Reaching Out, Taking In

How am I suppose to justify the belief in justice, truth and mercy, with the idea that I too am the culprit of so much injustice, so many lies and so much reckless harm. Romans 1 says...

"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

To be honest, those verses really upset me. They make my stomach turn. They make me feel anger and bitterness against those who turn from the truth and follow the ways of wickedness in the world. I jump upon the pedestal of self righteousness and pretend that I am perfect, unphased by the temptation to live an easy life, a life filled with pleasure and virtue. I stand on the very same stage as those I harbor ill feelings towards. Then I read on...

" You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will give to each person according to what he has done." To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil..."

It is the beautiful thing about Scripture. It humbles you, teaches you, instructs you. Above all else, in fact, it commands you to love. Love. Love. Love. There is no argument, there is no explanation, there is no reason other than love. When we fail to love, we fail to live.

I can stand on my pedestal of self absorbtion, or I can step down in humility and look up to the one who showed us the way. He reaches out. He invites. He calls. He accepts. He loves. There is no other way.

The Scream

You gotta check this out. What is our world coming to...? Really...? It's called "the SCREAM" and is a weapon used by the Israeli army to get crowds to disperse. This is some messed up stuff.

I can't help but to think of the Nazi's and all the terrible torture they put people through in order to understand the limits of the human body. It's insame quite literally.

I don't know, maybe I'm going too far here. It just pains me so much to see the evil and unrest in the world. This isn't for or against Israel, it's a state of the world at large. Sad.

right or left, up or down...?

" Abe Lincoln had it right. Our task shouold not be to invoke religion and the name of God by claiming God's blessing and endorsement for all our national policies and practices - saying, in effect, that God is on our side. Rather, Lincoln said, we should pray and worry earnestly whether we are on God's side.

Those are the two ways that religion has been brought into public life in American history. The first way - God on our side - leads inevitably to triumphalism, self-righteousness and bad theology, and, often, dangerous foreign policy. The second way - asking if we are on God's side - leads to much healthier things, namely, penitence and even repentance, humility, reflection, and even accountablility. We need much more of all these, because these are often missing values of politics.

Of course, Martin Luther King Jr. did it best. With his Bible in one hand and the Consitution in the other, King persuaded, not just pronounced. He reminded us all of God's purpose for justice, for peace, and for the "beloved community" where those always left out and behind get a front row seat."

Jim Wallis, God's Politics
: Why the Right gets it wrong and the Left doesn't get it

a biblical disease and a radical man

As Todd and I approached the former leper colony, we mused about the biblical significance of leprosy and the amazing effect that disease itself had on civilization two thousand years ago. It wasn't until we were actually on the island, that we learned how real and prevalent this devastating disease still is. We thought the leper colony was from biblical times and yet the leper colony was the last to inhabit Spinalonga. Again, I was humbled by my lack of world understanding especially when it comes to the plight and struggle of the Third World.

Leprosy is very real in 2005, with an estimated 400,000 cases infecting people today, mostly in India, Nepal and the surrounding region. (You can check out LEPRA or America Leprosy Mission for more details on leprosy and other devasting diseases) The picture posted above is of a bad case. If detected early and given the right treatement, leprosy can be controlled.

It's when I look at pictures like these that I realize what a radical revolutionary Jesus really was. In biblical times (and obviously in modern times as well) infected people where cast out from society to live as pariahs until death. You can't blame society. They were simply doing what Darwin would have called survival of the fittest - removing the weak from within. The mentally retarded, deformed, diseased, infected, abnormal people were and in many cases still are nothing.

It is these people with whom Jesus built his ministry. He touched the untouchable, loved the unlovable, sought after the unseekable, and healed the unhealable. He did things others never dreamed of. He made friends with outcasts and created family with the unwanted. He was a radical instrument of love. It is absolutely no wonder the powers that be wanted him dead. He stood for everything they stood against. This is the man I want to follow.

Now, will I...?

an old journey with an old friend to an old place

It started with a simple journey on a sea kayak to an island just off the coast of Crete, itself being a very large island. We departed from a small beach near the town of Plaka (in Elounda Bay) and were to Spinalonga in only about 15 minutes. Once there we were confronted by large walls, obviously the work of human hands rather than nature. The walls were clearly meant to keep people out or keep people in, whichever way you want to look at it. I think it was for both, depending on the period of history.

The Venetians finished a powerful fortress there in 1579 as a way to protect trade routes through the Eastern Mediterranean. It succeeded. Even when the Ottoman Empire defeated Crete, they did not conquer Spinalonga for years afterward. During that time, the fortress island was used as a santuary for Christians in defiance of the Muslim rule. It is believed that the ecumenical church on the island is the first ever built of its kind. More recently, the island was used as a leper colony. From 1903 until about 1957, lepers were sent here to live out there dying days seperated from the rest of civilisation.

They walked what is known as "the street of pain" day in and day out suffering though a terrible disease, the cure of which was only found in 1947. It is this suffering and this disease that brings me to the story I've thought about for days now.

The upcoming posts will detail this story.