PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 28:1–6
Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
CONSIDER THIS
Just when we thought these kind-hearted islanders might be “people of the Way,” we learn otherwise. After the arrest and the ambush conspiracies and the two-year imprisonment and the two-week storm at sea and the shipwreck, Paul proceeds to get bitten by a snake—and not just any snake. This was a viper; probably the kind they make National Geographic shows about that kills you in five minutes or so.
As a throwback to last week’s reading on favor—favor doesn’t mean the snake doesn’t bite you. It means it doesn’t kill you.
People tend to be generally clueless much of the time. Within seconds of the snake biting Paul, they jumped to the conclusion that Paul must be a murderer and was being punished by the goddess Justice. Twenty minutes later, when Paul didn’t drop dead from the snakebite, they were adding Paul to their pantheon of gods. From a complete stranger to a convicted murderer to a god, and all in the span of a half hour.
What’s with this? We desperately want our world to make sense, to be explainable. You know, for every effect there must be a cause. It’s true to an extent, but it is a short step from our cause-and-effect mentality to the realm of karma. Jesus got this a lot. One day after coming upon a man who was blind from birth his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). They are asking the karma question, “Which cause led to this ill effect?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Jesus 1. Karma 0.
This campfire scene by the seashore looks a lot more like karma thinking than anything else. “What evil must this man have done to warrant being bitten by a snake?” The thinking behind that thinking goes like this: “I mean, the snake didn’t bite me. My record must be clean.”
We all tend to think things are going well for us because we deserve them to go well; or because we haven’t done anything that merits some kind of punishment. That’s karma thinking. This approach leads us to instinctively judge people for whom things are going badly. They must have done something wrong, we think. We can tend to make the opposite correlation when things are going well for someone. They must be living right, we think. This is our sense of justice.
And here’s the kicker. This is how we treat people if we think in these karma-like ways. We bless or curse people according to our assessment of what they deserve. This is the antithesis of amazing grace.
Isn’t it good news that God is not like us? Jesus could not have been more clear in the Sermon when he said:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:43–48)
The great good news is that God our Father, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, wills to make us like his Son who is perfect love. He is amazing grace personified. This kind of perfection is not the perfection of flawlessness. It is the perfection that means fullness. It is the perfection beyond our capacities. It must be given to us by God and received by faith. This is why it is amazing grace.
Do you believe it’s possible? Are you ready to go for it?
It means we will have to learn to “travel outside of karma” as Bono put it so well in his song—aptly titled “Grace.”
Translation: People are clueless much of the time. Love them anyway.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
Do you tend toward karma thinking in your assessment of why people are either suffering in difficult situations or blessed beyond measure? In other words—they had it coming.
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “Amazing Grace” (the “My Chains Are Gone” version) (hymn 574) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
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2 Responses
I do believe that “karma “ thinking is indeed the default condition of fallen man. It’s the way we can personally justify blessings and curses. But God’s grace comes along and throws a wrench into that way of thinking. Even as Christ followers who’ve been blessed with the indwelling Holy Spirit it is easy to slip back into that mindset. Lately I’ve been reading up on the contrast between the two most common theories on why Jesus came and suffered his crucifixion, penal substitutionary atonement versus Christus Victor, and the more popular view of PSA amongst Western Christianity seems to lend credibility to the “karma” type of thinking.
In the Old Testament, Eve listened to the snake in the Garden. When she obeyed it and she and Adam ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their lives were separated from God. They died spiritually and were separated from the Tree of Life.
In the New Testament, Paul shook the poisonous snake that bit him and hung from his hand into the fire. The strangers who saw it immediately partook of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They took the bad man/good man approach. They said: “This man must be a murderer,” and they expected Paul to drop dead. Then after waiting for his sudden death, but seeing nothing happen, they finally switched their opinion and said that Paul was a god.
However, Paul experienced and demonstrated the Tree of Life — a life-saving miracle from the living God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s time for Christians to shake off the snake of evaluating people as good or bad, right or wrong, left or right, and instead begin to demonstrate the miraculous life of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and His love and grace for all human beings.