Aftertaste: Creative Resistance with Love

This past week we heard a sermon on resisting evil with love in creative ways using Matthew 5:38-42.  However, we were unable to get to the case studies that might help us think through some of the more difficult situations we may encounter in life.  For example, what do we do if someone tries to rob us of our possessions?   What if someone breaks into the house?  What about our families?

Indeed, I think the first thing that should be done is to get your family to a safe location, whether that's a closet, upstairs, out of the house, whatever the case may be.  However, I don't think that step should include a gun, knife, or any other sort of object that could lead to an escalation of violence.  There are some criminals who are looking to simply harm people, but I would suggest that most probably just want money and/or stuff.  The easy answer is to simply give them what they want, and try to talk to them in the process - pray out loud, tell them your first name, ask them their name and why they are doing what they are doing, etc. 

Yet, I wonder if there are even more creative ways still to handle this situation.  For example, what if someone breaks into your house and you shout from the living room asking them to go into the cupboards, get a bag of popcorn, and come join you in the living room for the family movie night?  What if you said, "O Hey, there you are!  We have been waiting for you, worried sick that you weren't going to make it.  Leftovers are in the fridge, want me to heat them up for you?"

In what ways would such simple, loving comments disarm folks?  I think it might make quite a few people take a second look at the situation, and maybe even calm down to the point where they can think. 

On the flipside, what's at risk? Ourselves, most certainly. Our families, secondly. Our possessions, third and least of all. This situation could lead to a lot of bad things. We never know. Things can be stolen, we can be shot or knifed, family could be hurt and left for dead. Yet, we still must ask ourselves: do we follow Jesus (who went to the cross) or do we say, "I love my family more than thee, sorry and forgive me, this is my plea?" Remember, Jesus never told us to be successful, or on the winning team in this world. He simply says, "Do you love me more than your life, your family your friends? If so, love your enemy, pick up your cross, and follow me."

Reflection: Religion or Relationship?

When we say we are Christian, what do we mean by using that term?  Does it primarily mean that we attend church, perhaps participate in Sunday School or small group?  Does it mean we have a Christian radio station on in the car?  Or do we mean that we have a vibrant and living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ?

I have been hearing sermons and seeing books written juxtaposing Christian religion vs relationship.  This dichotomy is primarily concerned with getting rid of the bored parroting of actions people take in order to earn salvation by doing these certain things and instead replacing those actions with a freeing, loving relationship with Jesus Christ who then transforms us into persons who look like him. An analogy might be this: instead of a husband repeatedly bring his wife flowers and cards every week and thinking this earns her love, he should instead spend time with her, know her, and actually build a relationship with her.

Yet, I struggle with this dichotomy of religion vs relationship and am not sure it's entirely helpful.  The question continually comes back to, "how do I have a vibrant living relationship with Jesus?"  My answer is always, "well, spend time with Jesus.  Pray, read your bible, give thanks, spend time with people (because everyone is the Lord's favorite), journal, practice the spiritual disciplines with the purpose in mind of knowing God's heart more, and learn more about God which will help in knowing more of who Jesus is."

Then I think to myself: isn't this what the church, the religious institution and organization, should be helping people to do?  Religion is primarily about behaviors, which can be done without any real meaning behind them, so people become frustrated at "religion."  We say, truthfully, "It's all about relationship anyway, relationship to Jesus and relationship to others!"  That is true.  When the focus is turned back to relationship, religion then becomes a guiding force, a facilitator of that relationships helping us to know how to act and what to do in the context of those relationships.

 I believe we need to simply get the horse back in front of the cart, and throw off the cart what is not helpful.  The primary reason we do "Christian things" is for the sake of knowing God and living that relationship out in this world; that is the focus, the reason, the sole purpose and end.  Religion helps facilitate that relationship - and is only as helpful as it cultivates in us behaviors which help us know God more intimately.  

Struggling with Scripture: 2 Kings 7:3-20

2 Kings 7:3-20 is a powerful image of God as Warrior.  This recurring motif throughout the Hebrew Scriptures is a complex image, bound up in holy warfare over the holy land, the giving over of armies and kings to other sides, wholesale slaughter, and bloodless miracles where the LORD fights for Israel or Judah.

Our particular passage for today shows a bloodless victory ending a horrible siege.  King Ben-hadad of Aram has come up against Samaria (capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel).  The siege drags on to the point where women are cooking their sons in order to have something to eat.  Yet, when Elisha the prophet is about to be murdered by the King of Israel, Elisha then gives the word of the Lord that the LORD GOD will fight for the people and lift the siege (the language here is actually one of the marketplace - prices will come way down from what they were because goods would be plentiful). 

As we find out, The Lord chases away the Aramean army that very night by the sound of chariots, horses, and a great army that scares them into fleeing, leaving all their goods behind them (2 Kgs 7:6).  The siege is lifted, the LORD GOD has waged war ending in a bloodless victory. 

I am challenged by this text.  I wonder, why is Elisha so central to this plot?  Why did the LORD God wait until people were cooking their children to lift the siege?  At this point in time, the entire nation of Israel and Judah are pretty much under punishment for having faithless, idolatrous kings (more or less).  God's mercy is great - and gives victory in this instance, and in others, without the shedding of blood through his prophets.  In other instances, it comes at the price of bloody warfare, with enemies being slaughtered. 

What the most challenging issue for me is, how do we reconcile this text to today in the USA?  First, I don't think the LORD God is on any nation's side...not since ancient Israel.  Second, I find our model is new for winning the battle - it's the cross of Christ.  No longer do we win through the shedding of another's blood, nor is it through "victory" in any terms of the world.  Instead, victory comes as we shed our own blood for our enemies - just as Jesus did.  Greg Boyd calls this the image of "the cruciform God," a picture of God's self-sacrificing love that overcomes all evil.  How can we practice this today?  Finally, I end with another question - are there prophets like Elisha in the world today? 

Reflection: For Best Results

"Push it, dig deep, find what you are made of," Tony Horton, creator and teacher of the p90x extreme fitness home workout program says.  "You got to work hard if you want the results!"  I have mentioned before that I enjoy working out and staying in shape, although I will always be an "average joe" when it comes to fitness.  At one point in time I strived for the best results possible, pushing my body beyond the point of exhaustion - and I was getting OK results.

But I wasn't getting the cut figure and six-pack abs that seemed to be promised by the workout program.  Finally, in frustration I screamed to myself, "What am I missing?!  Why am I not getting the results that were promised?!"  I was ready to quit the program and just do my "own thing" when the instruction manuals caught my eye.  The two instruction manuals: one for the workouts, and one for the nutrition program needed for 'best results.' 

I had to laugh at that time.  Of course I wasn't getting the best results, or even close to them!  How many times had I had Taco Bell in the past week?  How much pizza had I eaten?  There was the source of the problem: I was only half committed, I only listened to half of what was commanded, I pick and chose what I wanted to do - and therefore I got less than half the results promised.

I wonder how many of our spiritual lives are like this: weaker, less desirable, boring, and malnourished because we do not fully follow what Scripture teaches, we do not fully follow what the saints and spiritual giants say, we do not fully become invested in Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  We pick and choose when and how often we feel like reading Scripture, when and how often we pray; we skip the spiritual disciplines, we subtly ignore some teachings of Jesus,  then we ask, "Why am I not getting the results promised?  Why do I not know Jesus better than I do?"

We must remember that, unlike working out, the journey towards and with Jesus is all about relationship and how to better be in relationship with Jesus - each and every day, one day at a time.  We forget to hold  the tension between "working on and being in relationship everyday" with Jesus through scripture study and spiritual disciplines and "getting together with a bunch of other friends, acquaintances, and strangers" to work on our communal relationship with Jesus. 

Getting closer to someone - anyone - is difficult and takes time, work, and perseverance.  The challenge is, are we willing to invest every single day for best results in our relationship with Jesus?  It's up for us to decide...

Reflection: On Power, Position, and Politics - Suspended

As we have been working through ideas of power, position, and politics, I have been wading through muddy waters that are both confusing and overly complex to me.  Somehow, while writing previous reflections, this idea has become twisted and convoluted in my mind.  As I wrestle with an un-posted reflection on what it meant to use power as a supervisor in a secular job, I realized that we can't necessarily parse apart how we use power and our desire to manipulate or control certain circumstances.

While we are always inviting a response like Jesus, while we seek to use power to empower others, while we use the power that we have to serve others, we can easily make a case that we are still seeking to control or manipulate circumstances for our own ends, to get a certain response, or lead people in a certain direction.

I think we carefully need to observe how we use power in our positions of authority so we do not become people who actively seek to manipulate, dominate, or oppress those under our power.  However, this becomes complicated in many instances of daily life.  I find myself moving into a time of development and reflection regarding further implications of this idea. We'll move on in the coming weeks to various posts, leaving this power idea behind for a season.