Archives by: Gary Hoag

Do not set your hearts on the godless world or anything in it. Anyone who loves the world is a stranger to the Father’s love. Everything the world affords, all that panders to the appetites, or entices the eyes, all the glamour of its life, springs not from the Father but from the godless world. And that world is passing away with all its allurements, but he who does God’s will stands for evermore. 1 John 2:15-17

“There is a pervasive ambivalence throughout the New Testament writings wherever the church’s attitude to the world in which it exists comes to expression. On the one hand, the world is God’s world, created by God and loved by God, currently alienated from God, it is true, but destined to be redeemed and reconciled to God.

On the other hand, the world is dominated by a spirit totally opposed to God, organized in such a way as to exclude God, drawn towards unworthy goals of material status and self-interest, quite different from the goals towards which the Christian way leads. In this latter aspect, the world is, according to the NEB rendering, “the godless world”…

Everything the world affords, all that panders to the appetites and entices the eyes, all the glamour of its life, springs not from the Father but from the godless world. And that world is passing away with all its allurements, but he who does God’s will stands forevermore” (1 John 2:15-17).

The Christian is sent into the godless world to reclaim it for its rightful Lord, but while it remains “the godless world” it is an uncongenial environment for the Christian…in the world but not of it, involved and detached at the same time…Seeing you have come to know the truth, beware of imitations and refuse all substitutes.”

F.F. Bruce in “The Church in the World” in The Message of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973) 89-90, 99.

During Lent we fast from things that are temporal to broaden our bandwidth for the eternal.

Today, NT scholar, F.F. Bruce, reminds us that that we as Christians are here for purpose, to reclaim the godless world for its rightful Lord. To do this we must not be enticed by the things of this world, which are leading hindrances to generosity. We must have a “pervasive ambivalence” toward these things to keep our focus.

Can you identify things that allure and entice you? Perhaps after identifying them, when you see them the next time, remind yourself to “beware of imitations and refuse all substitutes” because the godless world and all its glamour is passing away, but the one who does God’s will stands for evermore!

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave Him up for us all — how will he not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

“It usually takes loss or deprivation in some measure for most of us to count the blessings we so readily take for granted. The loss of material things is not to be compared with the loss of people we love, but most of us have experienced both, and it is things we are considering now…

The first lesson is that things are given by God. Make no mistake, my friends. All good giving, every perfect gift, comes from above from the Father of the lights of heaven [James 1:17]…

The second lesson is that things are given us to be received with thanksgiving. God gives. We receive…Because God gives us things indirectly, by enabling us to make them with our own hands (out of things He has made, of course), or to earn the money to buy them, or to receive them through someone else’s giving, we are prone to forget that He gave them to us…

The third lesson is that things can be material for sacrifice. This is what is called the eucharistic life. The Father pours out His blessings on us; we, His creatures, receive them with open hands, give thanks, and lift them up as an offering back to Him, thus completing the circle…

This lesson leads naturally to the fourth, which is that things are given to us to enjoy for a while…The Bible says, “God…endows us richly with all things to enjoy” [1 Tim. 6:17]. It also says, “Do not set your hearts on the godless world or anything in it” [Col. 3:2]. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should enjoy things made for us to enjoy. What is not at all fitting is that we should set our hearts on them. Temporal things must be treated as temporal things — received, given thanks for, offered back, but enjoyed. They must not be treated like eternal things…

And there is a fifth: all that belongs to Christ is ours, therefore, as Amy Carmichael wrote, “All that was ever ours is ours forever.” We often say that what is ours belongs to Christ. Do we remember the opposite: that what is His is ours? That seems to me a wonderful truth, almost an incredible truth. If it is so, how can we really “lose” anything?”

Elisabeth Elliot in Discipline: The Glad Surrender (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1982) 105-117.

These five ideas serve as a basic theology for the “eucharistic life” for each of us. The term “eucharistic” celebrates that we acknowledge that all we have received  — gifts of grace upon gifts of grace — cause us to be filled with gratitude so that we gratefully receive, enjoy, and return everything back to God. When we live this way our lives reflect God’s generosity. We choose this way of living this because we have come to realize that generosity is God’s design for temporal things. When we hold on to them, we lose, but when we let go of them, and thus rightly relate to them, we gain.

God help us by your Holy Spirit in this Lenten season and beyond to exhibit these five lessons on things so that others may see our example and make the choice to join us in living eucharistic lives for You. Hear our prayer in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself up for us all, to purchase us with His blood on the cross. Amen.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Ecclesiastes 3:1

“The most important aspects of our lives cannot be rushed. We cannot love, think, eat, laugh, or pray in a hurry…When we are in a hurry – which comes from overextension – we find ourselves unable to live with awareness and kindness.”

James Bryan Smith in The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows (Downers Grove: IVP, 2010) 180.

Jenni and I flew to California yesterday for a few days of rest and to see our daughter, Sophie, perform in the Spring musical at San Diego Christian College. We also get to spend time with Jenni’s parents, our niece and her husband, and Sophie’s boyfriend. Special occasions like these are gifts from God (speaking of gifts from God, last night’s sunset in La Jolla, pictured above, was amazing).

Our lives are full, that’s for sure, but we try to avoid functioning “in a hurry” because as Smith puts it, in that condition we are “unable to live with awareness and kindness.” We must have margin in our lives. The parable of the priest, the Levite, and the good Samaritan is a great example of this (Luke 10:25-37). Two appear in a hurry and one had space to be generous.

Are you in a hurry? Part of fasting in Lent is making margin for that which is best. Perhaps assess your schedule during this season so that after Easter – though life may be full – you will have time for loving, thinking, eating, laughing, praying, and giving.

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores. Luke 16:19-20

“The name Lazarus, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew “God has helped,” enables us to understand the meaning of the passage a little clearer. The reason that the poor man (Lazarus) went to Abraham’s side is not because he was poor but because he relied on God and therefore, “God helped him.”

The reason that the rich man went to hell is not because he was rich, but rather he saw himself as self-sufficient and therefore not needing God’s help. It is a parable about a rich man who was self-centered, concerned only about himself and his luxurious lifestyle, and a person who relied on God, for “God has helped” him.”

John Gore in A New Look at the Last Things (Eugene: Resource, 2011) 22.

Who are you in this story? Are you the rich, self-sufficient character or the poor person who experiences the help of God? 

The nefarious thing about riches is that when we possess them, we are tempted to trust in them. With cryptic clarity, Jesus warns His hearers that money can’t save anyone, but it can destroy them. This reveals yet another reason to be generous with money.

Those who hold on to money and focus on preserving a luxurious lifestyle should not worry about it burning a hole in their pockets, but fear that it may burn a hole in their hearts.

One aspect of Lent, almsgiving or giving to the poor, is designed to open our eyes and hearts to the people in need around us like Lazarus who lived in close proximity to the rich man in the parable in Luke 16:19-31.

It’s also a wake-up call to the rich not to trust in riches but to use them to help others even as God helped Lazarus. Even as God sees, hears, and helps those who depend on Him, may He give us eyes to see, hear, and help those in need around us.

And lest we fear that our generosity will leave us empty, we can take confidence that even as God has helped Lazarus, He too will enrich us and help us.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Philippians 4:8

“Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on divine order.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that has the power to move mountains.”

Paul Sibley in “Fasting and Feasting in Lent”. Special thanks to Scott Bailey, a great pastor and friend, for forwarding this list to me.

The list of things to “fast from” contains many of the leading hindrances to generosity. Did any stick out to you as something you may need to fast from so that you can feast instead?

As we feast on that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and praiseworthy, generosity does not comprise good works we do as Christians; it describes who we become in Christ.

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. John 12:32-33

“The ungenerous are known as grasping and close-fisted, whereas openness is the mark of generosity. The “opened treasures” put the Magi forever among the generous [Matthew 2:11]. The valiant woman is generous: “She hath opened her hand to the poor” [Proverbs 31:20]. The world with all its goods is a mark of the generosity of God. “Thou openest Thy hand and fillest with blessing every living creature” [Psalm 145:16].

The openness is characteristic of our Lord. His hand was ever open in gifts and blessings. “Sell all thou hast and give” was His teaching and practice [Mark 10:21]. His arms were opened wide to welcome the young and innocent as well as the sinful and old. And it is with generosity as with every other virtue; His heart found special, tender ways of teaching it.

All His virtues reached their highest in the Passion, and there, too, generosity attained to perfection. “And I,” cried our Lord, “if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself” [John 12:32]. The open hands and open arms of generosity got a new meaning from the cross. He put Himself there to show that He wanted to die giving, to be fastened firmly in the action characteristic of generosity.”

Francis Patrick Donnelly in “The Generous Heart” in The Heart of Revelation (New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1917) 99-100.

Each day of Lent brings us closer to the Passion, closer to the openness of Jesus, who from the cross draws all people to Himself. Do we reflect the openness and generosity of Christ toward others? I think that we are quick to open our arms to the “young and innocent” but slow to embrace the “sinful and old” around us.

Father in heaven, as we journey to the cross, captivate our hearts with the generous openness of Jesus so that, by your Holy Spirit, our lives extend generous openness to everyone, from the young and innocent to the sinful and old. In your mercy, hear my prayer, for without such openness we cannot at all be generous.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 1 Timothy 6:6-7

“We didn’t even know what moderation was. What it felt like. We didn’t just work: we inhaled our jobs, sucked them in, became them. stayed late, brought work home…We ordered things we didn’t need from the shiny catalogs that came to our houses: we ordered three times as much as we could use, and then we ordered three times as much as our children could use. We didn’t just eat: we stuffed ourselves. We had gained only three pounds since the previous year, we told ourselves. Three pounds is not a lot. We had gained about that much in each of the twenty-five years since high school. We did not do the math. We redid our living rooms in which the furniture was not worn out. We threw away clothing that was merely out of style…

We felt that it was important to be good to ourselves and that this meant that it was dangerous to tell ourselves no…And if it was dangerous for us to want and not have, it was even more so for our children…When we wondered if fevered overwork and excess of appetite were not two sides of the same coin – or rather, two poles between which we madly slalomed. Probably yes, we decided at these times…After moments like that we were awash with self-contempt. You are weak. Self-indulgent. You are spineless about work and everything else. You set no limits…We looked for others whose lives were similarly overstuffed; we found them. “This is just the way it is,” we said to one another on the train, in the restaurant. This is modern life…

When did the collision between our appetites and the needs of our souls happen? Was there a heart attack? Did we get laid off from work, one of the thousand certified as extraneous? Did a beloved child become a bored stranger, a marriage fall silent and cold? Or by some exquisite working of God’s grace, did we just find the courage to look the truth in the eye and, for once, not blink? How did we come to know that we were dying a slow and unacknowledged death? And that the way back to life was to set all our packages down and begin again, carrying with us only what we really needed? We travail. We are heavy laden. Refresh us, O homeless, jobless, possession-less Savior. You came naked and naked you go. And so it is for us. So it is for all of us.”

Barbara Hawthorne Crafton in “Living Lent” in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent (Walden: Plough, 2003) 15-18.

With graphic candor, Crafton paints the picture of “the modern life” and beckons readers to see how feeding our appetites actually starves our souls. This way of living not only hinders generosity; it stifles even the possibility of it. Did the invitation to “begin again” ring true for you? If so, sit with our Savior today, “look the truth in the eye” for He is the truth, and He welcomes all who are heavy laden and in need of rest. He will likely encourage you to let go of all those things and all that money you think you need, not because He wants it all from you, but because that’s how He helps all of us take hold of life in Him.

“Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.” Matthew 21:12

“But who, exactly, are the people who buy and sell? Are they not precisely the good people? See! The merchants are those who only guard against mortal sins. They strive to be good people who do their good deeds to the glory of God, such as fasting, watching, praying, and the like – all of which are good – and yet do these things so that God will give them something in exchange. Their efforts are contingent upon God doing something they ardently want to have done.

They are all merchants. They want to exchange one thing for another and to trade with our Lord. But they will be cheated out of their bargain – for what they have or have attained is actually given to them by God. Lest we forget, we do what we do only by the help of God, and so God is never obligated to us…What we are we are because of God, and whatever we have we receive from God and not by our own contriving…He gives to us freely.

People are very foolish when they want to trade with God. They know little or nothing of the truth. And God will strike them and drive them out of the temple…When He enters the temple, He drives out ignorance, and darkness and reveals Himself in light and truth. Then, when the truth is known, merchants must depart – for truth wants no merchandising…As long as we look for some kind of pay for what we do, as long as we want to get something from God in some kind of exchange, we are like the merchants.”

Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327) in “Merchandising Truth” in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent (Walden: Plough, 2003) 108-109.

If we fast, pray, and give during Lent (or any time during the year) for the wrong reasons, we are like the merchants. We are doing it only to get a return, which is for the wrong reason, and we too will be driven away. He gives to us freely, so likewise, our generosity must be given freely. Eckhart was spot on in his conclusion: “As long as we look for some kind of pay for what we do, as long as we want to get something from God in some kind of exchange, we are like the merchants.”

Father in heaven, help us not give like the merchants, who merchandise the truth and expect a return. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us give like Jesus who freely, richly, and sacrificially gave. Amen.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. Acts 4:32

“All ownership feeds on stifling self-interest. When deadly selfishness is killed by love, and only then, ownership and all that separates comes to an end. This is how is was in the early church. This is how it still can be: Under the influence of the Spirit, community is born, where people do not think in terms of “mine” and “thine.”

This kind of love overlooks no need or suffering. In such a life-sharing community no one suffers a lack of clothing, food, or any other necessity of life. Those who want to keep goods and valuables for themselves in spite of the need around them must do violence to their own hearts.

God ‘s heart is never limited in its sphere of action. Those who held their goods in common at Jerusalem thus gave generous hospitality to thousands of pilgrims. Through the outpouring of the Spirit, they were able to care wisely for many, for very many, with the slenderest of means.”

Eberhard Arnold in “Spirit of Fire” in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent (Walden: Plough, 2003) 400.

It’s been a joy to share life in community with friends and neighbors, especially as we have no family close by. For example, tonight to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we are going to the fish fry with our neighbors, Ken and Carol Sharp. Ken helps host the meal, and we are excited to join them. They have become dear friends in the journey of life.

What hinders such life-sharing community? Arnold nails it: “stifling self-interest” and “ownership” thinking! One time I was over at their home and could not read something, Carol gave me a pair of reading glasses and urged me to take them home and use them. We’ve shared things like books with them too. Carol loves to read “Jesus Calling” daily.

During Lent we learn that sharing with others does not leave us empty but enriched. When we abandon “stifling self-interest” and “ownership” thinking, our eyes are opened to see the needs around us. We learn that we are not here to just worry about ourselves but to help meet those needs through giving. We love and are loved in ways that can only be experienced in community.

Have a great St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Enjoy his famous Breastplate Prayer as you celebrate with friends and family today!

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel 2:12

“Fasting in American and other [materially] prosperous Western nations is almost incomprehensible because we are brainwashed by a consumer culture. We are taught to experience the good life by consuming, not by renouncing consumption…The pervasiveness of consumerism is manifest starkly when we realize how deeply it permeates all levels of society, even those that can scarcely afford to consume. The mark of consumer culture is the reduction of “being” to “having”. And this reduction is fed daily by television [or other forms of media].”

John Piper in A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Prayer and Fasting (Wheaton: Crossway, 1997) 137-138.

Piper hits it spot on! Our consumeristic culture teaches us that life is found in “consuming” and in “having”, and that “life consists in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15). Alternatively, Jesus urges us to renounce that narrative, which does not mean we will not or do not consume. It means we will not seek to find “life” through consumption any longer, but rather through Christ!

Father in heaven, show us, by Your Holy Spirit, the things in our lives that we feed on that do not satisfy. We renounce the messages that life consists in having things and return to You today. May our fasting be an act of making space in our hearts and lives for that which is better for us. We draw near to You today in the name of Jesus. Amen.