Faith Venture

Some people make things happen, some watch it happen, and some wonder what happened.

Twisted history of attributions

Have you noticed how many people seem to drift through life. Things happen to them. They may blame others or outside forces. They may pray, but those prayers may be reactions, futile, mere stirring of the air.

Some people do things with intention. The commit in their minds to do something. They may succeed; they may fail. The outcome doesn’t matter. The causation string of desire —>intention (commitment)—>action makes all the difference.

This matters to our own spiritual formation. It matters to the service we provide to others and the world.

When you pray, pray with intention.

When you serve, serve with intention.

At all times check in to make sure your intentions align with the person you wish to become.

My contemplation this morning coalesced around how we respond.

It began with fear. We have so many fears. Mostly of the unknown. Mostly of things that will never happen. Yet, we are affected. Do we respond by lashing out at whoever or whatever is around? Do we respond by freezing or hiding? Or do we respond by facing the fear and its roots and dealing with it?

The Covid pandemic is two years old. In most places of the world, things are getting better. In a few, the virus is still spreading. How did we respond? Did we maintain some stability? Did we work through the changes? As we emerge, how are we coping?

We can respond by allowing our inner drives and emotions take the lead. Often that is dysfunctional.

We can respond through awareness of the situation and ourselves. Then we choose our best response. That takes work. But it is the good work.

When Paul the Apostle wrote a letter to one of his groups, the letter was read aloud at the recipient church by one of the leaders. Straight through. But then, I imagine that the group would discuss the letter. Paul often pointed out shortcomings or things they were doing wrong. I imagine that sparked some strong emotions.

I just read his letter to the Roman church pretty much straight through. It struck me that much of the letter answered questions and addressed problems unique to this group.

That doesn’t mean we can’t learn from his advice.

One thing that strikes me is that Paul did not stop his discussion with “you are saved by grace through faith.” It’s not like that is the end. It is the beginning–the beginning of your new life.

Following his theological discussion of God throughout history and what God has done for us, Paul then describes what a new life living with God through Jesus looks like. We treat others with grace and respect. We become good citizens of our city and country. We hold ourselves holy.

He’s telling us that spiritual formation has a physical component. Putting our bodies to service of others is an integral part of our growth in the spirit. We cannot just sit on our faith.

Arrived home from San Diego last night about midnight. Slept in almost an hour. But still went over to the fitness center for workout and whirlpool. Finishing my bowl of steel cut oats when my wife exclaims, “There’s a dog on the patio!”

I play with dogs. I don’t own dogs. There is never a lost dog in the neighborhood. She thought maybe it was our neighbor’s Pomeranian mix. But one look, and no. And no neighbor chasing it.

I looked at it. Definitely not Mochi. And it looked strangely bedraggled. Oh, someone had started shearing the thing, got about half-way, stopped. There was a strange basket thing on its neck. Later, the police officer said it was supposed to be on the snout. The dog was a biter.

I spent the next hour-and-a-half on the dog. Went outside. It barked and snarled at me. Usually dogs will come to me. I’ll make friends. Tell it to go home, and lead it home. This dog snarled, bared its teeth, and was going no where. It liked our patio.

Posted on the community Facebook pages. Wrote to the association management. They said call the police. Did that. She comes and tries to get the thing. Neighbor sent her grandson with bacon. Nothing worked. Finally got it with a lasso thing.

Oh, the dog had no identification on it. I posted on Facebook that the dog was now in police custody if anyone could find an owner. I had looked around the neighborhood to see if someone was looking for a dog. Nothing. Later the association posted a picture of an incarcerated dog.

My morning was now shot. And errands and blog posting were all out of the window.

No sense worrying about lost productivity. Some days are just that way, and you live with it. Just don’t let it be a habit.

I began a practice while still quite young of treating every human that I meet on their own. I almost always initially allow some level of trust. Then they can prove their character one way or another. I never seek revenge, but there are many I’ve chosen to stay away from rather than get argumentative or angry.

Gender matters not. Nor race, age, ethnicity, disability. I’ve just never had occasion to doubt what the writers in the Bible tell us about all of us being children of God. He loves each of us. He, according to Paul in Romans, has already worked for us.

This month has been set aside by someone as International Women’s month, and I guess I missed International Women’s Day. I’m not good at these observances. But since it came into my awareness, I thought I should consider how many have misinterpreted the role of women in the New Testament.

I think of Jesus bantering with the Syro-Phoenician woman. Probably unheard of action of a rabbi. He was touched by an “unclean” woman, she was healed. He was now ceremonially unclean. But that didn’t bother him. He treated her as a child of God. He dealt compassionately with Mary Magdalene and the woman caught in adultery. His relationships with Mary and Martha may not have been too surprising, but that his followers wrote those stories is amazing.

There is more. And although patriarchists cite sentences from Paul to support male domination, try reading his letters completely. How he cites and complements women leaders in the early movement. How he told women that it was OK to pray in the assembly (the head covering thing is totally misinterpreted).

Respect and uphold the women in your life. They are children of God loved by him.

In this time where media (both mass and social) strive to exploit strong emotions such as fear and hatred in order to drive more traffic, I appreciate the words of Philip Berrigan who, along with his brother and also a priest Daniel Berrigan, exhibited leadership I respected back in the day.

I don’t gather that God wants us to pretend our fear doesn’t exist, to deny it, or eviscerate it. Fear is a reminder that we are creatures – fragile, vulnerable, totally dependent on God. But fear shouldn’t dominate or control or define us. Rather, it should submit to faith and love. Otherwise, fear can make us unbelieving, slavish, and inhuman. I have seen that struggle: containing my fear, rejecting its rule, recognizing that it saw only appearances, while faith and love saw substance, saw reality, saw God’s bailiwick, so to speak: “Take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid!”

Philip Berrigan

He does not talk of avoiding fear. Nor should we try to ignore it. Rather, like I wrote yesterday about where to focus our life, walk with God.

Easy to say. Difficult to live. I, in my security of suburban American life, wonder how I would face being in the Ukraine staring at Russian tanks. Could I live my faith?

Paul, the Apostle, wrote almost three-fourths of his letter to the Roman gathering of Jesus-followers describing how bad we humans are and how good God is.

Paul didn’t write in chapters—those were added later so that people could find their place and refer quotes to others.

But, at what we call chapter 12, he writes, “So…”

Whenever we see words such as so or however or therefore, we should pause. In the original, letters were read aloud. I can imagine the reader got to that point and paused. Then said, “So…” or the Greek equivalent.

Some people (and theologians) read 8:28 and stopped. But Paul went on to write 12-15 (16 is personal notes). These are after the “So.” And it begins:

So here is what I want you to do. Take your normal everyday life and place it before God as an offering.

What do we do every day upon rising from sleep? Pause and offer the day’s life for service to God. Whatever we do and however we do it needs to be ultimately in God’s service.

Why? Because we remember what God has done for us. God made us right with him. We didn’t do anything to earn it by following rules or offering animal sacrifices.

Paul offers a bit of practical advice:

Fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.

Where you look is where you’ll go.

Have you met anyone who knows perfectly the mind of God?

Let’s make it easier. Have you met anyone who thinks or acts like they know the mind of God? Someone so smart that they think God asks them for advice?

I will answer for me—Yes. I have met such people. Or, maybe like Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor, they wish God would take their advice.

So had the Apostle Paul as he wrote these words to the Christ-followers in Rome:

Is there anyone around who can explain God?

Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?

Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice?

Romans, from The Message translation

I read those words this morning and they hit me like that soccer ball struck from a few yards away directly into my nose. Down I went.

Meditate on these words that Paul writes next:

Everything comes from him,

Everything happens through him,

Everything ends up in him.

Always glory! Always praise!

Romans, from The Message translation

The best guides I have discovered are humble. Best advice is to emulate that.

I am reading Paul’s letter to the Roman gathering of Jesus-followers in a different translation (The Message) as if it were a personal letter from him to me. I wish to capture the flavors and subtleties.

I began what is labeled chapter 10. I’m struck by how hard he is striving to get across the idea that the work of setting things right between God and me is God’s work. And work he has already done.

Any trying I attempt is in vain. It is much useless thrashing about.

[The Jewish people] don’t seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God’s business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily peddle their knockoffs. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.

Romans 10

What a colorful metaphor.

It reminds me of the Red Queen in Alice and the Looking Glass who said that they had to run faster just to stay in the same place. But we could get off that treadmill and let God do God’s thing.

We don’t have to run faster, follow ever more rules, try harder. We just let God be God. And just live within his spirit. That will guide us to the most fruitful life beyond what we can imagine.