Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

Home Archives for Mark McIntyre

On concern for the powerful and influential

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InfluentialIn writing about Lucius Sulla, Augustine says,

“For that victory was not so conducive to his exaltation to power, as it was fatal to his ambition; for by it he became so insatiable in his desires, and was rendered so arrogant and reckless by prosperity, that he may be said rather to have inflicted a moral destruction on himself than corporal destruction on his enemies.”

I’m not a good enough student of history to cite the reasons for Augustine taking such a dim view of Sulla’s career.

The point of challenge for me is Augustine’s perspective that Sulla’s choices had as great an effect on himself as they did on those he mistreated. The point is that we should not only be concerned about the effect on society but should also be concerned about the souls of the ones who are making the decisions.

It is so easy to lose this perspective. I hear things about political leaders and I see decisions that are made and get frustrated and angry at the abuse of power and waste of resources. Yet I don’t stop long enough to be concerned about those who are perpetrating the abuse and waste.

The influential and powerful are no less loved by God than the poor and outcasts. God is concerned for their souls and I should share that concern. But often I get caught up in the rhetoric and lose sight of the fact that the influential and powerful imperil their own souls by their actions.

Perhaps I should spend as much time praying for those who are making choices with which I disagree as I do decrying the abuse.

The point is not to move toward inaction, but to move toward prayer before, during and after action.

What Matthew 6 teaches me about worry and ministry

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This is the 26th post in the Sermon on the Mount Series.

WorryI have often read the admonition against worry that is found in Matthew 6:25-34. I understand that I should not worry about whether I will eat, what I will wear or where I will live. Jesus tells me that God is big enough to provide for my material needs.

But it dawned on me this morning that these verses reach deeper into my being than a first reading might indicate.

What hit me was that whether the need is material, emotional or spiritual, I should not doubt God’s ability to provide for that need.

OK, so what does this have to do with ministry?

The AHA! comes with the realization that ministry is one of the spheres in which this principle applies. I have sometimes wondered if I am doing enough to fulfill my stewardship in ministry. I have sometimes felt pressured that I should be doing more.

This pressure takes the form of studying harder, attending more events, filling more ministry slots, etc.

None of these are bad things, but if I am doing them without a sense of call or without a sense that God is the one who actually does anything of eternal value, then I am taking on more than I ought.

With all of these things, if I am worrying or wondering if I am doing enough, I am likely to be taking on responsibility that is not mine.

Worry does not become a virtue just because the worry is over ministry responsibilities.

Just sayin’ . . .

Skipping the embarrassing parts . . .

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EmbarrassingIt took me three attempts before I could watch all of Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I really get uncomfortable when the protagonist is about to do something really stupid or embarrassing. Stupid and embarrassing are the main fare of that movie which resulted in my difficulty in watching it.

There are parts of the Bible that cause the same reaction in me. I don’t like reading the stories where our Biblical heroes resort to stupid and embarrassing behavior. For me, reading these stories is like having the dream where I showed up to school in my underwear. I just want to get out of there and back to safety.

What triggered this thought was a recent reading of Genesis 20 where Abraham went to Gerar and lied to Abimelech. I found myself wanting to skip this chapter and move on to a better part.

But Scripture includes this story for a reason. In thinking about this I can think of two of them:

  1. The embarrassing bits remind us that God works with flawed humans like you and I.
  2. The embarrassing bits lend credibility to the idea that Scripture is presenting real history.

Were I to collect stories to promote a moral or religious system, I would collect stories of victory and honor. I would want my heroes to be bigger than life and above all the petty nonsense in which I find myself embroiled on a regular basis. I would not select adulterers, murderers, liars, cheaters and cowards. Yet, these are what we repeatedly find in Scripture.

When I get to one of the embarrassing parts, I am reminded that it is all about grace. God did not select Jacob because of his moral uprightness. God did not select David because of his ability to do the right thing no matter what. God did not select me because I have my act together, because I do not.

I’m learning to be increasingly comfortable with the embarrassing bits of Scripture because they teach me a lesson that I struggle to hear, that of grace.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
grace, grace, God’s grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin! (Link for all the lyrics)

Built to fail

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FailHow many times have you seen a building on which the name of a bank or some other business is engraved in stone only to find that the building no longer houses the institution that built it?

They did not build the building with the intent of making it available for another business. The founders of that bank did not begin with the intent of failure. But most human institutions do eventually fail.

Some in our day are ready to announce the church as another institution that will be on the list of failed ventures. While there are individual congregations and local church organizations that do fail, it is somewhat premature to order a burial plot for the church as a whole.

I must admit that sometimes it saddens me to see beautiful church buildings that are now museums, shops or restaurants. But I am quickly reminded that the building is not the church. While a local congregation may dwindle to the point where it cannot maintain a building and must sell it, that is not an indication that the church as a whole is dying.

As Christians, we should understand the reason why this is the case. Men did not found the church. Jesus makes this clear in his statement to Peter in Matthew 16:18. It is Jesus that is the founder and sustainer of the church.

The church is not an organization that is built to eventually fail. In fact, when Jesus gave us our mission of making disciples, he also told us that he would be with us as we do it. Jesus began it, Jesus sustains it, and Jesus will complete what he started.

Failure is not an option.

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