Opinion...What Opinion?

Over the last few years, I have found the works of theologian Marva Dawn to be quite helpful in my Christian life. She has impacted my thinking deeply about Christian worship. Her insights are always quite thought provoking. As well, I have appreciated the weekly e-mail ministry of Professor Chip Stam of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Each tuesday he puts out the Worship Quote of the Week to over 8,000 people. (see www.wqotw.org) This week, he used a quote from Marva Dawn that absolutely blew me away. I thought you might find it helpful and wanted to pass it along the way.


“THAT’S YOUR OPINION”

The value of “Opinion” in our society has been so corrupted as to have taken on sinful proportions. Opinions have become our personal gods or, more accurately, the proof that we are our own gods. They signify our autonomy, a massive leveling of all convictions, the abandonment of all standards, the elimination of truth.

It drives me nuts! I have tried to talk with certain pastors about the historic faith, about doctrines upon which the Church has agreed for centuries, and the response is always, “Well, that’s your opinion; we’re entitled to our own.”

Certainly there are truths beyond opinion. Wouldn’t everyone agree that a loving marriage is better for us that hatred and distrust? Don’t we all think generosity is preferable to stinginess? Doesn’t the world need peacemaking and justice more than violence and oppression?

Once, a few years ago at a youth convention, a lovely young lady came earnestly to talk with me. She asked me what I thought about a certain matter of sexual ethics. I answered her with the most careful biblical reading and ethical nuancing I had gained in years of training.

She responded, “Well, I just wanted to know your opinion.”

“That wasn’t my opinion,” I replied. “If I had given you my opinion, it would have been the opposite because I really would like to escape these biblical truths and say what pleases everybody. I tried to tell you as faithfully as I could what all my studies have discerned God is saying. That’s much more sound, more reliable, more eternally true than my measly opinion.”

She looked at me in shock. How could anyone question the importance of personal opinion? How could anyone give an answer different from her own private feelings? Is there really such a thing as public truth? Yes there is. And truth’s name is God.

—Marva Dawn, TALKING THE WALK: LETTING CHRISTIAN LANGUAGE LIVE AGAIN. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2005, 83.

Crazy Softball Moms and Christian Fruit

“People loose their minds at their kid’s ball games,” the county athletic director told me over breakfast. “Folks that are very decent and good will blow their top at the drop of a hat. I’ve seen parents get out of control really fast and the sad thing about it is—it’s just ball.”

I am stunned at the high of the highs and the low of the lows I had when playing little league baseball. The frustration of not being able to hit the ball would linger for days or more specifically, for weeks. You see, I did not get my first hit until the next to last game of the season during my first year of baseball. My first year was spent under the tutelage of a coach desiring to whip all us seven and eight year olds into champions. This was a difficult concept for me since I was much more concerned with the coolness of my bright yellow uniform with the black stripes down the side. Emblazoned across the front of my chest was the name of our stinging mascot—yellowjackets. The irony of the circumstance was that the experience made me feel more like a gnat. It is amazing to me how fresh those memories are some thirty years later.

But then the hit! In a moment a season’s worth of frustration and tears of not being able to get that barrel formed piece of aluminum to connect with that little, hard white ball were completely eradicated in one savoring moment when I connected with the pitch and drove it looping over the short stop’s head for a stand up triple. How glorious it was to see the smile on the faces of my coach…my parents…to hear my team mates cheer. Wow! If I could bottle that feeling and sell it, all drug cartels would be crushed.

I have lived those dreams and frustrations all over with Emma this season. She is such a trooper. I admire her so much because she seems so much more determined than I ever was. She loves to get out in the yard and have me pitch to her so she can get it right. She has some natural ability and quickly picked up on the technique. Though it took some time, her first and second hits came in the fifth game of the season. Two doubles. Three RBI’s. What an evening it was in the Bradford house. We laughed. We cheered. We ate ice cream.

…and then one Saturday reminded me of how the action outside the fence around our precious daughters can be so difficult and scary. In a moment, tempers are flaring…parents are shouting…accusations of cheating are made…umpires are telling mothers to shut her mouths…I am quickly collecting my two youngest kids and putting them in the stroller where I can guard them in case things escalate. My daughter’s agent didn’t tell me about this. How does this happen? Is there something going on here that is more important than just softball? Suddenly, I feel there is something bigger at stake. Honestly, I am not surprised how people act given the right circumstance and time. Yet it speaks to me about the way in which me, my wife and the parents of my daughter’s team are rearing and training our children. What are we rearing them toward and to be? What is the environment in which we are doing it?

This is such an essential question for any parent as it is for any congregation.

When Jesus told the parable of soils (see Mark 4:1-20), he wanted his listeners to understand that there are consequences to the response one gives to the Gospel. Furthermore, Jesus knew that certain environments are quite conducive to cultivating Gospel growth and others are not. He knew that when he spoke to his hearers—many of whom would have known much about farming—they inherently understood the difference between a fruitful crop and a useless one. When speaking about the farmer who sows the seed, three of the places it lands end up producing nothing. On the hard path, birds come and carry it away. In soil that was rocky, plants sprang up but quickly died because of hot sun and shallow roots. In ground filled with thorns, the plants spring up quickly but have the life choked out of them. Jesus later explains to his disciples that he his not merely talking about dirt but people. I find his explanations shocking and troubling (see Mark 4:13-20). Especially when I think of friends and family and others with whom I have shared the Gospel and there appears to be an embrace of the good news and then there comes no yield of fruit. It appears that the Christian does well to take heed to what Jesus says and pray much.

Then a profound and wonderful thing happens. The farmer sows seed in what is deemed good and fertile soil and the harvest comes and produces thirty-fold, sixty-fold and a hundred-fold. It must be rather satisfying to the farmer to see such a great growth of fruit! Jesus explains that this is the result of the Gospel doing what it does when it is sown into people ready to receive it.

But the question I find myself asking along with others is—what is fruit? Jesus said false prophets—wolves wearing sheep’s clothes (i.e. lost people looking like and talking like Christians)—are known by their fruit (see Matthew 7:15-20). “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” (v. 18) In John’s gospel, Jesus is reported telling his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:16) Paul told the Romans, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.” (7:4)

Perhaps the clearest display of how fruit should look is in Galations 5:22-24. It is important to remember that Paul is speaking to a congregation—a gathered group of Christians who are to worship King Jesus and grow in producing fruit together. I am afraid that today’s church has lost this sense of togetherness-theology and replaced it instead with the belief in an individual-centered life. Might I suggest that the individual is responsible before God yet the extreme to which we see it practiced is foreign to the New Testament.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” Paul tells the Galation congregation. In essence, he is revealing to this church, struggling in the relationship of law and grace, if you want to know if you are producing “fruit” that reveals the presence of the Gospel, then in your corporate life together, this is what it needs to look like. Yes, Paul surely wanted each individual believer to take inventory. And yes, since he is communicating this information in the context of a letter to the churches of the area, most assuredly he intends for them to consider his words congregationally and the implications it will have for their lives together. Bottom line, Paul is saying, hey Galations, this IS the fruit of the Gospel! This IS how you will know and how the world will know you are truly in possession of God’s good gift of salvation. You don’t do it to be saved. You do it because you are saved. When fruit is present it reveals the Gospel is present. No fruit. No Gospel.

May God give great growth to environments in congregations in order that they may freely and wonderfully produce fruit for the glory of God’s Gospel!

Sanctification and Arthritis

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?

…what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberances about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail or our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each others as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Galations 5:16-18, 22-23, 25-26
(The Message)

Do you feel the utter conflict and struggle of Galations 5:16-18?

The freedom motivation of God’s Spirit vs. The root of self-interest and selfishness

The desire to live the God Way vs. The desire to live the self-serving way

The choosing of Spirit leading vs. erratic and compulsive sin life

Oh the utter overwhelming! Remember, Paul is talking to believers in this passage. We are constantly living in the reality of experiencing God-fruit in our lives with the constant temptation to yield and produce fruit to the glory of our self, that which is contrary to who we are in Christ! Oh Lord, help me take off this heavy and debilitating flesh that keeps me far, far from you.

The Bradford clan recently spent a few days in Marion, Indiana with precious friends. Indiana has sky that is big and rolling and beautiful and sunsets fill and paint with colors unattainable to any artist other than the creator of all color and beauty. The farmers plow the good earth with their tractors and the air smells of deep and rich and fertile aromas. The corn will soon be reaching up toward the sky and the ground will be transformed with glorious carpets of wheat and soybeans.

In the retreat of my friend’s home, I spent some moments reading Unveiled Faces by Keith Drury. He is a professor at Indiana Wesleyan University and his book deals with spiritual disciplines. Much of his writing spoke on subjects I was quite familiar with such as prayer, fasting, confession, etc. However, there was one subject that truly captured my mind—response. I am not sure I had ever read or heard of response in the sense of a traditional spiritual discipline. Certainly, I know of the concept of responding to life as a Jesus-follower. However, I suppose Drury’s words forced me to see that response is a constant discipline. I set aside time for prayer and meditation and community and bible reading. Those practices are captured in moments of specific time. However, response is taking the whole sum of my Christian life and learning to respond to circumstances in a way that exalt Christ. Response is the part of me putting into practice the character of Christ. As I pondered, I recognized this is the hard part.

Paul’s powerful question from Galations 5:18 keeps resounding for me, “Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit?” Romans 6:22-23 (NIV) comes to mind, “…you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Understanding and living and responding is all a part of the process God uses to sanctify me into more of the likeness of His Son. My life (and your life) is the laboratory where my belief is tested for its influence on my action. It is me living and asking, “How is this circumstance at work in my life to make me more like Jesus? How do I need to respond?”

In the midst of (re)learning this truth, it was suddenly put to the test less than forty-eight hours after leaving Indiana. On a scheduled doctor visit for my youngest son Evan, we learned that he has arthritis. Initially I’m thinking, “This is what grandparents have, not my four-year-old! Why is this happening to him, he has had so much to face already in his short life!” I certainly do not have many answers for this. I struggle for my son and the painful stretches we will put him through twice a day for who knows how long! I struggle in knowing that sickness and pain and death are all a part of living in fallen bodies. I hear the doctor telling me and my wife she is hopeful he will get past this and make it to what she described as—perfect. How will I respond?

Well…this I know. Perfect is the place where I will gladly hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Perfect will be putting away this body of flesh for the body of glory. Perfect will be knowing perfectly as I am known. Perfect will be staring into the face of the one who redeemed me by his grace. Perfect will come in understanding this profound mystery. Perfect will be enjoying satisfaction and joy and worship I only come to know in the smallest sliver on this planet.

Perfect will be better than the feeling I got when I saw my exit—109 on I-75—after a nearly two thousand mile journey. I was tired. I was sad. My heart felt low. My mind felt overwhelmed. (I remember thinking I was glad I did not live in Miami Beach.) The off-ramp gave me tender hope. When I rounded the curve at the top of the hill, I saw the brick structure I call home. (Honestly, I have taken hold of a saying of a former classmate, “Home is where my wife sleeps.”) My key slipped effortlessly into the doorknob. The turn gave a sense of security. Later in the evening, I plopped on the bed and joyfully felt my head hit the pillow. Perfect, almost.

Father, help me respond with hope, because one day, all things will be made new. Remind me that your great hope is what gives me courage to respond in faith daily. Grant grace to my son. Help us look ahead in that we find great strength when we are greatly weak. Help me to count this new trial as joy by knowing you are perfecting me in it (see James 1:2-4). Sustain me for that day, when after persevering by your sustaining grace, me and my boy will know perfect. Amen.