The Theological Virtues: Faith

The scriptures referred to are Romans 4:13-25 and Mark 8:31-38.

If temperance was the first in the list of the cardinal virtues, which were generally recognized by both believers and non-believers, faith is the first of the theological virtues. And by theological, we means virtues that have to do our relationship with God. Moderation has to do with living a life so that neither we nor others are injured by excessive speech or behavior. It doesn't, technically speaking, require God. Faith has to do with living a life that takes God into account. And that's why a lot of people have trouble with seeing faith as a virtue.

Ironically, faith is part of practically all human endeavors. Faith simply means trust and as social animals, trust plays a large role in our lives. If we don't learn trust from our parents and family, our ability to get along with any other human being is severely damaged. All relationships are built on trust, including commercial transactions. For that matter, the thing some people pit against faith, science, is also based on trust. You have to trust that the science you are relying on was done properly, recorded accurately, and interpreted correctly. One way to check on that is to reproduce the results of any study or experiment. And currently that is a problem. It turns out that 80% of mouse studies don't work in humans; out of 100 famous psychology studies, the results of 60% could not be reproduced; of 67 major drug studies revisited, 75% ended up with different results; and one research team looked at 53 recent cancer studies, only to find they couldn't reproduce 47 of them. That's 88%! Done properly science should give us some degree of certainty. Obviously we are falling behind in doing science right. Those who try to build on previous findings need to be able to trust that the team that did the initial research had a large enough sample, ruled out any additional variables, astutely interpreted what the study actually showed and, sad to say, did not cherry-pick or make up the data to please the funding source or to get famous. Science, like all human endeavors, is based on faith.

Christianity is upfront about its reliance on faith. The difference is we put our faith in God. We put out trust in what is revealed about God in his written Word, the Bible; we rely on what is revealed about God in his living Word, Jesus Christ; and we step out on faith as we put into practice what we have learned about how to relate to God and to other people.

What Biblical faith is not is simply mentally checking off a series of ideas about God. I believe the earth revolves around the sun but it doesn't make any impact on how I live my daily life. And if it somehow turned out I was wrong, it still wouldn't change much for me or for billions of people around the world, at least for those not involved in science.

Biblical faith is more like believing in gravity. It makes a difference if I acknowledge and live by the fact that gravity exists. I could deny it but I still won't be able to levitate. And if I were wrong about gravity existing, it would affect my life immediately and everyone else's as well.

The problem is that we take gravity, like God, for granted. Which means we are usually made aware of it after we have been thoughtless or careless about it. Every year, 2.8 million people go to the ER because of a fall. 95% of all hip fractures are caused by a fall, usually sideways. Falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries. Falls are the leading cause of accidental injury deaths. That's why elderly people, especially those who have had a bad fall, tend to walk carefully. They believe in gravity.

Of course, gravity is what keeps us on the surface of a planet spinning at 25,000 miles an hour. It's what allows us to walk, build houses, drive cars, use the potty, or put something on the table and expect it to stay there. It also allows us to fly an airplane and then land as opposed to rocket into space when we just wanted to go to Cleveland. Gravity is good, provided you remember it's the law.

Sadly, like gravity, most people only think about God when something goes wrong and we suffer the consequences. Sometimes it's because we have ignored his moral laws, like those against murder, theft, lying or adultery. Sometimes it's because we have ignored the physical laws of the world he created, by taking foolish and unnecessary risks, like base jumping, or ingesting drugs for fun, or having unprotected sex with multiple partners. The great thing is that, unlike gravity, God is forgiving. The moral damage done can be healed and we can be redeemed.

But sometimes it's someone else who did something wrong, like an accident caused by a drunk driver or an injury caused by a school shooter. And other times we don't know that anyone did anything wrong, such as when someone suffers from an hereditary disease or community is struck by an earthquake. That makes our misfortune harder to understand and it can make it more difficult for us to trust God.

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved is a memoir by Kate Bowler, an assistant professor at Duke University who teaches the history of religion in America. At 35, she felt blessed. Married to her high school sweetheart, she just had a baby boy. And then she got diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. And what is especially ironic is the fact that she had written a book on the "prosperity gospel," the idea that God blesses the faithful with wealth and health. The obverse is that if you don't have wealth and health, you must not have enough faith. Kate didn't buy into that, but she did lose the certainty that she was the architect of her life; that she could overcome anything through good behavior, pluck and prayer. Kate didn't lose her faith but she had to rethink it and try to make sense of a world where bad things do happen to good people. Of course, the Bible acknowledges this, especially in the book of Job, but a lot of Christians shy away from the idea. And because they don't think about it, don't want to think about it and don't want to discuss it with those who are suffering, when calamity hits them or someone they love, it can knock Christians completely off their feet.

The fact is we need to trust God the most just when it it hardest to do so. That's part of what makes something a virtue. The time to be brave is when you are most likely to react with fear. The time to be forgiving is when you least feel like it. It is what psychologists call mood-independent behavior. It's doing what ought to be done when you really don't want to. There is no virtue in only doing things when you feel like it.

So we trust God even when we don't understand the reasons why we are going through an ordeal, the way a child trusts his or her parents when they take them to the doctor for shots or other medical treatments. The child assumes that the parents have a good reason. We trust that God has a good reason even when it is beyond our current ability to see it. And often we only see it in retrospect. We look back and see where we were and connect the dots with where we are now and see how God has been shaping our lives.

Which is why it is never good to tell someone who is suffering what YOU think is the reason for it or the meaning of it. Kate Bowler realizes such people mean well but wishes they would stop either minimizing what she is dealing with (“Well, at least you found a good doctor” or “at least, you discovered a new treatment”), or explaining that it is a teachable moment for her (“God let you get this disease so you would write this book and help others”), or peppering her with their solutions or prescriptions for how she should feel (“Try this thing I read about” or “A positive attitude will help you heal”). I myself have learned that people need to find their own meaning for their suffering. I cannot spoonfeed it to them. For one thing, I don't know everything about them and their life and I certainly have not received a specific revelation from God of what his will for their life is. My job is to be there for them and to listen to them and to love them.

There is another side of this virtue. Trust should be a two-way street. God not only wants us to trust him but he wants to be able to trust us. He wants us to become trustworthy, to become faithful followers of him. And if we truly believe that he is the God he says he is and will do what he says, then the logical response to act on that. Abram believed what God said and moved from the cradle of civilization to the land of Canaan, a seemingly god-forsaken rocky place where God said he would make Abram into a nation. Jesus trusted his Father enough to give up his right to a normal life and take up his cross to save us. Jesus expects us to do the same.

The world sees it when we do not really trust the God we say we have faith in. It sees it when the church hedges its bets, placing its trust in money or popularity or political power rather than in God. It sees it when the church is not faithful to its ideals, such as when it covers up wrongdoing or collaborates with the corrupt. The world sees it when we don't really trust the way of Jesus by our timidity to take risks or to speak the truth to power or to overthrow the tables of those who have turned God's temple into a den of thieves.

As we have said, no virtue can stand alone for long. Faith requires courage, the courage of our convictions that God is good, that God is powerful, and that God is trustworthy. It is the courage to take the proverbial leap of faith, trusting that underneath are the everlasting arms of God's love. It is the courage to stand up to injustice, to endure pain, to step out into the unknown, trusting that God knows all and that he knows how to turn even the worst this world can do into a great good. After all, that is what he did with the death of his son.

Faith in anybody is strengthened by our history with them. Sometimes our lack of faith comes from not really having much experience relying on God. We haven't given to everyone who asked and seen if God will support us. (Matthew 5:42) We haven't stopped worrying about what we are going to eat, drink or wear, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and seen if all these things were given to us as well. (Matthew 6:31-33) We haven't turned the other cheek and seen what happened. (Matthew 5:39) We haven't renounced ourselves, taken up our cross and followed in Jesus' steps. Our faith is theoretical and therefore not quite real to us.

As a nurse I have seen the benefits of trust and the downside of distrust. I have seen patients who complied with doctor's orders and changed their lifestyle, gave up things that were bad for them, did painful therapy and who got better. And I have seen patients who second-guessed medical professionals, didn't take their meds, clung to bad habits they loved, refused to push themselves beyond their comfort zone, and who either didn't improve or got worse. A doctor can't do much for a person who doesn't trust them. Jesus couldn't heal people who didn't trust him. (Mark 6:4-6)

It's not the trust that heals; it's not the faith that saves. Faith is the channel that God uses to bestow his grace and gifts upon us. And as we've said, the times we need that grace the most are precisely those times when it is hardest to maintain our trust that God is in control and wants what is best for us. And that's why faith is a virtue. And ultimately it comes from having a relationship with God and from building up a personal history of trusting God.

Of course, at the beginning of any relationship you don't have that experience yet. Which means you need to start by getting to know that person. You interact with them, observe them, find out how they act with others. A person who cheats on their current lover will not likely be faithful to you. A person who treats well people who can't do them much good will probably treat most people well. In the Bible we have a record of God's dealings with others. In Jesus we see how much God loves us and how far he's willing to go for us. That should give us something to start with in our journey of faith in him.

Establishing trust is the just first step in a relationship. It allows you to open up to the other person and them to open up to you. After trust comes growing knowledge about them. Knowledge of them leads to things you can do together. As you do more together and learn more about the person in that context, you will hopefully find reasons to love them. So too we begin by trusting God, then by gaining knowledge about him, working with him in whatever endeavor we feel led to, and finally growing to love him.

Remember: what the Bible says about God is true, but it is not exhaustive. (John 21:25) We don't know everything there is to know about creation; how can anyone think they know all there is to know about the Creator? What we do know is that we can trust him to work for good, in the world and in our lives. When things don't look too good, we need to lean into that trust. And remember that God works through us acting faithfully, even in the worst of circumstances. When their father Jacob died, Joseph's brothers thought their now powerful sibling would at last get revenge on them for throwing him in a pit and selling him into slavery. But Joseph now knew that if he hadn't been enslaved he never would have entered Egypt or been sold into the service of Potiphar, captain of the Pharaoh's guard. And if Potiphar's wife hadn't falsely accused him of rape, he never would have been thrown into that prison. And if he hadn't been in that prison, he never would have met and helped Pharaoh's cupbearer. And if he hadn't met and helped that cupbearer, his name would not have come to Pharaoh, he never would have heard and properly interpreted Pharaoh's dreams or been appointed to take care of the 7 years' food surplus and distribute it during the 7 years of famine. Joseph says to his distrusting brothers, “Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:19-20)

God is operating on a long-term strategy to redeem the world. That means at any one point things can look bad. We need to take the long view and trust God in the present. That takes, among other things, wisdom. Which we will look at next week.   

The Cardinal Virtues: Temperance

The scriptures referred to are Mark 1:9-15.

Before I read the chapter on the 4 cardinal virtues in C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, I hadn't heard of this classification of moral qualities. Lewis, who was educated in classical literature, got the concept from the ancient philosophers. Plato first proposed that there were 4 cardinal virtues. They were picked up by the Roman writer and statesmen Cicero, and later by St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, who added 3 theological virtues. But the 4 cardinal virtues were considered universal and were honored by both Christians and non-Christians.

The first of the cardinal virtues listed by Saints Ambrose and Augustine is temperance. And that makes sense. Temperance means moderation and if you are going to be a morally good person, one of the first things you need to learn is how to control yourself. Unfortunately, due to the anti-alcohol movement that led to Prohibition, in the popular mind temperance equals total abstinence. Oddly enough, the Temperance movement was originally about moderation. But by the 1820s Temperance Societies were pushing teetotalism. And when enacted into law...well, we've seen how well that worked.

Make no mistake: excessive alcohol consumption causes liver disease, brain damage, weight gain, high blood pressure and depression. Alcohol abuse often leads to the break up of marriages and families, and is a major factor in domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assaults and crime. For alcoholics the safest course is to totally abstain. It's just unhelpful that people used the word temperance when they meant total abstinence.

So for the rest of our time we will use the terms self-control and moderation when referring to this virtue, because they are closer to the meaning of the original Greek word used by Plato. You may remember that I said on Ash Wednesday that some of these virtues would overlap with the fruit of the Spirit which Paul lists in Galatians 5:22-23. Self-control is the last one he mentions.

But as I said, it was often listed first among the virtues by others. And it is usually the first one we try to teach our kids. Children are always discovering things they can do that hadn't occurred to them before or for which they didn't previously have the skill or the access to do. What they need to learn is that just because they can do something, it doesn't mean they should. I can dismantle Dad's electric razor but should I? I can throw a diecast car at my brother's head but is that something I ought to do? I can slip that candy bar on the rack at the checkout stand into my pocket but should I ask Mom to buy it instead?

Sadly some people never master restraint in childhood. And so we have people who realize that because of their power, their wealth, their position and/or their celebrity they can pressure women or men into sex and they never ask themselves if they should. We have lawyers and corporate boards that realize they can take advantage of a loophole to do something that will profit them but they never ask themselves whether it is ethical. We have elected officials who realize that a certain political action will please a certain segment of the voters or a specific group of donors but they never ask themselves if it is good for the country or the state or the county or city as a whole. Recently we've realized that some actions which politicians have refrained from doing in the past were norms and not laws and so there is nothing to stop an unethical official from violating those norms.

Moderation is knowing the extent to which you can engage in an activity before it becomes excessive and therefore destructive. Some people who drink know their limit and rarely exceed that amount. They exercise self-control. Studies have shown that one thing that fathers tend to do is show kids how to play and yet not get carried away. Fathers will often play a little more physically with kids than mothers do but will also correct the child if he or she is getting too rough or too reckless. Ideally the kids will learn to be neither excessively inhibited nor out of control.

Moderation is all about finding that sweet spot between not doing enough and doing too much. And, as Aristotle pointed out, most virtues are found between two extremes. Love falls between indifference to a person on the one hand and being possessive on the other. Being trusting falls between displaying paranoid distrust and being gullible. Being assertive falls between being totally passive and being overly aggressive. Again it takes self-control, and a bit of wisdom, to realize when you have reached a reasonable limit.

Petronius is credited with saying, “Practice all things in moderation, including moderation.” The Roman satirist probably meant that sometimes you should enjoy a bit of excess but it is also true that in some situations, moderation is inappropriate. It is not a good thing to be moderately racist. Or to be a moderate user of heroin. Neither of those are things you should want any part of. Nor would you want to be known as moderate on the issue of terrorism. There are times when the only moral response is to say “Absolutely not.”

The Bible, like most moral authorities, encourages self-control. Paul writes, “So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8) And in 2 Peter it is part of a different list of virtues: “...make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness....” Notice two things. First, knowledge by itself is not enough. There are those today who think that simply by learning more facts, humanity will solve its problems. Knowledge of things like the sciences is important but you need self-control as well. The scientists who got us to the moon were the same scientists who enabled the Nazis to rain missiles on London in World War 2. Unrestrained use of knowledge is not a good thing. For that matter, self-control is not a sufficient check on the use of knowledge. You need wisdom. And you need a love for your fellow human beings.

Which brings us to the second thing we should notice: one virtue is not sufficient. You need them all. Courage without self-control is recklessness. Justice without self-control is merciless. And we've already discussed how you need the wisdom to tell when you should not be moderate on an issue.

While the idea of moderation and self-control should not be controversial, there is often pushback. One is in popular entertainment. It is much easier to write inappropriately behaved or extreme characters than self-controlled ones. Plus misbehaving characters are more entertaining than ones who do what they should. ( Ferris Bueller, Dr. House, etc) So we are treated to many more fictional persons who go too far in one or more directions than restrained characters. Even our so-called reality shows tend to pick people who are immoderate in speech or behavior, again for entertainment purposes. And they are not above staging confrontations or even restaging them and asking the participants to be more outrageous. Adults know, or should know, the difference between entertainment and real life but I wonder about children. And since the antiheroes almost always win in the end are kids being taught that not only is it more fun to be immoderate but that it is a successful strategy in life? After all we are seeing that kids are taking pointers on sex from porn, which is based on a fantasy of how men and women act.

What's disturbing is that the second area in which there has been pushback against moderation is in real life, and specifically in those in leadership roles. It is not at all uncommon these days for those who govern the countries of the world to use immoderate speech and take extreme positions. Ironically their positions have become so extreme that they wouldn't tolerate leaders in the past whom they claim to revere. Neither Teddy Roosevelt nor Ronald Reagan could institute today the policies they pushed during their terms. FDR would be considered a socialist by current standards. Their own parties would oppose them.

And this is a common phenomenon we see in movements: subsequent generations migrate to extremes beyond the positions their founders set out. And while some move to more aggressive postures, some become more passive. Most churches today would not hire Jesus to be their clergy because he would be too radical. There is a cartoon on the internet that shows Jesus knocking at the door of a church and a whole bunch of people on the other side of the door pushing it shut, saying, “Don't let him in! He's gonna change everything!” (Here) Sadly, many churches have followed in the footsteps of the church of Laodicea. In John's vision in Revelation Jesus says of that church, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16) If things are too hot or too cold, you get uncomfortable and try to change things. When you hit the Goldilocks point, where stuff is neither too hot or too cold, too hard or too soft, you say “this is just right” and settle in. You fall asleep and you don't awaken until the bears are at the door. And a lot of young people feel about churches as Jesus does. They don't go because they've read in their Bibles what Jesus commands and they don't see the churches doing it.

And this is one aspect of self-control people rarely think about. They think self-control is simply about restraining yourself from doing bad things. But self-control is about making yourself do what you don't want to do but know you ought to. Self-control is not only about not punching someone who's being a jerk but making yourself deal with him calmly and rationally. Among all the videos of cops overreacting to motorists pulled over for minor infractions, there is one of a Maine State Trooper being extremely professional while ticketing an irrationally irate man. (Here) Self-control is not just about not telling off someone who's expressed a very unChristian sentiment about other people but talking to the person to find out why he or she feels that way and see if you can expand their perspective. Darryl Davis is a blues musician who befriends and has dinner with members of the Klu Klux Klan. Davis is black but has convinced so many members of the KKK to abandon racism that he now has a collection of 200 robes they have discarded! (Here) Self-control, or perhaps we should call this manifestation of it self-discipline, makes you go beyond what you want to do into that scary territory of what God wants you to do.

Paul writes, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) As any parent knows it takes self-discipline to act lovingly towards your kids sometimes. Which brings us back to an aspect of this subject we touched on in the beginning. We mentioned how much we work on teaching kids self-control. And indeed kids with self-discipline, especially those who can delay gratification, do better in their education, in their careers, and in life in general. We also talked about how some folks never seem to master self-control, even in adulthood. And sometimes society has to step in when it comes to such people, the way parents need to step in with kids who are out of control.

Right now we are dealing with the problem of my 3 year old granddaughter and scissors. Her parents don't think she is ready to handle them, not even the safety variety, so we don't let her have them. It goes without saying that she cannot handle the longer, pointed kind. So we keep them out of her reach. It's common sense.

Yet scissors are not designed to harm. Used properly that shouldn't even be a consideration. However, we have in our society things that were designed to maim and kill. That is their purpose, whatever other uses they may have. Most people agree that children should not have access to them. In fact a startling statistic is that in the US in 2015, 18 toddlers inadvertently injured themselves with firearms and 13 managed to kill themselves. They injured 10 other people and killed another 2. That's 21 people killed by someone 3 years old and under and it is more than the 19 Americans killed that same year in the US by terrorists. (Here) Again we all agree that these kids should not have access to them. But there are, as we said, adults who have as little self-control as a child. And most of them are not mentally ill, they just cannot control their impulses. They take umbrage at the smallest of perceived slights and overreact. They fly off the handle and throw tantrums just like a kid you wouldn't trust with scissors. And yet there are those who feel that, except in extraordinary circumstances, such people should have access to guns. And then they deny that this has anything to do with the fact that on average there is more than 90 gun deaths a day in this country, the highest rate of any developed country in the world. (Here) If an adult throws a tantrum, he embarrasses himself; that we let such people have access to weapons of war that let them take out their rage fatally on others should embarrass us. They are not throwing their toys on the ground; they are putting people in the ground. That is the ultimate in not having self-control. The real adults need to put the dangerous objects out of their reach. Or we reveal that something other than common sense and compassion is controlling us.

Self-control has been considered a cardinal virtue for more than 2 millennia. Cardinal comes from the Latin for hinge. So you could say self-control is a pivotal virtue, one of the qualities on which our character and our behavior hinges. All around us we see the consequences of people who have not mastered it. For that matter, none of us has totally mastered it. We all have our Achilles heels when it comes to self-discipline. It could be chocolate, or the gas pedal, or the fact that in the 21^st century copiers and printers can do everything except reliably pass papers through their innards without jamming (and on Saturday night when you are trying to print a sermon) that causes you to lose control. But again as Christians we have the Spirit to help us, rather like a coach guides you in doing something over and over until you get good at it. Paul understood the self-discipline required of athletes. “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that lasts forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:25)

In a world spinning out of control, we need to show people that you can keep it together. You can do what needs to be done no matter how hard it is. You can say “no” to yourself when your urges and appetities are trying to cut the brakes. You can say “yes” when God calls you on an adventure that will challenge you to be better than you thought you could be. The world is impressed by the control Olympic athletes display in games. Imagine how the world would react should Christians display such self-control in real life.

Give It Up

The scriptures referred to are Mark 8:34.

Ash Wednesday and indeed all of Lent are primarily associated with giving things up. And a lot of people think being good is mainly about giving stuff up. Like anything fun. And it's not true. That's like thinking health is all about giving stuff up. Yes, you should cut back on sugar and fried foods and salt and alcohol. And you should totally give up tobacco and any drug taken merely for recreation. But you should also eat healthy things and exercise and get more sleep. Being healthy is about achieving a balance in your life.

Being spiritually healthy is, too. From Lent through Easter we will be talking about 7 virtues we should be taking on. 4 of them were admired even by the pagans. 3 are mainly seen as virtues by Christians.

But today is Ash Wednesday and so we are going to be focusing on things we should give up. And I don't mean snacks or soda or sweets, though there may be merit in that. Jesus calls us to give up much more. He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) A better translation than “deny” is “disown or renounce.” Jesus says we cannot be his disciples unless we renounce all right to ourselves. What rights?

We give up the right to choose whom we put first in our life. We are not to put ourselves first, of course. We are not to live for ourselves but for him who died for us and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15) Nor are we to put family first. (Matthew 10:37-38) Like a soldier, we cannot abandon our mission when it is inconvenient for our family. In fact, we are not to put any mere human being first in our life. (Psalm 146: 3-4) Nothing and no one is to come before God. (Exodus 20:3) That doesn't mean we must love ourselves or our family or others less; it just that we are to love God more. It is a matter of priorities. If we put God first, everything else will be in proper relationship to him and to us. (Matthew 6:33)

We also give up the right to choose the path of our life. Jesus did not say we are to follow our whims or even our dreams but to follow him. Now this is not to say that certain dreams are not sent by God. Often we find God's will for us at the intersection of what we are passionate about and what we are good at. And the Spirit equips us to do what God want us to do. But sometimes what God has in mind for us is not what we initially think our path will be. Amos was not prepared to be a prophet; he was a herdsman who also worked with trees. David was a shepherd, not a prince. Paul was a Pharisee, not a likely candidate to be an apostle to the Gentiles. As it says in Proverbs, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9) and in the same chapter it says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3) And in the Psalms we get this reassurance: “Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.” (Psalm 73:23) We may not be heading where we thought we would be going but God is with us all the way.

We also give up our right to lash out at those who oppose us. Again and again we are told not to reciprocate evil actions with evil (Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:9) And you know what's interesting? I had a hard time looking up all those instances because even Bibles with chain references and topical indexes of the Bible don't cross reference all the places where we are told not to “repay evil for evil” though all the instances use those exact words! We don't like the fact that we are to give up violence, even though Jesus says that explicitly and at length in the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles....” (Matthew 5:38-41) It's a disturbing demand and causes problems if, say, we are speaking of abuse. Jesus is, I think it's safe to say, thinking of the dismissive slap, one that is an insult, and not one that is meant to do lasting physical damage. But we rarely deal with the ethical dilemmas that arise from the pacifism Jesus commands because we usually just react in kind and we like the idea of fighting fire with fire. Jesus, however, requires us to act nobly and be creative in dealing with opposition. We lose our right to just haul off and hit somebody because it feels good to get him back.

Finally, we give up the right to choose whom we are to love. In his parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus shows us that loving our neighbor doesn't mean just loving the guy next door or your coworker but anyone we encounter, even if they are of a different race or faith, and even if we find them to be in great need that will take a lot of our time and money to fix them up. (Luke 10:25-37) Remember we are to treat those in need as we treat Jesus. (Matthew 25:40)

Jesus said we must love not only our neighbors but those who are hostile to us. “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) Notice that Jesus doesn't define love as having warm and sentimental feelings about someone but as acting in a loving way toward them. We are to treat others not as they treat us but as we would like to treated. (Luke 6:31) And the night before he died, Jesus raised the bar. We are to love one another as he loves us: self-sacrificially. (John 15:12)

If all that we give up when we renounce ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus sounds a bit much, we need to remember that Jesus died to save us. And as we pointed out Jesus “...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 5:15) To put it another way, Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). That's why we take up our cross. It is to crucify our old sinful self, daily if necessary. (Romans 6:6-7; Luke 9:23)

But as we said, this new life is not one of merely giving stuff up. Being good is more than simply refraining ourselves from being of doing evil. It is about developing good qualities or virtues as we become more Christlike, through the power of the Spirit. So this Sunday we will discuss the first of 7 key virtues that we should have. They are not the fruit of the Spirit though they do overlap. And they are not the only ones we should emulate. But they are important enough that for millennia they have been called cardinal virtues. The first one we will look at is temperance. And, no, it not about Prohibition.

Light in the Darkness

The scriptures referred to are 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.

There are gradations of blindness. People who are functionally blind can see but not well enough to get around without a lot of help. They may even need Braille to read. Some people are legally blind which means they are so near-sighted that they can't drive or do other activities that require distance vision. To people with cataracts things look fuzzy. A person with macular degeneration loses vision in the center of their visual field but retains peripheral vision. People with glaucoma can develop hazy sight and tunnel vision.

What's odd is that people who are totally blind, who can't visually perceive light at all, can still sense light nonvisually. It turns out we have other cells in our eyes besides the rods and cones that transmit visual information to the brain. These cells, called ipRGCs, allow the blind person to maintain his or her circadian rhythms, maintaining a fairly normal routine of sleeping and eating at the same time most other people do.

God is often associated with light. In Genesis 1 it is the first thing created. In the last chapter of Revelation God eliminates all darkness: “And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light...” (Revelation 22:5) The Bible mentions light more than 200 times.

As a symbol light is associated with goodness and life, probably because the cover of darkness allows predators, both animal and human, to strike. You are also less likely to trip or fall or get lost when you have light. And now we know that sunlight is both good for your mood and your health, stimulating the production of vitamin D. On the other hand, darkness is associated with evil and death. The penultimate plague striking Egypt in Exodus is darkness. When Jesus is crucified, darkness comes over the land for 3 hours. In Job death is depicted as “the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.” (Job 10:22) In contrast, Jesus demonstrates his triumph over death by rising as the sun rises at dawn.

So what is Paul talking about then he says “our gospel is veiled?” Again I wish the people who selected our lectionary reading had included a bit more for context. In the verse before our passage from 2 Corinthians, Paul is talking about his ministry's transparency: “...we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:2) Still some people don't seem to get it. That's why Paul speaks of the gospel being veiled. And it is only veiled to those who are perishing.

The Greek word translated “perishing” could be rendered “are being destroyed” or “are dying.” Why are they dying? Because they do not know the truth. As a nurse I can tell you that what you don't know can hurt you. For a while a popular slur for a British person was a “limey.” That's because 200 years ago sailors spending months at sea would often get scurvy. The British noted that if their sailors ate citrus they were much less likely to get that disease. So in the 1850s the Royal Navy would put lemon juice in their grog, later switching to lime juice, because they could more easily get limes from their colonies. So Americans sneeringly called them lime-juicers, later shortened to limeys. Sadly, limes have less vitamin C, but they didn't know that.

Similarly ignorance of the link between smoking and various lung diseases killed a lot of people in the first 2/3s of the 20^th century. Ignorance about what caused HIV killed a lot of people in the 1980s. Ignorance about how vaccines are made and work are killing people today. What you don't know can do worse than hurt you; it can kill you.

And in many of those cases someone was keeping the knowledge from the general public. The connection between smoking and lung cancer was discovered by the Germans in the 1920s and again by the British in the 1950s. And though American tobacco companies knew, they launched a disinformation campaign to discredit the science. With vaccines, one British doctor faked a study linking autism to vaccines and today certain parents resist the truth that vaccines save innumerable lives. For that matter, as shown in Larry Kramer's autobiographical play The Normal Heart, there were those in the gay community who pushed back against the idea that AIDS was transmitted by unprotected sex. Sometimes ignorance is willful.

Paul, of course, knew none of these examples from what was to him the future but he lived in a society where many were poor, millions were enslaved, women were not valued as much as men, and those who were at the top pursued personal pleasure that was often destructive to themselves and those around them. He saw a society that could use the good news of the forgiveness and love to be found in Jesus.

And Paul was interested in the those social problems. In his letters he mentions his collection for the poor in Jerusalem. (Romans 15:26; Galatians 2:10) But he was seen as even more radical. He was accused of turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6) For instance, while he didn't call for a slave revolt, he did encourage slaves to gain their freedom (1 Corinthians 7:21) and at least one slave owner to free his slave (Philemon). He said all people, including women and slaves, were of equal worth in Christ. (Galatians 3:28) And he, like Jesus, saw that the danger to the rich was all the temptations available to them and commanded them to be humble and generous. (1 Timothy 6:9-10, 17-18) He knew that the love of God which is given to us by the Spirit (Romans 5:5) is necessary for a good and just society (Romans 13:9-10).

But he also knew that people cannot change unless they come to put their trust in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23) People change for 2 main reasons: out of pain and out of love. The second is infinitely preferable.

But just as knowledge of good nutrition is important to people's physical health, so too is knowledge of the gospel for those whose spirits are starving for real sustenance. And just as people are kept in the dark by those with power, like the tobacco and sugar industries, Paul says the people of this world are blinded by the god of this age. He is no doubt referring to Satan. However, Paul also said of those who were enemies of the cross of Christ that their god is their belly. (Philippians 3:19; Romans 16:18) So he was not above using the word “god” metaphorically.

A god is anything in which you find ultimate value and to which you are supremely loyal. So, for instance, Jesus famously said you cannot serve both God and Mammon, a personification of wealth as a deity. (Matthew 6:24) And indeed there are people who let money rule their lives. They don't even have to be rich; they can just be obsessed with its pursuit. Such a person is blind to the true wealth of the Spirit. (Ephesians 3:16)

Some people make a god out of popularity. Everything they do—how they dress, what they buy, what music they listen to—are driven by the desire to become and stay popular. People will even alter their faces and bodies to fit the popular image of beauty. Some of our movie stars no longer look as they did because of plastic surgery. Now if you were disfigured by an accident, disease or by, say, a mastectomy for breast cancer, cosmetic surgery is understandable. But there is actually a woman who has had countless surgeries so that she can have the face and unrealistic figure of a Barbie doll. Google her and shudder.

From time immemorial people have been indulging in, let's face it, stupid activities because they were popular. I remember Beatlemania. The Beatles were a great band but that doesn't make it any more sensible for hundreds of fans to shriek so loudly during their concerts that you couldn't hear the musicians play. There are countless videos of people hurting themselves doing dangerous stunts and numerous videos of people trying to eat huge amounts of cinnamon and getting sick. I am assuming they have been joined by videos of young people eating detergent pods. Popularity is not the same as the wisdom of crowds.

People have made a god (or goddess) out of sexual pleasure. And we are reaping the results in terms of disease, broken families, unwanted children and sex trafficking. If you want to read something sad, read interviews with Hugh Hefner's last few girlfriends. They tell a tale of a dirty and dilapidated mansion, inhabited by virtual sex slaves, presided over by a man who needed a great deal of help to actually do what he thought was life's chief pleasure and purpose. As C.S. Lewis said, all get what they want; they do not always like it.

Some make certain men their gods—literally. Lemming-like, they have followed people like Jim Jones and David Koresh into mass-suicide. And oddly enough, the popular notion that lemmings run off cliffs to kill themselves is false. The guys who made that documentary couldn't get these rodents to fling themselves into the sea and had to throw the critters in with their own hands to get the footage. Turns out lemmings have a strong sense of self-preservation. Wish I could say the same for human beings.

Others merely blindly follow powerful men and celebrities and treat them like gods. Elvis might be alive today had the people around him not acquiesced to his appetite for drugs. The same goes for John Belushi, Michael Jackson and Prince. In other cases indulging the whims of men with the godlike power to kill careers has led to assistants procuring women to be sexually assaulted and boards paying for their silence.

Some have made politics their god and sacrificed everything—their values, their integrity, even the good of their country—for their party and ideology.

And because these gods do not want rivals, they blind their followers to the better way and loving God that is revealed in the good news of Jesus. Jesus is the image of God, Paul says. And the contrast between him and the gods of this age could not be greater. Jesus did not have worldly wealth. (Matthew 8:20) He lost his popularity by proclaiming uncomfortable truths. (John 6:60, 66) He didn't use his power to indulge himself. (Matthew 4:1-4) He came not to be served but to serve. (Mark 10:45)  He deflected attempts to get him to take a stand of the hot button issues of the day by redirecting our focus onto deeper and more lasting considerations. (Mark 12:13-17)

As C.S. Lewis wrote in his pointed satire The Screwtape Letters, the last thing the devil wants us to do is think clearly about issues. Muddled thinking keeps people blind to reality. It's not just about about putting ideas into our minds but also keeping certain ideas or insights out. In the 1950s scientists noticed a marked rise in heart disease. A researcher named John Yudkin suggested it was concomitant with our increased consumption of sugar. But the industry-funded Sugar Research Foundation tried to block that idea and substituted the admittedly easier-to-understand idea that fat consumption makes you fat. And most researchers followed that path for the last 50 years. But Yudkin's research has now been scientifically validated. When you consume more sugar than your liver can process, it's stored as fat. Not that the sugar industry is conceding that. In fact, the Sugar Association has called the Heart Association's recommendation that children should not eat more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day “baffling.” Which reminds me of the W.C. Fields quote: “If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with [B.S.]”

Evil tries to gaslight you, to make you doubt what you can clearly see or the results of objective observation by experts. Again as C. S. Lewis points out, we too often use jargon and pejoratives to characterize things as either “elite” or “ordinary,” “patriotic” or “unpatriotic,” “natural” or “unnatural,” “normal” or “abnormal,” “liberal” or “conservative” rather than ask the questions “Is this true or false? Is this right or wrong?” Just as the sugar industry has come up with 60 euphemisms to disguise added sugar, we have invented a bunch of synonyms and antonyms for “we like this.” What we don't like is total objectivity because it tells us stuff we don't want to accept as true.

And one way we decide if we accept something is true or not is whether we like the people espousing it. And sadly, certain Christians have been playing right into this. There are people who say they speak for Jesus who seem to have forgotten his commandments to love everyone, including one's enemies. Instead of displaying the way that Jesus and his gospel are different from other ideologies, they get just as partisan, just as hateful, just as dishonest as the people and movements which they criticize. They have turned a lot of people off to Christianity.

As Paul says, we should not be proclaiming ourselves or our opinions but Jesus Christ as Lord. And we should not do so out of pride in ourselves or in our cleverness or in our being right. As Paul says in the next chapter, “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) Our love should compel us to disclose to others the truth we have found in Jesus. And it should compel us to live not for ourselves but for Jesus who died for all. The way of Jesus is the way of radical altruism.

As Diana Ross sang, what the world needs now is love. But how do we reveal the God of love to a world blinded by the powers that presently rule it? How do we show them Jesus as he really is? Though we may see them as spiritually blind, Jesus healed the blind, even those born blind. And like the visually blind, the spiritually blind can still sense the light of Christ. After all, high profile atheists, like Francis Collins, Alister McGrath, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Lee Strobel and C.S. Lewis, have come to Christ. Unlike Paul, the other apostles and many of the early Christians they didn't have the advantage of having seen Jesus in the flesh. They never saw his face. They saw something in Christians they met. Like it or not, we are the face of Jesus to the world. We are his body on earth. And if we rely on the Holy Spirit, the light God has shown in our hearts, and if we let our lives reflect that light in all that we think, say and do, people will receive the knowledge of the glory of God and meet him who made all, and died for all, and who rose again to raise us to new life in the God who is love.

On Eagle's Wings

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 40:21-31.

Kids are energy vampires. They never seem to tire but they leave me exhausted. I swear they are siphoning off my energy somehow. And when they have expended it all they don't take a break; they simply drop where they are are, like marionettes with their strings cut. They are awake one second and then asleep the next. I have lots of pictures of my kids sleeping where they dropped, crumpled in heaps, on sofas, on stairs, in high chairs. I have always envied their ability to get to sleep so fast. The problem is they just won't do it when you want them to. Try to get them to go to sleep on your schedule and they can come up with more ways to postpone it than a lawyer can reasons to delay a guilty client's trial. Have you noticed it's mostly when they are asleep that we call them angels? When awake, they can rival the devil for the amount of destruction and disruption they accomplish. And in less time than it takes to realize they are being suspiciously silent.

I was reminded of this when reading the famous lines at their end of today's passage from Isaiah: “...those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with the wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

The weariness being talked about is spiritual, of course. But there are parallels between some of the physical causes of fatigue and the spiritual ones. The causes of fatigue can be internal or external.

One external cause of fatigue is an infectious agent, such as the viruses that cause colds or the flu. They attack the body and fighting them leaves us with no energy. Spiritually the kinds of things that can sap our energy are the viral ideas that permeate our culture. Such as consumerism. Whether you are on the internet, or watching TV, or listening to the radio or podcasts, you are inundated with commercials that basically tell you that the products they tout will make your life better. You will be cooler, sexier, healthier, and happier if you just buy this smartphone, car, medicine, or soft drink. The continual repetition of these ads can make you vaguely dissatisfied with what you already have or even with your life. If nothing else the novelty of the latest gadget makes you crave something you never needed before.

And indeed companies are actively trying to make their products addictive. Snack foods keep rolling out new flavors. Play this video game well and you will be rewarded with more of levels of the game to play. See this superhero film and get the toys and merchandise. Alternately if a toy sells well, Hollywood will turn it into a TV show or a movie franchise. Pursuing the illusory happiness that material things promise can be exhausting. You end up with a lot of stuff and a vague sense of emptiness.

The first step in dealing with an overdose of materialism is to realize that more things don't make us happier. Indeed, studies show making more money only increases your level of happiness until you are able to meet all your needs. Making much more money than you actually need doesn't make you substantially happier. Indeed only one of the 10 wealthiest countries, according to Business Insider, appears on the list of the 10 happiest countries, according to the UN: Norway. Japan, on the other hand, while the 30^th richest country in the world has 8^th highest suicide rate in the world. Money can't buy happiness. Having many possessions won't make you happy. The question is “What can?”

Gratitude is one of the psychologically tested ways to increase happiness. If you list 3 to 5 things each day for which you are grateful you will, within 30 days, feel greater well-being and happiness. And expressing that gratitude to others is associated with increased empathy, optimism and energy. The secret is not getting more stuff but being grateful for what and whom you already have in your life.

Another external viral cause of spiritual fatigue is the deluge of things demanding our attention. Putting aside the commercial messages, there still is a tsunami of content engulfing us from the moment we wake up and turn on the media until we turn off our screens and crawl exhausted into bed. If you wish to know what is going on in the world or just in our country, you have to pay attention to the news. If you want to understand a major issue in depth, you need to watch the Frontline documentary or listen to the NPR podcast or read the latest heavily researched book you hear discussed on Fresh Air. But as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “There is no end to the making of many books, and much study is exhausting to the body.” (Ecclesiastes 12:12) It can also overwhelm your mental health. As one character says to another in a New Yorker cartoon by David Sipress, “My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to stay sane.” The sheer amount of bad news can leave you numb with despair.

We need a balanced diet of content. No one should ignore important information but we need to prioritize. Nobody can know or indeed needs to know everything. And remember that the news tends to be not what happens all the time but what is out of the ordinary. Paying too much attention to what the headlines scream can make it seem like the entire world and every single aspect of it is falling apart. You need to balance out bad news with good news. Reading the Bible and Christian books can give you a much needed perspective on our world. There have always been people doing evil but there have also always been those who are doing good: teaching, healing, and freeing other people. And we are to go and do likewise. Making the world or some part of it better can help alleviate the feeling of being helpless in the face of the ignorance, stupidity and evil we encounter.

Internal processes like arthritis or fibromyalgia can leave you physically depleted. Pain drains you. And it doesn't matter if you feel it physically or mentally. Depression can rob you of energy, and we've just found evidence that the body reacts to it as it does physical pain, namely, by inflammation. It looks like depression is another type of auto-immune disease, the body attacking a part of itself as if it were a foreign body.

Spiritually, the pain of bad theology can harm you. Scientific studies have demonstrated over and over the positive and protective effects of religious faith: less depression and anxiety, lower risk of substance abuse and suicide and a better ability to cope with stress. But that depends upon how you see God. Kenneth Pargament, professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, says, regarding mental health, “If you tend to see God as punitive, threatening or unreliable, then that's not very helpful.” Believing God is punishing you or abandoning you is associated with emotional distress, higher rates of depression, a lower quality of life and even an increased risk of an early death. As a nurse, I have seen a remarkable change come over patients who were distraught over their relationship with God when I ask them if they had confessed their sin to God. And when they said “yes,” I quoted to them 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faith and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Their whole demeanor changed, and one started eating again and another expressed relief and gratitude. 

Accepting forgiveness also gives us hope. It means our past no matter how bad need not determine our future. With the sole exception of Jesus every person God uses in the Bible is a sinner. Moses was a murderer. Paul was an accessory to murder. Noah got drunk. Abraham was willing to pimp out his wife. David was an adulterer. Peter denied Jesus 3 times. God used them nevertheless. God uses imperfect but forgiven people to carry out his mission. Indeed his mission is to get rid of evil by transforming bad people into good people. It is a process and it doesn't take place overnight. But if the person keeps responding to God's love and direction, he or she will become a better, a more Christlike person over time.

Another cause of physical fatigue can be two different dysfunctions of the same organ. The thyroid secretes hormones that regulate your metabolism or use of energy. In hypothyroidism it produces too little. That can make you sluggish, constipated and tired all the time. The equivalent is people whose spirituality is all about prayer and meditation and frankly themselves. They don't really exercise the “love your neighbor” part of the gospel. The Dead Sea got its name from the fact that, having tributaries but no outlet, it is too salty for anything to live in. So it is with people whose spirituality is all about feeling good and not about doing good. James pegged it when he wrote, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well-fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:15-17) Remember that we are created in the image of the God who is love. If you really want to find yourself, you will do so in acting in love towards others.

In the case of hyperthyroidism, the thyroid overproduces its hormones. The person is thin, nervous, has tremors, a fast heartbeat and once again fatigue. The spiritual equivalent is someone who is constantly moving and takes no time for rest. This can be the person who overdoes the “love your neighbor” part and forgets the “as yourself” part. From the beginning God decided that we needed times of rest: the Sabbath. In this 24/7 world it is easy to forget that you need to take breaks. As Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for us. We need to take care of ourselves or we will cease to be of any use to others. So the remedy is to not find time but make time to pray, meditate on God, sing, turn off the screens, and whatever else you need to do to recuperate. Hopefully, coming here to worship with others and concentrate on your spiritual side helps you recharge your batteries.

I go to the jail twice a week. I don't always feel up to it. But then I meet people, answer their questions, listen to their concerns, pray with them, share communion with them, lead them in worship and send them literature that I hope is relevant to their situation and needs, and I find the lethargy has lifted. I am energized by talking to them about God and talking to God about them.

Finally, I want to look at who will renew their strength. Isaiah identifies them as “those who wait on the Lord.” The Hebrew word translated “wait” literally means “collect or gather together” and comes from a root that means “bind.” It can also mean “expect” or “hope” and in two translations it is rendered “trust.” Thus a more expanded translation might go: “Those who wait expectantly in the Lord, binding themselves to him with trust and hope, will renew their strength.” Mere waiting can sap your strength but if you wait expectantly, if you trust the person you're waiting for to fulfill his promises to you and put your hope in that, it will energize you. It's like a kid waiting expectantly for his birthday or Christmas, knowing his parents and relatives and friends will give him good presents. In fact, depending on how confident she is that she will get what she wants, it will be a giddy, almost joyful anticipation.

And that is how we should wait on the Lord. With joy and hope and expectation that, as Paul said, “he who began a good work in you will carry it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) And as we wait in anticipation, we can make sure we are not possessed by our possessions, express our gratitude for the good experiences and people in our lives, balance out the bad news of the day with the timeless good news of God's love and forgiveness and hope in Jesus, get out there and show our neighbor real love while not neglecting to take breaks to refresh and restore ourselves by connecting to the one who is the source of goodness. And if we do that, our spirits will soar like eagles on the wing in a clear and boundless sky.