Anti-Evil

I got a cool shirt recently, that parodies the infamous Anarchy 'A', with a Cross, and the slogan, Anti-Evil. So I wore it and did a talk on it. Here it is!


Romans 12:14-21

Bless your persecutors; never curse them, bless them. Rejoice with others when they rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow. Give the same consideration to all others alike. Pay no regard to social standing, but meet humble people on their own terms. "Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom." Never pay back evil with evil, but bear in mind the ideals that all regard with respect. As much as possible, and to the utmost of your ability, be at peace with everyone. Never try to get revenge: leave that, my dear friends, to the Retribution. As Scripture says: "Vengeance is Mine--I will pay them back," the Lord promises. And more: "If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink. By this, you will be heaping red-hot coals on his head." Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good."

People often bemoan the evils in this world, and decry the wicked state of our society. Many of them use the presence of the terrible things in this world to deny the very existence of God! But that very realisation that there is evil in this world, that the world is not as it should be, is itself an evidence that there is a God who is Good.

And that God has shown us the way to live, in order to combat the evil that exists. But the war on evil that God calls us to is radically different than the way we tend to see it fought. Instead of retaliation in a misguided quest for justice, which too often looks like vengeance, St. Paul tells us here that our response must be blessing and patience. He tells us that we must not seek to retaliate, but to leave that to God's justice. It's hard, and it takes faith, but then, that's what it's all about. More, Paul tells us that we must be empathetic to others' needs, to rejoice with them or to weep with them. We must treat everyone as equals, and not celebrate ourselves above others.

He goes on to urge us to live at peace with everyone--but realises that peace is a two-way effort. So he qualifies it: As much as it is up to us, and to the best of our ability. What's that mean? Maybe your enemy doesn't want to reconcile. You still need to be open to it, and offering forgiveness, or even apologising for your own part. And you always need to be ready to do that.

Finally, Paul quotes from the book of Proverbs (15:21-22), and tells us to feed our enemies--to show them kindness in practical ways! He says this will have a similar effect to them as if you had dumped red-hot coals on their heads! Wouldn't that be fun? Most of us would prefer to dump the coals rather than be kind, but it is kindness and love that evil is combatted most effectively!

We can't fight fire with fire, or evil with more evil. Just as water extinguishes fire, Good defeats evil. Every time.

Or, to repeat my favourite quote, below the blog's title:

"Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh, and cruel, but that's why there's us... It doesn't matter where we come from, or what we've done, or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be." --Angel

It's our job to fight evil, not just complain about it.

Do Good.

Hope

Romans 1:1-5

So then, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; it is through Him, by faith, that we have been admitted into God's favour in which we are living, and look forward exultantly to God's glory. Not only that; let us exult, too, in our hardships, understanding hardship develops perseverance, and perseverance develops a tested character, something that gives us hope, and a hope that will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

A few weeks back, I had one of the crappiest times of my life. Pressures of youth ministry were weighing me down. I was simultaneously dealing with two separate issues within the youth group, as well as just trying to run it, and just as I had to do something that was unconscionably hard, but necessary and right, I found out that a dear friend of mine had departed from the faith! I was weighed down by all the evil in our society and in the world, and really quite depressed.

I was listening to a cd by Jars of Clay, titled If I left the Zoo, and track 7, "Hand", really reflected how I was feeling, but then, at the same time, reminded me that through it all, God gives us hope to carry on:

Hand
Jars of Clay

I'm here waiting for something new to break my heart
So callous laden, I can't feel a thing at all
So will You catch my fall?

From lost and not found, to run and not hide
My hand inside... (Your hand)

Fear is keeping time with the beating of my heart
Doin' way too much thinkin'
And it's tearing me apart
But I, I feel You reach for me

From lost and not found, to run and not hide
My hand inside... (Your hand)
Losing my grip falling so far
My hand inside Your hand

I hear Your voice and follow
So hard to believe, and still I go
Still I go...

From lost and not found, to run and not hide
My hand inside... (Your hand)
Losing my grip falling so far
My hand inside Your hand

It was the second verse that really impacted me, and reminded me that truly, when life gets to its darkest, and throws everything it can muster to knock you down, that God is still reaching out to us, to take us by our hand and lead us on. It's not our strength that carries us through, but His, and even when we feel our hand, our faith, our hope, slipping, Jesus is still holding on, as tight as ever.

So no matter what is getting you down, hold on.
Jesus gives us Hope, and that hope doesn't let us down, because it's Him, and not us, that is the guarantee!

God bless.

The Two Ways

Matthew 7:13-29

"Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to destruction is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
"Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.
"It is not anyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord," who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of My Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to Me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, work many miracles in Your name?' Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; 'away from Me, all evil doers!'
"Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!"
Jesus had now finished what He wanted to say, and His teaching made a deep impression on the people because He taught them with authority, unlike their own scribes.

Jesus compares the Spiritual Life to a journey, where we come to a fork in the road. To the left is a huge, 4-lane, paved freeway, well maintained and well lit. A very safe road. To the right, on the other hand, is a narrow, pot-hole-ridden, gravelly, bumpy, hard road. And on this journey, Jesus tells us that we must take that hard road. The world tries to tell us that all roads lead to God, but Jesus plainly tells us that these two diverging paths (and, ultimately, there are only two) go in opposite directions. The wide, safe, paved freeway leads to Destruction, while the narrow, difficult road leads to everlasting Life.

Why is it that the hard road is the right road? Why is it that God didn't make it hard to go to Hell, and easy to go to Heaven?

All living creature grow and change. To cease to grow is to die. This is true with our spiritual life as well. The hardships that come in following Christ and being obedient to His commands help us to grow. Without them, we would never be challenged or stretched, but we would become complacent, static, and we would die. Through the harships, the hard choices and hard actions, we rise to the challenge. Our faith, courage and strength are tested, and through God's Grace, we overcome and grow more and more like Christ--and that's what it is all about!

But this attitude is insanity to the world. Our world desires the easy route. It desires to live in peace and luxury, not to struggle. Like electrons, we desire to take the path of least resistance. And the world, therefore, tries to dissuade us from taking the hard road. It beckons us to follow the easy road to hell. It constantly tries to undermine the truth of Christ and His Church. Things like The Gospel of Judas or The Da Vinci Code tell us that the Church has lied to us about the Gospel. People tell us that we don't need to follow God--that it's futile and meaningless. They tell us we are our own gods. But these things are all lies, and dangerous lies, designed to lead us astray. And if we are not careful and discerning, if we are not staying close to the Truth, we can be led astray. The False Prophets, Jesus says, are like wolves dressed up in sheep's clothing. They sound clever, they sound reasonable, many times they even sound Christian. But their lies are exposed in their lives. If their message does not bring us to a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, or to a greater willingness to obey His Will, then it is false. If their message claims to bring us closer to Christ without the necessity of keeping His commands, it is false. If their message appears to lead to righteousness without Christ, it is false.

Jesus said, it is not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord," that comes into His Kingdom. We need also to do what God wants us to do. Note that many of these false prophets will even claim miraculous signs as their proof! We can't be fooled! God's will is not to do miracles (though they may often accompany those who do His will). God's will, rather, is "only this, to do what is right, to love loyalty and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

If we do not do the Will of God, we won't be accepted into His Kingdom. Jesus finishes with the parable of the wise and foolish builders--the wise one who builds upon the solid foundation, and his house stands against all adversity, and the foolish one who builds on sand, and his house crumbles right away. It is not enough to hear the word, Jesus says, but we must act on it.

I'll conclude with a poem that I wrote when I was 16, reflecting on a girl I knew who gave up the Christian life for peer pressure, getting into drugs and other sinful behaviour. She left the narrow road, for the wide freeway. If we walk away, know that God always calls us back, asking us to turn around and regain the Narrow Way.

Holes in His Soles
(C)1996 Gregory Watson

Sweet girl, on a journey,
Growin' up, you're in a hurry.
Seek new things to get you by,
Always new, you want to fly!

Sweet girl, the road you're takin',
It looks all right, but you're mistaken.
Might look brilliant, might look bold,
But "all that glitters isn't gold."

Sweet girl, you missed the exit,
Go back a way, see if you can find it.
Careful though, wolves hide the gate,
They dress like sheep, don't take the bait.

"'Because narrow is the gate...
And there are few who find it.'
Wolves in sheep's clothing
Are trying to hide it."

So girl, take my hand,
I'll lead you back, to find the Man
Who built the gate and now protects it.
He guides us home, and will keep the way lit.

Sweet girl, look at His footprints.
See the holes in the middle of those imprints?
Listen now, I will tell how and why.
You see, He got those marks for you and I.

This Man's Dad so much loved us
He sent His Son to make a way for us.
So He came and worked from early 'til late,
And when He'd finished, there stood a gate.

One post up, one post across
It stands, a landmark to those who are lost.
The wolves, the fearsome stalkers of night,
They hated the Man, and His gate of light.

They killed Him in their hate.
Nailed His hands and feet to the gate.
All night the wolves howled and taunted,
Fear not though, this is what He wanted.

He died, and all was dark.
Those wolves, they ceased to bark.
But the Builder, dead He didn't stay!
He lived again on the third day!

The wolves ran in a defeated state.
With His blood, He christened the gate.
"It is finished!" the Son exclaimed
From Calvary, what the gate is named.

So that, sweet girl, is why
His feet are marked: for you and I.
His footprints guide us over rock and sand,
Down the road to the Promised Land.

So when the wolves come to cajole,
Follow the tracks with the hole in the sole.
This Man will keep the wolves at bay.
Follow Him close; He'll not lead you astray.

And now, sweet girl, I say adieu.
I must go and help others just like you.
They seek new things to get them by,
Always new, wanting to fly!

"'Because narrow is the gate...
And there are few who find it.'
Wolves in sheep's clothing
Are trying to hide it."

Follow close the prints with the hole.
Keep with the Guide; He'll heal your soul.
Follow the tracks over rock and sand,
One day you'll come to the Promised Land.

This concludes our study of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

God bless!

"Can We Get a Pool, Dad?"

Matthew 7:7-11

"Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened. Is there anyone among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish? If you, then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

Prayer is a pretty big thing to Jesus. He talks about it a lot. We've already discussed His teaching on how to pray, as well as how not to pray, but before He finished His Sermon on the Mount, He had a few more words to say about it. No wonder, since prayer is so incredibly crucial to living in an intimate relationship with God! It's impossible to have a relationship without communication!

In Matthew Chapter 6, Jesus assured us that God knows all of our needs, even before we ask, and yet here, in Chapter 7, Jesus tells us to ask. In fact, the original Greek makes that asking a persevering kind of asking: "Ask, and keep on asking..." Sometimes, God doesn't immediately respond to our prayers with instant answers, but holds off, inviting us to keep seeking for them. Why? Because God wants us to be seeking Him, not just seeking what we want from Him. Sometimes, it seems the only time we ever take time to talk to God is when we really want something from Him. So He draws us after Him through that.

Other times, it's possible that we are asking wrongly, or for the wrong thing. And so God uses the time that we spend seeking Him in our prayer to change our understanding and our perspective. But that can only happen when we take the time to draw close to Him in prayer!

In this waiting, though, Jesus urges us to never give up, but to continue to seek God. Be persistent! It's like that episode of The Simpsons where Bart and Lisa want a pool, and they approach their father to ask him, but before they do, they warn him that refusing will result in months and months of "Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad?" A minute-long montage of Homer eating, Homer working, Homer sleeping, all the while haunted by his children, saying over and over, "Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad? Canwegetapooldad?Canwegetapooldad?" until finally he's had it, and gives in, and of course, mayhem ensues.

Now, I want to be clear, our Heavenly Father is nothing like Homer Simpson (Thank God!). If I may paraphrase Jesus' conclusion to this segment of the Sermon on the Mount, "If Homer, being as stupid and oafish as he is, can still give good gifts to his children, how much more then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

So let us draw near to God with boldness, knowing that He hears us and desires us to come to Him! Let us approach Him, seeking intimacy with Him, and persevere in our prayer.

God bless.

Hypocritically Critical

Well, after a too-long hiatus from the Sermon on the Mount, as we got through Confirmations and then Easter, we're finally back to tackle Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7:1-6, 12

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the standard you use will be the standard used for you. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own? And how dare you say to your brother, 'Let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when, look, there is a great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.
"Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls in front of pigs, or they may trample them and then turn on you and tear you to pieces...
"So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the Prophets."

Here we come to what, in my opinion at least, is the most misused phrase of Scripture of all time (or, possibly, John 8:7, "Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to cast a stone.") I hear it all the time when talking to people, or posting, or teaching about sin. "Did not Jesus say, 'Judge not lest ye be judged?' You have no right to tell me that I'm wrong! How can you call X a sin? You're so judgemental. Jesus told us not to judge, so you're being a hypocrite!"

It's nonsense like this that very often makes Christians timid about speaking the Gospel and drawing that firm line of righteousness vs. sinfulness. I've even heard some church leaders use this text as an excuse to be wishy-washy in their theology.

I said that this is a misuse of the text. More accurately, I think we could call it an abuse. Jesus is not telling us not to be critical in our decisions. He is not telling us not to judge good as good and evil as evil. He is not telling us to be moral pansies who never confront injustice or unrighteousness in this world! That interpretation would out and out contradict everything that Jesus did teach. No, Jesus did not tell us not to judge. He told us, again, as He has said throughout His Sermon, not to be a hypocrite. Just for a refresher, a hypocrite is someone who tells others to do something that they will not do, or someone who makes a show of doing something that he is in fact not doing. That is why Jesus did not say, "Do not judge," but, "Do not judge and you will not be judged." In other words, if you have sin in your own life that you are unwilling to repent of and change, then you do not have the right to judge that same sin (or, really, any sin) in another's life. Why? Because as Jesus makes clear in the next couple sentences, God will use on you the self-same standard that you used for another.

And just in case you missed His point, He makes it crystal clear in His analogy: "Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own? And how dare you say to your brother, 'Let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when, look, there is a great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye." He's making the point that not only don't we have the right, but we don't really even have the ability, the spiritual discernment, to help our brother in this situation. It's Jesus at His comical best, too.

Ever seen that sketch by the 3 Stooges, where Curly's got a long plank over his shoulder? In front of him, Moe's giving some direction, and all of a sudden, Larry says something, so Curly swings around and konks Moe one with the plank. When Moe yelps and crumples, Curly swings back around to see what's the matter, knocking Larry a good one. Just as Moe is recovering, Curly swings back to see what happened to Larry, whacking Moe a second time. This pattern goes on for some time until all the Nyuk-Nyuk, Why-I-oughta hyjinx ensues with someone getting his eyes poked, etc. etc.

Well, Jesus must have given the Stooges that idea, because what He describes pretty much plays out the same way:

Plank-Eye to Speck-Eye: Oh! Here, let me help you out with your speck!
Speck-Eye: What?! Look who's talking, you hypocrite!
Plank-Eye: No, really, here, hold still! (WHACK) Oops, sorry, almost got it. (WHACK) Hang on, now, just a little bit more (WHACK) ...
Speck-Eye: Ow, you jerk! Leave me the heck alone!

When we are hypocritically critical, we don't have the tenderness to lovingly help another person. And what happens instead is that we beat them up with their sinfulness, which is really our sinfulness, and really drive them farther away from Grace.

Instead, Jesus tells us, when we take the plank out of our own eye, through humility and repentance in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and strive to live a purer life (albeit still imperfect) we can allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, and our humble, loving approach will allow us to actually help our brother. It will sound a lot less like, "Hey, you hell-bound sinner! Repent!" and a lot more like, "Hey, I've been there, too. Let's walk through this together." As Jesus said, "Then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye." Jesus doesn't say that we never try to help or talk against sin. In fact, He tells us that when we are willing and striving to deal with it in our own lives, we'll actually be able to help others in that way!

This is the spirit behind the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12, to do unto others what you would want them to do unto you. It's about love, and gentleness, and humility. When we have that gentle humility and love for another, we are radiating Christ to them.

But still, there comes those times when, even when we're right with God, and trying to be humble and gentle, that we still won't get through to others. They, instead, will persist in their sinfulness and reject your words and actions. Jesus knows this. Heck, they did it to Him, too! So He warns us not to cast our pearls before swine, or give what is holy to the dogs (v. 6). In other words, if they won't listen, don't keep breaking your back to tell them! The truth is too valuable to waste! And when we persist in this, it will only cause them to hate and despise you, and your faith, all the more. Instead, back off and pray for them, because that's all you can do. Only God is able to change hearts. That's not your job.

God bless.