God is an Artist

Artists love to send messages through their work. They often personalize their work by hiding images and secret messages in their pieces. They also send more explicit messages through the visible parts of each work of art. Thus, art isn’t made just to be aesthetically pleasing, but rather it’s also to be analyzed and interpreted. While we do not usually think of Him in this way, God is an artist. His art work is all of creation. Just as other artists have written messages into their work, so has God. As we look at creation, there are messages all over that speak about God’s nature and speak to the truth that God shares. This revelation about God can be seen in the explicit things like the Bible and the lives and teachings of His true followers. However, God also speaks just as much, if not more, into other aspects of creation, including nature and the lives of all “ordinary” people.

God speaks to us through nature in His creation. In The Alchemist Paulo Coehlo wrote, “God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom” (Coehlo 127). For example, God’s creation of a myriad of massive stars in an infinite galaxy speaks to us about his almighty and overwhelming power. In addition, God’s creation of the intricate, microscopically complex parts of the human body speaks to God’s detailed attention to each one of our lives. Likewise, The Alchemist declares, “all you have to do is contemplate a single grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation” (Coehlo 172).  In other words, the beauty of God’s creation speaks truth into our lives about His being and the journey of life. During the last seven months of living in Colorado, I have spent a fair amount of time admiring the beauty in the nature around me that God has created. As I have admired nature, I have seen God’s undeniable presence and learned from the teachings that God reveals in nature. Many of these lessons from nature have brought scripture to life for me. For example, I don’t feel like I fully comprehended Ecclesiastes 3 before coming to Colorado, the passage beings with saying, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the Heavens…” I could not fully comprehend its meaning while living in Texas because south Texas is a land with only two seasons – hot and hotter. It was not until I arrived in Colorado to witness the changing of the seasons in nature that I could comprehend the message behind this scripture – realizing the need for rest in winter and rebirth in spring and that each season is necessary for life to flourish. Similarly, sitting on a bench near a lake during February and watching ducks walk and slide on the ice helped me to realize the way in which God cares and provides for us. If God abundantly provided for an animal as simple as a duck in the midst of harsh winter conditions, how much more would he provide for me. Thus, Matthew 6:26 was brought to life for me, which says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

God also speaks to us through the journey of our lives. My grandpa stated this in a deeply truthful way when in a letter to me he said:

“All the stories that I told you… were I believe signs from God as I was growing and going through this thing called life. We can just look at events in our life and just take them as events and part of growing up. I, on the other hand take them as messages (signs) from God. What we do with these messages is up to us. It’s like free will, God gives free will and it becomes our responsibility to do something or do nothing at all. To follow God or not follow God.”

Just as my grandfather interpreted the events in his life as God speaking to him, I have found that the people that see their lives as a spiritual journey tend to see the occurrences in their life as a divine language. All twists and turns, and events in life are part of the journey through which God speaks to us.

As I come to understand the messages in nature and in life stories, scripture allows me to more fully comprehend nature and the journey of life. Moreover, the words that God speaks into both language and experience should teach us and move us closer to Him. Creation should edify our love for God and grow us to worship him more.  Similarly our life story and the lives of others are gifts that allow us to draw closer to God and come to know His ways better. Because of our sinful nature though, we may be tempted to worship creation and other people instead of God. I heard another student at CCU eloquently state this message when he said something along these lines:

God has given us a rose, which represents the blessings and gifts that He has provided for us. The rose serves as a sign of God’s love for us. However, we have come to love the rose instead of its maker. We have begun to grip the rose so tightly that its thorns have pierced our hands and hurt us. Similarly, we often worship creation and are hurt as a result; we should be worshipping God, who made creation and reveals himself through it, instead of the things He creates.

            As we celebrate Easter and the rebirth of life – Christ’s resurrection as well as the spring season - I hope that we will see God’s initials all over creation. I pray that we will not worship creation, the things of our lives, or the cultural practices that accompany Easter on this day. I pray that we will admire God’s creation, and come to love our God even more because of the gifts He has given us in creation. Thank you God for being the artist of our lives and creation!

Social Justice is for Liberals. Personal Holiness is for Conservatives.

     For the last month, I have been wandering a lot about the relationship between social justice and personal holiness. In my own life, I have tended to gravitate more toward the issue of social justice. During high school, I was challenged and grew the most through the call that I felt to be Jesus' hand and feet, to serve the poor and outcast, to do social justice. However, I have noticed the tendency for most messages at CCU (during chapel, small groups, etc.) to focus on pursuing personal holiness, even to the extent of largely neglecting to emphasize social justice. There is certainly a need to focus on issues of personal morality (ex. sexual immorality, lying, etc.), as well as issues of personal growth - through discipleship, mentoring, etc. In addition, there is a need to focus on the destitute of the world - such as the tens of thousands of children that die from world hunger and preventable diseases every day, and the 27 million in the world that are enslaved. 

     Before I move on to the questions that this raises for me, let's define some terms... Personal holiness and social justice are both terms in the language of "Christianese." However, these terms are used in different circles. In fact, it is interesting to see who uses these terms. When doing some google searches on this topic, the vast majority of findings on social justice were writings by members of the United Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church - both churches influenced by John Wesley. However, I know that this term is also used in the Lutheran and Catholic Churches. The term "social justice" is not always used in the mainstream evangelical church though. I asked a few of my friends at CCU what they thought of the relationship of personal holiness and social justice and they both responded, "What is social justice?" This just goes to show, that the term is jargon and needs to be defined. However, the fact that mainstream evangelicals don't know the term "social justice" may also point to the fact that the evangelical church isn't focusing enough on serving others. In any case, here are my definitions for the sake of this post...

Personal Holiness - while no one is truly holy other than God, all Christians seek to be holy - or morally right and free of sin. This is result of the fact that as Christians we believe that receiving salvation from sin and death because of Christ not only frees us from Hell, but also from sin in the world, prompting the need for us to pursue holiness. Personal holiness also explains personal growth through accountability and discipleship groups, as well as mentorship programs. (Personal righteousness is synonymous to personal holiness.)

Social Justice -  the practice of serving the poor, the outcasts, and the needy. This deals with not just giving to those in need, but also dealing with the root causes of poverty and trying to bring justice to those who are considered "lesser."

1. Are personal holiness and social justice two different approaches to faith OR are both necessary parts of faith? 
     
     To answer this question, you must note that the Christians tend to separate these two things; there is a misconception that social justice and personal holiness are mutually exclusive. However, the following excerpt from David McKenna explains otherwise.

"Social justice and personal righteousness go hand in hand as universal virtues that God expects of His children. Throughout the ages, however, the two have become divided in the preaching and witness of the Church. In our day, for instance, liberal Christians tend to identified with their work for social justice while conservative Christians emphasize the priority of personal righteousness... John Wesley said, 'There is no personal holiness without social holiness' and Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote, 'Christianity is the most worldly of all religions.' Whether justice or righteousness comes first in the listing is incidental to the fact that they are inseparable."¹

 2. Which does come first - personal holiness or social justice?

     There is a common belief that personal holiness precedes and leads to social justice. The thought follows these lines - personal holiness allows us to be "filled" with God's truth and righteousness, and as we are "filled", we are then able to "pour" into others through acts of service (or to use the phrase again - we are then able to pursue social justice). I feel like this belief is illustrated very well in Acts 8 (verses 9-25). In this story, a sorcerer named Simon wants the ability to share the Holy Spirit with others just as the Disciples did. However, Peter says "You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God" (Acts 8:21). I see this statement by Peter to be very insightful and true. We need to seek God and have a trusting relationship with Him in order to serve others. (How can we preach a lifestyle that we don't even live ourselves?) Also, having a life wrecked with the desires of the flesh (i.e. desire for drugs, porn, etc.) makes us want self-gratification, and disables us from being able to suffer for the sake of others and truly love on others. Moreover, we need personal holiness to be effective in working for social justice.

     I don't necessarily believe that our faith has to be, or even should be, a process of personal holiness preceding social justice. There are a few reasons that may cause us to not put full faith in the idea of being filled with holiness and then pouring that out in servanthood. First of all, how do we know if we are full enough of God's truth to be able to speak into the lives of others? We are always growing closer to God in this life, and we will never fully know and understand Him on Earth. Thus, the image of being "filled" is somewhat trivial. Second, can't social justice also help us to grow in our personal faith too? While it may appear like pursuing holiness is a process of growing and pursuing social justice is a process of applying that growth, it is not nearly that simple. Pursuing social justice is in itself a very spiritual practice. Pursuing social justice is answering Christ's call to "take up your cross," sacrifice for others, and live a life of servanthood. Serving others holds deep implications for connecting with God and learning too. (Anyone returning from a mission trip will be able to share more about what they learned than what they taught others.) Service is certainly a form of worship. Moreover, social justice does lead to personal growth, in contrast to common thought.

     At this point, I think we must return to what David McKenna already succinctly stated: "Whether justice or righteousness comes first in the listing is incidental to the fact that they are inseparable."¹

3. Is there too much emphasis on personal holiness in the Church today?

     First of all, personal holiness taken the wrong way can end up being legalistic. God's love in a relationship with Him should lead to our desire to seek holiness. When we begin to think that personal holiness leads to a relationship with God, we become like the Pharisees.

     I found the second issue of emphasis summed up on someone else's blog: 

"Recently, I have had numerous conversations with some Wesleyan pastors and students who have voiced some concern over holiness issues and the negative impact popular evangelicalism has had on our denomination (The Wesleyan Church) and local congregations. What is being defined as popular evangelicalism is personal holiness. Reflected in our preaching, conversations, budgets and programs; the message seems to be that personal holiness is what really counts. All the things we hold dear - personal righteousness entire sanctification, tithing, worship, discipleship, and ministry programs tend to stem from the mindset of ‘personal holiness’.


The concern that some folks have for popular evangelicalism is the under emphasis of a more holistic idea of holiness. Holiness should not only bring about personal piety, but also cause the body to counter social injustices, influence political powers to effect change, conserve the resources of God’s creation, and so forth."²

     Basically, we need to be careful of what we emphasize as Christians... What we emphasize will be overplayed in the minds of others, and if we are emphasizing anything other than the true and simple Gospel, we have the potential to deter people from Christ. Thus, the mainstream evangelical's emphasis on personal holiness often drowns out the saving Gospel that we really stand for. Outsiders to our faith will often associate us with being intolerant of homosexuals and strictly against abortion. While both of these are important issues to discuss, we tend to over-emphasize them in the Church. Whether we are right or not in what we say about these topics, people have these popular topics overplayed and distorted in their heads, giving the Church and even Christ a bad reputation. Why not focus more on the love of Christ that brings redemption, salvation and justice to all people, including the poor and needy?

     In the words of Stan Perea...

"... we're willing to discuss the sin of homosexuality, but we won't discuss the sin of ignoring the poverty in the midst of our McDonald's obsessed obesity. As long as you're willing to do one but not the other, you're missing the boat.
     We can't pick and choose which sins to address. We have lost relevance, lost our influence, by picking issues instead of addressing sin. We cannot demand that people listen to us if we're not willing to address all sin equally. There are many more heterosexual people involved in sex outside or marriage than homosexual, and how are we going to respond to that? Wholeness is found at the foot of the cross, and at the foot of the cross there is no room for picking and choosing."⁵

     In conclusion, social justice and personal holiness are both crucial to our faith. Neither one matters though if we are not being guided by Christ and are not acting out of the love of Christ that empowers us.

References:
1. McKenna, David. The Preacher's Commentary. 18. Print. <http://books.google.com/books?id=IkbicZODCMcC&printsec=frontcover>.
2. Summers, Jeremy. ""...no holiness but social holiness!"."One: Thought, Word, Action. N.p., 18 Mar 2006. Web. Web. 6 Mar. 2013. <http://jeremysummers.blogspot.com/2006/03/no-holiness-but-social-holiness.html>.
3. Allen, Jeff. "“Balancing Personal and Social Holiness”." 20 Feb 2011. Address.
4. Turner, Mark. "Renrutkram." Social Justice and/or Personal Holiness: A Quandry?. N.p., 11 Nov 2009. Web. Web. 6 Mar. 2013. <http://renrutkram.com/2009/11/11/social-justice-andor-personal-holiness-a-quandry/>.
5. Perea, Stan. The New America. Denver, CO: His Ministries Publications, 2004. 235. Print.