Hebrews 3:12-19. Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart.
"...unbelieving heart" - Putting this is a positive statement, we should have a believing heart. But what are we to believe? Do we follow the popular beliefs of our culture or do we follow the traditions handed down to us?
In my view, the popular beliefs are like trying to stand on shifting sand. There is no solid basis or foundation. What did Jesus say about the man who built his house on the sand? When the storms of life come and the wind blows, the house will come crashing down. I prefer to follow St. Vincent of Lerins who said, "Hold fast that faith which has been believed everywhere, always and by all." Kind of sounds alot like the positive side of what is stated in Hebrews 3:12.
Hebrews 3:13 ...so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
"...the deceitfulness of sin". Pretty much says it all. Oh, I forgot, there is no such thing as sin anymore. Now, who is being deceived? Lord have mercy on us all.
3 comments:
You've given us a hard choice.
Believe popular, culture-driven tripe,
-OR-
Believe what's written in the Bible.
To make a clear-cut choice between the two we must first assume that the two have no overlap, and secondly that only one represents a Christain posture.
Both assumptions are faulty.
To believe only what is written in the Bible would be to turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of its text. You need only read passages speaking of owning slaves and excluding women's rights to expose the many time-frozen aspects of this Holy text.
On the other hand, to believe only that which the popular culture of the day has to offer would be foolhardy indeed in an age where blamelessness is equated to "godliness."
I believe God calls us to be the intelligent, thinking humans he created us to be, and to continually apply the Christian way of life to our daily lives and work. Christiantiy, like any LIVING body will grow and change over time, but if it is to remain true to the DESIRE of God, we cannot dismiss the world He created, the sin-filled world in which we live, in an attempt to be closer to Him. To dismiss our world is to dismiss our God.
The cowardly answer to any crisis is to run away and hide in hopes things will return to "normal," at which time it will be safe to return and continue where we left off. Perhaps that's what Jesus should have done when faced with Death simply because of his words, which we know broke serious religeous laws of his day. Yes, Jesus should have run away and hidden until another, less contraversial world was ready to accept Him and his message without a fight.
Part of the continuing challenge of living in God's creation is the role of stewardship. We are called to care for and husband His creation. This call includes service to Our Lord and our fellow man. This service requires us to protect not only our natural environment but our cultural heritage, our cultural environment as well. Each generation must balance the need for continuity with the need or necessity for change.
The problem with our modern cultural condition is an almost continuous absolute addiction to change. We no longer attempt to use our reason to judge the need for change or improvement, but merely debate how much and how rapid the change should be.
In looking to our duty to God we are also called on to balance the roles of conservator and innovator. There are passages in scripture that clearly apply to a particular time and place. Many of the requirements for ceremony and ritual would come under this category. However, there are also many passages and pronouncements that apply to the ages and are not contingent or relative. The moral law comes within this last category.
It is tempting to see ourselves as standing on a hill, looking down and back on those who have come before. Oh how high and far we have come. But we need to remember that our God is a master of all time and places and He has already seen our troubles and temptations and told us what we need to know. Nothing has changed in human nature, including sexual practices, that will or can surprise God.
Exactly! My point exactly, though more elegantly put, I must say.
Balance is crucial to living in the world around us while maintaining a Godly life. Maintaining tradition and basing our actions on solid values handed down through generations is a wonderful way to do just that.
I also agree that we are not on the top a hill looking back down at where we have come from. Quite the opposite. We are at the base of a tall mountain wondering how we'll ever make it even just half-way-up, let alone make it to the top!
This time of Lent gives us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on these and many other difficult issues that Christians must deal with all their lives. But as we all know, "difficult issues" are nothing new for Christians. So if it wasn't human sexuality causing us grief, it would be something else. Guaranteed.
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