The Internet Monk Archives

God’s Scandalous Patience

God is transforming and reconciling the world. But unlike human revolutionaries who demand instant and total change, God is not impatient. The arc of the universe bends toward the full reconciliation of all creation, but — “Come, Lord Jesus!” — that arc is long.

– C. Christopher Smith & John Pattison

* * *

I had lunch with my friend Chris Smith today. Chris’s new book, Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus, has just been released and he is getting ready to embark on a summer of traveling to share its message in various places around the country. I haven’t been so excited about a book regarding the church for a long time, and, from what I’ve read so far, I expect its impact on my ecclesiastical thinking to be as significant as books by Eugene Peterson and Robert Webber have been. You’ll be hearing a lot about it this summer.

This post is not about the book per se, but about a concept raised in the beginning of it — the patience of God. I am not sure I have ever heard anyone talk about what a troublesome, even scandalous idea (especially to the modern mind) this is to ponder.

But all we must do is simply ask the question, “Why history?”

Why this long process?

Why so much time?

Why so much lavish, extraneous detail that seems so unnecessary to God’s stated plan?

I won’t bring an even greater mystery to this discussion by talking about the current scientific consensus: that we live in a creation 13-14 billion years old and that the beginnings of the human race occurred about 6-7 million years ago. That raises the conversation to an entirely different level than I’m prepared to handle today. [One place to start in thinking about that is Ronald Osborn’s book, Death Before the Fall, which I commend to you.]

Instead, let’s start by simply taking the Bible’s timeline as an example. It records approximately 4 or 5 thousand years of human history. That alone covers several thousand years of births and deaths, and an almost inconceivable number of events in which humans have participated, in addition to all that happened in non-human realms. Think of all the moments lived, the thoughts considered, the dreams imagined, the words spoken, and the actions taken. Try to fathom the number of sins committed! the good deeds performed! How many tears have fallen over that period of time? How many smiles brightened a day? The mind reels at trying to take in even a little bit of it.

Day after day after day for a very, very long time, life has proceeded at a snail’s pace and has included an incomprehensible amount of detail.

And where is God in all of this? Assuming the Bible accurately represents God’s intentions for this world, why is he taking so long, and why is there so much detail that seems superfluous to his promises? How much is there in this world, how much of life, history, human experience, the development of human knowledge, and the rise, rule, and fall of civilizations, that seems to have little or nothing to do with what we know about God’s plan of redemption?

Scripture tells us repeatedly that God is longsuffering, but doesn’t this seem extreme?

Is it conceivable that a God of all love, all wisdom, and all power would allow such a slow, messy, and apparently random process as the context in which he puts a broken creation to rights? That God would only intervene occasionally, in a few special acts that don’t immediately do the trick but only set the stage for the next long era of waiting, living, dying and trying to figure it all out?

We can talk about God’s patience in a detached, theological way, scanning the recorded past with a telescope. In my experience, that is how most Christians, along with their pastors, teachers, and theologians have visualized it — Creation. Fall. Israel. Jesus. Church. All leading to a New Creation. The larger patterns dominate the discussion. But do they serve to shrink our view of God? Do they cause us to imagine a God who only (or primarily) reveals himself by breaking into history and displaying his glory through unmistakable actions?

When we put history under the microscope instead and see it inch along, moment by moment, with all the complexity of billions of everyday lives in every corner of the globe, for days, then decades, then centuries, then millennia, with few if any divine interventions that can’t be interpreted in other terms, what does that do to our understanding of God and his active participation in the affairs of life?

We who rely upon the Bible as our sacred guide have come to expect that our lives today should look like the Bible. And we forget that the story covers thousands of years; what we have in Scripture are a few carefully selected stories and teachings which communicate God’s overall plan and a few key moments in history that advanced the plan. Most of the story takes place on one tiny little stretch of land in the Middle East, and it describes an infinitesimal portion of what has happened throughout the history of the world.

But the preacher stands up on Sunday and leads the congregation to expect that God will do for us what he did for Abraham, Moses, David, and Paul on a regular basis. This presentation of the glorious interventionist God who is continually revealing himself and “working in our lives” in obvious discernible ways is an extreme filtering of the facts about how life is and has always been experienced by the vast majority of people in this world, including Christians.

Perhaps this is why many of our wisest teachers have tried to help us see that “Christ plays in ten thousand places.” In a world ruled by a patient deity, God is present in every aspect of life and living, though his presence is not obvious, dramatic, or interventionist. Rather he works mysteriously, silently, evocatively, and with the active participation of his creatures.

We sense that life is more than what we are in touch with at this moment, but not different from it, not unrelated to it. We get glimpses of wholeness and vitality that exceed what we can muster out of our own resources. We get hints of congruence between who and what we are and the world around us — rocks and trees, meadows and mountains, birds and fish, dogs and cats, kingfishers and dragonflies — obscure and fleeting but convincing confirmations that we are all in this together, that we are kin to all that is and has been and will be. We have this feeling in our bones that we are involved in an enterprise that is more that the sum of the parts we can account for by looking around us and making an inventory of the details of our bodies, our families, our thoughts and feelings, the weather and the news, our job and leisure activities; we have this feeling that we will never quite make it out, never be able to explain or diagram it, that we will always be living a mystery — but a good mystery.

– Eugene Peterson
Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, p. 2

Perhaps this long process of history is necessary for human beings to come of age somehow and become partners with God in the long arc of redemption. Smith and Pattison quote German professor Gerald Lohfink, who says, “God is thus revealed as omnipotent precisely in the fact that God stakes everything on the intelligence, free will, and trust of human beings.”

Please carefully note my use of “perhaps.” I have a million questions and couple of “perhaps” suggestions. That’s all. God took Job on a whirlwind tour of creation and it shut him up. I feel like this one concept: the patience of God, has swept me up in a similar way and dropped me on my head. It raises so many questions about God’s nature, God’s plan, and God’s ways, as well as theodicy questions related to human purpose, suffering, death, and destiny.

Contemplating the patience of God provides an encounter with the numinous, like lying on one’s back under an endless sea of stars. It can scare the pants off you. It can blow your mind. Countless years, countless lives, countless human endeavors and experiences, countless cycles of life, death, and new birth. And a God who is somehow in it all.

History.

The patience of God.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Open Forum — May 28, 2014

I have a crazy week and it’s time to give you all a chance for some open discussion anyway, so we’re going to have an Open Forum today.

An Open Forum means you get to talk about what is interesting you at the moment. This is your chance to get together with others and bring up topics you would like to discuss, rather than being guided by themes arising from a post.

Please remember the basic rules of Internet Monk commenting —

Know that you are welcome here. You don’t have to agree.
Be respectful of others.
Be concise and clear in your comments.
Stay on topic. (doesn’t apply in quite the same way today, obviously)
Don’t dominate the discussion.
Please listen.
All good things must come to an end. You got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em, if you know what I mean.

The table’s yours today. Enjoy God’s gift of conversation.

Infinite Grace

Yet again, I enjoyed watching the film Babette’s Feast (1986) over the weekend.

This delightful movie tells the story of a small sect of Christians in Denmark who live austere lives and shun pretension and ambition. A woman from France arrives in their village and becomes their cook, freeing the two daughters of the sect’s founding pastor to devote themselves to charitable works in the parish. Both daughters had opportunities when they were young beauties to have love and leave the community, but things didn’t work out and they stayed home. After their father died, the daughters carried on his work and tended to the needs of the aging congregation.

The climax of the film comes when Babette, their French cook, puts on a lavish feast for the 100th anniversary celebration of the pastor’s birth. A general attends the feast, a man who had been in love with one of the daughters when they were young. Having since experienced the world, he expresses wonder and astonishment throughout the meal at the fine food and wine they are enjoying. At one point he stands and makes a speech at the table, a reflection on grace. The fact that he is there, at the very table where he had chosen not to follow his heart as a young man, gives him pause. He considers the decisions he had made and the wonderful irony that life had brought him back to this very table to experience such joy.

This is one of my favorite passages about grace in literature and film.

“Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another. Man, in his weakness and shortsightedness believes he must make choices in this life. He trembles at the risks he takes. We do know fear. But no. Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when our eyes are opened and we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions. And lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.”

Read our full IM review of Babette’s Feast HERE.

Memorial Day 2014: Living with War (Neil Young)

On U.S. Memorial Day, we pray for the coming of the new creation, in which the Tree of Life will provide healing for the nations, and there will be no more war.

One of the most consistent artistic voices for peace over my lifetime has been Neil Young. The following video is from an album that was made during the Iraq War, called Living with War. This is the title anthem, which includes the words,

And when the dawn breaks
I see my fellow man
And on the flat screen
We kill and we’re killed again
And when the night falls
I pray for peace
Try to remember peace
I join the multitudes
I raise my hand in peace
I never bow to the laws of the thought police
I take a holy vow
To never kill again, to never kill again

Another Look: What About the Flag in the Sanctuary? (Or How To Get Fired Really Fast.)

A Classic iMonk Post for Memorial Day, 2014

Sometime when I was in seminary, I first heard the term “civil religion” and started to understand that some people had a problem with the American flag in a church sanctuary. The flag- and its companion, the “Christian” flag- have been in every church sanctuary I’ve ever been in, and both flags are in the chapel where I lead worship today.

Where I live today, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if there are churches with the Confederate flag in the sanctuary.

In the culture where I live, a pastor of a typical church who removed the flag would be fired. A pastor who started a process aimed at removing the flag would be starting a process to find another job. Removing the flag would be seen as something like a declaration of atheism or endorsing Al-Queda. Or both. Multiplied. By 10.

One of the reasons I like Shakespeare is that he had the ability to see all points of view with some kind of sympathy. I think I’m a bit like that, for better or worse, and if applied to the flag-in-church issue, it comes out something like this in the minds of those who want the flag displayed in church sanctuaries.

1) We’re grateful for the right to worship freely in this country, so we display the flag as a way to say we’re appreciative of that right.

2) We don’t worship the flag, and it’s rare that you would see any reference to our salute/pledge at all. You could come to 99% of the worship services in any church and the flag would receive absolutely no attention.

3) If the government is wrong on an issue like abortion or if it attempted to restrict our ability to speak out against homosexuality, we would quickly say the state is wrong and the Kingdom of God is right. In other words, the presence of the flag doesn’t assume that the state holds a higher authority for us than the Bible.

4) Nor does the flag’s presence assume we all support the policies of the government. There are many churches that display the flag, but many of the members believe the war in Iraq is wrong.

5) Don’t assume that the flag means we see ourselves as citizens of the nation rather than as citizens of the Kingdom. This may be confusing to someone from another culture, but it wouldn’t be if they asked for an explanation. We are clear on this.

6) The Bible tells us to be good citizens and to show proper respect to government, and that is all the presence of the flag does. Tha’s good, especially for children.

Because this is the usual approach to the flag issue among the Christians I know, I don’t suffer under a great need to see the flag removed. It could be a lot worse, and it probably is in some minds, but of all the hills a pastor has to die on, I wouldn’t recommend this one.

But there are times that I have problems.

For example, at some public ceremonies in church or the chapel, the flags lead in a procession. This would include things like graduations and Vacation Bible School If you don’t know what that is, I don’t think I can help you.

When the American flag is brought in leading that procession, with the Christian flag behind it, there is a problem. At a church I recently spoke at,the flagpole in front of the church had both flags flying, with the American flag on top. Problem, at least in terms of what the symbols are saying.

Flag etiquette is clear that this is proper, but for Christians, it is symbolically blasphemous. In fact, when the flag is used in any way other than as a passive part of sanctuary decoration, symbolic contradictions almost always emerge. Pledges, salutes and so forth are close to acts of “veneration.” (Those who criticize Catholics for bowing, etc. to statues might want to take pause and thing about the parallels.)

Another problem arises with the fact that, even when simply passively present, the flag identifies the congregation with the nation of America in a way that, at least visually, takes clear precedence over other loyalties. My Chinese friends, who understand patriotic symbolism very well from their culture, would never look at the flag and assume that its presence means Jesus is Lord and America is not. It will appear to them that the claims made in the church all happen under the permission and watchful eye of the state.

That’s the wrong message.

In actual fact, there are so many abuses of the flag by “God and Country” zealots, that ordinary Christians who don’t share those fanatical sympathies look as if they agree with all the inflamed rhetoric of the flag wavers.

In good conscience, leaders of churches should at least move the flags out of the main worship space. They can be respectfully be displayed in other places in a church facility if members of the congregation feel it is important to show proper respect and gratitude. The use of the flag in symbolic superiority to the “Christian” flag and the Bible should never happen. (In fact, what is the “Christian flag” anyway?” Get rid of it as well.)

As I said, in most rural American cultures, this is a deep generational issues that goes all kinds of emotional and sub-rational places no one really wants to visit. But it is an adventure in evangelical symbolism, and it can provide an important moment to say that symbols convey a message. Our message should always be Jesus Christ: King and Lord, with no competition from any other loyalty.

Sat. Ramblings Extra: This was not the message of “Good Works Week” here at IM

Saturday Ramblings, May 24, 2014

Football Temples, 4,000 year old dinosaurs, The Church of Beyonce, and the return of the firing squad. Happy weekend, fellow imonkers.

Did you know that in the history of the International Religious Freedom Act, there is only one person ever banned from entering the U.S.? His name: Narendra Modi. His occupation: He was just elected prime minister of India in the largest democratic election in history of the world. Problem?

The Minnesota Vikings unveiled their new cathedral, I mean, stadium design last week. I thought it was a mega-church till I saw the Adrian Peterson icon.

Speaking of American religion, a new survey finds that there are more people in the U.S. who say they never go to church than those that claim to go weekly. At least, that’s what they say when they’re not being asked by another person. The survey found many people, Christians and unbelievers both, will exaggerate about attending worship in live phone interviews. However, when asked in an anonymous online questionnaire, people will answer more realistically. On the phone, 36 percent of Americans report attending religious services weekly or more, while 30 percent say they seldom or never go. But online, a smaller share (31 percent) of people surveyed said they attended church at least weekly, while a larger portion (43 percent) admitted they seldom or never go. The study also compared actual attendance with claimed attendance in previous polls, and found this result: “Actual church attendance was about half the rate indicated by national public opinion polls.”

Last week we reported on the startling number of people around the world who agree with anti-Semitic stereotypes. Some of us wondered why these stereotypes are still around and so pervasive. Thankfully, we have the “rapper” Macklemore (the performer of the “Same Love” pabulum so adored at the last Grammies) to illustrate the problem: That’s right, Mackelmore donned this fake schnooz, a wig and beard to grace his audience with the profundity of a song called, “Thrift Shop”. Oh my. The really sad thing is that the audience apparently had absolutely zero problem with this. But as pictures surfaced, the tweets began. My favorite was from Seth Rogen: “Hey Macklemore, first you trick people into thinking you’re a rapper, now you trick them into thinking you’re Jewish?” And what was the rapper’s response: “A fake witches nose, wig, and beard = random costume. Not my idea of a stereotype of anybody.” Oh, I see. You just … randomly threw some random items together from the random prop store for your random costume. You had absolutely no idea how anyone could possibly interpret this random randomness as some sort of stereotype. Obviously, the only way someone could call you anti-Semitic when you perform a song called Thrift Shop while looking and dancing like this:is if they were stupid enough to read some symbolism into your innocent and totally random collection of props. Wait….Is that really your story here? I realize your fans may not be the brightest tools in the shed, but c’mon, man. Give the rest of us a little credit. By the way, just in case you don’t feel sufficiently insulted and depressed yet, you can find the lyrics to Thrift Shop here. Enjoy.

The story of the almost 300 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram is heart-breaking and on-going. It’s not clear if the militaries from either Nigeria or some western country will go after the kidnappers. But a group of spiritual hunters is already on the trail.

First we had Yeezianity. Now we have the Church of Bey. That’s right: a new religion dedicated to worshipping Beyoncé. Apparently some 200 women (and no men so far) meet together to hear founder Pauline Andrews read from the Beyble. But Andrews is a little bummed that more have not seen the light. “We are very disappointed in the failure of the public to recognize the existence of a divine Deity walking among them. Deity’s often walk the Earth in their flesh form. Beyoncé will transcend back to the spirit once her work here on Mother Earth has been completed.”

A Republican congressional candidate in Arizona said during a primary debate Saturday that the vast majority of mass shootings in the United States are committed by Democrats. Full quote from Gary Kiehne: “If you look at all the fiascos that have occurred, 99 percent of them have been by Democrats pulling their guns out and shooting people. So I don’t think you have a problem with the Republicans.” Mr. Kiehne did not specify the [no doubt quite rigorous] methodology he used to make this sociological claim.

So a wax museum is making a figure of Mick Jagger. Because apparently his real face isn’t scary enough.A billboard in Mobile was removed last week, after a few protests. What was its message? Minnesota became the first state to ban anti-bacterial soap. It won’t be the last.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary stirred up some controversy among its fans by admitting its first Muslim student.

Chaplain Mike’s favorite educational institute, the Creation Museum, has a new display: a 30 foot Allosaurus. Most scientists would date the Allosauros as having lived about 150 million years ago. The Creation Museum differs slightly on this: they date it at 4,300 years ago, and say it died in Noah’s flood. noahs-ark-and-the-dinosaurs The death penalty has received a lot of attention lately, especially after Oklahoma’s recent botched lethal injection. The problem is a shortages of available drugs for lethal injections, which is leading some states to consider alternative drugs. Or, a state could just avoid the whole mess and go old school. Which is exactly what Wyoming and Utah are considering. Lawmakers in those two states are debating bringing back firing squads for capital crimes. Wow.

The Bus War is continuing in Washington, D.C. After a pro-Palestinian group bought anti-Israeli ads on public buses, a pro-Israel group responded with an ad of it’s own: I didn’t run across any great videos this week, but I did run across a photographic technique I had not seen before: time-stacking. It’s something of a cross between a long exposure photo and a time elapsed video. You can see one man’s use of it here, but I thought I would post a few of his shots also:

Good Works Week VI: Free to Love

And thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate burning and shining from fire. Beware, therefore, of your own false notions and of the idle talkers, who would be wise enough to make decisions about faith and good works, and yet are the greatest fools.

– Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans

* * *

I’d like to wrap up our week of talking about “good works” with some summarizing thoughts today, hoping I won’t show myself to be the fool that Luther talks about above.

FIRST, If you know anything about Internet Monk, you know that we love to talk about grace and to put our emphasis on what God does for us in Christ rather than on what we do “for” God. We stress this because so much Christian faith, especially the evangelicalism from which a number of us emerged, is characterized by a moralism and activism that is not rooted in a Christ-centered approach to spirituality.

The “soterian” gospel that is so common today is individualistic, narcissistic, and methodistic. Its focus is on “me” and “what I must do” to “connect with God” and be “wholly devoted” to God as I develop a “personal relationship with Jesus.” Grace gets credit for leading sinners through the door of salvation, but only after we make the choice to follow Jesus. And after that, it’s all about learning the instructions in the Bible and conforming our lives to them.

The pattern is Law/Grace/Law.

God’s laws show us God’s perfect standard and help us understand we fall short.

When we admit we fall short and respond to the message of grace — that Jesus died to pay the price for our sins and shortcomings — we become disciples and get started on the path of learning to obey God’ ways.

The job of the church and its pastors and teachers, then, is to teach us those laws and instructions and exhort the congregation to follow them.

We here at Internet Monk think there is a better description of what the gospel and living in the gospel is all about, a way that is all about grace from beginning to end.

The gospel is the good news that, in Christ, God’s Kingdom has dawned and God’s will is beginning to be done on earth as in heaven.

God created the world as his temple and made people to live in his blessing. People forfeited that blessing through disobedience and were sent into exile, separated from God, themselves, and each other.

God chose Abraham and his family (Israel) to be the means by which his blessing would be restored to all the earth. He entered into a covenant with them in the days of Moses and gave them his Law so that they might be his holy nation, a light for all nations. However, they in turn failed to keep God’s covenant, and Israel was exiled from the land God had given them.

After God graciously restored Israel from exile, Jesus was born and presented himself as God’s promised Messiah, the King who would bless Israel and the world with salvation. Jesus was faithful to God where Israel had failed. He died and suffered for the sins of Israel and the whole world. He rose again from the dead, defeating the powers of sin and death that had kept humankind enslaved and exiled. He ascended and was enthroned as King of all. He poured out his Spirit upon the church, the renewed people of God in Christ that they might spread this good news to the ends of the earth. He promised to return, raise the dead, and consummate a new creation in which heaven will be united with earth and God will dwell in the midst of his people forever.

Christian spirituality consists of taking our place in this Story.

Indeed, to be a Christian means to trust that Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of the Story and that everything revolves around him. Our life is in the gospel, in Jesus Christ. That means we must relate all doctrines, all teachings, and all Christian practices to this Story.

And so we come to the teaching of “good works.”

If we keep the Story in mind, we realize that we who are Christians today play the part of the redeemed, forgiven, cleansed, Spirit-filled, renewed people of God in Jesus Christ.

“We are his workmanship,” says the apostle in Ephesians 2:10, “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

His workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. This eliminates any possible understanding that “good works” on our part have anything to do with our salvation, our justification, our acceptance by God. That work is his and his alone. Pure grace.

Good works which God prepared beforehand. Even the good things we do as Christians were planned ahead of time by God and are not due to our initiative or origination. Pure grace.

That we should walk in them. Christians get to actively participate in good works that God mysteriously uses in the development of the Story. It is our privilege every day to discover what “God has prepared beforehand” and join with him in his mission to bless and restore the world. We walk in God’s works — even our activity is described in terms of God’s gracious involvement in our lives. Grace, grace, grace.

One problem with the way many people talk about Christian activity is that they don’t immerse it in this sea of grace and Kingdom vision. They leave us on our own with our “Christian responsibility.” Since Jesus did so much for us, shouldn’t we do all for Jesus?

In contrast, read this excerpt from a liturgy for baptism in which I participated recently:

God, who is rich in mercy and love, gives us a new birth into a living hope through the sacrament of baptism. By water and the Word, God delivers us from sin and death and raises us to new life in Jesus Christ. We are united with all the baptized in the one body of Christ, anointed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and joined in God’s mission for the life of the world.

Yeah, that’s it. Even “good works” are all about grace.

Morning: Peasant Couple Going to Work, Van Gogh

SECOND, another problem with Christian discussions of topics like “good works” is that we tend to make them too spiritual, too separated from life in the real world. When listening to Christians talk, I sometimes get the idea that we have risen a step or two above other human beings.

There are gnostic tendencies toward insider-ism and elitism that imagines Christians are in a special category, set apart from their neighbors.

There are docetic tendencies among us. We think of “souls” and “spirituality” rather than the day-to-day lives of embodied persons who live in communities in relationship with others.

We harbor many modernist prejudices, rationalizing and categorizing and just generally thinking that what is most important is the world of ideas, theological systems, and moral philosophy. We imagine that success for Christianity means winning arguments and making sure all of our doctrinal “i’s” are dotted and “t’s” crossed.

But then we read about simple NT saints like this: “In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas). Her life overflowed with good works and compassionate acts on behalf of those in need” (Acts 9:36 CEB). The true way of Jesus is right here in the portrait of this woman: a gracious, loving, compassionate person who was sensitive to the needs around her, who responded out of her faith with generous love toward her neighbors.

Tabitha is a reality check, and she brings us back to the verse with which we began the week: “the only thing that counts is faith working through love.”

The “good works” Christians are called to do are not actions or projects that fall into some special category. They are, rather, the simple, ordinary acts of neighborliness, kindness, and helpfulness that all people understand and appreciate. Giving a cup of cold water. Visiting a lonely person in the nursing home. Preparing a meal for a bereaved family. Providing child care so that a friend and her husband can get a break. Participating in a charitable event for a good cause. Reading to a child. Listening to a friend’s problems. Volunteering at a local hospital. The list is endless, constrained only by a lack of creativity and vision. “Good works” is not just about doing things, it’s about living well, loving your neighbor as yourself.

Anyone can do this. One doesn’t even have to be a Christian. These are human acts and we do them because we are members of the human family and everyone recognizes their value. The world does not need Christians to stand apart and do extraordinary things. People around us just need Christians to be good neighbors, loving well in the ordinary ways that life requires.

To be sure, Christians have some different reasons for showing love like this. Our faith in Christ has united us with God, who is love. He cares for us and for our neighbors more than any of us could ever imagine. Filled with his love, how could we do anything other than live lives of love?

The other part of this perspective is that, even though the love of Christ dwells in Christians, believing people are sinner/saints. We remain limited, broken, wounded, self-centered people. We have different personalities, different settings, different experiences. All these things (and a thousand others) can limit our psychic freedom and capacity to love.

This, I believe, is one reason why Jesus doesn’t simply save individuals but is creating a people. We need each other as well as the Bible. We need relationships and communities of support in which we can heal, grow, learn, and be formed in Christ so that love may flow more freely.

* * *

Thank you for an excellent week of discussion.

Go now. Trust in Jesus Christ, and you are free to love.

Good Works Week V: Good Works = Child’s Play

Now it came to pass that it was time to paint the garage.

Dad worked all week long on it. Using a ladder, he painted the eaves and trim all the way around. He painted the other high spots and worked his way down, starting in the front and then doing the sides. Eventually, he got to the back of the garage, a big wall of wooden clapboards.

Throughout the week his little preschool son played in the yard while his father painted. Dad looked over many times and saw him kicking a ball or playing with his trucks and soldiers in the sandbox underneath the tree. On several occasions they caught each other’s eyes. “Daddy, can I help?” he asked.

“We’ll see,” Dad replied.

As he prepared the paint for the back of the garage, the father paused, looked around and spotted an extra bucket on the garage floor. He poured some paint into it, grabbed a second brush and walked out back. “Hey buddy, you want to help me now?”

“Sure, Dad!”

“OK, go in and have mom put one of her old t-shirts on you. Then come out to the back of the garage and you can paint with me there.”

Soon they were working together, father and son.

Before you knew it, there was paint everywhere! Dad and his boy were talking and laughing. Every once in awhile Dad reached down and gripped the little guy’s hand with his, guiding it as he moved the brush back and forth, back and forth, then helping him smooth out the drips and globs of paint. Dad wiped paint off the child’s nose and cheeks and arms, tried to keep the cinder blocks at the bottom of the wall from getting splattered, and sopped up spills on the drop cloth. When they were done, Dad had a lot of cleaning up and touching up to do.

But it had been worth it. He had spent time working with his little boy. Even though the preschooler didn’t know what he was doing and lacked the coordination to do much more than make a mess, they had painted and laughed and talked together and that was deeply satisfying. As for the child, he’d rarely had so much fun as he did that day, when he made a mess working with his father.

And in the end, the garage got painted.

It had been a good day. Good time together. Good work.

Good Works Week IV: James, the Elephant

Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”

Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

– James 2:14-18, MSG

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For many people over the centuries, it seems that the epistle of James has been the “elephant in the room” when it comes to the subject of faith and works. Marin Luther famously called James “an epistle of straw.” Not only did he doubt its apostolic authorship, he saw it as contradicting Paul with regard to justification by faith and said that the epistle had “nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.” Luther expressed his opinion that James was “unequal to the task” of properly explicating the relationship between faith and works.

As much as I love Martin Luther, I think that the tensions of his own battles with medieval Catholicism got the better of him when it came to his dismissal of James.

First of all, though James emphasizes the ethical outworkings of salvation, he also makes it clear that Christians are people who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. James’s gospel message is clear:

Christians are born by grace from above, through the word of truth (1:18)
It is the “implanted word” of God that has power to save our souls (1:21)

Nevertheless, one still must explain James 2:14-26. the famous passage where James says, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (2:24). That sounds, on the surface, like a direct contradiction of Paul’s teaching about justification by faith in epistles like Romans and Galatians. How can we reconcile the two perspectives?

Primarily, we must recognize that the “problem” may only be apparent. As Peter Davids notes in his Commentary on James,

The problem with James arises because he stresses the results of commitment to Christ and uses much of the critical theological terminology in a way different from Paul. (p.50)

Whereas Paul’s focus is on how it is impossible for works, usually works of the law, to save people and secure a place for them among “the righteous,” James is emphasizing something entirely different. James has observed people in the Christian community who claim faith but who fail to practice the kinds of loving actions that proceed organically from living faith. Paul is speaking about works that precede faith. James is talking about works that follow faith.

When Paul writes about “works,” his focus is primarily upon the ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic covenant: the so-called “works of the law” (though this is not always the case, especially in epistles like Ephesians and the Pastorals). These covenantal demands — like circumcision, food and purity laws — were “boundary markers” which, in Jewish minds, marked off the people of God from the people of the world, the righteous from the unrighteous, those who would enter the age to come from those who would be barred from life in the Kingdom. These “works of the law” were practices of self-justification whereby the Jewish people identified themselves as rightful holders of a place at God’s table. But Paul could speak the same way to Gentiles also, as in Titus 3, where the “works” he sets in opposition to God’s gracious salvation are “works of righteousness” — i.e. works designed to vindicate a person and mark that person acceptable before God. The point is the same: we are members of the people of God through faith in Jesus Christ, not by becoming observant Jews or exemplary Gentiles.

James has an entirely different concern. The situation he addresses and his view of the Torah lead him to speak of “works” that are ethical, compassionate, and concerned with justice, especially for the poor; works that those who are already reckoned righteous through faith in Christ should naturally care about. The “works” he promotes are not boundary setting religious practices that mark one “in” or “out.” They are not designed to be about one’s personal salvation or justification at all. Rather, they represent simple deeds of human kindness that blossom organically from a living faith: loving one’s neighbor and caring for those in need.

James advocates the kinds of deeds that proceed from hearts that have been touched by divine love. One hears the echo of John’s writing in James’ approach: “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?” (1 John 3:17)

To summarize, hear Patrick J. Hartin, from his Sacra Pagina commentary on James:

James’s vision that faith must be alive and demonstrate itself through works or actions is not on the periphery of the New Testament writings. His vision conforms to the message of the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, which undoubtedly is one of the central visions of early Christianity and has remains so until today. Even Paul embraces this vision in his own way. He often expresses the desire that those to whom he writes should bear fruit through lives whose actions demonstrate their faith: “. . . so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). This spirituality of works-demonstrating-faith so beautifully describes James’s position and shows ultimately that Jesus, James, and Paul are on the same page. While they each speak to different contexts and audiences, and have different perspectives in mind, they nevertheless uphold a common message of the importance of faith being put into action. (p. 169f)