Compared to what Fixates

I have been reading in 1 Peter in my quiet time lately, and was particularly struck by three verses in chapter 1 as I was considering the context that Peter wrote into. The readers were suffering and dispersed because of their faith, so Peter wrote to give them some perspective to encourage them. In vv. 10-12, Peter mentions two groups of beings in order to build that perspective.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace meant for you sought and made careful inquiry, 11 investigating for what person or which time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he testified beforehand to the sufferings with reference to Christ and the glories after these things, 12 to whom it was revealed that they were serving not themselves but you with reference to the same things which now have been announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels desire to look. 

First, the Old Testament prophets. They sought and made careful inquiry to understand more about this Messiah that they had prophesied about. In prayer, and perhaps be reading Scripture and asking the experts of their day, they went out of the way to understand what they could, because this Messiah figure was going to be so central, so important, so crucial to their entire life's work. They somehow realized that they were not serving their generation only, but also the generations to follow them hundreds of years later (the grace meant for you) - Peter's contemporaries of of the First Century Christians. By extension, they were also serving us (the Church). Their life's work was anchored in the central figure and message of the future Church, without any way to even conceive of the Church in their day.

Second, the angels. They desire to look into the affairs of the Gospel. The events centered on the message of the Church, the Good News of Jesus, is something they are intensely curious about. It's important to them, and it captivates their attention.

Two groups of very important beings, the prophets and the angels, are transfixed on Jesus, His Gospel, and all the affairs of the Gospel.

And this is how Peter intended to encourage these suffering readers in their circumstance. They were (and by extension, we are) living out the stuff that captivates prophets and angels! Therefore, any suffering we might have as a result of our faith is put in the perspective of what grabs their attention! This is so key, so pivotal, so intriguing to them that any suffering we might have relative to our faith suddenly has tremendous importance.

Mocked for your faith? The prophets and angels are eager to see how that plays out. Have fewer things than your neighbor because you financially support the work of the Gospel? The prophets and angels can't wait to see how that investment will bear fruit. Uncomfortable being the only one who can bring Truth into a situation? The prophets and angels are on the edge of their seats to see how you might lean into the lives of others.

Sometimes, we try to gain perspective on our suffering by comparing ourselves to the martyrs who suffered greatly and died for their faith. At least my situation isn't that bad. If they can do that big thing, then I can do this little thing. I don't find that kind of perspective to be effective for very long.

Peter takes a different angle. Instead of comparing sufferers to those who paid an even higher price, he focused them on the fantastic thing that captivates prophets and angels. That's how to gain perspective on suffering for the sake of the Gospel. Suffering may well be a necessary component to the storyline that prophets and angels are intensely eager to follow. It's that important.

No Thanks!

Lynne and I pray that you will all have a wonderful Thanksgiving this week. Thanksgiving has always been family, food, and football for me, with a time to reflect on our real blessings in Christ.

Perhaps you also feel what I often feel at Thanksgiving ... that I'm being forced to be thankful. Yes, there's family, food, and football and whatever else Thanksgiving may bring for you (like shopping with family - please don't make me), but it's Thanksgiving, so we're supposed to be thankful because God-something. But sometimes I feel more guilt and pressure about giving thanks than I feel thankful.

Plus, I'm really bad at that "What are we thankful for?" question while the stuffing is getting cold. I'm thankful for warm stuffing, thank you very much! The question can be awkward, producing peer pressure to say something adequately thankful (but somehow only the little kids get a pass for saying something cute like, "I'm thankful for snot").

We don't always happen to feel thankful on the fourth Thursday of November each year. Some years, we can successfully reflect on our blessings and the feelings of thanksgiving come genuinely. Other years, we don't reflect or we reflect with no tangible result.

So, we fake it. Or we sour it for others. After all, this is not a holiday that God ordained for us - it's a national holiday with origins in a God-consciousness. It's not a sin against God to skip this holiday, right?

The Bible teaches us in several passages to "be thankful." That doesn't mean, "celebrate the American Thanksgiving," but it does mean to be thankful to God for who He is and what He's done. Why does God tell us so many times to be thankful?

Precisely because we don't always feel it, we sometimes feel forced to express it, we have been known to fake it, and at times, we just skip it. God tells us to be thankful for the same reasons that we sometimes struggle a bit on Thanksgiving - we're not naturally thankful at all times. But being thankful is not only what we ought to do, it's good for us. It's healthier to be thankful.

In other words, we do need to be told on occasion to be thankful because our nature sometimes draws us away from it. So, holidays on the calendar can be the exact external push we need to remember to be thankful, even if we do have to force it some, fake it some, and feel a little awkward at times. Not to be disingenuous, but to intentionally counter our own nature with some effort.

May this Thanksgiving be a genuine excuse to embrace a thankful heart yet again.

Scammed

This week, I posted something for sale on Craigslist - 4 cemetery plots that my grandfather bought in 1953. They are not going to be used by my family, so we want to sell them and let my parents enjoy the proceeds. I've listed them twice before with no success, so I dropped the price again. If this doesn't work, then I'll get a plot broker, which eats up the profit. But I really want to sell these at a decent price for the good of my folks. And that's a problem.

Within an hour of posting, I got an inquiry. Yes, they are still for sale. The person offered to send a certified check and then after the check is deposited, come pick up the title. Fair enough. But following Craigslist safety wisdom, I gave the church address instead of my home address. It turns out because of a "family emergency," the buyer won't be able to come by to pick up the title personally, but would send someone. First red flag. This person was called the "shipper." Second red flag. The longer the emails got, the more I saw that the person's grammar and spelling were atrocious. Third red flag. But I really wanted to get my folks some extra cash.

Then a full garrison of red flags. The check arrived UPS. It was not a certified check as promised, but still legitimate-looking. It wasn't made out to what I specified. The payer was not listed as the buyer, but "San Lorenzo Unified School District" (in California) without a logo or address. The check was for $100 too little. The "shipper's" name was given with an address in Tennessee, at an address that according to Google Maps doesn't exist. The return address on the package was a bank in North Carolina, but the UPS tracking showed the drop off to be in Colorado. The instructions included (of course) how to use some of the money from the check for me to send an amount by Moneygram to the "shipper" for shipping expenses (for an envelop that she was going to pick up in person?). CA to TN to NC to CO ... for cemetery plots in KC. It went from cautious to comical.

After poking around all the names and addresses, I merely responded that the deal was canceled because of the insufficient amount in the check. Then I got two more emails pushing for the deal, but clearly the second email was sent without connecting it to the first, as would happen when you're sending off many emails like this at the same time. After that, I noticed that except for the subject line of the emails, the cemetery plots were never specifically mentioned in the bodies of the emails. It was just "the item." Cutting and pasting is enough effort, apparently.

The scam didn't work. I started off cautious and never took any irrecoverable steps. Early on, I gave the buyer the benefit of the doubt, and then I just wanted to see what would happen. But I could see how someone would fall for this scam. It's because I really wanted it to be true. I wanted to be able to give something to my folks. And because I wanted it to be true, I (cautiously) went one more step than I would have otherwise. People get scammed because they ignore normal caution for things they really want to be true and take one, two, three more steps.

This is the exact same thing that happens when we surround ourselves only with news sources and social media that reinforces what we want to be true. We really want something to be true, so we listen almost exclusively to sources that tell us that it is true. And that's how we get scammed with "news," tossing our normal skepticism aside to more quickly get what we want. Then on top of that, we repost it and forward it to perpetuate it to others like the common cold. Be it politics, social justice, or religious news, we get scammed ... and we're the ones doing the scamming. Because we don't take simple steps of caution, we're to blame, not the authors of the articles. We're falling for our own scams!

This is also how we buy bad theology - someone says something that we really want to be true, so we loosen our safeguards and take one, two, three more steps into it.

How do we avoid "media-scamming" ourselves? By the same way we avoid getting scammed on Craigslist.

1. Check the details, like I checked the drop-off location of the UPS package and the return address. 
2. Know the source. I didn't know this person (or the form of English he or she used), so I was already cautious. These fake news sites are run by people we don't know and are being treated as legitimate to the point where Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has taken some heat over it (but I still love the satirical news sites). But if they say what I really want to be true and it sounds vaguely like a news source, that's all I need to grab onto it, right?
3. Ask yourself some caution questions, such as, "Am I making an excuse to ignore a normal safeguard?" If you're looking for a way around your own safeguards, you're well on your way to media-scamming yourself.
4. Or, "Am I listening to the opposite view?", so that you can see what you want with a more critical eye. 
5. Or, "Am I too embarrassed to ask someone what they think?", because that would indicate that you probably already know deep down that you're not being cautious. 

We can prevent falling for our own media-scams in the same way we prevent falling for money scams.

This may seem harmless, but we're talking about ideas that form our actions and our relationships.

We allow people we don't know tell us what the "news" is and what it means with less caution than we use to avoid a Craigslist scammer ripping us off for money. We guard our money better than we guard our minds and hearts.

On an unrelated note, you really want 4 cemetery plots, don't you?

I woke up Wednesday morning and ...

I woke up Wednesday morning and ...

... my neighbors are still people who deserve my good neighborliness;

... pizza still tastes good;

... abuse of power, bigotry, oppression, and disrespect still give me a holy discontent;

... my mission is still to show others who Jesus is and invite them to simply consider His place in their lives;

... my politics still pale in comparison to loving others;

... Daylight Saving Time is still useless;

... my government still can't save me;

... my bank account still can't satisfy my soul;

... my wife is still sweet;

... my president still needs my prayers;

... my car still pulls a little to one side;

... and the things of the human race are still wonderful, horrible, and limited.

Fr Tim

During my Sophomore year at the University of Missouri - Rolla (now MS&T), I moved out of the dorm and into an old house with a good friend, John. John was a Chemical Engineering major who was a year ahead of me, and we had become friends in the college band (the kind with tubas, not bass guitars). The house showed its years (perhaps turn of the century era?), the basement flooded with mud after a heavy rain, the stairs were so short and narrow I had to turn sideways and duck my head to get to my room. We burned wood and oil for the radiators, but could never get it above 56 degrees in the dead of Winter. Blowing circuits with space heaters was a daily, necessary habit. We were diagonal to the Pike House, one of the frats, which made it impossible to get to sleep on the weekends from all the party noise. I loved that house and I loved living with those guys in that house.

John's cousin, Tim, also lived in the house. The two of them were close friends, growing up a block apart and attending the same grade school. Tim's dad owned the house and we rented from him. Tim was an Applied Math major, and an easygoing sort. We all pitched in on cooking, cleaning, and repairing, but truth be told, Tim was always the one making sure things got done. He carried more than his fair share. After several months, I learned that Tim's dad was well-to-do from his construction business in St. Louis, but you couldn't tell that by knowing Tim. He didn't act like the son of a comfortably wealthy man.

In this house, we had an Applied Math major, a Chem E major, and a Computer Science major (me), plus whoever the fourth resident was in a given semester. Tim introduced me to late night "toast marathons" - get a loaf of bread, a toaster, and a stick of butter, and eat buttered toast until the loaf and stick were gone. The two of us could knock off a loaf without effort. The house was also home to many band parties (the band was our social group - the kind with tubas, not guitars), juggling parties (nothing important was broken), and Halloween parties. One year, I went as Reagan, and another as Ed Grimley, who was a decent fellow, I must say.

I also attended school over several summers, and when we did, another friend (Andrew) and I would buy cheap season tickets to the Muny theater (the Starlight Theater of St. Louis), drive up on Fridays to John's house, eat half of their food, attend the show, and the spend the night at John's house. Through those trips, I also got to know John's many sisters and his parents.

John and Tim graduated at the same time, and so with them moving out, Tim's dad sold the house (to the Pikes, who immediately tore it down). Andrew and I found another house to rent, and I pretty quickly lost touch with John and Tim. (Back then, the Internet was still ARPANET.) Over time, the computer scientist became a pastor and the applied mathematician became a Catholic priest. Perhaps all those toast marathons were just preparing us for serving Communion. It has been 30 years since I last saw Tim ... excuse me, "Father Tim" .. and I never heard his story of how he became a priest.

Last week, Father Tim didn't show up for morning Mass, so the Deacon went to go check on him and found him slumped over on his desk, apparently suffering a fatal attack sometime the previous night.

Last Sunday after our worship service, I drove over to St. Louis to attend the viewing. The line of visitors outside the church was consistently 200 to 300 people deep for four hours. There had to be a few thousand visitors. From the line, I texted John that I had made it, and he kindly rescued me from the line and took me in to the room where his family was. I got to reconnect with John, his wonderful parents, and all of his sisters. John then cut us both in the line of people snaked through the pews to visit Father Tim's brothers and parents. Father Tim's dad, of course, wouldn't remember my name from a bunch of 30 year old rent checks, but he did cheekily ask if he was a good landlord. John and I spent quite a bit of time just catching up our stories. The time renewed my fondness for John and his family, and my appreciation for Tim as a friend and roommate.

I still haven't heard his story of how he became a priest. During college, he was consistent about going to Mass, but didn't show any tendencies of going priestly. I wasn't a believer at the time, so I'm sure news of my career change came as a shock to him, too. I have no regrets, here - we can't keep up with everyone. But I am struck by the idea that he had an important story that I never heard - a story that clearly affected a few thousand people. Without regret, it is still sad to me that I never heard him tell his story.

How many people are in my life right now whose story I've never heard? And I don't necessarily need to add anything to my schedule to hear those stories. I just need to ask about them when I spend time with people. I just need to be more intentional. Their stories - your stories - affect thousands, and I need to hear more of them.

I never heard Tim's story. And he never heard mine.

Widows, Orphans, and Who?

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

-- James 1:27 

In other words, the lives of widows and orphans matter. The Gospel is such as this - the Gospel extends to everyone, from the highest members of society to the ones society forgets. In the social setting of the New Testament, widows and orphans were among the most vulnerable, and the Gospel extends to them no less than anyone else. If the Gospel doesn't extend to them, then it's not really the Good News.

And we buy this. We easily agree that this is true. Even though widows and orphans aren't nearly as vulnerable now as they were then, we still have a Gospel-stamped area of our heart for those who have lost their husbands and especially for those children who have lost their parents. We bend over backwards for them at times, and as a church, we have even joined the CarePortal to help care for children who are facing separation from their parents for some reason.

Do the lives of all children matter, not just orphans? Of course they do. Do the lives of all women matter, not just widows? Of course they do. This passage by no means suggests otherwise. But this passage doesn't say "the lives of all women and children matter." It does emphatically say that the lives of widows and orphans matter as a key attribute of the Gospel. What makes the Gospel the Gospel is that the lives of the vulnerable matter.

I had lunch last week with an African-American pastor who serves an inner-city church. With grief in his voice, he pondered why so many white evangelicals get that it's OK for the Bible to say in particular that the lives of widows and orphans matter as an attribute of the Gospel, but they don't get why it's OK to say in particular that Black lives matter as an attribute of the Gospel. We cannot deny that Blacks (using my friend's terminology) have been systemically vulnerable and systemically marginalized, even if we've never personally done anything to make this true. Why is it easier for us to say "orphan lives matter" than to say "Black lives matter"?

I don't endorse any violence or hatred that has been expressed through the Black Lives Matter movement. But that noise is not what I'm concerned about. Forget the worst expressions and think about the importance of every marginalized group and how the Gospel is not Good News if it doesn't call out specifically that the lives of specific marginalized groups matter. Not even that "those lives matter, too," as if some lives can be assumed but other lives surprise us with their importance. Just that "those lives matter." Period.

Context makes a difference. Whichever vulnerable group is in view, the Gospel says "those lives matter, period." In James 1, it's widows and orphans. In Acts 15, it's non-Jews. In some of our current conversations, it's Black lives.

I've never really been marginalized. I've been ignored in situations, my voice has gone unheard in some conversations, and when that happens, I experience frustration - for 5 minutes or an hour at a time. But even then, the moment someone acknowledges me and really hears my voice, it's good news to me. Imagine the good news that comes from telling a member of a group has been systemically marginalized (whether by me or not) that "Yes, your life matters in particular. Your life matters not because all lives matter. Your life matters solely because the Gospel is for you."

I can say "Black lives matter" without having to qualify it with "too" or "all" or "just like." I can say this, but not from a false sense that because my life matters, so does yours. Rather, I can say this because of the Gospel. I need no other cause, and that's part of the Good News.

Vote As If

I believe very strongly that this year's election is for more about the future direction of the American church than which set of professional politicians command the White House and Congress for the next term. To be sure, this election will have long-term consequences for our nation no matter who is elected, and I feel rather sorry for whoever it will be, because they will inherit a bitter mess. But as I study Scripture, there is a constant message that God is in total control of the fate of leaders and nations, and that it is the constant job of His people to especially put their trust in Him during these times. Now is the time to trust God particularly, rather than to fret or to put nationalism higher than God until November 8.

I think of books like Isaiah, which we are currently studying, and Daniel, which we studied earlier this year. In both cases, God's people were subject to leaders far worse than any we currently have on the ballot. Yet, these leaders were put in place by God on purpose because He was doing something greater than merely putting in place the best "church-going politician" for a term.

Likewise, I believe God has allowed us to come to this point, to this choice, for a purpose that is more about the Church than for what goes on inside the Beltway. Perhaps He did so in order to correct something wrong with the Church. We may speculate that He's punishing our nation for something, but what if He's shaking up the Church instead?

If I'm right in this theory, God is (as He has so often done in the past) moving national events in order to position the future of His people, for blessing or for discipline (and more likely, for both). I'm not saying that Isaiah and Daniel are prophecies about 21st Century United States. Rather, I don't believe God stopped moving leaders and nations in order to accomplish His goals for His people, so His ways revealed then still help us navigate events now.

In those cases, God persistently commanded His people to trust Him, to not trust in the flesh or in leaders or in armies, and to not fear, even if the situation got much, much worse. He has a plan that He's carrying out according to His sovereign will, so above all, remain faithful. Don't give into fear, sin, or pragmatism. Worry about faithfulness above all and then trust God to accomplish His plan.

This election cycle has exposed some very unhealthy relationships between the Church and the State, such as a misplaced reliance on government to be the lord and savior of our nation on the one hand, and a misguided demonization of all those within the government on the other. It has exposed an ugly underbelly of the  "ungracious religious" who discard Christlike behavior in order to promote their politics (which Left or Right, they claim is God's favorite brand of politics). It has also exposed how many in the Church choose which of a candidate's sins to highlight and which ones to ignore based only on their party preference. Great hypocrisies of the Church have been laid bare, and I, for one, am glad the disease has finally been brought to light. Only then can the Church be healed of it.

We have too long embraced Constantinianism, which seeks to force the affairs of the State by the power of the Church (which is not the same thing as redemptive influence). We have also bought into an unhealthy dualism that separates the sacred from the secular, allowing us to discard one in order to concentrate on the other, and then on the next day, switch. Oddly, these twin problems seem contradictory (too much integration vs. not enough integration), but they are actually the same failing to understand what a healthy integration looks like.

But books like Isaiah and Daniel insist that we trust God even more fervently during days such as these, because God is in total control. If that's actually true, then there is no need to compromise, cut corners, fudge, or be confused about how we should hold both the Church and the State in our hands.

So vote "as if." Vote (or not vote) as if we actually do trust that God is in total control. That doesn't mean to vote for whoever is the "most Christian" (good luck figuring that one out). It doesn't mean to vote for whoever is from the "correct party" (God isn't a card-carrying member of any of them). Nor does it mean to throw up your hands and say, "whatever - God will sort it out."

Rather, it means to carefully consider your vote as if God is in fact in total control. Like Isaiah and Daniel, trusting His complete sovereignty allows you to stand before Jesus and say, "I didn't have to compromise Your values in order to be 'pragmatic'." Don't vote your conscience - vote His, as best you can. Of course every vote will be for someone who is not Jesus, someone who is broken, fallen, imperfect, sinful, and holding some policies that are abhorrent to Him. Of course! But He's got this - He's the One who put Nebuchadnezzar in power over the Israelites! We don't have the luxury of a clearly moral and wise candidate this time around (or almost every other time around, to be honest). There's no need to pretend that we do.

God has given us this situation on purpose, and He expects His children to honor Him with how they trust Him in the midst of it. Vote as if God is always intentional in everything, including allowing our nation to come to this point, perhaps even for the purpose of correcting the Church. Vote (or not vote) so that you can tell Jesus you didn't compromise, even though there were no options except disappointing ones. He's not only faced this situation before, He's manufactured them before.

And please, back off of those who vote for the same reasons for a different candidate. This is no easy choice, and God is still sovereign. Lastly, don't be fatigued by all this - rather, seize the opportunity God has given us to trust Him in the midst of political disarray. If we can't trust Him now, we can't trust Him ever.