AllTheseThings

Limited Power

 My typical response to e-mails from well intended but bored friends that contain videos, photos, or quotes of the pithy or light hearted nature is to delete them unceremoniously, sometimes viciously with disgust for wasting my precious time.  I know I should let the sender know I’m not interested in receiving this type of e-mail, but some senders are too close to disappoint with my disinterest.

For better or worse, find a list of quotes below I received this week from one such friend. (If you feel your finger instinctively moving to the delete button, I understand.)  The first quote and source caught my eye. I was sucked in to reading the rest of the list.

I have been thinking a great deal lately about liberal democracy, why I believe it is the best way for fallen and broken human beings to govern and be governed.  Among other factors that enable and sustain a government that values liberty and freedom, along with equality (freedom’s necessary companion) are the ideas of limited powers.  It is the quote from Jefferson - the last one in the list – that compelled me to share these quotes from an e-mail that usually gets deleted without ceremony. Jefferson’s quote serves as a simply stated fair warning that applies for our times and all times.

In order for freedom and equality to be sustained, the few that have the responsibility of governing the many must first and foremost be committed to the goal of less power not more.  Since this is a rare commodity, those being governed must understand this idea, teach and proclaim it far and wide, and demand that those deemed worthy of support for the offices of government must be able to articulate this idea as well.  But more importantly (this is the hard part), those governing and those being governed must live the idea of limited power in their families, workplace, and communities.  And in answer to the obvious question, limited power is realized by a commitment to a life of sacrifice and service – letting go, not grabbing hold.  This is real power: putting oneself under another in order to serve and become a means to their good end.

The rest of the quotes helped me see again that our struggles are nothing new – that there really is nothing new under the sun.  This realization always has a calming affect on me; that there is indeed an endemic futility to human life and existence, and that our only hope is in the one who is not under the sun but over it – over all creation, all things visible and invisible, all powers.

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. -John Adams
 
2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. -Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. -Mark Twain
 
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle ... -Winston Churchill 
 
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -George Bernard Shaw
 
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -G. Gordon Liddy
 
7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
 
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people  in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
 
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. - P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
 
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -Ronald Reagan (1986)
 
12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -Will Rogers
 
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -P.J. O'Rourke
 
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -Voltaire (1764)
 
15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -Pericles (430 B.C.)
 
16. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -Mark Twain (1866)
 
17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. -Anonymous
 
18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -Ronald Reagan
 
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings... The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -Winston Churchill
 
20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -Mark Twain
 
21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
 
22. There is no distinctly native American criminal class...save Congress. -Mark Twain
 
23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
 
24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson

Vincent

Our Longing Is For Salvation

Our longing is for salvation – salvation from our broken condition, our broken lives, and our broken world.  But our longing is even stronger for what God promises to save us to, which is peace.  This is of course a constant and repetitive theme throughout the Old Testament; so much so, it becomes the standard greeting of God’s people.   The theme appears in Luke’s gospel as the reason for the heavenly host glorifying God at the birth of Jesus (Lk. 2:14).  In fact the good news of the Messiah’s coming is called by Peter the gospel of peace (Acts 10:36).  Joy is there in the story too.  It’s the response of realizing and receiving the gift.  The angel appearing to the shepherds calls it good news of great joy (Luke 2:10).  And the Magi rejoiced exceedingly with great joy (Mt. 2:10).   But the heart of the good news is that peace has come in the birth of the child Jesus, who brings salvation to Israel and the world.  Through the sacrifice of His life, we are saved from our sins and saved to peace and rest.

It is rest that our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and our bodies are looking for.  In the same way that our physical bodies are restored by 8-10 hours of solid sleep, so too our spirits by the rest we receive from God’s salvation.  Our struggle is not where our rest will come from, or whether it can be realized or not (it can, simply by receiving the gift), but rather learning how to live in it and experience it in the midst of working out what it means to be saved. 

But the work and fight of living the gift and learning how to live in peace is for the New Year.  Christmas is a time of longing (which in relationship with God involves prayer and fasting), anticipation, and joyous reception.  To celebrate Christmas, our task is to identify again with the longing – not too hard for most of us, enter into anticipation – having some kids around helps, and receive the gift of peace with great joy and celebration, just like the shepherds and the Magi. 

May the Lord bless His people with peace (Ps. 29:11b)
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you (John 14:27)

Merry Christmas,

St. Vincent

What About Our Suffering?

What about our suffering? The topic came up again this last week. Psalm 102 was the source, which led to Psalm 44, then to Genesis 3 and Lamentations 3. Biblical texts that say that God reproves and disciplines us were also in the midst of the conversation (see Prov. 3:12; Rev. 3:9-12; Heb. 12:1-11). The question: Can God really be the source of our suffering and the experiences we typically categorize as evil, as these texts seem to say? And does He really use it for good, shaping and forming our lives in holiness?

Here is the show stopper: “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and evil go forth?” (Lam. 3:38) Wow. Reading Lamentations 3 is like getting a bucket of ice water in the face, consisting mostly of ice. Can this really be? Is God really the source of our suffering and grief? In a word, YES. And what’s more, He must be the source if he is indeed God.

Let’s consider the alternative. Satan is the other possible source of suffering and the grief that joins our experience of loss. If Satan is the source of our suffering, then when we pray for God to deliver us out of the circumstances that are the cause, and He does not, it must mean one of two things: Either God is not as powerful as Satan (why wouldn’t God deliver us from his hand?) or our faith just is not strong enough. The first is unthinkable; the second relegates us to a life with a God where everything depends on us. It is actually far more comforting to realize that God is God not only of all our blessings, but all our struggles as well. This is the consistent biblical testimony.

How do are we to understand this? All of our suffering is a consequence of our sin, either our own sin, the sins of those around us, or the fact that we live in a broken creation. Satan’s power? -he only has the capacity to tempt us into unbelief and the behavior that joins a choice to live contrary to God’s commands and direction. The consequences however of unbelief and choosing to sin do in fact produce our suffering and loss. Genesis 3 is clear about this. Lamentations 3 is consistent with this understanding of God. Satan is responsible for temptation; we are responsible for the choice to believe his lies; the consequences are God given and necessary in order for God to defend His glory, but also necessary for us to stand a chance of deliverance. Parenting is a helpful analogy. Parents must find consequences for the choices their kids make that transgress the boundaries they have set. The consequences defend their position as parents, and they give the child a chance to realize they have walked down the wrong road. The same is true for God; the consequences defend his glory and are for our good, leading us back to His grace, mercy, and goodness. Like most truth, this is relatively easy to understand, but very difficult to live in the face of sufferings that are catastrophic, shaking us to our core.

Since our suffering is a consequence of our rebellion, and God is the source of those consequences, God responds to our cries for deliverance in one of two ways: He either delivers us out of those circumstances, or he delivers us through them. The latter is the harder way because it means waiting to see how he uses our suffering to accomplish his promise, purpose, and plan for our lives. But it is also the Jesus way. Jesus wanted out of his pending suffering and death, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. But God chose to deliver Him and us through his suffering and death.

I would much rather be delivered out of my suffering, which he sometimes does. But His norm seems to be to deliver us through our suffering, like Jesus. This seems to be the means by which He forges in us His holiness, righteousness, and an eternal weight of glory.

From and Through,

St. Vincent of Saragossa 

Africa

I recently returned home from a short-term trip to Africa; Lilongwe to be exact, the capitol city of Malawi.  Seventeen men and women, young and old, made the journey.  Our purpose was in support of a clinic called Partners in Hope, which responds to medical issues of all sorts, but principally exists to respond to people of Malawi infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.  The clinic has grown in just 2 ½ years to include five physicians supported by 70 full time staff. 

For four days we worked on four different projects along side various staff members from Partners in Hope and people from the community.  The projects targeted the issues of nutrition and education – both integral to the efforts of the clinic in combating this disease – as well as improving the facilities of a satellite clinic in a nearby village.  In just four short days, we developed relationships with PIH staff and patients that only side-by-side, face-to face, physical work can produce.

Malawi has the dubious distinction of being ranked as one of the 10 poorest countries in the world.  The nickname for Malawi is the “Warm Heart of Africa”, which is an accurate portrayal of the people.  They are as a whole communal, gracious, open with the right amount of caution, friendly, engaging, and as most people are, full of promise.  In the face of such poverty and promise, I found myself thinking the inevitable messianic thoughts; how can I save these people from their poverty (physical and spiritual) and from the affects of this horrific disease (Malawi has something close to 25% infection rate).  The answer of course: I can’t. 

But thinking messianic was not the wrong line of thinking, just the wrong messianic emphasis or focus.  Our call to be like Jesus is not to fix all the physical problems; and it certainly is not a call to fix spiritual poverty.  Ours, in being like Christ, is not to save.  Our call is incarnation, going and being with others in their particular place and circumstances.  What do we do when we get there?  Whatever they are doing in work, in rest, in worship, in celebration, and in eating.   It is only in being with others and along side of them in the “dailies” of life that God allows us to play a part in the Messiah’s work of salvation, reconciliation, healing, and redemption.

Vincent of Saragosa

[email protected]

By Name

When Mary comes to the tomb of Jesus early Sunday morning and sees the stone rolled away, she immediately runs to tell the other disciples what she assumed to be true: someone had come and taken away the body of Jesus.

Peter and the other disciple (presumably John), hearing the news, run to the tomb to see if what Mary reported was so.  Upon arrival, they actually enter the tomb, see that Mary had told them the truth, and return to where they were staying, unsure how to respond, numb from the catastrophic events of the last few days.

Mary, upon arriving at the tomb for the second time, now enters.  She encounters two angels, in white, who ask her a question: “Woman, why are you weeping?”  She responds again with her assumption: “they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him”.  She then turns away and encounters a man, again making an assumption about what she has encountered without really looking. She assumes he is the gardener. 

Are we not all just like Mary?  We make assumptions about what we think is going on, or about what we think we know, without really taking a good look.  And once the assumptions are made, recorded somewhere deep within our cerebral cortex and our hearts, they cloud our capacity to see.  What lifts Mary out of the fog created by a simple refusal to take a look?  Once she has turned away from the man, rooted is her assumption about who he is and what has taken place this new day, Jesus simply calls her by name: “Mary”.

It takes faith and courage to take a look, really look at what the truth is – what is really going on.  Most of the time, it takes way more faith and courage than we have available as broken and frail human beings.  But step into the tomb we must.  It is our part in realizing the truth about who we are and what God has done for us through His Son.

Happy Easter,

Vincent of Saragosa