Crusaders –
On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
Along the lines of my last post regarding civility I have been thinking about crusaders, and not just the ones from days of yore. Yes the sins of the crusades of the 11th -13th centuries and beyond have be well documented. We moderns scoff and judge the political intrigue and religious manipulation that resulted in some of the most un-Christian acts ever committed on planet earth. But as they say hind sight is 20/20. As one who fancies himself a bit of a historian I have found that it is easy to sit centuries removed and cast judgement on those who lived long ago. Our modern lenses the way we see things. Our lenses sharpen and even hyper focus on certain events, because they are important for us now and other events are less in focus because, well we just don’t think they are as important. So our idea of justice is skewed, our idea of what was important may not be what was important way back when.
Ok… I do have a point some place here…. oh, I think this might be it… Crusaders are not dead. They are alive and well today, and I am not talking about your local Roman Catholic high school team.
Crusaders dwell among us today, and while they no longer ride stallions, nor wear suits of armor, they are all around us and how they go about their quests has changed very little, at least in reputation, over the years.
In our modern debates about just about anything the crusading ones emerge very quickly on their high horses, covered in armor of righteous indignation. These crusaders can take on many forms, some maybe folks from some conservative church someplace in the middle of no place protesting on street corners or at military funerals, hurling invectives and nasty slurs to point to the holiness of their cause and how God is on their side. Ok, that one was easy and pretty obvious, but try having a conversation about what the bible says about our relationships, and you will find people mounting their modern high horses on both sides of the issue pretty darn quickly. No Pope could rouse a legion of crusaders more quickly than any of todays “hot button topics.”
I call these modern folks crusaders because they display many of the same traits. Roland Bainton a reformation scholar pointed out four characteristics of a crusader.
1) the cause is holy
2) the crusaders are godly, the enemy is ungodly
3) God fights for the crusaders and against their opponents
4) the war is prosecuted unsparingly. Take no prisoners.
I believe they are true now as they were for the first crusaders.
Like those crusaders of the past today’s crusaders are no less impassioned, their energy is fueled by a pious fury that holds no quarterfor people with who feel differently for whatever reason. There are folk on both sides of most modern issues that fit this profile, but the ones the baffle me the most are those who are intolerant of intolerance. In this light it seems that when you are a crusader, you have no time for mercy, you leave no room for forgiveness to be requested nor granted, and grace belongs only to you and those who march under your banner.
Much like those early crusaders it isn’t as if there is not some element of “justness” to their cause, there almost always is, but often the cause becomes the end all be all. In such a cause there is no room to grow, no room to see the other side of an issue, no room to see what God may be up to in all of this, because when you are “right”, it becomes your god.
That being said, there are places, and I think I have been fortunate enough to be in one of them where people for the most part are able to climb down off of their high horses and walk together knowing that there will be differences and that God is not done teaching, guiding and blessing us yet. In this space, we may differ on many topics, some of them may even have eternal ramifications but in the grace and mercy of God we can talk, we can learn, we can grow our relationships as children of God and in that relationship we can trust in His salvation and not our own self-righteousness.
Even though…
Today we finished up Genesis in our 90 day program. The last 10 chapters moved pretty fast for me and that was good. The promo literature said “read the Bible in 90 days in as little as 30 minutes a day” I haven’t come close to 30 minutes for the readings we have, at least not yet!
As I stated before Genesis is foundational, it is the footings that so much of the rest of scripture rest on and that foundation is God’s faithfulness and steadfast love for his creation which includes you and me.
Today we find Joseph as the great muckity muck over all of Egypt and as he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream there were seven good years of plenty and now the lean years have come upon the land. The famine has reached as far as the Canaan and word has reached them that there is grain to buy in Egypt. So Israel sends his sons, with the exception of Benjamin to Egypt to get some grain. Once there despite the years and experiences Joseph has gone through he spots his brothers in the crowds coming to buy grain.
Can you imagine how he must have felt, or at least could have felt. Here are these brothers who beat him up, sold him into slavery where he was then thrown into jail for years, here they stand now before him, begging to buy grain. Oh the revenge factor here is huge! HUGE! How would have you responded, how do you respond when someone who has done you wrong in the past now comes to you in a position of relative powerlessness? Talk about temptation, but it seems Joseph has a bigger idea, he has family, love and hope on his mind and so puts together an elaborate ruse to see how is brothers will behave.
Long story short the brothers do the right thing, and the whole family is reunited in the land of Goshen… yes if you ever had ever heard that expression of surprise on TV or from a Grand parent, “Land o Goshen” this is where it comes from.
Any way forgiveness seems to reign supreme. Joseph sets up his family on good land they continue to be blessed in all ways a grow in this foreign land. Toward the end of the story after Israel (Jacob) dies he is taken up to be buried in the promised land. Then the brothers begin to worry. Now that Dad isn’t around what will Joseph do, we treated him pretty poorly back in the day, and now that Dad isn’t here to keep the peace, and harmony in the family (like he ever really did that) what will Joseph do?
What comes next is one of my favorite lines in scripture. His brothers are so worried they actually bring it up to him. How many times in life do we needlessly worry about what others might do simply because we do not talk to them about it? But they do and Joseph responds in Genesis 50:20: “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doin
g today” Whoa… what profound faith, what deep forgiveness. This doesn’t mean Joseph didn’t remember or learn from what happened to him, he dealt pretty shrewdly with his brothers when they first came to him, but there was forgiveness and life emerged from this forgiveness. This little family that began with Abraham, Sarah and Isaac was nearly the size of a small nation all ready. The experiences of Joseph’s life had been hard, and his forgiveness was expensive as it aways is, but Joseph was faithful and God continued to be good on his promises even in Egypt!
It seems to me that Joseph had long ago forgiven them, but the brothers had never quite gotten around to accepting that forgiveness. Here is the other kicker for us, how often do we struggle with accepting forgiveness and moving on? Forgiveness is about life, it is about living the promises that God’s love is for us freeing us to forgiven and love others… wow what a great story!
Odd combos
I can’t tell you how today’s post will go, been slogging away getting all my ducks in a row for Holy Week. I know it is well over a week away, but for some reason people want to know what is happening in advance! So tha
t is what has been keeping be busy and will be until Maundy Thursday next week when it all actually gets better. The preperation is done and It is just a matter of, well worshiping and letting the story of Easter do its thing, I just try not to get in the way.
I would be interested if you have been working on the book of faith 40 Day Lenten
Journey to hear how things have gone for you. Please leave a comment, write an e-mail or gasp… talk to me in person!
Sometimes there are things that normally don’t go together and when you think about them it strikes you as just odd. But, when you finally experiance them together, well, a light bulb goes on and things change.
Now, I am not talking not going together like broccoli and bubble gum… but things that might not automatically strike you as going to gether. I like mustard, and until a few years ago, I wasn’t a big fan of mayo. Imgagine my suprise when I first dipped a prezle into some yellow dip only to find out that it was mustard and mayo and it was really good! In fact I am eating it right now… pardon the mustard stains….
Sort of like Reese’s peanut butter cups… ok fine chocolate and almost anything goes together pretty well! But you get my point.
How about this combo… you are an innocent man about to be murdered… and just before you die, and with what little energy you have left, you forgive all those who either by their actions or by their in-action, are responsible for your situation.
Umm… ultimate injustice, and forgiveness ummm… not a combo you 
would ever in your wildest dreams come up with, but that is God for ya.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer and we say these words “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” The one who teaches us to pray this knows a forgiveness that is deeper than I can imagine. It is from this deep pool of love, ultimate relationship, that a forgiveness like this can be offered to all.
Yo Playa!
Quick, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you read the word prodigal?
Don’t answer… check out this list of um… adjectives…
Wasteful, reckless, dissolute, profligate, uncontrolled, spendthrift, squanderer, self-indulgent, immoral, and debauched.
Take those words, especially debauched, dissolute and profligate (my personal favorites) and line them up with this picture.
The picture is “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Rembrandt.
Do they match? Were any of those words the first word on your mind when you read the word prodigal? Most likely not.
In all honesty being a prodigal looks a little more like this… With my apologies to Zac Efron… (I guess that is this guys name) a prodigal is a fast living low life that cares only for self… notice I didn’t say himself… this adjective knows no gender.
Why the confusion with this word? I think it is because of the out come of the story. In the love of God and the example of Christ, we have almost turned the word prodigal into a nice word.
The point of this story is in fact not the prodigal, well at least primarily. I would venture to guess that at various times in your life as in mine, we have been the prodigal son, the party animal friends hanging on as long as the good times last, the older brother who gets bent out of shape and in our best moments we have been the father waiting with open arms and running out to grab in a loving embrace those who have sinned against us even when they were far off.
We play these roles not only in family. It happens at work, it happens in politics. Tony Campolo talked about it in his recent blog entry. When he referenced the current grumblings about the economic programs offered by our president toward those who seemingly prodigally loaned money to people who couldn’t pay it back!
As I mentioned before often when something goes wrong and we are harmed or some how damaged, we want our pound of flesh. But into this world Jesus tells us “Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Matt. 9:13)
When I searched google images for prodigal I found no examples of slime balls, of high rollers or playa’s, instead I found images like the Rembrandt above and this one.
I think this is a good thing. For when we think of prodigal God’s forgiveness and reconnection go hand in hand. As we pray Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, we know there is a comfort there, and while we may trespass into areas we don’t belong, God is waiting for us to return and while we are far off he reaches out in love for you and me. Lord may we continue to grow in love and forgiveness even as we become what we already are in Jesus Christ.
BUSTED!
So, this forgiveness thing… I am pretty sure I know why Jesus put it in the prayer, you know the Lord’s prayer.
We don’t do it so well, but forgiveness is at the heart of every relationship we are involved in.
There is that part of us though, that doesn’t like this idea of forgiveness, well we like it for ourselves, but others? Well, lets just say, we muc
h prefer to bust people, we like shows like COPS etc… that catch the bad guys in the act… the phrase caught red handed makes our inner judge grin. We like people to get what they have coming to them.
The book of faith 40 day Lenten journey devotions remind us that we all need forgiveness everyday… just like we need our daily bread. And like daily bread we are called to share this forgiveness with others.
I love the Galatians passage: “My friends,* if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.” 6:1 But our devotions didn’t have that last line printed. I think that is vital.
Ok, sure we don’t often restore people with a spirit of gentleness, and we in Christ we are called to do just that. But one of the reasons we should is that last line… or as The Message states the same passage: “Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out.” Way to go Eugene…. nailed it right on the head!
The key here is not to bust people, but to restore them. It isn’t about punishment, it is about gentleness. Yes forgiveness is a two way street, the other may not grow in that forgiveness, but that is not your call. You can’t make someone love, just as you can’t truly make them forgive unless they really want to! The key here is we are asked to forgive as we first have been forgiven.
Blessings… Worship tomorrow at St. John Ev. Lutheran Church Reedsburg, WI… I’d love to see you!
Jr. High Madness!
Tonight was our Jr. High lock in… Thank God for Ben and the group leaders who are staying up so I can go to bed by one… and get up by six, which means 5 more hours of sleep than they are getting. Tonight we looked at sacraments; Holy Communion and Baptism.
The focus of these is well, forgiveness… kinda neat how this all fits together. We are given these gifts, promises from God attached to earthly elements and the command to “do this” not as a burden, but as a blessing.
One thing that has filled my head lately is the difference between being right and being in right relationship. I can be right about something and my relationship with others can be way wrong. Now I am not saying you need to abandon your moral compass… but what I am saying is you can stress your rightness, or you can let the road of right relationship bring you to a place of forgiveness and healing where you being right isn’t at the core.
Put it this way… Sin is real, and as Paul says “the wages of sin is death.” Then we God would be right in toasting the whole lot of us. But God chooses right relationship and so sends his Son, so that all might have life. Right relationship costs more, takes more time and the out come well, from our vantage point the outcome is in question. So for us we would much rather be right, and sometimes that boils down to the old, eye for an eye justice.
God doesn’t have the same limitations we have and so sees the whole picture. It is in this vision that Jesus commands us to forgive as God has first forgiven us.
Well the communion bread is about ready to come out of the oven for Holy Communion before breakfast, and I am shot! So… if any of the above makes sense, wonderful, if I have erred in any way, or if I have stated a heretical position, please don’t call my bishop, forgiveness might be in order.
Be careful if you are on the roads in Reedsburg, WI tomorrow morning at 6:30ish… a groggy pastor with fresh Communion bread will be on his ay to church!
C-3PO
If you are not a Sci-Fi fan, maybe C-3PO just looks like an odd jumble of letters and an number. But for Star Wars fan’s C-3PO is well known as a protocol droid (robot) central to all of the Star Wars movies. You may not know this but there is a new animated Star Wars series call the “Clone Wars.” I don’t get to watch it often, but my son does! Recently I saw a blurb for an episode that fits out theme pretty well it was simply called, Trespass.
As I mentioned yesterday as we look at the petition “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” sins, debts, or trespasses, they all work to do the heaving lifting.
God is better at dealing with trespasses than we are!
I guess I have been partial to trespasses as that is the word I grew up using. But I like it for other reasons. To trespass put most simply is to go someplace we do not belong. If you think about it is a perfect word for what we do, cross boundaries, we play gods all the time. The boundaries we cross are not just in relation to God either, we cross boundaries in each other’s lives all the time.
Getting back to C-3PO… It seems people are trespassing all over the place, because of greed, or pride or who knows what. So in an effort to broker a tentative peace, Anakin turns to C-3PO for help — and finds his fluency in more than six million forms of communication to be most useful.
C-3PO and Luke Skywalker... more than a Sci-Fi movie?
There is only one language we need to understand when it comes to sin, debts and trespasses and that is the language of forgiveness. The debts we pile up, the sin we commit, and the boundaries we cross as we trespass are impossible for us to pay off. The Good News is that God has indeed wiped out our sins and has communicated this in the most concrete of ways in the gift of his Son Jesus the Christ.
A little now on forgiveness… Some have taken Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,” as a conditional clause. If it is we are all in some serious doo doo. No, as I have prayed and studied this prayer I have heard in these words both an example and a goal. We are to forgive as God in Christ has already forgiven us. That is the promise of baptism, that is the promise of Jesus. We have the purest form of forgiveness laid out for us here, this is the example. Secondly this is also our goal, we are called to become what we already are in Christ Jesus, as we learn to forgive as we have first been forgiven.
Finally I must speak to our forgiveness of others. As our devotions stated, it is indeed a two way street. Often people who have been hurt quite badly struggle with the issue of forgiveness. This is an honest an faithful struggle not a sign of weakness. We need to learn, heal and grow from experiences where we will be called upon to forgive. It may not come quickly, it may not become perfectly, but this is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us,”
Debt Relief
Finally we move off of daily bread to… “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Umm…oh, oh… can I go back to Twinkies?
Forgiveness… sin this is big stuff. Our devotions dive into the deep end of the pool by tackling the word that causes much fuss amongst us Christians. Is it sins, debts or trespasses? There has been a lot of heat and light generated about which word “ought” to be used here, but I think they all have their place.
First off I would like to say that the statement about forgiveness is a two-way street is dead on. Forgiveness can never happen in a total vacuum. Forgiveness is at the relational core of who we are. God forgives us and we in turn are enabled to forgive as we have been forgiven. More about this later…
But for today what are we being forgiven from? Sins? That is the word we use at St. John when we pray the Lord’s prayer and I am good with that. Trespasses, that is the old school word that I used for most of my 45 years on this planet, and I am good with that word too. Then there is 
debt. Um…. as the cool kids say, I am not down with that word. Ok, that isn’t exactly right… I just wanted to say “I wasn’t down with something…never mind…
Ahem..I understand that “technically” the word used in the versions of the Lord’s Prayer we have in scripture use the Greek word that means in English “debts.” But as so often happens our little English word can’t carry the intended weight of the word. I am not going to go into detail here if you want to know more let me know and it may come back up again as we devote our way through the week… moving on…
I guess my thought is while the devotions go on about “debts” I fear that we too often feel that “debt” is something we can handle on our own. The devotions rightfully point out that our debt to God is so great that we cannot pay it. My problem comes when he starts talking about what we “owe” God.
Well, in fact, I “o
we” God everything. But I cannot pay for any of it. I am the spiritual equivalent of the mortgage crisis! Yes, I have debt, no I cannot pay it off, it is paid for me in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For that, I live, love and struggle to live my life, not in paying back, but in fact as one big thank you note to God.
If we think that living the Christian life is paying God back for the forgiveness he has already shown us, don’t we work ourselves into a pickle? If we could in fact pay any of it back why did Jesus Christ come, why did he have to die, couldn’t he just set up a toll free number and have sin debt councilors set up a plan for re-payment?
I guess I do understand the authors point that whenever we go against God’s will for us we rack up more debt and maybe the harder we try to pay it off the deeper in debt we get. The Good News is that in Christ we are free, the debt has been
paid, canceled… wiped out! Having thus (I love that word… thus!) been forgiven we give thanks to God even as we try to forgive as we have first been forgiven!
