Separating the HOLY from the PROFANE

   You have probably seen the news articles about how the Catholic Church ignored problems regarding pedophile priests who preyed upon countless children over several decades.   It has even been reported that there is even a group of homosexual priests who have helped cover each others tracks that have infiltrated the church as well.   The church chose to ignore complaints about these men and are now paying the price.   Why did they choose to ignore?  Only God knows!   Maybe because in the modern era it's hard to recruit men to stay celibate for their entire life and they felt forced to take any and all applicants.  Maybe it was because they couldn't come to grips that leaders in their church could be so vile and the resulting court cases it might bring about on them.  Maybe it was a little of both.  What ever the cause, the effect is destructive none the less.

   Previously I wrote a blog called "Bowling for Sinners!" in which I show how Satan uses leaders to take out a whole host of sinners in one swoop.  Jesus told the disciples before he was to be crucified, "It is written, Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter!".   While he was speaking of his own death to come, I think he was also sending a message to his disciples to be on guard as well.   Their actions can cause the scattering of many of God's flock that they have been entrusted with.  He was informing them that they will have a big target on their backs by Satan to do the most damage....so BEWARE!

   We have all said (or heard it said), "How can a person who claims to be a Christian do such a thing?"   Usually this is followed with, "IF that is what it means to be a Christian then I don't want to have anything to do with it!".   Our problem is that as humans we have a problem of separating the holy from the profane.  We forget that we has humans are all sinners and we seriously mess things up no matter how holy it is.   It's like the GEICO commercial with the sloth playing Pictionary.   The tag line is , "If you're a sloth, you move slowly.   It's what you do!".  In the same manner we might say,

"If you are human, you mess things up.  It's what you do!".

   Let's take the US Constitution for example.   Most would say it was the greatest document ever devised by man.  It promotes the right to speak, the right to assemble, the right to believe, the right to print, the right to not be detained without a warrant or to have your possessions taken from you.  All of these are great ideals, but too often we fall short.   Take for example what President Roosevelt did during WWII.  FDR imprisoned citizens with Japanese ancestry unlawfully during the war because we had a fear they would not be loyal to our country.  Does this mean that the Constitution is flawed?  Of course not!   In fact, these problems only enhance it's need in our lives.  It shows us to be flawed humans who need to be reigned in and held accountable.   It's not the Constitution that needs to be changed, but our hearts and minds.  We later paid the survivors reparations for our misdeeds.

   Likewise, the issue of the pedophiles in the Catholic church should not take away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but in the eyes of those who are outside of the church it does.   Satan does quite a number on those judge God's truth by our actions or in-actions. It's been said that a little knowledge can be dangerous.  In this case, it is eternally dangerous for many have only a "little knowledge" of our faith and so judge it's "truth" as "falsehood" based on our sinful being.  They do not understand that God's GRACE is not changed by inability to conform 100% to his LOVE. 

  God knows this weakness in our nature.   He knows that people will judge HIM by OUR deeds or misdeeds.   It is WHY we should as Christ's Ambassadors "try" to live lives worth of our calling.  It's not to become more worthy in HIS eyes, but instead to not be a distraction to those who are yet to be called by his grace or a stumbling block to those who are "weak in faith".  At the same time we must always point to our own sinfulness and our own need of a savior and not make our lives the centerpiece of our faith.    It is truly a narrow road we must walk.

Saving the children

Most of us recently were paying close attention to what was happening in a cave in Thailand.   12 boys and a coach had gone into a cave and were forced to move further into the cave to escape the rising water from a Monsoon that had come through.  After several days, divers were able to locate them in a chamber that was several miles back.   How those boys must have felt being in that dark chamber thinking no one would ever be able to find them... let alone save them.   They must have felt completely hopeless and alone as they sat on that muddy cave slope.   As a kid, I used to go canoeing on the Current River in southern Missouri.   Every year my friends and I went to the same spots to have freeze-out competitions, cliff jumping, raft wars and then going into a large cave at the end.   This cave would go back almost a quarter mile (there was only one path so no fear of getting lost).   We would go back to the farthest chamber and then turn our flashlights off for 10 seconds.   To this day, that is the blackest darkness I have ever experienced (I still use that memory as a way to thwart a "sneeze" I don't want to come out).   Those 10 seconds seemed like an eternity to me. 

I can't imagine how they must have felt when that first scuba diver appeared.   The shear JOY they must have felt could not be replicated by the most seasoned Hollywood actor I am sure.  The cheers echoing off those cave walls must have been deafening. 

Their plight was not much different from our as humans on this earth.   We were trapped in our sins with no way out and a feeling that no one cared.    We, like these kids, wandered away from God and went places we should not have gone.   We were warned, but we felt we knew better.   Like those rescuers, God went searching for us and risking everything.   Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep and how the shepherd "leaves the 99 and goes searching for the 1 lost sheep".  For these lost kids, the rescuers had to risk it all as well.   I am sure many of the divers who endured the treacherous 3 hour swim to their chamber had their own children to think of too.   The kids trapped in the cave were worth as much, if not more, than their own children sleeping safely in their own beds.   God risked it all too when he sent his son to come and save us.

 Do you think the scuba divers chastised them for being so foolish and stupid?    Do you think the first words out of their mouth was: "You stupid foolish boys!! Look what you put me through!  I could be home with my kids right now, but instead I have to endure 3 hours underwater and difficult conditions to come looking for the likes of you!  I should just leave you here!  You deserve what you get!  But I guess I will take it easy on you and tell others where you are at anyway!"

I doubt that was what he said to them.   I am sure he was calming with them and told them how happy he was to have found them.   He must have reassured them that they will get them out of the cave in due time and all we will okay.

Jesus, too, came and reassured us of what was to come.   He told us, "The Son of Man did not come into the world to condemn the world but to SAVE the world!".   In another verse Jesus says, "I have come that you might have LIFE and have it to the FULL!". 

Jesus, like those divers, just tells us to trust him.   The divers had to teach the boys how to scuba dive and take them though some of the most dangerous and dark water they would ever experience.   This dive was so difficult that even a seasoned Thai Navy SEAL died in the process.   Now they would need to help get 11-16 year boys through the same water.   One person said that in the most treacherous part, the water is like swimming through black coffee.   They needed the boys to trust that they would lead them out.  Jesus too asks us to trust him to lead us out of this world.   He, like the diver, has already "swam through death" for us and we can know for sure we are in good hands and like those boys, joined with our waiting families on the other side.

The divers must have told the boys right before they left the chamber what they would be facing.  They must have reminded them that even in the darkest water, they would be right there with them  and they would be connected to them with a tether-line at all times.    Right before Jesus ascended he said, "Truly I am with you ALWAYS!  Even unto the end of the world!".   In another verse he says, "My Father holds on to his children and nothing can take them from his hand!".    We are baptized in Christ Jesus and we are tethered to him now and into eternity.   

Jesus is with us though the blackest black that life can throw at us.  Failed marriages, lost jobs, cancer, addiction, loss of loved ones, hatred, scorn, loneliness, not being understood, fear.   Through all of these he is tethered to us and can lead us out.

He just bids us to "Come follow me!"