I Can See Clearly Now

Once upon a time, on a grassy hilltop in a land far away, a ragged and unkempt rabbi turned to the milling crowds sitting on the hillside around him and began to deliver the Sermon on the Mount. He began with a short, lyrical list of proverbs that somewhere down the twisty and dangerous road of Church history came to be known as the Beatitudes.

The sixth one has always intrigued me: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." What did Jesus mean? They shall see God? What does purity have to do with it?

I am beginning to understand the answer. We find it a few miles away from the calm rabbi on the hilltop, surrounded by hurting people, hateful Pharisees, and confused disciples. Here is Jerusalem, and at its northern end we see the glimmering Temple built by Herod the Great, a world renowned religious site, and destination for thousands of curious and fervent pilgrims from all over the busy Roman world.

In the ancient scrolls containing the laws of the Jews as brought down the mountain by Moses, we see enshrined in Leviticus an intricate and all-encompassing code of rules and guidelines. For what? Purity. Why do the Israelites need to be pure? And there we have our answer.

Imagine, if you will, God. Yes, I know it's hard, but try. There is light: radiant, unapproachable light. There is sound: deep, harmonious sound like the growl of a black hole. Swirling colors, rushing winds, the fragrance of pulverized rock. But over the sensory overload there pulses something thats shakes our bones and makes our eyes water; something both magnificent and terrifying to behold: complete otherness. This is a being who is infinitely as different and separated from everything else as the farthest edge of the universe. Pure; sublime. Both the embodiment of the Law and its sworn enforcer.

In calm discussions far away from the power and glory we refer to this otherness as the Holiness of God. The idea of His holiness also includes His impeccability (complete inability to sin), and His total righteousness and intolerance of sin. Originally, He made humans to be sinless and pure in His sight.

We all know how that went.

God is holy. People, decidedly, are not. Saint John, beloved friend of Jesus and apostle of the Church, tells us in his first epistle that God is love. But we also know that God is justice. For awhile after Adam and Eve's goof, there was nothing to shield mankind from the divine justice emanating from the supreme Holiness of God. Until God, in love, stepped forward with a contingency plan.

The poor Hebrews were made abundantly and immediately aware of His holiness and their abject depravity as they watched, terrified, the summit of Mount Sinai being consumed with fire, light, smoke, and thunder as Almighty God descended to speak with Moses.

The results of this discussion were the Ten Commandments and the aforementioned religious obligations of the Hebrew nation embodied in Leviticus. God, despite His grandeur and transcendence, would make His home in a pretty tent at the center of the Israelite camp.

But, in order for Him to stay, and to pour out His blessings and gifts on the Israelites, they would have to uphold their purity, both as individuals and as a nation. In calm discussions far away from ancient life we refer to this as the Old Covenant. And the central, abiding, overriding, paramount component of that covenant was fidelity to Him as their one and only God.

But as soon as God turned His back, figuratively speaking, the idols and false gods began to creep in. Baal, Asherah, Moloch, Dagon, Marduk. And slowly but surely the false gods of the stars, the sun, and the moon choked out the glory those heavens were trying to proclaim. The end results were catastrophic for the Jews.

For you, dear reader, it may seem that the likes of Baal, Asherah, or Moloch are no longer distracting you from God. Ah, but you see, Satan (that ancient serpent) is still cleverly selling you the same old products in shiny new packages. Money, excellence, sex, beauty, power: all are at their root the pantheon of old. And make no mistake, all are idols that we whore ourselves after.

In the shrine atop the high place in my soul you find an idol of Intelligence. Next to it sits the altar where I sacrifice things to gain Respect From Others. In a prominent place reposes the false god called Religion. Above it all hangs an ever-burning lamp that symbolizes my devotion to Selfish Will. I am certain you have a similar place in your heart.

Idols clutter our sight and wreck our purity. The words of Jesus ring true. Why are the pure in heart blessed? Because they are the ones who can see God. There are no distractions, no clutter, no idols.

As the old hymn goes, create in me a pure heart, O God.

Scum

Persecution is an intriguing concept. Christianity is perhaps unique for the high value and esteem it places on those members who suffer and die due to persecution. And not as violent martyrs, but as sheep led to the slaughter. Christ is the perfect example in this, as He is in all things.

He withstood violence and cruelty, for the most part in silence. He did not denounce the priests that spit on him and mocked him, did not curse Pilate or Herod for turning Him over to satisfy a bloodthirsty crowd. As He hung on the cross, He did not call down heavenly fire to annihilate those around Him, but asked for their forgiveness.

This model was followed by thousands of Christians after him, calmly facing down the powers of darkness as their earthly bodies were destroyed.

What are we to make of this, sitting here in the United States in our safety and our comfort?

Now, I am not advocating for you to go and have yourself killed by some foreign regime, but think for a moment. How does this idea of persecution, of becoming the scum of the earth, translate into our lives today?

I think that we as American Christians face a similar set of challenges as many did 2,000 years ago. Roman authors that were contemporaries of the early Church considered Christians to be a bunch of worthless idiots. They threw their lives away to follow after a dead man from Nowhere, Judea.

Jesus, while on earth, spoke of His followers' having to bear their crosses to follow Him. What did He mean? That we should learn to cope with the little griefs and disappointments that invariably flare up on the Christian walk? No.

He was talking about loss of life. The cross was a tool of capital punishment, the single most gruesome method that humanity has so far come up with. It was an excruciating death, a humiliating death. It was reserved for the most radical and dangerous criminals.

The cross did not and does not symbolize paltry obstructions on the path of life. It symbolizes a complete departure from that path. I am becoming increasingly convinced that what Jesus was talking about was a total relinquishing of my own ambitions and desires to pursue whatever task He sets me to. Period.

What kind of reaction does living a radical Christ life engender from the world? Persecution. Whether its disdainful looks for sitting with the lonely weird kid in the dining hall or getting fined for illegally feeding the homeless. There is no rule that states that a true Christian life brings persecution, but I think that if you never come up against it in your walk with the Lord, you may want to take a closer look at yourself and see how much you actually look like Jesus.

Paul, when confronted with the irresistible reality of God as revealed in Christ, abandoned everything he knew: his status as a learned Pharisee, his religion, the respect and admiration of his peers. He cast it all aside in his pursuit of Christ.

What are you willing to cast aside? Jesus does not ask the same sacrifices from everyone. For Paul, it was everything. Examine your life. What prevents you from taking up your cross and the radical, sacrificial life that it represents? Cast those things aside, my friends.

" Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 10:37-39

"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ..." Philippians 3:4-8

The Gospel

So then, our ultimate calling is to preach the gospel to all the world. But what is the gospel, exactly?

In its most dressed-down form, the gospel is that Jesus Christ, the unique Son of God, has died to redeem the whole world and has resurrected to bring us all into eternal life. Christians know this, hopefully, backwards and forwards. But sometimes we get sidetracked from the gospel and detour into other things.

Oftentimes, it is easy for us to think of salvation, redemption, and sanctification in selfish, self-centered frames of mind. Jesus is saving me, is redeeming me, is sanctifying me. And yes, He is. But I am convinced there is a larger picture that we miss when we think in this way.

I think it more true to reality to say that Jesus is saving us, redeeming us, and sanctifying us. Us, not me. The Body, not the individual. It is important for us to make the distinction partly because of our pre-conditioned individualistic way of thinking that comes from living in America, but mostly because the Church was designed by God to be Christ's body. You can experience Christ by yourself, and you should. But we cannot experience the total Jesus experience, if you will, without fellowship and interaction with our fellow believers.

This is part of the beauty of the Church. The "buddy Jesus" idea has been promoted to such an extent in the western world that we easily lose sight of the Church and the community she represents. Absolutely, Jesus loves you as an individual, knows the number of hairs on your head, etc. But He did not die to save you, He died to save everyone who believes.

I am not denigrating personal relationships with God, I'm saying that the proposition of salvation is a corporate proposition, not an individual one. In terms of the gospel, Jesus died to save everyone who will believe in Him, which can include you.

Therefore, brother and sisters, cherish your one on one time with the Lord. But also cherish your corporate time with the Lord, perhaps even more than the personal.

At the end of history, when we all live together with God, we will all be living together. We don't get little personal heavens. We're a collective, the perfection of the Church. Our experience of God will be as one Body, one pristine Bride of Christ.

Ultimate Calling

Christians spend a lot of time pondering this issue: what is God's will for my life?

At first glance, this question appears to have multiple answers. God is calling me to love Him. God is calling me to be a good person. God is calling me to serve others. God is calling me to be an accountant. Hundreds of books have been penned on the subject of finding God's will for your life.

But I think that it is much more simple than people make it out to be.

Our calling is to spread the gospel, preach the gospel, write the gospel, and in myriad other ways to communicate the good news to all of our fellow inhabitants on planet earth. Don't get me wrong, loving God, serving others, and being good people (not to mention the fine art of accountancy) are all honorable and noble things to do with life.

In fact, I would say that preaching the gospel and loving Jesus have to go hand in hand. But just loving Jesus without ever showing another that love is sacrilege. Being moral people and serving others are vehicles to preach the gospel, not ends in and of themselves.

Sure, God cares about where you work, where you live, and what you spend money on, but not because He necessarily cares about that company but because He cares about the lost people in that company. Everything He does is towards the sole purpose of drawing souls to Himself; accordingly, everything He would have you do is pledged to the same goal.

While individuals are certainly called to certain jobs and whatnot, we must always keep in focus the reason you're called to that job: to further the Kingdom of Heaven by preaching the gospel.

Loving, serving, and being good are byproducts of a life wholly surrendered to Christ. For it is only through Him that we do good.

The next time that you go to God and ask His will for your life, remember to keep in mind our ultimate calling, that of preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, in Samaria, in Judea, and to the ends of the earth.

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. Colossians 1:28,29

Ruining Eli's Day

Speaking of words from the Lord, have you ever been in a situation where a friend or relative is engaged in an activity that you know is sinful, and you really want God to give you a great condemnation to fire at them?

I certainly have.

In fact, I have actually acted on these supposed "words of God" and delivered messages of judgement to people who would probably benefitted more from my support than my judgement.

But such is the way of those individuals who posses a razor sharp moral compass, which they usually point at those around them. I am one of those individuals, a fact those who know me are very well aware of.

But I digress. There are special cases when one receives insight into another person's life, and this insight is negative. The prophet Samuel, mouthpiece of God to Kings Saul and David, at the very beginning of his career, received an insight from the the Lord declaring that the high priest's family was condemned because of their many evils and that Eli's (the high priest) name would be cut off from future generations.

Understandably, Samuel was initially hesitant to relay that message to Eli. The same can be said of us. Today, people rarely if ever receive God's direct condemnation on another person's sinful behavior. However we do have God's Word, namely the Bible, to convey His mind to us and make clear His opinions.

In reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the text and can link the words to situations in life. When God does this in you on behalf of another's behavior, it can be difficult to then present this to the person in question. It was certainly difficult for Samuel. But in the end he delivered that packet of doom to Eli.

And so must we, if the Spirit brings to our attention verses to confront another on. Of course, doing this on your own without God's guidance is using the Bible as a weapon, which is something the world has suffered enough of. But bringing God's message to a person, in the name of love, is a noble thing. But more than that, it is the responsible thing, because who are we to question God's decisions? If He has sent it to you, you must deliver it.

Even if it ruins Eli's day.

Going about it

I think that religious people today far too often claim that God has told them something or speak on His behalf.

I wonder sometimes how God feels about this. Certainly He does indeed speak to His children often and about many things, but I wonder if people use God to further their own purposes or justify their decisions.

An example: a few years ago the father of a young man I know packed up his family and they all moved to a nearby town because "God" had told him to. But the family was unhappy about the move, the children did not do well in the new school, and eventually the family moved back.

Did God really instruct the father to do this? Or did he make himself believe that God had? Obviously, one cannot simply dictate what God did say and what He doesn't. I cite the above story not to discredit the father, but to use it as a fairly standard example of the kind of situation I am talking about.

God is no longer in the business of loudly announcing His plans from the clouds or sending prophets to proclaim it in His stead. The coming of the Holy Spirit largely made that kind of dramatic grandstanding obsolete. But now that we live with the Spirit indwelling us, I think it is difficult for people to distinguish between the Spirit, their own thoughts, and subconscious renderings of external circumstances.

For the Christian, one of the biggest challenges in leading a God-centered life is learning to hear the Spirit, and (more importantly) to be able to discern the difference between the voice of God and all else. Prayer is a rather delicate business, because not only are you trying to communicate with the Lord, you are trying to listen to Him also. It is an easy thing to substitute the Spirit with our own thoughts; we can do this so seamlessly that we do not notice, and then go on to act on what we perceive is the will of God.

To the outsider or the atheist, I am sure that all these churches full of people talking about what God told them might as well be insane asylums. Which brings us to a good point: it is a crazy, dangerous proposition to claim a direct message from God. It is a precious, rare thing. Something to be protected and respected. In my life, the entire idea of a special message from God has slowly been drained of its meaning from extreme and negligent overuse.

My bottom line today: claiming a special word from the Lord is not something that people of faith should be flippant or dismissive about. It should be seldom invoked, and never without careful consideration.

"Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the Lord. "Is not my word like fire and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" Jeremiah 23:28, 29

Good stuff.

In lieu of sleeping, I suppose I can introduce myself to you, oh (hypothetical) reader.

I am nineteen years old and a freshman studying Communications at the prestigious University of Illinois. I've been a Christian for most of my life but didn't really know what that meant until around a year and a half ago. Since then, discussing theology and the ins and outs of Christian doctrine with my posse of friends has become one of my favorite hobbies.

To that end, I start this blog in order to express my thoughts in writing. Also, I think this will have a therapeutic effect on me.

So then, back to the Elephant. According to the parable, there was a wise prince whose ministers loved to debate over the sayings of the Buddha. One day the debate became especially heated, and the prince could stand the endless prattle no longer.

He commanded that several blind men be brought in from the streets. After that, he commanded an elephant brought in. He looked at his ministers, silent now with the appearance of the elephant, and said "Now, gentlemen, show the blind men the elephant."

The blind men slowly approached and examined the great beast. One man touched the trunk, another the tusk, another the ear, and the last the tail. The prince then asked each man, "What is an elephant?"

The first man replied, "The elephant is like a snake, long and sinuous."

The second man replied, "No, the elephant is sharp and hard, like a spear."

The third man replied, "No, the elephant is like a great fan."

The fourth man replied, "No, all of you are wrong! The elephant is like a thick broom."

The four blind men then began loudly arguing amongst themselves. The prince turned to his ministers. "Now tell me", he said slyly, "which of these blind men is wrong about the nature of the elephant?"

"None", the ministers lamely responded.

"And which of them is right?"

"None", the ministers sighed.

"My friends, take this to heart", said the prince. "There are things beyond what we can rightly know, beyond our understanding. And while each of you may have ahold of a piece of the truth, none of you can comprehend the whole truth, just as these blind men cannot comprehend the whole elephant.

But, if these men were to listen to each other, instead of just arguing, then they could perhaps come to understand the whole elephant. So it is with you: if you perhaps listen to one another then perhaps the whole truth will be arrived at."

Thus I dedicate this blog to the Elephant, and the wisdom and patience it represents. If only more people of faith would come to understand the Elephant; which by the way, if you want another word on the Elephant besides the Buddhist tradition, take a gander at Romans chapter 14. Good stuff.