The British journalist, Macolm Muggeridge notes in the foreword to his book The Third Testament that the Russian novelist Dostoevsky held that Russia had a destiny “to unite mankind in a brotherhood based in Christian love as the antidote to power rather than on power as the antidote to the inequality, the injustice, the oppression under which the poor everywhere labored.” His contemporary, Tolstoy, also distrusted power. Muggeridge states that Tolstoy was convinced “that human beings can never be made better, individually or collectively, by the exercise of power.” The British historian Lord Acton stated that “power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” All three of these individuals held a deep distrust of power and what it can do to people. We saw the prophetic nature of their words come true in Communist Russia during the past century. The use of power only increased the inequality, the injustice and the oppression of the Russian people.
Yet today many people still look to power as something to grasp. Both political parties seek to become the party in power in our country. Many religious leaders view for power in their denominations. A large number of corporate executives seek to control their corporations through the exercise of power. Unfortunately gaining and maintaining power can become an end in itself. An obsession with power can easily become a corrupting influence. We need only look at the nasty, negative campaigns often run by both Democrats and Republicans to see that this is true. When power becomes an obsession everyone loses. Those who are under the heel of power find that they are being taken advantage of. Those who wield the power may one day discover that they have lost their own soul.
Dostoevsky is right that Christian love is the antidote to power. He correctly saw that love is the key to solving the problems of injustice and inequality and oppression. It is very difficult to treat another human being unjustly, or as an inferior, or to oppress them when we truly love them. The apostle Paul note that all of our abilities and gifts and charity amount to nothing without love (I Corinthians 13). Jesus himself says that unity can only come about through love.
So why do we continue to seek power? I think is comes from a desire to control – a desire to control our destiny. We lose track of, or want to ignore, the fact that God is the one who is in control. We forget that we are to be his agents, showing His love to a world that is being torn apart with hate and dissension. We lose sight of the fact that to become truly powerful we must become weak. It is only through our weakness that God is able to work in our world.
Mother Theresa, ironically from a Communist country, Albania, was one of the weakest, yet most powerful individuals of the past century. World leaders sought her favor and advice. She influenced the entire world through her love of the poor and downtrodden. There was no place that she would not go. There was no one that she would not serve. She understood better than anyone else that Christian love was the antidote to power and the best solution to the problems of this world. She brought the love of Christ to every person who crossed her path.
In our day to day loves we face the same tension that Dostoevsky spoke about. Do we seek to wield power or do we seek to wield God’s love? We must ask ourselves the question: “Will I seek power and reflect the ruthless tyrannical system exhibited by Russia for most of the 20th century or will I, in weakness and humility, reflect the love of God to those in need.” Time will tell.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Penance and Absolution
Father Christopher Walsh, in his book The Untapped Power of the Sacrament of Penance, notes that “penance is a sacrament that demands an authentic grasp of human freedom and responsibility. Only a person who is free can commit a morally culpable action. Only one who accepts personal responsibility can confess guilt and seek forgiveness.” It is a point well taken in a society which has a tendency to seek to blame others for our problems. We are constantly bombarded with the idea that we are victims of the society in which we live. We are told that society is the cause for all our failures. We see this all around us. It is the teacher’s fault I got a bad grade in the class. It is my boss’s fault I didn’t get the promotion. It’s society’s fault I committed the crime. It’s my family’s fault I act the way I do. My personality disorder is the result of the environment in which I grew up. Or, my spouse (or former spouse) caused me to do it, etc.
We all prefer to blame others for our problems instead of accepting responsibility for our own failures and sins. That way we can put a salve on our consciences. The danger is that in continually attempting to transfer the responsibility for our actions from ourselves to someone else we will come to believe it’s their fault. When we do so, we will never come to the place of contrition where we seek forgiveness and restoration. By covering over our sins we think we can put them behind us. Unfortunately, underneath they are still festering. We don’t realize how damaging this is to our souls. Until we take responsibility, we will never change and will find ourselves repeatedly doing the same things over and over again and again. And until we take responsibility for our sin, God cannot begin to change us. We become caught in the blame game trap of our own making. By living in that trap we will never confess. Therefore we will never hear the liberating words from a priest or minister stating “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Father Walsh says that there are three benefits of penance. The first is healing. Confession and absolution bring freedom and transformation. We are freed from the bondage of sin that shackles us. We are healed from the compulsion to repeat the sin over and over again. The second is forgiveness. Dealing with the problem of guilt can be a major cause for counseling. Unfortunately, unless we take responsibility for our actions, confess them and are absolved, we never experience the freedom God intends us to have. The guilt never goes away, leading to the need for continual counseling. The third is reconciliation. When we confess and are absolved, we are reconciled with God. Our growing love for him transforms us to become more like him, as we seek to live holy lives. This will also lead to being reconciled with each other.
Like anything else, confession can become rote, where we only go through the motions, confessing a litany of sins without much thought. How can we avoid this? Father Walsh suggests we ask ourselves the question “What are the obstacles keeping you from getting closer to God and experiencing his grace and peace more powerfully in your life?” As we identify them we must take responsibility for them. Confessing them, and experiencing God’s healing, forgiveness and reconciliation will make all the difference in our lives. Its time for us to ask: “What obstacles are keeping me from getting closer to God?”
We all prefer to blame others for our problems instead of accepting responsibility for our own failures and sins. That way we can put a salve on our consciences. The danger is that in continually attempting to transfer the responsibility for our actions from ourselves to someone else we will come to believe it’s their fault. When we do so, we will never come to the place of contrition where we seek forgiveness and restoration. By covering over our sins we think we can put them behind us. Unfortunately, underneath they are still festering. We don’t realize how damaging this is to our souls. Until we take responsibility, we will never change and will find ourselves repeatedly doing the same things over and over again and again. And until we take responsibility for our sin, God cannot begin to change us. We become caught in the blame game trap of our own making. By living in that trap we will never confess. Therefore we will never hear the liberating words from a priest or minister stating “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Father Walsh says that there are three benefits of penance. The first is healing. Confession and absolution bring freedom and transformation. We are freed from the bondage of sin that shackles us. We are healed from the compulsion to repeat the sin over and over again. The second is forgiveness. Dealing with the problem of guilt can be a major cause for counseling. Unfortunately, unless we take responsibility for our actions, confess them and are absolved, we never experience the freedom God intends us to have. The guilt never goes away, leading to the need for continual counseling. The third is reconciliation. When we confess and are absolved, we are reconciled with God. Our growing love for him transforms us to become more like him, as we seek to live holy lives. This will also lead to being reconciled with each other.
Like anything else, confession can become rote, where we only go through the motions, confessing a litany of sins without much thought. How can we avoid this? Father Walsh suggests we ask ourselves the question “What are the obstacles keeping you from getting closer to God and experiencing his grace and peace more powerfully in your life?” As we identify them we must take responsibility for them. Confessing them, and experiencing God’s healing, forgiveness and reconciliation will make all the difference in our lives. Its time for us to ask: “What obstacles are keeping me from getting closer to God?”
God Bless These Pagan Notes
A speaker at a student conference was once comparing both the positive and negative features of attending either a Christian or a secular university. After describing the benefits and detractions of each, he cautioned, “Just because you attend a Christian school doesn’t mean that you will receive a Christian education. If your professor, who may have received his education at a secular university, hasn’t integrated his field of study with his faith, his opening prayer at the beginning of class may be nothing more than ‘God bless these pagan notes’”. Too often Christian professors can unconsciously accept the assumptions of their discipline of study and meekly mention God’s name now and then.
Upon reflection, this raises an interesting question. Christian parents may send their children to a religious elementary or secondary school, or to a Christian college or university in order to provide them with a Christian education. But their children may not receive the Christian education hoped for. It all depends upon how well the teachers and professors have integrated their education with their own personal faith. The name “Christian” in the title doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Our schools are not the only place where this occurs. We can experience the same situation in seeking a Christian counselor. The mere fact that the counselor is known to be a Christian doesn’t say anything about the nature of the counsel he or she may give. Their advice may be totally non-Christian. It all depends on how well they have integrated their training with their faith. We have also seen the problem surface in the corporate scandals that have occurred during the past decade. Yet some of the individuals involved in the scandals were considered to be Christians. Faith and ethics sometimes appear to be divorced from each other.
But this problem doesn’t only affect others. It also affects all of us. Throughout our lives we have been learning many facts and ideas, organizing them, and developing our own personal philosophy of life. We have been influenced by our schools, our churches, our jobs, our friends, the media, and things we have read or heard. This information has come to us from both religious and secular sources. They all help us make up our own personal worldview. Oftentimes we aren’t even aware that we are developing one. But the worldview that we embrace affects all aspects of our lives. It affects our jobs, our parenting, and our relationships with others. It affects how we live out our faith. It influences everything we say and do. Have we also passively accepted everything we have learned and also occasionally bring God into the picture?
Today we live in what many have called a post Christian, post modernist world. We are faced with many competing philosophies. We confront New Age, existentialism, naturalism, postmodernism, etc. Most of them do not espouse a Biblical world view. Several are actually hostile to it. Yet many Christians have blindly accepted them without even questioning their background. They have not evaluated their own worldview from a Biblical perspective. They have accepted it without attempting to compare it to and integrate it with their faith.
We are constantly being bombarded with a non-Biblical worldview. How are we handling it? If we blindly accept it, we are doing as the professor above, saying in effect “God bless these pagan ideas.” Have we filtered everything through the filter of our faith? “Or are we really secularists in Christian clothing?” Have we integrated our jobs, our education, and our lives with our faith? Or are we really wolves in sheep’s clothing?
Upon reflection, this raises an interesting question. Christian parents may send their children to a religious elementary or secondary school, or to a Christian college or university in order to provide them with a Christian education. But their children may not receive the Christian education hoped for. It all depends upon how well the teachers and professors have integrated their education with their own personal faith. The name “Christian” in the title doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Our schools are not the only place where this occurs. We can experience the same situation in seeking a Christian counselor. The mere fact that the counselor is known to be a Christian doesn’t say anything about the nature of the counsel he or she may give. Their advice may be totally non-Christian. It all depends on how well they have integrated their training with their faith. We have also seen the problem surface in the corporate scandals that have occurred during the past decade. Yet some of the individuals involved in the scandals were considered to be Christians. Faith and ethics sometimes appear to be divorced from each other.
But this problem doesn’t only affect others. It also affects all of us. Throughout our lives we have been learning many facts and ideas, organizing them, and developing our own personal philosophy of life. We have been influenced by our schools, our churches, our jobs, our friends, the media, and things we have read or heard. This information has come to us from both religious and secular sources. They all help us make up our own personal worldview. Oftentimes we aren’t even aware that we are developing one. But the worldview that we embrace affects all aspects of our lives. It affects our jobs, our parenting, and our relationships with others. It affects how we live out our faith. It influences everything we say and do. Have we also passively accepted everything we have learned and also occasionally bring God into the picture?
Today we live in what many have called a post Christian, post modernist world. We are faced with many competing philosophies. We confront New Age, existentialism, naturalism, postmodernism, etc. Most of them do not espouse a Biblical world view. Several are actually hostile to it. Yet many Christians have blindly accepted them without even questioning their background. They have not evaluated their own worldview from a Biblical perspective. They have accepted it without attempting to compare it to and integrate it with their faith.
We are constantly being bombarded with a non-Biblical worldview. How are we handling it? If we blindly accept it, we are doing as the professor above, saying in effect “God bless these pagan ideas.” Have we filtered everything through the filter of our faith? “Or are we really secularists in Christian clothing?” Have we integrated our jobs, our education, and our lives with our faith? Or are we really wolves in sheep’s clothing?
The Now Generation
Our society has been called the “now” generation. We want things “now”, no matter what they are. This has made us susceptible to many dangers, such as impulse buying, the desire for instant gratification, impatience with things that require time to develop. Wanting things “now” has many serious consequences. It causes the run up of hefty balances on our credit cards. It leads to dissatisfactions in marriages, many times resulting in divorce. It fuels the lotteries, with their enticement of a quickly amassed fortune. It destroys relationships that don’t develop quickly enough. “Now” can become a huge taskmaster.
The rocket scientist Wernher von Braun had an astute comment about the fallible nature of now. He once observed that "Crash programs fail because they are based on the theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.” Many things require time to develop. Just as it takes nine months for a child to be born, it takes time for relationships to develop, for nest eggs to be built, to experience the joy of working to acquire something in the future. These cannot occur overnight. To attempt otherwise leads to premature births, relationships that are constantly flitting from one to another, the temptation to compromise one’s values, etc. Living with a now mentality can cause us significant problems.
God is definitely not part of the now generation. He is described in several passages as being slow to anger. When the children of Israel turn from him time after time in the book of Judges, he often allows them to stray for decades before acting. Perhaps the greatest example of God’s not being part of the now generation is seen in the coming of Jesus. Jesus did not come immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve, but in the fullness of time. God is certainly not impulsive.
God also designs our lives to be much in the same way. In his poem The Windhover, the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins includes the line “Sheer plod makes plow down sillion shine.” The imagery is agricultural – of a horse pulling a plow. “Sillion” is a technical term, referring to the freshly turned, moist compacted earth that comes off the plow share. It often has a sheen which glistens as the sun hits it. This is what he means by “sillion shine”. It is only by the horse slowly plodding ahead, pulling the plow across the field, that we have the sillion shining and glistening in the sun.
Likewise, it is only by going through the nine months of pregnancy that we experience the joy of birth. It is only by putting a little bit away, month by month, year after year, that we accumulate our retirement nest egg. It is only by the discovery of new insights about another person and sharing ourselves with them over many years that relationships grow. It is only in our slowly becoming more like Christ in our lives that we grow in holiness. Each takes time. Each requires slowly plodding ahead.
Unfortunately we often try to short circuit the process. We look for the quick fix. We want the results without having to put in the effort. And we want them immediately! We become impatient if we don’t get them right away. When we do this we miss out on much that God has for us. We miss out on the joy of both a developing relationship with him and with others. We never see growth in Christian maturity. We have become captive to now. By the way, how much does now control your life?
The rocket scientist Wernher von Braun had an astute comment about the fallible nature of now. He once observed that "Crash programs fail because they are based on the theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.” Many things require time to develop. Just as it takes nine months for a child to be born, it takes time for relationships to develop, for nest eggs to be built, to experience the joy of working to acquire something in the future. These cannot occur overnight. To attempt otherwise leads to premature births, relationships that are constantly flitting from one to another, the temptation to compromise one’s values, etc. Living with a now mentality can cause us significant problems.
God is definitely not part of the now generation. He is described in several passages as being slow to anger. When the children of Israel turn from him time after time in the book of Judges, he often allows them to stray for decades before acting. Perhaps the greatest example of God’s not being part of the now generation is seen in the coming of Jesus. Jesus did not come immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve, but in the fullness of time. God is certainly not impulsive.
God also designs our lives to be much in the same way. In his poem The Windhover, the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins includes the line “Sheer plod makes plow down sillion shine.” The imagery is agricultural – of a horse pulling a plow. “Sillion” is a technical term, referring to the freshly turned, moist compacted earth that comes off the plow share. It often has a sheen which glistens as the sun hits it. This is what he means by “sillion shine”. It is only by the horse slowly plodding ahead, pulling the plow across the field, that we have the sillion shining and glistening in the sun.
Likewise, it is only by going through the nine months of pregnancy that we experience the joy of birth. It is only by putting a little bit away, month by month, year after year, that we accumulate our retirement nest egg. It is only by the discovery of new insights about another person and sharing ourselves with them over many years that relationships grow. It is only in our slowly becoming more like Christ in our lives that we grow in holiness. Each takes time. Each requires slowly plodding ahead.
Unfortunately we often try to short circuit the process. We look for the quick fix. We want the results without having to put in the effort. And we want them immediately! We become impatient if we don’t get them right away. When we do this we miss out on much that God has for us. We miss out on the joy of both a developing relationship with him and with others. We never see growth in Christian maturity. We have become captive to now. By the way, how much does now control your life?
Monday, March 2, 2009
No Christian Left Behind
The “No Child Left Behind” act is designed to ensure that all of our children receive a quality education. Whatever we may feel about its implementation, I believe we can all agree that the quality of the education given our children is of utmost importance. Every child should be in an environment where he or she can learn.
But despite the best programs, the best teachers, the best classrooms, we often find that for some children it just doesn’t work. There are many reasons why this may be true. One child may have an entirely different learning style from that of his teacher. Another may have dyslexia or some other learning disability that prevents her from learning at the speed of the other children. A third may have a lowered IQ that makes learning more difficult for him. But it may also be for the reason that the child sees no value in education and doesn’t want to learn. He has never seen the importance of education in his life. Until he decides there is value in education, he will likely never truly succeed in school. Unfortunately, the same is true with adults. Department of Education reports indicate that adult literacy and reading are declining. We are becoming less and less literate.
A recent article by a Christian author suggests that we should promote “No Christian Left Behind”. He states that we should all seek to be biblically, theologically and culturally literate. Josh Sowin, writing in John Piper’s blog “Desiring God” says much the same thing: “But we have a problem: our culture is becoming more and more alliterate. We have the ability to read but not the desire. Or maybe we have the desire but not the time. We make time to watch television and surf the Internet for the latest triviality, but we can't seem to make the time to sit down and read for an hour.” Sowin recommends that we become well versed in our knowledge of the Bible, in theology and in our understanding of the culture in which we live. It is only then that we will be able to impact our culture with God’s good news.
There are many passages in the Bible that speak to the value God places on knowledge. He desires that we intimately know Him. We are to diligently search for, cry out for, and seek to know God. Several passages suggest that we are to wrestle with getting to know God. The prophet Hosea warns that “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6a). We are chided in Hebrews 5 for not going beyond the elementary teachings. To faithfully serve Him requires that we use our minds along with our emotions. We must acquire a working knowledge of the Bible, learn the basic Christian doctrines, and understand how God’s good news intersects with the culture in which we live. It requires the same disciplined approach as does the discipline needed to learn math or a foreign language. It will not happen by osmosis.
Do we desire to know God and model our lives after him or do we model our Christian lives after the child who sees no value in education and doesn’t want to learn? How often are we merely satisfied with attending church on Sunday, but have no desire to learn more about God, his world and our lives? If God were giving us a literacy test regarding our knowledge of Him, would we flunk the exam? Would He classify us with those who have been left behind?
But despite the best programs, the best teachers, the best classrooms, we often find that for some children it just doesn’t work. There are many reasons why this may be true. One child may have an entirely different learning style from that of his teacher. Another may have dyslexia or some other learning disability that prevents her from learning at the speed of the other children. A third may have a lowered IQ that makes learning more difficult for him. But it may also be for the reason that the child sees no value in education and doesn’t want to learn. He has never seen the importance of education in his life. Until he decides there is value in education, he will likely never truly succeed in school. Unfortunately, the same is true with adults. Department of Education reports indicate that adult literacy and reading are declining. We are becoming less and less literate.
A recent article by a Christian author suggests that we should promote “No Christian Left Behind”. He states that we should all seek to be biblically, theologically and culturally literate. Josh Sowin, writing in John Piper’s blog “Desiring God” says much the same thing: “But we have a problem: our culture is becoming more and more alliterate. We have the ability to read but not the desire. Or maybe we have the desire but not the time. We make time to watch television and surf the Internet for the latest triviality, but we can't seem to make the time to sit down and read for an hour.” Sowin recommends that we become well versed in our knowledge of the Bible, in theology and in our understanding of the culture in which we live. It is only then that we will be able to impact our culture with God’s good news.
There are many passages in the Bible that speak to the value God places on knowledge. He desires that we intimately know Him. We are to diligently search for, cry out for, and seek to know God. Several passages suggest that we are to wrestle with getting to know God. The prophet Hosea warns that “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6a). We are chided in Hebrews 5 for not going beyond the elementary teachings. To faithfully serve Him requires that we use our minds along with our emotions. We must acquire a working knowledge of the Bible, learn the basic Christian doctrines, and understand how God’s good news intersects with the culture in which we live. It requires the same disciplined approach as does the discipline needed to learn math or a foreign language. It will not happen by osmosis.
Do we desire to know God and model our lives after him or do we model our Christian lives after the child who sees no value in education and doesn’t want to learn? How often are we merely satisfied with attending church on Sunday, but have no desire to learn more about God, his world and our lives? If God were giving us a literacy test regarding our knowledge of Him, would we flunk the exam? Would He classify us with those who have been left behind?
My Motives
At times living the Christian life can appear to be very confusing. As we try to determine the will of God, we often look for the easy way out. We look for rules to follow. Having rules makes it easy to know what to, or not to do. Thus we can avoid having to make complex decisions. The Pharisees were known for the large number of rules they rigidly kept. Many of these rules had a negative orientation. Jesus condemned them for their strict adherence to their rules. Rules had become more important than their relationship with God. The motives for their actions were wrong.
We are tempted to do the same thing that the Pharisees did. During the twentieth century, large segments of American Christendom were identified by the rules they kept. Like the rules of the Pharisees, many of these were also negative. They made it very easy to identify supposed Christian behavior. But these rules also became very rigid. While they attempted to define one’s relationship with God, they became more important than a true relationship with God. It even became possible to follow the rules without having any relationship with God at all.
But rules by themselves are often inadequate in making decisions. Life is much more complex than following mere rules. The dilemma we face is compounded by the fact that the same action can be a virtue one day and a sin the next. How do we determine which it is? The Swiss physician, Paul Tournier, writes about this issue in his book To Resist or Surrender? He states “What is good in the Bible, is not this thing or that. It is not a matter of resisting or giving in. It is doing what God wants and when he wants it: it is total dependence upon his person, not upon a moral code.”
We constantly find ourselves forced to make choices. Rules make it easy, for then we don’t have to think. Someone else has done the hard work for us. We can just mechanically react, like a programmed machine. But if we desire to do what God wants and when he wants it, we are led to question our motives when we are confused by choices. Is the motive behind our actions a desire to be totally dependent upon God and give him glory? Do our actions signify complete trust in Him? We see an example of this process at work in the life of King David in II Samuel 24: David is chastised for taking a census. Yet in Numbers 26 God tells Moses to take a census. What is the difference? David’s motive was to determine his military strength as opposed to his dependence upon God. He is condemned for his lack of trust in God.
God desires us to be motive oriented Christians. He desires us to be dependent upon Him. He wants us to totally trust in Him. Therefore, our motives are all important. Much of the praise or condemnation of individuals in the Bible has to do with the motives behind their actions. Were they acting out of allegiance and dependence upon God or did they have some other motive? Were they acting out of trust? This requires thoughtful analysis. We can not take the easy way out and merely follow a set of rules. As we live our daily lives, we need to ask ourselves these questions: Why am I doing this? How do my actions impact my relationship with God? What do my motives tell me about myself?
We are tempted to do the same thing that the Pharisees did. During the twentieth century, large segments of American Christendom were identified by the rules they kept. Like the rules of the Pharisees, many of these were also negative. They made it very easy to identify supposed Christian behavior. But these rules also became very rigid. While they attempted to define one’s relationship with God, they became more important than a true relationship with God. It even became possible to follow the rules without having any relationship with God at all.
But rules by themselves are often inadequate in making decisions. Life is much more complex than following mere rules. The dilemma we face is compounded by the fact that the same action can be a virtue one day and a sin the next. How do we determine which it is? The Swiss physician, Paul Tournier, writes about this issue in his book To Resist or Surrender? He states “What is good in the Bible, is not this thing or that. It is not a matter of resisting or giving in. It is doing what God wants and when he wants it: it is total dependence upon his person, not upon a moral code.”
We constantly find ourselves forced to make choices. Rules make it easy, for then we don’t have to think. Someone else has done the hard work for us. We can just mechanically react, like a programmed machine. But if we desire to do what God wants and when he wants it, we are led to question our motives when we are confused by choices. Is the motive behind our actions a desire to be totally dependent upon God and give him glory? Do our actions signify complete trust in Him? We see an example of this process at work in the life of King David in II Samuel 24: David is chastised for taking a census. Yet in Numbers 26 God tells Moses to take a census. What is the difference? David’s motive was to determine his military strength as opposed to his dependence upon God. He is condemned for his lack of trust in God.
God desires us to be motive oriented Christians. He desires us to be dependent upon Him. He wants us to totally trust in Him. Therefore, our motives are all important. Much of the praise or condemnation of individuals in the Bible has to do with the motives behind their actions. Were they acting out of allegiance and dependence upon God or did they have some other motive? Were they acting out of trust? This requires thoughtful analysis. We can not take the easy way out and merely follow a set of rules. As we live our daily lives, we need to ask ourselves these questions: Why am I doing this? How do my actions impact my relationship with God? What do my motives tell me about myself?
Market Economy
George Orwell, observing the loss of religious faith in Europe (which he had applauded), remarked: “For two hundred years we had sawed and sawed and sawed at the branch we were sitting on. And in the end, much more suddenly than anyone had foreseen, our efforts were rewarded, and down we came. But unfortunately there had been a little mistake. The thing at the bottom was not a bed of roses after all, it was a cesspool full of barbed wire. … It appears that amputation of the soul isn't just a simple surgical job, like having your appendix out. The wound has a tendency to go septic.” As we evaluate the global economic collapse of 2008 it appears things have gone very septic indeed. In fact we are now experiencing septic shock.
We should not be surprised. The likelihood that this would happen was prophetically suggested in an address on Market Economy and Ethics by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in 1985. He noted that Christians who participate in managing the economy have a long tradition of regarding their faith as a private concern while in their business concerns they abide by economic laws. He stated that to overcome this dichotomy requires that these two arenas come together, for any economic system operating for the common good depends on an ethical system born and sustained by strong religious convictions. He then continued “Conversely, it has also become obvious that the decline of such discipline can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse.”
Over the past 23 years since his address, we have seen a continual erosion of the place of religion in public life. Ethical thinking has played a continually diminished role. There has been an every widening gulf between our public, secular lives and our private, religious lives. Many times we can take on a Dr. Jekyll - Mr. Hyde lifestyle without feeling any guilt at all. This leads to an unconscious “live for God on Sunday and the devil the rest of the week” mentality. Considering religion to be only a private concern has proved disastrous. The market has now collapsed. The religious branch we were sitting on has been sawed off. We are living in the cesspool we have created. We are now experiencing the consequences of our decisions. We don’t like them, but are we willing to change? That is the question facing us at this moment in history.
The return from the moral abyss our nation is in will require a deep change in our view of the relationship between our religious and secular lives. They must be brought back together. We must regard this issue with the same seriousness that Jesus did. In his seven woes pronounced against the Pharisees in Matt 23 he says “You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness” (v. 23). The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was largely due to their having separated their life of faith from their life in the world. This allowed them to live their religious life devoid of justice, mercy and faithfulness while flaunting their religiosity. It is only as we bring the secular and religious aspects of our lives back together that we can see change. It is only when our nation begins to embrace ethical thinking based on the laws of God that change will occur. The best place to begin is with us. Am I willing to allow God to influence every area of my life?
We should not be surprised. The likelihood that this would happen was prophetically suggested in an address on Market Economy and Ethics by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in 1985. He noted that Christians who participate in managing the economy have a long tradition of regarding their faith as a private concern while in their business concerns they abide by economic laws. He stated that to overcome this dichotomy requires that these two arenas come together, for any economic system operating for the common good depends on an ethical system born and sustained by strong religious convictions. He then continued “Conversely, it has also become obvious that the decline of such discipline can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse.”
Over the past 23 years since his address, we have seen a continual erosion of the place of religion in public life. Ethical thinking has played a continually diminished role. There has been an every widening gulf between our public, secular lives and our private, religious lives. Many times we can take on a Dr. Jekyll - Mr. Hyde lifestyle without feeling any guilt at all. This leads to an unconscious “live for God on Sunday and the devil the rest of the week” mentality. Considering religion to be only a private concern has proved disastrous. The market has now collapsed. The religious branch we were sitting on has been sawed off. We are living in the cesspool we have created. We are now experiencing the consequences of our decisions. We don’t like them, but are we willing to change? That is the question facing us at this moment in history.
The return from the moral abyss our nation is in will require a deep change in our view of the relationship between our religious and secular lives. They must be brought back together. We must regard this issue with the same seriousness that Jesus did. In his seven woes pronounced against the Pharisees in Matt 23 he says “You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness” (v. 23). The hypocrisy of the Pharisees was largely due to their having separated their life of faith from their life in the world. This allowed them to live their religious life devoid of justice, mercy and faithfulness while flaunting their religiosity. It is only as we bring the secular and religious aspects of our lives back together that we can see change. It is only when our nation begins to embrace ethical thinking based on the laws of God that change will occur. The best place to begin is with us. Am I willing to allow God to influence every area of my life?
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