Some Repeating Thoughts That I Have

It is easy to slip into the notion that there are multiple different categories of sin. This is the idea behind "acceptable sin" and "unacceptable sin" that most people embrace most of the time. The thinking that certain sins are worse than others, in such a way that place sinners in different categories with respect to God than other, is fueled by a lack of the understanding that all the sin that humanity has ever committed belongs to the same category. Sexual sin does not inhabit a different realm of immorality than gluttony, anxiety, speeding in traffic, or stealing cookies.

Do you think you are different? Most people, most of the time will read the New Testament this way: The Pharisees, those despicable, arrogant opposers of Jesus, represent the religious establishment. They oppose the righteousness of God when it comes to them, they legalistically split hairs on the basis of over-educated obsession with Scripture, and they come down with condemnation for those who don't live up to their standards.

The tax-collectors, prostitutes and adulterers, however, were on Jesus' side. They received what he had to bring them, he befriended them and revealed an affection for those cast off by society as "immoral." This(and here's the big lie) is because their sin is of a different type than the Pharisees.

What's actually going on in this paradigm is a lot more tricky and sinister than a first glance gives away. We construct a view of sin that allows us to place others, those we disapprove of, in a place that we are not: having uniquely violated the law of God. (Isn't it strange how rarely people who talk of Pharisees will locate themselves in that position?) This gives us the ability to place ourselves in the category of "approved" or at least "not so badly condemned." Ever heard this: "Yeah, I'm not perfect or anything, but at least..."

The big secret that few people want to admit about the New Testament is that the Pharisees and the "sinners" with which Jesus ate are actually the same people. That's extremely important. That's also devastating to a lot of people, including the part of you that has embraced this paradigm: that the Pharisees are "those people, the religious establishment, the people that have their lives together, the people who dress religiously..."

So two categories of sin are created, moralistic vs. senusal. Legalism vs. licentiousness. The understanding once you've constructed this Scylla and Charybdis paradigm is that if we go too far in one direction, we will slip into the category that we weren't concentrating on. The key to being aware of both and navigating a perceived middle ground. The solution is to blend of two different concepts in your teaching: don't be too legalistic, but don't only concern yourself with the grace of God either(because grace is primarily a sweet tone of voice and an uplifting word, and how is that ever going to deter sinners from their iniquity?) God wants to apply a "don't be bad" solution to one and "don't be judgmental" to the other, as if the sexually immoral person and the one judging that person were doing something fundamentally different. The message of gospel comfort for one sinner and the law for the other. Or better yet, two different kinds of moralism: one custom-tailored for each, and the Gospel is altogether history because, hey, they're already "saved."(whatever that means)

The implications of this are staggering: the Cross is sufficient for one of them, not both(or all, if we continue down the road logically and endlessly divide up sin into millions of categories, with a different approach to dealing with each), and therefore the Gospel should only be preached, at most, half the time. For those who seem not to heed the proclamation of the Cross, or who take the initial "faith step" but don't seem to be walk in transformation, we need to add things, adjust the message.

I'm certainly all for a nuanced understanding of what the Gospel sounds like in different situations. But it remains just that: a sounds like. Substance does not change.(This incidentally gets to the bottom of any and all conflicts concerning cultural engagedness and how we express ourselves as "separate" and not in conformity with the world. For Dr. Peter Masters, who may normally have useful things to say, in this case doesn't seem to grasp that his culture of Puritan "old" Calvinism is just as much derived from worldly sources as the culture of "new" Calvinism that contains t-shirts and hip-hop music. Again, sinful t-shirts or sinful suits?...take your pick.)

What possibly could be at work in the mind that thinks in the Scylla/Charybdis categories? Maybe it has a completely befuddled definition of grace and the Gospel. Or maybe it doesn't actually believe the Gospel, simply wants to be understood as a godly and moral person. Maybe it doesn't grasp that the difference between justification and sanctification is philosophically useful but actually nonexistent. Maybe it is so concerned with its external perception and its subjective categories that it thinks there are actualy multiple problems at work in the world causing humanity's suffering, and therefore multiple solutions are required. Whatever the case, the end result is always the same: man is able, by force of intention and will, to cleanse himself from sin, and therefore Jesus is an unnecessary afterthought.

Rocket Attacks

Read the whole convo: Mount Jesus

Sorry I haven't been around lately, it's been hard getting access to blogs/email in the semi-wilderness of Texas!

I'm really liking the way the last few posts have been piggy-backing off one another, and you've both made a point that I have never thought of concerning the beatitudes: that they are states of being, not doing. Something I've been noticing lately is the negative situations or events I witness, the negative parts of myself that reveal themselves....what sort of reaction is designed to meet these things? This seems fairly obvious for someone who doesn't break everything down the way I do, but I've been asking "When someone or something afflicts me, what emotion, or state of being does that produce?" Because there is a tendency in me to create an image of what a "spiritual" person feels about something, and then try to feel that way. If someone cuts me off on the highway(and I believe I've heard John use the exact example), many will teach that we are to "pray for" and "bless" those people. Which would certainly be a nice thing to do. The problem is it's usually a manufactured response, because very few people who know about the verse "bless those who curse you" actually have any kind of inclination to do so. And I certainly don't. What if instead I let fly with the finger for that person? Aaaah, very unspiritual. Unfortunately, it's the more honest choice in 90% of situations.

These undesirable states of being listed in the beatitudes- it's seems, as you've both brought to my attention, that we can't flex a muscle and "do" them. We simply are. Or aren't. Poor in spirit for example. The question is then, what brings the disciples, we who are sitting with the Master on the hilltop, to a point where we are self-sufficient, spiritually knowing, "great men of God,"to being poor in spirit? I have an idea, and I think it has to do with the sort of "noticing" that I find myself doing(above).

Jesus continues a little later in this sermon to describe the true nature, the true depth, of sin. It's not only to commit the act of adultery, but even to look. It's not only to withhold from giving, but to give grudgingly. I recently heard someone expound on the nature of covetousness- and it came to me that what if it not only describes a desire for someone else's belongings, but what about an attachment to your own that prevents you from quickly giving them away?

The upshot of this, for many in the do-oriented mindset, would be statements like "well, of course we need to quit doing those sins...we need to be more_____". Is that Jesus' logic here? I'm going to submit that his descriptions of sin and righteousness is to further "rocket-attack" our paradigm about the position that we occupy. It's as if to say "you think you're holy? You think you have no or only a little sin? Let's see if you measure up to this." And he proceeds to list an absolutely impossible standard for living in the Kingdom of God. For living as his disciple.

And at the end of his sermon, I would be left somewhere. Perhaps changed. I would have my self-sufficiency and my paradigm about who's "in" and who's "out" severely rattled. It would leave me, at least beginning to be, poor in spirit.

New Blog

Here's a great new blog for any and all interested in a few thoughts on the Sermon on the Mount. It's a group effort between myself, my homeboy John, and the indispensable Dad. Dad of course blogs over at Wilderness Fandango, formerly In The Clearing. This is John's first blogging exploit to my knowledge, but certainly not his first writing, or deeply engaged thinking process about following Jesus and exploring the Kingdom of God.

Should be a hoot, please feel free to engage us in the comments section!

Off To Jubilee Partners

Jubilee Partners is a refugee community in Comer, GA. I'll be there for a week or so.

Some Merlefest Finds

Here's my latest discoveries from Merlefest 2009. Some I picked for particular songs, some are bands that I hadn't seen before.

The Duhks do a wonderful song Dance Hall Girls, which was apparently a hit in Canada. Someone put it to footage from beauty and the beast. Speaking of the Duhks, it's not evident in this song, but their new(ish) lead vocalist might be my favorite singer anywhere.


John Cowan Band doing King of California with Jeff Autry:



Bearfoot doing John Hartford's "Tall Buildings"



The Belleville Outfit swings it on "Exactly Like You":



More to come!

My New Favorite Preacher?

It All Keeps Comin' Back to Bob(not Spencer)

From one of the greatest prophets of the twentieth century:

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) by Bob Dylan

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you'd just be one more

Person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole that he's in.

But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed Graveyards, false gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.

New album April 28. He's still going: