But why?

Don't let me tell you how to vote, and this post is not about trying to influence anyone politically.  I'm fairly apolitical in talking about matters ecclesiastical, mainly because, as Jesus says 'My Kingdom is not of this world.'  He's not interested in forming government, He's interested in forming Christians.  Having said that, we've been seeing a new reason for doing things lately, a new rationale for getting stuff done, for making decisions, and that is that it is the current year. 

As promised in my apolitical opening, this really got going with this clip from Justin Trudeau, where he talked about why it was important to have a gender balanced cabinet. 

Now it's a bit flippant to just stop at 'because it's 2015,' that's not all that he said, there is more, of course, and there is more to be said, naturally.  But that feeling, that sentiment that is expressed that we should do what we are doing because it's the current year, that's a bit of a meme these days.  This has been the reasoning for a lot of things these days, sort of equivalent to last generation's 'we can put a man on the moon, but we can't fix _____________.'  You know, insert male pattern baldness, proper pH balance for our hair, using beet juice as a de-icer, anything you'd like into that blank.  The implication is that if we can put a man on the moon, we should be able to solve literally any problem at all, no problem.  And the idea today is that because it's the current year, we should be able to dismiss anything that came before us, change up anything topically, because it's today.  It's now. 

And this brings me to the Gospel reading for today, and to the nature of the world as shifting as sand. The easiest way to view this is to think about fashion and style.  Why are you getting massive ear gauges put in? Because it's 2012.  Why are you getting a tribal tattoo? Because it's 2008.  Why are you getting a tongue ring? Because it's 2003.  Why are you wearing flannel and khaki? Because it's 1998.  There are other things to talk about, but those are just thing that have happened in my lifetime, and each of things were largely done because they were popular, but nobody recognized them as a trend. Pet rocks, pogs, fidget spinners, they're all things that were popular once, and their popularity faded, and we were left with useless cardboard circles that had massive value five minutes ago, and are worthless today.  The fads come and the fads go, and none of us sincerely think or believe that we are doing these things because we are being led around and directed by other people.  We all think and believe that we are making these decisions for ourselves, and doing what we want to do. 

But there are a lot of things we do because other people tell us to do them, whether directly or indirectly.  There are a lot of things we get up to because people tell us to do them.  "People," tell us to do things, and we go along with it because, well "everyone" is doing it.  And this has not changed one millimeter from the time of Jesus until now.  When Jesus was talking about the issue of wanting to know who the disciples said that he was, he asked them, 'who do "people" say that I am?'  It's a part of the story that we don't often think that much about, but give it some consideration - who are the people? Because the "people" Jesus is talking about haven't changed in two thousand years.  Heck, they haven't changed in ten thousand years.  This is old.  Really old.  This concept of taking your cues from "people" is the same as it ever has been.  You think it's new, fashions and trends and the like, but it's old as dirt.  There's a reason that you can identify fashion over time, that houses and buildings trend differently, that you can correctly predict the decade a photograph was taken based solely off of a man's facial hair, that kind of thing.  Do you really think that all these men spontaneously decided to wear muttonchops? Or perhaps it was a style they were following.

Now, to the question.  Who do 'people' say that Jesus is today. And ask yourself as you are answering that question, who are these people? Who are they, can you name them, or is it just sort of 'everyone?'  Because odds are, if it's just sort of 'everyone,' then odds are that you're looking at a trend more than anything else.  You need to think long and hard about why you hold the opinions that you do, why you think about God the way you do.  For if it's just a matter of 'everyone says he was a good man,' well, you need to give your head a shake.  It's one thing to insist on wearing flared pants because it's 1975, and to pretend you came up with the idea even though there were no straight pants in the stores; but it's quite another thing to insist, up and down, that Jesus was nothing but a nice guy but 'people' had nothing to do with that conclusion.

 The disciples had that question to answer, as to what were the popular things that Jesus was called, how did the crowd refer to him, and they gave their answers.  They gave their answers, saying that he was Elijah, or John the Baptist, or one of the prophets.  That is what the 'people' were saying, and they were getting at, that Jesus was some kind of godly man, a holy man, a prophet, a great teacher, or something of the like.  That's all good, to be sure, but that's not who Jesus actually is.  The only good answer is the answer that Peter gives, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.  Peter only has that answer because Jesus has first revealed it to him.  In other words ,the right answer of who Jesus is is not to be found in what is popular, but rather what is true.  The right answer will be found in what Jesus says about himself, his testimony that is trustworthy and true.  And that's a different matter altogether.

'People' won't really go along with this though.  They won't care for it, they won't like it too much, and they won't really be into the idea that Jesus is The Messiah, the Son of the Living God. They won't like that he is serious about sin, about righteousness, about grace and hell, they won't like that he has a lot to say about leaving a life of sin and moving on from that, that's never going to be a popular opinion, and if you hold to Jesus as he has been revealed in the scriptures, that position is never going to fall in line with what the world wants, because the world changes.  But ask yourself two questions: Why do you believe what you believe about Jesus Christ, and secondly, why do you care so much about what 'People' say?

Don't say you don't care.  We all do, to some degree or other.  We all care what people think as much as we may say we don't.  We all want to be well thought of by people, want to be liked, and none of us want to go too far beyond the crowd.  We want to fit in with things, and fit in with the way things are going, the cultural zeitegeist, if you will.  But I ask you something else, which is, when has that actually fulfilled you? When have you been content, when has your heart been at rest when you have chased the interminably moving 'people' around you.  Has that ever satisfied you? When you have done what you were told, when you have believed what 'everyone' thinks, were you ever finally pleased? Or had things moved on? By the time you caught up, did you find that your positions were now outdated, had now been dismissed, discarded, and altogether replaced? Likely.  Likely you couldn't keep up, and never would be able to.  So, perhaps we need to look at things in a different way.

"People" will always be looking for something different, something new.  By the time you've caught up, they've moved on.  Jesus started as the son of God, then was Elijah, one of the prophets, John the Baptist, he was a great moral teacher, a conflicted, indecisive man, a married man, the king of France, an Atheist, a Muslim, gosh, any one of a number of things, and it keeps on changing.  But every once in a while, things are right to begin with, and don't have to change.  Things like Chuck Taylors, the Rubik's cube, Star Wars, Tube socks, the Bible, Ghostbusters,  all that stuff that gets worse the more you change it.  It meets a need, and the need is met so well that it doesn't need to change.  Let Jesus be who he is.  You don't need to ask other 'people' who Jesus is, because the need that he is there to meet is one that can't be improved by changing things.  He's not here to be a good teacher, a prophet, a confused gentleman or anything else - he's here to be the messiah, the son of the living God.  He's here to be the savior, the one who takes away the sins of the world, the one who lets you admit fault, have it be forgiven and to grow from it.  The most important person to listen to is Jesus on this question, as he will tell you, quite directly, who he is, and what he is here for.  To fall into the hands of sinful men, to suffer, to die, and on the third day, rise again.

If you have anything to add to that, any further queries, have a word with Peter on that one.

The same old story

It's one of my favorite songs by Doug and the Slugs, the same old story.  The idea behind this song is that nothing ever seems to change in the life of Doug, and the woman he's singing about.  Nothing ever does, and nothing ever will.  Understanding when you're hitting patterns is a good thing to do, it's useful to know when you're hitting patterns, and when you're running into things that aren't and don't change.  But to do this, you're going to have to look at the details, and understand when things are the same, and how to tell where these patterns are.

For example, if you have a husband who likes to have a drink after work, that's fine, and it might help him to unwind. But if he needs to have a drink after every workday, you may be looking at a pattern.  It's the same with your wife.  Does she enjoy to flick through Facebook in the evening? Okay, fine. But if she only does the Facebook thing all evening, and it's every evening, well, you have a different matter to deal with, don't you? 

Patterns are important, simliarities are important, and sometimes things are more simliar than you might think.  You might not notice it, but your brain does.  The story that we have from the Old Testament is one of those, the story of the binding of Isaac.  This is a story that is largely hated by, well, mostly everyone, really, Christian or otherwise.  People have lost their faith over this story, have drifted away from God, from faith, from everything because of this story.  It's funny, really, because we know for sure that the knife wasn't used in this situation, that Abraham and Isaac both walked right back down the mountain again, with no troubles.  Sure, things are fine after this story, no harm, no foul. But the distaste that everyone feels about this story has to do with the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son.

It represents a failure in keeping the essential, core contract that we all know, and of which a violation is an absolute scandal to all of us.  Parents should protect their children, that is the way it is, that is the way it always should be.  When we hear about parents not protecting their children, or worse, hurting or harming their children, we are outraged.  It bothers us, it hurts us, and we react violently against it.  We look at these situations and we are so bothered by it that lots of the times we can't even stand to look at it.  And Abraham, having been told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, his only son whom he loved, took him up the mountain with the express purpose to plunge a knife into his son, and kill him, slaying him as an offering to God.  His son, Isaac, who trusts him, is being led up the hill to be killed.  You look at this, and it bothers you.  It troubles and angers you.  It angers you even though everyone survives, and God provides the sacrifice, as Abraham said he would.

This story bothers you, troubles you way down, and upsets you.  You don't think about it too much, because it's such a troubling story that you want to skip it.  Fine fine fine, so let's think about a story that, as a Christian, you do like.  How can I pick the one story out of the entire Bible that I can be sure every Christian will like? How about, given that this is lent, the crucifixion of Christ.  Now, the crucifixion of Jesus may not be a fun story, but it's a good one.  And sometimes good things aren't fun.  Sometimes filling a tooth or extracting a kidney aren't fun, but they're good.  They can be really good, really powerful, really, intensely amazing things.  And the crucifixion of Jesus, if you don't appreciate that story, then you really have no business being a Christian.  The Christian faith is, at its core, one about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and to get to that, we have to get to the crucifixion.  Getting to that crucifixion of Jesus Christ, that takes us to another hill, with another Son, but this time, the child isn't spared.

For you see, the story of Isaac, and the story of Jesus, they're the same story, and that's kind of the point.  Think about it for a second.  The sacrifice of a beloved son, in whom, the father is well pleased.  The son having to haul the wood up the hill, the binding of the son, the knife and spear, the sacrifice with its head in the thorns.  This is the same story, but you love one of them, and hate the other.  Why is that? Why do you reckon that you do this?

We Christians, we are honestly a bit too laid back when it comes to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  We don't feel much outrage, we don't experience much anger, we don't get troubled by its effects.  We think about it as a guarantee, right? Of course Jesus would die on the cross for your sins, naturally he would, why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he be slain on the cross for you and for me? He was obviously going to die, and the specter of the cross, the spear, the crown of thorns ,well, we just don't think about it too much anymore, because we are so used to it, it no longer shocks us.

In horror circles, it's usually wise to keep the monster under wraps.  If you show the moster too much, if you give too much away, you'll find that the audience will normalize the creature, and won't be afraid of it anymore.  That's part of the reason that Jaws was such a big hit, because the shark was under wraps for most of the film.  If you would have seen Bruce for the entire film, the reaction would have worn off pretty quickly.  If you use him sparingly, though, the shark has the power to shock all the way through the film.  It's the same with the cross of Christ.  If you get comfy with it, you need to be shocked back out of that again.  For a lot of us, the movie "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson was a pretty big shocker out of that.  It showed the suffering of Jesus in a way that we don't often think about.  We gloss over the whipping, the flogging, the nails, the spear, we don't think about it, and we rush to the conclusion.  Jesus dies and rises again. 

Well, it's Lent, and since it's Lent, it's time for us to think about the suffering of Jesus anew.  And what we need to think about is the suffering and death of Jesus Christ in a way that can still shock, can still appal.  How do we do that? Well, this week sets it up quite nicely for you.  The story of Abraham with Isaac, and the story of Jesus, realizing that they're the same, that sets things up perfectly.  For with this matter, you can channel the outrage over the binding of Isaac towards the cross of Jesus.  Don't run from the revulsion you feel at the story of Isaac, but understand that the sacrifice was provided by God, not just that ram, but the full, perfect and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the whole world.  Usually, we want to think that that element is too light, too frivolous.  But today, I want you to think about the cross of Jesus through the lens of the binding of Isaac.  Does it bother you that a father would be asked to offer up his son, his beloved son for forgiveness of sins?  If it does, then let the cross of Jesus bother you just a bit more.  Does it  trouble you that a son would walk up a hill carrying the wood to which he would be lashed? Then think about Jesus in that same way, staggering up the hill with the cross.  Does it bother you that a knife is held over a son with the intent of ending his life? Then it should bother you that the spear actually plunged into Jesus, causing water and blood to flow out.

In other words, let the cross of Christ have the weight it deserves.  Let the work of Jesus be as large as it is, let the sacrifice of Jesus have the meaning that it does. It's awful. It looms large.  It should bother and trouble you,for this is the end of the life of a perfect man, one who had done nothing, and one who could have avoided this death at any moment.  This is the death of a man who had no reason to die except that he knew that this was the only way through which you could be saved.  Back to the beginning, we all know that the obligation of a parent is to do whatever it takes to ensure the survival and well-being of their children.  If a parent fails at this, it is a horrible failure of what has been a promise between parents and children for as long as parents and children have existed.  And we are God's children, and we know that he is supposed to do whatever it would take to ensure our survival, our well-being, our eternity.  This is what God is supposed to do, and the only way to work that out is to pay the debt in full that we all, through our sin, owed.  And this is the work of Christ.  It should trouble you, it should bother you, you should never grow too relaxed in thinking about the death of Jesus.  Channel the revulsion you feel at the binding of Isaac, and think about the death of Christ in that way.  Think about the price that was paid for us to be adopted into the family of our father.  Thanks to Jesus, when God looks at us, he says something phenomenal to us, the same words spoken to Jesus as he came up out of the baptismal waters.

You are my beloved children, in you I am well pleased.