The Voices of Sinners and Saints

E and I have decided that I will return to seminary full-time in January.  I don't think we can pay off our credit card by September.  It would make things too tight.  This means we are officially on a budget.  We have set up a a cash-flow speadsheet and I have also linked our bank account to Quicken.  Of course, we look fine on paper.  After taking into account $1,000 in gas, groceries, and household items monthly, we show a surplus of $2,100.  This includes our monthly bills of $3,300.  E and I waste alot of money.  Apparently $2,100 a month.  It has to stop.  And seeing it in black and white was a great way to see how un-stewardlike we are.  Our income after taxes, health, dental, retirement, and tithes is $6,476 and our bills and monthly expenses are $4,300.  Where does it all go?  A big chunk goes to lunches for both E and me (almost every day).  Another huge chunk goes to eating out.  We dine out three, four, five times a week.  And E is not a cheap date That has to change.  It's just throwing money away.  I am ready.  I really hope E is. 

E asked me the other day how Lot could be considered righteous (2 Peter 2:7,8) if he had really offered his virgin daughters up to the men of Sodom to do whatever they wished with them (Genesis 19:8).  To answer this, we really need to look at the exchange between Yahweh and Abraham.

The happenings of Genesis 19 must be read in light of the theme in Genesis 18 and preceding. Abraham asks Yahweh repeatedly: "Will you not deal rightously?" "Will you not spare the city on account of the righteous?" Abraham believed God to be faithful to his covenant promises. Abraham knew the consequences of not following the stipulations of the coenant, but he knew that God's patience and mercy runs deep, and he knew deep down in his bones that God would deal justly. The dialogue in the preceding chapter 18 is not a bargaining ploy. It is Abraham getting reassurance that his God is a faithful, just, patient, merciful, righteous God. God shows his faithful, patient mercy by assuring Abraham if there only ten righteous people in the city, it would be spared. Of course, as this familiar story unfolds, we realize there aren't ten righteous, there aren't even five. There are only Lot and his immediate family.  I will continue this a bit later.  

I was out of commission for about ten days with a bacterial infection and then influenza.  I have given E the flu.  She doesn't like me too much right now.  But she has a good idea of what I was going through.  I will be paid for my time off, but since I took five sick days in a row, I now will not be able to take a vacation after tax season.  I had accrued 49 hours so that leaves me nine hours plus the six more I will have by April 15th.  I shouldn't gripe I guess. At least I get paid my full salary for lying in bed all week.  It's just I would have liked to have enjoyed my time off.  Oh well, it's certainly not the end of the world.

I just found out about Emily chitownfreak25 .  I know she appreciates all the prayers of her friends in the Mindsay community.  To believer and non-believer alike, I would like to add God is not a Deistic genie in the sky.  He is both transcendent and immanent.  Though we can't fully wrap our finite minds around those two attributes, please know he is intimately involved in Emily's life now.  God cares deeply for Emily and for all his creation and is doing exactly what he purposes.  That sounds trite, meaningless, and arrogant when something like this happens, I know.  But as we pray specifically for Emily, may our prayers match up to his will for her life and for those who desire completely what is best for her and her family.

What I like about song lyrics is they can be interpreted in any way the hearer sees fit.   I'm pretty sure Mike and Chester of Linkin Park do not mean the same thing I mean when they say: "I wanna be in another place, I hate when you say you don't understand, I want to be in the energy, not with the (E)nemy. Go away - you - try to take the best of me, go away  - you - try to take the best of me, Go away -   you try to take the best of me."  But I know what it means to me.  Thanks LP.  I needed this today.

An excerpt:

In order to know what "sin" is, we need to understand why God made us, and we've seen that God made us for the absolute highest purpose...to "image" Him...to reflect His Person and Glory to all of creation.  When we fail to "image" God...when we fail to reflect His Person and Glory to all of creation...we sin.  In Romans 3:23, Paul says that all people have sinned.  How does he know this?  He knows this because all people have "fallen short" of God's glory.  Based on our understanding of Genesis 1 and God's design for us, we could say that all people have sinned because they have failed to "image" God...they have failed to reflect His glory. 

Sometimes you hear people say, "sin is missing the mark".  What "mark" are we missing?  We often think of the mark as "perfection".  In other words, God expects us to be perfect and when we fail to be perfect, we miss the mark and sin.  Is this what Paul means?  I don't think it is.  The "mark" we are missing is the ultimate mark: the glory of God.  As I've said before, when we fail to reflect the glory of God...when we fail to "image" him...we sin...we miss the mark...we fail to function as He designed us to function.

You see, God didn't form a committee to come up with a bunch of "laws" and then say, "if you can keep this list of rules...then you'll be perfect".  The Law of God is designed to do one thing: point us to His person (& yes, ultimately to Christ).  A human being who lives according to God's law would function the way God designed him/her to function...they would image God.  Of course, only one person ever did that...and that was the second Adam...Jesus Christ.  Jesus was the perfect reflection of God's glory.  "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." This brings me full circle to a concise definition of sin: "Sin is lying to others (through our words, attitudes, actions, etc.) about who God is."

As abbaschild25 and I were just discussing: One can be fulfilled this side of heaven. There's no huge chasm between heaven and earth. Jesus is Lord of all. As he taught his disciples to pray...thy kingdom come, ON EARTH, as it is in heaven. It's not the other way around. Do we see the implications? Heaven isn't necessarily the end-all, be-all (yes heaven will be awesome but....we are living now, on earth, in the present). We're not just waiting to escape to our pie in the sky. Again, remember, Jesus is Lord of all - earth and heaven. Though I hate to even break it up like that. Hope this makes sense.  It does to me.  My thanks go out to Bishop Wright in making this so clear to one appeciative of his both his scholarship of and love for the historical Jesus.

An excerpt from a speech given by Rev. Jim Wallis on Capitol Hill, March 7, 2006: I want to begin with what the Religious Community said all last year: A budget is a moral document! That was our clarion cry in the 2006 budget debate. If some political leaders haven't got the message yet - just wait until this year.

You see, we believe that fiscal choices, economic choices are also moral choices and, for us, even religious choices. Who is important? And who is not? What is important? And what is not? Who do we most value? And who don't we value at all? They are fiscal choices, but also moral and religious matters.

Jesus actually got uncharacteristically judgmental about these kinds of choices. He said, "As you have done to the least of these, you have done to me." Are you paying attention yet, members of Congress?

Because of moral pressure - much of it from the religious community who every day care for the poor that our national politics neglect - last year's budget almost didn't pass. It took a fast trip home from Dick Cheney to pass the budget in the Senate and, in the House, the final budget measure only passed by a few votes. Some elected officials were making new moral choices. But the White House and the Republican leadership seem not to have gotten this message from the religious community, by the look of the new budget they now propose. I thought we were supposed to be their base?

You see a budget process is just a series of moral choices: tax cuts for the wealthiest, or services for the poorest? Congressional pork and earmarks, or investments in the common good? Searching for security through endless expenditures for war, or seeking to end the insecurity of poverty to make our nation stronger? Ignoring the costs of deficits for our children's children, and making the most vulnerable pay the price of fiscal responsibility; or sharing the burdens of financial responsibility more fairly by not asking the poor to carry the heaviest load?

These are all moral choices. Those with the power to make budget proposals have made their moral choices; and so will we. They are choosing to bestow more windfalls of benefit on their wealthy donors - that's their moral choice. We will stand up for the low-income families that we know and serve and whom they will again ignore - no, assault - that's our moral choice.

They are choosing the corruption of rewarding the special interests who pay for them - that's their moral choice. We will defend those who have the most need - that's our moral choice. They will place no limits on money for wars that have no end, and weapons systems that have no need - that's their moral choice. We will not let them cut vital programs of nutrition, health care, child care, and education to pay for their bad choices - that's our moral choice.

Here is what the biblical prophet Isaiah says about their moral choices: "Woe to the legislators of infamous laws, to those who issue tyrannical decrees, who refuse justice to the unfortunate and cheat the poor among my people of their rights, and make widows their prey and rob the orphan."

Last Dec. 14, 115 Christians who work with the poor every day, interrupted their works of compassion to come to the Capitol-to pray, preach, and prophesy. And we were taken to jail. Mary Nelson, from Chicago, looked up at the congressional staff and members looking out their windows and invited them, "Come walk with us."

John Perkins, 75-year-old evangelical and Black church leader who has spent his life in faithful ministry with poor people, told the story of his mother's death from a nutritional deficiency when he was seven months old. John said he was breastfeeding at the time and thought for years that he had killed her. Only later, he said, did I realize that a white society doesn't care about the nutrition of poor black women and their families. And now they're trying to cut food stamps from this budget. Then he emotionally said, "This is my last stand," before he was arrested.

Due in part to the pressure from religious community - we saved food stamps from cuts. Now, the proposed cuts stamps are back. People should know that many of those arrested last December voted for George Bush, some twice. Now they get arrested to protest his moral choices. They were his base, they are no longer.

The media noted that the words religious, Christian, even evangelical, are no longer just alongside the words abortion and gay marriage, but now alongside words like food stamps, health care, and education. Get used to it. When the politicians pat faith-based organizations on the back for doing such a wonderful job, they are now turning around and saying, "Stop hurting the people we work with and care about!" Come walk with us.

After the vote, Republicans e-mailed me, "I just want you to know that I voted against this budget and am listening to the religious community." Bless you. Overcoming poverty must be a bipartisan commitment and a nonpartisan cause. The religious community will ask Democrats to stand firm against this budget violence against poor people, to make the moral choice of favoring the poor over the rich - which is also a biblical choice. Democrats must get religion on the budget.

And we will ask Republicans: Follow your conscience, not your party. Help your party make better moral choices than favoring the rich over the poor - stop turning the biblical wisdom upside down - and then having the nerve to claim that you are the religion-friendly party! It's time for Republicans to get religion on this budget.

We've had a year of organizing around the budget in the religious community. We are watching this debate very carefully. We will hold our elected officials accountable in 2006 and 2008 for their votes on this budget - whether they vote for or against poor families.

If you think we were aroused last year, we were just getting started. Budgets are moral documents and we will fight this budget. And that's our moral choice.

Sin is lying to people about who God is.  I just read this definition of sin from an acquaintance's eighth-grade son. I am impressed by the simplicity, and at the same time, brilliance of this brief sentence.  If I catalogued quotes of the week on my blog, this would definitely be worthy of the distinction.