Kick Their Butts in Love
John 2:14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
This month's Touchstone has an article by Russell D. Moore on "Soft-Serving Patriarchs" which got me thinking about men's ministry and the nature of our times. The church, even the orthodox congregations, are full of softness that is unseemly to men. In order to overcome the tinkly, pretty praise anthems, the pulpit should roar occasionally. It is Moore's thesis that the church is infected with psychotherapeutic language and concepts, one of which is the "servant leader" ideal, which defines out all the hard edges of masculine Christianity, tuning it more closely to the feminine by aiming men at "service, meekly delivered".
There is something to this charge. Among our Epiphany men and in the Building Brothers program we use in our meetings, there is a lot of emphasis on the value of "kumbaya" love. Jesus did wash his disciples feet to show the power of service and to demonstrate love and commitment. Jesus also turned the tables over in the temple, driving the money changers out with a whip. Dwell on that a little. Servant leader? Nope. Angry, uncompromising righteousness, shouted at the top of his lungs and accompanied by violent action.
Here are a couple of other vignettes to ponder. Remember Jesus "loving" comments to Peter. Once he called him Satan. Matthew 16: 21-23. What must Jesus' face have looked like at that moment? Did he say it with a wink? No. He snarled it. Or again at the famous "foot washing" in John, Peter needed to be brung up short. John 13: 5 - 9. OK, if you won't accept my foot-washing, Peter, then you have NO part with me. Did Jesus whine that comment to Peter. Nope. He challenged him, directly in his face. To Peter's credit, he was coachable. He got it. Just one more. How about the look that Peter and Jesus exchanged in the garden of the High Priest the moment Peter betrayed him the third time. Was the look sweet? No, it was convicting. Peter took it like a punch to the solar plexus. He fled weeping. Luke 22: 60-62. And how about that fig tree in Matthew 21?
The role of men is not just to be servant leaders, but also to exercise their full strength and authority to hold to principle when all around are asking for tolerance, with a whip if necessary. Jesus came bearing a sword. That is our model. Jesus the intolerant. Jesus the righteous. Jesus the patriarch in high dudgeon. His justice is unyielding. His righteousness has no soft edges. Jesus is not our servant, He is our King.
No more soft patriarchy. Stand firm is the command, over and over. We need to stand as firm as He did on the road to Jerusalem. That's why he busted Peter's chops so brutally. "Get behind me Satan." We need to restore some of this wildness to our hearts, bringing the love of Christ, but his uncompromising righteousness, too. Anger is useful in penetrating a man's posing to uncover his sinfulness and complicity in crucifying Christ anew.
I heard Bill Cote speak last week on his downtown ministry, Step 13. His ministry has given out 115,000 coupon books that invite street men to a free meal, a job, and getting control of their lives. The coupons are useful in responding to the pitiful pleas for food and work on the many cardboard signs waved at each of us every day. It takes these men at their word and calls their bluff. How many get to 2029 Larimer to pick up their free meal, get a job or training for it, and get control of their lives? So far, 27 coupons have been turned in. I know enough about myself and men to know that most of these men need the kind of treatment Jesus gave Peter, not the coddling and pity they receive. We need to cut out the alcoholic/drug addict/bums from the few truly needy homeless and the cast off youth. Then we need to challenge them to get off the corner and out of their "stories" of self-pity. Our Savior has given us a good model. Love for our lost brothers often needs to begin with a kick in the butt.
If we are doing this right, then we should be having the results Jesus predicted: "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Matthew 10: 21-23.
John 2:14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
This month's Touchstone has an article by Russell D. Moore on "Soft-Serving Patriarchs" which got me thinking about men's ministry and the nature of our times. The church, even the orthodox congregations, are full of softness that is unseemly to men. In order to overcome the tinkly, pretty praise anthems, the pulpit should roar occasionally. It is Moore's thesis that the church is infected with psychotherapeutic language and concepts, one of which is the "servant leader" ideal, which defines out all the hard edges of masculine Christianity, tuning it more closely to the feminine by aiming men at "service, meekly delivered".
There is something to this charge. Among our Epiphany men and in the Building Brothers program we use in our meetings, there is a lot of emphasis on the value of "kumbaya" love. Jesus did wash his disciples feet to show the power of service and to demonstrate love and commitment. Jesus also turned the tables over in the temple, driving the money changers out with a whip. Dwell on that a little. Servant leader? Nope. Angry, uncompromising righteousness, shouted at the top of his lungs and accompanied by violent action.
Here are a couple of other vignettes to ponder. Remember Jesus "loving" comments to Peter. Once he called him Satan. Matthew 16: 21-23. What must Jesus' face have looked like at that moment? Did he say it with a wink? No. He snarled it. Or again at the famous "foot washing" in John, Peter needed to be brung up short. John 13: 5 - 9. OK, if you won't accept my foot-washing, Peter, then you have NO part with me. Did Jesus whine that comment to Peter. Nope. He challenged him, directly in his face. To Peter's credit, he was coachable. He got it. Just one more. How about the look that Peter and Jesus exchanged in the garden of the High Priest the moment Peter betrayed him the third time. Was the look sweet? No, it was convicting. Peter took it like a punch to the solar plexus. He fled weeping. Luke 22: 60-62. And how about that fig tree in Matthew 21?
The role of men is not just to be servant leaders, but also to exercise their full strength and authority to hold to principle when all around are asking for tolerance, with a whip if necessary. Jesus came bearing a sword. That is our model. Jesus the intolerant. Jesus the righteous. Jesus the patriarch in high dudgeon. His justice is unyielding. His righteousness has no soft edges. Jesus is not our servant, He is our King.
No more soft patriarchy. Stand firm is the command, over and over. We need to stand as firm as He did on the road to Jerusalem. That's why he busted Peter's chops so brutally. "Get behind me Satan." We need to restore some of this wildness to our hearts, bringing the love of Christ, but his uncompromising righteousness, too. Anger is useful in penetrating a man's posing to uncover his sinfulness and complicity in crucifying Christ anew.
I heard Bill Cote speak last week on his downtown ministry, Step 13. His ministry has given out 115,000 coupon books that invite street men to a free meal, a job, and getting control of their lives. The coupons are useful in responding to the pitiful pleas for food and work on the many cardboard signs waved at each of us every day. It takes these men at their word and calls their bluff. How many get to 2029 Larimer to pick up their free meal, get a job or training for it, and get control of their lives? So far, 27 coupons have been turned in. I know enough about myself and men to know that most of these men need the kind of treatment Jesus gave Peter, not the coddling and pity they receive. We need to cut out the alcoholic/drug addict/bums from the few truly needy homeless and the cast off youth. Then we need to challenge them to get off the corner and out of their "stories" of self-pity. Our Savior has given us a good model. Love for our lost brothers often needs to begin with a kick in the butt.
If we are doing this right, then we should be having the results Jesus predicted: "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Matthew 10: 21-23.
posted by Unknown @ 9:22 PM
9 Comments:
At 5:27 AM, June 12, 2005,
voixd'ange said…
Dear Brother Morpheus, who put you in a snit? Was it an ironic coincidence that we both made post to our blogs referring to the homeless on the same day? I hope so! I'm not entirely sure what to make of this post...but after having lived in the inner city for nearly 12 years now, I can honestly say, how I wish there were just a "few truly needy". I understand your anger at panhandlers. We have many of those in Chicago, but they are usually very easily distinguished from the homeless. They are very aggressive and "in your face" as opposed to the homeless who tend to be very reticent to draw attention to themselves. They usually sit cowering in the corner or against the window, looking for all the world as if they wish to God that they were invisible. And wouldn't you if you hadn't had a bath or a clean change of close in months...years? Most of them do exhibit signs of mental illness...
Morpheus, I have worked in this city for so long now and the need is so intense and on so many levels. I worked as an administrative assistant at a youth center for two of those years. Of our 500 youth less than five lived in a two parent home. Many of them were being raised by grandparents, another issue of its own. Only two came from homes that were above the poverty line. I go to work at our school and have to talk to 6 year olds who have had uncles or grandparents shot in the head at family picnics, sometimes in front of them. I have taught at least three six year old girls who are extremely overweight and have to run to the bathroom constantly because they were raped by a family member or friend. The problem is complex and involves everything from our horribly inept education system, to inadequate health care, to affordable housing, to just plain out and out racism and class-ism. The need is so massive...to the point that it can be overwhelming and emotionally paralyzing. About every six months I have to give my pastor "the phone call", and he has to give me "the speech" about not allowing myself to become so overwhelmed by it that I become useless...
But maybe I just read you wrong...
At 7:41 AM, June 12, 2005,
Anonymous said…
You got me right, Angevoix. But, I am certainly not speaking of ALL homeless people, nor of children, nor the insane nor emotionally disturbed, nor of the working poor, nor of distressed, displaced families. Unfortunately, the posers are lumped with the others. The aggressive are either mean drunks or emotionally or mentally disturbed. Those who are ill get a by.
Here are my targets: 1. The 24 year old who stopped me in the Safeway parking lot to tell me he had not worked in over a year. Bad story. Here he stood, able bodied, young, single, and full of pretend distress. I suggested that whatever God created him to be, he was not going to find it standing in this particular parking lot, or maybe even in this city. Had he ever considered an alternative to whining to strangers? 2. The hirsute, smiling man in fatigues with his dog grinning at me from the corner of Speer and Wazee where he lounges daily waving his cardboard. 3. The middle-aged men with muscles and beards and John Deere caps and a little too much tan who spend the morning getting enough cash to buy a bottle, and the afternoon trying to crash the meal programs with that great attitude and smell that comes from Thunderbird afficianados.
The data point that is telling in my piece is the 97,000 coupons given out in the city of Denver to "street people" whose cardboard claims that they are hungry and that they want work. Since the coupons promise both, why would only 27 show up over the years at Step 13?
Here is the wording of the coupon, exactly:
Step 13
Address and phone
THIS COUPON GOOD FOR ONE FREE MEAL
Need a job? A place to live?
We offer you a chance to take charge of your life!
So, take heart, Angevoix. There are lots of homeless for whom compassion is a great plan, who need something different than a job and a meal and a place to stay with other men who won't buy their posing, because the legitimate poor and homeless are telling the truth about the tragedy of their lives and need soft love. The guys in my crosshairs need the tough kind of love, which they will get from brothers who understand that they are frauds. They need a friend like Jesus...with an edge, the Jesus whose memory I was attempting to evoke in my post.
At 8:32 AM, June 12, 2005,
voixd'ange said…
Gotcha...I have made the statement as well to my pastor about how I feel about able bodied men begging from me as well...so I see eye to eye with you on that one...I actually no longer give money at all, but rather will give or buy a person food. But even that can be a cover...people will ask for food hoping you'll think them sincere for not asking for money. But after so many years in the city you learn how to read them most of the time.
At 1:24 PM, June 12, 2005,
Anonymous said…
Xzackly. Those are my targets. Think of all the work that God has given that needs doing. They need to feel that they have been given a job and they aren't showing up for work and someone is noticing. Someone who loves them and expects them to show up. Someone who will not buy their bullshit, because he/or she loves them the way Jesus does. This concept of unconditional love is a false one. Jesus is ready to love all of us, on his terms...not ours, and never on no terms. These men will not accept that the beginning of the change of their lives is submission, first to God and next to a brother who offers help. Accepting help, for a man, is taking a one down positioning with the help giver. They can do it...or they can fake it and keep their one-up positioning, gaming the care-giver and living a lie.
At 6:35 AM, June 13, 2005,
Dan Trabue said…
Thanks for the comments in defense of the needy, Angevoix. I've no need to go there.
I will remind us all of the reason for Jesus' anger in the temple. His target were the rich, the religious and those exploiting the poor for their own ends. This was the case for all of Jesus' most strong rebukes (including his own disciples).
I think the lesson to learn from the cleansing of the temple is that there are certainly times for Holy Outrage - and that it should usually be directed at the sins of the rich, wealthy and powerful.
I'm sure you'll agree.
At 6:54 AM, June 13, 2005,
Unknown said…
Jesus problem in the temple was not economic; it was about the substitution of material and popular fashions for God's will. The money changers were merchants, not rich people. They sold doves and goats and converted currency. The temple had become a marketplace. God's house had become worldly. The divine had become secular. The "rich" and "powerful" were certainly threatened by His actions, but they did not feel His lash directly that day. Status quo was being challenged. Works-righteousness notions of salvation were being denied. If Jesus was an economic reformer, that fact was secondary to His role as advocate for His Father and the primacy of the spiritual over the material. It is economic theorists who think it is all about money. But we know he was not indicting just the wealthy and powerful. He had our number, too.
At 8:14 AM, June 13, 2005,
Dan Trabue said…
I count "us" as among the wealthy whom Jesus indicts. The merchants and the religious leaders had a scam going on. The poor folk would show up to the temple with their prescribed offering - a dove was the offering expected from the poor, as Jesus specifically mentions in the text.
Invariably, the offerings they had brought weren't "clean" enough. Fortunately, the priests had provided, through the kind presence of the merchants, a way for just such problems. All the poor had to do was buy a new dove and then, they too could be saved!
A scam is a scam is a scam. And to take place in the temple with the cooperation of the religious was a double insult to the God of the poor.
I'd think the question devout religious folk would want to ask would be: Why was Jesus so angry with these religious folk? Angry enough to throw over tables and drive animals and people out of the temple? JUST because they were selling stuff inside a temple? Our church sells books inside the church building sometimes, that doesn't seem so bad...Is there something else? What could it be....?
At 3:52 PM, June 13, 2005,
Anonymous said…
He was jealous of their wealth?
No.
He was jealous of their power?
No.
He was furious at those "blind guides", those hippocrytes, whose actions were directing the people 180 degrees away from God, to mammon, thereby subverting the Shema and devaluing the Greatest Commandment, the one that commands us to Love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul and mind.
At 8:10 PM, June 13, 2005,
Dan Trabue said…
Did I use the word, "jealous"? More strawman chicanery here, fella...
Where do you get your interpretation of this event? All the text says, beyond the fact of Jesus expelling them from the temple and the mention specifically of those who sold doves, is "My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."
Your interpretation, as I hear you saying it, is that Jesus was protecting the sanctity of the temple? I'll admit that the interpretation that I've learned you have to sorta read between the lines and read and know the context of the times, but even so, your interpretation seems even less obvious.
I'll further admit that at one time your take was somewhat obvious to me but that is only because that is the way that this story has typically been taught. We've denuded God's word of its anger and power - the very point that your post began with.
I'm just a dumb fella with more tenacity than wisdom, but it sure seems to me that once I started reading the Bible with an eye towards the money messages, they really started standing out more and, at least for me, speaking the truth to power to me.
But maybe that's just me, friend Kevin.
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