God Questions Us

God said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic but do you have any answers?” Job 40:2  In one of the oldest books Ecclesiastes 1:2, 8 I told you how short sighted your wisdom is “Everything is absurd, says the Teacher, “completely absurd…Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.” In 1 John 2:16 I told you “for the world offers only craving for every physical pleasure, craving for everything we see and pride in our achievements and possessions.” We hunger for value, worth and meaning but things cannot deliver our deepest want. We are like the following true story.

I was in college and going to work in downtown Boston. I hopped on the subway in Wollaston. A gentleman sat diagonally from me near the pole and door on the opposite side. The doors closed and we started off. He began to holler, “Let me outta here. Let me outta here.” As the train slowed down and prepared to stop, he quit hollering. The doors opened and he didn’t get out. The doors closed, the train started up and so did he. “Let me outta here, let me outta here.” And so the alcoholic entertainment continued until I got off at Downtown Crossing. I guess he didn’t know what he wanted. He may still be riding!

Every culture differentiates the sacred from the secular and has terminology to make that distinction. Check out some of the current terminology: Hedgemonic power, racism, oppression, microaggressions, heteronormativity, patriarchy, cisgender privilege, intersectionality etc., These words are driven by a philosophy originating in the 1930’s called Critical Theory. (shenviapologetics.com Intro to Critical Theory)  Though you won’t recognize some of these terms, this system of thought is behind much of the justification for current cultural thought. Since we not in philosophy class look at the following practical description:  “For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.” 2 Tim.3:2-4  In due season fancy words will not conceal the condition of the heart, because behavior makes it plain.

Listen with your confused heart as Amos( 5:7-11; 6:4-7) peels back the greedy heart of power. “You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt. With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong, crushing all their defenses. How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth. You trampled on the poor, stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent. You will not benefit…How terrible for you who sprawl and lounge about eating tender meats of choice cuts. You sing trivial songs and fancy you are great musicians. You drink bowlfuls of wine and perfume yourselves! You Care Nothing About The Ruin Of Your Nation…suddenly all your parties will end.”

A second true story. I was again in Downtown Crossing in Boston and it was very busy. A man came up to me with a very sad story of need and wanted money to get to the Salvation Army for food. I pointed out that he didn’t need the fare because we were inside the turnstiles. In fact I offered to go with him. He walked away. After a bit he came back and poked me with his elbow. “Watch this,” he said. “There’s a girl with that guy over there and he’ll give me something because she is with him.” I drifted along behind him so I could hear. I was amazed to hear the same spiel word for word, intonation for intonation as he spun his tale of need and hunger. To his amazement and my amusement the girls said, “No. Get out of here you bum.” I guess he was having a bad day at work.

If you read in Amos or in 1 John after listening to the news, scanning social media, looking at news clips from various sources, you will be amazed at the accuracy of these books. There will be a new awareness that our country and our individual lives are without a God driven compass. Right is wrong, wrong is right, up is down and down is up, freedom is restricted and the reality of power abuse characterizes our immediate times.

What does God want? Amos said it this way: Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people. 5:14-15

As a people and as elected leadership we have forgotten or are actively rejecting the reality of objective standards of right and wrong. We allow words, philosophies, and political debate to render us powerless refusing to hold people of all colors, economic levels, political persuasions, nationalities accountable to basic standards of moral behavior.  We have no common moral standard for we have rid ourselves of God. The concept of God as the source of right and wrong is set aside for a far weaker concept of “if it isn’t all fixed nothing is fixed.” We have not learned the basic spirit of anti christ is driven by half truths and presenting darkness as light. So it seems we no longer know what to do and we are immobilized. Media aids in moral paralysis by dismissing objective standards as obsolete. In the face of their investigative journalism and experience they are worldly wise, cynical and skeptical. This perspective is supposed to give superior wisdom because like the commercial they “know a thing or two because they’ve seen a thing or two.” When pressed with knowledge and insight, they have no answers. Their analysis tool is blame and shame for it brings money to the game. In the end, all things are meaningless and absurd. We the people focus on trivialities and surface wounds while discounting the deeper truer underlying disease.

 When pandemics come, when corruption in high places is evident, when power brokering replaces common sense, when blood runs in the street, we find we have sprayed graffiti on the truth:

WE ARE ALWAYS IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

The Sovereign God will have accountability. God desires intimacy with us and will give us a very real life with him without exploitation. Our world’s hungry heart desires intimacy with God, if there is a God, but the desire is to exploit him for their gain. In the three temptations of Jesus, Satan was saying I will give you the right to feed all people, operate their governments and be the famous one who will be followed by all, just give up the business of changing and filling man’s heart. But Jesus stepped through the games playing and the empty promises. He cut through the deception of short term repairs rather than an eternal fix. Heart disease with motive transplants can only comes at the cost of his life. Jesus refused the lesser way all the way to the resurrection.

 Before us are only two choices. Ironically it’s the same choice. Which desire will be your master? Is it the deepest desire of your heart going to be driven by the lust of self (exploitation) or by the desire of fulfillment (affirmation) from God? All of us live by the lusts of self and the pride of life. Mankind has no antidote for this heart disease. It masters all of us unless…we decide to yield our autonomy to the cleansing power of Jesus. It is always real relationship that changes motives and behavior.

Another way to speak of this conflict or divide is to say what is the Holy Grail to the lust of the world shoves God away. The removal of God, the author of a workable morality, one day leads to judgment. What is holy to God is to be inseparably aligned to him, his Presence alive in us. This is only possible if we yield our hearts to Christ and live like Amos said, “DO what is good and flee from evil.” By the way this does not mean do not stand up to evil.  This will help you to understand:

“Faith is not a precarious affair of chance escape from Satanic assaults.

It is the solid, massive, secure experience of God,

who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who guards our life,

 who guards us when we leave and when we return,

who guards us now, who guards us always.“

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction –Eugene Peterson

I do not have all the answers but thank you for letting me share directions from the One who does.