Cranky Bubba Spells Out His Take on the Sermon on the Mount

So what I am saying is this: Jesus says we do not have to live in frustration with an incomplete and unsatisfying effort at righteousness. If we will treasure wisely, count the cost, put off what does not get us where we want to go, put on what we need to get us where we need to go, and then actually live out the righteousness we have pursued, then we can be who we were intended to be. Sounds like a bunch of pre-marketing to me, but let’s give it a run through and see what it sounds like.

Jesus was tempted in three fascinating ways and did not fail. When he passed those challenges he went on to bless others. With that, he even when farther; he equipped apprentices to do the same. Finally, he even spelled out for all of us how his way of life works in comparison to the fruitless do-gooder efforts.

Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed! Jesus actually believes life can work, and that it is book ended with a promise to live under God’s rule: the Kingdom of the Heavens. The eight fold blessed will later serve as a mnemonic device to help us remember the structure of his way.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs’ is the Kingdom of Heaven. Specifically, get all happy when your righteousness is of the variety that infuriates people the way the prophets ticked people off. Think about it: salt is only as good as it is salty. If you are mixed in your character (some righteous, some sell-out) you are as useless and clumped up as salt with crud. Toss it, ain’t no good for what it was intended. That of course, is why nice guys in the church can be pathetic and subject to embarrassing diversions into awkward sin or just miserable internal conflict. Get on with it or get over it. That is the choice.

And if you do get on with it, why? So you can be self-satisfied? Does anyone light a lantern just to burn off the fuel? Lanterns are fired up to give light, to make a difference, to shine outwardly. Likewise, the whole point of personal righteousness is beyond personal purposes: it is to serve God in his kingdom and for his glory. You are to get lit up with righteousness to show God’s character which has frustratingly been shrouded by the foolishness of man worshipping the creation and the illusion of personal autonomy. Burn brightly and people won’t just fixate on you, they might even see that there is a God who not only creates us with the desire not to be wasted and meaningless, but even gives us the way to be useful and fulfilled in him.

Jesus made it clear that he was not undoing the history of revelation in the Law and prophets, rather, they finally were able to be spelled out so that even the dull (i.e. his own apprentices) could get it and get on with it. In fact, the very smallest details are to be brought forward into actuality, not suppressed into obscurity or dismissed arrogantly as pre-modern (or, Lord forbid, pre-postmodern @$!!!?) error. Essentially, if you can’t even have Pharisaical righteousness, much less what lies beyond their efforts, then there’s no way you are going to get close to experience life with God in charge of the very air around you (the Kingdom of Heaven).

So, let’s look at the issue of murder: don’t do it. It is bad. “Got it” you say. Really? Are you sure you aren’t as clueless as stoner who thinks owning a baby alligator would be radical, dude! Essentially, if you are fiddling with justifying anger and contempt you are on the growth curve projection to not only go to Folson but on to Gehenna itself! That puppy ain’t gonna stay a puppy!

Instead, how about practicing the opposite of deleting problem people (verbally or viscerally)? How about actually valuing ‘would be wretches’ as if they were made in the image of God and capable of being redeemed? Don’t worry if it seems weird, the angels peer on our redemption process with profound befuddlement. But try it. Put your gift to God down and actually track down your brother that is ticked at you and try and reconnect. Then, once you have connected with God’s image right around you, go back and try again to have some bona fide connection with the unseen God that transcends almost everything, maybe even our hyperbole.

In fact, make it a practice to be proactive to resolve issues with people. If you fail to counter the trend towards defensiveness, contempt, bitterness, anger and eventually rage, your gonna lose and it won’t be pleasant.

O.K., let’s look at what we look at. The standard line is don’t sleep around. Fair enough. That is more righteous than being someone deserving of the affectionate title ‘dog’ as in “Whassup dog!” But is not getting it on with her the righteousness that satisfies, or is it just the kind of indecisiveness that makes you wonder if you really are a man? Does it tempt you to live vicariously through cinematic stud heroes? Goodness, get past it! How? Get to the source. If the problem is really in your eye, hand, thang or whatever, start hackin’. Before you get out the dull rusty blade of guilt and self-contempt, think for a minute. Your body just tells you what the options are. Don’t blame it. The problem isn’t in any of your dismember-able parts.

For example, some guy gets married legally and is careful to divorce legally, maybe even with generosity in the settlement process. Righteous! You know, Jesus says that you undershot how connected you really got. The law of marriage was just to spell out what was deeply connected in marriage, your lives. Let’s take the issue in another way. Keep your oaths? Don’t rely on externals, be they boastful claims and promises, matrimonial statutes or physical boundaries. The real issue is integrity. Is yes actually yes, or just sorta? Is no actually no, or maybe? Is there any salt in your character that is pure and unmixed?

If there is some integrity, and you are committed to peace, what do you do with it? Do you just limit the damage you do to the world? If someone jabs your eye out, blind them back but stop there? Just don’t make things worse and mind your own business? Is that God’s righteousness? No. God actually chooses to love, and in loving he becomes vulnerable to the nasty responses of the ‘not yet loving’. God is generous all the way around. If our generosity is profit driven, how is that an infusion of hope for this world? You could go anywhere and find ‘nice people’, at least relative to their own interests. The righteousness Jesus is talking about is actually the character of God our Father. He expects us to grow up (telios, be complete, mature, perfect, full grown, actual [not just potential]).

Right. I want to grow up and be more like the God who made me in his image than unlike him. But how? Jesus’ number one tip: don’t be a show off. Seriously. If you are getting affirmation and accolades for being awesome, and then a bunch more because you follow the praise of men with “no, really, all the glory to God” then you really have reason to question your own motives and appropriately God’s choice to reward you (he is not going to reward you for seducing people to immortalize you with their obsessive flattery).

Money is a good and obvious trap in this regard. Why do some people give? Jesus says some folk give so that they look generous. Not good. If you can avoid the kick-back of people knowing you are giving then maybe you can trust that you are actually doing right stuff for some other reason than being a poser / ‘nice guy’. Guard your right actions such that there is no real conflict of interest and God will reward you for actually caring about right and wrong more than your own reputation.

Prayer is a touchy subject here. Two-faced people sometimes compensate for, well, God knows what. They pray really exotic, powerful, turbo, warrior prayers. They get what they deserve, the admiration of the gullible. If you want God to reward your prayer life, actually do it to him without an audience. Seriously, stop babbling like a circus freak and say something meaningful, like: “You alone are God, so I trust you for my food, my relationship problems and my battles with sin and evil. Thanks God!” The part about asking help with relationships is super important, because again, how we deal with those made in God’s image whom we see is a dominant factor in God’s appraisal of how he deals with us.

Money and prayer are reasonably common; let’s go hard core. Let’s say you are all undone, broken, etc. etc. about something. One solution is to cash in by being really dramatically traumatized, refuse to eat and publicly share your laments such that attention and reassurances swamp your troubled frame. If so, enjoy the rewards from the groupies, its all you’re getting. But, let’s say you really are grieving about something. How can you be serious without being a player to the gallery? Just practice basic hygiene and appropriate social boundaries (since the solution isn’t in hugs and affirmations). Then, cry out to the unseen God in a way that those who aren’t unseen do not see. Don’t worry, he can see what is unseen, and seeing that you really do have a need that is bigger than the blues, he will comfort you.

Ultimately the issue is about values. Again, we aren’t talking the little stuff that seems so big in nice church society. We are really talking about what you make efforts to collect. If your collection is not safe, you are not valuing as well as you could. Rather, treasure (even deeper than value) stuff that cannot be stolen because it is hidden in God’s domain. When your heart’s desires are hidden with God, where do you think your heart will be?

The trick to this one really is perception. If you are focused on what is good, then you will be overflowing with goodness. If your eye is on what is not good, then you will be eaten up with what is bad. Again, if the best in your system is already not good, but bad; then how bad is your system’s ‘bad’ in reality? Super-bad!

Jesus urges us to calm down. Life doesn’t need our fretting to make it any better. As we have found out and forgotten repeatedly, worrying seldom helps us even with the basics of food, shelter and clothing. Besides, is that really what life is about? If so then shopping would be enough to deeply and truly satisfy us. Besides, look at nature. There is a system that fundamentally works even for stuff that is just background to us. If we are foreground, not just to us, but even in God’s picture, then do you not think that he, and not your worrying, is the hope? He knows what you need, and most of all you need to be more like he intended than how you are living. You need to experience him in charge of everything around you.

Guess what happens when people think they’ve gotten it? They rush out to fix everyone else. (I even got excited and starting writing and teaching this stuff more eagerly than applying myself!) But judging others is not going to help, it actually increases the ways in which we get evaluated. So, don’t seek to find fault with others when the critical issue is your own tragic shambles of a semi-righteous life. Move on from the half-***ed version of your so called life and maybe you will actually have something useful to offer some poor splinter impaled brother. Then again, don’t think that if your meddling is not about faults, just offering pearls of wisdom, that you are doing any better. An unsolicited bit of advice is as welcome as a string of pearls given to pigs. If the pigs are wild boars they might even enjoy goring you more than trying on your pretty string of niceties.

What we need to do is be personal: just treat God like you would want to be treated and ask. If you ask, seek and knock God will work with you. Don’t you like it when your kid just comes right out and says what he is after instead of mumbling or manipulating? And if you can get all generous, don’t you think God could do at least that well? That is why God’s Law can be summed up so simply, just be a person who treats others persons the way that you as a person would like persons to treat persons (not as complicated as it sounds, really).

There is a way of life, but you are not going to just stumble across it. It is specific and really requires that you pay attention. Lots of folk miss the path and end up really bad off. Unfortunately there aren’t a whole lot of people who do find the way of life and walk on it.

If you are looking for a guide don’t be fooled. Marketing can trick you, actually look at the product. What is produced tells you about the producers. Just because they, or you, or anyone else, says “I’m totally on board with Jesus and I even do exactly what he does (specifically miracles and preaching) it doesn’t really mean all that much. It is not so much what you say about Jesus, it is what Jesus says about you.

So, if you actually read this with a willingness to see if it is God’s way, then do not forward to everyone in your inbox with a threat or a promise (please!). Just stop the stuff you’ve bee trying to do to live right and actually base your decisions on what Jesus said is the way to survive. Life is hard (you aren’t crazy). And you will get blasted by stuff you cannot control. If you have been established in Jesus’ way, you will withstand the hurts and hardships the way he did. If not, it’s going to be ugly.

Jesus finished making his point and the people said, “Whew, he ain’t like the guy on t.v., is he? He sounds like he actually knows what he is talking about.”

Deadly viruses mutating to infect humans at rate never seen before

To read the article, follow the link:
World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online

Another factor that makes this generation unique to any in history, along with global telecommunications, the ability to destroy the world in a day, the first time in history for the world's population to be primarily urban, etc...

Next Four Questions

Next Four Questions for Sojos’ Church

Since last fall we have been talking about the need to reshape our church.  We have not finished reshaping for a number of reasons.  I am suggesting that there are four main issues that we want to care for.  Though we may have ideas about each individual issue, the challenge is in dealing with all four issues together.

TEACHING / INVOLVEMENT / BELONGING / OPENENESS

TEACHING: Sojos’ will continue to be a place where the Bible is taught reliably.  We will continue to do responsible exposition of passages of Scripture, in context, with competent facilitation.  We want to learn about what is true so we can best know what to do as we live out our lives.

INVOLVEMENT: As Sojourners, a core value is that we each are on a journey that we need to actively pursue.  To do this we need to be a group that mainly learns face to face.  This means that our groups must be small enough and focused enough for everyone in a group to be able to open up and process with others.  Too many people or too many different people, makes it difficult to do this.

BELONGING: As we have been involved with one another around reliable teaching, we have come to belong to one another in meaningful ways.  As we adapt to fit the various needs of the growing church we want to make sure that everyone remains actually connected to one another in a way that helps us to experience that we continue to belong to one another.

OPENNESS: We are grateful for our church and we want to be open to sharing our blessings with others.  We do not want to have to be hesitant about reaching out to people who are looking for a healthy church community.  Whatever our changes, they need to be able to include others.

I have been thinking for months about how to balance all four issues.  It is not helpful to isolate any one issue and offer a solution that does not deal with how that issue affects and is affected by the other issues.  If we try to seal off our group, that partially solves three of the issues but leaves us almost cult-like by not involving others.  If we randomly divide into smaller groups, how will we stay connected with everyone, and how can we have confidence of appropriate teaching?  If we just grow into a bigger church, what happens to involvement?  The challenge of wisdom is not in imagining an ideal in one area, wisdom is in seeing the best integration in spite of sacrifice in individual areas.

If any of our church members have any suggestions of a model of church that will incorporate all four issues, please let Kirk and Russell know right away, preferably in writing (e-mail or a comment on the blog).  We are of course willing to talk with anyone (we have had this as an open discussion for more than six months) but now we need to get specific.  Just observing that we wish we did not have to change is no longer helpful.  We have to decide which sacrifices are best in light of all the real factors that stand before us.  God has a way, we will prayerfully, with hope, proceed as best we can.

WHAT IS THE MAIN THING? A Missionary's Question

WHAT IS THE MAIN THING IN MISSIONS?

As a Christian, called to an apostolic ministry, what is the “main thing” I am to be about? When do I know I am on course to hear “Well done my faithful servant” instead of “I never knew you, away from me you evildoers.”

Let’s start with the disturbing one and move from there to hope. To whom does Jesus deliver these most unsettling words? Jesus’ warning is aimed at people who call Jesus Lord and have dynamic ministries; people with proclamation, deliverance and healing stories; people with enough material to fill up a long series of power point presentations. Stunningly, their clearly magnificent constructs, well crafted strategies and dynamic reputations, come crashing down under the storm of Christ’s condemnation. Why?

Christ has a main thing we are to be about, which is in turn the root for all the fruit that follows. The failure to differentiate root causes from subsequent results is the fundamental and potentially fatal error that the New Testament stridently warns against. By taking the time to clarify, much wasted effort, questionable ethics and most importantly, spiritual unhealthy activities can be replaced with fresh, strong and productive ways of life. The question is our teach ability. Will we let the word put our house in order? Is the architect of our faith free to condemn our constructs and have us start fresh? If not, why do we call him ‘Lord, lord”?

For relative conciseness, we will begin with Jesus being anointed as the Messiah. From the unfolding of the promise in Jesus we will frequently refer back to the Hebrew Scriptures and their articulation of that which Jesus consummates individually and inaugurates for ultimate fulfillment universally. What we know from the Torah and the Writings is that a Promised seed of woman is coming to reverse the order of the fall, crushing rebellion and establishing a regime of righteousness. What that looks like is in fact the Lord Jesus, Messiah of Israel and Hope of all nations. The man we aspire to be like. As John, the dearly beloved student and friend of Jesus said,

Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected[1]. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:4-6)

THE WALK OF JESUS WE WISH TO FOLLOW

Jesus is the most amazing political refugee of history. Having fled his homeland’s limited genocide for Egypt and returning in a marginalized role, mere survival would be considered a success. However, as a man, Jesus was blessed by God himself and proven to be worthy by his personal confrontation with temptation and evil, and how much more so in his generous sharing of such virtue, wisdom and power. Jesus lived life well, and God was pleased. There should therefore be utmost attentiveness to his explanation of how life works and how success is defined.

After personally resisting the Devil himself in three definitive temptations, (to make physically needs primary, to make social needs primary or even to make accomplishments primary; in short, making anything other than the self-existent self-sufficient God primary in our value system.), Jesus offers hope to others. He is on mission with a hand picked team. Quickly he displays characteristics of a mission team making God known.

The content of Jesus’ message is encapsulated in the following:

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 4:17)

What Jesus declares is that God is in charge. A kingdom is where a king exercises dominion, and the kingdom of heaven is where God is in charge. At hand is temporal and spatial. Here and now, God in charge is the reality you need to face. You do that through repenting, or changing your thinking. In the temptations Jesus faced, the implications were that God was not reliably in charge and that Jesus needed to act in order to get what he needed. Jesus counters that message by alerting the rest of us: we need to think again, God actually is in charge here and now, and He is the source for all our needs.

Jesus proclaims this message not only historically (reminding people of his own experiences) but also in word and deed. He explains, challenges, heals, delivers and generally displays the reality of what he claims: God is in charge and we should rely on him. As the crowds grow, he sits them down and explains more fully. Drawing on his own experiences, which were successful experiences, he exhorts the people to pursue real righteousness under God’s leadership and to avoid apparent righteousness that is really only done to impress other people. The center point of his teaching is to be complete as the Father in Heaven is complete.

The question related to missions work today is whether Jesus’ message to his hearers then continues today, in more or less the same way, or is there another message that is more important, clear or urgent? Should we also be urging people to pursue a righteousness that is from God and makes people complete, and not in a general hypothetical way, but in a real, nitty-gritty everyday ethical way? What is the message of Christ we are to be about?

Tozer, in his book Knowledge of the Holy, devotes a chapter to his concern about a common missionary tone. The imagery is of a needy God, one who needs people to go get what he has lost. The message to the church is driven hope with ways of accelerating urgency. On more than one occasion I have seen major mission leaders hold out their hand, snapping their fingers briskly and stating: “That’s another soul going to Hell.” This is not just drama, it becomes a paradigm of selecting passages and priorities that affects not only the missional community, but also has major impact on the understanding of those hearing the tone and content of this version of response to the question, “What is the Main Thing?”

In this paradigm, the good news is overwhelmingly about forgiveness and one more thing. Having been forgiven, one is to immediately, and relentlessly, help others to be forgiven. There is ample support for the validity of the high value of preaching forgiveness in Christ’s name:

"for this is My blood, the [blood] of the New Covenant, the [blood] poured out on behalf of many for forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:28)

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:45-47)

And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." (Acts 2:38-39)

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (Ephesians 1:7)

In fact, it is clear that any missionary priority that does not highly value and pursue proclaiming forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name is not Biblical. So again, where is the problem?

The problem is in how we understand and apply a strategy that results in preaching the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name. Error often includes the introduction of wrong things, but too often error is born from the disproportionate elevation of one true thing in distinction to others. Was Israel God’s chosen nation? Of course, but they were raised up for the purpose of his name being proclaimed among the nations. Was Jesus going to establish his Kingdom on earth? Yes, he has, and is and will ultimately complete it. But the establishment of his kingdom is not without first suffering and dying for the sins of the world. Does God call us to feed the hungry? Yes, but not because this life is all there is. In fact, those who were hungry and get fed may have their lives saved by being fed, but then they need to hear that unless they lose their lives for his sake they will not find it.

What then is the main thing, if not forgiveness? What Jesus preached was completeness. He preached it on the mountain, preached it to the rich young seeker and he proclaimed it on the cross. Paul picked it up and made it his hope, that having been forgiven, he and others who had been forgiven, would be brought to completion:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature (complete) in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (Colossians 1:28-29)

What becomes clear is that forgiveness of sins is the beginning of the Good News, it is not synonymous with the Good News. We are forgiven of our sins so that we can be made complete in Christ. Once a person receives forgiveness, and is born into the family of God, that person still has much to learn. Their Main Thing is to glorify God by being made complete in him. This is not done prior to serving, it is mainly done via serving.

and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. (Philemon 1:6)

What then is the main thing? We as Christians are called to make disciples of all nations, which is in fact training people not just to receive forgiveness, but to receive the life that is immersion in the triune reality who is God, such that we actually walk as Jesus walked. Loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We are to preach forgiveness of sins in his name so that we can live the way we were intended to live. Confident that God is sufficient to finish what he started, and that we are not called upon from God’s supposed neediness or self limitation, but from his boundless generosity and grace. In confidence we proceed knowing

…that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)

If then the plan of God is that we become like Christ, and Christ himself offers a plan on how to do that, we should take heed. Matthew 5-7 records Jesus’ explanation to his disciples of how to build a life. He starts with a vision of hope, of being blessed. Jesus then challenges one to count the cost of pursuing a kind of righteousness that is more than the religious leaders of the day had via extensive rules, a life that is right from the inside; right with God and therefore right toward others.

A series of problems are described, including a typical response to accommodate them. To each rationalization Jesus responds with “But I tell you…”. His conclusion of the vision is that people who want to live with God as Lord will be complete in their character, not stopping short with negotiated compromise.

How do we manage this? Essentially we have to intentionally avoid living our religious/ethical lives in ways that foster attention and praise from other people. We need to intentionally seek the kinds of disciplines that ensure we are living unto God, and not unto the reputation of one who lives unto God. It is essentially a challenge of what we really value, and whether we trust God to provide what matters in due course. IF we follow this pattern, we and those who learn from us, have the kind of lives that stand up to tragedy, trial and temptation. If not, we will certainly see our short term results collapse.

Missiologically this is practiced by naming the main thing as pursuing character like Christ that lives in obedience to the Father and invites and equips others to pursue character like Christ and live in obedience to the Father. This pursuit takes place in the realm of overcoming temptations with faith. Can I really trust God for my physical needs, my need for significance in relation to others and to myself? If I really go after being like Christ, with all the difficult choices that means for me, or for a rural Chinese farmer, or a busy urban professional, will it be worth it? Will it work? If it does work, what will it look like?

In part, Jesus says it will work and you will know it based on how you interact with others. If you are contemptuous, inconsistent and unable to give love to people who seem to deserve punishment, then you are not getting it. If you are driven by a desire to control wealth or status, or even safety, you have not built properly. You are there when you ask of God, trusting him to provide the essence of what is normally provided in different forms. Even when you are physically poor, socially despised and seemingly a failure, God gives you strength, identity and success in him.

This is a beginning of an ongoing discussion. The aim is not, again, to minimize the importance of getting the gospel to the nations. Rather, the point is that the priority of living increasingly in concert with the understanding and cooperation of God’s reality found in Christ, whether directly apostolic or not, is the basis for apostolic work being GOOD news.

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[1] Τετελειωται- Strong’s Number G5048, τελειόω, teleioō, tel-i-o'-o, From G5046; to complete, that is, (literally) accomplish, or (figuratively) consummate (in character): - consecrate, finish, fulfil, (make) perfect.