Why Jesus Loves You

In case you have not heard this Good News, Jesus loves you. We all are sinners and we all fall short of the Goodness of the transcendent God in the Holy Spirit. In fact Jesus loves you so very much that even as a sinner, even before you or I repented, Jesus was willing to die on a cross. Most people would be willing to die for a family member, some may be willing to die for a friend. Few would die for a cause. There is just one that I know who died for the sake of all - including the enemy.

What this means is that you and I do not have to be perfect or pure in order for Jesus to love us. Jesus loves us first and then, in response to this radical acceptance of God’s love, we cannot help but change how we live and move in the world. And therein lies the overlooked reason why Jesus loves you.

Before we get to that reason, let us reflect on disciple Judas.

Judas was the misguided or even malicious disciple of Jesus who was so ashamed or distraught in his actions that he committed suicide. This disciple could not see any way out, he was so lost that he thought he had to be perfect or clean before Jesus would love him. Judas missed the point entirely and as a result is now the name we call people who are among the worst of the worst. So much so that in Dante’s telling of Hell, the fourth round in the lowest circle of Hell is called Judecca - and it is reserved for the traitors to lords/benefactors/masters.

It takes a lot of courage to love the traitor. It takes a lot of grace to see the on who betrays you is also a child of God. It takes a lot of mercy to overcome the hate harbored toward the one who betrays our trust. One might even say it takes divine love.

You and I are able to love family, friends, and even neighbors just fine without the help of Jesus. Jesus loves you so that you have the courage, grace and mercy to love the one who betrays you.

Jesus loves you so that you can love Judas.

And if that is not a humbling thought, don’t forget that someone probably thinks you are Judas.

The Temptation to Eradicate Inefficiency in the Church

The allure of the Silicon Valley approach to life is that we can eradicate the inefficiencies of life, moving us to a friction-less society. They build apps and technologies that make things as efficient as possible. You don’t have to go to a bank to get cash to pay someone, just use the app to transfer money. There is no need to go to call an order in, just use the delivery service app. There is no need to answer the door, just look at your phone when the visitor presses the doorbell.

The inefficiency of the labyrinth walk, mirrors the inefficiency of Grace

The stereotype of the socially awkward computer person who would dream of a world where you don’t have to engage with people, but only a computer is not very fair to many computer people to bring us together. However, there is something to a world that values efficiency to such a high degree that we ought to consider why this is.

One can easily imagine that if the rest of our world places such a value on efficiency, it is not a wonder that we would desire the same for the Church.

In the Church the primary justification to work on efficiencies is a matter of being a good steward of resources. And of course the Church needs to be faithful stewards of resources given to the Church. These are noble efforts to be sure. However, being efficient runs directly into another value in the Church: Grace.

Grace is anything but efficient. God’s grace is prodigal. It is abundant. It overflows. It gluts the market, if you will. This amazing grace is not measured out in efficient doses. Grace is messy and gums up the wheels of the efficient.

The temptation to eradicate inefficiency in the Church is a temptation to limit grace.

Church people often say we want to become more understanding, more patient, more forgiving. The things you find inefficient in the Church you are opportunities to practice the very virtues we claim we want.

Communication is slow? Patience.

Too many meetings? Understanding.

Too much conflict? Forgiveness.

Being inefficient is not an excuse to neglect communication or a reason to remain opaque. Churches need to be clear in communication and as transparent as morally possible. Be careful of the temptation to eradicate inefficiency in the Church for we may unintentionally erase the inefficient Grace of God.

God Hardened Pharaoh's Heart

In the Exodus story there are a series of plagues and after the first five plagues scripture says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. However, the next several plagues scripture says that God hardened Pharaoh'‘s heart. It has always bothered me that God do such a thing. Part of the reason there are plagues to begin with is because of Pharaoh’s hard heart and here it seems God is participating in an act that not only leads to a harder heart but more plagues.

Origen of Alexandria wrote the following in the third book of De Principiis "...the sun, by one and the same power of its heat, melts wax indeed, but dries up and hardens mud not that its power operates one way upon mud, and in another way upon wax; but that the qualities of mud and wax are different, although according to nature they are one thing, both being from the earth" 

All hearts are made from the earth and through out actions that earthen heart is changed. It is changed to be more like mud or more like wax. Pharaoh acted in such a way that his earthen heart became more mud than wax.

Photo by Samantha Lynch on Unsplash

When the grace of God shines down on the earth, some hearts melt. Others harden. It is not because the grace of God is different for one heart to the next, but that each heart responds to this amazing grace differently. Some, like Moses, experience the Grace of God and their heart melts. These hearts can hear the people cry out for liberation and salvation. These hearts are moved to action to work on behalf of the oppressed and forgotten.

Some, like Pharaoh, experience the Grace of God and their heart hardens. These hearts can hear the cry of the people and then justify why the status quo should remain. These hearts are moved, more often than not, to inaction toward the oppressed and forgotten.

God does not harden or melt hearts. Hearts and both harden and melt when the God’s grace shines over them.

Praying Your Lenten Fast Fails

Giving up or fasting during the season of Lent is a tradition in the Christian church which many today still subscribe to. This is a noble discipline, one which I also participate in. However, I pray that we fail our fasts.

Photo by Kamil Szumotalski on Unsplash

Fasting seems to be understood by many people less as a spiritual discipline and more as a personal betterment practice. Many who fast from certain food types are doing so for weight loss. Many who fast from technology do so to avoid the toxicity of twitter. There is nothing wrong with these sorts of fasts at all! However, fasting in this way feeds the myth (myth is a unifying narrative not something that is always factually true) that through our thoughts, actions, and will power, we can become a better version of ourselves.

I pray that we all fail our Lenten fasts so that when we do we are faced with the reality that the myth of self betterment is a hallow myth. It is a myth that leads to guilt, shame and even fatalism.

The myth that I hope to live my life around is that of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus Christ reminds us that no amount of will power or determination will bring you to a better self. In fact Christianity points out that there is not a better self to obtain. That in fact the real journey is to embrace who we are, warts and all, and be able to discover the joy in it. When we fail, we come face to face with the reality that we are not god or perfect. We face the truth that we are in need of a grace. We encounter the reality that we are unable to transform ourselves, that we are in need. We need that which is beyond us and that which is outside of us.

May you fail your Lenten fast and experience the grace of forgiveness and pick the fast up the next day.