During this year’s Lent, the church that I attend will be going
through Red Letter Challenge, a curriculum developed by LCMS pastor Zach
Zehnder. It focuses on select words of Jesus. This week, the service
focused on being with Jesus. The Sunday school class, however, was an
introduction to the entire course.
A. The youth pastor talked about how we can be physically with
someone, yet not actually “with” that person. We can be on our cell
phone with earphones on, ignoring the person we are with. In the story
of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), Mary is quietly listening to Jesus,
while her sister Martha is preoccupied with a million other things. Mary
is actually “with” Jesus.
B. The pastor’s sermon appealed to Mark 6:31 as a starting point.
Jesus invites his disciples to the desert to rest, since, up to that
point, they lacked an opportunity for leisure. What if we proceeded to
our tasks beginning with rest, shaped by rest, rather than doing what we
ordinarily do: looking forward to the weekend and trying to cram
activities into it? The pastor told some stories. He said that he took
over a decade to finish his S.T.M. degree. He finished the coursework
but took a while on his thesis, since his advisor was in Slovakia before
the days of the Internet, so he could not work with him via e-mail, and
there was no one else at the seminary with whom he wanted to work. He
talked about how we sometimes fail to finish what we start due to
exhaustion and a lack of interest. In the Christian life, meanwhile, we
find that being good is a struggle. I identified with his story. I
dropped out of the dissertation program ten months ago because I felt it
was going nowhere.
C. The introduction to Zehnder’s course began by contrasting how
non-believers see Christians versus how they see Jesus. They see
Christians as judgmental, hypocritical, and divisive, whereas they see
Jesus as friendly, caring, compassionate, and honest. Someone in class
pointed out that the picture in the Gospels is more complex than that:
the Pharisees regarded Jesus as a blasphemer who was stirring the pot,
and they wondered how he knew what he knew. I see value in being
friendly, caring, and compassionate. It is just so difficult. Some of it
is social struggles, some of it is a personality that turns inward, and
some of it is being burned, which makes me hardened towards people. I
also recoil, somewhat, from the idea that Christians should be trying to
appease non-believers. I think of Christians who say, “Evangelicals
cannot support Trump. It makes them look bad to unbelievers.” So?
D. The teachers, quoting Zehnder, said that being with Jesus should
make us eager to do what Jesus said. The Bible should become a fire
within us that we feel compelled to share. And, when we pray, a peace
should come over us that we cannot explain. Profound thoughts. But I
don’t want to place those kinds of burdens and expectations on my daily
times with God.
E. The term “transaction” came up more than once in Sunday school. We
see forgiveness as a transaction: a person needs to come to us on his
or her knees before we forgive and have anything to do with that person.
God, however, does not forgive like that, for God already took care of
our sin on the cross. When we forgive, that is so anger does not fester
within us and has nothing to do with what the other person does. When we
serve others, we are not doing so to appease God; serving others may
not save us, but it could save another person. Jesus taught a lot about
money, and money concerns transactions: what we can do so that people
can benefit us. I guess that, in retrospect, the class had a message of
grace, even though I was feeling it as harsh law when I was experiencing
it. There may be something to some of what was said, but I dispute that
the Bible promotes forgiveness apart from repentance. Yes, our
repentance is imperfect, and I believe that God loves us even if we fail
to keep the law. But repentance is an ingredient to showing concern for
the damage we have done and attempting to repair the damage.
F. Zehnder said that there is no such thing as a stingy Christian. I
rolled my eyes at that. Next week, I hope to work on not doing that,
since I am an adult and should behave as an adult. Why did I recoil from
Zehnder’s statement? If we’re saved by grace, why can there be no such
thing as a stingy Christian? If a person has to give money to others to
be a Christian, then that person is saved by works, not grace, pure and
simple. So much for that non-transitional stuff in (E.)! Also, how much
money do I have to give before God is appeased? And what exactly was
Jesus saying to his audience? I read scholars who say that most people
in Jesus’s day were poor. Was Jesus asking them to give more?