The Heart of the Matter: Transformation

The Hebrew Scriptures describe God as a God of steadfast, faithful love (Exodus 34:6-7). The Johannine community of the New Testament described God as a God of self-giving, other-centered love (1 John 4:7-10). Jesus and the apostle Paul knew God to be a God who lives out of a servant spirit. What would a God of self-giving, other-centered love desire for us? What would a God who lives out of a servant spirit seek to produce in our lives?

How we answer these questions shapes our understanding of the spiritual life as well as how we approach our spiritual journey.

The most common understanding—that proclaimed from the vast majority of pulpits on any given Sunday—focuses on our eternal destiny, i.e., heaven and hell. It is about escaping the condemnation and judgment we deserve because of our sins. In this understanding, God sent Jesus to die on the cross, taking on the punishment we deserve. Jesus’s death appeased God’s wrath, freeing God to forgive our sins.

While popular, this common understanding is not in harmony with the character of God or the teachings of scripture. Its fundamental flaw is its misunderstanding of the character of God. It views God as a God of wrath that must be appeased rather than the God of love Jesus proclaimed. This misunderstanding produces a second significant flaw: it is based upon merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking. It fails to understand that grace and forgiveness are how God—as a God of love—relates to us. This understanding centers God’s work solely on Jesus’s death on the cross, thereby ignoring his teachings and the significance of his resurrection. It is a Good Friday theology, not an Easter theology. At its core, it is me-oriented. It reflects a self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit that leaves us essentially unchanged. Perhaps that fact is a part of its popularity and appeal.

Another popular understanding is called the prosperity gospel. In this theology, God works to make us successful as the world defines success—in terms of material wealth. According to this teaching, God—who wants us to be financially successful—blesses us with material wealth when we meet the right conditions. This theology mirrors the theology known as divine retribution that is found in portions of the Hebrew Scriptures. This theology teaches God rewards righteousness with health, wealth, long life, and a large family. In this thinking, poverty and sickness, early death and family problems are indicators of sin in one’s life. They are God’s judgment for the failure to live righteously. This thinking is also merit-based, deserving-oriented. It is transactional thinking—the kind of thinking found in the world—“if I will . . . then God will . . .” The book of Job in the Hebrew Scriptures was written to refute this way of thinking.

The scripture bears witness to God’s desire for us and what God seeks for us.

God wants us to know God and the ways of God. God sent the Son into the world that we might know what God is like—that is, the character of God and the ways of God (John 1:18; 14:9).

God wants us to live in relationship with God as beloved children. “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

God wants us to participate in God’s kind of life, possessing the divine character as our own (Romans 8:29), knowing the joy of living God’s ways (John 15:11).

God wants us to live as the followers of Jesus, learning and living the ways of God Jesus taught.

God wants us to grow spiritually into the likeness of Christ—“to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ”—(Ephesians 4:13; 2 Peter 3:18).

God is at work through the Spirit to set us free from the self-life that enslaves us, robbing us of life and wholeness—what Paul called “slavery to sin” (Romans 7:14-20; Galatians 5:16-25).

God is at work through the Spirit to transform our hearts and minds (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2), engraining the character of God in the core of our being so that the self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me sin nature is rooted out.

Through the Spirit’s transforming work in our lives, we live as God’s partner in the Godhead’s eternal, redemptive purpose of restoring oneness to all of creation (Ephesians 1:3-14; 3:10; 4:1-7).

Any religious teaching or position or belief that does not center on the transformation of our hearts and minds into the likeness of Christ misses the essence of what God was doing in sending Jesus the Son into the world—i.e., salvation.

The Heart of the Matter: A Servant Spirit

The New Testament Johannine community identified the character of God as love—self-giving, other-centered love.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world (self-giving) so that we might live through him (other-centered). In this is love, not that we loved but that he loved us and sent his Son (self-giving) to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (other-centered)” (1 John 4:7-10).

That community’s understanding of the character of God was founded upon God’s self-revelation to Moses (Exodus 34:6-7) and upon the teachings of Jesus whom they viewed as the Son sent by God. The Son was sent that we might know God as love—self-giving, other-centered love.

The heart of God’s character, according to God’s self-revelation to Moses on Mt. Sinai, is love—steadfast, faithful love. This love gave birth to Yahweh’s covenant with the nation of Israel (Exodus 34:10). It is God’s covenant love—chesed. God’s love for Israel was steadfast. It never waivered in spite of their failure to be faithful to the covenant. God’s love was faithful. God never gave up on or abandoned the people even when their unfaithfulness resulted in their experience of exile in Babylon. Even in that experience, God continued to work on their behalf, leading them into a deeper understanding of God’s nature and into a deeper understanding of who they were as the people of God. God was at work in ways they could not see—what the prophet to the exiles identified as a second exodus experience (Isaiah 43:16-21). God was at work to restore the nation in its homeland.

In this covenant love of Yahweh, Jesus saw the self-giving, other-centered love of God. He saw the servant nature in the heart of God and patterned his life after it. When his disciples argued about who among them was the greatest, Jesus taught them, “Whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). In the world, greatness (status) is tied to position, power, and wealth, but in the kingdom, greatness is measured by the spirit out of which one lives—specifically, a servant spirit. Jesus himself embraced and embodied the servant spirit. “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 10:43-45).

The apostle Paul grasped this deep truth, urging the Philippian church to adopt the mind of Christ by embracing a servant spirit (Philippians 2:5-11). The author of 1 John urged the Johannine community members to love one another with God’s self-giving, other-centered love—i.e., relating to one another out of a servant spirit.

God’s self-giving, other-centered love is expressed in a servant spirit. Any religious position or belief that does not reflect a servant spirit that seeks the good of another is not of God.

Because God is love—self-giving, other-centered love—the heart of the matter is a servant spirit.

The Heart of the Matter: Grace and Forgiveness

The central, defining element in the character of God is love—covenant love, chesed (Exodus 34:6-7). God’s covenant love is steadfast and faithful. Steadfast means it never waivers. Faithful means God never gives up on or abandons those God loves. God abounds in—overflows with—this steadfast, faithful love. It extends to the thousandth generation—a Hebrew phrase meaning it is never ending.

Following this revelation recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament Johannine community also identified the essence of God’s nature as love—self-giving, other-centered love (1 John 4:8-10). God gives freely and sacrificially of self (self-giving) on behalf of the other (other-centered). Such love is expressed in a servant spirit—giving oneself without reservation to seek the wellbeing and wholeness of the other.

The heart of God is self-giving, servant love.

God’s character of steadfast, faithful love, of self-giving, servant love governs all that God does—including how God relates to us.

God relates to us out of who God is—that is, out of this self-giving, servant love. Consequently, God relates to us out of grace and forgiveness.

We humans naturally think in terms of merit—of what we deserve. Our merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking makes it difficult for us to grasp, much less embrace, grace and forgiveness. We struggle to grasp that merit—what we deserve—does not come into play in any way. How God relates to us is not based upon who we are or what we do or what we deserve. It is rooted in who God is. It is an expression of God’s character of self-giving, servant love.

Grace is unconditional love that is given freely and joyfully. It is pure gift.

Forgiveness is an expression of this unconditional love we call grace. It too is a gift. It is given to remove any barrier in the relationship—guilt, shame, fear, regret—created by our failure in the relationship. It allows the relationship to continue unhindered in spite of our failure (sin). (Read that again.) Because of God’s forgiveness, sin does not separate us from God (in spite of what we have been taught). It does not destroy the relationship. God refuses to let sin be a barrier in the relationship with us. Because of God’s steadfast, faithful love, God deals with our sin by forgiving it.

Forgiveness too is unconditional. It is not given if or when we repent. It is given freely, joyfully, lavishly because it is not about what we deserve. It is an expression of who God is—of God’s steadfast, faithful love. God’s unconditional love and gift of forgiveness are what give us the courage to face, acknowledge, and turn from (repent of) our sin. They allow us to turn to God for help (Hebrews 4:14-16). They allow us to learn from our failures so that we don’t repeat them. They allow us to grow spiritually. They lead us to grow more deeply in love with God and with who God is.

Jesus understood the unconditional nature of God’s love. He understood the unconditional nature of forgiveness. He repeatedly told people “Your sins are forgiven” because he understood that God had already forgiven them and their sins. In contrast to Jesus, the religious leaders of his time bartered forgiveness, making it a transaction. When the proper sacrifice was offered, then forgiveness would be proclaimed. This bartering of forgiveness indicated the religious leaders did not know the heart of God. It was an expression of merit-based thinking, not of the character of God.

Because God is love—steadfast, faithful love; self-giving, servant love—God relates to us out of grace and forgiveness. Any religious position or belief that is not an expression of God’s grace and forgiveness—that is, of God’s steadfast, faithful love, of God’s self-giving, servant love—is not of God. (If this statement is true, it calls into question how we commonly think about confession and repentance, about condemnation and judgment, about heaven and hell.)

Because God is love, grace and forgiveness are the heart of the matter.

The Heart of the Matter: Love

The heart of the matter is love.

Love as a way of living and being - not feelings or emotion but choosing based upon a foundational principle that governs how one thinks and lives.

Love - covenant love, chesed - is the central, defining element in the character of God (Exodus 34:6-7). Such love is steadfast, that is, it never fluctuates or waivers. It is faithful. It never gives up on or abandons those God loves. God abounds in, overflows with such love. God's covenant love extends to the thousandth generation - a Hebrew phrase meaning "never ending."

The apostle Paul recognized love as the heart of God. Paul wrote, "God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). God's love underlies God's work of salvation - accepting us unconditionally (justification, Romans 3:21-5:2), transforming us (sanctification, Romans 5:1-8:17), conforming us to the likeness of Christ (perfecting grace, Romans 8:18-39). Paul ended his description of salvation by asserting that nothing "in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39).

The Johannine community said it most simply: "God is love" (1 John 4:8). The author described this love as self-giving and other-centered. "God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9). Such love seeks the wellbeing of the beloved. It is unconditional - given freely and lavishly out of who God is.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul spoke of the servant nature of God's love. "Though he was in the form of God, (Christ) did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on the cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). In the incarnation, the self-giving nature of God's love was expressed in the Son's self-emptying -  giving up his position in the Godhead to become human.

The heart of God is self-giving, servant love that seeks the wholeness of those whom God loves.

Thus, the heart of the matter is love. Any religious position or belief that does not align with God's nature of self-giving, servant love, with God's steadfast, faithful love is not of God. As the writer of 1 John said, "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8).

Love is the bottom line for God.

Second Sunday after Pentecost - Recognizing the Danger We Face

It is a danger we all face on our spiritual journeys. How we deal with this danger determines the spirit with which we live. How we deal with it sets the trajectory of our spiritual journey. Ultimately, how we deal with this danger defines the character of our spiritual lives.

This danger is inherent to religious life. This danger is so deeply engrained in religious thinking that it is generally not recognized. As a result, we do not recognize it lurking in the recesses of our own thinking. The more trapped we are in its power, the more blind we are to its presence in our own lives.

Religious life, by nature, is built around a religious rule that governs the life of the community. This rule includes accepted beliefs (theology-orthodoxy) as well as a set of expectations regarding what to do or not do (morals-orthopraxy) based on those beliefs. It is the standard by which the community lives. Over time, this religious rule translates into religious traditions that are considered sacred.

The purpose o the religious rule is twofold. First, the rule shapes the community's identity. It helps the community define itself. It sets the community apart from others. In addition, the rule is a guide pointing the way for the members of the community. It helps them as they seek to make progress on their spiritual journeys. It is the standard by which they measure themselves and their progress.

The danger of which I speak arises when this religious rule - the standard that defines and shapes the religious community - is used to judge others.

Let me be clear. Judging others - a critical, judgmental spirit that focuses on how others fail to conform to the religious rule - is not the danger. It is an indicator of the danger.

What, then, is the danger? I don't have a name for it. I can only describe it.

It involves focusing on the wrong thing - on behavior rather than attitudes, on right beliefs rather than a right spirit (a servant spirit), on externals rather than the inner realm of the heart, on rules rather than relationships, on conformity to expectations rather than compassion and understanding, on finding fault rather than forgiving, on comparing and competing rather than accepting and valuing, on keeping score rather than making progress.

It operates out of merit-based, deserving-oriented thinking rather than the grace and forgiveness with which God relates to us.

It creates us-them relationships, build walls that divide, reinforces alienation and division. It fosters a not-so-subtle arrogance of being better-than another, placing others in a one-down position in the relationship.

It blocks compassion - a defining dimension of the character of God (Exodus 34:6-7) and an essential element in the spiritual life (Colossians 3:12) - as well as any effort to understand the other's situation.

It reflects a fragile sense of self - what I call an egocentric, constructed self. This identity is the persona we created based on what the world - society, family, culture, church - told us we needed to be and do if we wanted to be accepted and valued. Because it is fragile, this persona needs to constantly be propped up. That's where judging others comes in. Every time we judge another, we unconsciously say "I'm not like that. I'm better than that." A critical, judgmental spirit is evidence that we are living out of an egocentric, constructed self.

It involves spiritual blindness - the inability to see in oneself what others see, the inability to be honest with oneself about struggle and failure. It projects onto others the very things we disown in our own lives - what is called scapegoating. It is thinking we are right when we are wrong.

We see these dynamics in today's lectionary gospel reading - Mark 2:23-3:6. The text relates two occasions in which Jesus failed to follow the scribal teachings and traditions related to Sabbath observance. His actions triggered criticism by the Pharisees. "Why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?" (Mark 2:24). It led them to plot his death (Mark 3:6).

Their attempts to get rid of Jesus reflect the heart of the danger I've attempted to describe - the danger of missing authentic spirituality. Authentic spirituality involves more than right beliefs and behavior. It is found in relationships - loving God by loving others (Mark 12:28-34). It is not found in conformity to some religious standard or in following some religious tradition. It is found in the transformation of heart and mind that leads us to love God and neighbor.

I'm not sure we are ever free from this danger on the spiritual journey. After all, the inclination to judge others is an inherent part of our human condition, of how we seek to establish our identity. Consider how quickly we are to be critical of the Pharisees. Our best protection against this ever-present danger is our awareness of our own need of God's grace.