Jason Farley's Blog, page 3

Giving up the Heterosexual Lifestyle

There is a misunderstanding going around about what the church teaches about heterosexual love that I feel the need to correct. It seems that everyone discussing the difference between homosexual marriage and heterosexual marriage presumes and expects that homosexual marriage has to be given up to follow Jesus but heterosexual marriage does not have to be given up. That you can walk through the doors of the church in a heterosexual marriage and Jesus and will just leave it alone.

"Oh, your marriage is one man and one woman? You don't have to give that up to follow Jesus."

But that is just not the case.

If you're going to follow Jesus then you have to be ready and willing to give up anything and everything.

Jesus puts it this way, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26).

Anything you insist on holding back, anything you put a death grip on, anything you refuse to give up will go rotten. Anybody that you claim for yourself, about whom you tell Jesus he has no claim because they are yours, you will destroy.

Following Jesus is not a turn away from a lover or spouse just for the homosexual. Every person that turns to Christ must turn away from their spouse. Jesus is no traditional values conservative. He says quite plainly that he came to bring a sword specifically for the family.

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it (Matt. 10:34-39). 

Heterosexuals do not get off the hook. A heterosexual infatuation with your spouse that you will not set aside in order to follow Jesus will disqualify you just as much as any homosexual infatuation that you will not set aside. It is not just gay spouses that must be given up to follow Jesus. Every spouse must be handed in. No spouse can be held back. Every spousal loyalty must be surrendered to follow Christ. Every love must be set down. Every desire must be abandoned to follow Jesus. 

To follow Jesus is to lay down everything. To be willing to exchange all that you have and all that you are for Jesus. To give up your life. “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for Jesus sake shall find it” (Matt. 10:39).

To be willing to be marginalized, misunderstood, disreputable, threatened, to be willing to take the road the Jesus walked, no matter the cost. To sell everything if that is what it takes. That is the call of discipleship.

So there is not a special call to homosexuals to give up their chosen lifestyle. There is one call to all people to give up everything. It does not matter if what you have in your hands is good or bad. You cannot carry your cross when your hands are full.

And so if this call seems too much, then go somewhere else. Follow anyone but Jesus.

I would

I would if I could.

Jesus messes up everything. He continually appeals to his people to lay down their lives and follow him. He calls persistently to let go of your all your own desires and follow him.

But for those that are following him, once you have seen and tasted the words of life, everything else is sawdust in your mouth. Once you have glimpsed the risen Jesus, everything else is ruined for you. He is truth, goodness, beauty. He is love and in him is real hope.

So I could go somewhere else, but where could I go?

Giving up everything, letting go of it all, or even resisting to the point of death becomes a small price to pay for the treasure of knowing Christ Jesus.

So yes, following Jesus involves giving up everything. And yes, laying down our sexual desires is part of what everyone has to lay down. But if you keep it all and don't have Jesus, you still end up with nothing. And to give up everything and find Jesus, the treasure hidden in a field (Matt. 13:44) you find that you have given up nothing of value compared to what you have gained.

To follow Jesus is to let go of everything, even giving our bodies to be burned or killed if it is called for. To resist to the point of death, setting aside  our very life as nothing compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus is what it means to be a follower, a disciple, a student, a convert to Jesus Christ. To give up lordship over ourselves and to submit to Jesus is the call of discipleship.

Thus the Martyrs of the church have always been set up as an example even when there is no persecution. To follow Jesus is to consider our life expendable in His cause, trusting that in the resurrection of all things that all will be well and that all manner of things will be well. To see even the shedding of our blood as of little consequence compared to the joy of hearing, “Well done,” from the mouth of Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

So when a homosexual says that giving up homosexuality is like giving up themselves, I don't try and convince them that it isn't. I say, "Yep. And that is the call of Christ. To let go of self so you can cling to Jesus."

It is a hard calling. It is a hard word. But it is the call that Jesus extends to everyone. 

Jesus is a fountain of the water of life and everything else is just a cup with a hole in it. It might give you a drink for a moment, but it will end up empty, and you will just end up thirstier. So we are all called to follow Jesus to the point of shedding our blood in his service. And in the end, when Jesus raises the dead and puts all things right, it will all be worth it.

Everyone is called by Jesus to let go of everything that they believe defines them and have their life completely reoriented around Jesus. That is what it is to be a disciple. That is what it is to follow Jesus. No matter who you are or where you come from.

But to give up the whole world to gain Jesus is to give up nothing of value compared to what you have gained.

The Worship Wars

“Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.” (Psalm 33:3).

From Plato’s Republic Book 4

Then to sum up: This is the point to which, above all, the attention of our rulers should be directed, --that music and gymnastic be preserved in their original form, and no innovation made. They must do their utmost to maintain them intact. And when any one says that mankind most regard

The newest song which the singers have, they will be afraid that he may be praising, not new songs, but a new kind of song; and this ought not to be praised, or conceived to be the meaning of the poet; for any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole State, and ought to be prohibited. So Damon tells me, and I can quite believe him;-he says that when modes of music change, of the State always change with them.

Yes, said Adeimantus; and you may add my suffrage to Damon's and your own.

Then, I said, our guardians must lay the foundations of their fortress in music?

Yes, he said; the lawlessness of which you speak too easily steals in.

(Plato’s Republic, Book 4 p. 312)

Plato sees that there is something fundamental and formative about music for a people. He must not allow any new musical fad to come in and take root. New musical modes, new songs, and musical experimentation are dangerous.

And the truth is, many Christians, when they start talking music, jump in with Plato and say, "Yeah! Stick with what is old and traditional. New music gets on my nerves."

But let’s look a little deeper at what Plato means. In The Republic, Plato is arguing about what would make the very best society, what would produce most functional government, and what would lead to the happiest cities. And Book 4, (where our quote is found) is about how to create the kind of citizens that will live in this ideal society.

What will allowing a new kind of music threaten? Socrates has just finished explaining 1) the importance of taking the extra money that the rich have and giving it to the poor. 2) That a good citizen will understand that wife swapping amongst friends is good for the city. (Speaking of wives, he says "Friends have all things in common.") And 3) the police force of the city should be assigning and enforcing whatever labors they see most fit for each person. Taking the strongest at a young age away from their parents in order to be brainwashed into mindless enforcers of the cities bureaucratic educational codes.

He says, if we only allow for certain kinds of music, making sure to never allow for any musical innovation, then we will be able to produce these "well conducted and virtuous citizens" (p. 313).

In fact, he goes so far as to say that such well-educated citizens, so long as the government is paying close attention, will surely breed these good quality citizens. Quality livestock can be produced with careful oversight by the owner and quality citizens can be produced with careful oversight by the state.

Such well bred and managed citizens will even be self-policing. They will produce for themselves an army of bureaucrats that will in turn produce an ever more complex set of rules for themselves. This is why Plato says we have to fill up the city with only thumping and cheerful music.

And there is a very real sense where Plato is right. Music is a powerful, foundational human endeavor that speaks right down to our identity. Music speaks to us in a deeply connective way. As Boethius wrote, “Music is a part of us, and either ennobles or degrades our behavior” (De Institutione Musica).

So when Plato wants to control people, he says, NO NEW MUSIC.

But God who is rich in mercy makes every one of Plato’s nightmares come true. Because when God began converting the Gentiles, he didn't put together a revolutionary political platform on how they were going to make it into the upper courts of the Empire (though they did end up there). He didn’t give them a strategic plan for a military coop. He started a musical war.

He gave us a New Song to sing.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord (Eph. 5:19).

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Col. 3:16).

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms (James 5:13).

When God comes to us, he calls us into the choir of the new song. In his commentary on the Psalms, speaking of Psalm 40:3, St. Augustine said: "He put a new song into my mouth. What new song? A hymn to our God. Possibly you were accustomed to sing hymns to other gods, old hymns; it was the old person who sang them, not the new person. Let the new person come to birth and sing a new song; let the renewed person love what has made him or her new. What is more ancient than God, who exists before all things, with no end and no beginning? Yet when you come back to him he is new for you. When you went away from him you grew old....”

By giving us a new heart and a new song to sing, he is laying the foundation of the city that is coming down from heaven to cover the whole earth. One of the great signs of the coming victory of the kingdom of God over all the nations of the earth is that they are a musical people, who always have a new song.

Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy. (Psalm 33:3).

He has put a new song in my mouth— Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord. (Psalm 40:3).

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. (Psalm 96:1–3).

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (Psalm 98:1–3).

I will sing a new song to You, O God; On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You, The One who gives salvation to kings, Who delivers David His servant From the deadly sword (Psalm 144:9–10).

Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise from the ends of the earth, You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, You coastlands and you inhabitants of them! (Isaiah 42:10).

Music is foundational in the city of God. But the city of God is not static and stationary like Plato’s vision. The city of God, the New Jerusalem, is expanding and spreading and filling the earth with fruitfulness and blessings. So the church is always singing new songs. And the old songs of the church are always becoming new again to the people of the world as they are brought into the church.

So as the world comes to the Lord, it is important that we protect and enjoy our musical heritage. Because these new songs, and the ones that are being written now, and the ones that will be written in the future, are the inheritance of the whole world.

Following God - Psalm 119:8

I will keep thy statutes:  O forsake me not utterly (Ps. 119:8).

When this verse is taken apart from the rest of this section of the psalm, a misunderstanding can occur. It looks like what the psalmist is saying is that when we keep God’s law, then God does not forsake us. It looks as if there is a perseverance that is based on our works. As if God does not forsake us because we obey him.

            But we have seen in the first seven verses of this psalm that it actually functions exactly the other way around. The Psalmist has made it clear that the first blessing that he is after is the blessing of following God’s law. We do not obey God just to receive blessings. The obedience itself is the first blessing.

When he writes, “Oh forsake me not utterly” he is crying out to God saying that he desires, above all things, to be faithful to God’s commands. He wants to obey the Lord. And he knows that he cannot do that unless the Lord’s blessing rests on him. Remember, he has given this description of the blessed person. This is what a person looks like when they are under the blessing of God. They are undefiled and they walk in the way of the Lord (v. 1). The blessed person keeps God’s testimonies and seeks the Lord with his whole heart (v. 2). The blessed person avoids iniquity and follows God in the way that he lives (v. 3). God’s blessing is obedience shaped. God’s way into greater blessings is to bless us with a desire to do what is right.

God’s way of filling our life with fruit is giving us the blessing of obeying him, and as we produce fruit, God blesses us with more seeds to plant and tend. Then the next harvest is bigger, more seed to plant and cultivate and water comes with the harvest.

In our microwave culture of wanting everything now, of always choosing the easy route now, we are wasting our seed. And when we waste our seed we are choosing to not have fruit later. As we put off getting married, put off having kids, put off starting a career, and put off investing their time and energy into the hard things in our youth, we are choosing fleeting experiences now over abundant fruit later, and that means that the fruit will not be there later.

If we are not plowing and planting by obeying God’s word now, then we are not going to have the blessings later to be able and plow and plant in the next phase of our life.

So when the psalmist says, I will obey, do not forsake me, because of the verses leading up to this verse, we know that he is saying is that he does not want to be forsaken to disobedience. He knows that he needs the Lord’s grace to hold him in obedience.

But God does not only pick us up from where we should have been. He picks us up where we are, so begin your obedience from where you are, and then say thank you for the blessing of desiring to obey.

God, History, and Worship - Psalm 119:7

I will praise thee with uprightness of heart,  when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments (Ps. 119:7).

As I prepare to teach ancient Greek history this year, I have been reminded yet again that God is at work in history, undoing the curse of death with his justice and mercy. The Greeks were a people under Adam, under the rule of death. And even though they polished their chains to a beautiful shine, they like all of the ancient world, were a cursed and condemned people. And so neither their culture, nor their power structures survived the judgments of God in history.

The Psalmist tells us that learning the righteous judgments of God will change us. When we learn the law, so that is seeps into our whole heart, soul, mind, and body, then our response will be to praise the Lord. In God's righteous law he shows right and wrong.

One of the central ways that morality comes to us in the Bible is through God’s judgments and actions. As he tells us how to make judgments in the law, as he gives us history in which he makes judgments. He gives us proverbs and prophets in order to explain and enact his judgments. God has not just told us what righteousness is. He has shown us He has shown us what true justice is. He has shown us what it is to do right.

The psalmist says that the more we understand God's justice and righteous judgments the more praiseworthy God will seem. He brings low the wicked and lifts his people up. He humbles the proud that set themselves up. He lifts up the humble and the righteous. And the more we understand, the more laudable God becomes in our eyes.

The Spirit of God has always been active in the world. He has given us the Word of God, as a description of the way that God is making all things right in the world by his judgments. He has enacted the salvation of God, teaching Noah to build the ark, and bringing animals two by two. Calling Abraham out of Ur. Speaking to Moses out of the burning bush. Parting the waters of the red sea. Bringing water from the rock. Knocking down the walls of Jericho. All of the way through history, the Spirit has been enacting the judgments of God. And we are given the scriptures so that we can understand and imitate God's righteous judgments.

And when we see God judging and saving all throughout history, if we have learned what we should be learning, our response is to praise God and turn from sin. It is no use trying to praise God without an upright heart. God's judgments are righteous. We will also learn that God's justice, God's righteous judgments, are beautiful. We will find ourselves drawn to worship. The more we know the scriptures, the more we will see our God as praiseworthy.

Just think about the revelation of God in Jesus. What an amazing story. How beautiful are the feet of him who brings the good news. When God is revealed to us in Christ, it is such a shocking and wonderful thing that the sheer beauty of God's holiness causes us to praise the Lord. God judged sin once and for all to be evil and worthy of death by dying on the cross. But he judged life to be stronger than death, love to be stronger than evil, and grace to be stronger than sin, once and for all, by raising Jesus from the dead.

The more you come to understand God's word and his righteous judgments, the more you will seek to praise Him with uprightness of heart.