Christmas and God's Embrace of Shame and Scandal

 It's Christmas time.  It is many people's favorite time of the year. As I sit here this year, my mind keeps pondering all the shame and scandal that God provoked during this time. That part of the story doesn't get expounded on as much as the Homogenised and Pasteurised  version does during our church services and songs. If you will bear with me, I will try and explain some of what I'm talking about.

To begin with, let us look at the announcement from Gabriel to Mary.  We she that she is a virgin who was "engaged" or betrothed to a man named Joseph. History books suggest that she was probably a teenager, maybe even as young as 14 or so. This means that she looked down upon as one who had a baby out of wedlock and may have been a pregnant teenager. Even though she was right in her song of praise that she would be known in history as being Blessed, people of her day (especially the religious leaders) would see her as being immoral and "wild". 

Joseph could have demanded that her and her baby be stoned to death because of this. He do know that he pondered what to do, so he would have considered this but instead decided just to "divorce" her (or maybe "annul the betrothal" would be a better way to understand this). At that point is when he had his encounter with an angel. So Joseph took the shame of this upon himself, and their marriage would look more like we used to call a "shotgun wedding".  We see that this indeed did happen as during a heated exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees (in John chapter 8),  they tell Jesus that they were not born as a result of fornication.

The immorality thing would not be the only thing that would cause people to look down upon them as Mary and Joseph were very poor. First we see this by they needing to find refuge in a stable or place where animals were kept.  Bethlehem that night was overrun with people who the Romans required to be there, but you still did not see "rich" people staying in such conditions. Also when Mary went to the Temple to offer her sacrifice to be pure again after the birth, she offered two doves or pigeons instead of a lamb.  This offering of doves was for people who had no money. 

Also look at the people who God chose to reveal this birth.  With the exception of Simeon, Anna, and the parents of John the Baptist, everyone else was looked down upon in this society. I'm talking about the shepherds and the Magi.  Even though sheep and lambs were very important in Jewish worship and life, shepherds were the outcasts of society. They were not allowed to participate in any of the "reindeer games" that people played in those days. To continue in my Rudolf references, they would be considered "misfits" in their society.

The Magi were not even Jews. They were star gazers from the Iran/Iraq region of the world.  (Several empires from these parts pestered, invaded, conquered Israel throughout their history.) They used the stars to predict the future. Maybe they knew the words that Balaam  spoke to Balak, when he prophesied about a Star coming from Jacob to rule the nations.  

Then we have the fact that Jesus' birth caused the execution of many toddlers and infants.  The man used by the Romans to lead this area as King (Herod the great), ordered the death of all children that were under two that were in Bethlehem  to be killed. Joseph and Mary who were warned by God about this, took Jesus and fled to Egypt.

God could have chosen to be born in any way that He wanted to be born when He came into this world, but did it in a way of a unwed teenage Mom, in a way that brought accusations of having "wild" and immoral parents. He was born among the poorest of society's moneyless people.  He sort to reveal his birth to Jewish outcasts instead of that nation's highest ruling or religious hierarchy.  He was forced to immigrate to another nation for sanctuary, to live as long as Herod ruled Israel.  

So, even from the birth, we see a God who loves the outcasts and misfits in society and chose to be numbered among them.

Roe v Wade and why I think that both sides are wrong on this issue.

Since the leak of a paper from the Supreme Court on "Roe V Wade", opinions, news reports, demonstrations, etc from both sides of this issue have been dominating our news, tv,  and internet  airwaves.  After reading or listening to what they have to say,  I find myself coming from there and thinking that they have totally missed it.  Neither side is pleasing God. I thought that it might be good for me to write what I think since I have those thoughts.  Now I realize that this could help, but there will be people who will take things out of the context of the whole argument and try to blast me out of the water.  It won't be the first time that has happened to me.  Well anyways, here goes.

When talking about abortion, I usually hear four different reasons to women to have an abortion. They are:  The Mother's life is in danger, The baby's health, rape, and what some call abortion on demand. I believe that each of these issues should be looked at individually and so here, I'm only looking at the reason that believes that any woman can have an abortion when they want, or some variety of that. I believe that is the biggest viewpoint and the one that is usually looked at in this issue. Now I'm not getting into what the 14th Amendment says, because  my argument is coming from a Biblical perspective.

Now I'm sure that last statement has gotten some people rolling their eyes and I want to thank you for staying with me so far.  As you might be expecting me to say, I do believe that this type of abortion is murder. It is the execution of a life whose only crime is to be alive. I know that there are many people who say that they aren't pro abortion, just pro choice and I will get to that in a minute.

For you see, my main concern is not the baby's loss of life, but society's loss of love. I truly believe that if the adults (notice that I'm including the man as well as the woman in this) who produced that child really loved that child, then there would be no abortion. They would work together to make sure that life had the best chance that they could provide.

I also believe that the argument about being pro choice is really an argument about exalting oneself to God-like status. I meant that last statement as a call back to the Garden of Eden and the Serpents claim that "you will be like God, knowing good and evil". This is a second wrong that I see from this viewpoint.

Also the argument, "a woman's body, a woman's choice" has a big hole in it, for the reason (unless she was raped) why she is expecting in the first place.  There are always consequences for every action. If a woman puts alcohol in her, she will become drunk or buzzed.  If she stays up all night, she will become drowsy the next day.  If she chooses to permit  a man to deposit sperm into her, she can become pregnant, even with contraceptives.

If there is love then all of this is moot, because none of this would happen and that is the way of love.

 So, if I'm basing my thoughts from a Biblical perspective, then why do I think that the pro-life group is wrong.  Basically it is for the same reason.

Now it is true that by law they will be forcing everyone to obeying the 6th commandment, but that really does not accomplish anything pleasing to God. What they would have done is to force a baby to live in an environment where the parents wanted to kill them before they were born, so unless there is repentance of that thought, then the outcome for that baby will not be a joyous one.

Also, while forcing people to obey the 6th commandment, they have forgotten the 10th which says: "Do not covet".  That means that just the thought of wanting to abort the baby is just as much a sin before God as the act. It also means that the condemnation of people is a sin before God.  There is a difference between in proclaiming that something is wrong and using that thought as a means to exalt oneself in condemning others.  That is happening on the Pro-Life side.

The sad part is that Christian message has the remedy for all of this and it is found in Romans chapter 8 and among many other verses in the New Testament. It is having the Spirit Of God living inside of us. When Christ lives within us, we become Children Of God.  He forgives us. His righteousness grows within us and flows out of us.  We live in love and we love one another.  This is the true answer to all of this.

The Church, Pharisaism, & Political Agendas

 There are a selection of scripture verses in Matthew that has stuck out to me over the years.  It seems that

  as we focus on the Pharisees as villians, we have made them into two dimensional figures, musch like the

 cowboys who wore black hats in those very old Western "B" movies.  

Just look at these verses from the NET translation: "Matthew 23:  

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."  

In these verses, Jesus contrasts what seems to be good to the bad of the Pharisees.  When we skim over the good to get to the bad, we lose the depth of the verses.

When we look at the good with the bad, we see a pattern of being good on the outside and "not so good" on the inside.  When I started looking into this, I found this back in Exodus, from the 10 commandments. These can be found in Exodus 20.  They are as follows: 

1. You shall have no other gods before me

2. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy

5. Honor your father and your mother

6. You shall not murder

7. You shall not commit adultery

8. You shall not steal

9.You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor

10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

Now, as you look at these, you will notice that the first 9 are commandments of action, and the 10th one is one from the heart. The Pharisees were great at keeping the first 9, but couldn't keep the 10th one. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 23. This contrast is also what Jesus was talking about in his sermon on the mount when he said, in Matthew 5:

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

What I see from this is that obeying the first 9 commandments is doing righteousness, but the 10th only comes from being righteous.  God is telling us that He is not wanting us to do righteousness. He wants us to be righteous.  Paul goes deeper into this when wrote Romans chapters 7 & 8.

Now remember that Paul was a Pharisee and here he tells of the inner struggle that Pharisees struggled with.  As Paul states: "Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet"

and a few verses later he says:  "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing."

You see there is no way, that you can discipline yourself or anyone else to be righteous.  Paul would go on to say in his letter to the Galatians in chapter 3 and verse 21: "if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly be by the law."

So how do we become righteous, Paul tells us in Romans 8: "if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.". This is the difference in being righteous and doing righteous. True Righteousness is God living within us. We become righteous by God living inside of us.

Now how does political agendas play into this? The answer to that is that political agendas can only coerce people into doing righteous deeds and that is not being righteous, which is what Gods wants from us.So when you see Christians (especially those within church leadership positions) post and support these political agendas, they have fallen into the same mindset that the Pharisees of Jesus' day  had fallen into, and the biggest tragedy is that they have skipped over the "new birth" that scriptures talk about, that produces true righteousness, for a false righteousness that comes from simply doing.