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DIRGES, DANCES, DRINKING AND DEMONS: Why Trying to Fit In Doesn’t Work

One of the sayings of Jesus has stimulated my thinking lately about how difficult it is to be a Biblical Christian in the age of “tolerance.” Jesus Christ, the ultimate author and subject of the Bible, calls us to believe certain things and to live according to certain values. Doing that inevitably puts us in conflict with the values of the world around us. The whole “gay marriage” debate comes to mind (about which I plan to write later this summer). But that isn’t the only area of disagreement between Biblically faithful Christians and the rest of the world. The pre-abortion sonogram debate that recently raged in the Virginia Legislature is another example. Christian high school students who choose to live virtuously, who reject the “party lifestyle” stay well clear of drugs and alcohol, and otherwise behave themselves often become the butt of jokes and the targets of ostracism. Christian business men and women that choose to live and operate in truth also suffer for it. It’s just part of the reality of following Christ in a sinful world.

The problem is the pressure it creates to conform, to somehow change the message, to alter our lifestyle in order to appease. It’s a powerful temptation. We are social creatures. No one likes being rejected. So we think, “I’ll just adjust a little. I won’t abandon my faith or adopt worldliness. I’ll just keep quiet, do my best to fit in, live and let live and try to get these people to like me.”

The problem with that approach is that Jesus has already proved it doesn’t work. This is what he said to his generation.

"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: "'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.' For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." 'But wisdom is proved right by all her children." (Luke 7:31-35 NIV)

Translation? When people have decided to reject God in their lives it really doesn’t matter who carries God’s message or what his or her style may be, the people will find fault with the messenger.

So here’s the deal: Are you trying your best to live for Christ in a fallen world and finding it difficult? Are you doing your best to be friendly and kind and loving and truthful and experiencing rejection anyway? Don’t take it personally. Don’t change your style. It isn’t about you (the messenger). It’s about the message and the God behind it. Trust him. Live in the freedom and love of his grace. The wisdom of walking with God will be vindicated in the end.

THE CRISIS OF FAITH

There is an old story; I forget where I first heard it, about a gathering of people listening to recitations of the 23rd Psalm. One man everyone wanted to hear recite was a well known actor with a deep melodious voice. He wasn’t a particularly spiritual man but he appreciated the Psalm and was happy to comply. He stood and delivered it beautifully and everyone was duly impressed. But then a very old gentleman, one with no real skill at public speaking but a man whom everyone respected, was also urged to recite. He slowly rose to his feet and in a quiet voice quoted the Psalm from memory. As he spoke a hush fell over the room, a silence and peace no one wanted to disturb even after he sat down. Finally the actor spoke the truth everyone knew: “I know the Psalm. He knows the Shepherd.”

Over the years I’ve come in contact with many people who are like the actor in the story. They say things like this: “I’ve read the Bible. The teachings of Jesus are brilliant. I like the idea of going to heaven when I die. As far as religion is concerned I check the “Christian” box on official forms. But this whole idea of a relationship with God is beyond me. I know other people experience it. I believe they are genuine. But I don’t seem to be able to have it myself. I have a lot of doubts.”

I was thinking about friends like that – wondering and praying about how I could help them find what was missing - when, in my regular reading, I came to Luke 5:1-11. It’s the story of the calling of the first disciples. Jesus is seated in Simon’s boat, teaching. He finishes, turns to Simon and says, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

Now Simon was an experienced fisherman, a concrete, rational business man if there ever was one. He was also tired. He and his partners had fished all night without a catch. He was also proud and very self-sufficient, as later episodes would show. He had every reason ignore Jesus' suggestion. What Jesus was asking wasn’t rational. Peter could have cited a dozen reasons why it wouldn’t work.

But here’s the thing, it wasn’t about the fish. It was about Peter’s faith. Jesus was precipitating a crisis in Peter’s life, purposefully, intentionally, meaningfully pushing him to choose between Peter’s will, Peter’s intelligence, Peter’s experience and knowledge and Jesus’ command. The question was not really: would they catch any fish? The question was: would Peter obey?

Peter did obey and the rest, as they say, is history. They caught so many fish that the boats began to sink. But again, it isn’t about the fish. It’s about what happened inside of Peter. “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” he said. In other words, Peter now knew Jesus on a whole new level, knew Jesus as God’s anointed, because when the crisis came to choose obedience over experience, to put Jesus will over Peter’s, Peter in faith obeyed. Life was never the same for Peter after that day.

The ability to experience a living relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ and by the presence of the Holy Spirit within does not depend on a blind leap of faith, far from it. It depends on how we respond to Jesus when he calls us to that moment of crisis. And call he will. Perhaps he already has in your life. Perhaps you’ve had many crises with Jesus and, like the rich young ruler in another story, “went away very sad…” without submitting, never knowing the incredible peace and power that comes from a relationship with God. My prayer for you is that the next time he brings you to that moment of crisis you will like Peter obey. I promise you, your life will never be the same.

SUBTLE DECEPTION

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." (Jesus, Matt 26:41 NIV)

The February 26, 1974 edition of Insight Magazine told the story of Major William Martin, a British subject who is buried near Huelva on the southern coast of Spain. Martin never knew the great contribution he made to the Allied success in the Second World War, especially in Sicily, because he died of pneumonia in the foggy dampness of England before he ever saw the battle front. The Allies had invaded North Africa. The next logical step was Sicily.

Knowing the Germans calculated this, the Allies determined to outfox them. They decided to give the Germans exactly what they wanted, accurate intelligence on the allied assault plan. Thus: Operation Mince Meat.

One dark night, an Allied submarine came to the surface just off the coast of Spain and put Martin's body out to sea in a rubber raft with an oar. In his pocket were secret documents indicating the Allied forces would strike next in Greece and Sardinia. The Allies had calculated the tides and currents in the area and knew within reason where the raft would land.

Major Martin's body washed ashore, and Axis intelligence operatives soon found him, thinking he had crashed at sea. They passed the secret documents through Axis hands all the way to Hitler's headquarters. So while Allied forces moved toward Sicily, thousands and thousands of German troops moved on to Greece and Sardinia--where the battle wasn't.

That story is a good example of the subtle deceptions involved in temptation. Some observations:

First, temptation isn’t always obvious, doesn’t usually hit us in the face. It is more sophisticated than that. It typically presents itself as what we think we want or need. It comes to us in a crisis of desire or danger, when necessity is upon us and the stress we are under is overwhelming and we’re looking for the solution, the release, the escape, or the fulfillment all at the same time. The Axis needed inside information. The Allies gave it to them.

Second, temptation is rarely hasty. It is unhurried, like the sunrise. The realization that what it offers is there for us, that it’s what we’ve been looking for, isn’t immediate. It is rather a slow dawning, a gradual reduction of rational arguments against error and a slow but sure gathering of seemingly sane, balanced, coherent arguments for it. Little by little the unthinkable becomes the ordinary, reasonable answer to our problem. The information planted on Major Martin slowly made its way up the chain of command to Hitler’s headquarters. Each office that passed it on gave it one more stamp of validation.

Above all temptation feels right. It feels like the natural way out of a difficult, seemingly intractable situation. It feels like “the answer.” The doors are all open. The path is smooth. Cool waters beckon. We want it to be so. The Nazis wanted Greece secured. They wanted to believe what the information told them.

Finally, temptation always makes the alternatives seem harder. There is always another approach, another way to solve the problem or meet the need. But that way seems unnecessarily inflexible, difficult, demanding, more than our resources can handle. The Nazis knew they couldn’t cover both fronts effectively. They had to choose where to concentrate their resources. Operation Mincemeat made it easier to choose Greece.

These are the subtle deceptions of temptation. These are the things to watch for when we pray.

UNRAVELING THE MYTH OF THE TWO GODS

Last Sunday’s message from 2^nd Samuel 6 touched on the holiness of God expressed in judgment for irreverent acts. In that Old Testament story God struck down Uzzah for touching the Ark of the Covenant. In a similar story in the New Testament God struck down Ananias and Saphira for fraud in the Church (See Acts 5). This message understandably generated some questions about God and the gospel. One friend summed it up well, “I thought it was all about forgiveness, that God would forgive anything. So I’m having a hard time understanding. Can you explain?” I offered my friend a copy of Mart De Haan’s excellent article on the subject (reprinted at the end of this email). But I’d also like to add a few thoughts of my own.

The conventional wisdom has it that there are two Gods represented in the Bible: the Old Testament God of judgment and wrath and the New Testament God of love and forgiveness. A cursory reading of the two testaments would seem to support that idea. Global flooding, catastrophic plagues, Haiti-like earthquakes swallowing up offending people and fire falling from the sky on hapless sinners punctuates the Old Testament (OT) narrative. In the New Testament (NT) major sinners seem to catch a big break. Nothing bad happened to Pilate who caved to political pressure and crucified the innocent Jesus. Fraudulent tax men, prostitutes, adulterers and people who ignored the other ceremonial parts of the Mosaic Law were welcomed in Christ’s presence. Forgiveness full and free is proclaimed to all who believe in his name.

So what gives? Are there two Gods? Or are we missing something(s)?

One important thing to remember when reading the Old Testament is that the Bible is a progressive revelation. From Genesis to Malachi (the last book in the OT) and from Matthew to Revelation the story of God’s work of rescuing man from sin is moving toward a climax in the person of Jesus Christ (John 5:39). Each book tells us something that we didn’t know or illustrates an earlier teaching about the holiness, righteousness, and justice of God. But, as De Haan points out, the OT reveals the love and mercy of God every bit as much as it reveals his wrath. We just tend to forget those parts.

A second important thing to remember is that the New Testament reveals the wrath of God every bit as much as it reveals his love and mercy. De Haan mentions Jesus cleansing the temple. In Acts 12 Herod Antipas was struck down for taking praise that belonged to God alone. We’ve already mentioned Ananias and Sapphira. In Acts 13 Elymas the sorcerer is temporarily blinded for “perverting the right ways of the Lord.” Most telling, Jesus himself renders one of the most damning rebukes in the whole Bible against the sins of hypocrisy and violence in Matthew 23. And finally, the judgments and wrath foretold against all kinds of sin and unbelief in the last book of the New Testament totally eclipse anything seen in the Old Testament. The Revelation of Jesus Christ portrays the returning King of Creation with awesome terror.

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Rev 19:13-16 NIV; See also 2 Peter 3:1-18)

If the wrath of God is revealed as clearly in the NT as in the OT then why aren’t we seeing more of it in the present?

That is the most important thing to remember: for everyone who believes, Christ has absorbed the wrath of God for all time. That is what makes God “just and the justifier of the unjust.” (Romans 3:22-26; Romans 5:8-9; 1 Thess. 1:8-10). He poured out his judgment and wrath on his own son so that those who put their hope in him may escape the wrath that will come (John 3:14-18). Until then our calling, the mission we have been given from God, is to tell everyone we can find that God loves them so much that he has made it possible to avoid judgment through faith in God’s son.

COURAGE IS CONTAGIOUS

On the eve of the battle of Jericho, God said to Joshua “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Josh. 1:9 NIV)

Billy Graham once said: Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened.^[1]

And history confirms it. When David stood up to Goliath, all Israel stood up with him. When Churchill stood up to Hitler the world stood up with him. And when Rosa Parks stood up to racism, the United States stood up with her.

But you will recall that they didn’t stand right away. At least ten years passed before Israel overcame the Philistines with any finality. Churchill spoke against Hitler from the back bench of Parliament for six years before he became Prime Minister. It took another six to achieve final victory. Rosa Parks kept her seat on the bus on Dec. 1, 1955 and was arrested for it. The Civil Rights Act passed in July of 1964. It took a while for the courage of these leaders to become steel in the spines of their followers.

A courageous battle is now being fought by the defenders of life in the Virginia House of Delegates. It is the same battle that began with the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973. Good people who are seeking to do what is right and just are being attacked and vilified by their opponents. They deserve our prayers and support. Please contact our delegate James Edmunds and tell him that you support the efforts to defend the defenseless in Senate Bill 484 now before the house. You can reach him through this link: http://www.friendsofjamesedmunds.com/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=56

You too may be vilified if you support this. But be courageous. You are in good company.

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[1] The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham. By Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley.

GOOD GRIEF is a good book

It was February 10, 1976, very late in the day and Dad was overdue for dinner again. It was nothing new. His rather flexible notions of time management often made him late for dinner. Combining that trait with a bright blue sky, a seventy-five degree day and a friend that wanted to go flying with him made a missed dinner almost inevitable. Mom would keep his plate warm in the oven and we would eat without him.

That’s when the phone rang and we learned that we would from that day on always eat without Dad. His plane had spun out of an aerobatic maneuver into the ground and he was never coming home.

Life for the Skeltons would never be the same. Nothing could prepare us for it. But there is something that could have helped us deal with the aftermath better as the years went by. It is Granger E. Westberg’s excellent little book GOOD GRIEF. I read it while on vacation and want to recommend it to you.

Westberg was a pastor, a scholar, and a chaplain who served on the faculty of the University of Chicago Medical Center as well as the Divinity School in the 1950s and 60s. In that capacity he had great exposure to the causes and results of grief and summed up with deep wisdom and skill his findings in the short, thirty-two page book that has now sold over three million copies. He dealt not only with grief through death but also with the grief generated by all kinds of losses: divorce, being fired, moving, difficulties with children, the death of dreams and many other things.

As one of Westberg’s students, Dr. Timothy Johnson, M.D., says in his foreword to the fiftieth anniversary edition, Westberg wrote “with the heart of a pastor, the insight of a psychologist, the humanity of a father and husband, and the hope of someone who has seen so many survive the process of grieving. It is simple but not simplistic. It is profound but not professorial…it describes the pathway through grieving that can only be found through honesty.”

I hope to explore some of what Westberg explains in this column over the next few months. But the best thing I can recommend, if you have suffered a loss of any kind, is to buy it and read it. GOOD GRIEF is a good book.