All posts by ljmonson

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Hate the sin, love the sinner, NOT.

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I was having a lengthy conversation with a volunteer at a local food pantry.  We talked about process and procedures; you know the how  of administration of the way they provided the services.  The discussion rambled here and there until I made the remark, “Our greatest ministry in the food pantry is not the food, it is the provision of that food without destroying dignity.”  But how about those who are gaming the system?  Those who use our Christian charity without real need?  How about those who drive new luxury cars to pick up food only because it costs them nothing? It is hard to be a part of a ministry to people that really don’t deserve it.  What is my attitude to those who do not deserve?

Some would say, “Hate the sin but love the sinner.”  But hold on there.  That is not from the Bible.  It is a quote for Gandhi.  Is there a place for hate?  Is there a place for intolerance to imperfection?

Proverbs stats quite emphatically:

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies and one who sows discord among brothers.

The real issue is the more I study, the more I understand what God expects of me, the more I grow, the more I hate sin.  Not anyone else’s sin but only mine.  God hates the failure.  God’s wrath, righteous judgement and hate is reserved NOT for the action but for my inner failure.  It is not what we do, it is what we are.  If I think I am better that someone else, it is pride.  It may well never be exhibited outwardly in the form of words or actions but it is still a sin.  When I am hard-headed, God breaks through with his disfavor (wrath).  But it is not because He hates me, but  because He loves me.

God hates sin because He loves us and wants to be absolutely intimate with us, which is impossible as long as we “love darkness instead of light because [our] deeds are evil” (John 3:19). I have grown out of a black and white view of God.  Previously I saw God’s hate or wrath and God’s love as polar opposites. Years of experience and beating my head against the wall I have learned that God’s hate and God’s love are independent qualities that work together to achieve the same purpose, like a hard-nosed football coach who reams out his quarterback ruthlessly in practice to make him tough, but holds him for five minutes without a word while he sobs after losing a close game.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.

Life, Ramblings, Theology

Liar, Liar, pants on fire.

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There is a divide in our country.  It is not about morals.  It is not about religion.  It is about our President of the United States.  President Trump, because of his method of communication has caused much discussion and even hot tempers.  I read this morning a writer’s characterization of this split. The “division between pro-Trump voters and anti-Trump voters could be described as follows: his opponents took Trump literally, but not seriously; whereas his supporters took him seriously, but not literally.”

What we say is important.  I believe the way we say things are also important.  The Pro-Trumper,s find his style of communications refreshing and appreciate is “speak your mind” way of addressing issues. The “Never Trump group calls our President a liar. They want to judge President Trump on his words based upon a concept of what truth is.  They seem to want to take every word, every phrase and dissect them to a point to where these snippets become giant inferences of the total character of the man speaking them.  Sure, we all live in a community, we all speak with a perceived audience and with every word we expect them to hear the words as we speak from our ears.  It just doesn’t work that way. So should I, or even the President be responsible for everyone to instantly understand the framework of the speaker and not from the hearer?

So what am I trying to say?  What is a lie?  Are the words spoken to be judged by the hearer or the speaker?  I am well aware the answer to this last question expects to be a yes or no.  But it is not that easy.  First and probably most important is the words must be understood from the person saying them.  A lie is a mismatch between what’s in your heart, that is what you take to be true and what’s on your tongue or what we say is true.  We lie when we speak words that are not what our lives and hearts believe. We lie when we speak words that contradict our thoughts.

OK, how about someone who speaks words that are part of his life and fully believes in what he is saying?  Is this inwardly truthful person a liar?  If I truly believe the world is flat and say so, am I a liar?  Don’t think so.  I am just speaking my heart, my belief, my understanding of the truth.  Am a liar?  No I am not.  I am just deceived or haven’t placed truth deep in my heart.  Liar, no, deceived, yes.

If you call someone a liar you are simply saying to the one speaking the words that your concept of the truth is different than what someone else is saying.  But the problem saying they are a liar is a judgement based upon your truth.  Your understanding of the truth is not the same as the speaker’s understanding of the truth.  And if speaker is not violating the internal understanding of the speaker’s truth, it is not a lie.

Maybe those who are so critical of our President are on to something. God does care what we think. And he knows that what we really think will always, in the end, come out of our mouth. The issue is a judgement based on our own personal views of truth. And your truth is not always my truth.  Your truth may not be anyone else’s truth.   We as Christians are people who are on a journey to the place where we believe that truth brings more hope than lies. That journey makes us more and more honest — more and more like God our Father who never speaks what he knows to be untrue, and whose heart is disclosed to us perfectly in the words of Scripture, and, above all, in the Word of God, Jesus his only-begotten Son.  I cannot call anyone a liar.  And I truly believe neither should any other Christian.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.

 

Life, Ramblings, Worship

Dry Worship, now what?

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I arrived early for my small group lesson last Sunday.  We had a substitute leader and the portion of scripture is well known and everything that can be said had been said a thousand times before.  I read the scripture when asked, bring in historical references when appropriate.  But something seems to be missing.  10:30 and we pray move to the sanctuary for worship.

It is well done: the song service is meant to set an environment of worship. But I am not feeling it.  Where is the awe of God? Where is the beauty of worship?  I am just not getting it today.  I look around and there are some that are raising their hands and praising God.  But for me, nothing.

So what should I do from here? Should you go through the motions anyway?  Do I just bear the lack of personal oneness with God and wait for next week?

What is true worship? Jesus said true worship must involve both spirit and truth (John 4:24).  OK, let’s look at truth.  The Bible is truth.  The lesson was truthful, the Pastors message was truthful, the songs were truthful. Worship in truth is a revelation of Jesus.  I have the truth part covered, it must be the other requirement.  Worship in Spirit.

What’s worship in spirit?  What does that mean?  Back to study.  I have to find the truth about the spirit.  What does the Bible say about spirit?  Normally when book refers to the Holy Spirit, it is predicated by the word “THE”.  Digging a little deeper, John was using the word spirit to refer to feelings and emotions.  So worship in spirit is to do so with feelings and emotions.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am not proposing rolling in the isles and handling snakes, but it is more than a stoic resignation to boredom.

So how to get to the feeling part.  Especially for a person not known for his outgoing enthusiasm.  I would think that worship in spirit includes joyful praise, awestruck wonder, sorrow for sin, longing for God, and maybe a chill or two.  But what if I am just not feeling it.  What can I do? Is there a pious position which I can put my head?  Where are the holy feelings? I guess I could just go through the motions.  Stand when everyone else stands.  Sit when I am asked.  Try and sing songs that I really don’t think have much good theology.  But that just sets me up for what Jesus calls hypocrisy in Matthew 15:7-8

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…”

So what can I do?

In my studies today I found an interesting passage in Psalms 40 and was the theme of a great old hymn He Brought Me Out

My heart was distressed ’neath Jehovah’s dread frown,
And low in the pit where my sins dragged me down;
I cried to the Lord from the deep miry clay,
Who tenderly brought me out to golden day.

He brought me out of the miry clay,
He set my feet on the Rock to stay;
He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, hallelujah!

At the beginning of Psalm 40 David was not feeling the worship. He felt as I did, in a pit of destruction and stuck in miry clay.  But it changed, God put a song of praise in his mouth. What is the difference?  What is the change that brought the song of praise?

David states plainly. “I waited patiently for the Lord.”  He did not go through the motions.  He did not stand when everyone else were standing.  He did not mouth the words.  He did not hold his head at a pious angle.  He simply waited for the Lord. He did not give up on worship; it was still the goal, but he simply waited for God to help him worship.  And here is how to do it.  I borrowed this quite a few years ago and I don’t know where but here it is:

  1. With expectation point yourself to the divine.  No use looking inwardly if it is just more emptiness.  Don’t focus on your lifeless heart — trust Christ to meet you, help you, change you.
  2. Pray and ask Him to help you worship.  Admit you want to worship and you are not doing so well. Cast your burdens upon Him — and ask Him to strengthen your faith.  Ask for more of the Spirit’s work in your heart to enable you to feel joyful praise, awestruck wonder, and heartfelt longing for Him.
  3. Open the Bible again and find the truth of God that points to praise. If worship is fire, then truth is the fuel that causes the fire to burn.  The more fuel — the hotter the fire.  Focus on the truth in the songs, the prayers, the Scriptures.
  4. Do point one through three again and again patiently.  It’s called waiting for a reason.  God might change your heart instantly — or not.  But His timing is perfect love for you.  So humbly continue waiting for Him.

It may take a long time or just an instant but it will come.  My God is not one to disappoint.

But — if we will wait on the Lord — it’s just a matter of time before we feel the wind of the Spirit start to blow — that fog starts to break up — we see the beauty of God revealed in Jesus Christ —

And we will worship.

Personal, Ramblings

Turn out the lights the party is over.

Sunday worship is a time where we focus for an hour or so on God.  The order of service is very familiar: 15 minutes of spiritual songs, a few announcements, a message from the Bible, an offering, and a benediction.  Each is mixed well and served in a comforting way.  Sweet.  But when it is over, we are trust back into a world that is both common place and not quite so holy.

The people we mix with are not all heavenly apparitions of goodness. They are not all angels.  We have to live our lives among the heathen.  Sure I live in a Christian nation.  Even the money I carry in my pocket has “In God We Trust”.  But it does not seem like it most of the time.  The reality of it all we have to live in a world that, for the most part wants nothing of my Jesus.  We must mingle with those who do not love Christ.  There are times when life is just full of frustration and discouragement. The issue is we have to live through it.  We have to meet the day as they come.  Sometimes we would rather just pull the covers over our heads and stay in the silent warmth of our beds.

To live the life that Jesus demands of me I have to live within the rocks of the world.  To step boldly as the jagged edges of life try to break my stride is the goal.  Each step has to be taken.  It does not matter that the ground I tread is trying to break my ankles.  So how do I do it?  How do I keep on keeping on?  How do I keep the momentum going forward, when I want to just sit and reduce the threats?

Life has to be more than existence.  It is not enough to just sit and be protected.  We have to move on.  “If you are not living on the edge, you are just taking up space.”  Sure there are times we have to “be still and know” but most of the time we have to make progress. Life is to be a joy not a burden. The joy is not in the destination but in the journey.  It is the overcoming the rocks in our path but the victory is moving through them.

Life is more than surviving.  Life is more than getting along.  Life is more that existing until we get back into our cocoon of our beds to die for eight hours or so.  Life is to be lived to overcome our obstacles, to master our experiences, and to have sense of joy along the way.  There will be defeats. There will be rocks that bruise us. There will be injuries that seem to disable us from going any further.  But there will be times of walking along with the eternal in our steps.  We may well wish to be have a little more ease and a lot less of toil.  We may find hope that it will get better.  But really it doesn’t matter.  You see that every one of us must live in our own circumstances.  What we make of our lives is not a matter of changing our world but changing ourselves.

It would be cool if we had everything we wanted.  To have the whole world at our finger tips. Never to experience pain, disappointment, or sin.  How delightful it would be, never to have a care, or a cross or a single negative. But it just isn’t so.  Paradise, Shangri-La, and heaven is not here.  And longing for It will not make it any closer.  Restless discontent cannot change our place.  All those around us have their lives they are living and I have mine.  It is mine alone.

So out of the bed I go.  To live and I choose to live in victory over the boulders in life. I choose to grow and move in the world God has given me to live.  Sunday worship is a great place to bask in the glow of perfection but my victories don’t come inside of a church.  My life is more than that.

 

Bible, Bible Study, Worship

Glorious Unique

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There are two epistles in the Bible that are most misunderstood: Romans and Hebrews.  I am doing a methodical study of Romans but I took a detour and opened my Bible to Hebrews this morning.  Hebrews 3:1.  “Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, who we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.”  (NIV).

Fix your thoughts, consider, gaze upon, study view upon view, intensely stare until it becomes the only thing you see.  To open your eyes wide and do not squint at the blazing true Son.  Do not fear the burning of your eyes.  Be blind to all else.  Jesus is the perfect last sight.  Do not be afraid of being lost in the vision.

As Isaiah stood in the temple he was struck by a vision of God.  All else became blurred and shadow.  So we are to stop what we are doing focus only on the apparition of Jesus. Stare, focus until nothing else is as important.  Remember he is not just an historical figure.  He is the infinite Jehovah.  He was not just one person’s concept that bloomed into a religion.  Jesus our teacher and our priest.

It is only in a focus on Jesus do we really see our own predicament. Our vision, our fixation on Jesus reveals our place.  It is not a “What would Jesus do?” moment.  It is not a walk as he walked time.  It is not a comparative religion time.  Doing it the Jesus way is not the goal of our vision our fixation.  Our reason for gawking is a step to the Spirit of Christ.  Works are easy.  Doing things like Jesus is not as easy but doable. The problem is that we can do it all and not catch the vision of Jesus.  “If any man has not the Spirit of Christ – he is none of His”.  The motive, the reason for the fixation is to find not what to do but what to be.

Oh that we were more like that perfect vision.  Oh that because of that enraptured gaze we become more like the perfect character of Jesus.  If we could only grasp the heavenly demeanor, the sweet anger against sin, the heart that grasped a child, the mind that conceived a path for the sinner to find something more than self.

Today we look through a glass that is sometimes smoked over.  But for a glimpse of the divine knowing full well there is a day coming, when the full vision will be ours to behold.  We will behold the perfect. We will see more than an image in our minds but the Glorious Unique. No longer will we need to be exhorted to fix our minds.  It will be our minds.

Bible Study, Preaching, Theology

Compare and contrast of Sin

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Good or Bad.  Right or Wrong.  Fun or Boring.  Easy or Difficult.  Beautiful or Ugly.  Every day, we’re surrounded by judgments, whether on the television or in our own minds.  Our culture is strongly attached to categorizing and comparing.

Yet we’re also told that it’s not politically or even spiritually correct to judge.  Accept difference, see similarity, no one is better or worse than anyone else.  Some kid’s baseball games no longer keep score for fear of being the “losers.”  I am not bald; I am just hair-challenged”.

In a Bible study the other day I was totally distracted by the concept of compare and contrast of two disciples of Jesus.  One is proclaimed as the founder of the church named Peter and the other Judas who is most remembered as the betrayer of Jesus.  One is held in high esteem and the other has become catch phrase for deceit and disloyalty.

So what was the difference?  What is the judgement Christianity has made through the eons?  I think we have to get down to motives or the mindsets of the two characters in question.

Peter betrayed Jesus purely out of fear.  Three times he denied Jesus.  We all know the story.  There is but one conclusion to Peter’s motives.  He was fearful of being put on trial himself just for being associated with Jesus.  Now fear as a motive can be a good thing.  It keeps us from driving into walls and drinking unknown liquids.  The problem is that is a very selfish motive.  Self-preservation is a natural desire.  The issue comes up that Peter knew it was going to happen.  Jesus had told him just the night before in response of Peter’s claim he would have Jesus’s back no matter what.

OK, how about Judas?  What was his motive?  What caused Judas to approach the religious leaders of Judah?  It could not be about the money.  I would not turn anyone in to the religious hierarch for a few pieces of silver.  He was the treasurer for the twelve.  He could have just taken the purse and run off at any time.  There must be more to the equation.

Judas was the only disciple from Judah.  All the others were from Galilee. The only one that had lived his life in a society that was saturated with religion and the devout.  His life was filled with temple and biblical festivals.  He was familiar with the roles and jobs of the priests.  The Temple was the center of his life.  He saw the Priestly system as a vital part of society.

I can really see Judas being the only one trying to bridge the gap.  When Jesus went to Jerusalem, he condemned the very ones Judas had held in the highest esteem.  Judas naturally tried to stand in the gap between the radical Galilee preacher and the establishment.  When Jesus started to talk about the great confrontation with religion it was just too much for Judas.

Judas thought if he could just bring the two parties together into on final confrontation both the Priestly class and Jesus would reconcile and he would be seen as the peacemaker.  But when it all went sour, when the priests started talking about death and crucifixion, when they brought in the Roman’s into the discussion, when they started to whip Jesus; Judas realized the reconciliation would never happen.  When the ones he had tried to bring together with his Rabbi betrayed, Judas could not take it.  His good motive was dashed by the results.  So Judas, now rejected by both his society and his teacher, could not combine his world of the past and the world of the present, he went out and killed himself.

Was Peter’s motive, what was in his heart, the silent just call of his heart to do better was just stuffed down and he betrayed Jesus.  Judas with a good motive and the best of intentions could not handle the impact of his actions.  Peter’s denial hurt no one, Judas betrayal set in motion the death of Jesus and his ultimate suicide.

Which of these two committed the greater sin?

Neither.  Sin is Sin.  The difference was that Peter found a place to be forgiven, Judas did not.  And so we make a judgement that Judas was bad and Peter was good.

Sin is sin, bad things happen to everyone.  Bad things like disappointment, betrayal, physical problems, rejection of love, broken relationships, all happen to everyone.  Bad things happen to good people.  Bad things happen to bad people.  Bad is not sin.  Bad can lead to sin.  And what can be concluded from this comparison of Judas and Peter is that sin can lead to bad.

What do you think?

Life, Psycolog

Just breathe

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Life is a continuous series of changing circumstances. Our thoughts help us make sense of this ever-changing landscape and they help guide us from one event to another along this path to future “now’s.” As things change around us, we constantly try to understand the why.  It is this constant asking that brings uncertainty and frustration.  Sometimes all we need is to take a big breath and see the future and its associated change as a possibility for growth. Change happens with or without your input; but you can create in ourselves a joy in the prospect of new growth.

Theology

Humanity of God

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Many struggle with the concept of the humanity of God.  Or for that matter the Godliness of man.  What is the significance of Jesus as the perfect man and the perfect God at the same time.  Is it all that important?  Is it necessary for me, as a Christian, to believe this dual congruence?

If Jesus was just a very holy man, a great teacher or rabbi, just a great pious person or a holy man with a charismatic character it is enough?   I have found sources that see Jesus as a not single unified being but a physical entity that had a divine consciousness.  But on further study that philosophy has too many pitfalls.  And while you are at it contrary to the Bible.

In my simple mind there are two truths on this subject:
1.  The mark of humanity is birth (Jesus was born of a woman)
2.  The mark of divinity is resurrection (the empty tomb of Jesus)

So why did God become man?  Why did Jesus become God with us?
Why did Jesus become like us?  Why did Jesus become God for us?

It is all about feelings.  Not empathy.  I have never given birth.  I will never know the pain or the changes a mother goes through.  But for that matter I really don’t want to know. I don’t want to experience child birth.  But without being a woman how will I ever understand?

Only a human could sympathize with our weaknesses and temptations. In His humanity, Jesus was subjected to all the same kinds of trials that we are, and He is, therefore, able to sympathize with us and to aid us. He was tempted; He was persecuted; He was poor; He was despised; He suffered physical pain; and He endured the sorrows of a lingering and most cruel death. Only a human being could experience these things, and only a human being could fully understand them through experience.

God’s deity limits His intimacy. God is omniscient up to a point of experience.  Science has examined it all, but not one can know what it is like to be me.

What do you think?

Life, Personal, Sermon Illustration

Ship on the Horizon

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Growing up with a father that always seemed greater than life was not always easy. He worked all the time.  If he wasn’t at Ordside Garage, he would be working on some other car for a neighbor or friend.  It was a rare treat to spend time with my dad alone.  One special Sunday I was invited to an adventure. We were to go to the Monterey wharf to see one of the last three mast sailing ships still working the coast of California.  I could not have been more than 9 or 10. We toured the ship just me and my dad.

It was amazing.  Tall masts with furled sails.  The hull was made of iron but the rest was all wood and rope. We toured through each berth and saw the cook in the galley. It was a wondrous time.  The smells and the sights were so much better because I was sharing with my dad.

But the tide was going out and we had to disembark.  So we watched as the brightly uniformed crew of that grand old ship pull all the lines in and set its grand white sails and moved into that arching blue bay.
It was going to San Francisco, its next point of call. That ship was an object of beauty and strength. We stood there until the white sails became nothing more than a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky came down to mingle with one another. Then someone in the crowd said, “Look, she’s gone”!

That day is often brought to memory.  My sometimes over shadowing Father, the perfect blue sky, and  while sails as they seemed to fall off the edge of the world. But it also brings to mind that exclamation from the crowd, “Look, she’s gone”.  But we must ask, “Gone where?” Gone from my sight, that is all. That grand ship with its large mast and hull was not any less strong or able to cut the waves. That ship was diminished size only because of my perspective.  That ship is “gone” because I can not see it any more.

My dad is no longer with us.  He has sailed over the horizon.  Is he gone?  I don’t think so.  He is just out of sight and never out of mind. In my golden years of retirement I often wonder how I will be remembered when I am “gone”.

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Life, Personal

Joseph Monson – My Dad

I posted this previously in a different media and I thought I might share it again.

Every time I open my hands and look at the grooves and line in my own hands, I see my father.  I have big hands: the hands of German English heritage. Just like my father’s hands, the digits are not well suited to playing the piano or sometimes even typing.  There are few images in my mind of my father which are stronger than the sight of his hands. My father’s hands were huge, but the most remarkable characteristic was the rough callousness of them.  My dad was a mechanic in the days before computers and smog control devices.  Being a mechanic meant you were tough, greasy, tolerant, and patient.
Those great big hands that would reach out to me to come and give him a hug seemed so coarse.  Years of working with hot engines, sharp tools, and caustic chemicals made them that way.  I remember dad when mom was in the hospital for a three day visit and trying to fix the kids something to eat, reaching out for a hot black iron frying pan from the electric stove top.  He had picked it up to take it to the table and he had gone five steps before he realized it was burning hot.  His hands were so desensitized to heat it took that long to set off the warning bells in his head.  With one giant throw, the pan and our dinner went into the sink splattering oil and our food all over the wall.
I guess the reason I remember my father’s hands so well is because as he suffered from the ravages of Alzheimer’s and the rest of his world shrank his hands were still the most remarkable thing to see. They bore the unmistakable signs of hard work.  Those thick, strong and rough hands did not shrunk with the rest of his body.  Those hands that had gripped steel, plunged thousands of times into gasoline and oil,  and pulled chains never seemed to change.  In his last days as his body could no longer keep up with demands of his shrinking world, his hands hung from his arms from still thick wrists that stretched any watch band he had ever known.  They were not the hands that should be idle in darkening days.  They shook and were increasingly awkward when he tried to wipe the drool off his  own proud chin.

Some day all will meet our ends in this world.  But today I will remember a grand man with big hands.

TWO GREAT HANDS

My Father was a man with two great hands,
The skin was rough as it could be.
Work was his life with its pulls and commands,
But he always made time for me.

Sleep and rest were not part of his clock,
There was always someone else in need.
Never did he stop, even when he could drop,
For there were many mouths at home to feed.

His bones were often tired and painfully uncured,
His hands often bandaged and red.
But a promise was a promise, and his bond was his word,
And everyone believed what he said.

He was my dad, and constant each day.
It amazed me how he could be ever so strong,
In his life, in his convictions and in his way.
In my eyes he would never do wrong.

Consistent in actions and strong were his words,
All were made better for walking with this man.
My hands are not as rough, or nearly as tough,
But my inheritance was his gentleness of his hand.

My Dad was a man with two working hands,
Until his life did stop with a beat.
Oh how I miss him, his hands and loving gentle soul,
But these hands I have will ever remind and keep.