Further Up and Further In

Our great friend Richardson writes a great piece on non-violence and Christ’s teaching and examples. I am not a pacifist, but I sense that I’m being taught to be one. Jeff’s piece joins a chorus singing to my spirit these days, and the Amish this week have been mighty witnesses. I commend his post to you.

(Be warned, however, that he and I are kindred and both speak and write far too lengthily. Set aside some time.)

Here are excerpts from my comments to his post:

What an extraordinary observation that God seems unconcerned about the injustice throughout the world. I have been reading Isaiah this month and am stunned once again by the vehemence of His condemnation and wrath on the corrupt nations. This is macro damnation, and so far only Chap. 12 provides much solace.

Also, in Ecclesiastes, we see the Spirit of Wisdom acknowledging that the world is corrupt, violent and unjust, always has been and always will be. The message is pretty bleak with only two ideas which are not vain, first, walk with God, second, take care of each other. The Teacher does not aspire to social or moral reform and abandons the idea before even considering its worth.

Jesus said that we will always have the poor with us, then directs us unequivocally to care for them. Jesus did not charge the church to eradicate poverty but to take care of the poor. Jesus seems awfully disinterested in redeeming a systemic landscape but terribly interested in redeeming hearts within it. Paul didn't tell the Centurion to leave the army, to overthrow Rome or to rise politically, but he did teach him to follow Christ.

I saw a sign this week at a Catholic church that read, "God is pro-life," and I almost laughed thinking, "Go read Isaiah! Plenty of indiscriminate death there!"

So what are we to learn? God has a very, very different view of death and life than we, even Christians, do. God has a very different view of suffering than we do. God has a very different view of injustice than we do.

Now, this is not to say that God revels in death, suffering and injustice. Indeed, he condemns it and weeps. Rather, God is saving us from our falleness for His Kingdom, not this kingdom. He demands of his followers love, hope and joy in the face of death, service to the suffering and advocacy for justice. We will not achieve whole justice here, ever, we can be sure, but He nonetheless would have us model Him and seek His will for His Kingdom: justice, mercy and humility.

God spares none of us from pain, spares none of us from death and spares none of us from mourning. These are universal to the human experience, and we cannot undo them. Instead, He promises love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, hope, joy and peace, in Him and His Kingdom, and nowhere else.

Lewis's "The Great Divorce" and "The Last Battle" both give us an inspired picture of God's point of view. After death, if we even notice it, these things which consumed us, which we feared and loathed, for which we craved and pined, will wash away. We will see this life as He sees it now, only birth pains, only our gestation before we begin to live.

Further up and further in!