The Worm Turns

The scriptures referred to are Romans 6:12-23.

I use my Facebook feed at least partly to aggregate and curate news I'm interested in. As a former Psychiatric and then Neurosurgery nurse, I am interested in the latest developments in psychology and neurology. And right now there is a big debate going on in those fields as to whether we have free will. The key point for those against us having free will is that in fMRI studies when people are asked to make decisions the emotional part of the brain reacts a few milliseconds before the rational part of the brain. The conclusion drawn is that we first go with our gut and then afterwards rationalize our foregone conclusion. The study's authors said this shows we don't really make rational decisions but are slaves to our emotions and reactive and thus do not have free will. In the comments, I pointed out that if that were true, the people doing the study had no choice but to say that.

Let's face it, though: we all do that at times. We make a subconscious emotional choice and later come up with a rational-sounding justification for it. And some people seem to do that all the time. But there are times when we go against our emotional impulses. How else do you explain martyrs? Nobody's first impulse is to subject themselves to imprisonment, torture and execution. And we know that when Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire some church members did whatever they had to in order to avoid persecution, including renouncing their faith and making a sacrifice to the deified emperor. As humiliating as that might have been when fellow church members heard about it, surely that would be everyone's first instinct: self-preservation. But some didn't take the easy way out. They went to their death, deciding that eternal life was more essential than their earthly life.

And we see that the same thing happened when plagues hit the Roman empire. Those who could fled to the countryside. But Christians often stayed and took care of the sick and dying, at great risk to their own lives. How was that not a freely made decision?

We see both of those counterintuitive kinds of decisions today. Protesters calmly facing heavily armed police. Doctors, nurses and EMTs deciding to care for COVID-19 patients, despite the fact that more than 600 healthcare workers have died as a result. If people have no free will, then you have to posit that some are just hard-wired to put themselves in harm's way for reasons other than satisfying the basic needs for food, shelter and sex. You also have to wonder why we urge people to change their behavior if they have no ability to do other than what they do. People who want to smoke will smoke. People who want to drink will drink. People who want to do drugs will do drugs. Except that many stop, often due to 12 Step programs, which enlist and bolster the person's decision to stop despite really strong biochemical reasons not to.

The Bible calls this impulse to do things that are selfish and destructive sin. It's not a fashionable word to bandy about these days but how else does one describe it when a person deliberately does something they know is wrong or harmful to others? In the book Explaining Hitler there is a discussion of whether Hitler was just a true believer, who sincerely believed that Jews were a danger to the world and that his destroying them was a good thing. Except that, while he knew about the “Final Solution,” he never verbally endorsed it, which you would think he would if he thought he was doing a good thing. After all, he had taken credit for ordering the killing of the disabled early in his reign. But he got a lot of angry pushback for it. So he made sure he had plausible deniability when it came to his genocide of the Jews. Yet he had announced it in Mein Kampf. Everyone working for him knew he wanted it. He would speak about it vaguely when meeting with his underlings in private but not in ways he could be pinned down on later because he knew his secretaries were preserving his every word for posterity. It was almost like he did want want kudos for this good deed in the future. You even could argue that one of the reasons the Nazis lost the war was the massive diversion of personnel, supplies and transport from the war effort to the concentration camps. Hitler was personally supervising the war and had to know where his resources were going. These are the actions of someone who knows he is doing something wrong and is trying to cover it up in order to get away with it. It was deliberate and it was sin.

What the Nazis did was not only deliberate but entirely unnecessary. It was not their survival that made them decide to wipe out a minority race and religion. But in some cases people who do bad things do not have a totally free will, such as those who do things under the influence of drugs or alcohol or mental illness. Others act in destructive or self-destructive ways due to trauma, physical or psychological. Most people addicted to opioids did not start taking them for fun but to relieve pain. And we know that severe emotional trauma can change the brain's physical structure and one's reactions to situations. Yet some folks struggling with these overwhelming negative influences choose to get treatment, which argues that they still have some ability to make decisions not based on pure impulse.

In today's passage from Romans Paul says, “Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.” The Greek actually says “Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies,” using a verb that also means “to be a king.” Paul may have been thinking of a contrast with the “kingdom of God,” which uses the related noun to describe the state in which God reigns in us. He is saying “Don't let sin rule your lives, making you obey its desires.” Which recalls the first ever use of the word “sin” in the Bible. In Genesis, when God is not pleased with Cain's offering, it says, “Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry and why is your expression downcast? Is it not true that if you do what is right, you will be fine? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.'” (Genesis 4:6-7)

It sounds like “sin” is being personified here. I'm not saying that is literally true but people who have wrestled with bad habits or with addictions know that it's like these things have a mind of their own. In the very next chapter of Romans, Paul speaks the same way about his struggle with covetousness. “For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.' But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.” (Romans 7:7-8) Later he talks of how “sin sprang to life and I died.” In this case, Paul is speaking of a situation where the decision was not only irrational but the rational part of his brain did not justify it. He speaks of the 2 parts of him being at war within him and the worst part wins at times. I think we can all relate.

We all have what are called besetting sins, our specific Achilles' heel when it comes to temptation. It may be arrogance or lust or laziness or greed or rage or envy or gluttony. For instance, gambling may have no allure for a certain person but junk food does. Another person may not be addicted to pills but to buying more unnecessary possessions than they can afford. Some people cannot stay away from pornography while others are addicted to judging people. And some of them are aware of this recurring flawed behavior. But they can't seem to get a handle on it.

Today all of those behaviors are now thought of as addictions. But that doesn't mean they are not spiritually damaging behaviors. The word “addiction” comes from a 16^th century word meaning “devoted to [someone].” Paul uses the metaphor of being a slave to sin, as he says in verse 17. And when you find yourself doing again and again something you know is bad for you or for others, it feels like you are a slave to it. The essence of slavery is being compelled to do things you'd rather not.

Paul presents the solution using the same metaphor in a way we would hesitate to employ today. He says the alternative is to become slaves of righteousness. Paul says he is "speaking in human term because of your natural limitations." All I can say is that in Paul's day, slavery was not racially based nor necessarily lifelong. There were worse and better forms of slavery. Slaves consigned to working in mines or in gladiatorial combat were basically given a death sentence. On the other hand, most doctors then were Greek slaves. Many slaves were educated and household slaves might manage great estates and actually have more power than most free persons. And in the Roman empire slaves could work for and achieve their freedom. Which, by the way, Paul encourages slaves to do. (1 Corinthians 7:21)

My point is that Paul is using something familiar to his society and saying, as Bob Dylan pointed out, you gotta serve somebody. Rather than settle for the kind of slavery whose wages are death, choose the kind of slavery that leads to freedom. Rather than being devoted to a thing that will destroy you, be devoted to the God who is love.

The problem is we can't buy our way out of the slavery into which we've sold ourselves. We need to be redeemed by someone else. “Redeem” comes from the Latin “to buy back.” God, who created us in his image, sent his son to buy us back from our enslavement to sin. He paid a steep price. He gave his life to give us life.

And it is ultimately about life. Life gives freedom, whereas death takes everything away. Living enslaved to sin, to your worst habits and inclinations, narrows one's life, the way any addiction does. It becomes a living death. Life in Christ opens up the possibilities. You can express your devotion to him in so many ways: as a doctor, as an artist, as a teacher, as a police officer, as a builder, as a writer, as a scientist, as a coworker, as a musician, as a veterinarian, as a lawyer, as an ecologist, as a filmmaker, as an inventor, as a performer, as a nurse, as a manager, as a firefighter, as a philanthropist, as a public servant, as a neighbor, as a friend, and even as a clergyperson. You can show God's love and grace in all you do.

What Jesus did for us has freed us from the penalty for sin. What the Spirit is doing in us now is slowly freeing us from the power of sin in our lives. When we go to be with God we will be freed from the very presence of sin. Paul expresses this by saying, “Just as you offered parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to even greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.” (Romans 6:19, my translation) Slavery to righteousness is like joining a 12 Step group, or a fitness program. If you follow it conscientiously the result will be a new and better you.

So as to the issue of free will we live in a paradox. We don't have totally free wills, because we are all enslaved to habits of thought or speaking or acting that are harmful, to ourselves or to others or to both. Yet the Bible gives us a choice. In fact the whole Bible would be useless if we did not have the capacity to decide to get help, to decide not to just go along with our worst urges and instincts but to try to change. We can respond to the gospel, turn from sin and return to God. That's really all the word “repent” means in the original Hebrew: to turn. We have that much free will.

And science seems to back up the idea that we do have the ability to choose which way to turn. Literally. At Rockefeller University researchers exposed microscopic roundworms to the odor of food while monitoring their brains. Usually they turned and moved toward the odor but some didn't, though they could tell their brains had registered the odor. They actually seemed to think about whether they should go towards the food or just continue exploring. Round worms have only 302 neurons and about 7000 synapses, compared to the human complement of 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses. If God lets the roundworm have a certain amount of free will, then surely we humans are not mere puppets of our biology and emotions and environment.

We can decide to follow Jesus rather than our sinful impulses and thoughts. But it is not just a one time deal. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23, my emphasis) As the 12 Step programs, which owe a lot to Christianity, say we need to take things “one day at a time” because they recognize that it is a commitment that must be continually renewed. And also, the prospect of making such a drastic change forever frightens people. They think, “I'll never make it that long!” The book of Hebrews says, “But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called 'Today,' that none of you may become hardened by sin's deception.” (Hebrews 3:13) That deception is that you can't change, not really, not for long. That deception is that you will be back where you were, trapped in your bad habits, in your self-destructive thinking, unable to do anything to stop it. That deception is that the future is fixed, immutable, and you are doomed to repeat yourself. That deception leads to despair, to giving up, to giving in to your worst thoughts, words and actions. It says you're hopeless.

But God says that your past, and even your present, need not determine your future. You can decide to turn to God. Every second you are alive is a second chance to choose eternal life. Put your trust in God, pin your hope on him, and he can change you. Someone once summarized the first 3 steps of the 12 Step program as "I can't, God can, and I'm going to let him."

That doesn't mean it will be easy or painless. After my accident, the road to recovery was long, difficult and painful. But eventually I did see progress. Because I believed my therapists that this was possible and worked with them to make it so. And 4 ½ months after I broke both legs, among other things, I walked—using parallel bars and being tightly held by the therapist, gripping my therapy belt. But I walked. And with their help, I got better at it.

Which reflects the paradox of us having free will but not entirely. Or as Paul put it, “...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12-13) C.S. Lewis pointed out the first half of that verse makes it sound like it's all on us but the second half makes it sound like it all depends on God. Like all paradoxes, it preserves a complex truth. To say we can follow Jesus on our own efforts alone is arrogance. To say we can just sit back and let God do it all is abdication of our responsibility.

It starts with saying “Yes” to God. It means being devoted to him and doing what he says. It means when things get hard, remembering what a father said when he brought his sick boy to Jesus to be healed. Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes.” To which the father said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24) He could and he couldn't. But that was enough for Jesus to work with and heal the boy. We too can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13) Just ask...and dare!

Dad as Disciple

The scriptures referred to are Ephesians 5:21-6:4 and Colossians 3:18-21.

When reading Harper's Encyclopedia of Bible Life I was surprised by the fact that biblical Hebrew had no word for family, despite the importance that societal unit has in scripture. Instead the word “house” is used. And the head of the house was the father. According to this encyclopedia, “Most noticeably in patriarchal days and in the period of the judges, the family form a unit for worship, with its head (male) as priest, and a civil unit, with the father as the military leader, the judge, and the disciplinarian.” In regards to the latter role, the father had the power of life and death over his children. Thus, as the book says, “Within his own family the father was a mini-dictator whose word was law.”

One reason for this was that at those times, the Israelites were nomads or just transitioning into settled agricultural and urban life, and society was pretty much structured and regimented as one would the military. There was no standing army or police to protect the family or individual members from the aggression of outsiders and so families, clans and tribes had to band together and perform those functions to survive.

The book does caution that this generalized picture changes over the two millennia covered by the Bible. Society, its customs and which functions are delegated to whom evolve and change. The government takes over handling protection and justice. So today we do not let parents kill or even abuse their children. We recognize a higher law. And this too goes back to the Bible.

If you have been listening to my daily Facebook Live videos of reading a chapter of the Bible you may remember that I gave some explanation and context to the sections of the letters to the Ephesians and to the Colossians called “household codes.” These were instructions on how the members of a family should behave toward one another. These lists were common among pagan thinkers, starting with Aristotle, and Paul adapted them with some uniquely Christian features. For instance, the pagan codes were usually addressed only to the husband and father and they definitely saw him as a mini-dictator, telling him to rule over his wife, children and slaves. Not so with Paul. As a note to Ephesians in the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says, “Whereas household codes normally instructed the male householder how to rule, Paul begins and ends with mutual submission (5:21; 6:9), calls for gentleness with children (6:4), and instructs husbands not how to rule their wives but how to love them sacrificially (5:25).”

Sadly even some supposedly educated Christians do not pick up on the differences between the Christian ideal for husbands and fathers and the more ancient one. In college the church I attended had an adult Sunday school class on the Christian family. And one slide showed a hammer, a chisel and a diamond. The hammer was labeled the father, the chisel was labeled the mother, and the diamond was labeled the child. While the teacher was expounding on this bizarre and unBiblical visual metaphor, my girlfriend at that time leaned over and whispered, “So the father hits the mother and the children end up cracked.” I had to stifle myself as I cracked up.

That teacher got it very wrong but unfortunately he was not alone in his idea of Christian family dynamics. And as a reaction to such patriarchy we have people on the other end of the spectrum of thought who seem to feel that fathers make no important contribution except at the conception. As usual, reality is a lot more nuanced.

First let's look at what Paul actually says. In Ephesians 5:21 he begins by saying, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He isn't even talking to families at this point but to all Christians, whom he has just encouraged to speak and sing to each other and give thanks to God. So this mutual deference to one another is something all followers of Jesus should practice.

Then Paul says, “Wives, to your husbands as to the Lord.” I didn't misquote that. In the Greek the verb “submit” does not appear. This is a continuation of the first sentence, so it should read: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ; wives, to your husbands as to the Lord.” So wives are not singled out to submit but are used as an example of this principle which Paul says applies to all Christians.

I am not saying that Paul is completely divorced from the culture he grew up in because he says that the husband is head of the wife. But this is not because, as Aristotle thought, women are inferior to men. On the contrary, Paul says in Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) By using the term “head” he is resorting to the same kind of body analogy he uses when he says that we are all members of the body of Christ, each with different functions but no part less important than any other. So he draws a parallel between Christ being the head of the church and the husband being the head of the wife and makes the comparison between the church submitting to Christ and the wife submitting to her husband.

And, unlike his instructions to children, Paul doesn't say the wife must obey her husband. She is not to be treated like a child. She is an adult. It's interesting that among Roman citizens, though not in Greek society, the wife did not have to obey the husband, though she did have to obey her father! She was always to act as a dutiful daughter. Paul doesn't say that either.

And remember: pagan household codes were written to the husband alone. Paul, however, is writing to each member of the family.

Next he does get to the husband, but he doesn't tell him to rule over his wife. Instead, he writes, “Husbands, love your wives...” There's more but I want to stop there for a moment. Since most marriages were arranged for social and financial reasons, there was no expectation that a husband back then love his wife. His duty was to provide for her and his children and to keep them in line. Love, though it might develop over time, was not required. In fact it was okay if the husband had a mistress or had sex with other women. Adultery was only wrong for the wife. The paternity of her children was paramount. His fidelity was not. Jesus changed that.

So right off the bat Paul is telling the husband that he must love his wife. And he doesn't mean mere fondness. He writes, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...” In other words, love her enough to die for her! Now I don't think that Paul means manufacture emotions akin to the infatuation of adolescents, like Romeo and Juliet. Love, in the Christian sense, is first of all a decision. When Jesus said we are to love our enemies, I don't think he meant we had to have warm and fuzzy feelings about them. He meant approach, pray for, speak to and treat all people in a loving way. The emotional part of love may eventually develop. And we see that this often happens in arranged marriages, which Paul was largely dealing with. Paul further says, “husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.” Again, we all have issues with our bodies but, as Paul says, we feed and take care of them. Just as you should have a positive relationship with your body, so you should with your wife. And here Paul explicitly reminds us that we are members of Christ's body.

What this also means is that domestic abuse is forbidden. Jesus didn't abuse us and so we cannot abuse our wives, or husbands for that matter. And in fact, in his briefer version of a household code in his letter to the Colossians, Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.” (Colossians 3:19) So there is nothing in these passages that gives someone a license to do whatever he or she wants to their spouse. They are to act in Christlike, self-sacrificial love towards one another.

When Paul addresses children, he of course tells them to obey their parents. He reminds them that the commandment to honor one's father and mother comes with a promise: “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Again Paul is basing this on the idea that the parents love their children and have their best interests at heart. He doesn't feel that he has to tell the parents to love their children enough to die for them. Even animals are willing to die to save their offspring.

What he does say is this: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children...” The Greek literally says not to “provoke them to anger.” In other words, don't needlessly aggravate them. In my youth, the issue that inflamed fathers was long hair on guys, which looks pretty trivial compared to the issues kids face today: drugs, bullying, depression, suicide. And in Colossians Paul says, “Fathers, do not stir up anger in your children so that they not become discouraged.” (Colossians 3:21) That last word can also be translated “become disheartened or despondent.” 2000 years ago Paul was warning us about depression in kids. Raising children has never been easy. At the very least we need to have our priorities straight and not make mountains out of molehills. Harping on minor things while ignoring the problems that are really troubling them can leave kids dispirited or brokenhearted.

Back in Ephesians Paul says, “Instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” A lot of people think that means just teach them doctrines and to be good, honest, obedient, etc. And that is part of it. But if we remember growing up, there are some other Biblical truths helpful to kids.

First, we need to teach them that no human being is perfect and no human creation is perfect. As it says in Romans “None is righteous, no, not one...For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10, 23) When you are young you are idealistic. And that's fine as long as you are also realistic. I think a lot of the disillusionment we see in young people comes when they suddenly realize that people, including their parents and their heroes, are not perfect, or that society and its institutions are not perfect. So they get cynical. Or they get down on themselves because they aren't perfect or perfectly happy and they despair. They let the perfect become the enemy of the good.

Only God is perfect and while our goal is to be like God, none of us are there yet. Not even we parents or we religious leaders. Even Paul wrote, “Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14)

The Bible often symbolizes God as being on a mountain: Sinai or Zion. But we haven't reached the summit and we won't in this life. We are still climbing, following Jesus, our guide, and equipped and empowered by the Spirit. Or to use a video-gaming analogy, we are still playing on this level and we will have to overcome a lot of obstacles to make it to the next. You don't give up just because neither you nor anyone you know has played it perfectly or made it to the end yet. Instead you listen to the advice of those who have gotten farther than you, you work together with your fellow players and you hone your skills.

One thing I noticed with our kids is that the opinion of a peer made more impact than ours. The only way to counteract that somewhat is to show your kids that you too are still learning. Disciple just means student. Our whole life we should be learning about God. And sometimes a kid will listen to a fellow student, especially one a bit older with a bit more knowledge. The world is full of people who think they know everything and will not listen to the doubts and questions of others. I think Paul's approach of “I'm not perfect; I'm still working on this but let me share what I've learned,” is more effective than pretending to be all-knowing. Because at some point your kids will figure out you don't know it all and may stop listening to you entirely. I think this false front of omniscience is why so many young people leave fundamentalism. When they find out their parents and leaders don't know everything, they conclude they know nothing about the real world.

Jesus said, “Therefore every expert in the law who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure what is new and old.” (Matthew 13:52) The old are the essential truths and basic principles of following Jesus. What is new are the new applications of those truths and principles to situations that arise which are not specifically addressed in the scripture. As we see in the Bible, society evolves and changes and in our treasure chest (or toolbox, if you will) we should have the Bible, tradition (which is how Christians in the past dealt with novel situations), and reason--thinking that begins with the premises in scripture and weaves in data and new knowledge to craft an appropriate Christian response.

It was never easy to be a father. At least, we don't have to be ready to fend off neighboring tribes or invading empires. But we still have to protect our families, often from new and subtler dangers. So we must remain students of God's word and of the world in which we live. It helps to have a partner you would die for. And it helps to realize you both should defer to the other in matters in which one is better than the other. You want to impart to your kids some basic rules and self-discipline but not in a way that implies you are infallible. Teach them the virtue of being able to learn new things, while applying the wisdom and experience of those who came before. They may drive you crazy at times but don't drive them to despair. Remember what it was like to swing between extremes of cockiness and crippling self-doubt. Remember what it was like when you lost your innocence about the imperfections of the world and its people and yourself. Share that with them and let them know it's not the end of the world.

The best way to teach people how to live is by example. Paul said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) I like that because it meant that not only could they observe Paul but also how well he was doing at following Jesus. They could see what he was getting right and where he needed to improve and both were instructive to Christians following Jesus on whatever path he was leading them.

Studies show that if a father is a positive presence in a child's life, they are more likely to have a positive relationship with God. And, God willing, our kids will outlive us. So we want them to have a relationship with their heavenly Father, who will be with them when we no longer are, who will never leave or forsake them, and who will be there to reunite us when we all stand on the summit of his perfect love.

Sent Out Without

The scriptures referred to are Matthew 9:35-10:8.

If you want to recruit people into some activity, one way is to say, “Everyone is doing it.” We are social animals and often that's all it takes to get most people to go along with anything. Like pouring ice water over your head in a video. But you could do the opposite and say, “This is not for everyone; it's just for special people.” Folks love to feel like they are part of some exclusive or elite group. For decades the Marines made a success of recruiting people by saying, “We're just looking for a few good men.” And while it may have attracted some who think without justification that they are special, it does discourage lazy folks from applying.

Jesus goes the Marines one better. In today's gospel he tells the twelve disciples, “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves...” Unlike the Marines, he isn't loading them up with equipment, like money, spare clothes and food. He's stripping them of those. He isn't even giving them weapons, like a staff, when sending them into danger. At least not physical weapons. Instead Jesus says, “...be as wise as serpents...” In other words, use your head, not your fists. A lot of atrocities would never have happened if more so-called Christians realized Jesus tells us to use our brains rather than brawn.

The weird thing is that Jesus says to be “as wise as serpents.” Serpents are usually symbols of evil, especially in the Bible. The villain in Genesis chapter 3 is a serpent, who is described as “crafty” or “cunning” in many translations. But the Hebrew word there can mean “shrewd” or even “sensible or prudent.” It's used in that last sense several times in the book of Proverbs. The Greek word used in our gospel passage has the same range of meanings. What makes us bad is not our smarts but our hearts. So Jesus qualifies his advice to be as wise as serpents with the phrase “and innocent as doves.” In other words, Jesus is saying, have pure motives but don't be naive. Use your brains.

Sadly, sincere Christians often get portrayed as clueless to the ways of the world. As much as I enjoyed the character of Father Mulcahy in the TV series MASH he frequently came across as naive if noble. In the original novel he is not that unsophisticated, as you would expect of someone dealing with soldiers at war. For that matter, Jesus doesn't come across as someone who missed anything when observing the world. We need to be like Jesus.

The problem is that taking a clear-eyed view of the world can lead over time to cynicism or despair. You give up on the world or you give up on yourself. Neither is healthy, but neither are they unavoidable if you keep the right perspective.

Let's look at Jesus. He is the Son of God. He is sent to save the world. In his temptation in the wilderness, he is given 3 shortcuts to doing so. He can use his powers to make food magically. He can kick off his ministry with a big splashy miracle. He can just submit to the devil and gain power in the world. Jesus rejects all 3. (Matthew 4:1-11)

What's wrong with magically making food scarcity disappear? Unfortunately it's not like people starve because there is literally no food for them. Here in the US, the USDA estimates that somewhere between 30 to 40% of the food supply goes to waste. According to the FDA website,“Wasted food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills...” And yet 17.4% of US households are food insecure, not knowing when or if they will eat next. The problem isn't lack of an abundance of food; it's getting that food to those who need it. Which means the real lack is in human beings' use of their creativity and, frankly, in their willingness to make a basic necessity available to people who are poor. Prepared foods in the grocery store have at least a 40% markup, butcher meats can be marked up by 50%, fruits and vegetables up to 75%, and bakery goods 100%! And we wonder why poor people, especially those in neighborhoods where the big grocery stores choose not to locate, go to the convenience store and get calorie-dense junk food.

Jesus' reply to this temptation? “It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” And God's word talks about out duty to the poor hundreds of times. So Jesus wasn't going to be the magic bread machine when the problem is that people should be more creative and less greedy about sharing the food we already have.

Nor was Jesus going to jump off the top of the temple and glide harmlessly to the ground to kick off his ministry. Yes, that would attract people. And, as we see in Jesus' ministry, people demanded more and bigger signs and miracles from him. Such things bring in people who want to be wowed, but not necessarily people who will listen to words of moral wisdom. Jesus didn't want the kind of audience a magic show attracts; he wanted followers who were hungry for the truth, however hard to understand. That's why, excluding the resurrection and ascension, all but 2 of the remaining miracles attributed to Jesus helped people. And 75% of them were restoring people to health.

Jesus came to make people better, physically, mentally and spiritually. He didn't come to entertain them. His reply to this temptation was, “Once again it is written: 'You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.'” Those are words to remember when people are tempted to show off their faith in some needlessly reckless manner. On Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal used to do a character whose catchphrase was “It is better to look good than to feel good.” On the contrary, God would rather we do good than try to make him look good in flashy but unnecessary ways.

Finally his adversary drops all pretense and just asks Jesus to worship him. If he does so, Jesus will be given all the political authority in the world. Sadly, that is a temptation the church has succumbed to often throughout its history. It started when the church became the favored religion of the emperor Constantine and later the official religion under Justinian. It got worse when the emperor lost half of the empire, leaving the bishop of Rome the most powerful person in the West. The Pope was the one who negotiated with the invading tribes and in fact the Ostrogoths used their influence to get certain men of their choosing elected to the papacy. Symmachus even resorted to bribing King Theodoric the Great to appoint him Pope over his rival. And later the Pope became in effect a secular king ruling over the Papal States, the middle portion of Italy, for 10 centuries. Sociologist of religion Rodney Stark speaks of there being 2 churches, the church of power and the church of piety, and whichever is dominant determines if the key feature of a given period of church history is corruption or reform.

Of course, a side effect of the church choosing to exercise political power is a loss of faith in it by the average person. Christianity declines in nations where there is an official church or where the church either dictates or carries out the will of the government. The relationship of church and state will always be a tricky one, because neither operates in a vacuum. Moral issues have effects of society which government policies can either help or exacerbate. The church cannot be silent on issues and actions that harm people. Scripture says, “Open your mouth for the voiceless, for those who are condemned! Open your mouth, judge justly and plead the cause of the poor and needy!” (Proverbs 31:8) The church is commanded to speak up for those who are powerless and who are not being heard. But that doesn't mean giving the church power to govern society by decree. I am sure that the camel's nose in the tent of the church is the tempting notion, “But think of all the good we can do with that power!”

Jesus turns this temptation down as well. He says, “You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” We cannot serve two masters and we must maintain our independence from the state so we can serve God's kingdom. Some government policies may be compatible with certain values we get from Jesus but never will any human authority perfectly conform to all of God's commands. Other considerations will inevitably creep in. Jesus said that while some things fall under Caesar's purview, others are exclusively God's domain. Like him and the prophets before him, we must stay free to point out when those in power break God's law of love, justice and mercy.

So why did I seem to detour to another gospel passage from the one assigned for today? Because, as I said, Jesus is sending out the apostles while disarming them of any weapons they might be tempted to use to further their mission. And in confronting his temptations we see him also discarding the popular ideas of the church being primarily a social agency, a magic show, or a branch of the government.

What Jesus does give the Twelve is the power to heal and to preach the good news. Instead of weapons, he equips them to use their hands and words to heal people and heal the breach between human beings and God. The worst they are allowed to do is to shake the dust from their feet if a village does not welcome them or their words. And Jesus predicts that, maybe not for this particular mission, but eventually they will run into opposition. His followers will be whipped and tried. They are to see this as an opportunity to be witnesses to the good news before councils and governors and kings. Jesus also knows that following him would cause rifts in some families, between siblings and even between parents and children.

Why does religion cause such divisions? Because it is about ultimate values and it is about who and what you put your trust in. So it stirs up strong emotions and when people get very emotional, they often stop thinking. After all, what are the foundational beliefs and values of Jesus? That God loves everyone and is forgiving and that we should be as well. How can anyone oppose that? Because in Jesus' day it meant loving and forgiving tax collectors and sinners and Samaritans and even the Gentiles occupying your land. And today it means loving and forgiving government officials and people from different races and people from different countries and people from different faiths and people from different social classes and people from different political parties. And can you see how it would upset those closest to you if you start loving and forgiving people whom your friends and family and even your church think of as enemies of society or enemies of your country or enemies of your faith or enemies of people like you?

In our culture, the hero is the one who fights the bad guys. King Arthur, Robin Hood, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, the Justice League and the Avengers: they are all warriors. They win by defeating and usually by killing the bad guys. And we cheer when they do. Even when they sacrifice themselves to save others, as Harry Potter did, they don't ask God to forgive those about to kill them, as Jesus did on the cross. Forgiveness is something we heartily endorse—in the abstract. Or when we are in the wrong and want to be forgiven. But we really don't like to forgive those who wrong us, especially when they cause us or our loved ones harm.

And yet every time we say the Lord's Prayer, we say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” (Matthew 6:12) A more accurate translation than “trespasses” is “debts.” We are talking about what we owe God in terms of our moral duties and what others owe us. And we are to forgive others for what they failed to do for us if we expect God to forgive us for what we failed to do for him. Luke's version makes that much more explicit, saying, “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” (Luke 11:4) As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, love “does not keep an account of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:5) And love is the distinctive mark of the Christian. (John 13:35)

A lot of people think being a Christian is all about hearing over and over that God loves us, despite what we have done. But it is also being told over and over that we are to love others, despite what they've done. They think it is all about Jesus dedicating his whole life to saving us sinners. But it is also about us dedicating our lives to saving other sinners. They think it is all about Jesus taking up his cross for us. But it is also about us taking up our crosses for others. Jesus isn't asking us to do any more than he did. But he isn't asking us to do less either.

As C. S. Lewis said, “If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity.” Yes, we are to comfort the afflicted but we are also to afflict the comfortable, as Jesus and the prophets did. Jesus said we are not just to love those who love us. (Matthew 5:46-47) That's easy, Jesus said. And quite frankly, that won't solve any problems. Bonnie and Clyde loved their families. It didn't make them less lethal to others.

Jesus gave us a higher calling: to go beyond what comes naturally and easily to us. As G. K. Chesterton put it, “To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” We only learn what those things really mean when they are really hard to do. Just like you only learn the value of life and health when you have to fight your way back from death and disease. People who have naturally good health have no idea of the blessing they have been given.

Jesus stripped the disciples of all the usual things they would take on a journey so they would have to rely on God and on the response of people to their mission and message. He stripped them of any weapons because they only seem to achieve what you want. Weapons and violence don't bring peace; they bring superficial compliance and a lot of fear and resentment. Eventually that will boil over and destroy any real peace.

Real peace comes from faith, which is trust. Trust God and you will have peace in your heart. Trust each other and we will have peace in our families and in our communities and in our nation and in our world.

But trust is built up over time. Your history with someone lets you know if you can trust or rely on him or her. Have they backed you up or let you down? Have they kept their promises or not? We tend to treat people the way we have been treated.

Which means trust is difficult to establish when it hasn't previously existed. And somebody needs to be the first to try. And Jesus said we are the ones to take the first step. “So then, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24) First make things right with others and then approach God. But how?

Jesus sent the disciples out to heal and preach the good news. Because one way to make people trust you and listen to the good news is to heal their wounds. That way they know you are not all talk. They know they can rely on you to be as good as your word.

Look around you. We have a wounded world. We are awash in distrust. We have a history of breaking promises and of not treating each other in ways that engender trust.

And Jesus is sending us out. Without weapons and without illusions that it will be easy. Without any resources except his message and his Spirit. And if we rely on him, that will be enough.

The Unexpected God

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 1:1-2:4a.

In 2008, a self-published Christian book became the number 1 trade paperback fiction bestseller and remained so for 2 years. That's odd but the novel is an odd one even for a Christian book. It's called The Shack and it concerns a man whose youngest daughter was abducted by a serial killer. When the man, who is named Mack, is mysteriously summoned to the cabin where police think his child was murdered, he encounters God as several different people. One, called Papa, initially appears to him as an African American woman, Jesus appears as a Middle Eastern carpenter, and the Holy Spirit manifests as an Asian woman. He later encounters the personification of God's wisdom as an Hispanic woman. Finally Papa appears as an older Native American man to lead him to his daughter's body. The main part of the book is Mack talking with God about the senseless tragedy in his life. The author, William P. Young, explains that the title, The Shack, refers to “the house you build out of your own pain.”

It's a very wise, emotionally powerful book about reconciling grievous loss with God's love. Word of mouth in churches made it a bestseller. Yet some Christians objected to its depiction of God, some even calling it heresy. To which I can only say, “Did you find it in the theology section of your bookstore or library? Or was it in fiction?” And since it is fiction, this puts in the same category as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Pilgrim's Progress, and, dare I say it, Jesus' parables. At various times Jesus compares God to a vineyard owner, a sleepy house owner, a farmer sowing seeds, a shepherd looking for lost sheep, a woman looking for lost coins, a king whose son is getting married, a moneylender, an unjust judge, and a master who commends his dishonest manager. Jesus compares himself to a bridegroom, a hen protecting its chicks, a bronze snake raised up by Moses, a gate, a shepherd, a vine, and living bread, among other things. For followers of a person who used similes, allegories and metaphors all the time, it seems really strange that they are thrown by a fictional story where God appears temporarily as people of various ethnicities and sexes.

Whenever we talk about God we must use picture-language. God is by nature beyond our total comprehension. And so just as we need to use a mental picture of a rubber sheet and balls of various sizes to get a basic grip on gravity and space, or the tiny solar system model of the atom, we need graspable ways to understand different aspects of God. Scripture tends to use titles like king, father, husband, shepherd, etc to describe God. Jesus is called the Lamb of God and the Word of God made flesh. The Spirit is called wind, breath, the finger of God, the power of God and our Advocate/Comforter/Helper.

Of course, that's not enough for some people. There is a meme of Facebook that goes like this: “And Jesus said unto the theologians, 'Who do you say that I am?' They replied, 'You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kergyma of which we find the ultimate meaning in our interpersonal relationships.' And Jesus said, 'What?'” I'm not putting down theology but if the Bible had been written in that language it would not have survived the centuries.

Today is Trinity Sunday and “trinity” is not a word found in the Bible. It was coined to refer to one of the central mysteries of our faith. Scripture says that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet it never backs off of the assertion that there is only one God. The concept of the Trinity, far from trying to explain how this is so, is actually our way of preserving the paradox. That's why efforts to oversimplify it by, say, claiming that it's just God wearing 3 different masks, are called heresies. As J. B. Phillips pointed out, a god small enough to fit into our minds will not be large enough to help us with the big issues in life. And how can a simple god explain, let alone govern our complex and interconnected universe?

Neuroscientists and developmental scientists have noted that almost all children believe in God. Even babies quickly learn the difference between inanimate objects and agents who can change things in the world. They readily pick up on the idea of the unseen agent, like the person who must have picked them up from the sofa where they fell asleep and put them in their bed, or who put away their toys, even if they didn't see who it was. They understand that things do not spontaneously come into being but are made. They also see that most things have a purpose. Comedian Pat Sweeney was surprised to discover her daughter believed in God despite being raised as an atheist. Her kid reassured her that, if it made her mother feel better, she would pretend there was no God when she was home.

Either we are the bewildered beneficiaries of a highly improbable, nearly mathematically impossible run of fortunate accidents, or this universe with its inviolable natural laws has a Creator. So believing in that kind of God is fairly easy. And indeed 83% of the world's population believe in God, with 63% absolutely certain and 20% fairly certain. 7% of the people in the world are atheists with most of them in China. 5% of American adults are agnostics and 4% are actual atheists. And yet nearly 1 in 5 atheists does believe in some kind of higher power. It's just really hard to believe that we and the world are the results of random happenstance.

This is not to say that everyone believes in a transcendent God, independent of the universe in the same way a mechanic is separate from the machine he made. Some believe God is the universe, while some believe God is in the universe. Christianity, while holding that God is transcendent, also says God is immanent, or in creation, through his Holy Spirit. Part of it is that, just as a novel or a work of art reflects something of the author or artist, creation reflects aspects of God. (Psalm 19:1-4) 

But it is more than that. God's Spirit is at work in creation. Often we focus on how breakable things are and forget how they tend to repair themselves. A forest fire destroys hundreds of square miles of trees. In just a year there is evidence of new growth and in a decade only experts can see there was once a fire there. The reason we set broken bones is that they will start growing together again regardless of whether we straighten them or not. If our injuries didn't heal we would emerge from childhood crisscrossed with innumerable tiny wounds. Even big scars fade. While it is good that we have finally acknowledged post-traumatic stress and its psychological damage, we are only beginning to recognize the existence of post-traumatic growth and the remarkable resilience most of us have. This healing and renewal we see in creation is what theologians call "common grace" given by the Spirit.

And while we acknowledge God the Creator who is separate from what he made and the Spirit who works in creation, they are so abstract it is difficult to relate to them. We are personal beings. And so God also comes to us in a form we understand and can relate to: Jesus Christ. As J.B. Phillips put it, this is the vast God who is beyond our comprehension focused in terms of time and space and human personality. And Jesus was not a rich and powerful king as one might have expected of God but an ordinary working man, whom most people can relate to. He was a Jew, the object of the antisemitism of the Greco-Roman culture of that time. He lived in a tiny country, occupied by an army carrying out the will of a brutal dictatorship. He didn't travel on a horse or in a chariot but on foot. His whole life he never visited what was considered in his time an important city and was never more that a week's walk from his hometown. His friends were not influential but a bunch of fishermen and a tax collector and a former political fanatic and and several women who held no sway in that culture. He never led an army. Most of his followers were people who came to be healed and then heard him preach. And many stopped following him when he said some hard to understand and hard to swallow truths. A friend betrayed him to his religious rivals, who in turn misrepresented him before a politician who was on shaky ground with the emperor. And more to shut them up rather than him, the politician had Jesus executed in the most painful and humiliating way. All in all, Jesus' life story was not terribly different from a lot of the prophets, or anyone who ran afoul of the authorities. But it's not the life you would expect for God Incarnate. Except for one last thing he did.

It was such a "not that unusual" life that we may never have heard about Jesus if, like all the other would-be messiahs before and after him, he had stayed dead. He would have been like Socrates, a wise thinker, unjustly killed, no more. If his disciples hadn't met with him after his execution and burial, and had they not come out of hiding and declared that he had risen from the dead, and had they not continued to proclaim this even though it cost them their lives, and if they hadn't had it written down and disseminated throughout the empire, we never would have suspected that he was someone more than a mere man. In Jesus God became, as much as possible, one of us.

Even so, the church could have saved everybody a lot of headaches if it had broken with the Old Testament and declared there were 3 gods. Although that would have made Jesus' own insistence that there is one God difficult to explain away. Or the church could have said it was one God in 3 different modes. Except that would have made it odd when Jesus talks to the Father or about the Holy Spirit in the third person. So the church came up with the term trinity, not to explain or simplify the paradox but to preserve it.

What helped me with the concept was the statement in the first letter of John, where he says that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Not that God is loving but that God is love itself. If we think of the persons in the Trinity as so absolutely in love as to think and act and speak as one, this helps us understand it a bit better. We get glimpses of this when 2 parents, who otherwise have different opinions on everything else, are in total agreement when it comes to their children. Or when when a writer and a director and an actor share the same vision for a play or a movie. Or when politicians from different parties come together to do something for the good of all the citizens. But those are just brief and exceptional flashes of the unity which is the eternal state of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And each performs different functions in the realization of the unified will of the Triune God. The Father creates us. Jesus dies for us. The Spirit unites us. Specifically, the Father creates us in the image of God. Jesus models the image of God for us. The Spirit restores the image of God in us.

And, as with any close collaboration, there is overlap. Father, Son and Spirit are all involved in creation. (Genesis 1:1-2; John 1:1, 14) Sent by the Father, the Son is able to minister to us in his earthly life through the power of the Spirit. (Luke 3:21-22; 4:14) Both the Son and the Spirit intercede for us with the Father. (1 John 2:1-2; Romans 8:26) Because Father, Son and Spirit are one.

And we are supposed to imitate this oneness. On the night before he died, Jesus prayed that we would be one as he and the Father are one. (John 17:11)

But what a second! Aren't we created in God's image? Shouldn't being like God be our default setting? Why don't we see this oneness in human beings?

Because it is the oneness, not of ideology, not of race, not of nationality, but of love. And genuine love is voluntary. God did not make us robots, preprogrammed to act a certain way. God gave us the ability to choose. And as we have seen, people often choose not to love God or to love those who made in God's image. Instead we have chosen to love certain people and not others. We have chosen to act in ways that are definitely not loving. Or we have simply chosen not to act, one way or the other; to sit on the sidelines and let the unloving actions of others continue.

God did not choose to sit back. When we chose not to act in loving ways towards others, God acted. The Father gave us his law of love, and the justice that proceeds from that love, and the mercy that tempers that justice. And then his Son, Jesus, entered into creation and fulfilled that law in his life, and especially in his death. He showed us the full extent of God's love, justice and mercy. He didn't back down when the powers that be, the religious and political leaders of his day, wanted him to either shut up or toe the line. And when he didn't, they beat him, they whipped him and they killed him. God took the worst we could do to him, and he did so out of selfless love. And in his passion we see clearly the line between hate and self-sacrificial love, and between those who abuse their power to make others do what they want and the one who laid aside certain divine prerogatives and powers, (Philippians 2:5-8) choosing instead to display the power of love.

Meanwhile, his students and friends holed up behind locked doors, afraid of the authorities. Until the risen Jesus appeared to them and showed them the power divine love has even over death. And when the Spirit was poured out on them and ignited their courage, they publicly defied the authorities and preached the good news of God's love, justice and mercy, despite beatings and imprisonment and eventually their deaths.

We have been invited to enter into the eternal love relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. But to be able to do that, we must be changed into persons who love as God does. We need to choose to let the Spirit write the law of love, justice and mercy in our hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33) But it's not enough for it to stay there. We must, like Jesus, display love, justice and mercy in our lives. Which means we need to let the Spirit empower us to live by that law.

As we have seen, not merely today but throughout all of history, there are plenty who choose not to love others, not to love their neighbors and especially not their enemies. And they are willing to use their power to enforce the law of “might makes right.” Which makes countering that by displaying God's law of love, justice and mercy scary. Jesus said count the cost. He said, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)

And so it comes down to faith. Do we really believe that the fundamental reality behind all creation is that God is love? Do we really believe that Jesus showed the extent of that love by suffering and dying for others? Do we really believe that in his resurrection he showed that not even death can triumph over God's love? Do we really trust God's Spirit enough to let him propel us into similar loving but risky acts of justice and mercy?

Paul wrote, “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) Jesus died for us. The first Christians died for him. What are you willing to do in response to God's unlimited, incomprehensible love?