Posture is everything.

“25 And behold, a certain legal expert stood up to test him,” (Luke 10)

This line bolted off the page at me today.  Then a thousand thoughts ran through my mind and onto this page until it became a literary elephant seal which could barely lift its bulk out of the water to bark and make it’s “Port-o-john-at-a-chili-cook-off” noises.  So I clubbed it, skinned it and rendered the blubber down in my oven to what I hope, I hope will be the oil of essence to light a lamp of truth.

Coincidentally, that might be the grossest paragraph I’ve ever written.  Oh well, if you can’t be edifying, at least be provocative.

I hear the “hater” label a lot these days.  Christians are intolerant.  Their God is a baby-killer.  Jesus consigns people to hell because they just happened to live in the wrong country and never heard of him or they’re gay or democrat or what have you.  And all of this is missing the point and no different than what Adam did in blaming Eve or Cain did in saying his punishment was unfair.  Oh poor me, all I did was kill my brother in cold blood and now I have to go live somewhere else.  Boo hoo.  God is mean!

Let’s get something straight and ironed out right here and now.  No one goes to Hell where the worm never dies and the fire is not extinguished or the Lake of Fire that burns with sulphur or the Outer Darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth for any sin, ANY sin except this one…

Self righteousness.

That’s it.  It’s true there will be no gays in heaven, no adulterers, no murderers or pornographers or gossips or slanderers, no liars, fiends, addicts, bigots, racists, prostitutes, traitors, fornicators, perverts, brawlers, drunkards, witches, there will be no thieves, cheats, swindlers or greedy people there, no one who manipulates, no one who has been selfish, rude, arrogant, angry without cause, unfair, mean, or short-tempered, no one who has been disobedient to their parents or legitimate authorities, no one who sins at all will be there.

The new heaven and the new earth will however be full of former gays, adulterers, murderers, pornographers, gossips, slanderers, liars, fiends, addicts, bigots, racists, prostitutes, traitors, fornicators, perverts, brawlers, drunkards, witches, thieves, cheats, swindlers, formerly greedy people, manipulators, people who were formerly selfish, rude, arrogant, angry without cause, unfair, mean, short tempered and disobedient.  Heaven will be full of people who sinned, recognized their unworthiness and fell on God’s love, compassion and forgiveness. 

In former times and in far away lands, faith meant believing God could do this even though one didn’t know how.  How could a God who is fully fair, fully just, just …forgive our sins?  No matter how great?  No matter who I hurt?  He couldn’t!  He would have to punish sin!  He is holy!  Nothing sinful can enter His presence without being burnt down like a French fry shot at the Sun! 

But Jesus!  Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth and took the punishment, the full punishment for our sins!  God took he who had never sinned, never been disobedient and put all our sins on Him and then killed him!  Killing all our sins!  And because Jesus did this willingly, did this perfectly, did this lovingly God raised Him from the dead!  For how could a just God, a fair Judge, a loving Father not reward such sacrifice!?

“21 For just as the Father raises the dead and makes them alive, thus also the Son makes alive whomever he wishes. 22 For the Father does not judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, 23 in order that all people will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly I say to you that the one who hears my word and who believes the one who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5)

In former times and far away lands, rebellion against God’s mercy, love and sovereignty looked like idolatry.  Which is really worship of self.  God’s of our own understanding.  God’s we control and manipulate.  God’s who give us what we want which is to be our own gods.  Now, since Jesus, it’s exactly the same, only people can be more specific about it if they want.  All of it results in the same thing however, rejection of God’s plan for mercy in the person of Jesus.  Rejection of God’s love.  The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father.  All things were made by the Father, through the Son, for the Son and the Son has come and purified all things as a gift for the Father.  This has been testified to since the beginning by the Holy Spirit.  Rejection of this testimony is calling the Holy Spirit a liar.  Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  The one unforgivable sin. 

What does this look like?  Is it just saying you don’t believe once and your done like the kids and fools on a website created for atheists who can’t even be atheists without attempting to biblically insult the God they profess not to believe in?  Is it atheism itself?  Or do you have to be a pagan?  Is it anything in that list of sins at the beginning?

It looks like three crosses.  Jesus in the center with a thief on either hand.  One thief looks at the guiltless lamb of God and mocks in anger and impotent fury.  The other, guilty of the same crime as his brother, confesses his guilt, looks at the guiltless lamb of God and asks for mercy he knows he has no right to receive unless the one in the center is loving.

“Today if you will hear his voice:

8 “Do not harden your heart…” (Ps 95)

“You warned them so that they would return to your law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to your commandments but sinned against your judgments that a person must do so that they may live. They turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not listen.” (Neh 9)

Paganism?  Atheism?  Murder, adultery, greed?  No.  Those are just symptoms.  Symptoms of a hard heart and stiff neck.

Who's in the boat?

“22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (Luke 8)

Whew!  Tense!  Glad we’re not in that boat!  Or are we?  In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m mildly obsessed with the question, “What are we to do?”  Jesus has done all required for us to be saved.  We have his righteousness.  Nothing we did to save ourselves mattered.  Only by falling on His mercy can we enter into the Kingdom of God.  It is finished.  Done.  Put that baby to bed cuz it’s passed out on the couch… or the back of the boat.  So maybe it isn’t so much, “What are we to do?” but “What are we to do NOW?”

“19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  ...” (Gal 2)  Something significant happened the day I believed.  The day I chose Jesus’ righteousness over mine, I died and was raised again as something wholly, holy different… on the inside.  This I think is one of the problems the world has with ‘born again’ Christians.  They don’t SEE a difference.  We don’t glow.  We don’t change color or shape or size.  We are sealed by God, “13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Eph 1) but it is a seal like those at the amusement park; no one can see it until it fluoresces under Holy light.  It is a guarantee of a future inheritance.  We are royalty!  We are rich!  We are immortal!  We are holy!  Trust me, you just can’t see it yet.

Unless we have deeds.

How would a royal, beloved prince of the only all-sovereign King of the Universes, secure in his throne, not because of anything he had done but strictly and only because of who his father is, surrounded by legions of loyal, all-powerful bodyguards act?  How would he treat the lowly?  How would he treat his brothers?  How would a woman, rich beyond her wildest dreams and perfectly secure in all her future incomes, with so much wealth coming in, she can’t even contemplate savings because no vault could hold it for even a minute, how would this woman in a waterfall of wealth, handle finances?  Treat the poor?  How would a man who could not die, feel about death?  What would he fear?  How would a woman, stolen as a child, beaten, abused, raped and used, bought and sold until she learned to beat, abuse, rape and use, buy and sell others, who then is rescued and washed, healed and loved, pampered and restored to utterly blinding, ravishing beauty and glory by a husband fairy-tale perfect, spend her time?  Her money?  Her love?  Her forgiveness?  How would a people with the greatest message in all of time and space spend their few, short years in time and space?

I’ll tell ya how: in a boat in a storm.  Look at this story from Luke 8.  Jesus has come and done all he thought he needed to do.  And it was a lot.  Read over the list of miracles, crowds, long nights spent in prayer and walking he has done.  He’s crashed.  He’s sleeping the sleep of the honest innocent in the back of the boat.  Arrayed in front of him are his handpicked, chosen men, fully invested, fully devoted followers… fighting for their lives!  At least half of them are fishermen from this very lake, probably as the balladeer sings, sons of sons of sons of sailors.  They know how to do what they are doing.  They’ve done this before.  Tonight however, their ticket is punched.  Their luck has run out, they’ve done all they can and it wasn’t enough.  They have been weighed, measured and found wanting.  And it irks them that the guy responsible for them being here is asleep for it.  So, darn tootin’ they wake him up! 

“And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?””   Luke sugar-coats it, we can forgive him, he wasn’t there.  Matt and Mark, who I’m told, got the story direct from Peter, record Jesus’ words a bit differently, “40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”” (Matt 8, Mark 4)  It sounds harsh until you realize even Jonah, the hardhearted and wayward prophet of fish food fame, knew his God well enough to sleep during storms and was completely confident in His ability to still them as well. 

So what do we learn?  How does this answer my burning question?  “What are we to do now?”  The story tells us.

Secondly, we obey.  (Yeah, I know, stick with me.)  Jesus said, “Let’s go”.  They went.  Some storms come because, like Jonah, we don’t obey.  We who are his, need to read the Word, pray to the Word and listen to the Word and see where the Word is telling us to go.  Third, go.  Action.  Jesus wanted to go across a lake.  They did not sit on a beach and pray for a miracle.  They did not step onto the water and expect it not to give.  They went and got a boat and sailed and when the wind became too dangerous, they rowed.  They worked.  They did what they knew how to do.  Some of them, like Matt the accountant, had to learn new skills.  And that’s it.  Pretty simple, huh?

If we do the first thing first: have faith.  Faith, as I’ve tried to show ad nauseam, is knowing.  We need to be with Jesus.  We need to have Jesus in the boat when we go.   But most of all, we need to know. Who. Jesus. IS.  We don’t bring Jesus with us, we are with HIM.

On the surface, these men were faithful.  They were obedient.  They were following Jesus.  In their hearts however, they had no idea who Jesus is.  They were following what they saw.  Jesus leads them right into a storm.  Following Jesus doesn’t mean life will make sense, today.  In this story, as in Jonah’s, the boat and the sailors are saved.  In Acts 27, Paul’s boat is lost but everyone on board is spared.  Paul lives… to finish going to Rome where he is beheaded.  Following Jesus doesn’t ensure a happy ending…that the world can SEE!  Everyone Jesus healed, died.  Everyone Jesus raised from the dead, died again.  If we live for what we can see, we will die.  If we die, living for what we cannot see, what we know without seeing, we. Will. Live!  And maybe, just maybe, someone else will see THAT and believe!

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1Pet 1)