By My Own Merit

At hearing this, great sorrow gripped my heart. For many persons of the greatest worth were held, I knew, suspended in this strip. “Tell me, sir, tell me, my dearest teacher,” so I began, determined – on a point of faith which routs all error – to be sure, “has anyone, by merit of his own. . ., left here then been blessed?” And he, who read the sense my words had hid, answered: “I still was new to this strange state when, now advancing, I beheld a power whose head was crowned with signs of victory. He led away the shadow of our primal sire, shades of his offspring, Abel and Noah, Moses, who uttered the law, of Abraham the patriarch, David the king. . .All these he blessed. Until these were, no human soul had ever been redeemed.”[1]

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, as Dante begins his journey through hell, he has a question for his guide, Virgil. On the very first level, with eight more left to go, he asks the question, “Has anyone ever made it out of here on their own merit or effort?” Dante expresses this concern because so many of the people he saw were people of “reputation and honor.” Surely, there must be someone who would be considered of sufficient moral character, who would have made it out of hell and gone to heaven. These are good people, people we respect, admire, and wish to emulate.

Virgil’s response is, “Only one, and his head was crowned with the signs of victory!” We tend to think we are moral people. We like to view ourselves as only needing a little boost to skip over hell and land in heaven. If we choose to hang on to that notion, we will find ourselves ill equipped for the afterlife when the time comes. It turns out that hell is filled with “good” people, “honest” people, people of “good reputation,” and exhibiting strength of character. They are there because, in the end, they rejected God’s way, even as the first human beings did, and rely on their own works.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.[2]

The crown of thorns has become the sign of victory!

Pastor Craig

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[1] The Divine Comedy: Canto 4. Dante.

[2] Ephesians 2:8-9

White Martyrdom

I remembered something about Celtic monks that I thought I'd share - some of you may know much more than I about this history, but my point has to do with servant-leadership:

I read an article some time back addressing the leadership of the Spirit. It made comment about the "white martyrdom" of the ancient Celts. White martyrdom is a commitment to live a sacrificial life that will result in one's ultimate death, rather than a "red martyrdom" of being killed in some bloody way for the faith. Ascetic monks who lived in the desert were white martyrs; people who were missionaries in places so far-flung they would never make it home were white martyrs.

Around the 800's Irish monks would embrace white martyrdom by setting sail from the coast in round, brown leather boats, called coracles, that had no rudder. The idea was that they would let the ocean currents (guided by the hand of the Holy Spirit) take their little boats and deliver them to wherever it was the Spirit wanted them to work - hence, they needed no rudder, sail or helm, other than the Spirit's hand. Because of the way the currents flowed, they would likely never return home, and certainly could not turn around and go back intentionally, so they would die at their ultimate destination.

It isn't exactly an example of leadership, but I do think it is a good example of the mindset of a servant-leader - and the sacrificial sense of genuine leadership - and the way we have to trust the Spirit in leadership. Without the leading and aid of the Holy Spirit, our best efforts at leading a church are really nothing more than can be done on the ocean in a round boat. In both cases we might die, but with the Holy Spirit we at least have a chance of doing the Kingdom's work instead of our own."

Pastor Craig

The Defects of Others

We would willingly have others perfect, and yet we correct not our own faults. We will have others severely corrected, and will not be corrected ourselves. The large liberty of others displeases us, and yet we will not have our own desires denied us. We will have others bound down by ordinances, and we ourselves endure no further restraint.

And thus it appears, how seldom we weigh our neighbor in the same balance with ourselves.

Thomas A` Kempis of the Imitation of Christ

The sad thing is that I have already proven the truth of these words many times over. You too have proven them if you thought about anyone else but yourself as you read this passage. I even had in mind people to whom I would send it in hopes that they might listen to the Scriptures and be corrected!

The Scriptures go so far as to warn us that we will be judged with the same severity we wish to put upon others.[1] Now, we are to be discerning. So, what is the difference between the two, discernment and judging?

Judging strikes out. It seeks punishment. In its most harsh display its goal in fact is punishment alone. Judgment has decided a guilty verdict already. It has concluded the severity of the consequences to be meted out. It will decide when the debt has been paid in full. When we are the ones doing the judging, that means we reserve the right to decide when the punishment is sufficient and the debt has been paid.

Discernment seeks understanding. Discernment may recognize that an offense has been committed, but it seeks to understand the circumstances that prompted one to commit the act itself. Yes, consequences may still need to be enforced. However, even in the enforcement of correction the ultimate goal is restoration. How do we restore a person to the position they had before. Not, how do we punish them so severely that they will never consider committing the same offence again.

When we trip over our own morals, how would we wish to be dealt with? Most of us would hope for someone who would understand our situation, that as they decide our fate, they could put themselves in our situation and say, “if that were me, I might have done the same thing.”

Cover your neighbors’ faults with love, that they might do the same for you when your time comes. In so doing you show forth the love of Christ and your life proclaims the good news of the gospel for all to hear.

Pastor Craig

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[1] Romans 14:13

Self-Expectations

Charles Dickens' Great Expectations includes this brief passage of when Estella first made Pip feel worthless:

I took the opportunity of being alone in the court-yard to look at my coarse hands and my common boots. My opinion of those accessories was not favorable. They have never troubled me before, but the troubled me now, as vulgar appendages. I determines to ask Joe why he had ever taught me to call those picture-cards Jacks which out to be called knaves. I wished Joe had been rather more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.

Most of us, at some time in our life, take a long, hard, and very unfavorable look at some aspect of our being. Now, I know that there are aspects of my own being, as I am sure you are aware of yours as well, that should be changed, and I know that I would be a better person for having changed them. However, there is a difference between a decision of our own to better ourselves or to grow as a person and someone else giving us reason to feel less than or inadequate in our being because of their evaluation of us.

It might be anything. It could be something we might change as easily as our own socks or something as difficult as the fact that we were born taller or shorter than someone else has decided is "appropriate."

I have tried, when confronted with hurt in my being to ask, "Would I be a better person for taking this individual's advice? Would I be a more loving husband or father? Would my preaching improve? Would I remedy some inconsistency within my Christian testimony?" If the answer is, "Yes," than it is appropriate to thank the person, recognize an opportunity for self-improvement, and put the suggested action to work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

However, if the answer is, "No," I recognize that my Savior is wiser than either of us and has given me certain talents and abilities as well as certain challenges and shortcoming - all to His glory, and all to be put to use in doing the work of His Kingdom.

If you have ever read the 500+ pages of Dickens' masterpiece, you will remember that this one event, a passing comment about the roughness of a young boy's hands and the commonness of his boots, marks the beginning of a dissatisfied life where Pip continually tries to better himself but never seems to find satisfaction. It awakens something within him that new boots can never cure.

Paul writes in an almost insulting way to the church at Corinth. He tells them that they really don't have any wise members in their midst, none of noble birth, hardly any with any real degree of athleticism. It's enough to give a complex worse than Pip's! Yet, Paul goes on to remind them that all this is to God's glory because of the Holy Spirit's ongoing work within that local gathering of believers.

Whether that is important to you or me or not comes down to whose opinion really matters most to us, doesn't it?

Pastor Craig