by Elizabeth | Sep 9, 2010 | Learning Story
Hey, thanks to those who offered their readings of Galatians 6…very helpful for me as I ponder the imperatives of that passage. I’ll probably return to it but today I want to share something I just read.
I am an off-and-on lectionary fan and recently discovered John Stott’s Through the Bible through the Year. Listen to this from the Creaton chapter:
“So God created man in his own image…; male and female he created them.”
“Although our human disobedience and fall upset our human relationships, God’s intention is to restore and even deepen them through the gospel. Thus Paul could write tot he Galatian Christians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nore female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ (Gal. 3: 28) This does not mean that ethnic, social and sexual differences are eradicated by Christ. No, men are still men, and women are still women. But in Christ, when we are personally related to him, our sexual distinctives constitute no barrier to fellowship with God or with each other. For we are still equal before him, equally justified by faith, and equally indwelt by his Spirit.
Men and women in the Christian community should honor and value one another more than they do in Non-Christian society. For we recognize our status. We are equal by creation, and even more equal (if there can be degrees of equality!) by redemption.
Question to ponder:
What attitude do I have toward the opposite sex? Do I see a difference between Christian and non-Christian society?
Dear Lord, Creator, Maker of Heaven and Earth and Humans and Sexuality:
Please help us understand this fallen realm of what it means to be men and women and what it means to relate as such. Forgive us for treating one another as if we are not made in Your image. By Your Spirit and because of the work of Christ who redeemed us, transform our hearts and our communities so the most beautiful male-female relationships are seen in the Christian community. May it be so by Your might and love.
by Elizabeth | Sep 8, 2010 | Learning Story
Off and on through the day yesterday I thought about Galatians 6:1-6 and the imperative to “bear one another’s burdens” quickly followed by the indicative, “For each one should carry his own load.” Is it just me, or does that sound contradictory to anyone? (That’s not a rhetorical question!)
I turned to The Message for some help…here is how Peterson translates it. I’d love to hear what you think. What is Paul trying to tell us in Galatians 6 about loving one another?
1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
4-5Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. The Message
by Elizabeth | Sep 7, 2010 | Learning Story
Beginning the week thinking about how living the gospel makes a difference in how we do relationships:
2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5 for each one should carry his own load.” GALATIANS 6:2-5
Here’s what Keller says in his Galatians study:
Moralism often makes relationships into a blame-game. Why? The moralist is very consciously trying to earn salvation through performance, and that includes relationships. Moralists must maintain a self-image of being “a good person.”
Now some moralists do so by laying the blame on others, by being very judgmental and by always insisting that they are in the right. There is a lack of teachability, humble admission of error or listening. But moralists can also play the blame-game by laying the blame on themselves.
Moralists can “earn their salvation” and convince ourselves we are worthy persons through being very willing to help others. This kind of self-salvation superficially makes the moralist look very open to listen, very humble, very teachable.
But this can be co-dependency, a form of self-salvation through severely needing people’s approval or through needing people to need you (i.e. saving yourself by saving others). So moralism works through either blaming others or blaming yourself. Either way, it makes relationships torturous.
Questions I’m asking myself about this:
1 — How do I try to ‘earn my salvation’ by being willing to help others? What does healthy “helping others” look like, and how does it look different from self-salvation?
2 — When do I blame others in relationships? What idol is underneath that?
A prayer I’m praying:
Lord, I have such bad habits of moralism in relationships, the only hope for me is that you will show me the way to love others well without confusing that with earning anyone’s approval. On the flip side, Lord, please fix that knee-jerk response I have of blaming others when something goes wrong. Even if they did do something wrong, keep me from sitting in judgment over them; move my heart to forgive them because I have been forgiven. In the name of the Savior who makes this third way possible, AMEN!
by Elizabeth | Sep 6, 2010 | Learning Story
Sorry for my absentia Saturday morning — I was, as I mentioned Friday, ‘gone fishin’.’ And for all you who prayed that our day would be blessed with fish, thank you. God was bounteous with his blessings that day, giving us not only fish but a very pleasant early morning temperature freed of the ordinarily clamoring heat, and, of course, some stories to remember for long to come.
Here I am fighting the 'one that got away'
Being something of a cynic, I’ve always laughed when I heard the expression, “But you shoulda seen the one that got away.” Now I have my own such story. A large redfish (I had already caught one of these gorgeous creatures, and no, I had no trouble whatsoever watching it hanging there on the hook!) which I chased around the boat with the captain and my husband both telling me when to reel and when to lay off…We (I say that because I consider we worked as a team) had him within two feet of the boat and caught a good look at him, good enough for Captain Blake to say, “Wow, that’s at least five pounds.” And then communication broke down. I thought Captain said, “A LITTLE MORE reeling…” when actually he was saying, “NO MORE reeling…” Well, those are two opposite actions, and since I was doing the wrong one, somehow the lovely shimmery fish departed. (I’m still not sure how…it all happened so fast.)
there's one more fish behind Kip's head
I caught one more catfish after that, which was, of course, NOT what we were after. I had already brought in two good sized redfish, and my husband had gotten one (one of mine was one that started on his reel which he handed to me as soon as he had it hooked, good guy that he is…) I was happy, and yet, I still think of ‘the one that got away.’ (Even though he was too large to keep, I just wanted one picture with him:)
by Elizabeth | Sep 3, 2010 | Learning Story
Do you ever go back and remember some of the great stories of your life by trying to repeat them? Many, many years ago (YES, WE WERE YOUNG THEN, WE KNOW THAT!), my husband and I used to do some fishing. About four years ago I told him, “I want to go ‘catchin'” (I’m not as patient as I once was, and really just want that fish, small or large, on the end of my pole, cane or some newfangled titanium carbon hybrid (yes, I made that up:)). We were at the beach with our family, and he kindly arranged an inshore fishing trip for us. Sadly, a hurricane off the coast encroached. I insisted, “But, it’s sunny outside — we can still go, can’t we?” (I’m not always reasonable when I have something in my mind I want to do. See, this is what I meant yesterday when I said it’s amazing he has patiently put up with me for 28 years!). He was firm, and then they evacuated the boats anyway, so I let it go. (Hmmm, you think maybe he was right?) Two weeks later, I blew out my right shoulder in a tennis tournament and gone were all dreams of going ‘catchin” for the next two years. (I REALLY blew it out and it took two surgeries and long rehabs to get it right.)
This morning, I received an email from my husband. He wanted to know if I would like to do some inshore fishing this weekend when we celebrate our anniversary. He had the courtesy to ask because right now my “good” shoulder is struggling a little bit, and he wanted to make sure I felt like it. My response: BOY DO I! And I remember, for one of our early anniversaries, we went to Destin for the very first time, and went deep-sea fishing with about 100 other people. I don’t even know if I caught anything. But it was a blast.
This time we’ll be aware of the oil that lurks in the Gulf. This time, neither one of my shoulders will work as well as they did 28 years ago. If I catch anything, I may have to let my husband help me pull it in (another sign of redemption of my determined independence!). But I don’t care. We’ll be fishing. And there’s not a hurricane anywhere near us right now.
by Elizabeth | Sep 2, 2010 | Learning Story
“What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Matthew 19:6
I spent the first five years of my marriage waiting to be divorced. Like I would just wake up one day and be divorced. This despite the fact that my husband and I got along very well and showed no real signs of trouble in those first five years. But as a child of divorce, I think in some weird faulty wiring of my heart, I feared I was doomed.
As I know, the painful split of divorce does happen. And so, as my husband and I celebrate 28 years of “loving and hating one another well” on Saturday, I am not gloating, but wondering. Wondering at the mercy of Jesus, who I see in this photo, bringing us together and holding us together, despite our numerous failed attempts to tear each other apart.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been far more sweet seasons than hard ones, but the hard ones could have so easily taken us down. We are two glorious children of God who brought such a heavy sinload of baggage into our marriage that these days it would be too expensive to fly. And yet, somehow, our covenantal, committed God, has pursued our hearts, and our marriage had not only survived but thrived.
People have asked me this week, “How does it feel to be celebrating 28?” My answer, HUMBLING. I am in awe as I remember. His many wonderful mercies. His penetrating kindness. His redemption. This weekend we will tell really good stories. And they won’t all be as pretty as this picture. But, like this picture, they will all reveal Christ bringing together what we and others might have easily torn apart.
