The Logic of Eliphaz in the name of Jesus

Have you ever gotten help that was not helpful? Has someone ever given you some Bible verse to help you explain what was going on in your life. Like the Bible is a book of collected horoscopes. Do you have a friend who just is not listening to you and just wants to explain to you why you are wrong or that you just need to “look at the bright side”? If you do and your friend’s name is Eliphaz, then your name might be Job. 

Job is going through the most difficult time in his life and rather than just listen and be compassionate to Job, Eliphaz tries to tell Job that the real problem here is Job himself. According to Eliphaz, Job has made a mistake, has sinned and now he is living with the results of his sinful actions.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
‘If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
   But who can keep from speaking?
See, you have instructed many;
   you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have supported those who were stumbling,
   and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
   it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Is not your fear of God your confidence,
   and the integrity of your ways your hope?
‘Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?
   Or where were the upright cut off?
As I have seen, those who plough iniquity
   and sow trouble reap the same.

Eliphaz is not too far off our current culture of blaming one another for our own lots. Frankly, it is just easier to blame the person for their lot than to entertain that maybe their lot in life is not the result of their own doing. We do not like the idea of randomness in the world. We like order and the security of cause and effect. 

But we all know that there are things that happen in this world that make your life worse that are of no fault of your own. The kid born into an abusive family did not choose that family. The person who is injured because of a drunk driver. The times we got sick even though we were very, very careful. Things happen. Rather than be the people who seek the false security of blaming the victim or be the people who have no compassion for those who feel like life is against them, we can be different. We can be a people who affirm that sometimes, things happen through the randomness of life and we will be there to weep/yell/mourn with you without any judgement. 

While the world may not have many people named Eliphaz, I am sure we have encountered Eliphaz by a different name. I pray that no one has ever used the logic of Eliphaz while using the name Jesus.

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.

The WCA's LMP Problem

The Wesleyan Covenant Association is a group of United Methodist clergy and laity. For anyone who has heard of the WCA but is not aware of what it is, the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) stated purpose open with the following statement:

"The Wesleyan Covenant Association (“WCA”) is an association of congregations, clergy persons, and laity who desire to cooperate in the mission of the WCA to promote the ministry of the gospel from a Wesleyan theological perspective within The United Methodist Church and kindred bodies."

Like all organizations, the WCA uses particular words to define what it is. Some of the words that are most commonly used in the material that I come across are "Wesleyan", "orthodox", "evangelical", and "covenant keeping". Like any organization who defines itself, there are critics who say the WCA is claiming sole ownership of what it means to be, say, "Wesleyan" or "orthodox." I am thankful for the WCA giving members of the UMC to consider again what it means to be "evangelical" and/or "covenant keeping." Just as the no one Church has the exclusive rights to claim "Christian" so to the WCA does not have exclusive rights to a number of other defining qualities of the UMC.

In all the discerning work on what it means to be Methodist, there is one descriptor the WCA uses that gives me the most concern and frankly is, from my standpoint, the cause of a great amount of tension in our world.

The WCA has a "like-minded people" (LMP) problem.

Is surrounding ourselves with LMP a form of egocentrism? 

In the WCA "statements" page the LMP problem shows up a half dozen times. In a recent video put out by the WCA, Rev. Madeline Henners lets the listener know:

“Of course everyone is welcome to attend the Wesleyan Covenant Association Conference, however I do want to make two specific invitations. The first is to pastors and congregations of small to medium-sized churches. Depending on which conference you’re located in, sometimes you may feel like your voice is not heard or even dismissed. We want you to know that your voice matters to the Wesleyan Covenant Association. I’d also like to personally invite any young clergy who are in the process of being ordained or recently ordained. We want you to feel connected and supported to like-minded brothers and sisters, who not only are seeking to restore integrity to our covenant, but are seeking to belong to a vital Wesleyan movement.”

It seems that LMP is a feature and not a bug in the WCA system. I believe this to be a problem.

If the current state of U.S. politics teaches us, it is that we all are falling short and missing the mark (AKA: Sin) when we surround ourselves with only agreement. Confirmation bias is part of the human condition. However, the Church is the place that understands that the Grace of God works in and through us to open us up. The Grace of God reminds us that God loves all people -- even if they are not like-minded. 

I am working to repent of the LMP in my own life. I have subscribed to a web browser extension (Escape Your Bubble) which puts news stories from "the other side" directly into my Facebook feed. I have begun to access most of my news from allsides.com - "Unlike regular news services, AllSides exposes bias and provides multiple angles on the same story so you can quickly get the full picture, not just one slant." Finally, I have been intentional on listening with curiosity to people in my congregation that have a completely different values than I do. 

Lent is the season to repent. It is the season to embrace, once again, a humble posture to the reality that we see through a mirror only dimly. It is the season to die to self and be reborn (not just a change of heart but a completely new heart).

Can lent 2017 be the time we cure our LMP problem?

Why Repenting is so Difficult (maybe not for the reason we think)

Lent can be identified as the season of repenting. Repenting is the idea of turning around and come back to God. Christians often talk about repentance, but I am not sure that makes us better at it. This might be because we forget the most difficult part of repentance is not turning back to God. The hardest part of repentance is admitting that we were going in the wrong direction to begin with.

When we think our path is so beautiful and perfect, what makes us think we are on the wrong path to begin with? 

Repenting is difficult because we have to be humble enough to admit that the way we see or the actions we do are wrong. We don't like to admit that. We are good at justifying our actions and rationalizing our behavior. We are also very good at seeing how others are going the wrong way and how we think "they" should repent. It is easy to want to walk in the ways of life and love; that is not the difficult part. The hard part is admitting that the ways we think are full of life and love may in fact be totally misguided.