What do you mean?

Okay, keep up with the following statements if you can.

--The other day I saw a bat flying through the air.

--I always love talking about the fall.

--I can't bear to see a bare bear.

What do all these statements have in common?  They have words that have multiple meanings.  In the first one, am I talking about a baseball bat flying through the air, or a rodent out hunting insects?  Talking about the fall, is it the kind of fall like when someone falls down (or the fall into sin), or a season of the year?  And in the last one, we get not only the same word with two different meanings, but another word that sounds the same!

Now, just imagine that you were reading a poem or a story about bats at a baseball game, and you didn't know if the writer was talking about the wooden bats or the living bats.  How would you be able to tell which one he was talking about?  What if he was intentionally trying to make it confusing by not making it clear either way?  Do you think that you might end up a bit frustrated as you tried to figure it out?

I bring this up because this kind of thing actually happens fairly often in the Bible.  Large sections of the Bible are poetic, and one of the things poetry often tries to do is play on words with different meanings, even if they happen to be the same word.  So sometimes, as we read sections of the Bible, we find that the meaning of the particular section isn't as clear as we would hope.

So what do we do when we find ourselves wondering what the author meant?  Well, sometimes, we admit that there may be a reason for it.  The author may have been doing a word play in the original language of the Bible, and we have a tough time 1) figuring out what he means and 2) deciding how to best convey the sense of that in another language (English). 

I mention this because it's worth us struggling with the text of the Bible to figure out what it's saying.  It just seems as though God knows that we're going to get more out of it if we have to struggle to figure it out than if He just simply said, "Here's what I have to say."  Sure, He does that at times, too, but since we've been talking about learning, it really does seem that we learn more when we have to work with the words and struggle with the words, and maybe that's part of what God is trying to communicate to us, as well.

Blurred Lines

While the Bible doesn't really come out and use the word "accountability", the idea of it is found throughout.  From the very first murder in human history, recorded in Genesis 4, we have that idea there.  Cain murders his brother, Abel, and when God confronts Cain about it, he asks the significant question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  While God doesn't directly answer that question, it seems pretty clear that the answer is, yes.

So we are called to be accountable in our care for one another.  However, being the sinful human beings that we are, we can also easily overstep that line.  You have likely heard the term "micromanaging" before.  It's the idea of someone who has some level of accountability, but doesn't really trust the person who is doing the work "under" them.  Therefore, they basically step in and dictate each part of the process, and in some ways, demonstrate a lack of trust in those who are tasked with the job.

At this point, it seems like I should also mention that we Americans tend to shy away from this word "accountability."  We throw around words like freedom, but have allowed them to mean something other than what they should be.  We say freedom, but we really mean "I don't want anyone telling me how to do anything."  In other words, we don't want to be accountable to others.  They mind their business, and I mind mine, and we're all happy.  That's the basic idea, at least.

The thing is, that is not how God designed us when He created us.  Part of being in a community means that we sometimes lay aside what we want, or even what is best for us, for the good of others.  That's evident in what Jesus has done for us, and as the new life that Jesus won for us takes root and grows in us, we also work for the good of others, even if we might prefer otherwise, or if it's to our cost.

St. Paul writes it very bluntly in his letter to the Philippians.  In Philippians 2:3-4, he calls for those Christians to count others more significant than they are.  They are called to look to the interests of others, not necessarily at the expense of their own, but at least on equal footing with their own.  And yes, sometimes looking to the good of others does actually cost us, or cause us to lay aside what we would prefer for the good of others.

It's easy to blur these lines.  One of my ongoing battles is maintaining accountability without become too invasive.  It's a constant battle in our lives as Christians.

A Grammarian's Dilemma

Some of you may know or suspect that I am a grammarian.  In fact, there are times when I can be a bit of a grammar Nazi.  Part of this springs up from having learned a few different languages along the way, and having realized that how we speak or construct our thoughts actually is pretty important.  Another part has been stretched and challenged in doctoral level studies and work, which calls for much clarity of thought and precision of wording.

Anyway, to get to the point.  There's a common phrase nowadays that says something along the lines of, "I accepted Jesus."  This phrase always raises a bit of struggle in me.  Mostly, it comes from a theological basis.  From my reading of the Bible, we don't truly accept Jesus as we would accept an award or a prize.  Instead, it's God who does the choosing of us, and who does the working within us to make us His own.  Now, we may come to a realization of what God has done, and at that moment or time have our eyes opened, and in some form or fashion we could call that "acceptance", but in that regard, it's more of an acceptance of an accomplished fact than anything else.

Part of the struggle I have with this phrase comes from my desire to be precise with wording.  I want people to think about what they are saying and meaning when they say such a phrase.  But often, I find myself asking, "Is this really the time or the place to engage in THAT discussion?"  After all, the moment of "acceptance" can be a truly meaningful moment for the person.  To hear that I'm writing off their moment simply because I don't like the word that they use can seem rather unforgiving.  And so, I find this struggle going on.  Do I say something in the interest of precise, accurate wording, or do I consider that this may be a battle for another day?

To be honest, part of the reason I'm writing about this is because I don't have an answer.  It seems that we should always be striving to be as precise in our language as possible, and at the same time, we should strive to be caring toward others and sometimes overlook their minor sins of imprecise language.  Which one does the situation call for?  That's where I put my hope in Jesus' ability to forgive me for making the wrong choice when I have, and where I put my trust in the Spirit's guidance when I have gone the proper direction according to His prompting.  May I grow in that as I continue to share Christ Jesus in my life and ministry!

Conflicted Views

Quite a few of you who read this blog know that I am part of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.  This particular church body has been known by this name for around a century and a half in the United States.  It's a church body that strives for an accurate understanding of the truths of the Bible, and then works toward a common practice in bringing that understanding to bear into the world we live in.

As you read that paragraph, you may realize that there is an impossible task that the church body has taken upon itself.  I said that the body strives for an accurate understanding of the truths of the Bible, a word which we call "doctrine."  We aim to arrive at a common understanding of the truths that God gives to us in the Bible.  That alone is a task that simply cannot be accomplished while we still live in this world.  Not only do we believe the teaching (the doctrine) that declares that we are all sinful, and therefore unable to have perfect understanding of the things of God, but we also recognize that not everyone understands the meaning of various parts of the Bible in the same way.  We already find ourselves with an impossible task of discerning those meanings and then coming to agreement on them.

Then, we add another impossible task to the challenge.  We take that group of teachings (doctrines) that we cannot ever fully agree upon, and then we try to apply them into the way we minister to a sinful, hurting world.  This is the "practice" of the ministry of God's Word to the world.  We realize that every pastor and every Christian and every congregation faces unique challenges, even as we also realize that there are challenges that are common to all.  And so, when we work to apply a group of teachings (doctrines) to situations that vary widely (practice), we often find ourselves at disagreement about the right and proper thing to do.

It's a distressing situation, and one that the church body has worked on together for a long time.  It's also a struggle that we would be wise to admit will never come to an end.  Until Jesus reappears and unites all believers into the one holy, perfect, pure Body of Christ in the new creation, we simply cannot arrive at a place of perfect agreement, either on the doctrines or the practices.  We may find that we actually share a great deal in common with one another, but we shouldn't be surprised when we find that we still don't always fully arrive at the same place.

Some of you who read this may not be part of this particular church body.  Shoot, some of you may not even be Christian by your faith.  I don't write this blog entry up as an apology for anything, but simply to shine some light upon things that you may come across in the news, or in various online forums.  It saddens me that the church body I am part of only seems to get national press when negative events come up.  We actually do agree on a significant portion of our teachings (doctrines) and their applications (practices).  We actually do engage in many ventures to share God's grace and mercy with a sinful, hurting world, and seek to speak God's truth into those situations.  We do so knowing that we won't get it perfect, but resting in God's forgiveness through Jesus, and looking to share that same forgiveness into the lives of those we minister to. 

I heard a wise person once say that if you are looking for the perfect church home, you better get used to disappointment.  There is no such thing in this world.  Thankfully, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have a connection that will one day come to its full realization, where we will then live forever in that perfect church home.  Until then, we're going to fumble and stumble along the way, and fully relying on God's gift of forgiveness through Jesus.

Thinking about the word "Repent"

It's a word that I hear quite often in preaching and teaching the Bible.  It's a word that seems to strike fear into the hearts of many, and one that seems to get used quite often to frighten people who may or may not believe in the saving work of Jesus.  It can be spoken like thunder from heaven, or as a gentle whispered invitation.  It's the word repent.

From a somewhat literal standpoint, the word repent means to turn away from something.  If you are driving 75 in a 65 MPH zone, and you decide to slow down to the speed limit, you repent of your speeding.  You turn away from the activity that was against the law.  That's a very basic definition of the word, but a good one from which to begin.

As we read through the Bible, we come across a lot of things that God talks about when it comes to the things we do in life.  God created us to live according to a certain design.  As our creator, He knows best how we should live, and what is good for us in our lives.  And so, as we read through the Bible, we find God describing the way He created us to live.

The problem is, we cannot do that.  None of us is perfect.  God tells us that this came into being because of the entrance of sin in the world.  All of us are afflicted with that deadly disease, and none of us can surgically remove it from anyone else, or even ourselves.  But what that means is that we're going to have an impossible task when it comes to living according to God's design.

As we read through the Bible, we see quite a few instances of how God says we should live.  We also realize that we aren't doing that.  And that's where this word finds some kind of hold on us.  We realize that we are living contrary to God's will and design, and so we seek to turn away from that wrong way of living, trying to return to God's preferred "right" way.

That's a fairly narrow way to understand this word.  It happens as we come across behavior after behavior in our life that is contrary to how God created us to live.  We're constantly uncovering ways that we do not live according to God's will and design.  We cannot fully repent and return to the way that God designs. 

That's where this word also has a much larger focus.  But that will be the topic for tomorrow's blog.