Life In the Spirit (Romans 8:6-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
Art by Randi Ford

The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace. So the attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit to God’s Law, because it can’t. People who are self-centered aren’t able to please God.

But you aren’t self-centered. Instead you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you. If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, they don’t belong to him. If Christ is in you, the Spirit is your life because of God’s righteousness, but the body is dead because of sin. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also, through his Spirit that lives in you. (Common English Bible)

The chapters of Romans 5-8 are a core biblical text for the Christian life. They get down to the fundamental issue of a Christian’s identity and daily practice.

In the mind of the Apostle Paul, all persons are either in the Spirit of God, or not; selfish or unselfish; thinks of the common good of all, or only thinks of oneself and what is best for the individual me.

For Paul, the tell of one being a Christian is to orient one’s life completely around the person and work of Jesus Christ. If not, then one cannot claim to be a Christian, at all.

Regular Bible-readers will notice that I have used the Common English Version’s rendering of the Greek word σάρξ as “selfishness” instead of the literal and often translated English word “flesh.”

My choice highlights the reality that, although “flesh” may make some reference to the physical body, it has much more to do with a person’s holistic expression of sin by means of the mind, emotions, and soul. In other words, “flesh” can be appropriately translated as “selfishness” since it truly takes the whole person to accommodate sin’s desires.

The selfish nature of human individuals (and communities) can take many forms such as the passionate pursuit of material possessions, winning at all costs, unchecked power, and seeking influential positions.

What’s more, this fleshly selfishness is seen in communal ways through extreme promotion of capitalist ideology; hierarchical forms of power which dominate and oppress others; societal norms which keep people locked into class warfare; and exploitation of the earth’s resources for selfish purposes.

Those who are in these sorts of mindsets and social practices cannot please God, because they fundamentally contradict the overarching ethics of Holy Scripture.

We are not to dwell in the realm of selfishness but are to live in and according to the Spirit of Christ. All of this means that every believer has within them a great potential for both good and evil. Even though we have been freed from the realm of sin, the individual (and the community) must actively use this freedom from Christ for good purposes.

Simply avoiding the bad – although quite necessary – will not do. Only focusing on not getting into trouble may easily leave one complicit to evil by not helping when it was in our power to do so. The Lord Jesus avoided a simple skate through his earthly life. He instead sought:

“to preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
    and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19, CEB)

These are actions rooted in Old Testament ethical practices. They are socially minded aspirations meant for the common good of all people, and not just some persons.

The Spirit invades our lives in order to unite us to Christ. In him the believer is made righteous, and given new life and hope. Christians now have a real possibility to live according to the words and the ways of Jesus.

We no longer need to “watch out for number one.” The love of God in Christ provides what is necessary to melt the old selfish desires.

We can now remove ourselves from unholy cycles of condemnation toward both others and self.

We can now speak in a manner which encourages and uplifts, rather than use our speech to verbally decapitate another with harsh divisive language.

We can now relate to others with genuine spiritual care, instead of personal disinterest.

And we can take great hope in the fact the work of God in this world is ongoing, because of transformation by divine grace. I need no longer to listen to all the condemning messages emanating from ignorant persons who are quick to make knee jerk judgments on things they know little about.

The Spirit of Christ and the Word of God are more powerful and have greater effectiveness than any other spirit or word that is expressed or spoken. The inner testimony within the individual knows this to be true. The Christian’s identity is firmly in Christ, not in selfishness.

Perhaps it is so hard to live unselfishly because self-surrender to God feels like dying. Often our longings betray the fact that we have forgotten who we are. When that happens, we tend to search for that identity in all the wrong places.

Let’s instead put our effort into the ultimate ethic of love as embodied in the Lord whom we serve – not in idyllic ideas of romance, but in accepting people for who they are, and not what we want them to be.

I’m talking about a love that is present to others and stays with them; sharing my life; putting up with another’s difficulties; seeing things through and plugging away at what I know is right.

Most of the time, living in the Spirit is just a matter of meeting what comes day by day, and persevering with patience through it in the best way I know how.

The love of God in Christ tends not to be the kind that people write stories about, but is simply doing things with a good attitude, a right spirit, and proper motives. If we relate deeply to life and experience both the joy and pain of living on this earth, then I believe we will find that our longings fade into the background.

That’s because I am now living in the realm of the Spirit of love. And when I’m in that zone, there’s no reason to seek anything else, because the Spirit is your life.

God of compassion and consolation, your breath alone brings life to weary souls. Pour out your Spirit upon us, so that we may face despair with the hope of resurrection and faith in Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Immigrant

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment

“The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.” (Exodus 12:49)

“Pursue hospitality to strangers.” (Romans 12:13)

“The respect for the stranger and the sanctification of the name of the Eternal are strangely equivalent.” Emmanuel Levinas

For the past decade or more, I’ve been asked many times about “God’s design” for marriage, gender roles, and a whole host of societal questions. There is one question, however, that I have never been asked: What is God’s design concerning immigration?

I reframe the question a bit differently with a few clarifying questions:

  • When it comes to immigration and immigrants, what is God’s intention for a rightly ordered society?
  • How does God feel about the immigrant?
  • Is there a biblical framework for approaching the subject of immigration?

Indeed, there is. In fact, there are several words for the immigrant in the Old Testament. There are references to both Jewish and foreign immigration; “strangers” who are foreign immigrants living in the land of Israel; and foreign workers (migrants) who sojourn in and through the land.

Most English translations of Holy Scripture use the words “alien,” “stranger,” or “foreigner” when speaking of immigration. When it comes to the foreigner who settles in Israel, the general rule and stance toward that immigrant is to welcome the stranger among you; and treat them as equals in approaching to the law.

The ancient Hebrew people were foreigners in the land of Egypt for 400 years. God’s judgment on Pharaoh and the Egyptians brought the opportunity for  justice amongst the Israelites. The Jews were delivered from their bondage and oppression.

Because of their redemption out of Egypt, the Israelites formed an identity that included ethical treatment to foreigners who came and resided among them.

Since the Israelites had been immigrants to Egypt, they were to welcome the immigrant among themselves and treat foreigners with respect, since all of them together were under the law.

It was important for the Jewish people to take a stance of empathy toward the immigrant. They knew firsthand what it felt like to suffer in a foreign land. Therefore they were to see life through the eyes of the other – the migrant, the refugee, and the asylum seeker – who resided next to them.

Early in the Bible, Abraham was commanded by God to leave his country and immigrate to a foreign land:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1, NIV).

Because God loves the immigrant, so too, we are to love them, as well:

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:17-19, NIV)

Furthermore, because the Lord is a just God, we are to provide justice not only for our own people, but also for the foreign immigrant among us:

“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21, NIV)

Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice… Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this. (Deuteronomy 24:17-18, NIV)

Holy Scripture is replete with admonitions and commands to protect the foreign immigrant and be mindful about their well-being. They, like us, are humans created in the image of God, and therefore, deserve to be honored as fellow image-bearers by treating them justly.

The New Testament upholds and extends basic concern and consciousness to the foreigner:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2, NRSV)

In the Gospels, let’s be mindful that the Lord Jesus himself was an immigrant – a refugee fleeing to Egypt from oppression in his homeland. (Matthew 2:13-15)

Jesus existentially knew what it was like to be a foreigner. And so, in keeping with his Jewish upbringing, he respected the alien and stranger around him. In order to demonstrate his concern and commitment toward the stranger, he told several parables.

The following parable of Jesus describes what a rightly ordered society looks like when it comes to the foreigner among us:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels, he will sit on his royal throne. The people of all nations will be brought before him, and he will separate them, as shepherds separate their sheep from their goats.

He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, “My father has blessed you! Come and receive the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world was created. When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me.”

Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, “When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail?”

The king will answer, “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.”

Then the king will say to those on his left, “Get away from me! You are under God’s curse. Go into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! I was hungry, but you did not give me anything to eat, and I was thirsty, but you did not give me anything to drink. I was a stranger, but you did not welcome me, and I was naked, but you did not give me any clothes to wear. I was sick and in jail, but you did not take care of me.”

Then the people will ask, “Lord, when did we fail to help you when you were hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in jail?”

The king will say to them, “Whenever you failed to help any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do it for me.”

Then Jesus said, “Those people will be punished forever. But the ones who pleased God will have eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46, CEV)

According to Jesus, the current Trump administration – especially the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem – has been pursuing a policy that is in direct opposition to basic biblical ethics and morality.

What’s more, believers who support such a policy are demonstrating, at the least, ignorance concerning the Scriptures; and, at worst, a concern about following President Trump rather than following the Lord Jesus.

Someday, the Trump administration will have to give an account of their attitudes, words, and actions toward the immigrant foreigner in America to the God who loves the alien and the stranger.

In the end, grace and love always wins.

The God of Holy Scripture has already communicated a positive stance toward the immigrants among us.

God has said that immigrants are not monsters from sh** countries. They are humans who were brave enough to make dangerous journeys to the United States in order to support themselves and their families with the hope of liberation from oppression; and the freedom to provide for themselves and to support their new country.

A well-ordered society with a biblically ethical design includes caring for all residents, not just some. The immigrant – no matter where they are from – has landed among us by the providence of God.

So, let’s not make it any worse for them here than where they’ve come from. Instead, let us be helpful to the foreign immigrant among us. It’s what Jesus has already said he would do.

Cooperation or Coercion?

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Pastor Tim's PonderingsLeave a comment

Cooperation: an act or instance of working or acting together for a common purpose or benefit; joint action.

Coercion: use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance.

This week I was able to visit the site of Alex Pretti’s killing. With my clerical collar on, several persons came up and just hugged me, too traumatized to barely speak a word.

As I left the mournful scene, I understood that although we were all strangers, we had gathered together for a common purpose, seeking to work with one another for the benefit of justice and peace by means of a collective solidarity of humility and lamentation with a determined non-violent stance.

Right now, Minnesotans have an existential understanding about what it means to cooperate with each other. And they are equally clear about what non-cooperation is.

In recent weeks, in conversing with others not from Minnesota, some of them wrongly place the train of tragic events within the state at the feet of its leadership stating, “If they would just give some cooperation, then these killings and I.C.E. tactics wouldn’t have happened.”

Setting aside for now the bold-faced form of victim-blaming, there is here a very curious use of the word “cooperation.”

In December, when the Director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, came to the city of St. Paul, she did not come with an attitude or intention of cooperation but of coercion.

The Director unfortunately framed the concept of cooperation not as sitting down with Minnesota leadership as equals, working together and coordinating together in order to handle the “worst of the worst” when it came to immigrants.

Rather, Noem’s idea of cooperation is to have both the leadership and citizens of Minnesota keep out of the way of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and leave them alone. She also made it clear that if anyone got in the way of ICE (which for her meant protesting) there would be consequences.

From the get-go, ICE had a mandate from the government not to cooperate with state and local officials, but to coerce them through whatever force they could leverage in order sweep those state officials aside, and then do whatever they wanted to do to the state’s immigrant population.

It is a sad reality that the present Trump administration seems not to care a wit about cooperation (even though they keep using the word). They evidence not understanding at all what cooperation really is. They’ve intentionally used coercive tactics from the beginning of their entrance to Minneapolis.

The approach of DHS and ICE has nothing to do with cooperation. Cooperation is built on mutual trust, whereas coercion’s base is always a use of raw power. And that what I and the rest of my fellow Minnesota residents are presently experiencing. It is literally impossible for us to cooperate with ICE because they have no concept of the term.

Why am I bringing up all of this? Because ICE and its federal government backing is not only oppressing and abusing power; they are also about as far as one can get from the words and the ways of Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, and sadly, when I mentioned this to a Christian who embraces the Trumpian “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) philosophy, his response was: “Funny you should bring Jesus into this,” as if the Lord Christ whom he claims to serve has nothing to do with any of the things happening to the residents of Minnesota.

Somewhere along the line, this person who confesses the name of Christ bought into the redefinition of the word “cooperation” to such a degree that he allowed Jesus to be purged away along with the state’s immigrant population.

Even the almighty and all-powerful God does not rely upon coercion in dealing with humanity. The Creator God, instead, invites human creatures to participate with him in a divine/human cooperative. There is no arm-twisting, no power plays, no threats. There’s only an invitation of participative commitment to love and good works in the world.

Wherever there is an incongruence between belief and action, and a reliance upon coercive power, there we find in Holy Scripture the encouragement and exhortation toward cooperation.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:1-4, NIV)

My experience in the Twin Cities has been, in may ways, difficult because I’ve seen the destructive and damaging power of coercion by the likes of DHS’s Kristi Noem and White House’s Stephen Miller, and ultimately of President Trump.

Yet, on the other hand, I’ve also experienced the beauty of vulnerable humanity coming together in a cooperative spirit of concern and love for one’s neighbor.

If it seems to the President that there is an organized effort in Minnesota with protesters, what he is actually observing is true community and neighborliness – something that, sadly, he nor anyone else on his senior staff seems to  understand nor comprehend.

And that inability to see community when it is front of their faces is perhaps one of the greatest tragedies of all. Because without federal officials seeing this spirit of neighborliness and community cooperation, the hard tactics of ICE will continue, and the violence will not end.

Nobody here in the Cities is going to compromise or stand down from practicing loving cooperative community, nor should they have to.

Real cooperation and true beauty is not found in the halls of power; it is discovered in the places of weakness and powerlessness. And it is in this place of vulnerability that I choose to live and move and have my being in solidarity with the Lord Jesus.

“But…!”

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog5 Comments

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:17-18, NIV)

“…you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.” Jesus (Matthew 15:6)

In talking with other so-called “Christians” who don’t live in Minneapolis or Minnesota about events in my home of the Twin Cities, I have found a disturbing trend among many of them.

Those who support the Trump administration and I.C.E. agent activity – of whom I personally know several – typically begin their responses to me with saying things such as: “Well, I don’t condone all of the tactics of I.C.E., but…”

Then they drone on, giving an apologetic for the murders and violence in Minnesota by blaming the protesters and/or the local leadership, all the while referring to them as “rioters.”

In the last several years, I have personally attempted to remove the word “but” from my vocabulary as much as possible. The reason I do this is that:

The use of “but” in a sentence is a way of invalidating everything that was said in the first part of the statement.

I would conjecture that the reason for even making a prefacing comment before using the word “but” is to try and soften what the person really wants to say and emphasize. In other words, it’s a way of trying to appear somewhat empathetic or compassionate, so that the other person will listen. That’s why I try and no longer use the word “but.”

In the past couple of years, I’ve even began calling out people who use this type of tactic with the word “but.” Instead of getting into an argumentative discussion (which is nearly always what happens when the “but” language is employed), I simply respond to the person, “No ‘buts’ in the urinal,” and ask them to reframe their statement without using the word.

I grew up in the era before public smoking bans. When I was a little kid, I remember smokers being everywhere in public, including restaurants. Typically, there was cigarette smoke just about everywhere – which also created a problem with cigarette butts.

Men’s public bathrooms were notorious for having cigarette butts in the urinals. Public places that had chronic problems with this practice would often put signs above the urinals stating, “NO BUTTS IN THE URINAL.”

Those signs always made me laugh hilariously because, well, I was a little boy and I took the message quite literally. After all, I was in a bathroom! (Even to this day, I laugh out loud anytime I see a sign while driving past a business which says, “Parking In Rear”).

I hope you get my point, as uncouth as it may be. There is no place for using the word “but” in a discussion with anyone, if you intend on simply invalidating what another has said or believes.

So, I have a real problem with the disingenuousness and attempted manipulation of much of the use of the word “but” with “Christians” whose intent is to invalidate my thought and practice of speaking and writing against the presence of I.C.E. in Minnesota, protesting their violence and perpetual lies, and constantly agitating for people to speak and act humanely.

Out of all the Old Testament prophets, perhaps Jeremiah had the worst problem with the “but” people. After all, such persons have always existed throughout history.

The prophet Jeremiah spoke out and against the popular notion that one could worship God and offer the proper sacrifices, but at the same time, do whatever the heck you want to do – including worship of other gods, and giving the shaft to the needy through terrible injustices.

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.” (Jeremiah 7:2-8, NIV)

According to the present Trump administration, the prophet Jeremiah would be labeled as a “domestic terrorist” for speaking out against the powers that be, and for prophesying judgment upon them for lying words and sacrilegious ways. He would receive that moniker because, in their understanding, he would be getting in the way of the kingdom’s operations.

As for me, because I have supposedly impeded I.C.E. operations in my own community through both word and action (according to their definition), I and my compassionate peace-loving family fits their understanding of “domestic terrorists,” even though we have done everything according to our limited abilities to practice de-escalation tactics, provide spiritual care to protesters and immigrants, and uphold the words and ways of Jesus, of whom we seek to follow with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

It is high time to dispense with the word “but” in our speech, and embrace the word “and.” I have a few suggestive examples:

“Even though we do not agree, I am sorry this has happened, and I grieve with you over these recent tragic deaths.”

“Although we are at loggerheads with each other, I too, believe that human life is sacred, and I will work toward peace and harmony in my community.”

“Yes, we disagree about many things, and I am here to listen and to seek to understand what you believe and why it is important to you.”

“And tell me more about that…”

“And I care about what happens to all of us in this world.”

“And I love you, despite the fact we aren’t on the same page about this.”

These are statements I long to hear people of faith say to each other… I’m still waiting… and so I’m still presently living with profound sadness in a world in which it is imperative that Christians put love where love is not.

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart – especially those in Minneapolis who are both resident and non-resident – so that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.