The Wolves of Racism [part two] ...

So how do we rid ourselves of the wolves who would gladly destroy the flock?  The first step, is to look in the mirror, pick up the wool overcoat, and make sure “we” are not actually the wolves we are talking about.  Hatred, and its little brother - a lack of forgiveness, come in a variety of packages disguised as only “fair”; but the net result is the consumption of sheep, with only the remains of a wolf left in its place.  And the damage left behind does not only hit us, but has the ripple effects of every sin, extending outwards from us, first hitting those we love.  Then those same ripples of pain, begin to hit our church, our community, our country.  We may wonder how racism, bigotry, prejudice, or baggage could negatively impact our nation; but it can and it does.  Imagine the pain and damage done when hiring decisions are made purely from a point of prejudice of any kind.  Perhaps I don’t like bankers, or even former bankers, so I don’t offer this job to that candidate simply because he/she worked in an industry I have bad feelings about since the fall of that sector.  And because of my feelings, an otherwise fully qualified candidate is discarded because of what I feel about it. 

The same thing can happen when I let beliefs about age result in similar decisions.  In this age of technical proficiency how easy it is to decline the application of the clearly older candidate in favor of the young and up-and-coming because I believe inherently the young will adapt much faster than the old to change.  Of course this perspective usually occurs more often in the young, who have not yet experienced change the way the older folks have.  Just as hiring a former banker might give a qualified candidate a chance at something new, without the baggage of the past.  Prejudice can be subtle, it does not always have to be overt, and about black / white race relations.  Underlying it all is the fear, that at some point in the future, damage will happen to us (again) based on our past experiences, how we were raised, and what we choose to focus on in our news venues.  This fear begins to drive hate in us.  And instead of adopting a spirit of forgiveness, we adopt a spirit of what we call “justice”.  We begin to seek fairness above all things.  But fairness, justice, and equality sound objective, when in reality are anything but.  They are based on the perspectives we hold.  Ask yourself, is it “fair” for you to be rejected for a job opportunity, when another person of another race gets the job, particularly if race was the main reason they did?  Nearly ALL of us would say that it is not fair, unless “we” got it, then maybe we justify it as fair somehow (even if done for the same reasons).

Ironically, it is this spirit of justice, that makes us wolf, not sheep.  The sheep realizes they themselves are far from perfect, have done many wrongs to others, and thus crave forgiveness above all else.  And if we crave forgiveness, then we must be willing to offer it as well.  The world is unjust.  You can survive in it as wolf, or as sheep.  Case in point.  Matthew resumes the stories of Jesus in chapter eighteen of his gospel to the Hebrews.  He resumes picking up in verse 21 saying … “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”  This was Peter attempting to blend justice with forgiveness.  Most people, whether they know it or not, tend to have a three strikes rule.  You wrong me, and ask forgiveness, and I grant it – especially the first time.  The second time, I am a little more reluctant or cautious, but I still try to grant it.  By the third time, I pretty much no longer believe you mean what you say.  At this point, it is really hard to convince me you want genuine forgiveness.  It looks more to me like you are establishing a pattern of causing me harm, and then attempting to white wash yourself, so that you can simply do it again. (Imagine how God feels).

Peter however, was trying to be more generous than this, and was going the extra mile of offering 7 full times at forgiveness (despite how hard it would be to do this following the third declining shot).  Now translate that to us and the prejudice we develop over time regarding nearly anything.  Where prejudice remains, forgiveness is by definition, pushed out.  We fear damage more than we embrace a spirit of forgiveness.  This is how prejudice is fed, off our fears.  Lose the fear, it is then possible to lose a state of constantly prejudging what others will do, and why they would do those things.  Then people become just a series of one-on-one individual encounters.  I do not tally the sins of the last person (based on some characteristic I fear), with the new person who may also commit similar wrongdoings to me.  Instead the new person starts with a clean slate, because fear does not keep me holding on to a tally, that forgiveness would have otherwise reset.

But Jesus has a startling response picking up in verse 22 saying … “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”  It might as well be infinity.  Imagine being slapped in the face by someone who then asks forgiveness.  You grant it.  Then they find occasion to slap you in the face once again.  For 490 times?  If you can get past the third time, you are doing better than me.  If you can get past the seventh time you are doing better than our generous Peter proposed.  And when this pattern repeats for the 146^th time, and you are still able to grant genuine forgiveness on your part.  A few things will emerge.  Your concrete ability to share the forgiveness your God has granted you (monkey see, monkey do, in a great way).  It likely means your ideas about how to love, have become fully in harmony with your God’s ideas.  And I expect that at occasion #491, your mercy will not cut off, it will probably be there forever (as your God’s is).  The infectious, liberating nature of forgiveness will have taken over completely.  The sad part of this scenario however, is on the part of the wrongdoer.  It also likely means they are doomed to a life of inflicting pain, unable to stop, unable to control themselves, unwilling to allow Jesus to transform this behavior, ending it, so that no more forgiveness from you is needed.  Their path is the one of far greater sadness, even if yours must endure the pain in your cheeks on multiple occasions.

Forgiveness is supposed to be contagious.  Jesus then continues picking up with a story in verse 23 saying … “Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. [verse 24] And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.”  The story opens with the authority of a king, something the folks in His day and age, would have appreciated.  Everyone knew if Caesar decreed it, it was going to happen, whether for mercy, or for great evil.  It moves forward with a reckoning of the king’s servants (not strangers mind you, but folks assigned to serve the king, likely in a financial capacity (perhaps tax collectors)).  And one of the servants is discovered to owe the king 10-thousand talents.  This debt might as well have been infinity.  A single talent was a thing of great wealth.  With ten thousand of them, you could fund your own kingdom.  And no servant would ever “make” that much money on their own.

Jesus continues in verse 25 saying … “But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. [verse 26] The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.”  Here is where we must read carefully.  Because the servant could not pay, his life, was the thing he would have to offer of value.  Because he was the head of his home, what he did, would also cause great impact on the life of his wife, and his children as well.  What we do is never in a vacuum, it has repercussions.  And beyond the most precious things he had (the lives of his family), everything else he may have accumulated he was going to lose.  So he begs.  But for the wrong thing.  He begs for an extension of time, in order to pay back everything that is owed.  This was an exercise in futility.  If he lost this kind of sum of money, he could never pay it back (or he already would have).  How often do we line up beside this man, and ask God for a little more time and patience with us, so that we can conquer our sin?  We will stop swearing, or stealing, or lusting – if we just have a little more time to get it done.  But we fail, because we rely upon our own strength to succeed.

Jesus continues in verse 27 saying … “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.”  Again pay close attention.  What the servant asked for was an extension of time to pay back what was owed.  What God offers him, is simply to forgive his debt completely.  God is looking to transform the life of the servant.  To take the pressure and the fear off of him, from spending every moment looking for a penny he can add to pay back to the debt.  And instead to enjoy his life (have a real one), and impact the lives of his wife, and his children in a positive way.  To use his belongings with a sense of gratitude, for they all belonged to the king.  But the king has returned them, given them back, given them in the first place, to the man in this story.  How often do we line up beside this man, and treat our families, and our goods as if they belong to us – not as though they were ALL gifts from our King, who has erased a debt of ours we could never pay back.

This was all designed to change the heart of the servant.  To change how he lives, how he loves, and make the rest of his life so much better.  But alas, one must be willing to have a heart changed.  Jesus continues in verse 28 saying … “But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. [verse 29] And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.”  Instead of love and forgiveness, the man given so much of these, holds none of them in his heart.  He turns around and immediately seeks out a fellow servant who owes him only 100 pennies (less than one talent).  He does not mercifully ask or remind him of the small debt, but instead grabs the fellow servant by the throat.  There is violence in this.  For without love in a heart, violence has much room to grow.  What his fellow servant does, is the same thing he did only moments ago.  His fellow servant uses the same words.  And while it would have been impossible to pay back 10 thousand talents with time, paying back 100 pennies is actually plausible.  This debt was a much smaller thing.

Jesus continues in verse 30 saying … “And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. [verse 31] So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.”  Despite the dejavu, the man forgiven everything, the man offered a new life by the king, does not have the mercy in him to show even the smallest mercy to the man who owed him so little.  Debtors prison is the fate for the one who owes only 100 pennies.  His wife and his children must now find a way to pay back this small debt, but without their primary bread winner.  This may will be a degenerating condition, that impacts the fellow servant, and his family, and his possessions in a way he never recovers from.  No mercy.  No forgiveness.  No change of heart.  Only an expression of that heart, that impacts the witnesses and breaks their hearts when they see it.  They take it to the king, so that perhaps the one in prison might be released, but there is greater justice to be outlayed if justice is the course we choose for our lives.

Jesus continues in verse 32 saying … “Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: [verse 33] Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?”  Pay close attention once again; Jesus says “O thou wicked servant”.  He speaks not in parable anymore, but in plain English to us, to you, to me.  We have been forgiven everything.  Yet we would cling to our fear, and drive out the freedom embracing forgiveness might offer us.  For the brother who has wronged us, who refused to hear us, whether in private, in the company of witnesses, or even as a matter of prayer for the church – is it not possible to forgive that man?  Why do we make it a matter of attempting to punish a wrong doer, rather than a matter of forgiveness between family under the same church umbrella?  Why would I look at groups of people who share some characteristic, and develop baggage, or prejudice, or racist hate – expelling all the forgiveness I have been offered; and instead of being changed by that gift, harbor all the hatred that dwarfed my heart and ability to love by clinging to it.  Wolves hunt for justice.  Sheep rely on the mercy of the Shepherd to keep them alive, they rely on the closeness of the flock, not on subdividing it along every line of prejudice they can imagine.

Jesus concludes the story picking up in verse 34 saying … “And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. [verse 35] So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”  If we are determined to be wolves, determined to reject the forgiveness of our king, determined not to let it change us, and how we love.  We are wolves, left to no other fate, than the hunger of wolves for a justice they will never believe is fully satisfied.  Instead of being made free, we hold to the bondage of what we call justice and fairness.  We are left to the tormentors, others like us, who also seek justice and fairness.  But whose ideas of that justice and fairness conflict with our own.  Their justice steps upon our justice.  Their fairness does not line up with our fairness.  So we call them wrong, as they call us the same.  And we torment each other, each believing we are right.  And the tormenting of sin will not let us go, because we will not let it go.

Forgiveness is designed to free us from the burden, and the torment, of holding on to pain.  While the “fact” that we were wronged may never be in question.  Justice and further pain do not release us from our own, they remind us of it.  But forgiveness frees us from it.  We release our pain to the wind, think of it no more, and are free to cherish the one who may have hurt us.  To seek out the love that is possible between us.  Imagine if our Father God, who has a perfect memory, were to remember our slights, and our wrongdoings, that must have hurt Him deeply.  How could He love us, holding on to that pain.  Forgiveness is a part of love we required Him to invent, if He were to choose to love us still.  Forgiveness does not need a measure of justice first, it needs only a matter of choice to love first.  Forgiveness does not set all our wrongdoings right – we still did them.  But genuine forgiveness sets the tally to zero once again, and lets our relationship continue and grow.  The goal is not to use this mechanism as a means to continue inflicting pain, but rather as a means to change how we love, and over time need it less, until through Christ we need it no more.  Transformation will see to that.

Let us then, become sheep, blissfully absorbed in the love of our shepherd, looking to hunt no more in packs for a justice that can never be, but wander in flocks behind a Shepherd whose love transforms our ideas, and our actions on that very topic …

Unpardonable ...

And speaking of criticism … today it seems all the world is a critic.  We freely dole out “advice” to others about how they could have done a better job.  We feel it our duty, our responsibility, after all we are only trying to make the world better.  And the recipients of our advice clearly need it.  None of us are too receptive to the advice of others, but it would seem all of us are inclined to share criticism, often without being asked.  And what happens in the secular arena, being a reflection of character, is dragged right through the doors of the church into the ministry where it least belongs.  Yet our critique is freely shared inside the church with nearly every ministry offered, and every leader or participant who dares to stand in front of us long enough to listen.  We explain that our motive is only to “help”, to make the ministry “better”, or to avoid the pitfalls of the world.  But the net effect is that criticism flows freely, and our own participation flows slowly by comparison, if at all.

Knowing the condition of man, and the struggle of men against sin in all its form, you might just write this off as an “oops” of our characters that will one day get straightened out by the Lord.  This is true if we let it, rather than in true human form, keep attempting to fix it ourselves.  But there is a danger here in this area that is like none other.  As it turns out there is a much MORE dangerous sin, than homosexuality (which most modern Christians believe is by far the worst).  There is much more permanent sin than even murder.  Hard to imagine that, as life once lost sure looks permanent from a “this world” perspective.  And perhaps worst of all, the sin looks so innocuous that most of us don’t even consider it a sin.  We regularly participate without a second thought, and venture in to unpardonable zones with glee.

The first response to this is to recoil.  Perhaps this is only the opinions of the author of this Blog, nothing more.  I wish that it were so, for I am as guilty as any of my brothers and sisters in the faith.  But unfortunately for me, I am unable to argue with the words of my Lord.  Matthew picks up in his gospel in the twelfth chapter in verse 31, not his own words, but the quoting of the words of Jesus Himself as it reads … “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”  Ouch.  There is something that sits on the “shall not be forgiven” unto men list.  Blasphemy against Holy Spirit.  So what is Blasphemy then?

For us to claim something is from the Holy Spirit which is truly not would constitute blasphemy.  Not many of us claim to be prophets of God, so the danger here is low for most.  Not many of us claim to have direct communication from the Holy Spirit on any matter, we are nearly all too timid for that.  But for those who do, they better be right, or into this list they march.  But a false claim of authentication is not the only definition or use of this term.  The converse is also true.  To attribute something to Satan that is truly from the Holy Spirit, is also a blasphemy against God.  This is the one church goers are so quick to offer opinions about, particularly the conservative branch of our body.  How many times have you heard the opinion offered … “that music is of Satan”.  Or, bringing drama into the church in the form of Christian plays, or short skits, is of the devil?  It could be an instrument, a method of ministry, a manner of dress, or the message offered.

We have all done it.  We do it still.  We think it our Christian responsibility to “call out” things that we believe are of the world, so as to keep the sacred free from worldly influence.  But the key part of that sentence is “we believe”.  It is our belief, stemming from our opinion and interpretation of scripture, that something is of the world or not.  And those opinions and interpretations are often heavily influenced by our own preferences and traditions.  In these instances, we approach scriptures with the conclusions already made, looking only for texts which will support them, leaving no room to be led, or to find we are wrong.  Yet still we present ourselves with such a level of certainty in our criticism you would think we were ready to wrest the role of Judge from our God and carry it on our shoulders without a care in the world.

Perhaps blasphemy is strong enough as a word in its imagery to give you comfort that you “never” go that far with your critiques.  Perhaps because you associate the word blasphemy with such a level of sin, you believe yourself to be incapable of this, making it something you do not need to worry about.  So Jesus continues as if reading the notions of your heart 2,000+ years later.  He continues in verse 32 saying … “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”  The problem extends beyond blasphemy.  The problem extends to merely “a word against” category.  Now even the slightest slight falls into the same unpardonable zone as does full blown blasphemy.

Jesus makes the distinction that all of these same sins against Himself are forgivable.  But NONE of them are forgivable when offered against the Holy Spirit, to be clear, not in this world, or in the world to come.  The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Godhead.  It is an independent entity of God, that we understand little about.  The Bible is about Jesus, and His creation of us.  It is about our fall from trust, embrace of sin, and the redemption of man due to the love and sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.  Jesus is the main character, and the lens through which we see God the Father.  The Holy Spirit however, while equally active in the redemption of mankind is not what scriptures are written about.  He like a silent partner who does not want the spotlight, seemingly content to work in the background, noticed only when His power moves upon us and we reflect the impossible because of Him.  But He is there.  Some of us hypothesize that the Holy Spirit might be the mom character in the Godhead, but we are as clueless as ants trying to describe the scientific properties of stars.  Perhaps we are only trying to make the Holy Spirit more human, to be more understandable, and in this we mean no criticism.  Stupidity perhaps, but not criticism.

On the other hand, we are quick to judge things, and even results, where the methods are not of our liking.  How many Christian musical artists have been verbally associated with the devil, because we do not like their brand of music?  The phenomenon is not new, organ music was given this attribution 100 years ago.  Now it is having electric guitars, and drums in the sanctuary that gets some folks all riled up.  For some it is worship music that is so repetitive and simplistic it strikes more of inane meditations than music that truly expresses our praise to God.  The point is not what we like or do not like.  The point is the results.  When music points the heart to God, when through our experience of music, we find ourselves coming to Jesus, longing to submit our lives to Him.  The Holy Spirit is in that.  For the Kingdom of heaven is bent on bringing people to Jesus, the method of that journey far less important, than the destination of it.

Our tastes evolve over time.  What we may like as a child expands as an adult.  What we once thought so important, becomes less so as we age.  And Jesus, if we have submitted even our desires to, is the Author behind those changes we do not even understand.  So many Christians are so quick to judge methods, ministers, and messages they feel are inadequate; but whose results are leading of people to Jesus, as being “of the devil”.  This attribution is unfortunately a venture into the unpardonable zone which even after the end of all things is still remembered by the Holy Spirit and not forgiven us.  And why should it be?  We are saying our opinions matter more than the ministry of God to lead people to Jesus.  Better we should say nothing and let the Holy Spirit do as the Holy Spirit wishes.

And do not think this issue is confined only to criticism of music and its various genre’s and methods in the church.  It extends to issues or topics like women’s ordination as well.  This topic is not a debate over doctrine or tradition.  It is a recognition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or a rejection of them based on the opinions we hold.  When the Holy Spirit gives the gift of ministry to a woman pastor, and we as the body of Christ reject her because she is a woman, or treat her less because of her sex, we are effectively saying “no” to the Holy Spirit deciding who does what within the body of Christ.  Who are we to make that call, particularly against the wisdom and plan of God?  It holds true to the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to young child who we reject because of his/her age.  We reject the word of the Lord, because it comes from a mouth far too young to really understand what they are saying.  And in so doing, we speak more than just a mere word against the Holy Spirit, we are rejecting His gifts, intentions, and plans entirely; based on what, “adult” thinking?

All of these issues boil down to the ego we did not know we held so dearly.  It is the lens of self we apply to things of a spiritual nature, judging what is good and what is not.  But our judgment was never what was needed, our love was.  Leave judging to our God, who alone is qualified.  It becomes then an extremely dangerous thing to offer criticism, which in the end, may well be criticism against the Holy Spirit.  Better we should quell our tongue, and keep our helpful “advice” to ourselves.  Better to uplift, than to offer critical insights.  Better to come from a motivation of pure love, than from a heart who has yet to experience that kind of motivation.  When we seek out the positive, instead of constantly focusing our eyes on the negative, our world suddenly changes around us.  It is this focus on positivity that begins to reflect what Jesus is doing inside of us.  It is a reflection of being someone different than we were before, of allowing the Holy Spirit to decide what we say, and even what we think and believe, and trusting in Him, in God, to not see us follow error to our doom.

Jesus then makes an analogy to help us understand this change phenomenon in our lives picking up in verse 33 saying … “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.”  Those Christians you know, who never seem to run out of love, who always have something uplifting to say; they are trees of good fruit.  You can just tell they are connected with Jesus, or how else could they say those things, and be that loving no matter what circumstances they are in. or they encounter personally.  On the other hand, those Christians you know who always seems to have a critical word on their tongue, and who appear to love themselves very much, perhaps their families, and very few others; they are Christians of corrupt fruit, for they have yet to surrender who they are, and let Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit begin to truly transform how their hearts love. 

Jesus gets more to the point picking up in verse 34 saying … “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. [verse 35] A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”  This is about words people, your words.  This is not about how well the pastor did last Sabbath, or how well the missionary was able to convey what is going on in the fields.  This is about what you say throughout the week, and how you say it.  Those critiques you have to offer come from a heart that does not yet truly understand love.  Because when it does, it has no time for words that do not bring comfort and joy.  Those words that tear down, are not found in the halls of heaven, for the hearts behind voice never feel that way in the first place.  And so many continue to write this off as unimportant.

Jesus has other views continuing in verse 36 saying … “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. [verse 37] For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”  It is the words we utter when we give our lives to Jesus that see us justified.  It is our words of surrender that see us transformed.  It is the idle words we think are still not important that see us condemned, as they continue to reflect the fact that we have not yet surrendered, and have not yet seen our hearts truly transformed into His image.  Our words then are a reflection of who we are.  Our words, how we say them, what we say, are a reflection of the hearts that lie under them.  And so many of us, spend so much time, in words of critique; fully ignorant of our sins mounting against the Holy Spirit all because we have opinions we equate to doctrine, and certainty that surpasses the will of God.  All of it a venture into the unpardonable.

But love is stronger than that.  At least the love of God is stronger than that.  That love is strong enough, not to leave us as we are, but to transform us to what He intends for us to be.  Not just what Jesus intends, but what the Holy Spirit intends, and what God the Father intends.  There are three parts to our united God, not just one, or two.  The third part, the Holy Spirit, has a work and mission, and a personality as well; independent of the others, as I am independent of my wife, yet bound to her as one flesh.  The Holy Spirit is united in purpose with the Godhead, and gives man gifts, and power that reflect the will of God.  When we argue against that will, we venture in unpardonable zones we dare not go.  For we will not soon forget our own actions that delayed, or dismayed the ministry of God to redeem man, even though we ourselves are safely in the Kingdom of heaven.  That criticism we offered that disheartened the soul of a potential believer who was so close to accepting Jesus, but saw in us a discouragement they could not overcome will weigh on us forever, a judgment we will not escape, the judgment of our memories.  The treasure of souls who would have otherwise come to Jesus, is a treasure we should never risk, by clumsy words, and “helpful” advice.  If it does not reflect the passion of God’s love through a heart that has been transformed, our silence would be better preferred, coupled only with actions of love in demonstration.

 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished? ...

Intent is difficult to define.  What we perceive about any given event is then influenced by our own mind-set at the time.  If we witness someone crossing the street, and at the time we are coming from a joyful place, where things are going well for us, our world seems full of potential, and our dreams are right around the corner – we tend to associate good or at least neutral “motives” or intentions with the scene of someone crossing the street.  However, if we have just been burglarized, our security shattered, our wealth threatened – the person crossing the street may well be in the midst of a get-away.  It is the same person performing the same action, but how we “judge” or evaluate that identical action is not influenced by the person, but influenced by where our own mind is at the time. 

It is not that dissimilar when someone does something nice for us.  We may think the gesture comes from a place of love in the heart of the giver.  This is particularly true if our own heart longs to show love to others.  But we may also think the gesture is done for an ulterior motive, we become suspicious of what we will be obligated to do if we accept it.  We begin to resent the person for placing us in an uncomfortable situation – looking ungrateful if we refuse, or being obligated if we accept.  The negative evaluation of the identical gesture can lead us so far, as to begin to avoid the giver, or worse begin to take pre-emptive or retributive actions against them.  It is sad to say, but a heart that loves only itself, or itself above all others, tends to see “good deeds” through the lens of selfish motives.  We accuse others of the behaviors we are familiar with … because we see them in ourselves.  We come to believe that others are incapable of “good deeds” because we too are largely incapable.  But in typical fashion, we deny the transference, and convince ourselves, this is just being “practical” in our world.

How a “gift” is received is a reflection of the heart of the recipient – it is not a statement about the motives of the giver.  To offer something freely, regardless of how it is received, perhaps in spite of how it is received, is a reflection of the heart of the giver.  Christ offers us the “gift” of freedom from sin.  But in our sin, we judge that He is just trying to take away from us, something that we hold dear.  He may be trying to take away our “fun”, and leave us with the “drudgery” of obeying the law.  Yet Christ continues to offer us this “gift”.  When we begin to realize, that there is no more precious a “gift” that He could have offered us, the realization is a reflection of change in our own hearts.  His “gift” has not changed, our responses have.  We may have at first rejected what He offered, and even been resentful that He would put us in the uncomfortable situation of – looking ungrateful if we refuse, or being obligated if we accept.  We may have gone so far as to avoid Him as the giver, or worse to take pre-emptive or retributive actions against Him.  But He loves and offers just the same.  And when once we accept, He transforms how we think about the same “gift”, forgiving us completely for what we might have done against Him and His “gift” in the past.

If our Savior must endure this rejection, this improper judgment of His motives, this devaluation of the most precious “gift” in all of history as He works to redeem you and me – can we seriously think our minor good deeds will not undergo the same phenomenon as we attempt to reach out to those around us?  Peter understood this phenomenon.  He had witnessed it first hand as Christ healed the lame man, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised Lazarus from the dead.  The beautiful gifts of Christ, were judged by the religious leadership of His day, to be the acts of Satan, because those actions did not conform to the authority of the church.  Having seen this, Peter is keen to share the foreknowledge with the early Christian church, not only about what to expect, but about continuing to return good for evil in spite of how it is received.

Peter continues in chapter 3 of his first letter to the church beginning in verse 14 … “But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; [verse 15] But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”  Offending an oppressive authority carries a substantial risk.  A citizen of North Korea who openly insults the “precious leader” is likely to see his life forfeit as a result.  The same is true in religiously based totalitarian states; offer offense to the dominant religious thinking or ideology and lives are lost as a result.  It was no different under Roman rule, perhaps only that it might have been worse.  Insulting Kim in Korea is a rule everyone can understand.  In Rome, that could apply to a host of people.  Insulting Islam in a predominantly Muslim country is a rule everyone can understand.  In Rome, there were a myriad of religions that came in and out of favor, each particular “god” having its own set of rules and regulations.

Peter has just given wise counsel in our last study about the secret to living a long and happy life.  In a nutshell, he offers that it may be as simple as keeping your tongue in check.  When you speak, avoid malice, mischief, and speak with the love that comes from the inherited blessing of working in conjunction with Christ for the redemption of the lost.  He states in the above verses, that even after following that advice, there may be those who continue to judge you harshly, and threaten your very existence.  But the consistent response of returning good for evil, will drive your oppressor to wonder “how” you are able to respond this way.  Peter then offers, that this event, is what we longed to see.  Stand ready to give an answer of the reason for hope within you, in both meekness and respect, to the one who asks.  It is not in returning equal violence and equal evil for what is done to us, that our oppressor begins to cease his actions.  His heart remains untouched.  But when he is offered love for evil, his heart must understand this, and in so doing can become changed.

Peter continues in verse 16 … “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. [verse 17] For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.”  Keeping a positive consistent, Christ-like love in our speech, has the added benefit of freeing our hearts and minds from the guilt that comes in speaking or doing evil to others.  Those who are consistent in loving others, sleep better.  And “if” we are to suffer because of the wickedness of other men, then let us suffer for our good deeds and good speech – than to suffer for the gossip we spread, and the lies we tell, and the jealousy and judgmental-ism that so often cross the “Christian’s” lips.  To suffer for our misdeeds is only justice; there is no nobility in it.  But to suffer for our good deeds, is to walk the path of patient love that our Savior tread before us.

Peter continues in verse 18 … “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”  Peter reminds us that Christ suffered and died, not only for those who would accept His gift, but for those who would choose to reject it.  He died for everyone, not just for His followers.  He longed to have all the world experience the freedom from sin He offers.  But how an individual responds to Christ is the choice of that person.  Christ died for him.  How he responds is left to him. 

Peter continues in verse 19 … “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”  The New Testament does not talk much about the prison ministry of Jesus.  There are some interactions between the disciples of John the Baptist when he is imprisoned that are recorded.  There is also the parable Jesus tells of the separation of sheep and goats based in part on how they visited those in prison.  John’s gospel states that many more things Jesus did while he was here, so many that no volume of books could contain the whole of them.  So perhaps Peter here alludes to a personal knowledge that Jesus did indeed visit those in prison to offer them hope.  Or perhaps Peter here is talking about how Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit is able to free us from the prison of sin and self-slavery we have embraced.  In either case, our Lord is highly concerned about our freedom from sin, and often is misjudged by us, throughout the process of salvation.

Peter continues in verse 20 … “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”  Notice that even when the world was judged to be so continually evil that it must be destroyed, the sentence was delayed for 120 years, so that perhaps some of mankind might reconsider and be saved.  Entry into the ark was not forbidden by Noah, it was encouraged.  He preached for 120 years about what was coming, and how mankind might be saved.  It takes very little risk to enter the ark “just in case” Noah is right.  It takes tremendous arrogance to ignore the first-hand accounts of Adam and Eve who lived nearly half the time between the garden of Eden and the flood.  It takes tremendous arrogance to ignore the angel with the flaming sword who stood at the entrance to the garden of evil to insure mankind no longer ate from the tree of life.  There was first hand and physical proof of the existence of a creator God.  Yet not a single soul took the precaution of entering the ark “just in case”.  Only Noah and his family were saved.  The disobedient were set in their course, despite the mercy God continued to extend to them.  And as it was in the days of Noah …

Peter continues in verse 21 … “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: [verse 22] Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”  Peter compares the flood where evil men died, to the symbolism of baptism, where the evil in our hearts is drowned by our choice to submit and follow Jesus Christ.  Peter qualifies that it is not our actions that save us, but our willingness to be transformed by God, brought into harmony with how God thinks, and loves others.  As we emerge from the baptismal waters, so Christ emerged from the grave.  As Christ is ascended into heaven, and has been given all power and authority sitting on the right hand of God, so He is able to save us from the slavery of sin that would have cost us our lives and existence, and bring us home to Him.

The process of our salvation is founded on the patient love of God.  God allowed time for the people in Noah’s day to hear the message, and have the chance to see redemption.  It was the people of that day that refused to be saved.  The actions of the life of Christ did not return hate speech for hate speech, instead constantly trying to guide the Pharisees and unbelievers to the knowledge of the love of God for man.  It was the Pharisees who refused to ever embrace that love, with only few exceptions.  Peter reminds us that our consistent positive love-centered speech is not always going to be received well.  We will be judged harshly, often by those most in need, and most steeped in evil.  But that should not diminish our showing love to them; instead it should serve to increase it.

The end-game for God is about our redemption.  He was willing to endure tremendous pain and suffering and insult, even death, in order to see us redeemed.  He is willing to forgive everything we have done to Him, just hoping so fervently to see us accept His love, and be with Him forever.  There was no price He was not willing to pay to see the job done.  Nothing He would not endure.  That kind of love is limitless, infinite, and beyond our comprehension.  The best we will ever do is accept it.  We may never come to fully understand it.  Our carnal nature can simply not make sense of it.  Yet it exists.  If evil is to be eliminated, it must be by a choice for something else.  His love provides a reason to seek that choice.  His love provides a method of seeing that choice become a reality.  His love abides with us before, during and after this process takes place.  His love is everything …

 

The Only Thing Evil Knows - Communion (part eight) ...

When once you turn away from the light, the only alternative left to you is darkness.  When once you turn away from love, hate is the destiny you embrace.  Lucifer was created in the perfection of service and love to others.  His position was once third highest in all of creation, he stood at the left hand of the Father.  He was unaware of a distinction between himself and Christ, because the love of God towards others so was full there had never been a reason to measure it before.  But within this perfection, Lucifer reasoned that perhaps existence did not require this method to maintain perfection.  Perhaps an alternative was possible that would simply result in a “different” perfection than the one God setup.  He broke trust with God, and put his trust in the power of his own intellect and will.  He continued on his path, until the point where he could not be saved, because he would not be saved.  And there was war in heaven.  When once he knew only love and harmony, he would now be willing to introduce war and death into heaven itself.  Love had turned to hate, as trust was irrevocably broken.  Evil was born into the universe, and the opposite of love was defined for all sentient life to witness in horror; hate had come.

Lucifer became Satan.  The archangel became the devil.  A universe of perfect love to others, had been corrupted into a self-absorbed, self-focused, acquire-at-all-costs emptiness that could never be filled.  To look back at the perfect peace unfallen beings maintained, and witness the perfect love of service the unfallen beings lived, elicits only one response in the fallen – hate.  It is torture to live in self-inflicted pain while witnessing the unbridled joy of another.  Their peace only fuels the passionate hatred of the one who will not let his own misery go.  That impossible focus on self, only deepens the hatred for everything, when seen against the perfection of love and service and joy that is unavoidable from living as God ordained.  So when evil encounters love, its response must be one of two – submit to love and embrace it, or resist love and respond in hate.  As love is more powerful than hate, it requires more determination to hate, more anger to maintain, more energy to resist.  It requires an unrelenting choice to keep up the hate.  But for one who will not trust to anyone other than self, it is the only choice to be made despite its difficulty.

This was the reaction of the religious leadership of the day, to the Messiah they had waited for so long to see.  This was the response of the wicked and fallen angels to the arrival of Christ, who lived His life in perfect service and love.  The only thing evil knows to do when confronted with love, is to hate.  If one lets go of hate even momentarily one may be drawn to a love that would not let you go, one that would free you from hate, so as never to return to the power of its embrace.  That kind of redemptive love is what Christ introduced into our reality.  And the Pharisees hated Him for it.  The very redemptive love He offered to all, even to them, was refused because it required submission, it required an acceptance that indeed they did not know it all.  They were not the final arbiters of truth, they were witness to truth incarnate in the humble life of this servant of all.  This they could not, and would not accept.  So they responded to love with hate.  The learned elders of the one true religion, became the biggest proponents of hate in the very name of that religion.  The Pharisees would seek to kill the author of love, rather than be remade by that love.  Are we any different?  Do we prefer ourselves the way we are, than to be remade by Him and perhaps lose parts of ourselves we hold dear?  Do we carry placards that espouse love that transforms or hate that condemns?

John records the words of Christ now in chapter 15, as they near or perhaps enter the garden of Gethsemane.  Judas is not with them as he is already leading those who intend to kill love to their target.  Time is very short.  So Christ tries to explain the mystery of iniquity and hate to His followers so that they will not be surprised by what they encounter.  In verse 18 He explains … “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. [verse 19] If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”  Evil hates love.  When we reflect the love of Christ to others, we should not expect to see love returned as it would be in perfection.  Rather we should expect to see hatred, for evil struggles to the death to hold on and resist the love of God.  When we find ourselves in disfavor with society, when we are punished for the acts of love we do on behalf of another, when our reputations are mud for the sake of our relentless love in action – it is because evil resists the power of God who loves. 

However, when the world seems to have no problem with us; when we present no threat to it; when we are every bit as angry, and hostile, and judgmental as our accuser is; we can and will be loved by the world.  Satan has no problem with our hateful speech, couched in the name of God – that is a technique he pioneered for us.  Our Pharisee forefathers killed God in an effort to keep religion pure.  So when we hold our signs and placards that condemn the world for its sins, we join with Satan in persecuting those in the deepest need of His love; so pushing them farther from it, while carrying and maligning the name of Christ, and of Christians.  This activity brings little condemnation from the world, because the world is steeped in evil and loves the hypocrisy of accusing others while being every bit as guilty in our own hearts and desires.  But, by contrast, when we love unconditionally and without reservation, to those who no-one else would dare to love – we present a real and present threat to the kingdom of evil and hate.  It is then that we are out of harmony with the kingdom of evil and hate, and must be “dealt with”.  For if left unchecked, a love without reservation or limitation, that is only consumed with the benefit of another, has the power to change lives, hearts, minds, and wills and could make converts to the kingdom of Christ.  When these converts discover the freeing power of love, the salvation Christ does to liberate and change them from their former selves into servants equipped with the power of transformative love – the kingdom of evil loses a soul forever to the power of God’s love.  Thus when we love like Christ loved, we become hated quickly by the world.

Jesus continues in verse 20 … “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”  When we serve God we encounter those who have refused Him, and thus will refuse us as well.  Be they church leaders at the highest levels, or desperate sinners at the lowest rungs of society, those who refuse God and His love, will not accept our own any better.  But those who hear the voice of the Lord, will make themselves humble enough to hear His voice through His servants in whatever form that comes.  It is not only through a preacher that the word of God is offered.  It is offered through the mouth of the child, who can barely grasp the depth of the words they speak.  It is offered through the mouth of the downs-syndrome-afflicted who understands love so well, but intellect so little.  It is offered through the mouth of the sick and the dying as they face what we all fear, and now understand what is truly important.  If we are humble enough to hear it, we can ignore the faults and imperfections of the vessel, and instead hear only the pure word of God spoken in love regardless of its source.  It is not the denomination, or age, or gender, or sexual orientation, or known history of sin that either qualifies or disqualifies a person from speaking the truth of our God – it is instead only the content of what they say, and the love in which they say it, that either offers us the word of God, or the folly of men.  It is instead our arrogance that predetermines “who” is qualified to speak for God, and our standards lead us to miss His words, in favor of those that please our own ears.

Jesus continued in verse 21 … “But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.”  In the days of Christ as well as in ours, there will be those who refuse to accept Jesus as Lord.  To identify Christ as the Son of God, is to invite persecution – either from within the church as we transfer the attention away from traditions and self-reliance and on to Christ – or outside of the church as we identify the real meaning of love and not  the perversion of self-service the devils offers as its poor substitute.  Those who do not know God, do not know love, and evil has only one response to love.  Jesus further states in verse 22 … “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.”  In the days of the Pharisees Christ had spoken in their presence, they bore witness to His love, and therefore had no excuse to cloke their sin.  In our day, the love of the Lord is no less present.  We do not casually live our lives in blissful ignorance of the love of God, instead the love of God to redeem us is constantly offered, and we must by conscious choice ignore and disregard it.  So what was true for our Pharisee forefathers will be no less true for ourselves.

Jesus states in verse 23 … “He that hateth me hateth my Father also.”  There is no subdividing God.  There are not many pathways to God.  There are not many deities that can legitimately claim to be God.  There is only one God.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – three who are united in purpose and one.  To hate one of them, is to hate all of them.  You cannot hate one third of God, but love another third.  To love God, is to accept God as He is.  We do not get the choice of picking and choosing which parts of God we think are real and worth loving or not.  For if Christ always did the will of His Father, who is it we truly hate – the God who performed the miracles, or the God who ordained them to be performed?  Those who offer Buddha, or Krishna, or Mohammed, or any other purported deity to augment the place of God, offer only false ideologies that cannot find truth in the reality of who God is.  The Father cannot be separated from the Son.  To deny the divinity of the Son, is to deny the divinity of the Father, for it was the Father’s own voice who proclaimed Christ as His own Son, and who empowered Christ to bend the rules of physics to heal and create, and restore all the countless broken ones he encountered during His life here on earth.  It is both Father AND Son who are united in the plans for our redemption and salvation.

Jesus offers evidence again in verse 24 … “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.”  The miracles of Christ should have been enough to prove His divinity.  He created food where there was none.  He healed diseases and birth defects and the demon possessed.   He woke Lazarus from the grave after 4 days of decomposition.  Every act of love for another should have been more than ample evidence of His divinity.  To require more “proof” is empty words, proof and truth were already there for those who did not refuse to see.  Jesus continues in verse 25 … “But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.”  The rejection of Christ had been foretold.  It was even sadder still though, that this prophecy found fulfillment in the leadership of His own religion and faith, instead of merely in the government of Rome and the world.  I wonder if our modern Christian churches are any different.  Do we too reject Christ as the author and finisher of our salvation, choosing like Lucifer to put our trust in our own wisdom, logic, interpretation, and will power to save us from our sins?

Jesus then tells His followers, that for them even more evidence will be received in verse 26 He continues … “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: [verse 27] And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.”  The Holy Spirit will come to His followers and continue to declare in the Truth of the Father, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and source of our salvation.  The Holy Spirit does not disagree with the accounts of scripture, rather He verifies them.  The miracles the disciples would perform were not of their own strength, but done in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of God.  If the life of Christ were a lie, if He were not our God, His name would have no effect.  We could not break the rules of physics and modern medicine by the power of our own names, or the random name of some mere historical figure, even if that figure was a “good man” or known to be a “prophet”.  But the name of Christ, and the power of love of God that He embodies, has seen the impossible become possible.  To be made free from the addiction of sin and self is in itself a miracle we will never fully understand, for it is His work in us, and none of our own, that sees it accomplished.

Jesus continues and wraps up this part of His communion on the responses the disciples should expect in chapter 16 starting in verse one … “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. [verse 2] They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”  The worst irony, the saddest expectation, would be that the center of persecution would not be in the world, but within the church.  It would be those who favor religious zealotry, over actual love for others, who would be most willing and eager to kill in the name of God.  The Romans would hardly care less which God you worship as long as you paid your taxes and did not attempt rebellion.  In this, Christians were wholly compliant.  But the Jews believed the introduction of the doctrine of the Messiah having been fulfilled was the destruction of their faith, traditions, and powerbase, thus to kill to end this “heresy” would become a top priority within the faith.  Christ explains all of this to his disciples in advance.  He explains why they will do this in verse 3 … “And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

Here the message of Christ is powerful both then and now.  Those who would hate or kill in the name of God DO NOT KNOW GOD at all.  They neither know God the Father, or God the Son.  Those who respond to love with evil and hate, know only evil and hate.  God does not kill those who disagree with Him.  If that were true Satan would simply have never existed.  Instead God creates all with freedom to choose to trust and love or not.  God does not change who He is, instead He attempts to lure us back to Him with the power of His so great love.  He does not kill us all because we sin, or have sinned.  Instead He looks to free us from our sin, and offer us love and joy in its place.  He takes pain and death away from us, and offers us life and love instead.  Those who offer death for disobedience follow the doctrines of Satan alone, not of our God.  It is Satan who kills those who disagree with him, or disobey him, or fall away from his cause.  God attempts to redeem the lost.  Satan would kill any who stray from his cause of evil.  The religious zealots of the time of Christ who kill in the name of God, were doing so at the express desire of Satan himself.  The religious zealots of today who espouse hate to those still caught in sin, follow the same path of Satan, and do nothing to advance the cause of God or the redemption those sin-sick souls are in such desperate need of.  Only love will ever reach them, hate and death will accomplish nothing.

Jesus concludes his predictions by stating one last time in verse 4 … “But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.”  Everything He was telling them was prophetic, and true, and would help prepare them for the future they faced.  The message is every bit as relevant for us today as it was then.  When we are transformed by the love of Christ, we will become different people than what we were.  We will value different things, love differently, want different things.  When we begin to reflect the love of Christ through us more perfectly, we will draw the ire of the world around us.  Satan will not leave us free to love as Christ loved without making every attempt to draw us away from Christ.  He will tell us that “we” have accomplished our spiritual awakening by our own great power and intellect.  He will do everything he can to convince us that even our religious life is about us, our salvation attributable to our works and will power and understanding of scripture.  He will do anything he can to keep us from focusing on Christ.  We cannot expect a life of ease as a servant of love.  Instead we can expect a life of hardship, and of perfect peace, contentment, fulfillment, and joy.  For it is not our conditions that define our responses, it is the power of His love within us.  We will find perfection from the work He does.  We will find peace in KNOWING that it is He who saves us from the people we once were.  Our salvation is His gift to us, and the way we love is also the result of His gifts.  Nothing can take that away, whether from within our churches, or outside of them.

And communion was not over yet …