Tag: common good

Truth Stumbles in the Public Square (Isaiah 59:9-19)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Therefore justice is far from us,
    and deliverance does not reach us;
we wait for light, but there is only darkness;
    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall,
    groping like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
    among the vigorous as though we were dead.
We all growl like bears;
    like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice, but there is none;
    for salvation, but it is far from us.
For our transgressions before you are many,
    and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions indeed are with us,
    and we know our iniquities:
transgressing and denying the Lord
    and turning away from following our God,
talking oppression and revolt,
    conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.
Justice is turned back,
    and deliverance stands at a distance,
for truth stumbles in the public square,
    and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking,
    and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
    that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one
    and was appalled that there was no one to intervene,
so his own arm brought him victory,
    and his righteousness upheld him.
He put on righteousness like a breastplate
    and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing
    and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle.
According to their deeds, so will he repay
    wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;
    to the coastlands he will render requital.
So those in the west shall fear the name of the Lord,
    and those in the east, his glory,
for he will come like a pent-up stream
    that the wind of the Lord drives on. (New Revised Standard Version)

We in the United States of America are in a presidential election year. Soon Americans will be voting for their choice of president, as well as an array of federal, state, and local candidates on the ballot.

For many, these four year cycles of elections bring a lot of anxiety, dread, and perhaps most of all, anger. Television commercials and media outlets overflow with the most egregious forms of logical fallacies, and finger pointing, one could imagine.

According to the Pew Research Center, public trust in the U.S. federal government is at 22 percent. That figure is slightly up from 5-10 years ago when it hit an historic low of 15 percent. To put that in perspective, the public trust was at 73 percent in 1960, and 36 percent when Richard Nixon resigned from office due to the Watergate scandal.

In some ways, our contemporary situation is akin to the situation of ancient Judah when Isaiah was prophet. Peace and protection, justice and righteousness, were hard to come by. There was no real trust in government.

The Judeans of the time blamed everyone but themselves for their social and political troubles. They even blamed God. Citizens were not taking responsibility to effect good and right in the land.

It appears that nobody was accepting accountability for their own junk, and blaming God and others for their governmental woes. So, they turned away from each other, and God.

Politics, today as in Isaiah’s day, has become less about the vocation of statecraft and unselfish public servants promoting the welfare of citizens; it has become more about winning elections and possessing power. 

A party spirit rules the day, where, in the Unites States, Republicans and Democrats are more divided than ever with less and less ability to truly listen to one another in order to advance genuine justice, ethical righteousness, and social peace within both the nation and the world.

We, as citizens of both our local regions and of the world, must avoid getting sucked into the vortex of acrimonious speech and hate-filled rhetoric. 

Christians, especially those who desire to live and love like Jesus, need to be at the forefront of forsaking the hypocrisy of saying one thing and doing another; of envying power in order to satisfy personal agendas; and, of believing that malicious talk is justified if it accomplishes my wants and needs. 

We are not to keep looking for politicians, and everyone else whom we disagree with, to change. Rather, we ourselves are to practice repentance and allow the grace of God to transform and renew us. 

If what we speak in the public square is selfish and deceitful, we have no further to look than within, when it comes to turning from evil. A slow, careful, and serious reading of the prophet Isaiah becomes quite necessary. If it does not lead to repentance, we only have God’s displeasure to anticipate.

So, instead of continually insisting that others change or move over, let’s focus on us and seek the following:

  • Seek our better angels of humility, tolerance, and patience to guide our public discourse.
  • Open our eyes to see the image of God in others who are different from us and who see the world differently than we do.
  • Embrace civility and basic human respect for all persons, no matter who they are, as our presuppositions to all conversations.
  • Develop good listening skills so that we aren’t misinterpreting and misrepresenting another’s viewpoint.
  • Be willing, within our own communities of faith, to participate and worship together as the one people of God, without assigning other identities to each other which are not helpful.
  • Enlarge our hearts so that we are big enough people to hold the differing perspectives and politics of others without demonizing them.
  • Default to grace when we aren’t sure what to do say or do.

The Lord will not contend forever with injustice and unrighteousness in the world’s politics, including the extremely local politics of church, family, and neighborhood. Divine intervention cuts both ways, bringing deliverance and freedom, as well as judgment and retribution.

Let us, then, be found to be truthful and honest in all our words and ways; encouraging and helpful in all our public rhetoric and service. Let us seek the peace of everyone, both near and far.

God of truth and justice, you have every right to judge the world. Yet, instead of destroying the earth, you sent your Son to redeem lost humanity to yourself. May I, along with every creature you have made, come to our senses and speak truth with love; and act with integrity so that there is again righteousness throughout the land. Amen.

Watch Out For the Millstones (Mark 9:38-50)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year B1 Comment

John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

“If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell.And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (New Revised Standard Version)

Weird encounters and exorcisms, hard words and sayings, and enough metaphors to creep out the visual learners among us, were all regular staples of Christ’s earthly ministry.

For me, this makes sense. Christ coming into a world of great need, filled with all sorts of disturbances and disturbing people, will create spiritual headlines. The ministry of Jesus does not involve idyllic pictures of beautiful butterflies, and bunnies without bowel movements.

The world needs real saving, which is why Jesus showed up in an incarnational invasion that nobody saw coming.

Christian discipleship is not for the faint of heart. It demands an embrace of robust moral teaching, along with a cross to carry.

Following Jesus involves lots of servitude, and only a little bit of leadership. It requires radical humility to do anything.

Furthermore, Jesus was anything but a narrow-minded exclusivist. He encouraged his disciples to have broad and open-minded attitudes and approachs toward those who do good and provide help, outside of the disciple circle.

Whether following Jesus, or not, Christ commended, and did not condemn, those who squish evil like a grape, and offer cold water to others on a hot day. Why? Doesn’t this seem antithetical to the demands of discipleship within the disciple group?

Maybe. Maybe not. Frankly, it seems paradoxical (two things that seem contradictory but nevertheless are equally true). On one hand, only the disciples bear the name of Christ; but on the other hand, everyone who does justice and mercy has Christ’s name invisibly emblazoned on their heads.

Anybody who remotely conforms to the character of Christ, upholding basic morality and human kindness, receives a divine thumbs up from Jesus.

And conversely, anyone who acts the bully and trips up a little one who believes – whether they have a label of disciple or not – are in for a world of divine retribution.

It all hinges on how scandalous we can be; or rather, what sort of scandal we stir up with our lives.

The good kind of scandal is going against the grain of injustice and doing good when no one else much cares; and the unjust ones need a big obstacle of righteousness in their way.

The bad sort of scandal is putting a stumbling block between God and those trying to come to the Lord. It’s the wicked who need to be tripped up and set straight, and not the faithful who need to run an obstacle course just to get a peek at the good life as defined by God.

Just so you know, millstones were usually the heaviest objects in a village – weighing up to a ton (2,000 lbs.) or more. We can perhaps understand Jesus talking of perpetrators getting a millstone necklace; but it’s a real tragedy whenever someone puts one on for themself.

You’re harming yourself if the choice is to be irresponsible, hateful, unloving, or unjust. I’m not talking about the inevitable mistake, white lie, or unconscious bias. I’m talking about a deliberate choice to get in another’s way of happiness; tear someone down with verbal violence; or harm a person by any means you can do it.

All of us have a responsibility to protect and promote the common good of all persons, and the social good of the community.

Nobody is helped whenever a person comes down hard with judgmental criticism on a coworker who was just trying to do their best but failed. Everyone loses whenever a relative spreads gossip throughout the family system.

And no one is built up whenever a neighborhood association leader or condo board chair creates unnecessary roadblocks to community well-being, but then railroads a pet personal project through for their own advantage.

Feet end up walking in dangerous places. Hands reach where they shouldn’t. Eyes look with a sinful gaze. There are times when it is warranted to amputate a limb in order to save the whole body; to perform a surgery in an effort to save a life; and to remove an eye before it creates serious sickness.

But I am talking metaphorically and spiritually – which is no less real than the physical and tangible. Gangrene happens not only to the flesh and blood body; it also happens to the diseased soul.

When it happens, the only the way to deal with it is by getting rid of gangrenous part. Otherwise, death is around the corner, as well as the coroner. Both body and soul suffer. And it will do no good to feign healthiness and pretend as if everything is “just fine.”

Some salt, therefore, is good. It acts as a preservative against expiration; and promotes the good taste of obedience and fidelity to God.

All your grain offerings you shall season with salt; you shall not omit from your grain offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt. (Leviticus 2:13, NIV)

Let’s consider hard whether we want to be lame Christians who offer nothing but a tepid discipleship and spirituality to the church and world; or whether we will spiritually support one another by building bridges to provide needed supply lines, instead of walls to keep out the people we don’t like.

You already know what Jesus wants, and what Christ advocated and agitated for. So, let’s avoid a future with millstones in it.

Almighty God of redemption and mercy: Help us to be at peace with one another: not clambering for positions; not being fearful of those who we do not know in the kingdom, but honoring, loving, and serving them. Enable us to increase peace among ourselves by being aware of sin and its effects, and choosing to deal with it. May we be seasoned with salt as we live for the cause of Christ in a world of conflict. Amen.

Two Are Better Than One (Ecclesiastes 4:9-16)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Together, by Tamara McCarty

Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor. There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (New International Version)

Our very brains and bodies were created and hard-wired for relational connection and support. To have a friend is more than a nice thing; it is vital for our survival and wellness.

If disconnected and absent from friends for too long, we become like Tom Hanks in the movie “Castaway.” We end up talking to volleyballs and personifying them as our best friend.

The neurophysiological mechanisms of the human body are designed for human social interaction. For example, the parasympathetic system of the vagus nerve connects the brain’s emotional and cognitive areas to intestinal functions. This is why whenever we are lonely or have relational problems, we may feel sick to our stomach, or have trouble eating anything, or overeat to deal with the emotions.

First and foremost, friends are people who offer each other complete permission to be themselves; they are permission givers. When we are socially and relationally well, our body’s endocrine system can relax and do it’s necessary job of regulation. That’s because we are able to relax completely in the presence of another person who we know will accept us as we are.

Real friendship always requires a deep surrender to the mixing of souls that a friendship brings into being. To have such a friend is a blessing and a rare gift.

Because of friendship’s special and sacred nature, it is necessary to unite with someone who shares your basic values. This means that we need not turn someone away because they don’t match our perfect picture of what a beloved friend is, nor must we settle for a lesser relationship than we deserve.

In order to live and survive, we humans have three necessary requirements in life: food, shelter, and someone else to love and be loved by. If we have these, then there is nothing else we really need; everything else is just filler. Yet, there’s no need for filler whenever you are already full of friendship.

There is yet another friendship which is important for humans to thrive. We are creatures, created by a relational God. Even though humanity may be estranged from divinity – whether we realize it, or not – we are all on a journey back home to a relationship with God.

We need companions through this journey of our earthly life. And the Teacher of Ecclesiastes tells us that in these friendships we find some security against thieves, accidents, and the chill of the night. Indeed, a friend and companion makes life more safe, satisfying, and comfortable.

Which is why, again, our choice of friends and companions along life’s way are important. It is of vital significance whether those closest to us are wise or foolish.

A wise companion helps us stay on task, and encourages us to persevere in doing right. Such a friend assists us in living a good life full of justice and attention to the common good of all persons.

But a foolish companion drags us down into laziness and gossip; they only help us toward selfish interests that help no one. Might as well eat and drink all you want today, for tomorrow we die, they say.

That sort of counsel will not be found on any successful life plan.

We need solid friends who give us sound advice and counsel. And we also need a friend who is willing to accept our own sage insights.

Those who refuse to take advice, and those who listen to foolish counsel, are headed for disaster.

A fickle crowd who is easily swayed, and equally difficult to please, is a group of people who may know each other, but nobody is a friend. That’s because it takes true companions to get things done and work effectively together toward worthy goals.

Businesses everywhere could use some time reflecting on such relational realities as that.

By Bible Art

And a crowd who chases after the latest fad which comes along is a group of people who have not yet understood how much they need the acknowledgement and leading of their Creator.

Apart from the pursuit of both divine and human friendship, people feel as if they need those fillers in their life. So, they end up having absurd strivings to accumulate wealth, money, stuff, prestige, position, and power. They buy into the notion that they can be radically independent, and use others to get what they want.

Good relationships, however, which seek the betterment of the other and give themselves to something higher and greater than themselves, will find all the riches in life they need.

Neither poverty nor riches has anything to do with life’s ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment. Whether one realizes the “American dream” or not, makes no difference whatsoever.

Accomplishing personal goals means very little, if you have no one to share it with, and no one who says “thank you” for what you’ve done (because you didn’t do anything for them, but for yourself).

In the end, all is meaningless, because everything is temporary… that is, except relationships.

Friendships and true companions are permanent. Relationships are the only thing we take with us. The wise person knows that the world truly spins on the axis of Love.

Loving Creator, God and Father of all, You are the provider of all good things. I pray You to  bring good friendships into the life of all your people. Open my eyes to see people who need me to be a friend for them. Help me to be the friend I desire and long to have; and to serve my fellow humanity. Give us all a friend who will exhort us when needed, be gracious in our weakness, forgive our offenses, and bear our burdens. Amen.

No Class (1 Corinthians 11:17-22)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Exploring Church Ministry Blog, Year BLeave a comment

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 

In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 

So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 

Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter! (New International Version)

The memory of the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples is one that has significantly shaped church history. In the earliest church, we see from the Apostle Paul how impactful table fellowship was for the believers.

Paul received the words of faith, and passed them on to the churches he established, including the church at Corinth. The Apostle faithfully engaged in handing down a tradition which Christians practice all over the world, even today.

The Corinthian Church had devolved into a bunch of divided special interest groups. They were in great need of unity in order to reflect being the one Body of Christ. The divisions fractured their worship, especially their communion with one another.

The Christians in Corinth were gathering for a shared meal, but not really for communion with each other and their Lord. There was no true interaction and fellowship that was happening.

The church’s divisions were such that the groups had no intention of meaningfully interacting with one another. In other words, the church culture was so fragmented and polarized that the Apostle Paul had enough of their disunity, and addressed it head on in his letter.

One of the significant situations was the class differences amongst the believers. The wealthy members of the congregation were given to a lot of leisure time with a good deal of discretionary money. They would often come together, well before the working class and the day laborers could show up to eat.

The richer parishioners feasted amongst themselves. By the time others arrived, many of them either had very little, or went without altogether. For Paul, this was a travesty of the communion meal, which was supposed to signify the unity of believers and the sacrifice of Christ for all.

The Apostle clearly understood that the poor were being humiliated and treated as second class citizens in the church. So, Paul condemned this situation of division, and the inequitable treatment of the less privileged.

The rich people were therefore instructed to eat and drink privately in their own homes, so that the wealthy would not come and scarf all the food, making a mockery of the sacrament.

The shared meal was to remind them of Christ, and was not a time for petty and ostentatious selfishness. Jesus gave his life for all. All believers – whether rich or poor – are to remember both the corporeal body of Jesus, and the corporate body of believers, so that every Christian may overcome ungodly divisions and live into the unity provided through the cross of Christ.

What the Corinthians were doing was not the Lord’s Supper. The believers’ conduct and character eviscerated it’s true purpose and meaning, and made it something else altogether.

Celebration, by John August Swanson (1938-2021)

If the church was to celebrate at the Table, then they needed to listen to what the Lord told Paul about it. Christians coming together for fellowship, eating, and remembering the Lord is not a collection of individual believers doing their own thing. It is a collective meal, meant to emphasize their unity with Christ and one another.

Unlike a contemporary church potluck, the Corinthians brought their own food to eat without sharing. Thus, the rich were eating caviar and crème brûlée, whereas the poor chewed on a peanut butter sandwich with no jelly, and stale potato chips.

On one side of the room there was a group of well-to-do people gorging themselves on a feast, while on the other side of the room the less fortunate folks just tried to eat their meager rations.

The have’s and the have-not’s were splitting the church in ways that made it no different from the wider pagan culture. And Paul would have none of it. The Apostle’s train of thought and Christian convictions on this were clearly spelled out just a few verses earlier in his letter:

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:31-33, NIV)

We are all to ensure that our meetings together are helpful, life-giving, and promote the common good of everyone. Anything less than this is simply unchristian.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.