November 24, 2021 · 1:12 pm

Clothed with dignity

I’ve been thinking about clothing lately.

In my bible studies and in my preaching, I seem to come across this idea frequently. It bears some meditation.

“Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isa. 58:7)

`I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ (Matt. 25:36)

These are the practical outworking of love, according to the Bible. A person who is born again by the spirit has been given new eyes and a new heart, and this new heart sees their neighbor differently than before. It is what is means to be united to Christ – to be more and more conformed to his image.

So when we say, “To be like Christ is to clothe the naked”, what do we mean? Of course, there are many other things mentioned – feeding the hungry, providing for your own relatives, comforting the lonely and downhearted, and so on, as well as other duties summarized in God’s law. But this is a blog, and I would just like to leave you with a couple of thoughts on just one word picture: What does it mean to clothe the naked?

The obvious is to provide clothing to those who are too poor to afford any. But I think it goes deeper.

Nakedness is always viewed as shameful in the scripture. It is exposure to the contempt and ridicule of others. To be naked is to be shamed, helpless, exposed.

In fact, in the Hebrew language, to be stripped naked is the same word used for being “exiled”. One who was captured and sent away was first stripped naked.

When one is stripped naked, they are no longer clothed with dignity and honor. They are no longer men or women to be respected, but slaves to be mocked.

Slaves were sold naked on the auction block. The clothed people who were the “masters” wanted to see their potential “property”.

In other words, to be naked is to no longer be viewed as an image-bearer of God, with dignity and honor. It is rather to be exposed to the leers and contempt of those who are clothed.

The first thing that we need to see is this – Jesus was stripped naked before he was nailed to the cross. He was stripped naked so that we might be clothed with his righteousness.

He was the fulfillment of the sign of the skins in the Garden of Eden. Right after the fall, God clothed Adam and Eve with the skin of an animal, pointing to the day when their shame and nakedness would be covered by the Sacrifice that God would provide.

Jesus was that sacrifice. He bore our shame. He bore the ridicule of the “clothed ones” so that I might be His forever, without shame, without sin, without nakedness. And he did this because of the “great love with which he loved us.”

We are now one step closer to seeing what it means to be like Christ in clothing the naked.

As far as we know, Jesus never donated coats to goodwill. He was poor his entire life and only had one garment. But he clothed all of his people with righteousness, holiness, wisdom, acceptance, belonging – the richest clothes imaginable.

To walk in his footsteps is to do as he did: View each person you meet as an image-bearer of God, worthy of dignity and honor. It will only come as the outflowing of a heart that is born again.

If God has provided richly in material things, then certainly give coats and clothing to the poor. Be generous with your charity. This is most certainly commanded in many places in the Scripture. But Christian love goes deeper, and “clothing the naked” applies whether you have money or not.

It means to be consciously aware of those around you – each one is worthy of dignity, whether they know it or not. Treat everyone you meet as worthy of your respect and dignity.

I will use one example that I heard from someone years ago, that I have not been able to forget.

First, from the perspective of the “church lady”.

A young woman, perhaps 18 or 19, enters the church and sits in the back row. Everyone sees her walk in. She is wearing an extremely short skirt and high heels. Her midriff is bare. Her cleavage is showing. She isn’t wearing makeup. She sneaks in the back and sits down.

The men leer at her. The church lady, out of the goodness of her heart, draws her to the side and explains to her that her outfit is making the men lust, and they can’t worship with her dressed like that.

She leaves the service and never returns. What happened?

What happened was that the congregation did not “clothe the naked” as Jesus clothed us.

Let’s look at the same scenario from the point of view of the young woman.

A young woman is sexually assaulted over and over again by her mother’s boyfriend. No one has ever been kind to her. No one has ever viewed her as anything other than an object to be used and discarded.

She runs away from home at age 13. While on the streets, hungry and cold, a young man comes to her rescue. He brings her home and begins to groom her. It is the only life she knows. By the time she is 14, she is turning tricks to keep her new “boyfriend” from throwing her out or hurting her badly.

When she turns 18, she hears a preacher on the radio speak about Jesus and how he forgives sin, how he came to rescue those who were lost, and how he seeks and saves…she works up every bit of courage she can muster, puts on her very best outfit, and braves the church…

And she is told that the men, who profess to follow Jesus, are lusting after her and she needs to put on more clothes.

Where can she be safe, if not the church of Jesus Christ? Her worst nightmare has come true, that even God views her as an object to be used and discarded.

We can do better. Of course this young woman is a sinner. She would be hard around the edges. She has learned how to survive in ways that would cause us the flinch.

But Jesus clothes the naked.

“When you found me naked, you clothed me”, Jesus said. You didn’t mock me. You didn’t condescend to me. You didn’t lust after me. You didn’t clothe me with shame.

You didn’t tell me that I was not acceptable, not wanted, not worth dignity and love.

What you did was you clothed me. You treated me with kindness and honor. You heard me. You saw me. You treated me as if I were valuable, worth saving. You treated me as if I were a lost coin, rejoicing that I was found.

Of course, if you view the body of an 18 or 19 year old as an object to be lusted after, no matter how they are dressed, you have far deeper problems and I would suggest you fly to your redeemer yourself before YOUR nakedness is exposed, but that is another blog for another day.

As the body of Christ, should we not learn to view people as HE viewed people while he walked on this earth?

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November 18, 2021 · 6:34 pm

Peopling is hard

My brain sometimes behaves like an 8 year old. It hides behind things and jumps out at me in the hopes of messing me up. One of its favorite tricks is to blend words that people say to me in new and unique ways so that all I am hearing is gibberish.

As an interesting example, when I was a child, a minister friend of my father’s would greet me with “What’s new?” My brain scramble would hear, “What snew?”

“What snew?” I have no idea what to say to that. Like my brain just jumped out at me and said, “Gotcha!” and all I could do is go, “waaaaaaaahhhhh” but that doesn’t contribute anything at all to the conversation. I would function enough to know that simply going waaaahhhh would get me sent away, so I just gaped.

Since that brain scramble wasn’t enough, my brain decided to disconnect the circuitry that responds to anything. After rejecting waaaaaaaaahhhhhhh as inadequate for the situation, I would say nothing and just wait for something to load….

“Snew…” “snew.” *file not found. critical error. abort immediately.

From the perspective of the adults around me, I’m just a drooling imbecile. But my brain runs Vista and frequently shuts down.

As I got a bit older, I started to just say, “What?” Or, more politely, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.” Or perhaps “pardon me?”

But then he would just say, “What snew?” again, which isn’t exactly helpful.

How many times does one say, “What?” before one just gives up and says the first thing that pops into his mind?

“What snew

“What?

“What snew?

“I purpled a thing and I can’t dog anymore.

Peopling is exhausting sometimes.

Of course, as an adult, I am far more understanding of the gaping child. Look at it from his perspective: he is sitting there minding his own business. His mind is pondering. His unicorns are unicorning and his purpling is purpler than ever before. He is thinking through the mysteries of self and why I am me and you are you and what is the dogness of the dog and then some giant man shouts at you…

“What snew?”

That’s just too much input. Critical error. This is going to take some time to boot up.

I need a nap now. This, mom, is why I just would give up and go to bed at 9:30.

If I’m gaping at you, or my words are not the expected response, please be assured that I am really trying. Also please be aware that I might just need a nap.

Jesus said to deal with your neighbor as you would have them deal with you. We all have a basic need to be understood. God created us to know and to be known.

But we teach our kids to be silent, to conform, to be just like everyone else. In fact, our whole education model is based upon making the children conform. No wonder anxiety and depression and ADHD are rampant. God didn’t create us to conform. He created us to commune! We aren’t borg. We are image-bearers of God.

But we have had generations of teaching children “Sit still. Answer the adults. Be respectful. Regurgitate your lessons properly. Don’t fidget in church. Don’t embarrass your parents by being different…”

Let’s try a different strategy. Let’s try communing with our children instead of making them conform. Listen to them. Provide a safe space for them to thrive. Let them be themselves, with all of their glorious coloring.

“I think that those who would try to make you feel less than who you are…that’s the great evil” (Fred Rogers).

Let’s stop the “I turned out just fine” model and learn from the past.

And when a child is staring with an open gaping mouth, maybe give him a break. Things that come easily to you might not come easily to everyone else, and that is OK. All of us have our own glorious purpling.

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November 10, 2021 · 4:26 pm

9 things for November 10

I’m teaching piano to the grandkids. Last week, I gave one an assignment to practice. We worked on it, and he was ready. Today, he came to the piano, sat down. Looked at the music. Looked at the keyboard and said, “Am I supposed to press the keys?” This doesn’t bode well.

If your theology requires that you be served, whether at home or anywhere else, it isn’t of Christ. He didn’t come to be served, but to serve. He calls us to imitate him specifically in that area. It isn’t about authority and power. It’s about service and love. Put on the apron. Quit subjecting others to your whims.

The occupation of mocking others for being “stupid” is not something I can get behind. I used to join in easily, but then I was convicted. People make mistakes. People have different gifts. People sometimes don’t see what others see as obvious. Calling another “stupid” merely exposes one’s own pride and desperation.

Rahab’s father, mother and entire family were brought into her house, under her “umbrella of protection” and were saved because of her faith. God delights in turning the norms of a patriarchal society on its head. This merits some mulling over. He didn’t tell her to go to her father’s house. He told her father to go to her house.

The scripture teaches that riches and poverty do not come by chance, but by the hand of our heavenly Father. We have no idea what drives some into poverty while some prosper. Riches are a matter of “dumb luck” more often than not. Can we honestly say that the world’s richest people are smarter and harder working than others? Or were they rather “at the right place at the right time”.

I don’t say this out of envy, for I have no desire to be wealthy. It is not my goal. I say this so that we will stop considering wealth as the measure of a person. Success on earth and success with God are entirely different things.

Because, as I said, God delights in turning the norms of the patriarchy upside down. He delights in those who fear him, not those who know how to squeeze a buck or make fortunes. Will he who made the gold and diamonds be impressed with the one who knows how to collect them?

The album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” has many delights and deserves it’s place as one of the greatest. I am awestruck every time I hear “I’ve Seen That Movie Too.”

Be thankful in prosperity and don’t forget to share. Be patient in adversity and don’t forget to rejoice that your name is written in heaven. And for what is future, have good confidence in your heavenly father, that nothing can remove you from his almighty hand.

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October 28, 2021 · 1:03 pm

Image-bearers

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen. 1:27)

Sometimes I use this blog as an opportunity to jot down an idea while it is mulling. It is sort of an invitation to mull right along with me.

I have over the past few months been meditating on the doctrine of eternal generation. This is the doctrine that God the Father is begetting the Son in an unfathomable, eternal act. This act of begetting does not have a before, after, or future, but takes place in eternity without any change in the nature of God.

Simply, this means that it is of God’s essence to fellowship, to love, and to overflow with goodness. This goodness flows into creation and God created man to share in the love and fellowship of the Trinity. It was fitting, then, that men and women be created in the image of God, to share in that fellowship as much as creatures are able to.

So…mull on that a bit…

Of course, man fell. And that corrupted everything. Jesus came into the world to restore what was destroyed in the fall.

In other words, he came to bring us back into the fellowship of love that we were created to take a part in.

25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. (Jn. 17:25-26)

OK. Moving on.

Let’s take this to the next step. If the essence of God is eternal communion and love (which the doctrine of eternal generation teaches), then sin is far greater than we can imagine, for it breaks the fellowship with God. We are born alienated and strangers to that fellowship.

This is what the church meant when it taught the “T” in “TULIP” – total depravity. Man cannot climb back into God’s graces because man is fallen in the totality of his being.

But according to scripture, even though it teaches that “all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God”, sin is not the essence of who men and women are. Essentially, they are image-bearers of God. Therefore, they are redeemable, for when sin is taken away, the image of God remains and is restored.

So here is what I am mulling – what if we viewed human beings as essentially image-bearers of God rather than essentially as sinners?

Think about that. How much would change in your thinking?

Even in the law, a criminal was not to be tortured and beaten to a pulp because of the image-bearing that was essentially there. He was not to be despised (Deut. 25:3)

When we view people as primarily sinners, we cannot see anything worth redeeming in them.

We must then shun music and art and fashion and poetry for fear that we will somehow be tainted by “sinners”.

And, worse, we cannot see beyond our senses, to the inherent dignity and worth of every man, woman and child as reflecting their heavenly Father, whether they remain in their sins or are redeemed by Christ.

And so we must ask ourselves, “How much is a little girl worth?”

“How much is a little boy worth?”

And if we view children as “vipers in diapers”, and as essentially sinners, we have to answer, “Not much…” and our actions reflect that answer.

But as Christians we believe the bible. We believe that men and women are not essentially sinners. Sin came later, a corruption of what was essentially there, which is what makes it so heinous. But it also makes men and women redeemable, which is what Christ’s mission was. To redeem his people from their sins and misery.

If we truly believe that, then the question “How much is a child worth?” has a clear answer.

Worth fighting for. Worth protecting. Worth all of your treasures and gifts to love and protect. Worth your love and your joy and your cherishing.

If we truly believed that, would churches continue to condone and overlook violence against women?

If we truly believed that, would slavery and racism have ever been a thing?

If we believed that, would there have been a genocide of California Indians?

The history of the United States, for all of the good that was there, forgot quite frequently that men and women are essentially image-bearers of God, and God takes how we treat them quite seriously, whether they are still in their sins or not.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.”

You were all created in honor. Fallen in sin, yes. Unable to free yourselves. Yes.

Sinking in the mud of death and misery? Yes.

But because essentially you are an image-bearer of God, you are worth redemption.

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, (Jn. 1:12)

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October 16, 2021 · 3:00 pm

9 things (Oct.16)

All of scripture points to Christ. Even “getting wisdom”, which is the theme of Proverbs, is about coming to Christ, the wisdom of God. The major problem with the church today is that they view Scripture as a “how to” manual, rather than the revelation of Jesus Christ.

If you view the book of Proverbs as an owners manual on successful living, you will miss everything there.

Alexa misheard me and said, “Now playing – music by Britney Spears”. My wife shouted NO!! Then she muttered, “I’m glad she’s free and all, but I still don’t want to hear her.”

The Bible isn’t about sex, kids, marriage, successful finances, health, prosperity, eating, drinking, working, economics, art, how you smell, what you wear – it is about Jesus. Find him, and you will live. Trust in your own ability to “do this, and live” and you will die. When you find Jesus, everything else flows from there.

Paul Washer said that when you become a believer you no longer dress or smell like the world. I have no idea what that means.

Modesty, in the scripture, means not dressing to show off your status or to shame those who are different than you. Not everyone can afford to stay home and homeschool; not everyone can afford a Sunday dress; not everyone can afford a suit and tie. Not everyone has a spouse or kids or votes republican or has money in the bank. Not everyone can live without ever getting public assistance. Not everyone has 10 dollars to spend on the secret Christmas gift exchange. But everyone can find freedom from shame in Christ and should be able to find it in the church. This is what “modesty” means. Don’t dress or act in such a way that would bring shame on your neighbors.

I spent the week nursing my wife back to health. She had surgery on Monday. Because of her Ehlers Danlos, everything take a lot longer to heal than it would on someone else. I starting thinking that everyone’s growth rate, healing rate, grieving rate, learning rate, “getting over things” rate is different and also comes from the Lord. I’m so thankful that he remembers our frailty and never shames us for being slow. Only the hirelings beat the sheep when they lag behind.

If you ever get a chance to hear Anna Netrebko sing, you should take it.

Sometimes progress in sanctification is spending an hour trying to get your printer to work after an update without once calling for fire and brimstone on the head of Bill Gates, or Hewlett and Packard. Success sometimes means measuring in baby steps.

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October 9, 2021 · 10:44 am

Nine Things (October 9)

I read recently that almost all canned pumpkin is actually butternut squash. They are so genetically similar that the FDA considers them the same. But the squash generally has more flavor and better texture.

About ten years ago, my wife and I were sitting outside in a shopping center and drinking coffee. Two teenaged boys walked by. One said, “I’m not going to keep my money in the freezer anymore. I just end up stabbing it.” I still don’t have a context to put that in.

Pumpkin spice contains no pumpkin. Or butternut squash.

Diane Langberg’s teaching on power and vulnerability is tremendous. Her statement “power, if it is to be Christlike, must be used to bless others” is one to meditate on for a long time.

Tomorrow’s sermon is on Zechariah 6. While I was thinking on it, it struck me: They put the crown on Joshua’s head. And then they took it off, because it belongs to another – the Branch. The crown isn’t yours. But you partake in that anointing to the extent that you are being conformed to Christ…You’ll need to hear the sermon.

The crown was put in the temple as a memorial – to point forward to the Branch. If we are the temple of the Lord, our task is always to point to Another.

Years ago, I played the piano at an event of some sort. A woman came up to me and said, “I could listen to you play all day.” Mostpeople would say “Thank you.” That, of course, isn’t me. What I said was “But I can’t play all day.”

Rachmaninoff wanted to meet Stravinsky, but didn’t know how to go about it. Having heard that Stravinsky liked honey, Rach showed up at his house late at night with a jar of honey and no explanation. This is a kind of awkward that resonates deeply with me.

Fried chicken came first. Then someone decided to fry steak the same way that one fried chicken, and the Chicken Fried Steak was born. Then someone decided to fry chicken the way that steak fried like chicken is fried and they called it “Chicken fried chicken.” At some point it should probably stop. It’s just getting silly.

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October 7, 2021 · 9:53 am

Victim and victor

Because there are certain types who like to argue over everything, there is a current debate in the Twitterverse over the concept of Christ as a victim.

One celebrity preacher tweets, “Christ was not a victim” and then digs in his heels.

I generally don’t involve myself in the current stupidity on Twitter, but this one strikes close to home.

There is, first of all, a rather unfathomable disdain for “victims”. I have heard “victim mentality” thrown around and I still have no idea what people mean by that.

Are they talking about someone who continues to struggle with trauma after abuse or other criminal activity?

Are they talking about those without power finally getting a voice and speaking out against the wealthy and powerful who have plowed their backs for decades?

I really don’t know. But I know that when they talk about “victim mentality” they spit the word with contempt. This is unfathomable to me.

If anyone could explain to me the “victim mentality” and why it is deserving of contempt, I would be grateful. Is it the desire for justice that is so bothersome? Is it the need for help at times? Is it the lingering affects?

If someone was robbing my home and shot me in the foot, would walking with a limp the rest of my life be a “victim mentality”? Or would it just be my desire to see the one who shot me receive justice? If the one who shot me didn’t receive justice and that made me angry, would that be a “victim mentality?”

If loud bangs after that event cause my adrenaline to spike and me to instinctively seek cover, would that be a “victim mentality”?

If someone asks me where I got my limp and I answer, “Some jackass shot me in the foot” – would that be a “victim mentality”?

Seriously, I don’t get it. What causes such contempt for victims of crimes?

The problem, of course, with contempt for a victim of injustice is that you then have to explain Jesus Christ. Hence, “Jesus was not a victim.”

The justification for this rather inane statement is that Jesus was at no time out of control of the situation. No one took his life from him, he laid it down himself willingly as a sacrifice for sin.

You have no argument from me. That is orthodox theology. But that isn’t what “victim” means.

Victim simply means one who is on the receiving end of a crime or another injustice. It seems to me that in the rush to justify contempt for victims, the celebrity pastor has entered into the territory of gibberish.

Does he really mean to say that Jesus was not a victim of injustice, or a victim of a crime? Victim doesn’t actually mean “Powerless to stop it”.

Jesus is also true God and true man, which I am not. I do not have the ability to remain in control of every situation at all times. I, as a frail human being, am often the victim of crimes or injustices that I am powerless to stop. But the scripture also teaches that Jesus took the form of a servant and is therefore able to empathize with every trial that frail humans endure, except for sin (Heb. 4:15). Being powerless to prevent injustice is not a sin. As true man, it seems to me that he also took upon himself the powerlessness of frailty, in a way we cannot fathom. He was at once victim and victor, and we can’t fathom that any more than we can fathom how he who is life could suffer death.

If they mean by this that Jesus did not sin while he was suffering injustice and being murdered, I have no argument there either. But “victim” doesn’t mean “someone who sins while being victimized”. It simply means one who has suffered from injustice or other crimes.

This is pretty basic Christology. One of my concerns is how quickly evangelicalism jettisons the basics of the Christian faith in order to justify their world view. If the Trinity can become a social playground to battle feminism, then I suppose Christology is also fair game to these people. But they should at least know what is at stake.

If Jesus was not a victim, then we have no salvation.

“Why did he suffer under Pontius Pilate?

“That he, being innocent, might be condemned by the temporal judge, thereby delivering me from the just judgment of God, to which I was exposed.” Heidelberg Catechism #38

But it seems to me that this contempt for “victimhood” has a deeper cause.

There is a certain person who refuses to view themselves as a victim, even if they have suffered tremendous injustice. So it seems to me that defining terms might be more helpful than simply spouting sound bites.

So I would offer this:

Jesus is true God and true man. He was the victim of the greatest injustice ever perpetrated upon a human being. As true God he could have stopped it at any time. But instead, as our Mediator, he prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done.” His willingness to obey even on the cross does not change the fact that they took him with wicked hands and nailed him to a cross.

11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
  12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
  13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
  14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
  15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
  16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
  17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
  18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
  19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
  (Ps. 22:11-19)

There are many times when men and women are powerless to stop crimes against themselves. Those crimes strike at the heart of our personhood and cause tremendous damage in the soul.

Being powerless against crime does not make you a contemptable, filthy, damaged person. It makes you human in a cursed world. The blood of Abel’s victimhood cried out from the earth, and God heard it.

The severity of the crime against you will determine the level of damage against you. Sometimes you need help climbing out of the pit. Needing help does not make you a contemptable, filthy, damaged person. It makes you a human being.

Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. Our resurrection has not happened yet. Until then, we mourn. Until then, we cry out. We will be afraid, sad, discouraged, anxious, downhearted, fearful and longing for the marriage supper of the lamb. This is what it means to be human.

One more admonition, for those who have read thus far. The gospel is this: “While we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.”

Modern evangelicalism, on the contrary, is about power and strength. Those with political power and wealth are admired. The only way to “take the country back for Jesus” is through power, money and strength. this is always what makes “Christendom” so contrary to Christianity. Every time the “city on the hill” has been tried, it has failed in an avalanche of oppression, power, money, prestige and politics. There have been no exception, because the kingdom of God is not of this earth.

Christ came for those without strength. He said, “Blessed are the poor.”

Therefore, Paul learned to count all of his earthly advantages as dung that he might know Christ and the power of his resurrection.

For this reason, the apostles endured persecution and injustice. They stopped it when they were able to, but most of the time they were not.

When Paul was beheaded, he was a victim. When Peter was crucified, he was a victim. When Bartholomew was roasted alive, he was a victim.

They were not contemptable and worthless because they did not have the power to stop it, and neither are you.

Evangelicalism today is a movement of strength and self-help. One who is needy is not welcome.

But needing help is not a moral failure. In fact, needing help is the only way that we can come to Christ at all.

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September 30, 2021 · 9:46 am

Grief

There is something sneaky about grief. It creeps up behind you while you are weeding the garden or watching the hummingbirds and it bashes you over the head.
Or it sneaks into your pores and hides in the nooks and crannies of the soul only to come out of hiding when you aren’t occupied with anything else.
The song over the speakers in the grocery store. The coffee shop that you used to go to. The street you used to walk down. The hymns you used to sing…

It is so painful and so brutally honest that MostPeople hide from it, bury it, will offer their souls to just make it stop…

But wisdom walks with grief. Wisdom weeps and cries out. Wisdom takes grief out of hiding and turns it this way and that…not to find a solution, but just to grieve.

Grief is the B-side of love. Only those who love much grieve much.
Wisdom sits with grief, not trying to learn, not trying to manage, not trying to overcome – just sits with it…
When we sit with grief, it has a way of pointing us somewhere else. It reminds us that we were not made for this world and this is not how it is supposed to be.
And we are powerless to do anything about it. And so we cry out to a Saviour who hears us, who has conquered death, who walks with us through the dark valleys…
Everything else seems to fade away.
We still eat. We still vote. We still have our opinions about viruses and vaccines. We still have our experiences and personalities.
But suddenly they don’t seem all that important anymore.

Grief is the B-side of love. And when one sits with grief, everything except love is stripped away.
But only if you sit with it without trying to learn anything from it.
Growth comes from the rain of grief coupled with patience.
Take time to grieve.
Every plant has its own pace. Let the rain do its work.

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September 15, 2021 · 12:24 pm

A Response to TGC on weeping

A couple of days ago, Kevin DeYoung published an article on The Gospel Coalition’s website concerning weeping with those who weep.

I found it quite disturbing, and I want to attempt to explain why.

To set the mood for the blog, he introduces Romans 12:15 and writes,

In recent years, the second half of the verse in particular has been emphasized as a key component in caring for victims, in listening to the stories of the oppressed, and in showing compassion to the hurting.

And then he adds:

These emphases are right and proper. Oftentimes the first thing we must do with sufferers is simply come alongside them, acknowledge their pain, express our condolences, and assure them of our love and prayers.

So far so good.

And then he spends the rest of the blog adding qualifier after qualifier until nothing is left.

The most disturbing sentence is this one:

Surely, the second half of Romans 12:15 does not mean that the only response to grieving people is to grieve with them. Diving into facts, pursuing objectivity, listening to all sides—these are not invalidated by Romans 12:15. “Weep with those who weep” does not dictate that the reasons for our weeping can never be mistaken. In short, the verse must mean something like “weep with those who have good, biblical reason to be weeping.”

I will explain why this disturbs me in a moment. First, to be fair to Rev. DeYoung, I would like to give his reasoning. Arguing from the parallelism of the passage, he writes:

One, almost everyone interprets the first half of Romans 12:15 along the lines just stated above. That is, no one thinks God wants us to rejoice with those who rejoice over the Taliban coming to power. No matter how genuine the rejoicing may be, Christians should not join with those who celebrate abortion or parade their sexual immorality or delight in racial prejudice. Instinctively, we know that the first half of Romans 12:15 means something like, “rejoice with those who have good, biblical reason to be rejoicing.”

His argument, then, is that since we do not indiscriminately rejoice over the Taliban coming into power, but rather we rejoice with those who have good and Biblical reasons for rejoicing, it then follows that weeping also must only be done with those who have good, biblical reasons for weeping.

First of all, this trend among the celebrity neo-“reformed” to view compassion with suspicion is quite disturbing. Why is there such a need in these guys’ minds to add caveat after caveat to compassion and empathy? As soon as we start defining who is and who is not worthy of our compassion, we enter into dangerous territory.

But before I go there, I would first like to critique his exegesis. He adds so many “traditions of men” that the command of God is of no effect, and is therefore committing the same fallacy as the Pharisees of old. Jesus explains this in Mark 7:9ff.

9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
  10 “For Moses said,`Honor your father and your mother’; and,`He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
  11 “But you say,`If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban “– ‘(that is, a gift to God),
  12 “then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother,
  13 “making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
  (Mark. 7:9-13)

In other words, according to the teachers at the time, if they had “good and biblical reasons”, they were not obliged to provide for their parents. What more biblical reason could there be than dedicating all of your goods to God himself?

DeYoung makes the same error, in my view. He takes a simple command…weep with those who weep…and adds so many caveats in order to explain that not EVERY person weeping deserves our tears of sympathy.

There have been so many articles lately about this that it is starting to bother me. What are they trying to prevent? Why are the tears of the abused so threatening to them that they have to find a way to silence them?

But back to DeYoung’s exegesis. His example of the Taliban does not hold up, because according to the text itself, Paul is speaking of the context of our neighbors, our fellow church members, and those that we interact with every day.

DeYoung finds the most extreme example (surely you wouldn’t rejoice with a terrorist) and then seeks to apply that to our neighbors.

He also draws a false contrast – “Diving into facts, pursuing objectivity, listening to all sides” is contrasted with weeping with those who weep. It appears that what he is saying is that you can do one or the other. If you dive into the facts, etc., and then determine that the one weeping has grounds for weeping, then Rom. 12:15 comes into play, but not before.

Wow. It just got complicated, didn’t it? Since sin is in the world, if you follow what he seems to be saying, you will always find a reason not to weep with those who weep. There will always be sin involved, therefore I don’t have to obey God. We nullify the command of God so that we might keep our traditions.

One more note on this, Paul isn’t talking about a judicatory of the church. Why must we all, as private citizens, assume that we are the arbiters of truth and that every complaint brought to us must be decided as if we were judges and jurists? Why can’t we just believe people and weep with them? Paul isn’t talking about adjudicating their case. He is talking about compassion.

But what if this passage means exactly what it says. “Leave vengeance in the hands of God. Love without hypocrisy. Empathize with one another.”

Rejoicing and weeping require some entering into the emotions of others, and this terrifies certain minds of the Reformed persuasion. But what if we let the scripture shape us, rather that us trying to make scripture fit our molds?

What if we learned what made our neighbors weep and wept with them?

Suppose, to use and extreme example, our neighbors are a gay couple. And suppose the state legislature passes a law forbidding gay couples from cohabitating together. They are scared. They don’t know what the future holds. Their whole world has turned upside down. Do they have “good and biblical reasons” for weeping?

It gets tricky, doesn’t it? Now you have to determine if the desire for safety and peace, the longing for acceptance and worth, and the security of a person’s home are biblical desires, and if so, are they trumped by the fact that they are living in sin?

Suppose the Taliban has taken over and has commanded that every gay couple be publicly flogged and then executed? Do we weep with them then?

If we ever get to the point that we are OK watching anyone getting flogged publicly, or executed by stoning, we are in a very scary state indeed.  I fear that we are headed there faster than we think.

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply weep with those who weep, and try to enter into their pain and sit with them?

Example two – a 15 year-old girl is raped. She gets pregnant and she is terrified of her church finding out. So afraid, in fact, that she sees no alternative but to abort her baby.

Is she no longer worthy of our tears? Is she no longer human now? What if it happened while she was at a party that her parents didn’t know she went to? What if she was drinking there? Is she now no longer worthy of our tears? No wonder she is terrified of telling the church, if their response is dictated by people like DeYoung. First, determine if their weeping is good and biblical. THEN weep with them. No wonder we are losing the war against abortion.

One example I read a few months ago was this one, “Surely you wouldn’t weep with a drug dealer who lost his whole stash in a house fire.” Once again, using the most extreme example that you can think of isn’t really the best way to do exegesis.

But let’s look at it. Suppose that this drug dealer is your son. And the drugs that he lost weren’t his. And now the cartel is after him. We can certainly hold to our belief that actions have consequences and at the same time be crushed with grief and tears. Surely every parent knows this grief. Surely the father of the prodigal wept great tears at the state of his son, even though it was his son’s fault he was in that state. Isn’t that the point of our faith?

Don’t we worship a God who plucks us out of the miry pit?

Jesus himself wept over Jerusalem, even though their destruction was just and good.

I would never bare my heart to anyone who says things like this, and it certainly isn’t what Paul means.

Paul means quite simply what he says. If your friends and neighbors are rejoicing, rejoice with them. If they are weeping, weep with them. It simply means to enter into their lives. They are image-bearers of God. It certainly doesn’t mean to approve of their sins. If means to have compassion.

You cannot do this without empathy. I am extremely disturbed that compassion and empathy are viewed with such suspicion in the church in these past few years.

But such is the result when you think that the point of Christianity is winning a culture war rather than loving God and your neighbor. These are two quite different things.

But there is one more thing even more disturbing. It is inexcusable that a pastor of sheep wouldn’t be aware of this. Do you know what this article will do in abusive homes?

Do you know what will happen if we tell abusive and violent men that they must not weep with their wives and children if they do not have biblical reasons to weep?

To me, this is the most disturbing part of the whole thing. It is saying that I must determine if your tears are biblical before I can weep with you. The damage that this will cause will be immense. Wait for it…

Wisdom is justified by her children. So is foolishness.

I am afraid that this teaching will bear some very ugly children.

If we are secure in our righteousness before God, if we truly understand that we are complete in Christ already, then we can weep with those who weep without fear that we will somehow become tainted by their sin.

If Jesus waited until he had good and biblical reasons to weep with us, we would still be lost in our sins.

2 “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
3 “and say,`Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: “Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
4 “As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.
5 “No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.
6 “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood,`Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood,`Live!’
7 “I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.
8 “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord GOD.
9 “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.
10 “I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk.
11 “I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck.
12 “And I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.
13 “Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty.
14 “Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord GOD. (Ezek. 16:2-14)

Isn’t that beautiful. He doesn’t wait for his people to live before he gives them life. He doesn’t wait for them to be worthy of compassion before he has compassion.

Are we not to be tenderhearted, as God is tenderhearted? It seems we are missing something crucial about our faith.

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September 14, 2021 · 4:53 pm

Righteous before God

60. How art thou righteous before God?

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ; that is, although my conscience accuse me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil; yet God without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sin, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart. Heidelberg Catechism #60

The most important question anyone can ask is this one. How are you righteous before God?

If God is coming again to judge the living and the dead, and if all of the wicked will be condemned, and only the righteous can stand before his awesome throne, how can we be considered righteous?

We can’t do it ourselves. We’ve already blown it. In fact, we blew it even before we were born because of Adam’s sin in the garden.

But beyond that – our own sins. We cannot even satisfy our own consciences. How can we satisfy a holy God who sees the thoughts and intents of the heart?

Well I meant well…keep telling yourself that. You didn’t mean well.

Well I had love in my heart…no you didn’t.

The truest expression of who you actually are is what your conscience reminds you of when all the other voices are quiet.

The fact is that you don’t measure up…and you need to finally admit that before it is too late.

The righteousness that can stand before God’s awesome throne must be perfect. It must not have any flaws. No self-serving motives, but complete purity of thought, purity of motive. Perfect love flowing from a perfect heart into perfect actions.

Have you ever done one thing that fits that description?

So how can we be righteous before God.

It is called “imputation.” Every wicked act, every impure thought, every shameful interaction, every hurtful word, is kept on the books by the righteous judge. And he took them all on himself on the cross. He took your record. In the counsels of the Holy Trinity, beyond our understanding, God the Father imputed your sins to his Only Begotten Son, who took them on himself. This is a single act by the single will of God. Our sins were imputed to Jesus Christ. They were put on his record.

When you read the scripture – the gospels, the proverbs, the law – you see a perfect description of what a human being should be. The scripture gives us a glorious painting of beauty in the pinnacle of the possibility of being a good and wise person. The problem is that no one has lived up to it. (seriously. Be honest here…”)

Except for one. Jesus Christ. He had nothing that he could be accused of. His enemies found nothing to charge him with, even though they looked. His heart was laid bare before his Father in heaven, and there was nothing impure or unclean it it. Every action and every deed and every word was perfect throughout. His only thought was love for God and love for his neighbor.

He didn’t do that for himself. He did it for us. He did it so that he would create a perfect record of what a beautiful, good, wise and holy human could be…and then he put that record on our account, so that is what God sees when we stand before him on judgment day.

Our sins – nailed to his cross.

His righteousness and wisdom – put on our account.

It is finished indeed.

You can’t earn it. You can’t prove yourself worthy of it. You can’t buy it. You can’t be sorry enough for your sins to earn it.

You simply accept it with a believing heart…

But wait – the faith that receives it is not the foundation of that righteousness. It is simply the weak and trembling hand that receives it.

We aren’t even accepted because of the quality of our faith. We are accepted because of the beauty of the Savior.

I just thought you might like to know that.

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