Fellowship in Suffering

Have you ever met someone that you just "clicked" with? Someone whom you felt you could talk with, or just listen to, for hours on end? These people strike some chord in our hearts such that we feel an immediate connection and relation. I've found that in my life, these people share some common interest, passion or way of thinking that is very similar to my own yet made distinct by their own unique life experiences and challenges. The cake of deep intimate fellowship is formed from similitude and it is made sweet by the icing of differences, not the other way around.

God calls us into fellowship with His Son. There are many ways by which to pursue fellowship with God: prayer, fasting, study, obedience, etc. These are disciplines by which to nourish the connection to the divine so that we might, at a heart level, be transformed by the renewing of our mind to conform to the image of Christ. This likeness is the heart of fellowship, but there is something to be said for likeness of experience as a well. After all, a true likeness in heart should ultimately produce similar experiences.

The apostles talk of sharing in the sufferings of Christ. When you've been abandoned by your friends, lost worldly possessions and status, been wrongly accused and hated, beaten down and mocked, betrayed with kisses and abused, when justice turns away from you, it can be very hard to see God through the disaster. The darkness into which you have been thrust can be very dark indeed and even the very sense of the presence of God can be like the sun which moves behind the clouds. There is nothing left then but to sit among the ashes and mourn.

Then something very surprising happens. You look over and you see Jesus sitting beside you among the ashes. It should not be surprising, after all where else would Jesus be? The profound sense of kinship that floods into the heart cannot be expressed by words. It is the overflow of joy that transformed Job's pain into worship.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, the avatar of the Supreme Being in the Hindu mythos, claims that that the greatest of his worshipers are not the suffering but the wise. Christ, by contrast, seems to extend a special brotherhood to those who suffer for his sake, or perhaps he makes no distinction at all between the faithfully suffering and the wise. As G.K. Chesterton notes, it is revealing to mediate on the differences between the way Christ is portrayed by Christians versus the way other gods are portrayed, especially the Eastern ones. Those gods are well-fed, smiling, content, and serene with closed eyes. Christ is fully revealed on the cross in his greatest moment and finest hour. He is thin and bloody with a sad and tortured expression in his face and his eyes are wide open fixed on the prize. What a sublime paradox that the greatest joy is found not in following the serene gods but in joining the tortured one on His cross.

Living Among Wolves (Part II)

In my first post on this subject I discussed the outward characteristics of wolves. Wolves are predatory by nature and sheep are their prey. Those sheep who do not graze in the world as craftily as snakes meet the fate of perishing through their lack of knowledge. It is therefore important, as a sheep, to be on one's guard. This bears reminding since sheep can forget that not all are sheep - a fact that a wolf never loses sight of.

However, to leave the discussion merely at a description of the wolf nature and an admonishment to be wary misses another import aspect of this parable and therefore leaves the thought incomplete. That fact is this: all sheep were once wolves. Some wolves become sheep before they begin to hunt and others after they have slain a mighty throng. But all sheep were once wolves who through a mystery that angels long to peer into have become sheep: an experience which, like all births, is both painful and joyful.

Sheep therefore, in a sense, walk between two worlds. The first world is a prey-predator relationship where self-preservation, diligence, and caution are the driving motivations for action. The second world is another plane of relationship where compassion, pity, and sacrifice are the driving motivations for action. In the first one, a sheep flees from a wolf once recognized as such. In the second world, a sheep approaches the wolf with fear and trembling and bares its neck for the slaughter.

We are reminded to live in the first world by the proverbs, the psalms, the epistles of the apostles, and so on. We are reminded to live in the second when we see the Messiah break bread, declare it to be his body broken for his friends and then had it over to his betrayer whose feet he has just washed. So how do the sheep know which path to take when? Because the sheep hear and know the voice of the Shepard and where he leads they will follow, even where they do not wish to go.

Two Prayers

Two men walk into a church to pray. The first walks up to the front and kneels praying:

"Lord, forgive my sins. I have stolen, but I only stole because I have been unfairly deprived of what I deserve. I have lied and deceived but only because others are too judgmental and self-righteous. I have betrayed innocent people, but only because I myself have also been betrayed by others. Father, forgive me for all these sins I've been made to commit against you."

The second kneels in the back in and prays:

"Lord forgive my sins. I have stolen what I did not earn. I have lied and deceived because it was easier for me than telling the truth. I have betrayed innocent people so that I could benefit at the expense of their suffering. I choose to do evil, knowing that it was evil for my own selfish motives. Father, forgive me for all these sins I've chosen to commit against you."

Which one of these two men walks away justified?

Living Among Wolves

Beware

• Those who decry that all money is evil. They have never honestly earned money; they cannot value money or the means which honestly produced it. They will not, therefore, value your money, time, charity, or life.
  
• Those who demand as the first condition of relating to you unconditional love or trust. These are the people who are planning to slit your throat the moment it becomes convenient. They cannot understand love much less what it means for it to be unconditional.
  
• Those who demand from you financial support, forgiveness, time or anything else on the condition that you are bound to provide it because you are a Christian. To blackmail a person, not for the vices but for their virtues, is an inexcusable tactic of a cheat and a defrauder.
  
• Those who publicize every good act they do. When no one is watching they will strike.
  

The Deeper Truth

A few days ago I was having a discussion with someone who was trying to convince me that truth does not consist of factual reality but that it is something deeper and more true. The intent of this argument was to diminish the importance of speaking factual truth so I dismissed it for the new-age doublespeak it was.

Today however I've reconsidered it and I think that the point is valid; that is that truth does not consist of mere factual statements about reality but is in fact something deeper and more substantial. Scripture declares that God is love. Love exists only the context of relationship and relationships are only possible when they exist in truth. Just as God, existing in three persons, was love before creation because love flowed perfectly between each member of the Trinity, God must also have in some sense been Truth. Love could only flow perfectly between God if God existed and manifested Truth. Perhaps this is why Jesus calls Satan the "father of lies" as a statement of the antithesis of his nature compared to God's.

Love is not giving gifts, compliments, or affection, but is the source, meaning and root of all existence. Truth, its sister, is not factual representation but the fabric of all relationships. But rather than this diminishing the importance of honesty, it increases it. Love and Truth are not directly perceived but are known by their fruits. Honesty is the fruit of Truth, just as affection and concern is the natural fruit of Love.

Cleansing This Temple

In the Old Testament era, there was prescribed exactly one geographical location on Earth where the glory and the Spirit of God would descend to meet His people. This location was the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The Hebrew name for the temple means "The Sanctified House" and it was the only place ordained by God for the offering of sacrifices.

During the ministry of Jesus, he "cleansed" the Temple by driving out the merchants and the money-changers, both of whom had a legitimate right to be there. It was impractical for believers to bring their livestock all the way to the Temple, so there needed to be those who could sell the animals for sacrifice in or near the Temple. Additionally, only the Hebrew coin could be use for offerings, so people who traded in other currency needed to be able to exchange their money. However, these merchants and money-changers extorted believers to increase their profit because the believers were dependent on them. Christ, in his only recorded violent act, drove these men out of the Temple shouting "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!"

In the New Testament era, the geographical location where the glory and the Spirit of God reside is in the heart of the believer. And we have money-changers and merchants in our hearts that have a right to be there. We need to work, provide for our family, have food and shelter, etc. Like the ancient believers, we are dependent on these money-changers and it is very easy to become extorted by them such that our heart loses the atmosphere of prayer and instead becomes a den of thieves. It is good to remember the zeal God has for His "Sanctified House."

The Allure of Virtue

When I was in college I held an ideal of a perfect mate. She had to be very intelligent. This is so we could stay up late into the night talking about interesting ideas and events. She would also, of course, enjoy the fun things that I enjoyed, so we could escape together from the world of obligations and truly immerse ourselves in each others' company. And obviously she would be very very pretty. Those were the important attributes of what I considered a perfect woman.

Taken for granted in this ideal is the assumption that she is also virtuous - that when faced with a tough choice she could choose the harder one simply because it is right to do so. As part of growing older, and hopefully wiser, I no longer take this for granted. Thinking back over the years, I can count on one hand the women I've met that I consider to have had a truly noble character.

Now when I look forward with hope to the future, I do not think so much about a person of surpassing intellect, common interests, or great physical beauty but rather I more greatly desire the beauty of the inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth God's sight. I think this subtle change of the heart, in what it desires and values, is a small part of becoming like God. Christ was never amazed by by the external qualities of a person but rather by their faith and their godliness. It is good and fitting that God, who gives us the desires of our hearts, may bless us with a heart that can more rightly desire.