No Wonder They're Confused

I listen to podcasts to help keep me alert in the car. Sometimes I listen to them while doing work in my office that does not require concentration (like cleaning and neatening). Most of the podcasts I listen to are sermons from people like Andy Stanley, Rob Bell, Francis Chan, etc. Right now I’m almost through listening through a series of messages from Mosaic, a faith community in Los Angeles led by Erwin McManus. This morning as I was neatening up my desk some, I opened up iTunes and started listening to the sixth message in the 7-part series on the miracles of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John.

1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3”Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (Jn. 9:1-5, NIV)

The disciples were just thinking as most people in that time did; namely that any suffering that anyone experienced was a result of someone’s sin … usually their own or that of their parents. McManus notes that it didn’t occur to any of Jesus’ followers to ask Him to heal the blind man (which, by the way, He did). Here they were walking and talking with the embodiment of God’s love, mercy, and grace … and all they could do was to use the blind man’s suffering as a point of conversation. McManus goes on to note:

This conversation exposes what is in so many of our hearts all too often: an inclination to judge and condemn the world, to try to attribute blame rather than to act with compassion and mercy and kindness.

In light of some very public (and very embarrassing) statements that a prominent televangelist made in the wake of the first earthquake in Haiti, what McManus then said caught my attention.

It’s funny how thousands of years later we’re still in the same rut. You still hear people who represent Jesus talking about famines and diseases and tsunamis and droughts and plagues as if they were God’s punishment on humanity, His acts of vengeance and violence. No wonder the world is confused about who Jesus is.

So here’s the question: What do people think about Jesus based on what we, His followers, say and do? Do we confuse them, or clarify the issue?

That’s enough to think about for now. The peace of Christ to you.

He Is Still Our Father

Reeling from the fatigue of spending 2 consecutive days driving in a minivan taking the Toothpick back to college, I didn’t really want to get up when I did this morning; but duty beckoned and I eventually succeeded in getting my lazy rear end out of bed. My sluggishness meant that by the time I got down to the kitchen the Lovely Wife had already fixed the Stick-boy’s breakfast (I used to do this all the time, but she does it more often than I do now) and had almost finished fixing his lunch (which I still usually do). The only thing she lacked on his lunch was to fill his juice bottle; and the only reason for that was that she couldn’t get the new one open. Opening a stupid, plastic juice bottle was the only thing that kept me from feeling totally useless this morning. I stayed awake to have my quiet time while the Stick-boy took his shower.

I finished reading through Isaiah this morning, encountering the last few verses of chapter 63 (15-19) that I have read before, but not in the New Living Translation. I found in this passage a prayer of deep longing for God’s presence that exposes a similar need in our lives as well.

15Lord, look down from heaven;
Look from your holy, glorious home, and see us.
Where is the passion and the might
you used to show on our behalf?
Where are the mercy and compassion now?
16Surely you are still our Father!
Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us,
Lord, you would still be our Father.
You are our Redeemer from ages past.
17Lord, why have you allowed us to turn from your path?
Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you?
Return and help us, for we are your servants,
the tribes that are your special possession.
18How briefly your holy people possessed your holy place,
and now our enemies have destroyed it.
19Sometimes it seems as though we never belonged to you,
as though we had never been known as your people.

Do you catch the passion in the prayer? It’s a confession of our brokenness and poverty before God. We still belong to God because He will not disown us, but the stubbornness of our hearts causes us to experience life as if we didn’t. And those who doubt God’s love and mercy are watching.

That’s enough to think about for now. The peace of Christ to you.