Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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MacLaren on being a saint

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SaintRecently, I was coaxed by my daughter into going to a thrift store for a “half off” sale. I did it to spend time with her, not thinking that I would find anything that would interest me. It turns out that they had a large book section with many books worth adding to my library, some of which I purchased.

Among the books I purchased was a partial set of Alexander MacLaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture at the half off price of $1.50 per volume. This morning I started reading the volume on Ephesians and thought this paragraph worth sharing:

“[I]n God’s church there is no aristocracy of sanctity, nor does the name of saint belong only to those who live high above the ordinary tumults of life and the secularities of daily duty. You may be as true a saint in a factory – ay! and far truer one – than in a hermitage. You do not need to cultivate a mediaeval . . . type of ascetic piety in order to be called saints. You do not need to be amongst the select few to whom it is given here upon earth, but not given without their own effort, to rise to the highest summits of holy conformity with the divine will. But down amongst all the troubles and difficulties and engrossing occupations of our secular work, you may be living saintly lives; for the one condition of being holy is that we should know whose we are and whom we serve, and we can carry the consciousness of belonging to Him into every corner of the poorest, most crowded and most distracted life, recognising His presence and seeking to do His will. The saint is the man who says, ‘O Lord, truly I am Thy servant: Thou hast loosed my bonds.’ Because He has loosed my bonds, the bonds that held me to my sins, He has therein fastened me with far more stringent bonds of love to the sweet and free service of His redeeming love. All His children are His saints.”

I like the line “we should know whose we are and whom we serve” which I have highlighted in bold in the quoted paragraph above.

Lately, I have been increasingly aware of the disconnect between my intellectual knowledge and my emotional responses. Or, to put it another way, there is a separation between my head and my heart.

I have a suspicion that a greater awareness of whose I am and whom I serve will go a long way toward bridging that gap.

An Easter Meditation for 2016

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EasterIt appears to me that God is stripping away any illusion of security that we might have as Americans at the beginning of the 21st Century.

  • We have dysfunction in our political process where both of the major political parties are more concerned about conserving their power than they are about doing the right thing. In this election year we are bombarded by attack ads or insipid campaign slogans that are nearly devoid of the power to resolve the issues facing us.
  • We have an ever growing threat of Islamic terrorists who think that by blowing themselves up with innocent people around them they will achieve distinction in the afterlife.
  • We have dysfunction in our corporate leaders who think that it is acceptable to earn millions of dollars in bonus for destroying the earning ability of hard working men and women by announcing a “restructuring” which eliminates their jobs.
  • We have “Christian” leaders who repackage the pop psychology in a “Christian” wrapper. They make millions of dollars selling books and giving conferences that offer superficial help but no lasting change. They are like doctors who put bandaids on a cancer.
  • We have racial tension that is causing upheaval throughout our country. We should be long past judging a man or women based on the color of their skin but we are not.

I’m not arguing that times are worse than they have ever been. Even a casual reading of the prophets in the Old Testament provides ample evidence that the Nation of Israel faced many of the same issues.

Into similar social, political and moral chaos, God spoke these words through Isaiah:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” (Isaiah 9:6–7, ESV)

The answer does not lie within political reform or building a wall around our country or religious reform or tolerance training. The answer lies in the one who came to fulfil Isaiah’s prophecy. The answer lies in Jesus of Nazareth.

It is Easter Sunday, 2016, the day when Christians around the world celebrate The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

About The Resurrection, the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). The Resurrection validates that Jesus is who he claimed to be and that he is the one who will one day set this world right.

The Resurrection tells me that it is safe to find my security in Jesus, even when everything around me is messed up.

The Resurrection tells me that God has the power to accomplish what he purposes.

The Resurrection is like a down payment which holds our destiny in lay-a-way until Jesus comes back to complete the deal.

If ever I felt the need to appreciate and appropriate the meaning and the power of The Resurrection, it is today. I thought that perhaps you would also benefit from this meditation as we consider the empty tomb.

May we move forward with the encouragement that the empty tomb demonstrates that the evil and chaos will not win out.

The Resurrected Jesus will return and fix the mess we’ve made.

He is Risen!

The sufficiency of natural revelation

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Heavens DeclareThe title of this post is a shameless play on words. It is not uncommon in theological circles to speak of the in-sufficiency of Scripture, but I dropped the “in” to make a point. Scripture is sufficient to make known God as creator.

Some would argue that nature points to the possibility that God might exist but does not provide conclusive proof. Yet Scripture seems to go against this statement. For example, the Apostle Paul writes:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18–20, ESV)

Paul tells us that those who reject God are without excuse. They cannot argue that God did not give them sufficient proof. The problem is not the absence of evidence, the problem is the suppression of the evidence that is given to all men. Creation is sufficient to reveal the character and perfections of the God of the Bible.

While nature does not provide exhaustive knowledge of God, it does provide enough information to show us that God exists and to challenge us to seek him.

Value vs. Talent

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talentJesus told the story of a man who went away and gave three servants money to work with while he was gone (Matt. 25: 14-30). The idea is that each servant differed in his ability to handle the money so they each got a different amount to work with. But, they were all required to produce gain from the amount they were given. All three of the servants had value but they had different talents and abilities.

All through the Bible, we are taught that man (in the collective sense – men and women) gets his dignity from being created in the image of God. So every human being has value in the eyes of God. This is the reason for laws which protect people from being killed or mistreated.

The problem is when we confuse the difference between a person’s value and their talent.

Two errors that result from this confusion:

  1. We assign different value to people based on their abilities.
  2. We make the assumption that because we are all of the same value, then we should all have the same abilities.

It seems to me that Western culture leans more toward the first error. We put talented people on a pedestal. As evidence of this, I would point to the tendency of actors and musicians who have achieved notoriety for their craft, then think themselves able to make pronouncements in the public arena on subjects they know little about or have greatly simplified to the point of misunderstanding.

When the second mistake is made, it is thought that no-one should have more resources than another. In socialistic societies, it becomes the government’s responsibility to be a bulldozer to level the economic landscape.

But, when we maintain the correct distinction between talent and value, we understand that people will have differing abilities and as a result, different accomplishments. From the Christian perspective, we understand that it is God who has given varying abilities to people for purposes that he does not always reveal to us.

For example, while I consider myself of equal value to Bill Gates, it is readily apparent that Mr. Gates has abilities that I do not possess. I do not have the vision or the talent to create a computer operating system. Mr. Gates has been well paid for creating something that has proven to be a benefit to society. I would not be able to write this blog post were it not for the invention of the personal computer.

This also applies to the church. God has given different gifts and abilities to members of the church. The discussion in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14 centers on the Corinthians misunderstanding of this. They valued the “supernatural” gifts above all others and put those who possessed such gives on a higher standing than the rest of the church. Paul wrote the letter to them as a correction to this error.

A proper understanding of value vs. talent also frees us up from jealousy.

Not only should we be freed from jealousy by this understanding. We should also be freed up to celebrate the diversity within the church. We can celebrate the God who gives men and women the ability to teach and to lead. We can celebrate the God who gives talent to those who lead us in musical worship. We can celebrate the God who allows some to gain notoriety while others of us remain unknown to the larger world.

Every person is valuable in the sight of God, but we are not equally talented. Let us make this distinction clearly and avoid the errors that result from confusing talent and value.

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