GOD DOES NOT ACT LIKE US, THANK GOD

One of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, why we sometimes have so much difficulty in understanding God and God’s infinite love and forgiveness is that we think God acts the way we do. Sometimes we think, and perhaps secretly hope, that God treats others just as we treat others. This is especially true when it comes to our own sinfulness, when we deliberately hurt others, often for what we believe are justifiable reasons. We have been hurt and we believe it is all right to hurt in return.

We do not deny that we are sinners even as we try to find reasons to excuse our selfish actions. We know we have sinned and we know we have offended our God. That is a given. But what we, at least somewhere in the back of our minds, also consider a given is that God should and will punish us for those sins. Again and after all, is that not the mindset we have when we deal with fellow human beings when they selfishly hurt us? We want those who have caused us pain to have to suffer pain in return. That is only fair and just, is it not?

That is a very human emotion and reaction. We want to get even. We often attempt to get even. Because we cannot undo the harm that has been inflicted upon us or erase the pain and suffering that we endured, we feel we have to get some measure of revenge. We simply cannot allow the sinner to get off scot-free. Unconditional forgiveness is almost if not beyond the pale of our imagination.

What is unfortunate is that we transfer this human way of behaving and thinking to God. If we cannot simply forgive and forget, how can God? Why should God? Sinners that we are, how can we ever stand before God, especially in death, “holy and blameless and irreproachable”, to use Paul’s words. We know we are not holy. We sinned and sinned often. We have no one else to blame but ourselves and we know it. And irreproachable? Get serious!

And yet we will indeed be able to stand before God in just such a state. Our sins will not only be forgiven but they will not even be remembered. They will be erased from memory and we will stand before God with a clean slate. The only problem is that as much as we want to believe that truth of our faith, we find it quite difficult to do so. Why? Again, I believe the reason is that we think God thinks and acts as we do even as we hope God does not. Thankfully God does not.

Now none of this means that we have a blank check to do whatever we want, sin as much as we desire, because God always forgives us. That is nonsense. The reason why we stop hurting those we love is that we hurt ourselves in the process. The reason why we stop doing anything selfish and sinful is that we finally come to grips with how much pain we have caused.

What it does mean is that our response to God’s ultimate graciousness and forgiveness is to live a life of loving thanks as best we can, knowing we will often fail each day of our lives but resolving to be better the next day. That is all we can do and all God expects.

THE WILL OF GOD

THE WILL OF GOD

 “The will of God”: we use that term almost offhandedly, even rather blithely at times, even as we have not the foggiest notion of what we are talking about. Yet when something happens that we cannot understand, that makes no sense whatsoever to us – or to anyone else for that matter – whether good or bad, whether to someone else or to us, we conclude that it is the result of the will of God. This may or may not be true, but how else to explain it?

Taken to the ultimate, if everything is the result of God’s will, both good and bad, especially bad, the very, very bad, then we have no will, no free will. We are simply automatically doing what God has programmed us to do since our inception. What is worse, if this were true, then the obvious conclusion is that we are not and would not be held responsible for anything we do. It would all be the result of the direct will of the God who created us.

We certainly do not believe this to be the case even though at those times when we have done something very wrong and sinful, we wish it were it so. If it were so, we would be off the hook as far as guilt and responsibility are concerned. In all truth we also certainly do not want that to be the way it is. We do not know that to be the way it is. Because we do not in any way know God’s ways. We simply believe it is not God’s way to have created us God’s robots. We believe God gives us free will and because of that, we are held responsible for our actions.

And yet, and yet: even though we understand we must take responsibility for our actions, both good and bad, what about those other events that defy explanation, any explanation, other than they must be the result of the will of God? Actions like hurricanes (Harvey) that devastate, epidemics that wipe out thousands, stillborn babies, paralyzing illnesses: how do we explain these events other than that they are the will of God?

The truth is, try as we might, we do not understand and we cannot explain why, to put it simply, that bad things happen to good and innocent people. Sometimes we cannot even explain why we do bad things to good and otherwise innocent people. It is the problem of evil all over again. Whenever something bad happens that cannot be explained by the free will of human beings, because of our sinfulness, the only one we can blame is God. And sometimes we do especially when that bad has happened to us or to someone we love dearly. We have to blame someone, don’t we?

As people of faith we do not like blaming God for the evil in this world. We do not want to blame it on the devil either because the devil doesn’t commit any sin. We do. We certainly would like to blame much of the evil we do on someone or something else, but we cannot. We simply do not understand God’s ways. Even more, sometimes we do not even understand our ways.

We do not have all the answers. “The will of God”: it often causes more problems than it resolves. 

FINDING THE RIGHT PARTNER

The first human being according to the creation parable in the first book of the Bible was not happy. S/he (does it matter the gender?) discovered that one can have all the possessions in the world, can live in Paradise, can win the lottery of life, whatever that means and whatever it would entail, and still not be happy. Something was missing from all this abundance, all this pleasure, all this. What was missing, was not something but someone.

It did not take long, again according to the story, for this first human being to realize that unless s/he had someone to share Paradise with, it all amounted to a hill of beans, if even that. Material possessions cannot compensate for loneliness, for being alone. It never has and it never will given who we are as human beings. Sometimes we are seduced into thinking that it will, perhaps even trying by accumulating more and more, but we soon discover it won’t.

Material possessions, even great wealth, only give monetary pleasure. The joy of the new thing, the latest gadget, the biggest and best whatever lasts only for a short time. Then we have to move on to something else to substitute for what we are really wanting and needing and that is another person to share, not our possession, but our life. Sadly, all too often it seems that we only appreciate the other when the other is absent from us and not until then.

What we also discover is that we can be as poor as the proverbial church mouse and still be happy, satisfied, fulfilled simply because we have someone to share our life with, someone who loves us and cares for us just as we are and who we are and not because of what we do or do not possess materially. Young couples who struggle together when finances are tight find that their love for each other grows deeper every day in that mutual struggle.

Perhaps that is what the biblical writer was getting at when he tells us that these two people were naked. They were saying to each other, “This is who I am. Love me as I am. Share my life just as I am. Anything I add – clothing, possessions, wisdom, talents – won’t change who I am. I am not ashamed for who I am or for what you see, for what you see is me. Be my life partner.”

One does not have to be married to find a life partner. One’s life partner does not have to be of the opposite sex and physical sex is only one small and insignificant and not necessarily a necessary part of the relationship. What is important is the mutual sharing of life and love. All else is add-on and for the betterment of the relationship. But it is and always will remain an add-on, good but not necessary.

Finding the right partner, the best friend, the blood-brother/sister, makes us want to say, even shout, to God, “Lord, thank you, thank you, for giving us one another to share this life with, its joys and sorrows, its ups and downs, yesterday, today and all the tomorrows to come. Amen.”

NOT JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

The rock group Pink Floyd was wrong back in 1979. They wrote Just Another Brick in the Wall to protest what they believed was a poor educational system in England that treated the students as “just another brick in the wall.” In other words, the students were really nobodies whom the system didn’t much care about. If they received an education, well and good. If not, well they “don’t need no education” anyway.

No one is just another brick in the wall. Not only are we one as a people the world over, no matter where we find ourselves and no matter what configuration we are in we are not just another brick in the wall. Whether we are with only one other person or as a member of a family or grouping, no matter how small or how large, we are not just another brick in the wall.

Perhaps the students Pink Floyd was protesting for believed they were nobodies in the eyes of the educational powers to be and even if they were actually treated as such, nevertheless, they were somebodies and were important. Every one of us is. There are no exceptions. The problem is that as individuals we don’t seem to understand this truth both when it comes to how we are treated or how we treat others.

Let me explain by drawing a mental picture: a wall, a wall made of bricks. It does not matter how small or how large that wall is: two bricks (you and me), ten bricks (my family), 150 bricks (my church community), 30,000 bricks (my community), 300+ million bricks (my country, 600+ billion bricks (my world). Each brick is vital to the strength of that wall. Pull one brick out and the whole wall is weaker.

The point, of course, is that no one of us is a nobody no matter where we are, who we are, the amount of education we have, the income we earn, where we live, the color of our skin – the list is endless. Nothing about us lessens who we are and the importance of who we are wherever we are, wherever we find ourselves at the moment, in whatever wall we happen to be at the time.

Sometimes that truth is so easy for us to forget when we are treated as if we are unimportant or when we treat others as if they are unimportant, as if they or we are just another brick in the wall. Somewhere along the line we have lost sight of the truth that no one is unimportant. No one. And no one is better than anyone else. Just as each brick is vital to the strength of the wall, so each one of us is vital to the strength of whatever wall/community to which we belong.

At this time in the life of our county I think that is a message that we not only need to hear but to begin to live out. Unfortunately, what I am hearing are too many voices shouting to others that they are just another brick in the wall. No one is just another brick in the wall, no one. When will we learn? Will we ever learn?

LONG TIME PASSING

There is one thing, actually more than one, that I miss about my college and theology years and that is the voices of the folk singers who would not allow us to disregard or ignore the many injustices that were taking place in our country. Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan (who won a Nobel Prize for literature because of his poetic truth-telling), Peter, Paul and Mary – the list is long – spoke to my generation.

I did not march or protest as I was secure behind seminary walls and was almost immune to what was happening in the world beyond those walls. And even if I was not personally affected by the racism they sang against, the war they knew was really unjustified, and the divisions among us, I knew what they meant. In hindsight I regret my non-involvement other than simply praying that their voices would be heard.

A long time has passed and some of them have passed into the next life. But we need them today. We need voices who will speak out against the injustices we see all around us, the bigotry and racism that is still very much present. There are those who say we are a Christian country and that they are Christians all the while preaching hatred and division. We are not and they are not.

Peter, Paul and Mary sang this in River of Jordan. “There is only one river. There is only one sea. And it flows through you, and it flows through me. There is only one people. We are one and the same. We are all one spirit. We are all one name. We are the father, mother, daughter and son. From the dawn of creation, we are one. We are one.”

The problem, of course, and the issue at hand is that we don’t act as one. That does not mean that we agree on all issues or even the way to resolve issues like health care and taxes and all those political issues that divide us. What it does mean is that we recognize, when we deal with these issues that do need to be resolved that we take into account that we are indeed one people and that what hurts one of us hurts all of us.

We live in the greatest country on earth. It does not need to be made great again. It is already great. But it needs to be and become better. So do each and every one of us. That is what Dylan and Seeger and their kin tried to get across in their music. That was Jesus’ constant message. It still is and always will be.

Many listened back then and did something about it to help bring us together. The question today is “Is anyone listening?” Even more, where are the voices today that will bring us to our senses? I have been listening but I have not heard any such voices coming from our political leaders. I have not heard it loud enough from our religious leaders. They especially need to speak up, from every denomination and race and creed and speak as one. I am waiting. I am listening.

INSPECTION TIME

One cannot drive a car in Pennsylvania unless it is first inspected. Thank God. As financially painful as it sometimes may be, thank God.  I want to know that my car is safe to drive. And the other drivers want to know that I am driving a safe car, not so much because they might be concerned about my safety but because you are concerned about their safety. They don't want me crashing into them because of faulty brakes, for instance. Whether I like it or not, getting my car inspected is the most important thing I'll do for my car this year.

These yearly automobile inspections are also a reminder that a yearly, at least a yearly, inspection is necessary as far as our personal lives are concerned. Sometimes, like yearly automobile inspections, yearly personal inspections can sometimes be quite painful. Yet we simply do need to take the time, at least once a year, to inspect our lives as Christians. The problem is that we probably do not take that time. It is not on our agenda. And there is not a patch on our arm with a number, like the number 8 on my windshield – that reminds us to take some times out (like in July) to go over the systems. Oh, we know it is a good idea, but we have better things to do -- all much less painful.

Those personal inspections are intended to plumb the depths of our psyches, to dig deeply into our inner being to see if we are really living out our faith or if we are just playing at it. We can look good on the outside but the inside of us is a mess. Giving ourselves a quick-glance once-over won't work. We may want to slap a sticker on our forehead and say "okay for another year;" but if we do, disaster may be just around the corner.

It's like that car inspection. Time-wise, money-wise, pain-wise I want the man to give my car the once-over very quickly. I certainly do not want him to find anything wrong with my car, even if I feel he probably will. But deep down I also want to be sure that my car is safe to drive around for another year. I certainly don't want to worry about my car breaking down somewhere between here and somewhere on a snowy winter's night. Thus, as painful as it might be, I need, not just the State, I need to insist on a complete inspection for my car.

And for myself: the spiritual breakdown can take place anytime, anywhere and, usually, as with a car, when it is most inconvenient. Cars never break down right in front of the service station, never run out of gas next to the pump. Our faith never gets into a crisis situation when all is going well. Our faith gets shaky when everything else also seems to be falling apart. To prevent that breakdown, we need a yearly inspection, like it or not.

These summer days are good for that inspecting. We can usually find the time, make the time, to be by ourself to take a good, close look at our life of faith: really give it a good, close inspection; see what parts need tightening, what areas need repairing, what has to be replaced. Chances are we don't need a complete overhaul. But chances are also that a tune-up is necessary. Take time for that inspection. Give ourselves a good tuning-up physically, mentally, spiritually. It will probably the most important thing we do for ourselves all summer, maybe all year.

WHAT REALLY COUNTS

Contrary to an old, old commercial it’s not what’s up front that counts. Being up front, visible, seen, isn’t always, if ever, what is most important. As with a really beautiful woman: beauty lies not in what’s up front – face and figure—but what’s inside. What’s up front may be enticing. But often what’s up front conceals rather than reveals.

It is very tempting, of course, for us to put on false fronts so that we seem other than we are. We want to because we somehow seem to feel that that is what is expected of us or that that is what is necessary to get ahead, to succeed. And it may work for a while. But sooner or later the charade has to cease. When it does, the real person will eventually emerge, perhaps much to our immediate dismay but certainly to our everlasting relief.

We are who we are. We cannot hide it forever or for long. The real person comes to the fore sooner or later, and the sooner the better. And that real person is the one deep inside us: the one with all those good qualities, and some bad faults as well. For no one of us is perfect. We are all equal as people. And that is what really counts, not what is up front.

But that is only for starters. For we cannot begin to become what we have the potential to become until we realize that, even with our failings and shortcomings, we are fantastic people: God’s children. Behind that false front, underneath that mask is a child of God.

I know: we’ve heard all that before. Pious words, encouraging words, but words nevertheless. And words simply do not do it sometimes. We can all preach a good sermon. Living it is another matter. We can all profess a great faith. Living out that faith is much more difficult. We can all believe that the internal is much more important that the external; but sometimes we are not so sure.

We are constantly bombarded by hucksters selling us their brand of success, their formula for success, be it through personal enrichment courses, wearing the right clothes, or even turning to Jesus and having him as our personal Lord and Savior. The solutions to success all seem easy, simple and the thing to do. They are not.

The only way we are a success is by being the person God created us to be; not by listening to Madison Avenue – or to anyone else who would like to make us into their own image and likeness. We can’t be like someone else. We can only be ourselves.

We can’t even be like Jesus. We can learn from him but we cannot be like him. That may sound heretical if not pure hogwash. But I don’t think it is. You see, trying to be like someone else prevents us from being and becoming the person God created us as. For what our faith teaches us, what Jesus taught us – and still does through the Scriptures – is that we are to be who we are and not who or what someone else is or wants us to be. . And that’s what really counts.