A Deeper Problem

 Once again, our nation has been shocked and outraged by yet another mass shooting in a school. Nineteen children — nine and ten year olds — plus their two fourth grade teachers, all killed in an elementary school in Uvalde, TX, by an eighteen year old wielding an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. This shooting came less than two weeks after a nineteen year old — in an openly racist hate crime — targeted and killed ten African Americans in a community grocery store in Buffalo, NY. The day after the Buffalo attack (May 15), a gunman opened fire in a church in California in another hate crime targeting people of Asian descent.

Many are saying we have a gun problem in our country. While I agree with them, we have a deeper problem than guns. Guns are indeed a contributor to the problem, but focusing on guns will not solve the problem. Addressing the gun issue will help, but only in superficial ways.

We as a nation have a spiritual problem. We are addicted to violence.

As with all addictions, the addiction itself masks deeper problems. The addiction keeps us from facing the deeper problem and addressing it. The underlying problem is the fear, anger, and hatred we harbor in our hearts — individually and collectively.

Our current functioning as a nation reflects emotional-relational-spiritual immaturity rather than maturity. We seemingly have abandoned trained reason, rational thought, and respectful dialogue. Our functioning expresses the most base of our instincts as humans.

We are acting like self-absorbed preschoolers throwing tantrums to get our way. We insist on “my rights” – my constitutional rights, my second amendment rights, my personal rights. We complain about and resist any “government overreach” that infringes on our rights — even to protect our nation from a world-wide COVID pandemic or our children from mass shootings. We view those who are different from us through the eyes of fear. We see them as a threat that will displace us and take away what is “rightfully ours.” Our fear fuels our anger toward “the other” — illegal immigrants, gays, Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, Blacks — and anyone who would dare speak for them — the radical left and their socialist agenda, those protesting in the streets, those promoting Critical Race Theory, those calling for gun control. Our fear-fueled anger has hardened into hatred for and disgust with any who do not agree with us. We attack them, demean them by calling them derogatory names, and attempt to discredit everything about them. We see no good in them. We reject anything “the other” advocates. We have become rigid in our thinking, unyielding in our positions, and arbitrary in our demands. We think in terms of either-or, black-and-white, ignoring the complexity that underlies every issue. We demand that our “Christian” beliefs and values be written into law, making them the law of the land — a “Christian” Sahara law.

The way we function personally is played out in our political arena. Our elected representatives seem to have abandoned the common good in favor of holding onto power at any cost. Dark money, pouring in from corporate interests like the NRA and Big Oil, lines their pockets, influencing legislation and votes. They refuse to work together to make progress on any front, choosing instead to blame the other party. To stay in office, they appeal to our fear rather than our intellect, keeping “their base” motivated with anger toward and fear of “the other.”

Our unrecognized and unaddressed fear, anger, and hatred then get projected onto “the other” through violence. Violence is using our power to attack, overpower, defeat, and destroy “the other.” We use our power against “the other.” We seek to win, regardless of the cost.

Our addiction to violence is reflected throughout our culture. It fills our movies and TV shows. It is the pattern in our video games. We exalt it in our sports. Our image of a hero is a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood who single handedly use violence to defeat the enemy and make everything right. Our guns are the symbol of our addiction to violence.

Our anxiety-driven, violence-prone functioning reflects emotional regression. We are going backwards rather than making progress — as individuals, as a society, as a nation.

What is in our hearts — the fear, the anger, the hatred toward “the other” — and our addiction to violence go against the clear teachings of Jesus.

Violence is the way of the world — power used over, down against the other, for personal benefit, at the other’s expense. It is not the way of Jesus. “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45, emphasis added). Jesus’s way is to use power to serve. It is to use power the way God uses power, in life-giving, life-nurturing ways.

Our functioning out of fear, anger, and hatred reflect a self-focused, self-serving spirit. Such a spirit is inherent to our human condition, but it is not the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus is the way of the servant. When his disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest, Jesus said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). The servant spirit is the measure of greatness in the kingdom. The servant spirit is expressed in self-giving love that seeks the good of the other. It is the opposite of our self-focused, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit.

Love is the way of Jesus — self-giving, servant love. He taught us to love God, love neighbor. Viewing another through the eyes of fear, seeing them as “other,” is not the way of Jesus. It is the way of our most immature human nature. In Galatians 5:20, the Apostle Paul identified “enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions” as works of the flesh, that is, of our basic, anxiety-driven, self-focused human nature. We don’t have to work at fearing and hating “the other.” It comes naturally, automatically. The polarization in our nation and in our communities is an expression of our self-focused, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me nature. It is not the way of Jesus. Loving our neighbor is the way of Jesus. We love God by loving our neighbor.  

Regression — functioning out of our most base instincts — is the path that leads to destruction. It destroys our personal emotional-relational-spiritual health. It destroys relationships. It will destroy our nation and our democracy.

I believe we have a gun problem in our nation. I believe we have too many guns. I believe we need to limit who has access to guns. I believe we need to limit what kinds of guns we have access to. I also believe that until we address what is in our hearts and the violence that manifests it, talking about guns and gun violence is fruitless.

We as a nation have a heart problem. We as a nation have an addiction problem. We are addicted to violence. We as a nation have a spiritual problem.

6th Sunday of Easter, 2022 - Pruning

 The central theme in Jesus’s metaphor of the vine and the branches is fruit – fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last.

The secret to producing fruit is abiding — staying connected to the vine (Jesus) so that the life of the vine flows in us and through us. “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).

The Father wants us to bear fruit. Fruitlessness is not tolerated. “He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit” (John 15:2a). The Father works in our lives so that we will bear fruit. “Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit” (John 15:2b). The Father, through the Spirit, deals with those things in our lives that keep us from bearing fruit. He prunes us. He prunes us so that we can bear more fruit.

Pruning is an essential part of bearing fruit. It involves cutting away that which saps the life of the vine. It involves cutting away that which blocks the flow of the life of the vine. The Spirit addresses those things in our lives that hinder our connection with Christ. The Spirit confronts those things in our lives that limit the flow of Christ’s life in us and through us. The Spirit challenges those things in our lives that keep us from loving as Jesus loved.

Those things that limit our fruitfulness are old patterns and habits, old ways of thinking, old attitudes, unaddressed issues, unresolved hurts and harbored anger, bitterness and resentment, the unwillingness to forgive. They are places where we are stuck, where we have not grown emotionally-relationally-spiritually. They are issues we have ignored and pushed out of our awareness in our shadow.  They are the issues not addressed in most institutional church life.

The Father prunes these things from our lives out of love. The pruning is not malicious or punitive. The Spirit’s pruning work is so we can grow emotionally-relationally-spiritually. It is so the life of Christ can flow freely and fully in us and through us. It is so the Father can give us whatever we ask in Jesus’s name (John 15:7, 16). It is so our joy might be full (John 15:11). It is so we can bear fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last. It is so we can experience the Father’s life and love flowing in us and through us in the Indwelling Christ. It is so we can love one another (John 15:12). It is so we can love as Jesus loved.

This thinking makes me wonder: what does the Spirit want to prune out of my life today?

5th Sunday of Easter, 2022 - I Have Chosen You Out of the World

It is something most church members do not understand. Most probably don’t even think about it because they assume a reality that is the opposite of what Jesus taught.

In his teachings about abiding in him, Jesus spoke of the world’s attitude toward his disciples, an attitude rooted in his followers relationship to the world (John 15:18-19).

Jesus used the word hate to describe the attitude of the world toward those who follow him. The world hated him. Consequently, the world — society, culture, the social world, even family — would hate them/us. “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The word hate carries the idea of opposing, resisting, challenging, rejecting. In Jesus’s experience, the hate translated into crucifying him on a cross.

The reason for the world’s attitude toward Jesus’s disciples is their relationship to the world. We who follow Jesus no longer belong to the world. Jesus chose us and called us out of the world. Jesus called us to be a part of the kingdom. “If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world — therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).

Following Jesus means we learn and live the grace-based ways of God that Jesus called the kingdom of God. These ways are a threat to the ways of the world. The ways of the kingdom – the way we are to live as the followers of Jesus – undermines the ways of the world. Living out of grace and love (John 15:12, 17), we view and value, accept and embrace every person as a beloved child of God. The world functions out of us-them thinking. It views anyone who is different through the lens of anxiety, viewing them as “other.” Us-them thinking and functioning creates a hierarchy in relationships. Those like us who live up to our expectations and standards are better than those who fail to measure up. The other’s failure to measure up makes us better than them — superior, a step up. God’s ways of grace undermine this merit-based way of thinking and relating. It is a threat to the manufactured identity we created using what the world says is important. This constructed self is based upon what the world said we needed to believe and do if we wanted to be accepted and included. Grace and forgiveness undermine merit-based thinking and relating. Viewing and valuing, accepting and embracing every person as a beloved child of God undermines us-them thinking and relating. It destroys the foundation upon which merit-based hierarchy is built. 

Most church members in the US do not see this teaching of Jesus — “the world hates you.” Their religious faith has been deeply tied to their culture. Their culture has taught their religious faith. Unfortunately, the culture has taught its way of thinking and relating, not the ways of God that Jesus taught. Thus, most church members do not recognize that they are enmeshed in the world even though Jesus called them out of the world. They assume what they believe and what their culture taught them are God’s ways. They cannot distinguish culture from God, a culture-shaped religion from the kingdom.

“If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world — therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19).

It seems to me this truth calls for some self-reflection and self-examination. It makes me ask, “What if the world doesn't hate us?”

4th Sunday of Easter, 2022 - Fruit That Will Last

 When we abide in Christ, the life of Christ flowing in us and through us produces fruit — fruit (John 15:2), more fruit (John 15:2), much fruit (John 15:5), fruit that will last (John 15:16).

Abiding in Christ is the secret to bearing fruit. “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5).

Jesus was clear. Fruit in our lives comes from abiding, allowing the life of the vine (Christ) flow in us and through us. He was also clear about the flip side of that thought. “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b). We cannot, in our own strength or through self-effort or through willful resolve, produce fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last. Fruit in the spiritual realm — spiritual fruit — requires a spiritual life enriched by intimate relationship with the Risen Christ and the Father.

What does that mean — spiritual fruit? A spiritual life enriched by an intimate relationship with the Risen Christ and the Father?

Jesus’s teaching in John 15 identifies what he meant by fruit.

One place that abiding produces fruit is in our relationship with God the Father, particularly in our experience of prayer. Abiding enriches our experience of prayer. Abiding produces an intimacy with God captured by the word Father. We know and trust God as Abba — the Aramaic name a small child used with their father. It corresponds to our English word daddy. Abiding creates a freedom in our relationship with God. A deep confidence in and unquestioning trust in God’s love frees us from fear and hesitancy (1 John 4:18). We turn to God with boldness (Hebrews 4:16) to receive the grace we need for whatever we are facing.

In addition to this deep intimacy and freedom, Jesus spoke of asking and receiving in prayer. “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name (John 15:16). Jesus did not say God would give us whatever we wanted and asked for — although his words can be read that way and are frequently interpreted that way (name it and claim it, prosperity gospel teaching). I hear him saying our asking arises out of our abiding and thus is shaped by our abiding. Our asking is shaped by his words — his teachings — which abide in us and guide us. Our asking grows out of our desire to bear fruit that will last and fruit that will point to the beauty of God’s love. The Father will give us whatever we need to bear fruit, to love as Jesus loved, to love who Jesus loved. We need only to ask. Our abiding in Christ guides how we pray and for what we pray. It releases the life-giving, transformative power of God, accessed through prayer, in our lives.

As we abide in Christ, our lives are transformed — another expression of the spiritual fruit that is produced as his life flows in us and through us. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:10). Keeping Jesus’s commandments comes out of abiding in his love. Abiding is what makes it possible to keep his commandments, particularly the commandment to love one another (John 15:12, 17). To keep his commandments is to live the ways of God he taught. As we abide in Christ, we ask the Father to empower us to do what we cannot do in our own strength, i.e., keep his commandments, love. As the Father gives us what we ask, our lives are transformed. Our lives become patterned after and reflect the life of Christ.

Abiding produces the joy of Christ in our lives (John 15:11) — yet another expression of the fruit. “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). The joy Jesus experienced grew out of his intimate relationship with God as Abba. It was tied to loving as God loves. As we abide in Christ, we experience that same joy — the joy of intimate relationship with God as Abba, the joy of loving others as Jesus loved. We experience a joy this world cannot duplicate or give.

Ultimately, the fruit that comes from abiding in Christ is the ability to love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13). “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (John 15:17). As we abide in Christ, his teachings shape how we think and live. Our lives are transformed so that we love as Jesus loved. Abiding leads us to love as Jesus loved … to love one another with the self-giving, self-sacrificing love of God.

Abiding is the secret to bearing fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last — an intimate relationship with God as Abba, asking in prayer shaped by our abiding, living the ways of God that Jesus taught so our lives are transformed, the joy of Christ, loving as Jesus loved.

Sadly, we too often make excuses for the lack of this kind of fruit in our lives. We substitute beliefs about God for intimate relationship with God as Abba. We substitute prayer lists for prayer that grows out of our intimate relationship with God and our desire to learn and live God’s ways. We substitute involvement in the activities of an institutional church for a life shaped by and transformed by the ways of God Jesus taught. We settle for social relationships in the institutional church in place of the joy Jesus promised. We substitute moral living, church involvement, and charity work for loving as Jesus loved. We settle for the mediocrity of doing the best I can in place of abiding in Christ.

Abiding in Christ is the key to bearing fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last.

3rd Sunday of Easter, 2022 - The "How To" of Abiding

Abiding in Christ — staying connected to the Risen Christ — being attentive to the Spirit’s movement and work in our lives — living intimately in relationship with God as a beloved child: such is the heart of the spiritual life of a follower of Jesus.

How do we do abide in Christ? What does it mean to be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14) and to live by the Spirit (Romans 8:1-17; Galatians 5:16-26)? What does it look like to live in intimate relationship with God as a beloved child?

Our inclination is to answer these questions out of our default merit-based thinking. We talk about the things we do — attending worship, being involved in church activities and Bible study, doing things to help others. These kinds of things are just another expression of our being productive and staying busy mentality. They are about doing, not necessarily about abiding. They are things we substitute for abiding because we don’t understand how to abide.

Abiding is more than doing. It is more than practicing certain behaviors. Certainly, abiding produces doing. It changes our behavior. The change of behavior is the fruit that abiding produces. Abiding, however, takes place in a different dimension of our lives, on a deeper level than behavior. Abiding takes place in the realm of the heart. It has to do with the thinking that shapes our lives, the attitudes that grow out of that thinking, and the resulting spirit with which we live.

Abiding is rooted in grace. Jesus said our abiding in him is a mutual abiding. “Abide in me as I abide in you” (John 15:4). Through the indwelling Spirit, Jesus and the Father live in us. “We will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:33). This mutual indwelling is a gift of grace. It is what God, living out of divine love, does. Living out of self-giving love, God embraces us as beloved children and lives in us. We are able to abide in Christ because Christ first abides in us. Grace, expressed in mutual abiding, is what makes abiding possible.

We cannot abide in Christ as long as we live out of merit-based thinking. Functioning out of merit-based thinking, we live with an acute awareness of how we fail to measure up. We are hesitant to approach God because of this sense of inadequacy, accompanied by the guilt and shame it spawns. We look for something to do to compensate for our failure, making our relationship with God based upon what we do, i.e., merit. A relationship based on merit is always conditional. It is always tentative and uncertain. It is a barrier to abiding.

Abiding is resting in God’s grace. It is trusting God’s unconditional acceptance of us and delight in us as beloved children. It is living by faith, trusting God’s steadfast, faithful love for us. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9). Abiding is holding onto God’s love and grace in the face of our failure. It means we trust God to not abandon us even when we fail. It is claiming God’s forgiveness for how we failed yet again. It is resisting the guilt and shame of merit-based thinking that spirals down into self-condemnation and self-hate. Abiding is letting God love us when we feel we don’t deserve it. (Deserving language reflects merit-based thinking). Abiding is knowing we are held in a web of divine love and allowing that Love to hold us. 

Abiding allows the ways of God Jesus taught to shape how we think and live. “If you abide in me and my words abide in you” (John 15:7). As we abide in Christ, God’s grace and forgiveness — “my words” — begin to shape our thinking. We move beyond our default merit-based thinking to grace-based thinking. This shift in our thinking confronts the attitudes we harbor in our hearts toward others — attitudes that are the product of merit-based thinking. The Spirit cleanses our hearts by healing these critical, judgmental attitudes. As a result, the spirit out of which we live is transformed. A servant, grace-filled spirit replaces the competitive, what’s-in-it-for-me, self-serving spirit that merit-based thinking naturally produces.

Abiding takes place in the realm of the heart. It leads to the transformation of the heart — the thinking, the attitudes, the spirit out of which we live. Our behavior, in turn, changes as our thinking is transformed and our hearts are cleansed. (Our behavior always expresses what is in our hearts.) As we abide in Christ, his life flows through us, producing fruit. We love as Jesus loved. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

Abiding is learning to live by faith in the steadfast, faithful love of God. It is learning to live by grace. It is resting in grace.