improvement, and empowerment systems.

What I’ve found fascinating as these stories unfold are the similarities between all of them. There’s always a person or small group of people at the top of the cultic system who benefit from the system in ego, power, and money. Followers are often isolated and are not allowed to socialize with others outside the system. All of these systems also demand strict obedience to the leaders and the system itself. Disobedience or disloyalty to the leaders or the system results in being cast out, humiliated, or scapegoated. Because of this, many cultish systems have vast networks of members spying on one another and reporting on others to the leaders.

In today’s final chapter of Paul’s letter to believers in Galatia, Paul is still thinking about the Judean Judaisers who had traveled through Galatia telling the non-Jewish Gentile believers that they must get circumcised and become Jews before they can be followers of Jesus. Paul offers two more insights into their motivation for demanding this.

First, is the increasing amount of persecution against Jesus’ followers. Paul hints that they are trying to avoid persecution by insisting that the Jesus Movement is simply a Jewish sect. They are not motivated by what’s best for the Galatian believers or the Jesus Movement in general. They are trying to cover their own rear ends and avoid persecution.

The other motivation these false teachers have is pride. They want to go back to Judea and boast among the Jewish believers that they converted the Gentile believers to Judaism. Paul’s having none of it.

Paul encourages the Galatian believers to worry about themselves and their individual consciences. Once again envy is lurking in the background. The Judeans may secretly be envious of the freedom the non-Jewish believers have to ignore the law. Conversely, their message is one rooted in wanting these non-Jewish believers to be envious of the Jews and the fact that the Jesus Movement started within Judaism. Paul encourages everyone to stay in their own lane and forget about comparing themselves to one another.

In the quiet this morning, I appreciate the contrast between Paul and the Judaisers. Paul is strong in urging the Galatian believers to reject the demands of the Judaisers, but ultimately he places the responsibility back on each individual Galatian believer to follow God’s Spirit and their own conscience. There are no demands, threats, or intimidation. If an individual falls into sin, Paul encourages “gentle restoration.”

I have mentioned many times that along my journey I’ve found myself in fundamentalist systems that demonstrate all of the elements of cultish behavior. Our own local gathering of Jesus’ followers spent the last year defining our mission and values. I like them. In part, I like them because they stand in stark contrast to what I’ve seen in unhealthy fundamentalist and cultish belief systems.

Mission
Every one, every day, helping one another experience life-giving freedom in Jesus.

Values
Progress over Perfection
Refuge over Rejection
Many over Me

As I meditate on it, it seems to me that Paul has exemplified all of these in his letter to the Galatians.

Have a great weekend, my friend!

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

Chapter-a-Day

Grace and Merit

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Grace and Merit (CaD Gal 4) – Wayfarer

But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
Galatians 4:9 (NIV)

One of the cornerstones of Jesus’ Message is that salvation is by grace through faith. Grace is unearned and unmerited favor. It’s not something one works for, achieves by effort, or earns by good behavior. It is through faith because the saving grace is activated by simply believing that Jesus is God’s Son who died for sin and rose from the dead.

I have observed along my spiritual journey that this rather simple concept is one of the hardest things for human beings to truly accept.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to argue against the Judaisers who had convinced many believers in Galatia that they must keep all of the rituals and rules of the Law of Moses to know Christ. Paul argues that the rituals and rules, whether pagan or Jewish, are a type of slavery that never ever leads to spiritual freedom and salvation.

There is something in human beings that likes rules, rituals, and regulations. We like merit badges, certificates of membership, and achievement awards. There are lifelong church members I know who still believe that when they die God will have all of their works weighed on His divine scales. They believe that if the good outweighs they’ll get their ticket through the pearly gates.

When Jesus talked about the Day of Judgement He spoke of there being one decisive criterion. There are those human beings He knows, and those to whom He will say “I never knew you.” What is really fascinating is that Jesus described some of those He never knew as individuals who did all the religious rituals and righteous rule-keeping.

As I read through the chapter multiple times this morning I felt Paul’s frustration. Many of the Galatian believers had experienced the spiritual freedom of Jesus’ grace through faith. To go back to religious rule-keeping is like willingly taking on the shackles of a human meritocracy that never ever leads to spiritual freedom and the saving knowledge of Christ. Paul came out of that very human system, and he knows where it leads. I can feel the passion of his pleas to the Galatian believers not to fall into the merit trap.

Yesterday I was asked about my daily ritual of this chapter-a-day meditation, blog post, and podcast. I have been doing it for a long time. Is it not a religious ritual? Yes. However, the discipline of meditating on a chapter, writing my thoughts, and publishing them is rooted in a desire to channel the love, grace, and spiritual freedom I have experienced in my relationship with Jesus into my ongoing spiritual health. Believe me, I have not earned anything by doing so. By the world’s blogging standards, the humble number of subscribers and followers I have after doing it for so many years is a complete and utter failure. Yet, I’ve never done it to earn anything. I’ve done it to daily give something. The love of Jesus that I have freely received and experienced compels me to keep doing so, And, wouldn’t you know it? I find that I am spiritually filled in the process of doing so.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Tale of a Runaway Slave

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Tale of a Runaway Slave (CaD Col 4) – Wayfarer

Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Colossians 4:1 (NIV)

Modern readers are likely taken aback by the first verse of today’s chapter in which Paul encourages slave masters to do right by their slaves. Why those who added chapters and verses to the text didn’t leave this verse as part of the previous chapter is a head scratcher for me because 4:1 is clearly coupled with 3:22 in which Paul encourages slaves to do their work as if they were working for God. The two verses are part of one thought.

The inclusion of slaves and slave masters in Paul’s letter to the Colossians has everything to do with a very real and personal situation Paul, and the Colossian believers were dealing with.

A modern reader wonders why Paul didn’t take on slavery as an issue of social justice. I’ve known many a critic to cite this issue as one of the reasons they refuse to believe: that Paul doesn’t condemn slavery. As I’ve pondered and meditated on the Great Story over the years, there are a few conclusions I’ve made.

First, the abolition movement would not get started until 1200 years after Paul. Slavery had always been a part of daily human life throughout history. No one questioned it in Paul’s day. France was the first country to outlaw slavery in 1315. The abolitionist movement was fueled by followers of Jesus as well as the age of Enlightenment in the following few hundred years.

As I have written before, I view the Great Story and the history of humanity as the story of one giant life-cycle. As humanity has matured from infancy to adulthood over the millennia it, like any individual human being, humanity as a whole has grown and matured, as well as struggling with core human flaws. Slavery has largely been outlawed today (though it still exists), but we’re clearly still struggling with hatred and violence that goes all the way back to Ishmael and Isaac, to Cain and Abel. Bottom line, I can’t fault Paul for not being an abolitionist in a time when it wasn’t even a consideration.

Second, there were other social ills in Paul’s day that the followers of Jesus were addressing. Roman law allowed for infanticide. If you didn’t want your baby, you could legally throw it on the dung heap. Followers of Jesus rescued and raised them. Lepers were shunned to suffer together in small enclaves outside of society. Followers of Jesus moved in with them, took care of them, and sometimes got leprosy and died with them. Followers of Jesus took care of the sick, the poor, the orphans, and the widows. Followers of Jesus built the first hospitals.

So, Paul didn’t approach slavery as a social justice issue, but as a personal one. There was a member of the local gathering of Jesus’ followers in Colossae named Philemon. He had a slave named Onesimus who stole from Philemon and made a run for it. Onesimus is now on the run, and if caught, can receive the death penalty under Roman law. The runaway slave just happens to run into Paul (coincidence?) and through their relationship, Onesimus places his faith in Christ and becomes a follower of Jesus.

In today’s chapter, there is a final section of personal greetings that most people gloss over or ignore. But there are often some really good stories buried in those words. Paul tells the Colossians that it is a man named Tychius who is going to deliver the letter Paul is writing, and with Tychius he is sending Onesimus. Tychius is carrying another letter that we know as Philemon. Onesimus, Philemon’s thieving, runaway slave is now Philemon’s brother in Christ. Onesimus is returning to his slave master to ask forgiveness and make things right. In Paul’s letter to Philemon, Paul urges him to forgive and be gracious.

Of course, all of the Colossian believers know both of these men. They were part of their community. Philemon was part of their local gathering. The very real conflict would affect them all. Paul’s encouragement to all the Colossians for slaves and slave masters to serve God by serving one another is subtle reference to the Onesimus situation Paul knows they will all be facing.

As I look back at history, I find that large meaningful social movements typically begin with a person, or a small group of people, who simply start doing the right thing by individuals in their personal circles of influence. Their actions inspire others to join in doing the same. It grows and spreads. Who knows if, in the grand scheme of things, Paul’s encouragement to Philemon and Onesimus to look beyond their earthly circumstances and view one another as brothers in Christ was a seed that took root and eventually grew into the abolition movement.

And, as a different Paul used to say, now you know the rest of the story.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Bigger Picture

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The Bigger Picture (CaD Rev 15) – Wayfarer

I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.
Revelation 15:1 (NIV)

On a grand scale, the Great Story is about slavery.

I have observed that conversation about slavery in our modern American culture is typically confined to the injustice of American slavery with occasional nods to the slave industry that still exists around the globe. These are all earthbound conversations.

As I mentioned in a post last week, Jesus stated clearly that His mission on this world was about a Kingdom that is not of this world. And that mission was about freeing slaves:

“Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
John 8:34 (NIV)

On this chapter-a-day journey through John’s Revelation, what has struck me has been the continued parallels to the story of Moses, the Hebrews’ exodus from slavery in Egypt, the giving of the law, the tabernacle, and the journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

In today’s chapter, the Lamb (aka Jesus) and Moses stand by a “sea” in heaven and sing a victory song, just as Moses and the Hebrews sang a victory song after the defeat of their slave masters, the Egyptians, who pursued them and drown in the Red Sea. In Revelation it is the “beast” from the sea who pursued God’s people, but they overcame. John then sees a heavenly tabernacle, just like the tabernacle God had Moses construct in the wilderness. Just as the tabernacle of Moses filled with a cloud of God’s presence (Exodus 40:34), so is the heavenly tabernacle. Out of the cloud rises the final set in a trinity of judgments on the earth. We had the seven seals, then the seven trumpets, and now it will be seven bowls.

In the Exodus, ten plagues are sent on a hard-hearted Pharaoh and his people to justly free the Hebrews from their enslavement. In the same way, the plagues of Revelation are presented as a just spiritual reckoning for the Prince of this World (aka Satan), his hard-hearted followers, and the kingdoms of this world that have leveraged humanity’s enslavement to sin for their own pride, power, and pleasure. In Moses’ exodus, it was the “blood of the lamb” that protected the Hebrews from the angel of death. In Revelation, it is the “blood of the Lamb” that saves God’s people from the ultimate and impending “second death.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself once again looking at the forest and not the trees. Earlier in my spiritual journey, I would read and study Revelation with my mind myopically focused on the earthbound events described within the text and what they might mean in terms of the earthly realities. I was only intent on understanding the smaller picture of what would happen on this earth. This time, my mind is seeing the bigger picture. I’m seeing the events described in the much broader context of where and how they fit in the overarching Great Story.

Slavery is a terrible reality on this earth. Slavery to sin is a terrible reality in the spirit realm.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve sinned and were kicked out of the Garden into an earthbound existence, enslaved to sin, subject to the Prince of this World, and doomed to die a physical death. Revelation is the final just judgment on humanity’s slave masters and the ultimate, once and for all liberation of God’s people from the shackles of sin in order to be led to an eternal Promised Land.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Slaves to Fear

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Slaves to Fear (CaD Heb 2) – Wayfarer

…and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:15 (NIV)

Over the weekend, I was informed by a client that one of their team members passed away from Covid. I had just spoken to her a few weeks ago while I was on-site doing some training sessions. In fact, she and I had a very pleasant conversation one morning as we waited for some of her colleagues to arrive for a meeting. The news came as a shock.

The pandemic has been a life-altering event for humanity. We have lived through a historic period of history. Some of the effects may very well reverberate through the rest of our lives or beyond.

For me, one of the fascinating aspects of the pandemic has been to witness fear and its effects on people’s thoughts and behaviors. It is completely natural for people to fear death, yet along my life journey, I’ve come to observe that it’s easy for most people around me to keep thoughts of death successfully at bay. This is especially true living in a developed, affluent society in which life expectancy is long and temporal distractions are virtually endless. Having officiated many funerals along my journey, I came to realize that for many people attending the funeral it might be one of the few times in life they contemplated their own mortality. It’s hard not to when there’s a dead body in the room.

I was struck this morning by the author of the letter to the Hebrews observing that people could be enslaved by their fear of death. I believe it resonated deeply with me simply because I’ve witnessed what that looks like in people during the pandemic.

For followers of Jesus, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of an annual 40-day remembrance of Jesus’ journey to death that ends in the celebration of His resurrection. That is the defining moment as a follower of Jesus. Death was not a dead end to be feared, but the path to resurrection and eternal Life.

If I truly believe what I say I believe then my perception of, and attitude toward, death is forever altered. Jesus’ resurrection turns the one thing that I most fear, my own death, into an event filled with hope, promise, and expectation. I am no longer shackled by my fear of death. Without those chains, I have perceived my anxiety level to be far lower than many I have observed around me during the past couple of years. The contrast has been brought acutely into focus.

In the quiet this morning, I am grateful for the increasing signs of the pandemic becoming endemic. I am hopeful for life to return to some semblance of pre-pandemic normality. I’m grateful for clients who know that I not only do business with them, but that I care about them, walk with them, grieve with them, and will pray for them in times of death and grief. I’m grateful that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, I am free from slavery to the fear of death.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Well-Worn Playbook

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The Well-Worn Playbook (CaD 2 Pe 2) – Wayfarer

They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”
2 Peter 2:19 (NIV)

The Great Story is, at its heart, a story of good and evil. The evil one tempts Adam and Eve into disobeying God’s demand by questioning God’s goodness and promising them that they will be “like God” if they just have a taste of that forbidden fruit.

The punishment is their expulsion from the Garden and fellowship with God to live and die in the world, where the “Prince of this World,” as Jesus referenced the Evil One, has dominion over the kingdoms of this world. Before starting his mission, Jesus and the Prince of this World met, and Jesus faced the same basic temptations used against Adam and Eve (the Evil One’s playbook is really pretty basic). He offered to give Jesus all the “kingdoms of this world” if he would merely bow and worship. Jesus passed on the offer. The night before He was crucified, Jesus told His followers that the “Prince of this World” stood condemned. His sacrificial death and resurrection was righting a wrong on a grand scale.

The final chapters of the Great Story tell of the climactic confrontation of God and evil. It’s an end, and then a new beginning, which is yet another recurring theme in the Great Story.

Along my life journey, I’ve tried to be mindful of this foundational conflict as I interpret all that see and experience along the way. God is Love, and that Love is the source of life and goodness. Evil is an oppositional force. It opposes all that God is, and does, and desires. God is love, and so evil sows hatred. God is for life, thus evil gloats in death. God is about goodness and order, and so evil rejoices in destruction and chaos.

In today’s chapter, Peter is writing to the first century followers of Christ about the oppositional forces that were already at work to disrupt the powerful impact that their faith, expressed through Christ’s love in action was having in the world. Individuals with selfish and evil motives were leading Jesus’ followers astray. Interestingly enough, one of the tactics Peter mentions is their promise of freedom. He states that these false teachers were telling people that they are free to indulge any and all of their appetites (both the Greeks and Romans were famous for indulging all their appetites in creative and unrestrained ways). Peter warned them to be wary of this deceit.

Jesus is often quoted: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Rarely do I hear the previous sentence quoted with it: “You are truly my disciples if you do what I tell you. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

See the oppositional forces at work? Evil tells me “indulge your appetites and you’ll experience freedom,” though what I end up experiencing is self-focused indulgence which leads me into slavery to my own appetites and all the destructive consequences that go with it (personally, relationally, physically, spiritually, and mentally). In contrast, simple obedience to Jesus’ law of love, which gets expressed in part by the spiritual fruit of self-control keeps me free of those destructive consequences so that all the other fruit of love (goodness, kindness, etc.) has room to pour out of me into others.

In the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but recall a Tweet I saw yesterday from a celebrity and former Disney star:

Again, the playbook is pretty basic. “Indulge your appetites and you will experience freedom.” As the Sage of Ecclesiastes says, “There’s really nothing new under the sun.” And yet, I’ve never found anything really free or good traveling down any alley of indulgence. Pleasure? Certainly. But that’s fleeting and then requires another fix to feel it again, then a bigger fix, and then yet another even bigger fix. I like the way Bob Dylan described it: “A bad motorcyle with the devil in the seat, going ninety-miles an hour down a dead-end street.”

And so, I press on in this earthly journey one more day, choosing the path that Jesus prescribed to freedom. As for me, I have yet to be disappointed on this path, nor has it ever led me down a dead-end street.

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

Chapter-a-Day, Wayfarer Podcast

An Accomplice to Change

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An Accomplice to Change (CaD Ex 21) – Wayfarer

When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt.
Exodus 21:2 (NRSVCE)

Slavery has always been a part of the human social equation though it has taken various forms in different periods of history. If you think that slavery is a thing of the past, then you need to get to know organizations like International Justice Mission, an amazing outfit that Wendy and I have supported financially for many years.

I find it ironic (or perhaps it’s God’s synchronicity) that I happen to be reading through Exodus and grappling with these texts at the same time that we are having a massive social conversation about America’s history with slavery and the continued repercussions of the race issues it created which continue to plague us. Wendy and I have been having on-going, daily conversations about our roles and responsibilities to make a positive difference. Over coffee this morning, Wendy shared that she’d heard someone mention being an “accomplice” to positive change, which we differentiated from being an “ally.” We want to more than just agree. We want to act, to be part of the solution; We want to be “accomplices” to change.

How do I, as a 21st century follower of Jesus, relate to today’s chapter? It’s an ancient Hebrew text that is basically a code of law dealing with specific instances of slavery around 3,500 years ago. How can this possibly relate to my life today?

I have a couple of thoughts.

First, it provides me with context. Slavery was not invented by Dutch traders kidnapping and sailing Africans to the America’s to be sold. As I mentioned in the outset of this post, slavery has always been a part of the human societal equation. What the European, American, Indian and Arab slave trade did with Africans was particularly heinous compared to the slavery we read about in today’s text.

Throughout the Near East in the time of the Exodus, life was particularly harsh and human existence was largely a fight for mere survival. The clan, the tribe, the community were essential for safety, protection, and provision. It’s hard for me as a “rugged individualist” in America to even relate to a world in which the tribe was more important than me as an individual, and a world in which human life was viewed as economic capital. Producing children, especially sons who could work, fight, and protect was among the most critical components to the survival of your family and community. The more men you had, the better your odds were of surviving against other tribes bent on killing you and taking everything you had (including your children to become slaves and your women to produce more men for their tribe).

Because humans were capital in the economy, debts could be paid and collected (within your own tribe or people group) by using your own life or the lives of your family members. You worked off your debt by becoming a slave to the person you owed money. Life (more particularly work and service) was a form of currency. Working for my creditor or giving a family member over to work for the creditor was part of the economy of that day.

Another important piece of context for me is that, through much of history, forms of slavery were legitimate forms of life-long protection and provision that some individuals chose into. In today’s chapter, the Hebrew code of law allowed for individuals who said, “I love my master,” and chose to remain in service. The individual chose to remain in service to his master and in return he received provision, protection, security, and sometimes kept his family together.

Please don’t read what I’m not writing. I’m not making excuses for, nor am I saying that slavery’s history makes it okay or acceptable. I’m simply saying that I believe I must understand and accept that slavery was part of daily Hebrew life and survival in 1500 B.C. It’s all that they knew.

The second lesson for me from today’s chapter is that God called His people to do better, and to do more. If you had a person in your service because they owed you a debt, you were expected to free that the person and forgive the debt in the seventh year no matter the size of the debt. The number here is significant. Seven in the Great Story always relates to completion as in seven days of creation, and the series of seven plagues prophesied in Revelation. This code went further than any other legal code we know about from that time. God expected His people to do better than those around them, to forgive debt, and to free people who owed you. This is the root of what Jesus brought to fruition when He called on me, as His follower, to look beyond the letter of God’s law. Murder isn’t just about killing a body, it’s also about murdering a person’s esteem and soul. Adultery isn’t just about sexual intercourse with someone who isn’t your spouse, it’s about letting your appetite for lust see another person as an object on which to indulge your sexual cravings.

Finally, I find that there’s a piece of what theologians call “free will” in all of this. God allowed for Hebrew society to operate like all the human societies who were living and surviving “East of Eden” during that time. What God instructed from His people was that they could do better than those around them. They were called to a higher standard. I can’t help but think of the Abolitionist movement in Britain and the United States that was motivated by Christ followers who refused to accept slavery as part of the human societal equation and instilled in their day that we have to do better. We have to change. In Jesus words, we have to do more than what’s expected and walk the extra-mile, love our enemy, bless those who curse us, pray for those who persecute us, and show by our love-motivated actions that there is a better Way.

In the quiet this morning, this takes me full-circle back to Wendy’s comments over coffee. As a follower of Jesus, I am called to be more than an ally for justice. I am to be an accomplice in showing others, by love in action, that we can do better in this community, this state, this country, and this world.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Doing Something

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Doing Something (CaD Ex 12) – Wayfarer

…on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.
Exodus 12:12 (NRSVCE)

We are living through strange times.

Yesterday Wendy and I attended our local gathering of Jesus’ followers which was meeting corporately for the first time in months. With everything set up and following social distancing rules by local and state authorities, it just felt weird and disconcerting. This physical and relational reality only intensified the spiritual and emotional turmoil Wendy and I found ourselves in as we grapple with the inexcusable murder of George Floyd and the intensity of reactions it sparked across our nation and the world.

As worship began I fell to my knees as the emotional dam burst within me. Wendy and I wept together. Like almost everyone else with whom we discuss the situation, we are sad and angry. We agonize over what we can and must do in the wake of this crime and the evil, complex, vast, and multi-dimensional injustice of racism that continues to perpetuate in our nation, as it has for hundreds of years.

As I read today’s chapter, I felt the synchronicity that often comes in the morning when I open to the chapter that has fallen onto my schedule that day. It felt like no mistake that I was reading of the Hebrews’ climactic escape from their slavery in Egypt. What struck me this morning, and which I never internalized in the countless times I’ve read and studied it, is that the event is more than just the freedom of the Hebrews out of the chains of their slavery. Their escape took place amidst the wailing cries of their oppressors. God arranged for the oppressors to experience the pain, suffering, and loss that they and their system had visited on others for hundreds of years.

I also cannot help but mull over the fact that this same Hebrew/Arab conflict has lasted for millennia. The hatred and acts of aggression, oppression, and violence have gone back and forth and lasted for so long that I personally consider it impossible to completely plumb the depths. Guilt and innocence, oppression and suffering are found on both sides throughout history. From ancient tribal disputes to the settlement disputes on the West Bank today. How strange to read today’s chapter and to realize that the events lie at the root of yet another vast, complex, multi-dimensional human conflict that continues to perpetuate to this day.

So where does that leave us?

Wendy arranged for us to have a Zoom meeting with our children yesterday afternoon. From their homes in South Carolina and Scotland, we all talked and shared about our thoughts, feelings, experiences, struggles, and desire to do something. Every one of us shared our thoughts and intentions around what we can do.

In our local gathering of Jesus’ followers, we heard a humble, vulnerable, and honest message from Kevin Korver who, to his credit, passionately addressed the situation head-on. In the end, he led us in this corporate action list:

As we remain and abide in the circle of love, the divine dance of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we will:
Repent and confess
Bear good fruit
Listen, hear, and pray with love
Bless not curse
Love sacrificially
Become a bridge builder
Seek new friends.

Will it make a difference? It’s not a miraculous answer to the evil, complex, vast, and multi-dimensional injustice that continues to perpetuate in our nation. But, perhaps if I who profess to be a follower of Jesus actually and intentionally do these things it will make a change in me and those around me.

I’m reminded this morning that Harriett Tubman led approximately 70 slaves to freedom on some 13 missions. Seventy out of some 6 million slaves. She courageously and intentionally did what she could.

There’s no reason I can’t expect the same from myself.