And Justice for SOME

We humans are a funny bunch. We love to talk about fairness and justice and everybody getting what they deserve…just as long as we get to decide just what that means.

Jonah is a prime example. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the folks there that if they don’t make some big changes, He’s going to destroy the whole place. Jonah’s response is to hop on a ship going as far in the other direction as possible. Why? Because he’s afraid to give them the bad news? Nope, because he knows that if the Ninevites actually do repent and change things around, God won’t punish them.

Huh. Why do you think Jonah was so anti-Ninevite?

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about it. Did a bully from Nineveh beat Jonah up and take away his lunch money every day? Did he get his heart broken by a Ninevite girl? Whatever it was, Jonah wanted them to get the punishment he thought they deserved – whether or not they repented.

Part of it may have been just plain, old-fashioned bigotry – those folks from Nineveh weren’t like the people around whom Jonah grew up. He didn’t know anything about them except what he’d heard…and what he’d heard was all bad.

Does that kind of prejudice effect the way we decide who gets the chance to hear about salvation and who doesn’t today? Do we have prejudices grown out of ignorance or past experiences that keep us from exposing certain groups of people to God’s mercy?

Harvard has put out the “Implicit Association Test,” or IAT (https://implicit.harvard.edu). It’s a test that attempts to answer certain questions about prejudice. The makers of this test aren’t looking to see if a person is or is not prejudice. They assume that everyone favors one group of people over another, and that is what they are measuring. Taking the IAT and receiving my results was very interesting – not at all what I expected.

According to Clayton McCleskey’s article in The Wall Street Journal, our biases can be based solely on a person’s accent.

“Most of us like to assume that we're enlightened, tolerant, and unprejudiced people. Unfortunately, a new study reveals many of us have a hidden bias against anyone with a foreign accent. … ‘The further from native-sounding an accent is, the harder we have to work, and the less trustworthy we perceive the information to be.’ It gets worse: ‘Researchers found that the heavier the accent, the more skeptical participants became.’ In other words, if it sounds like you're not from around here, my suspicion radar is on high alert. My bias about you isn't based on your character; it's based on the fact that you talk ‘different.’
“The researchers want to reassure us that we're not really racist or prejudiced (thank goodness). Apparently, we're just lazy. Well, again they don't want to pass judgment: we're not actually lazy; our brains are lazy. In the researcher's words, ‘Our brains prefer the path of least resistance.’
“That seems like a nice way to say that, despite our best intentions, we all have pockets of prejudice and bias. In biblical terms, we show favoritism toward people who resemble us. Perhaps this study shows why we need Jesus' help to uproot our partiality and love people who don't resemble us, especially people from different racial, ethnic or national groups.”[1]

So, to what extent are our prejudices shaping our ministry? Think about it – I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t support a mission trip to some third world country, but what about ministering to inmates in our county jails or state and federal prisons. What about sharing Jesus with the folks who live in homeless shelters, or the ones who aren’t lucky enough to live in a shelter. How many of us have considered ministering to the intellectually and/or physically challenged?

Paul reminds us that every human is the same in Jesus’ eyes.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

“God desires that we should have tender, sanctified regard one for another, and as dear children in his family, we need to have the pure love of Christ. O, shall not the seed that produces roots of bitterness and unseemly fruit be banished from our hearts, that we may cherish the heavenly plant of love? As mature Christians we shall love more and more, not less and less. We need the warmth and glow of Christ in our cold, stony hearts. We want our hearts broken by the love of Christ, and then we shall defend the characters of those who are giving their lives to the service of him who has died for them. We shall not then act the part of accusers, and treat our brethren and their labors as worthless. Let us daily pray that we may be led to a higher plane of thought and living, that we may love in sincerity and Christlike deeds.” (E.G. White, Review and Herald, October 24, 1893)

It’s important to remember that we aren’t the ones who decide who needs/deserves forgiveness. Technically, no one deserves mercy or forgiveness but we all need it! And no matter who we are, or what we’ve done, Jesus died to make sure it’s there if we want it.

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26

Even at the end of the book of Jonah, Jonah is still bitter about having to share God’s mercy with the people of Nineveh. He reminds me of the Prodigal Son’s big brother. 

“Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.  And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
“But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’” Luke 15:25-31

Let’s not be like either Jonah or that older brother. Jesus died so that we could all spend eternity with Him. 

Let’s not miss it!

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[1] Clayton M. McCleskey, "Accentuating Bias," The Wall Street Journal (10-2-10)

Refugee

Thoughts on the Sabbath School Lesson for 6.4.11

What picture comes into your head when you hear the word refugee?  Probably it’s a picture of someone who’s far away from home, hungry, hasn’t had a shower in a while, not a pretty picture.

I heard an old Tom Petty song this week and the words got stuck in my head:

“Somewhere, somehow somebody/Must have kicked you around some/Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped/Tied up, taken away and held for ransom/It don't really matter to me/Everybody's had to fight to be free/You see you don't have to live like a refugee/I said you don't have to live like a refugee”[1]

Just so I know we’re talking about the same thing, here’s how my dictionary defines refugee:

“1.  a person who flees for refuge or safety, especially to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc.  2.   political refugee.”[2]

From what I’ve seen of refugees over the years, it seems like they are often people who are trying to escape some catastrophic thing, but they get stuck somewhere along the way in refugee camps, where they endure really awful conditions.  And sometimes, these people never get to the safe place they were originally heading for because of what happens to them along the way.

While I was trying to get Tom Petty’s song out of my head, it occurred to me that we are religious refugees (as opposed to political).    We have started our journey away from sin and toward Heaven, but we are stuck in this refugee camp.

 

Some folks are eager to tell us that we would have been better off if we hadn’t tried to get away from sin to begin with.  Some folks are sure we’re going to be stuck in this camp and nobody cares whether we make it out or not.

 

You and I know, though, that a huge humanitarian mission has been launched (from the foundations of the world).

“‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
“‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“‘Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.’”  Matthew 17:20-26

Then, while I was looking up the definition of ‘refugee’, I noticed that one of the synonyms listed was ‘prodigal’.  That really made me stop and think.  I’d never really thought about it before but after he had lost his half of his father’s forturne and was living with the pigs, the prodigal son was a refugee.  He was not where he’d started from, living large with lots of friends, and he’s not where he was headed – mostly because he didn’t know where he wanted to go yet.  The prodigal son was definitely stuck in between, with the pigs.

“The prodigal is far from his Father’s house, perishing with hunger. He is to be the object of our compassion. Do you ask: ‘How does God regard those who are perishing in their sins?’ I point you to Calvary. God ‘gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ John 3:16. Think of the Saviour’s matchless love. While we were yet sinners, Christ died to save us from eternal death.”[3]

There is absolutely no excuse for us to still be living like refugees…unless we choose to stay with the pigs. One of our problems is that sometimes we’re afraid to leave our refugee status behind and head for home.  Even the prodigal son held out for a while.  Why?  We’re afraid of being turned away from our destination.  Satan wants to make sure that we see our Heavenly Father as waiting to reject us instead of watching every day for our silhouette on the road home.

“In his book Waiting: Finding Hope Where God Seems Silent (InterVarsity, 1991), Ben Patterson, a man I treasure as a friend, tells a story from his personal life:
“‘In the summer of 1988, three friends and I climbed Mount Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park. Two of us were experienced mountaineers; two of us were not. I was not one of the experienced two. ... As the hours passed, and we trudged up the glacier, the two mountaineers opened up a wide gap between me and my less-experienced companion. Being competitive by nature, I began to look for short cuts I might be able to take to beat them to the top. I thought I saw one to the right of an outcropping of rock--so I went up, deaf to the protests of my companions. ...
“‘Thirty minutes later I was trapped in a cul-de-sac of rock …, looking down several hundred feet of a sheer slope of ice, pitched at a forty-five degree angle. ... I was only ten feet from the safety of a rock. But one little slip and I wouldn't stop sliding until I had landed in the valley floor about fifty miles away! ... I was stuck and I was scared’
“Patterson's words are non-religious ways of describing the predicament that more than a few of us fall into. … They take the right-hand turn around an outcropping of rock, suspecting that at the end there will be nothing but joy and roses. Instead, they find themselves stuck.
“Back to Ben Patterson, who was stuck and scared: ‘It took an hour for my experienced climbing friends to find me. … one of them leaned out and used an ice axe to chip two little footsteps in the glacier. Then he gave me the following instructions: “Ben, you must step out from where you are and put your foot where the first foothold is. ... Without a moment's hesitation swing your other foot across and land it in the next step. [Then] ... reach out and I will take your hand, and I will pull you to safety. ... But listen carefully: As you step across, don't lean into the mountain! If anything, lean out a bit. Otherwise, your feet could fly out from under you, and you will start sliding down.”’
“Patterson says, ‘When I'm on the edge of a cliff, my instinct is to lie down and hug the mountain … not lean away from it! But that was what my good friend was telling me to do as I stood trembling on that glacier. I looked at him real hard. ... For a moment, based solely on what I believed to be true about the good will and good sense of my friend, I decided to say no to what I felt ... to lean out, step out, and traverse the ice to safety. It took less than two seconds to find out if my faith was well founded. It was.’” [4]

Our Friend, Jesus, has told us exactly what we need to do to get unstuck…do we trust Him enough to do it?

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[1] Tom Petty, “Refugee,”  Damm the Torpeadoes

[2] refugee. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved May 26, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/refugee

[3] E.G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Volume 9, page 50

[4] Gordon MacDonald, "Repentance," Preaching Today, Tape No. 121

To Be Or Not To Be

I'm trying to figure out the difference between getting ready and being ready.  I have to admit I've never really thought about it like that before.

Is it possible to spend your whole life getting ready for Jesus to come and still not be ready when the time comes?  That's a really scary thought!  I've spent most of my life "getting ready" for Jesus to come again.  Have I been wasting my time?  Is it a process or a decision?

I think maybe it's both.  (I always like issues where I can sit squarely on the fence.)

We've all heard the phrase, "All dressed up and no place to go."  I think that might be how the foolish virgins felt in the parable.  All the virgins spent time GETTING ready, but when it came right down to it, only half of them actually WERE ready.  All the virgins LOOKED ready to anyone who happened to be watching.  So, what made the wise virgins take that extra step and bring extra oil?  In the long run, it wasn’t all the getting ready that made the difference; it was the decision to bring extra oil. And, to what can we compare that most important step in our own lives?

I think it all comes down to Psalm 46:10 (NIV) "Be still, and know that I am God; …”  I think at some point we have to stop running around doing things to get ready and just believe that we are God’s.

The Pharisees thought they had it all figured out, didn’t they?  They figured that if 10 rules were good, more would be great!  Well, that turned out to be way too much of a good thing.  They wrapped themselves up in all these guidelines so that they felt comfortable.  They felt that as long as they were following the rules, they were in good shape.  But the Pharisees forgot one thing...why they started keeping all these rules in the first place — to try to stay close to God. Oh, maybe the first generation, the folks who had originally come up with the rules knew and understood, but the generations after that just knew the rules.  They didn’t really meet God, not on any personal level anyway.  For the Pharisees, the trip (the rules) became more important than the destination (a relationship with God).  They were working so hard to be good enough to get to Heaven, that they forgot where they wanted to go.

I think the same thing happens with a lot of 2nd and 3rd  generation Adventists.  We know all the does and don’ts, we sing the right songs, quote the right texts.  We know what to eat and not eat and what to drink and not drink.  We’re comfortable in our rules, going through the motions.

Can we, as cultural Adventists, become saved Christians without traveling the Damascus Road?

Well this is truly a case of, “It’s not what you know but WHO you know that makes a difference.

Or hiding in your comfy shell of rules?

-or-

DO YOU KNOW 

JESUS?

And then think about this. We hear someone’s testimony.  The person has come from the dark side of life into the Light of Jesus and salvation and we feel kind of cheated.  We’ve grown up with the trappings of righteousness, but we’ve never experienced that “Road to Damascus” conversion.  We start to wonder if we’ve missed out.   Are those people closer to God that we are?  Are they more saved?

 

Think about the parable of the Prodigal Son...think about the older brother.   Hmmm.    Then think about this, what if the person coming back was your brother (or sister).  Would your resent them or rejoice that they had come home?