September 7, 2009
In the next few posts I am going to do some personal reflections. Will they be objective; of course not, after all they are personal to me and where I am in my life right now. If I am nothing else I am compassionate about things I truly believe in! I don’t pretend to have answers to the questions I have but I am constantly seeking wisdom from God’s word, particularly the red letters.
Here is my first observation:
There seems to be two basic types of worldviews around today.
- I am the master of my fate: I am in control of my life. I am accountable for everything that happens to me. If I run into an obstacle it is up to me and me alone to overcome it. Therefore everything that I accomplish and any wealth I accumulate is mine and mine alone. Do not tax it or take it away from me to give to others who do not deserve it. I alone deserve it and I don’t need to share it with those who were not as strong as I am. They are failures; I am a success. They need to pull themselves up like I did.
- There but for the grace of God go I (I paraphrase this as “Shit Happens”) – Many things that happen in my life are really out of my control. Prosperity primarily depends on where you were born. How you grew up and the opportunities that were given to you. It is up to those who had better opportunities and therefore prospered to have compassion on those less fortunate than themselves. We must share the prosperity that we have gained. It is not ours alone.
I’m sure that there are people who call themselves Christians in both of these camps. But, I personally am in the second group. For at least the last several years I seem to be constantly thinking about those on the margins of society in the US and around the world. If I had not been born to a lower middle class family in the Midwestern United States I could be spending all my current time just trying to survive from day to day. After all, this is typical with almost half the present world’s population. Instead I have plenty to eat, a nice place to live and not many worries (except for the self made and often self centered kind). We people in the western societies need to be reminded more often just how easy we have it.
I would not even attempt to guess what the percentage of Christians are in each of these groups. But, what does the Bible say about these two worldviews? I think I need to study on this some but I have a general idea that group 2 is closer to the way the Lord intends us to live and I will continue to strive to be in that group.
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Posted by RJ
August 31, 2009
We humans are constantly on the epic journey to find the meaning of life. It drives some of us quite crazy. Let’s look at some of the idols we Americans frequently put in place in our lives:
Postscript: Here is the latest story on winning the “big one” . http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92967?fp=1
I could go on and on with examples but I’m sure you get the idea. Finding things of this world that will give our lives meaning simply don’t exist. I don’t quote Old Testament scripture often (I dwell in the New Covenant, not so much the old one 
) but here is a very appropriate verse for this post:
Eccl 5:10 NIV
Whoever loves money never has money enough;
Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.
So if you are looking to money and the things that it buys to be the meaning of life you better look elsewhere cause that ain’t it. Next time I will give you the secret about the TRUE meaning of life. I suspect many of you have already discovered it, or at least given the nature of this blog know where I am going.
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Posted by RJ
August 27, 2009
All humans seem to innately seek the meaning of life. It is built into the core of our existence. It is one of the crucial things that make us human. My Basset Hound Beulah is quite intent just to get her ears rubbed on a regular basis and to make our daily trek out to the mailbox. (All of you who might have a Basset know that you must keep them on a leash constantly or they will get utterly lost tracking a scent that totally envelopes their attention; i.e. The ever present leash even to the mailbox . Too bad we humans aren’t put on a leash when we get too focused on something that is not good for us . We humans just aren’t the way our pets are. We need to know why we exist!
Many, especially us Westerners, spend our lives seeking things of the world to give us meaning. Before I understood where the source of this fulfillment really comes from I spent an outrageously amount of time seeking the meaning of life. At one point I was totally immersed into the psychology thing. I read book after book of such titles as “I’m Ok – Your OK”. I became an Eric Berne freak. I couldn’t get enough of him or Maslow, or a number of other authors in the field of psychology. After a number of years I came to the same conclusion that the character played by Bob Newhart had in the TV series “Newhart”. “Psychology is a croak!” It just didn’t give me the sustainable answers I was looking for. I apologize to all you psychologists out there. I’m sure you do a mountain of good to those who really need it. But, I didn’t really need it!
But at least I didn’t take the path that many do and get into drugs or such things. I fortunately also didn’t have a mid-life crisis where I sold everything to get a motorcycle and a young chick on my arm. (My wife would have killed me if I had tried that!) I was way to shy for that sort of thing anyway, thank the Lord. And I also didn’t literally go up the mountain to seek the ultimate wisdom of some other guru.
God built this “why we exist” urge in us for a reason. But it took me years to discover it. Many today are in the same vicious cycle that I was. For some it is vocational success; for others it is money; for others it is something else. It is almost always about “stuff”
I will spend the next few posts talking about idols that we futilely try to put in place to seek the meaning of life.
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Posted by RJ
August 24, 2009
Jesus clearly told us to be our brother’s keeper but somewhere along the way we Christians unapologetically shunned that responsibility. During the first three centuries Christians were very much their brother’s keeper. They often pooled their resources so that those most needy were taken care of. They not only cared for their own there is even documented evidence showing that they took care of those not even Christians. But, of course, this is what Jesus did so they were just following his lead.
The vast majority of Christian congregations today spend about 95% of what they gather on themselves or their organization’s hierarchy leaving little for kingdom of God work particularly in the brother’s keeper area. When that happened the moral goodness, which I believe to be also a gift from God to all humanity, dictated that the kingdoms of the world take over that task. Some do a much better job of it than others. The government of Sudan seems to totally reject the “brother’s keeper” mentality. Many thousands die daily of starvation and political genocide. Whereas, thank the Lord, the government of the United States has generally taken up this task in our absence, at least to a partial degree. Or at least one of our political parties carries that mantle.
Now I’m not saying that Christians do nothing in this area. Indeed some of the best humanitarian agencies in this area are Christian based. But, their total contributions is almost miniscule compared to the need. Having religious institutions take over all the care for the poor is probably now beyond the realm of possibilities so I guess we must depend on our governments to do that for us. They are instituted by God so I suppose you could say it is now their duty. To even suggest as some do that since we Christians won’t do it our governments should stay out of it also is a total affront to the teachings of Jesus. It is indeed a sad day that many Evangelical Christians seem to be saying that very thing today. Shame on us for shunning this compassionate responsibility!
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Posted by RJ
April 29, 2009
I can’t find it right now but I do remember the verse about “to whom much is given, much is expected. I don’t think Jesus was against a person being worldly rich although he did tell that one rich man to sell everything . What he is against is people who obsess on money. These days we discover that seems to be many in the corporate world especially CEOs. How can anyone think they are worth what many of the CEOs make today. Especially when the company they run is going down the drain. Most make more in one day than some of their workers make in one year. It wouldn’t be so bad if on the average they gave generously to God’s work. But, the sad reality is that people making more than $100,000 per year, let alone the millions that they make, give a very low percentage of their income to charitible causes. On average a person making less than $20,000 per year give twice the percentage than one making more than $100,000. Instead of giving in proportion to what they are given many desperately seek tax loop holes to help them avoid even providing for the general welfare! Shame on them. I certainly celebrate the exceptions to this. That is, those rich who do support God’s kingdom on earth. Unfortunately they seem to be far and few between. Giving to the least of these seems to be very out of fashion with today’s upper income earners.
I recently read a quote from an article in Politico entitled Why Republicans are devouring a recently released new book
on the Depression entitled “The Forgotten Man” by Amity Shlaes. Here is the quote from the article:
It (the book) also looks at the Great Depression with particular sympathy upon the plight of those who were burdened with supporting the “weak members of society” during the New Deal and endeavors to give a voice to those “forgotten men.”
This book is said to be gobbled up by Republican Congressmen as proof that the Depression actions were totally wrong and so are the current administration’s efforts. How far must we go to further our political agendas. Now we have to lament the “plight of those burdened in supporting the weak members of society”! Oh, woe is us!! This is just more evidence that we Christians get into more trouble aligning ourselves with a political party. It is said that 75% of the evangelicals are Republicans. The way the press commonly reports it you would think that that number is 100%. How many of those evangelicals think it is a burden to help the least of these? Have those who do even picked up a Bible recently? Jesus’ words shout that that is a privledge for those who were given much. It should never be thought of as a burden.
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Posted by RJ
March 30, 2009
Matt 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Wow, it sounds like we have to choose between God and money! How can we do without money but then again how can we do without God! This seems like an impossible choice to make. The key word here is “serve”. When we serve God we are constantly seeking his will and living our lives as he taught us. If we serve money then we are constantly seeking ways to get more and spend more. There, that is the rub! When we have way too much stuff and way too little attention to God is where we get in trouble. One of the reasons for the current housing problems is that people are constantly looking for bigger and bigger houses. Why? Because they have filled up their current one until there is no longer any room for more “stuff”. Let’s have less stuff and more God! That is what the above verses are actually all about. If your stuff is overflowing your house the problem is not that you have too small a house. Its that you have too much stuff. When you leave the world all your stuff usually gets sold for pennies on the dollar. Your soul should be worth more than that.
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Posted by RJ
December 29, 2008
Matt 20:26-27
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave
Jesus certainly had the service mentality. The ultimate service was for him to take human form and come to earth for us. He showed service mentality numerous times throughout the gospels. The apostles did not understand this. But, I think maybe when he insisted on washing their feet they finally “got it” or at least a little of it. Of course a central aspect of service is humility. We Christians should never think more highly of ourselves than others around us. We are all sinners and worthy of God’s wrath. It’s just a matter of degree. God is perfect and demands perfection of us. Of course none of us will ever get to that state but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try to do good while we are here.
I personally believe that a service mentality is at the very core of Christian belief. Another name for service is works. Here is what Martin Luther said about that in his preface to the book of Romans.
This it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from the fire.
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Posted by RJ
December 19, 2008
Today I am going to divert from the red letters to talk a little about St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Being content this is something we Americans never seem to be able to do! Being content means not worrying whether our neighbor has a newer car than you, or …
These words were spoken by St Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome. This is kind of an unusual letter as Paul’s letter seem to go. He basically just wrote it to thank the Philippians for a gift. But it does show us some more about what he considers good Christian living.
Phil 4:12-13
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
I have the ‘content’ thing down a little better than when I was younger but still have quite a ways to go to reach St. Paul’s definition. It seems that the more you have the more you want and that isn’t contentment. Paul goes on to tell the Philippians to do everything without complaining or arguing. We could certainly use that advice in today’s world. There just seems to be so much bitterness and discontent out there lately.
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Posted by RJ
November 24, 2008
Let me start out by telling you that this post is not about Jesus being a radical but there is definitely some truth to that statement and I will address that in a future post. I know this title is kind of confusing. Is there really such a thing as an “ordinary” radical. I don’t know but that is what Shane Clairborne calls himself. Shane is one of those few people who really seems to live out the words of Jesus Christ. Yes, he is an out-of-the-box thinker and doer who is part of an organization called “The Simple Way”. Shane and the people in his group live a very simple community lifestyle. They take the words of Jesus to the streets of Philadelphia by witnessing, through their actions as well as words, to the poor and undernourished (both physically and spiritually). I sometimes like to think of myself as a radical. After all I was in college in the 60’s. But, to tell the truth, I was working 40-50 hours a week in order to pay my way through college and also taking almost a full academic load so there was really no time for those pesky demonstrations that were happening all around me at the time. I am kind of ashamed to say that I have lived my life pretty much as most others do. Maybe I am a radical in thought only but I have been trying to change that lately!
Let’s get back to Shane. He has written several books including one from which I pulled the moniker above. It is entitled “The Irresistible Revolution – living as an ordinary radical”. This book totally blew me away when I read it! How can a young man, at least young by my standards, have such wisdom about Christian living! Tony Campolo’s remarks at the front of the book does a very good job of expressing my thoughts. He wrote
“Shane expresses the kind of authentic Christianity that most of us are trying to avoid because the cost is too great. He proposes a lifestyle that prophetically proclaims what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the twenty-first century”.
I highly recommend this book, and any of the others he has written. But, I must admit these books are not for those who think we are doing just fine in our Christian living and outreach. I gave a copy to my pastor to read and the first thing he said after reading it was that “the author doesn’t think much of churches today and he is kind of a communist”. According to Wikipedia’s listing for Shane Clairborne, my pastor’s views are shared by other social conservatives in the Christian Evangelical community. I was expecting my pastor, like me, to hook up with the zeal and passion that Clairborne has for Christ but that was not to be. But don’t hold my pastor’s comments against me even if I am not running for president. Maybe I am a radical after all. If you have an open mind and are ready to admit that we, as 21st century Christian, can do a better job of living according to the words of Christ and in reaching out to the community (especially the youth) then you can learn things from this young man. Their website in listed in my blogroll if you care to visit them.
Leave a Comment » | Book review, Christianity, Materialism, Red Letters | Tagged: Add new tag, Book review, Clairborne, Religion | Permalink
Posted by RJ
November 19, 2008
Ok this maybe anti-American but Jesus was definitely anti-stuff. When Jesus sent out his disciples to spread the Word he told them to take nothing with them. They weren’t even allow to take and extra pair of sandals for their long walk and they did a lot of walking in those days! And then remember the rich man who approached Jesus to learn how to get to heaven. That ended up with Jesus telling him to sell everything he owned and give the money to the poor and then follow Jesus and his ragtag team. Of course the rich man, as most of us today, could not even conceive of doing that. He just went away rejected.
We, especially in the United States, are totally addicted to our “stuff”. Of course being a capitalist country our whole economy depends on all of us buying more and more “stuff” each year. It’s not good enough to just buy the same amount as we bought last year; we have to always buy more 
. If we fill our house with “stuff” then there is always the garage. If even the garage is full then how about off-site storage which is one of the few remaining growth industries. Or now we can even have our storage unit brought to us for filling up (PODS). If we run out of money to buy our “stuff” there is always another credit card offer in the mail. Let’s face it buying “stuff” is a vicious cycle that is difficult to break
Getting back to the rich man as mentioned above, many Christians now rationalize that to be just a story and not what Jesus really intendeds for us to do. From my studies of early Christianity that was definitely not the case with them. For at least the first few hundred years many, if not most, affluent people really did sell everything when they started following Jesus. I’m not sure exactly when this practice fell out of the favor but I expect it was around the time that Constantine made Christianity a State religion. I think we need to give up some “stuff” and then revisit the practice of giving to the less fortunate than us? But of course we could never go all the way as Jesus mentioned. The apostle John made the following statement in 1John. ” This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence “. Let’s put these word in today’s lingo or at least what I perceive it to be. John says you have to back what you say with actions or the words are meaningless. To me John is flatly saying that if you have faith in Jesus then you WILL do these things. That gets us into a much deeper subject of “works vs. faith” which I will tackle in a future postings. For now, let’s buy less “stuff” and help our less fortunate brothers a little more.
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Posted by RJ
