#timothy jang

[risenchurch]

Lent Day 40: The Signature of Jesus

A while back, I asked my father what he loved about my mother.  I wanted to know how he survived almost 40 years of marriage through all of their struggles, including the stresses of graduate school, tight finances, and raising children.  My dad paused, looked at me and said, “I don’t think I know how not to love your mother.”  That has stuck with me ever since.  My father does not love my mother because of any thing she does or doesn’t do at this point in their lives.  Instead, he just loves her.  After having spent almost 40 years of trying to love her more and more, all he knows how to do is love her.  The thought doesn’t occur to him to not love her.  On the one hand, that is disconcerting because it isn’t “earned” and doesn’t have a “rational basis” that can be quantified or explained.  On the other hand, it is entirely beautiful because it speaks to the mystery of love that sometimes just is.

The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8).  It isn’t just something He chooses as if He considers the option of not loving us. No, the totality of love is found in God such that the degree to which we understand and experience love is the degree to which we understand and experience God.  Every time we experience love, we experience God’s nature and presence.  The fact that we can even conceive of love reflects something that goes beyond the ability of science to quantify, mechanistically describe and deduce, or rationally understand.  We may not always recognize love as such but that’s the funny thing about love.  Love exists and is there whether or not we recognize it and even if it is maligned, ignored, neglected, or misconstrued.

The world we live in tries to tell us that God loves us in our weaknesses just as we are, but loves us more as we get better and do better. Brennan Manning reminds us powerfully that God’s love actually has nothing to do with our performance.  It is simply who He is.  He does not know how not to love us.  Manning offers this thought from the mind of Jesus, “Just because it is fallen mankind’s nature to wound, that does not change my nature to save.”  Regardless of what we do or don’t do, Christ’s nature is still to call out to the beauty in each of us, to resonate with all that bears His image in us, to bring to life the majesty with which we were imbibed by Him.

The story of Elam Zook illustrates how each of us can be an “icon of Jesus Christ.”  Manning writes, “Why? Because his love for me did not stem from any attractiveness or lovability of mine.  It was not conditioned by any response of my part.  Elam loved me whether I was kind or unkind, pleasant or nasty, His love arose from a source outside of himself and myself.”  Today, may you think deeply about the ways in which your life is an icon of Jesus Christ.  Take a moment to show someone love “just because.”  Make it something that is rich, deep, and costs you something.  Make it something that isn’t deserved or earned.  Do it for someone who won’t pay you back.  Do it for someone who could pay you back but wouldn’t know how.  In that moment, ask God to open your eyes, to help you see all the ways in which God has done that for you, and may you find the signature of Jesus not only in what you do but all over your life.

“The crucified Christ is not an abstraction but the ultimate answer to how far love will go, what measure of rejection it will endure, how much selfishness and betrayal it will withstand.  The unconditional love of Jesus Christ nailed to the tree does not flinch before our perversity.”

[risenchurch]

Lent Day 26: A Father's Grief

In today’s selection, Martin Luther writes, “Sorrow over sin does not finally belong to us humans; we ourselves are not capable of it.” And concludes, “For then we recognize with inner knowledge that we ourselves would not be capable of creating the awareness of sin and that it does not belong to us.”  Luther realized that sin is often a reality that we are unaware of.

We can be so “into” something good, that it becomes an idol that consumes our lives and before we know it, takes us away from God.  This is what happens with many addictions.  Things that are given to us by God as gifts to enjoy—our health, sex, grapes that become wine, the ability to eat nice food, etc—easily become consuming to the point where they slowly displace God as the focus and source of life.  Other times, there are things such as anger or lying that start off as small things but become consuming in ways we don’t realize.   Once we tell a “little lie,” we find ourselves continually lying to keep from having to admit that we lied in the first place.  Likewise, when we deny our anger, we actually become more angry, or else we have to admit that we were angry to begin with and before we know it, our anger starts to consume us.  There are many other ways in which things can “entangle us” as author of Hebrews alludes to (Hebrews 12:1,2).

So, knowing that sin can be difficult to recognize and impossible to fully comprehend on our own, what should we do?  The first thing is to recognize that our awareness of sin is neither perfect nor absolute.  Do not assume that just because you don’t think you are sinning means you aren’t or that because you think someone else is that they are.  Begin with humility in this regard.  Second, realize that sin is everywhere, coming in many forms, waiting to entice us (Gen 4:7; I Peter 5:8).  Avoid thinking that you have mastered sin and, thus, do not need to worry about it.  Third, pray the prayer of the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23,24).  Ask God to reveal to you the ways in which sin may be in your life.  Fourth, read the Bible.  James 1:23-25 tells us that the word of God is like a mirror that helps us to see our lives as they really are.  Likewise II Timothy 3:14-17 tells us that Scripture has been given to us for rebuking, correcting, and helping us.   Fifth, listen for the stirring of the Spirit.  In John 16, Jesus tells us that the Spirit will help make sin known to us (as long as we do not quench the Spirit, I Thess 5:19-22).  Sixth, ask for help.  People are often placed in our lives by God to help us with this (Prov 25:12; 27:5).  Finally, focus on Christ alone (Hebrews 12:1,2).  As you understand more and more about Christ, the more His will shall become yours, the more sin will both be more evident to you and less appealing.

- Timothy

[risenchurch]

Lent Day 12: The Center

Jesus presents us with an ironic thought, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self ? (Luke 9:23-25).”  

We are told to obey our thirst, do what satisfies us, and pursue happiness, but Jesus says that in the process of seeking to gain the whole world, we lose ourselves.  So, in fact, while calling us to deny ourselves and pursue the cross, Jesus says we find our truest selves.  Arnold picks up on this, “Every believer knows that Christ went the way of the cross for our sakes.  But it is not enough just to know this.  Each of us must find the cross,” which leaves us with the question, “How do I find the cross?

The cross in Christian thought was never meant to be a piece of wall art, worn jewelry, or venerated object.  Instead, the cross is a mindset, a way of life, and the lens through which we would see the world.  For Jesus, the cross was the purpose for His entire life and, thus, determined every action He undertook.  Luke 9:15 tells us that He set out “resolutely” towards Jerusalem, knowing that the time for His crucifixion would come.  In other words, Jesus purposefully lived towards the moment when He would die on the cross. 

So, what happened on the cross?  Jesus had the power to avoid pain but chose to suffer a cruel death in agony.  He endured dehydration, weather exposure, and physical pain.  He was exposed while people mocked Him.  He anguished watching His mother weep in distress.  He gave up all He had because He believed that in doing so He would not only make our lives better but help us to find our truest selves.  He declared that the ultimate futility of our actions and performance would no longer define us, that our past did not have to hold us hostage, and that our worth would be defined by how much He paid for us, thus giving us the identity to live with power in the world.

Arnold writes, “If we truly love him, we will love everything in him; not only his compassion and mercy but his sharpness too.  It is his sharpness that prunes and purifies. . . . unless these truths live in our hearts—unless they grip us in a deeply personal way and infuse our very being—they remain nothing but meaningless words.”  

Thus, finding the cross in our lives, having it in our hearts, and having it infuse our being involves much more than religious rites such as baptism and communion, moral actions like telling the truth and giving to the poor, and transcendent experiences such as heartfelt worship. It means embracing our calling, talents, and resources, daily using them to the utmost in honor of Him, and finding our greatest identity in being who He made us in the world around us, regardless of pain, cost, the words of others, or agony. 

We must purposefully clear distractions from our lives, let go of things that weigh us down, repent of sin, and commit each day to using our lives fully for His glory.  As we do those things, we will relive the work of the cross in our lives and find a holy communion with the One who went there first.

- Tim

[risenchurch]

Being Christian In The Real World

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with some old friends.  It was a celebration and reunion. Several of my friends clearly had too much to drink, but at 1:00 AM, I asked if we could pray... and we prayed, not for just five minutes, but for a good while.  

One of my friends who used to go to church said that it seemed “weird” to drink and then pray.  I told him that it was never “weird” to pray.  We were there for celebration and reunion.  Most of us would not have known each other if not for God causing our lives to intersect.  The occasion was festive and joyous and, thus, appropriately “tucked in” with prayer.  More than that, since prayer is about God—honoring Him, seeking His will, coming to Him honestly and wholeheartedly—I think it was great to end in prayer, giving Him His due respect.

Since that time, I have thought about that night quite a bit and I still think it was appropriate to end in prayer.  If we make mistakes, isn’t that when we need prayer the most?  Isn’t that when we need our friends to bring us before God’s throne of grace?  Isn’t that when we need to be reminded of God’s love for us and place in our lives?  

No one questions that when someone has cancer, falls victim to tragedy, or loses a job.  We think it’s great to be “honest” and “open,” “broken” and “humble” with God, but somehow Satan has convinced some people that they can’t do that after having a drink, going to the club, or “having a night on the town.” 

I think that is a perversion of the truth God wants us to live by.  Jesus only condemns people for praying on two occasions.  Jesus condemned religious people for being pretentious in prayer; either praying in front specifically to be seen or praying long prayers just to impress people (Mk 12:38-40; Mt 6:5-8).  The second was in Luke 18:9-14 when a religious leader thought he had it together and compared his “goodness” to the “badness” of others.  On the other hand, Paul tells us to pray continually (I Thes 5:17) and on all occasions (Eph 6:18).  Jesus, Himself, wanted us to “always pray” (Lk 18:1-14).  

The truth is that God has always wanted His people to spend time with Him in prayer, genuinely and wholeheartedly, regardless of the circumstances.  Being a Christian in the real world means being able to re-center your life at the end of any night, whether it’s a night out with the boys or at home watching the Spurs-Suns game.  Being a Christian in the real world means being able to bring yourself and your friends into the throne room of God regardless of the circumstances.  Being a Christian in the real world means seeing God in every activity, including those that don’t go quite right.  Being a Christian in the real world means being honest and real with God, no matter what. 

-Timothy Jang, Discipleship Pastor