Your Best Lent Now

February 18, 2024 Leave a comment

“Be All You Can Be” is not just the Army’s recruiting slogan. It is the appeal of self-help books, magazines, videos, seminars, and podcasts. It is the allure of prosperity gospel and the appeal of bucket lists. It is also the speculative assurance of transhumanism, the technological heir of evolutionary progressivism. There are plenty of gurus, gimmicks, and gizmos ready to give you Your Best Life Now.

We can live at full potential by taking seven steps. We can name-it-and-claim-it wealth, health, and total victory over circumstances. We can choose to have incredible experiences and to do incredible things before we die. And we can, one day, live with boosted cognition and become a radically enhanced superhuman. Why, we can conquer the whole universe by human will and consciousness and with a little help from my “Be All You Can Be” friends.

Certainly, such offerings have purchase. People want to be healthy, financially secure and control outcomes. And people want to “feel” alive.

Just as certain, “Be All You Can Be” taps into a fear of missing out on Your Best Life Now before you kick the bucket. “You Only Live Once” is the high-octane fuel in the motivator engine – get busy and live full throttle. The FOMO messaging comes from all corners, including from the expected self-help speakers both secular and Christian and from celebrities.

“Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.”

Wayne Dyer, self-help author and a motivational speaker.

“A life of adventure is ours for the taking, whether we’re seven or seventy. Life for the most part is what me make it. We have been given a responsibility to live it fully, joyfully, completely, and richly, in whatever span of time God grants us on this earth.

Luci Swindoll, author and speaker with Women of Faith

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.

James Dean

The possibility of “A New You” born out of the intensity of experiences and the dramatic are oft portrayed as producing “real” life, while the prosaic life of simple acts of truth, goodness, and beauty are deemed ho-hum and therefore not worth exploring and exploiting. (The dramatic life vs. the prosaic life is found in a close reading of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.)

The self-improvement racket has spawned cottage industries such as “biblical manhood” and “biblical womanhood”. Such topics, that get at our core identities and callings, are prone to scams, as Karen Swallow Prior writes in her Opinion: The ‘Biblical Manhood’ Industry Is A Scam:

In my recent book, “The Evangelical Imagination,” I devote an entire chapter to the notion of “improvement,” showing how this early modern concept contributed to the rise of the self-help movement in the 19th century and has spilled over into Christian thinking and practice today.

Many of the publications centered on “biblical manhood” and “biblical womanhood” are just a continuation of this Victorian (and secular) movement.

As you reflect on how to be within the time you have, do you envision having a multiplicity and intensity of experiences – 101 Incredible Things to Do Before You Die? Do you hear yourself speaking the “it” you want and believing you will receive “it” and “it” will come to pass? Do you see yourself embracing a you-can-have-it-all “Be All You Can Be” life? Is the bucket list of your now filled to the brim with FOMO activity?

Does submission to digital technology effect how to be within the time you have?

An interesting concept, noted in the context of the digital revolution suddenly increasing
“the rate and scale of change in almost everyone’s lives,” is presented by the Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities Edward Mendelson in his essay “In the Depths of the Digital Age”:

In Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), an engineer named Kurt Mondaugen enunciates a law of human existence: “Personal density … is directly proportional to temporal bandwidth.” The narrator explains:

“Temporal bandwidth” is the width of your present, your now…. The more you dwell in the past and future, the thicker your bandwidth, the more solid your persona. But the narrower your [bandwidth] sense of Now, the more tenuous you are.

The genius of Mondaugen’s Law is its understanding that the unmeasurable moral aspects of life are as subject to necessity as are the measurable physical ones; that unmeasurable necessity, in Wittgenstein’s phrase about ethics, is “a condition of the world, like logic.” You cannot reduce your engagement with the past and future without diminishing yourself, without becoming “more tenuous.”

As I read this: if you’re just constantly in the moment rushing from one thing to the next without the context of the past and future, your personal density becomes diffuse and unsupportable.

Alan Jacobs, the Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Honors Program at Baylor University, provides his insight into Mondaugen’s Law, in his web article To survive our high-speed society, cultivate ‘temporal bandwidth’. He writes that a . . .

. . . benefit of reflecting on the past is awareness of the ways that actions in one moment reverberate into the future. You see that some decisions that seemed trivial when they were made proved immensely important, while others which seemed world-transforming quickly sank into insignificance. The “tenuous” self, sensitive only to the needs of This Instant, always believes – often incorrectly – that the present is infinitely consequential.

It seems to me, and your own experience will bear this out, that This Instant is the impetus of Your Best Life Now and that self-help schemes produce the thinness and self-deception of a tenuous now.

(The wicked thrive in the tenuous now. The wicked want nothing to do with the past or the future. The narcissistic now is all the wicked care about.)

Is there a better way to address our frailty, finitude, imperfection, and self-esteem and produce a thicker bandwidth?

As a follower of Jesus, I look to him for affirmation and not from the world’s gurus, gimmicks, and gizmos.

As a follower of Jesus, I’ve seen that for the world, the drive to succeed is paramount and can be all-consuming. But I’ve come to understand that I can’t have it all and be it all in my mortal life. I am content with that. I have no fear of missing out. The Lord knows the desires of my heart and what I need. (See Psalm 37 & Matt. 6:32)

As a follower of Jesus, I’ve come to understand that the density of my “Temporal bandwidth” does not consist in an abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15) nor in the abundance of experiences (Luke 10: 20).

As a follower of Jesus, I’ve learned from Job to not be deceived into thinking of life in terms of “what’s in it for me”. Nor will I be incentivized by a Retribution Principle that has God prospering the “righteous” with material gain and health while inflicting suffering on the wicked.

As a follower of Jesus, I understand, contrary to the world’s notion of acquiring power, that I am a sheep cared for by the Good Shepherd. (See Psalm 23 & John 10: 1-30) My Temporal bandwidth is within his care. My personal density is being thickened; my persona becoming more solid. Seven decades into life and I know this to be true.

And, there’s the realization that unmeasurable moral aspects of life are as subject to necessity as are the measurable physical ones. They’re a condition of the world, like logic.

Ash Wednesday: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” With these words and the ash-cross marked on our foreheads we are engaged with our past and our future.

Ash Wednesday and Lent, the 40-day season of prayer, fasting and of giving up things, addresses our frailty, finitude, imperfection, and self-esteem. This Lent Be All You Can’t Be before the Lord and He will lift you up.

~~~~~

The Blessing of Imperfect Days with Kate Bowler – February 21, 2023

In this conversation, Kate shares about her work detailing the Prosperity Gospel movement from an academic standpoint, and how her own setbacks and health catastrophe in a cancer diagnosis both deepened her sense of being loved by God and softened her toward those desperate for a miracle.

Kate and Cherie’s conversation goes through deep waters, but does so with much humor and heart. We hope you’ll listen and share it with your friends and loved ones.

The Blessing of Imperfect Days with Kate Bowler

Episode 56 | Blessings for Imperfect Days with Kate Bowler | The Trinity Forum (ttf.org)

Blessings for Imperfect Days – YouTube

I WAS ON THE TODAY SHOW (youtube.com)

Kate Bowler, in her dissertation and later book Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel argues that these diverse of Christian faith-fueled abundance can be understood as a movement, for they stem from a cohesive set of shared understandings. First, the movement centered on Faith. It conceived of faith as an “activator,” a power given to believers that bound and loosed spiritual forces and turned the spoken word into reality. Second and third respectively, the movement depicted faith as palpably demonstrated in wealth and health. It could be measured in both in the wallet–one’s personal wealth–and in the body–one’s personal health–making material reality the measure of the success of immaterial faith. Last, the movement expected faith to be marked by victory. Believers trusted that culture held no political, social, or economic impediment to faith, and no circumstance could stop believers from living in total victory here on earth.

~~~~~

Escaping the Prosperity Gospel

In this episode Mikel Del Rosario and Costi Hinn discuss the prosperity gospel, focusing on Hinn’s spiritual journey out of the religious movement. This interview was recorded before March 2020.

Escaping the Prosperity Gospel – The Hendricks Center (dts.edu)

~~~~~

For those committed to human flourishing, absorbing that transhumanism is a scientific nonstarter would be a major boon. But a singular focus on information is not limited to this arena. It increasingly pervades our day-to-day existences, in terms of how we proceed in our professional and social lives, as well as when others decide what counts about us (or even who we “are”), often without our awareness. Prospects for societal improvement depend, in part, on our becoming more conscious of this informational frame, especially where it is a mismatch with the nonlinear and richly contextual nature of what matters most to us as human beings.

Why transhumanism is fundamentally wrong. (slate.com)

~~~~~

Filed under Christianity Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

The Secret Place

February 26, 2023 Leave a comment

Life is not like a box of chocolates. Life is more like a PEZ dispenser of dopamine and you know what you’re gonna get when you do what you do.

That’s what I gathered reading dopamine nation by Anna, Lembke, MD.

 From her website:

This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.

In her best-selling book, Lembke provides client counseling anecdotes under such chapter titles as “Our Masturbation Machines”, “Running from Pain”, “Dopamine Fasting”, and “Radical Honesty”. As mentioned in the blurb above, the premise of this book is about finding balance. She offers Lessons in Balance:

  1. The relentless pursuit of pleasure (and avoidance of pain) leads to pain.
  2. Recovery begins with abstinence.
  3. Abstinence resets the brain’s reward pathway and with it our capacity to take joy in simpler pleasures.
  4. Self-binding creates literal and metacognitive space between desire and consumption, a modern necessity in our dopamine-overloaded world.
  5. Medications can restore homeostasis, but consider what we lose by medicating away our pain.
  6. Pressing on the pain side resets our balance to the side of pleasure.
  7. Beware of getting addicted to pain.
  8. Radical honesty promotes awareness, enhances intimacy, and fosters a plenty mindset.
  9. Prosocial shame affirms that we belong to the human tribe.
  10. Instead of running away from the world, we can find escape by immersing in it.

Read Download Dopamine Nation PDF – PDF Download (bibleandbookcenter.com)

*****

It is no secret that the world around us promotes seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. But we may not have noticed that pleasure and pain operate like a seesaw, as Lembke illustrates in her book. The consumer of pleasure tips the pleasure side of the seesaw to the ground. The pain side goes up in the air. But, as the familiar saying goes, what goes up must come down.

Pleasure and pain work like a balance. Our systems seek to restore balance or “physiologic equilibrium”. (See Pleasure and Pain Are Co-located, p. 50, dopamine nation).

Looking for balance?  Per Lembke, “Abstinence is necessary to restore homeostasis”. Stopping and standing apart from that which is used to obtain pleasure helps us see the cause and effect of choices.

Does self-promotion, virtue signaling, and even advocacy tip the seesaw to the pleasure side? It would seem so based on the amount of self-aggrandizement that occurs in the media – social and otherwise. Radio personalities, from Howard Stern to Dennis Prager, are in the business of self-promotion for profit (and ego, and dopamine?)

And could it be, based on what we learn about dopamine, that when we give, pray, forgive, and fast in ostentatious ways that we are immediately rewarded with not only someone else knowing our act of devotion but also with dopamine? Could it be that we reward ourselves in the moment at the expense of a future reward secured in our relationship with the Lord?

When you are practicing your piety, mind you don’t do it with an eye on the audience! Otherwise, you won’t have any reward from your father in heaven (Matt. 6:1).

Jesus’ treasure on earth vs. treasure in heaven warning is heard a bit later in his kingdom of God discourse on the mount (Matt. 6:19-21). It follows his cautions about how we go about our devotion to God. We are admonished to let go of the desire to play-act and to promote ourselves and to let God recompense:

When you give . . .

 . . . to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet in front of you. That’s what people do when they are play-acting, in the synagogues and the streets. They do it so people will be impressed by them . .  . they’ve received their reward in full (Matt. 6:2).

When you pray . . .

 . . . you mustn’t be like the play-actors . . . shut the door and pray to your father in secret who is there in secret (Matt 6:5-6).

 . . . don’t pile up a jumbled heap of words reckoning the more you say the more likely you will be heard (Matt. 6:7).

 . . . here’s how you should pray . . . Our father in heaven . . . (Matt. 6:9-13).

If you forgive . . .

 . . . people the wrong they have done, your heavenly father will forgive you as well. (If not, then no forgiveness for you) (Matt. 6:14-15).

Forgiveness is included in these cautions. Forgiveness is a letting go of the wrong and the bitterness born out of it. Forgiveness seeks reconciliation just as God has sought with us with His forgiveness.

An unwillingness to forgive and to hold on to the wrong is the willingness to hold something over another at the cost of that relationship and at the cost of one’s own mental and spiritual health. One may find pleasure in giving another relational pain, but the seesaw will tip the other way.

Forgiveness is not saying “nothing happened”. It is saying that what happened has no power over me. And, more importantly, it admits “I’m in no position not to forgive”.

“If we believe rightly in Jesus Christ who unconditionally embraced us, the godless perpetrators, our hearts will be open to see from their perspective. In Letters and Papers from Prison Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggested that faith enables us to take “distance” from our own immediacy and take into ourselves the tension filled polyphony of life, instead of pressing life into a “single dimension.”

Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, Miroslav Volf, 1996, Abingdon Press, Nashville, p. 215

When you fast . . .

 . . . don’t be gloomy like the play-actors. They make faces quite unrecognizable, so that everyone can see they’re fasting. I’m telling you the truth: they have received their reward in full. (Matt. 6: 16).

This lent, consider who you are in relationship with. Those in relationship with themselves and the world desire to trumpet their doings. They gain followers on social media and “likes” for the advocacy that promotes them to the world. But the followers are a fickle bunch who need more and more stroking to bring them pleasure.

Those who follow the Lord have given up trumpeting what they do. They live in an intimate relationship with the Lord (Jn. 5:15). They know that the Lord knows what they do (Matt 6:4, Jn. 10:27). And that’s all that matters. Play-acting doesn’t work with God. God is not impressed with outward earnestness or public shows of it, because . . .

“God is in secret, and He sees us from a secret place; He does not see us as other people see us, or as we see ourselves. When we live in the secret place it become impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him of than anything else.” – Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Put another way, Christians are like musicians in a symphony orchestra giving a concert of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. They follow a maestro – not of this world – and they keep his rhythm in their soul and not with their feet.

LEnT go of play-acting, of self-aggrandizement, of being drama queens, of grudges and bitterness.

The ordinary Christian life remains ordinary by every measure except heaven’s.

LEnT go of that which brings disorder and non-function to your life and to those around you. We were endowed with the imago dei so that we would bring order and function to the world.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

― Jim Elliot, one of five people killed during Operation Auca, an attempt to bring the gospel to the Huaorani people of Ecuador.

Note: I write these things not because I have mastered self-denial. On the contrary. I write these things to spur myself to take courage and to have faith to do what is necessary day in and day out. I write to encourage and grow faith for myself and for others.

“. . . without faith it’s impossible to please God; for those who come to worship God must believe that he really does exist, and that he rewards those who seek him. – Hebrews 11:6

Informed Dissent:

Listen to these videos>>>>

“Nobody should be taking anything. That’s my professional opinion.” -Sasha Latypova

“Here we have an implemented model of fascism.”-Sasha Latypova

“What were they doing? They were play-acting.” Sasha Latypova

Listen to the very end . . .

Sasha Latypova – COVID-19 Countermeasures: Evidence of the Intent to Harm (rumble.com)

The WHO is a military arm of the One World Gov’t.

Bring control back to the states!

Next, start @ 6:40 for Katherine Watt:

Katherine Watt presentation (rumble.com) start @ 6:40

kill-box-presentation-1Download

Bailiwick News | Katherine Watt | Substack

Ed Dowd: “Millennial age group, 25 to 44 experienced an 84% increase in excess mortality” (substack.com)

Newsweek Follows National File’s Lead, Reports Fauci Funded Wuhan Coronavirus Research – National File

Three Years Late, the Lancet Recognizes Natural Immunity – WSJ

You think birthrates are low now? One OBGYN says thanks to the jab, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet [VIDEO]… – Revolver News

Ponder this:

The poor of the world cannot be made rich by redistribution of wealth. Poverty can’t be eliminated by punishing people who’ve escaped poverty, taking their money and giving it as a reward to people who have failed to escape. Economic leveling doesn’t work. Whether we call it Marxism, Progressive Reform, or Clintonomics, the result is the same slide into the stygian pit. Communists worship satan; socialists think perdition is a good system run by bad men; and liberals want us to go to hell because it’s warm there in the winter. -P.J. O’Rourke

and this:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1629165213600849920

[VIDEO] El Salvador President tosses 2000 MS-13 and other gang members into his new gigantic state-of-the-art prison… – Revolver News

and this:

*****

Things to give up for always:

-Give up notions that the U.S. government is altruistic and “for the people”. Like with our southern border, our government has been invaded by opportunists who don’t give a damn about our country except for what they can take from it.

-Big Pharma

-WEF, WHO & UN

-CDC

-Dept. of Education

-Masks

-War. The U.S. should NOT be involved in Ukraine and provoking WWIII. NO MORE taxpayer dollars to Ukraine.

and give up Coca-Cola

Defund Democrats:

Filed under Christianity, Lent Tagged with , , ,

Lent in the Time of Coronavirus

April 5, 2020 Leave a comment

“I’m telling you a solemn truth: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains all by itself. If it dies, though, it will produce lots of fruit. If you love your life, you’ll lose it. If you hate your life in this world, you’ll keep it for the life of the coming age.” -the gospel according to John, 12: 24-25

These words of Jesus were in response to Andrew and Philip. They came to Jesus saying that some Greeks would like to meet him. It seems to be a strange response for a simple request. But Jesus, noting that the “world” was coming to him for answers and for salvation, speaks of his coming death and the means to a resurrected life by following the same vocation. His words define the essence of Lent.

From the earliest days of the church, times of self-examination and self-denial have been observed. The origin of this practice may have been for the preparation of new Christians for Baptism and a reset of their lives. 2020 and the Lenten season is upon us and with it the government recommended “Stay in Place” until April 30th. Easter (April 12th), resurrection day, is the celebratory end of Lent and a restart to new life dependent on what takes place during Lent.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, there is a worldwide intense focus on physical and financial well-being, As we each hunker down and remain sequestered away from the coronavirus, anxiety is compounded: we want to know if we’ll be OK; we want to know where all of this is going and how it will end. The Greeks who wanted to meet Jesus and first-century Jews with their age-old anticipation for a Messiah to set the world to rights had similar concerns.

It is said that Luke, writer of a gospel account and the Acts of the Apostles, was a Greek physician. This being the case, he would testify, if present today, to the infirmities leading to vast numbers of death in the first century. He would recount that there were all manner of infectious diseases, smallpox, parasitic infections, malaria, anthrax, pneumonia, tuberculosis, polio, skin diseases including leprosy, head lice and scabies and, more. Dr. Luke would be the first to tell you that first-century remedies were ineffectual against the afflictions mentioned.

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, would tell us how Stoic and Epicurean philosophers dealt with grim reality surrounding them.

The Stoics, around the same time as Epicurus, posited a grim fatalist outlook. Considering themselves cogs in life’s machinery, their response was to lead a virtuous life in spite of “it all”. Materialism and passions were of no interest to them. “No Fear” and apathy towards life’s randomness were the attitudes they wore on their shoulder to appear non-self-pitying. They also advocated for suicide -the ultimate form of self-pity.

The philosophy of Epicureanism, posited by the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) a few centuries before the birth of Christ, offered mankind self-pity with license. Per Epicurus, there was no God or the gods were uninvolved with men. And, for him, there was no life after death. So, mankind had to make the best of the atoms he was dealt. Man was to do so by avoiding pain and seeking pleasure in the company of like-minded friends. Self-pity could be dealt with in intimate and safe surroundings.

Around the first century Epicureanism and Stoicism were evident in Greek, Roman and Pagan life. These philosophies gave words to what was inherent in man from his days in the Garden – a narrative of mis-trust in God. During the first century these philosophies were already fused with pantheism and the zeal to worship pagan deities.

To seek relief, paganism, an early form of Progressivism, enjoined pagans to offer the distant gods sacrifices to secure their well-being. Israel, called to be the people of God, chose to lament – asking God to respond to dire circumstances according to revealed His nature. Many of the Psalms are worship-infused petitions invoking remembrances of God’s ability to save and vows to praise Him as he does so again.

Psalm 13

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
 How long must I take counsel in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me

In the news reports we hear “unprecedented” many times over. Yet, this pandemic is no Black Swan event. History records pandemics, plagues, earthquakes, famines and, all manner of tragedies affecting mankind. In my previous post I mentioned weathering last century’s Asian flu pandemic. And though our response to the current pandemic is “unprecedented” mankind will continue to suffer from unexpected devastating events. Mankind will continue to ask, as did the psalmist (Psalm 22), “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?” We read above that the psalmist has put his trust in God’s unfailing love. He awaits God’s salvation knowing that God has acted to save a remnant of the faithful before.

Lent, this Lent in particular, is a time to lament. We want to know if we’ll be OK; we want to know where all of this is going and how it will end. Asking God to consider the dire circumstances and to answer according to his nature, is a conversation to foster during Lent. It is a time to consider that there is an advocate – the Word Incarnate – who pleads for us before the throne of God. He does so with ‘real-world’ experience.

The Son of God entered the unsanitary disease-filled world described above. He is fully aware of the pain, suffering and groaning of his creation and of man’s philosophies, with its grains of thought which produce no fruit. He did not come to give us social justice platitudes. He did not come to create a Progressive party and overthrow the establishment. If, as God-man, he had not made the sacrifice to redeem his creation, then he would have “remained alone” as a philosopher with platitudes. He came instead, as he stated to Andrew and Philip, to be a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies in order to bring forth much fruit in his creation.

Per Jesus’ example, Lent is a time to become a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies, dies to the flesh on the world’s self-preservation life-support. It is a time to cultivate healthy spiritual habits, habits that produce the fruits that Jesus spoke about when his time of sacrifice was approaching.

As a season for Christians to mark time and to “Stay in Place”, apart for a time from the world’s pervasive influence, Lent is a time for Christians to hunker down, revise routines, and to focus on what matters. It is a time of reflection, repentance and, renewal. It is a time for fasting, growth and, a return to silence and simplicity.

As we do so, we may find that the silver lining we had purchased in the moment, in the midst of dark days of stress and difficulty, was in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. We may learn that the investments we have made – time-wise, financially and morally – are insufficient to carry us forward. We may find that we have greatly leveraged ourselves to control larger and larger positions in life, positions that are more than we can handle. We may have done so to gain acceptance and security from the world. But now there are margin calls we are unable to pay. This may cause us to look to for more security from the world or to God. During this time, we may also learn that our God-given discernment has been used to criticize others and their “sins” and not for intercession on behalf of them.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic ‘exile’, we may be wishing “If only someone would push RESET and we could get on with our lives as before”. A RESET button has been pushed. Jesus of Nazareth, very God of very God and the Word made flesh, came into the world to reset all narratives, including the historical Judaic narrative, by keeping his covenant promises. The epigraph, words to both Greeks and Jews, tells us how.

The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest RESET and the only one that really matters. With it, the power of death had been defeated. Remember Jesus telling Martha at the time of Lazarus’s death, “I am the resurrection and the life. And anyone who believes in me will live, even if they die.” (John 11: 25-26) Yes, Jesus wept at the overwhelming sorrow caused by Lazarus’ death. But he knew that he would overcome death and that there would be rejoicing in the new-life fruit his death and resurrection would produce.

Lent in the Time of the Coronavirus is a time for Christians to plant the grain-of-wheat RESET and to be ready to go on with their lives as never before.

Filed under Christianity, Current Events 2020, Easter, lent, pandemic, suffering Tagged with , , , , , ,

From True Lent to True Vindication

March 3, 2018 Leave a comment

 

“He told this next parable against those who trusted in their own righteous standing and despised others. 

“Two men,” he said. “went up to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee; the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed in this way to himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the other people – greedy, unjust, immoral or even like this tax collector. I fast twice week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

 “But the tax collector stood a long way off and didn’t even want to raise his eyes to heaven. He beat his breast and said, ‘God be merciful to me, sinner that I am.’ Let me tell you, he was the one who went back to his house vindicated by God, not the other. Don’t you see? People who exalt themselves will be humbled, and people who humble themselves will be exalted.”  – Jesus, Luke’s Gospel record 18: 9-14

 

In this teaching Jesus wants us to see each man’s perspective about their righteous standing before God.

If you were in that audience that day you already knew that the Pharisees were those who sought to live out the letter of the law. They were good men who wanted to do what God asked of them. You would expect them to be given Jesus’ vindication for their ‘moral standing’.

If you were in that audience that day hearing this parable you also already knew what the tax-collector was up to – over charging tax collection. The Roman Empire would get their required share and the collector would pocket the overage. The audience would expect Jesus to denounce such a man who worked for the ‘enemy’ of God’s chosen people.

In the parable, one character felt justified, the other felt unworthy. The Pharisee, a good man by all the Law’s standards, uses moral relativism to present his case before the Ultimate Law Court Judge. It is and was easy, of course, to point out other’s moral failures to justify our own ‘moral standing’. You will always find someone who is lacking. You will always be able to play the ‘one-upmanship game’. The Pharisee felt he was on solid ground with his indictment of others.

The tax-collector was already in a deep, deep hole and knew it. He had nowhere to point but at himself.

It could be said that each character despised others in their own way. In their respective roles, each man looked down their nose at others, whether during tax-collecting or in approval collecting. I can see each of them wearing half-glasses perched on the tips of their noses and looking down in a presumptuous gaze. Yet, their trip to the Temple for each was viewed differently by Jesus.

The Pharisee said “Look over there!” The tax-collector said, “Don’t look over here!” In effect with this parable, Jesus said, “Look! Here is what I see!”

When the tax-collector lays bare his soul before God, we see the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit. This act of introspection in the presence of the Lord event is Lent – regaining perspective.

Now this is important. After Dr. Luke relates this parable, Luke goes on to tell us more about the eye-opening perspective required by Jesus in His kingdom:

 

Luke 18 v. 15-17: “I’m telling you the truth: anyone who doesn’t receive God’s kingdom like a child will never get into it.” What does a child see? He sees a good father. He sees someone safe and ready to put you on his knee close to him.

 

Luke 18 v. 18-27: In the days of Jesus many thought of wealth as a sign of God’s blessing. To the rich young ruler, who may have thought that he had a foot in the Kingdom gate because of his blessed circumstances, Jesus said “sell everything you own, and distribute it to the poor”. Jesus has no problem whatsoever with wealth or riches or with blessing people. Rather, Jesus wants us to be a conduit of wealth, riches and his blessing. For this rich man to change his worldview – positing his riches as a Kingdom Express Card – to looking at the Giver of a place in his Kingdom would require a change of perspective (and currency).* (BTW: this passage is not an ideological basis for redistribution of wealth as I heard a certain Jesuit imply. Rather, it is a particular instance where Jesus is realigning a man’s perspective. The rich man still had his free will to choose, whereas with socialism, choice is not an option.)

* ”When the rich young ruler heard Jesus’ reply he turned very sad; he was extremely wealthy.
Jesus saw that he had become sad, and said, “How hard it is for those with possessions to enter God’s Kingdom! Yes: it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.”
The people who heard it said, “So, who can be saved?”
“What’s impossible for humans, “said Jesus, “is possible for God.”

Kingdom Perspective: Giving up what is treasured for the Kingdom is exactly what Jesus did for us when he emptied himself, took on a human form and went to the cross. Jesus makes the impossible possible for those who relinquish self and become conduits of his Living Water which contains the active ingredient Possible.

 

Luke 18 v. 28-30: With regard to how to view relationships, Jesus said, “…everyone who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, because of God’s kingdom, will receive far more in return in the present time—and in the age to come they will receive the life that belongs to that age.” Like with the Pharisee’s exculpatory plea bargain in the parable, you can’t say to the Lord, “But, my brother …”

 

Luke 18 v. 35-43:  A blind man cried out loudly, “Have pity on me!” and Jesus restored his sight. Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you.” Those who saw what had happened gave praise to God. This is not so much a passage about physical healing as it is much more about reminding those who think they see (e.g., the Pharisees in the parable) that they do not. To see by faith, as the blind man did, requires a major shift in one’s perspective.

 

From parable to reality…

 

Next, in Luke chapter 19, comes the account of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a chief-tax collector whose physical stature was small and whose social stature was greatly diminished by his ‘overzealous’ tax collecting. Zacchaeus also gains new perspective — in a tree. Zacchaeus, like the tax-collector in the parable, also looks down. What did he see? Jesus looking up at him.

Lent is about gaining perspective, Kingdom perspective. During this time do I look at others and decide that I am good enough and need only just need a few tweaks here and there? Or, do I look to God and expose my very being to His Light?

There is tremendous gain when you take on Jesus’ perspective – your soul sees its worth in the eyes of Jesus.

Filed under Gospels, lent Tagged with , ,

A Rascally Witness

April 5, 2014 1 Comment

During this Lenten season each Sunday our church congregation repeats the Decalogue, The Ten Commandments:

 The First Commandment

 Rector: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage. You shall have no other gods but me.

Congregation: Amen. Lord have mercy.

 

Last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing The Rev. Dr. Michael Lloyd, principal of Wycliffe Seminary in Oxford present a sermon on…

 Rector: You shall not steal.

Congregation: Amen. Lord have mercy.

 The Rev Dr. Lloyd reminded us that the original intent of this command was for God’s people not to steal other people (remember the story of Joseph?). Dr. Lloyd reminded us of the ongoing tragedy of human trafficking.

 

Tomorrow:

Rector: You shall not be a false witness.

Congregation: Amen. Lord have mercy.

 

The book of Proverbs has some interesting observations about truth telling…:

What are worthless and wicked people like? They are constant liars
Prov. 6:12

17 When you tell the truth, justice is done, but lies lead to injustice. 20 Those who plan evil are in for a rude surprise, but those who work for good will find happiness. 22 The Lord hates liars, but is pleased with those who keep their word.
Prov. 12

A rascally witness makes a mockery of justice, and the mouth of the wicked spreads iniquity.
Prov. 19:28

A false accusation is as deadly as a sword, a club, or a sharp arrow. (emphasis mine)
Prov. 25:18

 …and so does history:

 

The following quote has major implications for our present political discourse:

“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is…in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
― Theodore Dalrymple (emphasis mine)

 

Note how lying and political correctness go hand in hand?

 

Speaking of a “rascally witness“, below is a response to the obvious lies and character assassination of the Koch Brothers spoken by Senator Harry Reid on the Senate floor, from a recent WSJ op-ed:

 

Charles Koch: I’m Fighting to Restore a Free Society

Instead of welcoming free debate, collectivists engage in character assassination.

Filed under Christianity, Lent, Ten Commandments Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Ash Wednesday, 2011

March 10, 2011 3 Comments

2011. Last night I received the external mark of penitence with the imposition of ashes: the sign of the cross placed on my forehead. I was reminded:  “Dust you are and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

After the imposition of the ashes our congregation knelt and we confessed sin.  The rector then spoke over us forgiveness and absolution from sin. We then celebrated the Great Feast of Thanksgiving. I received the Eucharist and returned to my seat.

While others in the congregation went forward to receive the Eucharist, the choir and congregation sang hymns and choruses. It was during this time that the organ began to play “Just As I Am”.  Immediately I recalled the Greater Chicago Billy Graham Crusade I had attended in 1971.

The Crusade took place in Chicago’s huge convention center, McCormick Place.  The convention center at that time was the largest indoor arena in the United States.  Over 18,000 people gathered for the event held during May & June of 1971.

With other members of my church, I attended the crusade as a counselor.  This crusade was an event I will never forget:  massive crowds of people, thousands of voices singing, Cliff Barrows leading songs, George Beverly Shea singing solos, the Crusade Choir singing How Great Thou Art and of course, the preaching of Billy Graham. At seventeen years old, I was awe struck. I had never seen so many people come together for Christ.  It was foretaste of heaven for me.

Around that time, many of my friends and I were involved in the Jesus People movement in the Chicago area.  Our simple message during the crusade: “One Way” and “Tell Billy Graham: ‘The Jesus People love him.”

At the end of Billy’s message, an invitation was given to come forward.  The choir began to sing Just As I Am.  Hundreds of people then came forward to receive the Lord into their hearts. There were people of all races and walks of life. Billy would say to the crowd, “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.”

As one of many prayer counselors, I talked and prayed with those who came forward to receive Christ. Many decisions for Christ were made that day. Many lives were forever changed that day.  I was changed by the power of the Gospel.

The Good News of Jesus Christ, “the Jesus Revolution”, is at work in me now, just as I am – dust.

Just as I am, without one plea, 
but that thy blood was shed for me, 
and that thou bidst me come to thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 
 
Just as I am, and waiting not 
to rid my soul of one dark blot, 
to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 
 
Just as I am, though tossed about 
with many a conflict, many a doubt, 
fightings and fears within, without, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 
 
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; 
sight, riches, healing of the mind, 
yea, all I need in thee to find, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 
 
Just as I am, thou wilt receive, 
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; 
because thy promise I believe, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 

Just as I am, thy love unknown 
hath broken every barrier down; 
now, to be thine, yea thine alone, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 

- Charlotte Elliott

Filed under Christian character, Christianity, Personal History Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

The Imprint of Prudence

March 4, 2011 Leave a comment

During the 2010 Lenten season, I studied Josef Pieper’s book The Four Cardinal Virtues. I specifically meditated on the first two virtues: Prudence and Justice.

During the 2011 Lenten season, I will meditate on the virtues of Fortitude and Temperance.

Quotes from Josef Pieper’s The Four Cardinal Virtues:

The First of the Cardinal Virtues…

Prudence:
“No dictum in traditional Christian doctrine strikes such a note of strangeness to the ears of contemporaries, even contemporary Christians, as this one: the virtue of prudence is the mold and “mother” of all the other cardinal virtues, of justice, fortitude, and temperance. In other words, none but the prudent man can be just, brave, and temperate, and the good man is good in so far as he is prudent.”

“To the contemporary mind, then, the concept of the good rather excludes than includes prudence. Modern man cannot conceive of a good act which might not be imprudent, nor of a bad act which might not be prudent. He will often call lies and cowardice prudent, truthfulness and courageous sacrifice imprudent.”

“Prudence is the “measure” of justice, of fortitude, of temperance. This means simply the following: as in the creative cognition of God all created things are pre-imaged and pre-formed; as, therefore, the immanent essences of all reality dwell in God as ‘ideas”, as “preceding images” …; and as man’s perception of realty is a receptive transcript of the objective world of being; and as the artist’s works are transcripts of a living prototype already within his creative cognition – so the decree of prudence is the prototype and the pre-existing form of which all ethically good action is the transcript.”

“Prudence “informs” the other virtues; it confers on them the form of their inner essence…And so prudence imprints the inward seal of goodness upon all free activity of man.”

“The intrinsic goodness of man – and that is the same as saying his true humanness – consists in this, that “reason perfected in cognition of truth” shall inwardly shape and imprint his volition and action.”

“Certainly prudence is the standard of volition and action; but the standard of prudence, on the other hand, is the ipsa res, the “thing itself”, the objective reality of being. And therefore the pre-eminence of prudence signifies first of all the direction of volition and action toward truth; but finally it signifies the directing of volition and action toward objective reality. The good is prudent beforehand; but that is prudent which is in keeping with reality.”

Filed under Christian character, Christianity, Meditation Tagged with , , , ,