The talk at my church in Ann Arbor Thursday night promised
to be most interesting, so I set out early to ensure a good seat. But it was not to be. Police cars totally blocked the route to Ann
Arbor I was taking; there was a serious accident somewhere ahead. I briefly pondered alternative routes, but
the nearby ones were narrow dirt (and muddy) roads, and so I took a moment and asked:
“Is there somewhere else You’d have me go, Lord? Something else I should be doing?” The nearest main road led to an adoration
chapel, and so that is where I headed to pray.
The dimly lit chapel was unusually crowded, and I quietly
sat down to pray. As people began
leaving, some paused next to me, smiling and nodding in greeting as I looked up
at them --- they were acquaintances I usually don’t see in the chapel. Then a couple who often stay at my house
knelt next to me and whispered greetings; I had not noticed their
presence. They left, then their daughter
--- who I had not seen in six months --- knelt next to me to speak. Enough disruption already, and I motioned to
the chapel door, where we exited to talk in the hallway. She hugged me and cried how much she had
missed me, and then her young daughter did the same. He daughter told me it was her mother’s 40th
birthday. Then they were all talking
about some priest they had heard of who was predicting the end times ---
now. Wow! I guess there WAS something Jesus would
rather me do than listen to that talk I had started out to attend.
But what? On the one
hand I felt some consolation that this was a working of God, and it would be
easy to believe He did this for me, and perhaps all the chance meetings and
greetings WERE for me. But I did not
leap to celebrate, but went back to the chapel and further prayed to understand
what Jesus was telling in my heart, and what might be in His.
Later that evening, the leader of my Friday morning Bible
Study Group texted that he was out of town, and I wondered if anyone would show
up at the coffee shop where we meet.
When I got there early Friday morning a number of men were there, and
our conversation there eventually drifted to a discussion of the impact on
Christianity of our changing culture --- the very topic of the talk I had
missed the night before. And no offense
to our study leader, but I believe this turned out to be one of the best
discussions the Friday morning guys ever had.
A lot of our talk focused on relationships and sexual
sins. It was commented that our culture
doesn’t seem to recognize the concept of the seriousness of sin anymore; it’s
as if Jesus said the two great commandments were to love God and not kill
anyone. And everyone in the culture
says: “Well, I haven’t killed anyone, so I guess I’m obeying what Jesus
said.” So, no one feels compelled to
confess any sins. I commented how God
has opened my eyes to better understand sin --- and literally He has done it
--- when I sit quietly in the church before I go to confession, reading
Scripture and asking in prayer: “Lord, how have I offended You?” And then very often I recall some action or
words I said, and I hear a soft voice telling me: “When you did that, you disappointed
Me.” Not that I killed someone or robbed
a bank, my sins were actions I took which disappointed Him. Not huge sins, but examples of how I am not
following Him, living in imitation of Him, of not being who He created me to
be, and doing what He’d have me do.
Those are the sins that the culture tends to ignore, sins which offend
God, the very definition of sin. You
see, God defines sin because He is the One offended against, yet the culture
believes WE define sin; it is strictly an earthly matter.
One of the morning guys spoke of how his sins used to be in
reaction to people or events which he felt wronged him, and he reacted
emotionally in response. His eyes were
opened when his spiritual director informed him it didn’t matter if he were
wronged or unappreciated; if he had a strong relationship with God, he was
living his life well, even if others didn’t appreciate it, or respect it. This man could see that emotional, instinctual
reactions, not God-like reactions, were sinful failings.
Which transitioned us to sexual sins, which our society has
washed away from consideration, because “as long as there is consent, there is
no problem.” One man noted that nowhere
in the Bible does it say a man and woman can’t live together before marriage. We then spoke at length on the importance of
marriage preparation classes, and the importance of putting God in the
relationship. One noted that
psychologically, men and women understand each other, as equals, better than
ever in the past, which should strengthen relationships. Yet, one noted that a huge proportion of
people who marry after having lived together end up getting divorced, at a much
higher rate than those who did not live together before marriage. “If they took the time to live together, to
be sure they fit together, why were they more likely to divorce?” was a question
we asked ourselves.
One of us found an answer in James, but I found one in Jude,
and I quoted his words at the summary of our discussion:
These men revile whatever they
do not understand, and by those things that they know by instinct as
irrational animals do, they are destroyed.
(Jude, 10)
St. Jude wrote his letter to a group of the followers of
Christ, warning them of errors creeping into what Christ taught. For admission has been secretly gained by
some who long ago were designated for the condemnation, ungodly persons who
pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness … just as Sodom and Gomorrah
and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in
unnatural lust.
St. Jude’s whole letter is focused on those who distort the
faith in sexual matters. God gave us a
command to love, and sexuality is one of His natural gifts, so our culture (now
and then) says if we are in a loving relationship what are we doing wrong? St. Jude goes on to explain:
Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon
themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s errors, and perish in
Korah’s rebellion. These are blemishes
on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after
themselves… In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own
ungodly passions.
Love of neighbor is the commandment, but it is in GIVING
love that we obey it. Love and sex are
God’s gifts to us, to be GIVEN to others, for their benefit, not ours. It is when we change the focus to doing these
things for OUR benefit that we distort the faith. We are acting instinctually, like animals,
but we were created to be better than animals.
Our yearnings “by instinct as irrational animals do” for sex,
love, or any selfish desires is when we imitate Cain, Sodom and Gomorrah, “looking
after themselves, following their own ungodly passions.” My prayer for humility said each night
includes this critical line that I might overcome the instincts St. Jude warns
of: “From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.”
“But they love one another” is our society’s distortion of
God’s commandment, being used to justify living together, homosexual marriage,
and abortion. It is a hidden sin, not
called by that name, which existed subtly even in the time of St. Jude.
Thursday night God had thwarted my plans and directed me to
a place where I was greeted and hugged by many people. It would be “instinctual” to think God did
that to show me He loves me --- and I so instinctually crave love. But the place God has for me to “receive”
love is called heaven. He didn’t come to
earth to be loved and adored; following Him, this is not our purpose
either. It is to “give” and “show” love. His putting people in my life Thursday night
is an opening, and opportunity, for me to do as He would do, to offer love.
- -
- - - - - - - -
December 6th was the feast day of St.
Nicholas. The Office I use for my
morning prayers that day had a reading by St. Augustine, which seems to
re-iterate the lessons from above:
“When those who are tending Christ’s flock wish that the
sheep were theirs rather than His, they stand convicted of loving themselves,
not Christ. And the Lord’s words are a
repeated admonition to them and to all who, as Paul writes sadly, are seeking
their own ends, not Christ’s.
Do you love me? Tend my sheep. Surely this means: “If you love
me, your thoughts must focus on taking care of my sheep, not taking care of
yourself. You must tend them as mine,
not as yours; seek in them my glory, not yours; my sovereign rights, not yours;
my gain, not yours. Otherwise you will
find yourself among those who belong to the “times of peril”, those who are
guilty of self-love and the other sins that go with that beginning of evils.
So the shepherds of
Christ’s flock must never indulge in self-love; if they do they will be tending
the sheep not as Christ’s but as their own.
And of all vices this is the one that the shepherds must guard
against most earnestly: seeking their
own purposes instead of Christ’s, furthering their own desires by means of
those persons for whom Christ shed His blood.”
No comments:
Post a Comment