Thursday, March 14, 2024

Rethinking Righteousness

Jesus talks a lot about righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). But what's he talking about? 

I have always thought that righteousness was pretty simple. It's me doing the right thing, keeping the rules, being obedient. The checklist includes things like Bible reading, prayer, helping people, keeping promises, being honest, staying in Christian fellowship. 

In short, righteousness is about me being good. For the most part, it feels like righteousness is just between me and God.

But thanks to the Bible Project's study of the Sermon, I have a clearer understanding of righteousness. It's not just about me being good. It is about me being in right relationship with others. As Tim Mackie says, righteousness is "doing right by you." 

This understanding better captures the meaning of the original words. And we can clearly see that emphasis in other parts of the Sermon. Jesus goes on to say that if there is a problem between you and someone else, you need to chase the person down and make it right. You need to repair the relationship before you even worship. Don't murder, but don't even be angry. Don't commit adultery, but don't even lust. It's all about relationship.

And this tracks well with the second part of the Great Commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. 

So, yes, be righteous. But know that it means making relationships right. It's not just between me and God. We are all in this together. It's the kingdom of heaven.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

More Confessions

OK, so my Lent idea of confessing something every day sounded good. But here's my confession today. I haven't been confessing as much as I had planned or expected. 

I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Maybe it was not a great idea to start with. Maybe I just failed to make confession a priority. But God has still been at work. 

Even when we don't follow through, even when we have wrong priorities, even when we get distracted--even then, God is at work. He is at work behind the scenes. He is at work to reveal his love to us, as we discover our own imperfections.

And that's what Lent is about. 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Book review: Devout

Today I picked up Anna Gazmarian's new book Devout: A Memoir of Doubt. I began by reading the foreword, just to get a sense of the work. And it was good. It was so good that I read the whole book today. Learn more about the book here.

(Full disclosure: Anna is my daughter's sister-in-law. I have known her for years, and I knew a good bit of her story already. And I want to cheer her on.)

This book shows one young woman's struggle with church culture and her deep desire to honor God. For some, the Christian life at least appears to be easy, but for Anna it felt all but impossible. She notes how shallow some Christian communities can be, how she tried so hard to fit in. But her own experience did not fit the mold. 

Many churches and Christians could not grasp Anna's challenges with mental health. Well-meaning people urged her to try more prayer, more faith, more Bible reading. But easy answers were simplistic. 

As she tells her story, Anna shares insights from the scripture, showing struggles of faith in the heroes of the faith. Her depth of understanding inspires people like me to keep digging into the riches of relationship with God. 

As a gifted story-teller, Anna takes us with her on her journey. She leans on the Christian community as well as the world of psychiatry. In both spheres she finds those who can help and those who just don't get it. She shows how creativity can connect us with the work of the Spirit in us. She shows us the pain and the rewards of addressing mental health. 

I can think of dozens of people I want to give this book to. It's a real story about a real struggle. It calls out Christian cliches and calls us to take mental health seriously. 

Anna, your story gives us permission to live with doubt and to face our own struggles with mental health. For many, reading your story will be a game-changer.



Monday, March 11, 2024

Change your mind

About something. Change your mind. You "know" some things that are not true. 

So do I. 

So change your mind. I don't know where you are wrong, but I know it's somewhere. I am (cautiously) on the lookout for places where I'm wrong. I do not hold the same opinions at 61 that I held 31. I have learned. And I'm learning.

Just knowing that I have some wrong opinions helps me hold my opinions more loosely. When I encounter people who see the world differently from me, I remind myself that their experiences are far different from mine. I might (probably would) share their opinions if I had walked in their shoes.

Being willing to see things from another perspective softens my heart. It helps me not be so dogmatic or judgmental. I do agree that there are absolute truths. I think I have found some of them. But I try to give myself the freedom to rethink, to take into account new information, to consider another point of view. Even about those absolutes, I want to hold those perspectives graciously.

And that's the most important thing about dialing back the dogmatism: It allows for kindness. Even when we disagree, we can be kind. Maybe even when we are angry we can be kind.

So today I encourage you: Change your mind. About something. Maybe something small, like "People who drive Chevrolets are idiots." Just start changing your mind. It might open up a whole new world.

And yeah, this is my Chevy and my rooster.





Sunday, March 10, 2024

Oscar tone

I have been cynical about the Oscars. A bunch of self-important people live out a popularity contest while the little people fawn all over them. At least that's how it has so often seemed to me. And obviously I have not gone out of my way to see every Oscar moment every year.

But this year's Academy Awards show has a different vibe to it. OK, it's only an hour into the show, but the attitudes of the actors has been so refreshing. They seem to be more humble, more interested in other people. They just seem more sincere to me.

I did watch the red carpet segment before the show, where they interview the stars, and that's where I first noticed a hint of humility. Maybe a hint is all they can risk, but I still find it refreshing.

There is still more time for pride and vanity, but thanks, Hollywood, for reminding us that you are real people.





Saturday, March 9, 2024

Deep Lent

During the season of Lent, we are encouraged to contemplate Jesus's journey leading to the cross. It is 40 days long, helping us think about his time of temptation in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. We also recall his suffering as encountered all kinds of opposition. 

As Richard Rohr notes in Falling Upward, Jesus did seem to find the most pushback from the rich and the religious. The rich could not reach a place of actually needing God's help, and the religious believed that they were doing just fine, thank you, without Jesus's rocking the boat. 

Lent is a good time to look in the mirror and see if I am like the rich or religious. They were the ones for whom the system was working. They had all their material needs taken care of, and they had their spiritual needs covered with their religious practices. Yet they were the ones who often resented Jesus. 

Jesus reached out to the poor and the non-religious. Jesus found that they were more receptive to his message. They could see their need. The system was not working for them. They were desperate. They were poor in spirit and marginalized. 

So during this season, I need to recognize my own complacency, my own satisfaction with the status quo. I need to see that I am surely missing out on something deeper. I need to recognize my reluctance to enter the kingdom of God, my reluctance to love my enemies and restore relationships and make peace.  

This is a time to go deeper. I need it.



Friday, March 8, 2024

Lunar Bad Luck

On February 22, 2024 a spacecraft landed on the moon. This was the first moon landing of an American craft since Apollo 17 in 1972. There was lots of celebration for the mission. The craft Odysseus was sent to the moon in a cooperative effort of NASA and Intuitive Machines, a Texas-based company.

But unfortunately, one of the legs of the lander failed, and the machine toppled over. The craft's solar panels could not be turned to face the sun, and the batteries failed all too quickly. A few images were beamed back to earth, but that was all the mission could do. The lander had six legs, which seems like more than enough for the job, but alas, it was not.

The mission was a success in that it did land on the moon, but certainly a disappointment because of its short life on the lunar surface.

They say that you learn more through failure than success. I don't enjoy failure, but I do like to learn. Seems like I have had plenty of small successes, followed by significant failures. 

I should be learning a lot.