What Price? (2)

  

Does everyone have a price at which they can be bought?

 

It certainly can seem so and it is easy to be cynical, for we have monetized life. We value people and make decisions based on money, Money is our measurement. When I listen to folks my age talk about their adult grandchildren, they don’t talk about character, they don’t talk about their service to others, rather they talk about how much money they are making and how fast they are rising within their careers. Money, money, money – is the sum of a person’s life really to be valued in money? Can everyone really be bought?

 

You would think that when you arrive at the end of life that you’d realize that life is more than money and possessions, you’d think folks my age would know better. However, the adage is true, “The way you live is the way you die.” If you live believing a lie, then you will likely die believing a lie. What a shame that we pass lies onto our children and grandchildren.

 

I recall when a hurricane was headed toward our home outside Richmond, VA and we needed a new generator in the event we lost power (which we did for seven days). I saw a cardboard sign tacked to a utility pole that said, “Generators for sale,” with an arrow pointing into an industrial park. I followed a series of signs to a small engine shop. Thankfully the shop still had generators in stock and the price was quite reasonable.

 

The owner of the shop said to me, “My wife called me an hour ago. She was at Big Frank’s Big Box Store and they are selling this very same generator for $300.00 more than I am selling it for. She wanted me to raise my price. I told her that I wouldn’t do it. This is what is wrong with this country, people chasing the dollar and taking advantage of other people. My price is fair and I am going to keep it fair.”

 

What do you think about the way this man operated his business?

 

I had a business career in which I acted in a fiduciary capacity for my clients. This means that I was legally required, under what is known as “the Law of Agency,” to put their interests first, always first. I was required to put their interests above my own interests and the interests of my firm. Sadly, not everyone in my industry did this, and it’s likely that many weren’t even aware of what a fiduciary duty is – they needed to know the definition in order to pass regulatory exams, but after that they forgot all about it. In my business career, if you could be bought then you could breach your duty to your clients. I saw folks breach their duty all of the time, but since life has been monetized there was little, if any, recognition of what has occurring – even though it was unethical and illegal.

 

Some business lobbies are so powerful, such as the financial investment and services lobby, that they successfully block commonsense legislation that would require investment brokers to act in a fiduciary capacity. Do I really want someone making investments for me, someone managing my financial portfolio, who is not putting me first? (Thankfully, there are some financial services firms which use a fiduciary standard, holding themselves higher than the industry, but they are in the minority.)

 

The point is that the law recognizes what we call “fiduciary duty” because most of us face the temptation, at one time or another, to sell ourselves at the expense of others. Whether or not we all have a price, many of us have been tempted with a price.

 

After Jesus’ baptism He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness (Matthew Chapter 4, Luke Chapter 4). Satan was attempting to buy Jesus. If Jesus was tempted to sellout, do we really think we can avoid the temptation to sellout?

 

I have often written and spoken on Matthew 8:5 – 13, Jesus and the centurion. There is a fundamental principle here that we miss, and I have never had a class or small group or a congregation that has seen the principle the first time through the story. NEVER. How can this be? It is because of the way we think, for the way we think is the way we read, it is the way we “see.”

 

What did the centurion see in Jesus that caused Jesus to speak of his great faith? Everyone tells me that the centurion saw that Jesus had authority and could therefore heal his sick servant. But that is not the truth. That is our self-centered version of the text, a text which is not there, but we read it as if it were there because that is how we think – we read but we do not “see” – we read into the text, we do not submit to the text that we read. We superimpose our own images on the text, rather than allow the text to work its way into us and upon us. We attempt to transform the text into our own image, rather than allow the Word of God to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ.

 

“For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do that! And he does it.” (Matthew 8:9).

 

The centurion recognized that Jesus was under authority, and that Jesus therefore had legitimate authority, accountable authority. The centurion’s authority was derived from the Roman chain of command, leading all the way up to the emperor – the centurion could not be bought, he belonged to another. Somehow, someway, the centurion recognized in Jesus a kindred soul, someone whose demeanor indicated that He was not a loose cannon, but that He was accountable [to the Father].

 

If we are living in submission to Jesus Christ, can we be bought?

 

If Jesus is our Lord, to whom do we belong?

 

If we do not belong to ourselves, then how can we sell ourselves?

 

To be continued…

 

 

What Price? (1)

 

 

Are you for sale?

 

A friend was sharing a conversation with me he had with an acquaintance who operated a regional bank. The question of whether the bank would ever sell itself to a larger bank came up, and the bank executive said, “Well, everyone has his price. If I asked you to sell me your shirt and you didn’t want to sell it at first, eventually I’d offer a dollar amount that you couldn’t refuse.”

 

When I heard this, which I’ve heard many times before, I had an immediate response to the notion that everyone has a price, that everyone is for sale. However, due to the nature of our discussion I didn’t want to spend time on this subject, knowing that I’d circle back with my friend either through a conversation or by sharing something I’d write.

 

Even now I’m not going to share my immediate response because I’d like you to ponder the question, “Does everyone have his or her price? Is everyone for sale?”

 

Better yet, are you for sale?

 

Are there times in your life when you’ve “sold out”?

 

Are there times when you’ve chosen the better way?

 

Are there things you would do differently if you could do them again regarding this matter?

 

Why or why not?

 

Are there core Bible teachings that help us think about this?

 

Let’s keep in mind that we can “sellout” for things other than money. Let’s not jump off the hook so easily.

 

How might you mentor others in this area of life?

 

The Lord willing, we’ll pick this back up in our next reflection.

 

Diary of An Old Soul (2)

 

 

In reflecting on MacDonald’s entries for January 16 and 26 (see previous reflection), the final lines of each tie them together, which I why I connected them in my reading:

 

January 16: Because thou art thyself, 'tis therefore I am me.  

January 26: But this, that thou art thou, and here am I.

 

It seems to me that this is the fundamental reality of life, “In the beginning God…” “In the beginning was the Word…”

 

When we awake in the morning this is the fundamental reality, when we lie down to sleep this is the fundamental reality, and in however we spend our days, this is the fundamental reality. 

We can ponder the wonders of Psalm 139, that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” 

We can ask, along with Psalm 8, “What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”

 

Does not Jesus also state another fundamental reality when He says, “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?” (Mt. 6:27).

 

We are, because God is.

 

Does it not make sense to live in this fundamental reality?

Diary of An Old Soul

 

 

Here are two excepts from George MacDonald’s Diary of An Old Soul, what do you see in them? Is there a connection between the last lines of each? How does MacDonald arrive at the last line of each group?

Can you think of a passage(s) of Scripture that mirrors MacDonald’s thoughts and prayers?

The Lord willing, we’ll pick this back up in our next reflection.  

 

January   16.

 

     Thy will be done. I yield up everything.

     "The life is more than meat"—then more than health;

     "The body more than raiment"—then than wealth;

     The hairs I made not, thou art numbering.

     Thou art my life—I the brook, thou the spring.

     Because thine eyes are open, I can see;

     Because thou art thyself, 'tis therefore I am me.   

 

January 26

 

     Not, Lord, because I have done well or ill;

     Not that my mind looks up to thee clear-eyed;

     Not that it struggles in fast cerements tied;

     Not that I need thee daily sorer still;

     Not that I wretched, wander from thy will;

     Not now for any cause to thee I cry,

     But this, that thou art thou, and here am I.

Our Identity - Ephesians 1 (4)

 

When the day came for me to appear in Anne Arundel County court, I found myself waiting outside the hearing examiner’s office. As the time drew near for the hearing a young woman came and also sat outside the room. She looked at me briefly, went inside the hearing room, and shortly afterwards I was called inside. The young woman was sitting in front of a desk at which a court official was seated.

            The court official spoke, “I’m sorry Mr. Withers, there has been a mistake. Since we couldn’t locate Robert T. Withers we went through the Department of Motor Vehicles registry and found the closest name to his and issued the summons.”

            As the young woman and I were walking out of the office she said to me, “I am sorry you had to come here. I told them before that you weren’t the right person, but they insisted on issuing the summons.”

            Talk about bureaucracy!

            I knew who I was, even if no one else did; and I knew who I wasn’t.

            But even if Anne Arundel County has proceeded with the farce, even if they insisted that I was Robert T. Withers – that would not have changed my identity – for my identity is not found in the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Anne Arundel County Court System…or even on my US Passport (as much as I value that document) – no!

            My identity is found in Ephesians 1:1 – 14, my identity is found in Jesus Christ – from before the ages – through time and space – and then throughout all ages – my identity is in Jesus Christ – and because I esteem Him great I esteem myself secure in His love. Let me say that again – Because I esteem Him great I esteem myself secure in His love.

            And I do get junk mail, I get junk mail from the Anne Arundel counties of the world – messages from Madison Avenue advertisers and from old internal tapes playing back things said or done decades ago – but when they arrive in my mental and emotional mail – I look at my Lord Jesus and take them to the trash can – and when I close the lid of the trash can I don’t look back in – because I’m looking at Jesus the entire time. Ephesians 1:1 – 14 is my junk mail shredder.

            What do you do with your junk mail?

            Our daughter Joy used to love junk mail when she was four or five years old. She’d hoard junk mail. The first thing she’d do when getting home from daycare was to look in the kitchen trash can to see if there was any junk mail in it that she could retrieve.

            In her bedroom she had one of those cardboard playhouses that she could get inside of…and that’s where she’d take her junk mail. I recall once that I hauled five or six tall stacks of junk mail out of her little house…

            What’s inside your house this morning? Maybe instead of a 5,000 pound elephant you have 5,000 pounds of junk mail sitting on you. Are there some old tapes that are played on a regular basis? Things others have said about you? Maybe things you’ve done that you shouldn’t have done? Are there things you’re struggling with in your life this morning – things that get the upper hand all too often? If you’ve come into a relationship with Jesus Christ then none of these things are your true identity – for Christ has become your identity – and all those other things are junk mail. And let me share this…and we’ll explore this on a future Sunday…but if you are struggling with things in your life right now…this morning…the way out of those things isn’t by focusing on yourself – it’s by focusing on Jesus…as I behold Jesus I am transformed…

            Okay…if you still get junk mail in your life…especially if you get recurring junk mail…even though you’ve asked to be taken off the mailing list…I’m going to pray with you right now…and then…after I give the benediction…I’m going to ask the elders to come and stand right over on my left…and if you want to talk to someone or pray some more…if you want to further seal this time in your heart…the elders will be here for you…

            Please take the Ephesians handout and hold it…now what you have in your hands is a junk mail paper shredder…now whatever this junk mail is that you’re getting…with your eyes closed…visualize yourself putting it into the Ephesians paper shredder…with Jesus standing right next to you…

            Let me pray with you right now…

AMEN

             

           

Our Identity - Ephesians 1 (3)

 

In Christ, in Christ, in Christ. That little prepositional phrase opens the gate of heaven – it opens up a universe in Jesus Christ that is never-ending, it opens up a life that invites us into the fellowship of the Trinity. We are in Christ, we are in Christ as individuals and we are in Christ as a people – and the power of that prepositional reality has escaped most of the church – because rather than having Christ as our biosphere, we live in religion – and religion has at its heart a continual emphasis on “doing this or doing that” so that we’ll measure up – while the Gospel invites us home…into our Father’s house, to sit in His lap and to get off the ladder of performance and to enjoy life on His loveseat.

            Religion is a ladder, relationship is a loveseat.

            Who is this letter written to? To saints! And who are saints? We are! You are!

            Look at one another and say, “He is about to say something radical. Even if we’ve heard it before, it will still be radical.”

            Here we go. Nowhere in the New Testament, nowhere, are Christians addressed as sinners. Nowhere. Nowhere. Not by Paul, not by Peter, not by John, not by James, not by Jude and not by Jesus; not once are Christians addressed as sinners. Yes, Paul does describe himself as the “chief sinner,” but the context is that he is making a point about his past and his dramatic conversion…but he never ever ever calls the people he is ministering to sinners.

            If we are new creations then we are not old creations – a fact that seems to have escaped most of the church.

            What is the difference between a parent calling a child a “loser” and a pastor calling the people of a local church sinners? What is the difference between a boss talking down to employees and a pastor beating up his or her people by telling them every week how rotten and nasty they are – of course usually religious words are used to convey this message, but the message is there nonetheless.

             Of course the boss wants to control the employees and not set them free to fully function in a healthy work environment, and the pastor wants to control the people so that they remain dependent upon him and the organization. It can also be the case, and nearly always is, that the pastor hasn’t figured out who he is in Christ either…so he doesn’t know any better…

            No wonder there is such a dramatic difference between the early church and the North American church today – they knew who they were – and we have an identity crisis – for you see – if the enemy can’t stop us from coming to Christ, he will do his best to steal an awareness of our true identity.

            There are at least two ways the enemy tries to steal our identity. One is by getting us to think we’re low-down sinners…the other is that I’m okay and you’re okay…you’re so cute and special…let’s have a group hug…the whole self-esteem thing…without the prepositional phrase of the New Testament…  “in Christ.” The one is as bad as the other in terms of a bottom-line. There are churches and best-selling books that are all about self-esteem but which conveniently leave out Jesus Christ – I’m sorry, no Jesus then no true identity, I don’t care how good it feels and I don’t care how warm the hug is…no Jesus…then no way am I buying into it.

            But oh…in Jesus…in Christ…we have an ID card written in this book, the Bible, and written in our hearts and minds and spirits that root us in Christ…and my self-awareness is translated into a Christ-awareness and my self-esteem (whether it’s low or high) is transposed into a Christ-esteem – and I am no longer dependent upon what anyone says about me…including the accuser of the brothers and sisters…and I’m not even dependant upon what I think or feel about me…because I am in Christ and I know, I proclaim, I confess that in Him I am accepted…accepted in the Beloved…and as good as that is…it gets better…

            For I can look at you and say, “You…Laura…you Stephen…you Mona…are accepted in the beloved.” And manipulation, intimidation, the games of guilt…they are vanquished in the new heavens and the new earth that we are called to experience today in Jesus Christ.

            It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that affirming little Bobby is better than putting little Bobby down – but it does take the Gospel to unveil the reality of who we are without Christ and who we are in Christ – it does take the Gospel to get at the heart of the matter, and the heart of the matter is that we need changed hearts in Christ and that once our hearts are changed that we are given new identity cards, even new passports, for as Paul writes in Philippians…our citizenship is now in the heavens.

 

to be continued...

Our Identity - Ephesians 1 (2)

 

One of the major insurance companies is currently advertising that they provide coverage for identity theft. If someone obtains your social security number, bank account numbers and credit card numbers and, in essence, uses your identity for his or her own gain, the insurance carrier will presumably reimburse you for financial losses – but how can they ever reimburse us for emotional losses? It is not uncommon for people who have had their identity stolen to live with the consequences for five or more years. Identity theft is a hideous crime because not only are there financial ramifications – which may or may not be repaired – but there is the emotional and psychological damage of knowing that someone is actually pretending to be you…when you know all the time that you are you…even if no one else believes you are you.

            What card in our purse or wallet do we carry that indicates who we really are? What if Anne Arundel County didn’t believe that I am who I am?

            I think there are a lot of us who aren’t sure who we are. A lot of folks grew up thinking their name was “stupid” or “dumb” or “loser” or “klutz.” Some of us had more complicated names like, “you’ll never amount to anything,” or “you’re just like your father, or mother, or Uncle Joe,” or “why can’t you be like your brother or like the next-door-neighbor?” Whatever the names – they can be like a 5,000 pound elephant and we wonder if we can ever get it off us.

            Some of us may not have had names like these placed on us like name tags, but they were nevertheless communicated to us in various ways by family members, teachers, peers, or bosses. And so in addition to all these cards we carry in our wallets we’ve got all these other names and perceptions that we carry – invisible cards if you will – and the invisible cards are more lasting and more important than my passport or driver’s license or major medical card.

            Who are we? Who are you? Who am I?

            About a year ago the owner of the company I worked for was trying to start a youth camp and he asked me to review a brochure that he was using to promote the camp. The brochure had been produced by an advertising agency. As I read the text of the document I saw the recurring term “self-esteem.” The purpose of the camp was to promote “self-esteem” in young people.

            About 40 or 50 years ago someone figured out that if telling little Bob that he was a “loser” was bad then telling little Bob that he was a “winner” must be good. Therefore, if we can build little Bob’s self-esteem we can make him a happy camper and hopefully a well-adjusted member of society.

            There is, of course, an element of this that is not rocket science. Anyone who knows dogs knows the difference between a dog who is loved and one who is taught fear.

            But we are not dogs…are we? We are a bit more complicated…we have other dimensions to us…other elements…because we are created in the image of God…and that means that self-esteem has its limitations – because unless my self-awareness is rooted in my Creator – God, it has no foundation in reality – it is transient – it is dependent upon what I think and feel and usually also on what others think and feel. And in this respect, high self-esteem is every bit as dangerous as low self-esteem – for both rest on a faulty premise, the premise that my own thinking and my own feeling defines who I am.

            If that is the identity card that I am carrying in my purse or wallet, it is a card which can change with the seasons and moods of life – it is the chameleon of all ID cards.

            Why do people use terms such as “stupid” and “you’ll never amount to anything”? While there are probably more than a couple of reasons I want to suggest two: control and manipulation is the first; their own lack of identity is the second.

            People use the leverage of fear and insecurity to control others. They also attempt to manipulate others and put them down because their own sense of who they are is built on sand – so they can ill afford to see others succeed and enjoy fulfillment in life.

            Have you witnessed this in families? How about in school? I’m sure you’ve never seen this on the job, have you?

            Here we are in the holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s, and we all know that for many people this is not a time of rest, relaxation and enjoyment, to the contrary, it is a time of high stress – high stress because folks have to be around other folks who have messed with them all their lives – so they will go to this dinner or that gathering out of a sense of obligation, and suffer through it and cause their immediate family members to also suffer through it – and while movies are made about this for us to laugh it, many of us laugh at the movies because the reality is too painful to bear.

            Let’s look at our text. Who is Paul writing to? Ah, he’s writing to saints. Now who are these saints? Yes, people just like us.

            Now then…where are these saints? Well yes, they are in Ephesus…but more importantly where are they? Ah…they are “in Christ.”

            So then, if we were to ask an Ephesian Christian who she is…what would she produce in terms of identification? She would produce Ephesians 1:1-14, where, as our handout of the text shows in red letters…12 times we are told that we are in Christ.

            Let’s scan those statements together…let me read them…..

EPH 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

 

            To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

 

            EPH 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

            EPH 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

 

            EPH 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.

 

to be continued...

 

Our Identity - Ephesians 1 (1)

 

Here is a message I gave a few years ago on our identity in Jesus Christ. If nothing else, I imagine the story of the letter I rec'd in the mail will amuse you...it was not amusing to Vickie or to me at the time, but looking back it has provided a great story to tell. 

I recall a small group at Gordon - Conwell, gathered around an Aussie who was visiting us, Robert Banks. Someone asked him one of those nice seminary student questions, along the lines of, "What do you see as the greatest need of the Church today?"

His reply was prompt, "We don't know who we are."

That was true then, it is true today.

Much love,

Bob

Identity

 

Ephesians 1:1 – 14

Robert L. Withers

 

            It had been a long week for both Vickie and me and we were both glad to get home that Friday evening after work. At the time we were working in the Washington D.C. area and living in Baltimore…and were we glad to get home…looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

            As Vickie walked in the house, thumbing through the mail that she retrieved, she stopped at a particular envelope and handed it to me with the words, “I think you’d better take a look at this.”

            My hopes that it was notification from Ed McMahon that I had won the Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes disappeared as I read the return address: Anne Arundel County, Domestic Relations Court.

            Under the gaze of my wife I opened the envelope. Within was a summons to appear before a court-appointed hearing examiner in five weeks in the matter of Robert T. Withers and Susie Q. Smith (not her real name). It seems that Susie Q. Smith had a child that she needed support for and that Robert T. Withers was the father.

            Now, just for the record, I am Robert L. Withers, I am not now nor have I ever been Robert T. Withers. Also, just for the record, I have never known a Susie Q. Smith.

            “I can’t believe this,” I said to Vickie. “This is crazy. I’ve never heard of Susie Q. Smith and I’ve hardly ever been in Anne Arundel County. I’ll call Monday and straighten this thing out. This is a clear case of mistaken identity.”

            “Monday is a holiday,” Vickie reminded me.

            “Oh great,” I replied, “it’s bad enough we get this on a Friday when there is no one to call over the weekend, but now we have to wait another day.”

            Need I tell you that the weekend didn’t have the relaxing element to it that we had anticipated. Have you ever dealt with bureaucracy before? Maybe the IRS or Social Security or a huge corporation? Have you ever had that feeling of a huge elephant sitting right down on top of you and it seems like there is nothing you or anyone else can do to move the 5,000 pound beast? I kind of had that feeling all weekend as I looked forward to calling the Anne Arundel Court system on Tuesday…

            After getting to the office on Tuesday morning I dialed the number on the summons and the conversation went like this:

            “Hi. I’m sure you hear this a lot, but I don’t know Susie Q. Smith. My name is not Robert T. Withers, it is Robert L. Withers, and this is obviously a case of mistaken identity.”

            “Mr. Withers, you’ll have to appear before the court and explain this. The summons has been issued and there is nothing we can do to change it.”

            That was it. The 5,000 pound elephant had spoken as it sat right down on top of me – it was not a pretty picture.

            Now if you think that three-day weekend was a long weekend, imagine how long the next five weeks were – I mean who knew what would happen? Was I about to be the object of a bizarre series of events that would lead to who-knows-where?

            It was a clear case of mistaken identity – I just hoped that it would be clear to the people who mattered.

            Let’s turn in our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1:1-14.

            Ephesians is what we might call a circular letter, it was written to be circulated in a particular region along with the letter to the Colossians. We get a picture of this in Colossians 4:16 where we read, “Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.” So we see that Paul wrote some letters to be circulated in the general region where churches were located – as opposed to letters to address specific issues in churches such as 1 & 2 Corinthians.

            If you read Ephesians and Colossians one after the other you will see that there are parallel passages in the two letters, suggesting that they were written at the same time and sent to the same region to be circulated among the churches.

            Our passage this morning, Ephesians 1:1 – 14 has been called “The Little Gospel.” It is called this because it presents God’s Story from before the foundation of the world through the consummation of the ages, of world history, as we understand the term. It contains the fall of man, our alienation from God, and it contains the redemption story in Jesus.

            During the five weeks between receiving the notice to appear in Anne Arundel County court and the actual court date I knew there was only one real issue at hand, the issue of my identity. The question was whether the court would acknowledge that I was Robert L. Withers and not Robert T. Withers.

            Right now, in your purse or wallet, how many cards do you have with special ID numbers on them? Social security? Driver’s license? How many shopping cards do you have? Food Lion? Costco? Kroger? CVS? Credit cards? Library card? Medical insurance card?

            Those of you who have just returned from the mission trip to Mexico – of all the forms of identity that you carried with you across the border – what is the one form of ID that you absolutely could not afford to lose? Yes…your passports. Your passports verify that you are citizens of the United States of America and that not only would you be allowed re-entrance to your homeland – but a US passport also entitles you to aid and assistance from United States embassies and counsels.

             If I go through my wallet and pull out a Food Lion card does that mean that my primary identity is rooted in Food Lion? Or if I pull out a Kroger card does that mean that my primary identity is rooted in Kroger…or Costco…or the county library…or even…with my driver’s license…with the Commonwealth of Virginia? Who am I? Who are you?

to be continued...

George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis (11)

 

Conclusion:

 

“George MacDonald gave his life to communicating the idea that if people knew who God really was, they would believe in Him…he kept insisting: ‘But hear me this once more: the God, the Jesus, in whom I believe, are not the God, the Jesus, in whom you fancy I believe: you know them not; your idea of them is not mine. If you knew them you would believe in them, for to know them is to believe in them.’” (Christian Mythmakers, Rolland Hein, page 67).

 

Lewis wrote in his Preface (pages XXXIV - XXXV), “The Divine Sonship is the key-conception which unites all the different elements of his thought. I dare not say that he is never in error, but to speak plainly I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.”

 

For the past few months Vickie and I have been spending weekly time with residents in a nursing home. We gather and pray, sing, ponder Scripture, and take the adventure that Aslan gives us. Our group is a mix of folks from memory care and from assisted living – I can easily identify with both.

 

Larry was a participant in our early weeks as a group, and while he is no longer a resident of the community, in my heart I still see him and hear him. I particularly recall a statement he made over and over during his time with us; “I’ve been going to church all of my life and I’ve never heard these things.”

 

What things was Larry referring to?

 

He had never heard that he was a son of the Living God, he had never heard his life framed in the context of Divine Sonship, Romans Chapter 8 was a land as foreign to him as Siberia. Larry professed faith in Jesus Christ, Larry had been attending church all of his life, how could he have not heard that he is a son of God and a coheir of God in Christ? How could Larry have missed the Gospel?

 

Of course Larry’s story is the story of most professing Christians; somehow, someway, even after they come to know Jesus, they never hear the Gospel – bits and pieces yes, but the Gospel itself in all of its glory…no. For the Gospel is framed from eternity past to eternity future, and it extends far beyond justification in and of itself – it moves from Romans 1:1 – 5:11 into our identity in Christ and our precious sonship from 5:12 to 8:39 and beyond.

 

Do we really teach justification if we do not teach the sonship in Christ that justification is meant to lead us to? How can we say that we teach justification if we do not also teach our glorious inheritance in Jesus Christ and our koinonia with the Trinity? How can we not teach the entire Gospel – our perfect reconciliation to God, by God, in Christ? How can we not teach that the Father sent the Son to bring “many sons to glory”? (Hebrews 2:10).

 

I recall a church retreat we had in Becket, MA many years ago. On the Sunday after the retreat, one of our deacons stood before the congregation and said, “I’ve been going to this church for over 70 years, and I never knew the things that God had for me.” Our dear deacon was talking about the things associated with being a son of the Living God.

 

As Lewis wrote, George MacDonald’s thought was united by Divine sonship, by our lives in our Father as men and women in our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to show us the Father, and MacDonald was continuing the work of Jesus Christ – just as we are to do.  Our calling is to show others the Father, those who already know Jesus and those who don’t yet know Jesus.

 

One of our challenges is that so many religious people, so many professing Christians, have an image of God that is not Biblical, that is not the image of Jesus Christ. They insist on living outside the Holy of Holies, they insist on a focus on sin, they insist on a system of works – righteousness…no matter what they might say about being saved by grace. Intimacy with the Trinity is a foreign concept, a strange language, to most professing Christians.

 

A challenge with those who make no profession of Christianity is that they have caricatures of the Gospel. These caricatures may be based on their observations of professing Christians who do not live the Gospel but who may be quite religious, or they may be based on lies told about God and His People. The point is that many folks think we believe in a God that we do not actually believe in, and if they knew the God we believe in, if they knew Jesus Christ – the Jesus of the Bible Living in us – then they would believe in Him too because to know Him is to believe in Him.

 

And this brings me to The Last Battle by Lewis. In The Last Battle Aslan is caricatured to the point that he is merged with Tash, and Narnians, who ought to know better, worship the enemy while rejecting the true Aslan. It is not the idols outside the temple that are dangers, it is those which have been brought inside the temple.

 

Our hearts are called to belong to Jesus and to Jesus alone. In our hearts belonging to Jesus, we discover that they also belong to one another. Our destiny is to know the beautiful and perfect unity of the Trinity, we know this beauty as a People…ever and always as a People.

 

Can we say with Jesus Christ, and with MacDonald and Lewis:

 

“I will proclaim Your Name to My brethren, in the midst of the Congregation I will sing Your praise”? (Hebrews 2:12).

 

Amen.

George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis (10)

 

 

“G. K. Chesterton paid deep tribute to MacDonald in an introduction to Greville MacDonald’s biography of his father, especially noting the effect upon him as a child of The Princess and the Goblin. He said it was a book that “made a difference to my whole existence, which helped me to see things in a certain way from the start…MacDonald had made for himself a sort of spiritual environment, a space and transparency of mystical light, which was quite exceptional…” (Christian Mythmakers, Rolland Hein, pp. 109 – 110).

 

Few writers have equaled the output of G. K. Chesterton in quantity, quality, breath of subjects, and genre. From the mysteries of Father Brown, to the apologetics of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, to numerous articles and essays on current culture, thinking, and events; to literary criticism, to biography, to fantastic fiction – what I have missed? – Chesterton takes his readers on a grand tour of life with challenges and observations and an insistence that we live as men and women who are awake and not dead. It is as if he is perpetually exhorting, with both shouts and whispers, “Awake you who are asleep and Christ will give you life.”

 

What particularly strikes me about Chesterton is his ability to see things from perspectives that I often miss, to twist the kaleidoscope and say, “Now take a look at this. What pattern do you recognize?”

 

He was also a man of courage, such as when he challenged popular notions of patriotism during the Second Boer War. Who is the true patriot? Is it the man or woman who blindly supports the actions of his or her country, or is it the person who seeks righteousness and justice? Is preserving the soul of a people more important than satisfying the greed of a people?

 

After just reading The Man Who Was Thursday, and experiencing the chase scene toward the conclusion of the book, I find myself once again asking, “Where does he come up with this? Where do these images come from? Do they pop out of a box on his desk? What am I reading?” (I recall the same thoughts and reactions when reading The Napoleon of Notting Hill and the opening pages of Manalive.)

 

Then I recall what Chesterton wrote regarding The Princess and the Goblin, that it “made a difference to my whole existence, which helped me to see things in a certain way from the start.”

 

C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton were first class intellects, not only standing in the first rank of their generations, but of many generations; how do we fail to see that they drank from the unseen waters of the True mystical – mythical that flow from the Throne of God in and through Jesus Christ – the Logos that we see in John 1:1 – 18? (Please remember that I am using “myth” and “mythical” in the technical and academic sense, not in the popular sense).

 

“Light is sown [like seed] for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart.” (Ps. 97:11).

 

“For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.” (Ps. 36:9).

 

Chesterton and Lewis experienced “light” in MacDonald, and they pursued it – or as Reepicheep might say, “They took the adventure that Aslan gave them.” As Lewis wrote of the Curdie books and Phantastes, “the radiance, is incarnate in the whole story.” (We might say that with Lewis that the Light first pursued him, and then he pursued the Light.)

 

We can take the adventure that Aslan gives us when we trust Aslan. When we trust our Good Shepherd and the Holy Spirit to lead us, when we trust them to teach us to see beyond what is normally seen (2 Cor. 4:18), then we can begin to experience what it is to live as the daughters and sons of our heavenly Father, “For all wo are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14).

 

Our minds are renewed in Christ and His Word, (Rom. 12:1 – 2; 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16); and we teach and speak a wisdom that is grounded in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:2 – 3), for in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Our imaginations are baptized, so that when we read the Scriptures, we see Jesus Christ – whether we read Genesis or Proverbs or Isaiah or Revelation or Philippians – Jesus Christ comes to us and we come to Jesus.

 

In That Hideous Strength, Ransom and his cohort do not defeat social engineering and science run amok by arguing for a competing worldview – they do it by reaching back to the foundations of Logres and by participating in the unfolding cosmic victory by the Oyeresu – they participate in the “descent of the gods.”

 

When will we learn that the “weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh”? (2 Cor. 10:3 – 5).

 

It is when we behold Jesus Christ, that we experience Life and are transformed from glory to glory into His image. It is one thing to tell others about Jesus, it is another to show them Jesus. (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; 1 John 3:1 – 3; Col. 3:1 – 4; John 14:9).

 

 

 

 

George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis (9)

 

 

Lewis writes, “MacDonald is the greatest genius of this kind whom I know. But I do not know how to classify such genius…It may be one of the greatest arts…It arouses in us sensations which we have never had before, never anticipate having, as though we had broken out of our normal mode of consciousness…and in general shocks us more fully awake than we are for most of our lives.” (Anthology, pages XXXI – XXXII).

 

“The quality which had enchanted me in his imaginative works turned out to be the quality of the real universe.” (page XXXVIII).

 

I have hit a wall in writing about Lewis and MacDonald because the complexities of the Preface are more than I realized at the beginning of this series. I know that some readers will be familiar with the terms and concepts Lewis uses (such as the technical term “myth”, not the popular term, but the technical term, but that others will not). I know that few readers will have read much, if any, of MacDonald – so when Lewis contrasts MacDonald’s novels with his works of fantasy, few will have a framework to see what Lewis is saying.

 

I suggest reading the Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes to get started with MacDonald. Unspoken Sermons can be read alongside his other writings, and probably read slowly, there is much to absorb. Lewis’s daily Anthology will give you exposure to short selections from the novels and sermons. The novels present a challenge for they are not particularly well written, yet Lewis not only read them, but he writes, “The novels…have yielded me a rich crop. This does not mean that they are good novels.” (XXXII – XXXIII).

 

“The great works are Phantastes, the Curdie books, The Golden Key, The Wise Woman, and Lilith. From them, just because they are supremely good in their own kind, there is little to be extracted. The meaning, the suggestion, the radiance, is incarnate in the whole story, it is only by chance that you find any detachable merits.” (XXXII).

 

In “the whole story” we “dwell in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty (Ps. 91:1). In the “whole story” we find the incarnation of the Story set forth from eternity past and rolling out into the ages to come. In the whole we touch the radiance of Christ, drawing us into the City which has no need of the sun or moon or stars, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Light (Rev. chapters 21 – 22).

 

To enter into the whole story is to participate in the Whole Story, to confess that we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth and in this age, looking for that City whose Builder and Maker is God (Hebrews 11). The Whole Story incarnates the Other, the Numinous, the Glory, the Shekinah, the Mythical (in the technical metanarrative sense!) – and for that very reason it does not lend itself to pithy maxims, to propositional statements of truth. Jesus says those who are born of the Spirit are those who are born of the Wind (they are born of One and the Same, John 3:8).

 

Peter speaks of “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Paul writes of things that cannot be lawfully uttered. Dante the pilgrim finds that there are things he sees and experiences but that cannot be conveyed with words.

 

To read Hebrews Chapter 11 without joining the journey of Hebrews Chapter 11, without walking alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; without spending our days in the communion and pilgrimage of the saints – without joining in the Incarnation and radiance of Hebrews Chapter 11…this is like, I imagine, a tone-deaf person hearing Mozart.

 

We are called to read John 1:1 – 18 and see the glorious Incarnation within ourselves and within one another (Col. 1:25 – 27; John Chapter 17); to read the Gospel and experience the Journey of Jesus Christ leading us to the Father, beyond the veil and into the Holy of Holies, to know the Cross and the Resurrection, to shout Galatians 2:20 and Philippians 3:7 – 16 with Paul…we are called to live the Story as the Story lives within us. And let us make no mistake, the Story is first of all about Jesus Christ, Jesus is the Story and the Story is Jesus and Jesus calls us into His Story…and into such Divine intimacy that His Story becomes our Story in Him and we become one with Him and with one another in the Incarnation.

 

Well, I seem to have gotten back on track…and while I glory in the Story of Jesus, my heart breaks that we have become men without chests, without hearts and imaginations - and that much of our Christianity has been reduced to dehydrated food packets, devoid of joy and taste.

 

I’ll close this reflection with an excerpt from Rolland Hein:

 

“…much of traditional Christian thought is romantic. The sense of the ideal in the Sermon on the Mount; the life of faith epitomized by Abraham and defined by the apostle Paul; the insistence on the primacy of the unseen as opposed to the seen; the command that Christians develop eyes to see and ears to hear spiritual realities; the love of nature because in some undefinable sense it manifests aspects of the divine; and the awareness that all worship centrally involves the imagination. All these make up the romantic spirit, and all are emphasized in MacDonald’s thought.” (Christian Mythmakers, Rolland Hein, page 70).

George MacDonald and C. S. Lewis (8)

 

 

From C. S. Lewis’s Preface to the MacDonald Anthology:

 

“It must be more than thirty years ago that I bought – almost unwillingly, for I had looked at the volume on that bookstall and rejected it on a dozen previous occasions – the Everyman edition of Phantastes. A few hours later I knew that I had crossed a great frontier…Nothing was at the that time further from my thoughts than Christianity…I was only aware that if this new world was strange, it was also homely and humble; that if this was a dream, it was a dream in which one at least felt strangely vigilant; that the whole book had about it a sort of cool, morning innocence…”

 

What frontiers have you crossed?

 

There are those who travel the world on planes and cruise ships and trains, yet who never go anywhere, who never cross a frontier. Then there are those who may go no further than their feet or local transportation can take them, and yet who cross frontier after frontier and who have seen and experienced more than they could possibly tell.

 

Vickie, my brother Jim, and I were once on the windswept Zugspitze in Germany. There was a catwalk that connected Germany and Austria that Jim and I walked across so that we could say that we’d crossed the frontier into Austria. Alas, there was no boarder agent to stamp our passports, indeed, due to weather conditions there were no other people on the Austrian side of the catwalk, so after a few minutes we returned to Germany and Vickie and hot chocolate.

 

Can I truly say that I’ve seen Austria? Have I experienced Austria?

 

Not only was the wind strong and the cold bitter, but fog enveloped the Zugspitze and visibility was poor, so we saw virtually nothing of Austria.

 

If I’m in a conversation with others and the subject of travel arises, can I truly say that I’ve been to Austria – without qualifying what I mean?

 

Might it not be that we treat evangelism like the catwalk between Germany and Austria? Just get the people over the catwalk and you’ve done your job, get them to say, “I’ve been to Austria, now I’m Austrian! One day I’ll make it to the Vienna Opera House, one day I’ll enjoy an Austrian coffee shop, one day I’ll visit the Trapp Family home – in the meantime, even though I am going back to Germany after just a minute or two, I am most certainly and gloriously – fog or no fog - Austrian!”

 

How quickly we forget the Parable of the Sower, the seed sprouts, the words are said (no matter what the heart believes), and the deal is done…or so we think. Whether the frontier has been truly crossed is no matter to us, we must move on – it is enough that the catwalk has been crossed, the fact that it is shortly recrossed is not our concern.

 

While I cannot find the quote at hand, in Mere Christianity Lewis writes of passengers taking a train from Paris to Berlin (I’m relying on fading memory). As the train crosses the France – Germany frontier, some passengers are awake and aware of the crossing, others are asleep and unaware that they’ve crossed from France to Germany. Whether one is awake or asleep has no bearing on the reality of the crossing – a frontier has been crossed.

 

In the case of Lewis and Phantastes, Lewis knew a frontier had been crossed, taking him into a new land, indeed a new world that was strange, homely, and humble. He didn’t know what it meant, he had no thought of Christianity, but he knew something had happened.

 

Lewis also sensed that the purchase of Phantastes was almost unwilling – there was something moving him to make the purchase, even though he’d passed the book up on previous occasions.

 

There is a chapter in Surprised by Joy titled Check. The penultimate chapter is titled Checkmate. In Checkmate Lewis writes:

 

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had a last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed, perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

 

The chapter concludes with these words, “The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

 

The “Other” which compelled Lewis to purchase and read Phantastes would not leave him alone, just as He would not leave Saul of Tarsus alone. “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14).

 

How is it that our view of apologetics and evangelism focuses so much on rationalistic  evidence and obtaining decisions, rather than on the Person of Jesus Christ and working in harmony with the Holy Spirit…helping others to cross that most vital frontier? How is it that on the one hand we affirm the sovereignty of God, and yet on the other hand tend to take control of evangelism, often herding others the way Border Collies herd sheep into an enclosure? Why do we tend not to respect the process of the Holy Spirit?  

 

And let’s make no mistake, contrary to what many of us have been taught, Jesus is no “gentleman” quietly waiting for us to ask Him to dance, He is pursuing us with love and passion, and He intends to checkmate us. In the chapter Checkmate Lewis lays out the final moves of his match with God.

 

Checkmate, however, is not the final chapter in Surprised by Joy, the final chapter is the first chapter in that it is titled The Beginning. This is akin to the final chapter in the Narniad; while it is titled Farewell to Shadowlands, it might also be titled Welcome to Narnia!

 

“But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” This is how the Narniad ends, and yet this is how it begins, for is not our Lord Jesus the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End – the Telos?

 

Lewis records his crossing of yet another frontier in the chapter The Beginning, “To accept the Incarnation was a further step in the same direction. It brings God nearer, or near in a new way. And this, I found, was something I had not wanted. But to recognize the ground for my evasion was of course to recognize both its shame and its futility.

 

“I know very well when, but hardly how, the final step was taken. I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion. “Emotional” is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of the most important events. It was more like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.”  

 

Whether through a wardrobe, or with Ransom in a space capsule, or touching the numinous in The Problem of Pain, or with Orual and Psyche, or as a tour guide in George MacDonald – An Anthology, Lewis crosses frontier after frontier, and in doing so does more than take a catwalk from Germany to Austria, he does more than take a trip around the world…he moves into the depths of Jesus Christ, going “further up and further in”.

 

O dear friends, our dear Lord Jesus is calling us to know His incredible love and grace and friendship, to know His joy.

 

“Then Aslan turned to them and said, “You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.” (The Last Battle, page 766, one volume edition).