“We Are All One of Us”
I heard someone say the other day that a certain politician only thought in terms of blaming “them”. I do not think that this politician is alone. Indeed, he has tapped into a deep vein of human stupidity.
Thinking in terms of us and them categories is as ancient as the human race. In fact, it may not even be peculiar to homo sapiens. Wolves are not kind to other wolves who are not in their pack.
However, the fact that something is ancient or widespread doesn’t make it either inevitable or right. Perhaps we should all think about how to move beyond our us versus them thinking. But how could we do that? I don’t know, but I have some suspicions. And where knowledge is lacking, suspicion must do.
Maybe the first thing I can do is to ask a simple question: What am I getting out of my us-and-them categories. This simple question has at least two simple answers, neither of which I like.
One of the things that I get out of us versus them thinking is an easy sense of belonging. What I mean by this is that, if there is an outside group, there is also an inside group. And if we are not part of the outsiders, we must be insiders. We belong!
There is nothing wrong with wanting to belong. We are each unique beings, but we long to be part of something bigger than ourselves. It is the word “easy” in the phrase “an easy sense of belonging” that is the problem. Anything that is too easy is almost certainly not a healthy thing. Like the second piece of apple pie, easy belonging is only easy in the short term.
Something else that us-them thinking does for me is that it gives me someone besides myself to blame. Having someone else to blame is great fun because it exempts me from the profoundly uncomfortable process of acknowledging my own problems and doing something about them. If the problem is “out there”, I can complain about my chosen “them” rather than change myself. In other words, us and them is a form of laziness—or, at least, it is an excuse for laziness.
After I’ve done the difficult task of wrestling with the question of what I get out of my us-and-them-ism, I can get down to the really serious question. Which is what? I suppose that this question has many forms, but I would phrase it this way: Is there really any such thing as us and them?
The answer is, at one and the same time, an emphatic “Yes!” and an equally emphatic “No!”
Yes, we are all unique individuals, and we are part of unique configurations. Whether that configuration is a family, a race, a religion, a socio-economic class, or something else, us-and-them categories are real. To deny this flies in the face of the facts.
Yet the answer is also “No!” Here is the truth: We are all born. We all some basic needs: air to breathe, water, food, shelter, companionship, a sense of purpose and significance. We all eventually die. To say that we have nothing in common is to reveal that we are not simply blind, but also fools.
So, whenever we are tempted to fall into the us-versus-them trap, we had better get back to the basics: breathing, eating, and such. After all, we are all one of us.
“When Somebody Else’s Golf Cart Ends up in the Ditch”
Somebody’s golf cart ended up in the ditch a while back. Several people commented on Facebook that, “he shouldn’t have had that much to drink.” Turns out that the guy had a seizure. Respect means, among other things, putting the best possible construction on other people’s words and actions.
I am not naïve. I have lived long enough to realize that some people really do stupid and/or harmful things. People also have bad (or at least, mixed) motives. That’s all true. But I have also lived long enough to learn that my evaluations of other people are frequently wildly wrong.
Even if we are right about a person’s motivation, we are not right to think the worst of them. Such thinking, even when it is technically correct, is wrong. Why? Two reasons: It makes them less likely to change for the better at the same time that it makes us less kind and compassionate. The last time I checked, kindness and compassion were important character traits.
Jim, our preacher this past Sunday, said “It is more important to be kind than to be right.”
And then, there is this. Eventually, we all end up with our golf cart (or our hearts) in the ditch. And none of us want other people to think the worst of us, even if they’re right.
“No ‘Oh-You-Agains’ in God”
Have you ever gone to someone for help and had them give you an “Oh, you again?!”? Eye rolls are optional, but often present. This person has helped you before, but figures you ought to know what to do for yourself by now.
And maybe we should know by now, but we don’t. Or perhaps we simply can’t do certain things on our own, even if we know how. We need help.
Some of us grew up with parents who were oh-you-again-ers. We began to feel stupid and incompetent almost before we could walk. It is difficult living with folks who are reluctant to help. Eventually, we quit asking.
Worse yet, we are in danger of becoming our parents. Perhaps we become good at something and forget all the not-so-good steps along the way. Novices come to us for help, but we have become eye-rolling oh-you-again-ers.
And worst of all, we begin to think that God is part of the oh-you-again-er tribe. We mess up and refuse to come to God with our mess-ups because we are afraid. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we hide from God. Yet only God can forgive us and restore us.
Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32, English Standard Version). James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). I suspect that, if James were asked if God would reproach us for asking for other good things, James would look at us incredulously and exclaim, “What!” In fact, James, later in the same letter, tells his readers that they don’t have what they really need, simply because they don’t ask or because they ask with wrong motives (James 4:1-10). If we ask for the wrong things or ask with evil motives, God is under no obligation to give those things to us, In fact, it would be cruel of God to give us those things when we are asking in that way.
But the bottom line is this: God is pleased when we ask for God’s help. God knows that we are weak, foolish, erratic people who need a boatload of help. I was reading some wisdom from an American Indian website (White Bison) this morning and was helped by the following statement:
“if we practice this for awhile, our thought life will be different. It helps if in the morning we ask God to direct our thinking. God loves to help us.
Great Spirit, today, direct my thinking so my choices are chosen by You.”
We have a God who loves to help us. There are no oh-you-agains in God. Now that is good news indeed!
“The Word of the Year: Respect”
As many of you know, I have for several years been taking a word or short phrase as my mantra for the year. This year’s word is “respect”.
Actually, I checked to see how many times in the past I had written about respect in one way or another on this website. My search turned up 36 times that I had used the word “respect” as one of my tags. Apparently, respect is important to me. I suspect that I am not alone in this respect.
Respect has a lot of different aspects. Here is a short list:
- Respect for God.
- Respect for other people.
- Respect for myself.
- Respect for time—my own time and that of others.
- Respect for all sentient beings.
- Respect for immaterial things, including the planet.
We sometimes speak of “simple respect”. Perhaps respect is fairly simple to understand. Consistently speaking and acting in a respectful manner is not so simple, however. But, as with many things, respect is a muscle. It can atrophy, but it can also be toned up with use. I plan to work on this muscle in the year 2023.
So, expect some more posts (not all, thankfully) about respect in the year 2023. The post for tomorrow will deal with one of the words that the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament uses for honor or respect. For now, I leave you with the following quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
“I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man’s self-respect is a sin.”
“Too Early to Summarize My Life”
“In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:3b-5, English Standard Version)
I am older than I’ve ever been up to this point. Most of my life is behind me. That isn’t pessimism. That is a stone-cold sober fact. Sometimes I try to summarize my life. I have been given so many good things. But what have I done with these wonderful things? Not much, I’m afraid. When I try to sum up my life, the sum doesn’t seem to add up to much.
However, I wonder if there aren’t a couple of things wrong with my summarization of me. First, if there really is a final judgment for all of us, as I believe there is, my timing is off. The time will come when I will be judged. Even if I were to die tomorrow, today isn’t the day for my summarizing of myself.
Second—and even more importantly—I am not the person to summarize my life. That is way above my pay grade. The great Apostle Paul said that he didn’t judge anyone, not even himself. He said that it wasn’t time to judge, and that he wasn’t the one to judge. God was.
And then he said one of the most astonishing things that self-critical people like me could ever hear. Paul says that when we are judged by God, we will receive . . . condemnation? No. Punishment? No.
Instead, Paul says that we will receive . . . praise! This Greek word can also be translated with our word “commendation”, as the English Standard Version does translate the word.
Sometimes, we think of Heaven as a place or state of being where we praise God. And so I believe it is. But Heaven is also a place where God praises us. That is astonishingly good news.
I’ve known people who seemed to find the good in everyone and everything. Perhaps God is like that too, only on steroids.
“Walking Humbly with a Humble God”
“Praise the LORD!
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
praise the name of the LORD!
Psa. 113:2 ¶ Blessed be the name of the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore!
Psa. 113:3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the LORD is to be praised!
Psa. 113:4 ¶ The LORD is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens!
Psa. 113:5 Who is like the LORD our God,
who is seated on high,
Psa. 113:6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
Psa. 113:7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
Psa. 113:8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
Psa. 113:9 He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 113, English Standard Version)
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8, English Standard Version)
It isn’t easy being humble and walking humbly with God. Perhaps it would be a bit easier if we recognized the humility of God himself. The God who requires us to walk humbly with Him is the God who humbles himself to walk with us. In the ancient Near East, the gods did not generally walk with human beings. Humans sometimes encountered these gods. Sometimes the gods spoke to humans. But these encounters and messages were not usually good news for the human who experienced them. The best thing to do with the gods of the ancient world was to sacrifice to them and not tick them off. The gods of the ancient Near East were definitely not known for their humility.
We sometimes fail to realize how radical the God of Israel was and is. This God is loving. This God is forgiving. This is a God who does not require humankind to serve and feed him. This is a God who provides food and serves humans. This is a God who humbles himself to look at what is in heaven and on earth.
In Psalm 113:4-5, we are told how highly exalted God is. Then, in verse 6, we are told that God humbles himself to look on what is in heaven and on earth. But God’s humbling of himself does not stop with merely looking. God lifts the poor, seating them with royalty, and God takes care of those who can’t have babies. God’s humility requires that God get his hands dirty in human affairs.
What a strange and wonderful God!
“Following: An Initial Spasm and a Long Lethargy?”
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, English Standard Version)
Someone has said something to the effect that, for too many of us, faith is an initial spasm followed by a long lethargy.
The verse that leads off this post is the YouVersion verse of the day for December 3, 2022. It is a beautiful verse on its own, but it became even more lustrous when I looked at it in the original Greek. The verb for “following” is in the present tense. As noted many times in my posts, the Greek present tense usually suggests ongoing, repetitive action.
So, following Jesus is a fulltime job. Spasms won’t cut it!
Here is my problem: “Sporadic” is my middle name. Perhaps “spasmatic” might be an even better descriptor. Now I don’t want to be too hard on myself. I’ve prepared for and run a couple of marathons. I have an advance degree in Bible/theology. These things take consistent time and preparation. I am capable of being consistent. Also, like every other virtue, consistency can easily morph into rigidity. Rigidity is not a virtue.
However, when I hear Jesus’ call to continually follow him, I must confess three things. First, I feel honored and exhilarated. Second, I feel dismayed at the prospect of the dailiness of this following. Third, I feel hopeless about pulling this off at all. So, I move from honored and exhilarated to dismayed and hopeless in a hurry.
The thing that sustains me—when I allow it to do so—is the fact that Jesus notices when I fall behind or fall away. Sometimes he waits for me to catch up. More often, Jesus comes to me where I am, and walks beside me. It is important for me to realize that the Jesus I strive to consistently follow is the same One who walks with me.
When I was a little guy growing up on the farm, my mom would walk up the path to the barn. I tried to keep up, but often I had to cry out in a plaintive, little-boy voice, “Momma, wait for me!” I don’t recall her ever chiding me for not keeping up. She would come back to me, shorten her stride, and walk beside me. Maybe Jesus is at least as understanding as my mom.
“Robbing God of the Blessing of Blessing Us”
Our pastor spoke to us a while back on the topic of tithing. He acknowledged how difficult it was to talk about money in a church setting, and I agree: I used to be a pastor myself, and I always dreaded preaching about money. However, it is an important topic, and it is also something the Bible talks about a lot. The passage that our pastor based his comments on were from Malachi 3.
“Mal. 3:6 “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. 12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.
Mal. 3:13 “Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts? 15 And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”
The Book of Remembrance
Mal. 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.” (Malachi 3:6-13, English Standard Version)
Pastor said many helpful things, but one of the most intriguing (at least, to me) was the idea that God doesn’t really need our money, so we can’t really rob him of that. Rather, when we refuse to acknowledge God with our pocketbooks, we rob God of the opportunity to bless us.
Whoa! Never thought of it that way before. I suspect that the number one way in which we experience God’s blessing is to serve God with our time, our treasure, and our talents. And the number one way in which God experiences delight in us is to bless us. Blessing means giving us what we need to be deeply happy and fulfilled in our lives. Good parents always get a kick out of giving to their children. So does the best Parent of all.
Of course, we also ought to remember that the word “tithe” simply means “a tenth.” When we tithe, it means that we are giving God back a tenth of what he has given us. As many have pointed out, this means that we get to keep nine-tenths of what God has given us. That sounds pretty reasonable to me. How about you?
DTEB, “Things I Wish I Hadn’t Said”
“And so’s your mother!” I said rather loudly as I walked to my car after shopping at Kroger. I had intentionally parked my car far from the store in order to make myself walk a little bit. This part of the lot had almost no vehicles in it. But “almost no” means that there were some vehicles parked there. I didn’t realize that there was a large gentleman sitting in his pickup truck very close to me when I said what I said. Naturally, he had the window down. I figured that I had better explain. What did I know? He might be packing heat.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was talking to that crow that just flew over and cawed at me.” And then I added, “I probably shouldn’t have said that. I don’t even know that crow!”
Even when we think no one’s listening, we should be careful what we say, and even being unkind to God’s avian critters is not a good idea. I remember a story about a dad whose little guy (about four or five, I think) came out with the “f” bomb.
“Where did you learn that word?!” the dad demanded.
“From you, daddy,” said the little guy. His dad didn’t normally use bad language, but when he was working on his car, the adjustable wrench had slipped, and the dad’s tongue had slipped as well. He didn’t realize that his son was listening, but he was.
The worst part is that I had recommitted—just this morning—to memorizing Proverbs 10:19. Here is the Hebrew and my rather wooden translation.
בְּרֹ֣ב דְּ֭בָרִים לֹ֣א יֶחְדַּל־פָּ֑שַׁע וְחֹשֵׂ֖ךְ שְׂפָתָ֣יו מַשְׂכִּֽיל׃
“In the multitude of words, rebellion is not lacking,
And he who restrains his words is skillful.”
There are lots of words that need I need to restrain. I am very fond of words and tend to chatter a lot. I have an addictive personality, which means that I tend to overdo everything, especially things that I love.
So, here is a partial list of some words that I could cut back on a great deal:
- Putting myself down.
- Speaking unkindly to or about others.
- Explaining things that I don’t understand.
- Trying to prove that I am right, and you are wrong.
- Complaining.
- Telling the same stories over and over.
- Saying unkind things to crows.
“You’ve Got What You Need! Get Busy!”
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
(2 Peter 1:3–11 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version)
Sometimes, I don’t think I’ve got what I need, in order to do what I need to do.
Take, for example, writing a blog post. I am much better at being creative early in the day. But the day got away from me today. I wasn’t frittering my time away. Still, my brain shut down before my day did. So, if this post seems a bit thin, please have mercy. I am like Cinderella’s coach: I turn into a pumpkin. And I don’t even wait for the clock to strike midnight. And if you think the post is good, . . . well, God is a God of miracles. And maybe the post is an example of the very thing Peter is saying to his original readers, and to us.
Peter tells the people to whom he is writing—and, indeed, all of us—that God has given us everything we need to do what we really need to do.
And what do they, what do I, need to do? We need life and godliness. Life without godliness is only half a life. And godliness without life is like a body without breath—in other words, a corpse.
There are a couple of interesting things about verse 3 in the original Greek. First, the phrase “all things” leads off the verse after a connecting word. Greek word order is flexible, so the words “all things” may be placed first because Peter wants to emphasize those words.
Second, the verb translated “has granted” is in the perfect tense. So what, you say? So, the perfect tense in Greek usually contains two ideas. The perfect tense usually connotes an action that has been completed in the past. In other words, Peter is telling the believers that they already have been given everything they need for life and godliness.
The other idea that the perfect tense expresses is that this action that has been completed in the past has ongoing consequences. So Peter is telling the believers that they have already been given everything they need for life and godliness, and that this gift has ongoing consequences in their lives.
But apparently, this already-given and on-going gift does not automatically make our lives rich and meaningful. There is something we must do as well.
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In the Greek, to “. . . make every effort . . .” has a number of possible nuances. It can mean “hurry, haste, speed, zeal, pursuit, and exertion. It can even mean “study.”
The grace and gifts of God do not put us on easy street, just on the right road. And, of course, roads (like Nancy Sinatra’s boots) are made for walkin’.
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