Last week was surely a frustrating week for me. For a long time I really
could not get a handle on it until I realized I was really, really frustrated
with being me. I was blaming God, but really where I am now is based on the
consequences of my actions I took many years ago. Way back when, I decided that
the only goal in my life was to try and integrate my personality both physical
and spiritual. It has been a long time now since I have been able to do what I
do best, in any meaningful way (to me) and consequently I am not all that happy
about not being able to control my environment the way I would like. If you
haven't gathered already I'm anxious to get on with it.
The Bible in many places talks about how to handle this desire to control your
own destiny. Psalm 46 especially sums it up. Verse 10&11 in the Bannon Amplified Contemporary Paraphrase states
it this way: Shut up with the bitching, the
whining, the arguing, don't make any bridge, just get over it, and know that I
am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge; just chill dude!
I guess I don't have it so bad, I could really own a Ford Explorer. Not to make
light of the details of some of the tragic accidents that have happened when
the tires separated and the vehicles turned over, sometimes killing the
children, a parent or injuring someone for life. But when you really think
about it. No one forced anyone to go out and spend close to forty grand for a
top heavy, unstable, gas guzzling, infernal combustion device to drive to an
from school, the store and sometimes to church. The SUV community club is
pretty much the cause of why some people in the North East will not be able to
obtain home heating fuel at a reasonable price this winter. If you really take
the time to look at it, perhaps a new sedan at one third the price would
probably fit the transportation bill quite well. You can point the finger of
blame at a whole lot of people, but the greed and self centeredness of
Americans is really not that much different that a bankrupt Soviet system of
Godless atheism. Both promote only all you can get, now! "I want mine now, and to hell with anyone else.
After all the poor will always be with us!"
The poor person is always blamed for their situation, in the same way this
quote is so often taken out of its Biblical context. Jesus makes this statement
concerning the poor in Matthew 26:11 after a woman poured an alabaster flask of
fragrant oil on His head. The indignant disciples were saying, "Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have
been sold and given to the poor" (verse
8b,9). The whole context is in the anointing of Jesus for burial. Shall we be
so crass to equate our petty selfishness with an act of commitment and
sacrifice to our soon to be crucified Savior.
Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 15:11, which truly sets the context of our Biblical
commitment to the poor starting in verse 7: If
there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your
land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor
shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him
and willingly lend to him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. Beware
lest there be a wicked thought in your heart saying, 'The seventh year, the
year of release, is at hand, and your eye be evil against your brother and you
give him nothing, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin
among you. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved
when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you
and all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor
will never cease from the land; therefore I am commanding you saying, 'You
shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your
land.'
It is sad that in America this week during the presidential debates, neither of
the candidates will question the right of the rich to extract a choice from the
poor to heat their homes, buy food, or to pay for prescription drugs. The
political question is posed in how do enable the elderly in this country to buy
new expensive drugs, not by what right to multinational pharmaceutical
corporations have to rip off Americans, especially those least able to afford
there products. Why can these, the most profitable enterprises in the world,
withhold service to those in their declining years, or those dying of aids in
Africa, except in the name of greed and bigger bonuses for their executives.
And while I am on the stump, or the soap box, by what right does the US
government give you a tax deduction on your contributions to church and
charity. If this truly is a country based on the separation of church and
state, then the money you earn that you give to your "faith based
institution" should not be subject to any tax at all. This deduction
perversion of course traces its history to the institution of the income
(revenue) tax system itself. At that time the churches of this country, gave up
their role as the institution of last resort, in the name of the intrusive
federal government. Once relinquish rights of freedom are seldom restored.
In this contemporary context we are free to look briefly at some of the word to
Israel by the prophet Jeremiah. If you were reading through your Bible this
year using our Bible Reading Calendar
you would be this week in the Book of Jeremiah, specifically chapters 10-25.
Not really a place to begin if your goal is to pass out warm and fuzzies and
heighten everyone's self esteem. Now the easiest way to deal with the book is
to say that all of Jeremiah's prophesies were fulfilled 500 years or so before
the time of Christ. That being said, really it makes no sense for its inclusion
within the canon of scripture unless we share some of the same attributes of
those national Israelites some 2500 years ago. We are them, and them are us.
Starting in Chapter 10 and read any of the chapters, virtually no good news.
Only judgement. Thus after Chapter 10 where Ford Explorers and plastic lives
are covered, in Chapter 11 the Lord gets serious with his covenant people. So
go get that Bible gathering dust over there somewhere and read at least both =
chapters.
"Man is that depressing! But why out of
those 15 chapters did you pick Chapter 11?"
Well as a general rule for the first 1800 years of the church, and as still
practiced outside of American Evangelicalism, the church was a continuation of
the covenant of grace that God established with Adam and Eve. This covenant
begins with the shedding of blood in Genesis Chapter 3, continuing through
Abraham, the Mosaic covenant of the Old Testament. This fulfillment of that
whole historic line is in the person and work of Jesus Christ, through His
propitiatory blood substitutionary atonement on the cross. Through his death, I
am forever justified as sinless, and through His resurrection I have the
promise of adoption as a son or daughter of the living God.
In this chapter Jeremiah is speaking specifically to the nation of Israel,
serving God under the revelation of the Mosaic covenant given through Moses in
Sinai. It is a system of works preparing a way for a Messiah who will not just
cover the sins of the people, but take them away forever. As I write this
message in this Jewish section of Seattle,the descendants of those same people
to whom Jeremiah is speaking are celebrating Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
On this day when practiced according to the tradition, two goats are selected.
One for sacrifice, the other as the scapegoat, to be released into the
wilderness. The sacrificed goat is killed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy
seat in the Holy Place, by the high priest. (Leviticus 16; 23:26-32)
Now it is wonderful to understand the significance of this act and this great
historic day of the Judeo-Christian heritage. But to continue to live under the
requirements of that revelation is not part of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
Much of the English speaking church today is bound in that same works
righteousness practiced in the nation of Israel and condemned then and now by
Jeremiah. It gives us our distinctiveness, like being able to afford a Ford. It
is what makes the Right Reverend Wright's message of last week so comforting.
When we don't do the bad things we think we are doing the good things. But the
true gospel is that the truly good things are beyond our ability, so by resting
in Christ righteousness, we are free to do works of service, like truly helping
the poor and needy.
To put it another way in the New Covenant or Last Covenant scenario we must go
on beyond Romans Chapter 8 to understand that many religious Christians of
today fall under the same bondage that Paul talks about in Chapters 9 and
beyond. What none of us get most of the time, because it is beyond our own
comprehension, is that the sanctification we seek does not come by going back
to Sinai. That problem becomes even more acute when we try to over analyze the
Bible from a format of inductive reasoning. We can then be left with pieces of
God's word cut off in different time segments from other parts. We are then
free within that context to make it absolutely literal or to make it absolutely
symbolic, depending upon our own prejudices. Sanctification comes along with
salvation through grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Through
that mystery, the Holy Spirit enables us to overcome our addictions to the
world and worldliness. We pass from bondage to freedom, from slavery to
adoption. It is in that context that we can overcome and must overcome the
judgements of Jeremiah in move on into the works that God has prepared for us
to accomplish.
To that end much of what I was frustrated about
last week is not being able to use some of that giftedness that I have received
from God. I consider that any gift of writing I may bring to you as flowing out
of three greater gifts that I am not currently able to utilize as I would like.
I would like to be able to apply those gifts in developing the gifts of others,
through the building of enterprise and to establish this on a self-sustaining
basis. That requires the application of capital into a missions enterprise
based on sound doctrine and the art of enterprise symbioses.
Last week I found a ship that I spent several days looking for on the
internet some months ago. It is just as I envisioned, it as a sailing vessel.
Asking price was $2.9 million. Now that looks very expensive until your realize
that based on fuel savings alone, the break even point between a sailing ship
and a conventional vessel is about 3 years, with total pay back in five or six.
If you couple this vessel with about 1500 acres of land in North Central
Washington and some working capital to get it all put together and functioning
as a single enterprise brings the total price tag to about $6 million. That
being about the price of a cheap strip mall in our area. Since this is to be a
self sustaining enterprise, with all the profits God provides being utilized
toward continue infrastructure development in missions areas, I do not like the
opportunity of being saddled with that amount of debt. Being forced to repay
according to a worldly plan that provides Ford Explorers for its officers at
the expense of the poor of the world is not what I choose to do.
To put the choices I see needed to follow this vision more clearly, which is
the only vision I have as for the purpose of this ministry at this time. The
cost of capital in worldly terms is about $500k per year. Now that translates
into debt capital for about a dozen people to buy a new Ford Explorer and risk
their lives in the folly of temporal security. Or we could build about 50
schools some where in the developing world, giving boys and girls,the opportunity
not to get a good education, but just a basic education. Allowing them to
become fully functioning members of their culture. Another option of course
would be to build 250 homes, with adequate sanitation and a drinkable water
supply. Or more dear to my heart, to provide seed capital, for a sewing
machine, or a computer, or a small tractor, or to teach people how to fish,so
that the cycle of poverty can be broken. So some can go on into the enterprise
of being fishers of men. Truly I believe that is in this area of love (or
charity as the true King James Version puts it) the church, in her quest for
distinctive ministry and conversions, has lost her understanding of the cross
and the empowerment that comes by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the true
gospel. This, in contrast, to the law that is written on hearts leading us into
further bondage.
Please intercede as God would lay this and similar ministries on your heart and
for the provisions to move forward from this place for I need all the help I
can get.
Grow in grace in admonition of the Lord as you read your Bible and pray every
single day.
AMEN!