Thoughts on salvation and missions

On Saturday I went to the Newsboy concert here in town. It was a pretty sweet deal - a real nostalgia trip for me. Michael Tait (of DC Talk fame) is their lead singer now, so they sang a nice blend of old DC Talk stuff and Newsboys stuff.

Just before Newsboys went on, a fellow representing a mission organization came out and spoke to the crowd. During his short sermon, he pressed hard the idea that God is pleased by what we do - go and feed the poor, and we will be judged kindly. He hammered the Matthew 25 passage, which is one that I am particularly fond of myself. However, the angle with which he approached the topic (to say nothing of the mission he was pushing itself, more on that later) worried me.

It reminded me very much of the old tent-revival hell-pushers of the past century. Before, the message was personal salvation: 'Repent, or you'll burn in Hell! God is an ANGRY God, and He is ANGRY at your sins!'

Now, the message I heard is all too similar: 'Go feed the Poor, or you'll burn in Hell! God is an ANGRY God, and He is ANGRY at the injustice you support!'

I don't like the angry-God approach. I do not find it Biblical, necessary, or even helpful. Should we be feeding the poor because we're afraid God will smite us if we don't? Or should we be saying, 'what is the heart of Christ? How did He live? What did He do?' This is a much more complex question than WWJD. To answer this question we must be willing to tackle huge issues, including systemic corruption, systematic abuse of the world's resources, and a prevailing flood of apathy mixed with guilt from the First World... which brings me to my next point.

This man boasted about the huge number of houses his organization had built in Mexico over the past year. I believe the number was somewhere around 1,500 houses, built by 25,000 volunteers, but I could be off on that. Needless to say, it was a large number. This man was obviously proud of how much they had 'helped the poor', although much more needed to be done.

All I could think to myself was 'what about the carpenters?' How did the local economy fair after the houses were built? did the people in the houses have jobs, or even skills? Wouldn't it have been more helpful to send 100 trained professionals down, and have them train the local population how to build their own houses, thereby supplying them with both shelter and profession?

Africa's textile industry has collapsed in the past ten years because of the massive glut of second-hand First-world clothing that is hauled over there in containers every year. Gives you something to think about.

So, what is the answer? I don't have anything specific, but I do have ideas.

First, we should never guilt anyone into anything. Having mercy is a much different thing than feeling guilty. Guilt paralyzes and condemns. Mercy reaches out and lifts up. Yes, we should feel upset about the abuse and affluence of the First World. Yes, we should want to go. But holding Hellfire over my head is not going to make me want to follow you. In fact, it may make me want to do the opposite.

Second, is not the attitude that we must go help in order to save ourselves from Hell, as McLaren puts it, the ultimate ego trip? Am I truly helping because I believe that the poor are worth something, are precious, and deserve love, or am I helping because I don't want to go to Hell? What about the Hell they are already living in? Shouldn't that be a motivator?

Third, if we are going to engage in Mission, we must be willing to do the hard work of examing the organization we are going with, and examining the culture we are going in to. We must work with the local population to make sure that any help given is sustainable and neccessary. Just doing something because we feel bad that the poor mexicans don't have houses is not good enough.

Well, there are my thoughts. Off to homework..

Interactions

Well, it's 'personal post' day! Just as a reminder, I'll be posting on a different blog every other day - this is my personal thoughts about life and faith and junk, while jordanshawphotography.com is more work and photography related. That one was last updated Thursday, and will be updated next on Monday. This one will be updated next on Wednesday, and so on.

The past week has been all about interactions and reactions. I will start at the beginning.

Yesterday I went for lunch with an old friend of mine, whom I hadn't seen in quite some time. Hanging out with her and telling her about my past couple months reminded me why I love life so much. I realized yesterday afternoon that I had forgotten to really enjoy life for the last couple months. Yes, I had fun, and laughed with friends, and screamed on roller coasters, and maybe even shed a tear here or there - but I really felt... muted. Like I was just plowing through, just getting by.

Yesterday I realized that I had woken up, and how good it felt. It felt good to truly care again, to truly laugh.

Now, I'm overwhelmed still. Lots to do, no time to do it in. But the stress I've been feeling in the past has melted.. Not gone, but definitely softened.

Today I spent most of the day in the library studying a theology of the City for a paper due Monday. And for the first time in some time, I actually enjoyed it. I remembered why I'm here, and why I love it so much. What God reveals about Himself in a simple little story from thousands of years ago is incredible.

This afternoon I met with a couple who are going to be married soon, and to see the love in their eyes was inspiring, and I remembered why I enjoy being with and learning from other people.

Tonight, I watched Lars and The Real Girl, and I realized how important each of our interactions are.

And just now I got home from a walk with another friend, who helped me to realize how important honesty and friendship really are.

I feel good. I feel alive. Tomorrow may be another story, but tonight I'm cherishing it.

Goodnight.

Parable of the Talents: A 'new' interpretation

Well, I don't know if this interpretation is actually new or not, but I've never heard it before. I'm not claiming anything original, but this interpretation made this parable finally make sense to me. Feel free to disagree and point out where my theology errs.

This afternoon in Chapel we had a speaker talk on the Parable of the Talents, as found in Matthew 25:14-30. For those unfamiliar with the passage, here is a Cliff's Notes version:

Jesus is nearing the end of his journeys on Earth, and is talking to His disciples about the end times and the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. Immidiately prior to this parable is the parable of the ten virgins, five who were prepared for the coming of the Master, and five who weren't. Immidiately following the parable I'll be speaking about is the parable of the sheep and the goats, where the Shepherd seperates those who fed Him, clothed Him, visited Him, and healed Him, from those that didn't. Both sides say the same thing: 'When, Lord? When did we do these things?' He answers that 'Truly I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me'.

Alright, now that we have the context, let's look at this parable. Here, the Master leaves his servants in charge of various amounts of 'talents' while He is away on a long journey. To one servant he gives 5 talents, to another 2 talents, and to another 1. Once he leaves, the first and second servants invest their talents, and by the time the Master has returned, they have doubled his money. The Master says to them, 'well done, god and faithful servant'.

The third servant, however, says this to the Master: 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you gathered no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'

The Master replies: 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has will more more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

There are two very common interpretations of this passage. First, the talents are interpreted literally, as money or resources. A talent in this context is a unit of weight measurement for silver. The speaker on Thursday said that one talent was worth roughly 20,000 dollars - in my ESV Bible the footnote says one talent was worth 20 years' labour for a bondservant. Essentially what he was giving was an enormous amount of resources. The literal interpretation goes something like this: We have been given wealth by God, and it is our job to invest it wisely and use it for Godly purposes. While this may be one interpretation, it seems to be a little weak to me. For one thing, it does not give any reason why the Master (God) should be described as a hard man.

The second interpretation is that the talents in the parable are, well, talents. Skills, things we're good at, passions - using talented people for God's work. Squandering your talent, or not investing yourself wisely in the Kingdom, will lead to what talents you have getting taken away. This is the track that the speaker Thursday took, and personally I think there are some huge problems with it.

1. Talent in this context would not have meant to the original audience what the word talent means to us now. It would have meant a weight measurement of money, not a skill set. In all honesty, a different word should probably be used in the translation here, because the word talent doesn't mean to us what it meant to them.

2. This interpretation still doesn't explain adequately the Master being a 'hard' man. The speaker I heard interpreted it to mean that the servant thought the man was hard, but that doesn't explain all the stuff about harvesting what he didn't sow, etc.

I propose that there is a third interpretation, and I open it with this:

What is the currency of the Kingdom of Heaven?

What if this parable isn't about talents at all, in the same way that the ten virgins parable isn't actually about virgins, and the farmer sowing the seed parable isn't actually about seeds?

What if the talents are Love?

Now, love does not adequately describe what I'm getting at here, but hopefully it will suffice. There used to be a term called Christian Charity, but that is confusing language in today's culture, where we equate charity with simply giving things away. What I am talking about is Love that comes from the Spirit, Love that pours from God and spills from you to those around you. Love that gives you 'Christ Eyes' for those around you who are hurting or weak or naked.

Now, everyone responds to the love of Christ differently, and everyone expresses that love differently. Notice in v. 15 where it says that the Master 'gave each according to His ability'. Some people have a HUGE capacity for loving others. They seem to go, and go, and go, and never get bogged down in the weariness or discouragement of the world. Others are a little more reserved, quieter, and more careful with how they approach God and others. This does not make them worse (I believe I am one who would be given two talents as opposed to 5), because you can see in v. 21 and 23, both those with two talents and five get exactly the same reward. They were responsible with the Love they were given, and spread it and multiplied it in any way they could.

The third servant was given one talent. Again, this is a HUGE amount of money, taken literally. It is not 'just' one talent. He was given according to his ability. Perhaps this individual was a little more introverted, or a little more wary around people. Maybe he had been burned sharing love in the past, and his capacity for love was less. Again, this did not make him a bad person - the Master trusted him with more than he could produce himself in a lifetime. I see this as the Master saying 'here, I know you've been hurt. I know you aren't comfortable with this. Take what I give you, and use it wisely.' Anyone who has handled money before knows that with more money comes more responsibility and more complications... I think that same principle can be applied here. The Master was showing grace on the third servant, not looking down on him.

And so we come to the second part of the story. The first two invested the Love of God in any way possible, and reaped huge benefits through those risky ventures. Loving is always a risk - especially when loving on Christ's terms.

The third servant, however, saw the Master as a 'hard man', and rather than risking, rather than trying, he buried the love as deep as he could. He kept it contained, locked up, only for him and him alone. 'It will suffice,' he perhaps thought, 'to give back to God what he gave me. That's good enough, isn't it? I don't feel safe risking that love on those who might throw it away. What if I wind up with less? What if I get burned out? What if I screw up?'

But you see, this guy didn't get it, just as those who are identified with the goats in the next parable didn't get it. In the upside-down economy of the Kingdom, the only way to gain is to give it away. Love not shared, not spread, not given, ceases to be love at all. It becomes something else, like religious zeal, or pride or even envy. Love not shared becomes poisoned and worthless. Is it any wonder the Master was displeased? 'You didn't get it... I thought you understood! I gave it to you, so that you could do likewise, but instead you hardened your heart and buried it. This isn't love, because you still don't understand what love is.'

What about the Master being a hard man? Well, I believe Christ is hard. What he asks us to do with what He has given us is, to be blunt, stupid. We are to show the Love of the Kingdom to the broken, to the weak, to the naked, to those the world sees as worthless. It simply doesn't make sense. Also, if you don't understand what is going on, it seems that Christ is reaping where he didn't sow, and gathering what he did not scatter. How can love be found in the eyes of a drug addict? Christ can't possibly be there, can he? How can a Muslim or a Hindu find connections between his or her faith and Christianity, in such a way that he or she is drawn to Christ? Christ didn't plant those seeds, did He? What right does He have in harvesting them anyway? What right do we have calling people away from their own fields and into the fields of Christ? From the viewpoint of the third servant, it simply doesn't make sense.

But even there, Christ is compassionate. in V. 27, I read 'Look, I get it that you don't understand. I know you were afraid. But the least you could have done was give it to someone who could have used it! You could have at least invested into a charity or an organization, at least sponsored a child! It wouldn't have been ideal - I would have preferred you go to be with the poor yourself - but it would have been something.'

How are we showing the love of Christ today? How am I showing the love of Christ today? Am I burying it, and hoarding it for myself, afraid to share it with those I see as unlovable? Or am I taking this love of Christ I have been given, and spreading it as far and wide as I possibly can? Am I sharing with the Least Of These? Am I looking the homeless man in the eye? Am I truly loving, in word, action, and spirit?

When we Love, more love will be given. But if we shut up that love and bury it, even that love we have will be revealed to not be love at all.

Well, there it is. I know, it's long. But I think it's important. Let me know what you think.

what to do...

So I have this desire to start blogging again. I'm moving to East Hastings in a little over a month, and I want to get back into the practice of keeping a regular blog.

Now here is the question: Do I start this one up again, a little hole-in-the-wall Blogger.com blog, or do I go full-out on my jordanshawphotography blog?

decisions, decisions.

Life.

I haven't kept a journal in a long, long time. I guess it's time to start again.

Life is amazing right now. I feel great about myself, I'm exactly where I should be, and I think God is preparing and shaping me in ways I'm only beginning to understand. This last week has been moving and emotional, but powerful and exciting as well.

Tomorrow is Students on Service day, our first real event with the MLC. I hoping for nice weather, but we'll see..... And then Sunday is a quick trip into Vancouver for (hopefully) some cool and cheap clothes... and then back at the books on Monday.

It's hard to believe it's mid-semester already. I'm a little scared at how quickly time is sleeping away from me.. I've got to enjoy and soak up this time while I can.

back at it.

I'm back in Abbotsford, after an extended jaunt prawn fishing and living in Ucluelet. Wow, is it good to be back.

I'm living with Adam Roper and Steve Kim in an apartment right beside the school, which is handy. It will be an interesting year - we're all three very distinct personalities, and I'm excited to see how we mesh.

What else is new? I am the proud owner of a moped - an '83 Honda Passport. I'm taking 16 credits, and chairing the missions committee, and working (hopefully). I have a new camera coming, thanks to a very fortunate insurance claim. And I am excited for the year in which I turn a quarter-century.

What I have to do now: Get my 'L' bike license, find a helmet, and buy a gasket set for my scooter. All in a day's work...

Finally off the boat

I've spent my last night on the Polara, and today i'm in transit to Victoria. Public transit always takes far longer than I think it should, but such is life. In roughly two hours I'll be on the ferry, and in 4 hours I will hopefully be drinking a Canada day beer in downtown Victoria, before watching some fireworks.


I could have hung around the boat for another day and driven home myself, but I needed to go. The quicker i'm done with the boat the better, and today was a good day to make a break for it.

Changing stages is always interesting. I actually enjoy the feeling of culture shock... There is something invigorating about it. It forces you to realize that there is a whole world going on out there, interacting, communicating, loving, crying. What an exciting planet to be a part of. So many stories to see, share, and be a part of.
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More running

Off of nanaimo now... Still another 5 hours to go or so, but our odyssey is almost at an end. I'm looking forward to... Well, everything, really. Mostly people though. I really miss people. Weird. I can't wait to be simply sitting with friends and maybe drinking a beer and just being together. Friends are important. Community is important.

See you all soon.
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Back

Well, we're back off the coast of Vancouver island, finally. Still two more days of running before we get to steveston, but it's beginning to feel More and more like home.

I might go and do some visiting next weekend; nanaimo, qwanoes, and Victoria, if all goes as planned. We'll see how it pans out though. It'll just be good to be back on solid ground again.
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