Tag Archives: obedience

Not sure what to do

Posted on by
6

I’m trying to figure out what to do about Haiti.

I know. It sounds dumb. Like it’s up to me to figure out massive physical damage, horrible family destruction, ruined infrastructure. Other people are doing lots of things, from texting donations to holding prayer services. The denomination I’m connected to is looking long-term, planning to help people in Haiti help other Haitians.

At this point, I’m still trying to figure out what to do.

Part of the problem is that I don’t want to do the wrong thing. I don’t want to give in a way that is wasted. I don’t want to look at the long-term and not help people have the water that they need to get from now to then.

Part of the problem is that I know that the problems now are about logistics and political structures and how many planes can land on the runway. I can’t do anything about those issues. The decisions that resulted in this airport were made long ago.

And part of the problem, for me, is that as soon as I open my mouth, and heart, to think about the spiritual side of the situation, I will walk into complicated conversations.

  • Is this God’s judgment for some deal with the devil?
  • How can God allow disasters like this that kill people? I mean, in wars you can blame “man’s inhumanity to man.” But this? This is God, isn’t it?
  • Why do things like this happen to poor countries and to poor people in those countries?

I’m pretty sure I need to figure out how to do something. In Proverbs 17:5 we read:

He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

I need to help. I dare not say, “see what happens?”

—

My friend Cheryl Smith writes about one organization that was helping ahead of time. Read Positioning World Help for Haiti.

I talked about the idea of doing something in Something, a post about Matthew 25.

especially not after them

Posted on by
Reply

Is it better to say “no” and then do what you are asked or is it better to say “yes” and then not get around to it?

That’s the heart of a “two brothers” story that Jesus tells. Their dad asks them to work in the vineyard. One argues, one agrees. One goes, one doesn’t.

I love this parable. I always have. I love how Jesus understands that people often think change their minds after they have time to think. I love how Jesus understands that people often say “yes” for all the wrong reasons.

There many place to go with this parable, but we  may miss where Jesus went.

The first brother represents tax collectors and prostitutes. More accurately, the tax collectors and prostitutes that have been talking to Jesus and that Jesus has been talking with for the past three years. The second brother represents religious leaders, those who have been arguing with Jesus for the past three years, those who are facing him at this moment.

Often, Jesus says, people will hear what God says and will reject it, will pursue their own way of living. Eventually, however,  many will change their minds and hearts. Often, Jesus says, other people will hear what God says and will accept it, but will then pursue their own way of living. This group will not have as much fun and as much pain, nor will they know the delight of finally obeying.

That part’s pretty obvious. Here’s the hard part.

“Even after you saw tax collectors and prostitutes be forgiven, you didn’t repent,” Jesus says. The religious people were too religious to admit they were as wrong as the irreligious people. Passive disobedience is as bad as active disobedience. “Good Christians” who don’t follow Jesus are worse than forgiven cheaters.

sometimes there is more than we know.

Posted on by
Reply

Jesus and his followers are headed to Jerusalem. They stop, just outside of a nearby town. Jesus calls two of them over and gives them specific instructions to bring him two donkeys, telling them where to look and what to do if anyone asked questions.

As the guys are leaving, Matthew tells us that this trip to get a donkey was part of a prophecy given to Zechariah, talking about a king and a donkey.

They get back, everything is cool. Jesus and the disciples head for Jerusalem, Jesus riding on the smaller one, the colt.

When we read this, we know the whole story. The two disciples didn’t. They didn’t know about this donkey-snatching until just before Jesus sent them. They had to trust that Jesus knew what he was talking about. Until Matthew wrote his account, they probably didn’t know about the greater prophecy that they were part of.

As they walked to Bethphage, they may have wondered how Jesus knew, why they were going, how the person who owned the donkeys would react, who was going to take them back, whether they would have to leave any money as security, what was going to come next. They may have wondered what everyone wonders when sent on an errand without knowing all the implications.

Most days, I wonder those same things. I wonder why this crisis happened, why I’m being sent to that conversation, why this issue came up now.

I guess wondering is okay. But going is more important. What these two followers discovered, after everything was done, was that they had been part of fulfilling a prophecy made centuries earlier. Just by getting a couple donkeys. Just by doing what Jesus told them to do.

I think it still happens. At least for followers who obey.

helping each other grow.

Posted on by
2

Your brother Dave is a good guy. He really is. So when you see him look twice at the waitress at lunch, you don’t think much about it. Your sister Helen is a wonderful cook. So when she stands in the kitchen after dinner talking with some friends about the neighbor’s peculiar habits, you don’t think much about it. Old uncle Ed has been part of family events since, well  since before you were born. When he starts telling his jokes about those people, you all squirm, but that’s just uncle Ed.

We all know Dave and Helen and Ed. We often are Dave and Helen and Ed. We care about them deeply. We want them to be wonderful growing people. We don’t want to do anything to hurt them.

So we harm them.

All the time.

Every time we let Dave think that admiring that waitress is acceptable, we are harming him. Every time we let Helen rip apart the neighbors, we are harming her. Every time we let uncle Ed slander a race or a nationality or a culture, we are harming him.

How?

Because we are telling each of them that Jesus doesn’t really matter.

Jesus spoke specifically about lust and gossip and hate. And he spoke very specifically about talking to family members about those things. Not to everyone, mind you, but to family members.

For the next few days we will look at what Jesus says in Matthew 18:15-20 about sin and relationship and conversation and restoration. It’s a hard topic. It hurts to talk to other people about sin, theirs and ours.

However, our calling as followers is to follow better, closer, more completely, more freely. Helping each other in this calling is pretty important. It’s worth thinking through.

And so we will. Starting tomorrow.

Clueless disciples

Posted on by
Reply

Jesus loved to tell stories. Jesus loved to be subtle. Jesus loved to find out if hearts were paying attention.

Sometimes it didn’t exactly work.

—-

Jesus and the disciples were heading to the other side. They kept crossing the lake, moving from crowd to crowd, need to need, person to person. This time, in the process of packing for the trip, no one remembered to grab the bread.

And Jesus says, “”Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

They decided he was talking about forgetting the bread.

I’m not sure why they thought that answer made sense. Maybe there was a brand of special bread: Holysum. It was endorsed by leaders of both spiritual/political parties. In order to follow Jesus, you should boycott this bread.

Jesus stopped them.

“If you are short of bread, you should know by now that I can feed thirteen as easily as 5,000 (20,000 counting families).”

What Jesus wanted them to understand was that who you follow matters more than food. Jesus can provide food, easily, miraculously. But when people drift away from following him to following others, even to following religion, it’s much harder to fix that problem.

What you listen to, what you think about, what you take in, works its way all the way through your life. If you allow the teaching of the religious to work its way through your heart, you will end up creating false tests for Jesus. You will end up being more religious than God.

They finally understood, the disciples did. At least they understood that Jesus was talking about teaching rather than bread. And they offer a lesson.

Don’t be more concerned with supper than with what you watch while you eat: one is bad for the body, the other for the soul.