Barney Wiget's Blog, page 15

Your Eye for Mine

People treat their enemies in one of three ways: demonically, legalistically, or christianly. Returning evil for good is demonic. Giving back good for good and evil for evil (eye for an eye) is legalistic. Many Christians practice this second way without giving it a second thought. Someone puts out your eye and you put out his! In that case, their conduct determines yours and you’re just an echo of them. Christian practitioners live by a different code altogether, a righteousness that “surpasses”[i] all others, a third way that reciprocates good for evil.

Our social media debates about religion and politics these days are rife with eye-for-an-eye justice, or worse, my one eye for both of yours! And consider yourself lucky that I don’t consider breaking your nose (that is, your digital nose)! If you knock out one of my teeth, I can knock out all of yours and my Facebook “friends” will applaud me for it!

The law of the jungle is: For every action, there’s an unequal opposite overreaction. But Jesus, who fulfilled the spirit of the law, proposes a better way, the way of love. And if his way is not workable, “then the heart of the Sermon does not beat––it is a carcass, a dead body of doctrine.”[ii]

[i] Matthew 5:20

[ii] Jones, The Unshakable Kingdom, 150.

A Little Humility Goes a Long Way

Most of our friends and acquaintances in Golden Gate Park have street names – Monkey, Four-Twenty, Felony, Chaos, Animal, and the like. One day I was talking to “Sheriff,” a twenty-something park dweller with a bright red Mohawk – it looked to me like he’d cut it himself, with neither mirror nor particularly sharp scissors. While we were sitting on the ground eating pancakes and talking, in his artist’s pad Sheriff was drawing a picture of a goat head inside a pentagram (typical Satanist symbols). He showed me the rest of his pad full of similar images – quite elaborate all. I complimented him on his obvious talent and asked him what he thought about Jesus, and off we went to the races.

He told me he was a Satanist and made it clear that he wasn’t the least bit interested in Jesus. His main objection to Christianity was that it seemed to him that any father who required his own son’s excruciating death for other people was not anyone he cared to know, let alone trust. His was a perfectly understandable objection, and I was only too happy to respond to it. But when I attempted to explain the concept of why Jesus was willing to lay his life down in our sinful place, I found that I was less than my normally lucid(ish) self. I had a perfectly biblical and, to for my money, logical response in my mind, but my usual propensity to explain why Jesus did what he did was uncharacteristically muddled. I thought to myself, “This is weird. I can usually give a rational and coherent explanation for this.” It’s not like I’m “Mr. Apologetics” or anything, but normally I can defend the basic message of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice. I love sharing Christ with people, and have been known to be able to boil it down in pretty graspable terms. But this time I couldn’t quite get it out!

It would’ve been easy at that point to get frustrated (sort of a default of mine), rely on clichés, take on a preachy tone, or become condescendingly spiritual superior. Does any of that sound familiar? Instead, without any forethought, as though it wasn’t even me speaking, I eked out an apology – “I’m really sorry that I’m not explaining this very well.”

At that point, Sheriff paused from his drawing and looked up from his pad. He seemed as surprised by what I’d said as I was, softened his tone, and replied almost sympathetically, “That’s OK. It must be hard to explain.” Still kind of dazed by it myself, and after a pensive pause of my own, I went on to tell him about how much I love Jesus even if I couldn’t explain him very well, soon after which the conversation faded and we parted ways.

It wasn’t until I was driving home afterward musing about that particular exchange when I realized there was definitely something “spiritual” going on there. Duh! To put it bluntly, I think Sheriff had more than a philosophical problem with Christianity that could be solved with good apologetics. His problem (which became my problem) was that there was a demonic force that obstructed my telling of the good news about Jesus. And just so you know, I don’t just say that because he was drawing pictures of Satan. Not everyone who has a fascination with darkness is captive to the prince of darkness, and conversely, not every captive possesses the fascination. But I didn’t come to this opinion that a spiritual distraction was at fault because of his art, but because of how his spirit affected mine.

The more I thought about it I the more I realized that Sheriff was more saturated with demonic spirits than I was with the Holy Spirit. I wasn’t as full of mine as he was of his. As a result, Sheriff’s spiritual influence limited me more than the Spirit of God was able to liberate him – and that’s not a particularly good thing!

When I first heard the term, “Apologetics,” I assumed it had something to do with the skill of apologizing. With all the practice I’ve had at saying I’m sorry, I could teach classes on it. But then somebody told me that it had to do with taking a reasonable approach to our faith and not about making an apology for it. Yet on this day I saw that a sincere apology could actually be evangelistic.

Think about it, how many things could/should we Christians apologize about? You name it – the Crusades, toxic churches, hypocrisy, spiritual pretension – there’s never a shortage of things for which we should be sorry and tell people so. I do think that it goes a long way when we display genuine remorse for our own failures and that of our larger family of supposed believers. I’m not suggesting some new evangelistic device, a sure-fire formula for soul winning; but I just wonder how much better our testimony would be if we toned down the condescension and approached people with genuine humility.

At that particular moment “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” didn’t seem as operative as it usually did. I know it’s always true theoretically, but it isn’t always a reality for me because I’m only partially full of the Spirit. We have a responsibility to be as full and stay as full as we can, so that in our interactions with people who need Jesus, the influence goes in the right direction. That day, because I wasn’t as Spirit-saturated as I should’ve been, an evil spirit inhibited me more than the Holy Spirit impacted him.

Here’s where I discovered something about sharing Christ and spiritual influence. My guess is that when I apologized, a barrier dropped and Sheriff’s surliness shrank, making the last part of our interaction seem more cogent than the first. You could come to the conclusion that my show of anti-arrogance* reduced his social defenses, and while a case could be made for that, I deduced that it was more than that.

Demons, whose leader is the most conceited being in the world, seem to feed on pride. “Pride,” wrote C.S. Lewis, “is the complete anti-God state of mind.” The devil’s way is the opposite of the way of Jesus, so the best way to defeat the wrong way and advance the right way is to supply what’s lacking in the wrong way with what is provided in the right way! I’m being a little preachy here, but what I mean is, the enemy creates a vacuum and the Lord counteracts it by filling it. When I quite unintentionally displayed humility, I think it disarmed the spirit of pride and momentarily neutralized the adversary’s efforts to keep Sheriff’s heart and head in that dark place. It slightly lifted the spiritual barrier like venetian blinds and let a little sunshine in.

Maybe next time, I’ll start with:  “Please forgive me if I don’t explain this very well, but…”

*I’m certainly not claiming to own a great number of shares of humility or any expertise on the subject. If I’m humble at all it’s incomplete and fleeting. I like it when it comes and hate it when it goes.

[An excerpt from my book: The Other End of the Dark (A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway)]

“Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”

Christians of good conscience have always lent their hand to those in the most need. You’re more likely to find hospitals and orphanages named after saints (St. Luke’s, St. Jude’s) than ones after even the most famous atheists or agnostics. Can you imagine a Christopher Hitchens Hospital or Bertrand Russell Home for Children?

Every week a Korean Church in San Francisco brings hamburgers and coffee to people experiencing homelessness. Throughout the winter they give out gloves and scarves and every year before Christmas they distribute hundreds of expensive jackets. If they don’t have your size, they’ll go out and buy one. In fact, they bought a bus to pick up homeless people and bring them to their church Bible Study. Afterward they bring them to their homes to feed them or buy them a meal in a restaurant. A homeless friend of mine, an atheist (to date), said to me, “These people are the nicest people I’ve ever met! A fascinating group of people to be around.” Blessed are the merciful!

[An excerpt from WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount]

Just Wondering (Avoiding Superficial Spirituality Part 8)

[image error] barney wiget

 

“God himself works in our souls, in their deepest depths, taking increasing control as we are progressively willing to be prepared for his wonder.” Thomas Kelly

Speaking of “wonder,” I wonder a lot––mostly about God. I used to wonder if he existed, but since I got that settled to my complete satisfaction forty-five years ago, my wonder is now of a different sort.

“Wonder” itself has a number of connotations. There’s the wonder that involves frustration, another is more of a curious sort, and then there’s the kind that connotes unreserved marvel. My wondering about God includes all three at different times.

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Blessed are the MEEK for they shall inherit the earth

The meek bridle their lust for power and live to serve others. “The ‘politics’ of the Kingdom,” says Scott Bessenecker, “has more to do with meekness, submission and dying to self than it does with exercising authority to increase my share in this life (emphasis mine).”[i]

Some outside observers evaluate Jesus’ words about being good to our enemies and forgiving trespassers as weakness, even masochistic. But anyone who thinks it’s weak to be meek should try being meek for a week! (Say that out loud for full effect.) Ironically it takes a lot of strength to be meek. Not the kind of strength you get in the gym, but the kind you get on your knees––so to speak.

Meekness is not the default position of our broken humanity. Even regenerated humanity doesn’t arrive at meekness involuntarily. You don’t just wake up one morning, make a resolution, and succeed at it. You don’t achieve a broken spirit so much as receive it in your own post-crucifixion resurrections. The harsh reality is that meekness requires dying. That’s why so few of us pursue it.[ii]

Who but Jesus could say with a straight face and without pretense,“I am meek and lowly in heart”?[iii] Yet he never showed the slightest sign of cowardice. Instead of commissioning the legions of angels at his disposal, he permitted a relatively meager cohort of soldiers to take him and nail him to a cross. That’s meekness––power under the control of the powerful.

[i] Bessenecker, How to Inherit the Earth, 53.

[ii] Bessenecker, How to Inherit the Earth, 54.

[iii] Matthew 11:29

(This is an excerpt from my book: WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount)

It’d be quite cool if you bought it, shared it, acted on it, and reviewed it on Amazon or wherever you buy books.

Blessed are the Broken

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”

Reminds me of the first of AA’s Twelve Steps: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.” The Twelve Steps and the Beatitudes have an uncanny similarity. They both address the destitute and leave no viable recourse but to run to a “power greater than ourselves to restore us to sanity.” 

Everything Jesus teaches here, and everywhere else for that matter, targets those people who are aware that they’re spiritually incompetent. It is not perfection but the conviction of imperfection that leads to salvation. He might as well have said: “Blessed are ones who are convinced they can’t live the way God wants them to live in their own power.”

The poor in spirit “remember they are dust”––beloved dust.[i] Only when we’re aware of our own helplessness can God help us, and consequently help us help other helpless people.

Blessed are the desperate. That’s the message here. Thomas Merton says, “If we were incapable of humility we would be incapable of joy, because humility alone can destroy the self-centeredness that makes joy impossible.”[ii]

(An excerpt from my book: WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.)

If you’ve read the book, I’d very much appreciate it if you could write a brief review on Amazon.

[i] Psalm 103:14

[ii] Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 52.

God Loves Unhoused People!

My friends at YWAM San Francisco are doing amazing work in the Tenderloin, the city’s neediest neighborhood. I highly recommend them for your prayers and financial support. I was there last weekend with Calvary Street Ministry. (I’ll tell you about CSM next time.)

For now, check out the 8-minute YWAM video:

Here’s how to give!

Jesus’ Subversive Economics

Locate these and more of Jesus’ subversive thoughts in Matthew 5-7. If you want to read more about this amazing passage, check out my book:

If you’ve already read it, please review it on Amazon and share it with your friends!

An Appeal to Church Goers and Their Pastors

As we all know, David DePape broke into the Pelosi home in an attempt to harm or kill Nancy Peolsi. Instead, he attacked her 82-year-old husband Paul with a hammer, storming through the house yelling, “Where is Nancy?” It’s no coincidence that insurrectionists screamed the very same on January 6, when they swarmed outside the Speaker’s office after attacking and ransacking the Capitol. Not to mention their chant beside a hangman’s noose: “Hang Mike Pence!”

Did you see the image that Donald Trump Jr tweeted of a pair of underwear with a hammer on top of it with the caption, “Get it now: Paul Pelosi Halloween costume”? Classy!

One writer said any journalists who denied Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election “should be dragged straight out into the street and shot.” This threat of political violence is growing by the day. Unfortunately, this reflects an increasing trend among many people who identify as Christians.

Is this really the America that you want to live in? Is this really what you want to leave to your children? And is this the witness of the Church you want to display?

For those who blame this trend on mental illness and drug use, listen to what Republican Senator Ben Sasse said after the Pelosi attack: “Disturbed individuals easily succumb to conspiracy theories and rage — the consequences are bloody and un-American.” Depape is obviously a disturbed individual, but where did he get the idea to bring a hammer to Nancy Pelosi’s home and maim her husband?

Russell Moore said of the attack: “Where does much of this violence or the threat of it come from? Lies. The idea that the election was stolen by a vast conspiracy of liberals is a lie. That elected officials are part of a secret cabal to drink the blood of babies is a lie. That Jews are pulling the strings of the “globalist” order is a lie. That the federal government designed COVID-19 as a hoax is a lie. That your pastor is a “cultural Marxist” for preaching what the Bible teaches on race and justice is a lie.”

I totally agree with Moore, “We must say to those who spread lies and who fuel violence, ‘You will not do this in our name, and you will definitely not do this in the name of Jesus Christ.’”

But all the blame can’t be given to Donald Trump and his sycophantic followers for the culture of lies and violence. I believe the Church and its leaders are partially to blame or what we are experiencing in our country presently. (Please note the difference between upper-case Church and the lower. The lower being local congregations versus the larger Body of Christ. That is, I may or may not be speaking of the church you attend and its leaders, so, please get all defensive for your pastor and church community, which may be much better than those about whom I speak.)

I’ve been a Christian for over 50 years and what I see in much of today’s Church is disturbing. Many lack any semblance of biblical understanding and the discernment that comes from the Spirit and the Word of God. They’re shallow and susceptible to “every wind of teaching” perpetrated by “the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Ephesians 4)

It’s the job of “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Let me be bold and say that weak and shallow teaching makes for weak and shallow Christians. And false teaching produces false believers!

Recent studies have shown that a large percentage of church-going people have little to no clue about the basics of the faith. For instance: Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research have researched Americans who identify as Evangelicals over the past decade or so. These are a few of the things they discovered:

“Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.”

2020: 30% agree

2022: 43% agree

“The Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true.”

2016: 17% agree

2018: 23% agree

2020: 15% agree

2022: 26% agree

“Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion; it is not about objective truth.”

2018: 32% agree

2020: 23% agree

2022: 38% agree

This biblical ignorance creates a susceptibility to childish and ridiculous conspiracy theories like Q anon, a favorite of Pelosi’s attacker.

I served as a pastor for over 30 years and I make no claim to have done any better job than pastors are doing today. And I do concede that the vast majority of pastors, Christian leaders, and authors today are solid men and women of God, for which I am grateful. On the other hand there are many who don’t follow Paul’s example of teaching “the whole council of God“ (Acts 20) to the people they serve. As a result, the Church is full of “infants, tossed back and forth…” (Ephesians 4)

I’m saying that weak and feckless teaching in the Church is partially culpable for some of the senseless and despicable acts such as the Pelosi attack. There are many pastors and teachers whose curriculum is either framed by false nationalistic tendencies, more loyal to political party than the Bible and Jesus Christ himself. Others’ teaching is framed by pop psychology more than scripture, by a constant diet of how to cope with life rather than how to live in a kingdom way and advance that kingdom in the world.

I realize that pastors and teachers have the attention of their flocks (inadequate attention as it is) for a mere hour or two a week, versus the hours every week that people consume the media from the opinionaters, whose consciences are formed by ratings and political preference rather than by the truth.

Of course, it’s outspoken pundits and politicians who are the most culpable for firing up vulnerable people to senseless acts such as the one against the Pelosi family. It’s their violence-inspiring rhetoric and their refusal to condemn violent and adrenalized militia members, who are at fault for uch of what we see on the news every night. But many churches lean more into culture war rhetoric than the teaching of the Scriptures. When they portray an inadequate representation of the person of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, then we have to take some responsibility here.

A few years ago I wrote about “Christians and critical thinking,” after which someone asked me if such a phrase wasn’t “oxymoronic”! And when I taught on critical thinking in churches some of the people looked at me like I was promoting something entirely foreign to the Bible. Here are some of the passages I referenced…

Pastors like Robert Jeffress who said that “These ‘Never Trump’ evangelicals are morons. They are absolutely spineless morons.” Was it him who also said he wanted a president (like Trump) who is a “strong SOB” who could protect us? 

This is a promotion of a toxic brand of masculinity and creates an image of a John Wayne-like Jesus. Did you see the video during the January 6 attack of the capitol where the “shaman” stood in the dais and prayed a violent culture war prayer against his enemies (i.e., the libs)?

I’m familiar with the spiritual war metaphor in the New Testament, the primary passage of which is Ephesians 6 that tells us that we wrestle not against people but against demon spirits. Jesus never blamed demonized sufferers. He rebuked the spirits that held them captive. But culture warriors make people into demons that must be cast out. Thus, we’re given January 6, the attempted kidnapping of the Michigan governor, the attack on Paul Pelosi, and dozens of other atrocities either done in the name of Christ or applauded by his alleged followers.

I am begging the Church, and in many cases their leaders, to repent of their immaturity and lack of discernment.I appeal to Christians and their leaders to take a deeper gaze at Jesus and his kingdom as taught in the Sermon on the Mount and throughout the gospels and see if their ideas and actions are in keeping with him and what he taught.I pray for you leaders to eschew false (and otherwise weak) teaching. Please take advantage of the few moments you have with the people you serve each week and point them to Jesus. Gathering a crowd is one thing. Making disciples is another. Of course, it is their responsibility to apply what you teach, but please do all you can to help those you serve to discern truth from error, to possess a little thing called “discernment.” There is a greater judgment for those who teach (James 3:1). I beg you to take your responsibility before God seriously.

Lastly, if you want to know what the Bible says about people who perpetrate violence.

The Groan of the Godly

The Groan of the Godly

“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

“There is a time… to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…”  (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

Jesus’ ancestors and contemporaries knew how to face their sufferings in such a way as to give themselves the best chance of receiving divine comfort. They dumped ashes on their heads, ripped a hole in their shirt, sat on the ground, and wept.

Lament is an indispensable periodic posture for the person who loves Jesus and loves the same people he loves. Those who do it are “comforted” by the fact that they are loving people in a way similar to the way Jesus loves them and are therefore those whom God deems “blessed.”

I love to worship God joyfully both in private and in public. Aligning myself with heaven in worship does me good, transforms the spiritual atmosphere around me, and readies me to hear God’s whisper and do what he says. I also believe that if praise brings heaven’s power to earth, heartfelt lament brings earth’s pain before heaven. The Lord’s ear is tuned to the collective “ouch!” of his people. He hears our “groans.” (Exodus 6:5)

Mourning is not exactly a hot topic in the Church universe today. I don’t expect to see book titles such as Weeping Worshippers or Learning the Art of Lament topping the charts on Amazon. If you want a crowd, publicize a seminar on “Seven Steps to Success” or “Ten Keys to Joy.” But “How to Mourn” or “Grieving God’s Way” wouldn’t garner enough signups to pay for the hall!

But Jesus makes no effort to fit himself inside cultural norms. He starts out by calling us to concede our poverty and then to grieve it, neither of which would we naturally think of as beelines to blessedness. Even so it’s the “broken spirit and contrite heart” that he values above all.[i] 

True mourners, the ones who choose to care until it hurts, are described by blessedness and are candidates for comfort. On the contrary the most miserable people tend to be those who shun the cares of others in the interest of their own happiness. In their efforts to save their lives they “lose” them.[ii]

Not all tears are created equal. They come in an assortment of patterns and in response to a variety of circumstances. There are attention-getting tears and tears of self-pity. I’ve cried enough of both of those myself to know that they don’t yield their desired results. Then there are tears of repentance and others of joy. I recommend both of those at their appropriate times. Other good tears are shed in grief, uncertainty, confusion, fear, and empathy. In the biblical narrative, poets, prophets, and apostles all shed and recommend these kinds of tears as both personally therapeutic and socially potent. “Our tears are sacred. They water the ground around our feet so new things can grow.”[iii]

Given the chaos and suffering in the world it is disrespectful to our fellow sufferers and to the God who suffers with us to plaster permanent Pollyanna grins on our faces. While it’s true that “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning,” we don’t know when morning will come. We simply can’t afford to hasten past grief while waiting for the sun to make its appearance.

“The groan is the vernacular of pain;” saysMax Lucado, “the chosen tongue of despair. When there are no words, these are the words. When prayer won’t come, these will have to do. Sunnier times hear nicer, more poetic petitions, but stormy times generate mournful sounds of sadness

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[An excerpt from my book: WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount – If you’ve read it, please share it with your friends (or foes, for that matter) and write a review on Amazon]

[i] Psalm 51:17

[ii] Matthew 10:39

[iii] Bell and Golden, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, 44.

[iv] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/july-web-only/grieving-our-broken-border-christian-leaders-lucado-lament.html