Category Archives: Culture

Bible, Bible Study, Culture, Psycolog

Motive and action

I don’t think I am a bad person.  I may not get along with everyone and often become the source of criticism because I ask questions that are hard to answer.  I have a friend that is both caring and inquisitive. In my opinion, he listens to my rants and questions because he is too polite to tell me off.  It is not a judgment of my self-worth or even my methods, but frustration with my methods.  One of my favorite idioms is, “One good question is better than a hundred bad answers.”  Therefore, I ask and sometimes my friend almost blows steam out of his ears in frustration.   I ask not because there are good answers or even bad but to make my friend think, to challenge the norm, to overcome complacency in his own intellectual pursuits.  

There seems to be an internal desire to set standards for good and bad.  Good is determined by mostly external sources and the most common determination is the lack of bad.  Sources such as laws, rules, culture, norms, and sometimes the perceived condemnation or acceptance of a close loved one.  Every action is measured by the company we keep. 

In my most recent foray into understanding the revealed intent of God for me, my focus has been on the words and actions of Jesus.  My prime source of determination of good and bad is set by that singular man. He is the solid surface by which I set my level.  I can find no better.

One of the interactions between Jesus and his historical culture is summed up by a question presented by a self-proclaimed culture measurer, “Of all the commandments, which is most important?” Mark 12:28-34 For any teacher or rabbi, it was an excellent question. It is the motive behind the question which draws my attention today. Why did he ask the question?  What was his motive behind the question?  What is the need that required satisfaction?  If there is no motive, no need, why ask in the first place.

There are well over 600 commandments in the Old Testament Law.  Each of these commandments was written to address practically every facet of Jewish life.  The teachers had difficult times to keep up with every commandment, mandate, rule, and punishment.  The question this teacher of the law presented was a very valid question. 

Every action, thought, attitude, impression is metered by a need.  Paired with every volitional act there is a twin need.  There is a necessity, a reason for doing.  The why of the act.  We may well focus on the response of Jesus.  I will save that response for another day. Never-the-less I need to understand the inquisitor and his motives. I want to step into the world of this teacher and understand what motivates, what empowers, what energizes this act of inquiry. Very seldom does an action have a singular motive.  The motive of the questioner must be taken into the understanding of the answer from Jesus.  I can quickly pick at the knot of understanding by examining the possible why of the question.

Looking at the context from Mark12:12-34, there are several groups confronting Jesus. First with the Pharisees and Herodians questioned about money to cast Jesus as a revolutionary against Rome.  as.  Then the Sadducees took their turn questioning Jesus on Marriage and the Resurrection. Each in turn tried to catch Jesus in a logical error. The Pharisees, the Herodians, and then the Sadducees all failed at their questioning.  Each in turn was simply trying to trap Jesus in some heresy.

Most writers on this passage lump this lone teacher in with the other entrapment groups. The teacher questioner was trying to trap Jesus into saying something out of the norm.  He was not trying to show the others up but was trying to be accepted by them. He took on this adversarial role to be accepted by the religious, legalistic, self-promoting, and judgmental upper-class religionist group. He was trying to be seen as part of a larger cultural social strata. That he deserved to be in their company. “I can join in and emulate your line of questioning and be as good as you.” A motive of acceptance of perceived superiors.

Secondly, perhaps this simple teacher thought he could do better than the other judgmental entrappers.  Perhaps, part of the motivation of this Rabbi, this teacher of the law, was to show his hierarchal superiors he could do better. To state a question to demonstrate his superior intellect.  An intellect that would reveal his current place in life did not restrict his upward mobility. To show he deserved to be among this upper class. If he could show them up he could raise his status in the religious hierarchy of the culture. If he could submit a question that was better formed, more effective, more thought-provoking than all the best religionist questions previously made he could show them up. “You guys all failed, now watch and learn.”  Simply it was a motive of self-promotion. I can do better.

The third motive in this gamut of conversations could be a simple academic exercise. An earnest quest for knowledge and understanding. Teachers are always thirsty for knowledge, for new ideas, new insights, new questions, new conclusions.  Here was this new rabbi proclaiming the Kingdom of God and the questioner wanted to soak it all in. A tell me more attitude from a sincere learner. “Rabbi, in your understanding of God, what do you place as more important than any other.   I need to make note of these for my upcoming debates with my study group.”  The motive of learning or self-actualization.

Another of the paramount motives a person can have is for a good self-image.  It is self-awareness of where you fit. It may be judged by the external, but in reality, we are who we think we are. It is only the individual which can look deep within himself to see the good and the bad, the lovely and the ugly. You may call it honor, or reputation, or even “thine on-self be true.” It is a deeply personal thing that calls from our very soul.  As David said, “Search me and know me.” This inquisitive questioner this interrogatory was simply asking for reinforcement of his own view of himself. “Jesus draw for me a line so I can compare my soul and spirit to your estimation of the hierarchy of good and bad”.  The motive of self-worth

Fifth motive for this teacher is judgmentalism.  Being a judge has always been seen as a very important place in society. Impartial, knowledgeable, just, and fair are all qualities of a judge. Here the inquisitor of the law was simply asking the question of the greatest commandment to set a measuring rod for his quest for impartiality.  I have said to my children, “I don’t care what are the rules, just don’t change them mid-game.” Here the teacher of the law needed a stated expectation of goodness. And with that statement, he could count himself worthy to judge others. If I can meet your expectation of goodness, I can feel better about myself and can rightly judge everyone around me.” Judgmental qualifications as a motive.

Additionally, the motive could well be an effort to set for himself a line by which he would or could did not cross.  To see himself as better than the other guy.  I have heard it in the church, “At least I don’t steal from the offering plate.” It was a motive that was and is most selfish of all.  Self-justification. I don’t need God or man to judge me.  I can do what I will if I keep this one thing. “Show me the line by which I may justify myself.”  Self-justification is a motivating factor.

There could have been many more motives.  But every motive is driven by need. The question could have been motivated by the need to be accepted in a new and upwardly mobile religious group of Jesus. The crowds had become larger and larger.  Miracles of bread and fish, of resurrections and water into wine.  “I want to be a part of that.”  “I want to be a friend of Jesus.”  Every society, culture, or group has requirements for membership. The question could well be taken as a measuring rod for inclusion. He was posing the question needing an invitation to belong. “Tell me if I can join you in your quest of God. Give me an absolute measuring rod, so I may conform to your expectations and include me into your circle of friends.”The motivation of being part of something new and fresh.  The unique motive.

Whether the reason for the question was to be acceptance of authority, self-promotion, intellectual appetite, appraisal of self-worth, qualification of credentials, a friend of Jesus, or a combination of two or more, I would submit it went deeper than all these motives. He was something special. 

Had Jesus given an answer similar to those given to the other religious groups, it would have stopped there. Jesus saw beyond all the other possible motives and saw someone genially seeking God. In the Hebrew mindset, it was all about rules and commandments.  When Jesus quoted from the Old Testament there was a mutual agreement. But look closely at this account as it continued.

Jesus made his statement. ‘Hear O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this; Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these”.

In response, the teacher rephrased it to include something very important. He added, “these are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  The establishment, the religious culture, the other trapper groups based all their questions on hypothetical situations.  Each question or hypothetical was to provide no out in the response. Each was dependent on outward acts and they could construe or twist into the alienation of a portion of the culture. To them, it was all about the action and not the motive.  As long as you did a certain thing you could be seen as righteous.

The teacher of the Law concluded, it was the motive and not the action.  All the actions of sacrifice, burnt offerings, all the things they did to justify themselves were not as important as the Love of God and the Love of man.

It was not actions that promoted acceptance by authority, it was not actions to promote self, it was not an intellectual exercise, it was not an assessment of self, it was not a qualification of duty, it was not even to be a friend of Jesus.  None of these things mean anything without the love of God and of man.   Hence, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

So why do I ask questions and sometimes make those who hear a little annoyed? Because I need them to come closer to God.  To irritate them to a point of understanding, like the teacher of the law, it is about why you do more than what you do.

Culture, Personal, Politics, Ramblings

Faith and Science: a political viewpoint

The defining difference between Liberals and Conservative has often been proposed as the acceptance of science over liberty.  One group would include a scientific reason for any proposal.  Whether it be Global warming, wearing masks for all time, universal healthcare, wealth inequality, and identity politics, each may well be associated to a statistic, scientific study, authority of record, or cultural norm. 

As we enter the holiday season, mandates have been set as to the size and place of our celebrations of love, thanks, appreciation, and fellowship.  And these mandates are all made by scientific reasoning.

But where is the liberty of free choice?  Why does science seem to overrule our own ability to determine for ourselves a personal response to risk? In 1966, a distinguished Canadian-born anthropologist Anthony Wallace confidently predicted the global demise of religion at the hands of an advancing science: ‘belief in supernatural powers is doomed to die out, all over the world, as a result of the increasing adequacy and diffusion of scientific knowledge.  Science over the free exercise of faith was his prophesied result of our culture. Social sciences, either presuming or sometimes predicted all cultures would eventually converge on something roughly approximating secular, Western, liberal democracy.

If prediction is true, I want no part of it. Give me the liberty to make my own decisions.  Yes, I will be accountable for my decisions, but I was created in the image of God.  And with that image comes the possibility of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control.  And all these things cannot be legislated against or demanded from anyone.  Science does not provide any of these things. All science provides is despair, turmoil, cruelty, apathy, greed, and legislation.

Tell me what you think.

Culture, Politics

Change for Change sake, I think not.

How are we to assume we have a better idea of how to make over our American culture?  How can we simply say, “my own intellect is better and I can conceive and implement a better way of making a new process to make our culture better.”  How is my mind  or your mind, any better than the cumulative wisdom and practices of two hundred years?  How is my mind, my understandings, my process, my politics, my take on what is right and wrong, more suited to the task of molding my culture than the sum of eight or nine generations before me. 

A politician once ran for President of the United States on a platform of “Hope and Change.” I often see the need for change for a thousand reasons.  Inequality, social class, life taken as a whim, liberty limited by government, and even the pursuit of happiness has hundreds of regulations and restrictions.  All of them were implemented in the name of justice. They all seem to shout for change. We are on the edge of great decisions for our country. 

At issue is the current political majority demands change by the implementation of additional restrictions and regulations.  More kinking of the hose in the hope that everyone will get enough water.

But is this new “change for change sake” methodology, this social solution better than what has gone on before.  Is our United States Constitution to be thrown away just because someone has a better idea? Can we permit the rule of Law to be circumvented by personal fiat?  How does a body of men and women, each with their own agendas, seem to be bent to change our country just for the sake of change?

Help me to understand.

Culture, Prayer

What is going on here?

Help me to understand. I simply do not understand how tearing down society and culture helps. Why would any person willingly destroy property simply to make a statement of belief? When does violence, destruction, mayhem, infliction of pain become justified to make a point? What I don’t understand is the motive behind these acts of common indecency.

The motive of those who would seem to actively tear down something has to be skewed in some way to say it is OK to protest violence with much worse violence. If it is to bring awareness to injustice, you have made your point. Yes, there is injustice in our society. Yet to inflict even more injustice is simply without merit.

I am a Christian. I am commanded to love. No limitations, no restrictions, no lines in the sand where you can step over and I will not love you. What I ask is that you look at your own lives for injustice, hate, bigotry, racism, and before you make your case. Jesus said not to judge that you may not be judged in the same manner. Are your awareness actions anything like what you want to accomplish? Do you want to be treated like you are treating those about you? Jesus would ask you to make sure your heart is right first. THEN make your case, in a logical, unemotional, thoughtful way and I will listen. Throw away all the catchphrases and sound bites, all they do is stop the discussion. Don’t call me names and fill your protest with pre-conceived ideas about me. Present to me your solutions to the injustice which carries no inherent injustices themselves, and I will try to everything in my soul to work toward that solution.

In the meantime, stop with the violence, destruction, mayhem, and infliction of pain to make a point and which does not include a solution.

Bible, Bible Study, Culture, Politics

God the only judge of character.

It is going to happen whether we like it or not. The presidential election. It has been touted as the most important in this or last century. It is discouraging to contemplate the two candidates running for the highest leadership position in our country. Both and neither seem to check all the boxes for me. Never-the-less, the election will be held, and someone will be in the white house for four years.

In the middle of the sometimes heated discussions of politics, we are distracted from the headlong ubiquitous degradation of America’s moral foundation and fundamental liberties. My inclination to discover what their vision is for the future and vote for that future. I want to do my civic duty. My vote is not about the personal values of the candidate but the change or lack of change for our country.

Yet there are many within the church who strongly disagree about one or both candidates. I have heard some will not vote, out of protest. Others condemning anyone one not seeing it the way they do. Others explicitly state their mandate is only to vote if it does not compromise their Christian witness whatever that means. And others say, “If you don’t vote you are not Christian.”

My thoughts here are from my study of the Bible. Both candidates profess the Christian faith. Where is my responsibility to include in my criteria for voting the genuineness of their Christianity? Where does it say a criterion of who is the best leader in this time of turmoil, pandemic, and social unrest, be based on my judgment of Christian their character? I can’t find it. Judge as you would be judged.

Our political decisions may well lead to discussions and even to outward persuasions, but I will not judge. That kind of Judgement is God’s and I am not looking for a job. I Cor 4:5 states that Jesus will judge. It is for him alone to bring to light what is now hidden and to commend or rebuke. So my friends, let us “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, [bear] with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). Let us not dismiss our own faith by doing anything else.

Culture, Life, Personal, Psycolog, Ramblings

Why?

In my later years have been accused of being a little over inquisitive. I ask questions which cause seeming discomfort to myself and those who I ask. Asking why is the measure of my quest.  I can look up the how; there is always a video on YouTube to show me that.  I can weigh all the factors like my bank account and my calendar to determine the when.  I can even analyze the best person to do the how.  But when it comes to why, that question is different. 

Why? Why? Why? Any statement of fact can well be answered by the dreaded “WHY”. I was never satisfied with the, “because I said so,” in response to why I needed to clean my room. There is always a question in my mind. I can be annoying if you are the victim of most of them.  I am a curious sort and want to know everything: its origin, meaning, cause, and consequence. It can be profound or mundane. I have asked the great questions of life (or so I think) and also the base queries about ordinary stuff.

My why today is about the motive of those who express themselves in response to those around us.  It has been called peer pressure, or crowd think, or herd mentality. Why do we seem to want the acceptance of everyone around us even it may cut at the edge of public morality and personal ethic?  Why loot a store just because someone else broke the glass in the first place.  Why go along with the crowd and carry signs of solidarity with those who know little about? Why complain about the amount of cows that are in danger of being slaughtered when your own ox in the ditch (to use a biblical expression)? Or like Jesus said why worry about the speck in the eye of someone else when you have a log in your own.

I will keep asking why.  And if you don’t want to answer, Why not?

Culture, Ministry, Psycolog

Malady of social distancing!

I have simply don’t understand the person who, by choice, have used the either a television or the internet to be the primary vehicle for spiritual renewal.  Just in these weeks of social distancing, I find myself loosing my enthusiasm.

I learned a new word today, “acedia”. It means a state of listlessness, of not caring or not being concerned with one’s position or condition in the world. In ancient Greece akidía literally meant an inert state without pain or care. It is taking a nap in the sunshine instead of personal bible study.  It is making the statement of, “once a week is enough to satisfy my soul” or “I go to church on Easter and Christmas” or “I’ll will use the internet as the filler of my soul”.  Thomas Aquinas once said of acedia as a “sadness at an interior or spiritual good.”

So how do we avoid acedia?  We have thousands of distractions in our lives.  Every one would pull us imperceptibly away from what we should be doing. First, simplify your surroundings; activation of your will to turn off some of the things which distract.  Second, covenant to persistence; I know what I have to do and I will do it.  Third, set time limits; I will work on this task, effort or deed for a set time.  Fourth, set task accomplishment steps; you can’t do it all at once, break each down. Lastly, celebrate small victories; take a moment to feel good about getting it done.

Church, Church History, Culture, Uncategorized, Worship

He has risen

Tomorrow on Easter, I will not be going to a church building and celebrate with fellow believers. Easter will look very different this year. I feel a little sad and disturbed.  Easter is the biggest day of the year for Christians. 

I love the big event. Churches around the world pull out all the stops for this special day.  They do special music, everyone is dressed up, we usually see the biggest crowds, those who don’t usually attend show up, there may be an egg hunt on the lawn, the preacher will have his sermon refined to a fine point and rehearsed to a place where he could do it without notes.  It is a wonderful day in the controlled chaos that is called Easter. All in the hope of a spiritual breakthrough for someone on the edges of the church. 

I’m sad that it won’t be happening this year. Or at least not in the way that I’m used to.

Yet then I must take a step back and come to the realization, Church is about more than the big event happening at your building. It’s about the big event that happened 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem when it was discovered that there wasn’t a body in Jesus’ tomb.

This is a time of social distancing and face masks.  For some, it is a time which, “the Church has left the building.”

There is a valuable truth to be comprehended here.  When the Church is forced not to meet together there comes to us a lesson.  That lesson is: the church is not a building, WE ARE THE CHURCH. Church isn’t an event you go to. It’s a people you belong to.

So as you gather around your blue tinged screens, watching a message or two, please remember and set your hearts on the founder. A founder who came out of the grave on the third day.

HE HAS RISEN.

HE HAS RISEN, INDEED.

Church, Culture, Ramblings

The domesticated Church

In the last 250 years the United States has changed drastically. This change is an antithesis what our country was founded upon.  The very idea of a nation that could and did have the right to believe what they ever they like was one of the best ideas of the Bill of Rights. Our nation has changed. It has changed from the idea of freedom of religion to freedom from religion.

The very idea a nation can survive in a culture where there is a choice between religion and no religion at all was simply crazy thinking in the beginning of our nation.  Our dependence upon the divine was built into every thing our nations was built upon. Belief was the basis for our total identity. It was not what was possessed it what was believed. A mandate to believe in something was required in oursociety. There were few atheists or agnostics.

There was no duality in the early years of our republic.  Religion and life were inextricably tied together. It changed in small little steps. Now we live in an age that would separate Faith and life.  The default mode is to see faith as simply an escape from the madness.  Carl Marx is now seen as correct when he was quoted as saying, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Christianity or any belief is seen as a crutch. And we have fallen for a dualism.  The life of the everyday has been segmented from the life of faith.  It is much like a plate of food where the mashed potatoes are never allowed to touch the peas. 

This dualism attitude says it really doesn’t matter who is in control: Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Communist, Secular Humanists, Green, Libertarians.  The secular can go ahead and run the world.  Let them run the country as long as those who believe can have their little piece of heaven.  As long as Jesus is there in the believers little corner of life, all is well.  Jesus can be well scheduled, secluded, private and quiet.

If one would try to invade the other’s space, whether the world into faith or faith into the world there is anger.  Any attempt to join the two is seen as revolt of personal rights.  Today, there is a separation worlds because there is no possibility of co-mingling of authority.  The world would say the only authority is man.  Faith says the only authority is God.  They don’t mix well. 

Christianity in the west has become like a boxing ring. Christians in one corner and the world in the other.  And if each is in their respective corners all is quiet.  The Faithful, if they stay in their corner they are ignored by the world.  The world is equally ignored in our prayer closets and our pulpits.  Until one or the other makes a step to meet in the middle there is no reaction.

This duality of life is almost satisfying.  There is little motivation to step out to the middle of the ring. To enter the battle place to fight the good fight.

A Christian nation is a good thought.  It gives the average churchman solace of purpose. It is an acknowledgement of rightness of God.  It is good to be a part of something that is well accepted.  There is even a group called the Religious Right that has influence on the culture of the West. They have made an imperceptibly small nudge toward the center and the other corner calls foul.  Foul because the world not only wants its corner but the middle too.

Those in the corner act Christian.  As long as our corner is not invaded by the world, if the world does not take our tax deductions, If the world allows us to occupy a corner or two, then it is good. And this corner keeping attitude brings with it an expectation.  Not a faith expectation to change the world, but an expectation of something in this life.  It is an expectation in which each generation will have it a little better off.  We will live longer.  We will have all the food we need.  We will be able to go wherever we want. To be treated fairly.  In a Godly nation we will have the best healthcare, the best lifestyle, the best leisure opportunities.  This Nation which stamps on their money, “IN GOD WE TRUST”, comes with it an expectation of being better off than the ungodly nations.  In doing so we have lost the bigger viewpoint.  It is all about the battle.

We have developed a form of Christianity to support this concept of prosperity.  It has become a Christianity which is acceptable, comfortable, secure, and prosperous as seen by the other corner.  This corner Christianity that looks at our uniqueness, our personal goals, our own needs, our own wants, our own preferences, our own prosperity.  We have nice churches, nice chairs, nice heating and cooling, good lighting, the best music, and short messages about other people.

There is no call to be an alien, a traveler, or a selfless soul on a journey. It is an attitude of arrival.  Heaven on earth. And we are good with that. 

We get angry if the world doesn’t treat Christianity as something that is not normal.  The church has become comfortable.  And all this normalcy, this duality is destroying our relationship to the real Jesus.  The world has domesticated the church.  I don’t want to be a comfort seeking, entertainment addicted, survey craving, approval desiring Christian.  I can not stay in my corner.  I don’t want to waste my life just fitting in.  I want God.  And I want God to be the authority.  I want God to rule my life. No duality. Just primary. I want God in the whole ring.

Culture, Motivation, Personal, Worship

Christmas

As we come to the celebration of the birth in a manger of a Messiah King, each of us must look toward our own spiritual needs.  Pie, and drink may well satisfy the physical. It is not the satisfaction the dusty soul seeks.  It is a sweet well of cool water that flows and urges us to drink of the Well of Life. It is not great intellectual knowledge of the great things of man or even God, but the very person and presence of God.  Some would well say restore the Christ in Christmas.  Instead I think there is a greater need to restore Christ in Christians.  This yearning after God has never completely died in any generation.  There have always been some that have looked beyond the Santa Clause hats and grossly decorated trees and insisted on reading the story in the Bible of the reason for beginning and end of Christmas. Please my friends and loved ones, take time this week to read Luke Chapter 2 verses 1-20 for your own and perchance around that aforementioned tree, read it to the those you love and care for the most.

Merry Christmas