Theology from Calvin (and Hobbes)

Years ago, I was driving to a Memorial Day softball tournament at camp. I was all ready for the big day— I had had my lucky glove, my lucky cleats and was wearing my lucky sweats (I had to rely a lot on luck). What I didn’t have was my wallet! It was Memorial Day, and the police were doing random traffic stops and I randomly found one. So there I was, in a long line of traffic inching toward judgment waiting to show the state troopers the driver’s license I didn’t have.

Well, maybe my lucky glove was luckier off the field than it was on the field. There were two troopers doing the traffic stop. And I pulled up, Trooper #1 waved me to go on to Trooper #2, who must have thought Trooper #1 was finished with me, so we waved me on through the stop. Either I was really lucky or God didn't want me to pay a fine... or we have really lousy troopers.

So I was completely guilty, and yet I was treated as if I were completely innocent. Not a bad metaphor for grace, really. Grace is the basic message of the gospel. Over and over, the Bible tells us that God through Christ has saved us by his mercy, “not because of righteous things we had done” (Titus 3:5). We are saved by grace through faith to do good works (Eph 2:8-10). Paul warns us that salvation is “not by works, so that no one can boast.” It is important that we get grace straight, because if we think that we are good enough in ourselves, then we will boast.

But we do boast, don't we? One of the characteristics of many who are saved by grace is that they seem to have a lot of trouble extending that grace to others. I am saved by grace, but your life or theology is such a wreck that even grace can't help you. It is almost as if we want the grace community to consist only of us and those who are like us. I remember an old Calvin and Hobbs cartoon where the two are discussing the nature of the universe

Calvin: "You know what the problem is with the universe?” There’s no toll-free customer hot line for complaints! That’s why things don’t get fixed. If the Universe had any decent management, we’d get a full refund if we weren’t completely satisfied."

Hobbes: "But hey, the universe is free."

Calvin: "They should be a cover charge to keep out all the riffraff."

You see, we don’t want grace to be too free … or else all the riffraff will get in! Church folks can be a pretty judgmental lot (not at Denbigh, of course, but at other places). In fact, church can be a downright dangerous place for those who struggle with sin, with their past, with imperfect theology, with addictions… with life. I remember having a discussion with a brother who had a very, very (very) narrow view of divorce and divorced people. He told me (with steam coming out of his ears), “If we don’t get this right, then the church will end up being full of sinners!” Well, the church has always been full of sinners! And we will never get it right enough to change that.

Think about it... If moral or theological perfection is the church’s cover charge that keeps out all the riffraff, then we ALL will find ourselves on the outside looking in… with all the other riffraff.

I Mean Seriously...

Remind me one more time-- why is it that that so many people today have such a hard taking Christianity seriously?

A Tale Told By an Idiot?

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Nothing like a little Shakespeare to brighten up your day, right? Of course, it is a little dangerous to title a blog “a tale told by an idiot.” The idiot, in this case, is not me but Macbeth, who just doesn’t have a very rosy outlook. Life has no meaning, no purpose. It’s all just a bunch of noise until its time to be quiet. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to live like life is just “a tale told by an idiot…signifying nothing.”

Take Larry Walters as an example. Larry made history in 1982 when he fastened 42 surplus weather balloons to a lawn chair and launched himself skyward. He carried a CB radio and a BB gun to shoot the balloons when it was time to descend. It may be a surprise, but Larry didn’t think this plan through very well. He reached altitudes of 16,000 feet before he started to descend, and was spotted by pilots from both TWA and Delta Airlines. After getting the ride of his life, Larry landed in a residential neighborhood in Long Beach, got tangled in power lines, and caused a power blackout. Unfortunately for Larry, this literally was the ride of his life. Several years later, he decided Macbeth was right, and Larry shot himself to death. He had enough of the thrills and adventure, and there was nothing else except the sound and fury that meant nothing.

Life is supposed to have meaning, right? It is supposed to signify something. Sometimes we live like our purpose is just to get through the day—either trying to hold on while we get all the stuff done that we have to get done or maybe just finding enough stuff to do to fill up the day. Surely there is something more to life than just getting through the day. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, was once asked what was the meaning of life; his answer was, “I don’t know the meaning of life but it looks as if something were meant by it.” Surely there is something more to life than just “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

For the Christian, there is much more to life than just getting through it. There is purpose and meaning to life because we have been given purpose and meaning by God. Paul wrote--

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28-29)

We have been called according to God’s purpose. We were made in his image and are called to be conformed to the likeness of his Son. We are to live in relationship to him and are to live like him. What a high and holy purpose that is—that signifies a lot. May we not get so busy with the details of life today that we forget that we have been given a purpose for today and everyday!

Whose List?

Forbes Magazine releases a list each year of the wealthiest people in the world. They also have another list of the wealthiest celebrities. Well, they released another list last week—the highest earning dead celebrities. Evidently the earning power of some doesn’t end when they die. You’ve probably seen dead stars like John Wayne, Fred Astaire and most recently Chris Farley doing TV commercials through the magic of computer animation. Well, even dead stars don’t work for free, so the Forbes people (who obviously don’t have enough to do) compiled a list of which dead celebrities makes the most.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t either Michael Jackson nor Elvis Presley, though they do rank 3rd and 4th on the list. The top dead breadwinner is French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent who pulled in a cool $350 million. Number 2 on the list is the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein who made $235 million between them. There is even a term that has been coined to describe dead celebrities-- "delebs."

I wonder if Michael Jackson wants to lodge a complaint because obviously Rogers and Hammerstein are two delebs, not one, and are there unfairly listed in the #2 spot. Or is Elvis thinking, “If I would have just gotten my cut from those velvet paintings those guys sell on the side of the road, I could have been #1… thank you, thank you very much.” Do you think J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Schulz, John Lennon, Theodor Geisel, Albert Einstein or Michael Crichton (rounding out the top ten) care very much about this list? Oh, the heirs who have control over their delebs’ estates care very much. Maybe what the delebs might care about is what Ecclesiastes 2:18,19 says—

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

We know the old saying—you can’t take it with you. To paraphrase the old bumper stick popular in the 80’s, “The one who dies with the most toys—is dead.” Once we are dead, nothing of the things that we treat as so important now will matter. Money, possessions, status, intelligence, beauty, athleticism, accomplishments—once you are dead, they don’t matter at all. Part of the meaninglessness with which Ecclesiastes struggles is how the grave makes everything not matter, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” (Eccl 2:15).

At the heart of the Christian faith is the certainty that some things do survive the grave. There is coming a time when Jesus’ victory over the tomb will become our victory. Those who trust in Him will live forever, and the good deeds we do now are sent ahead of them as an eternal treasure (see 1 Tim 6:17-19). Maybe it would be wise to spend more time on things that last and less time on things you must leave behind?

Thinking About Thinking About God

Thursday is sermon day, and I am hard at work writing my Sunday sermon (so nobody call me, OK?) . I wasn’t even going to think about writing on the blog; in fact, I hadn’t even thought about not thinking about it. Then my inbox pinged and I had an email from my friend Alan Smith and his TFTD (Thought for the Day). I thought this was right on target, so I decided to share it. Alan won’t mind; he borrowed it from Richard Fairchild’s Not Far From the Kingdom of God. As easy as it was not to think about the blog, it is sometimes very hard to think only about God. Enjoy.

In the days of the circuit riders a minister was out riding one afternoon and came upon a man out working in his field. "Fine day, isn't it?" the minister called out.

"It's fine for you", the man replied, "All you have to do is ride around on that horse thinking about God all day long, while I have to sweat here in this field and then walk home afterward. I don't think it is right you should have things so easy while I have to work so hard."

"On the contrary", the minister answered, "thinking about God is one of the most difficult things you can do. And to prove it, I'll give you this horse if you can think about God and nothing else for one minute."

"You're on," said the man and immediately he sat down in silence. Thirty seconds later he looked up at the minister, and said, "Does that include the saddle?"

I would agree that thinking about God and nothing else is a very difficult thing to do. I would also add, though, that it is just as hard for ministers as it is anyone else! Paul wrote, "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2).

But our mind is filled nearly every minute of the day with things on this earth -- concerns about things that have happened, concerns about things that will (or might) happen, concerns about what we have (or don't have), concerns about how to get what we don't have, concerns about people that have done us wrong, concerns about what we want others to do for us.

And our mind is so crowded with the things of this world, that there's just not much room left for God. It's hard to think about God and God alone, for there is so much competing for our attention.

Allow me to give you this challenge -- think about God and nothing else for one minute. If you can achieve that goal, strive for five minutes. May thoughts of God increasingly fill your mind so that you can eventually say with the Psalmist all day long, "I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works." (Psalm 145:15)

Truth in Advertising

I ran across a report from DailyIndia.com that told of a group of about 6,000 Christians in India that went through a public ceremony to reconvert back to Hinduism. The story told about organized Hindu opposition to Christian missionary work, though that is not the part that is most disturbing. It seems that that Christian missionaries had promised these people that if they converted to Christ, God would given them fancy houses, cars and other material blessings that simply did not materialize (pun intended). One reconverted Hindu said, “I don't have any problem. But they (the Christian missionaries) tempted us. They promised us houses. We stayed with them for two years.”

Back in June, I posted a YouTube video of John Piper (“Is God Enough”) pointing to “Health-and-Wealth” missionaries promising people that God would bless them with, well, health and wealth if they converted to Christianity. God wants his people to prosper, to be healed of all diseases, and to be blessed materially—the same “name-it-and-claim-it” rot taught on religious programming and in many churches in our country. The people in India bought this line, but when God didn’t deliver on His “end of the bargain,” they bolted back to Hinduism. Struggle and persecution wasn’t what they signed up for—they were in it for the house, car and plasma TV. I’m sure their missionary teachers would say that they didn’t have enough faith to “name it and claim it.” Maybe they never really had faith in the Christ of the cross; they just wanted the good life.

We need to be careful about our "truth in advertising." The gospel does not offer a solution to all our financial and relational problems. Paul was successful and prosperous UNTIL be became a Christian. Paul has a lot of friends and admirers UNTIL he became a Christian. Jesus promised that for some, faith would bring a sword, not peace, in their personal relationships (Matt 10:34-39). The problem for which Jesus is the solution is the problem of sin and eternal damnation. Sometimes the only prosperity that Jesus offers in this life is the prosperity of knowing that “heaven will surely be worth it all” (see Rom 8:18-25). What Christ offers is not financial or social prosperity; what Jesus offers is a cross. There are many benefits in this life of living as a Christian, but health and wealth aren't always among them. What God offers those who seek Him is that they will find Him; the greatest blessed God gives us is Himself.

On Translation, Zingers and Grace

On one of our trips to Ukraine, Cindy Byrd and I were invited to meet the family of a teen who had been attending our campaign meetings. We thought that her family had some questions about God and the Bible, and as it turned out, they did. It seems her family had friends who lived in the same tenement building who were Jehovah Witnesses, and they had been studying just long enough to become really confused. They wanted us to come and discuss the Bible with their Jehovah’s Witness friends. I remember thinking that it was a bit ironic that we traveled halfway around the world to get into an argument with some Jehovah’s Witnesses; we could have stayed home and waited for them to come to our door!

The thing we could not have done is discussed the Bible with very argumentative and indoctrinated people (and these folks were both and then some) through a translator. Our hostess was the only person present who spoke both English and Russian, so all the discussion had to go through her. Our JW friends would make impassioned (as in veins bulging in their necks and smoke coming from their nostrils) argument, but then they would have to sit and wait for their words to be translated from Russian into English, then for Cindy or I to respond and then for our words to be translated back into Russian for them. That took a long time… and it let them calm down a bit and kept things on a calmer keel would have been the case if we could have spoken directly. I remember thinking that all theological discussion needs to take place through a translator!

Maybe that is a lesson for us in our marriages, families and church relationships. Maybe rather than responding immediately to what people say to us, we need to wait for the translation. Maybe we need to wait long enough for the words of the flesh (what we want to say) to be translated into the words of the Spirit (what we should say). Paul expects us to translate our “unwholesome talk” (literally “rotten words”) into speech that is helpful and which builds up.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

In Colossians 4:6, Paul uses the imagery of seasoning our words with grace, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Often, in disagreements, we end up saying what makes us feel better rather than saying what is best for the other person. We need to let the Holy Spirit in us translate our words into what the other person really needs to hear. To do that, we need to slow down a bit. That’s hard for me to do… especially when I have a great zinger on the tip of my tongue. But it is that "zinger" that is often the “rotten words” that come from the flesh. We need to let the Spirit translate those into words that are beneficial and build up those who listen.