Religion: The Product of the Trauma of the Holiness of God

"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" Revelation 4:8 (ESV)

I am currently reading through a discipleship study by Greg Ogden called Discipleship Essentials. This week I have been reading about worship and how we too often miss the point of worship and worship incorrectly altogether. This is not talking strictly about what style of worship we prefer (such as contemporary or tradition music), but instead refers to our lifestyle of worship as a believer in God and Christ. In other words, how we worship reveals the God that we are worshipping.

This week I read an article by Darrell Johnson called Handling the Trauma of Holiness. In this article Johnson says that there are two essential things that get in the way of our worshipping the One God. First, we tend to create God in our own image. This is where the famous effeminate, white Jesus looking off into the distance comes in. But even more, we tend to put characteristics on God that we like and can relate too without much question. Creating a white God who is only about loving us or giving us what we want when we have enough faith is an example of this.

But in addition to creating God in our image Johnson states that many times we suppress God's revelation of himself. We refuse to look at the God he chooses to reveal to us because it also reveals us for who we really are. I haven't studied Karl Barth much, but he once said "that religion is not the fruit of humanity's pursuit of God but the product of our repression of the trauma caused by the holiness of God." When we see God for who he truly is, when we see the truth of what God has revealed to us about himself we can do nothing but see who we truly are. God is holy because there is He is totally separate from any other. God is also pure, having absolute perfection. When these two things are revealed to us we hide because the truth is too hard to take. That is, we are not worthy to even call out His name.

Taking this even more personally, I have blogged in the past about my struggle with my weight. It is nothing private because it is a sin that is very public. God has made me think about how I view him in my daily worship and I truly believe that I have been hiding from Him so that I wouldn't have to see my true self. My sinfulness. I have been holding on to this sin for too long and I will continue to hold on to it until the day I see God for who He has truly revealed Himself to me. I hope that day is soon and very soon.

Churches Need to Grow Some Chest Hair

Last night was our monthly Deacon's Meeting. We have been going through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology and wrestling with tough issues such as baptism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, the inerrancy of Scripture, etc. It has been a great time of learning, discussion, and stretching for all of us. But last night I changed things a bit. Last night we talked about conflict management.

We began by reading Matthew 18, which is the normal thing to do when talking about conflict management. It was a great discussion with many tough questions such as, "What does it mean to treat people who refuse to listen even to the church as pagans and tax collectors? Doesn't Christ call us to love even the tax collectors?" Great question that I didn't really have an answer for. But over the next hour-an-a-half discussion I began to realize that we are a typical church. Churches, in general, do not have the guts to deal with conflict in their midst. Their chest hair hasn't come in, yet. It seems so much easier to ignore a conflict and talk about people behind their back, which does nothing to help the situation. To be honest, no one wants to deal with conflict. But as a pastor I cannot avoid it.

I love to see the Deacons wrestling and being stretched. There is no major conflict right at this moment, but we can almost be guaranteed that it will come up. Are we ready as a leadership to deal with it? How can we change years or even decades of not dealing with conflict?

One final thought. One Deacon last night made the comment, "I have never seen anything positive come out of a church discipline issue." Which I immediately disagreed with. I began to tell him a few stories of conflict in my own experience and conflict that I know of in other churches that in the end turned positive. I closed with this comment, "Sometimes the church needs to be pruned by God in order to grow and become what God intends for it. People leaving the church is not always a bad thing."

What do you think? As pastors we must not run from conflict. There are some of us in conflict right now. All of us will be in a conflict some time in the future. Should we do anything in order to keep people in the church even if they are a cancer to the church? Is asking them to leave the church preventing the church from having a positive influence on them? Tough questions that have more difficult answers than the obvious.

Do I love my wife as much as I love myself?

Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV)
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

It is commonly said that this section in Ephesians reveals that the relationship between husband and wife is an illustration of the relationship between Christ and the Church. But what if it was opposite. Instead, what if we thought about the relationship between Christ and the Church is an example to live by as husband and wife.

I will be the first to admit that I miss the mark many times as a husband. As I read Ephesians 5 this morning I saw the many notes and markings in my Bible I have made over the past years. One of them was a question next to verse 26. The question reads, "Do I do this for Kati?" In other words, Christ made the church holy through his sacrificial offering of himself. Do I give myself up for her? Do I make her holy through my sacrifices for her?

Now, I understand that there is nothing I can do to really make her holy in the eyes of the Lord. I cannot save her, but do I treat her with the utmost respect, sacrificing myself and giving myself up for her? Do I love her as a radiant bride?

It is very easy for me to be selfish in my marriage. I deal with some things during the day that are difficult emotionally and spiritually and most of the time I want to come home and veg in front of the TV. But I instead need to meet the needs of my wife and love her as much as I love myself.

Christ gave himself up for the glory of the Father and through his love for his Church. Am I willing to do the same for my wife?