Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain

Watching the Wizard of Oz on CBS was an annual tradition in my home growing up. I can still quote many of the lines from the film and sing most of the songs word for word. What I didn’t realize, until recently, was all the parallels the films storyline has to the biblical event of the tearing of the veil in the temple.

The Bible describes the moment Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” and died that the thick curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom (Mt 27:51). What is troubling is that when the curtain was ripped in two, there was no magical deity sitting behind it. It was just a curtain; it was just a building. Which naturally should lead one to question what, if anything was really going on behind this veil once a year. Was the yearly priestly practice just another ploy for man-made systems to exploit God’s people?

Did God’s presence really dwell in a temple, isolated behind a curtain?

Scripture clearly states, in unmistakable terms, that God does not live in temples built by human hands (Acts 17:24). The curtain in the temple created a barrier between God’s presence and his people, and it separated those who had authority to go behind it from those who did not. When it was torn apart the power shifted away from the Religious authorities and was given to all people. The people no longer had to be threatened by the temple that hid the one and only big magic man in their midst. It’s like the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Toto reveals that the mighty wizard is really just a man behind the curtain. Likewise Jesus’ death is the ultimate anti-temple statement. The scam is exposed. There is nothing behind the curtain. Meaning, there’s no place where God is and isn’t. No more smoke and mirrors, God is found among us and we are the real temples where real communion with God can be experienced.

Some Thoughts on Pentecost

We are the Temple of the living God (1 Cor. 6:19). The reality of such an idea profoundly struck me this week. With the celebration of Pentecost only a few days away, our attention is once again drawn back to the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the early church. Before the construction of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, God revealed his glory in the tent or tabernacle that Moses constructed. It was there that God would come, dwell, and meet with his people. “Let them make me a sanctuary,” the Lord spoke to Moses, “that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25:8). It was there that “the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and [there that] the Lord would speak with Moses” (Ex. 33:9). It was there that “the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34). The tabernacle was where the people of Israel would draw near to hear from God, to worship God, and to stand in his presence (cf. Lev. 9:23; Num. 14:10).

Any reading of Acts or John, the two main places in the NT where the Spirit plays a large part, reveals that Pentecost is a time of great awakening to challenges facing God’s people both in the world and in their own life, and of the urgent need for the inspiration, strengthening and guiding of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is about God’s kingdom being established here on earth. It’s about heaven and earth coming together as they were always meant to be.

N.T. Wright says, “Pentecost is therefore to be seen as the moment when the personal presence of Jesus with the disciples is translated into the personal power of Jesus in the disciples; because Pentecost signals the mode and means by which the chief executive is putting his new authority into operation.”

According to Paul, God has established a new temple in us (1Cor. 3:16-17). In other words, we are the new dwelling place for God’s Spirit. Think about the implications that God’s constant abiding presence in us should have on how we conduct our everyday life. Pentecost is about the presence of God with his people; about the implementation of Jesus’ healing and whole life salvation for all; and it signals the final day when heaven and earth shall be one. It isn’t just that the Spirit is the ‘down payment’ of what is to come for us as his people; the Spirit is the advance sign of what God is going to do for the whole earth, the entire created order. God continues to pour out his Spirit on us so that we can both be and accomplish his new creation in our self and in the world.

Compartmentalizing Faith and Ministry

Our lives are very compartmentalized. We act a certain way at our job, then another way with our friends, and yet an entirely different way with relatives, and so forth. Our values, attitudes, beliefs, and language often change depending on the specific environment and/or situation. We wouldn’t exactly speak about the same topics to our grandparents as we do with our spouse.

Unfortunately, we do the same with our faith. However, our faith isn’t some compartment that can be reserved for times when it is convenient for us. It should be the very foundation on which every part of our life stands. Meaning, you should let your faith bleed through every single area of your life. If we place our “spiritual life” in a “faith” compartment in our minds, isolated away from other behavior or activity, then it automatically means we have other compartments that are not bound by that faith.

My fear is that we have also compartmentalized our ministry by manipulating God and forcing him into a box. In so doing, we’re fooled into believing that we have some kind of control over what happens in our churches and can conveniently open or close that box whenever God is needed or wanted. What would happen in our churches if we released God on our people and trusted that the Spirit of God knows exactly what it’s doing as it moves uncontrollable among us? Do we have enough faith to let go and surrender our lives and ministries to God?

My prayer is that we would smash the hell out of the boxes we have created, giving God full control and trusting him with every single aspect of our lives.

Free to Stop Lying

In the movie Flight, Denzel Washington plays William “Whip” Whitaker, the captain of the fictional Southern Airlines. On the job he is charming, confident and utterly in control. But we soon learn that this persona is merely a mask hiding a proud, fractured, damaged psyche, and a man who is suffering from alcohol abuse. Intoxicated, but in control (which seems like a contradiction in terms – but, so is Whip’s life), is the shape Captain Whitaker is in one rainy morning, when he pulls his jet up high above the clouds on a routine 56-minute trip from Orlando to Atlanta. When the plane he is flying experiences mechanical failures, Whitaker is forced to crash-land in a South Georgia field, saving 96 of the 102 passengers on board.

At a hearing, to investigate the crash, the lead NTSB investigator, reveals that the cause of the plane's malfunction was a damaged jackscrew in the elevator assembly, and commends Whip on his valor and ability to land the plane under such conditions. Just when it appears that she will be letting Whip escape culpability, she raises suspicion around two empty alcohol containers found in the trash on the plane; which Whip knows were his. The investigator goes on to point out that only the flight crew had access to the alcohol, and only two of the flight crewmembers failed the toxicology testing following the crash (Captain Whitaker and a deceased female stewardess). In an intense scene that follows, Whip, tearfully, admits not only that he was flying intoxicated but also that he is intoxicated at the hearing.

Thirteen months later, an imprisoned Whip, serving a minimum five-year sentence, tells a support group of fellow inmates that he’s glad to be sober and does not regret doing the right thing. "That was it,” he says. “I was finished. I was done. It was as if I had reached my lifelong limit of lies. I could not tell one more lie." Despite incarceration, Whip concludes, "For the first time in my life, I'm free."

But, what is it that Whip feels “free” from? It’s not his alcoholism, for that is merely a byproduct of an inner struggle (i.e. a gnawing emptiness inside that he hides through appearing to have it all together). The freedom he speaks of is his being able to stare intently into the mirror of self-criticism, and to accept his fallen condition. He has to admit what’s really going on in his life to experience freedom from it. Captain Whitaker’s path to healing and transformation comes only when he painfully looks into the face of his wounds, and gives language to them.

Flight insists that we also look unblinkingly into that shadowy void of our darkest recesses. It challenges us to stop hiding the truth of who we really are in a façade of self pageantry, to come clean, to step out into the open, were lies, masks, and other pretenses do not exist. When we finally come to a place where we’re able to do that, we will experience what it really means to truly be free.

Threshold of Decisions

Anytime we are standing on the threshold of decision, whether that decision is a major or minor one, we’re often making those decisions based on what many refer to as faith. It is assumed that such faith involves us taking obedient steps forward, often, into the unknown. Like Indiana Jones’ leap of faith in the Last Crusade. Indy, however, is relying more on what he knows to be true, rather than jumping blindly into the unfamiliar. It just might be that faith is the reality that enables us to see. If so, then such faith would make it possible to grasp what waits before us or to understand what lies behind us.

In Hebrews, Paul describes faith as a way of living. He says that while it cannot be denied, faith also cannot be render into something tangible. Ultimately, such a definition of faith would require great sacrifice on the part of anyone who would choose to live it out. If faith is a mode of life rather than a blind step we take here or there, then what others might perceive as failure, or a step backward, could actually be an example of one’s faith being lived out.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we have this perception that true faith never looks back, and always moves forward, trusting God with the unknown. But what if it takes just as much faith to step into what we actually know and can see? And what if that involves us stepping back from the threshold we now stand before? Many would interpret that as having no faith at all. However, it is my understanding that the examples that Paul gives in Hebrews were all acting on what they knew, could trust, and could see. If that is faith being lived out, then stepping back into what I know and can understand is also a great leap of faith.

a subtle disenfranchisement

I personally experienced an indirect disenfranchisement and subtle rejection from the Body of Christ.  By indirect I mean that it took time for me to realize that I was not really a part of the community in which I felt called to minister.  As a result, I slowly began to reject myself, and forfeited my own identity to embrace the status quo of religion and its clones. I knew that as long as I could perform like a circus clown, or monkey on a leash, I would be accepted. Deep inside, however, I realized that the moment I stepped outside of those boundaries set for me by the suggested rules of my doctrine I would be handed a scarlet letter.

I have tattoos, I like to drink alcohol, and occasionally I smoke cigars. These were the very things that my said religion called worldly, and the religious institution I was a member of rejected in its pursuit of Christian perfection. The craziest thing is, the community “I was a part of” was working so hard to become separated from people like me, I could either to drink the Kool-Aid or accept the rejection I already felt. When I realized that I could not live up to the expectations placed upon me by the religious establishment, and that I was one of the people that the church was openly separating itself from, I inevitably hide myself in plain sight. All the while hoping that someone, anyone, would actually come along and free me from the mundane routine of playing church. In an environment that taught grace and freedom in Christ, I was instead handed a mask to wear around so that I could actually fit in and be acceptable. For over a decade, I jumped through the hoops, wore the uniform, said all the right things, and ultimately rejected the people that Jesus valued most during his time on this planet. I was so lost, so tired, and felt rejected by the people I loved.

My own rejection made it difficult for me to embrace my neighbor. Instead of loving others, insecurities (i.e. my inability to accept the real me) created a sort of warped judgment within me. I was hiding inside a community that I had to lie to myself to be a part of. The only way to free myself from the bondage I was experiencing was to separate myself from the conventional church setting. When I finally decided that I was done playing all these games with others and myself, I found real freedom in Christ and began the process of accepting me.

Acknowledging Responsibility

This morning I caught the first of a six part BBC documentary series title Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. The documentary examines the historical facts surrounding WWII’s most horrific and infamous Jewish extermination facility. What was most troubling, and has always bothered me in regards to the Holocaust, is the refusal to acknowledge the atrocity of the situation as it was occurring. Certainly many Germans, and others, who were not directly involved in the extermination of Jews, knew what was going on and did nothing. And while we can try and justify their reasons for turning their heads to the terror – the fact remains that they turned their heads. I cringe at the thought that people knew and did nothing, but how is this any different than those of us who refuse to acknowledge the atrocity of the slaughter of 50 million babies in this country alone since Roe vs. Wade?

In the aftermath of these criminal actions, we are flabbergasted to think of the inhuman execution of Jews by gassing, and wonder why such crimes that were preventable were allowed to occur. Ultimately, the answer lies in ones refusal to acknowledge and accept responsibility. For as long as we ignore what’s happening we don’t feel a sense of responsibility to change it. Whether it’s the execution of 4.1 million Jews at Auschwitz or the abortion of 1.2 million infants in this country every year, we must acknowledge and accept responsibility for this present day genocide if it is ever going to come to an end.

In most instances, it’s in the aftermath that we acknowledge, and therefore, express embarrassment and sense of responsibility for such atrocities. It’s hard to believe that people are capable of treating others the way that German Nazi’s treated Jews during WWII, or white Americans treated blacks before and during the Civil Rights Movement in this country.   

Who in the 1950's or 1960's could have dreamed that our government would have made it an undeniable right (Law) that a woman could contract a so-called "doctor" to reach into her uterus with forceps and crush the head of a well-formed thinking and feeling baby, pull apart the baby's limbs with cold steel instruments and burn its small body with saline solution?

Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Yehuda Levin of Brooklyn, New York, a prominent pro-life activist, agrees that abortion is genocide. He says that it can fairly be compared to the Holocaust, lynching’s and every other crime against humanity. The rabbi argues that: “Each form of genocide, whether Holocaust, lynching, abortion, etc., differs from all the others in the motives and methods of its perpetrators. But each form of genocide is identical to all the others in that it involves the systematic slaughter, as state sanctioned "choice," of innocent, defenseless victims -- while denying their "personhood."

So, we can continue to deny and justify the genocide of innocent children in this country, or accept responsibility and begin to demand change. 70 years from now, I wonder if my children’s kids will ask why this generation did nothing to stop the horrific events that happen daily to unborn children in medical facilities around this country, why we turned our heads to the atrocity of abortion?