Posts Tagged: obedience
“Identifying Love”
“3 1-2 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
3-4 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.” (Colossians 3:1-4, The Message)
Love always identifies with whatever or whoever is the beloved. Do you love stuff? Then you identify with stuff? Do you love validation from others? Then that love becomes a part of your identity.
This is especially evident with parents. We identify with our children. It may not be an altogether healthy identification, but there it is. And it is (at least in part) an example of love identifying with what or who is loved.
The Bible—both the Old and New Testaments—indicates many things that are hard to believe. I am not now talking about garden-variety miracles such as feeding multitudes with a few fish and loaves or raising the dead. No, I am talking about a really big miracle: God’s miraculous identification with us in our sinfulness.
There are many things in the Bible that I have a hard time swallowing. One that always chokes me and chokes me up is that God not only loves sinners but also identifies with them. Ancient Israel was a bunch of rebellious sinners, like the rest of the world. Neither Moses nor the prophets were impressed with Israel. God didn’t pretend that the Israelites were a box of chocolates either.
But even though God disciplined his rebellious children severely, God never quite gave up on them. Instead, God identified with them. Isaiah, who points out that Israel is in exile because of their rebellion against God, also speaks repeatedly about God’s identification with Israel. For example,
“In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9, English Standard Version)
God’s identification with the sinners God loves is more than hinted at in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, God’s identification with this whole messed-up species that calls itself homo sapiens (“knowing man”) becomes a laser-like focus in Jesus Christ. He hung around with sinners all the time and was criticized for it. The religious sinners were his most merciless critics. Of course, we always are, aren’t we!
At the cross, Identifying Love showed itself as Redeeming Love. The One who had hung out with sinners was now hung out to dry—or rather, hung out to die.
And die he did. But there is a persistent rumor that he did not stay dead for long. Yes, I know that is hard to believe, isn’t it? But there are many of us who do believe it. On my better days, I do too. On my worse days, I don’t believe much of anything. Sorry, but that is true.
And, according to the Apostle Paul, when Jesus came out of the tomb we came out with Jesus. Identifying Love had so identified with us that we have already died, been buried, and been raised from the dead. It is not first and foremost about us identifying with Jesus. No, it is first and foremost about God’s identification with us in Christ.
So what do I do in the light of God’s identification with me and with the whole human race? There are many responses to such loving identification. One is simple gratitude. God, thank you, thank you, thank you, for identifying with me. Another response is to keep pursuing Christ. The verb in Colossians 3:1 that speaks of “seeking” or “pursuing” Christ is in the present tense. In the Greek language of New Testament times, the present tense suggests an ongoing, repetitive, life-style choice. We don’t “have” Christ in the way that we “have” objects that we can put in some drawer and dig out (if we can find him) when we need him. Christ is to be sought on an everyday and every-moment basis.
And there are the choices we make every day. Paul talks about those choices in the rest of the book of Colossians: such choices as telling the truth, being sexually pure, and forgiving others. A friend of mine pointed out that, on average, every person makes 35,000 choices every day.
The first choice of this and every day should be to dare to believe in the identifying love of God. That same daring choice should infuse the other 34,999 choices with meaning.
“Defining Ourselves Out of Obedience”
Jesus told some wonderful stories. One of the most familiar is the story that we call “The Good Samaritan.”
“25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)
The lawyer knew the verse about loving his neighbor as himself. It was found in Leviticus 19:18. The lawyer also knew that this command was very important. So far, so good.
The lawyer’s problems started with doing love. That’s where the problem starts for all of us, isn’t it? When we hear, “Do this, love your neighbor as yourself, and you will live,” we immediately start fudging. Most of our “fudge factory” churns out excuses.
But we also use definitions as a substitute for obedience. “But who is my neighbor?” we ask. If we can define the word “neighbor” as narrowly as possible, we can make love more manageable.
The lawyer wanted a definition of the word “neighbor.” Sounds reasonable. After all, how can you do something, if you don’t have a definition of what you are doing?
However, Jesus wasn’t having any of it. Instead of a definition, Jesus provided a story. And the story involved a Samaritan.
Now, you need to know a bit about the attitude of many first-century A.D. Jews about Samaritans. Samaritans, who lived just the north of Judah, were regarded as half-breed nobodies by many folks in Judea. Prejudice is nothing new.
So, for Jesus to tell a story in which a Samaritan was the hero was a radical challenge to many Jews. It was especially offensive to a good, religious Jew of that time. Notice that the lawyer won’t even say the word “Samaritan” when Jesus asks the lawyer who showed mercy to the man in distress. Instead, the lawyer says, “I suppose the one who showed him mercy.”
Now, it is easy for us to get on our high horses about the lawyer, but I doubt that any of us is immune from prejudice. Those of us who think we are immune are simply in denial.
Fee and Stuart, in their excellent book, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, retell the parable of the good Samaritan with an atheist playing the part of the Samaritan. The authors of the book comment, “One of the authors presented this story once. The startled and angry response made it clear that his hearers had really ‘heard’ the parable for the first time in their lives.” When any of us “hears”—really hears—Jesus’ parables, we are likely to be startled and angry. Jesus is an E. O. E.: an Equal Offense Employer.
So, the lawyer tried to define his way out of obedience, but Jesus parabled him into a dilemma. And now, the lawyer had a choice. He could either keep on being startled and angry. He could continue to try to come up with a definition of “neighbor” that would support his prejudices and make obedience (or rather, partial obedience) possible.
Or the lawyer could take Jesus’ parable to heart, look for someone, anyone, in need, and seek to meet that need.
We are faced with the same choice. What will we, what will I, choose today?
EPILOGUE: One of my loyal and insightful readers made a wonderful suggestion: He suggested that I unpack the word “help” a bit. Good suggestion! Here is my reply. (And thanks to all you loyal readers, especially those who have suggestions or questions.)
“The Samaritan did first aid, took the injured man to an inn, paid up front for some care by the inn-keeper, and promised to pay more when he came back through.
Help, at least in this story, seems to be a very basic matter of doing what needs to be done.”
“OBEYING WITH ALACRITY”
I love words. They are no substitute for reality, but they can become a wonderful compost in which real deeds can thrive.
Take the word “alacrity”, for example. I used it today in my journal entry.
“God, you have given me so much! I am not sufficiently grateful, loving, or obedient. Please help me to become more so in all those ways. Help me to love you more today, to be more grateful, to obey with alacrity.”
I love words, but I often forget their precise meaning. However, because my friends think I’m smart (and because many of the words I love have Greek or Roman bases), I can get by with using words that I don’t really understand. So, after using the word “alacrity”, I had to go back and look up the durned thing.
My first hit was “brisk and cheerful readiness.”
Well, that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it!?
Of course, like every other human on the planet, I sometimes struggle with alacrity. Oh yes, I will obey—eventually. But I don’t have to like it.
By the way, do you know what the opposite of alacrity is? Apathy. And apathy is so rampant, so prevalent, that it is mistaken these days for the norm.
Unfortunately, people who do things with alacrity often irritate me. Their enthusiasm their zest for life and living, casts a dreary light on my own apathy. And when I strive for alacrity, I often irritate others as well.
In my google sleuthing, I noticed that the usage of alacrity has radically declined since 1800. I am not surprised. We have elevated apathy to an art form. It isn’t particularly good art form, but we shouldn’t let that stop us, should we? Well, maybe we should stop.
So, Self, what is it going to be today? Are you going to do things with brisk and cheerful readiness, or not?
Your choice! My slogan for today: “Bring back alacrity!”
“Being Torah”
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Good morning, LORD!
But what good does it do to call you “LORD”—even in all caps—if I don’t actually do what you say?
Help me to love you today with my obedience and with my silent clinging. I am hoping that even the desire to love you in obedience and silent clinging pleases you. Perhaps this desire is only the tiniest seed of love, but I will not despise even the tiniest of seeds.
To Expound Torah and to Be Torah
This is what Rabbi Leib, son of Sarah, used to say about those rabbis who expound the Torah: “What does it amount to—that they expound the Torah! A man should see to it that all his actions are a Torah and that he himself becomes so entirely a Torah that one can learn from his habits and his motions, and his motionless clinging to God, that he has become like Heaven itself, of which it is said: ‘There is no speech, there are no words, nether is their voice heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.’” (Martin Buber, Tale of the Hasidim, vol. 1, p. 169)
“WHY NO TOTAL HEALING?”
I am getting to teach an online class for the university where I am an adjunct. The first assignment is simply to introduce yourself. I figure that this is one small way of personalizing a format that can be very impersonal.
One of the things that I mentioned about myself is that I am an addict, and while I have many years of sobriety, I still go to meetings, have a sponsor, and sponsor others. I am this frank when I am teaching a class in the flesh, so why not online?
A student of mine responded to this aspect of my introduction by telling me that he appreciated my honesty. He had a struggle with alcohol addiction some twenty years ago, but Christ had taken away even the desire to drink. Did I still struggle with desires?
Here is how I responded.
“I am glad for those whom Christ has set free even from the desires to do things that harm and enslave them, and cause them to hurt others. I think that such things do indeed occur, and I am always delighted to hear of them.
However, that is not my story. I still have desires that, if left unchecked, would destroy me. And, of course, I would hurt others in the process of going down.
I don’t know why I am not one of the “delivered from evil desires” crowd. I wish that I were. Maybe I don’t have enough faith in God. That’s certainly possible.
On the other hand, I sometimes wonder if Christ has left me with some left-over desires in order to keep me from becoming puffed up with pride, or unsympathetic to other sinners. I simply do not know. However, what I do know is that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and I am trying to live under his Lordship every day.
We should always be glad for those who don’t even desire evil. We should pray that we too will be delivered from such desires. However, even if we are not delivered from them until we see Jesus face-to-face, we are still responsible for not yielding to those desires. And we are responsible for doing whatever works to assist us in obedience. For me, that means still attending 12-step meetings, checking in with my sponsor, and actually practicing the 12 steps.”
So, dear reader, if you have been delivered from even the desire to do evil, rejoice and be glad for such deliverance!
But if you’re still in the daily process of allowing God to help you to deny your evil desires, rejoice and be glad for such deliverance! Slow-motion miracles are just as miraculous as immediate miracles. They’re just slower.
“LIVE LONG AND PROSPER”
My father-in-law was very fond of the Star Trek T.V. shows—with the exception of those shows that featured the character “Q”. (I suspect that Dad thought that Q was both too much and too little like God, although I don’t think I ever asked him why he felt the way he did. I wish that I had now.)
One of the most famous repeated lines in Star Trek is “Live long and prosper.” I’m not a trekkie, but even I know this line.
But from where does this greeting come?
Those words likely came from Deuteronomy 5:33. The whole of vs. 33, along with the preceding verse, is as follows:
“32 So Moses told the people, ‘You must be careful to obey all the commands of the LORD your God, following his instructions in every detail.
33 Stay on the path that the LORD your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.’ ” (New Living Translation)
“Live long and prosper!” is a good wish, but perhaps the obedience part matters as well. I have a tendency to want to live long and prosper, but not necessarily to obey. (You probably don’t struggle with that, but I most certainly do!)
Why is it so difficult to obey? I’m afraid that I know, and sometimes, wish I didn’t know.
I don’t obey because I want to have my own way. No, I know that, in the long run, God’s way is best. But I don’t want the long run; I want what I want right now!
I knew a lady who described herself as “Little-Miss-Gotta-Have-It-Right-Now.” Change the Miss to Mister in my case, and you can’t miss!
However, it isn’t just the immediate gratification thing. It also this: My way is my way, and that’s what I want. I struggle with a spirit of rebellion, which I try to baptize and rename “a spirit of independence.” However, you can baptize a rat, but it’s still a rat.
But I do have my better moments, moments when I realize that obedience is in my own best interest. There are moments—and I am having more of them, thanks to the 12-step recovery program and thanks to 12-step friends—when I obey God with a good and glad heart.
There are times when I can say, with the psalmist, “I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart” (Psalm 40:8).
May those times increase for you and me and all of us! Then we can, with complete confidence, pronounce the blessing on one another, “Live long and PROSPER!“
“PURITY: THE QUESTION OF GOD’S WORD”
“9 How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word.
10 I have tried hard to find you– don’t let me wander from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:9-11, New Living Translation)
My wife was reading these verses aloud this morning during our devotional time, and she read the second half of verse 9 as a question: “By obeying your word?” She immediately corrected herself. “Oh,” she said, “that’s not a question; that’s the answer.”
Actually, it is possible to read the entire verse as a question. So, her “mistake” may not have been a mistake at all!
However, I suspect that her correction of her reading is correct after all. While it is possible that all of verse 9 is a question, I think it more likely that in the second half of the verse, the psalmist is answering his own question.
In any case, my wife’s creative reading of Psalm 119:9 invited me to think more deeply about the verses that follow it. I was also invited to think not only about the verses that follow, but more importantly about how to follow these verses.
Interestingly, after asking the question in verse 9—and possibly answering it—the psalmist seems to have immediately sensed a problem: the problem of wandering. Most of us don’t “go into a premeditated backslide,” as a friend of mine once expressed it. Most of us just wander. We get a little further and a little further away from God’s will for our lives, but eventually, we look up and wonder how on earth we go so far away from God. We need not wonder: We wandered!
Verse 11 gives us to antidote to wandering: hiding (or treasuring) God’s Word in our heart. The Hebrew word translated “hidden” is a word that often suggests hiding something (or someone) that is very special to us, so that it cannot be harmed.
C.H. Spurgeon, a preacher from the late 19th century, gave an interesting outline for vs. 11:
- The Best Thing (God’s Word)
- In the Best Place (our hearts)
- For the Best Purpose (so that we may not sin against God).
It is important to remember that we do not hide God’s Word in our hearts in order to impress others with how much we know. We hide God’s Word in our hearts so that we won’t mess up our own and other people’s lives, and so displease God. The question is not whether we read or know God’s Word. The question is whether we are using it to live our lives in accordance with God’s will for us.
JESUS’ GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
“I continually give them eternal life, and they will never perish.” (John 10:28, my translation from the Greek.)
First, a technical point: The Greek present tense usually suggests some sort of continuous or ongoing reality.
The present tense of the word “give” is used in John 10:23. This likely suggests that Jesus was referring to an ongoing, continuous giving of eternal life to his followers.
Eternal life is not simply something that was given in the past, or reserved for the future. No! Eternal life is something that is granted to us in each passing moment.
It’s a good thing! If I were given all my eternal life at once, I would devour it all and ask for more. It would be like the peanut butter sandwich cookies that my sweetheart got me the other day. They are already gone.
How freeing and relaxing it is to think of Jesus giving me eternal life continually. My regular, everyday life is energized by the One I love and follow. Many things may happen today that I can’t handle, but nothing will happen to me today that Jesus’ life in me can’t face.
This gives me great hope. Of course, someday my mortal body will cease to function. That is why it is called a mortal body, for crying out loud! I am exceedingly temporary.
Of course, there is a catch. There is always a catch, isn’t there. However, Jesus does not bury the proviso in a footnote in fine print. In the verse right before verse 28 (which, strangely enough, is verse 27) Jesus says the following: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” If we are following God as best we can at any given moment, we can rest in the assurance that we are never far from his kingdom. Eternal life becomes a reality for us the moment we obey.
MOSES, GOD, AND THE BURNING BUSH: CURIOSITY, REVERENCE, AND SURRENDERING TO OBEDIENCE
It might seem as if the words in the title of this post have nothing to do with one another. However, there is a story that has all of these components: the story of Moses and the burning bush. The story is found in Exodus 3-4 in the Bible.
Moses had been adopted in the court of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. (You might say that he had a “court-appointed” guardian, but you would only make such a bad pun if you have my particular brand of humor. For your sake, as well as for the sake of those around you, I hope that you don’t!)
Moses eventually got on the bad side of the king because Moses killed one of the king’s low-level officials. Kings don’t like it when someone murders one of their officials. Moses ran for his life.
Eventually, he got into the d.p.p. (desert protection program), which was a bit like the witness protection program. He assumed the identity of a shepherd in the Sinai Desert.
It was while he was taking care of the sheep that belonged to his father-in-law that Moses encountered a strange phenomenon: a bush that burned, but did not burn up. (See Exodus 3-4 for further details.)
Apparently, there wasn’t a lot of excitement in the desert. No t v, no Facebook or Twitter—in fact, no internet access at all! So, Moses decided that a burning bush that didn’t burn up was worth a look-see.
Moses didn’t hear the voice of God until he yielded to his curiosity. The biblical story is very clear about that. “When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush . . .” (Exodus 3:4). Apparently, one of the conditions for hearing the voice of God is curiosity.
But as soon as the LORD God saw that Moses was curious, God decided to take him to another level: reverence. “Don’t come any closer! Take off your sandals. The ground you are standing on is holy ground.”
Curiosity without reverence swiftly becomes irreverence. The difference between holy curiosity and garden-variety nosiness is the fear of the LORD. I’m afraid that I am often more curious than reverent. In fact, I would hazard a guess that this is true of our entire culture. Curiosity can lead to deep insight and profound growth. It can even lead to a life-changing life’s calling. Such a life-calling can transform our own lives and can, as with Moses, lead to the transformation of others. Many a transforming liberator has begun his difficult and unwilling journey by being curious, but the journey is continued and energized by reverence.
But then, comes the really hard part: obedience. Moses struggled with that one—a lot! In the face of God’s sending Moses back to Egypt, Moses tried to wiggle out of God’s call. Moses presented one excuse after another, until finally even the All-Patient One lost his patience with Moses.
But, in the end, Moses obeyed. And while postponed obedience is disobedience, when we finally do obey, it is still obedience. It’s not pretty, but it is obedience.
Curiosity, reverence, and obedience: They may not be the Holy Trinity, but they are important.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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