Luke eighteen: Remixed for a unsettled generation

English Standard Version: He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”-Luke 18:9-14

Remix for an unsettled generation
Jesus told this story to some people who were assured of their own righteousness and believed that their viewpoints were superior and spoke poorly of others. "Three people went onto Twitter to pray. The first, drawing attention to himself said, 'I thank you that I am not like other people, bigoted, racist, sexist uneducated hicks, or even these two over here. I am tolerant, supportive, and safe.'

"The second, also calling attention to herself said, 'I thank you that I am not like other people, lazy, self-centered whiners who have nothing better to do than protest. I work hard, pay my taxes, and love my country.'

"The third, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the others. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Lord, have mercy.

Reflections from a Pensive Heart

I have felt weepy today 

Emotive clouds pregnant

     Eager to give birth to tears. 

Yet they are not gloomy and gray. 

     They are tall and billowing and white. 

     Contentedly basking in the light of day

     Ready at a moment's notice to conspire with the sun 

          to mingle rain drops and sun drops 

to paint beauty in the sky. 

I partly blame...or perhaps thank...Andrew Peterson for today's speculative mood. I listened to his new song, Be Kind to Yourself, perhaps a dozen times this morning.  His lyrics and mood affected my mood and lyrics today. Let me share a few of my rambling thoughts.

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The Beauty of God's grace is my heartbeat. Thoughts of it occupy my mind many times a day. Grace marvels me. That God would lavish His love on me is difficult to comprehend. Today, though, I have been struck by mercy, grace's mirror image twin. Mercy is beauty. Because of the blood of His son, and His incomparable love, God stays His hand.

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Though Lewis's Mere Christianity is a matchless book, Christianity isn't merely anything, a point Lewis rightly made. In whatever ways I might conceptualize Christianity, it is more, always more. It is too easy to allow Christianity to be assent to a set of doctrines, or a way of living, or even a feeling. Christianity is more. In The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrased part of Mark 12 as "love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy." Christianity is not merely attending church on Sunday morning. It is not merely saying yes to Jesus. It is not merely preaching the good news. It is not merely serving the poor. Christianity is all of life. Christ is present in my dinner table conversations, my walks on a crisp day, and my love of my wife. He is present in my laughter, my sorrows, and my pain. God does not exist above the everyday, He enters it. True faith is both ruddy and transcendent. I marvel at them both. 

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My mind tends to run ahead, always thinking, thinking, thinking. Cogwheels whirring, manipulating ideas and formulating thoughts. I want to learn to be attentive to the moment. To quiet my soul enough to listen for God. To be present with people. 

Father, train my ears to listen carefully for Your indwelling breath. Sharpen my eyes to see flickers of Your majesty. 

Your sin is finite, but God is not

Joe Thorn posted a wonderful quote from William Bridge today. I need to hear this sort of thing on a daily basis. 

But again you say, suppose that a man’s sins be exceeding great, gross and heinous; for I do confess that possibly a godly man may sin some sin against his light, and against his conscience sometimes; but as for me, my sin is exceeding great, gross and heinous, and have I not just cause and reason now to be discouraged?

No, not yet, for though your sin be great, is not God’s mercy great, exceeding great? Is not the satisfaction made by Christ great? Are the merits of Christ’s blood small? Is not God, the great God of heaven and earth, able to do great things? You grant that God is almighty in providing for you, and is He not almighty also in pardoning? Will you rob God of His almightiness in pardoning? You say your sin is great, but is it infinite? Is not God alone infinite? Is your sin as big as God, as big as Christ? Is Jesus Christ only a Mediator for small sins? Will you bring down the satisfaction of Christ, and the mercy of God, to your own model? Has not the Lord said concerning pardoning mercy, that His “thoughts are not as our thoughts, but as the heavens are greater than the earth, so are his thoughts (in this respect) beyond our thoughts”? Has not the Lord said, in Isaiah 43 unto the people of the Jews, at verses 22-24, “But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offering, neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices…Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.” Yet, verse 25, “I even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Here are sins, and great sins; and if the Lord will therefore pardon sin because it is great, unto His people, then surely they have no reason to be quite discouraged in this respect.

Jonah's Lesson in Mercy

The story of Jonah is not about a man being eaten by a large fish, despite what children's Bibles would have us believe. Yes, Jonah was eaten by a large fish, but frankly, that is beside the point. Rather, the theme of this short book is that God is sovereign and He is compassionate, not just to "us" but to "them," as the ESV Study Bible puts it.

Jonah was commanded to prophesy to the Ninevites, an evil pagan nation. Rather than obeying God, he boarded a ship sailing in the opposite direction. Have you ever caught why Jonah was running? It was not because he was scared of the Ninevites. Jonah 1:3 says that Jonah was going "away from the presence of the Lord." He did not want to follow God's command. What I find most unusual is that Jonah did not want to do what God told him not because He believed the Ninevites would ignore God but rather because he knew that they would repent! Jonah 4:1-2 reads, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, 'O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.'" Jonah believed wholeheartedly that the Ninevites deserved divine judgment, not a second chance, and it made him mad.

The great irony of course, is that the Ninevites were repentant while Jonah was not. The man of God was judgmental and self-righteous, while the pagans were broken, "calling out mightily to God" (3:8). Jonah 3:10 says that God saw what the Ninevites did and relented of bringing disaster, just as Jonah feared.

Ninevah's repentance, God's desired outcome, should have been cause for much celebration, but Jonah could find no joy in it. In fact, he was so mad, he asked God to take his life. Jonah's "us versus them" mentality was crumbling around him. His worldview, strongly steeped in justice, was in a tailspin. Jonah went to sit at the edge of the town to see what would happen, perhaps still wishing their destruction. God, in His mercy, caused a plant to grow up over Jonah to provide him shade, but the next day, when God caused the plant to die, Jonah again became mad because the plant died. Mad enough to desire death. The final 2 verses of Jonah (4:10-11), are profound and sum up the book. "And the Lord said, 'You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

How often Christians wish God's justice upon "them", the outsiders--be they Muslims, democrats, or "the new atheists." Pick your group. Because of our God-given sense of justice, I think we sometimes want to see His destruction come forth. However, in Romans 9:15, we are reminded that God told Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." We don't get to decide.

The reality is that we all deserve God's justice. Let us adopt the perspective of I John 4:19, "we love because he first loved us" and pray for God's mercy to be poured out on those who do not deserve it--like us.