Brandon C. Jones's Blog, page 13

The Ugly Gospel: What Often Gets Left Out of Our Good News

Our pictures say a lot about ourselves, or at least the selves we’d like to be. I know people who carefully craft how they appear in pictures. But many of my friends choose to appear in pictures hardly at all. Their absence from pictures of family adventures and gatherings speaks volumes, telling us they are ashamed of how they look and wish they looked differently. It is not just them, because all of us would probably change something about ourselves if we could. Our wish list usually lengthens as the aging process presents new adventures in operating and maintaining the human body.
Redeeming Beauty
When my oldest niece was a toddler I learned something profound when her parents sometimes used the word “ugly” to describe her unpleasant behavior. I had always thought beauty and ugliness only had to do with our appearances. Of course, by definition beauty and ugliness do involve appearances, but our behavior can reflect either one of them from time to time. It has taken longer, but another surprise I have found as an adult is the presence, and not just the potential, of beauty in every human being. Humans of all colors. Humans of all shapes. Humans of all sizes. Humans who battle any number of heart-breaking diseases in this fallen world. All humans are beautiful!
This truth should not have been a surprise for me, because God has revealed that all humans are created in his image and likeness, male and female (Gen 1:27). Sin has marred and distorted that image, resulting in death, disease, violence, oppression, and all sorts of other consequences, but the image remains in each of us who bear human life. God did not leave us alone in the ugliness of our sins, for he so loved the world that he sent his Son to take on our human nature in order to deliver us from our slavery to sin, death, and the devil. Jesus Christ did not just neutralize sin’s ugly presence in humanity, but he joined humanity to God by opening God’s life to human life. Peter calls this an opportunity to “participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Pet 1:4). What sin corrupted, God has redeemed in Christ.
Proclaiming Beauty
When we trust in the good news of Jesus Christ, God declares us righteous and unites us to his Son, so when he sees us he sees Jesus’ righteousness. He also sees Jesus’ beauty in us. We can show his beauty by speaking the truth and doing the truth in love. We can show his beauty by seeing ourselves as God sees us—precious creatures joined to him. No matter how much sin has distorted and marred God’s image in us, his beauty has always been there and Jesus can redeem it. He can redeem us. He can redeem anyone.
Instead of believing the lie that says we are unlovable, unbeautiful, irredeemable, and worthless, we can instead tell others and ourselves that in Christ God has made each one of us bearers of his glorious image. God has redeemed us and joined us to himself. And so we are lovable, beautiful, and of infinite worth. Not one single pound gained or lost will change what God has done. Not a solitary hair follicle grown or removed will alter our worth to our Savior. Not one pimple will blemish Christ’s place as our redeemer. He is pleased to call us his siblings.
See yourself today as God sees you—his beloved saint of a child. Please do not keep this yourself either. Share it with those around you, especially your children. The world is confusing enough for them, so accept their complements when they give them to you. Do not respond to their claim that you are pretty by telling them how ugly you are. Do not let them hear you say out loud how much you hate certain parts of your appearances. Do not hide from cameras at family functions. Do let them see that beauty can be found in our looks and our actions and that when we look for it there is beauty in everyone. Do guide them as they wrestle with how they feel about their own body, especially during adolescence, using it as an opportunity to encourage them to see within themselves what redemption looks like for their bodies and souls.
Proclaiming beauty is not the same as proclaiming that we all can safely ignore what we know to be true about good health. That would further distort sin’s toll on humanity. As Christians we are wise to strive to be healthy, as long as we view it as a means and not as an end to itself. We can start by reminding people they are more than the sum of their body cells. We can tell people that true peace, the kind of which the Bible speaks, includes our bodies and our souls. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are beautiful. God loves you. God accepts you. God considers you of infinite worth. Those are all things we need to say to one another more often. When we take the time to say them God will speak through us. We will hear God's voice too.

The world does not need our help in cutting people down or shaming them for their looks. Instead of joining in that vanity fair, let us offer ourselves, our families, our friends, and our neighbors the refreshing message that all human life in its great diversity is beautiful, and what sin has made crooked God works to redeem. One day he will complete his work in his kingdom, and the more people who are a part of it, the better it will be for us all.

Will there be a homecoming parade in God's kingdom?

“For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” – 2 Peter 1:10b-11.
Few things beat a good parade. When I was in high school I marched with the band in some small parades in Kansas and a big one in London. As a parent, parades are great opportunities to do something fun and free with your kids. We line the streets and watch as musicians, dancers, clowns, cars, motorcycles, buses, and all sorts of other things pass us by. The kids love picking up all the candy thrown at them.
Having lived in several communities it is fun to see which days merit parades. My hometown of Overland Park, Kansas had an annual parade in September on Overland Park Day. St. Patrick’s Day has the biggest annual parade in Kansas City. It lasts about four hours or more, which usually amounts to about three and a half hours longer than small children prefer. Nearby, Independence, Missouri gathers for a big parade each Halloween. Detroit has a huge Thanksgiving Day parade. Herreid, South Dakota has quite the Homecoming Day parade, but my first year here they also had a special one-time parade to welcome home military personnel who returned from their tour of duty overseas. We lined up the streets to welcome them as they passed by on a flatbed truck, sitting on bales of hay and waving to everyone. As I stood on the sidewalk I wondered if any community would ever welcome me in such fashion, and then I thought of how the Bible speaks of our homecoming to God’s kingdom.
Homecomings in the Bible
Homecoming is a recurring theme throughout Scripture. In the Hebrew Bible Adam and Eve were banished from their home in Eden. Abraham insists that his son marry a nice girl from back home, sending out his servant to find the perfect bride. Moses fled from his home in Egypt for forty years before being summoned by God to return there; no one threw a parade in his honor upon his return. Jephthah tried to manipulate God by coming up with a homecoming vow in which he would sacrifice to God whatever came out of his house first to greet him upon his triumphant return after defeating his enemies. Jephthah had in mind some animal when he spoke his vow and was heartbroken when his only child, his teenage daughter, rushed out of his house to greet him with singing and dancing. Eventually God condemned all of Israel to exile out of their land and homes, promising them that one day they would be able return. Some of them eventually did, but their welcome was icy, and God still seemed afar.
The New Testament, beginning some time after the Exile, continues God’s theme of homecoming. Jesus often told stories about what the kingdom of God is like. One of his longest stories is about the unexpected warm welcome a father gives to his stupid boy who insisted on receiving his father’s inheritance early, went out and wasted it all on himself, and then returned home penniless. The book of Revelation includes John’s vision of that future time in which God will come home to earth and establish his kingdom in full. The details of his vision paint the picture of a rather vibrant homecoming as Adam's children will finally return to something better than Eden ever was.

Homecoming in God’s Kingdom
In between Jesus’ stories and John’s vision are New Testament letters that bring up homecoming as an object for Christian hope, especially during a time of trial and testing. Peter starts out one of his letters by urging fellow Christians to “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Pet 1:5-7). He explains that when the measure of the quality of our faith increases, so will its fruitfulness. On the other hand, those who do nothing with their faith stumble around in the dark like someone who cannot see, for they have forgotten that God has cleansed them from their past sins.
People who forget about the gospel often tell themselves it is okay to start and end with faith. “I have all I need,” they say, “so why bother with more?” There is no hunger and thirst for righteousness in their hearts. There is no panting for knowledge in their minds. There is no passion for service in their hands. And in response, Peter reminds them to be careful. He says that if you want to confirm your faith, then you better work at adding to it so that it ends in fruitful love. Peter does not clearly say what the consequence is for those who refuse to add to their faith, but he implies that it includes stumbling through life now and at the very least a homecoming in God’s kingdom that is not rich or warm. Some might go further in questioning whether there will be a homecoming at all for such people, but Peter does not say as much here.

What he does say is that we must make every effort to be sure we have confirmed our place within God’s family. Be sure we remember our cleansing. And if so, be confident we will be richly received at our homecoming in God’s kingdom. Peter does not bring up any parades, but I know that whatever God has prepared for us should be a blast. Hope to see you there.

Plan your marriage (okay, plan your wedding too)

My wife’s parents met my parents before I met my wife, Marci. We weren’t part of some arranged marriage or anything, but when the two parental couples got to talking about their kids they all pieced together that one couple had a single son and the other had a single daughter both in Springfield, MO. Why not see if they’d like to get together?
Being the single son in the equation I had no idea such a conversation took place or that my Mom was at the time still handing out my old missionary prayer cards to people (there’s a long story about not going to Fiji related to those cards). Meanwhile, my future wife was handed my card and told by her Mom to write me a message because her future husband has been found. Needless to say, Marci was not too enamored with this request or with my card. She misplaced the card and figured she didn’t miss out on much: “He's in grad school?” she thought, “Sounds old and boring to me.”
Eventually, after Marci’s mother continually pestered her about messaging me, Marci found the card and sent me a message. I was visiting my parents when I received it and was surprised. My dating history at the time was less than spectacular. I went to concerts and whatnot with a few girls in high school, and I think some other girls were interested in me too, but I was clueless. One of my lowest points was having a girl watch an episode of Veggietales with me at my parents’ house. Yes, that actually happened.
In college things got little better. Once on a dare I asked out a girl who I only saw serving sandwiches at the cafeteria. It was like she did not exist anywhere else on campus. I asked her out on a date after placing my order for roast beef on white, and she quickly let me know she had other things to do that weekend. A few years later I mustered the courage to ask out another girl I thought I liked, but she had a crucial appointment setup that would teach her how to balance her checkbook, so she was unavailable. Yes, that too actually happened. I would have preferred hearing about her hair needing to be washed.
When I read Marci’s message I thought about not writing her back, but I thought better and decided, “why not?” Soon we were talking on the phone and not long after that we met in person. Looking back, I was still no romantic and remained aloof on how to date a girl, although to my credit we never did watch Veggietales before having children of our own. After dating several months she left for the summer, and when she returned we decided to get married. We set our wedding date for two weeks away.
During those two weeks, and with the help of family and friends, we took care of the basics of our wedding ceremony and reception: license, dress, suit, witnesses, etc. Everything went well, given the timeframe, and after the briefest of honeymoons in Liberty, MO we headed back to Springfield for school to start again. Even though our wedding was strung together in only 14 days’ time, it still had more planning put into it than our marriage did. We had no counseling sessions. We had no discussions about future wants, desires, or values. We had no planning other than we just wanted to get married. What makes our story somewhat unique is not our lack of marriage planning, but our lack of planning for our wedding ceremony. Most couples spend gobs of hours and money on that, but at best have a couple pre-marital counseling sessions alongside it.
Our marriage lacked planning not because it has ever come easy to us. It is the hardest thing I have done in my life, significantly harder than parenting so far. Marriage requires open communication. It requires responding rather than reacting to conflict. It requires vulnerability. It requires love, instead of mere charity. Love that gives of yourself and not just your spare change. More than anything marriage requires a commitment to one’s wedding vows. Americans do not use the word vows very often and in general we do not prize commitments of any kind, and yet such things are the very stuff of marriage. As a Christian, the idea of a sacrament comes to mind as well, because the marriage union and its fruitfulness reflect God’s covenant with his people, including its fruitfulness.
This weekend Marci and I, after being married more than ten years, took a weekend to refocus on what it means to be married. It was refreshing to hear we have been doing several things right, even if we just caught on to some of those things a year or two ago. It was also helpful to have time together to focus on one another and consider things we could be doing better as a couple. One embarrassment has been our lack of spiritual intimacy. We pray much for each other by ourselves. We read much in the Scriptures by ourselves. But we pray and read together hardly at all. We have struggled this way for years as laziness, vulnerability, and countless other excuses have stood as barriers against us. But if we valued spiritual intimacy and committed ourselves to it, we would actually do it. Members of my church have heard me say plenty that people will participate in things they value, so what’s good for them to hear is good for me to hear too. Marci and I hope we will start valuing regular times for prayer and study in 2014.

There is no such thing as a perfect marriage. There will be conflict. There will always be waves that threaten to drift a couple toward isolation from each other, and sometimes it is easier to fight against that rolling tide than other times. Why not take up some tools to help you along the way? If you have never considered taking a weekend away to focus on your marriage, I highly recommend it. We found a rather inexpensive getaway through the ministries of FamilyLife. Perhaps there is something available in your area. Give it a try! You won’t be disappointed. Fight back against being another one of those couples that planned their wedding day more than they did their marriage.

A Desolate Place: My season of grief just before springtime

On March 9, 2012 my father passed away while lying on a mobile hospital bed that sat in the basement of what used to be my parents’ house for his final few days. He wanted to die at his home, and within a year everything else was cleared out of it to make room for someone else to buy it and make it their home. In his last hours my Dad was mostly unresponsive. His voice became quite scarce. I think he heard our voices, though. The last time I saw him react to us was when we played some of his own singing through a boombox by his bed. Although he was a towering man with hands like baseball mitts, he could sing high, much higher than me. And he liked to sing, even if doing it in front of others always made him nervous.
These past two years I’ve learned how to live without a father, which I’m sure would’ve been much tougher as a kid. But it’s still no light journey for this grown-up. Sometimes I feel a desolate place inside of my heart because a part of me that used to exist was taken away. Even though I’ve had some 24 months to deal with it, I still feel lost.
Grief never fully goes away, nor should it. At least I don’t want grief over my father to dissipate. I’m no sadist, but were it not for grief I am not sure how much I would have thought about my Dad these past two years. I have had family members pass along text messages and voicemails from him. I deleted mine long ago without thinking about it much. I have pictures and videos of him that I do not look at often, but I still cherish having them.
What I do not have and wish I did is the ability to make new memories with my Dad. He would’ve loved visiting the Black Hills and Wyoming with us. Maybe he would have made me those fancy bookshelves he had been talking about for a good decade before he died. My kids might get to feel again what it is like to be hugged by a vicegrip. Okay, I want to feel that again too. The last time I really saw him in December before any of us knew he was dying he hugged me tighter and longer than I can ever recall. I wonder what he knew back then, but did not let on to the rest of us. I sometimes wonder if he would have even liked our cat, probably not.
Of course one of the best parts of making new memories is how unexpected and delightful they are, and death has a way of hindering one’s imagination. Sometimes I feel like my Dad is a dream from which I suddenly woke up from a couple years ago all disoriented and sleepy. That is part of the deep pain of grief, when embodied loved ones turn into memories. In these cases each memory seems much too distant and unsatisfying.
I suppose early March is a fitting time for me to be in grief while living on the northern plains of the Dakotas. The trees, the smart ones among us, are all still in their hibernation. Snow and ice prevail everywhere. Even the sun has stayed away several days. It seems the world is grieving with me right now.
But spring is on its way.
And with it a bright and beautiful reminder of Resurrection!

What glory looks like: thoughts on 2 Corinthians 3

In our church’s junior high Sunday school class someone asked the teacher which time when coming down the mountain did Moses’ face shine: the first or the second one? For the record, the correct answer is the second one, but not before some searching out what the Scriptures say. You can read about Moses’ face shining in Exodus 34:29-35. Moses gazed at God’s glory and it rubbed off on him in such a way that everyone noticed. When he came down from the mountain people pointed at him and said, “Wow, that’s real glory.” And it was too much for them, so they asked him to cover it up. Unlike Moses, no one has ever asked me to cover up obvious glory in my life or in that of our church. In fact, someone might spend a little time with us and ask, “Where’s the glory?” That question has been asked of Christians and churches before, and Paul presents an encouraging answer in 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians is a personal and painful letter. The church in Corinth wrote Paul at least a few times, he seemed to have replied each time, and the church has handed down to us in the New Testament a couple of his replies. Paul wrote what we call 2 Corinthians as a reply to a letter he received that was full of accusations against him. Other people in Corinth leveled several charges against Paul, including that he came off all high and mighty in his letters, but in person he was too quiet and weak; he did not speak eloquently enough like the good preachers do; he didn’t keep his promise to return to Corinth when he said he would, and so on. Paul’s response is sort of funny. He sarcastically calls his critics “super Apostles” throughout his letter, but he also addresses their charges and cuts to the heart of things: Christ. Namely, he addresses what kind of glory Christians share in Christ.
The glory of Moses and the Old Testament law was mighty. There were big temples, an ornate gilded box for the stone tablets of the law, and events like the one I mentioned earlier about Moses’ face literally shining brightly for all to see. On the other hand, there is Christ crucified. Paul says that proclaiming glory and new life through a God who became a human capital offender gives off a stinky aroma to many people (2 Cor 2:16). Paul goes on to say that if the Christian message can be stinky, there should be no surprise that people would also question the authenticity of its messengers (2 Cor 3:1). In other words, the gospel of Christ does not seem too glorious, and Paul’s preaching of it in which he bears physical scars, exhibits shortcomings, and withstands criticism from within and without doesn’t seem too glorious either. Some people in Corinth were expecting “real” glory like in the good ol’ days when people’s faces literally shined. Christ and Paul didn’t seem to match up.
That brings us to chapter 3 in which Paul compares the glory of Moses to the glory of Christ. He says that despite all appearances there is no comparison between the two because Christ outshines Moses in every way. N. T. Wright, commenting on this chapter, says that Paul likens Moses’ radiance to a flickering candle while Christ is like the rising sun. Candles are not bad, of course, but they cannot compare with solar power. Paul says that in Christ there is hope that completes and fulfills that which Moses only pointed toward, so all believers in Christ radiate the Lord’s glory and “are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18).
The church at Corinth formed by the gospel of Christ radiates God’s glory without having their faces light up for all to see. Instead, they do this when they gather to sing, pray, and partake of communion. They radiate a glory that all too often goes unseen, but they have hope that one day Christ’s glory in them will be seen by everyone at the coming of God’s kingdom. In response to the question, “where’s the glory?” Paul says you’ll never see it by only looking at what you can see, the temporal stuff. Instead, you have to look at what’s eternal (2 Cor 4:18).
As God’s people today we can fix our eyes on what we can see, the temporal stuff, and imagine that we don’t amount to very much, but that’s a lie. Our faces really are shining, even brighter than Moses’ face ever did, if we just start looking for it in each other. Christ is the image of God and the more we talk and act like him the more we will display his glory. Take heart, brothers and sisters, there is glory among our churches and it all comes from the Spirit. 

Lies Pastors Believe: #1 Nobody Cares

A few weeks ago I remarked on what it was like to have been a pastor for the past two years, and there was one thing I did not mention: the lies. I’m not talking about the stock material people might tell you as their pastor. What I have in mind are the voices in my head that whisper different things than they used to before. In the past two years I’ve heard numerous lies about God, the church, my family, and what I supposedly deserve. Some days I can tune them out, knowing that the tempter wants me to bite on just one lie, but other days I dwell on them easily. Wallow is more like it. I would realize immediately that these small subtle statements are not true if I were to think about them objectively for even one minute, but oftentimes I don’t. One of the greatest powers a lie holds over me is that in some twisted way I want it to be true. If it were true I could be vindicated. If it were true I could be justified. If it were true my self-pitying would be perfectly reasonable. Never underestimate the long slow death of pride in the human soul.
The lies that take hold often play on my pride. Take the most common lie I hear as a pastor, the one about how I am nothing more than Father McKenzie, who in the words of the famous Beatles’ song, Eleanor Rigby, works hard writing “the words of a sermon that no one will hear.” The Beatles ask why Father McKenzie cares so much? The lie in my head as a pastor asks a related question: Why do other people care so little? “After all, this is their church,” I will say. Before long if I am not careful I’ll feel entitled to more, and my appetite for more becomes insatiable. More encouragement! More attendance! More gifts! More “caring,” whatever that looks like. This lie of discontent holds a dirty secret that once it takes hold no amount of anything will ever be good enough. There should always be a little more.
Wallowing in the days of Elijah
I have dealt with this lie plenty of times as a pastor. I have learned to expect this lie’s repeat visits, especially on Mondays. It must keep some sort of schedule because it easily happens after a high. I’ve also learned not to beat myself up that I am vulnerable to it, because the great prophet Elijah was too. I Kings chapters 18 and 19 describe Elijah’s triumph over the false-god Baal’s prophets on Mt. Carmel only to be driven immediately to the wilderness because of death threats from the king’s wife. God asked Elijah what he was doing in the wilderness, and he replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (1 Kgs 19:10). Elijah thought he had a grasp of the truth, but instead he had fallen for lies in his head. The biblical writer doesn’t describe Elijah’s actions as wallowing, but it sure seems that way.
God responds to Elijah like he is wallowing, so he cares for Elijah in different ways: first, he takes care of Elijah’s physical needs by giving Elijah food and rest. God asks Elijah why he is in the wilderness two times and hears the same response each time, even after God displayed his presence with Elijah through whirlwinds and gentle whispers. God finally tells Elijah the truth: I have more work for you to do in the city, not in this wilderness, so go back there and do it. Oh, and by the way, you are not alone, for there are reserved “seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kgs 19:18). It seems Elijah was only off by about 6,999 people in his claim that he was the only one left and no one else cared. Wallowing, self-pity, and lies do a good job of distorting how we see the world. Elijah needed to hear the truth, which was that others did care about him and that God had much more for him to do—but before Elijah could do it he would have to turn off the lies and stop hiding out in the wilderness.
God still speaks truth today
I’m glad God doesn’t just respond to people like Elijah, because I know he also responds to me. When these lies take hold he reminds me that the church I serve is his church, not mine. He tells me I need him and his church far more than they need me. He tells me that in our world of technology and instant gratification investing in people may appear fruitless, but given time and patience fruit will come. Jesus likens God’s kingdom to a garden for good reason.
After hearing God’s truths, I once again realize what a privilege it is to serve as an undershepherd to Christ. It is an honor to devote myself to prayer, Scripture, sacrament, singing, preaching, teaching, and pastoral care. God did much more through Elijah in the city than in the wilderness, so our enemy’s playbook is to drive us to that wilderness of wallowing and keep us there as long as possible. Don’t fall for it. The whispers may seep into your head and get you to believe that no one cares about what you do, brothers and sisters, but you don’t have to let the whispers stay there. Set them free by the same truth that will set you free!
I mention one lie pastors believe here, what lies creep inside your head?

Why we value all human life: A Christian explanation

God says all human life has inherent value, despite the distortions sin and its curse of aging, death, and diseases has brought upon the world. God has the authority to say this because he has created everyone and everything, and he says he created humans in his image and likeness. He has instructed humankind not to shed human blood, “for in the image of God has God made mankind” (Gen 9:6b). God did not say what it is exactly about humans that makes all of us bearers of God’s image, but it is clear that God’s image is not tied to whether other humans, even our own biological mothers, deem us to be useful or desirable. God just says human life bears God’s image without any qualifications at all, so we ought to treat all human life with sanctity without any qualifications at all, especially human life that others have labeled unuseful, unwanted, and worthless. This includes the unborn, the elderly, the capital criminal, the poor, people with special needs, people who make different choices than you do, as well as everyone else and anyone else you can think of. God says all human life has value as a reflection of him.



What God says and what our society says about human life differ greatly. Fifty years ago roughly two out of every three American households had children in them, but today that number has been cut in half. We value what we have the most of, which is why seniors tend to value the past and young adults tend to value the future. Now that most of our households are without children, Americans do not value them as much as they did before.
Even households with children are valuing their children less and less. For every ten children born this year, eight of them will be used to having a non-family member get paid to take care of them regularly until they are old enough to go to school. Half of these children will be under paid care for the vast majority of time they are awake during weekdays, seeing their parents a little each morning and a little each night. Some parents have no economic choice when it comes to raising their children without paid childcare, but for many parents, especially in two-parent homes, the amount one spouse gets paid per hour barely outweighs the cost of paying someone else to care for their children. There seems to be another non-financial factor at work. Our society gives hardly any value to parenting, and it is a chicken-or-the-egg sort of question to ask: Which came first, devaluing parenthood or young children?
Once our children grow up enough to “do” something like participate in a sport, hobby, or some sort of other competition we likewise start to value them again. We fill their schedules and ours with an onslaught of activities, ensuring everyone has little free time for fun together and rest. But in their earliest years, when children cannot do anything we deem “useful,” we’d rather not be around them very much if we can help it.
Our society associates value with usefulness, which becomes a problem not only for young children, but for elderly people too. When our grandparents and parents stop being “useful” to us and our greater society, we’d rather not be around them very much either if we can help it. A skyrocketing industry in America is assisted living facilities in which people pay up to thousands of dollars a month for a family member to live under the watch of an institution when they should no longer live alone, even though these seniors are well enough to stay out of the care of a skilled nursing home. Like with childcare, there are many situations where assisted living is the right choice, but a factor we don’t like to talk about is that we as a society do not desire having the elderly among us in our homes like our ancestors did and other cultures still do.
Somehow a person’s usefulness and desirability has become a factor as to whether their human life is valuable, which means the flipside would also be true that once a human is neither useful nor desirable, then that human is also not valuable. That human is now expendable. Maybe that human is not even human at all, or at least not a human person with rights everyone must recognize. Instead, that human is an unviable tissue mass inside a mother’s womb. Sure, we say the thing inside the womb is a potential human person, and despite not knowing exactly when a fertilized egg, zygote, embryo, or fetus becomes an actual human person in our eyes, we just err on the side of destruction whenever it is not wanted. We can also err on the side of destruction when we think a human has or may have a poor quality of life and as such is not useful or desirable, making it worthless. The rest of us can take pity on such poor, useless, undesirable, “things” and tell ourselves that the only loving thing to do is find a way to extract the world of them in the least invasive manner. After all, the story goes that children can ruin people’s lives when they are unwanted by their parents. People with special needs are a burden and have a low quality of life. Elderly people have suffered enough. It’s only right, for their sake and for ours, for these lives to be extinguished.
Sin has so marred and distorted God’s image in us that we hate, kill, destroy, rape, and exploit each other and the rest of God’s creation instead of treating them like God would. We also stopped valuing human life as sacred. We stopped valuing children as the blessings God says they are. We stopped seeing ourselves as creatures, beholden to our Creator, and started seeing ourselves as accidental products of time and chance. This has made us view nature as a malleable construct that we are empowered to twist and mold like silly putty in our collective hands. Sin mixed up what we crave, how we think, and what we do, and as a result God has even given us over to follow our misguided impulses to their disastrous ends.
Thankfully, God also did something else. He sent his Son to take on our human nature, be born into our world and grow up to an adult. As an adult he revealed God’s ways and talked about God’s kingdom, which upset many who heard him. They conspired to have the authorities try him as a criminal and put him to death. And through his death God undid death itself and the evil forces that hold power over death and enslave us to fear death. God raised his Son Jesus to new life, and he promised to pour out his Spirit as a down payment on his people, so that whoever trusts in him will also share his new life in his kingdom. A life where there are no sex traffickers. A life where there are no murderers or rapists. A life where everyone has everything they need. As God’s people we are to give our communities a taste of what this life is like. Yes, Christians fall short of that ideal, but believe me we are trying, and a good place for us to start is by valuing all human life.

Pastoral Care: Not just for pastors anymore

One thing that Baptists emphasize is the idea that all of Christ’s children are also his priests. That is, there is no need for an individual Christian to connect with God indirectly through another priest or clergyperson. Rather, each Christian can pray to God directly. Each Christian can proclaim God’s truth directly. Each Christian can sing praises that God will hear directly. Of course, there are certain things ordained clergy regularly do, such as preaching, teaching, equipping, and administering the sacraments. But somehow one other thing got lumped into that list, which is offering pastoral care.
The label, “pastoral care,” is part of the problem since at first glance it seems obvious that it refers to pastors caring for people. However, that is not really what it means. The word “pastor” is based on the word for shepherd, or one who cares for a flock. Ancient Christians connected pastoral care with the emotional and spiritual support someone may need who is undergoing anything ranging from a deep loss in their life to an emotional triumph. In other words, pastoral care is something all of us will need from time to time, and it is also something any of us can offer.
People will often struggle knowing what to say or do when they see someone else going through a loss. Good pastoral care takes the form of a low-anxious presence as someone who can come alongside another person and be a witness to what they are going through. Pastoral carers are by nature curious people who ask many open-ended questions rather than handing out unsolicited answers in the form of platitudes or advice. Pastoral carers listen attentively and are comfortable with silence. Pastoral carers are not afraid to bring up painful subjects either, because if we do not chances are no one will.
Life in our fallen world is full of losses, and one person, even in a small church, could never adequately offer all the care that people need to receive as they endure the vicissitudes of their lives. But one trained person could equip several others to come alongside them and offer care to those who need it when they need it. Pastoral carers need not be trained theologians, apt public speakers, or even extraverted “people-persons.” Rather, they just need to be willing to share their time and presence to be available as calm witnesses to the pain of others. My guess is our churches are already full of people whom God could use mightily as pastoral carers. They already have all the maturity and skills needed and with just a little training and direction they could start offering care right away.
It is time pastors stop apologizing for their limitedness and start equipping others to offer pastoral care alongside them. We wouldn’t have to stop with our members either, just think what it would look like if our churches were known for coming alongside hurting people in our community. I bet we might become more known for what we are for rather than what we are supposedly against. We might also become more loving to each other along the way, because I have found that you cannot help but love someone when you get to know them and hear their story, which is the very stuff pastoral care is made of. I bet you have what it takes, just give it a try. You might even become addicted to it.

Waiting Out Our Long Winter: A Lesson in Following Christ

Cold winter weather is something that not all Americans usually share, but this year the cold, ice, and snow have even descended upon our southern states, such as Georgia, Alabama, and even Florida. Up here in the northern plains everyone, including people who have lived here their whole lives, admit that this winter is harsher than usual. While there are some enjoyable aspects to winter, the bitter cold and chill are not among them, and the only thing you can do to survive them is passively wait. Nothing we can do will change winter itself. Nothing we say or think will make spring come any sooner, no matter what that groundhog in Pennsylvania may or may not see in a few days. We just have to wait for spring to come. And, even as people in the south of America are finding out, the waiting is the hardest part.
As Christians, though, waiting is part of our calling, and it has been that way for a long time. Matthew begins his Gospel about Jesus with a genealogy that focused on people who had to wait years, even decades, for their children to be born. Matthew then describes Jesus’ birth in which two people had been waiting in the Temple for Messiah to come. Jesus’ family had to spend his first years in Egypt, while they were waiting for Herod to die. Just before Matthew introduces his audience to the grown-up Jesus, he turns his attention to John the Baptist, who makes everyone feel bad within earshot of him. “You people better repent and shape up right now,” John says, “because the one coming after me will be even more fiery than me. Just you wait!” Then Matthew finally introduces us to the grown-up Jesus, but before getting a taste of his teaching he quietly recedes into the wilderness to be tested and tried by the Devil himself. He waited forty days and forty nights to complete his trial.
After his time in the wilderness Jesus relocates to a rival town from the one he grew up in, saying that the people in this town are privileged to have seen a great light—him. And then he begins to preach, saying a familiar message to anyone who would listen, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt 4:17b). Those were John’s words, but soon Matthew lets us know that Jesus was going to be different from John. Matthew tells us that Jesus recruited followers from the likes of fishermen and that he healed anyone and everyone in his new town, especially people who were waiting months or even years to be healed. His healing touch drew notoriety, so large crowds followed him wherever he went. With all these crowds around him, Matthew has us, his readers, wait no longer to sample Jesus’ teaching. Jesus goes up to a mountainside, sits down, and speaks. The wait is over! Here is what the teacher says:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see GodBlessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt 5:3-12).
After hearing those words, it seems our wait is not over after all. Even though Matthew already told us that people in Jesus’ day have seen a great light, their blessings—our blessings—call for more waiting. They will be comforted. They will inherit. They will be filled. They will be shown mercy. They will see God. They will be called children of God. They will be rewarded in heaven. When? Some time later. How? Not of our own doing, for these are all things that will happen to the blessed ones. Why? Jesus does not answer this question here, but he hints at an answer by the end of verse 12, “for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” God has a tendency to turn things upside down. God’s people go against the culture around them, and so God’s blessings are reserved for those who do not have things easy today. Instead, they are for people who are waiting.
Waiting is not the same thing as doing nothing. While waiting for the cold weather to pass we bundle up before stepping outside and going about our days. Likewise, there are also things we can do while waiting for God’s blessings to come. These are the flip side of Jesus’ words above: be poor in spirit, mourn, be meek, crave righteousness, show mercy, be pure in heart, make peace, and be a prophet, especially when no one wants to hear what you have to say. Just as surely as spring will follow winter, the kingdom of heaven will follow our lives spent waiting in this fallen world. Wait well brothers and sisters!

Seduced By Knowledge

Advertisers use the art of seduction to sell us everything from a new luxury car to liquid body wash. Typically, they appeal to lust, status, or pleasure to close the deal for their product, and all of those things are powerful tools of seduction. But I am not sure any of them are as seductive as knowledge, which has been flirting with people for centuries.
One of the earliest Christian creeds is known as the Apostles’ Creed. The creed begins with a brief statement about God the Father and concludes with a brief statement about God the Spirit. In between lies a lengthier section on Jesus Christ being conceived, born, tortured, crucified, dead, buried, brought down, resurrected, and brought up to heaven from where he will one day return. No one is sure who wrote this creed, but we do know it has stood for centuries as a baptismal creed that captures true Christian beliefs as opposed to incorrect ones that were held by a group of people known as Gnostics.
The Gnostics, whose name comes from the word “knowledge,” discounted the material world altogether. They thought the physical world, including physical human bodies, were the product of some lowly half-god, not the one they considered to be the supreme god. However, their supreme god was involved with human souls, so the Gnostics believed the supreme god would deliver their immaterial souls from their imprisonment in material human bodies in a physical world. The Gnostics believed these things through the passing down of secret knowledge revealed to them and only them in cryptic interpretations of their sacred texts. Right away, you can see how this understanding of reality would butt heads with the Christian faith that worships a God who took on human nature and promises deliverance through a bodily resurrection and a renewed physical earth.
Early Christians often disputed the claims of Gnostics, but the Gnostics would respond by appealing to their secretive interpretation of things that was off limits to anyone who wasn’t already one of them. In other words, there was no even playing field to disagree or argue with them. For a Gnostic, the world was black and white and other people were either “in the know” and agreed with them, or they disagreed and were considered stupid for doing so.
As a religion Gnositicism has few, if any, devotees that I know of in America today, but I do see a similar approach to other people creep up this side of the information age. Thanks to the Internet data is everywhere, information abounds, and with them there is a seduction that has us thinking that those who disagree with us are simply not as well informed as we are.
Symptoms of being seduced by knowledge include linking knowledge with power. Be careful if you find yourself craving all the fawning applause for being a guru and dispenser of some knowledge, leaving little credit behind for the object of that knowledge. Also beware of putting too much emotional value in your knowledge, because before long you may let animus come between those who share your knowledge and those who don’t.
The Christian faith has no place for the divisive seduction of knowledge. Paul addresses a divisive attitude within the church in Corinth by asking them, “Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Cor 4:7)  Charles Spurgeon, commenting on a similar biblical passage in Ezekiel 15:2, says, “Great believer, you would have been a great sinner if God had not made you to differ. O you who are valiant for truth, you would have been as valiant for error if grace had not laid hold of you. Therefore, do not be proud, though you have a large influence.”
We have received much from God who has revealed himself in so many ways, but especially through the law and the prophets of old and through his Son Jesus Christ. We’ve nothing of ourselves to brag about, except that we have received God’s grace, and the best way to spread his grace to others is by loving them, not by thinking ourselves to be superior and “in the know.”