Wandering the savage garden…

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Some Recent Events

I know, it’s been a year since I’ve posted. This blog has been effectively unmaintained. And it’s been a year!

Trump got elected, after having been shot at by mostly peaceful opponents. He apparently survived.

Charlie Kirk, a conservative firebrand, also got shot at. And killed. I surprised myself by watching his memorial, which was attended by a lot of conservative politicians and a few preachers.

It was a good memorial, as thing go. I was moved by many of the speakers; they offered straight up testimony for Christ in many cases, actually really well done; Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, gave by far the best speech in Charlie’s memory, and was one of the most effective speakers overall.

She was followed by Trump, who echoed many of the Christian sentiments – which surprised me, because they were actually pretty earnest and theologically compliant if not exactly complex or deep – and included many of his own political purposes. I actually thought Trump and Tucker Carlson – who seemed unhinged – were the least effective speakers at the memorial, although I respect Trump’s honesty in saying that he admired Ms. Kirk’s willingness to seek forgiveness for her husband’s murder – followed by him saying bluntly that he resented his enemies and would not forgive them.

It’s an interesting observation, really. As the Chief Executive, his purpose is to pursue justice – which means that justice for murderers and the like should be applied, not mercy. Yet in my opinion, that should be his role as President and applied properly, but his personal position should be to extend grace where possible.

Ms. Kirk was a far better witness and inspiration than Trump.

This should surprise nobody.

As usual, it’s been too long.

And lots of things have happened, and I’ve been watching, from this blog’s perspective – I’ve actually been pretty busy, but not *here*, and I feel kinda bad about that.

Verses that Appeal to Me Today

I was discussing things with a friend this morning and he threw out a verse that seems remarkably apt, given the tone of so much social media today: Proverbs 26:17, saying “Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears,” which seems perfect for those who live on Twitter.

He also threw out Ecclesiastes 7:10, which says “Say not, Why were the former days better than these?, for it is not from wisdom that you ask this,” as a valid criticism of modern conservatism.

Rocking verse.

I threw back Proverbs 27:2, as one of my favorite verses from the Proverbs: “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips,” and I wanted to brag about how much I liked the verse, but something about that idea felt wrong. 🙂

Christians and Covenant

Jeff Doles recently published “A Contractual View of the Gospel,” in which he makes a lot of good points – but he also de-emphasizes something that I think is crucial to the nature of our relationship with God.

He says that many Christians see our relationship with God as a contract; we exchange an act (of faith, in the Christian sense) for salvation, whereas some others attempt to exchange works for salvation. (I’m not sure which group he’s referring to here, but look around; it’s easy to find people who say they’re good Christians because they do good things, as opposed to the idea that they’re good Christians because they believe in Christ and act upon that belief.)

He says that when we emphasize the contractual nature of our relationship – “we have done this, now give us that” – that we have made the contract itself an idol, replacing our love for God with a desire for certitude.

It’s an interesting, and valid, point. In my cultural tradition, there’s the concept of Heaven and Hell, sort of – Judaism has a number of views about the regions inhabited by the soul, such as it is, after the passing of our mortal coils. But as I understand it, they’re more abstract than concrete, and their pull is more ephemeral than absolute.

Put more simply: if I go to Heaven when I die, that’s great. Likewise, if God sees fit to send me to the lake of fire, well, that’s His right and power. My desire is to glorify His Name, whatever that might mean and in whatever fashion I am able. I have an abstract covenant with Him, and I trust Him to act according to His Will; the reward for me is in that fulfillment, not in whether I get a cookie when my life is done.

But that doesn’t mean there is not a covenant! Christ is our High Priest, after all; the priesthood was founded on a covenant. If the covenant is not fulfilled – if we don’t have that certitude – then our faith is in nothing, and I don’t think that’s the case.

So the crux, for me, is in the nature of the relationship to Christ. Am I faithful because I want the quid pro quo of salvation, or am I faithful because I love the Lord? if it’s the former, I run the risk of idolatry, as Doles suggests; if the latter, then salvation is a promised result (and that’s good, right?) but that’s a secondary effect.