Sunday, June 27, 2010

You are God's Child

You,
human being,
no matter who you are,

you are God's child,

you are included in God's love,
out of the pure, incomprehensible grace of God;
accept this word, believe in it,
trust in his rule
rather than in yourself or in your own party,
rather than in your own work or your own religion.
God does as he wills.

Turn your misery into God's blessed presence,
and from within your guilt and distress
hear the voice
of the eternal, living God.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditation and Prayer, ed. by Peter Frick


This is why I am a pacifist. I know this wasn't Bonhoeffer's point in this meditation, but these are the thoughts that have led me to my commitment. How can I cause harm to something/someone God loves so much? How can I support the killing of a human being, made in the image of God? There is so much hope for each person in the love of God through Jesus Christ. How can I take that away?

I feel that this principle is slowly and surely changing me. Changing how I view the world, how I view people. May God's "blessed presence" be with me as I live it out.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Truth and Love

Insight, knowledge, truth
without love is nothing--
it is not even truth,
for truth is God, and God is truth.

So truth without love is a lie; it is nothing.
Truth just for oneself
truth spoken in enmity and hate
is not truth but a lie,
for truth brings us into God's presence,
and God is love.

Truth
is either the clarity of love,
or it is nothing.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Meditation and Prayer, ed. Peter Frick

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Justice

In yesterday's paper, there was an article written by a reporter who got to witness the execution of a man in Utah who was convicted of two murders. Apparently, it was the first execution by firing squad in Utah (the only state that still permits such a method) since 1996, which was made it a news-worthy event. The reporter chronicled the final moments of this man, who had no final words, and how the bullets ripped through the target on the left side of his chest without much flair or excitement. There was no visible blood pouring out, and there was no dramatic reaction from the condemned man save a clenched fist. By all standards, justice was carried out swiftly and cleanly in this execution, despite the seemingly archaic method.

Yes, justice was served here. This man killed a man in a robbery, then years later killed again and severely wounded another man. He was a violent offender, a ruthless criminal, the scum of humanity. He got what he deserved. People may argue about the ethics of the death penalty, but the issue at hand here is justice. This man killed, so he was killed. This speaks to how we as a society define justice--evening things out, keeping things fair. Justice, karma, fairness, equity--these are the things that keep society in order, and for which our justice system works for. These are good things.

And yet, as I read this article chronicling this man's death, I hated almost every word of it. Not just because I'm a pacifist and don't support the death penalty. But because in the world's eyes, this was so right. A man's life ended, probably without him knowing any form of redemption, and Lady Justice smiled on (although I don't know how she sees through that blindfold).

It was then that I realized that at the root of my discomfort with this was in the inconsistencies between definitions of justice. I believe God defines justice much differently than any government does. Or rather, maybe at the root they're the same definition, but the end and means of justice are different. We can still define justice as "making things right." But to what end? What is "right"?

To the world, it's almost as if the end is to even the playing field, as if killing the bad guys will create more good in the world. But to God, the end goal is to bring people back to Him, to the way He intended us to live within His purposes. That which is right, or righteous, is that which is within God's purposes and intentions for mankind. God's justice is about us, being reconciled with Him. For God, the means of that justice are the forgiveness and redemption offered to us through Jesus Christ.

God's justice is rooted in His love for His fallen children. God's justice is in the open arms of the father embracing the prodigal son. God's justice is in the anxious heart of the shepherd searching for that one lost sheep. God's justice is in the blood of a Savior who was crucified unjustly on a Roman cross.

God's justice isn't about getting what you deserve; it's about Grace.

Praise God that we do not get what we deserve. If so, we would all deserve eternal punishment. We are sinners who live in a fallen world. We have fallen away from God and from our purpose as created beings. Real justice is getting us back to that purpose, back to God.

Real justice is grace.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Silence

We are silent
early in the morning
because God should have the first word,
and we are silent before going to bed
because the last word also belongs to God.

In the end,
silence means nothing other than waiting
for God's Word
and coming from God's Word
with a blessing.

Real silence,
real stillness,
really holding one's tongue,
comes only as the sober consequence of
spiritual silence.

There is a wonderful
power in being silent
--the power of clarification, purification,
and the focus on what is essential.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Meditation and Prayer, ed. Peter Frick

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Knowing the Unknowable

In a discussion with a few friends this past weekend, we were talking about how our theological attempts necessarily limits God. Whenever we try to define God through our limited language, this is an attempt to contain the Uncontainable. We talked about the purpose of apophatic (or negative) theology in trying to avoid this, where we attempt to define God by saying what He is not. But even that puts limitations on God, just in a more roundabout way.

We ended that discussion on a note of helplessness--what can we even do? How can we even know this God who cannot be contained in our knowledge?

I believe that the purpose of theology is to know God. Not to contain Him, but to explore who He is. And, praise the Lord, we have a God who desires to be known! Everything God has done in Scripture and today for His people is to reconcile the separation between God and man, and to reveal Himself to us. God reveals Himself to us not in clear, definable terms, but relationally and mysteriously. Not that He desires to remain cryptic and unknown, but to show us that He is a mystery, far beyond what we know and experience. He desires to show us Himself in how He relates to us and what He's done for us.

He reveals Himself most of all through the Incarnation in becoming one of us. For in Jesus, "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him" (Colossians 1:19). In Jesus we find God's greatest act of revelation. In Jesus, God makes Himself known to us. In Jesus, the truth of who God is is shown by the love and justice of the Gospel.

Though our language will always necessarily limit our experience, whether of God or anything else, we are stuck with it, and must be content to know that which has been given us to know. We have a God that wants to be known. Do all you can to know Him as He is.