Today’s Sunday Share comes from pastor and apologist Tim Keller, who died on May 19 after battling pancreatic cancer. When hearing that news, it seemed appropriate to quote him in the blog, so the Sunday Share for this week is the extended quote below from Keller’s book, Making Sense of God:
“If you believe in Jesus’s message, you believe in a truth, but not a truth that leads to exclusion. Many voices argue that it is exclusionary to claim that you have the truth, but as we have seen, that view itself sets up a dichotomy with you as the heroically tolerant and others as villainously or pathetically bigoted. You cannot avoid truth claims and binaries. The real issue is, then, which kind of truth- and which kind of identity that the truth produces- leads you to embrace people who are deeply different from you? Which truth claims lead you to scorn people who oppose you as fools? Which truth claims lead to community? Which truth claims both humble and affirm you so that you’re not afraid of people who are different than you are, nor can you despise them? If I build my identity on what Jesus Christ did for me and the fact I have an everlasting name in him by grace, I can’t, on the one hand, feel superior to anybody, nor do I have to fear anybody else. I don’t have to compare myself with them at all. My identity is based on somebody who was excluded for me, who was cast out for me, who loved his enemies, and that is going to turn me into someone who embraces the Different.”
It’s amazing to think it’s been two years since Driving Toward Morning’s first post! Thank you to everyone who has read, liked, and commented on the blog. A special thank you to anyone who has shared it with their friends or used what they found here to encourage others.
Looking back on my 1-year anniversary post, here are some thoughts on how I’ve done with my year 2 goals:
Re-blogging old posts to get closer to posting something every day: I posted almost twice as often, and almost a third of the posts were repeats. Still not every day but moving in the right direction.
More predictable post length: Most posts are now in the 3-to-4-minute read range, with less variation. Again, progress!
More posts on history, holidays, groups of quotes, and other topics: I think this has been the same in year 2 as in year 1, and I want to work on these more in year 3, especially moments from history.
Also, I’m learning that a blog is not good for: Writing serial posts. There’s no way to know what order people are reading things in, and whether they remember what was in an old post (especially if it takes me a while to continue a series!). So, I’m working harder on making each one stand on its own.
The Big Picture Although each year seems to have its own goals, I don’t want to lose sight of why I started this in the first place. Right after I launched the blog, I decided each post should meet 3 criteria: every post should be Compelling, Clear, and Charitable, meaning:
Is it about something that matters eternally, and is written in a way that connects emotionally and is worth reading? (Compelling) Is it logical and makes sense, or is it likely to be misunderstood? (Clear) Is it written in love, to build up whoever reads it? (Charitable)
In a way, these are just a modified version of Ephesians 4:15-16, which says:
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
The compelling and clear parts are the “speaking the truth,” and the charitable part is the “in love” part. However, the three criteria are not equal. If I am compelling and clear, I might come across as clever, smart or a good writer, but without charity, “I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Without love, I’ve done it wrong, and therefore being compelling and clear should be tools used in service of being charitable.
I am still thrilled to be writing and am encouraged by the impact it’s had on my life, from challenging me when I am complacent, from encouraging me in my faith, and from growing deeper connections with friends and family, plus new connections with other bloggers.
Working on this blog has encouraged me, and I hope it has encouraged you as well. Every one of us has something important to offer for God’s glory and for the benefit of the world around us.
Please leave a comment on what you’ve liked and what you’d want to see more of!
In Mark’s Gospel, he tells a story of Jesus taking a nap, causing His disciples to panic. Does it ever seem like God is asleep, leaving you feeling adrift the world’s circumstances? When Jesus walked the earth, there were times when God literally was asleep.
One story comes from Mark 4:35-41.
On that day, when evening had come, [Jesus] said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
At the beginning of the story, Jesus told His disciples they were going to cross the Sea of Galilee, then knowing what was coming, “He who keeps Israel”[1] took a nap. Had the disciples understood Jesus, His napping should have reassured them that they were safe, since He was not concerned about the storm. Instead, they thought He didn’t care, which showed that fear of the storm had overcome whatever faith they had. Jesus said they were going across, but they doubted.
Which brings up a very important question.
When did the wind and the sea obey Jesus? At the beginning of the story, at the end, or both? Or at all times? Before Jesus calmed the storm, was the sea being disobedient to God’s laws and will?
I believe Jesus calmed this storm so that next time He wouldn’t have to. He was teaching them that He always cares, regardless of what the circumstances seem to say. He was teaching them that even when it seems like He’s asleep, He is still in control of our circumstances no matter how chaotic they look and feel to us. During the next storm, He wanted them not to panic, but to trust Him because He showed them no circumstance escapes His notice. The storm does not control us; He controls the storm.
When Jesus calmed the storm, He did not create a hedge (See Job 1:10) around His disciples, He just demonstrated that it existed all along. God was not going to let His Son drown before His mission was complete and neither will He let His other children drown before their work is done!
Sometimes when God seems distant and we feel we are sinking, in reality we are being given a divinely designed opportunity to learn to trust that:
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore[2]
He knows sometimes we have to learn the hard way, and He knows best. Even when He is sleeping.“Let us go across to the other side.”
The Covid-19 pandemic had many effects, one of which became known as the “Great Resignation,” a massive cultural shift in attitudes toward work and the workplace. Many were finding less satisfaction and purpose in their vocation, and either quit or became less motivated, leading to another catchphrase: “Quiet Quitting.” Of those who actually quit, some did because they were able to retire early, some quit to move to a workplace that provided a sense of purpose beyond their job description and the paycheck it provides, and some quit for various other reasons. In response, some workplaces took stances on political or social issues not related to their business to attract those looking for purpose, which attracted some workers, but also alienated others, who might have become Quiet Quitters.
With so many changes happening, some Christians may feel increasingly like they are in exile at their workplace, but in truth, Christians everywhere were in exile in their workplace pre-pandemic and pre-Great Resignation. This world is not our home, including where we work, so don’t expect it to be heaven.
When Judah found itself exiled in Babylon in the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah encouraged them in Jeremiah 29:7 – “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” So, whatever workplace we find ourselves in, God has called us to seek the welfare of those around us, and pray for them, for in doing so we will find our welfare. Even if we eventually intend to leave, we must seek the welfare of our companies and coworkers while there. (When we are retired or not working with an employer, then we should seek the welfare of our families and communities.)
Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 7:17 & 23-24, Paul encouraged the Corinthian church to serve God in the place they are:
“Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches…You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.”
God has called us to our specific workplaces, not as servants of our employers, but as servants of Him. Maybe there needs to be another cultural shift in the workplace – “The Great Consecration” – where we dedicate our work, whatever it is, to God. Even if your employer doesn’t seem to care, or pay more for, harder work or higher quality work, the Lord notices and He is who we should care about pleasing.
As Paul wrote to the church in Colossae: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” – Colossians 3:23-24
If Christianity is a message of salvation to all people, in all times and places, then the religious practices it recommends must be broad enough, and also flexible enough, to apply in every situation. The political and cultural societies we each live in today have only existed for a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of history, and people reading this post may be living in societies entirely different from the one I’m writing this in.
What are these religious practices? When the apostle James wrote in James 1:27 – “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” he didn’t just mean “pure and undefiled” right here and right now, but that to an eternal God whose character doesn’t change, there is a religion that remains pure and undefiled in all circumstances. There is no expiration date or limited jurisdiction on James 1:27.
To apply James’ words that way doesn’t mean he was using “orphans and widows” only as a metaphor for something other than actual orphans. He does mean to take care of them. But he was also using them as the best example of people unloved in his society and by the world – the ones who fell through the cracks of society, and that “to keep oneself unstained from the world” means that pure religion leaves nobody behind the way the world does.
The world has many people who believe perfect society is only a matter of time, effort, and ingenuity, and it also has many people whose very existence shows the folly of that belief. This tension reflects human history all the way back to Adam and Eve, who had to decide whether the kingdom of God they already lived in was what they wanted, or whether they wanted to build a kingdom based on their own ideas. This tension existed when Jesus ministered on earth in the Pax Romana, or “Roman Peace” of the society He lived in. The Caesars declared in what they called “gospel,” or “good news,” messages that they should be revered as gods for producing the most peaceful and prosperous society the world had ever known. But when Jesus came, all He had to do was walk down the street – any street – and find problems not being solved in Caesar’s great empire. [1] Jesus didn’t shake his fist at the utopians in protest, He just loved those in need of love, exposing the immensity of the flaws that exist in any human system, and proving by example that His kingdom is better.
WWJD
So, when James says “visit orphans and widows in their affliction” he means to do as Jesus did – to seek out and care for those left behind by the utopian imaginings of the world, and its related denials that these abandoned people matter. This does include literal windows and orphans, but it’s also whoever is left behind in your area of the world. The people in your neighborhood, country, organization, or even your church that the system doesn’t notice because there is nothing worldly to be gained by noticing them. In Jesus’ eyes, even Zacchaeus, a wealthy Jew in a Jewish society that valued wealth, was one of “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” because nobody saw him as a person with a personal and spiritual need.[2] These “lost sheep” Jesus referred to in Matthew 10:6 and 15:24 need to know “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”[3] because this world’s kingdoms have failed them.
Each and every world system leaves some behind, proof that Adam and Eve made the wrong decision to go their own way. There are always those who it is unpopular or uncool to pay attention to, even in churches. Therefore, James calls us to love the unloved and the genuinely oppressed, whoever they are, wherever you are. By definition, there’s no program to reach these people, because they are the ones who were missed. It takes the actions of individual, loving people to reach them and that’s kind of the point. Christianity is about the restoring of people and relationships, not the building of theoretical systems.
But does this really apply in every time? How is the ethic of James 1:27 eternal, while other ethics are not?
At the risk of oversimplifying (inevitable in a blog!), the difference is that worldly ethics depend entirely on “progress” toward a solution that is theoretical and in the future. Those pursuing worldly utopia hope they will progress to a solution for the orphans and widows’ problem, but what about the widows and orphans of the past? Or right now? In a framework of Darwinian evolution, death is just part of the process and an inevitable circumstance we must accept until we find a solution. Death itself is Darwin’s philosophical orphan and widow they don’t want us to notice. A solution in the future has no real hope for people in the past or present.
In Christianity the solution already exists – it was available even to our first ancestors – and death is only the result of refusing to accept it. And in all times places and situations “love God and love neighbor” is the right ethic, epitomized by James 1:27 and to be consummated in Heaven. All those who have ever turned to God and accepted His solution, in the past, present, and future, will see His salvation. We don’t have to hope that someday our children, or their children, and so on, will be loved, and know love, perfectly.
Until mankind actually produces a utopia, it is unscientific to believe utopia is possible, but because Jesus exists and walked among us, it is scientific to say perfect love is possible, even in this world. From this perspective, Christianity is only horrendous if false; other systems are horrendous if true.
Today you may live in the greatest empire the world has ever known, or the worst tyrannical state, or you may live in a country most people on the world couldn’t find on a map. In every case, and all cases in between, there are orphans and widows among you because only the kingdom of God is a perfect solution, and it will only be fully realized in Heaven. Find them in their affliction and visit them, “And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” – Matthew 10:7
This is the 2nd post in a series on James 1:27, which began here.
