What Makes You Tremble? An Election Day Thought

People are afraid these days. The politics of fear seem to be running our country. This political season has seen candidates openly criticize each other because he or she will take us some place horrible. People tremble. Years ago I sat in the living room with a family on an election night much like the one we’ll experience tonight. The preferred candidate of one person in the room was going to lose. They were distraught. They went into their bedroom and closed the door. They were overcome by fear. They trembled.

As a follower of Jesus, we need not be overcome by fear of anything! Really!! Nothing!! At the cross sin was defeated, and in the resurrection the death that goes with it. So while there are many things that should disturb us; politics and politicians, war, racism, poverty, injustice, the dismantling of marriage, and unrighteousness at every level, there is only one thing should make us tremble. What is that, you may ask?

God. Tremble at God. Tremble at the awful beauty and holiness and power and majesty and magnificence of God. He should make us tremble. Our knees ought to knock, and our bodies should writhe--the meaning of the Hebrew word for tremble--when we ponder the awful beauty and holiness of almighty God. Jesus said, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:4-5). The Psalmist puts it this way, “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord…” (Ps 114:7). “Tremble before him, all the earth” (Ps 96:9) says the Psalmist again [same Hebrew word]. Ironically, where there is godly trembling, there is deep love, deep joy, deep hope, and deep worship (Deut 6:2; Ps 96:9; Ps 147:10-11). God is not trivial. Before Him, we tremble! And in our trembling, we take comfort.

What makes your heart quake? The mismanagement of the government? The presence of unrighteousness? The reality of injustice? The wrong candidate getting into office? “Do not fret because of evil men…” (Ps 37:1-4) says the Psalmist. Instead, trust in the Lord. The government and our country is in his hands (cf Isa 45:1-7). We need not fear evil, evil people, evil policies, or evil actions. While standing for righteousness, we need only fear God. And in that trembling we’ll find real hope, real joy, real peace, and real meaning in life. On this election day, what makes you tremble?

Note: First posted at Moses Lake Alliance Church, November 7, 2016. I decided to post it here on my blog in light of the election in Alabama, December 2017.

Living As a Christian in an Anxious Age

With the presidential election results squarely in our review mirror, I’m amazed at people’s reaction. I know Christians who are deeply disturbed by a Trump presidency and others who are gleeful that at last, our left leaning country may stand a chance at tipping more upright. Some people in New York, Christians and otherwise, are afraid to admit they’d voted Trump for fear of recrimination, while others are planning on monitoring his every move. As one of my left leaning friends put it, “We’ll watch him and hang it on his neck when he messes up.” Others are protesting outright and taking to the streets. And then there are the protests of the protests. “What are we protesting?” I heard one person say. “Our democratic process?” One man named Dionne Alexander, a vet, excoriated those who are protesting in a Facebook post gone viral saying, “You’re causing all this destruction because your candidate lost! See that’s the problem with this country. You can’t always get your way…Quit being crybabies.” Whoa! We are one divided country right now. So what can we do to live in an anxious age?

I’m reading a good book right now by John Inazu called Confident Pluralism. It’s political science book and one that offers a way through the maze. I’d recommend it for those who are trying to figure out how we can live a pluralistic culture. The same author co-wrote an article with Tim Keller in Christianity Today, September 16, 2016 entitled, “How Christians Can Bear Gospel Witness in an Anxious Age.” Listen to Inazu and Keller: 

Our engagement in… an anxious age is made possible by our confidence in the gospel in a pluralistic society where people have profoundly different beliefs. We won’t always be able to persuade those around us that our beliefs are right and theirs are wrong.… But recognizing the existence of these disagreements should not prevent us from holding to what is ultimately true. Our beliefs can be true, and we can hold these warranted beliefs confidently even though others reject them. …. [a] confidence in the gospel can encourage us to work to strengthen the social fabric for the good of others.

This kind of posture is what one of us [Inazu] has called “confident pluralism.” As Christians, we can engage with the pluralism around us because our confidence lies elsewhere. We can acknowledge genuine differences in society without suppressing or minimizing our firmly held convictions. We can seek common ground even with those who may not share our view of the common good.

So here’s a thought. Regardless of where you/we stand on the election results, if you are a Christian, lets choose to put our confidence in Christ and what God has done through his work to bring real lasting change to each of our lives, and in our culture. And while we’re at it, lets take the time to listen to those who have a different opinion with respect, grace, and genuine interest. It will go along way to lowering social anxiety, contributing to the common good, and we may even learn something.

It’s (not really) simple! Thoughts on Recent Tragedies

That seems to be the new American solution to everything. “It’s simple.” After a Muslim extremist shot up a gay night club in Orlando, there were essentially three reasons brought up for the carnage. An editorial in The Week noted the three most common: (1) Our failure to keep weapons of war out of the hands of terrorists (2) President Obama’s refusal to take ISIS seriously (3) Hatred and intolerance for the LGBT community. The reductionistic arguments repeated over and over by commentators, and others like them, became combatant and a bit odd when CNN’s Anderson Cooper went on the offensive against Florida’s Attorney General because she didn’t Tweet enough about Gay Pride.

Then after the unjustified killing of several black men by the police in Minneapolis, MN and in Banton Rouge, LA and the killing of five police officers in Dallas during a peaceful protest, the blame game started. “It’s simple,” we were told, The problem is the Black Lives Matter movement, Donald Trump, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Church, and so forth and so on. 

 

I’m thinking these simplistic solutions to complex problems aren’t helpful. And they are really unhelpful when they take on religious overtones. But I have my own simple solution. It’s the human heart. Our hearts are hard. All of our hearts; not just the hearts of people like the guy shooting up the gay bar in Orlando or the people shooting up the café’s and dance hall in Paris. And not just the hearts of right wing conservatives who naively seem to think that our only real problems are economic and big government and we should become isolationists to protect ourselves, or left wing liberals who can’t seem to tolerate anyone who disagrees with them and believe the best rules are no rules except the rules they want. 

 Our hearts are hard. And people do what they do for reasons we are unaware of. In fact, based on my experience, people do what they do for reasons they themselves often don’t fully understand! Why? Because their hearts are hard and its complex. Who can know the human heart?! It’s not really that simple.  

As a follower of Jesus I’ve been struck by how the early church addressed issues like this. Christianity was birthed, and thrived, in the midst of a cultural cauldron that didn’t include CNN, smart phones, multiple political parties, and democracy. The King or Emporer could have a commoner killed for doing virtually nothing wrong. Work was hard. Oppression of the lower class was rampant. War and terrorism were common occurances. Violence was the norm. In Greaco Roman culture, sexual promiscuity was common which included abortion, adultery and long term gay relationships. And yet over time, over decades actually, the church thrived and grew and became powerful in the midst of it all. How? 

Here’s a couple of ways I believe that happened: (1) People in the churches loved each other. Christians were known for their love. (2) They did the politically incorrect thing in a gracious compelling way. They served and supported those society rejected. (3) They policed themselves. That is, not everyone who claimed to be Christians were allowed to call themselves Christians. This separated the wheat from the chaff and allowed the true church to emerge. (4) They valued marriage, family, and sexual purity. It set them apart from the culture as a whole. (5) They sacrificed themselves on behalf of their neighbors and others. They’d adopt little girls exposed to the elements after birth by the Romans who didn’t want baby girls. They stayed in cities during the plagues and cared for the sick at their own risk, when everyone else fled. (6) They valued everyone—especially women and children, who had little worth in the minds of many in that day. (7) They rejected the violent entertainment of the day and didn’t support it. 

In short, they didn’t run away. And best I can tell, they didn’t blame. They didn’t stop living out their faith every day. They continued to worship. They fought for the true faith and celebrated everything Christian because Jesus, the God man, gave everything for them. As Keller puts it somewhere, Christianity fights the individualistic, autonomous consumerism of modern culture because Jesus gave himself for his enemies. Shouldn’t we do the same? The gospel fights the simple reductionistic solutions to difficult problems and provides us with the tools to live humbly, simply, and generously in cities and communities that are often troubled. Life is messy. Lets get in the mess and realize the solutions aren’t simple but they point us to the ultimate solution—a relationship with Jesus Christ that addresses the hardness of the human heart by repentance from sin and faith in his work on our behalf. There is no other world religion like that!

Decency and the 2016 Presidential Campaign

I have a confession to make: I have been blogging elsewhere. I've got a bunch of posts at my church's web site but I've failed to put them up here. I'll start adding them later. But for now I wanted to add this blog post from Max Lucado that I found very helpful. It's on the presidential campaign that's being waged and on Mr. Trumps behavior in particular. I'm not going to apologize for being a Christian. This blog is designed intentionally to be sensitive to those who don't have the same faith as I do. And for that reason, I rarely put up posts that are political. I just don't think its always helpful. But truthfully, I'm so disgusted with some of the political antics going on, I'm putting this one up. Lucado, who by all accounts is a gracious man, takes Trump to task; and well he should. Read the post. If you disagree with me, fine. But at least consider it. 

Decency for President by Max Lucad

As the father of three daughters, I reserved the right to interview their dates. Seemed only fair to me. After all, my wife and I’d spent 16 or 17 years feeding them, dressing them, funding braces, and driving them to volleyball tournaments and piano recitals. A five-minute face-to-face with the guy was a fair expectation. I was entrusting the love of my life to him. For the next few hours, she would be dependent upon his ability to drive a car, avoid the bad crowds, and stay sober. I wanted to know if he could do it. I wanted to know if he was decent.

This was my word: “decent.” Did he behave in a decent manner? Would he treat my daughter with kindness and respect? Could he be trusted to bring her home on time? In his language, actions, and decisions, would he be a decent guy?

Decency mattered to me as a dad.

Decency matters to you. We take note of the person who pays their debts. We appreciate the physician who takes time to listen. When the husband honors his wedding vows, when the teacher makes time for the struggling student, when the employee refuses to gossip about her co-worker, when the losing team congratulates the winning team, we can characterize their behavior with the word decent.

We appreciate decency. We applaud decency. We teach decency. We seek to develop decency. Decency matters, right?

Then why isn’t decency doing better in the presidential race?

The leading candidate to be the next leader of the free world would not pass my decency interview. I’d send him away. I’d tell my daughter to stay home. I wouldn’t entrust her to his care.
I don’t know Mr. Trump. But I’ve been chagrined at his antics. He ridiculed a war hero. He made mockery of a reporter’s menstrual cycle. He made fun of a disabled reporter. He referred to the former first lady, Barbara Bush as “mommy,” and belittled Jeb Bush for bringing her on the campaign trail. He routinely calls people “stupid,” “loser,” and “dummy.” These were not off-line, backstage, overheard, not-to-be-repeated comments. They were publicly and intentionally tweeted, recorded, and presented.

Such insensitivities wouldn’t even be acceptable even for a middle school student body election. But for the Oval Office? And to do so while brandishing a Bible and boasting of his Christian faith? I’m bewildered, both by his behavior and the public’s support of it.

The stock explanation for his success is this: he has tapped into the anger of the American people. As one man said, “We are voting with our middle finger.” Sounds more like a comment for a gang-fight than a presidential election. Anger-fueled reactions have caused trouble ever since Cain was angry at Abel.

We can only hope, and pray, for a return to decency. Perhaps Mr. Trump will better manage his antics. (Worthy of a prayer, for sure.) Or, perhaps the American public will remember the key role of the president is to be the face of America. When he/she speaks, he/she speaks for us. Whether we agree or disagree with the policies of the president, do we not hope that they behave in a way that is consistent with the status of the office?

As far as I remember, I never turned away one of my daughter’s dates. They weren’t perfect, but they were decent fellows. That was all I could ask.

It seems that we should ask the same.

© Max Lucado
February 21, 2016

Newtown—The Anatomy of Response

Mike Hucabee may have been smarter to say nothing after the masacres at Newtown, CT a few weeks ago. The former Governor of Arkansas was asked, “Where’s God? in all this.” His response: “…for fifty years we’ve systematically attempted to have God removed from our schools and public activities but the moment we have a calamity we wonder where he was.” Apparently some of the responses to his comments were less than kind, particularly by those from the left.

In response to the responses Huckabee said something to the effect that we’ve escorted God out of our culture and marched him off the public square, then we express our surprise that a culture without him, actually reflects what its become. Honest truth, in his response to the responses he actually made a pretty good case for some of the social ills of our society. There are certainly natural consequences for turning our backs on God. St. Paul says essentially the same thing in Romans 1. But the timing of his comments, and the way they were made, were probably unhelpful. James Dobson did essentially the same thing not long after, but his were even more severe. There’s a great post called The Callous Theology of James Dobson by Peter Wehner that does an excellent job of exposing some of the problems with what some Conservative Christians do when they attempt to find some deep theological explanation for the evil we witness in places like Newtown. Maybe I’ll include it in another post subsequent to this one. But this is very real to me because the church I’m currently pastoring as in interim is twenty minutes from Newtown, CT. Some of our congregants knew one of the victims—a little boy. It breaks my heart.

Here’s a thought: Maybe Huckabee and Dobson should just not say anything when things like the tragedy in Newtown happen. I think that probably would be a good idea. Scripture says, “Weep with those who weep…” (Rom 12:15). In other words, there is a time to weep and when its time to do that, you do that. Throwing peoples problems or pain back in their face in the middle of their grief, even if the problem is their own (which in the case of Newtown, you can’t say that it is) doesn’t usually help. Its like smacking your head on a short doorway because you didn’t duck—something I’ve done far too often in my life in spite of my limited stature. It’s my fault for not ducking, but in the middle of my pain I don’t need someone saying to me, “You idiot! Why didn’t you duck?!” I need, “Wow, that hurts. Sorry.”

Furthermore, the Mike Huckabee’s and the James Dobson’s of the world are in danger of being just like Job’s three friends. Job experiences great tragedy and his three friends, if you want to call them that, jump to the conclusion that he’s not right with God. In fact, the opposite was true and in the end, they were rebuked by God himself for their poor theology. Read the story! Job never found out why he suffered. Then again in Luke 13 a tower falls and kills eighteen people. Some people ask Jesus about it. He says, “Do you think these guys are worse sinners because of this? I say, no. But unless you repent, you too will perish.” In other words, there is an evil in our world that will touch every one of us. We can’t get away from it. It’s original sin and the problem of the curse. You can’t blame this entirely on a culture that has turned its back on God. You can’t connect the dots like that.

To blame the Newtown killings, Hurricane Sandy, the 9/11 attacks or any other tragedy on our national sin can’t be validated. This is particularly true since it assumes certain sins are far worse than others: homosexuality and abortion are the sins of choice today for those of us on the religious right (which I guess would include me). We don’t seem to think that the racism and slavery that plagued the south for hundreds of years, and other national attrocities committed over the life of this country seem to matter. Given the reasoning of some today, maybe we should say the attacks on Pearl Harbor were retribution for centuries of racism or something else. Hey, why not? There’s enough evil in our national treasure chest of history to warrant that explanation.

I’m not saying that the trajectory of our country is the way I’d like it. It bugs me that God is not welcomed in the public square. But I’m equally bugged that people on the right and also on the left seem to so effortlessly connect the dots and provide us the definitive reasons why these things happen. I realize that the social commentators of the day feel the need to respond and explain things. I know that they are bugged, perplexed, and saddened so they are trying to make sense of it all. But its curious to me that in this case they seem to blame either the social inadequacies of current gun control legislation (usually those on the left) or the personal moral failure of individuals, or the nation (usually those on the right). And while both make a good point--government exists to protect its citizens so we need legislation that protects us and its citizens must act virtuously in order for society to function well--neither of these responses solves the real issue. Neither of them seem to adequately consider original sin or the darkness of the human heart. My point is that the problems not going to be resolved simply by legislating or moralizing!

Christmas is about Gods solution: God comes in the person of Jesus Christ, innocent and small as an act of divine love only to grow up still innocent, and yet be nailed to a cross as an act of divine justice. The empty tomb is the proof that love and justice have met and been reconciled. The incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the demonstration that God is infintely loving and infinitely just.

The Newtown massacre is heartbreaking. But as a member of the Christian community, I wish those from the right would stop feeling the need to explain things by blaming these kinds of tragedies on our national sin. I really don’t see how that can be proven and I don’t see that its even biblical. It just makes people mad and solidifies the caricature that Christians are moral snobs out of touch with reality.

The Topography of Terror

That was the title of the museum: The Topography of Terror. It was set up in the middle of a large urban lot filled with drab gray stones. (That’s expensive real estate) And in the middle of the drab gray stones was a drab steel building—very plain and modern and functional—but drab. A path wandered around the stones highlighting various historic sites but the drabness, the grayness of it all grabbed my attention. The historical setting of the building was also attention grabbing. It was the former location of the headquarters of the Nazi SS, and the Gestapo—the long arm of the Nazi party during the twelve years of Hitlers rule over Germany in Berlin. The museum was set back from a display located in the Gestapo’s exposed basement, highlighting the rise and fall of the Third Reich, the eventual rises of communism, and the creation and demise of the Berlin wall. The wall, which ironically bordered the property, was a prominent part of the display.

This museum, and the display it highlighted, took up nearly an entire city block. The irony of the location, the choice of stone, and the color were not lost on me. The German people were saying, “The bareness of this property, the ugliness of it, represents the bareness, the ugliness of this part of our history. It is barren, ugly, dark—but its part of us and we will let the world see what these kinds of choices lead to.” An ominous quote from Heinrich Himmler garnished the windows outside the building though, for the life of me, I for some reason didn’t write it down. The scene was quiet and surreal. Nearby was the site of Hitlers bunker—the place where he stayed and eventually committed suicide near the end of the war. It’s a parking lot now.

The logical and practical implications of the social Darwinism that led to the Nazi worldview are still practiced and at work in our world today. That people don’t seem to see that puzzles me. Inside the museum one can listen to speeches by Nazi leaders, like Himmler, espousing the reasons for their choices. As the war ended, and the Nazi leadership fled for their lives, many like Himmler, chose to commit suicide rather than explain, and then be held accountable for, the atrocities that they’d fostered on those they didn’t like. The hardest part in all of this is to recognize the Topography of Terror that resides inside each of us. Its not popular to say or think, and may even be offensive to some readers, but the topography of terror is resident inside the human heart. The heart—we can’t live without it and yet in it there is the potential for great evil. Sobering!!

Bin Laden's Bye Bye

Osama Bin Laden met his demise this week at the hands of the Navy Seal elite Team 6. It set up a wave of celebration around the globe—mostly in the United States where Bin Laden had ruled as a King of Terror for years. He was 53 years old, born in 1957. From an age perspective, Bin Laden and I are peers. Other than that, the circumstances in our lives couldn’t have been more different.

I’ll admit that I experienced a smug sense of satisfaction late Sunday night when I got on line and read that Bin Laden was dead. It was even entertaining to read how it was done: the helicopters with the Seals rapelling into the compound and engaging in a fire fight. It could have been taken from a Tom Clancey novel. But something else has come to my mind in the wake of it all. I remember Bin Laden gloating over the destruction of the Twin Towers and the damage to the Pentegon. He was giddy with joy over the casualties. I also recall footage of Muslim children waving flags and shouting in glee over the events. Their version of Islam had given the big bad Americans a bloody nose and used the very freedoms we treasure to do it! They were tickled pink. I was insensed.

But now we are giddy with joy. We are shouting in glee. We are dancing on Bin Laden’s grave. And while I agree with the writer of the Proverbs, “…when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy” (Prov 11:10), I have found myself feeling a little unsettled over it all. We should be glad over the destruction of an evil man and so I am happy. In my opinion, Bin Laden was Hitler with a turbin. But this happiness, and the smug sense of inner satisfaction it has created in me, has given me pause. Its our turn to celebrate—its true. But for me personally, the celebration is also turning me appropriately inward. I need to check my own heart. Are there injustices that I unwittingly support without even knowing it that would make someone glad at my demise? Are there things that I do, that would cause others to say to me, “Don’t go away mad, just go away!” Am I blind to things in my life that are hurtful to others that in my own self-righteousness, I refuse to be aware of?

I’ve never been in a fire fight on a battle field or seen my friends heads blown off by an enemy bent on our destruction. But I have watched my neighbors grieve the senseless loss of their son on 9/11! And I watched in horror as those buildings came down and was repulsed by the joyful response to it from many Muslims around the world. I’ll never forget the smell that wafted through Queens as what was left of the towers burned underground.

I’m proud to be an American. I am grateful for the freedoms we have and promote. I’m glad that the guy responsible for the intrusive actions from TSA officials, that I face regularly at airports around the country, has met his end. But I’m also aware of how dark my own soul is. In my understanding of Christianity, the gospel gives me the tools to do the self reflection necessary to be honest with my own issues. So while I’m thrilled at Bin Laden’s just and untimely death, I’m also sobered by it all.

Jury Duty

I had jury duty several months ago. I was chosen to be on telephone standby. Stories are legion of people summoned to jury duty, then simply made phone calls for a week without ever having to show up. That being the case, I set my week up with a full load of appointments—all of which had to be canceled on just the second day I called in. Being (un)justly irritated I showed up for my normal turn at being part of the US judicial system and was summarily convicted of being a whiner. Why, with all the injustice in a place like Iran where pretty much everyone in the world is watching the religious establishment attempt to pull off a fast one on the populace who are tired of having fast ones pulled off on them, should I whine about being part of a system of government where there is at least an attempt at justice.

That old Christmas film “The Grinch” starring Jim Carey comes to mind when in an attempt to curse the towns folks, the Grinch goes into their post office and sends all the towns folks black mail letters and jury summons, “Jury duty, jury duty, black mail, black mail,” chants the Grinch. It’s humorous. But on this occasion, as I pondered the case I was potentially being seated for, I realized that I had been terribly wrong to whine.

It was a criminal case, a robbery, with only one witness! There was alcohol involved. One of the defendants looked like a criminal. The other looked like a high school kid. Neither of them could speak English. It was clear that some injustice had occurred—or was about to occur. Any way you cut it, the twelve people seated on that jury would decide the future of these two young men. Maybe they were guilty! Who knows? I was never seated. But I realized in those few days as I sat waiting for my turn to participate in, not simply observe, the justice system at work, that in that our attempts at justice, as imperfect as it is in the US, is a gift. I want to be part of it.

There are plenty of ways and no lack of opportunity in this country to be involved in justice. The question is whether or not I’ll actually take the next step and attempt to get involved. Maybe all it will take to get started is a phone call. Maybe, in one sense, I’m still on telephone standby. I love that old prophet who noted, “Let justice roll down like water…” What kinds of justice should I participate in and how: economic justice, racial justice, or legal justice? How about the injustice of the sex trade in Cambodia or the injustice of bias in reporting the news (from both left and right)? Are any of us really just? Is there any justice at all? I think so. But maybe I’m biased!

God is just-- though at times it does not seem so. But then, what one person thinks is just, another experiences as injustice. Its puzzling. Perhaps I can say one thing that cuts to the heart of this post: Jury duty is a privilege. Yes, it cuts into our routines, but as an American who believes in a just God, jury duty is a privilege, and an easy one at that, to participate in. Perhaps guys like me need to whine less and participate more.

Stop (or at least temper) the Outrage

The letter was colorful, well done, and poignant. “Stop the Madness” it read boldly on the front. A picture of one of our elected officials—the one whose policies they wanted to stop—was artfully drawn on the outside of the envelope. I must admit, while I’ll not expose the source of the letter or its content, it got my attention. But there’s one thing more I’d like to stop, and that is the obnoxious tendency of pundits, government officials, left and right wing politicians, radio talk show hosts, the religious and non religions right, the non-religious and religious left, and general American Citizenry all over from using bombastic terminology to describe everything they don’t like other people doing or believing or saying or supporting. It’s nauseating.

We have dumbed down the term and made it meaningless. I’ve considered collecting a list of those things people are outraged at. It’s taken what’s truly outrageous and made it what? Outrageous? I don’t know anymore. But in our attempt to promote our opinions on everything from high cholesterol in MacDonald’s food to Abortion, we’ve labeled anything, or anybody, we don’t like as outrageous or insane or catastrophic or whatever.

Get over it. There are some things that are truly outrageous. Really!! I mean that. But when we use the term to describe anything we don’t like someone else doing or believing then we’ve lost the meaning of the word and with it, the emotional energy and personal will to actually do something about it.