On Repentance and Responsibility

 As I write, the Congress of the United States is debating the debt ceiling and the variety of proposals on the table to respond to what is a growing matter of concern.  While thoughts about this might seem misplaced in this article, there are two themes that are central matters of our faith and which I believe come to bear on the current situation facing our country.  They are “repentance” and “responsibility”.

Why are we burdened with such a tremendous national debt?  Many will point their fingers at Washington and the politicians serving there and heap all sorts of blame on them.  But, to be truthful, we must look first at ourselves.  Who is it that desires all of those services that our government provides?  And who is it that continually desires to see our taxes lowered even while continuing to receive these services?  The answer is you and me.  We are the ones who continually want to pay lower taxes while being unwilling to see any of the government funding for our favorite projects and programs decreased.  Politicians, finally, follow our lead.  We are responsible for this fiscal crisis that our government faces.  Until we as a people realize that, and repent of our ‘sins’, namely wanting something for nothing and passing the cost on to future generations, we will continue to reap what we sow.

Instead, I would suggest that we need to learn to live with a spirit of gratitude, and yes, responsibility.  Jake worked his whole life running a bull dozer building roads for the logging industry.  “Pastor,” he said, “I cannot understand people who complain about paying taxes.  I’ve had years when I haven’t had to pay any taxes, and years that I’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars in taxes.  You know, those years when I had to pay a lot of taxes were much better years.”  Jake was also thankful for Social Security upon retirement, for Medicare, for roads, for parks (especially boat launches, he was a fisherman), for the schools, and for a free and secure country in which to live.

We have been blessed by God to live in such a great country.  But that same God also said “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  Our country achieved greatness not because of a few brilliant leaders, or because of ‘getting something for nothing’, but because our citizens took responsibility for the challenges that faced us and sacrificed to overcome them.  It’s time once again for us to rise up to the challenge, to admit our failures, and to take responsibility for our future.

[Bonner County Daily Bee – July 22, 2011]

"Play by the Rules!"

My oldest son is an avid golfer.  From the time he first picked up a club in grade school he had a natural swing, and loved the game.  When we moved to Idaho, Dieter would spend as much time as possible out at Hidden Lakes golf course.  He was on the high school golf team, the golf pros at the club knew him, and were more than willing to pair him up with other players whenever he asked.  On one such day he was playing with another gentleman, apparently a quite serious golfer.  On one of the early holes, it being just a practice round for him, Dieter ‘took a gimme’.  When his back handed tap in missed, the other player was adamant that there were no “gimmes”, it didn’t count until he actually sank the putt, so finish out.  “Play by the rules!”

Dieter was pissed off by the gentleman’s rather uncompromising, anal attitude toward the rules, especially as it was only a casual practice round for him.  “Ok, if we’re going to play serious, then we’ll play serious!”  The next hole was a par three and Dieter proceeded to hit a hole in one.  On the eighteenth hole, his third shot was from about 125 to 135 yards out, and again, he knocked it in for an eagle.  After Dieter had left, the golf pro reported that this gentleman had walked into the clubhouse stunned, and asked “Who in the hell was that guy you paired me up with?”  For the next few times I played with Dieter, the clubhouse would announce our tee time with “Next up on the tee, Tiger Woods and his dad.”

The moral of this story is that if you are going to be anal about the rules, you may just end up getting your butt kicked.

I am amazed that within the Lutheran Church, after 5 centuries of continually preaching that we are “justified by grace apart from works prescribed by the law” (Romans 3:28), that many if not most of our people still are preoccupied with ‘playing by the rules’.  The USGA (United States Golf Association) web site states:  “Learn and play by the rules for maximum enjoyment of the game. We’re here to help.”  For many Christians, a slight variation of this could serve as the mission statement of the Church:  “Learn and play by the rules for maximum enjoyment of life. We’re here to help.”

Certainly, within the scriptural and doctrinal history of the Church there is ample reason for the preoccupation with rules.  A recurrent theme throughout the scripture is “obey and live, disobey and die”.  Sin and righteousness are often the defining categories of our spirituality and doctrines, and obedience or disobedience are our only choices in life.  The “Law and Gospel” is how Lutherans understand God’s Word.

Is this the operative world view for most Christians?  That God created the game of life, established the rules of living, and now stands as the judge and jury, ready to condemn or reward each according to the way they played the game?  For many people the answer is a straight forward “Yes.”  Even when we add to this picture a means of forgiveness and redemption, with the special rules governing how we may be forgiven or redeemed, it still remains the same game of playing by the rules.  However, if we are honest, the “rules” we live by are strange.

Imagine, for example, that the rules of golf were binding on all players, with one exception.  If you are a member of the USGA, any penalties imposed by the rules will be forgiven, and everyone may turn in his/her scorecard recording not their actual score, but the best score possible.  “What was your score today, Honey?”  “18”  “How can that be?”  “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

Although many would maintain that the Bible is a ‘book of rules’, God’s Word according to which we must live in obedience—no one actually is willing to obey everything in the Bible.  The most people are willing to do is selectively obey those portions of scripture that they find acceptable.  This is a conversation I have had on numerous occasions with those who profess a literal belief in the scripture’s inerrancy.  My favorite passage in scripture to ask them about is Deuteronomy 22:28-29:  “If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act, the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.” (NRSV)  Not once has anyone ever suggested that such a Biblical mandate should be obeyed.  We may like the principle of the Bible as a book of Laws, but we don’t care much for the application.

An even more difficult aspect of viewing the world through the lens of obedience and disobedience, of seeing the scripture as a book of rules, is that “if you are going to be anal about the rules, you may just end up getting your butt kicked”, to recall the moral of the above story.  More specifically, as our tradition states emphatically, if we’re going to start counting offenses everyone stands condemned.

When our proclamation is based on this legalistic understanding of life, we also come face to face with our own hypocrisy.  Many outside of the Church see this as one of their major objections.  We proclaim a message of obedience to the will of God, and yet none of us obey.  Another problem for evangelism and proclamation is that the credibility of our witness in the world is not good.  How many people outside of the Church turn to the Church for moral guidance and insight into how we shall live?  Very few, I’d guess.

The difference between the USGA and the Church is this:  The USGA’s authority regarding the game of golf continues to be normative for the sport.  The Church’s authority has become highly suspect regarding the game of life.  What is clear to me is that in today’s context the question “What should we do?” is not very often the dominant question on people’s spiritual quests.  Even within the religious community I am struck by how seldom people seek the guidance of the Church on this question.

In a post on my blog Eugene A. Koene said “I would suggest that a question, if not THE question, for people today is, "What does it really mean to be human?".  I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.  And what I am suggesting is that “playing by the rules”, is not, finally, what it means to be human.  Which is why when the Church becomes preoccupied with the Law, it rarely speaks to the yearnings of the human heart.

The Drama of Life

Life is a drama.  It is an unfolding story of conflict and resolution.  Our defining world view is determined in large part by how we interpret the drama of life and the opposing forces at play in the world.  Our world view will shape how we interpret global events, politics, and the drama underlying our religious convictions.

One of my memories growing up in the sixties was of the bomb shelter sign over the door of my school and the constant reminder of the defining conflict of our world at that time.  We were raised amid the drama of the Cold War, where freedom, capitalism, and all that was good in life were pitted against communism, oppression, and all the evil that lurked behind the Iron Curtain.  The Christian nation of the United States stood in firm opposition to the godless atheists of the Soviet Union.  This drama defined us.  When Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire his words reflected not only a political viewpoint, but a religious world view.  In this world view, the drama of life is the ongoing conflict between the forces of good and evil.

Such a view is not new, it is only that with each generation we redefine those forces of good and evil to reflect our contemporary perspective.  The Book of Revelation clearly understands this drama as being played out between the community of the faithful and the powers and principalities of this world, namely, the Roman Empire.  It is a drama between the Church and the State, with the latter finally being destroyed by the Lamb.  Likewise, Martin Luther reflected this world view as he wrote the great hymn “A Mighty Fortress”.  Today, the battle has been redefined in our world view as a conflict between Christianity and Muslim terrorists, if not Islam as a whole (depending on who you are talking to and how honest they are being).  Regardless how this conflict is defined by a given generation and culture, this world view will produce a deep yearning within the human heart for the “champion (who) comes to fight, whom God himself elected”.  Who will destroy the powers of Evil in the world?  Jesus is the answer.

One of the problems with this world view and our mission to be evangelists is that few of the unchurched see the world as a cosmic battleground between the forces of Good and Evil.  And more pertinent still, is that many would understand religious fanaticism of any shape or variety as having caused more evil than just about anything else.  For some outside of the Church, religion will never be able to save the world from evil, precisely because religion itself has caused so much evil.  For those holding this world view the real conflict is between religious fanaticism and a reasonable, secular, and just world view.

Another historical understanding about the drama of life centers around “insiders and outsiders”.  How that has been defined in any age varies:  Jew and Gentile, Greco-Roman and Barbarian, Christian and Pagan, civilized and savage, etc.  When this becomes our dominant world view a variety of responses emerge.  The first is that of being ‘set apart’.  The Jewish experience of setting themselves apart from the world around them is a classic example.  The Jewish faith was not about conquest or conversion.  It was about maintaining internal integrity over and against the world.  Others such as the Greco-Roman/Barbarian were more about conquest and integration.  Christianity focused on conversion of the pagan.  And of course, the operating assumption of civilization is that it should be spread.

Often these lines become blurred.  I remember in my childhood watching slide presentations of missionaries who had been serving in places like Africa.  What was most striking is how the natives were dressed in traditional African clothes, and then those who had converted to Christianity were wearing western clothing.  Evangelizing and civilization, or more specifically, the spread of Western Civilization, were often indistinguishable.

By definition, any world view built around the notion of insider and outsider is egocentric.  My theme is this blog is to explore the questions that define our faith journey, and to specifically look at the questions that are part of our larger contemporary culture, and specifically on the hearts and minds of the unchurched.  If our operative world view is that of insiders and outsiders, those on the inside will almost always devalue the experience of those outside.  Either we separate ourselves, or engage in some form of conquest and conversion, bringing the outsider in.  But rather than seeing the experience of the outsider, and the yearnings within their heart and existence as having value, this view seeks primarily to create a new world view that conforms to the view of those on the inside.  If the world no longer asks the questions of faith that we are prepared to answer, that’s their problem.  We need to teach them the truth so they know the appropriate questions to ask.

It also should be acknowledged that when we view the world through the lens of insider and outsider, the role of ‘gatekeeper’ becomes very pronounced.  If the integration of the ‘outsider’ into the inner circle is the goal, most often this is a selective process.  It is the nature of insiders to be protective about who they allow to become part of the group.

Finally, a major theme in the drama of life is played out in the arena of the “haves” and “have nots”.  This is a social, political, economic, and religious dynamic that has no doubt been part of the human experience since the beginning of time.  This struggle between the haves and have nots has fueled the flames of everything from the prophetic zeal of Old Testament prophets to the Marxist critique of capitalism.  The disparity between the rich and the poor has always and will always be a driving force in the conflicts on the world stage.  It fuels the partisanship present in our politics.  And if we are honest, it is one of the most powerful driving forces in all of our lives.  Those who have strive to keep, those who have not strive to obtain.  In this drama Jesus as Savior may be seen as the key to the good and abundant life, or the prophetic voice calling for justice, equality, and God’s compassion for the poor.  Some will take comfort in the prosperity of the elect.  Others will hear the voices of the prophets, “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion!”

“Jesus is the Answer!”  What is the question? 

“Who will destroy the powers of Evil?”

“Who will gather all people from the four corners of the earth into the Kingdom?”

“Who will offer to us the abundant life in which all things are held in common, and each receives from the Lord’s hand according to one’s need?”

The questions we ask, and the questions that all people ask, are deeply shaped by our world view.  How does the drama of life play out on the global stage?  
 

What is the dominant social/political view of the drama of life in our country today?  Is it still the primary conflict between Good and Evil that shaped our national psyche during the Cold War, only now the Soviet Union has been displaced by terrorists and the Muslim world?  Is it all about insiders and outsiders (think about the border fence to the south)?  Or is it about protecting our status as the wealthiest and most prosperous nation?  And how does that world view shape our proclamation?

Most importantly, if our world view shapes the questions we ask and the message we proclaim, how can God’s world view transform who we are?

QUESTions: A Journey in Faith

During my years at Pacific Lutheran University, there was a church located just off I-5 at the 38th Street exit.  Towering above the church was a large sign, illuminated at night with vintage neon, and declaring JESUS IS THE ANSWER!  Some of my college classmates and I used to entertain ourselves in speculating just what the question was.  A little creativity, some cynicism, mixed with a dose of impious humor resulted in quite a few possible questions.

On a more serious note, as I contemplate the challenge before the Church in the 21st Century, I am more and more convinced that prior to our being able to declare that "Jesus is the Answer" we have to begin by listening to the world in which we live and discern just what the questions are that lurk deep within the human heart.  The proclamation of the Gospel cannot be dependent upon our first convincing the world that their questions, the questions of this generation, are NOT the appropriate questions to be asked.  No, people should be asking yesterday's questions.  Why????  Because we have had ample time to formulate answers, confessional statements, and doctrines gallor centering around the questions of a bygone era.  We are not so sure that we have the answers to today's questions, so please, world, don't ask them!

One example of this that got me thinking was stimulated by an observation that my former Brother-in-Law Mark made.  Mark is a Japanese American who grew up in Hawaii, and whose familial background included both a smattering of Christian and Budhist inclinations.  Mark related how he had been sent to Sunday School as part of his upbringing, and had seriously considered adopting Christianity as his faith.  However, there was one thing he could not get over.  "Before they would let me become a Christian, they insisted that I needed to be a sinner.  That didn't make sense."  And so Mark declined the offer.  That for me is a prime example of how we continue to insist that the questions of a bygone era are the only relevant questions for today.  "Jesus is the Answer!"  The question is "Who will save us from our sinful nature and the consequence of our sins?"  Oh, wait.  That is not the first question that comes to mind for the typical person on the street today.  That is a question that we have to learn to ask.  That is a question we are taught.  And so if you are a fully indoctrinated Christian, maybe that question makes sense.  But if you aren't, it is not likely the question that will motivate your quest for faith and meaning in this life.

I recently preached a sermon in which I shared that I did not believe that every human being deserved eternal damnation and torturous punishment, nor did I believe that God created the vast majority of humanity simply to condemn all but a select few to hell.  These are theological convictions rooted in the Middle Ages and which have shaped our religious consciousness ever since.  But again, for those outside of the Church the questions that are raging within their souls do not, in my experience, center around the wrath of God, hell, and escaping from the punishment that we truly deserve.  And to suggest that an innocent man could die in the place of the guilty, and so fullfill all of the demands of perfect and divine justice, simply no longer rings true.  We are seeking to answer questions that are not being asked.  That is a definition of irrelevance.  And yet I never cease to be amazed at how we cling to these old answers, and insist that the old questions are the 'real' questions.  We have studied.  We've learned the questions and the answers.  We are not prepared to venture into the whole arena of contemporary relevance because our well rehearsed answers to preprogrammed questions just don't work in the real world.

Perhaps the reason why the Church has ceased to be relevant for the majority of people in the Western World has to do with the fact that those outside of the Church have understood long before those of us inside the Church, that the questions have changed.  And the answers we've been giving are not speaking to the heart of the matter.

What are the questions that drive the worldwide dialogue today?  What is the drama at the center of a contemporary world view?  What are the polarities that drive the dynamic struggles of today?  These are the questions that I will be exploring on this blog.  Welcome to the Journey.