Betrayal

This morning as I prepared to face the day, my mind continually drifts back to the news that came out yesterday regarding a former teacher of mine in high school. Honestly, I'm not sure why I'm surprised that even in the seeming innocence of youth, I was around an environment of mistrust, deceit, and evil. Classmates of mine were molested by a teacher and coach. This was from a man who was highly respected and trusted, and a man who eventually went on to become 3rd in line for the presidency.


Once again, we learn of the abuse years after the fact. We learn of the horrific scars left behind by this mistrust. We learn that at least in one case, it led to suicide. It leaves me feeling tired. Betrayed. Saddened that sin reigned so freely in what I once thought was one of the more pure or innocent times of life. And I cannot even begin to imagine how the weariness I feel from it all is magnified by those who were the real victims.


No, I am not naming him here. Many of you reading this, especially my high school classmates, know who this is about. Who it is does not matter in the end. What does matter is the actions themselves, as they demonstrate yet again just how broken, how evil, and how twisted our society and our thinking have become. The stunning hypocrisy appears everywhere: everyone (and I do mean everyone) that comments on this is angry, mad, calling for his blood, and so on. And yet as a society we are currently debating on whether or not a biological male has the right to use a female bathroom all because he feels he's female. It is our leftist policies that have put us into this mess, and by leftist, I do not necessarily equate them with liberal, but rather with the intent to purge God, morality, and virtue from our society. And so yes, it leaves me worn out, dejected, tired, and even depressed at where we are going from here, because I see such things only happening and being exposed more and more frequently if we continue down this path.


Yes, he should face punishment. Yes, he should face the kind of punishment that he, himself, advocated as a lawmaker. Yes, once again it is proven that there is no such thing as innocence in life. And yes, we must all temper the absolute division and hatred that comes out in the face of such evil. And once again, I must appeal to the only thing that can overcome that dark evil that went on in the hallways of Yorkville high school. Only Christ overcomes. Not fines. Not penalties. Not calls for blood. Only the blood already shed by Christ Jesus can offer the hope for the future. It does not undo the past, but it provides a way to move forward. It makes no pretension that such abuses never occurred, but offers a hope for a brighter future ahead. And no matter how evil are the deeds of him who abused these young men, we must all remember, as St. Paul reminds us: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground..."


This is what I'm reflecting on today. May we all seek the greater virtue and good to be found in knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. But not just knowing him - following him as well.

The Evolution of Sin (Parts 2 and 3)

Continuing with a brief synopsis of the Bible's Fantastic Divine Drama...

Part one left off with God’s promise (covenant) with Abraham, promising 3 things in addition to the promise to be Abraham’s God.  The creation account is very broad, but with Abraham, the Bible’s focus becomes very specific now.  So land (Canaan, the land “flowing with milk and honey”), offspring, and “descendants being a blessing to all nations” becomes the focus of this divine commitment by God (Genesis 12 and 15).  It also establishes a mission for Abraham and his descendants: to not only be God’s chosen people but also to be God’s instrument to speak to the world about his true nature, over and against the nature of all the false gods and idols.   However, almost as soon as God’s promise is made, and though initially, “Abraham believed God...” (Genesis 15:6), mistrust of God begins soon thereafter.  They begin to have children from Abraham’s mistresses because Sarah was unable to conceive initially (ch. 16).  God reminds them again of his divine promise through a physical reminder: circumcision - which is to be an ongoing sign of God’s promise to Abraham and his offspring.  Still there is doubt about God’s promise - and Sarah again scoffs at the idea of bearing children as God promised, even in the presence of the three angels, thought to be the Holy Trinity (ch. 18).   We see that sin is still as rampant and perverse as ever, with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (ch. 19); Abraham becomes quite good at deception by lying to kings and Pharaohs for his own personal gain (ch. 20); and it seems that Abraham is out to bring about the results God promised on his own, rather than truly trusting God.  Finally a true heir is born of his wife, Sarah, and they name him Isaac (ch. 21).  Abraham is tested to see if he truly trusts God, and it seems as though he does, as he is prepared to kill his son and heir, all the while telling an inquisitive Isaac that “God will provide the lamb” for the sacrifice, which God does indeed do in the end (ch. 22).

What follows then is a history of Abraham’s line through Isaac, to Jacob, then to Jacob’s twelve sons (who become the “12 tribes”), along with Ishmael’s sons (the child of one of Abraham’s mistresses) that eventually lead to the Palestinian people and the religion of Islam today.  Jacob’s twelve sons were extremely jealous of Jacob’s favorite: Joseph.  Joseph sharing his dreams of having authority over his brothers (ch. 37) certainly did not help, and so through trickery and deception, they sold him into slavery and told his father, Jacob, that he had been killed!  (ch. 37).

        God’s promise of offspring to Abraham had indeed come true, but continually we see deception and sin amongst his descendants.  Joseph’s history is indeed a colorful one, more so than his coat of many colors (Genesis 37).  Because Joseph was his father’s favorite, and because he told his brothers about his dreams of being their master one day, envy and hatred existed amongst his 11 brothers.  They sold him to a band of Ishmaelites (who would be distant relatives of theirs and also the forefathers of the Palestinians and of Islam). They in turn took him to Egypt and Joseph was purchased as a slave by Potiphar, who was one of Pharaoh’s officials (ch. 39).  Reuben, one of his brothers, unsuccessfully tried to prevent this from happening (ch. 37:22).  His brothers took his coat and made it appear to have been ripped to shreds by a wild animal, causing Jacob to believe that his son, Joseph, was dead.

In all of this, and including the subsequent deceptions and trickery by not only those who enslaved Joseph as well as his surviving brothers, God was with him, and continued to have events unfold according to His divine plan!  Joseph is thrown into prison in Egypt based on a lie (ch. 39), and while there, interprets dreams correctly for another of Pharaoh’s officials.  Eventually Pharaoh himself (the ruler of Egypt, who proclaims himself a god), has dreams of seven fat cows being consumed by seven sickly looking cows.  The dream repeats, but with heads of grain in place of the cows (ch. 41).  The dream’s interpretation given to Joseph by God indicates that there will be seven years of plentiful harvest, followed by seven years of famine.  Pharaoh believes Joseph, and so he is now put in charge of storing up food during the seven good years, in order that the Egyptians will be able to survive the coming years of famine.  So Joseph has gone from favored son, to slave in a foreign land, to prisoner, and now to one of Pharaoh’s top officials!

Eventually, the famine becomes so severe that people from all over the region travel to Egypt to see about securing food from the surplus stored up by Joseph.  This includes Joseph’s brothers, sent there by Jacob (ch.42).  Joseph instantly recognizes them, but they do not recognize the brother they hadn’t seen in years.   Though he initially toys with them and has them imprisoned, accusing them of being spies, he eventually reveals himself to them (ch. 45) and tells them, “do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”  (v. 5).  The brothers return home and bring Jacob and all of their families back with them to Egypt.  Though it is not the land promised to them by God, nonetheless God blesses them, and they continue to become a great nation with numerous descendants through many generations, enjoying prosperity in Egypt.  And so the stage has now been set for the greatest event of the Old Testament: The Exodus!

The Beginning... (Part 1)

While there are many unfinished drafts I've accumulated over the last year and a half, I've opted to begin a blog series that is really just a recreation of something I wrote for a bulletin series and am now using for Confirmation as well.

God is revealed to us in a very general way through the creation:  we see God's handiwork everywhere.  God is also revealing himself to us in a very specific way, and that is through His Word.  Yes, there are many purported writings claiming to be God's Word out there, and often very contradictory of one another.  It is my intention to demonstrate not only what God has been up to throughout human history, but also what makes Christianity unique and thus the correct path, when compared to every other religion on the face of the earth.  Two things set it apart.  One:  Christianity is the only religion which identifies humanity as incapable of its' own eternal salvation, and therefore God effects salvation on our behalf.  Two:  Christianity is the only religion that, as a rule, calls people to be willing to die for their faith.  The majority of other religions call for people to kill for their faith.  Yes there are exceptions on both sides, but for the Christian, there is no room for random, wanton killing for the sake of faith in light of the teachings of Jesus.

So now, what will follow are a series of summations to demonstrate how the Bible is God's Drama, but it's our story.  Part One:  The Genesis...

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  Six times we are told about creation, “it was good.”  So when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, did God make a mistake?  No.  Everything is unfolding according to God’s plan.  Does the account of creation explain to us “how” God does things?  No, except that we see the sheer power of God’s Word: All God must do to create out of nothing is to speak.  And it was good.  And we begin to understand the nature of our creator from the beginning.

Satan under the guise of a serpent (literally meaning “one who deceives”) tricks Eve by telling her that she will become like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis Ch. 3).  She gives some to Adam too, and instead of becoming like God, they become ashamed.  God administers punishment for violating his law: banishment from Eden forever.  And yet in all of it, God provides clothes for them, showing that there is grace, even in the midst of judgement by God.

What follows is a repeating pattern of human sin/God’s judgement/God’s grace.  Cain kills Abel over a feud on who’s offering was better (Genesis 4), God banishes Cain from the human community forever, but protects his life with the “mark of Cain.”  Soon we see a bizarre account of how sin has even entered into the heavenly realm with “angels” mating with humans.  God’s judgement is swift and final: destroy the earth by flood (Genesis 6-9), but God’s grace prevails again with a remnant preserved through Noah and the Ark.  Yet again, humanity tries to become like God as the human race builds a tower in a vain effort to take heaven by storm (Genesis 10-12), and God confuses their language and scatters them all across the known world.

Where’s the grace in that, you might ask?  Well, it comes in God’s focus, which is now centered on one man: Abraham (Genesis 12-15).  As God slowly reveals himself to humanity (his creation), now God has approached Abraham and established a promise of 4 things with him: He gets to have God as his God, He will receive the land of Canaan (present day Israel) to live in (an ongoing source of political strife), He will have so many offspring and descendants as to become a great nation (the Hebrew people), and through his descendants, ALL nations will be blessed.

Who is this descendant, you might ask?  Well, St. Matthew goes to great lengths to inform us that Jesus is indeed an ancestor of Abraham.  So our story as it unfolds even at the beginning ultimately leads through Jesus!

Where We Go From Here...

 "But his master answered him, '...you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.'"

        The above words come from “the parable of the unfaithful steward.”  It comes to my mind today because we just covered this in our Mens' Bible Study for the men of Stone Hearth Estates.  And of course, you have this hapless steward in the parable, who has great fear and not a lot of smarts, and takes his paltry single talent and hides it in the garden in a coffee can.  Yes, the subject of the Gospel is money, but the point goes way beyond money and reaches into every gift, every talent (real talents here - not the “money” kind of the Gospel) that we might have.  In fact, most churches, upon advertising “stewardship Sunday,” find that they have the lowest attendance on that day!  I’ve often found that puzzling.  Puzzling... AND telling of the state of the church today.  In the end, this is not just stewardship, and even not just some generic tossing out of the word "discipleship," but it is all about HOW we ought to follow Jesus.

The Gospel reminded me of a newsletter article from a 1970's church newsletter that I read once, from a church that doesn’t even exist any longer.  The article is worth reading here, because it is a modern day parable of the unfaithful steward.  Yes, this really happened!

        It came to pass that a pastor in a distant land preached a children’s sermon during the month of July. He called three young men to the altar on that day to prove understanding of Christian stewardship. To one young fellow he gave $5, to another $2, and to another $1. Not so much according to their abilities as to his available funds the pastor did divide his money among them. “Come Stewardship Sunday in the fall of this year I shall ask for an accounting of the way you have lived out your stewardship,” said the pastor.
        And stewardship Sunday did come, and, lo, it was also All Saints Sunday. “It is now time,” said the pastor, “ for you to make an accounting of the way in which you handled my money which I entrusted to your care. Present yourselves before the altar of the Lord.” Now the lad to whom $5 had been given did not merely return the pastor’s $5 plus another $5 as the steward had in sacred Scripture. O no! He gave his pastor $5 and another $24, remarking of the joy that was his. “Well done!” replied the pastor. “You’ve indeed been most faithful, returning more than could be expected, [and certainly more than the original steward.] You deserve to be happy.” Then he to whom $2 had been entrusted made his return with truly great happiness, for he, too, not only returned to the pastor that which was his own, but another $18, and his joy was also full. Then came he to whom the least was entrusted - but one paltry dollar. Knowing full well the steward of Biblical fame had hid his master’s money in the ground, returned over 100 fold what his pastor had given him, placing in his hand $61! In total the three young stewards had earned $103 plus the $8 from the pastor. This was then blessed and made a part of the morning’s offering to God.
        And the fame of these 3 wise lads spread far and wide, nor did the pastor or the congregation tire in the telling of this parable and the lesson it had taught.

        If you are counting, that modern day parable did not merely show a return on the gifts of the master at 100%, 100%, and 0%, but 480%, 900%, and finally a whopping 6100%!!  The smaller the gift, the greater the return!!  Now the point is not the disparity to which these “gifts” had been given to the different people, either in the parable or in real life.  The point is and always has been about what we do with those gifts.  We could make a great case also about what each of us should do with our money, but that would also be missing the overall point of stewardship.

When it comes to our gifts and abilities, be they time, talents, treasures, or even testimony: the point of both parables is that they should be used for the good of others.   This is how we serve God - by serving others and using our gifts for others before ourselves.  In fact, it is the modern day parable that best illustrates the Biblical principle of “whole-being stewardship.”  Whatever your gifts, be they large or small, use them to the glory of God and in accordance to the will of God by using them to help others.  And don’t let a “lack” of gifts stand in the way - for who returned the most on their gift?  It was the steward who had been given least.

So what are your gifts?  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is what you do with them.  As the old frontier preacher once said, "It's not a matter of where you've been, but where you are going from here."  Take the modern day parable to heart, and give a return on your gifts - seeking to outdo the lowly servant who could only give back 6100 percent of that to which he had been entrusted.

        You CAN make the world a better place.