Monday, February 23, 2015

Legion

"Legion"
Mark 5:1-9

If you're a perfectionist like me, there's a reason you're trying to be a perfectionist.  And by perfectionist, I'm defining as someone who is trying to portray themselves as having it all together.  The reason we're trying to be that way is because we don't want anyone to know we really aren't perfect.  The secret is, everyone else already knows.  But don't tell us.  It's too fun being wrapped up in our delusions.

The thing is, we all have our issues.  We're all bent here and there.  The way we are all most bent is not our own particularly skewed dementedness.  The worst thing, in all of us, is how hard we work to make sure no one else finds out.  That we try to hide our craziness is the craziest thing about us.  It is the flaw that is driving us most mad.

The harder you work at doing all the voodoo, slight-of-hand, and hypnotism, trying to convince others you're something your not, the deeper you go into the rabbit hole.  The more you become a false self, ruled by your delusions and illusions and lies.

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the Seattle-based rock band Nirvana.  The last few years of Kurt Cobain's life were filled with drug addiction and the media pressures surrounding him and his wife Courtney Love.

On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead in his home in Seattle. His death was ruled by authorities as a suicide by self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.  One of the most compelling points surrounding his death was the suicide note that he left.  It was a note filled with the angst that his false self had taken over his life, and he didn't know any other way to be free of it.  He wrote:

The fact is, I can't fool you, any one of you. It simply isn't fair to you or me. The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending...Sometimes I feel as if I should have a punch-in time clock before I walk out on stage. I've tried everything within my power to appreciate it (and I do, God, believe me I do, but it's not enough)…I need to be slightly numb in order to regain the enthusiasms I once had as a child.

Then he went on to write:

I have it good, very good, and I'm grateful, but since the age of seven, I've become hateful towards all humans in general...I'm too much of an erratic, moody baby! I don't have the passion anymore, and so remember, it's better to burn out than to fade away.

Do you hear it?  Do you hear it in the voice of this suicide note?  It's almost like he's looking in a mirror as he writes it, and he's full of disdain for the image of himself that he's staring at.  He can't see who he really is anymore.  He only sees his false self reflecting back at him and it sickens him.  He's lost any semblance of his true self.

What psychologists won't tell you, if you've done any work with a psychologist, is that one of the things they're looking for from you is resistance.  Resistance to their questions, to their line of questions.  Do you know why?  The more resistance you exhibit the closer the counselor is getting to your pain.  Your resistance is all the protection you have wrapped around your pain.  Part of that resistance is the facade you put up.  Part of the resistance is the delusions you have convinced your self of who you think you are.  Part of the resistance is the illusions you spin in front of others, trying to get them to think--as you do--that you're really something you're not.

So, when you read this long chapter in the book, The Deeper Journey, on the "false self" try to get in touch with how much resistance you are putting up, trying to convince yourself you really aren't anything like what the author is describing.  Don't just listen to the words of the author as you read, but listen to the messages you are telling yourself in your own head as you read the words:  “I don't do that.  I'm not like that.  I'm a pretty good person, after all.”

Or the deflections.  “I'm not like that, but boy, that's describing so-and-so to a tee!”  Ask yourself, as you hear your own ego-defensive voice, "When am I going to finally face the truth!!??  I'm messed up!  Guess what everybody--I'm messed up!!"

Go ahead.  Run and hide.  Some get really good at it.  But the further you go in that direction the more and more you get in character debt.  The higher you have to keep building your ego defenses.  The more resistance you have to strengthen to keep people from seeing what they already see.  You're flawed!  You're living out of a false self!  Admit it!  Don't resist.  Just get it out on the table.

There's another term psychologists use in describing what happens when the external lies you are telling yourself and others about who you are come face-to-face with who you actually are.  It's a musical term:  dissonance.  What is dissonance, Brenda/Deb/Beth?  It's when at least two musical notes are sounded that don't go together.  You hear a lot of dissonance at your kids early piano recitals.  You're proud of them, but you cringe a lot when you hear the discordant notes that are played.

So, in counseling terms, all of us have this discordant gap between who we really are, and the false self we are trying to portray to the world.  The larger the gap, the larger the anxiety.  The more distance there is between your portrayal and your true self, the greater the level of insanity.   The bigger the gap of dissonance in a person, the greater the possibility of totally losing yourself and your self identity.  The more despairing you become, the more hopeless.  The more like Kurt Cobain.  The more we, like this mad man who confronted Jesus, allow the demons to control our lives.  Lots and lots of demons.  Legions.

Take a look at the description of this guy.   The guy shouts and screams.  My daughter, Kristin, and I were driving around LA one time when she was in college there.  The state prisons and hospitals had just released hundreds of patients onto the streets of LA because of budget cuts.  The people were pretty much harmless to others, but they shouted.  A lot.  It seemed there was one on every corner, shouting at cars--some of the cars were parked and empty.  They were screaming at people, at the traffic lights, at building walls.  Anything that could be screamed at was screamed at.

Now you may say you aren't crazy like that.  But do you, or have you ever "gone a little crazy" and screamed at your kids, your spouse, your parents?  It's there.  It's in us.  That thin line, that dissonant gap between who you show yourself to be at church on Sunday and what happens behind closed doors at your home.  It's in you.

The guy who ran up to Jesus had cut himself with sharp rocks.  Why do people cut themselves, or perform other acts of self injury?  Self-injury behavior is something that is more common than many people realize. In one study of high school students by researchers at Brown University, 46 percent had injured themselves in the past year on multiple occasions.

Self-injury is used by people as over-drinking or drug use is used by others — to drown out emotional pain with something else. It focuses your attention and takes your mind off of your emotional pain, if only for a little while.

How many of you, even though you may not be trying to dull the reality of your false self with alcohol, or drugs or a blade, are nonetheless slicing yourself with sharp, self-hating words?  Admit you're hurting and you don't know what to do about it.  And the way you're trying to handle it is all wrong.  It's only making you bleed even more.  What sick thing are you doing to yourself to deal with your pain?

When this guy runs at Jesus at top speed (imagine how scary that would be to have some naked guy running at you at top speed screaming at the top of his lungs) and skids on his knees in front of Jesus, notice what he screams:  "What business to you have, Jesus, Son of the High God, messing with me?  I swear to God, don't give me a hard time!"  (vs. 7)

The reason I point that out is that our false self doesn't want to be messed with.  It wants to be left alone to do whatever it wants to do.  Our false self doesn't want anyone checking it out, challenging it, or especially, as Jesus was trying to do with this guy, totally cleanse him of the monsters within.

C.S. Lewis does a great job with this point in his book, The Great Divorce.  It is such a great book.  I should have us read it for next years Lent study.  The book is a story about a bus ride from hell to heaven.  A bus comes into dark, overcast, always drizzly hell, every so often to pick up souls who want a chance to check out heaven.  People line up in hell, even though they have no idea what they're lining up for.  (I thought that a hilarious point of Lewis, to make part of hell be nothing but lines of people, for which no one knows what they're lining up for or waiting on.)

So a bus load makes it to heaven and it's dark and wispy characters unload.  One of the characters, is described as a "dark and oily" ghost who carried something on his shoulder.  What was on his shoulder was a little red lizard, who talked incessantly in the ghost's ear.

"Off so soon?" said a voice...
"Yes.  I'm off," said the Ghost.  "Thanks for all your hospitality.  But it's no good, you see.  I told this little chap," (here he indicated the lizard), "that he'd have to be quiet if he came--which he insisted on doing.  Of course his stuff won't do here: I realise that.  But he won't stop.  I shall just have to go home."
"Would you like me to make him quiet?" said the flaming Spirit--an angel, as I now understood.
"Of course I would," said the Ghost.
"Then I will kill him," said the Angel, taking a step forward.
"Oh--ah--look out! You're burning me.  Keep away," said the Ghost retreating.
"Don't you want him killed?"
"You didn't say anything about killing him at first.  I hardly meant to bother you with anything so drastic as that."
"It's the only way," said the Angel, whose burning hands were now very close to the lizard.  "Shall I kill it?"
"Well, that's a further question.  I'm quite open to consider it, but it's a new point, isn't it?  I mean, for the moment I was only thinking about silencing it because up here--well, it's so...embarrassing."
"May I kill it?"
"Well, there's time to discuss that later."
"There is no time.  May I kill it?"
"Please, I never meant to be such a nuisance.  Please--really--don't bother.  Look!  It's gone to sleep of its own accord.  I'm sure it'll be all right now.  Thanks ever so much."
"May I kill it?"
"Honestly, I don't think there's the slightest necessity for that.  I'm sure I shall be able to keep it in order now.  I think the gradual process would be far better than killing it."
"The gradual process is of no use at all."
"Don't you think so?  Well, I'll think over what you've said very carefully.  I honestly will.  In fact I'd let you kill it now, but as a matter of fact I'm not feeling frightfully well today.  It would be silly to do it now.  I'd need to be in good health for the operation.  Some other day, perhaps."
"There is no other day.  All days are present now."
"Get back!  You're burning me.  How can I tell you to kill it?  You'd kill me if you did."
"It is not so."
"Why, you're hurting me now."
"I never said it wouldn't hurt you.  I said it wouldn't kill you."
"Oh, I know.  You think I'm a coward.  But it isn't that.  Really it isn't.  I say!  Let me run back by tonight's bus and get an opinion from my own doctor.  I'll come again the first moment I can."
"This moment contains all moments."
"Why are you torturing me?  You are jeering at me.  How can I let you tear me to pieces?  If you wanted to help me, why didn't you kill the...thing without asking me--before I knew?  It would be all over by now if you had."
"I cannot kill it against your will.  It is impossible.  Have I your permission?"
The Angel's hands were almost closed on the Lizard, but not quite.  Then the Lizard began chattering to the Ghost so loud that even I could hear what it was saying.
"Be careful," it said.  "He can do what he says.  He can kill me.  One fatal word from you and he will!  Then you'll be without me for ever and ever.  It's not natural.  How could you live?  You'd be only a sort of ghost, not a real man as you are now.  He doesn't understand...
"Have I your permission?" said the Angel to the Ghost.
"I know it will kill me."
"It won't.  But supposing it did?"
"You're right.  It would be better to be dead than to live with this creature."
"Then I may?"
"...blast you!  Go on can't you?  Get it over.  Do what you like," bellowed the Ghost: but ended, whimpering, "God help me.  God help me."
Next moment the Ghost gave a scream of agony such as I never heard on Earth.  The Burning One closed his crimson grip on the reptile: twisted it, while it bit and writhed, and then flung it, broken backed, on the turf.

The little red lizard on the shoulder is such a great depiction of our false self.  It has become such a part of us that we aren't sure what to do about it anymore.  We know the depth of it's evil in our lives.  We listen to the false self--the red lizard--every minute of the day, but at the same time we don't want to listen.  We hate it and need it all at the same time.  We are afraid if our false self were dealt a death blow, we would go up in smoke as well.

The man who raced at Jesus, screaming, was under the same spell.  But he had gotten to the point where he didn't have one red lizard on his shoulder; he had a legion of red lizards on his shoulder.

You've all got one.  (Take mirror around for people to see their reflections.)  I see them on your shoulders.  Do you see mine?  These little, red, tail whipping, incessant creatures called our false selves.  Can't live with them; can't live without them.

Would you like it to be killed?  It's possible.  But we're not ready for that quite yet.  There's another lizard on your other shoulder.  It's called your religious false self.  We need to talk about it next week.  And then we’ll start talking about what to do with these vile things.  Our false selves.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Starting With The End In Mind



We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God. It was all given to us by God’s own power, when we learned that he had invited us to share in his wonderful goodness.  God made great and marvelous promises, so that his nature would become part of us. Then we could escape our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.  (2 Peter 1:3-4, CEV)

In Stephen Covey's book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, there is one chapter titled, "Beginning With The End In Mind."  Covey has you picture yourself at the end of your life.  Even your funeral.  Imagine being invisible at your funeral service, hearing what people are saying about you and how they saw your life.  Seeing how people are grieving, or not grieving your loss.  How they are having conversations at the reception afterwards about your contribution to life, or lack of contribution.

As Covey takes you through that time of guided imagery, he begins to ask some important questions, and offer some thoughtful guidance.  One of those pieces of guidance is to begin today with the image or picture of the end of your life as your frame of reference by which everything else in your life is examined.  How you end up, the kind of person you end up to be, is descriptive of your whole life.

So the strategy is to use that vision of your end as your starting point now.  If you don't like what you envisioned as your end, then envision a new and different end.  Then start working now to make that end happen.

Begin to ask questions like, "How does each day of your life contribute in a meaningful way to the vision you have for your life as a whole?"  Not just the compartments of your life, like your job or business, not just your family, not just your recreational self.  Your WHOLE life.

Some people are about doing things right.  They want to live towards an end in life where people describe them as going through life not making waves, but living in a way that did things the right way, according to their own rules and laws.  But there are others who want to be known for doing the right things.  There's a difference between doing things right and doing the right things.

Or there are people who want to be known, in the end, as having lived their lives by a road map.  They mapped out the kind of people they wanted to be, they drew the lines, and then they never varied from those lines, never allowing themselves to think there are other lines that could have gotten them to the same destination.  Another option to living a mapped out life, is living by a compass.  You set a certain direction you want to go in life, and you live by the compass, not a road map.  You decide what’s going to be your true north, and you keep living by that direction. True north has more to do with your core values than a direction or destination, or lines on a map. That way, each choice you make will have to do with either staying on the lines, or staying true to your self.

Covey is a big promoter of the practice of writing a mission statement.  I've talked about these before in different sermons and classes.  A personal, or couples, or family mission statement can help you stay focused on where you are going, what kind of person you want to be.  It's important to have an underlying statement upon which your being and doing are based.

That is where we start our deeper journey this week, the first week of Lent.  We start with the end in mind.  Where is it we are going in this deeper journey?  The subtitle of the book I'm asking you all to read during Lent is, "The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self."  So we could say the end we're moving towards in Lent is "discovering your true self."  I want to make that a little more particular.  I'm going to tell you what the end is, by the time we get to Easter Sunday.  The end we are moving towards has two parts.

The two parts that make up the end, the journey that this book is describing for us, I'm taking from the scripture reading this morning:  The first end we are starting with involves escaping our evil desires and the corrupt influences of this world.  What this assumes is that we will have to face, we will have to admit, that there are "evil desires" and corruption that is deeply embedded in who we are.  Those evil desires and corruption is what makes up what our book calls, "the false self."

By the end of this journey, you will be forced to look at your individual false self.  You will be taking a long, sobering look in the mirror at yourself.  You will confront certain ugly truths that you may quickly be trying to shove into a closet of your mind and heart right now.  This confrontation with the false self is not going to be fun.

Ray Bradbury, famed and prolific science fiction writer (who died a couple of years ago) made the point in most of his books and short stories that humanity would always be humanity — violent, cruel, self-destructive — whether on earth or anywhere else in the universe.

For example, in his book The Martian Chronicles, the story was about the red planet, Mars, which became just another venue for human colonization, war-making and bickering. People who moved to Mars brought their old prejudices with them – their sick desires and fantasies, and tainted dreams.  In summing up Bradbury’s work, one writer described it this way: "He showed me that the most exotic adventures in life always lead back to an examination of our original sin — the space in our hearts that are as inky black as outer space itself.”

There’s the old saying, “Wherever you go, there you are.”  In other words, you can’t escape your self.  You can’t run and hide from your darker self.  Like your shadow, it’s stuck to you and whether you like it or not, always visible in the light.

It is confronting and dealing with this shadow side of the self, once and for all, that is the end we will move towards in Lent.  The end in mind that we will start with is that everyone of us here is living out of an entrenched false self.  The end that we are going to move towards is the utter and absolute death of the false self.  That will be the hardest part of this journey.  Realize we are starting with that end in mind.  I can almost guarantee you that you will be kicking and screaming the whole way, trying to do anything you can to keep from killing your false self.  Because there are only two options:  either kill the false self, or hold on to it until you die.  You need to know that confrontation is coming.  Soon.

I said, earlier in this message that the end in mind that we are starting with has two parts.  I just told you the first part.  The second part of the end in mind is that God's nature would become who we are.  If we are going to have to put to death our false self, then that opens us up to being filled with our true self—which is being filled with God’s nature.  You can’t have the second part without the first part.  You can’t be filled with your true self in God, until the false self has been put to death.  We can’t be like Jesus if we are still ruled by sin.

A master of karate was trying to explain something to a student. This student was not a brand new student, but a student who had advanced through the different colored belts of karate. He had knowledge and experience aplenty to draw upon. But each time the master tried to explain something new to the student, the student kept trying to hold it up against his own notions of what he had already learned from other masters.  The student was unable to see the lessons in what the new master was trying to teach him.

Finally, the master poured a full serving of tea into his own cup, and into the cup of the student. Then he told the student he wanted to give to him some of the tea from his own cup. He began pouring tea from his cup into the student's cup, but the student's cup was already full, and all the tea from the master's cup spilled out over the student’s cup onto the surface of the table.

The student said, "Master, you can't pour anything into my cup until I empty it to make room for what you are trying to give me.”
The master replied "Yes I know.   And I can't teach you any new lessons until you clear out some thoughts that are already teeming in your mind to make room for what I have to teach you." Then the master paused for a brief moment, meeting the student's eyes with his own knowing look and calmly but sternly said: "If you truly seek understanding, then first, empty your cup!”

That’s what we are about in this “deeper journey”.  The end in mind, and the place from which we begin, will have to do with first emptying our cups—that is, pouring out our selves, our false selves, our own ego.  After the emptying has happened, then we can be filled with the fullness of God, filled with God’s nature.

The great evangelist Dwight L. Moody was to have a series of revival meetings in England. An elderly pastor protested, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody’? He’s uneducated and inexperienced. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”
A younger, wiser pastor rose and responded, “No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody.”

That’s where this journey is heading:  to allow the Holy Spirit to have a monopoly on our lives rather than our egos and our false self.  Are you ready?

Monday, February 9, 2015

Compromise Or Opportunity?

"Compromise Or Opportunity?"
1Corinthians 9:19-23


A minister acquaintance of mine found the following ad in a newspaper:

PREACHER.  We would like to find a clergy-person who will marry us in a cocktail lounge on February 14; Call after 4 p.m.  555-2620

There are some who would say that any minister who answered that little ad would be compromising their Christianity by holding a service of marriage in a bar.  Others might look at it as an opportunity to influence the couple for Christ and the church.

That may be a mild example.  Here is another one, out of my own experience, that has also to do with a wedding.

I was asked to do the marriage ceremony for a young couple, the groom being of the Sikh religion from India.  The bride-to-be had grown up in the church.  The family had been extremely active and giving people.  The hitch came when the couple decided to hold the service in the church sanctuary.  But, they didn't want the name of Jesus Christ to be mentioned, in deference to the groom and his family, since they did not believe in Jesus.

After much discussion with the couple, and with the senior Pastor I worked with, as well as time spent in prayer, I decided I could not compromise the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ for their wedding service.  I went to the Elders and informed them of what I had decided, because there might be repercussions that might have to be dealt with.

As the Elders discussed the situation, they went a step further.  They decided that any service that was held in the church, that consciously left out Jesus Christ would not be allowed to take place.  So, now I had to tell the family: 1) I wouldn't do the ceremony and why; and, 2) that their wedding could not be held in the church without the mention of Jesus Christ.

This was equally complicated by the fact that the bride-to-be's parents had become very close friends of mine.  It was like I had given the face of that friendship a hard slap.  We came at the issue from two different angles.  I came from a position of Christian principle and theology.  The bride and her parents came from the position of relationship--that our friendship should over-ride principle and theology.

Was it an opportunity to influence that young man and his family for Christ, by bending my convictions and beliefs?  From my viewpoint, intentionally writing Jesus Christ out of the wedding service (which is a worship service when held in the sanctuary) would have been a stark compromise to my faith and to the sacred trust given to me when I was ordained as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was one of the hardest and most emotionally charged decisions I had made, up to that point in my ministry.

As was read earlier, Paul wrote:

When I am with the Jews, I live like a Jew to win Jews. They are ruled by the Law of Moses, and I am not. But I live by the Law to win them.

And when I am with people who are not ruled by the Law (of Moses) I forget about the Law to win them. Of course, I never really forget about the law of God. In fact, I am ruled by the law of Christ.


There's the rub, isn't it?  How do we become a part of the lives of others with depth of understanding and sympathy, and even become close friends, but not abandon our Christian beliefs and principles?  In a more general sense, as the old saying goes, how can we be in the world, but not of the world?  How do we influence without being influenced?

Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthian church:

 For we are like a sweet-smelling incense offered by Christ to God, which spreads among those who are being saved and those who are being lost.  (2:15)

There are certain aromas and odors that seem to be able to over-power all the other aromas that are floating around.  Like when you come into a house where bread is baking, the aroma becomes captivating.  It's all you can do until you ask when it will be done so it can be carved, buttered, and eaten.  There may be a hundred other minor household smells, but the bread will overpower them all.

Likewise a feedlot or pig farms have the same kind of pervasive influence.

Christians are called into every segment of society, but not to become like them.  Instead we are to be an over-powering aroma to each person, each group we come into contact with the love of Christ.  That is what Paul is saying here, isn't it?  Paul, and ourselves, have the freedom to conform to other kinds of people and beliefs, but only where basic Christian foundations are not compromised.  We will go this far, and no further.

"Yes," says Paul.  "I can become like a Jew, but I will not give into the ways of the law, because I am under the grace of Christ.  Yes, I can become like those who have never even heard of the law--in a sense become lawless; but I will not give in because I am under the law of Christ."

Paul has the intention that the influence will only go one way--from he to them, and not the other way around.

A dignified old minister owned a parrot that he really liked a lot.  But the bird had picked up an appalling vocabulary of cuss words from a previous owner.  After a series of particularly embarrassing episodes, the minister decided he would have to have his parrot put to sleep.

But a lady in the congregation suggested a last-ditch remedy.  She said, "I have a female parrot.  She is an absolute saint.  She sits quietly on her perch and says things like, 'Let us pray.'  Why don't you bring your parrot over and see if my own bird's good influence doesn't reform your bird?"

The pastor said it was worth a try.  The next night he arrived with his pet.  The bird took one look at the girl parrot and chirped, "Hey baby, let's kiss (get it on)."
The girl parrot responded, "My prayers have been answered."

That's not exactly how the influence was supposed to happen, but more often than not, it does.

C.S. Lewis once wrote,

The difficulty we are up against is this.  We can make people (often) attend to the Christian point of view for half an hour or so; but the moment they have gone away from our lecture or laid down our article, they are plunged back into a world where the opposite position is taken for granted.  As long as the situation exists, widespread success is simply impossible.  We must attack the enemy's line of communication.  What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects--with their Christianity latent...It is not the books written in direct defense of Materialism that make the modern man a materialist; it is the materialistic assumptions in all the other books.  (God In The Dock, page 93)

One of the points Lewis is making here is that we don't lose the war in one battle, but as in a state of siege, one brick of the wall at a time.  What Lewis is calling for, and I agree with him here, is that as Christian change-agents in the world, we need to use the same kind of influence, in our friendships, in our behavior, in our writing, in our businesses.

I was talking with a businessman who told me if he ran his business in a Christian manner he felt he would be bankrupt, and on his ear in a matter of months.  He seemed to think he would lose his respect and toughness among his peers and clients.

That is a tough place to be in.  It is usually within our primary relationships of business and friendships, that present the hardest situations where we must decide, Is this a compromise or is this an opportunity?  Will we allow our Christian convictions to be overruled by the fear of losing a friend or profit?

Our main temptation will be that of yielding to the winds of doctrine or worldly convention, not of ignoring them.  We are not likely to be narrow, rigid, and inflexible in our opinions.  We are more likely to be the slaves of fashion.  The standards of clear Christian witness must be clear in our minds.  It is against those standards that we must test all contemporary thought and behavior.

Why was Paul doing what he was doing, infiltrating, becoming a one man underground force?  "...I do all things for the sake of the gospel."

The gospel of Jesus Christ is our prime motivating factor.  The main emphasis of our influence is from the gospel and for the sake of the gospel.  The emphasis is not on getting, but in sharing with others the blessings of the gospel.  That is why the Christian faith must not be compromised or contaminated.  It remains its own definitive standard.  We are defending Christianity, not "my religion."

A lady once gave detailed instructions to a friend for making a special and original recipe for crabmeat casserole.  Some time later when at a luncheon at her friend's, she was greeted with, "Guess what, Runa?  I'm serving your gorgeous crabmeat dish today."

The lady went into the luncheon telling everyone about her famous casserole.  "I must admit, though, I had to change the recipe just a bit.  Since fresh crab meat wasn't available, I had to substitute canned tuna.  I didn't have time to make the delicate white sauce so I just threw in a can of mushroom soup.  It was easier, anyway.  I omitted the sherry and blanched almonds since I forgot to put them on my grocery list."

With that, the hostess plunged the serving spoon into the steaming casserole while saying to the guests, "So, if this casserole isn't any good, don't blame me.  It's Runa's recipe."

The gospel can't be amended or changed or compromised, no matter how difficult a situation that might lead us into.  As Christians, as God's change agents in the world, we need to follow God's recipe to the letter, or drop it all together.  Either we let it influence us, and thereby influence others, or we give in to the enemy.

Again, to C.S. Lewis for a concluding quote:

One of the great difficulties is to keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth.  They (always) think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true but because it is good...You have to keep forcing them back, and back, to the real point.  Only thus will you be able to undermine their belief that a certain amount of "religion" is desirable but one mustn't carry it too far.  One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance; (but) if true, of infinite importance.  The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.  (God In The Dock, page 101)

Monday, February 2, 2015

The Life Of Authority

"The Life of Authority"
Mark 1:21-28

When you're reading an engrossing work of fiction or literature, there are certain elements that make it a good read.  If the author does a good job, you don't think about these elements of fiction being part of the story.  They just are there.

For example, you need believable characters.   The characters in the story have to be able to live for the reader.  When we read a good story, we are of course interested in the storyline.  But a major proportion of our interest in that story will have to do with the identification of ourselves with the main characters of the story.

A good story also needs an engaging setting. I'm reading a series of books now called The Theft of Swords.  I'm at the point in the story where one of the two heroes, who happens to be a thief, is trying to figure out how to break into a tower and steal a special sword that has the power to slay a beast.  There's a problem.  The tower is built up on a raised rock outcropping that is in the middle of a raging river.  And the rock outcropping is sticking out over the edge of a huge waterfall, thousands of feet high.  I'm at the point in the story where the thief is trying to figure out how he is supposed to get himself across half a raging river to the tower, break into the tower, steal the sword, then get himself back across that same river.  It's a great setting for this part of the story.  And the setting makes all the difference for the tension and adventure in the story.

The third element a good story needs is dramatic conflict.  As nice as it would be to read a story that is full of all good guys, it would end up being really boring.  You need some kind of conflict to drive the tension in the story.  You need a bad guy.  You need some kind of evil that drives another character to be the hero.  Some of the best stories I've read have a bad guy who is part good guy.  They're a frustrating mix.  And it drives you crazy because you never know which they're going to be at any given moment in the story.

So, let's take these three elements and see how they fit in this story of Jesus.

First, setting.  Because there was only one temple for the Jewish people, and that was in Jerusalem, and Jews were scattered all over the known world, some alternative place of worship had to be created.  Little house-type churches began to spring up where Jewish people gathered to worship.  These were called synagogues, a word which means "to gather together."  So a synagogue was a gathering place, and most of them were not churchy looking at all.

People would come to the synagogue for worship, and worship involved three aspects:  prayer, reading the scriptures, and the teaching of the scriptures.  That's it.  They didn't sing.  They didn't perform sacrifices.  They didn't do anything else that was normally done in or associated with the big Temple in Jerusalem.  All the Jewish people needed was a place to gather:  someone's home, an empty building, or a place down by the river--whatever.

So you can see why Jesus started his ministry in the synagogues.  People were coming to pray and hear God's word.  It was exactly the place to open people up to the Word of God.  It wasn't in the Temple that Jesus did most of his ministry.  In fact, he only visited Jerusalem two or three times.  The rest of his story is played out in the little meeting places--the synagogues--smattered out and around Israel's countryside and small towns.

As far as the characters in this story, first and foremost is Jesus.  The portrayal of Jesus in this particular part of the story is a Jesus who was authoritative.  Someone who had this kind of authority literally means, to do something with power.  But not a power of your own, but from God.  This kind of power had two characteristics:  the knowledge and wisdom of God.  Jesus, as he is portrayed here, spoke powerfully, out of the very heart and knowledge of God.  In this way, it was as if God were speaking when Jesus opened his mouth.

A rabbi was coming to the Day of Atonement in a state of deep depression.  (The Day of Atonement is a day of repentance and restoration for the Jewish people.)  The rabbi was depressed; he was lethargic; he was fatigued; he was feeling spiritually oppressed.

The rabbi stood in the doorway of his little house and down the road came a shoe cobbler pushing his cart with his tools and leather on it.  When the cobbler came to the rabbi's house and saw him standing in the doorway, the cobbler shouted in a loud voice, "Do you have anything that needs mending?"  The rabbi said it was like the voice of God, because he suddenly saw so clearly what the source of his problem was--his life needed mending by God.

That's how Jesus spoke with the simplicity, the clarity, and thus the authority of God, opening up in people's hearts their great needs, and showing the way to mend those broken places.  Instead of a lot of legalistic jabberwocky, Jesus spoke with authority, as if God were speaking himself, with simple but powerful words.

A company employing several thousand people was attempting to institute a pension plan.  But the plan could not be implemented without 100% participation.  Every employee signed up except one man.  Many efforts were made to win this guy over, but the man kept resisting.

Finally the President of the company called the man into his office.  "Here is a copy of the proposed pension plan and here is a pen," the President said.  "Sign up, or you're fired."  Whereupon the man immediately picked up the pen and signed his name.  The President of the company said, "I don't understand why you refused to sign until now.  What was your problem?"
To which the man replied, "You're the first person who explained it to me clearly."

Only Jesus was the one who had that kind of authority to open people's ears to the power and clarity of God.

The other main character in this story is the crazed man.  It's a little hard to get a handle on this guy.  He's described as "unclean."  But someone who is unclean means they are blemished or broken in some way, according to Jewish cleanliness laws, and are therefore not allowed to come to the synagogue to worship with everyone else, who is "clean."   Being unclean covered a lot human conditions.

The fact that the man is screaming at the top of his lungs and drooling all over the place gives us a little bit of an indication of his brokenness.   Mark is fairly sparse with the details, but you can imagine the drama and the tension of the scene.  This guy doesn't walk into the meeting place, he runs.  He doesn't start talking out loud during the little gathering's Bible study, he screams.  The crazed man isn't standing apart from Jesus, he standing nose-to-nose, eyes bulging in Jesus face, beyond loud.

Mark Graber told our Men's Bible Study about a similar meeting with a crazed guy at the gas pump at one of our local stations.  Mark was being screamed at by a guy who was making no sense.  The guy was totally out of control.  Mark happened to be holding the nozzle of the gas pump hose.  Mark aimed it at the guy, who was coming at him, and said, "You back off or I'm going to spray you down and light you up!"  It was a classic line.  If they every make another Dirty Harry movie, we have to send that line in.  It's become one of our all-time favorite lines from Men's Bible Study.  See what you're missing, all you guys who don't show up?

I imagine if Jesus had been in Men's Bible Study, and he later came across this crazed guy in the synagogue, he would have used that line.  It is rather scary to have to cross paths with a crazed human being.  Graves that have been unearthed in Israel by archaeologists have contained skulls with little holes bored in them.  A number of skulls contained not just one hole, but several.  The holes weren't large enough for surgical purposes.  It was determined that those holes were bored to allow the evil spirits to escape through the person's head.

And in a recent book by Swiss psychiatrist Paul Tournier, he wrote,
Doubtless there are many doctors who in their struggle against disease have had, like me, the feeling that they are confronting, not something passive, but a clever and resourceful enemy.  (from A Doctor's Casebook)

There certainly was a clever, yet demented resourcefulness, to the crazed man's behavior towards Jesus that day.  And it was directed towards Jesus, not anyone else in the gathering place of the synagogue.  The man wasn't screaming at anyone else.  Just Jesus.  Here Jesus is portrayed as a person who taught with "authority" who is now confronted by a sick and broken man, who was himself a kind of authority, although from the dark side.  Thus the conflict in this story.

This dealing with the crazed man is the first of Jesus' miracles in Mark's gospel.  It is significant, because Jesus is signaling from the start that in his presence the power of evil, wether it be in the form of misguided religious teaching or a demented lunatic, can be overpowered.  The point of this part of the story with the running, shouting, possessed man comes back again to the power and authority of Jesus' words to affect a dramatic change in people.  Even if those people appear to be beyond the reach of any kind of effective change.

There is a famous painting in which the artist depicts a young man playing chess with the devil.  The devil has just made a decisive move which checkmates the young man's king.  Serious chess players who examine the painting immediately feel sympathy for the young man because they understand that the devil's move has finished him.  He has come to a blind alley from which there is no exit.

Paul Murphy, one of the world's great chess players, once studied the painting for a long time.  He saw something that no one else had seen.  This excited him, and he cried out to the devil's opponent in the picture, "Don't give up!  You still have a move!  You still have a move!"

That's the amazing authority Jesus has in speaking to our brokenness.  Jesus said to the man, and said to the crowd, and continues to say to us today, "Don't give up!  You still have a move!"  It is for this reason that we, in our sometimes judgmental ways, can not consider anyone a goner in God's eyes, because of the authority of Jesus' life and words.

I think when the man approached Jesus and asked, "Have you come to destroy us?" I get a sense that there was a spark of hope in the man's question.  That, in a deep sort of way, he was asking Jesus, "Have you come to set me free?"

A guy who owned a pub locked his place up at three a.m. and went straight home to bed.  He had slept only a few minutes when the telephone rang.  He picked up the phone and heard an obviously inebriated man ask, "What time do you open up in the morning?"  The pub owner was so furious he slammed down the receiver and went back to bed.  A few minutes later the phone rang again.  Again the same drunken voice asked, "What time do you open up in the morning?"
"Listen," the pub owner said, "there is no sense in asking me what time I open because I wouldn't let a man in your condition into my place."
To which the caller replied, "I don't want to get in; I want to get out!"

To those who call for help, Jesus responds with a straightforward word of authority.  With that word, freedom and release is won.  With the powerful authority of God's love, wrapped up in the words of Jesus, changes were made in the lives of his listeners.  It was more than a different approach; it was the authority and love behind the approach that made people listen, and then go tell others.  The power and influence of Jesus' words and works mushroomed, as people responded to that kind of authority.