I read the Washington Post article series “The Damage Done” by Caitlin Gibson [click].  Although the piece was well researched and well written, the bottom line query is simply the wrong question: “What would cause a wealthy, white, young adult from a two-parent home become a heroin addict?”  The following was presented as a tragic end to one young woman’s life.

For the first time, she went alone. She turned into a rundown neighborhood lined with chain-link fences and dilapidated brick rowhouses off Gwynns Falls Parkway. She found her usual source. The transaction was quick.

Behind the wheel, parked in a seedy neighborhood, Anna shot up, then started home. She made it two blocks, to a red light, before the rush overcame her. She slumped forward.

Forty-five minutes passed in the middle of an intersection in an open-air drug market, with Anna’s foot mercifully resting against the brake pedal. Her car was rifled through, her purse dumped out and the money in her wallet stolen. All four car doors hung wide open when police found her, unconscious, face down on the steering wheel, the engine running.

I believe it to be incredibly tragic that an individual who has all the privileges life in the United States may offer exchanges the opportunities of a lifetime for the temporary pleasures of a needle.  I find it far more tragic, however, that we have incubated and delivered a society in which a young woman may die in the middle of an intersection without the comfort of a caring neighbor, or that another young woman may die in her bedroom while her boyfriend frets over the potential loss of his own comforts refusing to make even the slightest attempt to assist his “love.”

I struggle often with faith.  I wonder if God is real and if Jesus is who he said he was, the one who his disciples worshipped enough to die for and preached far and wide.  Then I remember that Jesus told a story about depraved indifference [click] when he walked amongst us.  The end of the story is a command that bears import and authority to this day, “Go and do the same.” [click]  In two thousand years, with all of our so-called advancement, we are still as wretched as the characters walking down a deserted road.   The one and only solution remains.

Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift!

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!” (Psalm 137:4-6, ESV)

The sufferings of the oppressed are not unfamiliar to the writers of Scripture.  This psalm of lament numbers itself amongst the most difficult in the entire Bible.  The writer is angry, hurt, tormented, shamed, and longing to just go home.  There is nothing polite about this poem.

Christianity in our culture is passed off as a “sure-fire” means to a carefree life.  “Give your money, keep your nose clean, be nice and God will bless you with health, wealth and (if you really want it) wisdom.”  When the pseudo-promise is not fulfilled, Christians tend to cluck their tongues, wag their heads sadly and give the agonized a pat on the back, “You’ll understand it by and by,” or “God does everything for a reason.”

In those rare instances where someone is actually honest enough to expose their fury regarding a present situation, shock and withdrawal is the most common response.  We prefer everyone to keep to themselves if at all possible. If you must, tell me of your pain, but please don’t share it.

The call of Christ is to life, abundant life [click].  I believe beyond a shadow of doubt Jesus knew that real living would include intense pleasures and visceral groans.  He experienced both and he invites all who will to come and follow him. 

Every now and again we get the notion in our society to try and be “humane.”  Sometimes the attempt to perpetrate random acts of kindness lasts awhile; sometimes we get over our sentimentality quite quickly.  Either way the question remains, ”What if?”

It seems to me the church is charged with definitively answering the question for each generation in every culture.  The “What if?” is supposed to be a silly notion to the follower of Jesus, for we are charged (and quite solemnly charged at that) to say “Yes, Lord,” every day, every hour.

Yes is a freedom word.  Yes removes doubt, it empowers and encourages.  It is a difficult word on which to attach an addendum or add a proviso. Yes is a word, given the right kind of authority, that moves mountains of obstacles.

“May I have your shirt”

“Yes…here is my coat also.”

“May I borrow twenty dollars?”

“Yes, here it is.  It is a gift, you need not return it.”

“Will you carry my burden one mile?”

“Yes I will and another mile too.”

“If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow. “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:40-48, NLT)

Jesus has freed us to forward love to those who do not deserve it, those who merit our disdain and even rejection.  Because our own sin-burden is removed by grace through faith, we who belong to Christ are able to give without reservation and live without fear. 

If we only will.  My friends at Main Street will be pursuing this call this upcoming week.

Scripture alone, by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone.

 
For hundreds upon hundreds of years the church had inserted itself in between the sinner and the Savior.  In order to be right with God one must first be right with the church.  Rather than see itself as a chosen conduit through which the power of the Holy Spirit flowed, the church proclaimed itself the respository of God’s grace.  The usurpation of authority led to many abuses and a general lack of knowledge as to the commands of Jesus or the manner in which his apostles followed in Jesus’ footsteps.

Tomorrow is the 492nd anniversary of the public declaration that the purchase of grace in exchange for worldly riches is wrong. The posting of 95 objections to the sale of indulgences on the door of the church building in Wittenburg, Germany serves as a reminder to this day of the proper position of the church within God’s kingdom.

The direct and simple truth of the gospels is unsatisfying for the religiously minded in every generation.  How dare God choose to diminish human agency and supervision and claim exclusive rights to the conviction of the heart, the dispensation of grace and the efficacy of the Word?

This is the faith handed down to us across the ages from the apostles.  This is the faith I will be celebrating this Halloween day.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3-7, ESV)

Being overwhelmed.  Most any of our contemporaries may relate to that sensation of drowning in a sea of obligations, appointments, responsibilities, requirements.  It is an odd living we have created for ourselves.  We, who have more and more and more seem to be less satisfied with it all and more easily buried under the pile of our accumulation.

Then come the days of true tribulation:  A loved one dies, a car breaks down during a downpour, a child falls seriously ill, a marriage ends, a job is lost.  “Overwhelmed” becomes something far more deadly.  How do we cope?  Many turn to ingesting any number of chemicals, most attempt to find even more things or activities to divert attention from the nagging pain within.

Do we just exist within the confines of this constant press? Is there any hope? I believe so.  For me, the sense of “this is all too much” is an hourly reality.  If my life is up to me to manage, then overwhelmed is what I am.  If, however, I am simply obeying the clear direction of a wise and sympathetic superior, it is far easier to breathe. I can rest, for he tells me to.  I can have joy, for he provides it.  I can be released from worry, he commands it.  My cares, as real and troublesome as they may be are to be thrown on him.

O to remember who is boss when I am overwhelmed!

“They put on sackcloth, and horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.” (Ezekiel 7:18, ESV)

It is too small a thing for those who are rescued from death to be gathered into little groups of self-congratulatory societies. (Isaiah 49.6) The sequestering of the recipients of God’s grace in Christ Jesus is a hellish activity. The salvation work of God is for the whole world. When the King of the universe employs the might of his strength to snatch from destruction those who are willing to embrace their own undoing, the skies ring with song-shouts of joy.
Those who belong to the Lord of Lords, those who endure the tribulations of this world: tribulations brought by their own disobedience, tribulations caused by the disobedience of others, when they receive comfort, the mountains cannot contain their joy.

“Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.” (Isaiah 49:13, ESV)

I wonder if the splendor of the color-infused sunset or the majesty of the blue-glacial mountain is the response of creation to the works of its maker.  If this is so, how great the comfort of God, how deep his compassions for I have seen marvels in sky and mountain which testify to the greatness of God’s work.