witness

I Want That

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 84; 148, Isaiah 24:14-23, 1 Peter 3:13-4:6, Matthew 20:17-28

If you didn’t tell people you were a Christian, would they feel compelled to ask about your hope?

The First Epistle of Peter, written to an audience spanning the Roman provinces of Asia Minor, is concerned largely with the relationship between Christians and the surrounding culture. In response to a growing sense among non-believers that Christians were troublemakers, dissidents, and generally immoral the letter encouraged Christians to respect authority and to face discrimination and persecution for doing what is right as opportunities to achieve solidarity with Christ’s suffering.

The letter advises: “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”

Why should people care enough to ask about someone’s hope? Because when we follow Christ, it should be obvious we “do not fear what they fear.” When we don’t fear what other people do, it makes them uncomfortable until they know why. And what are these things people fear? Radical forgiveness (both human and divine). Disregard for public opinion. Willingly becoming a servant to all. Death. Life.

If we never mention being a Christian, people should still see these traits in us. And any unease it causes them should fade when, with gentleness and reverence, we explain our faith.

A good friend of mine, raised without religion, arrived at faith not because Christians tried to talk her into it but because, in her words, “I saw a light in them and thought, I want that.” This light was evident in their everyday attitudes and actions, and buoyed them up through both difficulties and celebrations. Strong-armed evangelistic tactics would have been wasted on her, but the fruits of the Spirit were a compelling witness.

It’s not for us to judge whether the light of Christ dwells within the heart of any individual, but Christians can certainly create barriers to obscure it. Anger, fear, hostility, condemnation, self-righteousness, and stubbornness are all like shades we draw around our hearts. Each one makes it harder for the light to shine into the world; draw enough, and it is obscured entirely. Then no one has anything to ask about, because we look the same as or worse than the rest of the world.

We can positively influence the world’s (and our own) perception of the faithful without making demands or forcing ourselves upon it. The witness of a servant full of hope and without fear is a remarkable thing. Let us strive to be a people who cause other people to say, “I want that.”

Additional reading: for thoughts on today’s passage from Matthew, see Ask? Away!

Comfort: The light of Christ shines within you.

Challenge: Let is shine in the world as well.

Prayer: As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God. (Psalm 40:17)

Discussion: Have you known anyone who lights up a room without saying anything?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Conspiracy Theory

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 143; 147:12-20, Ezra 1:1-11, 1 Corinthians 16:1-9, Matthew 12:15-21

It’s hardly even news any more when we discover the people who are supposed to be leading us or serving the public are not working in our best interest. The outrage we feel over scandals is less about being surprised or disappointed, and more about vindicating our suspicions about how the “other side” abuses its power.

From the personal and petty to the global and grandiose, people with power can’t seem to help abusing it and maintaining a choke hold on it. The Pharisees felt Jesus and his teachings threatened their power and they were willing to play dirty to retain it. Like the power-hungry across all times, they convinced themselves and others it was for the greater good.

It would be nice to say Christians today were not nearly as prone to conspire against Christ, but would it be true? Early Christians held beliefs that ran counter to the dominant culture. In America and large sections of the western world, Christians are the dominant culture. Because this is the case, it is easy to start assuming the things we value as a society must be Christian. We conflate value-neutral systems like capitalism and democracy, and institutions like the military and the constitution, with Christianity in a way that makes them seem like the Unified Theory of Everything Good. When Jesus gets bound up in marketing gimmicks and partisan politics and national pride, we have — intentionally or not — conspired to undermine his message. When Christians view and treat the poor as moral failures instead of fellow travelers, or encourage others to do so, we have traded Christ for comfort.

What if we could conspire on behalf of Christ? What if, instead of assuming Christ should value the same things we do, we sought to live in loving contrast to the parts of our culture — even the self-identified Christian ones — that resemble the institutions and hypocrisies he criticized? What if we did so in a way that was not about toppling the powerful, but raising the downtrodden? If we aren’t rocking the boat in radically inclusive ways, we’ll never know what it’s like to walk on water.

Comfort: The values Christ stands for are timeless…

Challenge: … so we can’t assume all his teachings were about the past.

Prayer: I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. (Psalm 116:1)

Discussion: Are there any conspiracy theories you think are true?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

In(ter)dependence Day

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 96; 147:1-11, Nahum 1:1-14, Revelation 12:1-6, Luke 11:37-52

We admire independence. We sing the praises of the self-sufficient, the self-made, and the independently wealthy. And yet … it is largely a myth. While relying on someone else is often portrayed as a weakness, the human condition is primarily one of interdependence. We rely on each other in ways large and small.

American Christians tend to speak of salvation in fairly independent terms – my personal relationship with Christ; the day I was saved; etc. Yet Jesus and the prophets spoke of salvation in terms of entire nations. Jesus said several times he came for the nation of Israel. He condemned the Pharisees and lawyers not just for their own misdeeds, but for hindering others from entering the kingdom. When the prophet Nahum spoke about God’s wrath falling on the city of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, he spoke to them as a people; the righteous would also pay for the deeds of the unrighteous. Does this seem unfair? Unjust?

Whether we recognize it or not, others depend on us for salvation. Our witness is only as credible as our character. Many people have turned (or been driven) from the faith because of the misbehavior and hypocrisy they experience in Christian community. Must we be perfect? Of course not. We should, however, remain aware that once we call ourselves Christians, our example teaches people what to expect from Christ.

Perhaps we think people are responsible for their own salvation, and perhaps ultimately they are, but such thinking diminishes the faithful parents, teachers, mentors, and friends who introduced us to our beliefs and helped us through hard times. People who are swayed by bad examples are no weaker or less deserving than we who had the benefit of good ones. Of people who cause others to lose faith, Jesus says: “It would be best for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large stone hung around his neck.”

A community rises or falls together because its tangle of cause and effect can’t be teased apart. Whether our interdependence is a blessing or curse is entirely dependent on us.

Comfort: You don’t have to go it alone.

Challenge: As you go about your daily business, think about all the things other people do to make it possible for you to do the things you do.

Prayer: Holy and loving God, may I be a worthy witness for you. Amen.

Discussion: When have you been forced to depend on someone? How did it make you feel?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group or follow @comf_and_chall on Twitter. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Scorched Earth

/ JJS / Leave a comment

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 57; 145, Micah 2:1-13, Revelation 7:1-8, Luke 9:51-62

[A] village of the Samaritans […] did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.
– Luke 9:52b-56

It didn’t take long for the disciples to become drunk with the power Jesus had given them. In their culture, refusal of hospitality was a much more offensive act than we would consider it today, but what about their experience with Jesus could have possibly led James and John to believe he would want an entire village utterly destroyed?

In hindsight the proposed Fireball of Vengeance was an over-reaction, but Christians still like to flirt with the possibility. Too often we approach Christianity like an imperial decree, and a reason to punish non-conformists. We want civil laws and corporate policies to reflect our Christian doctrines, and are willing to let the house (and the Senate) burn down before we will compromise to live peaceably with our non-Christian neighbors.

Codifying Christian values into law actually erodes faith by substituting fear of prosecution for voluntary submission to God. We should live out our Christian values (conservative, moderate, or liberal) regardless of civil law. Sometimes that costs us money, status, jobs, or even freedom, but Jesus warned us that would happen. We can’t bring an individual – let alone a nation – to Christ through victim-mentality legislation; we do so by offering a witness that shows how Christ has transformed our lives through grace and love, including love of our enemies (and not the punitive “for your own good” kind of love that demands nothing of us but everything of them).

Even in his confinement, Paul was an influential witness to Christ. In a nation that guarantees the greatest religion freedom in the world, let’s not be so ready to shackle ourselves to theocracy. A life lived in humble service to Christ and the least among us wins souls that religious scorched earth policies would destroy.

Comfort: You can live your faith regardless of what others believe and do.

Challenge: Treat your non-Christian neighbors (or Christian neighbors who believe differently than you do) as people who are also loved by Christ .

Prayer: Lord of Heaven and Earth, make me a bold and loving witness for Christ. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever excused your own less-than-Christian behavior because it was permitted under the law?

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group or follow @comf_and_chall on Twitter. You’ll  have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!