Kingdom Come?

The Bible is complicated.

First, it's a translation. Or even a translation of a translation. And if you read the footnotes carefully, you see that some of those Hebrew words in the Old Testament are wild guesses...and how you guess at some of those words can completely change the meaning of the passage. Anyone who's taken a foreign language knows how hard it is to say what you mean and has probably encountered times when you simply couldn't say what you mean. The words just aren't the same.

Second, culture doesn't translate well at all, and the Bible is quite confusingly full of culture. Take slavery, for instance. Slavery is a given in the Bible, and in no place does the Bible offer up a direct challenge to it. Paul indirectly does, as we'll see later. There's no commandment against slavery, and in fact, there are a number of laws regulating treatment of slaves.

That bird doesn't fly today. Modern Christians oppose slavery in all its forms, and the right to own another person is universally seen as contemptuous and barbaric. God has revealed to us through history and our own reason and compassion that slavery is wrong. No Christian in his or her right mind would want to go back to a world in which people's ears are nailed to doorposts by law, even if that law is scriptural.

Other cultural norms--big and small--change even in the course of the Bible. The polygamy and polytheism of the early Old Testament are replaced with their mono forms. Levirate marriage, in which a dead man's brother must marry the widow, changes significantly between Judah and Tamar's marriage and Ruth and Boaz's.

How, then, do we read the Bible as a guide to living in the world today? What cultural components should we keep, and which, like slavery and Levirate law, can we safely discard?

I recently read an article on an extremely conservative Catholic website that argued against sending women to college. It's a waste of money, might lead women to sin, might lead their parents to sin, might make them marry the wrong men, and simply isn't necessary for wives/mothers/nuns. Mothers just need enough education to home-school their children if they want, but no more. Young couples are encouraged to buy cheap life insurance so if the man, whose duty it is to earn money for the woman's support, dies, the woman will have money to live.

I confess, this article rendered me temporarily speechless with fury.

When my mind could form words again, those words ran something like this: But what if the man turns into a scum-bag and leaves his family? What if he becomes disabled and can't work? Long-term disability insurance isn't cheap at all. What if he starts beating his wife and kids, and what if she can't leave because she has no place to go and no way to support or protect her children? What if God calls her to ministry or to brain surgery or to government service? What if? What if?!!!

This particular stand on women's education is a call to return to the culture of Biblical times, when women were completely dependent on male relatives for financial support. Biblical culture is being held up as a guide for modern family structure. Hebrew and Jewish women weren't expected to be formally educated; therefore, Christian women don't need to be educated today.

But consider that Levirate marriage between Judah and Tamar. Tamar's weak status in the culture of the time forced her to prostitute herself, become pregnant by her father-in-law, and risk being killed for sexual impurity...all to show Judah his obligation under the law. That she wins against the odds of her time and continues the line of David is an act of divine love correcting an injustice. God takes what is bad and uses it to His good.

That doesn't justify or excuse or legitimize the bad. Not at all. What it shows is that God's plan is about dignity and love. We humans, even good ones, screw that up for God all the time.

Is the culture that put Tamar in such a horrible position a culture of love and compassion? Is it a model for God's kingdom on earth? Or is it a product of sin, of the consequences of power misused and abused in ways that deny some people their dignity? Judah does right by Tamar, eventually, observing God's law for his time and demonstrating his righteousness. Also, the biblical laws relating to slavery served to give slaves as much protection and dignity as one can possibly have under the circumstances.

Under the circumstances.

Our circumstances today are different.

So what is God's law for our time? How do we live in righteousness here and now? How do we understand "God's kingdom come" and how do we play our part in making that happen in our time?What sort of philosophy should we use to interpret and translate the Bible today?

Seeing that we are Christians, I think we need to read the red parts of the Bible to answer these questions. Mark Lowry, a Christian comedian, observes that reading the red parts of the Bible will mess you up. He's right, because as complicated and hard as the whole Bible is to digest, Jesus' words are surprisingly straightforward and culture-neutral...yet terribly, terribly hard to follow through on.

Here's the gist of it. Forgive each other...repeatedly. Do not worry about what others are doing or not doing; just do what you can do to feed His sheep. Healthy people don't need doctors; serve the sick at heart and in body and soul. Lift others up; humble yourself. If your best isn't good enough, then shake the dust off your sandals and move on to serve where you can: you are not the world's Savior, but you can be a part of the living Savior's work. Talk to the people you're not supposed to talk to, the people who are different from you. Talk to them in love and compassion. Do not judge. Eat when you are hungry; feed others who are hungry.

Love God, love your neighbor, love each other.

Love.

Love.

Love.

It's a philosophy of love.

How does Jesus' philosophy of love apply to the issue of educating women today? Well, no one should be hungry.

That includes hunger for knowledge, hunger for strength, hunger to do good in the world. College education gives women and men the power to do enormous good in their homes and in the world. Limiting women to doing good in the home is a waste of the intelligence and the multiple talents God gives them.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a stay-at-home mom and feel incredibly blessed to be one. But one day my children will be grown and gone from the nest. What will I do then? Is my usefulness done? Not at all. I want to go back to teaching college English courses. I want to go on writing. These are my talents, and I will use them as I can, in God's service and in the world...because in the world is where God put me.

No one will convince me that these are sinful or unwomanly talents, that a desire to stand in front of a bunch of adults and preach the good news of proper grammar and epic similes is immodest. By God's gifts, I am good at it. I'm not hiding that light under a bushel. This current phase of my life is about caring for my children and I'm blessed to do that by staying home, but that phase is just a season in life, a part of who I am. It is not all of me, it is not the entirety of my life, it isn't the sum of all God has made me to be. What came before and what will come after are important as well.

I learned the value of education at my mother's knee. When my mother graduated from high school, she asked her father to send her to college to be an art teacher. He said it was a waste of money to educate women...she was just going to get married and have babies.

When I was in second grade and my sister in kindergarten, my father left our family with meager child support and no alimony. My mother had a high-school diploma and not enough job experience to support us.

Mom, my sister, and I moved in with my grandparents, who supported us until mom got her degree in dental hygiene and could support us herself. As a young girl, I was indelibly impressed by my mother's actions. Not once did my sister and I feel neglected by our single working mother, not once did we feel unloved or uncared for by her. Instead, she set an example of strength and courage and success for us that we both carried into our adult lives.

My sons take for granted my presence in their lives. When we were visiting my sister in the spring, my youngest asked my sister why she works outside the home. She's a physical therapist and answered that it makes her happy to help lots of people get well and feel better. She's healing the sick.

She's doing God's work in the world.

Yet there are Christians who think this is a sin simply because my sister has ovaries and has made babies? Who think that she should be a financial slave to her husband rather than a force for healing in the world?

I know the opponents to educating women are smaller in number now than when my grandfather told my mother that college was a waste of her time and his money. The vast majority of Americans no longer buy into that cultural paradigm. We're trying to find our way to equality, and the road is rough and uneven but getting better.

The fact is that men and women are biologically different. Most women are equipped for motherhood, and most men are capable of greater physical strength than most women.  It's also a fact that women are every bit as intelligent as men and can learn everything that men can learn. Clearly, today's culture is far less about procreation and physical strength than it is about cultivated, educated intelligence. 

As we realize God's kingdom on earth, as we move toward that level of love and compassion, we must move forward toward it, not backward away from it. This is hard. John Wesley provided a method of doing this in his four-fold way of discovering one's faith...through Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.

Some people want to discount reason and experience in favor of Scripture and tradition, want to move culture and faith practice back to a time of slavery and oppression, want to discount all the lessons reason shows us for lifting up the weak and vulnerable and instead push women back into "divinely" dictated weakness and vulnerability.

Now might be a good time for Paul's comment on slavery. In Galatians 3:28, Paul writes,

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

In Christ, in HIS kingdom, we are all one. Remember that in Eden, God made Eve from Adam's rib...to stand by his side, not under his foot.

To stand side by side, we all need equal opportunity to learn and work together, to feed our minds, to use our talents to serve God and each other in compassion and love.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen.

Reflections on Proverbs: The Toils of Sin, Part 4

Our verses for this series of posts on the toils of sin are as follows:

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
  and he is caught in the toils of his sin. Proverbs 5:22

There are six things which the Lord hates,
  seven which are an abomination to him;
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
  and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
  feet that make haste to run to evil,
false witness who breathes out lies,
  and a man who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

This week, we're reflecting on hearts that devise wicked plans. Plotters and schemers. People who plan harm to others for whatever reason. We can sort of understand crimes of the moment, where emotions suddenly take over and reason shuts down, but there's a special sort of wickedness when people actually think through and plan to do evil.

Cold, hard, calculated evil.

It's odd, but when I think of wicked plans, I rarely picture the perpetrators in my mind. I think of the victims. When reflecting on the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the London underground bombings in 2007, or the attacks in Mumbai in 2008, I think of the victims. How are the families of the dead coping? How are survivors dealing with the shock and trauma and stress?

Have you been a victim of a plot or scheme? George and I recently had our credit card number stolen and used to purchase airline tickets to the middle east. We were shocked to learn how many of our friends had experienced similar theft. In fact, several of my friends have had to cancel stolen cards and get new cards twice in the past year!

Schemes like stealing credit card numbers or social security numbers do not come from righteous hearts. And is there anyone out on the internet who hasn't had a computer infected with a virus? These viruses are created by hearts with wicked plans.

It's hard for me to imagine wicked schemers taking time to read this blog, but I believe that when we talk about sin in others, we need to look for it in ourselves. How do we devise wicked plans?

Honestly, I'm stumped. The closest I can get is the lies we tell to get out of doing things we don't want to do, which hardly rate as plans. I suppose I've seen wicked plans carried out during nasty divorces of people I know, where one party plots to get revenge or more than his/her fair share through legal or illegal means.

But in my life, there simply haven't been wicked plots and schemes that I am aware of or can remember. Sure, there are spur-of-the-moment bad decisions, but to think through a plan of action of harm to another human being...that, thank you Jesus, isn't something I or the people around me seem to do.

This lack of awareness of sin sort of scares me. How am I blind to my own sin in this area? Am I plotting and not aware of it? Have I convinced myself that whatever plot I'm brewing is righteous and motivated by good?

For some reason Westboro Baptist pops into mind. I suspect that the people who plan and carry out protests at military funerals believe their plans are righteous and approved by God with every fiber of their beings. No doubt they believe that they are doing God's work in the world, facing sin and calling it out, judging it, condemning it.

How am I sinning in this terrible way, hatching plans that serve to hurt others and inflate my own sense of (self-)righteousness? How do my plans glorify me by stepping on others? How do I uncover this sin and repent?

How do I see my plans as God sees them: in plain and naked truth?

Hard questions. Only two responses come to mind.

1. Prayer.

Take my thoughts and plans to God. Listen to His answers to those prayers. Wait. Be patient. He will light the path forward with love. Any other path is sin.

2. Plot love.

First, imagine how much good could happen in the world if these evil schemers and plotters put their talents and attention and hearts to helping the world instead of hurting it.

Now, imagine how much good could happen if you plotted and schemed for love. If a heart that devises wicked plans is an abomination to God, then let our hearts devise loving plans, plans to lift others up in God's love and compassion, plans to praise and glorify Him, plans to be like Jesus and help others with an open hand.

If we fill our hearts with loving plans, we leave no room for the wicked plans.




How can you fill yourself up with God's love and leave no room for wicked plans?

Reflections on Proverbs: The Toils of Sin, Part 3

Our verses for this series of posts on the toils of sin are as follows:

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
  and he is caught in the toils of his sin. Proverbs 5:22

There are six things which the Lord hates,
  seven which are an abomination to him;
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
  and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
  feet that make haste to run to evil,
false witness who breathes out lies,
  and a man who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

The third abomination to God is "hands that shed innocent blood." This abomination is, for most of us, a pretty easy sin to avoid. When we think about those who murder or even just physically injure others, they are usually other. Not us.

We think of criminals who deserve to be in jail...people who abuse others, who use weapons to harm others, who are in gangs, who kill for gain or for fun. Lock them up and throw away the key, right?

We think of governments and armies that oppress the innocent, imprison and torture those who dissent, commit genocide.

We think of human traffickers who would rather kill a woman than have her escape her life of abuse.

We think of people whose profession requires involvement with violence, such as soldiers and police. These people have opportunity to abuse their authority, to harm the innocent bystanders in already ugly situations.

We think of those who crucified Jesus because he threatened their authority and their legalistic way of life.

For those of us living comfortably in civilization today, this sort of violence isn't common at all, and it's easy to see it as something separate from us, not a sin we participate in, easily avoidable.  

But.

We commit some pretty ugly violence that's all too common. It may not result in physical wounds or bloodshed, but we do wound our children, our spouses, our parents, our siblings, our friends, total strangers with words or deeds that shed the blood of their hearts. We commit acts of spiritual and emotional violence any time we lash out at others with impatience, with loss of self-control, with anger or self-centeredness. We wound others when we turn away from their suffering and grief because it makes us uncomfortable.

Are we as innocent as we think we are when it comes to "hands that shed innocent blood"? What do you think?

Reflections on Proverbs: The Toils of Sin, Part 2

Our verses for this series of posts on the toils of sin are as follows:

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
  and he is caught in the toils of his sin. Proverbs 5:22

There are six things which the Lord hates,
  seven which are an abomination to him;
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
  and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
  feet that make haste to run to evil,
false witness who breathes out lies,
  and a man who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

The second abomination to God is "a lying tongue." Lies break the social covenant between people. A lie breaks trust, the very trust that allows us to interact with confidence and security. When we no longer have confidence that what a person says is true, the social covenant breaks down.

We've all lied at some point. Sometimes, we lie in little ways, to spare someone's feelings, and call them good lies. "No, those pants don't make your butt look fat." "Oh, your veggie lasagna is delicious!" "Your dog is so cute."

Note how all these little lies are lies of opinion. Whether or not someone looks fat in particular pants is relative; one person might think so, another not. How people taste food is highly variable and subjective; what tastes like slop to you might be perfectly delicious to someone else. Dog cuteness is hugely subjective.

Lying about your opinion to spare someone's feelings feels...kind, like bending the truth rather than breaking it. The truth doesn't matter nearly as much as the unnecessary hurt it will inflict.

But they are still lies, and if you try, you can reword them so they aren't lies. It generally just takes tact and quick thinking. "Oh, you must love this widdle doggie face!"

Sometimes we lie in big ways, and these lies hurt others far worse than the truth ever would. We lie to hide stealing from employers, we lie to excuse using other people for our own purposes, we lie for personal gain, to protect our reputation, to bring others down, to get out of unpleasant social obligations.

The getting of treasure by a lying tongue
  is fleeting vapor and a snare of death. Proverbs 21:6

I know of a man who was recently sent to prison for fleecing a number of people out of their life savings. His lying tongue got him treasure, but he lost it all and is spending his 70s in federal prison.

Lies often cover our sins, such as lying to a spouse about being with friends rather than a lover. Sure, the truth is going to hurt hugely, but finding out your spouse was unfaithful and lied to you causes even greater pain than the truth ever could.

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
  but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Proverbs 28:13

For me, the subject of lying always brings to mind the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob was a liar who cheated Esau out of his inheritance, but his lies eventually forced him to flee his home. When he came back, years later, with a huge household and wealth, he met Esau on a field. Esau had an army of 400 at his back and embraced Jacob, welcoming him home joyfully. Jacob was grateful for the forgiveness and healing, but he knew that the covenant was still broken if Esau needed an army of 400 to welcome him. So he went and settled in another area.

Sometimes, trust is so destroyed by lies that the kindest mercy of all for everyone is distance.

The most amazing and wonderful thing about our God is His infinite capacity for mercy and forgiveness. Our earthly covenants with each other may break beyond repair and restoration, but we can never so destroy our covenant with God that it cannot be healed and restored by His amazing grace, through Jesus' death on the Cross.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavishes upon us. Ephesians 1:7-8



Reflection: Think of times you've lied and times you've been lied to. Think of how the social covenant was damaged or destroyed by those lies. Would truth from the start have saved it? If you need forgiveness for lies you have told, how might you start the healing process? If you need to forgive someone for lying to you, how might you start that healing process?

Whatever the situation is, cling always to the mercy and grace of God, for He lavishes them upon us all! All we need to do is ask for them. 

Reflections on Proverbs: The Toils of Sin, Part 1

Today's proverbs give us a lot to think about, so we're going to cover them over a number of weeks rather than rush through.

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
  and he is caught in the toils of his sin. Proverbs 5:22

This verse pops up after advice regarding "loose women." The loose women whose lips drip with honey are a metaphor for all those things that seduce us away from God.

But what, exactly, does it mean to be seduced away from God, to be ensnared by iniquity, caught in the toils of sin?

If you're anything like me, you'd just rather not think about this. Sin seems like such a big topic, huge and ugly and detailed. But in Chapter 6 of Proverbs, we get a list, a relatively simple list, of what sin is.

There are six things which the Lord hates,
  seven which are an abomination to him;
haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
  and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans,
  feet that make haste to run to evil,
false witness who breathes out lies,
  and a man who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

Let's break these verses down and look at each sin separately.

Pride, or haughty eyes, is listed first, the first and worst of the Seven Deadly Sins of the earliest Christian teaching. Throughout scripture, we are told to be humble before God, and we think of how humble Jesus was, washing His disciples' feet, going to the cross without uttering a word in His own defense. Even the pagans preached humility and the dangers of pride. Just think of Greek tragedy and mythology. A little Oedipus Rex or Achilles' heel, anyone? At the great, triumphant parades of the Roman emperors and generals, paid mockers shouted insults at the honoree to keep him from attracting the attention of gods for being too prideful. Pride goes before a fall...Proverbs 16:18.

The arrogant are always and every time brought low.

Is it wrong for me to be proud of my college and graduate degrees, proud of my children and husband, proud of my country? I don't think so, unless that pride makes me puffed up over others or leads me to ignore the feelings of others. If I look on others with haughty eyes, that is the abomination to God, that is the sin. Haughty eyes hurt relationships, hurt people, hurt nations.

So how do we know when our pride hurts others? Well, context matters. What could be more natural than a woman bragging about her grandchildren? Every grandmother I've ever met does this at some point. In fact, I hope that all grandmothers are proud of their grandchildren. Yet I know a grandmother who shared with a relative that her grandson had been diagnosed with a major disability. The relative said how sorry she was, then immediately proceeded to tell the hurting woman how smart and talented her own grandchild was. One woman shared that her grandson might never live independently and the other dished up a serving of pride.

How hurtful in that moment the second grandmother's pride was!

I came across a saying recently that a person who is not nice to his or her server in a restaurant is not a nice person. I've never understood how people can be rude to servers; they handle your food, after all, and can do what they like to it in the kitchen! When I've witnessed such rudeness to servers, I've seen the haughty eyes, the I'm-better-than-you look. It's always so very ugly.

There's a controversy brewing in our small community, one that shows Americans at their most politically polarized and ugly. It's tearing our community apart and making us ridiculous at best and criminally stupid at worst in the national media.

I don't do conflict well and have purposefully stayed out of the mudslinging, but the nastiness on Facebook and in the media has bothered me. A lot.

I have opinions on the subject being debated...oh, yes, I have strong opinions. I think certain points of view in the situation are stupid beyond belief, am amazed that educated Americans can honestly think the way they do on both sides of the issue. I'm in the middle, as usual, seeing shades of gray and opportunities for grace and compromise that the black-and-white folks don't or won't or can't.

I hate the way this makes me feel, though. Am I looking on these people with haughty eyes? Do I think I'm better than they are? Not better, perhaps, but certainly smarter.

And there's the rub. The other day, I realized I was looking at it the wrong way, the prideful, haughty way that says I'm-right-you're-wrong-so-screw-you. I wondered what would happen if I focused instead on what I love about my community and the people in it. What would happen if I stopped looking down with haughty eyes and started looking up with grateful eyes? I wrote a long list of all that I love about my community and about this largely ugly situation.

You know what happened? The knot in my stomach loosened. The anger in my heart disappeared. The frustration and arrogance disappeared. I sat at my computer screen and cried tears of gratitude. I'm not angry about the situation any more, and I am not looking down on anyone. I'm sad, yes, for the damage being done to our community, and I still hold my opinions on the subject as strongly as before. But I also see that right now, the middle of the conflict, isn't the end.

The only thing that changed was my attitude, from pride to love. And it has made all the difference.

I also see what I can and cannot do about the situation. I'll vote my conscience in November, and I'll write a letter to the officials involved in the chaos, a letter of peace and balance, of calm reason instead of the angry rhetoric that was boiling around in my brain.

The toils of arrogance were tearing me up, but the fruit of love is peace. 

Where in your own life are you ensnared by pride and toiling in its arrogance? How can you walk humbly and lovingly with God instead of staring out with haughty eyes?

Reflections on Proverbs: Plans and Guidance

In our praise and awe of God, some people surrender to a passive theology. God's in charge of all creation, after all, and we are puny little humans, not worthy to kiss the hem of His celestial robes.

Let God take care of it.

Whatever it is.

But God doesn't want us to sit on our hands and do nothing with the life He gave us. We are made in His image to create, think, feel...live. He's not our puppet-master.

Today's proverb reminds us of this.

A man's mind plans his way,
  but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9

These two lines sum up a lot of our problem in life. We make plans. Of course we do. We were created to make plans in the image of a Creator who makes plans.

But how do we let the Lord direct our steps?

Pray in all things and listen for God. You'll hear Him. He'll speak through daily life, your friends, your enemies, seeming coincidences, even dreams.

Be open to His Word. Read scriptures in an attitude of love and worship and gratitude. You will find guidance there.

Pray for forgiveness. We all make mistakes in our plans. We encounter unexpected consequences, our steps falter. God forgives us our mistakes, even uses them to further His plans. Trust that.

What plans are you making right now? How are you letting the Lord direct your steps? Have you dropped plans because they seemed too big for you? How would they turn out if you have God's help moving them forward?

Reflections on Proverbs: Dinner of Herbs

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is
  than a fatted ox and hatred with it. Proverbs 15:17


Food is elemental, and our relationship with it is complicated and powerful. Spend a few moments thinking about meals in your past where love was a guest. How did the food taste? How did it make you feel?

Now spend a few minutes thinking about meals where hate was the guest. What was the physical effect on you? Could you eat? How did the food taste? How did the food make you feel?

I love how this proverb acknowledges the deep connection between body and spirit. When the spirit is sick, the body can't be nourished properly. Whether we feel hatred or feel hated, the physical impact is enormous. We describe our stomach as being in knots. We feel sick. Our throat is so tight it's hard to swallow. We are weighed down by hate, tightened by it. Nothing else can get in.

When we feel love or feel loved, the physical sensations are light and liberating. We relax. We can enjoy the taste of food and feel nourished body and soul.

I remember reading a story by a single mother who was struggling financially. One night, all she had was some broth and mushrooms, and she made mushroom soup. She felt bad to have nothing else for her daughter, so she found an old candle, put a blanket on the floor, and she and her daughter had an indoor picnic.

Years later, the daughter told her mother that was her favorite meal ever. The daughter had no idea how hurt the mother was to have nothing better for her child...she only knew that her mother loved her, and that mushroom soup tasted amazing as a result.

Today's lives are so busy. How often do you sit down with loved ones and enjoy a meal? Think of ways you can invite love to your table and restore a positive spirit to the elemental act of eating. Perhaps it's through a prayer before or after the meal, or through a weekly "dressing up" of the table using the fine china and crystal. Maybe it's just eating in your formal dining area instead of the kitchen or eating outside on a comfortable night.

Whatever you do, invite love to the table. The food tastes so much better then!

Share your thoughts on love and food. How do you make even simple meals special?