Last week was the Chebogyan County Fair and so I took my three oldest. Among their favorite things to see were the horses. I admit that my knowledge of horses is extremely limited. But the one thing that amazes me is the way a rider/driver is able to control such a large and powerful animal by placing a bit in the mouth. The apostle James picks up exactly this picture to describe the way in which a person is controlled by their tongue (James 3:1-12). For those who prefer boating, he gives the analogy of the way a rudder steers a ship.
James counsels us here that if we wish to be pure and more like Christ, the place to begin is the tongue, because “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evils among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6) When we think of the necessity of controlling our words, we often think in terms of the reaction of others: if we life, people will not trust us; speak harshly and people will not like you. James points to a more personal reason for controlling the tongue – that sin in your speech will spread to the rest of your life. Read James 3:6 again and see how he describes the tongue as “a world of evils” that “corrupts the whole person”, setting the “whole course of his life on fire.” Yes, that little tongue is very powerful. And very dangerous. Not only to our listeners, but also to ourselves.
Yet, we as followers of Christ often fail to see the inconsistency in our lives of the way we use our tongues. We sing together on Sunday, “Bind Us Together” and then make snide remarks about a fellow member in the parking lot. We offer up a prayer that says “as we forgive those who trespass against us”, but hold a grudge for years about a slight someone made against us. We are challenged by Jesus to pray for our enemies, yet some of the most hateful, vitriolic speech I have seen during the current health care debate has come from those call themselves Christians. From left and right, from leaders and ordinary Christians, the gossip, slander, lies and meanness are simply unbelievable. I hear and read it and want to ask, “Do you praise your God with that same tongue?”, which is exactly the point James is making.
Back to the point – what James is telling us is that if we want to be more like Jesus, then we have to begin with that little part of our body that spreads so much evil and infects the rest of us. Yet, we say, “But, I can’t help it. I’m just a person who speaks their mind. I know I talk too much. I gossip, but it’s only a little stuff.” To all these, James says “Purify your speech. Be quick to listen, slow to speak. Discipline your tongue.” We cannot do it on our own, but with God’s help, it is possible. God desires to see us pure and will give wisdom to us when we ask (James 1:5). Ask him. Then begin to practice. When you disagree with someone, listen to them until you can’t stand it any more, then listen a little bit longer. Spend some time in silence: try a whole day without talking; the world will not fall apart because no one heard you. Memorize James 1:19. Let God’s Holy Spirit work on your tongue, and you will see the rest of your life transformed. And that is what we want – to be each day ever more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

For many, the day after Thanksgiving is the day to wake early and, armed with sale ads, stake out the stores for the best bargains on what has come to be known as Black Friday. The name apparently refers to retailers moving from being in the red to in the black (i.e. making a profit). In the Christian church calendar, Black Friday this year falls two days before the start of Advent, the days of preparation before the celebration of Christmas. Here in America, shopping and Christmas go together like hamburger and french fries. [Warning: I am going to say some things now that may make you a little uncomfortable, make you squirm a little and maybe even consider changing the way you do things. Please keep reading.]

Every year people tell me how overwhelmed they are by the shopping and the chaos of the Christmas season. Credit card bills soar. Stress levels peak. in the midst of it all, we lose sight of what matters most – that God put on flesh and bones and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:14, The Message) – that Jesus, the Son of God became a man to live among us and die for us. But don’t we give gifts to remember God’s gift to us? Yes, but do you really want me to think that anyone is thinking of God’s gift to us as they rip open the 86 elaborately wrapped packages under the tree? Do you want to try and convince me that the diamond earrings, 18V cordless drill, iPod, Barbie and Halo III help anyone grasp the height, depth and width of God’s love and sacrifice? Do I really think that a bigger present is going to lead my child into worship of God? What kind of character am I forming in myself and my family by shopping and spending?

Perhaps another Friday will help us regain perspective, what we know as Good Friday. Good Friday refers to the day on which Jesus was crucified, offering his life up as a sacrifice, demonstrating the way of discipleship, providing atonement for our sins and reconciling the world to God. What looked to the world like weakness was God’s greatest display of his glory. What seemed to be powerless was, along with the resurrection, the most powerful moment in history. What are you shaped by – the cross or the cash register?

Let me suggest a few simple steps that you might take to help you focus on Jesus this season, to turn from the idol of consumerism and worship the one who alone is worthy of praise. First of all, I give you permission to spend less this Christmas. Not just because the economy is bad but because it will be good for your soul. It will be an opportunity to say “I will not be a part of a consumer culture that seeks happiness in material things. I will not go into debt (further) and be farther into bondage into the empire of this world which worships wealth and power. Instead, I will worship the one who came helpless in poverty” Second, because God’s gift of his Son was relational and personal, when you do exchange gifts, make them something personal and relational in nature. Make something yourself. Put together a scrapbook. Record yourself reading for your grandchild, or yourself laughing. Rediscover the joy of giving less expensive gifts that are more meaningful and relational in nature. Third, remember the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40). Give some of the money that you saved to those in need, whether it be through local or global ministries. Help the local Salvation Army pay someone’s heating bill or help provide a well for a village through Living Waters, Int’l. Sponsor a Compassion Child or buy some extra groceries for the food pantry. That kind of giving will be an incredible act of worship and will shape your heart to be like Christ. Black Friday or Good Friday? Which one will start your holiday season?

When the Women’s Book Club decided to read the novel The Shack recently, I was asked what I thought.   What follows is the handout I have to the group:

For some of you this book may have been deeply moving and helpful in your walk with Christ, helping you to see things in a new and fresh way. For others, you may have had all sorts of red flags going up. For others (like myself), it was a trial just to get through the book. Here are some of my reactions to the book and some thoughts on what I liked and some concerns.

Introductory Thoughts

There is no shortage of discussion about The Shack as I discovered in just a few hours on the internet, from those whose lives and faith have been changed and strengthened to those who condemn it as heresy. Where do I fall? Not at either extreme. I don’t think it affected my faith very much, which is not an indictment of the book but a statement of fact. Perhaps the message of the book is not one that I needed at the moment, or maybe I already knew it. On the other hand, while I disagree with parts of the book, I am not prone to call for the book to be burned.

Not every book is a theology book, but every book has a theology. That is, every book says something about God and the universe He created, some certainly more than others. While a work of fiction, the Shack is “doing theology”, and more than many books. When you present God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – as characters in a book and put words in their mouth, you are doing theology.

Some might say, “I know it’s fiction, it’s not like I’m reading it to figure out what God is like.” The challenge is that every thing we read, watch, listen to, etc. has the potential to shape our view of God, even if subconsciously. I have had conversations with people in which they have talked about what God says or what God is like and the ideas that they had came from books or movies. Some of the comments were fine, others contradicted clear teaching in the Bible.

The point is that when reading a book like The Shack, we have to be aware of what is being taught (both implicitly and explicitly) and be able to sort things out in light of what the Bible teaches. I am not suggesting we never read books that have bad theology in them. My point is that we need to be so well soaked in Scripture that we can recognize truth and error. Below are some of the things I liked about The Shack and some places I would suggest discernment. (I am just going to use bullet points to try and keep this short. Page numbers reference the paperback edition.)

What I liked/positive about The Shack

• It reminds us that God cares about us and is interested in a relationship with us.

• I have some issues with the way Papa is done but it does help us rethink in what ways we have created an image of God and maybe put God in a box.

• We see all three persons of the Trinity and that they live in relationship with each other.

• We see a God who reaches out to people in their time of pain and helps them through it

• A good description of idolatry on p98 (although one might wonder if the author does not then fall prey to the trap of “taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can perceive, which often isn’t much, and then call that God.”)

• The suggestion that God understands that difficult earthly fathers make it hard for us to relate to Him as Father.

Areas for discernment

I realize that The Shack is not trying to present a full theology of the nature of God, the Trinity or theodicy (fancy theological word to discuss the issue of the co-existence of a good God and evil in the world). The Shack is very ambitious in trying to take on two of the most challenging theological topics – the trinity and theodicy – in a relatively short novel. The result often is a partial picture; and I can hardly give a well-reasoned response in a few brief sentences, but I will try to at least highlight the issues. Some of the statements below are just reminders of some balance needed, things we need to remind ourselves of.

• God is presented in a very personal way, reaching down to us where we are. But, God is also holy and in many ways so unlike us. Let us not forget that God is also the judge and the sovereign Lord, the one to whom the seraphim sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Think back on the Bible and the way people react when in the presence of God – they fall on their faces, they don’t eat scones with Him, swear around him, snap at him in anger (p96), or get angry and make God cry (p92).

On the trinity and the nature of God

• In the novel, we see the Father with scars from the cross (p96) – not what the Bible would suggest- just the Son.

• Only the Son become incarnate, not all three as suggested by “we three spoke ourselves into existence as the Son of God” (p99) See also “Papa crawled inside of your world” (p165).

• There is much confusion in the book about submission, authority and power.The Shack

• I am not sure what the whole “I am a verb” discussion (p204-7) was supposed to say, but it just didn’t come off right.

The cross, sin and salvation

• We need to think more than The Shack does about how suffering and the cross are related.

• Jesus is not simply the best way to relate to God (forgot the page) where “Jesus” says this, but the only way.

• “Papa” says, “I don’t need to punish sin…” (p120); does this in any way fit with what we see of God and sin in Scripture? We see God giving people over to their sins in Romans 1, but there is some difference.

• The whole conversation on p182 (“Those who love me come from every system … I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want them to join in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa … Most roads don’t lead anywhere”) is one of the most muddled parts of the book. How do these compare with narrow is the path to life and broad the path to destruction (Mt 7:13-14) or go and make disciples (Mt 28:18-20).

Theodicy

- Entire books are written on this; The Shack draws on some common arguments, including our failure to see the whole picture. Many of these really What strikes me is that this is one of the primary issues of the book, yet the most poorly developed. Part of the problem it seems to me is that what the Bible teaches is that God’s love and holiness cannot be reconciled with the world’s evil; in other words, what the Bible talks about is not trying to understand how God and evil exist at the same time but instead showing us God’s plan and action to overcome and destroy evil. We see a God who chooses to suffer to redeem us from suffering, and there is not a whole lot of that here. In my opinion, a discussion of theodicy from a Christian perspective must deal a lot with the cross and here we find mostly some sentimental God being sad.

CONCLUSION:

You will have to decide for yourself, testing it against the Bible. There are some good insights and some helpful challenges to us. There are also times where things, in my mind, are a bit muddled. If it has helped you to grow, or to go back to the Bible to search for answers, or helped you see something in a fresh way, then praise God. May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Consider these hard economic times pure joy, my brothers and sisters. Did you know that’s in the Bible? Well, not exactly those words. What James 1:2 says is “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever your face trials of many kinds,” (TNIV). Is it fair to take James words and use them the way that I have? I think so. I have been spending a lot of time with James lately (through his letter), trying to understand what he has to say to followers of Jesus in 2008.

James wrote his letter maybe 15 years after the death of Jesus to Christians who had been scattered by persecution. They were facing challenging economic and social barriers as they were excluded because of their faith. We are facing challenging times also, although I don’t think it is as directly connected with our faith. Or, at least in the sense that Christians aren’t refused at the gas pumps because of their faith. In the midst of difficult times, James tells these Jesus-followers that they should consider their trials pure joy.

Is James suggesting a pie in the sky attitude that pretends as if the world is not as bad as it really is? Should we just say, “I don’t care if I can’t afford groceries, I’m a happy Christian!” No, I think James offers us spiritual insight into dealing with hard times. We should consider them pure joy, he says, “because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:3-4, TNIV) When we face hard times, we should see in them an opportunity for God to grow and shape us, for our faith to be fired and transformed.

As our economy falters and uncertainty rolls in over the horizon, we have a choice to make. We can despair and complain. Or, we can consider the hard times pure joy by seeing them as an opportunity to build our dependence on God. By seeing that these hard times might help us to evaluate what is truly important, if there are material possessions that we have idolized, to ponder where we have truly put our trust. James does not tell us that we have to enjoy the difficult times. I am not saying that we ought to be happy when friends and family lose their homes. Nor am I suggesting that we ought not to pray for economic vitality.

What I am suggesting is that in hard times like these, we can embrace the opportunity for spiritual growth in ourselves and in others. We can say to God, “Lord, please use these challenging times to shape and mold us into the image of your Son. Show me the ways that I have been conformed to the pattern of this world. Renew my mind and help me be transformed. In these hard times, purify my faith, like gold in a fire.”

I had a rowing coach in college who would tell us, “Pain is only weakness leaving the body.” We didn’t enjoy the pain at the time, but on race day, we were glad that the weakness had been purged through the pain. Our faith life is much the same. We don’t have to enjoy the difficult times, but we can rejoice in the way those painful days produce a mature faith. I close with the lyrics of a song by Keith Getty, “When trials come, no longer fear, for in the pain our God draws near, and fires a faith worth more than gold. And there is faithfulness is told.”