"Courageous"?

Last week we saw the movie “Courageous” - about several police officers who resolve together to live as the kind of fathers God calls them to be in His Word.  On this level, it’s a good challenge to Christian men to embrace their God-pleasing vocation as fathers, to care for their families and to teach their children the fear and love of God.

The outline behind the resolution and the challenge in the story seems to be this:  God is a just judge over every person.  Since every just judge judges a person based on the wrongs they have done, this is how God will judge us also.  However, He sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins and accept the judgment of God in our place.  Nevertheless, since in His Word He has given clear instructions as to how He wants us to live (particularly as fathers), we should accept that we are accountable to Him for that life.  The movie suggests that one of the ways we can do that is to gather together a small group of like-minded Christians to resolve to live according to God’s instruction and to hold one another accountable to that resolution.

Here’s the problem I have with this scenario:  the film proposes that the motivation for these men (and for all fathers) to accept the challenge is founded on the metaphor of God as judge – and this metaphor cannot help but hold us to a life of accountability even after we say that Jesus has taken the judgment onto Himself.  Because that’s the way the legal system works, isn’t it?  Even if someone else has paid that traffic fine, you still have to watch the way you drive so you don’t appear before the judge again on a greater charge.  So to live this way you always have to be looking over your shoulder - unless of course you can gather an “accountability group,” in which case other people can be looking over your shoulder with you.

When the filmmakers made this film they totally missed the opportunity to show us a way better and more obvious image of God– the image of God as Father!  After all, the focus of the film was on the lives and ways of the fathers, but nowhere was there any mention at all of God as Father nor a suggestion that we might live as earthly fathers not in fear of a judge to whom we are accountable but in imitation of the Father who loves us all.

There was one scene that was just a wondrous, Gospel-soaked image that I wish the filmmakers had done more with.  In it, one of the fathers takes his teenage daughter out to dinner to a fancy restaurant where he explains to her his resolution to protect her, to cherish her, to nurture her into womanhood, and to ask for her to join him in seeking the guidance and the love of God in bringing to her the man that He ultimately has in mind for her to marry.  The dad gives her a beautiful ring as a sign of that love and promise to her, and she is just enthralled with it and with him.

How like the Father that Jesus taught!  The Father who provides for His child, who cares for her (or him), who nurtures and protects and loves that child and does everything for her because He loves her.  And the child does not need to do anything to have that love – he loves her just because she is his child.  In the movie the father asks nothing from his daughter except that she accept his fatherhood over her, and this she gladly does as she accepts the ring he gives her.  And so it is with the Father that God is, too – loving any of us just because we are His child, protecting, nurturing, and asking nothing from us except that we accept His fatherhood over us, too. 

And because He has first loved us as our Father, so we turn and love our children and our families and one another in the family of God.  This is the true path of courage.

On Reformation Sunday

My sermon for Reformation Sunday, October 30, 2011, was based on this section from Dr. Martin Luther's letter to Pope Leo X, called "On the Freedom of the Christian."

". . . The third incomparable grace of faith is this, that it unites the soul to Christ, as the wife to the husband; by which mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now if they are one flesh, and if a true marriage-- nay, by far the most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ claims as his.

"If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul. For, if he is a husband, he must needs take to himself that which is his wife's, and, at the same time, impart to his wife that which is his. For, in giving her his own body and himself, how can he but give her all that is his? And, in taking to himself the body of his wife, how can he but take to himself all that is hers?

"In this is displayed the delightful sight, not only of communion, but of a prosperous warfare, of victory, salvation, and redemption. For since Christ is God and man, and is such a person as neither has sinned, nor dies, nor is condemned,--nay, cannot sin, die, or be condemned; and since his righteousness, life, and salvation are invincible, eternal, and almighty; when, I say, such a person, by the wedding-ring of faith, takes a share in the sins, death, and hell of his wife, nay, makes them his own, and deals with them no otherwise than as if they were his, and as if he himself had sinned; and when he suffers, dies, and descends to hell, that he may overcome all things, since sin, death, and hell cannot swallow him up, they must needs be swallowed up by him in stupendous conflict. For his righteousness rises above the sins of all men; his life is more powerful than all death; his salvation is more unconquerable than all hell.

"Thus the believing soul, by the pledge of its faith in Christ, becomes free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of its husband Christ. Thus he presents to himself a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word; that is, by faith in the word of life, righteousness, and salvation. Thus he betrothes her unto himself "in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies." (Hosea ii. 19, 20.)

"Who then can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can comprehend the riches of the glory of this grace?  Christ, that rich and pious husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from all her evils, and supplying her with all his good things. It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying: "If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine;" as it is written, "My beloved is mine, and I am his. (Cant. ii. 16.) This is what Paul says: "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;" victory over sin and death, as he says: "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." (I Cor. xv. 56, 57.) "

- quoted from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/luther-freedomchristian.asp

Tashlan

In the final book of the Narnia series, "The Last Battle," some of the enemies of Aslan try to win over his friends by saying that their god, Tash, is really the same as Aslan and begin to refer to him as Tashlan.  Of course the true friends of Aslan (and the true worshipers of Tash) are not taken in, and are even offended at this bastardization.  Good for them!

I don't know if you've heard this, but this year there is an organization called JesusWeen, which appears (from their website description) to be dedicated to encouraging Christians to targeting October 31, 2011, as the date for concerted Gospel outreach in their communities.  It's touted as "the Godly alternative to Halloween", but as I mulled it over this week I became increasingly offended by the idea, for Jesus' sake.

First of all, I am aware that some Christians are becoming more and more uncomfortable with the American celebration of Halloween, when the decorations seem to focus more and more on death and the occult.  I get this.  I think that at some level this emphasis challenges some cherished idea that America is a "Christian nation," but there's more to it than that.  Certainly over the last several decades the observable marketing of Halloween has skyrocketed, and not the cute kids' party stuff, either.  So parents and well-meaning watchers of public morality are concerned about these trends and want to do something about all this.  This year, someone has finally come up with a solution:  JesusWeen, "The Godly alternative to Halloween."

One of the problems with JesusWeen is that there are already two very good Godly (= "Christian", you understand) alternatives to Halloween available, if you don't want to go the old-fashioned door-to-door litte-kids-with-candy-buckets route. 

The first is, of course, All Saints' Day (November 1), on which Christians may and should remember that the Church of Jesus Christ is not only those alive on earth who believe in Him but those who are alive in heaven with Him forever.  Somehow in all the let's-avoid-Halloween flurry people miss sight of the opportunity to celebrate the entire company of the redeemed for whom Jesus died.  That was a big deal, and worthy of celebrtion in October as well as in December and April.

The second (for Protestants and Evangelicals, at any rate) is the celebration of the Reformation, which began when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses about indulgences to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.  Without going into a big history lesson here, Protestants and Evangelicals and non-denominational churches wouldn't be what or where they are today without the Reformation, so we could at least celebrate this as a birthday (oh, wait - Lutherans already do).

So Christians - if you don't want to let your kids go out mooching candy from the neighbors, and if you don't want to decorate your house with skeletons and spiders, focus on All Saints' Day or on Reformation Day.  Pretty simple, if you ask me.

That just leaves the idea of "JesusWeen."  How offensive is this to me?  Let me cout the ways (just five):

5    No matter how they explain the "Ween" on the website, "JesusWeen" is obviously a mashup of "Jesus" and "Halloween" and nobody is fooled - it's a blatant attempt to push an agenda.  (What's next - ObamaWeen?)

4     Are people who celebrate JesusWeen to be called JesusWeenies?

3     "JesusWeen" sounds like a mixed-breed term, like Tashlan, Puggle, or Schnoodle.  Since I have no idea what Tashlan, Puggles, or Schnoodles really are, I don't know what the fuss is all about.

2     Assume we'll see "JesusWeen Gear" soon - T-shirts, hats, Bible covers, and more.  Will tables be located in the Temple courtyard?

1     I can't really believe that the Jesus I know - the Jesus of love and compassion and gentleness, the Jesus who welcomes children and broken ones and sick and untouchable ones into His embracing arms - would allow His Name to be so commercialized.  I'm as offended by this as I am by TV commercials about Presidents' Day sales that have bad actors in bad costumes doing bad imitations of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln dancing around and trying to sell cheap furniture.

In the end, I will have Halloween candy to give to little ghosts and goblins who may come to my door.  At church we will have a Reformation Party on October 30.  On November 1 I will remember the saints who have gone before us into heaven by the grace of God.  I will try to remember every day that I live in the love of Jesus, and that He does not need to be combined with anything else.

There's no room for Tashlan around here.

Tiny Companions

For some reason we are visited by ladybugs every October.  I don't know where they have been all summer, but they show up around our house in these early days of Autumn.  There are quite a few of them - not like an infestation, just a small invasion.  Maybe our house and cars are warmer places for them to spend the chilly nights than the grass or the trees, so they just are more comfortable there.  That's OK with me.  I think they're cute. 

In a world where it's only too easy to get up in the morning and hear all kinds of nasty news on the TV or radio, or read it in the newspaper or the internet, it's relaxing and comforting to see a dozen or so of these little guys waking and stretching after they've spent the night on my car.  Like the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, they seem oblivious to the cares and worries of the world, and gratefully accept what the Lord gives them each day. 

I greet them with "Hi, guys!", climb into the car, and off we go.  They hang on, too, and ride with me a ways up the road, enjoying the still-warm autumn weather with me.  Eventually they'll fly off to the pursuits of the day, but in the morning they'll be back and we'll do it all again.

Beloved Vineyard

Notes on a sermon from Matthew 21:33-46

This is the parable about the "Tenant Farmers" who take over the Vineyard of the Lord and act like they own the place.  It's pretty clear that Jesus is aiming the parable at the religious leaders of His day, but it's also aimed at the religious leaders of our day (including preachers like me), warning us that the vineyard belongs to Him, not to us. 

So in the story the focus is on the Owner and the Messengers, and the Tenant Farmers who kill the Son.  But what becomes of the vineyard? 

No matter what the Tenants are doing, the vineyard is still the Beloved of God.  No matter how well or how poorly the Tenants are caring for God's vineyard, He loves it with an unbelievable love.  No matter whether the religious leaders or pastors or whoever is "in charge" are sincere and upright people or totally evil, God loves His people with a love that passes all our understanding and all our imagination.  No matter whether the people of God are well cared for by their leaders or not, they are always well-beloved by the Father whose Son gave His very life for them.

I know that sometimes the people of God suffer greatly because of the sins of their leaders, and need deep healing for that suffering and those wounds.  But deeper than those wounds is the love of God for them.  That love sustains them even through the worst from their leaders, heals them with His tender love and compassion, and lifts them up again in His care. 

The tenants come and go, but the vineyard is the Lord's Beloved forever.