Pretension Busters: Ambition

www.despair.com --"Increasing success by lowering expectations" (so much like the Old Adam and the Old Eve)

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

After a few days,

the younger son gathered together all he had

and left on a journey to a distant country,

and there he squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle.

Luke 15:13

Ahh... the arrogance of this son: demanding an inheritance before the old man had even had the decency to "drop dead." Then the ingrate runs off to be free of the family's and the community's disapproving gaze so he could enjoy all the delights of the so-called freedom his wealth could buy for him. This cheeky little ingrate soon realizes that no matter how long his journey from home may have been, he cannot escape life's realities: freedom is costly, even so-called freedom must be bought with a price.

This selfish jerk of a son makes his long journey of vainglorious ambition so he can live "high on the hog" until he's literally "feeding the pigs"--a bad ending to his long journey into ridicule. The Apostle Paul pairs this concept of "vainglorious ambition" with that of Jesus' ambition when he writes his letter to the Philippians. There in chapter two, he uses two words: "kenodoxia" (vs. 3) and "ekenoesen" (vs. 7)--both based on the same root word "kenoo"--to contrast selfish ambition with Jesus' self-emptying.

Paul's connection let's us see Jesus' story and the prodigal son's stories in their differences and similarities. The prodigal wishes his father dead and demands his inheritance; runs off and squanders it. Jesus' father sends him off to die but before he goes he surrenders his inheritance. Their similarity is that both have a "bad ending to their journey," ending up disgraced and/or dead. Finally, at the last, both sons are thrust upon their father's love and mercy.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world might be saved through him."

John 2:16-17

Pretension Busters: Agony

www.despair.com --"Increasing success by lowering expectations" (so much like the Old Adam and the Old Eve)

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

We were pregnant, we strained,

we gave birth, as it were, to wind.

We cannot produce deliverance on the earth;

people to populate the world are not born.

^{Isaiah 26:18}

^{In his great book: The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker names the fear--the reality--that everyone MUST come to grips with but studiously avoids--that is, every life ends in death. This fear, this reality brings about a condition that Becker names our "Generative Death Anxiety." He then goes on to demonstrate how our cultures--our religions--are fashioned to help us cope with this very specific anxiety by covering it up and keeping it out of mind. We work very hard, endure great sacrifice, and use force and coercion to maintain those cultural and religious drapes over our Generative Death Anxiety.}

^{Our agony comes when specific tenets of our culture or of our religion come under challenge from some competitor. This competitor can be another culture or religion; it can be reason or science; or, God himself can be the source of challenge and confrontation. When gripped by the realization that the "old ways" are not viable any longer, when the covering is ripped off of our Generative Death Anxiety and we are skewered by the sharp point of mortality salience and, when we no longer can coerce or enforce our cultural or religious death-denial mechanisms, then lament is ripped from our throats and in agony we confess our condition.}

^{But... Thanks be to God that he has heard the cries of his people and has come down to deliver them! (Exodus 3:7-8) Jesus Christ, the very Son of God born of woman, came into the world, entered the reality of humanity's Generative Death Anxiety, and experienced the sharp end of mortality salience--only to be vindicated by God raising him from the dead. (Isaiah 53:4) Joined with him as we are by baptism into his death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4), we no longer have death awaiting us at life's end. Death is behind us for we have been drowned in the waters of baptism--sinners killed by the just judgment of the Word of God. Therefore, since our life is now Christ (Galatians 2:20) and he is raised from the dead nevermore to die again (Romans 6:9), Generative Death Anxiety no longer afflicts us and the sharp pointed end of mortality salience has become a comfortable resting place.}

^{For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.}

^{Philippians 1:21}

Pretension Busters--

Adversity

www.despair.com --"Increasing success by lowering expectations" (so much like the Old Adam and the Old Eve)

Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present

unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work

--Martin Luther

(Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 11)

In times of prosperity be joyful, but in times of adversity consider this:

God has made one as well as the other, so that no one can discover what the future holds.

Ecclesiastes 7:14

"What does not kill me, makes me stronger." Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1888. German philosopher (1844 - 1900) The son of a Lutheran pastor, Nietzsche was able to "sniff out" the hypocrisy of religion but, having no faith in Christ and thrust upon his own powers, he was made mad and lived out the end of his days in an asylum.

The great paradox at the center of faith in Christ is the one where reason ends; it is the place where religion is afraid to look and falters; it is the place where atheism begins. Yet, when we are held in the faith of Christ, this paradox terminates free will and births faith.

You may remember that a paradox is when you must declare two contradictory statements in order to speak the truth. Both of these statements must be held in tension; neither can stand alone and the tension must not be resolved; the truth resides in the way each statement counters the "absolutism" of the other.

The great paradox at the center of faith in Christ is this:

The absolute necessity of God;

and

The total responsibility of humanity.

What does this mean? In the first place it means that--for God to be God--God must absolutely and necessarily will all things: God wills, works, demands, and brings about everything that is; nothing that is is without God. In the second place it means that--for us to be human--each and every one of us (each human being) bears the total and entire responsibility for what they do, say, think, and feel; every person will be held accountable under that awesome and terrible responsibility; nothing human is without that accountability--there's no one but ourselves to blame.

So...

God, in order to make saints, does not amend the lives of sinners; he does not "help" them to be stronger, smarter, or more sincere. God doesn't use "adversity" to make the sinner stronger and more boastful in the self. No, God puts the sinner on a cross (just like Jesus'--Matthew 10:38) so that the sinner will die--no "postponing the inevitable." Out of that death on account of sin, God raises up a saint to walk in newness of life.

Therefore, so that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble me – so that I would not become arrogant. I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me. But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10