Magnification and The Law

Attending the AACC (American Association of Christian Counselors) Conference in Nashville, I unexpectedly heard Tullian Tjividian (Billy Graham's grandson) speak on Law and Grace.  Not a new topic for me, having recently completed Andy Stanley's series on The Brand Christian.  But Pastor Tullian's words won't leave me alone.  I woke up at 5:30 a.m. repeating the concept of his message over and over - The Law (truth) - gives for me a reflection of my imperfect reflection, my condition.  Grace (Love) is the remedy, my redemption.  He made a connection for me (again) of Jesus' Sermon on The Mount.  Phil Yancey had pointed out for me years ago, that Jesus message there wasn't a list for me of things to do - it was to show me all of the things I couldn't do.  How no matter how I try, I cannot live up to The Law.

Maybe this is the reason I have so much trouble with Law "driven" theology.  I woke up thinking about how God's law is like a magnifying glass.  In my "older" age, I love a magnifying glass mirror.  Without one I have trouble putting on my contacts so I can see.  It shows me where to put on my make up because I can't see where to draw my eyes or blend in the smudges.  But some times my magnified mirror can be harsh - I see things (wrinkles) I don't want to see.  Maybe when you were a kid, you played with a magnifying glass, reflecting the sun through it just right so you could zapp an ant.  (Burn it up!)   I always hated that - poor little ants just doing their jobs and poof they're melted.   For me, the Law is like that magnifying glass in God's hands and in my poor understanding of who God is, I just imagine him looking at all my flaws and imperfections and because He is The Light, I get burned up by it - smoldered.  Sometimes I think others take the Law (the magnifying glass) and aim it at others, zapping them like ants.

But reflecting on Pastor Tullian's words, I am reminded that I need the Law  just like I need that magnifying glass to see.  The Law (truth) brings clarity to my life and to my condition.  Without the Law, I would be oblivious to my condition.  John Ortberg reminded us at the conference that we are "as the grass and all flesh wither and die"  Isa. 40: 6-8.  He pointed out however, that God has placed eternity in the human heart.  Ecc 3:11.  John stated in his message that we (humans) are disoriented.  That disoriented cultures lead to disoriented people.  And he made an interesting observation, in John 1:1 the "Word was made flesh" - Jesus was made flesh and would become "disoriented" ("Father, Why have you foresaken me?" sounds pretty disoriented to me) and as with flesh would wither and die as a part of plan. Made flesh to show me that I have a condition. Made flesh to show me that he understands my condition.  Made flesh to rescue me from my condition.  I need a remedy and Jesus is my redemption!  It's easier for me to look at Love and Grace than the Law and Pastor Tullian said we often don't believe or allow that Grace (Love)  to be enough to do the trick - to "fix" people, to fix us.  John Aldridge wrapped it up in his message to us that Jesus "renews and restores all things".  He will fix this, It is His promise!!  

Do you ever get into to those “debates” with your friends and family over whatever issue is the topic of the day?  There’s so many to choose from these days: politics, gun control, prayer in schools, abortion, gay marriage…we all have an opinion on how it all fits with our religion and our values. 

It’s funny how quickly we can “take our position” and we want to convince others so desperately on what we believe.  It’s weird though, because I thought I understood what I believed and valued on some of these subjects until I actually “heard myself”.  Something happened the other night when I was trying to “build a case” for “my opinion”.   I feel like it was God, challenging me on what I say I believe. 

On any of the issues – I’m never an “extremist” – I really do try look at a middle ground – but sometimes it feels like I’m a “loner” on what I think on whatever topic is at hand.  But when I try to imagine Jesus plopped down into the conversations or “debates”, if you will; What would he be saying?  Oh man, I would love to sit in on that discussion.  We’d all get schooled. 

The people of Jesus day, really wanted Jesus to take on the government (Romans) and the “issues” of his day. (Funny, huh?  The two big powers of Jesus’ day were the government and the religious leaders).  The people were looking for a “Messiah” a battle king to overthrow the government (his disciples were so convinced of this they were picking out “thrones” and arguing over who will sit where) and on the day he entered the city of Jerusalem “on a donkey” (a symbol of peace), they were all there “cheering” him on expecting him to head straight to the palace to teach that government a lesson.

 But what did he do?  He headed straight to the synagogue (the church of his day) and he “purged” it – with a whip!!!  He was concerned about how the church was persecuting those who came to worship in the temple courts.  What?  With so many issues wrong in that day with the government – he went to discipline the church??  In those temple courts, he warned of a time when so much more persecution was coming for the “chicks he longed to gather under his wings” and protect – but he knew they would not have it.  Don’t you find it just a little ironic if you were to place it in the context of today? 

Jesus’ course of action – his solution to the problem – suffering and sacrifice and love.

Your blessed if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, if you're merciful to others, if you’re a peacemaker, if people insult you and say evil against you for his sake – “rejoice and be glad (if these things happen to you) for your reward in heaven is great”.  (Matthew 5: 3 – 12).    (Suffering)

“I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  John 10:11 and Matthew 6:20  “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”   (Sacrifice)   

John 13:35  “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  and Mark 12:33 “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  (Love)

 I am CONVINCED that God is still in control – and if God is in control – he can use any circumstance to bring about his good purpose.

 What does it mean to be a disciple in THIS culture – in this hour – when media exploits our innocence and tosses out our values?  What does it look like to love – when there are those who murder and destroy in our most vulnerable places?  And what does it mean to sacrifice and to know that you will suffer because you are a disciple – when we feel God has been removed from our public lives?

I don’t know the answer to any of the issues facing us in these critical times.  But maybe our focus should be on “God” Control more than “gun” control!  I think it starts with me – as an individual – how have I sought God’s direction in these tough questions?    How am I living my life as a disciple of Jesus? 

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:13

Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, Knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Ohh, if I could only live it! 

Crossing the Line....

Read John 4:4-26

Woman at the Well - Song
Unlovable Scripture Video

Last Sunday, in Pastor Jeff’s sermon we learned that God is approachable, God is merciful and his grace is available to us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.  For me, this connects to what I want to talk about today. In the great commandment, Jesus reminds us to Love God and Love our neighbor.  If God extends his love to us by offering us access-ability, and mercy and grace – shouldn’t our love for our neighbor look much like God’s love for us?

 My mother-in-law was born in 1935.  Her birth certificate lists the name of a man of whom she had no memory.  She told me once she read an article in a local newspaper that mentioned his name, the man in the article had a wife and a family.  But the article didn’t mention her, or her mother, or her brother.  Her mother was never married to her father and in those days that isn’t something you wanted to talk about.  She told me how her Mother took the family to Mississippi because her mother could get a job at café while she and her brother were to pick a 5 acre crop of cotton.  I don’t think they knew what they were getting into because she said another family of share croppers ended up helping them finish the harvest that year.  My mother-in-law dropped out of school.  It may have been because they moved around a lot, it may have been because she had to help her mom and needed to get a job….  It may have been because in those days she wouldn’t have been accepted by others.  There was a line.  (It wasn’t because she wasn’t smart because she was. She loved to work cross-word puzzles, she loved a good debate, you were not going to win, and I don’t know anyone who didn’t love her cooking.  Oh, she wasn’t perfect.  She’d lived a difficult life and you might say she had some battle scars to prove it.)  

When I first met her, I didn’t understand that there was a line between us.  I didn’t understand the feelings she must have had about her life because my reality doesn’t even begin to compare.  But I started to get the idea when she told me about an experience with “the church”.  When she married and had children of her own, an acceptable family, surely it would be different.  So, she took her children to church.  She offered to teach Sunday school.  She wanted to belong.  But the line was still there.  I know she felt it.   I know she heard it.  It was probably the mid to late 1960s and the world was changing pretty rapidly. She had made an outfit for her daughter – kouhlats – remember those – they looked like a skirt in the front and shorts in the back.  At church, that evening, she was told her daughter would have to leave – she had dressed her inappropriately for church.   Have you ever felt that – sinking embarrassment, shame, the humiliation of not fitting in?  I can’t imagine what that must have triggered in her.  All the past – rushing back.    You don’t belong – you are different – you are not welcome.

 What Love Really Means

When it comes to dealing with social misfits, outcasts and those engaged in sinful behaviors, there seems to be an invisible line in the sand and it’s socially understood that you don’t cross that line.  In the scripture this a.m., Jesus, however, refuses to be held by the boundary of a line. He knew there were unacceptable behaviors for Jews and yet, he didn’t let those rules keep him from reaching out to those on the other side of that line. For the women of Jesus day, there was a line between the confines of home and the rest of the civilized world of his day.

• Women were largely confined to their husband’s or father’s home and in those days were not allowed to talk to strangers in public, especially men.  To be called “Woman” would be a sign of respect.
• Women were not taught the Torah nor allowed in the inner courts of the temple.  They were excluded from worship and the teachings of God.
• Women were not allowed to testify in court.  (In other words, their word meant nothing)

 There was a line!  Considering these rules for women, I wonder if we truly understand how unacceptable Jesus’ behavior was to the people of his day. We might be tempted to argue that it’s much better to be a woman in the world today than the women who lived in Jesus’ day.

Perhaps it’s fitting to look at the Best Places in the World to be a Woman today.  TrustLaw Women conducted a global perception poll in the Spring of 2012 based on the input of Gender experts of the Group of 20 Nations (G20) on how well women fared in these countries.:

The top 4 countries (drum roll please):  Canada, Germany, United Kingdom and Australia.  These countries are cited for the resources, opportunities and overall safety available to women.  The bottom 4 countries include Mexico there on the list because of women being “used up” and murdered by its own terminology of “machismo”, followed by Indonesia, Saudia Arabia, and at the bottom of the list India.      Best and Worst g20 Countries for Women (Link)

Can we really say, “Its better to be a woman in the world today, when in Afghanistan one in 11 women have a chance of dying in childbirth; Some 87 percent of women are illiterate; and as many as 80 percent of girls face forced marriages. As many as 1,000 women are killed annually in Pakistan in so-called "honor killings." Additionally, families defending their "honor" are also known to attack women with acid to disfigure them, stone them to death, or simply beat them. (From CBS NEWS June 14, 2011)

Is it really better to be a woman in the world today when virtually, every aspect of a women’s life in Saudi Arabia is controlled by men. They cannot drive or enter the Olympics. They’re generally forbidden from leaving home, traveling outside the country, working, studying, marrying, filing a court case or seeking medical care without being accompanied by or receiving the written consent of a male guardian. In India practices like infanticide, child marriage, wife-beating and human trafficking are commonplace.  ***Forbes 6/13/2012  I make this little side track, simply to say our WORLD is not all that better off today. Our world is still a mess.  (BTW, 27 million people are enslaved in the world today – the greatest number the world has ever seen.) – there’s a LOT of work to be done.

If we could just put ourselves in the shoes of a woman from India or Saudi Arabia this a.m.  and imagine Jesus as he speaks to this socially unaccepted woman of the gospel.  Add insult to injury and the woman he speaks to – is of a lower status not only by gender but by Jewish religious standards – she is a Samaritan, a religious outcast, - and he knows of her many divorces and he knows of her unspoken Sins.  Why would any man, degrade himself to address this women?  And for anyone watching him – who sees him talking to this woman…

 He crosses the line.

Not only does he speak to her –  

–  he looks at her, he listens to her, he knows her and her offers her respect, he offers her life and he loves her.

Tony Campolo is a sociologist, pastor and president of Eastern College

Check out this testimony by Tony Campolo (Sociologist, Preacher, Eastern College Professor and Vice President   Party for Prostitutes - Tony Campolo

Tony says – if all you have to offer people is a “bowl of soup and some clothes” – it’s not enough!  Jesus said, “I have come that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be full”  Tony says…We’ve gotta do more than just give them bread and soup – we’ve got to bring joy and love into their lives! 

I’m a marriage and family therapist, and in the counseling process we often ask the question, “What does it look like when you’ve reached your goal?”  And if our goal is to truly “Love Others” we might ask, “What does that look like?”

Is it merely feeding and clothing people?   I’m afraid in this economy, that often we send them away without even the bread or soup. Wait a minute – hold on now Cindy – we've heard about all the money we send to missions all over the world – and that is good. As a church, we do give to missions and go on missions and it is good. Have you heard St Jerome’s “Good, Better, Best, Never let it rest, Until your good is better and your better is best?”  If you just look around, there is still plenty of room here and even if our pews were full – if you remember – Jesus would leave all of these to go and get the “missing” one.

As a youth leader for many years, after many mission trips, I confess to you, it’s easier to go on a mission trip away from home – help someone – tell them about Jesus and at the end of the trip come home THAN it is to meet a person in need, form a relationship and be there when they need you.  Sometimes people are a messy.  They have issues and real problems that don’t come off when you wash your hands.  We’re like children playing in a sprinkler…you’ve seen how they’ll run into the spraying water and run away as fast as they ran in.   It’s as if they flirt with getting wet – Sometimes I think we “flirt” with the others but we don’t really want to commit to those who are different than us, the outcasts, the unacceptable, the ones whose problems and issues don’t go away.

Do we really understand in the Greatest Commandment that Jesus is not talking just about loving your family, loving those who love you? We might ask as the expert of the law did – who is my neighbor?  Sometimes the task of loving those who love us can be a challenge for us.  Then there are those who randomly cross our paths, those who live in our community and those who live across the globe.  In fact, in the story of the good Samaritan Jesus never tells us WHO the neighbor is?  He only asks “Who is being neighborly?”  Who is motivated by love? 

And It’s not how much money are we giving to support those in our community – although that is a very good question – It really is how well am I loving my neighbor?  how am I available to them, am I willing to cross the line and be seen on the other side with them as Jesus does with the woman at the well or Tony with the prostitutes in the diner.   

Do you remember the children's song, “His Banner over me is love?”  Most commentaries about that song describe the banner as a military flag carried into battle.  Seems kind of a harsh way to represent love - We'll beat it into you...  But one commentary explained how this song originates from the Song of Solomon (The Love Book of the Bible) – and describes the intense desire of the lover for his love.  He calls her into the banquet hall – a public place – and in front of everyone professes his love to her with banners and a feast –In front of everyone he expresses his inner most desire for her - vulnerable – Can you imagine?  Please, not while I’m eating… Such an announcement crosses the lines of what is acceptable – kind of like the surprise birthday party for prostitutes.  And yet this what God has done for us – and isn’t this what we are all longing for – we are created for this kind of love relationship and he commands us to have this kind of love for Him and for one another.    

If you think about it, he did the same thing in the way he died – if front of everyone – exposed – he stretched out his arms  – I love you this much – and he gave his life - while we were still “the other – still full of sin – outcast and unacceptable.”  (We call this prevenient grace).   Mike Kimpan says,   “it is in the realization of the extensive grave i have received that i am able to extend that grace to others.”

By the time I met my mother-in-law, her church participation consisted of going to weddings and funerals and attending special programs for her grandchildren.  It’s hard to be excluded from any of those.   Even though she never made back into “the church” she understood what it felt like to be an “outcast”. As long as I can remember knowing my mother-in-law went out of her way to help people -  she’d make something, or she’d bake something and she would visit these social misfits that would rarely reciprocate the generosity that she’d give.  She rarely complained and even if she did, she just “loved on” people her way.  I believe she understood God in a way that many of us miss.   I used to think she missed out on being a part of a “church community” and I still do.  But now I think, it is the church who really missed out on her.  Who else might we be missing?

  

My mother-in-law passed away in November of 2009, and at her funeral, all of those misfits and outcasts were there, as well as some of us, and I know this is probably really “crossing the line” but it’s just my opinion.  I can’t help but think that the gathering at her funeral –that mismatched bunch of all colors and creeds, saints and sinners, looks more like the kingdom of heaven than maybe this does. 

 

Where is that line for you?  Is it at the door of the church?  Is it between you and someone of a different religion?  Race?  Or social status?  What are you willing to do about that line?  Jesus crossed a line to leave heaven and humbled himself to live among us….he crossed a line of social constructions to love people….and ultimately crossed a line from death to give us everlasting life.   How should we respond?

John Wesley said,

“Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.”

More You can do to Cross the Line…

BIBLE

*Read Luke 10:25-37; The Parable of the Good Samaritan

INTERNET RESOURCES

*Visit the WayWard Follower – This blog exists not merely to inspire conversation around loving God and loving others in the Way of Jesus Christ…but to inspire movement.  You can join the conversation at http://www.mjkimpan.com

*Video Brian McClaren Toward the Other

*Video Shane Claiborne What the Spirit is Saying to the Church

GET BUSY 

Read The Christmas Jars by Jason Wright and start your own Christmas giving tradition.

Get involved by volunteering at one of these local centers: 

 

• Alvin Family Community Center (281) 585-4516 (Need help in the  store)
• Alvin Food Pantry  (281)  824-8871
• Meals on Wheels    http://www.alvinmealsonwheels.org
• Alvin Senior Center  (281) 388-4298 (Need cooks and phone help)

MUSIC

Divine Romance by Phil Wickam  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBDLAZFLfIM