A Very Happy Unthanksgiving

"Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."
- Psalm 100:4b-5

So during Thanksgiving we always like to reflect on things that we're thankful for. We go through the list - family, friends, the roof over our heads etc. We list all the things that are going well in life, and we throw out God's name as the source of all those good things.

And indeed we should do this! I'm not belittling it. But I'd like to take a different approach to Thanksgiving this year. Before the list of blessings, I'd like to stop and think of all the things in life that don't make sense. All of the things that we are NOT thankful for: the person who just absolutely annoys, the burden that seems to heavy to bear or the plans that just didn't go as planned.

I'd like to take all the frustrations, all the things for which I am UNthankful for (yes I'm aware its not a word - but forgive me if I play with the theme a la Alice and Wonderland) and with all of these things in mind I would like to dare to recite the Psalm above. To bravely and faithfully recite it two or three times with all the trials and frustrations in mind. To meditate on it.

If you do this along with me, what you will find is that this Psalm is a Psalm of hope - just as much as it is a Psalm of thanksgiving. God in Christ pierces deep into the desperation of life, He cuts down even into the frustrations and complications and He says like thunder -

I AM THE LORD AND THERE IS NO OTHER

He makes known at the Cross of Christ and in His resurrection that He is faithful through all generations. His love for His creation endures forever. There - in the cross and in the resurrection (in the incarnation and ascension too for that matter) - He makes known to us that He is what He is and He is this forever; all generations. His love endures forever.

So that in even the darkest of situations, Psalm 100 is a Psalm of hope. It is a Psalm of trust. A beacon of light - bright and true. God is faithful.

In that, we can be thankful even in our UNthankfulness. We can be thankful when we are NOT thankful because our hope is in Christ - our hope is in the Lord ... and there is no other! In Christ, God reaches even into the muck and mire of our despair and says - Give thanks!

Sure we can list the things that are going well in life and be thankful but I daresay it may be too shallow a thanksgiving. There is a richness beyond all reason, a peace that surpasses all understanding - it takes place when we remember that God is faithful even in our lowliness. He exalts every valley and every mountain and hill He makes low. He makes the crooked straight and the rough places plain. Only when we recognize this is the good truly good. Only then, when we see things from this perspective, is thankfulness truly thankfulness.

He is faithful to all generations. He is our God. Our hope is in Him.

Give thanks!

"Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."
- Psalm 100:4b-5

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOURS

//Ex Profundis//

Specks. Logs. Hypocrites.

And Jesus says to His church:

"Do not judge so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure that you measure with, you too will be measured. So why do you see the speck in your brother's eye when you do not observe the plank of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: 'come, let me take that speck out of your eye' when behold - the plank of wood in your eye! Hypocrite! First take out the plank of wood from your own eye and then, seeing clearly, take out the speck from your brother's eye."

If God has made Jesus Christ Lord and Judge over all humanity, then I am free to be judged and not the judge. If the church is supposed to be the community of those called out as witnesses to the reality of Christ's Lordship - His position as God's chosen Judge; then is not the church supposed to be the incarnate form of Jesus' teaching here?

There are two positions I have come across in my studies which I find absolutely untenable; specifically as they relate to Jesus' teachings here and on the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. Disagree if you'd like, but they are as follows:

I

That the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount - and therefore Jesus' teaching here on judgment - is forward pointing. That is, it is simply an ideal for a purely future, coming Kingdom of God. It is not to be lived out in the here and now but can only take place in the Kingdom of God that is to come.

That the Kingdom is not fully established and that therefore some of these teachings will be shadows of what is to come or at least somewhat tarnished by human sin - I have no disagreement. But God forbid we refuse to live the ethic of Jesus' Kingdom here and now. When He says "Do not Judge" he means it for the church - the church that was, and is and is to come - for that is the time frame in which He exercises His Lordship and Divine appointment as the Judge.

II
That the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount - and therefore Jesus' teaching here on judgment - is simply for the individual. That it is not a matter of the church, or the Christian community as a whole to take to heart - but that it applies only to individuals and their individual respective relationships.

OK.
So, where did this come from?! How is it even possible to make such a distinction? Is not the Christian 'individual' an 'individual' in community? Is not the church a make up of many different individuals relating to each other in Christlikeness? If so, what difference is it? How can we say: "the individual should not judge" but "the church can and does have the right to judge?!" Is not the one simply a part of the whole? In my opinion to distinguish between the individual application of this passage and the corporate, community-wide application of this passage is a plain and simple cope out. It borders on disobedience to the Living and Active Word of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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But then again ... who am I to judge?

//Ex Profundis//