The Weak-Strong Brother. Or Sister...

 

Person A: "Bro, you can't eat meat sacrificed to idols. If you keep doing this then I cannot in good conscience be around you."

Person B: "Sure, I can. I have freedom in Christ. Idols aren't real. Check your facts, dude."

Blah, blah, blah. Bitterness. Fight. Threatens unity within the church. Paul writes Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 10 as a response to these types of debates.

Paul to person A: So, this “not eating food sacrificed to idols” thing is more important to you than fellowship with a brother in Christ? In your quest to be 'pure' you're willing to pass judgment on your brother?

Paul to person B: So, this “freedom to eat what you want” thing is more important to you than fellowship with a brother in Christ? In your quest to be 'free' you're willing to bring grief to your brother?

You realize, don't you, that if I am still obsessed with food-sacrificed-to-idols (or whatever the issue of the day) then I'm going to use Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 10 as a whip against my brother.

If I'm a freedom guy then I'll use it to whip out his being judgmental.

If I'm a purity guy then I'll use it to force my brother into obeying MY conscience instead of his own.

But this Scripture isn't a whip…it's a mirror. The point here is

not about food

not about wearing jewelry

not about masks

not about mandatory-vaccination

not about… whatever the dividing line is for us today.

It’s about the kingdom of God. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 14:17

A few general principles I’m trying to apply in my own life:

- Don’t go against my conscience. But also, don’t make my conscience the guide for another believer.

- The greatest force in these texts is “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” Therefore, I must always be asking how am I best to love my neighbor in this disagreement/dividing point?

- The issue is usually not the issue but how we go about solving that issue together in righteousness, peace, and joy.

- Christlike character and His kingdom is what matters. 

This will lead to righteousness, peace, and joy. Is my life marked by these things? Am I about His kingdom? Or just about my understanding, my point, my rights, my protection, me, me, me ?...  

 

Give-me, Give-me, Give-me

 

I was in my first year of seminary when I heard this paradigm of prayer⁠⁠. My professor told me, "Prayer isn't meant to change God, it's meant to change you."⁠⁠

What? I remember thinking he was delusional. Prayer at the time was like a vehicle to get God to do things for me or to change my circumstance. “O Lord, do this, do that, send your angels to…. (fill in the blank), help me to… (fill in the blank again)”. I mean a lot of filling in the blank – just say your request on a ready-made petition, adding your personal stuff, and throwing in the Name of Jesus at the end of it.  

I didn't realize it at the time, but my understanding of God was completely transactional. "If I lived up to my end of the bargain, then God should live up to His"⁠⁠. Quid pro quo.

⁠⁠It's been many years since that class, that morning devo and prayer with closed eyes when my beloved Professor and mentor opened my eyes. I no longer have the scarcity mindset (hopefully), but realize that God has already poured out all of heaven on my behalf⁠⁠. Already. Did I already say already?

My perception of life in this space-time continuum turned from 3D to 4D, by adding a new dimension. So, my prayers have changed. I no longer ask God to move. I thank Him for moving and I invite Him to help me see Him at work. A moving unmovable God! How cool is this paradoxical truth! 

How about your prayer life?⁠⁠ 

 

The Bread-Tree

 

God could have created a plant that would grow loaves of bread. Instead, He created wheat for us to mill and bake into bread. (Harold Kushner)

I no longer ask the young man's question: How far will I go? Experiencing pain, fighting a temptation, enduring peer pressure… how far? My questions are now those of the mature person: When it is over, what will my life have been about?

First as Dr. Martin Buber taught, life is all about meeting. We come alive only when we relate to others. Meeting others “there” where they are or “here” where we are.

Secondly, we are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great dramatic leap in results. And this “changing the world” job descriptions is the invitation to carry on God’s work.

One of the wise thoughts of Rabbi Harold Kushner is that God could have created a plant that would grow loaves of bread. Instead, He created wheat for us to mill and bake into bread. Why? So that we could be His partners in carrying out the work of creation (Genesis 2:15).

Are you and God partners in “baking” then sharing the Bread of Life with someone lately?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crumbs and Blinders

 

Asserting that something is fake implies that there might be something that is authentic. Fake news complicating our lives matches perfectly with today’s world of 0.666 truths and ½ truths.

In Proverbs 8:8 we read that within the words of wisdom there is “nothing is twisted/perverted or crooked”. On the other hand, we like to tell things slant. I borrow that line from Emily Dickinson, but I’m not using it the way she did.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant -
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind.

What Dickinson means is that in order for (already confused) people to grasp the truth it needs to come at them in doses, “a little slant”. She’s really saying something similar to what Jesus said when he told the disciples that though there was much more he’d like to say to them, they aren’t quite ready for it. Even using parables…

Bread crumbs vs Blinders. One way of telling the truth slant is meant to leave little bread crumbs so that if somebody wants to follow them all the way up to the full truth they can get there. But the other way of telling it slant is the way of blinders on a horse. Where you only want your audience to focus on a certain slice of the truth but keep them blind to the others. This is the way often employed in politics, social media, and click-bait articles – half-truth and selective-truth.

Dickinson was adamant that we must “tell the whole truth”. So was Jesus. That is the key. We must learn how to effectively “tell it slant”, not crooked! in order for people to finally grasp it all. A biblical example of this is the prophet Nathan confronting King David in his adultery. Much like the Seventh-day Adventist Christian in our culture today, he could not bluntly go up to the king and tell him that he was an adulterer. He had to do it in the form of a story. He had to “tell it slant”.

“Truth in Breadcrumbs” but not “Truth with Blinders”. Got that?