We have created the narrative of a world where God is not necessary, where we live by our own standards and disregard as tyrants those who would call us to something different, even if that different thing is for our betterment. We have left the building of towers to heaven to the ancients and instead tried to bring God down to ourselves, where we removed His crown, placed it upon our own heads and spent the rest of our lives staring at ourselves in the mirror.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
A Moment with Pastor Bonhoeffer Part 1
When the Puritans wanted to know if their community was in right relationship with God they looked to the harvest. If the harvest for the community was plentiful they knew that they had lived in a pleasing way before the Lord. If the harvest was bad then they knew that at least one individual in the community was living in unrepentant sin. This being the case they would collect the people of the community into the church where the pastor would preach a sermon known as a Jeremiad*. Named after the "weeping prophet" Jeremiah of the Old Testament who was famous for calling the people of Israel to repent with great emotion, Jeremiads were sermons designed to call the congregation back to a right relationship with Jesus and repentance from sin that was dominating their lives.
The basic assumption of this practice was quite simple. If Jesus is happy with us then he will reward us in the exact manner and timing that we expect. If we do not get the thing we want/desire/suppose we need in our exact timing then He must be mad at us and if that is the case then we must repent in dust and ashes so that His wrath doesn't fall on us. If Jesus likes you He gives you things. If He doesn't then He is withholding.
The practice came from, what I am convinced is, a poor theological framework. Nowhere in Scripture is the idea expressed that prosperity is designed for those with whom the Lord is happy. I can't think of any Bible believing Christian who would explicitly say that the Puritans were right in their thinking. Most would say that they were quite wrong. One can point to the Egyptian nation who defied God and still enjoyed centuries of prosperity, while a man like Job could live a life pleasing before God and have everything taken away from him. The way the Lord works is beyond our comprehension that the reasons for events beyond our ability to categorize. No one would deny this. And yet I still find myself and others guilty of the fallacy of the Puritans.
When things are going well I rarely consider how my life and choices are impacting God, whether He is content or disappointed. When things are bad I immediately retreat to the notion that I am being punished for some great sin. In essence this is line of thinking is more in line with the Prosperity Gospel than Biblical Evangelicalism. The thinking is that if I live well I will be rewarded, if I live poorly I will be punished. This isn't Biblical Christianity. The Lord lets the sun shine on the just and unjust alike. His ways are unknowable. Why things happen the way they do is beyond our ability to comprehend. All I can do in the good times and the bad is know that the Lord is God, nothing is out of His control and all things work out for the good of those who love Him. But what that "good" looks like might not be what I expect.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer addressed this very issue when he was writing to the Confessing Church pastors who were fighting against the Nazi takeover of the German Church and nation. They were beginning to get discouraged wondering if they had been wrong by choosing the path they had. By this time pastors were being imprisoned and some had even been murdered. The dark times were just beginning and their was no light in sight. This brought them to an existential crisis where they asked themselves "what if we were wrong? Why hasn't God delivered us yet?" In a letter to these pastors Bonhoeffer spoke powerfully to this issue:
The basic assumption of this practice was quite simple. If Jesus is happy with us then he will reward us in the exact manner and timing that we expect. If we do not get the thing we want/desire/suppose we need in our exact timing then He must be mad at us and if that is the case then we must repent in dust and ashes so that His wrath doesn't fall on us. If Jesus likes you He gives you things. If He doesn't then He is withholding.
The practice came from, what I am convinced is, a poor theological framework. Nowhere in Scripture is the idea expressed that prosperity is designed for those with whom the Lord is happy. I can't think of any Bible believing Christian who would explicitly say that the Puritans were right in their thinking. Most would say that they were quite wrong. One can point to the Egyptian nation who defied God and still enjoyed centuries of prosperity, while a man like Job could live a life pleasing before God and have everything taken away from him. The way the Lord works is beyond our comprehension that the reasons for events beyond our ability to categorize. No one would deny this. And yet I still find myself and others guilty of the fallacy of the Puritans.
When things are going well I rarely consider how my life and choices are impacting God, whether He is content or disappointed. When things are bad I immediately retreat to the notion that I am being punished for some great sin. In essence this is line of thinking is more in line with the Prosperity Gospel than Biblical Evangelicalism. The thinking is that if I live well I will be rewarded, if I live poorly I will be punished. This isn't Biblical Christianity. The Lord lets the sun shine on the just and unjust alike. His ways are unknowable. Why things happen the way they do is beyond our ability to comprehend. All I can do in the good times and the bad is know that the Lord is God, nothing is out of His control and all things work out for the good of those who love Him. But what that "good" looks like might not be what I expect.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer addressed this very issue when he was writing to the Confessing Church pastors who were fighting against the Nazi takeover of the German Church and nation. They were beginning to get discouraged wondering if they had been wrong by choosing the path they had. By this time pastors were being imprisoned and some had even been murdered. The dark times were just beginning and their was no light in sight. This brought them to an existential crisis where they asked themselves "what if we were wrong? Why hasn't God delivered us yet?" In a letter to these pastors Bonhoeffer spoke powerfully to this issue:
"We then speak as though we no longer had 'a proper joy and certainty' about this way, still worse, as though God and and His Word were no longer as clearly present with us as they used to be. In all this we are ultimately trying to get round what the New Testament calls 'patience' and 'testing.' Paul, at any rate, did not begin to reflect whether his way was the right one when opposition and suffering threatened, nor did Luther. They were both quite certain and glad that they should remain disciples and followers of their Lord. Dear Brethren, our real trouble is not doubt about the way upon which we have set out, but our failure to be patient, to keep quiet. We still cannot imagine that today God really doesn't want anything new from us, but simply prove us in the old way. That is too petty, too monotonous, too undemanding for us. And we simply cannot be content with the fact that God's cause is not always the successful one, that we really could be 'unsuccessful'; and yet be on the right road. But this is where we find out whether we have begun in faith or in a burst of enthusiasm."
The Christian's life is not validated by his success in this life. One's faith is not proven by the condition of his life. The Christian finds his identity in Christ, his worth and value is found in the fact that Jesus took the punishment for his sins and died for him that he might spend eternity with Christ. Faith in Christ who died for man on the cross is what makes a man a Christian. He is eternally sealed to Him forever. Nothing can shake or break that. Life gets hard. We will find ourselves in times of plenty and in times of want. But God remains constant. He is the one who united us to Himself and He will not let us go. A change has to be made in our own minds (my own mind!) where circumstances do not dictate the quality of our relationship with God, but simply provide an opportunity for that relationship to be strengthened. Those who desire faith will be given it, but often with tears. We know the Lord is content with us because He is content with the work Christ has done. We live lives seeking to honor Him as a rightful response, in love, for what He has done. Joys and difficulties are not meant to reflect our relationship with Christ, but to strengthen it. The secret is to endure, never quit, and continue hoping in the Lord, come what may.
*Out of this tradition we get Thanksgiving.
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