Bad religion

In our reading from Samuel we hear of how the prophet goes on God’s behalf to choose a new king. Samuel had been instrumental in Saul’s choosing, and he had high hopes for Saul, as the first King of Israel, but things didn’t work out between Saul and God the way he hoped and so Samuel is sent by God to anoint a new King. 

Samuel is sent to the family of a man named Jesse whose sons are brought before Samuel one at a time, starting with the oldest. Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before me,” but God had not chosen Eliab.   Seven of Jesse’s sons were brought to Samuel, but not one of them was chosen by God. Samuel doesn’t understand what’s going on. This was the place and the family he’d been sent to. He asks, “are all your sons here?” In turned out the youngest was not. It never crossed his father’s mind that David might be the one Samuel came to find.  David had seven older brothers who were all very capable, who from a human standpoint would be a much better choice. But God’s ways are not our ways. God often chooses the person we would not. God has a long history of choosing the most unlikely people to accomplish God’s will. 

This passage from first Samuel about a prophet hearing from God to go choose a new king, made me think of posts I was getting on my FB feed in 2016, during the American election.  I had a woman on Facebook who was quite convinced that Donald Trump had been chosen by God because of prophesies by certain church leaders. She would post links to these prophesies on my FB feed. Once in a while I tried to read them, but it was like trying to read a foreign language. In my opinion they were gobbly gook that made absolutely no sense. I deleted them and eventually unfriended the woman who was trying to use my FB feed to influence people to her point of view. 

As I was reading about the prophet Samuel hearing the word of God and then anointing first Saul and then David as King I started to think about those prophesies and the church movement behind them. I wanted to know where they came from and so this week I started to do some research. What I discovered floored me and since I think it is important for people to know what is going on in the world them, I’m sharing what I discovered with you. 

What I discovered was the New Apostolic Reformation movement that is often referred to as Dominionism. It was been born out of Pentecostal and Vineyard churches, but now supporting ministers can be found in a variety of denominations. One of the key differences between people in this camp and regular Pentecostals like my mother, is that my mother believed in premillenialism in that she believed Jesus would return and following that there would be a 1000 year reign of peace on Earth. Dominionist believe that Jesus cannot return until the church establishes a World Wide movement that will bring Peace to the Earth for a thousand years. Dominionists believe Christians need to take power and rule; but not just any Christians will do, they must be people chosen by a select group of self-appointed apostles. Leaders in this New Apostolic Reformation see the election of Donald Trump as a necessary step in bringing this future time of peace to the Earth.  Now at this point I’m not clear as to what roll they see Donald Trump as playing, but I think they see him as destroying current structures so that new ones can rise out of the ashes.  So to the best of my ability to understand what is going on they see Trump’s role as bringing about the Apocalypse that will then allow true Christians to gain control and usher in a new world order. I actually don’t think they are totally clear themselves what they believe, or that they agree with one another, which makes it hard to discern what it is this religious movement it about. One thing for sure is they do not call themselves dominionists.  That is a name given to them by others trying to make sense out of this movement. 

But generally speaking, Dominionist theology states that humans are commissioned to bring the entire world under the dominion of Christianity, by force, if necessary, and then hand over the Christianized world to Jesus when he comes again. 

Key to this new world order is the recognition of Apostles, who have been appointed by God to reveal Present Truth – meaning they will have mystical experiences and revelations from God that might supercede the word of God in the bible.  For these people the bible is no longer the measuring stick that it has been in the past, but the words that these Apostles speak will carry absolute authority whether their words agree with the bible or not. Leaders in this movement are working toward a multi level and world-wide movement based on cell groups operating through churches in every nation and continent on Earth through which they can share what they call Present Truth.  Some of the leaders in this movement claim to have had prophesies telling them that Donald Trump was chosen by God to be president of the United States.  They claim he is the President for the end times.  That time when life as we know it will be destroyed. This is why Trump could, as he claimed, shoot someone on main street and get away with it. They are not supporting him for what he will build, but for what he will tear down. 

One reason they will never turn away from supporting him, is because doing so would mean admitting that they did not hear from God and they can’t do that. To do so would be to lose their power and influence. They have been instrumental in getting their people in key positions in the government. Often in positions that they have a history of acting against.  For example, Betsy DeVos has not been a supporter of public education but she has been given responsibility for that area of government. Scott Pruitt has been named to the Environmenatal Protection Agency even though he has a history of working against environmental protections. 

What has this got to do with us in Canada, you ask? This New Apostolic Reformation movement is the fastest growing church movement in the world – particularly in third world countries. But this movement’s influence goes beyond the churches directly affiliated with them. People could be attending a Pentecostal, Baptist, Alliance, Catholic or a church of any other denomination where the leadership is affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation and the people who worship in the church may not know it. One of the churches here in town could have a connection. 

Some leaders in this movement call for parents to send their teenagers to Kansas City where a man named Mike Bickle claims to have prophesies and visions that come from God. The teens and young adults who go there are prevented from have anything to do with people on the outside. They are told to prepare themselves to be Martyrs in God’s army.  One young man was subjected to 7 hours of interrogation for reading the words of a Christian leader outside of their movement when he began to have questions. Where young people in the past were trained to engage in missionary movements focused on saving souls or meeting people’s spiritual, emotional, and physical needs, these young people go out with the mandate to work towards supporting bids for political power by people endorsed by this movement. Here are just a few of the American politicians said to have a connection with this group. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Mike Hucklebee Sam Brownback, and Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz is on record of accepting Mike Bickle’s endorsement.

I watched a video clip of Mike Bickle. His words were not biblical, but he claimed they came from God. They were about what God was going to do with the Jews. Bickle said God would first send fishermen for the Jews and then hunters for the ones who did not turn to Jesus. He said these hunters would kill 2/3rds of the Jews living at the time.  

Dominionist churches use a lot of military imagery. It has been reported that they have been active in infiltrating the American military. Dominionist leader Bill Gothard set up paramilitary camps for children. Michael Farris is recruiting home schoolers for CIA type training.  Presumably they envision a day when they may be forced to take or keep power through violence. In fact, some of them have said as much. 

Now I’m not opposed to the idea of a Christian nation, a nation that builds on the teachings of Jesus would be something lovely and grace filled and a place where justice and mercy meet, but what these people would build would be more akin to what fundamentalist Muslims would build. It would be more akin to what the Taliban would do than what I believe Jesus would do. There would be no room for diversity. No room for grace. No room for deviation from what they see as right and true. Prisons would be full of people who have an ideology or a lifestyle different from what they believe right.  Their political opponents would end up in prison or dead. You might well see a return of the inquisitions of the past.

I know that what I am telling you sounds very far out. Perhaps that is why this movement and its impact on politics has gotten very little media attention.  As I read about the New Apostalic Reformation I realized I have recently participated in a worship services led by people who have been influenced by this movement.  If people are talking about or you are asked to sing about the latter rain, Joel’s army, restoring the age of apostles, you are likely in a church that has been influenced by this movement.  Somewhere, recently, I was in a worship service where we sang about restoring the age of apostles and I wondered what the song was about. 

Some of you want to keep politics and religion separate. I can appreciate that desire, but should we be silent when it is the church that is shaping the political landscape. What I can’t do is stick my head in the sand when I see what bad religion is doing in the name of Jesus. Too me it would be irresponsible not to make people aware of the forces that are shaping their lives without them knowing it. 

I don’t think Jesus calls Christians to help bring in the end times. In the past the church understood its mission as seeking to bring salvation to those who had lost their way and healing to those who had been wounded by the world. But dominionist Christians see their role as establishing an earthly kingdom by taking political control. Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world and his call has always been for the church to draw people to him, so that in him they can discover the goodness and mercy of God. 

In our reading from Mark, Jesus talks about the Kingdom starting with the smallest of seeds and when it puts out its branches the birds of the air make nests in its shade. What a beautiful image. It stands in opposition to those who believe they can bring in the kingdom through violence. In the book of Romans, Paul says the Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness and peace and joy will never be brought to birth by using violence to establish a new world order. 

What can we do? We can make ourselves aware, which is what I’ve done this week. It is easier to resist evil when we know what face it wears. Then we can remain faithful to the mandate Jesus has given us of drawing broken and wounded people to the love of God. The kingdom Jesus came to tell us about is not of this world, and it will never be brought into being by the use of deception and power politics. The Kingdom of God cannot be built on hate, for God is love. We are called to walk in love and seek justice not just for ourselves and for others like us, but for people of all faiths. We are called to reach beyond those things that divide us to join hands with all people of good will to build a world where justice doesn’t depend on the color of your skin or where you come from or how you worship God. If we were to do this, then the kingdom of God would come near. 

We were commanded to love with a love that reaches wide.  In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that when the end comes and we are judged, it won’t be on how well we held onto the truth, but on how well we loved. 

Blessed be the name of our God and of Jesus Christ who came that we might be part of God’s kingdom or peace, where the birds of the air will find shade, and the lion and the lamb lay down together. Amen

Everyone Gets Angry, Even God

A message like this was preached at Hope United Church on July 15th. Please excuse any spelling and grammar mistakes you find. 

Everyone gets angry. Even God. In scripture we are told that the 'The LORD is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression. God is slow to anger, but according to scriptures, God does get angry.  Jesus got angry. Who can doubt that Jesus was angry as he used a whip to throw the money changers and their animals out of the temple. 

To ask whether anger is good or bad is like asking whether hunger is good or bad. It simply is.  What is good or bad is what we do with it. Aristotle was a wise man. One lengthy sentence of his probably says more helpful things about anger than any other in print.  Anyone can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way, Aristotle says, is not easy.  

Contrary to what many people think anger in and of itself is not a sin. In its right place anger is a useful emotion. There are many social programs that got their start because someone was first made angry by injustice or oppression or the unnecessary suffering of some of God’s children. Anger rightly directed has often been the catalyst for change. The bible tells us to be angry, but sin not. That is the hard part.  There are few things that lead us as quickly to sin, as anger. It's almost like a reflex action. We get angry, we sin against God, and against other people. 

The bible tells us not to let the sun go down on our anger. If we keep anger in our heart it is terribly destructive. If psychologists were asked to name the two major sources of unnecessary human suffering, they would likely name fear and anger. They form the basis for most of our unhappiness. Therefore, our mental health demands that we take steps to free ourselves from the destructive power of these two emotions. It demands that we learn to forgive and set ourselves free from the power of anger and hate.  When we hold onto anger, the person we are angry at does not suffer, but we sure do.  I’ve experienced this in my own life. I’ve had some sleepless nights because of anger. 

I had a vivid example of what happens when anger takes up permanent residence in someone’s life when I worked at Central United.  A drifter named Dave came into my office and we talked for about an hour. I asked Dave if I could tell others his story and he said yes. Dave had recently been released from jail.  He had been in prison for violence against his girlfriend's daughter. Dave told me that he did not want to stay downtown in the hostels because they were too violent. I suspected that Dave had likely been banned because he was the one who was too violent.  The roots of Dave's current problem began in his family of origin.  His alcoholic father would beat his mother and when he finished with her, beat him. Dave said he hated his father. He also hated his older brother who Dave said believed himself to be superior. Dave said: It didn't matter what I did, my brother could always do it better, and I hated him for it.  

Dave had written a poem when he was a young man which he still remembered.  He shared it with me as we talked.  I asked him to write it down so I could share it with others.  Please listen:

         If I be a man of hate

         Let the world stay from my gate

         Let me live my life alone

         with a heart as hard as stone.  

         But if I be a man of God

         let me spread joy where're I trod

         let me love my fellow man

         and live my life as best I can

         Then heaven's gate shall open wide

         To show where peace and joy abide.

Dave was in touch with a profound truth. Joy and peace comes to that person who loves, but alludes those who hate. That person who holds onto anger until it freezes into hate will certainly end up isolated from others and very much alone. 

As Dave shared this poem with me, he realized that he had become a man of hate and that he did live his life alone with a heart as hard as stone. There was no one who cared for him and no one who shared his life.  

Dave is an extreme example. However, I can almost guarantee that there are people in the congregation today whose lives have been adversely affected by an anger that you have not been able to let go of.  There are likely people here today who have broken relationships within an extended family member or with someone who was once a friend. All of us likely know people who do not have peace of mind, but experience a great deal of inner conflict and suffering because they have held onto anger and been unwilling to forgive. 

In the gospels Jesus tells us a parable of a servant who is forgiven a great debt by the king.  He goes out and meets someone who owes him a much smaller debt.  He refuses to forgive.  The king hears about it and throws him into prison where he is tortured. Those who refuse to forgive and hold onto anger still enter into a prison of the mind where they experience torment.  Forgiveness is a requirement for peace of mind and heart.  Some might say; but you don't know what I've gone through.  It is not possible to forgive. Perhaps it would help if we first state what forgiveness is not.  Forgiveness is not overlooking the wrong or saying that what happened was not of consequence.  Forgiveness is not excusing the wrong. It's not saying that what happened was O.K., because sometimes it was not O.K.  Sometimes it was very wrong and you have good reason to be angry.   Forgiveness is honestly facing the wrong and the hurt and the pain.  It is facing the anger and the resentment that we carry, and recognizing it's destructive power in our lives.  It is choosing to let go of hurt and resentment.  It is choosing to be free from any desire to see the other suffer as we suffer.  

I always know that I am coming close to truly forgiving when I can pray for the person who hurt me without hidden agenda's and just ask God to bless that person.   Sometimes the deed done was so terrible, and/or the hurt so deep and/or the anger so entrenched that it seems impossible to ever be free of it.  However we are not without help.  We can call on Jesus and ask for God's help to do what we cannot do on our own. All that is required at this moment is that we are willing to be made willing and are open to the work that God would do.  Many people speak of the power of God, which enabled them to do what they believed was impossible.  Corrie ten Boon and her sister Nollie found this to be true. Their family hid Jews during the Second World War.  They were betrayed by two of their Dutch countrymen.  After the war, the two men were taking into custody and put on trial for their part in what happened to the ten Boon's and to the others they betrayed. Nollie ten Boon wrote to the two men, and told them that in spite of the fact that their betrayal led to great suffering for Nollie and Corrie, as well as to the death of their father, sister, brother and nephew, she and Corrie had forgiven them.  

I have my doubts whether it is possible to forgive such hurt in our human strength. We need a power greater than our own; we need the power of God. 

Rosamond E. Herklots expressed how important it was to forgive in a hymn:

         Forgive our sins as we forgive,

         You taught us, Lord to pray

         But you alone can grant us grace

         to live the words we say.

         How can your pardon reach and bless

         The unforgiving heart

         That broods on wrongs and will not let

         Old bitterness depart?

         In blazing light your cross reveals

         the truth we dimly knew

         what trivial debts are owed to us

         how great our debt to you.

Several years ago I was at a conference.  I sat down next to a man and we began to talk. He had recently been through a painful divorce.  For the first time in his life he was coming to terms with how growing up under the control of an abusive father had affected and still was affecting his life.  As we talked it became clear to me that not only did he have problems with his father, but he was also angry at God.  I shared with him my belief that sometimes we need to forgive God. Was it God's fault that his father was abusive?  No, his father, like all of us, was a wounded man, but he was also a man who had a free will and choices to make.  Was it God's fault that his marriage broke down?  No, both partners had free will and had made choices.  However, knowing that did not change the fact of the man's feelings. He felt that God had let him down and he was angry that God would allow him to experience such a terrible thing. 

It is a scary thing to be angry at God. It is difficult to acknowledge that the anger is there, even to ourselves. However, when we have hidden anger it affects our relationships.  It puts a distance between ourselves and others. Some people need to forgive God.  Has God actually done something wrong that needs to be forgiven?  No, however, it is possible to be perfectly angry at a perfect God.  If we are angry, we need to recognize it and then we need to let go of the anger and forgive the God who has disappointed us. 

God sent Jesus to tell us how much God loves us and how willing God is to forgive us.  The question is, are we willing to forgive God.  

Anger destroys relationships.  Anger is an emotion that is very destructive of the inner person and can interfere with all our relationships.  The key to freedom is forgiveness.  May God give us the wisdom and the power to forgive one another, ourselves, and if necessary God. We need the freedom that forgiveness brings. Jesus came to set us free, we can only fully claim that freedom when we are able to forgive. Don’t let anger ruin your life. Be free to be who God created you to be. And remember the forgiveness that is a free gift given to you by the God of amazing grace. Amen

A message something like this was preached at Hope United Church on July 29th. We read the story in the bible of how King David takes another man's wife, and then arranges to have her husband killed before this message was preached. Please ignore any spelling and grammar mistakes. When I write books I hire an editor, but I am on my own for the messages written to share in church. 

Some time ago David Clendenin wrote an essay that caught my attention. It was called Befriending our Brokenness: Lessons from the life of Maurice Sendak.  

Sendak was born into a family of Polish Jewish immigrants and grew up in lower class Brooklyn. He was a sickly child, who spent many hours alone in bed drawing pictures. The Holocaust cast a terrible shadow of death upon his family. Growing up gay in that time and place was also very difficult. He said, “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents would be happy.”   

Sendak was lucky in many ways.  He lived with a partner he loved for 50 years. He earned international fame by writing books. One book in particular which many of you will have heard of:  Where the Wild Things Are.  

In spite of the huge success, and the praises and prizes he received, the happiness he knew in love, Sendak never got over the feeling that he was deeply flawed.  He said, people say awfully nice things, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a stinky person inside. He said this feeling of being stinky stuck to him from childhood regardless of the success he enjoyed. 

The first time I read through the Old Testament I loved it. I loved it because it spoke of seriously flawed people, stinky people, that God was somehow still able to use. The hero’s of our faith were often not very heroic. This is certainly true for King David. 

The things that touched me as an adult were not stories that we tell to children. To children, we tell stories of how little David battled the mighty Goliath and won.  We might talk about how David was chosen even though he was the last person anyone but God would choose. With children we do not talk of how David stays home while sending his troops off to fight a war just because it was the spring of the year – the time when Kings go to war.  We do not talk about what it means to ravage another country.  We do not talk about how he plotted the death of a man whose wife he lusted after and made pregnant.  These parts of the biblical story are for adults.   

The bible is a book, which cannot be compared to other ancient books.  It does not follow the practice of ancient people who divinized their kings and sanitized their faults, presenting a picture of a king who was God-like.  Instead the bible invites us to see its characters as flawed people who make personal mistakes and live as part of a culture that is also flawed.  

We are not asked to see everything in the bible as happening because it was God’s will that it happen.  It was not God’s intent that people go to war just because it was spring and the time when Kings go to war.  It was not God’s design that David arrange the death of an honourable man after David sleeps with his wife and makes her pregnant.  The Bible presents the story as it is, the good, the bad, and the ugly and asks us to see in it a God who is at work to redeem and save in spite of human failure and sin.  

This is good news for some of us who grew up feeling very stinky. We love how God is able to take flawed and broken people and use our lives for good. 

If the bible told the story of super hero’s who never made a mistake and never said or did the wrong thing then the bible would not have the power it does to touch our lives and transform us.  But the story of how God can take flawed people and help them do great things in spite of their brokenness has the power to stir us to do greater things then we ever felt we were capable of.  This story has the power to help us go through the painful process of being reborn and finding a new identity as children of God who can make a difference in the world.   

In my ministry I have met many beautiful people that I would have liked to be more like.   It always came as a great surprise to find that a fair number of these physically and spiritually beautiful people do not have a positive self image. Some feel like stinky people. This feeling of stinkiness does not come from who they are today, but it comes from the experiences of childhood and youth that stuck to them like glue.    

In my life I’ve meet many difficult people. Some of those difficult people have even been in the church.  Many had a story of great wounding, a story that they often never tell to anyone else.  They try to tramp the pain down and keep it secret, but it has been my experience that the more people try to hide their story the more it comes out indirectly in words and actions that hurt other people. Their woundedness causes them to wound other people. 

Part of the hero’s quest that God calls us to, is a quest to learn to love the unique individual that God has created each one of us to be. Part of the hero’s quest is to work with the Spirit of God to heal those parts of us that are wounded and broken. We need to do this, not only for ourselves, but for those around us.  Wounded people help create other wounded people, and this sense of being a stinky person is passed down from one generation to another.    

There is sin in our world, and by that I mean that we do not always live in the way God intends every minute of the day.  We do not live always in the light of God’s love. No one does. Not me. Not you. Not biblical characters like David.  We all cause hurt in the world by the things we say and do.  When we recognize this we need to do what David did.  We need to confess our sin before God with all honesty and seriousness and open our hearts to the Spirit of God that we might receive power to change our lives. We need to try to make amends for what we have done that has brought hurt into the world.  

We are both sinners and the sinned against.  We have been wounded by our own sin and the sin of others, and in ways both intentional and unintentional we have wounded others. Some of the sin that wounded you and me has been brought into our lives by people we have never met. It comes to us through the generations, it flowed to us through our parents and grandparents who were wounded by the people in their lives. We can name some of the ways our lives have been warped and wounded, but other wounds lay beyond our ability to recognize and name them.  They have woven themselves so completely into the fabric of our lives that we are incapable of  recognizing how our lives have been warped.  

By grace we are saved through faith. We start there and recognize our need to open our hearts to God the healer who can be at work in us to make us a new creation, with an increased ability to bless and not wound the world around us. 

God has no perfect people to use to bless the world, no superhero’s who do everything just right. What God has is people like David, who when he was given the power of kingship misused it. What God has are people like you and me. We don’t always get it right and sometimes our own brokenness gets in the way of being a blessing in the world. However, if anything good is to happen it will be because people like us do it. 

The world is full of pain and hurt and we need to be God’s agents of healing light.  We need to be a place where the love of God meets the pain of the world to bring hope and healing. God is able to do miraculous things through the most unlikely of people. This is the story the bible tells us as it tells us the story of God at work through people like David. .  

God sees the reality of who are we. God sees those times we consciously sin against our brother or sister. God sees the brokenness we are blind to, but more important than that, God sees the beauty in each one of us, the ways we bless the world around us just by being alive in it, and the potential we have to be even more of a blessing. 

God thinks we are wonderful. Worth sending Jesus into the world to redeem. Worth sending the Holy Spirit to be our companion as we journey through life. Believe in this God who believes in you, open your hearts more fully to God’s spirit and let God help you become more fully the Hero of our Faith that God believes you can be. Amen.