Good Shepherd Lutheran church

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Rejoice Always


This week I did not feel like rejoicing. I am in the cranky part of the year (I am a very complicated lady, I most definitely have extended cranky stages) and was more content to sit and mope and dwell on all the sad things in my life.

Then I saw that this month’s bible study was on rejoicing. I’m not ashamed to say that my heart sunk and I spent some time dreading talking about this. What kind of hypocrite did that make me that I was supposed to talk about rejoicing when all I wanted to do was to complain and pout? And maybe yell a little too. You know, just get all angry and worked up. But then we started to get deeper into this study and it became increasingly apparent that this was the perfect time for this study.

So of course when you think of rejoicing, first off you think of something fantastic happening. You think of a new baby, a wedding, a promotion, something that is huge and life altering…or if not that, something that is really exciting. This was certainly the case for the 72 that were sent out by Jesus to proclaim the message of God. They were excited, perhaps even rejoicing over the fact that they had authority over the demons. And honestly, they had ever reason to be excited about that. Think of your life, think of the things that tempt you, especially those temptations that are dang near impossible to overcome. That thing that you confess to every week, that you want so badly to stop doing but you just aren’t able to. Now imagine having control over it. Imagine not being controlled by it. It’s a good feeling right? And it’s something that you should be excited about. The danger comes when that’s where the rejoicing ends. When we, or when the 72, are so focused on what we are doing right now that we forget about what we really should be rejoicing in…the promise of everlasting life. That is of course our main source of rejoicing.

And this is great news. I am excited about this, really I am, but it’s still not enough to bring me out of my “My life sucks; why should I rejoice?” funk. Even reading through some of the Pauline descriptions of pain and sorrow being a blessing really wasn’t doing it. All that did was make me feel like a terrible Christian because I have way fewer problems (99 problems and persecution ain’t one) and yet I dwell on them way more and put them right in the centre of absolutely everything.

And that, my friends, is when it hit me. I put my problems right in the centre of everything.



Take a minute and go and look at John 16:20-22

Go ahead, I can wait.

It’s even hyperlinked for your ease.

Hope you like the ESV.

You can change it if you like.

You could even pull out your own bible.

Anyways, hopefully by now you have read it.

I love it.

I don’t think I had ever given it too much attention previously. It was always one of those parts that seemed to be really aimed at the disciples. I am apparently not the brightest crayon in the box!

There is a crazy amount of comfort in that section. More than Paul’s intimidating dedication to Christianity is Jesus’ words of understanding. He begins by saying that he completely understands how the disciples will feel. He knows that they will feel sorrow and he knows that they will go through a cranky stage that no one will understand. While the whole rest of the world is rejoicing, they will be filled with sorrow. This isn’t just the message for the disciples, it’s the message for us too. When we’re struggling with feelings of sorrow, even though it feels wrong because the whole of everyone around us is happy and joyful, it’s ok. It’s a natural reaction, something that we’re all prone too.

As you have noticed, that isn’t where the passage ends. Jesus goes on to say that even though you feel sorrow now, it isn’t forever. Our sorrow will be turned to joy.

It’s a huge promise; the fact that not only will we have joy, but it will be a joy that is never taken away.

This is the part that we don’t think about when we’re in the midst of our sorrow. We don’t stop and wonder about the joy that is to come. Heck, we don’t even think about the things that bring us joy right now. When we’re in the middle of our sorrow, our grief, our cranky stage, that is all that there is.

Let’s create a hypothetical situation here. Let’s pretend that you have an old beater of a car. It is on it’s last legs. But you are a thrifty person and continue to drive it. The inevitable happens and your car dies. Since it is May in Saskatchewan it is pouring rain. Also your phone is dead. It happens to be on a busy street, where everyone can see you. Oh, and did I mention that you are now late for a very important meeting? What a day!

Now, let’s play thesaurus and describe your mood. Angry, grumpy, embarrassed, extremely cranky and disappointed with the way everything is turning out.

Now let’s play the antonym game. In this hypothetical situation you are thankful that it happened on a busy road where people could see you, happy that you could meet new people, excited for the opportunity to buy a new car and grateful to have a legitimate excuse to miss out on a boring meeting.

Those aren’t the first things that come to mind. In our sorrowful, frustrating, embarrassing situations it’s the negative factors to which we hold fast. We get so entangled in these terrible things that we fail to see how anything good could possibly come from this.

This is what I think of with the passage from John. Jesus realizes that we are human, we have human emotions and sorrow and sadness is part of that. We shouldn’t try and pretend those emotions don’t exist, because they do, they always will. The important part is that we don’t dwell on these emotions. We don’t make sorrow the be all and end all of our lives. We realize that there is more than sorrow. There is joy. We have a great deal for which we can rejoice, and for which we should rejoice. When we dwell on the negative we do ourselves a disservice because we neglect everything around us that is meant to bring us joy.

I will always have my cranky times. There will always be things that make me sad. You will be filled with sorrow at many times during your life. What we want to look at is what comes after the sorrow. We look for the joy that comes from God in all circumstances. We ask God for the strength to see beyond our sadness and to look instead at his amazing love and that is when we begin to rejoice.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

What do we tolerate?



So to start things off I have a couple of hard hitting news items to share with you, both from highly acclaimed Christian bloggers.



Now having read both blogs I am sure that you have some very definite opinions rising up in you. Or potentially, you have none and really remain quite apathetic towards both situations.

Both of these have at their core one central argument: the argument between what we believe as Christians, and what society holds to be true.

For me personally I had two very different reactions to these two very different blogs. I appreciate the way in which they both deal with the issue at hand and are able to express their own opinions on these items. But there was one I agreed with and one that really made me question what the definition of a Christian was.

One of the sentiments expressed in Jones’ post was that of Obama’s acceptance of homosexual marriage[ii] as being a true representation of Christianity. I have to admit that I took a bit of offence (is that too strong a term?) to the comparison. Whether or not Obama said what he said out of political concerns or whether it was just something that he felt the need to express, I don’t know that I would qualify that as something that exemplifies what Christians are.

I think what Jones is getting at is the idea expressed in the message of the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery where Jesus had the opportunity to yell at them for being damnable sinners and instead showed grace. It’s a nice message, right? Jesus totally overlooks everything that these women have done and sends them on their way. Well, not quite. Here’s where I get up on my soapbox. 

Jesus never once said that he condoned what they had done. He told the woman at the well all of the things she had done wrong. With the woman caught in adultery he told her to go on and refrain from sinning. Jesus told them they were sinners. Jesus tells us that we are sinners.

So fine, as Christians we recognize that we are sinners. What about our neighbor that is living with his girlfriend. What about our colleague who frequents the strip club every Tuesday for “hot wings”? What about our grandmother who “samples” a few grapes at the grocery store? What do we say to them?

As human beings, our natural response is to do nothing. These people are capable of their own thoughts, they can manage their own lives and whatever we do is going to upset them rather than cause anything good to happen. I mean, we read that first blog about the boy in Nova Scotia, we saw the way the people in that community reacted, and we saw the way in which everyone who read about it reacted to. The main sentiment was simply: you do your thing, I’ll do mine, and never shall the two meet.

Does that actually work for us? Not really. I don’t know how we can go forth and proclaim the word of God without actually going forth. How we can be the light in the world, when we are trying to hide it from everyone.

I have to admit that I am as guilty of this as the next person. I don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, I don’t want them to dislike me because of something that I’ve said. I really don’t want them to call me out for something that I’ve done and then allow that to negate everything that I’ve just said.

What I do want is to have the conversation that I am not a good person. What I want to say is that I have many things of which I am ashamed, and even when I try to do good things, I always end up screwing it up and looking like a fool. What I really want to do is to be real and to be honest about the things that I’ve messed up and to have the opportunity to be honest with you about the same things. I don’t want to be tolerant because it hurts you and it hurts me.



[i] I realize it wasn’t a blurt at all, but a carefully selected statement. Blurt rhymed better with shirt
[ii] Yes marriage, not civil union

Monday, May 7, 2012

The shirts that get you kicked out of school.

Oh boy.  I wasn't sure that I wanted to talk about this, but I don't think I can avoid it anymore.  Yes, it's the conundrum, the issue of the boy who wore a particular shirt to school in Nova Scotia.  If you aren't familiar with the story, I'll give you a minute to catch up.

This is the shirt in question.  How do I feel about it? I feel like I would look terrible in yellow, so I wouldn't wear it.  I also feel as though this is one of those things that isn't about this thing, but is about other things.  Confusing?  Okay, then I'll begin.

Often times, when my wife and I have a bit of a squabble over who left the commode seat in which orientation (which we never do, but to use an example), it's not really about that.  It's about other issues that may or may not be creeping up in our lives.  It's the same thing here.  I know I should never do it, but I perused the CBC comments page.  And those comments helped me to see what the real issue was all about.  The hearts and minds of people are a bit bent out of shape not about the shirt per se, but about a couple of other issues.  They are as follows.
1 - Teaching religion to children is tantamount to child abuse, and
2 - You are free to believe whatever you want to believe, as long as you don't 'cram it down anyone else's throat.'

I will address these points in turn.

Firstly, that teaching religion to children equals child abuse.  No,  I am not overstating the case.  That is literally what is being typed by a large number of people.
"The dad sounds like a raving nut job. There's probably a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Children's Aid should look into the home life of this child. It's likely that in addition to the psychological torture at the hands of this raving nutter, there's probably been a lot of physical abuse. If the boy is rescued in time, he can be de-programmed and taught to function like a normal human being."


"Don't pray in our schools and I won't think in you're church."


"This is all very one sided on the father's part. It was ok for his son to push his views on other students but once the school invites someone over to talk to students, the father takes the kid out of school. Sounds like the father has brainwashed the kid and doesn't want him to hear any other points of view"


"Put this sadly messed up and confused kid into a school established by his church; there he will find fertile ground for his preaching among like-minded brethren. And, perhaps there people will not look upon the brainwashing that has obviously been visited upon him as the child abuse it almost surely is."


"Religion has no place in school. Parents, stop brainwashing your children with the fanatical behaviour. Having religion as a strong part of your daily lives is fine, but know the line and don't cross it."


"another brainwashed kid ...
too bad parents are using their kid's virgin brain to put some kind of endoctrinate them"

"It's time we started treating early childhood religious indoctrination as child abuse."

There are plenty more of these comments, and if you want to read them all, be my guest.  Now, this is a bit of a thorny topic for me, because it  gets to something a little bigger than what was this child wearing or saying.  It talks about what he was taught.  And this is a bigger issue.  The reason this is a bigger issue is that critics of religion theoretically have to stand for free speech, but how can you both stand for freedom of speech, and yet hope to quell the spread of a religion that you find distasteful?  Well, the tactic used currently (and again, I am not trying to assert that all non-religious people believe this, only the ones who openly claim it) is to equate the teaching of religion to children, even and especially your own, with mental abuse.

"critics such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins use the term child abuse to describe the harm that some religious upbringings inflict on children.[61][62]They claim that children are especially vulnerable to mental harms related to religion, including:[citation needed]
  • Terrorized by threats of punishment, such as eternal damnation in a fiery hell
  • Extreme guilt about normal, healthy sexual functions
  • Trained to disrespect science and reason
  • Indoctrinated into a particular religious faith, thus depriving the child of the opportunity to make their own free inquiry later, when they are mature"
                                                                                            -The ever accurate Wikipedia.

Aha.  The problem is not just that the child in question professes these beliefs, but that he has them in the first place. And where did he get them from?  From his parents.  His parents who, through a course of religious education, have mentally abused him to the level that he can no longer make sensible, tolerant decisions.  This makes schools into a battleground, one that is perhaps unlikely to be conquered any time soon.  The issue at question is an ideological one, one in which there are acceptable views, and unacceptable ones.  Which brings us to point number two.

You are free to believe whatever you want, as long as you don't cram it down anyone's throat.

"This sounds like more than a T-shirt. Unfortunately, the issue was tied to the T-shirt. Are kids at this school allowed to wear shirts professing their love for AC/DC? Mickey Mouse? The hockey team of their choice? If so, he should be able to wear one professing his love for Jesus. However, if he's thumping his religion, the kids have a right to freedom from harassment in the school. He can wear the shirt, but shut up about it. I'm a Christian, but for the society to function in peace, there needs to be room for everyone and there is a place and a time for everything."

"I am not religious but I have no problem with others having beliefs and wearing symbols of their belief (e.g, cross, star of David, turban, hijab, etc,). I do have a big problem with those who try to force their beliefs on others. There is a place for religion, but public school is not one of those places unless it is for discussion about comparative religions."

"If someone wants to believe in an imaginary being having final say in the value of their existence, that is entirely their own choice.

But when that person preaches and threatens others based on those beliefs its no longer a 'personal' belief and is infringing on other people's rights.

Please keep religion at home or at church where it belongs."

"If this family does not wish to participate in a secular society this is their right. Just keep your religion at home, do not inflict it on students at public school who do not share your beliefs or attend a private Christian school."

"To this extent, all religion must be kept out of public schools. True tolerance is NOT pushing ones religious beliefs on other, NOT accepting the religious beliefs of those who chose to have them. I view religion as a mental illness but I keep that to myself until somebody chooses to approach me and start spewing off about an old man in the sky. Pure insanity."

"I believe wholeheartedly in the personal freedoms that we enjoy in Canada. This kid and his father are both free to believe whatever they want and are free to worship how they want, but these freedoms are not limitless. 

When someone else's religious beliefs infringe on my freedom to be non-religious, it upsets me. 

Freedom of religion includes freedom from religion."

"Freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom to put down others' religious beliefs. This form of Christianity where anyone who doesn't believe exactly what you do is damned and needs to be converted is a bigger threat to true religious freedom than any atheists or agnostics will ever be."

"Keep religion out of schools please. And your pushy t shirts.

Children need to learn free of religious controversy."


Again, there are many more besides. The issue of 'shoving religion down people's throats' is one that I've been interested in for a while.  You see, in this case, it was a student, not a teacher, who was sharing what he believed.  And I have no idea what format it took, because I wasn't there.  I don't go to that school.  But I do get the idea these days that any mention of religion equates it to 'pushing it down someone's throat.'  That shirt, those words, however mild they may have been, probably amount in the minds of individuals to cramming it down their throats.  Freedom of religion includes freedom from religion, and there's a time and place for you to talk about God, and it's at home or at church.  Where most everyone agrees with you anyway.

I'll be the first to admit it, that when I saw Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes, I thought he was pushing his atheism.  And he probably was.  When I saw the holy atheist open for Norm MacDonald at the Casino Regina, I thought he was pushing his atheism on me too.  And he was.  Because these individuals have worked out that if you think you've backed the right pony, and you think your view is the best way to happiness, delight, salvation, or whatever, and if you're convinced of that, then you want to tell people about it.  Norm MacDonald said some quite pro-Christian things during his show too, and I felt fine about them, though I'm sure there were many who were thinking "Norm, keep your Christianity out of the jokes, please.  Quit forcing your religion down my throat."

We like to hear what we agree with.  We dislike to hear what we disagree with.  I'm no different.  I wish I was, I wish I was very zen about this, but I'm not.  When I hear someone speak openly and passionately about stuff I disagree with, I get a little bit antsy.  But that's my problem, not theirs.  The 'disagree with what you say but defend your right to say it' thing actually only works with speech that you find to be offensive, that you disagree with, that you dislike.  As long as everything's legal, you may not care for his witnessing, but is it forbidden for him to do so?  The big question is why should the shirt be removed, and why should the student be suspended.  For bothering everyone?  Or is it the viewpoint itself that should not be expressed anywhere but inside a closed room under a blanket somewhere.  I do want to reiterate that I have no idea what format the 'preaching' took, but I know how uncomfortable I've been when people have preached to me.  And I've simply been able to tell them that I'm comfortable in what I believe, and thank them for their time.  I may not care for said preaching, religious or otherwise, but that's the cost of living in a world of free ideas, in which you can say what you please.  People may, and almost certainly will disagree with you, but speech isn't free as long as it's hidden or confined.

PJ.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Who do you say He is?


I’m sure it comes as no surprise that people find Jesus to be confusing. There is no straightforward answer when it comes to trying to describe who Jesus is. The ultimate answer comes from Peter in Matthew 16:13-16 where he answers by saying “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”

For some reason that doesn’t seem to be enough. We need more answers. We need to know exactly who he is, who he was, and who he will be. We need to know what the ratio of God to man actually is and we need to be able to prove all of this too.

As I’m sure you know, this is not a new issue. As we saw with Peter’s proclamation the question of who Jesus is has been on people’s minds ever since he first came to earth.

As is human nature people were and still are determined to logically explain who Jesus was/is and what role he played in the grand scheme of things. Now, speaking as someone who got their Bachelor of Arts degree and shied away from all classes that involved the word logic (ask me about my brief foray with a philosophy class…ohhhhh boy!) logical explanation very rarely seems very logical.

Looking back at some of the logical explanations that were provided for Jesus life here on earth, I can’t say that they really change my mind.

Now here is logic. You and I sin. We do the things that we don’t want to do. The root cause of our misdeeds…our sinful body. All the inside bits are all awesome and devoted to God. If only these dagblasted arms would stop stabbing people, these lips would stop bearing false witness and these eyes would stop lusting after people. The only way to stop sinning is in that day when our sinful body is removed from us, buried in the ground and our soul is united with God. Now what about Jesus? If he came to earth and lived as a man, how could he be perfect? The only solution to that would be to say that he obviously did not have a real body; it only looked like he did. God couldn’t abide in something as sinful as flesh and bones.

Or a different form of logic deals with the persona of God. The God we see in the Old Testament is a God of vengeance, a God of law, of fire and brimstone. The God we see in the New Testament sent his one and only son to die at the hands of those he came to save. The God of the New Testament talks about love, gives good gifts and is a God of mercy. These two Gods are so different that there is no way we could possibly believe that they are both the same being. With the drastic difference between the two, there must be two different godheads who are involved here.

How do we reconcile an ever changing logic with the steadfast word of God?

The truth is that we don’t. What we do is have faith.

We have faith in the words of scripture that tell us that Jesus was both true God and true man (Hebrews 2:14-18) that he needed to be man in order to be subject to the pain of sin to which we are subject but also needed to be God in order to conquer it.

We have faith that there is only one God (Ephesians 4:4-6). We realize that just as we react differently dependent on the circumstance, God also does the same. God judges us harshly when we are left to our own devices, knowing that there is no way that we can live up to the demanding measures that are required for salvation. In the light of Christ’s sacrifice we are made to live up to these demands. We are still judged harshly, but are successful because of what Christ has done. God’s judgment doesn’t change, it’s Christ’s sacrifice that changes us.

But in the end it isn’t about a successful argument. It isn’t about facts, nor is it even necessarily about the memorization of scripture. What it boils down to is faith. There will always be an argument that will tempt you to doubt what you have always believed. This isn’t a new thing, nor is it something that will soon disappear. What we do is believe that God has provided for us, that he created us and has given us the most amazing gift in the form of his son. We say together with Peter that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Messiah, the anointed one, the one who has come to be our salvation.