Talk and Walk

I stopped in to say hello at the pastor’s office. Thirty minutes later I left having heard another chapter in the life of a minister trying to lead God’s people to practice the gospel of God’s love, but instead he spent his time dealing with people who wanted to look pious without having to live out the love. He had heard the songs of God’s love, but actions he saw said only our kind of people are welcome here.

The prophet Isaiah was forced to deliver the message of God’s condemnation to a people who acted just such a way. They could do a good job of “talking the talk”, but they failed when it came to walking in a way that reflected that talk.

Isa 1:11-17 He says, "Do you think I want all these sacrifices you keep offering to me? I have had more than enough of the sheep you burn as sacrifices and of the fat of your fine animals. I am tired of the blood of bulls and sheep and goats. Who asked you to bring me all this when you come to worship me? Who asked you to do all this tramping around in my Temple? It's useless to bring your offerings. I am disgusted with the smell of the incense you burn. I cannot stand your New Moon Festivals, your Sabbaths, and your religious gatherings; they are all corrupted by your sins. I hate your New Moon Festivals and holy days; they are a burden that I am tired of bearing. When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not look at you. No matter how much you pray, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right. See that justice is done---help those who are oppressed, give orphans their rights, and defend widows."

We use the statement, “If you are going to talk the talk, then walk the walk”, to emphasize the need to speak with integrity so that what we say reflects what we believe. No one wants that more than God. He wants those who worship him and call themselves his disciples to be honest in their practice.

That pastor had heard one of his parishioners complain that people of color were now in the congregation. A gospel that was revealed on a cross through the Crucified God was meant to be shared with everyone. Too many individuals who call themselves Christians have placed themselves in the position of judge to decide who ought to receive this gospel of love and forgiveness. The result is a world that sees no difference in those who say they are followers of Christ and those who are not. In response those in the world turn away believing there is no reason to seek the One who is the Author of life itself.

The Church is a force that is not bounded by the walls of a building or the perimeter of a piece of land. The Church is the people of God at work in the world in the Name of the Son of God and carrying his likeness in both word and deed. The Church sees human need and acts to meet that need. The Gospel has been placed in the hands of the Church to share with the world, and judgment is left in the hands of God. The Church is to exercise love, mercy, and grace with discernment so as to bring the world to God. What happens then is up to God.

Until God is ready to exercise judgment, the Church must talk the talk of the gospel to the world, and then walk the walk of gospel integrity before the world. Unless the world sees the talk in action, it has no reason to believe there is any substance to the talk. Belief will follow practice with integrity.

Live What You Believe

A healthy church knows what it believes. It might have a printed doctrinal statement. It may have a vision statement supported by a set of core values. These could be included in new member materials. They may be rehearsed at annual church celebrations. The church may have parts of them included on their stationary and in their regular promotion pieces, weekly and monthly. The question is do the church members live them.

A person and organization of integrity live what they believe. We have proverbial sayings that reflect this idea. “What you see is what you get.” Perhaps you have heard something like “She is true to the heart,” or “He is true to the core.” All of these would indicate someone lives what they believe. Their life reflects their speech and their values.

Those who do not “practice what they preach” have been around as long as man himself. In the Old Testament, God has a complaint against those who practiced hypocrisy among his people.

Isa 29:13-14 The Lord said, "These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized. So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless."

The Lord was not happy with a people who patted themselves on the back for all their religious rituals and speeches while their lifestyles made a mockery of what they said about themselves and their piety. In the end the Lord would show the truth of their hearts.

People had not changed by the time of Jesus. The religious leaders of his day were recipients of his wrath as he called them to account for the discrepancy between their words and their actions.

Mat 23:1-3  Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. "The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are the authorized interpreters of Moses' Law. So you must obey and follow everything they tell you to do; do not, however, imitate their actions, because they don't practice what they preach.

Religious leaders and teachers carry the greater responsibility to be true to their spoken values. Integrity is of utmost importance. The responsibility is no less for those who say they are followers. “Practice what you preach.” Live out your values. Live what you believe.

In three and one half weeks, the sacred day on the Christian calendar will arrive, Resurrection Sunday – Easter. For hundreds of millions of believers around the world, the day represents the reason they are followers of Christ, Christians. They believe he died as a criminal when he had never committed a crime. They believe he was buried and on the third day after his burial he was raised alive from the tomb in a transformed body. They believe his victory over death confirms the promise that all who follow him in obedience will also be raised from the dead to live with him for eternity in a new and glorious existence.

Believing these things about Jesus should affect how we as his followers live. Resurrection Sunday represents God’s love shown in a supreme way for all those who love him. If God loves us so, then we should love others. If God was willing to forgive us because of that love, then we should be willing to forgive others. If God was willing to give us the hope of eternal life in glory with him, then we should be willing to offer that same hope to everyone we meet.

Php 1:27 Now, the important thing is that your way of life should be as the gospel of Christ requires.

That is living what we believe.

Who Needs the Truth?

I’m glad I was developing the idea for this entry before the election. I can say with all honesty that the victors in our elections did not affect the content. I felt this way before the results came in. I still feel this way.

The Greek dramatist Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC) is quoted as saying, “In war the first casualty is the truth.” Political campaigns are not what we first think of when we hear the word war, but it is a definite conflict of wills and words. They involve offense and defense. They always involve high emotions and lots of pain, mental and emotional. We hope in our free country they never involve physical violence.

Yet there are casualties, and truth is the first. I have been voting in presidential elections since 1968. Never have I witnessed such campaign rhetoric as I have heard in this one. Locally we here in North Carolina were spared the extremes in our gubernatorial race. The candidates addressed issues and not each other. They kept the campaign focused on the needs of North Carolinians and not on the personality traits of their opponent. It was a most gentlemanly contest.

This could not be said for the national elections, especially the presidency. The truth was a victim from the very beginning, and neither side had a monopoly on crude and useless language. I got tired of hearing the concluding statement in most ads, “and I approved this message”. My first thought was generally, “You ought to be ashamed of approving that message. Did you watch it before it was sent out?”

The truth is all true. That sounds weird until you hear people saying things they consider mostly true or half true or containing some truth. Such statements are not made to convey truth, but to deceive. A statement that is not all true is false. Yet how much of our conversations involve statements that we know are not all true, but we hope the listener will accept it all as truth.

That is what sent my emotions through the ceiling so often during this campaign. Half the story was told. Half the statement was used. The context was ignored so as to change the intended meaning. The campaign was a war, and truth was its first and primary casualty.

Have we reached the point in our country that not only is such rhetoric accepted, but even expected? Have we decided that in a process of deciding who will lead our country that truth is not an essential element? Have we become so amoral that anything goes when it comes to convincing the public our side is right and the other guy’s is wrong?

What is truth? Pilate asked Jesus that question (John 18). The gospel writer had prepared his reader throughout his book to see that the answer was not a philosophical statement but a Person. Jesus had said a few chapters earlier (John 14) he was “the way, the truth, and the life.” An enlightening study is to read the Gospel of John, underline every time the words "true" and "truth" are used, and ponder their context.

Truth is a Person and our use of the truth should reflect the nature of that Person. He is compassionate. The truth should not be used to hurt. He seeks the best for others. Truth should build others up. He is perfect. Truth should lead people into constant improvement. He is God Incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us. Truth should point us to God, his nature, and his will for our lives.

Truth should do these things, but only if we think the truth is of any value other than when we use it to support our agenda.

Just the Facts, ma'am (and sir)!

It happened again and no doubt I will see a lot more of it in the upcoming season of Advent. It is one of those little burrs that get under my saddle and leaves me gritting my teeth and and wanting to scream. The Bible has been translated into perfectly good English. Sure, various translations may offer variations on nuances, but you can still pretty much get the facts straight. Read the Book and get the facts straight! Use the Bible with integrity.

The most recent incident took place with a preacher who described the fall of man into sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). The passage is often used to show that the first man was not guilty of sinning first but rather the first woman. How this excuses the man I am not sure. In the current case the preacher said that the man was not there and the woman made the decision without him implying that if he had been present, he would have been strong enough to stop the whole terrible event. Problem was, he was there, standing beside her. Read the Book!

Another misuse that I hear all too often is that from creation to Noah's flood it never rained. Sorry, that doesn't show up in my KJV, NASV, ESV, or any other translation. It is not even in the old Hebrew. The verse quoted says that, "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and not a man to till the ground" (Genesis 2:5, KJV). The rather obvious implication here is that there were no plants because there was no rain. When it rained, we got plants. Noah had lots of plants and so did everyone before him all the way back to Adam. Read the Book!

Genesis is not the only part of the Bible that can get misused. In II Kings 2 we find the story of the final hours of the prophet Elijah. All my life I have seen paintings of the prophet's departure from earth into heaven. Consistently the pictures have him riding a chariot of fire into the clouds. Only the scriptures describe Elijah ascending in a whirlwind and the chariot remains behind to keep Elisha the servant away. Have some integrity and read the Book!

With only a little more than three months to go until Christmas, we are already seeing store displays going up touting the season. We will get a good view of all the iconic emblems including trees, lights, reindeer, fat guys in red suits, angels, shepherds, and mangers in stables. We will also get to see on a regular basis three tall, stately men dressed in fine robes. The problem is, even if you accept the traditional date of the birth of Jesus in mid-winter (it was probably in the spring), the magi did not arrive for another eighteen months or so and they found Jesus with his parents living in a house (Matthew 2). Have some integrity and read the Book!

These may all be innocent oversights or perhaps embellishments to create more interest in the story. Even so, we must be careful in our use of the biblical texts lest we start influencing our theology and daily life decisions because of a loss of integrity. A retired pastor, Ray Hodge, twenty years ago compiled a list of statements of dubious veracity (Familiar Quotations, True and False). A couple of them reveal how we misquote the Bible.

The most obvious one comes from I Timothy 6. We often hear, "Money is the root of all evil." The actual wording in the Bible includes more explanation, "The love of money is the root of all evil." Money has no moral nature. Our tendencies toward greed and fear of being without drive us to crave money and the power and security we believe it can provide.

One biblical misquote Hodge does not include is from a Greek fable and is often placed in the Bible. "God helps those who help themselves." The reality is that God wants to be generous to all and particularly to those who CANNOT help themselves, the poorest, the widows, the orphans, and the homeless stranger. We make and accept these misquotes when we refuse to approach the Bible with integrity.

Like the good detective on the television program Dragnet was prone to say, "Just the facts, ma'am".

Competition with Integrity

Sometimes I think it would be nice to sit in front of the television or computer screen and watch hours of Olympic contests. I am awed by the pageantry surrounding the athletes from the countries of the world as they compete in a wide variety of games. Each must feel the pressure as he or she gives the very best effort to make their families, friends, and country proud. Their best?

Two stories have come out in the last twenty-four hours that make the observer wonder about the integrity of some athletes. We have become accustomed to the doping scandals. This year we are hearing more about trying to decide just what is female and what is male. These two problems can be classified as cheating to gain an advantage over a competitor or simply biological hurdles that we must face as we learn more about the human body and its sometimes malfunction.

But what about those athletes who give less than their best to gain an advantage? In one day we see Michael Phelps push his body to the nth degree to break a long-standing record for the total number of medals won by one athlete. He succeeded by earning his nineteenth medal and now holds a new record replacing one that had stood for nearly fifty years. During the same day eight badminton players from three countries were disqualified for trying to LOSE their games in order to move into an easier bracket in their sport!

Some athletes feel they have to cheat to win. Here are athletes who felt they had to lose to have a chance at winning. Is there any wonder that they were booed by the spectators due to their lackluster and seemingly incompetent efforts? What else about integrity will be sacrificed to gain what some would feel is an advantage in the march to the gold?

We are always in some form of competition. Maybe it is a move ahead in our jobs. Perhaps it is a self-imposed competition such as the number of books we will read or the number of internet courses we can take. Perhaps we have set a goal in exercising or weight loss. In all such cases we are competing against something if only the idea of succeeding in reaching our personal goal.

Integrity in competition says that we know the rules that everyone is following and we will follow them as well. Competition with integrity says you give your very best without making use of materials that create an unfair advantage be it tactics, chemical, or genetic. (See the old syfy short story, "The Mickey Mouse Olympics")

Do we get into competition as Christians and churches? Do we see the need at times to try tactics that would put us in better light than our neighbor or neighbor's church? Have we decided that we are in competition with sister Christians to reach the wandering souls around us?

Integrity in competition says first of all you know who your opposition is. For the Christian it is not other Christians, but the evil of this world. Just like an Olympic relay race, there are multiple runners, but they are all on the same team. Integrity says we work together. We are on the same team. We give our very best with the abilities God has given us developed into the best we can make them. We don't try to succeed with the tools of the world. We don't try to outdo other Christians especially at the other's expense. We compete even against evil with integrity. We reflect the nation we represent, the Kingdom of God.

There can be no competition among followers of Christ. There can be no divergence from the rules God has given us. We support the same goals. We serve the same Master. As the old saying goes, "There is no competition between lighthouses."

A Minor Suggestion

In less than a week North Carolina voters will have determined if they want a state constitutional amendment saying the only legal union recognized by the state and defined as marriage will be between one man and one woman. Often called an anti-gay amendment, this amendment is far broader than that. Such unions as polygamy and communal marriages would also be declared unconstitutional, not to mention unions involving one partner with two legs and the other partner having four.

If the amendment does not pass, legal action is already pending in North Carolina that if found in favor of the plaintiffs would declare unconstitutional current state statutes defining marriage as between one man and one woman. This would open the door to court cases seeking state approval for a diversity of relationships such as polygamy. This scenario, combined with a broadening definition of hate crimes, would leave individuals in numerous difficult situations while trying to fulfill what they deem as their Christian responsibilities.

Will a minister be able to say that he will perform only a wedding ceremony in which the participants are one man and one woman? Will a congregation be able to say its facilities can be used only for services or ceremonies that are in line with its religious convictions? Will a minister be able to expound upon biblical texts in a way that says sexual behavior that deviates from the one man-one woman traditional relationship are antithetical to the will of God? This of course does not begin to address the issues of age restrictions and the definitions of adulthood which may also be seen by some as arbitrary and discriminatory.

I suggest for consideration a proposal that the twenty-first century Church return to an understanding of its role similar to that of the first and second century Church. Proclaim the gospel as the written word of God. Forget all those twenty-seven adjectives that some feel they have to attach to the phrase. It is the written word of God. Proclaim it as God-breathed (II Tim. 3). Take the lumps that come with preaching the truth. If you get fined or sent to jail, count yourself blessed (Matthew 5).

Agree to presiding in wedding ceremonies that God will recognize and bless according to the standards he has set (Matthew 19). To do this with integrity involves insisting on the participants themselves understand God’s expectations for a marriage he will bless. This will be made easier if ministers refuse to perform a wedding as a representative with state granted authority (“By the power invested in me by God and the state of…). If a couple wants secular recognition, let them go to a magistrate, get the marriage license signed, and say the proper “I do’s”. With the announcement by the magistrate, they will be recognized as married by the state. Then they can come to the church facilities and receive the blessings of God upon a marriage that should last until death ends it.

Is this an unforgiveable separation of church and state? I don't think so. Rather is this not the Church standing up and saying we are not the state? Is this not the Church standing up and saying we are different from the state, we operate under a different set of standards from the state, and we answer to no one but our God (Acts 4)? We fight compromise, yet demanding that the secular state recognize our divine commission may be the worst compromise of all.

The Cost of Controversy

One of the most awesome statements of divine wisdom I find in the words of Jesus are "...not to give offense to them,..." (Matthew 17). Reading the gospels does not reveal in Jesus an individual who worried about causing offense, irritation, or hurt feelings when he felt it appropriate. Even those who vehemently disagreed with him recognized that he spoke from the heart and did not mince words. How did Jesus know when it was time to "shoot straight and let the bullets fly" and when to decide "this is not a hill worth dying on"? When was a controversy worth the conflict sure to follow and when was it not worth giving offense? How much simpler life would be for us if we knew the answer 100% of the time!

Jesus' standards though high were simple. Glorify and honor the Father in all that you think, say, and do. That sounds easy enough. Jesus was perfect at the process. Even when he might have preferred a different path as in Gethsemane, he still put obedience and honoring his Father first in his decisions and his actions. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) stands as a great statement of the ways we can honor the Father in our daily lives. Jesus' response to questions raised by the religious rulers of his day also reveal his perception of how to glorify the Father. (Matthew 12; 15; 19; 22)

The two Great Commandments are described by Jesus as a summary of all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22) We don't have much of a problem in understanding what Jesus meant by the first and greatest commandment: love God with your total being. Of course following through has always been limited by our sinful and self-focused natures. Loving something other than God as the focus of our lives or even in the momentary decision is a constant problem. It is the second commandment about loving our neighbor as we love ourselves that gives us fits.

We make jokes about it. "Love your neighbor, but don't get caught." We try to qualify it under such phrases as "tough love". We even try to compartmentalize our expressions of love by "loving the sinner, but hating the sin." (guilty as charged!) Are any of these wrong? I would avoid the relationship with your neighbor that your safety would demand be kept secret. The other two expressions we often try to live out in our dealings with others.

In both cases the effort is being made to express a love that includes acceptance, the opportunity for forgiveness, and a realization there is a right and a wrong choice being identified. Anytime we identify a right choice and a not so right choice in a situation made by someone else, we are called upon to decide how we will respond in love. We must love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It is the only way we can allow the Father's forgiving love shown to us to flow through us to others who also need it.

Jesus made his decisions about controversy based upon the Great Commandments which have their goal of honoring and glorifying the Father. He recognized that decisions pertaining to the law had right answers and wrong answers. He also knew that not all legal decisions had any bearing on how we might glorify the Father. It was these questions that Jesus disdained to give the importance needed to raise them in a discussion.

There is a cost to controversy. How high a price should we be willing to pay? If God is honored when we take a stand, then the price we are called to pay is worth it, even required of us. If God sees the controversy as of significance to man alone, then the answer is to seek peace, go catch the fish, and pay the tax. The Pharisees saw the tax as important. Jesus did not. Love for God and fellow man were not a part of the equation. Causing a stir just wasn't worth the price.

Practicing Our Religious Freedom

Yes, we Americans do have religious freedom, more than we practice in fact. Last Monday, January 16, carried the designation of "Religious Freedom Day". A little recognized occasion it is often lost in the commemoration of MLK Jr Day. It does exist, however, and began under the presidency of Bill Clinton. It deserves greater recognition and dissemination through a broad based educational effort. A description of the day and suggestions for how to observe it may be found at www.religiousfreedomday.com.

I had not heard of the day before this year. I have never heard it announced in one of my churches. I never heard of it while volunteering in a public school over a period of four years. I have never heard my Baptist state convention promote it. A quick search of Baptist Press articles showed the last one on the subject was an opinion piece written in 2007 indicating to me the subject is not a huge, newsworthy topic even in the conservative press.

Why is it not a major topic? One of the universal complaints I find in the churches I serve is the terrible thing our government did by taking Bible reading and prayer out of our public schools. The government has taken steps to remove state and school administration mandated Bible reading as a devotional exercise and prayer out of the daily routine. I for one have no problem denying our public school children the necessity of having to hear devotional readings from the Quran, the Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha, the Book of Mormon, the Book of the Dead, or the Bhagavad-Gita. If we insist in our free country that our children hear the Bible read each day, those same children will also be required to hear readings from other works considered sacred by their adherents. You cannot have it both ways in a free country!

My suggestion is to make the most of the freedom we have. As the old saying goes, "As long as there are tests in school, there will be prayer in school." I can vouch for that. There is no law anywhere that says a student cannot bring a Bible to school and read it for personal benefit when it does not distract from the classroom efforts of the teacher. A student can read the Bible during lunch, in a study period, or standing in an open hallway. Anyone who tries to interfere can be accused of harassment.

Far more important than having prayer and Bible reading in our schools is having prayer and Bible reading in our homes and in our churches, yes in our churches! Before we condemn the government for taking state-mandated prayer and Bible reading out of the public arena, we need to see how much we do in our private settings. Religious Freedom Day should judge how much time we spend in our homes with the Bible open. The Day should judge how much time we spend in prayer (beyond the cursory "Thanks for the grub, God."). The Day should judge how important it is to us that our children see that prayer and Bible reading are important to their parents. We can do this without fear that someone will break into our homes and arrest us for practicing our faith or be waiting outside our church doors with guns and hand grenades to kill us all.

Think for a moment about the last time you were in a Christian worship service. How much time was spent reading the Bible? How much time was spent in prayer? What was the subject of the prayer? Where are our people when it comes time for small group Bible study? Are all the ones who want our public schools to read the Bible taking advantage of the freedom to study it themselves at home and other places?

Worship for the Christian is a process of personal acknowledgment of who God is and the individual's place before God. That process can take the form of silent waiting, singing, listening to both the reading of the Bible and its explanation/application. It will include prayer that is both personal and guided. Yet with all this, how much comes through our traditional worship services that says the Bible should be the handbook on life for every believer and that prayer is the method of communicating with the most important Person in your life. Better use it!

Religious Freedom Day for the American Christian should be a day on which we celebrate our freedom to read the Bible and not be forced to read someone else's holy book. We should celebrate that we can pray and not worry about someone spying on us to see what we are doing. We should celebrate that we have the freedom to try to convince all those other people who read something else that they are missing out on the Truth, and we don't have to worry about being locked up in jail or beheaded for doing it. We must educate our membership at all levels of our religious organizations about the freedoms and responsibility we have as free American Christians. We just need to be compassionate and live out our freedom the way our Lord taught and practiced it.

Halloween Is a Lie

(A little time spent indisposed while dealing with a minor medical problem kept this entry from going out on the proper date. It's late, but I wanted to address the subject anyway. TL)

When we look past the cute costumes (some of them at least) and the creative pumpkins and the incredible edible chocolate, we have to admit that Halloween is just a lie. Costumes and masks, the threat of tricks if we don't get treats, and games of skill designed to take very little skill make Halloween a time when we throw reality out the window. We have a great time in pretending, but we know that it is all just a lie.

Sad to say we carry that into our churches. To say someone has lied or to call them a liar to their face is a rather harsh way to say that we disagree with the veracity of their statements. Society frowns upon such blunt statements of disagreement. The recent episode which got a member of Congress censored because he said, "You lie!" in the middle of a presidential address is a prime example. We can disagree with how someone is handling facts or making up facts, but the use of the term "lie" or any of its derivatives is not acceptable in polite company.

Jesus didn't use the word lie very often. His favorite word for such occasions where words and actions contrasted was hypocrite. The intent was the same and his listeners had the same response that modern society has to the word lie. Being told that your lifestyle does not reflect your words does not make for pleasant conversation. Yet Jesus never hesitated when the situation called for the unpleasant task of stating the truth.

In our churches we allow power plays to take place based upon lies and half truths, lies that just sound better. We tolerate it from church leaders because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. We accept it from our ministry staffs because we believe the work of finding another pastor or staff member whom we can trust is not worth the effort of stirring up a confrontation. We allow the hypocrites to destroy the Body of Christ because we believe that any action we take will cause even more serious damage. There is little damage that can be done to the Body of Christ that is more severe than the toleration of lies.

In recent months I have seen this in action as pastors twist history to give themselves a better resume. I have seen it among members who redefine the playing field through deception to keep themselves in power. I have seen it among committee leaders who make decisions based ostensibly upon doing the will of God when it is apparent to everyone that the decisions reflect a self-centered and self-supporting agenda.

We do not expect truth to rule the world when the lord of the world is the father of lies. Within the Body of Christ, however, we should and must expect better. Standing up for the truth got Jesus crucified. Standing up for the truth is never a healthy thing for the individual to do in the eyes of the world. Yet when we bring the deceit of Halloween into the patterns of church life, then we have handed the Body of Christ over to the father of lies. God's judgment will not be pretty.