Salvation?
Christians often explain how Jesus dying for our sins works by saying that God is perfect and cannot be with corrupt humanity (because of our sin). So because of this chasm he sent his son (who is God himself) to pay the price for sin (which is death) and thus fulfill the necessary requirements needed for us and him to exist peacefully in heaven. More or less that’s the idea. I could draw diagrams except that I’m too lazy.
One author questions that formula by retelling the Prodigal Son story like this:
…when the son returns from his partying and recognizes the error of his ways, his father responds by saying “I cannot simply forgive you…it would be against the moral order of the entire universe…Such is the severity of my justice that reconciliation will not be made unless the penalty is utterly paid. My wrath-my avenging justice-must be placated.” The prodigal sons older brother then offers to do extra work in teh fields and pay his brother’s penalty. And finally when the elder brother died of exhaustion, the father’s wrath was placated against his younger son and they lived happily for teh remainder of their days.
Do you buy that retelling? Do you buy our current definition? Are you unsettled? Are you comfy? Speaking personally, I’ve got some questions that I’m pursuing.
Enough said.
People of Peace
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a person of peace. Not a peacekeeper, but a person of peace. I define a peacekeeper as someone that avoids conflict and would prefer to shove things down and keep the status quo than to deal with things, cause conflict, and bring potentially greater and more healthy peace. I tend to fall into this second category.
I want to be known as someone who fights for peace, who makes sacrifice for peace, and who is dedicated to bringing peace. It has been interesting to view comments made over the globally loved and universally used Facebook. I’ve been noticing on facebook that we all have a hard time being people of peace. To be a person of peace you have to value other people (yes, even that person), you have to be willing to listen more than you speak, you have to value the other persons opinion, but you also have to be able to respond in love and honesty.
I believe (and have experienced lately) that it requires major sacrifice to fight for peace. Soldiers understand this, but do we understand it within our own contexts and conflicts? Are we willing and ready to sacrifice some of ourselves for peace?
Jesus was a man of peace. Don’t get me wrong, at times he was pretty harsh, in your face, and confrontational. But he was someone who was not satisfied with the status quo but instead fought to bring peace to a broken world. Talk about sacrifice right?
So I guess the big question is whether or not I want to be defined by my identity in Jesus. Do I want to be identified by the reality of the cross? Do I live a death and resurrection life? I think that if I did I might be more at peace with myself. Maybe not.
Who will go?
Renie is a woman who has worked in Baja Mexico for over twenty years. Please take a moment to read her words that were written in an email to me a few weeks ago. They are touching and quite challenging to read. Renie has given me permission to share excerpts of this with you.
Hi Ryan,
My husband Ted and I have lived in the Ensenada area for almost 20 years. We moved to Maneadero about 16 years ago after working under a Mexican Pastor for 4 years.
I had felt led to work with sick children for most of my Christain life. My husband Ted and I prepared ourselves to serve by finishing our degrees for service in the mission field. Ted who had been a career military man for 20 years and then finished a teaching degree at Western Baptist College. I finished my RN after working as a Practical Nurse for almost 20 years.
Our first 4 years in Mexico we were involved in learning the language, the culture and the ways God would lead us to help.
We are each almost 65 years old.We are ready to think about letting those younger and more physically able to take over, but there does not seem to be anyone who has a heart to lay down their lives for the most helpless of this society, profoundly handicapped and abandoned children.
The elderly and the handicapped are the forgotten ones in this society. When I first came to Mexico I was driving around the streets of Ensenada. I encountered an old woman sitting in the median of a busy street . She was a double amputee. She sat on the ground next to a battered wheelchair in sweltering heat, with a cup she extended to cars as they passed by. I was so shocked by this I stopped, picked up the old woman put her and her wheelchair in my car and drove her to her home, ( she directed me). When I got her to her home, her,”family” were not pleased with me. They had placed her there. It was her duty to “earn” her way in the family by begging. The elderly and the handicapped are not valued here. They are often considered a burden to the family, and their only value is how they can be exploited.
There is a place in Tijuana called El Refugio. At any time it houses from 60 to 100 elderly and adult handicapped whose family members have abandoned them. There are a few dedicated souls who work night and day trying to take care of a never ending stream of unfortunate elders and adult handicapped who suffer from dementia, malnutrition, abuse and exposure to the elements.They are turned out in the streets by their own families. The floors and the walls are filthy, the residents sleep on urine soaked mattresses on the floor, and the stench is unbearable……Most of the women that help us care for the children we serve are Christians. They are dedicated and selfless. They come to work during the rainy season when they have to slog thru mud up to their knees to get here. They come even when we cannot pay them for weeks because we have not received donations. That kind of dedication and value system is what they have learned in their local churches and speaks highly of the local pastors and what they are teaching…
Who will answer the call?
