It's me, mike hillebrecht

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.

The faint to blaring shrills of my mother often ring in my head during times of conflict. “You tell them you’re sorry!” “You go over there right now and apologize for your behavior!” These two seem to be the most prominent ones, but any others always employ the same action: say you’re sorry and apologize.

I’m fairly certain that you’ve experienced the same treatment for some action you accomplished with great pride, only to have it rendered invalid by, “Say you’re sorry and apologize.” Begrudgingly, you probably did the same thing I did, slowly shuffled off toward the injured party, head hanging low, softly mumbled the obligatory phrase which leads to the redemption of your character, all the while knowing, deep down inside, you didn’t feel that what you were doing was right.

These are difficult lessons to learn as a child, however, the adults always remind us that this will be of benefit to us when we grow up. Then you meet someone who takes your breath away, who causes your body to vibrate in mysterious ways, and who, regrettably, stands at the opposite end of a small disagreement waiting for you to redeem your character, despite the implanted gnawing feel that this just ain’t right. What to do, what to do? (said to the rhythm of the tapping foot waiting…and waiting.)

Have you ever considered what “sorry” and “apology” truly mean? Did your mother ever explain to you the difference or gist of what your act was conveying? Mine didn’t, at least not that I recall during any of the times I was coerced into making these pronouncements. And, actually when I look back at my child rearing days, I don’t recall explaining this to any of my kids either. (Some today may interpret that revelation as an example of the woes of poor child rearing, both from my parents who it passed down to me, and I to my children. However, I survived the generation of the belt, worn on pants which occassionally graced your seat, which those same interpreters view as an archaic form of corporeal punishment venturing into child abuse, both at home and in the car. Get over it, I did.) Back to the matter at hand.

You pop some punk in the mouth. Are you sorry? Too violent an example? Ok, well…you trip over the dog and fall against the end table causing the heirloom vase from a great aunt to fall and shatter into a thousand shards of aggravation. Are you sorry? Before you plop the default response into the lap of a hysterical relative, do you know what “sorry” means? Dictionary please. Sorry means:

1. feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity, etc.:
2. regrettable or deplorable; unfortunate; tragic:
3. sorrowful, grieved, or sad:
4. associated with sorrow; suggestive of grief or suffering; melancholy; dismal.
5. wretched, poor, useless, or pitiful:

The first definition employs the word “regret.” Every time I hear that word I recall the line from that famous Frank Sinatra song, My Way, which says, “…Regrets, I’ve had a few; but too few to mention…” If Frank, who lived a pretty amazing life, only had a few regrets and wouldn’t even mention them, this vase, if it’s my way, is not on my regret list. This also goes for “compunction” which has to do with anxiety over a regret. No regret, no anxiety – easy peasy.

Sorry, for most people, means to be sorrowful, grieved, or sad. Honestly, most occurrences where these types of feelings and emotions are being displayed, seem for the most part, to be coming from the relative with the look of horror on their face. So, I’d say that they need to tell me they’re sorry, right? The more I think about it, parents, or order to set this entire matter right, need to impress upon their children to go up to people and tell them, “You’re sorry,” rather than, “I’m sorry’” which obviously the child isn’t, and never has been throughout this matter. Since telling the truth is an important lesson too, this will help the child to know how what they do in these matters is right when you tell people how their demeanor shows that they are sorry or sorrowful. Parents need to be ready to explain to their child that the exclamation of, “You poor, useless and pitiful wretch,” is not intended as a claim about the child but how this person really feels about themselves in their sorrowful state.

So, this brings us to the term “apologize” which is the action form of the word “apology.” Since your understanding of “sorry” has been torn apart and reassembled into its proper context, let’s call upon the dictionary once again to offer to us the meaning. Apology means:

1. a written or spoken expression of one’s regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another:
2. a defense, excuse, or justification in speech or writing, as for a cause or doctrine.
3. (initial capital letter, italics) a dialogue by Plato, centering on Socrates’ defense before the tribunal that condemned him to death.
4. an inferior specimen or substitute; makeshift:

I’ve already dealt with the regret issue and also the matter of stating that the someone who is sorry or sorrowful is not the one who is required to make a false confession. A defense for my actions, a justification of why I popped Jonnie in the nose for being a stupid person who insulted me, that might be a bit much for a child who can’t write very clearly and has already been judged and convicted by a parent trying to keep the peace with the neighbors. Even when I’m standing toe to toe with that sweet thing and look into those eyes enraged with hormones…there is no way my defense will be viewed as anything but an excuse from an inferior specimen who can be substituted by someone else. In those moments it is best to act as Socrates and just drink the poison.

Do you see how we have messed with the minds of our children? “Go apologize and say you’re sorry.” No wonder it never feels right. It isn’t, plain and simple! No child, and no adult, should be put in such a confounding predicament where being wrong is viewed right.

Now I know that some of you justification folks will jump all over my seeming dismissal of an apology because the purpose of an “apology” according to the first definition is to address the matter with someone who you have insulted, failed, injured or wronged. I truly believe that in each of these instances, an apology is not what is the answer. How? Consider that any defense offered for your actions, even if completely justified in a court of law, will never be fairly judged by your peers. The person you are petitioning, the injured one, is the judge and jury, and despite what you may think about fairness, they have spite for you. Don’t try to seem righteousness now that I have exposed this little chink in the old apology armor. How many times have you said, “I don’t accept your apology,” when one was faithfully offered?

Please forgive me if I stepped on anyone’s toes with my hobnailed boots. You see what I did there? Therein lies the answer. It is the path never offered to children, rarely employed by adults and seemingly mysterious in nature when presented before someone. Forgiveness. Can you offer it to another and receive it for yourself? God never asked you to apologize for killing his son, did he? God fully recognizes that Christians are a sorry bunch of people and every new believer becomes sorry too. But Jesus asked the Father to forgive us – all of us. Why? According to Jesus, because we don’t know what we’re doing. Much hasn’t changed since then and forgiveness still covers all the foibles we make with people.

Forgiveness permits us to act like God. After all, isn’t that truly, deep down inside what most of us want to be, God? Paul even commands us to act like God just like little children do. Ask for forgiveness when you’ve insulted someone. Ask for forgiveness when you’ve failed someone. Ask for forgiveness when you’ve injured someone. Ask for forgiveness when you’ve wronged someone. It’s not a defense; it’s a statement of the truth of who you are and how you blew it. Hopefully you’ll do better next time.

“But what if they don’t forgive me?” There is the remote chance that someone just doesn’t want to be like God. They probably realize that God is love and right now they find it hard to love you. Can you forgive them for that? Can you show them that you know how to forgive yourself when you least likely need to be forgiven? Show what you have received to one who does not want to easily give and watch a miracle develop right before your eyes. It’s simple to say, yet hard to follow through on unless you’re committed to the relationship.

There is always a cross to remind us no apology works. We can’t justify our sorry selves. So, let’s quit thinking we can and bluffing our kids about it too. Kids know it ain’t right and they’ll forgive you for being…

One of the main lessons that every parent has to teach their child is not to take candy from the store when checking out unless you pay for it. Time after time this is one of the lessons I hear from adults about their growing up years, back in the day when candy was a penny or a nickel. Often these stories follow with the shame and humiliation which the person experienced by being caught either in the act or having made it to the car and then discovered. Most of these emotions always come when the parent, teaching the rule of responsibility, requires the child to return the good to the store clerk or manager. I’ll bet that you have your own experience just like this and similar feelings attached to it.

Today, I think that most have forgot the lesson of responsibility when taking something that doesn’t belong to us. Let me offer an example: You are nothing more than a simple-minded follower who has absolutely no innate ability to stand up for what you truly believe. I could have used stronger language, but there are children, namely you, who might be mentally harmed, commonly called retarded, from such language.

Question: Did you take offense at what I wrote? If not, what would require you to take offense?

Now the lesson. When someone takes something that doesn’t belong to them it is called stealing. One of the ten commandments clearly states that we are not suppose to steal. If my intention was never to offend you, yet you took offense, you stole something from me that wasn’t yours to have.

Now comes the troubling part to this fickle arrangement. Some people believe that having taken offense, they should return it back to the person they took it from. After all, isn’t that the responsible thing to do?

Ask professionals who works with developmentally delayed individuals (we can’t use the “R” word anymore because it might…) what is the common characteristic which they all display when interacting with people and most will claim how due to their immature nature, they often react without thought of the circumstance which will follow. Maturity is demonstrated by responding appropriately.

Did you react when you stole from me? Or, has maturity formed and dictated a more appropriate response? The highest levels of maturity seriously don’t even deal in this realm in case you’re interested. But that’s not…

Obviously, this small example is designed to make a point about the nature of offense. Often, we take what wasn’t ours in the first place and then feel it well within our rights to return it. The results are apparent on many fronts in each of our lives. Rarely, do we ever consider that offense was never the intention of the other from the beginning.

While this is a lesson in responsibility – we are accountable for how we take the acts of another – it is also a greater lesson in grace. Sure, grace should be the offering made to the other person, yet how about ourselves? If we functioned properly in a grace environment we would immediately recognize that all communication requires grace for both parties due to the limited nature of the language trying to convey the message. No one truly comprehends the subject matter from the same perspective as you, so cut them some slack (also known as grace) for their ignorance. You’re just as ignorant too.

Wait a minute! Did I sense your hand trying to take something which doesn’t belong to you?

In 1989, Don Henley, a member of the band The Eagles, recorded his third solo album with the lead song called “The End of the Innocence.” The opening stanza and chorus are as follows:

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn’t have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standin’ by
But “happily ever after” fails
And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers dwell on small details
Since daddy had to fly

But I know a place where we can go
That’s still untouched by men
We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by
And the tall grass wave in the wind
You can lay your head back on the ground
And let your hair fall all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence

While Henley was writing about the tumultuous events swirling around America in the late 80’s, I think that these words can very appropriately be applied to the age of grace the church is experiencing. For most of us coming into an understanding of the fullness found in grace, our religious innocence disappears, sometimes wistfully, while at other times as a violent clap of thunder followed by a deluge of tears. The longing for the days when tried and true Bible stories (the fairy tales spoken of in the song) seems to many just one of a number of relics to a thought about how God functions in the world.

Grace, as it is being offered today in most congregations, is the post-modern result to religious indoctrination, leaving in its path a flock of nihilistic believers longing for a place where they can experience the love of God just as they did in the beginning of their faith. Allow me to explain this a bit further if I may.

The standard religious teaching the church has been promoting hasn’t changed much over its 2,000-year history. The age of Enlightenment came upon civilization and suddenly those teachings came into a stark contrast to the discoveries of science. Questions about the stories in the bible, its dependability as a resource for the newest understandings of the cosmos and the place of mankind in it began to chip away at the institution that society had been built upon. Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher of this era, gave this critique to the results the Enlightenment produced:

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

Post-modernity came on the Enlightenments heels sometime after the second world war and everything got called into question. Morals, values, gender, relationships, marriage, church, the state, there wasn’t one thing that hasn’t receive the glaring gaze of scrutiny in this age. Everything has fallen to deconstruction and hence became relative, it only applies to me when I care for it too. Nihilism is the norm. People feel empty without any compass to guide them and consequently just do whatever feels good in the moment.

Throughout all these events, the church continued with its message trying to keep the lid on a social pressure cooker. Morals, values, gender, relationships, marriage, church, and the state had already been spelled out in the bible and there wasn’t one thing that needed to change to fit a society the church saw as corrupt and living under the sway of the enemy. It is “Our way or the highway,” and shrinking attendance across all age groups has begun to demonstrate the importance of being relevant.

In one instance just consider how prior to knowing about grace lost souls were the focus of all your activities. People who weren’t a part of your belief structure were targets for conversion no matter how far away they were from you. If you couldn’t get to them, there was a ministry planted into the heart of the enemy’s territory who you could sow your seed of evangelism into. This, along with various prayer events and conferences were the life of every believer looking to win the souls of the lost.

Grace hits and you suddenly see the foolishness of such activities merely as an attempt to pass on a “get into heaven free” card. There are no lost souls; grace dealt with everyone, equally. The sinner’s prayer became a totem to the innocence lost. Evangelism, according to the past methods, we treated as an exit strategy, not a plan for living with heaven on earth. Heaven, that place untouched by man, became the chorus of our innocence, all we strove for. We faced the realization that all are not as lost as those who think others are.

If grace did all the things we were led to believe were our responsibility, what is the point of it all then? Why get involved with anything or anyone for that matter? Hell, why even go to church, particularly if all they’re going to do is preach that old-time religion? I’m free in grace, the law doesn’t bind me anymore. I’ll just marinate in my bliss.

Enlightenment did kill the god we thought we were supposed to be in the world. Grace put the trinity back in the divinity business. But most teachings forsook the “now what” reality of life and kept the Trinity in a box on a shelf just out of reach. No one seems to have considered the implications of, “how do you live heaven on earth?” particularly if this has always been the intention of the Trinity. After all, what would have the story been like if the man and woman hadn’t eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Would there have been an end of the innocence we seem so eager to return to?

Maybe it’s time to evaluate our doctrines of the finished work of the cross not from the vantage point of just being on the cusp of a new move of God but from being deep in the thick of one which has been ongoing since the creation event. How would knowing that Christ has been living in all the world throughout its entire history change your perceptions about living in the grace of the Father? Could it change how you see all people and their lives? Is it possible that grace truly is the end of our innocence in a make-believe world and the stepping stone into maturity where sons of the Father live the reality of being in two dimensions simultaneously?

Maybe it’s time to ask yourself the questions which have been brewing in your heart about the reality of heaven on earth and you being a part of it. Realize, however, it will be the end of your innocence.

Walk into any church across the landscape of religion and you can fit in real nice – accept for the elephant, which seems to take up the majority of the room, is going to cause you to get a little closer to people than you might really want too. Don’t be concerned, no one really pays attention to the elephant. You on the other hand…

Look around – really look – you’re not going to think there is anything abnormal. Elephants do that, they change perceptions. As a matter of fact, almost everyone you will see looks just like the people you work with, the students in your class, the servers at restaurant, and clerks at the grocery store. They look, but more importantly, they, even you, act alike. Elephants cause us to respond alike, how else can you maneuver around them without bumping into one another.

The grace movement has one inescapable truth: Everyone, no matter who or what their history, is included. There are no exclusions, period. Even elephants. Actually, the elephant in the room is the most “grace” event the earth has ever experienced. Everyone, smallest to biggest, obscure to prominent, walk around tethered to this grace-filled elephant.

You know the trouble with elephants in a room? No one wants to be the first to say it’s there. Some have even developed the knack to feign they are present at all even when they’re acting up. And it seems when elephants are acting up the most is when people are most ignorant to their presence, kind of an “out-of-sight-out-of-mind” thing.

So, what is this elephant we are all so attuned towards yet remiss in the social graces to acknowledge? Suffering.

We live in an age of improvement, self-help, arm-chair psychiatry. The majority of the church plunders the pages of the bible trying to find a prescription to an elephant-size issue which the entirety of humanity has faced since the dawning of self-discovery, continues to face today in massive proportions, and will continue to experience for time eternal it seems. Suffering.

Across our televisions we witness the atrocities of war inflicted upon non-combatants and think nothing of it simply because it doesn’t involve me and my four. However, the bread basket of this nation will sit on rapt attention every Sunday and listen to sermon after sermon about the battle we are fighting against the kingdoms of darkness. Who truly is suffering? Those who have lost limbs and loved ones or those who have lost their minds in the BS of religiosity? (Maybe both, the latter know viscerally, the former…)

Suffering varies for all. It may take the appearance of a medical condition; a failing business, a failing marriage or relationship; lack of finances or insurance; drug abuse; emotional and physical abuse; people who don’t think things through or those that over-think the simplest matters; political affiliations or social justice infractions; death of a loved one or the death of an estranged member of the family who left so many questions unanswered.

It is foolish to quantify suffering. Life, in case you haven’t realized yet, is not a game won by points accrued. I know people who deal 24/7 with massive medical/mental issues, yet the sufferings of their life come when an order for coffee isn’t correct! All hell has been turned loose on them because whip cream was added. It takes them years to recover from the trauma.

Why? This is the golden question of all suffering. It typically comes on the throws of a bout of high anxiety. “Why me? Why this? Why now? Why not so-and-so?” (That last iteration never is spoken as much as implied. Don’t deny it; we’ve all been there.) The answer to this question is not simple. But there are 3 basic reasons for the suffering.

1. You’re stupid. Not very encouraging I know, but if you don’t know, you don’t know. Stupid may not be the politically correct term to use but it gets the point across. You’re the reason, period. Your decisions and actions resulted in the suffering you’re experiencing. Sure, one or two of these might have been correct, however, suffering which is self-inflicted is the cumulative effect of stupidity.

2. You’re a victim. This suffering comes at the hands of another agent, often inadvertently, but can also be a result of malicious intent. Most who experience this form of suffering make every effort to overcome. There are those few who, regrettably, will see this as a reward, a badge of honor, and chose to remain rather than move on. See reason 1.

3. You’re human. This is the most denied reason by those in church. “I’m a spiritual being having a human experience,” is often the glib quote uttered as evidence to this denial. Without having to resort to reason 1, let me inform you that everything is spiritual, including your suffering. Here is a cherry-picked bible verse to confirm it.

1Pe 5:10-11
(10) But the God of all grace, who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
(11) To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

First, understand that this passage is part of a prayer; that is what “Amen” indicates. Who prays for someone to suffer? Well, apparently someone who recognizes that it is spiritual to do so. Notice that suffering lasts for a while, not eternally. Yes, it might last a lifetime, but not eternally. (I know, that is not very encouraging, but it removes the ability of us to say that this suffering has been going on forever.)

This verse gives us the answer to why humans suffer. Yes, it applies to agnostics, atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslim, Jews, Mormons, Jehovah Witness, democrats, republicans, socialists, communist, libertarians, hell, even Baptists, Protestants and Catholics get in on the actions. You’re probably not going to like this answer, so you better sit down or at least brace yourself.

All of us would like to feel established in our lives, settled in ever activity, strengthened in our character so that we could call ourselves perfect. This, regrettably, does not happen without suffering. Some suffering you’re experiencing right now is leveling you (it’s okay to admit it); you’re all shaky-wobblily, like a table on stone pavement. Your suffering is intended to make you firm and stable. It’s not going to prop you up but wear down the high spots which are causing you to tilt in the wind.

The biggest casualty to suffering that we all experience is the degrading blows our ego takes. We like to think of ourselves as indestructible, superman able to… Wake up and smell the coffee-scented roses, tiger. Suffering is designed to knock us down a few pegs in the ego department. As great as you might think you are, there is coming a moment which will hack off another inch of your self-imposed stature, despite how much you’ve been whittled down already. You’re not there yet – but you’re making good progress, right?

Look, the church has succumbed to the faith trap in order to deal with suffering. The trap – speaking those things that be not as though they are – closes the eyes to the reality of the situation, some which require immediate action to keep them from escalating into thermonuclear destruction. Congregants plaster fake smiles on their faces, rub palms with illusive people and praise God for the marvelous blessing they’re all waiting to receive if they could just get out of their daily hell by the skin of their teeth.

Consider this: Jesus tells his disciples that he his sending his Spirit to them, a Spirit he calls the Comforter. This is not a wool afghan designed to keep the chill off you in the wee hours of the morning, folks. People who suffer need comfort and the person who provides it is the Comforter. Also, why is Jesus referred to in the book of Isaiah as the suffering servant? Because…he…suffers? Right. God, in the human body of Jesus, suffered. “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” He suffered our stupidity, a human victim of our insufferable humanity.

I did not write this to be uplifting (obviously) or over-bearing (hopefully). Practicality is missing in most churches simply because we feel more willing to live with elephants than with flesh and blood experiencing life’s ebb and flow. The inclusive nature of God is to accept suffering as an authentic badge of humanity; it is the signpost of suffering that most of us are willing to disregard while proclaiming a “kingdom lifestyle.” It is however, the purest form of grace we all experience. We all have the grace to suffer. Elephants not included.