Jason's Blog

Yesterday in class I discussed some basics of Hindu philosophy and the way that popular Hinduism understands religion.  What’s interesting to me is that there are two major traps into which many Hindu believers seem to fall:  1) superstition and 2) legalism.  As I see it, these two traps are related.  Those who practice dark arts believe they can manipulate reality through ritual or incantation.  Legalist have an equal confidence in their good works that by them they are made right with the Divine.

I defined a “functional Hindu” as a Christian who trusts more in their works than in their faith in God.  That is to say, they are approaching religion much as a Hindu would—with a high estimation that a disciplined will can in fact change the course of reality.

Here is a rough copy of my outline and here is a link to Martin Luther’s Freedom of a Christian (1520).  The entire lesson treats two fundamental truths:

1.  A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none;

2.  A Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.

I focused more on the first half of Luther’s argument than the second.  If you’ve never read Luther, I would encourage you to do so.  I think his outline on this topic is quite good and he’ll give you a lot to think about.

“If you want to look at creation full, creation at its highest, you look at a person- a man, a woman, a  child.  The faddish preference for appreciating creation in a bouquet of flowers over a squabbling baby, for a day on the beach rather than rubbing shoulders with uncongenial neighbors in a cold church – creation with the inconvenience of persons excised – is understandable, but it is also decidedly not creation in the terms it has been revealed to us.”  – Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Eerdmans, 2005): 53.

These words close the circle of community around us.  If we want to be in fellowship with God, we have to recognize His glory in the faces of those near us.  People are God’s crowning achievement, and they radiate the profound truth of God.  Yet at the same time, people grumble, moan,  and reflect everything that God is not with their selfishness and insecurity. 

The mature Christian can squarely look into the eyes of a complainer and see the glory of God—however glazed over it might be.  We then act as salt for the world drawing our strength not from ourselves but from our deep communion with the True and Living Light.

“So may you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life” Philippians 2:15-16.

“The Christian cannot simply take for granted the privilege of living among other Christians.  Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies.  In the end, all his disciples abandoned him.  On the cross he was all alone, surrounded by criminals and the jeering crowds.  He had come fore the express purpose of bringing peace to the enemies of God.   So Christians too, belong not to the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the midst of enemies.  There they find their mission, their work“  – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together DBW Volume 5 (Fortress Press: English edition 1996): 27.

“He came to his own and his own received him not.  But as many as received him, he gave the right to become children of God. . .” John 1:11-12

“Faith is not, however, merely the “flight of the lonely” (Plotonius).  
Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communio. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the triune God – a “foursome” as it were – for the Christian God is not a private deity.  Communion with this God is at once also communion with others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God”– Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Eerdmans:1998): 173.
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If we are people of faith and in communion with God, we are naturally drawn to others. The very idea of walking alone with God really doesn’t make sense. Though we are in desperate need of alone time with our Creator, a true faith never can stay in a private closet. As Volf points out, God isn’t a private deity.And so there are THE OTHERS. These have taken their stand and have divine communion with our Father in heaven. They didn’t ask us for an access pass. They went to Jesus in faith empowered by His Spirit. They may have had a million squabbles with us over practically everything in our lives or we may never have acknowledged them and yet the reality remains. We don’t walk alone into God’s presence.

The Hebrew writer puts it well when he describes Mount Zion– the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22-24).  All who are gathered around are there because of Jesus and it is important for us to not refuse Him. That naturally leads to us 1) to love each other as brothers, 2) to entertain strangers, 3) to remember those in prison, 4) to honor marriage, and 5) to be free from possessions as people full of contentment (Hebrews 13:1-6). — JF