The Internet Monk Archives

NT Wright: The Problem = Abandoning Our Vocation

Set forth the goal accurately and diagnose the problem correctly, and you have a much better chance of finding the right solution.

I’m currently reading the first part of N.T. Wright’s new book, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion, and I find his diagnosing skills and his ability to communicate his findings exceptional.

In his other books, particularly Surprised by Hope, Wright has been critical of the goal that has been set forth (especially in popular presentations of the faith) as the Christian hope: going to heaven when we die. In The Day the Revolution Began, he reiterates this.

The death of Jesus, “freeing us from our sins” and “purchasing a people for God,” was not simply aimed at rescuing humans from “hell,” so that they could go to “heaven” instead— which is the picture most Christians have when they think about Jesus’s death.

But Wright insists: “Humans are not made for ‘heaven,’ but for the new heavens and the new earth.”

In contrast, the hope of dwelling with God forever in heaven as often presented and understood is a “Platonized” hope, a blessed eternal future that involves overcoming some problem with our “earthly” and “fleshly” selves so that our “souls” may escape this wicked world and find peace and rest in a perfect spiritual realm.

Wright’s formulation of the Christian hope is quite different: “The ‘goal’ is not ‘heaven,’ but a renewed human vocation within God’s renewed creation.”

If we get this wrong, we will misunderstand the true nature of the human plight.

In light of the Platonized goal of “heaven,” we have concluded that the problem is human “sin,” defined as bad behavior that deserves God’s punishment. Wright describes how much Christian theology has been built upon what he calls “the works contract.”

The “works contract” functions in the popular mind like this. God told his human creatures to keep a moral code; their continuing life in the Garden of Eden depended on their keeping that code perfectly. Failure would incur the punishment of death. This was then repeated in the case of Israel with a sharpened-up moral code, Mosaic law. The result was the same. Humans were therefore heading for hell rather than heaven. Finally, however, Jesus obeyed this moral law perfectly and in his death paid the penalty on behalf of the rest of the human race. The overarching arrangement (the “works contract”) between God and humans remained the same, but Jesus had done what was required. Those who avail themselves of this achievement by believing in him and so benefiting from his accomplishment go to heaven, where they enjoy eternal fellowship with God; those who don’t, don’t. The “works contract” remains intact throughout.

N.T. Wright spares few words in rejecting this paradigm, calling such a view of the relationship between God and human beings a “travesty” that is “unbiblical.” It ignores the message of Israel’s scriptures. The plight it concocts is trivial, compared with the actual plight in which we find ourselves.

What the Bible offers is not a “works contract,” but a covenant of vocation. The vocation in question is that of being a genuine human being, with genuinely human tasks to perform as part of the Creator’s purpose for his world. The main task of this vocation is “image-bearing,” reflecting the Creator’s wise stewardship into the world and reflecting the praises of all creation back to its maker. Those who do so are the “royal priesthood,” the “kingdom of priests,” the people who are called to stand at the dangerous but exhilarating point where heaven and earth meet….

…Within this narrative, creation itself is understood as a kind of Temple, a heaven-and-earth duality, where humans function as the “image-bearers” in the cosmic Temple, part of earth yet reflecting the life and love of heaven. This is how creation was designed to function and flourish: under the stewardship of the image-bearers. Humans are called not just to keep certain moral standards in the present and to enjoy God’s presence here and hereafter, but to celebrate, worship, procreate, and take responsibility within the rich, vivid developing life of creation. According to Genesis, that is what humans were made for.

The diagnosis of the human plight is then not simply that humans have broken God’s moral law, offending and insulting the Creator, whose image they bear— though that is true as well. This lawbreaking is a symptom of a much more serious disease. Morality is important, but it isn’t the whole story. Called to responsibility and authority within and over the creation, humans have turned their vocation upside down, giving worship and allegiance to forces and powers within creation itself. The name for this is idolatry. The result is slavery and finally death. It isn’t just that humans do wrong things and so incur punishment. This is one element of the larger problem, which isn’t so much about a punishment that might seem almost arbitrary, perhaps even draconian; it is, rather, about direct consequences. When we worship and serve forces within the creation (the creation for which we were supposed to be responsible!), we hand over our power to other forces only too happy to usurp our position. We humans have thus, by abrogating our own vocation, handed our power and authority to nondivine and nonhuman forces, which have then run rampant, spoiling human lives, ravaging the beautiful creation, and doing their best to turn God’s world into a hell…

The problem we humans have gotten ourselves into, the “sin” that has exiled us from God, is that we have rejected the vocation for which we were created — to be God’s image in the world, his royal priests who reflect his glory back to him in worship and into the world in faithful stewardship — and we have turned from thus serving the living God to worship idols. This has unleashed the powers of disorder and corruption to enslave humans and the good creation.

It ought to be clear from all this that the reason “sin” leads to “death” is not at all (as is often supposed) that “death” is an arbitrary and somewhat draconian punishment for miscellaneous moral shortcomings. The link is deeper than that. The distinction I am making is like the distinction between the ticket you will get if you are caught driving too fast and the crash that will happen if you drive too fast around a sharp bend on a wet road. The ticket is arbitrary, an imposition with no organic link to the offense. The crash is intrinsic, the direct consequence of the behavior. In the same way, death is the intrinsic result of sin, not simply an arbitrary punishment. When humans fail in their image-bearing vocation, the problem is not just that they face punishment. The problem is that the “powers” seize control, and the Creator’s plan for his creation cannot go ahead as intended.

It is important to get the goal properly in focus: we are destined for renewed human life and vocation in the new heavens and new earth.

It is also important to diagnose the problem accurately: we have abandoned our creational vocation and have turned from God to idols, unleashing the powers of darkness and death upon this world and our lives.

Then, we can begin to talk about why Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (1Cor 15:3).

Another Look: Jesus as the New Adam

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

• Genesis 1:26-28 (NRSV)

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

• Psalm 8:3-8 (NRSV)

The disciples of John reported all these things to him. So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

• Luke 7:18-23 (NRSV)

As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus…

• Hebrews 2:8-9 (NRSV)

• • •

I have come to think that one of the main questions we need to ask when trying to understand the true nature of the gospel message is: What was the vocation that Adam and Eve failed to live up to, but that Jesus fulfilled?

Also, through the help of teachers like N.T. Wright, whose new book we will begin to talk about this week, I have come realize more fully how the life and ministry of Jesus is important.

In my evangelical life, the focus was almost always on Jesus’ death (plus some on his resurrection). We didn’t spend much time studying the four Gospels, and when we did I usually found teaching about why Jesus traveled around Palestine teaching and healing to be vague and rather insubstantial.

This led, I believe, to an impoverished gospel.

Jesus came as “the last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45). One thing I take this to mean is that Jesus came to fulfill the vocation which Adam failed to fulfill.

Humans were created, Genesis tells us, to live in God’s blessing as his image in the world (his temple), his priestly representatives who were to extend his blessing throughout the world. As we have seen in our study of John Walton’s books and in other posts, God made the world a “good” (ordered) place, a cosmic temple in which he would dwell with humans and give them gifts of life and wisdom to “rule” the world. Because the work of creation was incomplete and chaos (forces of non-order and to some extent, disorder) was also present within creation, God called humans to “subdue” the world as part of their priestly calling.

The Jewish teaching of tikkun olam emphasizes this as well. The Ari taught:

At the beginning of time, God’s presence filled the universe. When God decided to bring the world into being, to make room for creation, He contracted Himself by drawing in His breath, forming a dark mass. Then God said, Let there be light (Gen. 1:3) and ten holy vessels came forth, each filled with primordial light.

God sent forth the ten vessels like a fleet of ships, each carrying its cargo of light. But the vessels—too fragile to contain such powerful Divine light—broke open, scattering the holy sparks everywhere.

Had these vessels arrived intact, the world would have been perfect. Instead, God created people to seek out and gather the hidden sparks, wherever we can find them. Once this task is completed, the broken vessels will be restored and the world will be repaired.

In an intriguing piece at his blog, Ron Rolheiser contemplates how this original vocation of human beings fits with the understanding of biological evolution. He discusses how “the survival of the fittest” is only one part of evolution’s story.

As Rolheiser puts it, nature itself is not “interested” in becoming a one-dimensional place where only the “strong” exist. Everywhere we see evidence of an advantageous complexity that is only possible when the “strong” and the “weak” and everything in between coexist in various kinds of harmonies and partnerships. However, nature by itself shows a “cruelty,” an entropy that also works against such harmonization. It is the task of humans, the most evolved of creatures, says Rolheiser, to assist nature by doing what nature cannot always do for herself: ensure the survival and flourishing of the weak. To use John Walton’s terminology, in partnership with God humans continue the task of bringing order to chaos and of redeeming disorder so that it becomes ordered anew.

When God created human beings at the beginning of time, God charged them with the responsibility of “dominion”, of ruling over nature. What’s contained in that mandate is not an order or permission to dominate over nature and use nature in whatever fashion we desire. The mandate is rather that of “watching over”, of tending the garden, of being wise stewards, and of helping nature do things that, in its unconscious state, it cannot do, namely, protect and nurture the weak….

• “Evolution’s Ultimate Wisdom”

Now think of Jesus:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. (Matthew 4:23-24, NRSV)

What was Jesus doing here but bringing order to non-order and disorder? Bringing wholeness and shalom in place of chaos? He was fulfilling the vocation God had originally bestowed upon human beings at creation. Here is Jesus, the new Adam, ruling over his world in love, subduing the strong forces that were feeding on the weak and poor and restoring them in God’s blessing.

We also know that Jesus worked miracles in nature, showing power over the forces of chaos and non-order (Matt 8:23-27). We read that he not only healed bodily infirmities but also pronounced forgiveness of sins, redeeming people from the disorder of personal, moral, and spiritual alienation (Matt 9:2-8). In all this, Jesus was doing more than just “showing he was God” (the answer we used to get when we asked why all this was important). Yes, he was presenting himself to Israel as her Messiah, demonstrating that he was Emmanuel, God who had come to be with them to save them from exile. But there was more to that simple explanation than meets the eye.

Jesus was pointing to what God intended human life and life in this creation to be about: shalom— wholeness, peace, dignity, harmony, restored relationships. A world made right. With each healing, exorcism, pronouncement of cleansing, restoration of wholeness, and with each teaching that stimulated hope and imagination and wonder, Jesus brought a few pixels on the screen of this world into focus so that one could see life for what it was meant to be. A few more sparks were gathered. A few more of the weak were protected and nurtured. A few more cells in the body of the universe became healthy again. Non-order became ordered. Disorder was demolished and replaced by an embrace.

One can almost hear the words, “And God saw that it was good,” after each act of tikkun olam Jesus performed.

Jesus was acting as Adam and Eve and all humans were meant to act from the beginning, extending God’s blessing to the chaotic little corners of his community.

Of course, by the time Jesus came, disorder had spread and developed in countless ways so that it became part and parcel of the very fabric of life and creation. “The whole world [was lying] under the power of the evil one” (1John 5:19).

In order to break the absolute dominion of death by which the evil one held us enslaved, Jesus took death upon himself. I like the way one of our commenters put it: “In his complete identification with us in death, the lowest point to which one can go, as God he disarmed death. He had to ‘get into’ death in order to smash it from the inside out.” On the cross Jesus faced the forces of chaos and disorder and absorbed all their dark power. As Alan Lewis said, “God has begun to conquer death not by omnipotent annihilation of the enemy but through submission to its clutches.”

In his triumphant resurrection, then, Jesus became the firstborn of the new creation, representative of a new humanity and a new creation. The evidence of that “newness” in our lives and in our world is often scanty, we must admit. Just as Jesus’ ministry was small and obscure, localized in a way that few appreciated it, even so people today who become new in him by grace through faith begin gathering sparks little by little, finding the lost here and there, comforting that lonely one, protecting the weak who are off the radar, and advocating for those hungering and thirsting for justice, whose voices are rarely heard.

As new “Adams and Eves” in Christ we are called to take up the original vocation God gave to humans. We do this not through spectacular, public triumph, but rather by trusting in God’s wisdom and not our own. We are to exercise “dominion” by laying down our lives as Jesus did, subduing chaos and planting seeds as small as mustard seeds that will one day produce harvests of righteousness because God’s life, love, and blessing are in them.

Music Monday: October 24, 2016

Music Monday: Preparing for Reformation Day

One of Martin Luther’s great contributions to the Church was the restoration of hymn-singing to the people of God.

A favorite album in my collection that I love to listen to this time of year was released by Concordia Publishing House; it’s called Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth. It combines wonderful sacred music with quotes from the Reformer about God’s magnificent gift of music.

Highly recommended.

• • •

IN THE VERY MIDST OF LIFE
Tr. Composite

Luther based this rendition on a popular Latin hymn from the 11th century. One can sense the turmoil and danger Luther felt in the tumultuous days of the Reformation — this is a common theme in his hymns and a reason he looked regularly to the Psalms for his inspiration. We also see the spiritual tumult in his own soul as he sought peace with God.

In the very midst of life snares of death surround us;
Who shall help us in the strife lest the foe confound us?
Thou only, Lord, Thou only!
We mourn that we have greatly erred,
That our sins Thy wrath have stirred.
Holy and righteous God! Holy and mighty God!
Holy and all merciful Savior! Eternal Lord God!
Save us lest we perish in the bitter pangs of death.
Have mercy, O Lord!

In the midst of death’s dark vale pow’rs of hell o’ertake us.
Who will help when they assail, who secure will make us?
Thou only, Lord, Thou only!
Thy heart is moved with tenderness,
Pities us in our distress.
Holy and righteous God! Holy and mighty God!
Holy and all merciful Savior! Eternal Lord God!
Save us from the terror of the fiery pit of hell.
Have mercy, O Lord!

In the midst of utter woe when our sins oppress us,
Where shall we for refuge go, where for grace to bless us?
To Thee, Lord Jesus, only!
Thy precious blood was shed to win
Full atonement for our sin.
Holy and righteous God! Holy and mighty God!
Holy and all merciful Savior! Eternal Lord God!
Lord, preserve and keep us in the peace that faith can give.
Have mercy, O Lord!

• • •

LORD, KEEP US STEADFAST IN YOUR WORD
Tr. Catherine Winkworth

This has been one of Luther’s most popular hymns over the generations. It was written later in his life, 1541 or 1542, and the original words reflect his fear of an impending Muslim invasion in which he believed the papacy complicit. The first stanza originally included this line: “Restrain the murderous pope and turk.”

Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word;
Curb those who by deceit or sword
Would wrest the kingdom from Your Son
And bring to naught all He has done.

Lord Jesus Christ, Your pow’r make known,
For You are Lord of lords alone;
Defend Your holy Church that we
May sing Your praise eternally.

O Comforter of priceless worth,
Send peace and unity on earth;
Support us in our final strife
And lead us out of death to life.

• • •

Lord God, We Sing Your Praise
Tr. F. Samuel Janzow
Setting by Richard Hillert, published by Concordia Pub. House

Though this is a contemporary musical setting of Luther’s Te Deum paraphrase, it evokes something of the personal and household use of Luther’s songs. Here, you can get a sense of how Luther and his family and guests might have sung together as part of their household worship. Or, alternatively, how the congregation might have joined the choir antiphonally in the church’s worship service.

Lord God, we sing Your praise; Lord God, our thanks we raise.
Father eternal, true, all creation worships You.
All angels and heav’nly throngs serve Your glory with their songs.
All cherubim and seraphim with soaring voices sing the hymn:
Holy is God our Lord, Holy is God our Lord,
Holy is God our Lord, the Lord of Sabaoth.

Your glory, might, eternity fill heav’n and earth with majesty.
The twelve apostles raise their voice, the holy prophets, too, rejoice.
Armies of noble martyrs throng to glorify You, God, in song.
The holy Church throughout the world keeps Your high glory’s praise unfurled.
To God the Father on the throne, to You, only-begotten Son,
To You, the Spirit, comfort true, we bring our praise and worship due.

O King of glory, blessed One, You are the Father’s only Son.
From a virgin You took Your birth to save mankind in all the earth.
You trod on death for its defeat that Your own at Your throne might meet.
You rule at the Father’s right hand with equal glory and command.
You will come back to earth again to judge with majesty all men.

O Lord, then in the final flood save those You bought with Your own blood.
Bring us to heav’n to celebrate with all those who Your help await.
Save us, Lord, with Your healing glance, and bless Your own inheritance.
Watch over us and guard our day, raise us to glory, Lord, we pray.
To You our daily praise we bring, to Your name constant honor sing.

Guard us, O Lord, we humbly pray, and keep us safe from sin today.
O Lord, have mercy on us all, have mercy on us when we call.
Lord, turn us toward Your kindly face, our hope is only in Your grace.
Lord, on You we build all our trust, let us not perish in the dust. Amen.

Pic & Poem of the Week: October 23, 2016

Chicago Cubs players celebrate after Game 6 of the National League baseball championship series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016, in Chicago. The Cubs won 5-0 to win the series and advance to the World Series against the Cleveland Indians. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) — AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Note: This poem is written from the viewpoint of the opposing team. The Chicago Cubs won the pennant four times from 1906-1910, often frustrating the Giants along the way. Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance were the remarkably talented infield double-play combination for the Cubs.

Russell to Baez to Rizzo doesn’t have quite the same ring, but it has been just as effective here in 2016. Congratulations to the Chicago Cubs, who will return to the World Series for the first time since 1945.

Go Cubs Go!!!

• • •

Baseball’s Sad Lexicon
by Franklin Pierce Adams

These are the saddest of possible words:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double—
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

⚾︎

Saturday Ramblings: October 22, 2016

RAMBLER OF THE WEEK

This summer I had the privilege of attending a luncheon at the home of the Archbishop of Indianapolis, Joseph W. Tobin. Our mutual friend John Armstrong had arranged for a number of religious leaders and ministers from around town to meet together to discuss the topic of missional-ecumenism in our city. I truly enjoyed Fr. Tobin’s hospitality and his easy manner which made us all feel welcome and able to participate freely in the discussion.

Tobin came to some public attention last year when he led the local Catholic church in opposing Gov. Mike Pence’s call to ban Syrian refugees from Indiana.

Just recently, he received big news. On October 9, Archbishop Tobin issued the following statement:

Early this morning I learned that Pope Francis had appointed me to the College of Cardinals. I will formally be installed in that service in a ceremony in Rome next month. I will continue as the Archbishop of Indianapolis. I have come to love deeply the people of the Catholic communities of central and southern Indiana and count as a precious blessing the numerous friendships I have with civic and religious leaders throughout the state. I ask all people of faith to pray for me. I hope this new responsibility will make me a better servant of all Hoosiers. I also offer my prayers and support to the other Cardinals-elect, especially Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Kevin Farrell, of Dallas, who was recently appointed to a new position in Rome.

You can read more about his lifetime of ministry and service at the links above.

Fr. Tobin will make a trip to Rome on Nov. 19 when the Pope is scheduled to elevate the new cardinals at a formal ceremony.

Congratulations for this honor and for the ongoing ministry of soon-to-be Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, our Rambler of the Week.

• • •

INTERNET MONK ALTERNATIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RECOMMENDATION

This presidential election campaign has been filled with so many attacks and so much vitriol, that the entire country is feeling the heavy mood of negativity. With that in mind, we’d like to offer an alternative candidate today who can lift our spirits and bring the sunshine back to America again.

In today’s talk, our candidate shows a depth of humility and vulnerability rare seen in U.S. politics. My fellow Americans, this man is worthy of your vote on Nov. 8.

Note: I’m sorry but this video has a feature that continues to play other clips after this one. Just hit stop.

• • •

NEWS OF THE WEEK

✑ Here’s a Cubs fan I’m pulling for. Your hopelessly devoted (to the Chicago Cubs) Chaplain has been waiting 60 years for his hapless baseball team to make it to the World Series. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to 101-year-old Virginia Wood. She’ll be 102 next month, and what she wants most for her birthday is to see her favorite team win a championship for the first time since 1908.

Wood attended her first Cubs game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field in 1924. She was 10 years old. As an adult, she would go as often as she could, especially with friends after work on “Ladies Day” when they could attend free.

“When people didn’t stay for the whole game, we’d all move ourselves down a little closer to the front as far as we could go,” Wood says.

Wood saw lots of games but no championships. The Cubs last won a World Series in 1908, but Wood dismisses the idea of a curse holding the Cubs back. She says she knew a championship would come eventually, and she is convinced this is the year.

“Oh, I’m counting on them going all the way, absolutely,” she says.

Virginia and I and a host of others will be on pins and needles as the Cubs face the Dodgers in game 6 of the National League Championship Series tonight at Wrigley Field. This past week, when Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers pitcher, and Kyle Hendricks, the Cubs hurler, last met, most of us chewed our fingers down to the knuckles watching an excruciatingly tense game that the Dodgers won 1-0. I know Randy Thompson is pulling for his Dodgers, but Virginia and I are hoping the Cubs don’t get “Kershawed” again this evening.

Meanwhile, Cubs fan and funnyman Bill Murray did this.

• • •

✑ There was a major attack on the Internet Friday. Here are excerpts of the New York Time’s report of the massive “distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS.”

Major websites were inaccessible to people across wide swaths of the United States on Friday after a company that manages crucial parts of the internet’s infrastructure said it was under attack.

Users reported sporadic problems reaching several websites, including Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, Reddit, Etsy, SoundCloud and The New York Times.

The company, Dyn, whose servers monitor and reroute internet traffic, said it began experiencing what security experts called a distributed denial-of-service attack just after 7 a.m. Reports that many sites were inaccessible started on the East Coast, but spread westward in three waves as the day wore on and into the evening.

And in a troubling development, the attack appears to have relied on hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices like cameras, baby monitors and home routers that have been infected — without their owners’ knowledge — with software that allows hackers to command them to flood a target with overwhelming traffic.

…Dyn is one of many outfits that host the Domain Name System, or DNS, which functions as a switchboard for the internet. The DNS translates user-friendly web addresses like fbi.gov into numerical addresses that allow computers to speak to one another. Without the DNS servers operated by internet service providers, the internet could not operate.

In this case, the attack was aimed at the Dyn infrastructure that supports internet connections. While the attack did not affect the websites themselves, it blocked or slowed users trying to gain access to those sites.

Mr. York, the Dyn strategist, said in an interview during a lull in the attacks that the assaults on its servers were complex.

“This was not your everyday DDoS attack,” Mr. York said. “The nature and source of the attack is still under investigation.”

Many are warning that this is only the beginning.

• • •

✑ Phoenix Preacher calls out Saeed Abedini. Michael Newnham nails it in his piece critical of the released Iranian hostage/domestic abuser/”pastor”.

On his blog, Newnham had faithfully called us to pray for Saeed when he was imprisoned in Iran. Millions of Christians did so, interceding for him, his release, and his family. Thankfully, he was set free and came home to the U.S., to the cheers of many, including Franklin Graham, who had also been a huge promoter of the American pastor. However, during all of this it came out that Saeed and his wife Nagmeh had serious marital difficulties and that he had been emotionally and physically abusive toward her, one time serving a 90-day jail sentence for domestic violence. The couple eventually divorced.

So, has his return and all these changes indicated that it might be time for solitude and self-reflection on Saeed’s part? Unfortunately, no. He continues to make public pronouncements as a “pastor” and is even soliciting financial support so that he can continue his “ministry.” Michael Newnham is right. This is unwise at the very least.

On his Facebook page, “Pastor” Saeed Abedini says that a woman could not be elected President because that would be giving her “headship”.

He does allow that a woman can be in “leadership”.

He has not yet explained the difference in any coherent way.

Coherence is not his strong suit.

He is still being held up by Charisma ragazine and other Christian “news” outlets…in Charisma, he says he’s not endorsing a candidate.

On Facebook, he comes out loudly for Trump.

He also says that he has been in a constant battle with the “spirit of Jezebel” since coming home.

Of course he has…

Of course, Saeed claims that everything he says is biblical.

Therefore, you should be one of 200 people who will commit to twenty dollars a month to support him… after two weeks, he’s only 180 people short.

Evidently, the Franklin Graham gravy train has had the wheels come off…

Before you commit to giving Saeed twenty bucks a month…perhaps he should answer how he’s still in the ministry when he’s absolutely disqualified biblically from the pulpit.

Ask him how a woman is unqualified to be president, but a man with an unbiblical divorce and an arrest record is qualified for ministry.

Ask him how a man that refuses to answer for his past or present sin to the Body of Christ is fit for ministry.

Ask him…better yet, ignore him.

• • •

✑Ballot initiatives we’ll be voting for/against in 2016. In addition to voting for officeholders in this years elections, voters across the U.S. will be faced with making choices with regard to more than 160 ballot initiatives. Here are some of them, as reported by Robert Schroeder at Market Watch:

Minimum wage: There are measures to boost the minimum wage on the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington. And in a referendum that may prove to be the bane of South Dakota teenagers, voters in that state will decide whether the minimum wage should drop by $1 an hour for workers under the age of 18.

Plastic bags in California: In 2014, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the country’s first statewide ban on disposable plastic bags. On Nov. 8, Golden State residents will vote whether to uphold the law or throw it out. The law bans single-use plastic bags and also lets grocers charge customers 10 cents for paper bags or reusable plastic bags.

Marijuana: Voters in nine states get the opportunity to legalize marijuana. Five — Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada — have ballot initiatives to legalize pot for recreational use and four — Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota — for medical use.

Taxing tobacco: Voters in four states will consider increasing tobacco taxes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures: California, Colorado, Missouri and North Dakota. And smokers should be prepared for a hefty increase. In Colorado, for example, the tax would go from 84 cents a pack to $2.59. The median state tax on a pack of cigarettes was $1.53 as of January.

New Jersey’s casino question: Atlantic City’s casinos have gone through some very trying times, with the Trump Taj Mahal earlier this month becoming the latest to close its doors. Now, voters will get a say on adding two casinos elsewhere in the state. If voters approve Public Question 1, notes Ballotpedia, it would end a four-decade monopoly in Atlantic City.

In additional measures, porn actors in California could be required to wear condoms during filming if Prop. 60 is approved. Several states are voting on additional gun control measures. Here in Indiana, we’ll be voting about establishing a constitutional right to hunt and fish, while in Oklahoma they will vote about whether to add a “right to farm” provision to their constitution. Minnesotans will weigh in on creating an independent board that will set the pay of their legislators.

For a comprehensive run-down of this year’s ballot initiatives, go to Ballotpedia.

• • •

✑ As we get closer to the election, here are some wise and helpful words from Elizabeth Mangham Lott at Baptist News Global.

In the midst of this tremendously difficult season, it is easy to forget who we are and give into fear. The campaign season may have gone off the rails, but we don’t have to follow. As people of faith, we must pay attention to the voices and teachings that are shaping our minds and realities. In the Church, the teachings that inform our lives are not the ones that make us more afraid but the ones that that make us more generous. More trusting. More hopeful. More loving. More compassionate. We must pay attention to what is manifesting within us and what we are releasing into our world. Are we becoming angrier? More anxious? More hostile? Less trusting? More afraid? There’s a pretty good chance that those are not the ways of God.

When we are stepping forward in truth, we are braver, kinder, stronger, more fully alive and more fully ourselves. We remember that the image of God is within us and within all those whom we meet. When we are on the Way of Christ Jesus, we are extending the same grace and peace to others that has been extended to us. Even in a frightening and divisive political season, the words we profess as followers of Christ are true. Especially now, the world needs us to grow more fully into the Spirit ways of peace, love, joy, kindness, goodness, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. If all of that sounds like too much, let’s at least agree to start with the kindness part.

• • •

REFORMATION MONTH: LUTHER INSULT OF THE WEEK

• • •

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

What does the “Enneagram” have to offer Christians?

Is this what churches should say to gay members?

Should you let your dog lick your face?

Are we actually living in the Matrix?

Why has Wayne Grudem reversed his position again on Donald Trump?

Why is Texas capping services for special education students?

Why have the NFL’s early season TV ratings declined?

How has the church helped you?

• • •

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Some of the finalists in the 2016 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

Fridays with Michael Spencer: October 21, 2011

In Screwtape Letter 10, the senior tempter reminds Wormwood that, as much as possible, he should strive to have his patient lead two completely separate and parallel lives.

It’s basic demonic advice, and few of us would need much explanation. Someone ought to add that’s there’s no good reason to stop at two separate lives. Three, four, five or fifteen separate lives are all possible if you learn the basics of compartmentalizing.

Yes, that’s a fifty cent word: compartmentalizing. Taking a whole life, dividing it into sections, putting up walls between those sections and living in each one as a different world that allows you to be a different person.

I’m not talking about multiple personalities. I’m simply saying that Screwtape was wise to point out that we often live in one room- and with the people in that room- as if the other rooms don’t exist.

I look at my students, and I realize that we are constantly training them to live in various compartments as different people. Integration, integrity and wholeness in all of life are very difficult. We construct a student’s life in such a way that it’s extremely easy to imagine that compartmentalization is normal and good.

Activity after activity. Class after class. Different adults. Different peers. Different settings. The person who can move easily from one relationship and experience to another is rewarded. The person who has difficulty adopting these many different roles into one personality is looked at as inferior. We give awards for “versatility.”

I’ve noticed over the years that teenagers and young adults who are successful easily develop a kind of false and movable personality. It’s useful, and it’s one of the reasons they do well and we like them. But if you listen to their stories, their poetry and their self-reporting, you hear the consistent complaint: I am a false person; I am living a life that is not truly me.

We’re very invested in compartmentalizing who we are. It works. It’s safe. It keeps us away from what hurts. And, of course, it’s disastrous in the long run.

Years ago, I heard that one of my friends had discovered her husband was married and had children with another woman in another community. This was a man who came to our church quite often. He was a successful businessman. He had a good reputation and never seemed the least bit unusual.

He was, however, a man who looked at himself in the morning, realized he was two people, realized he was heading for judgment day with a life full of lies, then he shaved and went to work. He did this over and over, and as far as I know, was very good at what he did.

The compartments in his life were well sealed. Whatever master plan it took to juggle all the various versions of himself, I doubt that he ever laid them all out on the table. No, one lie at a time. One room, one compartment at a time.

I want to steadfastly refuse this insidious and compromising temptation to build my life as a collection of rooms that have nothing to do with one another. I am watching it in the lives of others, and it’s frightening. I’ve seen it over time in my own life and it’s poison.

Do you refuse to take seriously what the Bible actually says and doesn’t say? Then build a room where the Bible doesn’t matter as much as your general ideas of Christianity. Does your version of Christianity refuse all critiques and evaluations? Then build a room where your religion is flawless. Do you want to conveniently divide the world into the good people who nod and smile and the bad people who ask questions? Then build another room.

Build a room for your money. Build one for your porn addiction. Build one for your flirtations and affairs. Build one for cheating, greed and racism. Build a room where your rudeness, laziness and dishonesty don’t matter. Build one for your ambitious, backbiting and betrayals of co-workers. Build a room where you get to see your children the way you want to see them, not the way they are. Build a room that exactly fits your church, then lock the doors. Build a room for your politicians and their worldview. Build a room that controls whatever you want to hear and protects whatever conclusions you are unwilling to ever question.

Screwtape says that those parallel lives are usually best maintained with an aversion to “Puritanism,” i.e. religion that actually takes the Gospel seriously, and with a large dose of vanity. In other words, if it feels goods, results in praise, approval and pleasure, let’s build a compartment for it. Once built, don’t let something like the presence of the Holy Spirit make you feel bad.

Or let me suggest another project. Instead of building more rooms, why not tear some things down? Tear out some walls. Become, as much as possible, one person, in one life, for one audience.

When Jesus calls his disciples to inevitable conflict with family or the authorities of the world, he is inviting us to live one life, and not two or three or fifteen. he is asking us to repent of all the rooms we’ve build and to make this world- the Lord’s “House”- the one room we live in as one person.

The community of Jesus shouldn’t promote and encourage our multi-compartmentalized existence, but often it is a primary facilitator of exactly that. I’ve watched more students learn to have a false persona at church than I care to recall. But they received permission and instruction from a community of adults — including leaders — who were afraid to ever live the same life before everyone in one room.

The stories of what happens to Christians as they flame out in notorious sin or simply break down under the pressure should serve as a warning to us of the short-term consequences of compartmentalization. The long term consequences are more serious. We all might consider those persons who are utterly convinced they’ve been living in a room with Jesus’ approval, and to whom his word is “I never knew you.”

Another Look: Eschatological Me

Note from CM: This is one of my favorite posts that I have written. The concept I discuss here is, in my view, a genuine key to Christian self-identity and practice. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand at a glance, so I hope you’ll take some time thinking about what I write here and that we can talk about what it signifies for our daily lives.

• • •

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.(Gal. 2:20, KJV)

You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3, CEB)

❦

On a Monday afternoon a few years ago, as I was waiting to board the bus to return home from Chicago, I walked across the street from the south side station to McDonalds. I had to go to the bathroom…bad.

This particular restaurant is not in the greatest neighborhood, and I noticed a sign on the wall that the bathroom was locked because of vandalism; one had to ask at the counter for someone to open the door. So I stood at the side of the counter and the young clerk looked rather disdainfully at me and said, “The restroom is for purchasing customers.” I said OK and waited. I was going to buy something, but a bodily need more urgent than thirst was demanding my attention.

I didn’t realize right away that she wanted me to buy something first before she would open the bathroom, so I stood there hoping she was just finishing up with her customer and then she would help me. She, however, interpreted my standing there as stubborn insistence that I wasn’t going to buy anything but was going to sneak in the bathroom when someone else entered. So she raised her voice at me and said it again: “Paying customers only!”

I got a little angry. I told her I really wasn’t interested in buying food and then taking it into the bathroom; that I was going to buy something but wanted to use the bathroom first. I might have muttered something unkind under my breath as well. She would have none of it. So I went to the counter and bought a Diet Coke. The girl said she would hold it for me until I came out.

There I was, a chaplain, a pastor. Inspirational black gospel music was playing in the restaurant. I had just spent the morning learning and discussing theology with my sainted professor and fellow divinity students. And I was on the verge of cussing out a young woman in public because she wouldn’t open the bathroom door for me.

I could have blamed it on the fact that I had been up since two a.m. with only a few fitful hours of sleep. I was tired and ready to go home. I was in a bit of a time crunch, fearing I might miss my bus. My bodily needs were screaming at me. I had my reasons.

Also, I think of myself as a fairly trustworthy person, and to be honest, it was insulting that she didn’t trust me. Of course I understood where I was and the kinds of people she had to deal with all day. I’m sure I didn’t appear all that impressive to her — in dungarees and ball cap, with scraggly beard and circles under my eyes. But her automatic dismissal and distrust awakened the dragon in me.

I had, at that moment and upon further consideration, yet another opportunity to reflect on what Jürgen Moltmann calls, “the notion of paradoxical identity,” his phrase for the famous theological dictum, “simul iustus et peccator” (at the same time righteous and a sinner).

But I think somewhat differently about that concept these days. I’ve come to understand it in eschatological terms.

Many people understand the sinner-saint duality as an ontological, psychological reality: part of me is a saint, part of me is a sinner; I am a mixture and no matter how hard I try, I will regularly fall short because I am, after all, never fully free from my sinful condition. However, I also have the seeds of sainthood in my spirit, and there is a godly part of me that wants to do and is capable of doing good.

In other words, I live a kind of Jekyll and Hyde existence — this is now my nature as a Christian.

However, there may be a better way of thinking about this. Let’s start with a quote from Wilfried Joest:

The simul is not the equilibrium of two mutually limiting partial aspects but the battleground of two mutually exclusive totalities. It is not the case that a no-longer entire sinner and a not-yet completely righteous one can be pasted together in a psychologically conceivable mixture; it is rather that real and complete righteousness stands over against real and total sin…The Christian is not half-free and half-bound, but slave and free at once, not half-saint, but sinner and saint at once, not half alive, but dead and alive at once, not mixture but gaping opposition of antitheses.

• quoted in Justification Is for Preaching

Joest goes on to point out — and I agree with him — that I am both a sinner and a saint is not so much a description of my inner constitution as it is a statement about my participation in both this age and in the age to come. It is a statement of eschatological realities.

Paul speaks of this age as the realm of sin, the flesh, the world. It is the domain that is “in Adam,” and under divine condemnation, for God has passed judgment on it. As a human being who has not yet been glorified, I live in this realm. I participate in the death-dealing thoughts, words, and actions that characterize this kingdom. As much as I might try to justify myself, the divine verdict always comes back: sinner. As long as I live in this transient reality, I live under this verdict. I am sinner.

On the other hand, in Christ, another verdict has been declared toward me. United to him by God’s grace through faith, I have a share in all that is his. Like Abraham who believed, faith has been reckoned to me as righteousness. The verdict of my standing before God as a member of his people at the final judgment has been declared in anticipation of that event: I am saint. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).

So, the eschatological reality is: I am both total sinner and total saint. 100% of each.

As long as I live in this age — in the flesh, in the world, beset by sin — I will never be not-sinner.

As long as I am in Christ — I will never be not-saint.

Both of these statements reflect the truth about me.

I think the verses quoted at the beginning of this post reflect this reality. In Galatians 2:20, the apostle expresses the simultaneous dualities of my life eloquently:

I am crucified but nevertheless alive;
I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me;
I live my life in the flesh but I live by Christ’s faithfulness.

We also see this concisely stated in Colossians 3: I have died and my life is hidden with Christ in God. Paul goes on in that context to talk about those aspects of my life that “remain upon the earth.” Though he is using spatial imagery here, the framework is actually temporal — my life in the present age vs. my life in the age to come; my part in the old creation vs. my part in the new creation.

What then of sanctification? If we look at life from an eschatological perspective, then sanctification is not a matter of me becoming less and less a sinner and more and more a saint. God has already declared me both a total sinner and a total saint. I am not growing toward sainthood and leaving my sinful status behind.

Rather, it seems that we should track “progress” from the other direction.

Any ability I have to display the character of Christ, or to exhibit the virtues of faith, hope, and love, and any success I have in contributing to God’s mission in the world comes as I experience more and more of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom into this present age.

And this is where the realities of Church, Word and Sacrament, and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit come into play. God’s kingdom comes, and his will is done on earth as it is in heaven as he communicates more and more of his grace to his people through the means he has chosen. It is not our movement toward holiness that matters. It is God’s ongoing movement toward us that is decisive.

As Paul says, “The life I now live in the flesh [that is, in this present age] I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God.” And, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

However, if you see me at McDonalds one day and I don’t impress you with my saintliness, I’ll have to confess that, much of the time, my life is “hidden with Christ in God.”

Blame it all on sex. Uh, no.

Couple holding hands, photo by Jason Schlachet

According to Christian author, speaker, and apologist Frank Turek, sex is the problem in America these days, not unbelief. The reason, he says, that people are turning away from God is because they are chasing another religion: sex.

It’s an old religion resurrected — the new religion in America is the religion of sex,” Turek said. “Do you know that every cultural issue we argue over has something to do with sex? Why is that? Huxley said it, it’s our “erotic revolt.” We want sexual freedom.

To support his thesis, Turek quoted the famous words of English author and philosopher Aldous Huxley:

The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom,

OK, so some libertine philosopher admitted his own licentiousness and that of his other elite philosopher friends. Good quote. Questionable application.

With all due respect, I think it is Christians like Turek who are obsessed with sex, at least the sexual behavior of others, simply because it offends them so much that they must find reason to blame it for all sorts of ills.

I have no doubt that there are plenty of people who don’t want God or a particular moral way of living because they don’t want anyone putting limits on their pursuit of sensual pleasures, but to make the blanket statement that this is “America’s” religious problem is a ridiculous, unsubstantiated assertion.

I once read a book by a Roman Catholic scholar who went even further. He posited that the root of the decline of western civilization goes back to Luther the licentious sinner, who left the monastery because he couldn’t control his sexual urges. In this author’s view, that sparked the entire downward course of the West. In the book he sought to show that, after Luther, every new development (downward) in philosophy was just another attempt to rationalize the philosopher’s immorality.

How about that? I never knew we Protestants were all that sexy! The “original sinners” of Western Civ.

At least Turek doesn’t go that far. I still don’t buy his overdrawn rhetoric.

In my own, admittedly anecdotal experience, for every proud, brazen libertine I’ve met who cast off the shackles of religion to shack up with a lover, I’ve probably met a dozen who have been hurt by the church or religious people in one way or another. In fact, I have a rather standard question I ask family members when they warn me as a chaplain that their loved one doesn’t want anything to do with talking about God or faith. “I’ve usually found that people who say that to me have been hurt sometime in their past. Do you know if anything like that happened in his life?” Invariably I get some positive response.

It may even be that some of these people suffered some kind of sexual abuse at the hands of religious parents, family members, or church people. Perhaps some of the folks Turek criticizes as chasing a new religion of sex are actually seeking comfort and the kind of safe intimacy they’ve never known and for which they would never turn to religion to find. For good reason.

Hey, my fellow American Christian leaders and teachers, can we please stop obsessing about the sexual behavior of our neighbors and stop condemning people en masse? Find me one example of Jesus speaking or acting this way toward sexual sinners, and then maybe I’ll consider what you say.

I’m conservative when it comes to things like this, and I am no fan of the openly sexualized culture we live in today. It’s uncomfortable, to say the least. But this common evangelical rhetoric that people are “chasing a new religion” and that this is the real reason our churches are empty and the world is in trouble is getting so tired to me.

First of all, I think Mr. Turek and most evangelicals approach this issue the way they talk about so many things. They imagine there was a “golden age” in the past when sex outside of heterosexual marriage was the exception and not the norm. Please.

In fact, a government public health report looking at data going back to 1954 concluded, “Almost all Americans have sex before marrying.” The report also observed, “…there is a common popular perception that most or all of those who came of age before the ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1960s and 1970s waited until they married to have sex, and that it is necessary to revert to the behaviors of that earlier time in order to eliminate the problems of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. However, research has questioned whether such a chaste period ever existed.”

Could we be a bit more realistic about this most basic of human urges and just accept the fact that, as long as there have been rules, people have been breaking them, not only with regard to premarital sex, but in a variety of ways?

Second, increased sexual freedom and the public sexualization of our culture, as I’ve said often before (and like so many other things in modern culture), is the natural result of more personal and political freedom, advances in technology, and increased affluence. Human progress and attainment has led to more personal autonomy. People with more freedom, more mobility, technology that gives them access to heretofore forbidden things, and less tight-knit social structures in their lives will make some of these choices more regularly because they can, and because there are fewer social consequences. It becomes more normal because it is more available and therefore seems more natural.

Frank Turek, you can’t stop that by preaching or making arguments like this.

This is the world we’re in. Furthermore, this is the world God is in. If he is not with sinners, he is not with anyone. And if we just sit back and hurl condemnation on people for doing what comes naturally in a world like this, and don’t build deep relationships, offering them forbearance, kindness, and hospitality — as Jesus did — who will show them life as it could be in a new creation?

• • •

Photo on Flickr by Jason Schlachet. Creative Commons License.

Another Look: It Never Helps

Note from CM: Several years ago, I wrote an essay on anger. You can read the original HERE. I’ve incorporated some of that post into today’s. But I’ve also gained a few new insights on the subject since I wrote the first article. This election year, with all its angry rhetoric and turmoil, has caused me to do some self-examination once more. What I see is usually not pretty, and it often makes me wonder if I’ve progressed much at all in the battle against this deadly sin.

• • •

…the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

• James 1:20, NASB

In my experience, it never helps.

Anger never improves a situation. Anger doesn’t work. Anger always make things worse. And anger has a multitude of unwanted consequences besides. Anger does not enable us to take forward steps in our relationships. Instead, it sows seeds of fear, distrust, and animosity that take root quickly and become nigh impossible to dig out again. Anger hurts. Anger leaves marks. Anger expressed can accelerate rapidly to emotional, verbal, and sometimes physical abuse. Anger held within and allowed to simmer can lead to withdrawal, alienation, and neglect. Anger turned on oneself can spiral down into depression, self-hatred, self-destructive habits or even actual suicide.

According to Jesus, anger toward another is the emotional equivalent of murder.

You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. (Matthew 5:21-22)

Anger and its consequences led to murder in the one of the Bible’s earliest stories (Genesis 4). That’s when God asked Cain the question we should all ask ourselves: “Why are you angry?” (4:6). Anger is the first condition of the human heart and experience that Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:21ff). Moses, the Lawgiver whose laws Jesus speaks of in this sermon, was kept from entering the Promised Land because of unbelief that exploded in anger (Numbers 20:12). When the Apostle Paul wrote lists of vices for the ethical formation of his congregations, anger and related faults are always listed prominently (see, for example, Colossians 3:8).

“…there is nothing that can be done with anger that cannot be done better without it.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 151)

One source that helps me meditate on the perils of anger is Dallas Willard’s discussion of the topic in his book, The Divine Conspiracy.

When we trace wrongdoing back to its roots in the human heart, we find that in the overwhelming number of cases it involves some form of anger. Close beside anger you will find its twin brother, contempt. Jesus’ understanding of them and their role in life becomes the basis of his strategy for establishing kingdom goodness. It is the elimination of anger and contempt that he presents as the first and fundamental step toward the rightness of the kingdom heart. (DC, 147)

Willard reminds us that the emotion of anger is a natural part of human life. It is a spontaneous response that arises within us when someone or something threatens us in some fashion. It alerts us to a person or obstacle that obstructs our way or our will. Anger is an alarm within that goes off, releasing energy that enables us to resist and/or fight back against the threat. It is part of our survival instinct, and in and of itself as a simple feeling, it is a normal and useful characteristic of being human.

However, in the sinful human heart, anger cannot exist without containing some element of malice — the desire to injure, harm, or punish the ones who cross us. This is one reason why anger need not be expressed to be hurtful. Even if I simply know that someone is angry with me, it causes me pain, because I sense that person is harboring some level of ill will toward me. To some extent, I am under attack, even if the angry one says or does nothing to act on her anger.

This is one reason I so regret now the times I was angry with my children. It pains me deeply to think how frightened and under attack they must have felt just to see dad’s furious face, even if I didn’t explode in a tirade. And if in my rage I acted out and caused a scene, it must have seemed to them like an overwhelming onslaught of malicious force. Kyrie eleison!

Dallas Willard also talks about the sinful tendency to indulge our anger. We can choose to hold on to this emotion, to become angry people, carrying “a supply of anger around” with us, ready to pull it out and wield it at any moment.

Why would anyone choose to do that? Because anger often works hand in hand with another deadly sin, Pride. In our self-righteous, self-centered hearts, we believe the universe should revolve around us, that all the breaks should go our way, that people should always agree with us, cooperate with us, coddle us. When my ego gets wounded, when my autonomy is constrained, or when my agenda gets challenged, I feel I have a right to be angry. After all, it is all about me, isn’t it?

One problem with living this way, of course, is that I am only one “sun” among many, and all of us think we are the centers of our own solar systems. If I, an egocentric sinner with a sense of privilege, get mad when one of these other egocentric sinners with a sense of privilege impedes my will, what do I expect in response from them? Anger begets anger begets anger. Is it any wonder we live in such a violent world?

Willard notes that many advocate a “righteous anger” as necessary to confront and overcome injustice in our world. However, where does this lead? Consider the ever-increasing polarization of American culture over the past generation. Proponents of “blue state” positions speak with (self-)righteous indignation against “red state” position supporters, and vice versa. Since each group perceives the other as a threat, advocating against what is “right” (in our eyes), both accomplish little more than raising the ire of the opposition and the temperature in the room. It’s a futile cycle. Anger begets more anger, along with a multitude of other sins.

Anger never helps. Never. I’m convinced of it.

That is, anger by itself never helps. As I said above, anger does serve one positive purpose: it is a wake-up call. Anger is an emotion that gets our attention and gives us energy to act. However anger can only ultimately serve a positive function if, having alerted us to some danger, threat, or obscene injustice, we leave it behind and move on to more productive emotions, attitudes, and actions. Anger must be transformed into something better, something more useful, something positive and generative.

Anger can rise within us when we see a bully tormenting the defenseless, but it’s not anger that ultimately provides protection. It merely awakened us to the need, gave us a surge of energy, and led us to take responsible, loving action. Anger can surge through us when we are confronted with a situation that is clearly not right, fair, or just. Anger will only become productive if we learn how to harness its energy into a determination to find ways of making things right. It’s what we do with the anger that arises in us that matters. And many, many times, in the name of righteous anger, we behave badly.

So, when Paul says simply, “get rid of anger” (Colossians 3:8), he is exhorting us to stop thinking of anger as an answer or strategy that will promote the good. Abandon that way. It’s the wrong approach. At a certain point, anger itself must be cast off and replaced by better ways of thinking and acting.

I know what some are going to say: wrath is a part of God’s character, isn’t it? If we are made in God’s image, shouldn’t anger be considered a natural part of our character, a quality that could be “godly”? And didn’t Jesus get angry? Didn’t he speak and act in anger on occasion?

To all of this I say, yes, OK. But I’m still convinced that anger is so strong, so overwhelming, and it makes us so stupid and blind many times that the percentages of bringing good out of our angry condition are not in our favor. Some will say, but doesn’t the Bible say, “Be angry, and sin not”? Doesn’t that imply that we can be angry in non-sinful ways? Perhaps. All I can tell you is — I rarely if ever have. I can’t remember an angry moment of which I feel proud.

So what do we do with this? I can assure you that what I’m NOT going to do is give you “ten steps for overcoming anger.” If someone tries to sell you that curriculum, politely decline. There is no program, no training that will do the trick. To eliminate anger would mean we would have to cease being human. And to eradicate the sinful tendencies that corrupt our anger and make it so devastating, we would have to be perfected in sanctity. About the best I think we can ever do in practice is (1) recognize anger for the trigger that it is, (2) make a concerted effort to stop and ask what I should do with this surge of energy, and (3) try to put off our anger and find something positive to do with the energy it gave us.

Ultimately, I know I need to come back to the gospel. I need Jesus’ continual forgiveness and mercy for my anger. I need the cross. I also need Jesus’ victory over the powers of sin, his living presence with me, and the power of the Holy Spirit filling me each day. I need the resurrection, the ascension, and Pentecost. I need a family that loves and supports me, that forbears my faults, forgives my sins, and befriends me in spite of my weaknesses. I need the church. I need to hear and receive and be nourished by the gospel all the time. I need the Word and the Table. I need to remember my Baptism.

In short, I need a life with Jesus. I need the life of Jesus.

Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.

Music Monday: October 17, 2016

Note from CM: Another of my favorite “autumnal” albums is Mark Knopfler’s Get Lucky. But rather than write about Mark myself today, I found this 2013 piece by our friend Rob Grayson that gives a good report of what it’s like to see this remarkable singer/songwriter in concert. Beyond that, it is an encouraging reminder of how God inhabits beauty and craftsmanship and enables us to participate in his presence through the gifts of creation. Enjoy.

Rob blogs at Faith Meets World.

* * *

Music Monday: Finding God at a rock concert
By Rob Grayson

Earlier this year, my wife and I went to see one my favourite musicians, guitarist extraordinaire and singer-songwriter Mark Knopfler, in concert at the LG Arena, a large indoor venue near Birmingham. (You can read my review of his most recent album Privateering here.) It was the second time I’d seen Knopfler live, the first time being some ten years earlier at the same venue.

There was no support act, so once we’d been our seats half an hour or so, an announcer came on and introduced Knopfler and his band.

Now, I’ve been to gigs before where the band and the material were good but the sound was poor, or where the performers just didn’t seem quite on form, or where it was difficult to see. But this time, everything was just right: our seats were in a pretty good position, up high to once side of the stage with a commanding view of the whole band; the sound was excellent; and here we were to watch and listen to one of the world’s great guitarists. The atmosphere was charged with anticipation, and from the very first note that was played, I knew this was going to something special.

What we were served that evening was a two-hour musical feast. Any one of the six or seven musicians in Knopfler’s band was probably good enough to hold an audience’s attention on their own. Combine their skill and creativity with Knopfler’s sheer virtuosity and the quality of the material they were performing, and the result was electric.

There wasn’t a moment I didn’t enjoy, but there was one particular moment that sticks in my memory. During one song, each of the musicians, including Knopfler, gradually dropped out one after the other until the only ones still playing were a double bass player and a fiddle player. The lights faded so that all eyes were on these two, bathed in the light of a single spotlight. They proceeded to improvise for about eight minutes (I made a point of noticing the time), each riffing off the other and neither dropping a beat. You could just see Knopfler in the edge of the spotlight, a faint smile on his face as he watched his two colleagues with rapt attention. Such was the intensity of the moment that it felt as though every one of the eight thousand or so people in the audience were sat on the edge of their seats. Apart from the sound of the music, you could have heard a pin drop. It was utterly mesmerising, and I was almost afraid to breathe for fear the spell would be broken.

But beyond the technical and musical prowess of Knopfler and his band, I found that the whole thing moved me in a most unexpected way. This might sound odd, but I’m hoping you’ll understand what I mean: I found it was actually a deeply spiritual experience. I don’t mean I was transported to some realm of ecstasy; in fact, it’s quite hard to describe just what I do mean. All I can say is that a moment came when I suddenly realised that I felt closer to God in that arena than I had at any other time for quite a while.

Maybe it was partly because music is such a dominant language for me, a language that speaks to something deep inside me. But I think there was also something else happening in that room. Knopfler is a secular musician, and there was nothing explicitly religious about the songs he performed. But there was such truth and beauty on display: here was a group of guys creating art that was a celebration of nature, humanity and the rich tapestry of life in all its glory and messiness. And this was a powerful example of something I’ve recently come to believe, or rather to realise: where you find beauty and truth, there you also find God.

It might be at a rock concert or a classical music recital; it might be in a museum or an art gallery; it might be while watching a film that in some way captures the exquisite reality of life on this celestial sphere; it might be while taking a walk as the sun goes down, releasing its fiery colours to bleed across the dusking sky. It might even be an evening spent with good friends, with no other agenda than to enjoy one another’s company and share a brief moment of life together. In all these places and in all these ways, I believe God revels in the beauty and the variety of His creation, and if you look hard enough, you’ll find Him there.

It didn’t matter that most of the people at that Knopfler concert were probably complete pagans; it didn’t matter that it was a “secular” concert and that the band was not playing “Christian” songs (whatever that means). God was still there. I’m convinced that, as the band revelled in the joy of shared creation and the audience looked on spellbound, God was there too, taking it all in, smiling, with a twinkle in His eye, maybe even tapping a foot from time to time. I think He really enjoyed that gig.