Why I Am Compelled2 (Part 2)

One For All...

A couple of weeks ago I started to answer this question…and it is one that I will continue to revisit and wrestle with not only this week but in the months to come. I included my typical vertical analysis of 2 Corinthians 5:13-21. As I wrote, 2 Corinthians 5 is key to the idea of this blog Compelled2: A Mission in Reconciliation. This week, I wanted to further explore this biblical foundation as I focus on verses 14-15. 

¹⁴ For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this:

                     that one   has died                 for all,

                                                          therefore all

                                   have died;

                  ¹⁵ and he           died                 for all,

                                                                  that those who live

                                                                 might no longer live

                                                                    for themselves

                                                              but for

                             him who                          for their sake

                                            died                         and was raised.

The Crucifixion by Georges Rouault

One died that all might live…but his death was not merely so we might live forever for ourselves, doing our own thing, seeking our own desires. No, it was for a much higher purpose, for a much greater person. How could we be the recipients of such extravagant love and not want to love Christ back? Paul was compelled/controlled by the love of Christ because he, and those with him, had concluded something about the death of Christ. Not only are we no longer the same person we once were (v.17) but we no longer live for the same fallen purpose. We now live for the one who died and was raised from the dead.

Our change in trajectory is not out of guilt, nor out of some mistaken (and heretical) idea that we can earn our way into God’s affection by our personal goodness. I would like to point out that we seriously overestimate our own goodness and underestimate God’s holiness and glory! The change comes as we begin to comprehend his love for us…along with the cosmically high price he paid for our ransom. 1 John 3:16 says, "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." This "laying down" of our lives happens not merely with words and an otherworldly focus, but in "deed and in truth" (v.18) as we work to bring the kingdom to all needing healing and justice in their lives.

Illustration by Norman Price &
E.C. Van Swearingen,
 from the book I had as a child

On a bit of a side note, as I look at the word patterns in the verses above, I wonder how can we miss seeing the famous motto from Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel, The Three Musketeers, “One for all, and all for One”. Jesus Christ is truly the "one" who died for “all”, so now we, and all for whom he died, should faithfully live for him and not for ourselves. We do not do this by isolating ourselves from others in some craggy wilderness retreat, but in the world as members of the community of the redeemed. Obviously, the Musketeer example falls short in many ways, including their contextual readiness to take the life of another when challenged. Yet their motto and radical commitment to each other should inspire us, for if it isn't drawn from 2 Cor.5, then it is certainly in agreement with it.

 

"All for One..."

What does it mean to live for Him?
Certainly "living for Him" is a response to his love for us. It involves loving him back by keeping his commandments. But more specifically it is living in submission to, and thus participating willingly in, his great mission. His desires become our desires. His whole life was about the mission of reconciliation between God and man which has its roots back in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Actually, God had it in his heart even earlier (before the foundation of the world—Rev. 13:8)! The whole Bible is the story of God’s loving plan and faithful actions to reconcile the broken cosmos to himself.

Having been redeemed, ransomed, rescued, and raised in Christ, I am finding myself compelled to live into his wonderful mission of reconciliation until all for whom he died can comprehend his love for them, as Paul prayed so I am learning to pray,

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV).

One for all and all for one... not a bad concept indeed!

Our Best is not Good Enough

Photo by Hello I'm Nik
on Unsplash

This post was born in a comment I made in response to an excellent post by my friend Mark Nicklas on his blog Jacob’s Brook in response to the Zimmerman verdict and a post I wrote on my regular Psalms-Honest2God blog yesterday based on Psalm 108.

If taken at his best, George Zimmerman was a community builder who wanted to make the neighborhood a better place to live…but he was not willing to die for it. If taken at his best, Trayvon Martin was a young man frustrated by being treated like he didn’t belong, like just by being present he had done something wrong…but he was not willing to work for reconciliation. Their best was not good enough. 

Both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman were the same in that neither was willing to lay down their rights for a greater cause. As a result, they gave up more than they would have imagined. Another point of similarity is that neither listened to the sound advice that was given to disengage before the conflict erupted. I wonder why the community’s input (whether 911 operator or friend) was insufficient to change their trajectory. I hypothesize that both were fed up with the status quo and were determined to do something about it…walking away wasn’t an option for either of them.

In confrontations, we would do well to tone down the rhetoric and not back our opponents into a corner. Why not give them room to change their mind without losing face? It won’t happen when we speak or act from a position of control. If we are not willing to lay down our rights, and even to lay down our very lives then we will end up taking, or trying to take, that of another. I am saddened at any loss of life…though sometimes it may be necessary to protect the defenseless. This was not one of those times. I am grieved that this confrontation has been used disingenuously to incite further divisions in our country.

The questions remain for us, those who would work for community development and social justice as a holistic part of the Kingdom of God:

• What is our motivation for not walking away? And,
• In a confrontation are we more prone to shout down, beat down, shoot down the other, or will we lay down our pride in order to listen (and perhaps die) that others may live in light of the Gospel?
• Is our trust in our efforts to bring change, or in God?

If we defend ourselves by fighting and tearing others down, we die even though we live. If we lift up others as the image of God deserving of respect we live even though we die.

Borrowing from something I wrote yesterday on my Psalms blog, we should note that Psalm 108:11-12 says,

^“Oh, grant us help against the foe,

for vain is the salvation of man!

With God we shall do valiantly;

it is he who will tread down our foes.”

I wonder if George prayed and sought God’s wisdom before following Trayvon, or if Trayvon took a moment to consecrate himself before escalating the event. I doubt it...because I too, to my shame. have often failed to pray before going into tense situations from which only God could bring deliverance. Jesus prayed each morning remaining in constant fellowship with His Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit so that it could be said that he only did what the Father was doing, and only said what he heard the Father say. Even more intensely, Jesus prayed in the Garden as he awaited his arrest and the greatest confrontation of all time. He chose to die in order that his oppressors might experience forgiveness. Jesus’ best was enough for us.

Back to Psalm 108 for a moment. It was written to the post-exilic Jews and taken from two much older psalms of David. The faithful remnant had returned to the land, called by God and sent with the King's blessing, to do "Community Development", to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem. Yet they were surrounded by scornful mockers who worked to undermine or ambush them every step of the way. They were at the crossroads where they had to decide where to place their trust…in the salvation of man or in the help of God.

So what can we glean from this psalm for our situation today? Are we surrounded by people who despise the ways of God? Or by those who mock us for trusting Christ Jesus to establish and deliver us and one day to return to judge the world? I think probably so. We then are faced with the same question as post-exilic Israel, will we fight to regain control by our own hands or will we choose to keep working while defending each other and trust God to take care of the treading down of foes part? Perhaps our “doing valiantly” with God has nothing to do with power but rather following Christ into the valley of humiliation and suffering. As it is written, “…the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly,” (2 Cor. 10:4) but they are powerful nonetheless.

Another thing I find encouraging about Psalm 108 is that those who had returned to rebuild the city of God found a new encouragement, a new voice by which to express their need honestly to God, in the old scriptures. May we find that voice of trust and hope in God’s word as well…and may we become so convinced of God’s love for us, and in the glory of Heaven, that we will no longer fight the wrong enemy for the wrong reasons (Eph. 6:12).

Listen First…Answer if Necessary

When I think back over my life, I can remember that the moments where my personhood felt the most violated and my sense of justice most offended were in moments where those I most wanted to hear what I was trying to say would not listen and even shouted me down with their repetitive script of senselessness. Perhaps you have experienced something similar. In fact, it is likely that those whose ideas, words, and deeds are most offensive to us have experienced it too. So why do we think that we can fix people’s problems without taking the time to listen to their stories and try to understand where they are coming from? Even Job’s idiot comforters had the cultural sensitivity to sit in silence with Job for seven days and seven nights before playing their own scratched records.  

People who take a position of power may be able to shout down another’s position…but there is no reconciliation taking place when they do that. In listening, we not only open the door to our being heard, but we might in fact learn something that we were missing. Job’s friends learned that their theology was flawed and that their only hope for survival was to have Job “the Sinner” pray for them. I really don’t want to become so rigid in my view of theology that I snap and break when the wind of the Spirit blows. I want to remain teachable so that the Lord can continually be separating the chaff from the grain in my life. If I don't take the time to listen to others I find that I also don't really listen to God.

In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs says a lot about listening and being teachable. Here is a small sample of what it says…

• “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.” (12:15)
• “Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence.” (15:32)
• “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” (18:1-2)
• “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” (18:13)
• “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.” (25:11-12)
• “If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.” (29:12)

Later in the history of Israel, the prophet Jeremiah (25:3-5) calls out his fellow Jews for failing to listen to the prophets and not responding to their message.

“For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets,  saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.

In the New Testament, this emphasis on listening continues as Jesus used some form of the phrase “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” at least twelve times in the gospels. And his brother James later wrote this amazing advice regarding our hearing God’s voice and by extension those with whom we live, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”(James 1:19-20)

I wonder how much damage has been done to the church by our not really listening to the stories of those to whom we have been sent.  

I wonder how much healing we have missed out on because we didn't listen deeply to God (through Word and Spirit) on a personal and corporate level. 

A little over 50 years ago the Pacific Northwest was ravaged by the Columbus Day storm that roared up from the south with hurricane-force winds. In the Portland area, our normally moderate wind patterns are from either the east out of the Columbia Gorge or from the coast to the west or northwest. We are accustomed to these winds and they rarely cause much damage. The storms that cause the most damage only come rarely and their winds are usually from the south. Even the trees are unprepared and whole forests can be uprooted as they were in 1962! So I have to ask, when the move of God comes from a quarter we don't expect how do we respond? When God speaks through a person we might by habit tend to marginalize, how well do we listen? Remember that the first step to building our lives and churches on solid ground is to hear Jesus' words and do them! (Matthew 7:24-27).

In conclusion, let me share two things I have learned about listening as cultural intelligence. Firstly. I have learned that I need to listen to others before I answer them, before I go into fix-it mode. Over the years I have sat with many people who came for counsel, but I never really needed to say anything to them about what the answer to their situation was. As I listened to them, the Lord spoke to them just what they needed to hear. In listening long before answering, who knows, it might just fix us too! Secondly, I need to always listen to the Lord no matter what the source and no matter what changes he may want to bring. If we don’t bend before the Holy Spirit/Wind when he blows, we will break. We can either humble ourselves or be humbled. I prefer the former. Culture changes, methodology changes, God does not change.

Many years ago I wrote several poems with the wind as a motif. The following poem is one of them and is perhaps even more applicable today than it was then.

         A Supernatural Wind

A great, vehement, tempestuous, boisterous wind,

A wind too strong

For us,

Will come

Testing, building, forcing trust,

Sifting and purifying.

Will we be as wheat revealed,

On God’s threshing floor,

Or chaff removed like so much whirling dust?

Will we even now,

Before the Supernatural Wind,

Bend,

In willing worship, teachable obedience, or

Break,

In stubborn resistance, denial?

                                                               © 1991 Greg K. Dueker

Revelation may be uncomfortably humbling, but breaking and removal are far worse.

 

 

Question: So how (i.e., In what ways) do you see listening as being mutually beneficial in your context as a follower of Christ?

 

Is It Still There? (An Independence Day Devotional)

      As we get ready to fly our flags to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day try to picture the conflict 38 years later that occasioned the writing of our national anthem. Major Armistead, the commander of Ft. McHenry, which guarded Baltimore, was preparing for an invasion by superior British forces. He decided to have a flag made, a really big flag, that both British and Americans could see from a long way off. It measured 30 feet by 42 feet and was constructed from 400 yards of banned British wool. It was a statement few could miss.

      Outside the fort, near the mouth of the Potomac River, Francis Scott Key had just successfully negotiated the release of Dr. William Beanes, an American civilian whom the British had captured. But because the British attack was about to begin, Key’s ship was held until the attack was over. September 13, 1814, proved to be a very long day then night. Key and his companions sleeplessly paced the deck while watching the terrible bombardment and wondering if the poorly defended fort had fallen. At dawn, when they could no longer bear the suspense, they caught a glimpse of what Key called the “star-spangled banner” still flying in the distance. He was so moved that he began to write on the back of an envelope, the words of what is now our national anthem.

     Key’s concern for his country was symbolized by a large but increasingly ragged flag flying on the ramparts of a beleaguered and out-gunned fort. Our mistake today is to so worry about the church of Jesus Christ. Throughout history, people have tried to destroy it, but God has always preserved a faithful remnant. He even causes the church to grow when it’s persecuted. The seeds of faith seem to produce the greatest harvest when they’re watered by the tears of suffering saints.

     To the world, the Church sometimes appears to be weakly armed (our weapons are not of this world) and poorly defended (we live by faith and not by sight). However, ultimately the question is not whether the church will survive the world’s attacks. The true Church will prevail against even the gates of hell and in the process will be refined like gold. This time may be painful for some as we learn to separate biblical truths from that which is merely our western culture, and as we learn to minister from a posture of weakness rather than power. A better question for us to ask is: “Will we be a part of the faithful church, the saints (holy ones) of God who will be rewarded as overcomers (Revelation 21:7)?” We can be sure we will overcome the world and its corrupting influences as we respond to Christ’s love by:

• Finding our strength in Christ (Philippians 4:13)
• Finding our hope in Christ (Colossians 1:27; I Timothy 1:1; I John 3:3)
• Finding our life purpose in Christ (Matthew 28:19; Colossians 3:17)
• Finding our value in Christ by the price He has paid for us (I Peter 1:18-19)
• Finding our identity in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• Finding our acceptance, and approval in Christ (Colossians 3:23-24; Ephesians 1:6)
• Finding our direction and counsel in Christ’s Word (Proverbs 3:5-6; James 1:5)

            No matter the strength of the storm or the fierceness of the attack, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)