Have Hope

In the episode, Informed Consent, of Chicago Hope one of the male characters was in a relationship with one of the female characters. As the relationship progressed they started to have feelings for each other and eventually took their relationship to the next level. Knowing where the relationship was headed the woman had to tell the man that she used to be a man, not just any man, but his friend from school.

The male character acted with revolt and disgust. He felt betrayed and lied to. No matter what his feelings may have been prior to that point he now wanted nothing to do with this person.

How many of us would be willing to court someone who is transgendered? For those too young to have heard that word before, to court means to date with intention to marry. It is not dating hoping to hook-up. It is not dating to have someone to hang out with and do stuff with. Marriage is the end goal of a courtship. I don’t know the numbers but, I would guess that very few people, including many of the most vocal supporters, would be open to courting someone of the same sex who believes they are the opposite sex and have gone as far as to modify their body as to look the gender they long to be.

But this blog isn’t about being transgendered, although it is as equally provoking. Using the same principle as courting a transgendered person, would you consider being part of a church that someone other than Jesus created? The main stream Protestant churches look like the Church Jesus started. They act mostly like the Church Jesus started. They believe and teach many of the same things as the Church Jesus started. The more you get away from mainstream Protestantism the less and less the church looks, acts, or teaches the way that the Church Jesus created does.

Doctors altered the woman character in that episode of Chicago Hope, so convincingly in fact, that her male partner couldn’t tell even during the most intimate of times. The founding fathers of the Protestant Reformation did the same thing to the Church Jesus founded to create new churches that taught, not what Christ taught, but what their opinions were instead. They did such a convincing job that millions through the ages have preferred these churches over the one that Holy Scripture tells us is the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Are you willing to give your life and die if necessary for an opinion of someone other than that of Jesus? Martin Luther and John Calvin may have been fine men with good hearts but I am not willing to be martyred for their beliefs. I do not have this problem when it comes to Jesus and his Church.

I am against neither the transgendered nor the Protestant. I can disagree with both and still love and respect them. Spirituality and sexuality are both journeys we have to make individually. There is truth, partial truth, and lies. God is truth and can only be truth. The father of lies, on the other hand, can present partial truth. These partial truths can be very strong and persuasive, but partial truth always leads away from real truth. I pray that everyone’s individual journeys lead them back to the full truth of God’s love even though I know that far too many will believe the partial truths so strongly that neither heaven nor earth will convince them otherwise. For those I have a great deal of pity.

A Rising Tide...

A rising tide lifts all boats. That’s how the saying goes.  Of course it is only partially true and any partially true statement is a false statement. A rising tide doesn’t lift all boats. It only lifts the boats above the water. A rising tide does nothing to a boat under the water.

One of the reasons the Jews rejected Jesus as messiah was that they were looking for the messiah to be a great king and military leader. Although Christ is the King of kings he didn’t meet expectations of the time. He was so…ordinary. Jesus preached this himself.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” – Matthew 11: 28-30

The Greek word translated as humble is tapeinos. It can also be translated as lowly or ordinary. The phrase ‘humble of heart’ means that he is someone reliant upon God and not himself. Jesus was ordinary. In fact, even his name was among the most common of the day. Perhaps the only name more common was Mary.

Jesus was born in a barn to your common, run of the mill, parents. He was raised and worked as a techton, a laborer. There is a tradition that he was a master yoke builder, making his statement about taking his yoke upon you a bit funny. Nothing about Jesus made him stand out for who he was about to become until he turned water into wine at a wedding reception. There is a reason why we know nothing about his life from the age of twelve until he started his public ministry at the age of thirty. He was off doing ordinary things.

Jesus came to be the salvation and redemption of the entire human race. But, just as a rising tide does not lift all boats, Jesus could not lift up all of humanity by starting out as a great king. He had to be among the lowest of us so that he could raise all of us to salvation.

Moses preconfigured Christ. Moses was born of a slave at a time that all male slaves from the tribes of Israel were put to death. He was raised as royalty, identity hidden. He had to become a slave again before he could lead the slaves on their exodus. Jesus was royalty. He hung his divinity up and was born a slave so that he could lead all mankind, lost in the slavery of death, to an exodus of rebirth.

Most of us long for greatness. We strive to become rich and famous. We want to be on top of the tide on a luxury yacht high above as many as possible. Yet the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is the tide, the ones who lower themselves to raise up the rest. The greatest are the ones who lower themselves to the position of slave to serve others. The truly great are not the ones raising boats that float but the ones who reach down and pull up the boats sunk on the bottom.

Do not strive for greatness. Strive to be tapeinos, ordinary. Live in the ordinary. Love in the ordinary. Lift up others in the ordinary. This is the path to true greatness.

How to Accumulate Great Wealth

Mavis Wanczyk was the winner of the largest single lottery payout in United States history. She won a whopping $758.7 million dollars in August 2017. The single, lump sum payout was $480 million or $336 million after taxes. With a drop of a ball Mavis’ life changed in an instant.

I began fantasizing about what I would do with so much money. I could live a life of luxury. I would of course make all of my family members immediate millionaires. Then my mind drifted to imagining how much charitable work I could do with such abundance. How many of us have secretly tried to bargain with God? If you would just let me win this lottery I promise to feed the poor and cloth the naked…

In Matthew 25: 14 we read the parable about the talents. A master is going away on a journey. He entrusts large sums of money to three of his slaves so that they can earn him more while he was gone. When he returned he found that two of the slaves doubled what they were given. To these slaves he entrusted even more money and responsibility.

The third slave had taken what he had been given and buried it in the ground. He returned to his master exactly what he had received, no more or no less. The master became enraged over this, stripped the slave of everything he had, and threw him out of his house. The slave was now less than he was before for he had nothing. He was naked and starving.

How many of us are like that third slave? How many of us take what we have been given, even if that is just a tiny amount, and bury it in the ground of our personal desires? I would do more for those in need but I haven’t anything left after making my two car payments, my house payment, and the payments on my large satellite TV package with the football network. Plus the latest I-Phone just came out.  If that weren’t enough the dock at the cabin needs repairs…

It is easier to be charitable when we have an excess of everything. It is far harder to be charitable when we are just getting by or worse. Yet, we are called as Christians to be charitable at all times. No matter what our financial situation we all have something we can give, even if that is nothing more than a smile or a kind word.

The master has given us talents and he expects us to use them do multiply the good in this world as much as we are able. If we are good at it we will be given more responsibility and more to do good with or we will be put in a place where our ability to do more with less is in great need. If we are like that third slave, well, we will have our reward here on earth.

I don’t need $759 million dollars to make a difference in another person’s life. For that matter, I don’t need money at all. But if I give of my time and treasure I will be given more to do more with. Do not build up treasure here on earth. You can’t take it with you. Give it away freely and build up treasure in heaven. You have been given talents from the master. How will you double them before he returns to collect on his investment?