Monday, April 30, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: What's Amazing About God's Grace?


Perhaps you remember the parable told by Jesus in which he describes a father and his rebellious son  (Luke 15:11 - 32).

One day the son asked his father to give him the son's share of the father's estate, even though the father was still alive.  The father complied.  Soon after, the son gathered all his wealth and set off for a distant country, where he squandered his fortune in wild living.  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.  So he hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.  The son longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he realized his father's hired servants had food to spare, and here he was starving.  He decided to go back to his father and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants."  So, he got up and went to his father.

But, while the son was a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.  The father ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son in repentance said,  "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

But, the father said to his servants, "Quick!  Bring the best robe and put it on him.  Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let's have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found."  So, they began to celebrate.

Was the father rewarding irresponsible behavior?  What kind of "family values" would this father communicate by throwing a party for such a renegade?  What kind of virtue would that encourage, if any?  There was no solemn lecture, no "I hope you've learned your lesson!"

Instead, Jesus tells of the father's exhilaration ---- "This son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found" ---- and then Jesus adds the buoyant phrase, "they began to make merry."

The story of the Prodigal Son delivers an astonishing message.  From nursery school onward we are taught how to "succeed" in the world.  We hear repeatedly what are thought to be secrets of success:  "The early bird gets the worm."  "No pain, no gain."  "There is no such thing as a free lunch."  Etc.  

We know these rules so well because we live by them, day by day.  We continually seek to advance ourselves.  We relentlessly seek to be "the greatest."  However, we may not realize how quickly this obscures our view of God.  Perhaps we do need some unmerited divine assistance to regenerate us?  Church people call this gift "grace."

I suggest that this well-known parable is about God's grace, as modeled by the Prodigal's father, after the now repentant son's failed tour of self-centered living.

The world does not seem to run on grace.  While many of us believe that it is all about us, Jesus' kingdom calls us to another path ---- one that depends not on just our own performance, but also on God's.  We do not just have to achieve, but also follow God in our hearts.
___________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this Spring at CPC.
___________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Prayer


Recently, I visited an old friend in a local hospital.  This patient had a severe medical condition, and was to receive major surgery the next day.  Her daughter was present, seeking to encourage her, and she told her mother with confidence that the surgery would be successful because this was a great hospital with talented surgeons.

The daughter then gave me a friendly greeting, and said to me, "Would you please say a prayer for Mom's recovery."

Praying for a person's health, for a favorable outcome to an operation, has implications that ought to disturb a thoughtful person.  If prayer works the way many people think it does, no one would ever die, because no prayer is ever offered more sincerely than the prayer for life, for health, and recovery from illness, for ourselves and for those we love.

If we believe in God, but we do not hold God responsible for life's tragedies;  if we believe that God wants justice and fairness but cannot always arrange for them, what do we think we are  doing when we pray to God for a favorable outcome to a crisis in our life?

Do I really believe in a God who has the power to cure malignancies, but will do that only if the right person recites the right words of prayer in the right language?  And will God let a person die because a stranger praying on his or her behalf got some of the words wrong?

Furthermore, if we don't get what we prayed for, how do we keep from being either angry with God, or feeling that we have been judged and found wanting?  How do we avoid feeling that God has let us down just when we needed Him most?  And, how do we avoid the equally undesirable alternative of feeling that God's neglect is because of His disapproval of us?

There are several ways in which we can answer the person who asks, "Why didn't I get what I prayed for?"  And most of the answers are problematic, leading to feelings of guilt, or anger, or hopelessness:

          --- You didn't get what you prayed for . . . --- because you didn't deserve it.

          ---   "               "                     "                    --- because you didn't pray hard enough.

          ---   "               "                     "                    --- because God knows what is best for you,
                                                                                        better than you do.
          ---   "               "                     "                    --- because someone else's prayer for the
                                                                                        opposite result was more worthy.
          ---   "               "                     "                    --- because prayer is a sham;  God doesn't
                                                                                        hear prayers.
          ---   "               "                     "                    --- because there is no God.

If we are not satisfied with any of these answers, but don't want to give up on the idea of prayer, there is one other possibility.  We can change our understanding of what it means to pray, and what it means for our prayers to be answered.

Not all things are appropriate subjects of our prayers to God.  We should not ask God to change the laws of nature for our benefit.  Nor, make fatal life conditions less fatal or change the inexorable course of an incurable condition.  Sometimes miracles do happen.  We don't know why some people die in car or airplane crashes, while other people, sitting right next to them, walk away with a few cuts and bruises and a bad scare.  It is hard to believe that God chooses to hear the prayers of some, and not those of others.

So, what can prayer do for us, to help us when we hurt?  Prayer does put us in touch with God.  I am not sure prayer puts us in touch with God the way many people think it does ---- that we approach God as a supplicant, a beggar asking for favors, or as a customer presenting  Him with a shopping list and asking what it will cost.  Prayer is not primarily a matter of asking God to change things.  If we can come to understand what prayer can and should be, and rid ourselves of some unrealistic expectations, we will be better able to call on prayer and on God, when we need them most.

Instead of trying to make a deal with God, we need to believe that there is no way in which God can be paid for blessing and helping us.  We need to be saying, "There is only one reason for my turning to You now ---- because I need you.  I am scared.  I have to face up to something hard tomorrow, and I am not sure I can do it alone, without You.  God, you once gave me reason to believe that I was capable of making something of my life.  If You meant it, then You had better help me now, because I can't handle this alone."

In this view of prayer, we are asking God to change something within us.  Importantly, we are asking God to make us less afraid, by letting us know that He is at our side, so that whatever the next day may bring, we will be able to handle it because we will not have to face it alone.

I believe that is the kind of prayer that God answers.  We can't pray that He make our lives free of problems.  We can't ask Him to make us and those we love immune to disease, because He can't do that.  But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they still retain instead of what they have lost, very often find their prayers answered.  They discover that they have more strength, more courage than they ever knew themselves to have.  Where did they get it?  I would like to think that their prayers helped them find that strength.  Their prayers helped them tap hidden reserves of faith and courage which were not available to them before.

The man who has lost his job or closed his business, and tells me he is too old and tired to start all over again, but starts over again nonetheless ---- where did he get the strength, the hope, the optimism that he did not have on his first jobless day?  I would like to believe that he received those things from the knowledge that God is at the side of the afflicted and the down-cast.  The God I believe in does not send us the problem.  He gives us the strength to cope with the problem.

We don't have to beg or bribe God to give us strength or hope or patience.  We need only turn to Him and admit that we can't do this on our own.  If we acknowledge that we are not alone, that God is on our side, we can manage to go on.
___________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal spiritual growth for you this year at CPC.
___________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: How Can I Get Myself "Right" With God?


Most of us will admit that from time to time we do things we know are wrong.  We understand that God may not really approve of such behavior on our part.  What can we do so that God will forgive us?  How do we get "right" with God?

In the Book of Luke, Jesus offers us this helpful parable (Luke 18:10 - 14):

     "Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
       The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself:  'God, I thank you that I am not like
       other men ---- robbers, evildoers, adulterers ---- or even like this tax collector.  I fast
       twice a week and give one tenth of all I get.' "

      "But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up to Heaven, but
       beat his breast and said, 'God have mercy on me, a sinner.' "

      "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.  For every-
       one who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

In one sense, the Pharisee certainly was a good man.  When he says he gives a tenth of all he gets, that means he's generous to the poor.  When he says he doesn't commit adultery, that means he is a faithful husband.

But, let's look at the Pharisee's prayer ---- whenever we write a thank-you letter to somebody, aren't we thanking them for things that they have done?  However, the Pharisee says, "God, I thank you," and that's it.  That's the last reference to God.  The prayer is all about the Pharisee himself.  This is self-worship.  Underneath the veneer of God-centeredness is utter 
self-centeredness.  Underneath the veneer of all that God-talk and all the God-activity and all the morality, is adoration of self.

The Pharisee's view of acting morally and being righteous seems to have two characteristics:

1.) His understanding of sin and virtue is completely external.  It's completely focused on behavior and the violation of, or the keeping of, rules.  It's not looking inside.  It is not looking at character.  Sin is perceived completely in terms of discrete individual actions.  Notice he does
not say, "God, I thank you that I am getting more patient.  I'm getting to be a gentler person.  I 
am able to love people I used to not be able to love.  I'm able to keep my joy and my peace, even when things go wrong."

2.) The Pharisee says, "I'm not like other men," implying, "I am so much better" ---- perhaps he is looking down on those "other men."

Now consider the tax collector.  What can we learn about repentance from his attitude?

If you think of sin externally and comparatively, like the Pharisee, there's always somebody who has committed more sins than you.  You are only ever a sinner, you are never the sinner.
The Pharisee, it seems, is thinking of sin in absolute terms.

On the other hand, the tax collector seems to be saying, "All I know is I'm lost, and where everybody else thinks they are does not matter."  The tax collector is not just looking at what he has done wrong ---- he is not just looking at his discrete individual actions ---- his whole understanding of himself is that he is the sinner ---- it is how he sees himself.  It is a part of his identity.  He asks for mercy.  He sees his dependency on God's radical grace.

The attitude of the tax collector shows us that real repentance involves real sorrow over sin and the way it has grieved God.  Fake repentance is sorrow over the consequences of sin and the way it has grieved you..  Self-pity may appear to be repentance, but it is not.

Jesus says the tax collector went home "justified before God."  What does Jesus mean by
"justified before God"?  What is "justification"?  Scholar and Presbyterian pastor Timothy Keller says that in this parable, Jesus introduces us to a universal problem ---- the problem of
righteousness. Then Jesus gives us two figures, each of whom represents a particular solution to the problem.  One solution does not work, says Keller.  The other one does work.

The Pharisee is trying to justify himself by his good deeds and by his conscientious religious practices.  He is keeping God's rules, but in such a way (focusing on the external) that it makes him feel good about himself and so he can say, "Now, God, you owe me."  He is keeping God's external rules as a way of earning his justification.  He is not depending on God's radical grace.  The tax collector, on the other hand, shows by his words and actions that he is utterly depending on God's mercy.

"Justification" is a legal term, borrowed from the law courts.  It is the exact opposite of "condemnation."  To condemn is to declare someone guilty, whereas to "justify" is to declare him righteous.  In the Bible it refers to God's act of unmerited favor by which God puts a sinner right with Himself ---- not only pardoning or acquitting him, but by accepting him and treating him as righteous.  No matter what we attempt to do for ourselves, only God can do this.

We are justified and thus treated as righteous because of God's unmerited favor.  God's love and acceptance of us, says Pastor Keller, is secured through Christ, and we obey God's law out of a desire to delight, resemble and know Jesus.
___________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you bu CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal growth for you this year at CPC.
___________________________________________________________________________

Monday, April 9, 2018

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Can Christians and Muslims Get Along?


Once I had to take a business trip to Morocco.  I did not speak any local languages, so I arranged for an English-speaking guide.  We traveled together to several cities ---- Casablanca, Rabat, Fes and Marrakech.  He was the driver, but he also knew much about current events in Morocco and its history, so we had interesting conversations.  I was glad I had some time to become well-acquainted with him and with that country.

On one of our long drives between cities we found ourselves talking about religion.  He said he was a Muslim, and adherent of Islam.  I told him I was a Christian, and we started to compare notes.

It turned out we had a number of things in common.  Both faiths value prayer, worship (humbling ourselves before God) and fasting.  Both faiths shun the worship of idols.  We both honor and remember Adam, Noah and Moses.  We both believe we are descendants of Abraham, the patriarch of both our faiths, as well as of the Jewish faith ---- for the Jewish people it was through the line of Isaac, and for Muslims through the line of Ishmel.

In fact, my Moroccan guide said, Christians and Jews are recognized within the Qur'an (Koran), the Muslim holy book, as "people of the Book."  Muslims even honor Jesus Christ as a great prophet, he continued, and so we also believe that Jesus will return to earth.

I was surprised and pleased that there were so many commonalities between the Muslim and Christian faiths.  But now the conversation became a little more difficult.  Remembering my guide's reference to the Qur'an, I asked him what he believed about the Bible.

He paused a moment, and then said that for Muslims, God's revelation came in their holy book, the Qur'an, a code of laws, rules and regulations given by Allah (their name for God) to govern life and society.  I responded that Christians also submit ourselves to a holy book.  We believe that the Old and New Testaments are the word of God with the power to change lives.  However, I emphasized, that Christians believe that God's full revelation in our lives came in the life and death of Jesus Christ.  I said the Bible's purpose is to lead us into an intimate relationship with God.  Throughout the Bible, the God of the universe is portrayed as seeking relationship with us, to cultivate peace in our relationship with one another.

My Muslim friend wanted to respond with the Muslim view of man's relationship with God.  The Qur'an, he said, describes our relationship with God in terms of master and slave.  But, while Allah is distant in his relationship with mankind, the Qur'an also describes Allah as merciful and compassionate to mankind.  This latter point pleased me, because Christians also seem to affirm this view of God ---- our Scriptures describe God as a merciful and compassionate, although more intimate, master.

Even though Jesus holds a high place in Islam as a great prophet, surprisingly the Qur'an teaches that Jesus was never killed.  God is sovereign, the Qur'in teaches, and therefore God would not have allowed Jesus, His son and the great prophet, to die such a violent death.

"Because Muslims don't share the Christian belief in original sin," said my Muslim friend, Muslims wonder why Christians even need the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross."  I told him that from the Christian point of view, the pain and death of Jesus (the son of God) on a cross  provides us with the greatest gift from God we can imagine.  Jesus' humanity and suffering demonstrate the extraordinary lengths to which our Creator goes to lavish great love and forgiveness on us, in spite of our sinful ways.

"Well," my friend asked, "why don't you obey the teachings of our great  prophet Muhammad?"  I had to be careful here.  I said Christians believe that Muhammad's teachings contain much truth, but they are not part of our Biblical tradition.  "Don't be offended," my friend said, "but Muslims believe that in his teachings Muhammad corrected corrupt texts in the Bible."

The prevailing view in Islam apparently is that everything Muhammad said and did  was inspired by Allah (their God), even though unlike Jesus, Muhammad was totally human.  The Qur'an claims that Muhammad has God's seal of prophethood, Muhammad being the last and final messenger to Islamic humanity.  "But, while Muslims venerate and imitate the prophet," my guide continued, they stop short of worshiping him or regarding him as divine."

My Moroccan friend had one more great question:  "If salvation is an "automatic" gift through God's grace (the Christian view) why do we need to do good works?"  Muslims and Christians share a linear view of history, a belief that our destiny in Heaven or Hell depends on how we live our lives on earth.  We both believe in individual death, judgment and the resurrection of the body.  My friend continued:  "In Islam, those whose good deeds to others outweigh their bad deeds, will attain salvation.  Those whose bad deeds to others outweigh their good deeds will abide in Hell."

Apparently, it is love for Allah and a desire to please Him that motivates the faithful Muslim to keep striving for good.  Paramount among the good behaviors to which Muslims aspire are the Five Pillars of Islam:  confession of faith, prayer, tithing (giving to the poor and helping in other ways people who are in need), fasting and (for some Muslims) pilgrimage to Mecca.

While Islam calls men and women to submit to their God's law, Christianity understands that Jesus has already fulfilled God's law on behalf of the world.  Muslims submit to God's law with the passionate belief that their actions are working to bring in the reign of God.  Christians believe that God's kingdom has already come.  That Jesus Christ has already accomplished the ultimate reign of God, and therefore we strive as hopeful heirs of the promised kingdom.

"The Christian emphasis on God's grace could be seen as an easy pretext for personal and societal lawlessness," continued my Moroccan friend.  He certainly had a good point.  History provides many examples of people who claimed to follow Jesus and yet were perpetrators of evil.  On the other hand, the Islamic emphasis on absolute submission to God's law could be interpreted as unforgiving legalism, from a Christian's perspective.

These conversations left me with the hope of some greater harmony between our two faiths, or at least greater mutual tolerance and respect.  What forms could this greater harmony take?  For our Muslim friends perhaps some movement toward believing in grace and forgiveness.  For Christians, greater obedience to the teachings of Jesus as our greatest example of living by God's laws.
___________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this winter at CPC.
___________________________________________________________________________