Spirituality Column #444
May 19, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

It remains quite impolite in America to kill someone over their religion.

Other world regions see awful and violent religious persecution.  Here in Indiana, in the good ol’ USA, I feel fairly safe going to church.  For now.

What is a pity, however, is how few Americans these days have a handle on how religions differ, how our American republic so heavily relies on the mysteriously transcendent yet demonstrably objective and unique virtues of Christian love and service, and how historically unique but temporally fragile is our American way of life.

It hasn’t always been impolite to kill over religion in this country.  Prior to the United States’ formal founding, the New World saw great religious persecution by certain Christians against other Christians.  After the Puritan pilgrims (later the Congregational Church) left the oppression of Anglican England, think of the Salem, Massachusetts, Witch Trials in the 1600s and the persecution of Baptists in the 1700s.

As “Freedom of Religion” was written into the Bill of Rights and America expanded west, Biblical evangelicalism boomed.  Offshoot religions sprouted up.  In the 1800s, the Mormons took quite a hit for their practices, doctrines and beliefs which vary greatly from standard-issue Trinitarian Christianity.  In some states it was not a crime to murder a Mormon male.  Roman Catholicism, hardly an “offshoot religion,” was largely unwelcome.  Not until 1960 did John Kennedy take the oath of office – almost scandalously – as the first Roman Catholic U.S. President.

America fought elsewhere combatting religious insurgencies.  Thomas Jefferson sent U.S. Marines to the African coast of the Mediterranean Sea – the shores of Tripoli – in 1803 to quell the Barbary pirates who in the name of Islam were capturing and enslaving U.S. merchant sailors.  General Pershing subdued Muslim unrest in the Philippines in the early 1900s, and that wasn’t pretty.

Today we’ve arrived at a humanitarian place in America not to kill people for their religion.  Only outsiders do that to us.  Yet politically, culturally and academically, it seems that America is working awfully hard as a nation to kill religion itself, especially Christianity.  It may not be the mass murders we see elsewhere, but still potentially lethal to our American way of life.   A republic requires public, objective truth and private, faithful virtue.  Tyranny is history’s unavoidable alternative.

America truly needs these usually-well-meaning folks who worship Jesus, attend church, vote with scripture in mind, and engage in charities great and small following the simplest command of Jesus from the Gospel of John, verse 15:12:

"… Love each other as I have loved you.”

If America successfully kills Christianity, what comes next will be far less polite.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) understands persecution is part of the Christian “deal.” See John 15:18-20.

Spirituality Column #443
May 12, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Let’s take a hard look at where the New Testament says Jesus on the Cross is:
- a “price” for our souls,
- a “payment” for our transgressions,
- a “punishment” for our sins,
- a “penalty” for our fallenness.

Go ahead, look.  I’ll wait.

OK, you found 1 Corinthians 6 and 7, with Paul telling the broken Corinthian church to come together in the truth of Jesus because they were “bought at a price.”  Fair enough.  That was Paul telling a fractured first century fellowship of Jews, Gentiles, mystics and miscreants – in terms of worldly transaction they could understand – about the divine sacrifice of Christ, a sacrifice that was made on their behalf, a sacrifice that accomplished a work impossible for humans: i.e., restoration to God’s Kingdom.  “Price” here is a metaphor, a device to aid understanding of a gift too large to comprehend.

Revelation 22:17:  “… let the one who is thirsty … take the water of life without price.”  Get that?  No price; not on the head of Jesus.  And while we’re at it, “ransom,” used three times regarding Jesus’s sacrifice, refers to a way out of bondage – our way out of bondage - not a price-driven transaction among the Holy Trinity.  C’mon.

Payment?  Not really in there, is it?  Not about Jesus.  But there is this in Revelation 21:6: “To the thirsty I will give … the water of life without payment.”  Again, “without payment.”

How about a verse claiming Jesus was punished for our sins?  Checking the English Standard Version Bible, punishment appears eight times, each pointing to some combination of eternity,  the unrighteous, and fire; in other words, Hell.  Nothing about Jesus.  Consider 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love … fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”  In Jesus, there was no fear of punishment as retribution; in His perfect love He endured one infinitely tough – infinitely punishing – day on the cross.  But “punishment”?  Not in scripture.

And … penalty.  Paul uses this in Acts 28:18 about himself facing a Roman court; in Romans 1:27 regarding homosexuality; and in Galatians 5:10 regarding Jews who hinder the Christian faithful.  Nothing about the cross.

Christians, please, heed all scripture says about grace, mercy, joy and peace, the overwhelming message of salvation.  The overwhelming message of Old Testament futility is price, payment, punishment and penalty.

Yes I’m a sinner, thankful to Jesus for His love, resolution, steadfastness, and for His faithfulness to His Father’s glory.

Let’s none of us insult Him by asking what He paid for it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) hates to see Jesus marketed via shame, guilt, fear, sin … or moral transaction.  Where’s the love?

Spirituality Column #442
May 5, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

My purpose in getting up early Sunday mornings and attending church is to worship God and share in the fellowship of the Christian faith.

It’s not because I have religious doubts and need reassurance that Jesus is still Lord, God is still good, the Spirit still dwells among the faithful, the Bible is still true and the church is still there.  All those doubts are long gone.  What I have is truth.

So … I get up and go to church.  I love church.  I love Jesus more, but I love church and my fellow fallen Christians and all that it means to gather in faith and communion in the truth of creation, salvation, and the lordship of Jesus Christ.

But these days it seems something beyond impolite to assert truth – as in, the absence of doubt – in public.  It’s arrogant.  It’s unbecoming.  It’s disrespectful.

“You must have doubts!?”  “How can you be sure?”  “That’s crazy!”

Well, in a fallen world where Satan busily works to replace the plain truth of God with the muddled veracity of human opinion, it’s easy to see the daily difficulties attendant to the witness of truth, especially when the apologetics of doubt are the intellectual coin of our modern world.

Is Christian truth really …

Arrogant?  No, just the opposite.  Christian truth is humble.  The truth of the power of God is actually the humility of Jesus Christ.  People who want power want to be God.  Nobody really wants to be the saving, servant Christ on the Cross.  Is faith the key to the eternal Kingdom of God?  Yes, but does my possession of that faith, by God’s grace, make me less of a sinner?  Not in this life it doesn’t.  It just gives me a story I desperately want to tell.

Unbecoming?  I’ve seen no greater beauty than the raw splendor of God’s creation, and believe there is no greater beauty than the image of God installed in our humanity which we see perfected in Jesus Christ.  We work awfully hard to ugly-up that beauty with our worldly desires.

Disrespectful?  The world insists we respect ungodly things; you know, “One man’s terrorist is just another man’s freedom fighter”? Right?  Uh … no.  When I respect God’s truth because God is truth, then I guess I’m disrespecting the world’s opinion.  My aim is to respect God, which means respecting Jesus Christ, because I don’t see any better option for humanity – mine or anyone else’s.

Doubts?  Long gone.  Questions?  Sure.  I don’t understand everything so I pray, study, trust God’s Word, beg His wisdom and peace, and follow a simple rule:

When in doubt, tell the truth.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) sees the sinner in the mirror.

Spirituality Column #441
April 28, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

“The good news makes no sense if you don’t know the bad news.” – Sunday school adage.

Our church is spending several weeks focusing on, discussing and teaching about Christian “Doubt.”

Granted, any church worthy of its pulpit is addressing Doubt all the time.  People frequently experience a life – in the words of secular Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Hobbes – that is “nasty, brutish and short.”  Doubting the existence of eternal good seems natural.

The Kingdom of God, with its salvation in Jesus Christ and indwelling of the Holy Spirit – in faith – is a very different and vastly superior place; startlingly and unbelievably different from a typical fallen person’s typical fallen day on this fallen earth.

Faith may be better, but doubt is easier.

Doubt requires little effort, no discipline, owes nothing to authority and maintains the boundaries of this life and nothing more.  Only when one wants to step up into the free air of eternal hope, love, joy, grace and life does doubt become a problem.

Thing is, we know the “free air” is there.  It is faith; the divine yearning God put into every human heart.  Because the “free air” of our redeemer Jesus Christ is not where Satan, the Lord of this World, wants us to be, Satan is quick with his challenge:

“It is too good to be true.”  And … we doubt.

The truth of our earthly existence is that we were created in God’s perfect image, but with freedom in our souls so that we might learn to love God: it’s what God wants for us, and what God wants for Himself.  Freedom allows the possibility of love but has a brutal downside: it also allows Satan’s temptation.

So, we have this great news of the Gospel – the redeeming truth that God had a plan all along to save fallen, broken humanity from its sinful wallowings with the grace, mercy, love and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.  Our sins are forgiven and we’re adopted back into the Kingdom of God. Whew!

But then there is this bad news; the awful truth – Jesus on the Cross is what we look like to God without being covered in the redeeming blood of Jesus; a picture of our sin, shame, guilt, fear, death, Hell … all the bad stuff the mind can conger or the body can experience.

It is awful to face the truth of what we are without Jesus Christ, but it explains the enormity of the good news of who we are with Jesus Christ.

Some people ignore it, others water it down.  But the truth is truth.

Better not doubt that.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a one-time reporter, didn’t know the good news or the bad news most of his life.

Spirituality Column #440
April 21, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

“Commandment” is a word our modern ear hears as a militaristic, non-negotiable, subservient-signifying, dread-invoking, hellfire and damnation-laden directive: 

“Do this or else.”

Scripture actually communicates a more subtle, more circumspect and more loving message than that.  The Greek and Hebrew words translated in modern English as “commandment” each contains an ethical component in the ancient meaning.  A “command” – an “entolay” in Greek or “mitzvah” in Hebrew – is more than just a directive; it is “the right thing to do” in the Greek or even a “good deed” in the Hebrew.

So what Jesus or Moses or anyone else with a Godly “commandment” was saying was “Here is the right way” – “Here is God’s way” – to do something.

The Biblical Jesus left only a few instructions and no laws.   The few commands Jesus verbalized are not commands limiting our freedom.  They are Godly, ethical and wise parameters allowing us to realize our freedom, appreciate His sacrifice and participate in the divine love.  We obey His commands because it is the right thing to do.

Jesus isn’t a “Do this or else” kind of Savior.  His bidding is an invitation, “Follow me,” and a promise, “I tell you the truth.”  He provides information – “God so loved the world” – not orders; warnings – the narrow gate, etc. – not ultimatums.

In love and in truth Jesus teaches humanity to honor Him, thereby glorifying God.  In words and example, Jesus teaches that the “two greatest commandments” are to love God and love others (Matthew 22:36-40).  Why?  It is how humanity functions best in God’s creation.

When we follow Jesus and do as He commands, our actions help us better understand Jesus’s life, sacrifice, love, and God’s Kingdom.  Our Christian relationship is enriched.  Our goal becomes God’s glory, not our own.  We obey not by fear, but by love; in wisdom, not ignorance.  We obey because we can.

Jesus tells us that our yoke and burden with Him are “easy” and “light.”  His commands help us help others: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,”  “don’t hinder a child’s faith,” “help the least of these,” “remember the prisoners,” “help the poor,” “feed the hungry,” “be hospitable to strangers,” “love your enemies,” “carry your cross,” “feed my sheep.”

And then there is this one … “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

This last one, from the last supper, is Jesus sharing bread and wine – His body and blood – with the disciples.  We know this rite today as communion, and our joy should always be in remembering Christ.

Not because we have to, but because we can.  Cosmically, it’s the smart play.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) reminds: it is Satan who says. “…or else.”

Spirituality Column #439
April 14, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

I have a not-always-appreciated-by-others gift for sarcastic retort, penchant for sardonic response, talent for nimble-minded quips, and unrepentant respect for a well-turned phrase.

But like many a confessing Christian recently, my rhetorical savoir-faire has been more than a bit flummoxed as Indiana’s originally unremarkable, copycat RFRA law tipped over into the brightly lit, nationally tumultuous ditch of unrelentingly politically correct and factually preposterous assault and over-reaction.

What began as a wise, future-looking legal hedge against as yet unexperienced discrimination became an intellectually D-Day-esque battle royale of hysterical, accusational, Bible-warping, religion bashing histrionics of exactly the kind the law was meant to thwart.  Ironically, the assault was mounted on behalf of LGBT and presumably other groups that are currently among the most civil-rights protected and socially normative minorities in American culture.

Never mind that over the past 50 years virtually every vestige of Christian moral instruction has been tossed out of public schools, higher academia and the political marketplace of common-sense good advice.  It is not fair, the whining chorus shouts, to reaffirm America’s existing First Amendment right to religious freedom.

So, companies that happily do global business with nations routinely killing, maiming, enslaving and silencing public sinners and religious dissenters declare open disdain for unfriendly Indiana, where we Hoosiers are a bunch of bigots and homophobes, and I guess worst of all, Christians.

“But hey – why don’t you visit our new store in Riyadh? Or Beijing?”

At an honest loss for loving, effective rebuttal, I have found myself praying to receive the spiritual gift of parables Jesus so elegantly exhibited when confronted with the Pharisees of His day.  Jesus, un-flummoxed, repeatedly saved his life by telling brilliant parables in response to the accusations of cultural leaders.  I am certain that Jesus’s priority was in revealing God’s glory, power and truth, not just saving His life.

People today, often and mistakenly, think those parables – such as the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and many others (read the middle chapters of Luke) – are there to instruct us in appropriate Christian living.  Not even close.  Those parables, usually in response to Pharisaical accusations, were Jesus’s clever way of “blowing up” the status quo of Jewish piety.

Jesus was a rebel, no doubt.  More importantly He was – He is – a moral, perfect and unimaginably shrewd Savior who sought out sinners not to aid and abet their sin but to love them and teach them about the glory of God.

My parable prayer is not yet answered, but I’ve got this off my chest.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), possibly only in his own mind, believes “sarcastic” is a falsehood that mocks a truth, and “sardonic” is a truth that mocks a falsehood.

Spirituality Column #438
April 7, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

By Bob Walters

The possibilities are endless for what God has given human beings the freedom to create or destroy, to nurture or suffocate, to worship or revile.

Mustering the discernment to figure out what is pleasing to God on a consistent basis is a tricky business.  It also involves accepting that our most important personal and societal organizing principle should in fact be what is pleasing to God.

Do we really understand that God created us in His image in freedom and love?  Reading the Bible end to end, I don’t know how anyone could come to any other conclusion.  Plenty of folks reject the Bible, shun church, don’t like Christians, spurn religion in general and pursue their own self-focused agendas.  Jesus isn’t for them, God is a lie, and the Holy Spirit a myth.

“I gotta’ be me,” say the doubters, and that’s all the “truth” they need.

That’s just not a good plan.

It’s not a good plan because it lacks precisely the two things Jesus tells us to do: love God and love others.  Love doesn’t mean “I get my own way.”  Love means doing the right thing by God, and that usually cancels out our own worldly, comfort-led and fear-averse priorities in favor of serving others, recognizing Jesus as the Christ, and thereby glorifying God.  That’s a good plan.  But how?

First, realize that God basically does only two things: He creates, and He redeems.  He makes things live, and he fixes things that are broken.  Yet so often the things we think are broken are actually signs of humans going against what God created in order that we could live.  Look at the segment of our culture that is just so angry about laws ensuring religious freedom, when the larger shame is that humanity needs any such laws in the first place.

Second, consider what you could, should and would do.  “What could I do?” is about freedom, a creative gift of God.  “What should I do?” is about morals, our marching orders from God.  “What would I do?” is about character, and the choices we make before God.

Third, learn to tell what’s of God and what’s of Satan.  An easy “tell” that the Holy Spirit is with you is when you feel peace in your heart; two warning signs of Satan are anger and fear.  Yes, I can be at peace in my ignorance and angry at unholy things, but mercy and love must guide my actions.  Prayer is a great revealer of holy truth.

What pleases God?  I’m not always sure, but I do know it is important to ask.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) advises praising God and blaming Satan. Lots of people get that backwards.