Not a Happy Christmas Story

When I read a news article telling about some sexual indiscretion or alleged misconduct by a person I have no connection to, my reaction is to think in two dimensional terms: How stupid. How could he? How could this person let his urges get the best of him and ruin his career and hurt those around him?

Of course, it is easy to be judgmental. And if I’m in an honest mood, it is too easy to list any number of things that I’ve decided to not do again....for which the resolution lasted all of 15inutes.

In the context of sin in general, I believe that all sins separate us from God, and all sins are forgiven by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. So I am no better when I sin than somebody who does a “big” sin. And I am no better or worse when I am forgiven than any other person loved by the Lord.

But it is true that many sins and actions have consequences that are devastating and long lasting for the sinner and for those around him/her.

Maybe I drive drunk only one time with a horrible result. Maybe someone shoots a gun in the air for joy but the bullet hits a child.

The context of my thoughts: A respected mentor to a person I care about has admitted sexually inappropriate behavior. The news reports state that it wasn’t illegal behavior. The mentor had to resign his position.

Now the people around him have complex emotions to deal with. His institution is tainted in some people’s eyes. And other people he was a mentor to may have some of this reflected on them. All his good work is tainted by one action.

My thinking on this matter is no longer simplistic. This doesn’t mean that I excuse this behavior. But I know that God forgives.

May God work peace in the hearts of all affected by this situation.

Essay on Communion

"I think the thing that strikes me the most is looking at the hands of the people as I put the host into their palm." David wrote this in an great essay on communion here

I hadn't thought of looking at people's hands during communion, but it is right to do so. We are the hands of Christ on earth. It reminds me of a hymn that has a line, "we the hands, we the feet." I can't find that music right now. There is also a hymn by Robin Mann, words by Norman Habel, called "Hand in Hand (1997)." The last verse is:

When I consider God's own church.
sinful sort of saintly band,
I hold my breath, but even more
I stand in awe
when sinners come to share God's meal
hand in hand, hand in hand.
Sinners come to share God's meal,
hand in hand.

Saved by a clean house?

YOU MIGHT BE A LUTHERAN IF...
...your house is a mess because you're saved by Grace, not by works.

I added the Old Lutheran thing to my blog awhile back. Sometimes the auto-postings are interesting historical tidbits about Martin Luther. Sometimes they are theological. Sometimes they are meant to be funny but I think they are shallow humor.

The one above, from today, strikes me a little differently. I read an article in a Christian women's magazine about nit-picky housekeepers. The article suggested that a woman might be overly focused on cleaning because she never feels good enough. And if she never feels good enough, would she feel good enough for God's grace? If she didn't feel good enough for God's grace, would she ever feel accepted, loved by God? Would she ever know that she is forgiven for the past, present, and future?

I find these questions interesting. Certainly God can save somebody who believes in Jesus but doesn't really "get it:" that we are saved precisely when we aren't good enough. My favorite verse is Romans 5: 8.

But how much more free and thankful we can feel when we do understand that it is precisely because we can never BE good enough on our own that God sent Jesus to do this "housework" for us. We can't dust our way into God's grace, but we can relax and trust our way into His kingdom.

Perfectionism

Ashley Judd is quoted here
as saying, "A wonderful pastor once told me, 'Perfectionism is the highest order of self-abuse,"' she tells the magazine. "So now I try to remind myself that if I engage in perfectionism, I am abusing myself. Period."

This interested me because I read once in a Christian women's magazine that women who are perfectionistic housekeepers never feel good enough. This can be a spiritual problem, because if one "isn't good enough" then it is hard to accept true Grace and feel forgiven.

How do you react to the quote and the concept from that magazine?

Trinity

I've been looking for representations of the cross in nature to photograph, but they haven't been readily evident. But nature comes in three-in-one frequently. I can already think of other things to photograph: the leaves of the jack-in-the-pulpit are three-in-one, for example. I'll be posting more pictures on this topic.

Are you good enough?

I just overheard an ad on TV for a show having to do with weight loss.  The incentive for the weight-losers is that if they don’t lose enough weight, they will have to appear on national TV is a bikini that is too small.  I’m not sure who would want to tune in to gawk at that spectacle, but that is another story.

 

Not good enough.  Don’t we all feel that at various times? 

 

In the current TV-Land craze, if you are not good enough, or if the other contestants are jealous of you, you can be voted off the group, off the island, out of the boardroom.  Apparently, and I say apparently because I don’t watch these shows, apparently, the contestants, with their own human frailties, get to judge the others, who may have greater frailties or problems.  Hey, they are “just” human.

 

Some years ago, I heard a sermon illustration that has stuck with me.  The pastor said that our society rates us as though we must reach at least a certain mark on a yardstick.  But in the Kingdom of God, where we are members due to Jesus’ actions and our baptism, we are like the knights sitting at the Round Table.  There is no person who is above the others.  None have gotten there by their own works, so therefore no one is beneath any other person.  All are at equal places at the table.  All are brothers and sisters in/of Christ.

 

NONE WILL BE VOTED OFF!

 

Thanks be to God!

Who is qualified? ......

In the sermon introduction last Sunday, the pastor listed the job descriptions of several of the Bible Heroes and the qualifications that they actually had before they got the job. Interesting contrast.

I saw one of our former pastors last weekend. He had been a carpenter before he became an ordained pastor. He never went to college. Who ever heard of a carpenter becoming a preacher?

God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.

Originally posted 01/26/2006