It's me, mike hillebrecht

I’ve been around construction in a variety of capacities for almost my entire life. From design to build to demolition, I have first hand knowledge of how things get put together to either stand tall or fall flat. Regrettably, this skill set is a dying art for many in this current generation. No where is this more evident than in the various religious camps who are being decimated by the message of grace.

Now I know trying to tie construction to religion is big stretch for many, however, Paul claims that he built, by the grace of God, a foundation which no other man can build upon, focused on Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:10-14). These religious camps of all sorts find themselves in a massive remodeling project once they accept the reality of grace. As with any remodel, the first thing that has to occur is demolition, or what is more commonly called in religious circles, deconstruction.

If you’ve been around any construction workers plying their craft a couple of things that you’ll notice is that it is dirty, and it is often reflected in their language towards one another. Ripping things apart is strenuous and being polite while you’re trying to protect a fellow worker from being leveled by a falling timber or a ceiling of plaster is not a top priority. Grunts and groans will eventually lead to yelling and cussing; then add a schedule delay just to see how explosive personalities can become.

Deconstructing your beliefs is no different. There is a lot of yelling, screaming, cussing, throwing of things, ego-bending humiliation punctuated by red-eye, snot flowing bellowing. And these are on the good days! Mostly it’s just trying to hang onto your sanity with one hand while trying to secure your footing with the other. At the end of the day your mantra of “Is this worth it?” will not be answered. You will persevere though – you have no other place to go – since there are so many watching you to see if you’ll make it. You will.

I’ve been down this path a number of times, and honestly, it doesn’t get any easier. (I’m traversing it right now.) I’ve just learned to allow the process to run its course. I’ve helped many others navigate through the shoals of discontent towards the peaceful waters of discovery. All I can say is that no two people are the same in how they handle the change of a paradigm. Keeping that in mind, let me offer this piece of advice which is fundamental to deconstructing everything. Deconstruction is all about getting to the foundation and this is where all of your work stops.

What got you to where you are? Not the mess, the starting point, the first flirting glance of a supremely, divine romance? This is your foundation. This is what you’re revealing by pulling away the crap of white-washed tombs applied by idle hands bent on containment.

I’ve had people tell me that they’ve lost their faith. This is a good thing! It’s not your faith after all, it’s His. I’ve had far too many confess how they doubt if they’ll ever believe in God again. It’s hard to accept the death of our idols! God still believes in you. There are those who express dismay in not feeling able or even wanting to pray anymore. Great! God has been waiting a long time for you to shut up, so He can finally talk to you. And He will in ways you never thought possible. And then there is the bible…well, there are some things you’ll have to work out on your own, so for now, the lesson is learning how to let it reside on the shelf or coffee table as a book and not as a severed appendage to your arm.

Grace blows the hell out of people minds, their church and friends, their creeds and dogmas. It causes every question to flood into the impact crater of our discontentment and permeates the air with the sickly-sweet aroma of burning prideful flesh. There is nothing like the smell of grace in the morning…almost as good a hot coffee and doughnuts. Deconstruct that!

Living in the shelter of our religious institutions most of us never would even imagine that there is a secret about grace which we’ve never been told. Sure, some might feel that living under the heavy hand of atonement theology, replacement theology, or even prosperity and kingdom theology, when grace enters our consciousness, it appears somehow that an ancient mystery, a secret of mystical proportions has suddenly burst upon our mind illuminating dogma and doctrine handed down from by-gone eras. Happily, we skip through life now encouraged and uplifted in the love of the Father having left behind the stigma of our wretched, miserable Adamic nature which pastors assailed from their pulpits every sabbath.

If you’ve been around grace for any amount of time the first discovery to its impetus in our lives comes from the second page of Paul’s letter to the people of Ephesus where he boldly proclaims that we are saved by grace, not by our works, but as a gift of God. From this injunction we now live a life perfectly in the will of the Father, whether we know it or not. This is the fount of the entire grace message, Paul’s capstone to a life committed to spreading the good news of the works of God in Jesus.

From this passage we have assembled those from far and wide extolling them with the news that distinction of their affiliations, ethnicity, gender or social status has no favorable standing before the gift offered in Jesus. Grace applies to all, works in all, and exceeds the expectations of all. Paul said it; that’s good news to me.

So, let me ask a few questions: Does grace cover lying and cheating? How about fraud and manipulation? Are heretics also saved by grace? If none of these conditions were not covered by grace, then it wouldn’t be grace, would it?

Therein, lies the deep, dark secret of grace. To put it as plainly as I can, Paul never said to the people of Ephesus that they were saved by grace! Subsequently, in reading this letter, Paul never said that to you! Selah.

Have you been lied to, cheated, defrauded and manipulated all this time? Am I a heretic for claiming such blasphemous filth? Is it grace or not?

I can honestly claim what I stated is based on historical evidence. The letter written to the people of Ephesus was penned after the death of Paul, possibly as much as 10 years, by someone who was potentially one of his disciples, and used his name in publishing this letter. Scholarly study has confirmed this repeatedly for many years now and yet we’re still living under the belief of a doctrine which ascribed these words directly from Paul. So why does this matter?

Is it grace or not? Is ignorance covered by grace? Is wisdom and new revelation covered by grace? Are these writings, whether attributed to Paul or actually written by Paul, covered by grace? If it doesn’t matter, is it covered by grace? If it does matter, is it covered by grace?

Grace does not operate from an either/or sense of logic. Its logic is both/and. That is too a secret none will tell you. Its not grace if it doesn’t apply to all – period.

No, this is not about the adventures of my cousin prior to marrying his wife. As grand as that narrative might be, this is in keeping with my ventures of looking into the realm of a kingdom eternal. Allow me to ask you a very fundamental question: When do you think grace began?

We humans are causal beings in our perspectives. Grace, for most believers, is an effect to a cause. Something had to happen for grace to enter into our limitations of thoughts. Most will think of the cross as the fount for grace. This would associate the actions of Jesus as a precursor to grace which would offend many. So, then the baptism of Jesus becomes a demarcation of grace into this realm. But is this an accurate calendar marker?

The writer of the book of Hebrews charges his readers to “…boldly come before the throne of grace…” This is a reference to the divine seat of God’s kingdom. Most people have possibly thought that God reigned from a throne of vengeance with an accompanying ottoman of wrath to rest his feet upon when they weren’t squarely planted on the necks of sinners. Today, thrones are not considered fashionable statements of authority and power, yet in the times when this text was written, they succinctly defined the ruling structure, and its location, for the inhabitants of a particular region. To come boldly before the seat of authority was only available to those who themselves had close familial background to the seat’s occupant. All others could only approach as they had been granted permission by the ruler. Regrettably, this information does not afford us with a date, our causal point of grace.

The writer of the book of Ephesians proclaims in the opening anthem that, “…we were in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world…” Depending on who is translating this verse, the matter of “foundation” can represent the formation of human social/political structure, or it can mean before the creation event of the universe. Rather than following a dualistic either/or path here, let’s follow a both/and narrative to determine a date simply because grace has always been eternal (out of time) and present throughout all human activity (since time).

What makes this so damn important? We have always been taught that grace came to us when we “accepted Christ into our heart.” We are, “saved by grace, not by works should any man boast; it is a gift of God.” Our salvation from a corrupted life only comes by grace. However, when did corruption come that grace was needed? If grace has always been, wouldn’t that mean that corruption, too, has always been?

Now I know that this line of thought will jerk most of you upright. “No, the fall of Adam is when corruption entered the world.” Ok, fair enough. An event. The first recording we have of humanity succumbing to… Yet isn’t grace still there? What would God clothe them for if this wasn’t an act of grace? Would all of the events leading up to the incarnation of Christ be devoid of grace operating as a result of humanities tendencies to act improperly? What about all the civilizations around the globe prior to Jesus; were they not able to access the foundational grace which only came through a Hebrew teacher?

Let me go back for a moment. If Jesus is the event which Christian religion recognizes as the ushering in moment of grace, wouldn’t this mean for the past 2,000 years all humanity has been living in grace? So, the time span in your life before you “asked Jesus into your heart,” when you were told that you were a corrupted being destined for eternal damnation, was actually time lived in God’s grace. Your “asking” simply acknowledged what was already a reality. If you didn’t “ask” for say another 10 years, would it have made a difference?

Yes, there are consequences for our actions. Delays can cause issues we will need to address at those times. However, if grace has been taught to be the reward for abandoning the living of a corrupt life, it would seem that our choice alone brings grace into our life. If that is the case, when then does the gift of God arrive?

Circular logic, right? It’s possible that this might be solved if we recognize that man has never been corrupt in the first place. I know that scare the hell out many of you religious types. However, consider that this thought of man being corrupted is a rather new philosophy in the procession of human development. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher around 360 BCE, proposed that humanity had two natures, one found in the body which was evil and corrupt, and another in the soul which was good, which upon death would be released from its captivity in the body and ascend into heaven where all the good souls reside. His thoughts and teaching were promoted across the region and became influential for many from Alexander the Great to St. Augustine.

At the time that the Greek biblical text was being written, which described the mission of Jesus and the effect of his works, the philosophy of Aristotle and his compatriots was the prevailing paradigm throughout the region. Much of the language offered in these letters was therefore an argument to refute the common knowledge and offer a better understanding of a reality which already had been in operation for many millenniums. Did it work? Look at how fast the Christian movement swept through the “known world” as a testimony to the transformation. Yet, Aristotle’s teachings held a heavy hand and became a focal point in developing the works of Philo, Augustine and many fathers of the church, a sort of Christianity via Aristotle which, regrettably, we still harbor many of its influences.

So, this whole corruption of mankind issue springs from a Greek philosopher. This forms our entire narrative of the means and purposes of God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. It misses all references to grace. This philosophy came long after Abraham, Jacob and Israel; missed Moses and the exodus; overlooked Joshua and the judges; disregarded David and Solomon; and it even ignored the Babylonian captivity of Israel, Ester, Nehemiah and Daniel. An entire swath of humanity, which functioned fully and purposely under a foundational environment of grace, seems not to even be on the radar of someone so widely promoted.

Again, why is this so damn important? Baby, you’re not as bad as you’ve been led to believe. As a matter of fact, the entire world falls under this also. It just might be the time for you not to be led anymore and start thinking for yourself. You have always had the grace to do that, so use it.

Have you ever asked yourself this question? Did you ever get an answer, not from someone else, but from yourself? After all, what do other people know about you that gives them authority to shape and form your life from their advice? So, what was your answer to yourself? Was it something you know to be true but feel obligates to suppress because of the embarrassment it would cause you? Or was it something that is trivial, small, minuscule and wouldn’t really answer the meta-nature to your question? Wait – do you even know what the meta-nature of your question is?

Does this question of “Why me?” make you seem egocentric, narcissistic, self-absorbed? Does ‘Why me?’ make your sound like a whiner, a spoiled child – no a brat – who can’t even figure out what end is up even though you’ve lived (fill in the blank) years? How is it possible that this question can be asked and make it seem that it really isn’t all about you?

Did you ask this question during a life-altering event? Or was it after some life-altering event? Have you ever considered how we never ask this question before a life-altering event? Is it because living life is a “life altering event” already? Are you in a life altering moment right now?

What danger, or what boredom, could possibly cause you to question why you are the chosen vessel for all this (fill in the blank) to happen to you? Do these questions annoy you so much that you’re unable to see any value in them – let alone the value to the mere existence of living your life? What if, the “Why me?” question hasn’t been the right question to ask every time you mumbled or shouted it out?

Why not you? How does anyone else experience the thrills of this life like you? Who else is better equipped to handle the discomfort of being around the people who annoy and irritate you? Who would you not wish all of this (fill in the blank) to be heaped upon, pressed down and overflowing in abundance like it seems you’re so certain is happening to you? What good would it do them anyway? Who would you want to thrust this upon in your stead? Don’t you care for them? Assuming you don’t, why would you even consider projecting this mess upon their life? What did they do to deserve your misery or your boredom?

How does all this work with grace? Do you give yourself as much grace as you give others? What can grace do for you? Is it possible, “What do you think grace can’t do for you?” might be a better question? What if the limitation you have of grace is simply because you haven’t properly framed the question? Would you change the question? How would grace reframe the question of “Why me?”

Who is this question being direct towards? Is the question rhetorical or do you have an axe to grind with someone? Or do you question the wisdom of God? Did you think I wouldn’t ask this of you? Are you dealing with God about something you don’t want to do? Or do you not believe in a Creator who has pummeled you with all this (fill in the blank)? If you don’t believe, then why are you crying out, “Why me?”

Have you ever considered that you can’t cry out like this if you didn’t believe that somehow you didn’t get here through your own choosing? Does that sound confusing? How does this fancy you: Would you do this (fill in the blank) simply because you want to see what it would be like? Don’t they call people like that masochists? If you enjoy inflicting pain upon yourself, why would you be blaming God for your predicament?

Is it possible that you have held yourself up as an idol for so long that you’ve forgotten truly how much God loves you? What if the logic of your self-actualized deity can’t comprehend the love of a real Creator, one who knew you long before you were a hormonal gleam in the eyes of your parents? Could “Why me?” truly be the cry of a child who believes they have been abandoned, yet can’t see the encompassing arms of love they’re wrapped in? Wouldn’t that more appropriately be called a tantrum?

However, wouldn’t an adolescent make the same proclamation if they knowingly had over-stepped the authority given to them in the anticipation of a quick reward? Did the reward you were expecting fall through? Are you now left with a world of chaos, which you have no ability to deal with, no skill to manipulate, and no patience to listen to?

Why should you believe me that God prepared all these things as a good work for your life? How can all of this (fill in the blank) hitting the fan be seen as a good work, particularly by God, and especially in your life? Can’t God see that you’re suffering? Doesn’t He care? Can’t He do something – anything – to change this (fill in the blank)? Why you? Why me? Why us, every single one of us, young and old; rich and poor; believers and nonbelievers; humanity in general and particular?

How does a wooden beam, nail pierced hands and feet, a crown of thorns, and tattered flesh answer the question, “Why me?” How does, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do,” become a viable answer to “Why me?” What makes your life, or my life, so different from the one who transcended this question: Why me? Are we now truly in this world as he is?

When will you understand, and finally begin to live the truth, how it has never been about you? If you were in Him before the foundation of the world, hasn’t it always been about Him in you – even when you didn’t know He was there? Is it possible that, “Why me?” is simply the cry, “Why Him?” whenever we experience pain commiserate to our vain understanding of His agony?

Why me? Honestly? Don’t you already know? Then what are you waiting for? Do you need a better question? Or do you need a better answer you are willing to work around? What if you have always been an answer looking for the right question? How would the answer to the question be anything other than, Why me!

There is a movement going around called the “Flat earth people.” They believe that despite all the evidence contrary to their belief, the world is flat. Now I recognize many of you probably don’t understand how, in this day and age, where we have satellite imaging, space stations and moon missions which demonstrate conclusively the viewpoint of our planet as a globe, people – well intentioned, educated people – could believe such things, and probably just write these folks off as weirdos, cranks and kooks. But then again, most people have already written off most of the religious crowd for their beliefs.

What?! Did you think I was talking about some other group of people?

Have you ever considered that every believer of the bible, the Word of God, Hebrew and Greek, is a believer of a flat-world narrative? Those writers of all the books never saw our world from space. Their perception was measured from horizon to horizon. Their belief in God was about as flat as the paper, tablet or screen, that you’re reading this from. “Flat-landers” expresses the totality of their experiences in life 24/7/365.

Today, we humans operate in four dimensions: length, width, height and time. I clumped the first three, the realm of form, into one of the flat-landers dimensions with time being the other. Form and time make up my flat-lander world.

Then one day, a multi-dimensional being, Jesus, invades their world. Now being flat-landers, they can only see this person in their 2-D perception. He looks like them, talks kinda like them, does the same things that could form the impression that he was just like them, yet there is a difference, noticeable under certain conditions, that makes him stand apart from the “world.”

Jesus comes on the scene and all will agree that he has a form, and that his birth occurred at a specific time, as did the course of his life, and his death. And honestly, we truly don’t know just how many dimensions this person operated in, but the bible gives it a try at attempting to describe them. During his life, he demonstrated other dimensions by being able to walk upon the water, multiply food, raise people from the dead, heal the sick and lame, even transfigure the appearance of his body while communing with people who had lived centuries before him. These nth-dimension events occurred while he was living!

His death only accentuates the matter of the multitude of dimensions he functioned in. He was raised from the dead; walked through walls and doors; has a physical body that people can touch, and still partakes in the ritual of eating; can appear and disappear at will; and then ascends out of sight.

These events confound us even in how we speak about him. The writer of the fourth gospel declares that Jesus, this nth-dimensional being, functioned outside of time, with the Father in creating the world. So, does he have (present) or did he have (past) these abilities all along? Confusing, right? This writer also claims that Jesus is the definition of grace. A flat-lander, says that a nth-dimensional being is what the 2-d world calls grace!

We don’t have a clue! The best we can come up with is looking at a sheet of paper and say, “Yup, that’s what grace looks like!” Flat-land, flat-footed grace, while still a great thing to ponder and walk in, is…well…flat. It takes an entirely different way of perceiving things, an nth-dimensional perception, to fully comprehend what Jesus means as grace. Fortunately, this comes by having the mind of Christ, which the vast majority of us have thought was his 2-D representation of God’s kingdom. Regrettably, we’ve been left flat-footed in these thoughts. Higher thoughts are not a description of form but of dimension, a different dimension or realm of thought.

All of us need to change our minds, or repent, from this 2-D world we live in. Now before you go and get all up in arms about this injunction, consider that we, all of us, were in Christ before the foundation of the world. In other words, we already were in another dimension before we entered this constrained, limiting one.

The truth of our multi-dimensional nature has been veiled from our minds. This has placed a cap on what we think and believe is possible. Yet, when the writer of 1 John says, “…as he is so are we in this world…” it is not a future event he is speaking of but a present reality. Since Jesus is nth-dimensional right now, we are too. It’s time to come up hither into a greater dimension and see just how flat-lined you’ve lived in grace.

The one thing that religion loves to offer to it congregants is the certainty of life. Then comes the season of Easter, more appropriately known as Passover. Out of the common inevitability of weekly messages dealing with the wholeness salvation delivers to each person comes a myriad of messages designed to offer answers to the mystery of all mysteries: How does the death of a Jewish teacher on a state-sanctioned torture device rectify all of humanity’s relationship with the transcendent being known as Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, God?

After two thousand years of theological debate, wars, church splits and reformations, we are still in the dark, regardless of what those in high places may tell you. This is a mystery folks and no one has a clue. Sure, we have been led along various and numerous trails, each trying to soothe the aching question which each generation is burdened with trying to unravel. However, we have only been trying to verify a theory, a guess, a hunch which we attempt to make look like a model of reality. Yes, we have developed confessions of faith and creeds galore just so it appears that we know what we are doing, but honestly, if everyone can be honest, we are simply hoping that what we’re saying is right. Obviously, it does support the theory, yet…

We have four narratives and one account of the acts of the apostles written by people who appear to have known Jesus. Each was written many years after Jesus walked upon the earth both before and after the cross. Not a single one of these people though seems to care about answering the question on everyone’s mind: WTF? It’s a great mystery, right?

The mystery seems to take a turn when we’re expected to believe that a special prosecutor within the religious establishment suddenly turns on his masters and becomes the agent of promotion to the first truth of the events which the mystery is built upon. Even this work brings forth a clamor which would forever be the forerunner to every dispute of doctrine the church would endure. Even boldly and honestly proclaiming it to be a mystery does not help in diffusing the angst which the unknown brews.

The mystery grows even as the one person the gospels highlights as the “go to” man of a new movement, the one who introduced it to the Gentiles, has to admit that even he can’t fully comprehend what is being said and written to the churches abroad about the meaning to all these things which transpired the way they did. If someone who was there, someone who ate the meals, drank the wine, and three times denied knowing the man who all this mystery surrounds doesn’t have a clue even years afterward, then what gives us the confidence to proclaim we do? It’s a mystery folks, understand?

Before you dismiss me as a nut-job, consider that I am more confident today in what I believe about the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus than I was last year, or even during the 40 plus years when I first accepted this mystery. My personal library is filled with the writings of some of the greatest theological minds dating back to the first church fathers. My study within the context of all these great authors is what gives me the assurance to proclaim that this is still a mystery we’re all trying to resolve.

This week, before egg-bearing rabbits populated the earth, the Son of Man entered into the city of His Father upon a donkey to the praises of the multitude seeking a deliverer; he proclaimed the Kingdom of Heaven was within everyone and proceeded to cleans the temple grounds of those who sought to profit from the faithful who devotedly adhered to the commandment to come from all over the nation to celebrate the Passover together.

A special dinner will be held with his closest friends where he will explain to them as best as they can understand what is about to happen to him at the hands of the religious establishment who is seeking to persecute him for what they believe is the crime of blaspheming Adonai by claiming to be his son. He will also commission them to continue on with the teachings that he has presented to them during their time together.

Later on, this same night, while in a garden praying with his friends, the guards from the temple will find him, employing the assistance of one of his friends, and arrest him. He will be taken to the temple priests and its governing body to be tried for his crimes. Being found guilty through the accounts of false witnesses, he will be transferred twice to the Roman authorities all in order to exact the penalty of death which the religious institution could order but not perform.

On the following day, the Son of Man being returned into the hands of the Roman prefect, will have him beat and pummeled by 100 Roman guards who have taunted him by placing a crown of thrones upon his head and robe about his naked body. The prefect will then present the Son of Man before the multitude who days before welcomed him into the city and offer to exchange his life for another criminal. Incited by the religious leaders in the crowd, the mob will demand the death of the Son of Man. Believing that the Son of Man is not guilty of the charge against him, he declares to the mob that he washes his hand of this affair and commands the guards to exact the sentence of death by crucifixion upon the Son of Man. The final part of his punishment to the Son of Man will cause him to be whipped with lashes which will rip great chunks of flesh from his body.

The Son of Man, beaten, battered and bleeding, will be forced to carry a cross designed for the criminal released by the mob through the streets of the city teaming with the same mob, leading up to a hill outside the city walls. Once there, the Son of Man will be stripped of all his clothing, laid upon the cross, spikes driven by multiple blows through each arm into the cross beam, and also into his feet into the upright. Then being lifted up, the weight of his body hung from the spikes, will begin the agonizing process of suffocation. A crucified criminal on his left and one on his right will adorn the final act of his life as the Son of Man endures the taunts of the mob, the Roman guards, the priests who have come to witness the execution, and even one of the criminals, of this one who proclaimed himself to be equal to God by being his son.

For at least six hours the Son of Man will hang from this device of human malevolence, which under normal circumstances (if dying by torture can be called normal) could take up to a week to perform its end goal of death, when he utters in his last breath, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do,” and dies at the same moment the priests in the temple are slaying the Passover lambs. At such a solemn moment, even the comment, “Truly this is the Son of God,” made by a Roman centurion witnessing these events brings the mystery into focus.

It is the rush of time, actually the lack thereof, which will only enhance the nature of the mystery enfolding about us. An impending dual Sabbath holiday quickly approaching forces those who are closest to the deceased to petition the prefect to have the body removed from the cross, so they can place it in the tomb prepared for someone else before the sun goes down. The priestly class fearing that the proclamations about the Son of Man being raised might be a means to provoke his disciple to create an insurrection, petition the prefect to have the tomb sealed and a Roman guard stationed to prevent anyone from raiding and removing its contents.

On the morning of the third day since the burial, woman close to the Son of Man approached the tomb to preform the rites of preparation for a deceased body as was their custom. An earthquake transpires at their approach causing the stone which closed the tomb to be rolled aside. The Roman guard stationed at the tomb flees in panic since the breaking of the seals means the loss of their life. One of the woman, approaching the tomb, looks inside to discover that it is empty! And the mystery takes off!

Obviously, there is more which will transpire. But the mystery is forever established in these events. These moments are the pivot which all of our existence swings upon. Hyperbole? Maybe. However, consider that since these days in which I have spoken, mankind has tried to measure the depths of this mystery and somehow never reached the fount of which it springs from.

The Son of Man becomes the Son of God at the final moment when death appears to have the upper hand and a heathen is the only one who can recognize it. It’s a mystery.

The birth of a new creation does not come at the hands of the men closest to the example, but naturally in the channel fashioned by the woman closest to the chrysalis of ritual. It’s a mystery.

All humanity is drawn to the one we made our scapegoat never expecting the retribution of forgiveness. It’s a mystery.

For a while now, we have been led to believe that all is satisfied around these matters. For some it is simply because they do not want deal with it. However, it might be possible that it is not as cleanly wrapped up as we might imagine. Mystery has that capacity to blow the doors of tidiness.

Sure, it’s Easter week. But why shouldn’t we revel in the mystery during this time more than any other time of our common church service? What do we fear in the uncertainty of Passover? What prevents the mystery from being our motive for celebration rather than egg-bearing rabbits?

The most exasperating statement that anyone can make is, “IT doesn’t matter,” after you have poured out your heart to them about whatever issue that presently confronts you. The truth is, IT really doesn’t matter simply because your issue is not matter – IT is a construct you’ve made. Before you go fuming off in a huff about this, give me an opportunity to enlighten you. I’m going to draw from the writings of Martin Buber in order to explain this.

All of us are in relationship to someone. By reading this, I am in relationship to you. This I-YOU relationship is what we are all striving to create and maintain. All of us know who “I” is in every relationship; we also know who is “YOU.” YOU is another “I.” However, there is another relationship which came prior to I-YOU, it is I-IT.

IT is something that “I” define or categorize at relevant to me and how “I” view myself. All “ITs” are dependent on my knowledge and are bound to a date of when “I” defined and created them. Every IT is designed to enhance who I am, to display my glory, my wisdom, my agenda. IT’s substance, girth and value is only what I declare IT to be. This is why IT doesn’t matter, only YOU is matter, because YOU is the only thing created by God.

How is you’re relationship with God? Many find difficulty in answering this question simply because they’ve made God into an IT. They’ve moved Him up there, out there based on some date of an event in their life. They’ve defined who God is, or isn’t, and feel better not interacting with him simply because the memories they’ve experienced, or have been told by other’s memories, don’t make for a very productive relationship.

We all know that God is eternal. Eternal beings don’t have memories. Memories are dates attached to time. If I ask you to remember your sixth birthday, you’ll get IT. God doesn’t recall IT, he only sees YOU, the eternal person who has always been in relationship with him.

There is an old saying which states that a child before they are born, knows the entire universe; which they lose in their first breath, and feebly attempt to recapture over a life that already is eternal.

Can you recall a moment with that someone special in your life when you lost all track of time? That is an eternal moment, the pinnacle of an I-YOU relationship. It is “I” looking into the face of “YOU,” attentive to YOU, responding to YOU, smelling YOU, feeling YOU, enjoying YOU not for what “I” get from an “IT” but for what “I” get to give to YOU.

Relationships with ITs are not reciprocal. This is why no one wants to be IT. We run away from being IT as fast as we can.

An “I,” however, wants YOU, needs YOU, desires YOU. YOU matter; YOU are the matter God made which an “I” longs for.

IT doesn’t matter to anyone. Just forget IT. YOU can, I know YOU can. How? I Am, YOU, eternal.

The most recent advances in the grace arena seem to be founded on self-help doctrines which permeated the Western culture during the eighties and nineties. Beneficial to the point of self-realization but seriously bereft of impact within a social context. This often leads many to journey into the discovery about grace in greater measure. However, the student of grace is often left in the lurch trying to find relevant examples of grace in action.

Permit me for a moment to offer to you one sure fired way to experience present-day issues of grace. Study what, and where, grace is not; study the depth of its lack in these matters; study the people and situations where there appears to be no visible sign of grace and then, maybe, you will finally comprehend the beginning of grace. But where to start?

There is one thing all of humanity shares: Shame. The particulars of its origin are not critical to overcoming it as much as recognizing that all of us feel “dis-graced” by it. Dis-grace, the disconnection from grace, is the litmus test of all grace involvement. Find where a person feels disgrace, or a society projects disgrace, and you now have an assignment to restore.

It is a short distance to travel from humility to humiliation and many experience this agonizing journey every day. People living simple lives doing simple acts being made simply foolish by simpletons for the simple pleasure of feeling superior. Grace is everything simple needs, and, more appropriately, wants.

The gnawing awareness of not living up to our fullest potential, or what more aptly might be called “condemnation,” is yet another area where grace finds slim pickings. Whether it is a charge against ourselves or exacted from a rival, condemnation extorts a toll of immeasurable vitality from a life.

So, what does grace look like in the midst of this? Consider the following:

Evon, is a balding, mid-thirties male living paycheck to paycheck with his girl friend Ray and her daughter Debbie. Evon hasn’t been able to hold a job for longer than six months due to the mental effects of severe abuse as a child and the self-medication he administers to numb the pain. Ray, who works part-time as a clerk for a medical supply house, wonders if the life she has been leading will ever make a turn for the better, since she wants more for Deb than what she is able to give her. She recognizes that Evon is not the best man for her but at least he keeps her from being lonely, unlike her ex-husband.

All together these are simple people living simple lives. What are your perceptions of them? As a good student, write out what you think about them. Where is their shame, humiliation, and condemnation? What kind of parents are they? What are your concerns about them individually and as a couple? What do you find encouraging about them? Be thorough in this study since grace is what we’re looking for.

Here now comes the test. Having examined the people to the best of your abilities, made a detailed critique of their potential areas of shame, humiliation and condemnation as individuals and a couple, when did you realize that your judgment of them was merely a projection of the shame, humiliation, and condemnation you’ve experienced in, and around, your life?

There was no criteria of right and wrong in this exercise, however, you made a judgment about them. This is the key of grace most miss. Grace does not mean there is no judgement when actions violate a law. But our concept of right and wrong, not what the law claims to be so, often overrides our tendency to administer grace because we feel obligated to judge first. Regrettably, our judgments produce more shame, humiliation, and condemnation in others than our intents to offer grace.

Yes, grace is a self-help tool. However, the meaning of this should be clear: Help yourself with grace before giving to others, because you can only give to the measure of the abundance you have received. Shame, humiliation, and condemnation can never produce more judgment than grace will cover. The key is knowing when judgment starts, we are often the one holding back the avalanche of grace which is coming.

Class dismissed.

Seriously!?

Grace has a wonderful ability to detonate all your perceptions about right and wrong. This will be the largest blast you’ve possibly ever experienced in your divine walk and the fallout will create a debris field you’ve heretofore never envisioned possible.

If you’ve been around any teaching on Jesus for any period of time you’ve come across the passage where he tells his disciples that they need to love their enemies. When you’re first confronted by this passage the typical reaction is akin to, “He’s nuts! I can never love my enemy.” Then as you’re more and more provoked by these verses in the various gospels, your thoughts morph into, “Ok, Jesus is just trying to make a point. He doesn’t actually intend for me, or anyone, really to do this. Nice teaching tool.”

At some point, always when you least expect it, the magnitude of this verse hits you like a karate chop to the throat and you fall to the ground gasping for air, crying out for mercy as you succumb to the revelation that you are your own worst enemy, first and foremost. All the flopping around like a fish out of water will not stop the reality of this moment and you finally surrender yourself to the “word of the Lord.” Your life is now a season of full-on repentance.

(It is possible that many of you think that this is the blast previously mentioned. Consider this to be just the primer to the blast which follows.)

Would Jesus ever ask any of us to do something that he isn’t able to do or hasn’t already done himself? (Cue the Jeopardy theme song.)

All the millenniums of theological teaching we, as the body of Christ, have received regarding this matter, whether under the first guise of Catholicism or the recent pretext of Protestantism, how many times have we been indoctrinated that satan, or the devil, is the enemy of God/Jesus? It is a foundational teaching. So how is it possible that no one every connected the dots that Jesus loves satan, and if he does, we are supposed to also?

Doesn’t that feel like you just plowed a hammer into your thumb – twice in a row? Totally illogical, right? Not so fast you thumb sucker.

We’ve always been told that satan is the enemy of Jesus; he battles him in the wilderness and ultimately defeats him at the cross, then kicks his butt royally in hell when he leads the captives out. How did this happen? Was it a battle royal in a cage? Did Jesus get all Rambo and blow his way through the gate of hell raining fire and brimstone down on an unsuspecting foe? As much as we would like to think that this is the way all this went down, we have a truly hard time accepting the words of Jesus on the cross, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”

Love forgives. Grace insures it. Face it folks, there are many people in your life who it is damn hard to love, even a little bit. Grace covers this even if they are your enemies. Jesus never said, “love your enemies, except for…”

Now, I think it is about time to deal with this whole satan issue under the spotlight of grace. Again, all our teaching from the past has been that this satan character has been the personification of evil, the counter to all the goodness of God. Some of you might think that I’m about to claim that God has forgiven satan, and in some respects you are right. However, not as you perceive it to be.

To present this properly, let me define the term “satan” for what it truly means: Accuser. Take note how throughout this writing I have never used the term satan with an uppercase “S” in order to signify an ontological being. You may have perceived that I did, however, I intentionally have not. The reason is simple: There is not one – we’re all satan.

I know that probably didn’t sit well. Let me demonstrate. Answer this question: Are you truly living up to your fullest potential? Take your time to consider your response; this after all is a matter of reflection about your life and all that you’ve accomplished. It’s a helluva question, isn’t it, all things considered?

The odds are in my favor that you don’t think you’re living up to your potential. There can be any of a number of reasons to justify your response in this area, however, what you fail to perceive is how you have accused yourself of not living up to some standard that only you have constructed. Since only you know the standard, you accuse yourself habitually for failing to meet it. You are the satan, the accuser, your enemy.

“If you are the son of God…” is no different to you than it was to Jesus. It is only another means of asking if you’re truly living up to your potential.

Can you love the accusation you cast upon yourself? Most will say no, it’s not possible, forgetting that with God, all things are possible. You have been saved by grace, which is a gift from God; not by any works of man, but by the love of God for you. Your accusations are merely a yoke and a burden you’ve placed upon yourself to live up to an expectation, a self-imposed standard, a fabricated work of man – you – not of God, who is love.

“Forgive them Father, for they know not that they accuse themselves as their enemy. Forgive them Father, for they know not how to love themselves as you love them. Forgive them Father, for they know not that they are living up to their fullest potential being your sons and daughters. Forgive them Father, for not knowing how to love satan as I do.”

I dare you to pray that.