Redemptive, Not Permissive

Maybe you remember that old fashioned theological word – propitiation. In many modern translations it gets easier to pronounce, and probably more likely understood, with the phrase “atoning sacrifice.” For example, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) It seems so obvious that it can’t be missed – but atonement has to do with sin.

In Brian Zahnd’s Water to Wine, he describes Francis of Assisi as one who “could uncompromisingly denounce systemic sin, while extending genuine compassion to the people caught in its pernicious web. To be a prophetic witness against systems of sin and a preacher of God’s pardon for sinners at the same time is the peculiar grace at which Francis excelled and to which the church is called.” (Kindle, Location 1484)

In our culture right now it seems that the church is often viewed as excelling at “uncompromisingly denouncing systemic sin,” but not so good at “extending genuine compassion to the people caught in its pernicious web.” I think Zahnd is right when he says that is a balancing act that is not quite as easy as it may seem. 

In my life as a believer right now, it seems as though culture is pleased if we are “preachers of God’s pardon for sinners” but not so pleased if we “denounce systemic sin.” But like noted above about atonement, grace has to do with sin. If it weren’t for sin, atonement nor grace would be on our radar screens. We seem to be living in one of the terrible times in human history where people think killing each other is the proper response to anything that displeases you. Just read the metro section of the Atlanta Journal Constitution most days for all the evidence you need - and Chicago right now makes our city seem amateurish when it comes to horrendous headlines.

In my adult life and ministry contexts, I’ve always valued the need for the church (or a Christian college) to be a redemptive community. But can you be a redemptive community without being clear about sin and the need for redemption? Redemptive communities must call sin what it is – but in a way that offers God’s grace. To merely wink at sin in a dismissive manner makes us a permissive community, but not a redemptive one. Unless I’ve misread the Scripture all my life, if we don’t own up to sin for what it is, the opportunity for forgiveness isn’t there.

The idea of finding the balance between redemptive, but not permissive, is as “peculiar a grace” as is being a prophetic witness against sin as we proclaim God’s offer of pardon. As I read the gospels it seems that Jesus managed to pull off that balance at every turn. “Go and sin no more” or “go in peace, your faith as saved you” are phrases He spoke to some pretty serious sinners. He wasn’t being permissive, but redemptive.

Propitiation. Not the most common word in our religious vocabulary these days, but few words are more needed as I learn to own up to my own sin and help others do the same.

Micah Got It Right!

Back in the day when the fad at camp was to sing “Scripture Choruses,” (not a bad fad by the way) one that I especially remember was Micah 6:8. “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.?” (ESV)

The stunning absence in our culture of those basic expectations from God is all the proof we need to realize just how right Micah was. While it would be as easy as taking candy from babies to point to the current presidential campaign and highlight examples of the absence of justice, kindness, and humility – I’m not sure that would be all that worthwhile. I hate to be a cynic, but honestly, do we really expect a person who makes it to that level in the political reality of our world to be just, kind, or humble?

A part of my personal Bible reading for today was Psalm 82. In Tim Keller’s (along with his wife Kathy) The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms, I found this prayer for readers of Psalm 82:

                        Lord, because I live in a relatively comfortable and safe

                        part of the world and society, I am not as sensitive to the

                        needs of the week as you are. Help me to hate the injustice

                       hate and love the poor and needy whom you love.  Amen.  

It is in that “comfortable and safe part of the world and society” where I can quickly forget issues of justice, kindness, and humility. Even as a Christian. Even as a husband and father. Even as an employee of a Christ-centered kingdom mission. Even in the church. I would be shocked if any of the candidates for president read Psalm 82 today. Probably even more shocked if its words convicted their hearts. But that is such an easy rabbit trail to run down, all the while missing how convicting these words are to my heart.

Justice. That’s a huge word not only in our culture, but in Scripture itself. But I think I am on pretty solid ground when I say that in Scripture, justice is deeply connected to God’s concern for the weak, the poor, for orphans, and for widows. Oppressed people break His heart. 

Kindness. Kindness might be as simple as treating people respectfully. It means refusing to associate value with function and assuming that as children of God we are all of great value – Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. Kindness means I operate from the point of view of God’s fellow workers, exercising my gifts in a way that glorifies God not self. 

Humbly. Learning to manage a kind of healthy self-esteem with humility is more than merely challenging. Paul can say “I served with all humility” while in Ephesus (Acts 20:29), and in words written close to the same time say “I was not inferior to those super-apostles,” to the Corinthians. (2 Corinthians 12:11) Perhaps “humble” or “humility” is recognizing our giftedness and using it to the glory of God and not self. And if that is true, it will have huge impact on how I treat those around me – especially those who aren’t at my level in the pecking order of life. 

Justice, kindness, and walking humbly are important words for those who seek to honor God in their lives. That has implications for how men treat women. It has implications for how managers treat employees. It has implications for how middle class people treat poor people. How pastors treat church members – and maybe even for how church members treat pastors! It even has implications for how believers treat non-believers. 

I’ve been thinking for over a week now about the awful, unjust, unkind, non-humble behavior of the guy in Orlando who just decided to kill as many people as he could. I’ve written a half-dozen blog posts in my head and even a few on paper – none of which has or will see the light of day. They won’t see the light of day not because they reflect some heretical idea or weren’t sensitive to the situation. 

They won’t see the light of day because it is so easy – in our quick condemnation of that kind of behavior, as deserving as it is of condemnation – to forget that actually God has called me – as a follower of Jesus, a husband and father, son, brother, employee of Point University, friend, and whatever other relationships that might exist – to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.

I can do that for the victims of the Orlando tragedy without breaking a sweat - at least at some level. Consistently doing that in my daily walk is a bit more challenging. With Tim Keller I’m going to pray “Help me to hate the injustice you hate and love the poor and needy whom you love.” 

The truth is, that “injustice” or those “poor and needy” might be just around the corner from where I’m sitting right now.

Many Parts . . . One Body

Thursday evening, 21 April, was our final community-wide chapel service for the 2015-16 Academic Year at Point University. It was an incredible service.

Our spiritual formation theme for the year has been "Many Parts . . . One Body." Paul's words to that effect in 1 Corinthians 12:12 have been a part of many, many things on our campus this year.

As a part of the service, we wanted to create a visual image of "many parts . . . one body" and one of our students, Caroline Stinson, went to the Lego store and came back with this Point P - made up of 600+ lego blocks. It was on display at the entrance to the part of the West Point First United Methodist Church we use for these services.

Chapel began with a great performance from a gospel choir made up of Point students, staff, and faculty. That group was led by Garrett Motes, one of our great students who have worked to plan chapel this year. That was followed by a really neat video review of the year, created by one of the Theology in Life Project Groups from this semester's Theological Foundations for the Christian Life class. Justin Moss was team leader for this group.  Then we were blessed by a guest worship band led by Point alumnus Greg Wells. Four former Point students/graduates were in the band! Talk about "many parts . . . one body!"

Then four students from some of our public speaking classes read the text - Mark 10:35-45 - as a kind of choral reading of the text. They were coached by Sarah Huxford, who teaches some of our public speaking classes. The sermon was a team effort - literally - by four students who are taking a Preaching Seminar this semester focused on the Gospel of Mark. The focus of their sermon was that this story from Mark tells us that Jesus radically redefines discipleship - meaning that being fruitful and fulfilled in our lives will always be more important than being successful and happy as the world defines those terms. They even dared to suggest that sometimes the church gets those terms confused!

By the time the sermon was ending, they were calling us to look at a radically different way of following Jesus - a way that would mean we must listen to God's call on our lives, not the world's; be willing to befriend uncomfortable people instead of only those with whom we are comfortable; we must love deeply rather than judge silently; and we must live in Jesus' victory instead of pursuing our own idea of self-dignity.  Their sermon was deeply biblical in content, extraordinarily relevant to their audience, and preached well and with passion. It was a home run! Point continues to educate and prepare some great young preachers!
 

At the end of the service, students were reminded that as they entered, they passed by the "Point P" made of many, many Lego blocks. Then they were encouraged to take one of those Lego blocks home with them for the summer - as a kind of reminder that they were one of the "many parts" that make up the community known as Point University, a part of the One Body of Christ.

Looking at these pictures - I'm reminded, as I look at the one to the right, of just how many people took a Lego block home last night. There were over 600 pieces in the Point P. But looking at the one at the top of this page, I am reminded of just how beautiful it is when "the many parts" are together as "one body." Or, as we said at the end of chapel last night - "many Legos . . . One P."

Just before chapel began, Caroline - the student who made sure the Point P showed up - gave me a little Lego man she bought for me at the Lego store. As we were cleaning up after chapel, I decided to take two Lego blocks - one of each of Point's colors - and use them somewhere in my office. If you've been in my office you know there

is "stuff" everywhere. All that "stuff" reflects 40 years of hanging out with ACC/Point students and other kingdom endeavors. I put my little Lego man right in front of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics - certainly one of the most important theological works of the 20th Century.

While the "stuff" in my office may appear to be the result of some sort of "random selection/placement" gone amuck, most of it is where it is for a reason. This little Lego man will remind me of just how important Jesus wants us to take His prayer that the church would be One, as He and the Father are One and just how seriously Paul expected the fractious Corinthian believers to take his admonition about "many parts . . . one body." And - if you think about it - the idea of "one body . . . many parts" is certainly one of the most important theological ideas of the first century! Placement has meaning in my office.

And to think, I get paid to hang out with Point students!

What??????

In a stunning development, my name was not among the 100 most influential people in the world as just announced by Time magazine.  How in the world will I keep putting one foot in front of the other and continuing with life? To borrow, and likely abuse a bit, words from Isaiah (6:5) “Woe is me, for I am an unlisted man.”

Hillary, Donald, Ted, and Bernie are all on the list. I’m not. The infamous (or famous depending upon economic theories) Koch brothers are on the list. I’m not. President Obama is there, and even Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina is on the list. I’m not. They included at least one religious leader, Pope Francis. But not me. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Leonardo DiCaprio are on the list. But I’m not. Caitlyn Jenner is on the list. But I still didn’t see my name.

Even more stunning, I know a lot of people I think are very influential. But not only are they not on the list, I don’t remember even seeing them posting the “vote for me as one of Time’s 100 most influential people” posts on Twitter. Can I really be so out of the world of real influence that not only is my name not mentioned on the list, but I don’t even know someone whose name is there? 

I have personally met people like William Willimon and the late Fred Craddock. Both were recognized by Baylor University a few years ago as being in the top twelve most influential preachers in the English speaking world. But I didn’t see their names. I have a few autographed copies of N.T. Wright books. Again, his name isn’t there. My very good friend and colleague Greg Moffatt has written more books (very good books) than anyone I know, and even his name isn’t there. I know Greg likes soccer more than baseball, but in the socialist leaning world in which we live, that should make him more likely, not less likely, to be on the list. But there’s no Greg Moffatt listed there.

What’s a person to do? One option of course is to sink deeply into the depression of recognizing that the world thinks I’m a no body. For however long Time has been doing this list, I’ve never even had an “honorable mention.” “Woe is me, for I am an unlisted man.”

But a different option is to notice that Jesus’ name isn’t on the list either. I get it that Jesus isn’t “alive” in the sense that those 100 people are “alive,” but if you want to talk about influence, maybe He ought to be considered. After all, from the worldview of non-believers, He has been dead for 2000 years, and yet people who are influenced by Him are among the first to show up when tragedy strikes, have built more hospitals, orphanages, hospices, and other kinds of relief centers than can be counted. I know there are times when the “Jesus people” didn’t get it right, but the simple truth is that every single day since that “first day of the week” in A.D. 30 when He was raised to never die again – His people have been doing tons of incredibly important stuff.   When I look carefully at my own life, I am quick to own up to the fact that it is “Jesus in me,” not “me,” that has been able to influence some people around me. And there are millions upon millions of people alive right now who would say precisely the same.

So . . . perhaps being “unlisted” isn’t quite the career disaster it might first appear to be. Think about it. In Christ, I’m on the list of people God calls His children. (1 John 3:2) I won’t trade that list for the Time 100. In Christ, I’m confident that my name is written in “the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:27) I’m not about to trade that listing for Time’s either. I’m even on a list of “God’s fellow workers.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-9) Lots of people on Time’s list can’t say that. 

Congratulations to the 100. Our culture thinks you are very influential. In some ways that may mean you are more “famous” than “influential” – but your name is on the list and mine isn’t. Congratulations!  But I’m not going to feel like a failure. My name is on the really important – eternally speaking – list that the God who created to world and all that is in it (Acts 17) is making.

To borrow one more time from Isaiah, and not abuse his words, ""Here I am! Send me." (Isaiah 6:8)