Public Square: Health Care Mandate - Christians Made It Possible

I'm troubled by Church leaders not speaking up about an underlying concern in the recent and on-going controversy over President Obama's healthcare mandates that require religious organizations to provide contraceptives and abortifacients against their teachings and conscience.  There's plenty of reaction among Church leaders and religious freedom advocates to this being an assault on the First Amendment and a threat to our religious liberties.  While I believe that there are reasons to be concerned about these things, there's a more fundamental issue that we don't seem to want to address: we did this.

At the core of the Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius' defense of this mandate is an argument that Christians in America have made possible.  The basis of her argument divides the activities of religious organizations into sacred and secular.  In other words, the mandate distinguishes religious activities such as worship, Bible teaching, and evangelism from non-religious activities such as running hospitals, providing child care services, and feeding the homeless.  The greater threat of the HHS mandate isn't forcing religious organizations into acting against conscience, it's reinforcing the status quo of American Christianity.  We Christians created the distinction between being the Church and going to church.  Whether for good motives or bad, Sabelius is making use of what we created.

We have avoided challenging those who profess Christ to live their lives as fully committed steward-servants of Jesus.  Instead, we've allowed (even encouraged) people to retain their lifestyles, world views, and worldly habits while asking them to make a little room in their busy lives for some religion.  We've made going to church (i.e., attending worship services and, maybe, a Bible study) an acceptable standard for being a faithful Christian instead of calling on those who would follow Jesus to be the Church by denying themselves, taking up their crosses daily, and going after Him.  The very things that Sebelius describes as unrelated to religious expression are the things that Jesus lists as evidences of a living faith (Matthew 25:34-36) and the Bible describes as true religion (James 1:27).  We can rant and rave about our government officials acting as they are, but we've set the stage for this.

By all means we, as citizens of the United States, should respond to this controversy in the public forum and work to preserve our religious freedoms.  But let's not let the Kingdom of the Left issues overshadow the greater Kingdom of the Right opportunities.  This should serve as a call for all Christians to live out the Faith in such a way that it is clear to everyone who we are in Christ.  It is a wake up call for us to refuse to be satisfied with going to church and to rededicate ourselves to being the Church.  After all, the issue at hand shows us just how desperately our nation needs us to be the Church.

Reflection: God's Reason for Being Unreasonable (February 12, 2012)

The Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
2 Kings 5:1-14; 1 Cor. 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45

Let's face it, God can be very unreasonable at times — at least to people who consider themselves to be reasonable. A good case in point is found in today's Old Testament reading. God worked things out so that the commander of the Syrian armed forces would go to Israel expecting to be cured of a disease. It didn't matter to God that Syria was a powerful enemy of Israel. He also didn't seem to care that Naaman learned about the hope for a cure through an Israelite girl who has taken as a slave during a raid by his forces. And it also didn't bother God that Naaman had an incurable disease. However, the king of Israel, who was a reasonable person, was seriously troubled by these things. He reasoned that the king of Syria was looking for an excuse to attack Israel. He reasoned that no one in Israel could cure Naaman. And he reasoned that there was no way out of this dilemma. The king's problem was that he was a reasonable person with an unreasonable God.

Hundreds of years after Naaman, Jesus encountered a leper who was willing to set aside reason and act in faith. "If you want to," he said to Jesus, "You can heal me of this incurable disease." In love and compassion, Jesus touched the leper and healed him. Then Jesus told the healed man to keep quiet about this miraculous healing. How unreasonable! Yet, when we see how he adversely affected Jesus' ministry by telling people about being cured of leprosy, we begin to understand the wisdom of God's unreasonableness.

While we can see how these two lepers should have accepted God at His Word, it's much more challenging for us to embrace God's unreasonableness in our lives. We want things to make sense to us before we commit our money, time, energy, and selves to an endeavor. When God works something in our lives that is confusing or confounding — something that seems to go against what we consider reasonable — we struggle with being faithful. We want answers to our questions and assurances for our doubts. We can see more reasonable (and palatable) options and want to know why we can't pursue them. We might be angry with or offended by our unreasonable God, until we realize that if He weren't unreasonable we would still be lost in our sins and captive to death. After all, it took an unreasonable God to become like us, die in our place, and bring us salvation.

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection 

Devotion: Hating the Truth

[Jesus said,] ¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them.  ¹⁴ I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  ¹⁵ My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.  ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  ¹⁷ Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.  ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  ¹⁹ For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.”  (John 17:13-19)

We all hate the truth at one time or another.  When the truth is unpleasant, demanding, or unflattering, we don't want to hear it.  We hate the truth when others share with us (or with others) something that is true about us but is also condemning or embarrassing.  This kind of hating the truth is an emotional reaction toward it.  It is the dislike of what is true, but not the rejection of it.  If we are wise we will take the truth to heart whether we like it or not.  In this way the truth that we hate serves us well.  But there is another way in which people hate the truth that serves them very poorly: disregarding God's Word.

For the most part, we use the word "hate" to describe how we feel about something or someone.  While the Bible uses the word in this way as well, the deeper meaning of the word that is translated as "hate" is "to be indifferent toward, to disregard, or to reject something."  The implication is that what is hated has little or no value for the one who hates it.  While it isn't an emotional response, hating in this way leads to an attitude against what is hated.  What we hate in our minds we end up hating in our hearts and what we hate in our hearts we end up hating in our minds.

Hating is a substantial part of our fallen nature.  Until we are made new in Christ we can only hate God and His Word.  It takes His gift of faith in Christ Jesus for us to love and desire His Word.  Even then, because we are still sinners living in a fallen world, we have a tendency to hate God's Word.  Martin Luther wrote of this in his commentary on Psalm 119:103, "'I delight in the law of God,' that is, 'The words of God are sweet for me'  ... But to the carnal man they are bitter and harsh and full of hate, because his will which is suffering from the fever of sin hates God’s words …"*  We may struggle with loving God's Word, but by His grace we do not hate the truth.

Unfortunately, the people of the world can't help but hate the truth.  And their hatred doesn't stop there. When Jesus said that His disciples had received the truth of God's Word from Him, He also warned them that the people of the world had already begun to hate them.  He knew that the people's hatred of His disciples wasn't personal.  They hated them because He had entrusted His Word of truth to them.  Jesus was making something very clear: people without faith hate the truth and those who believe it.

So much of what people believe and do in our world is shaped by hating the truth.  In place of God's Word, they have set up theories, speculations, and wishful thinking as alternative "truths." To protect their lies, they end up hating what is actually truth and everyone that holds to it.  We should expect the people of the world to hate us — to be indifferent toward, to disregard, and to reject us — and what we believe.  After all, they hated Jesus for bringing them the truth.  In His love God came to this world of lies with His truth to be hated, rejected, and killed so that we could know the truth.  Now that we know the truth, we can overcome the hatred of the world by living and sharing the truth of His love. Because we love the truth, we bring His life giving Word to a world dying from hating the truth.

*(LW, vol. 25, page 334)

Reflection: The Price of the Prize (February 5, 2012)

The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Isaiah 40:21-31; 1 Corinthians 9:16-27; Mark 1:29-39

Every prize has a price. For example, winning the Super Bowl costs an NFL team great amounts of time, energy, and money. Along the way to winning this coveted prize, teams may lose players to injuries, coaches to fans' expectations, and fans to more successful franchises. Whatever the sacrifices may be, when a team finally does win the Lombardi Trophy the players, coaches, and owners all say that it was worth it. And we would agree. But should we?

When we step back at take a look at winning the Super Bowl from a perspective that isn't shaped by our culture's standards it seems rather insignificant. It's winning a game for a title that will be lost, probably in a year's time. The prestige associated with winning this title has no intrinsic value and certainly has no eternal significance. As impressive as the Lombardi Trophy may be, it's just a piece of metal (albeit seven pounds of sterling silver). Looked at in this way, winning the Super Bowl is a foolish pursuit, the achievement of which is poorly rewarded. But we don't look at it that way. We can't divorce the Super Bowl from the context in which it exists. In that context, it is a highly valued prize filled with honor and glory. It is the realization for a few of a dream dreamt by many. It is the desire of the heart of every serious professional football player. It is the prize.

Few of us will ever have anything to do with the pursuit of the Lombardi Trophy, but each of us has been called to seek after a greater prize. On the surface this prize seems insignificant. It doesn't come with the praise of millions of people. There is no great financial reward with it. It doesn't provide great status in this world. There isn't even a trophy to display when you win this prize. On top of all that, it not only requires all of your money, all of your time, and all of your energy, it demands all of you. By every earthly standard and measurement, this prize is highly undesirable. But this prize cannot be measured by earthly standards. Unlike earthly prizes that fade away, this prize will last forever. It is the heavenly prize that has already been won for us by Christ Jesus. This prize is yours now and it cannot be taken away from you if you commit yourself to "run in such a way as to get the prize." Above all, whatever this prize may require of you, the price of this prize has been fully paid by Christ Jesus.

Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection 

Journal: Why Be Holy?

14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;  16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." -- 1 Peter 1:14-16

"Why be holy?"  This question was raised at the beginning of the class that I took last month (Spiritual Formation).  It caught me off guard and startled me spiritually.  I really hadn't given any serious thought to the question.  I know the theological answers to holiness and the inseparable topics of justification and sanctification, but I hadn't ever asked myself about being holy in this way.

I suppose a good Lutheran answer to this question would run along the lines of "Why concern yourself with being holy, you are already holy."  As true as the latter part of this statement is, it avoids the question.  That isn't too surprising.  As strong as we are on justification, Lutherans tend to stumble over the real life outworking of sanctification.  Still, I don't want to answer this question according to the demands of the Law.  I can't find the reason for being holy in a command to be holy.  That will lead to failure, frustration, and guilt, not holiness.  But, because the Gospel doesn't demand anything of us, the call to be holy -- if it is a serious call -- must be understood as the Law in its third use, which takes me back to the sanctification struggle of my theological tradition.

I think the best answer to the question "Why be holy?" is another question: "Why not be holy?"  It's a tremendous blessing that I can even consider being holy.  Most people in this world know nothing of Christ and His mercy.  They can't give any serious thought to being holy.  But in Christ I have been given the privilege, opportunity, and ability to live a holy life to His glory.  I'd be foolish to let this blessing pass by me.  After all, in holiness there is true joy and only in holiness is there genuine peace.  Holiness is love expressed and love being expressed.  Holiness offers only good things and requires the sacrifice of nothing of value.  Why be holy?  The real question is, "Why be anything but holy?"

Journal: Seriously? The Call of Hebrews 12:14

I keep running across passages in the Bible that offer up challenges that I haven't considered in the past.  I know that these passages have been there all along, but they simply haven't registered with me.  Now, in the midst of new circumstances and my bolstered sense of being mature in the Faith, they jump out at me like flashing traffic signals that demand attention to prevent catastrophe.  Hebrews 12:14 is one of those passages: "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy …"

Seriously?  Live in peace with everybody?  Even hard-to-get-along-with people?  I just don't see how that can happen.  More than that, the call to "make every effort" comes across as overly demanding.  Why should it fall on me to make every effort to live at peace with others?  What's their responsibility in all of this?  This passage is overly altruistic.  Maybe it's a hyperbole, an intentional exaggeration.  Or maybe it's a real call to a life of holiness.

I know someone who has broken off relationships with a number of people in her life (including me) because she wanted to rid her life of negative influences.  I can see the absurdity of this ill conceived strategy for living a peaceful life.  After all, at some point or another every one of us has had a negative influence on others.  That's one of the consequences of sin.  So, even if we eliminate every sinful person in our lives, we're still stuck with our sinful selves.  Even though I see this person's actions as foolish, I still find my own ways to do much the same thing.  From avoiding people I don't get along with to neglecting relationships with people who have hurt me in some way, I've tried to fashion ways to live at peace apart from people rather than making every effort to live at peace with them.

Looking to the original Greek wording of Hebrews 12:14 doesn't give me any wiggle room on this call.  In fact, it fortifies it.  The word that is translated "make every effort" is dioko which means "to do something with intense effort and with definite purpose or goal." There it is.  Living at peace with all people is the goal set before followers of Christ -- the One who came to make peace between God and us.  It is something that I am called to pursue with intensity.  It should drive me with a relentless desire.  I should be so moved by the peace I have with God through His Son Jesus that I cannot be satisfied until I have made every effort, no matter how unpleasant or costly, to live at peace with every person whom God has put into my life.  Seriously.

Journal: The Church - A Museum or a Hospital?

There's a description of the church that is growing in popularity. It says that the church is not a museum for the display of saints but a hospital for sinners.  Since the first part of this statement is true, it's tempting to accept the second part as a good description of the church.  It's even more tempting because it is also true -- but only in part.  However, when we consider what a hospital does we can see how it is a deceptive description of the church.  A hospital mends sick and injured people in order to return them to the lives that they were living before their illnesses and injuries.  This is not the desired outcome of the work that the church does in a person's life.  The point of the church is not to enable people to live as they did before "entering the hospital," but to transform them into a radically new life in Christ.

The church is neither a museum nor a hospital.  What is it?  Using the Bible's terminology, the church is a kingdom.  As a kingdom the church includes hospitals and museums, as well as schools, businesses, stores, recreational areas, and much more.  It's only when we understand what kind of kingdom the church is that we  understand the purpose of it including all these things.

The church is not only a kingdom, but it is a kingdom at war.  The militant kingdom of the church is engaged in an ongoing counterinsurgency.  It's a kingdom that has been invaded by an enemy that seeks to overthrow the King and to destroy all those who are loyal to Him.  For this reason, perhaps the best way that we can describe the church in earthly terms is to call the church an army.  Unlike any earthly army, the church is an army that is absolutely ensured to be victorious whenever we battle the enemy.  Also, the church is a unique army because, rather than destroy and kill, we bring life to the dead whenever and wherever we conquer the opposing forces.  When we see ourselves as the victorious army of Christ at war in this world we will not be content to be passive -- whether in a museum or a hospital -- but will be eager to engage and defeat the enemy to the glory of our King.