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.