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Monday, February 26, 2007
Satan Strikes Out
Psalm 91:1-2,9-16; Luke 4:1-13
Right on the heels of his greatest public moment, Jesus went away for a kind of spiritual boot camp that put his body and soul to the ultimate test. His baptism by John the Baptist featured God's own voice singing his praises. Then, out in the desert for 40 long days of fasting, all he heard was the Devil's voice tempting him every which way to do anything but the will of God.
If you're facing some big temptations, or maybe just some little teasing ones, today's story says you're in the best of company. Watch and listen to how Jesus wins three big contests with Satan, staying true to God when it would be so easy to do the wrong thing.
Listen to the GODcast!
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C. S. Lewis' little book The Screwtape Letters is a collection of messages from a Senior Devil (Screwtape) to his neophite nephew (Wormwood) about how best to screw up the life of a young man who has recently become a Christian.
Lewis, a devout Oxford don writing during World War II, predictably includes numerous satirical takes on modern English culture and the church's role in it, for better or worse. But his best satire shows up in his treatment of the invisible world of spiritual things.
His key conceit is to have the demons turn everything spiritually upside-down. So, they do their devilry in service to "Our Father Below." And their greatest joy comes when their "patients" learn to give in to temptation, nurse hostile feelings, double-cross each other, and much worse besides. And lurking above it all is "The Enemy," whose reputed intention for all created beings is nothing less than eternal blessing. Starting here and now in everyday real-time life.
I've known Christian readers to put down this Christian book in confused exasperation. Their minds can't quite compute the absolute reversal required to think like the Devil.
Maybe I should be thankful. After all, that kind of innocence probably protects these good souls, and us who rub shoulders with them, from a multitude of sins.
And yet Lewis compels us to imagine how the Devil thinks. Which in turn prepares us to out-think the Devil, at least every now and then.
What better way to resist temptation than to recognize its many tricky disguises?
This week's Gospel tells of Jesus being tempted by the Devil himself out in the wilds of the Dead Sea desert. Fasting and praying for 40 lonely days, Jesus is tempted all along the way. Then on Day 40, the Devil hits him with three big ones at once.
But Jesus knows each one is a dirty trick, and he turns each one down with a memory verse from the book of Deuteronomy. (There you have one important reason to read your Bible. The word of God trumps the Devil's lies every time.)
And they really are lies. In one telling letter, Lewis's Screwtape goes on at gleeful length about one of Wormwood's blunders. Not only does he rub his hands in smug rage; he actually salivates in anticipation of eating his dear nephew once he's been slow-roasted in punishment! Screwtape then realizes he's been much too honest, and quickly resumes his usual tone of avuncular counsel in demonic endeavors.
Dudley Moore and Peter Cook once made a movie called "Bedazzled," in which a romantic fool made a deal with the Devil in order to win the love of a lovely woman. The story unfolds in one tragically funny scene after another, ultimately including encounters with all seven of the deadly sins. But there's a serious theme threaded through all those scenes: You can never trust the Devil! One way or another, when he grants the guy's wishes, he always cheats him out of any satisfaction. And the poor shlump keeps coming back for more.
Jesus knew what the old adage says: If it sounds too good to be true, then it is. And he knew how to say No in the first place, cutting his losses absolutely by incurring none at all.
If that sounds too good to be true, then consider this corollary truth: Because he was tempted the same way we are, but never gave in, then he knows by experience what we go through every time we're tempted. As a result, he not only cares about our temptations, but he shares them. And, even more encouraging, he's able to support and strengthen us to say our own No -- every single time, if we really want to.
You see, you and I are never tempted all by ourselves out in some deserted spot. Christ himself is present with us, able and willing to disarm the Devil if we'll give him half the chance.
Screwtape would never understand. All the more to our advantage!
posted by Jack Buckley at
12:13 PM
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Unspeakable Glory
Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-36
Most of life more or less plods along at a constant mundane pace. But once in a while you hit a turning point, when the most ordinary person stands up, steps up, and speaks up about what matters most. When that happens we're able to see what that person is really made of. Maybe they're as surprised as we are at what comes out. Like: extraordinary strength, incredible courage, and breath-taking character.
That's the kind of moment Jesus and his three closest disciples shared one day when they went up the hill to pray together. They'd often seen and heard him in action, doing the kind of things messiahs do. Of all his men, they were the ones who knew him inside out. So they thought. But what they saw that one strange day absolutely blew their minds.
Listen to the GODcast!
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posted by Jack Buckley at
11:51 AM
Monday, February 12, 2007
Unexpected Blessings
Psalm 1; Luke 6:17-26
You don't have to read very far in any of the Gospels to see how freely Jesus turns the tables on traditional expectations. So it's not really surprising that in this week's story he pronounces some upside-down "blessings." Or maybe he's simply turning things rightside-up for once. In any case, he makes us think again about who's blessed and who's cursed, and why God's last word is always the best Good News.
Listen to the GODcast!
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A couple of years ago Joanne and I went to a special showing of the classic silent movie "Greed." It chronicled the tragic story of a poor man and woman in the old West who did everything they possibly could to get rich. In the process they lost every vestige of kindness, all confidence in each other, and finally their very lives. Needless to say, their souls had gone to hell long before they breathed their last.
I remember this now because of a possible misunderstanding you could get from Jesus' singling out poor and marginalized people for special blessing while, in stark contrast, pronouncing woes on the rich and powerful among us.
Can't you hear a well-heeled person complain: "What do you mean?! I've worked hard to get where I am today. I made sacrifices to succeed. Why do you judge me for obeying the laws of business and economics, and reaping my just rewards? And besides, anybody who's willing to do the same will be equally blessed."
All things considered, who can argue with that?
Well. It all depends on which things you include in the consideration.
I believe Jesus is drawing a crucial line in the sand here. Actually, two lines that intersect to form a cross.
If you focus on the horizontal line, then the wealthy disclaimer works quite well. On a level playing field, all things being equal -- like good health, equal employment opportunity, fair business practices, and such -- virtually anyone can grow prosperous. In this material world, that's the way things work.
But if you ignore the vertical line, the spiritual link between heaven and earth, you'll never know what real blessings are.
Jesus says it this way: "Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your consolation." In other words, you're already paid in full on your investment. That's all you'll ever get. Material wealth minus Spiritual health equals Zero balance in the end.
Remember, though, it's just as easy for a poor person as for the rich to be greedy, resentful, totally materialistic. And lightning-quick to grab hold of worldly goods.
So Jesus calls every one of us to decide whose values are going to drive our lives: God's or the world's?
One commentator says Christ's "beatitudes" in Luke 6 promise every disciple three sure things: You will be completely fearless (God is for you and with you); you will be absurdly happy (God knows you and values you); and you will always be in trouble (God and you cut against the grain of the world).
The Apostle Paul, reciting a horrible list of the sufferings he's gone through in serving Jesus Christ, confided the secret of his tenacity this way: "So we do not lose heart... For this momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
When you've got everything that's good to look forward to, then you've really got nothing to lose here and now. And there's your bottom-line definition of a blessing.
posted by Jack Buckley at
11:04 AM
Monday, February 05, 2007
"If You Say So" Faith
Psalm 138; Luke 5:1-11
One day Jesus decided to do his teaching a bit differently. The crowd who'd come to hear him was so huge and enthusiastic they just about pushed him into the lake. So he climbed into a fishing boat, asked the captain to pull out a way from the shoreline, and proceeded to teach his lesson.
Afterwards, he told the fishermen to launch out into deeper water and catch some fish. Simon Peter said, "We tried that all night long and caught absolutely nothing." Under his breath he probably muttered, "Nice guy, great preacher, but he don't know from fish at all." But then he spoke the simplest statement of faith you'll ever find: "But, if you say so...." And he did what Jesus said. And hauled in an overflowing boatload of fish!
That's a wonderful living parable about the nature of faith. If what we believe were purely reasonable, who would ever need faith?
Listen to the GODcast!
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The other day I read a fascinating interview posted on the Powell's Books Web site. They were talking with Jim Wallis, an evangelical leader, about his best-selling book, God's Politics (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005).
At one point Wallis surprisingly finds himself agreeing with Kurt Vonnegut, hardly a religious role model in American culture. In fact, the interviewer calls him "the archetypal cynic." Listen to Jim Wallis's response.
"I'm very sympathetic to the cynics.... They're against all the bad stuff. They really are.... They don't agree with it. They think it's wrong. And maybe they tried to change it for a while. They were out there, and they got tired, disappointed, disillusioned. But they were out there and nothing changed. And commitment makes you feel vulnerable.... You say, I'm against it all, but I don't think it can change. So why am I out here, naked and vulnerable? I've got to pull back a little bit and look after my own security. They're still against it all. There are no rose colored glasses here. They don't say, Things are great. They just say, I don't think it can change. Commitment makes you feel vulnerable, so cynicism is a buffer against commitment. It's a safe place. A sanctuary. You can still be against the bad stuff. But you want to protect your own security. But hope is a decision you make....
"Hope is a choice, a decision, not a feeling, a state of mind, or a personality trait. The Bible says,'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' I love that. Or my paraphrase of that is, Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and watching the evidence change. To me this is very real. The reason I was at Nelson Mandela's inauguration [mentioned earlier in this interview] is I was there for all the hard times. I snuck into the country to stand with a persecuted church. They were struggling and suffering. But they believed that day, that big party of Inauguration Day, was possible long before it came to be. They saw through the eyes of faith that that day would come.
"I remember when I got picked up at the airport by friends. We turned a corner and saw the South African security police. Now I've been interrogated by those guys, and they're scary. They're ugly. They're vicious. And I said, 'Quick, get away, get away.' And my South African friends said, 'Oh, they're ours now.' They're ours now! It was amazing. I've never seen history change in front of my face like that before."
And that is exactly what Peter means when he says to Jesus, "If you say so," and casts his nets for that miraculous catch of fish. Believing in spite of the evidence, and watching the evidence change!
Because Peter and his buddies were willing to hope against all hope that Jesus could be trusted, they left their boats at the dock that day and went off with him to change the whole wide world.
And that's what they did, spreading Christ's good news down the centuries and around the world. Their choice to hope that day sowed the seeds for Jim Wallis in Washington, D.C., his Christian friends in South Africa, American believers on the left and on the right, of every denominational brand name or stubbornly independent -- for all of us, to hold on to hope -- and to hold out hope -- in a world soaked through with cynicism.
"If you say so." Such hesitant words, but packed with spiritual atomic energy!
posted by Jack Buckley at
5:07 PM
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