Evil

Evil: profound immorality and wicked

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter.

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and clever in their own sight.

Isaiah 5:20-21

            The problem of evil is one of those issues that we can sit and talk for hours on and we will walk way more confused than when we started.  The problem of evil often causes us to question the goodness of God and if He is really all powerful to prevent it and why would He allow it.  This lead me to reread NT Wright book Evil and the Justice of God and it is one of my favorite books of all time and it will be a book I will revisit within the next couple of years.  This book isn’t the end all be all on the subject, mostly because the book would go on forever, but Wright did make a couple interesting points in his book that I have been wrestling with.

            The first observation is how often do we as people go with the ideology that people are essentially good, and when evil does happen, we are shocked, and our said response to the evil is blown out of proportion.    An example of this is could be the basketball player Magic Johnson.  All throughout the 80’s he was one of the best basketball players on the planet, always had a smile on his face and very personable and seemed to be well liked by everyone who ever met him.  All this came tumbling down when he came out publicly of having HIV/AIDS and he abruptly retired from basketball.  He did try and make a come back as a player, but he received a lot of backlash for having the disease and he was called many names that are not are not worth repeating. This doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t of faces any consequences, but how often do our reactions tend to be on either extreme.  There are times when we live in the extremes will get us into trouble and not be able to see the picture clearly or respond appropriately.

            How often when we hear or see evil, is our response appropriate to what is said or done, or how often do we blow things out of the proportion.  We tend to break out the pitchforks and gain the mob mentality against said evil and our actions become just as aberrant as the original sin.  Pick a topic any of todays topic that gets people blood flowing, whether it is mass shootings vs the 2^nd Amendment, or government sponsored health care, vs fiscal responsibility and small government.  Each side tends to pick up their pitchforks and attacks the other side like they are a bunch of clueless idiots who belong in a different century or just need to be voted off the island.  These issues need to be discussed and dealt with properly, but I was taught by my mom calling someone a poopy head or butt sniffer is not the best way to go about business.  Maybe we need to learn how to attack the argument and not the person, but so often we demonize the person for the beliefs they hold and don’t address the issues at hand.

            The flip side to NT Wrights observation is the idea that when evil does happen, we become so numb to it, that we just don’t care.  We become like Eeyore, and drudge along thinking that we can’t change anything.  As Christians, this often leads to the prayer for Jesus to return by the end of the day or for Him to take us home immediately.  This is essentially throwing in the towel and saying that my God isn’t big enough, strong enough or willing to change things here on earth so we want Him to get us out of this hell hole.  This often leads to apathy and not care about anything except for getting what is ours and what we deserve. 

            My third observation on evil is how often do we use the distraction factor.  As parents, how often do you distract the kids around Christmas time so you can go hide and or wrap Christmas presence.  I think we not only do this with modern day issues, but with the issue of evil itself.  How often do we avoid talking about what is really going on by talking about the weather.  Most of the issues we face today, whether in education, gun control, or health care, is not so much about how we educate, whether the 2^nd Amendment is applicable for today, or whether we have the right to choose what sex we are, the right to end life at any age or condition or any other number of health care related issues.  How often are our arguments based on how they make us feel or how they will benefit us somehow and not so much on whether they are right or wrong. 

           I would feel remissed if I didn't mention that there is such of a thing as abhorant evil. Whether it's concentration/internment camps, slavery, abortion, murder, racism among other things. These are often generational and affect several generations after. This evil often happen when we turn a deaf ear to God the Creator and we do what we want when we want. To use the famous quote, for evil to succeed, good men (and women) do nothing. Maybe we need a lesson from German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who stood up to the Third Riech when it wasn't popular and he need up dying in a concentration camp for his stance and actions. There is evil that needs to be dealt with no matter the skin color, nationality, or party line.

            To bring it home, evilness is an action, but more importantly, it is a condition of the heart. Do we aim to serve ourselves or do we bow down to and accept Gods grace and authority through faith.  Actions do matter, just because I cold caulked someone for a good reason doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be any repercussions. We can do wonderful things with bad intentions and vice versa.  Getting back to our Isaiah passage, what is our definition of good.  If our definition of good is not Gods definition, we are in trouble.  Isaiah tells us God does not look favorably on those who do good in their own sight because there will be consequences for our actions. Sometimes evilness is us turning everything on its head and living to our life by our own standards.  When we are left to our own accord, bad thoughts will lead to bad speech, which leads to bad actions which leads to bad character.  In essence evilness often prevails when become morally bankrupt and our definition of good changes like the sea.

            Full disclosure, we can not have a discussion about evil without discussing the devil.  Biblically speaking, He is a tempter, an accuser and a liar.  To paraphrase a CS Lewis quote, the devil doesn’t try and convince us that God doesn’t exist, but that God doesn’t matter.  This is where self-reliance and self-gratification comes in and takes the place of God.  We become the god of our own destiny and it is all about how I feel and what I want.  Feelings are important and we should pay attention to them, but making them the end all be all can lead to disastrous results. The devil realizes that he has lost, so he is bringing everyone down with Him that He can. By the way, to say the devil made me do it is just bad theology along with canceling out our free will and Gods power and authority. I think there are three responses to evilness that will be addressed later post.  The fist one is do we run and hide and pretend it doesn’t exist? Do we use humanism, and try and make better laws and work to better ourselves (or evolve) to deal with evil? Or do we submit to Gods authority and have His grace change our heart along with our attitudes/intentions and how we see things so that we can go out and change the world?

Covenants vs Contracts

   Recently I finished up another book by NT Wright on the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul.  Wright touches on Paul's life, his New Testament letters to the various churches and things that were culturally relevant to the first century church.  There are a few things that caught my eye in the book that has gotten me thinking and one of the concepts I have been wrestling with is how Paul presents what the church is to look like.

   Where we get our concept or the word church comes from the Greek work ecclesia, which has the meaning of assembly, congregation, or people who are called out.  Paul adds another concept and that God and His people actually partner together for the work of the kingdom.  If we are to look at this partnership, I think that there are several things that come into play and need to be looked at.  Such things are the relationship between contract and covenant, if we are the church, do we really need to meet together, and do we all need to look alike to be the church. 

  When I first think of partnership, I often think of that there is some sort of contract involved, wither it is written or unwritten.  Contracts are meant to lay out expectations, duties and it usually is for a particular period of time.  As I pay attention to the sports world, one could come to the conclusion that contracts are meant to be broken.  Whether it is a head coach being relieved of their duties during the middle of the season, to athletes holding out, in hoping to get a new and even better contract.  Maybe it is just a Western thing, but with contracts, we can write in outs of how one or both parties can nullify the contract and so it becomes void.  This allows both parties to either renegotiate a new contract or go their separate ways.  Marriage has become nothing more than a legal contract, where if one or both parties realize that it is not what they signed up for or the terms of their marriage (or contract) are either not being meet or are being broken, they rip up the contract and get a divorce. 

   Another idea of contracts is that we either agree to give up something or to provide some sort of service.  It seems to me that a contract or a contract mentality never really provides an all or nothing scenario.  We are willing to give up a portion of ourselves or let this thing run a part of our lives, but we save room for other things that are important to us.  This could lead to us not giving are all or trying to find ways around our obligations of the contract.  This could lead to insincerity, not giving our all, or our relationships becoming so awkward that we just avoid people at all cost.  Or to paraphrase a quote from the movie Top Gun, "Our ego is writing checks that we either can not or are unwilling to cash."

  The idea of covenant, has some similarities as a contract, but it is more binding.  Throughout the Bible there are several covenants or promises that God set up with His people and even creation.  Whether, it is the Noah Covenant (where God will never flood the earth again), Moses Covenant (the Ten Commandments), the Davidic Covenant, (where the promise Messiah will come through his family)to Jesus covenant where He will make all things new and our relationship with God will be restored.  My favorite covenant is the one with Abraham in where God made a promise to Abraham that His descendants will be as numerous as the stars.  One can read about the covenant between Abraham and God in Genesis 12-17.  There are several basic differences that come up in this section of Scripture that helps explain what a true covenant is.  The first one is that there is sacrifice involved to seal the covenant.  The sacrifice makes it real per se and it gives both parties a stake in what is being promised.  One thought is that if the covenant is broken, the offender will suffer the same consequences as the what was sacrifice did.  When we have skin in the game, it helps us to keep up our end of the covenant and to make it work.

   Another idea of a covenant is the idea of an outward sign signifying what has taken place.  It acts a reminder of what is promised and even who we belong to.  Just as a wedding ring shows our commitment and that we are spoken for, in the Old Testament, circumcision was that commitment and it was a reminder of who we belong to.  In essence, we are drawing a line in the sand and that from this day forward I choose to live my life differently and not as my own.  I think we need the daily reminders of who we belong to and the promises we made, or we tend to forget rather quickly.

   The last idea that I will mention here is that every time a covenant is formed, God is always involved.  It could be in our marriages, friendships, to those who keep us accountable, to even our work.  A true covenant is where God is involved and He is the one setting the standard.  A covenant without God is nothing more than a promise or contract that can be easily broken.

  So how do covenants work to those who are not only called out, but partnering with God.  The first one is that yes we are the church, but this does not give us an excuse to gather as Gods people.  I know being apart of the church is out being Gods hands and feet, which is an important aspect of partnering.  When we only focus on being the church, I have this feeling we are turning ourselves and the church into an inanimate object or some sort of machine.  When we are solely focused on being the church, I think it robs us and others of our personhood and it treats others as an end to a mean and not as people of God with feelings, emotions and a history. Truly partnering with God is of course going and doing, but we are also called to gather together on a regular basis.  How can we find time to worship, confess, grow, learn, and listen if we do not gather with people who are like minded and who are striving to become a people who are sanctified through Jesus Christ if we don't meet. 

    Any time we are in covenant with God and other people we have to have thick skin and a soft heart.  What I mean by this that we can not be easily offended by everything that comes our way.  Anytime when we deal with other people, there is a good chance of something stupid will be said and or done.  We have to know what is truly offensible and what we need to let roll off of our back, hence the think skin.  When we are in a covenant with God and others we can not be so hardened that we can not hear the truth and being to take it in and use it to change.  Having that sensitive heart allows us to be more open to Gods leading and knowing where to go, what to say along with when and how do these things.  When our heart is hard and we do these things, we can come across as a jerk and most of the time we are. 

  My last thoughts is that covenants are hard, because it requires sacrifice and a reminder that we do not have it all together, not matter how hard we try.  This is why contracts and more so covenants that God needs to be involved, because contracts have the here and now in mind, covenants may have the here and now aspect, but it also as the eternal perspective that is kept in focus.