Our Father

What is it to be a father? I know nothing of being a mother, of course, but fatherhood, aside from reading Bill Cosby's excellent advice, what direction do we follow? What is a good role model? Are we to be friends or authoritarians and where lies the acceptable mix of those?

Speaking to several friends the other day, talking about Father's Day, we all had differing backgrounds that lead to very different theories on being a dad. One fella had lost his father when he was 4 and never had a male role model at all. Another had an abusive father, creating great tension leading to a bitter separation, losing his father to cancer before they could ever make up. Years later he has found forgiveness and peace in knowing the God of Israel as Father. Thank You, God.

I had a good father. Still do. But, conversely, I spent almost 30 years "wiping the face of my dad off of God." He was a good role model and he pointed me always to Christ. But as I grew up, I found out I couldn't be as perfect as I thought my father was or wanted me to be. I rebelled, as we all do, to the authoritarian ideal, precisely because I knew he would forgive me and part of me thought him a simpleton for it.

Now, having returned to God in Christ, I have come full 'round and am a father myself. I realize now that my father didn't try to be perfect before me, just as good as he could be to the Lord he loves. But now that I am older I see how very imperfect my father is; and I love him all the more for it - more than I ever thought I could.

I will not try to be a perfect father to my daughter, but I will try to be the best son I can. We only have one perfect Father. It is in this revelation that I have come to see that I am a pilgrim on the same journey as my old man, one with whom I can share my failures and mistakes, sins and falleness and he can share his with me. That is the mystery and beauty of confession - becoming transparent before one another, esp. our children, so that they don't mistake our faces for God, but that they may see Him clearly through us.

Jubilee!

Image by Sacred Destinations via Flickr

A man noted the other day to a friend, that if we (Christians) experience hardship, it must be by the will of God. Our friend was very disturbed and retorted that it is never God's will that evil be upon us; evil results from the Fall, not God.

I know what she means, and she is 100% right, but I think the fella may have a point. I'm not saying that God does will evil on us, but what I mean is that I can't believe that it's God's will to just magically will Christians happiness and peace and prosperity in spite of others. He wills the good of all people. Yes, indeed, hardship and evil come from the Fall, but God Himself bore the brunt of that evil for us, saving us from death, once again - and Jesus' contemporaries thought in exactly these terms - God rescued His people from Exile and reconciled His people to Him. And here is the point: it is not just for our sake's, nor His, but the whole world's (1).

Jesus proclaimed the year of Jubilee, freedom for all peoples: ending slavery, suffering, canceling debts and redeeming the lost. And this is done by the healing of the blind, curing the sick, and in more earthly, less miraculous terms, the wealthy giving up their wealth, the rich sharing their hoard, and the blessed blessing those less fortunate. Jesus became Israel to the world and did only what God alone could do. You see, Israel was the city on the hill, the light in the darkness and was to be the way of salvation for all, showing the surrounding nations a better way of life - by enduring the suffering of the Fall, trusting in our God, loving amidst the pain and coming out the Red Sea of death and alive on the other side. As the Living Temple of God, and, consequently, the Body of Christ, is this not what we are called to do?

So why are Christians surprised when we find ourselves suffering? We are to rejoice in pain so that the world may see a new way of living. God does not call us to be His people in order simply to bless us. We are blessed so that we may bless others. The only reason God blesses us is so that He may use us. Are we to cry out in our affliction? By all means! What other way to bear our cross but by the strength of God, for we have none of our own. But is it His will we are afflicted? No, but it is His will that we endure as He did. It is His will that we march into the fray right by His side -

As the Father sent Me, so I send you; receive the Holy Spirit; forgive and retain sins.(2)

- as He is present with us in the midst of it, bearing the harshest evil for us, and we for our neighbor and thus the world, God claims every evil as His own victory and thus turns the tide battle by battle – indeed, He has already won the war. These are merely after skirmishes.

It is His will that we be for the world what He was (and is) for us. A suffering servant, bearing our crosses, not because He wills us evil, but because He wills all the greatest good. Lights upon a hill are we. Let us be Christians or die trying.

(1) I'm not talking of universal spiritual salvation, that isn't what John meant when he said that 'Christ died for all' (well, in some sense it was, but that's another post. I speak of more immediate, present Kingdom matters.)
(2) John 20:21-23

The Great Debate?

A terribly volatile subject:
It is most embarrassing, though probably shouldn't be, to Christians when a politician professes a profound "faith in God" and then proceeds pandering to the opposite, blatantly immoral side, exploiting both to win votes.

I say its embarrassing because to those voters (or mere onlookers) lost in the limbo of not knowing what to believe, it appears as though Christians, all of us, are hypocrites - or at least instead of standing for an ideal, we play hopscotch around it. Also, more so in the US than in other countries, "faith in God" to many means "faith in Jesus Christ." Not necessarily so.

I also add that we shouldn't be so embarrassed because what are we to expect? Honestly, we all do it on some level, why not particularly so when the stakes are so high? The more (potential) power you have, the higher the (potential) temptation. How much more power can you get in this world at this time than being President of the USA. Aside from that, just because one says they are faithful doesn't really prove anything. Lets see some of it in action, buddy. "So also, Faith without works is dead." (Jas 2:17)

The recent forum in Pennsylvania, a faith forum at that, offered Clinton and Obama both the opportunity to profess said "faith in God" and then answer questions offered up by leaders from several different faiths.
Go ahead and give that a read then pop back on over here and finish reading this.
.....
So? What do you think? If you are shocked, I will say you are naive. But what grabs my attention is that, even in the news was it seen as a blatant and shameless bid for votes. I would say that Clinton sounds like the tongue of Satan himself, except that the devil isn't usually so transparent or dumb. Potential for life? Obama had the stuffings to say that he didn't know. Maybe he doesn't, but it still sounds like a cop-out to me.

Lets get on the same page here. Are we all speaking American English or what? What do they mean by life? Potential for life? That egg cell is alive and that sperm certainly is as well. Those are alive. Ah, do you mean, is it capable of sustaining life on its own without help from another? No. But lets not be coy, neither are you.

Do they mean life in the sense of a soul "being made?" Is there a soul there? Ah, there is the big debate.

Remember these guys are saying they have "faith in God." If we say that a soul comes into being with the first breath of life, well, as plausible in some circles as that may be, we know it isn't true Biblically. King David says so humbly in Psalm 51:5 that he was a sinner from the moment his mother conceived him.
So we must insist that the soul is poured into our being at the onset, given by God at the melding of the love between our parents, or even, in the basest of circumstances, the rape of our mother. Well, should we then fall into the Catholic boat of all intercourse being sacred and no contraceptives allowed?

Who is to say it isn't? Of course it is! Everything we have should be taken as sacred! Eating, drinking, playing. Talking to your neighbor. God pronounced all of His creation, "good." As my favorite writer (whom I imagine you all know) once said, 'Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest thing presented to your senses.' Since we take all these too lightly, what is stopping us from taking this great moment 'as two become one' so? Was the Lord not angry when Onan spilled himself on the ground because he knew that any offspring born of his brother's widow would not carry his name? Read Gen. 38:9. Apparently the Lord finds it sacred.*

The act may be (thank you, good and wise Lord) pleasurable, but it's God who gives life, so even when done for "enjoyment," if He so deems to give life, then it is His deeming. When it is done with blatant disregard to the fruits that said action may bring, you are not only being flippant with life itself but disrespectful of God. Whether someone was raped or whether it was planned out to the last detail, who are we to take any life so capriciously? If I'm not mistaken, I think we have invaded countries because people have been capricious with life.

I won't be a hypocrite. I am guilty of this - terribly so. More so than even I, myself, am capable of knowing or understanding. I am a proud and foolishly thoughtless man guilty of every sin. Since then, if I trust my life to Christ, then it is His light that must shine, not mine, nor anyone else's.
On the other hand, I'm not running for office, and those who do so I hope will follow out their thoughts to the end of the line. For certain not all the voters will do so, but many will. Christians and non-Christians alike. So, come on folks, lets be clear where we stand, for one thing or another. Pandering to every whim only makes for blathering fools. You cannot serve two masters, and Christians should know that.

*I like Shane Claiborne's footnote to this issue of abortion from "The Irresistible Revolution": "...if I'm going to discourage abortion, I had better be ready to adopt some babies and care for some mothers." There is a lot to that, but not everything is contained within it. There are orphanages and care centers - most run by Christians. That doesn't mean that only the people who work there have a right to speak out on the subject, but it might be said we listened to them a bit more than to those of us who don't.

Can someone be saved while living a life of sin?

Can a person be saved living a life of sin? Of course. When they
accept Christ, they are saved once and for all. (Thank God for
that!!!)
But the Bible exhorts us to test ourselves to see if we are really of
the faith. If you really have faith in Christ, you won't WANT to sin.
We had the Law before, but now we have the Law of Christ. Kinda like
your parent's told you to brush your teeth when you were little and
they were strict about it. But now you are older, you don't have to,
but you know you should and you rather want to (in part because you
know what happens if you don't and also, because you like it. Its
refreshing - just like doing the "right" thing.) One day we will be in
a world without sin, where morality won't really be spoken of except
as maybe kinda of a joke. As for now, if someone is vehement about
sinning, willfully sinning, with no regard to his Faith - indeed
against it - then I would say he may not be Christian. He is calling
"Lord, Lord," but with no real regards to the Lord. Doing things for
himself and saying they are for Christ. If I do something in my own
father's name, but i don't really check to see if its in line with his
plans or will or "morals" (and I SHOULD know anyway, as I am his son,
right?) than, I'm not really doing it in his name, am I? Its in my
name with a lie attached to it. Something likely to make him mad.

On the other hand, the individual may have the Spirit of God in them,
and God has much to work with, so that the person may simply not be
mature enough yet to a) know the difference or b) its so ingrained in
them from a past nature, that God is kind of fixing the foundations
before he starts building new walls. God will never satisfied with a
coat of paint or wallpaper. He wants the whole thing down. Not a stone
left. He is the stone. He doesn't want a better looking apartment or
even a house. He wants a mansion. He is coming to live in it Himself.
That is why people who are "nice" are not necessarily saved. Having a
pretty house or even a mansion is wonderful FOR THE WORLD, but if its
only tenant is you, you are still just ... you. And no matter how big
that mansion YOU have built is, when God comes, he is going to claim
ALL of it.

Do you get what I am trying to say? The Lord is not
concerned with appearances, even beautiful ones. He is concerned with
reasons. (and that includes the forthcoming actions, "faith without
deeds is dead") And the main reason He is looking for, is Him. Like I
said yesterday, that is nothing to do with His being proud or wanting
more, He is simple THE thing, THE being, THE most real, wonderful and
true thing there is. (Even saying that sounds weird) But since HE IS
Reality in and of itself, unless you are based on Him, you really have
nothing to stand on. And humans are unique in this world (perhaps the
universe) in that we alone can choose where we stand. Nothing else
really can. So when we choose to stand on our own, we are really
standing on nothing. If your friend is of the opinion that his actions
are still his own, then he would be very surprised to find out that
they are more a collection of things that has come flying at him his
whole life, opinions forced on him and desires of libido, moods of
digestion, and tastes of the palate. His own real opinion or desires,
he has probably never known, and certainly not understood. A man can
only truly understand himself in the Light of Christ. That is why so
many throw disdain on the Lord, because they haven't come to see What
or Who He Is. And when they do, they just fall down and cry HOLY HOLY
HOLY.
It is easy to say you love God enough to die for Him. Muslims kill
themselves (and others) everyday in that regard. But do you (or I?)
love Him enough to LIVE for Him - even to the point of someone killing
you over Him?

Is your friend going to Heaven? I don't know. But if he says "I trust
my soul to Christ, and give my whole heart to the Lord God Almighty in
Christ's Name" then yes. Can your friend say that and mean it? (Can I?
I hope so. And my Hope is Christ.)