Immersive Learning

“How do you recognize God’s voice?”  The best way to learn to speak a language is by total immersion.  When I was just out of college and had a job at a school for the hearing impaired, I knew almost no sign language.  But by the end of a year of working 8 hours a day with those kids, I learned it well enough that I still remember enough to translate for a man I met not long ago, and it’s been over thirty years since I worked there.  

So on the one hand, giving yourself completely to God seems like an easy answer.  But hold on.  That is exactly what Saul had done before the Damascus Road conversion.  What was he missing?  You might say “Jesus”.  Or “God”.  But I have seen the Name / Authority of Jesus misused and abused to the harm of people beyond number.  Priests sexually assaulting children.  Popes sending armies on “Holy Wars” where they murdered and plundered and raped the "infidels".  Catholics and Protestants blowing each other up in Ireland and England.  Centuries of enslavement of African Americans.  And on and on and on and on.  All done in the Name of Jesus. 

However, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).”  And of course, the Greatest Commandment, which I have written about more than once here:  Love God, Love your Neighbor.  On these two hangs the entire Bible.  But Jesus and Paul both break that down to one commandment only:  Love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 7:12, Galatians 5:14, Romans 13:9).  

I suspect many of my Christian friends may think I am too soft, too accepting of things like Gay Marriage, Abortion, Trans rights and the like.  And they may well be correct. But Jesus said not to judge (condemn) others.  The measure I use will be used on me.  The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35), the parables in Luke 12:42-48 and Matthew 22:1-14.  Jesus’ entire harangue of the Pharisees in Matthew 23.  Luke 10 is the Good Samaritan, which I think is so easy to forget - the hero of that story was an ENEMY OF GOD.  An equivalent today would be if the hero was a Muslim terrorist.  Saul and Ananias (Acts 9).  I am not saying any of these things above are Right.  Only that I know the Mercy and Grace I have been and continue to be given.  Sometimes the best one can do is take the least bad option.  Divorce is one that used to be grounds for excommunication from the Church.  Now we shrug (perhaps too readily).  Unwed mothers were pariahs.  Now they are heroes (perhaps too heroic).  

With many, if not all, of these modern divisive issues, I feel like the word “sin” as an archery term seems a perfect description.  “Sin” in the Greek means to miss the mark of perfection.  On an archery target, each ring farther away from the center mark was a worse sin.  God forbid you should miss the entire target!  

So full immersion.  Learning to hear God’s voice.  Does that mean baptism?  Does that mean dying to self and humbling serving others before my own selfish desires?  Several times I have had this passage from Philippians 3 put in front of me this week and I have been meditating on it as a result.  I have copied here the Amplified translation because, as Spinal Tap would tell you, this Amp goes up to 11.

“But more than that, I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him—a joy unequaled]. For His sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage ((Some translations use “sewage waste” or “dung” here - dbi)), so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him [believing and relying on Him], not having any righteousness of my own derived from [my obedience to] the Law and its rituals, but [possessing] that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did]; 11 so that I may attain to the resurrection [that will raise me] from the dead.”

Had to turn Verse 11 up! 

If I was to pick one sin of mine that I could rid myself of, it would be spiritual pride.  This is the same conundrum I wrote about last week.  I am certain that Jesus and the Bible are the Way.  I am not (as) certain that I am interpreting it correctly.  I am praying to have more patience, understanding and consideration for those with a different understanding than I have. 

Why do I feel I am interpreting the Bible correctly? Three reasons. First, as far as I can tell, it seems to be in keeping with all of Jesus' teaching, not just selected passages. And second, because it is not just hard, it is impossible to do by my own strength. I could spend a lifetime trying to understand it and to walk in His Way. And third, as I walk, I become more and more aware of the many ways I fall short. This, I find in my readings, is common to many of those I consider spiritual mentors: Lewis, Foster, Tolstoy all wrote about this. So I take heart in their frailty, and in Christ's mercy and grace.