Merry Christmas

I’ve spent today wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music, one of my favorite traditions. Christmas is full of tradition for most of us. We have years of Christmas memories to call up. For example, I thought presents were to be wrapped on Christmas Eve, because that’s when Dad wrapped his. I’ve since improved on that tradition, early is better. 

Traditions become the rule, if we change things will it still feel like Christmas? In our home there was one way to do Christmas morning, and we continued those traditions long into adulthood. When we were little, stockings were opened first thing (usually to keep us out of everything else and to allow the adults a cup of coffee). Then we ate breakfast. Then we had devotions. We’d gather in the living room, where all those presents were nested under the tree. Dad would read the Christmas story, and then he’d ask our grandfather to pray.  Grandpa loved to pray. He’d pray for hours, or so it seemed when we were waiting for those presents. We still eat breakfast first, open stocking gifts and then have devotions. Dad took over as grandpa, and we took on the task of devotions. We varied the topics as we grew older, but it always came first. A lively burst of "Happy Birthday" to Jesus follows the prayer. And, finally, presents.  Helped us learn delayed gratification. The tradition reminded us that Christmas was more than presents.

The first Christmas was so much simpler, a stable, a manger, some shepherds, a baby. Of course, between the lines was the stress and pain of an impending baby, an overcrowded town, no room except for a stable. There were animals, and smells and dirt. There were angels, but they had to tell the shepherds not to be afraid before they could say why they had come. Stressful, crowded, scary, and simple. Later there would be gifts from strange men who’d followed that star, but initially the gifts came in the form of adoration – “Unto you is born this day…a savior.”

So much is made today of making Christmas too religious. Ironic. Issues are made of manger scenes in town squares and other such public displays of religion. This season it was a city council woman who resigned because the council had voted to begin calling the big, green, decorated tree in the town square a “Christmas tree” again. She said she resigned to stand for those who would be offended by labeling the tree such, and making it religious. (I heard in the end she took back her resignation).  How does a decorated fir tree make anything religious? I don’t believe there were any decorated trees that first Christmas.

I once overheard some women looking at Easter cards, and one woman said, “Look, they are even making Easter religious.” Well, no, it began that way and you just hadn’t known. Sad, really. And who are all these offended people anyway? Are people offended with Hanukkah menorahs?  Do they resent the fasting of Ramadan? Why Christmas? Obviously, because those other occasions haven’t been too secularized by the Western world, commandeering it for their own use. (Although a Jewish friend said the West makes a bigger issue of Hanukkah than Israel, perhaps to have a reason to give their children gifts during the over hyped Holiday Season?).  Oh, and we shouldn’t say “Merry Christmas” anymore; we should offer “Happy Holidays” to be more inclusive.

Christmas is central to Christianity. Christians celebrate the birth of The Christ, Jesus. No ordinary birth, God came to live among us, taking on human flesh, with the ultimate goal of dying in our place. Emmanuel means “God with us”. Unlike every other religion, Christianity asks us to step into a relationship with God. We don’t have to earn our salvation; in fact, we can’t. But God came to take our place, so we can have a relationship with our Creator.

All of the beautiful, family traditions pale when we look at what actually happened in that stable. No matter how many beautiful gifts we receive, nothing can compare with the life we receive from God when we recognize and accept his Son. The fun and fellowship of friends and family is only a taste of the fun and fellowship we can have with our God. When was the last time you heard fun and God in the same sentence? Well, I believe that’s what God had in mind – not some stodgy, rule driven religion.

I don’t have to get sucked into the drama of whether we can have a crèche or what we call the tree. It takes nothing away from what Christmas truly is. Christmas, Christ Mass, begins in our hearts, where we worship a God who loved us enough to come and live as one of us, so he could take our place and die for our sin. We could take away all the lights and trees and pageants and carols and presents and hoopla, and it would still be Christmas. The other things are just the trimmings. Don’t lose sight of that. Perhaps it's time to add something new to your Christmas. Spend some time reading the story of the first Christmas. Who knows, maybe it'll become an honored tradition.

Merry Christmas.

Peace on Earth

I’ve been decorating my house and listening to Christmas music. Decorating can stress me out; the music calms me down – good to have both. We do a lot of entertaining during the season, including hosting Christmas day. I get these pictures in my head of how I’d like things to look, and my expectations generally out distance reality. So I get stressed. This year, I started early, tried to have more realistic expectations, and it’s been a lot better. I find it hard to make my focus about the people who come to our home rather than on how clean and shiny everything looks. I think that’s normal, but how ironic on the first Christmas the angels said the coming of Jesus was to bring peace on earth, and we make the celebration of that event so stressful.

This season has been jarred by terrorism all over the world, including our own back door in California. Nothing peaceful about people with bombs and guns trying to make a point by killing innocents. A lot of rhetoric has been thrown around with ideas for achieving peace, including killing everyone who disrupts our peace. Isn’t that what the other side is doing? The world’s go-to for peace is too often war. It really has never worked, beyond maybe a temporary stay.

I wonder at the stories of wartime cease fires to celebrate Christmas. In World War Two both sides sang carols during a cease fire. How does that work? For one day everyone goes to their corners and we have peace. If it’s so easy to stop for a day, why not just stop? How do you sing Silent Night one day and the next resume shooting?

Peace on earth has long been sought after and never found. Our part of the world might be free of war, but I don’t think there’s ever been a time when the world was totally free of war. And even if we had no wars, somebody somewhere is taking someone’s life, or disrupting someone’s world. And if all violence were to take a cease fire, we’d still be stressing out over getting a job, or hosting a party, or whatever it is that stresses us out and takes away our peace.

Yet the angels said “fear not for behold I bring good news of great joy. For unto you is born a savior, Christ our Lord…glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2).  Peace on earth – for those with whom God is pleased. Whom might that be? Well, those who receive His gift I imagine. Peace on earth begins in the hearts of believers. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace – peace is a product of the Holy Spirit living out God’s righteousness through those who have put their trust in Jesus. Christians are peace on earth.

How’s that working for us? Would the world say Christians are indeed peace makers? Probably not. Some of those Christians are the politicians calling for carpet bombing of the terrorists. The Bible says Christians have found peace with God and are then to share with the world the same grace, acceptance and forgiveness God has given them. That would only be possible if Christians were faithfully allowing the Holy Spirit control in their life so God’s love and peace would flow out. But I imagine most Christians are a lot like me, wanting to control my own life, and so I fail at being a peacemaker. I don’t feel God’s peace, I feel my stress and anxiety. When that happens it should be a warning that I’m in control again. But I fool myself into thinking I can do it all. Unfortunately you can multiply this by all believers and you see why peace on earth is so lacking.

I need to be reminded often that I cannot do anything of value apart from God working through me. I need to put Christ back in control and be more aware of when he isn’t. How different would my life be if I was more proactive in giving God the controls?  How different would our world be if more Christians made this a daily, hourly priority?

Everyone talks about finding peace. When the Pope visited earlier this year, he spoke a lot about finding peace on earth. We’ve heard choirs and Christmas specials all singing about peace. The call for peace is all around us. So is the way. We obviously have failed at achieving any kind of peace on earth apart from God. Maybe it’s time to look to him and seek his answers?

At the very least peace should start with those of us who know God. Let’s at least challenge ourselves this season to give God the controls, bear the fruit of the Spirit and bring forth Love, Joy and Peace. We certainly need it.

Utopia

Today’s news is full of terrorist attacks in Paris. The militant Islamic group ISIS is taking responsibility. I can’t imagine being in Paris, enjoying an evening out and having it turn to horror in the blink of an eye. Yet that appears to be the reality of today’s world. It doesn’t matter if it’s ISIS or homegrown, disenfranchised high school students attacking classmates, our world seems to be overrun by violence. But, what else is new? At almost any point in history you could have said the same thing.

Do you wonder why I say our world is broken?  For centuries humanity has tried to find their utopia, and failed. Many have believed that religion is the answer. ISIS wants an Islamic state, ruled by Islamic law and sees their utopia there. But the non-Islamic world sees it as anything but utopic. Rome tried to make an entire empire Christian. That didn’t work out either. History shows that the religious rulers enjoyed their power a little too much and turned utopia into a lot of people’s nightmares. Today the west basically would like to be religion free. Even when you take religion out of the picture mankind would still struggle over who would have power in the utopia and spoil everything. Utopia is just not in our nature.  If nothing else, history should teach us that.

The problem is us. We’re broken, even the best we do falls far short of perfection. Ancient Israel makes a great example. They had a theocracy, headed by the Creator God. All they had to do was obey His commandments and they’d have utopia. Sounds easy. In fact, the Bible tells us that Israel said to God, “anything you ask us to do, we will do.”  So God called Moses up on Mt. Sinai to witness God whip out those Ten Commandments, and while he was gone, the Israelites pooled all their gold together and made an idol, a god shaped and made by their own hands.  A god they could control who required a bit less of them. That entire experience of being saved out of Egypt and brought across the wilderness towards the Promised Land is stock full of Israel’s dislike of their “utopia”. All their needs were provided for, but they didn’t like the provisions. They found something wrong in everything God did for them. So much for a utopia even when God is in charge.

That’s a good symptom of brokenness. We don’t like God, or anyone else, to be in charge. We want to be in charge of our own destiny, and the world we see today is the child of that desire. The more we try the worse it gets. The Israelites may have promised to do whatever God asked of them, but they broke the first Commandment before they even saw it, and built themselves another god. But you try it, try and live the Ten Commandments. Maybe you’ve never killed anyone, or committed adultery, or stolen anything. But it’s hard to have never envied anyone. And most of us fail at obeying our parents. Even if we kept the majority of the commandments, the Bible doesn’t let us off the hook that easily. The little spoken of reality is, you break one, you break them all.  God doesn’t grade on the curve. Jesus made it even more complicated by saying that if we are angry with someone, it’s really the same as murder, because that’s where murder starts, in our mind, with anger or hurt.  Or if you’ve been lusting after someone, it’s as good as adultery, because, again, that’s where it all begins.

Above all, there are the first commandments that deal with our respect for and behavior towards our Creator God. God says we are to have nothing before him in importance. Well, that’s far easier said than done. Our lives reflect what we cherish. That’s the measure of our commitment to God. Does he really come first? And can we keep it up 100 percent of the time. No, because we’re broken.

The good news is that God chose to take care of this issue. He never intended or believed the Israelites could perfectly obey the Ten Commandments. What he really wanted was for them to recognize the fact that they could not do it, and admit it. Remember, sin simply means “missing the mark”. Try as hard as we can, we can never hit that mark. Never. So God sent his Son to hit the mark in our place. Who does that?  Who steps in to take our place, especially if it requires death? Very few.  And no one could take our place from God’s Holy requirements, unless it was God himself. Because no one else is good enough.

The idea that you can earn your way in Christianity is a huge misunderstanding of the Bible. The Israelites couldn’t earn their way, and we cannot earn ours.  We can never hit the mark. Christianity isn’t earned, it’s accepted. The Bible says the only thing we earn is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life. It’s freely given, not earned. We have this gift being handed to us, and all we have to do is accept. Easier said than done, because we really want to earn our own way, and are a bit suspicious of free gifts

As long as people turn their backs on God’s gift, there will be no peace on earth. It just won’t happen. We might have lulls, but the fact is, because we are broken, we just can’t get it right, no matter how hard we try. Our only hope lies in doing it God’s way. And that means giving up control, saying “I can’t do it”, and asking God for his gift. That’s the first step to utopia

What is Truth?

Today’s political news questioned the truthfulness of one Republican candidate’s personal stories. His defense was to say that those things happened a long time ago and he might have messed up on some details, but the heart of the story was true. Another candidate was weighing in and the reporter asked, ‘haven’t you been wrong about your net worth?’ To which the candidate answered, ‘it doesn’t matter, the truth is I have a lot of money, the exact amount isn’t critical.’

What is truth? Most people today think truth is relative, depends on the time, the place, the occasion. Many don’t even believe in objective truths – things that are true whether you believe in them or not. Is it any wonder that when people refer to their faith in terms of truth, they are dismissed? The belief in our world is that we all have our own truths, yours is faith, mine is something else; they all work. 

The concept of truth plays a big role in the Bible. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. He makes this statement an objective truth – it’s the truth whether you believe it or not. Jesus was unapologetic. The disciple John, in his little book I John, tells us that Jesus came and gave us understanding, so that we may know he (Jesus) is true, and we are part of him who is true, “he is the true God and eternal life.” (I John 5:20 NIV).  The Bible makes it clear that we can bank on the truthfulness of God and his son Jesus. What God says is truth because he is truth.

In a world that gives little credence to truth, why should we care? Because I think we still believe truth is important. We ask it of our politicians, even while we are not really so sure we’ll ever get the truth from them. We ask it of the people we care about – spouses, friends, family. We’d like to see it in the workplace. We want people to take us at our word, to trust us. We get upset when they question our truthfulness. Obviously truth still matters.

But we also know that truth is hard to find. Everyone embellishes stories to make themselves look better. Everyone has lied about issues large and small. Playing with the truth almost seems inherent with being human, and probably it is, since it comes as part of our sin nature.

Truth matters to God. From the 10 Commandments forward we’re challenged to be true and live honestly. But even when we try, we fail. A lot of falsehood comes when we desire to be something we are not, or appear better than we are. We seem compelled to put a false front out there for everyone to see, so we can feel better, more in control. But, that’s just another way of lying.

And in the bright light of God’s purity, it’s pretty hard to hide. We can lie to ourselves and we can lie to others, but we cannot lie to God. That doesn’t mean we don’t try, but how can we think we’d get away with it – he knows our hearts; he sees us as we are? That makes his gift even greater – in spite of me, he still loves me, and accepts me, and died for me to make me a better person. I can be honest with myself and with God. I can be honest with the people in my life, because I have God’s truth in me.

We can safely put our trust in God because he is truth. He will never promise anything he cannot keep. Unlike fickle politicians, trying to win our votes by saying what they think we want to hear, and changing their stories when they think we no longer want to hear, God is truth. He is everlasting. He is faithful. When he says he will “never leave us or forsake us” we can trust that absolutely. When everything else falls apart, he will still be here.

When Jesus was brought before the Roman governor, Pilate, he was asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus doesn’t answer him directly. Their conversation goes back and forth and finally Pilate says, “You are a king, then.” And Jesus said, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” And Pilate, just before releasing Jesus to be crucified, asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:29-40 NIV) He had Truth standing in front of him, and missed it.

Today people are still asking that question. The Truth stands before them in the person of a risen Christ. Jesus is the truth, and those of us who listen to him stand on the side of truth. That truth, God’s truth, is available to all who believe. All we have to do is ask.

It's All Relational

I teach High School. I have done so for many years. Prior to that I worked as a youth director in a church. So most of my adult life has been filled with adolescents. Keeps me young. They also teach me a lot along the way. But I teach them as well, and many times not just school subjects.  I pray that each day would provide an opportunity to present God and Jesus to them.

I know that sounds a bit odd. Do I have my Bible ever present or do I constantly swing the conversation around to religion?  No, never. I believe that I bring God with me into every situation. The Bible teaches that believers in Jesus have his Spirit in them. At the moment we place our life in Jesus’, he places his Spirit in us.  So within me I have the power of God.  That sounds even odder than an ever present Bible, doesn’t it?

Since Christianity isn’t a works-based belief (my salvation isn’t based on what I do or don’t do), and it is based on what Christ did for us; it only makes sense that a just and loving God would provide a way for us to meet his standard. He paid the penalty for our brokenness (sin) with Jesus’ death. But it’s pretty obvious that everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus still sins. Many Christians try in vain to hide that obvious fact, but we do still sin.  And if we could do nothing to “save” us from sin, we probably can’t do anything to stop sinning, period. God planned for that as well, and gives us his Holy Spirit to live out that life for us, fulfill God’s commands through us.

Obviously we Christians don’t do a very good job letting the Spirit live those things out in us. But, that’s the goal.  Every day I seek to have the Holy Spirit in control, and to recognize when he no longer is. When he is in control, the Bible teaches that I present Christ to the world. The metaphor the Bible uses is “fruit”. When the Spirit controls me, I bear his fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

When I encounter my students, I want the Spirit’s fruit to be present. When it is, I can love unconditionally; I can be patient, less anxious and kind. And when this happens, it sometimes gets noticed, and kids ask questions. I can answer questions. Most often I just accept them where they are, and they feel that love, God’s love. I can provide a safe place to talk. And God brings the kids who are searching for answers and they ask those questions.

I do not act in any “heavy handed” way. I just can’t do that. If questions come, I answer.  I don’t lead with “Jesus is the answer.” My husband used to encounter a person who would drive by the bus shelter where my husband waited for his ride, and throw out Christian pamphlets.  You heard me, threw them out of his car window as he drove by.  I am sure he believed he was witnessing to the lost. Reality was that people waiting for their bus at best thought he was a litterer, and at worst a crackpot. I’m not sure how many were drawn to the Lord. That kind of witness just doesn’t work for most people

Relationships work. Like Jesus, God calls us to come along side others and just share our lives.  He calls us to love unconditionally, to open our lives to everyone around us. Then, if we are letting His Spirit control us and bear his fruit, they will also see Jesus. Sometimes they will then want to ask what makes us tick, and the door gets thrown open.

 I made the goal to show my students Jesus. I do it very weakly. I do it very inconsistently. But I begin each day praying for the Spirit’s filling of my life and the presence of his fruit, so my students can see Jesus in me and feel his love.  

Of course, most of them do not know what they are seeing. But I know they feel my acceptance and love. I know that because they hang out in my office. They come back after graduation. They write me notes. And every once in a while they share that along the way they have found Jesus, and recognized that I shared his Spirit with them.

Jesus surrounded himself with real people. They were drawn to him, because they could feel his love and acceptance. I believe that is our model for sharing our faith – relationships. The world needs more friends and less drive by witnessing.

Change of Mind

Already in this political season we have heard quite a bit of name calling. One such name is "flip flop". I heard that term used today to speak of our president. He had said one thing, or taken one stand when he first ran for office eight years ago, and now appears to have flipped to totally different opinions.

My question, is this always a bad thing?  I told my husband that I was equally guilty of flipping opinions.  Many of the ideas I held when I was younger, I no longer hold as true. I remember jokingly sharing with a friend some years back that I had grown liberal, and she said, "no, you've grown up." Perhaps that's why we change, we've grown, matured and the old ideas no longer hold.

As a young person, I was very legalistic.  Everything came in black and white.  My parents felt that dancing was wrong. They could never really clarify why, but none-the-less, I accepted that. In junior high I would disdainfully reply, when asked if I was going to a dance, "no, dancing is against my religion." I cringe at that now.  I cringe because when I was asked to my first dance in high school I immediately said "yes", and had to suffer the consequences with my parents later. But prior to that, it made a very easy way out, and I hadn't thought about it any further than that. My thinking came when it became personal.

When I became a Christian, I took on many of my parents legalistic views, and as I grew older I added several more of my own. I'd like to say that phase passed quickly, but my college girlfriends would be first to set you straight. I could live my life more easily when it was black and white.  I didn't have to think about the whys. The rules, all the do's and don'ts, set parameters and made me feel safe.  I never stopped to think if they really honored God or not, I just did or didn't do, unless I was forced to question it, like dancing, and then my choice wasn't on spiritual grounds at all.

Interesting that people say something is "against their religion". A religion is a system with rules and regulations, rituals and duty.  The problem is, Christianity really isn't a religion. As I have said before, Christianity is a relationship. The ability to have this relationship was established when God paid the price for our sin. Sin kept us from having a relationship with God. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, mine and yours, and now we can have a relationship with God.

This should make Christianity unique, but we've made it into a religion through the years. So much so that many people don't even know Christianity was meant to be relational. Religions rely on us doing things to meet a certain standard. Most religions thrive on legalism. Christianity starts out by teaching us we cannot meet the standard. God showed us his Law, but it's painfully obvious we can't live it. Only through Christ can we begin to be what God intended us to be.

So part of my "flip flop" has come as I have distance myself from religious ground. Once I began to focus on a relationship, I began to change my perspective. If I put too many conditions upon friendships, I tend to lose those friends. Certainly there are boundaries in relationships, but that's different from a rigid system of rules that must be followed. Relationships can be freeing, especially when we can love and accept unconditionally, treating one another with grace and forgiveness. The world opens up with friendships like that. And that is my relationship with God, opening up.

As a result, I can look at people through different eyes. Things begin to have shadings and appear less black and white. I find that I cannot paint people with the same, broad strokes.  Everyone has a different story. They may not go about life the same way I do, but they are still loved by God. He died for all of us. He forgave all of us. Who am I to disagree with that?

I then find myself on opposite sides of many issues with some of my fellow Christians. It looks as though I've flip flopped. I have, but not on the main tenets of our faith. The differences come in how I live out those tenets. I've chosen to follow Jesus' model. Read one of the books in the Bible that tell us about Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and see for yourself.  I think he will surprise you. 

Whom Should I Believe?

Someone reminded me today of a C. S. Lewis statement from Mere Christianity. For those of you who don't know, Mere Christianity began as a series of radio talks on the BBC during World War 2. Lewis was asked to talk about his Christian faith and why he believes in God and Jesus. The book provides a wonderful, rational explanation for faith in God. Pretty amazing that such a radio broadcast even existed.

Towards the end of Lewis' discussion on Jesus, he talks about what the biblical term "son of God", really means.  Lewis notes that a lot of people easily accept the historical Jesus, seeing him as a great teacher of moral truth, along the same lines as The Buddha. Lewis says that's a lovely thought, but impossible to defend.  According to Lewis, there are really only three choices we can make about Jesus.  Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or, in fact, The Lord.

The New Testament makes it very clear that the writers believed Jesus was God in human form.  Jesus himself made those claims. Who would make such a claim? A liar? A man making such high claims for himself doesn't make a lot of sense, unless there was some payoff, some scheme. A lunatic, mental hospitals have had their share of people claiming to be God or Jesus. But why on earth would we accept the teachings of either?  How could we ever say that those teachings merited our attention at all? Why have people persisted in holding Jesus up as a good teacher, someone to be listened to, if he, at the same time, claimed to be equal with God? Usually we try to distance ourselves from the like.

But if Jesus was indeed God in human form, then it makes sense to believe him, and accept his teachings. He would be The Lord indeed. Any thing less,why would we even care? Lewis says that it's impossible to take Jesus' teachings seriously if we refuse to accept him as God. We'd be taking the words of a mad man or a con man. And if he was either, then his teachings would not be so good.

Of course, even a broken clock is right twice a day, so perhaps he was some crazy man who happened to say some good things.  But Jesus' impact on the world seems a lot greater than that, doesn't it? It's amazing his staying power, in spite of the fact he claimed to be God. The world has tried to ignore those statements and accept the rest. But how can we do that?  Jesus is who he is. Why do we think we can pick and choose? Doesn't that diminish the whole?

Maybe the writers got it wrong. Maybe this man Jesus never made such claims, but his followers did, for whatever reason. In the end, they all died for the cause. Most people wouldn’t die for a lie, but some might. So, maybe it’s the writers who are the liars. If so, why do we believe anything they say? We’re back again to accepting the good teaching, but in search of a good teacher. If they lied about so many things, why would we take these writers’ word at all?

Whether Jesus or the New Testament writers, if they made up the part about Jesus’ being God, how can I be sure what’s true and what’s not? This is all we have. These writers seemed to be pretty sure of what they had seen and heard.  They were willing to die for it. And whatever power they hoped to gain, it certainly wasn’t political. And what of the staying power of their words? 

Perhaps we have accepted the “good teacher” role because the teachings do ring true. What Jesus said makes sense, at least most of it. He told his disciples, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) but by me.” That’s a pretty bold statement. Christians didn’t make this stuff up, it’s been written down from the beginning. Either Jesus speaks the truth, and we should follow him, or not.

As always, the choice is ours.

A Look At Current Events

I have a lot of issues with Christian education. Much truth is lost to misguided opinion. Take for example the idea that all sin has already been forgiven.  That will be taught in theory, but sharing how to actually live that out brings with it a lot of fear. If your sins are already forgiven, won’t you just go out and sin to your heart’s content?  Perhaps. But all that misses the point.

The Bible teaches that when Jesus died on the cross, he took everyone’s sin upon him and paid the penalty once for all (“The wages of sin is death” eternal death, separation from God). All meaning all sin for all people–past, present and future, therefore giving everyone the opportunity for eternal life (“the gift of God”).  If all of my sins were in the future when Jesus died (and they were), then all of my sins, and the punishment for them, were taken care of at that time.

We can take this gift or leave it.  So when we look around at one another and see behaviors we label “sin”, that sin has already been forgiven. It does not have to be worked off. God never asks us to get rid of our own sin. We can’t. We might (and should, as Christians) learn to sin less, but this side of heaven, the Bible teaches that we will still have to deal with sin in our lives. Since God never asks us to do the impossible, like take away our own sins, why on earth would we ask it of others?

The other truth about sin, God sees no hierarchy. The Bible always lists murder with anger, or sexual sins with envy, weighting them the same.  Sin is sin, missing the mark, the standard God has set. So our persistent ranking of sins isn’t biblical. The sin God hates is our persistence in refusing to acknowledge him and accept his very costly gift.

That leads me to Kim Davis and her quest to end the newly approved Gay marriage laws.  Is homosexuality listed as a sin in the Bible, yes. But right beside judging others and not living up to our responsibilities. In her quest to speak out against sin, why Gays? Because somewhere she has wrongfully been taught that homosexuality is a “big” sin, a heinous crime against God, an abomination. Maybe that’s how it’s viewed in the Old Testament, but that was before Jesus came to “fulfill the law” through his death and resurrection.  Homosexuality has been forgiven right along with every other conceivable sin. And, for the record, the New Testament has a lot more to say about judging others and being unforgiving than it does about homosexuality.

Certainly if you feel you cannot follow a civil law you need to take your stand.  Civil disobedience is a time honored American freedom.  But you take your stand knowing the consequences.  Greater people than Kim David have served time in jail for not obeying what they believed to be an unjust law. So quit your job or suffer the consequences.  But making such an issue of it, like signing those marriage licenses somehow paints her with an evil stain, that’s just ignorance of the Bible. 

Jesus spent most of his time walking, talking and eating with people the religious leaders of the day saw as “sinners”.  One such leader, a man names Simon, invited Jesus to dinner to check him out. While there a woman entered the room and knelt at Jesus’ feet.  She poured oil over his feet and began to weep. She dried his feet with her hair.  Simon thought, “if he only knew who this woman was, he wouldn’t let her touch him.” The Bible says that Jesus, knowing Simon’s thoughts, told a story about a man who had been forgiven a huge debt by his master, and a man who’d been forgiven a much smaller debt by the same master.  “Who loves the master more?” Jesus asked Simon.  “The one who’s been forgiven the most.” Ah.

The reality is, we’ve all been forgiven the most, but too many of us wrongfully believe that we’ve been better, cleaner, less sinful than someone else we see sitting across the room. We may have committed some sins, but they’ll never be as bad as homosexuality. Hmmm – hello Simon. To fully grasp Christianity is to fully grasp how much we’ve been forgiven, how very awful any sin is to God, how we all miss the mark of his holy standard.  Sin is sin; it’s all the same to God.  It was all forgiven on the cross.  Now we make the decision to accept or reject the gift.

It’s time for people who have accepted Jesus’ forgiveness to get off their sinful high horse and realize the only difference between them and that homosexual they are judging may be that they have accepted Jesus’ gift and the gay person has not.  Of course, it could also be the other way around, the gay person may already know God’s grace in their life, and the judgmental person may be judgmental because, though religious, they have yet to realize it isn’t about clean living; it’s about accepting that very costly free gift of God.

Pro-choice

The political season has descended, like I believe it ever really goes away. I enjoy the civics lesson elections and the process provide for my high school students. Freedom of speech reigns during election years, and political correctness can fly right out the window.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but too often candidates seem to think it's ok to push across the line and apologize later.  This season is no different.

One hot issue that apparently separates Republicans from Democrats is abortion. Both sides feeling they serve as poster board for the opposing sides.  As a Christian, I totally get the impression I should be a card carrying Republican. I am not. I was raised by Republicans. I joke that my mom used to study the issues and the candidates by checking the boxes with the "R" endorsement or next to their names. Almost true. I grew up with quite a few different ideas. One such difference is on the abortion issue

Perhaps being in college in the 1970's contributed to my feminist leanings. Certainly I found myself surrounded by women stepping forward to be noticed.  I never believed in taking stands simply because I was a woman.  For example I didn't become a youth minister because I thought the position needed a woman. I took the position because I felt strongly God wanted me to do so. As a result of having a traditionally male position, I formed a lot of opinions during the time, but certainly not all of my opinions came out of feminism.

Many years after the fact I learned one of the college students under my care had had an abortion. I learned about it from the woman who had gone with her to have the procedure. Though the young girl had felt close to me, she was afraid to tell me she was pregnant. She was afraid I would think less of her. And I think, at that time in my life, I probably would not have handled it well. Instead, she went to another woman who spent time talking through all the options, but when it became clear that the girl was determined to end the pregnancy, the older woman had the grace to accompany her so she wouldn't be alone.

That's what life's lessons continue to teach me - grace. God constantly responds to me in grace, I should do no less to the people I find around me. When I get on my high horse about someone else's behavior, I am only pointing out my own sin. As I said before, I believe in God's eyes sin is sin. There are no big sins or little sins.  If abortion is a sin, it isn't any more heinous than my judging a struggling young person and leaving them to go through a terrible ordeal alone.

I believe  God is a God of choices. He allows us to make our own decisions. There are consequences to most decisions, good and bad, but my choices have no affect on God's unconditional love and grace. The story of Jesus on the cross shows us that God's forgiveness for all sin was made at that time. The only thing left is to accept or reject it.  We have the choice.  He doesn't force himself on us.

I think God is pro-choice.  I don't mean he celebrates abortion by any means.. But, he gives each of us the right to make the choices about our life.  He doesn't force anything on us, including himself. If I choose God's plan for my life there are certainly expectations  for a changed life, but even then, he allows me to make the choice.  I also have to accept the consequences.  The Bible is full of stories of God laying out his plan for people and then their taking a different route, making a different choice. And, in the end, if they choose to turn back to him, he is always there with open arms.

I had a pro-life phone call years ago asking me if I wasn't concerned about the millions of innocent children who had been killed by abortion through the years.  I said I wasn't. I think that stopped the caller cold, and I don't remember if they stayed on the line or not. But I don't worry about those babies. They are with God, never having to have suffered a day of this life,,

If I could have had a conversation with the caller I would have gone on to say that I am more concerned with the millions of young women who get pregnant. Why is America the first world country with the highest teen age pregnancy rate? The highest abortion rate? Something is terribly wrong, and it's not abortion. Abortion is the symptom. The wrong occurs months prior when the woman choses not to use birth control to protect herself and stop a pregnancy.  What would seem such a relatively simple choice, didn't happen.  (And I'm not speaking of pregnancy as the result of rape; that's another topic all together)

Politicians should be focused on our millions of young people, struggling to make the right choices. Fear, poverty, ignorance, willfulness, love all figure into their decisions.  Who talks with them? Who councils? Throwing health class at them and preaching abstinence has done no good at all. We need to rethink this issue and find away to throw our support at the women. Whose choosing them?

God in the room

I've lived the Christian world-view most of my life.  My father was  pastor of a protestant church and I spent a lot of time participating in church activities.  But contrary to popular opinion, I don't believe that Christianity comes by osmosis.  All that church experience did not make me a believer.  It just made me a church goer (and an obedient child).

Around the middle of high school I began to question Christianity as a valid belief.  I didn't feel any of the things other people talked about, and I certainly knew I wasn't really all that in to religion and the daily demands of being a pastor's kid.  Around this time I heard someone pray in a most astounding way - she just talked to God like he was in the room and responding.  I thought she was a little weird. Then I went off to summer camp, and wouldn't you know, the speaker was equally weird. He talked to God like he was right there in the room.  In addition, the speaker acted like belief in Jesus was something real, not just something you did but someone you knew.  Never had I thought about faith in this way.  I wanted what he had. So I took the leap and talked to God like he was in the room.

Nothing magical happened, I just knew I'd stepped out on a different path, and I've continued on it ever since. I started out a lot more rigid than I am today, but over time a lot of the rough edges have rubbed off.  I've had a couple crises of faith in the ensuing years, and came through those crises believing even more.  The most recent was when my mother died.  I had this romantic notion that Jesus would come and carry her away to heaven. Instead it was a nightmare of panicked breathing and excruciating heart break. In the middle of it all I wondered if I'd been believing in a pack of lies, If God really never existed and I'd been skipping merrily down an ignorant path. And there in that moment was God. I can't explain it, but I know it.  In my doubt he gave me certainty. When I was ready to throw in the towel, he was there to take me through the most awful experience of my life. He was there

I know that's one of the biggest obstacles for people, that step from rational thinking to belief.  I read an autobiography of a man who shared his story of searching for God via his intellect.  He spent a lot of time reading and talking to believers and came to the rational conclusion that God existed.  He even believed that Jesus was more than a man. But he realized that beyond all his rational, factual, intellectual conclusions, there was still a more difficult step of accepting the things that can't be empirically proven, like someone dying in our place.  He compared it to climbing up a mountain of research and arriving at the top only to discover the rest of the journey was on another mountain and the only way to reach it was to jump - and the gap appeared impossibly wide. He decided to return from where he'd come, but when he turned around he found there was no going back, he knew too much. So he jumped.

I consider my self a rational thinker who has rationally accepted the fact that I cannot know or prove all things.  God, the tenets of Christianity, much of the human experience cannot be discerned by rational thinking. There is something more. Faith falls into the something more.  Through my life experience I've found faith to be real and solid.

I believe that Christianity isn't a religion to be practiced.  Christianity isn't about doing the right things and avoiding the wrong.  Christianity isn't about seeking perfection by going to church or singing in a choir,  Christianity isn't what you do, it's who you are.

I believe that humans are broken from the start.  No one teaches little ones to bite you out of spite or say they hate you. It's wired in to us to be contrary and often downright hurtful.  The world is full of brokenness, including war and cancer and bullying.  This brokenness is the result of sin.  But sin isn't breaking a law or rule.  Those things are also the results of the brokenness.  Sin, as defined in the Bible, is missing the mark.  Whose mark?  God's, his standard.  And try as we can, we cannot hit the mark on our own, we are too broken.  So God sent his Son to hit the mark for us, in our place.  As a result, the issue isn't what I do or don't do (which rules I keep or break), the issue is what I do about Jesus. Do I accept his gift or reject it?  My sins were forgiven way back on the cross.  My sins are not forgiven by my doing good things.  Nor is my salvation threatened by doing wrong things. It's all about what God did for us.

There is great freedom in that. Certainly not the freedom to go out and become a serial killer or even a lousy boss.  There is an expectation of a different type of lifestyle, but that lifestyle (or lack thereof) does not make one a Christian.  A Christian is someone who follows Christ, and that following begins when someone accepts God's work on a cross some 2000 years ago. And therein lies that faith thing.

A lot to take in.  But believe it or not, I want you to know that the idea of earning salvation by a series of Brownie points is not Christianity, at least not what the Bible teaches about Christianity.  I'll give you that it's how many Christians live, but unfortunately it's because they don't really understand what they've gotten themselves in to. The freedom and grace Christianity actually offers is scary stuff too.  Rules and tradition are much more comfortable.  That gets in the way of Christians as well.

But you do have to agree that a God who would do this for us, as a gift free for the asking, isn't the ogre God often presented in discussing deity. God is a God of grace and free choice.  Why doesn't he just make us all Christians?  Because he wants us to choose.  Coerced love is never really love.  So he did all the work and left it up to us to accept or reject.  Whether we believe or not, God is in the room and he'd love to get to know you.

Enough for now.  I intend to post more ramblings now and then and look forward to any comments you might send a long my way.  I'd love to answer questions and respond to your thoughts on the ideas I present.