#AdventUs INNOCENCE

Innocence

Whenever I am confronted with someone who seems so evil I wonder how I can quell my hatred and muster up any forgiveness or compassion, let alone Christian love I remember:

They were once a child.  

They were innocent once.

Who We Are

Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis and daughter Anna

No cemetery is willing to take the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Not just Boston.  Anywhere in the US.  "Send him back to Russia!" is the rallying cry.  

I was not one rallying to insist everybody sing Kumbya and forgive Tsarnaev.  But this is a really disturbing trend.  The man is dead.  His final resting place can only cause more pain if people choose to make it so.  And people are choosing to do so.  This is why forgiveness is so important.  Not because of any love or sympathy or understanding of the one who hurt us.  But because if we do not forgive and let go of our anger and grievances, they continues to hurt us.  Tsarnaev is dead.  We do not hurt him by refusing his body a place to rest.  We hurt his family.  But most of all we hurt ourselves.  Because of this story, he is still in the news, still taking up our attention, our thoughts, our energy.  We are the ones who choose to make this an issue.  

And it hurts us because we become less than who we are.  Civilized people do not desecrate the dead of our enemies.  Desecrating bodies, refusing burial rites, condemning the dead to some sort of hellish after life by what we do, all these practices are from another time, an ignorant and brutal time.  Do we want to be *that* people?

Mother's Day is coming up.  Few people remember the origins of that day.  Anna Jarvis campaigned for this day in honor of her mother who worked to bring mothers of soldiers on both sides of the civil war.  One of the things those mothers did was care for the graves of soldiers of the other side.  These mothers of slain boys did not grieve their losses any less than the people of Boston.  They did not view the soldiers who killed their sons any less "traitors" than we view Tamerlan Tsarnaev.  And yet they brought themselves to take care of their graves. This is our history.  This is who we are.

I don't even believe this is a Christian issue.  This is about who we are as Americans.  If it is no longer who we are, then the terrorists have won.

Growing Up with Ben Hur Theology

And here I bet you thought Ben Hur was just all about Charlton Heston's bare chest.  

My mom grew up Roman Catholic but when she divorced and married my father that was the end of that.  Then she got into Norman Vincent Peal, power of positive thinking and all that.  Which is really odd because she was not a positive person at all.  But enough about her.

I like to think of Ben Hur as her other theology.  Her answer to all adversity was to remember how he was condemned to be a galley slave and how hopeless that seemed but he escaped and when it came time for the climax of the movie, the chariot race, it was his time as a galley slave that made him strong enough to win the race.  And that's all I ever remembered about that movie.  When there was another important theme of that movie, you know, the futility of vengeance, power of forgiveness, that kind of thing. But the lessons of the galley slave is not a bad lesson to teach your kids.

So last night I was skimming through the channels and discovered a new Ben Hur on a channel I didn't even know I had, "Ovation".  They kept showing commercials for the premier next week on Easter, but they showed the whole thing last night.  It's more based on the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace.

Look!  It's Sir Robert Crawley as Pontius Pilate!

It's very good and if you get this channel, I recommend you watch it, or DVR it as there is also the return of "Call the Midwife" and "Game of Thrones" to look forward to.

I Don't Usually Use Movie Scenes in my Sermons but....

In Gone with the Wind, when Scarlett is caught in an embrace with Ashley, the whole community is outraged at her for Melanie's sake.  However when Rhett forced Scarlett to attend Melanie's party, expecting Melanie to shut the door in her face, Melanie takes firm hold of Scarlett and insists her guests welcome her.  If they will be Melanie's friend, they will be kind to Scarlett. 

This is what happens when the father runs in such an
 undignified manner to meet his returning son outside of town.  The town is outraged at the son for how he has treated his father but the father will escort the son back into town telling all that his son has returned. "Love me, Love my son!" he tells them all.

Michael Vick the Poster Child for Employing Rehabilitated Convicts?

Pardon me while I gag!

I started a post on Vick a while back when I heard he wanted a dog.  As a condition of his probation he is not allowed to have a dog.  But he wants a dog "So the public can see that I really love animals"  That statement alone tells me he should not have a dog.  

I'm all for forgiveness.  But I don't send wives back to live with abusive husbands and NO DOGS for Micheal Vick.

That's what I was going to say about that.  But I think I had to go work or something annoying like that.  

Now I'm all for forgiveness. 

I'm not like a lot of animal lovers who want to tie Vick up in chains and treat him the way he treated his dogs.  

Back then he didn't know it was wrong to slam a dog's head against the wall.  Now he knows it's wrong so he won't do it anymore.  Good for him!  I don't even begrudge him his job back with the Eagles.

But seriously President Obama calling Eagles owner, Jeffrey Lurie and CONGRATULATING him for giving Vick his job back because convicts have such a hard time getting jobs? 

SERIOUSLY? 

 I want to smack our president up side the head for that, not Vick.  

Micheal Vick had the job he dreamed of, a lot of money, everything and he chose to entertain himself by abusing animals.  Now he has the job he has dreamed of, is going to make a lot of money again and will probably talk a judge into letting him use another animal to rehabilitate his public image.  

WHAT THE HELL DOES HE HAVE IN COMMON with your average convict who cannot get a job?  

I could just spit.  

In the words of Mr. Knightley to Emma, "Badly done, Mr. President.  BADLY DONE!"

Repentance a Prerequisite for Forgiveness?

I thank you dear God, that I have learned not to begin faith by my own efforts, nor attempt to destroy my sin with my own repentance.
Martin Luther, "Luther's Prayers" Edited by Herbert Brokering.

This is an issue that has been bugging me for quite some time.

I've been hearing this argument that we earn God's forgiveness through our repentance for quite a while but it has become even more prevalent with the recent sexuality debate. And it was expressed in a letter to the editor in the most recent Lutheran magazine.
 
"Yes we are all sinners….but but but….you have to REPENT and THEN God will forgive you." Or even worse, "Yes we are all sinners, but WE are REPENTANT sinners" Yes indeedy there are now two categories of sinners – Plain old bad sinners who if they aren't going to hell, they at least aren't very good Christians… and "repentant" sinners who are better because, well, at least we're TRYING to be better.

If this isn't semi-pelagianism rearing it's ugly head I don't know what is. 

Remember Pelagius never denied that we were saved by God's grace. He just argued very sensibly that we should at least COOPERATE with God's grace and you, know help it along a little. 

Because certainly God should not be expected to save us all by HIMSELF without even a little bit of participation on our part. We have to at least REPENT.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for repentance. 

Yes indeed that was Jesus' Gospel – "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" But what exactly did he mean? 

The Greek meaning of repentance is to literally turn around, change directions. In Hebrew it means to "go back" – to return to God. It doesn't have anything to do with being sorry for you sins. I still remember this being pointed out to me in my first bible class in seminary in Acts 2:37-28. 

 After hearing Peter speak, his hearers were "cut to the heart" and asked what they should do. He tells them to "Repent and be baptized" I take it that being "cut to the heart" meant they were sorry and yet Peter STILL tells them to repent and be baptized.

 What should we do? Be baptized!

Whose act is baptism? Not ours, God. What should we do? Turn to God! That's very nice that you are sorry for your sins, but that ain't gonna save you. Put your life in God's hands. 

Depend upon God to save you, not your own damned repentance.

But but but, we HAVE to confess our sins first. Because God is just sitting around with his hands tied, waiting for us to confess before he can save us. Confession saves us. Really? Salvation depends upon me confessing? 

 So I actually am responsible for my own salvation? Well, crap, if that's the case I am damned. And so are you.

In the 6^th Chapter of Isaiah Isaiah is brought before God. It is in the presence of God that he confesses

Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'

I am an unclean man and yet I have seen the Lord of Hosts. 

 I think having confession before worship has given us a warped sense of the purpose of confession. It's given us the impression that confession is something WE do to make ourselves worthy to be in God's presence. 

 And yet it is only in the presence of God that we are able to confess. We can confess till the cows come home, and we will still find that we are still an unclean people who have in spite of that been welcomed into the presence of God. Not because we've confessed. But because God wants to bring us into his presence.


Luke 5:8 is always paired with the Isaiah text in the lectionary, Jesus directs Simon Peter to put out his nets and after seeing the miraculous catch of fish-- THEN Peter falls down before Jesus and says 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!' Confession is a RESPONSE to grace; it is not a perquisite to grace.

Continue reading Luke 5:17-26 – the healing of the paralytic – Jesus sees the faith of the man's friends…not a word about the man's faith, confession or repentance and says "Your sins are forgiven." 

I have argued this with the "no forgiveness without repentance" crowd and they simply say "well it's implied".  It is NOT implied! They have written it into the script because they cannot conceive of a God who forgives without any effort on our part. And they call ME a revisionist.

The prodigal son? You think HE repented? 

He's coming home rehearsing a speech that will get him some food. But before his father even has a chance to hear the rehearsed speech, he's hiked up his robe and is running in the most undignified manner to welcome home his sorry excuse for a son.
 

If you think your salvation depends upon your repentance, you are just plain screwed. 

Thank God for all us you are wrong. Thank God we have an undignified God, who doesn't wait to hear our silly rehearsed speech, crafted to get us out of trouble, thank God he's already hitched up his robe and met us more than half way to forgive us, his sorry excuses for children.
 
And if after all that God has done for us, if we can make some sorry attempt at repentance in response to that unexpected, undeserved, and unimaginable grace, even that is not for God's sake, but for our sake, as we work together with other sorry excuses for Christian brothers and sisters to work together for the Kingdom of God.

Self-Righteous Judging - It's Everywhere

No I'm not talking about the folks who pick on gays. I'm thinking a little closer to home. I was reading Keene's Kwikies (a great blog btw) recent post Humility. He's laid up in the hospital with a heart problem and he's one of those folks that even the most non-judgmental, loving, compassionate, gospel preaching liberals feel free to judge and berate to their face - he's a SMOKER. He's not a young guy. Probably been smoking for a long time. He's not stupid. He knows he's a sinner. And everybody's scolding and lecturing him in his hospital bed. Really. If this episode (and no doubt others) hasn't made him quit, do people really think self-righteous pontificating will? Is there no grace for the smoker?

See I don't think it's about helping him at all. I think we all want to feel superior to SOMEBODY. Liberals are not allowed to be racist or prejudiced, but SMOKERS.... that's different. They deserve it. I'm better and smarter and healthier than a smoker. Smokers deserve our public derision and judgment.

My sister experiences something similar as a skin cancer patient. She lives in Southern California, often has to take a bus, and it's very difficult for her to stay out of the sun. She can't always (nor can she always afford to, as she lives on Social Security) constantly be slathering on sunscreen. So everytime she ends up back at the clinic with another spot, she gets scolded and reprimanded and lectured about sunscreen. Really? She has SKIN CANCER! Do these people think she never heard of sunscreen? They don't care about her. They just want to feel superior.

So who is the sinner to whom you feel superior?

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. Romans 2:1