Fractured Saints - never beyond mending - a christian blog for the broken ones

In Evolving in Monkey Town, Rachel Held Evans talks about “living the questions,” which is something she picked up from a Rilke quote: “Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question.” For Rachel, this means learning how to ask questions, and how to be patient when the answers don’t come easy.

Which is something I often struggle with. Sometimes I get tired of the whole “learning process.” I wrestle with Scripture the way Jacob wrestled with the angel; I’m pinning God to the ground with all my strength demanding Him to bless me.

But lately I’m starting to realize that maybe I’m approaching the Word of God the wrong way. Instead of pinning God to the ground demanding answers, maybe true faith is a journey with the Bible as my map. Maybe the point of studying the Word is to enter into the wonder and mystery of God, to explore the new places the passages lead me, to start conversations with the people I meet along the way, to ask questions when the directions aren’t clear, and to eventually arrive at my destination–revelation.

Of course it’ll probably take a while for me to reach my destination. But in the meantime, I’m learning to be content with living the questions.

Whenever I hear some one quote Matthew 26:11–”You will always have the poor among you . . . “–it’s usually when some one doesn’t want to talk about fighting poverty. If Jesus said we would always have poor people among us, then why try to fight poverty? Why not just write a check to a charity?

Is this what Jesus really meant? Let’s look at the text in context:

“Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had leprosy. During supper, a woman came in with a beautiful jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head. The disciples were indignant when they saw this. ‘What a waste of money,’ they said. ‘She could have sold it for a fortune and given the money to the poor.’

But Jesus replied, ‘Why berate her for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, but I will not be here with you much longer. She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial. I assure you, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be talked about in her memory.’”–Matthew 26:11

So Jesus and His followers are dining at Simon the ex-leper’s house, when out of the blue this strange woman comes up and starts pouring top-quality perfume over Jesus’ head. The disciples, once again, don’t understand what’s going on, so they say she could have sold the perfume and given that money to the poor. And that’s when Jesus says, “You will always have the poor among you, but I will not be here with you much longer.”

Jesus isn’t rebuking the disciples for wanting to help the poor, but because they didn’t understand that Jesus was about to die.

As the book of Ecclesiastes says, there is a time and place for everything. And I think this passages in Matthew 26 is trying to say there is a time to go out and serve the poor, and then there’s a time to spend it with Jesus–especially at that particular moment when He was about to be arrested.

It’s interesting to note that this isn’t the first place the Bible says we will always have poor people. According to Deuteronomy 15:11, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” So perhaps Jesus was referring to this verse when he told the disciples, “You will always have the poor among you.”

So there you have it: Jesus isn’t saying, “Don’t bother fighting for poverty.” He’s saying, “There’s a time for charity and social justice, but right now it’s that time.” Got it?

I try to avoid discussing eschatology because, to be honest, the subject depresses the heck out of me. It really does. However, with all the earthquakes that have been going on lately, I can’t help but think about Matthew 24:7-8.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be an alarmist. I hate it when Christians run around saying, “OMG, the end is near! Don’t get left behind!” They sound too much like Chicken Little. Having said that, though, there is a chance that the Second Coming will be sooner than we thought, and the Bible does tell us to be prepared. But let me explain what “being prepared” means, based on my understanding of Matthew chapters 24 and 25.

First, I need to stress this point: WE DON’T KNOW WHEN JESUS WILL RETURN. I don’t know why Christians keep trying to calculate the day and time Jesus will return, because He clearly says that only God knows that day and hour. (Matthew 24:36) So please, put your calculators down!

Second, that whole “pre-tribulation rapture” thing? Yeah, I think Tim LaHaye got that wrong:

“For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” (Verses 38-41)

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like the “two men in the field” part happens after the Son of Man returns.

Third, because we don’t know when Jesus will return, the Bible does tell us to keep watch. (V. 42) If your boss gives you a specific project while s/he is on vacation, and you don’t do it. Do you think the boss will be happy when s/he returns and finds out you didn’t even start the project? I don’t think so.

Which brings me to my fourth point, which is what we should be doing now. In chapter 25 Jesus tells us two parables. The first one, founded in verses 14 through 30, is about a man who gave his servants certain amounts of money before his journey. When he returned and found that the servant with the smallest amount buried the money, he was thrown “into the darkness.”

The second parable is found in verses 31 through 46. In this parable, Jesus describes Judgment Day as separating the goats from the sheep. The sheep are allowed into the Kingdom because they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the prisoner, etc. “What you did for the least of these brothers of mine,” the Lord says, “you did for me.” The goats, on the other had, didn’t do anything, so they are cast off.

So, to wrap it all up, instead of focusing on when it’s going to happen, let’s just continue doing God’s work. I don’t think calculating the end of the world is going to help all the people who are suffering right now.

Any one who knows me knows that I have a huge beef with the Prosperity Gospel. It sickens me to see the Word of God reduced to just another snake-oil self-help scam where you can get anything you want if you just “think positively.” One of the most popular examples of this is The Prayer of Jabez, which misuses a small anecdote found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-11:

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

Many people interpret this as, “If you ask God to bless you, He’ll shower you with material wealth and whatever else you want.” But as I learned Sunday at my fiancee Amy’s church, that’s not the case.

Did you notice verse 9 when it says Jabez got his name because his mother “gave birth to him in pain?” As the pastor explained, the name Jabez basically means “pain.” Can you imagine being called “Pain” all your life? That’s where verse 10 comes in, where Jabez prays that he would be “free from pain.” He wasn’t asking God for a life free from trouble (which is dumb, because Jesus said in this world we’ll have trouble), but that He would be able to turn Jabez’s curse into a blessing. And He did.

Have you ever had something bad happen to you that you could not control? Did you ever ask, “God, why did this happen to me?” In the past I’ve written about being bullied, growing up without a father, and struggling with anxiety/depression. But out of all that, God gave me the chance to encourage and inspire others with my story. We can’t control what happens to us, but God can turn the worse situation into a positive one.

If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while you’ll know that I can be pretty snarky towards my fellow Christians. I love Jesus, and I try my best to live by the Word, but I don’t really like Christians that much. Especially Christians of the fundamentalist persuasion.

A few days ago I got to talking with some one, and this person said that Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is “getting ready for the Antichrist.” She then went on about the Rapture and the seven year Tribulation and all that jazz. Now I personally don’t think the President should have won the award, or at least not yet. But the more this person talked, the more I wish I had a pamphlet with me about amillenialism. I also should note that when I told her I went to a Lutheran Church, she asked me what Lutheranism was.

Then there’s the dreaded e-word: evolution. Now since I went to a crappy public high school, we didn’t really go over evolution. But from what little bit I’ve gathered here and there, I think there’s some truth to it. Even Augustine and Calvin said that Genesis chapter 1 probably was not a literal account of the creation of the world. But if you suggest that to a fundamentalist, his or her head will explode with rage. To question the literalness (is that a word?) of the Genesis 1 is to question the literalness of the entire Bible.

But yesterday morning I got to thinking about Romans 14, where Paul writes about how one man’s faith allows him to eat anything, while another person’s faith allows him only vegetables. “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (verse 4). So by being snarky, am I judging God’s servants? Am I being too slow to listen and too quick to speak?

What do you think? Can snarky comments lead to judging others?

I recently had the opportunity to do a guest blog for my friend Rachel Held Evans, and this is what I wrote:

I never understood why many Christians enjoy conservative pundits like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Michelle Malkin. It’s not because they report things that contradict my socialist agenda or anything like that. I’m not against conservatism or conservative media in general; some of my favorite bloggers are conservatives. No, the reason why I don’t like them is because they are just so . . . nasty.

Last July on “Fox and Friends,” Beck said that he believed that President Obama was a racist with a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” Despite several advertisers boycotting his show, his popularity keeps growing. But this isn’t the first time Beck’s said something outrageous. In the past, he has stated that he wanted to kill Michael Moore, called Cindy Sheehan a “tragedy slut,” and compared Al Gore to Hitler.

While not as popular as Beck, Hannity and Malkin have definitely said some doozies. On his Fox News show “Hannity and Colmes” in 2005, Hannity once said that “every filthy Democrat in the U.S. Congress” should be tortured at Guatanamo Bay. And last year, Malkin said that Dunkin Donuts was promoting Islamic terrorism because of a certain scarf Rachel Ray wore in an advertisement.

Now, unless I’m reading it wrong, I’m pretty sure the Bible says not to let “unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29) Further in Ephesians Paul says to get rid of all malice and slander (4:31). And then there’s Colossians 4:6, which says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” So why would a Christian either say or listen to such vile words without blinking?

But then again, sometimes I wonder if I’m guilty of the same crime.

Recently on my blog I named Pastor Steven L. Anderson “D-Bag of the Year.” While the title might fit—Anderson is the guy who said he prayed that President Obama would die—technically I am calling him names. Also on Facebook I post a lot of links to stories about outrageous things Beck and others have said, and I usually add a condescending comment saying something like, “Look at this idiot.” But am I putting myself on their level? Are my words no longer seasoned with salt?

What do you think? How do you keep tabs on your words? Where do you draw the line?

Have you noticed that we have a lot of gospels? And I’m not talking about the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

For example, there is the “Prosperity Gospel.” According to this gospel, God is willing to give you everything you want and desire if you pray a special prayer, or think positive thoughts. It is closely related to the “Self-Help Gospel,” except that the Prosperity Gospel focuses more on material wealth, while the Self-Help Gospel is more about elevating one’s self-esteem.

A lot of my friends are into the Social Gospel, which focuses on social and political activism. According to this gospel, the political and the spiritual are one; you cannot preach salvation to the sinners without feeding the poor.

And then of course there is the good old Fire and Brimstone Gospel where God hates you so you better get your act together or suffer for all eternity.

All these gospels have nuggets of truth, but none of them tell the full story. God gives us what we need (Matthew 7:11), but not always give us what we want. The Bible says that we are more valuable than many sparrows (Matthew 10:31), but too much self-esteem can quickly lead to believing life is all about our own happiness. In a parable Jesus said that the ones who did not do anything for “the least of these” would not see paradise (Matthew 25:45), but politicizing Him too much will make Him sound like just another political revolutionary. And, yes, there is fire and brimstone, but Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17).

So what’s your gospel? Is it the Prosperity Gospel? The Social Gospel? Or is it the True Gospel?

Hello, my name is Travis, and I am your new Fractured Saint.  I also blog at The Boy with the Thorn in His Side and Disturbed Christians.  I write about faith, politics, culture, music, current events, mental illness, and anything else I can think of.

Years ago my fiancé and I saw a Native American demonstrate how the ancient tribes lived. He showed the audience the way his ancestors made fire, and how powerful their seemingly primitive weapons were. He picked out a nearby tree, but before he made the first chop, he placed a small tobacco offering at the base of the tree. “Before we take a life,” he explained, “we give an offering of thanks to the Great Earth Mother, who gives life to all.”

God has a funny way of using people of different faiths to illustrate His basic concepts. For the rest of the day, I thought about what the Native American said, and how I have responded to God’s gifts. Since I’ve always had a roof over my head, and plenty of food on the table, it’s easy to take it all for granted. But others aren’t so lucky. For them, reality is going to bed hungry every night and walking filthy streets with no shoes on.

Even those who have been through poverty in the past (whether it’s financial, spiritual, emotional, etc) sometimes forget where they came from. Out of the ten lepers Jesus healed, only one came back to thank Him. We can be like those nine lepers. We can forget what condition we were in before Jesus touched us.

Everything we have is from God, and all He wants in return is a small offering of thanks.

So I was reading this post on TheocentriBlog and watched this video from CNN. After reading and watching I really hoped the the comments by the Pope and Billy Graham were taken out of context. I was saddened when I found this site. Granted I never knew that much about Billy Graham nor his actual beleifs, but if these comments are actual reflections of his beliefs it makes me sad that such a great evangelist is so flexible in what the Bible says.

Luke 6:30 “Give to everyone who ask of you.”

This verse really struck me pretty hard. I thought about how generous I was with my money. I thought about how few people ask me for help or money or anything, and how much God has blessed me. I am really tight fisted when it comes to my resources. Time and money are the 2 that I try to control the most and withhold for myself. The only problem is that withholding these things doesn’t bing me any joy. I find the most joy when I am sharing my time, money, and other resources with others.

I often forget the simple fact that none of my resources are actually mine nor do I control the amount alloted to me.