The enemy of my enemy is my friend

So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee. To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. John 4:3-6 MSG

“He had to pass through Samaria” cannot mean that he geographically had to pass through Samaria to get to his destination. Israelites regularly went around Samaria to get from point A to point B. Why? The Israelites had irreconcilable differences with the Samaritan people. They considered them “less than”. More on that in a minute, but first a question: who can you no reconcile with? Who do you avoid as a people group?

Last night we went with friends to MamaZu’s in Oregon Hill (a neighborhood in downtown Richmond, VA) for dinner. It’s a dive of a place with a crazy door. The screen door is on the inside of the establishment and the heavy metal door is on the outside of the building. It looks like a dump but the food is delish. Joe, one of my dinner companions made the comment that when he was a youngster, Oregon Hill was one of the roughest neighborhoods in Richmond and was to be avoided at all costs. Today we have several neighborhoods that vie for that spot but Oregon Hill is not one of them. Part of this historic avoidance was a people group thing. Throughout history, we struggle with creating false systems of us versus them. Brene’ Brown attributes this to the need for intimacy. This is a quick and dirty, fake way to feel intimate. We can believe that if we have a common enemy, then we are friends. But what if our common enemy is a friend of God’s? How do we reconcile that?

The Samaritans in biblical times occupied the country formerly known as the land of the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh. Samaria was the capitol and had once been a wonderful city. When the ten tribes were carried off to captivity, foreigners moved in and the populations intermarried - hence, the first split. Eventually the Samaritans mixed their religious practices. They followed the Torah but kept some pagan practices as well. They opposed the rebuilding of the Temple after the Israelites returned from captivity. They served as a refuge city for outlaws from Judea. This was all a problem for creating harmony between these people groups.

No, Jesus did not HAVE to pass through Samaria for geographic reasons, tomorrow we will see WHY he HAD to. But do not miss this point: this was a naughty thing Jesus did in the eyes of the Israelites. This is breaking the brotherhood code. This goes against conventional wisdom. This stirs up conflict. This creates a PR nightmare. And yet, Jesus went.

How does our own desire to go along to get along interfere with making tough but right calls?

God desires peace between us

I once new a gal, decades ago, who had gotten divorced. She said that initially the divorce was painful for her because she thought she was displeasing God. After the divorce was finalized and a few years had passed, she came to a new way of seeing. “Teresa, God hates divorce because divorce is so painful for his children. He knows how heart wrenching it is for the two of us to pull apart the life we had joined together.”

I love that. Sin matters. Not because we are competing for God’s job in the holiness department but because, as we will see tomorrow in a very special way, God loves his children and cares about their suffering. It has nothing to do with winning, and everything to do with running the race well.

1-3 Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 MSG

I think we work so hard to compete for attention, affection and significance that we forget that we already have God’s full attention (he is after all the running father). In tomorrow’s post, we will consider who ELSE the triune God is.

Suggestions for reflecting God's image

Yesterday I talked about the implications of discovering things about ourselves that are inconsistent with being image bearers of God. Today, I want to suggest some very practical applications. (Read yesterday’s post to make more sense of this one.)

1. Be aware when what you are thinking, feeling, and doing is not a match with what the scripture says is the nature of God. Just be aware.

2. Do not compete to be more GOd-like than you really are - just notice it!

3. Take responsibility for the harm done when you live as an enemy of God (stand in opposition to his inspired way of seeing).

4. Practice the spiritual disciplines that challenge your way of thinking, feeling, doing and seeing the world.

5. Surround yourself with people that love you no matter what, but make sure a few of them have the courage to call you out in a loving, kind, way, every once in awhile.

6. When you can, do better.

7. When you cannot, at least own it and do not justify your choices or try to deflect blame to others.

Notice that this very short list of possible applications does NOT suggest that we can behave all willy nilly without consequence. Sin - what we affectionately define as “living independently of God” - is no small thing. But the question is WHY is it not small thing?

To be continued….

Competing for control is not a spiritual strategy

If the story of the running father in Luke gives us a picture of who God is, we have a complimentary story about Jesus and a woman scorned. But before we get to the juicy details about HER, let’s take a moment to see what happened first.

Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee. John 4:1-3 MSG

Jesus does not compete. It is no secret that I love to win. I love to win at board games; I love to win at tennis. If I were being questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of the things I could repeat ad infinitum that would be true about me would be, “I love to win.”

Jesus does not care about winning.

Implications? When I come across a characteristic of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit that does not align with what I love, I need to check myself before I wreck myself. I practice losing A LOT. It really is not hard to do, life presents me with many opportunities.

I do not get to play the competition game. I have to set my competitive edge aside and step away from the steep slope of competition that threatens to endanger my capacity to bear the image of God.

Because I both love and hate this truth so very much, I continue to be confounded when I continue to find examples in my own life where my sincere desire to bear the image of God in my own life conflicts with my personality, preferences, and cultural mores that conflict with who God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit consistently teach us about their identity.

Do I do this well? Not particularly. But that is not the point. And if we make THAT the point, are we not just entering into another competition with self? Eugene Peterson calls that “mask polishing.” So what is the point?

To be continued...

Jealousy leads to misunderstanding

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Luke 15:25-31 NIV

This was predictable. But the older son’s arguments do not stand up under the truth test. He says his dad never even gave him a young goat. The truth is, the father gave both boys their inheritance when the young one asked for his portion. Traditionally, this means the older son received twice the bounty of the younger. Oh jealousy, you green-eyed monster, you cause such heartache!

The running father has more than one son who needs unconditional love! Sadly, this son has yet to grasp the principles of his father. He has some sensitivity to what he perceives his father has withheld from him but he, much like his younger sibling, has failed to grasp the vision for living that this father has modeled for both his boys.

The running father pursues in love this resentful, angry older son with the same intensity that he ran toward the younger boy.

The scriptures do not give us further information about this family but I pray that the father lived long enough to see his boys become fathers; to see these sons grow into men who were willing to run toward their own children.

This is a hope for us all. We can also grow into people who can set aside our compulsions and insecurities. We can learn how to run toward others in love.