Blessed Riddance :: Throwback Thursday

By A.W. Tozer

“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.” — Matthew 24.3-4

Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves—blessed riddance.

The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.

Faith is not in itself a meritorious act; the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed. Faith is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus.

Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Unbelief has put self where God should be, and is perilously close to the sin of Lucifer who said, “I will set my throne above the throne of God.” Faith looks out instead of in and the whole life falls into line.

When we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us, for it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout all the earth. The sweet language of experience is “Thou God sees me.” When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth.

O Lord, I have heard a good word inviting me to look away to Thee and be satisfied. My heart longs to respond, but sin has clouded my vision till I see Thee but dimly. Be pleased to cleanse me in Thine own precious blood, and make me inwardly pure, so that I may with unveiled eyes gaze upon Thee all the days of my earthly pilgrimage.

Today’s Reading
Jeremiah 10 (Listen – 3:51)
Matthew 24 (Listen – 5:59)

When Church Leaders Let Us Down

[Jesus instructed,] “Do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.” — Matthew 23.3

Jesus was fantastically under-impressed with the religious leaders of his day. And yet this didn’t diminish his love for God, faithfulness to live according to the Scriptures, or passion for the Church in the slightest.

Eugene Peterson, in his paraphrase of the Bible, highlights the reasons behind Christ’s frustration and the way he resets the conversation on failed leadership:

Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules… They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help.

Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do.

Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son who was thinking of leaving the church, confessed, “I have suffered grievously in my life from stupid, tired, dimmed, and even bad priests.” Even still, the elder Tolkien revealed, he would not leave the church over failed clergy.

His reasoning is profoundly similar to the argument Christ makes: “For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more—remembering my own sins and follies.”

Leaders of the church fail because they are not the leader of the church. They are, like you and I, fellow sinners and sufferers who sit under the authority of Christ. So how should we respond when church leaders let us down? By grace. This is, of course, the heart of Christianity—and a choice—as Tolkien reminds, “faith is an act of will, inspired by love.”

Today’s Reading
Jeremiah 9 (Listen – 4:38)
Matthew 23 (Listen – 4:53)

Taxes and Worship

[Jesus replied,] “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” — Matthew 22.21

“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Though the Pharisees’ question was designed to ensnare Jesus, they likely formed it from legitimate concerns in their day. How should a faithful person live under the rule of a pagan government?

The stakes couldn’t be higher during Jesus’ day. Taxes were more than financial support of corrupt systems, they were worship. In Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus Lois Tverberg reimagines Jesus’ interaction with the religious elite:

As the priest’s hand fumbled through the folds of his robe to withdraw a coin, guffaws arose from the crowd. As the shiny disk glinted in the sun, the realization dawned on him that he had just revealed his own hypocrisy. Denarii were strictly forbidden from the Temple, because they bore Caesar’s blasphemous claim to be divine.

Some purists, like the Essenes, refused to touch or even look at this particular coin. But the cleric had no qualms about carrying these pagan money pieces in his pocket. The man’s face reddened as he saw how easily the Galilean rabbi exposed his insincerity.

Now it was Jesus’ disciples turn to smirk. With a look of feigned innocence, Jesus inquired, “Whose image, whose likeness is on this coin?” Caesar’s, of course. It was precisely that image that made the coin forbidden in the Temple. No graven images were permitted, especially not the likeness of an emperor who insisted that he be worshiped as deity. Caesar’s taxes were not just about financial support, but about religious veneration. You were honoring the “god” Caesar by paying tribute to him.

In his reply we see the length at which Jesus believed the words the Spirit would inspire Paul to write: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”

More importantly we see that Christ’s concern was far greater than our worldly battles. Tverberg concludes:

Caesar’s face is stamped on the coin because the coins are Caesar’s. They belong to him, they bear his image. Jesus was pointing out that because God had stamped his image on us, God’s reign was far beyond anything Caesar could imagine—it is over all of humanity. Humans are God’s coins, meant to be spent on his world, proclaiming God’s kingdom wherever we circulate.

Today’s Reading
Jeremiah 8 (Listen – 3:52)
Matthew 22 (Listen – 4:56)

The Fruitless Tree

Seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled. — Matthew 21.19-20

Christ extended grace to sinners, showed mercy to the guilty, and walked patiently even as his closest followers struggled to understand who he was and what he was doing. Then the Son of God cursed a tree.

This is, of course, far more than Jesus lashing out in frustration because he couldn’t get what he wanted for lunch. Charles Spurgeon calls the moment a “miracle and a parable,” explaining:

Fruit is what the Lord earnestly desires. The Savior, when he came under the fig tree, did not desire leaves; for we read that he hungered, and human hunger cannot be removed by leaves of a fig tree. He desired to eat a fig or two; and he longs to have fruit from us also.

At first Spurgeon’s rhetorical turn from “eat a fig” to “fruit from us” seems forced. Yet this is likely the type of challenge Matthew wants his readers to face. Jesus condemns the self-serving traditions the religious elite attached to worship. Jesus condemns the rich man’s relentless pursuit of self. Jesus condemns those who receive forgiveness and do not extend it.

Any kind of faith that looks alive but bears no fruit falls under his condemnation. Spurgeon sees two reasons for Christ’s passion for fruit, concluding:

[Christ] hungers for our holiness: he longs that his joy may be in us, that our joy may be full…. He would see in us love to himself, love to our fellow-men, strong faith in revelation, earnest contention for the once delivered faith, importunate pleading in prayer, and careful living in every part of our course.

What did he die for but to make his people holy? What did he give himself for but that he might sanctify unto himself a people zealous for good works? What is the reward of the bloody sweat and the five wounds and the death agony, but that by all these we should be bought with a price? We rob him of his reward if we do not glorify him, and therefore the Spirit of God is grieved at our conduct if we do not show forth his praises by our godly and zealous lives.

Today’s Reading
Jeremiah 7 (Listen – 5:18)
Matthew 21 (Listen – 7:10)

Faith and Science :: Weekend Reading List

“Highly religious Americans are less likely than others to see conflict between faith and science,” according to recent research from Pew Research Center. The findings, however, may reveal less about Americans’ understanding of science and more about the role of individualism in modern faith. Nearly six in ten Americans believe that faith and science are often in conflict—though only half that number, just 30%, say that their personal religious beliefs conflict with science.

To be fair, the incompatibility of faith and science is a relatively modern issue. In a short historical overview, Peter Harrison, the Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland, reflects on the not-distant era of human history where theology was recognized as a science—and, therefore, impacted other scientific fields:

Many scientific innovators throughout history were explicitly motivated in their scientific endeavors by religious considerations. To name just two, Johannes Kepler regarded his astronomy as a form of divine praise, while Robert Boyle characterized scientists as “priests of nature.” Other scientists saw their work as having religious goals, including Isaac Newton, who hoped the principles outlined in his famous Principia Mathematica might promote “belief of a Deity.”

Much of the tension between science and faith is a result of modern attempts at reconciliation. Science, for centuries, was used to explain what had been discovered, tested, and proven. Religion was relegated to explaining what science could not. Mother nature could be known—acts of God demanded only our awe.

Advances in mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, and other disciplines have left little for religion to explain. And since we’ve lost our ability to be in awe of something known, God seems to have been replaced by our understanding of the intricate world he created.

Yet, philosopher Ray Monk explains, science and faith don’t have to be irreconcilable worldviews:

There are many questions to which we do not have scientific answers, not because they are deep, impenetrable mysteries, but simply because they are not scientific questions. These include questions about love, art, history, culture, music-all questions, in fact, that relate to the attempt to understand ourselves better. There is a widespread feeling today that the great scandal of our times is that we lack a scientific theory of consciousness. And so there is a great interdisciplinary effort, involving physicists, computer scientists, cognitive psychologists and philosophers, to come up with tenable scientific answers to the questions: what is consciousness? What is the self?

One of the leading competitors in this crowded field is the theory advanced by the mathematician Roger Penrose, that a stream of consciousness is an orchestrated sequence of quantum physical events taking place in the brain.… The theory is, on Penrose’s own admission, speculative, and it strikes many as being bizarrely implausible. But suppose we discovered that Penrose’s theory was correct, would we, as a result, understand ourselves any better? Is a scientific theory the only kind of understanding?

Finding an articulate path forward for religion and science is more critical now than ever—not only for the sake of understanding our world, but for sharing the story of the loving God who created it. Harrison concludes:

The persistence of religion and the apparent inadequacy of the secularization thesis—whether celebrated or lamented—represent a serious challenge to the nineteenth-century conviction that all human societies are destined to divest themselves of the trappings of religion and smoothly transition to science-friendly, secular modernity.

“Science Must Destroy Religion” is the mantra of Sam Harris and the new atheists. This is a moral imperative: Harris urges scientists to relinquish their sentimental religious tolerance and devote themselves to “blasting the hideous fantasies of a prior age.” This view is both naïve in its understanding of the historical process and sinister in its vision of the future.

Weekend Reading List

Today’s Reading
Jeremiah 4 (Listen – 5:23)
Matthew 18 (Listen – 4:25)

This Weekend’s Readings
Jeremiah 5 (Listen – 5:04) Matthew 19 (Listen – 4:04)
Jeremiah 6 (Listen – 5:10) Matthew 20 (Listen – 4:22)