Wanted: Dead and Alive

**
Propers for Trinity 6

“Yeah, right. There are just too many stupid people in the world for that to be realistic.”

“I’m serious, Dietrich. It’s not OK to go around calling people “fools” and being angry all the time.”

“There are only two scenarios in which I can imagine what you are saying to be plausible. One - if there was a planet that I could go to that was entirely free of morons. Two - if I was dead. I don’t think I will be worried about idiots in the afterlife …”

Dietrich paused for a moment.

“… unless, of course, death does not cure bone-headedness.”

“You’re in a bad way, Dietrich.”

“Don’t I know it.”

**

“If Shirley thinks I’m going to attend her daughter’s wedding after the way she ignored me at church then she’s got another thing coming.”

“Wanda, please reconsider. You all have known each other forever. Can’t you just let it go?”

“Absolutely not. I’ve made up my mind. If she’s going to ignore me then I’m going to return the favor.”

“I think it was an honest mistake. She probably had a lot on her mind.”

“Well, my attendance at her daughter’s wedding and my talking to her at church are two things that she won’t have to worry about anymore.”

**

“You kids shut up!”

Jen-Jen and Danny froze in their tracks, but one of the balls they had been playing with got away and rolled down the stairs.

“I SAID ‘SHUT UP!’”

The children sat in their room trying to figure out what to do with their time. They couldn’t ask their father for permission to go outside when he was in this kind of mood. If they simply went outside he would either hear them and yell at them for “sneaking around” or he would yell at them when they got back for not asking.

Their father worked the night shift at the plant. Their mother worked the day shift as a cashier at Wal Mart. Jen-Jen and Danny were kids with a lot of energy and very few options.

It had been a long summer.

**

The Lord Jesus calls us to a very high standard of living. We are to be righteous people. The Sermon on the Mount is an exposition of the life that Christ’s disciples are to experience and express to the world. We are to be those who keep our cool, respect others and seek reconciliation with our adversaries. It sounds simple enough. While I do not believe that “hell is other people,” I do know that we provide each other with many opportunities to fail in our commitment to righteousness.

The sacrament of baptism ushers us into a new kind of life, a life that is as eternal in quality as it is in duration. “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

In my perambulations through Christendom I have heard quite a bit of talk about what it means to be “dead to sin.” I have heard people downplay the reality of it. I have heard others oversell it. I am not sure who hits the nail on the head regarding what it means to be dead to sin and liberated to live the righteous life that Christ has provided in his atonement.

I’ve heard it said that a dead man is non-responsive to the stimuli around him. The application is that we are non-responsive to the temptations around us. Maybe.

Is it possible that there is an experience in God that will be so dramatic that it could be compared to death? Why does Paul use such a striking metaphor?

What do you say?

I would like for you to weigh in on this issue. Explain to me what it means to be dead to sin.

Propers for Trinity 6

Hack away.

Filed in General

Related Tags: Righteousness, Sin, Baptism, Jesus Christ, Sermon on the Mount, Romans, Gospel, Discipleship

The Safe Line 2

**
I've started a new short story over at Poboy Muse. I've posted Part 2 of "The Safe Line." I will publish Part 3 next week.

Head over there and check it out. Let me know what you think. I'm feeling around in the dark with this fiction stuff.

Hack away.

Related Tags: Fiction, Short Stories, Adventure, Horror

Help Yourself

**
Propers for Trinity 5

Holiness is a good idea. Sometimes, in the darkness of our hearts, it does not seem so. We manufacture (or co-opt) excuses, reasons, schemes, apologies, ad nauseum for why a particular instance or practice of sin is okey-dokey:

"I can look at porn because my wife is frigid."

"I can fib on my tax returns because the government is corrupt."

"I can leave off church attendance because I've got to get rested for the week ahead."

[Tell me that I didn't just say that laying out of church on Sunday is a sin.]

Holiness is a good idea for very practical reasons.

Have I lost you, yet? I'm talking about sin. I've started off my post with the word holiness. Is there anyone left reading this post that is not already a Christian? Stick with me. I'm trying to say something good to you.

The Apostle Peter knew from experience that sin does not end well. It is a distraction. It causes unnecessary pain in a world that has plenty of pain to go around. There is much suffering in the world. We do not need to pile it on ourselves through misdeeds.

Peter was distracted by his own sinfulness at times in his life. He comes around to writing his epistles and draws on his own experience in at least one place to illustrate a point (see 2 Pt 1 about the Transfiguration). I think that he drew heavily on his experiences with Jesus in order to teach his readers.

He knew that virtuous living makes life better. Such living makes it all the more likely that we will get along with our next-door neighbor. We’ll take our knocks if we are committed to doing what is right before God and man. Our lives will be much more meaningful if the sufferings that come to us are not on account of our sins.

There is so much work for us to do. We do not have time to be laboring over our own sins. Peter knew this better than anyone. Early in his career Jesus was being thronged by crowds. He asked if he could use Peter’s boat as a pulpit. After class Jesus told Peter to take him on a fishing expedition.

They got out deep in the lake and took quite a haul of fish. The problem was that Peter and his crew had spent all night fishing and had been unsuccessful. Peter saw what was going on and begged Jesus to leave him alone. Peter was distracted by his sinfulness when he should have been rejoicing over a giant haul.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make: Jesus wants us to work with him. He wants us to do good unto others. Sin distracts us from our work, makes it drudgery and spoils the joy that we should have from a job well done. Also, there will be plenty of suffering in this life. We only increase our tears by continuing on in sin.

Holiness is a good idea for very practical reasons.

Propers for Trinity 5

Hack away.

Filed in General

Related Tags: Holiness, Missions, Jesus Christ, Sin, Suffering, Good Works

The Safe Line 1

**
I've started a new short story over at Poboy Muse. I've posted Part 1 of "The Safe Line." I only need to polish Part 3 and it will be done, so no long waits for the conclusion this time.

Head over there and check it out. Let me know what you think. I'm feeling around in the dark with this fiction stuff.

Hack away.

Related Tags: Fiction, Short Stories, Adventure, Horror

The Scar

**
Propers for Trinity 4

There is a scar ripped right across the face of creation. I trust that you have seen it. I know that you have felt it.

It is the tsunami. It is Hurricane Katrina. It is every flood and landslide in the third world that is slightly reported or ignored by the American media and by us. It is every natural disaster that afflicts the world.

The scar is also 9/11. It is the recently remembered London bombing (7/7). It is abortion. It is Fidel Castro's prisons. It is every evil perpetrated by man against man.

The scar is a man beating his wife. It is a mother ignoring her daughter. It is a business owner cheating his employees. It is the sins that make us cringe. It is the pecadillos that we have made peace with. It is all the things that we do to one another.

The scar is a man at the Picadilly eating himself to death. The scar is his girlfriend in the bathroom purging and starving herself. It is drug abuse and alcoholism. It is cutting. It is pornography. It is prayerlessness. It is all the things we do to ourselves.

The scar is real. The scar speaks of pain and privation and corruption. The scar is visible on me. You will see it in the mirror and in the faces of your friends. The scar is on your newborn baby struggling to focus on his Winnie the Pooh mobile.

The scar is not the final word. Thanks be to God.

We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. The Incarnation has taught us that God is going to redeem the creation. The Resurrection announces that death and its comrades are defeated. We may participate in that process now as we look to its final realization.

We show mercy, forgive and give generously. We do not judge or condemn.

Yes, we fail. Yes, we fall short. Yes, our lives are a mixture. At times we forgive. Then we hold a grudge. Today we are tight-fisted. Tomorrow we write a check to support a South American orphanage. We're a mess but we're God's mess.

Without God nothing is strong, nothing is holy. Without the Incarnate Christ we are all blind men falling and causing others to fall into ditches. Take heart. There is a balm in Gilead. We have a Great Physician who has provided the medicine of immortalitt. We receive it as the Eucharist. It may take time, but we can be healed of our blindness. We can take part in the healing of others.

There was a man named Jesus who lived with his eyes wide open. He saw the scar and did not flich. He put his hands on those who asked him to heal them. Those who denied that they were scarred killed him. In the end, he embraced the scar. He bears it forever. He lives forever to help those who want to be healed and who want to see others healed. His Father sends his Spirit to gather whoever will be gathered into his Body, the place where healing is accomplished.

I wish we could attach a ritual to our Rogations Days, the days when we thank God for the fruits of the earth and pray for his blessing upon it. It would be similar to the ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday. I want us to pass a bowl of ashes around the congregation. Each person must apply the ashes is a slash mark across the face of the person next to them.

We pass the peace to one another. We light one another's candles at the Tenebrae Service. We should also recognize that we are responsible for scarring one another. A ritual and a sign would help.

At the end of the day we could go to a family member or friend. We could wipe the scars off of each other's faces. In doing so we would be proclaiming the fact that as we have hurt one another, so we may participate in God's healing of one another. The working out of Christ's atonement takes place in community, in the sacramental life of the Church.

I do not really want to invent a new ritual for the Church. I am too young and too ignorant to be responsible for adding or subtracting from our worship. However, I thought that painting a picture might serve our "faith seeking understanding" as we see the scar and move towards its final healing.

The scar is not the final word. Thanks be to God.

Propers for Trinity 4

Hack away.

Filed in Theology, Suffering

Related Tags: Atonement, Redemption, Jesus Christ, Suffering, Eschatology, Second Coming, Sanctification, Incarnation

Humility And How I Achieved It

**
Read 1 Peter 5:5-11

I am indebted to my mentor, Bracy Greer, for the tongue-in-cheek title of this post.

The call to humility is not an affront to human dignity. It is a recognition that we are created by God and dependent upon him for our existence. God resists proud people, not because he is threatened by them, but because humoring pride is destructive to the proud person. God enables the life of a humble person because that person recognizes the reality of things and is seeking to live accordingly.

The call to humility is not a power play on God’s part. He does not need to impress us with the fact that he could kick our butts were he so inclined. God desires to exalt us when the time is right. We must first learn humility. When proud people are exalted they are a danger to themselves and others.

Take, for example, the devil. He fell from his exalted position. He now seeks to destroy those who are created in the image of God and who humbly walk with him. Any despot or dictator who has presumed to unjustly end the lives of his fellow man is simply following in the footsteps of our adversary the devil. How many million times a day do we act like little despots over whatever domain we rule?

Those who choose humility will suffer. It is to those faithful people that God has promised eternal glory by Jesus Christ, who humbled himself unto death. God will “perfect, establish, strengthen and settle” those who choose humility so that they might endure their temporal and temporary sufferings.

Propers for Trinity 3

Hack away.

Filed in General, Suffering

Related Tags: Humility, Suffering, God, Jesus Christ, Devil, Humanity, Mankind, Faith, Christianity

Are God’s Priorities Out of Whack?

**
Read Luke 15:1-10

For my astute readers this post is going to be rather elementary. I am posting this so that I can get these thoughts down for myself. I am pleased if they solve a conundrum for anyone else.

I have a problem with the first two parables in Luke 15: the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. They seem to place more value upon the one that is lost as opposed to the many that are still in the possession of the owner. It is as if God neglects the many that he has in favor of the one that has been lost. That bothers me.

Is God advocating that those who have remained faithful to him be neglected so that the one, disobedient, faithless punk who has wandered off and gotten himself lost can be sought after? How dare he.

Such neglect does not offer much of an incentive for obedience. “Do what God tells you to and you will be ignored. Forsake God and he will give you all of his attention.” What a deal.

Even when God gets back from successfully searching for the wandering sheep, the focus is still on the wandering sheep. “Hey everybody, let’s get excited for this one loser who spit in God’s face, had a merry time, and then decided to come back when things got tough.” Whoopee.

It is important to go back to the beginning and realize to whom Jesus was telling this parable. The Pharisees and scribes were aggravated because Jesus was keeping company with people who had previously been living lives of sin. That is the context of these parables. The Great Physician was attempting to dole out some medicine for the Pharisees.

The call to repent from sin was not only directed at notorious sinners in Israel. It was sounded to all of Israel by John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. This call included the religious leaders of Israel, though they saw themselves as Israel’s teachers and above the teachings of an itinerant peasant. The entire nation was in need of a deep and thorough repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.

The point of the parables in Luke 15 is not that God values the life of a lost person more than those who are faithful to him. The point of the parables is that we are all lost. We all need to repent. We all are sought and valued by God. All of heaven rejoices when we realize this fact and come back to God.

One final note: I believe that when Jesus spoke of “99 just persons who need no repentance” he was being sarcastic. God’s priorities are not out of whack. Jesus spoke in parables in order to shake us out of our slumber, challenge our minds to think and draw us to himself. He also spoke in parables in order to obscure the truth from people, but that’s for another post.

Propers for Trinity 3

Hack away.

Filed in General

Related Tags: Parables, Jesus Christ, Repentance, Christianity, The Gospel, Sin, Faith, Obedience