Two Debts Of Gratitude To India

About five years ago I found myself working closely with two Indians, one a Christian and the other a Hindu. I no longer work with either of these friends, but I'll never forget them.

They each gave me a gift.

Fasting

The Christian (we'll call him Jeevan) fasted regularly. Every Friday, in fact. Jeevan informed me that everyone in his home church does that. Fasting is part of life's rhythm for them.

Here in America it's hard to find people who fast regularly. I had fasted on a few occasions, but it had never occurred to me to make a habit of it. That's just something Americans don't do.

After observing Jeevan, however, I decided that this American wanted to give that habit a try. I never looked back. Weekly fasts are now deeply etched into my life's rhythm.

Fasting brings many benefits. In some future blog perhaps I'll get into those perks, but here I'll simply acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Jeevan and to India.

Vegetarianism

Yes, the Hindu (we'll call him Amit) was a practicing vegetarian.

As a Christian I felt rather relieved that my faith did not require me to practice vegetarianism. So I didn't.

But Amit's habit was not lost on me nor forgotten. As the ensuing years passed, I never lost sight of the reverence that some Hindus give to animals. Obviously I don't believe in reincarnation or have any confusion over the holiness of cows and monkeys.

But a respect for animal life... that is something many Hindus have, and it's something many Christians have lost. I felt that loss.

But meat tastes good (!) so for years I continued to postpone making a change in my diet. In recent weeks, however, I finally did face my thoughts head on. I decided to become a vegetarian. And when I did, Amit was not far from my thoughts.

Two friends brought Indian customs to American soil.

Their practices were foreign to me at first. Now I call them my own.

Thank you, Jeevan and Amit. Thank you, India.

All My Heroes Are Certifiably Insane

The heroes who inspire me all died some time ago, but to me they're more alive now than ever.

So who are these certifiably insane, dead, living heroes?

Let's start with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a poor soul who lacked the common sense to leave Nazi Germany when offered safe passage to American soil.

No. Worse than that. He took up the offer, and did visit America.

And then didn't have the common sense to stay. The year was 1939.

I celebrate his uncommon sense.

Bonhoeffer explained his rationale to his friend Reinhold Niebuhr.

"I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.

So he returned to Germany where he involved himself in Christian ministry under a watchful Nazi eye. His story cannot be done justice in a small blog, so I'll simply note that he was killed by the Nazis just a week or two before the war ended.

Certifiably insane. By most reckoning.

My hero, nevertheless.

Today, I am reminded of this blog because I've added another name to my list of heroes: Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a Catholic priest who spoke out against communism in Poland during the 80s. He and Bonhoeffer were truly cut from the same cloth. Neither had the common sense to abandon sinking ships.

After a failed assassination attempt on his life, he was offered a stay in Italy by his superior, but he refused to leave Poland. On October 19th, 1984 he was murdered by three officers of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa.

Certifiably insane. By most reckoning.

My hero, nevertheless. But whereas Bonhoeffer died quietly in a dark corner of Nazi Germany, Popieluszko died under the watchful eye of all of Poland. He was a national hero even before he died. Largely because he was insane. He stood up in a pulpit, Sunday after Sunday, and made himself a red-circled target for the authorities by calling them out for what they were: cowards and bullies.

When the bullies killed him, 800,000 sane Poles attended his funeral. It was one of the big tipping points for Poland on its march to freedom from Communist rule.

There are others, of course. Martin Luther King, Jr. comes to mind, along with less well-known names like Jim Elliot.

All the best heroes are insane.

After all, who but the most insane would follow a man who said this?

Matthew 16:24-45
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

Sane people don't rally to this call.

But then again, sanity is in the eye of the beholder.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." — Jim Elliot

Those words aren't crazy. They are logical. The question is this:

Are we insane enough to believe them?

His Happiest Moment

I recently asked what Jesus would have called his proudest moment.

That was, as my daughter sometimes says, "a toughie."

I soon found myself asking this follow-up question:

"OK, and what was his happiest moment?"

That one is much easier to answer, so this reflection will be short.

Luke 10:21
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

Of all the deeds and words that have been recorded by Gospel writers, I gather that this is the passage that shows Jesus to be most full of joy.

When does it take place? It takes place after the disciples he sent out (in his own name) return — with exciting news to report.

Luke 10:17
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

So Jesus' joy follows on the heels of his disciples' joy.

And why are they themselves so joyful?

The disciples are full of joy because they discovered that the power of Jesus went with them, even when Jesus was not around.

So why is this the high point in Jesus' three years of ministry?

I think Jesus was beside himself with joy because he was, for the first time, watching his Church in action.

Granted, the church is properly understood to have its birth in Acts, but Jesus wasn't around for that part. Not bodily, at least.

So Jesus was getting the sneak preview. Watching the movie trailer. And he was beside himself with joy, in anticipation of the upcoming full-screen release.

Not everyone is always happy to hear the word "church". Frankly, I understand why. I've had a few "church" run-ins, myself.

But while "little c" church antics can wreck us on rocks of despair...

It's good for all of us (myself especially) to remember this:

The happiest moment in Jesus' life (that we have recorded, anyway) was when he saw his true Church in action for the first time.

May God help me to be part of that joy-inducing Church.

...And give Jesus another good reason to smile.

Yes, Virginia, Heaven Is For Animals Too

In Alice in Wonderland the Queen proudly notes that she has believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. My brain is not that flexible, so vegetarianism spares me a fair bit of ongoing discomfort.

What do I mean by this? I chose two for-instance examples.

I covered the first in my prior blog post.

Time for the fat lady to sing. Last thought.

Children everywhere love their animals, so every parent who's had a pet in the house eventually gets the question.

"Will <name your pet> go to heaven?"

Many children (and adults like myself) want to see their pets again.

The promises of God give Christians a wondrous hope. But does this hope apply to people only? Or does it apply to animals too?

Most of us don't have a clue, so we get a bit ham-fisted in our reply.

Do we need to be so unsure? Does the Bible have nothing to say on the matter? Most serious Christians I know are pretty ambivalent.

I am more confident in the assurances I give my children. Here's why.

Let's turn to the book of Jonah. It ends with Jonah quite angry with God because God didn't utterly destroy the ancient city of Nineveh.

God, in turn, is angry with Jonah.

Jonah 4:10-11
Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals.

First and foremost, God cares about the people within Nineveh.

But the sphere of God's care doesn't end there.

God also cares about all of the animals within Nineveh.

Now some can argue that this passage of scripture has nothing specific to say about what future awaits animals after their death.

Fair enough, but think about it. If God loves these animals, doesn't it make sense that he might not have a "second death" in mind for them?

But for those who remain unconvinced, weightier evidence exists.

A few blogs back we considered "(Plan B)" — Genesis 9:1-3.

It will now serve us well to now carefully consider the verse that directly follow this passage. God had a bit more to say on the topic...

Genesis 9:4-5
...But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting...

So animals will be held to account??

For what? Killing humans? For killing other animals? Something else?

The passage is vague on the details. But one thing is clear.

Animals will be held accountable for their deeds. When?

I repeat. When?

I think the answer is perfectly clear. After their lives are over.

Ironically, even for humans the afterlife was not a widely held concept when this text was written.

By the time of Christ, however, the order of events was known.

Hebrews 9:27
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...

So that's when humans will face their maker. It doesn't make sense to assume anything different for the animals, since God referred (with similar words and in the same section of text) to the accounting both would face.

So animals, like us, will one day see their life in review. That doesn't make much sense if there is no afterlife whatsoever awaiting animals. What sort of life it might be is beyond me to guess at. But doesn't the possibility of judgement imply also the possibility of reward?

I think it does.

But anyone (myself included) who hopes to see their pets again in the afterlife has to consider an unpleasant scenario. It's this...

If dogs can be in heaven, so can pigs. And cows.

Along with chickens and hamsters...

And while we may be excited to see our dogs and hamsters again, conversation with the pigs and cows we ate could prove awkward.

I'm just saying...

Now that's the kind of incongruity that causes my brain discomfort.

The Queen may enjoy six impossible things before breakfast, but if enjoying bacon for breakfast ups my incongruity count by just one?

Maybe you can just pass me the cereal.

I have, of course, spoken a bit tongue in cheek. Whatever awaits us in the afterlife will need to include a lot of mercy for much greater wrongs than the bacon we ate for breakfast.

But here again, I retreat (confidently) to a simple logic noted at the end of an earlier blog on this topic.

If I am awaiting a better world...
and that world includes Fuzzy the hamster...
and Old Yeller the dog...
and Charlotte the pig...
and Bossy the cow...

Perhaps now is a good time to arrange my eating habits accordingly?

OK, on that thought, one last verse for the road...

Romans 8:19
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

Yes, we humans look forward to the end of all death and suffering.

Can the animals we eat be blamed for keenly sharing our sentiments?

Not to be continued any time soon....

Promise kept: this link is from several months later.

Of Hamsters and Men

We continue the tale of my transition from carnivore to herbivore...

Two comments capture the feelings that followed this decision.

The short one first. Kronk astutely notes, "It's all coming together."

But some people prefer G. K. Chesterton to animated Disney characters. In his book Orthodoxy Chesterton described his Christian conversion experience as one where two seemingly incompatible "machines" came together. Miraculously, they came together well.

...The spike of dogma fitted exactly into the hole in the world — it had evidently been meant to go there — and then the strange thing began to happen. When once these two parts of the two machines had come together, one after another, all the other parts fitted and fell in with an eerie exactitude. I could hear bolt after bolt over all the machinery falling into place with a kind of click of relief. Having got one part right, all the other parts were repeating that rectitude, as clock after clock strikes noon. Instinct after instinct was answered by doctrine after doctrine. Or, to vary the metaphor, I was like one who had advanced into a hostile country to take one high fortress. And when that fort had fallen the whole country surrendered and turned solid behind me. The whole land was lit up, as it were, back to the first fields of my childhood."

Kronk said it more succinctly, but Chesterton said it better.

After I threw in the towel and decided to give in to the idea of going vegetarian, incongruity after incongruity fell down before me.

Sources of guilt fled. Paradoxes unraveled. Decisions made sense.

Examples? There are many, but most can be anticipated from things I've already written in recent days. (Don't repeat yourself, Pilgrim!)

But two (I promise, just two) thoughts remain that I want to get down.

I'll break them up into two blog post, this then being the first of two.

Don't delegate unconscionable tasks to others.

This principle has helped me navigate some tough topics and grey areas in life. Consider torture, for instance.

We all know the old question. "Is it OK to torture one person in order to find out the location of a hidden bomb and thereby save a city?"

I used to answer this question with a reluctant Yes. It's a very unsavory job, but if it must be done, so be it. For the good of many...

A few years ago I abandoned this line of reasoning after realizing that I could not and would not do the dirty work myself.

And if that is the case, how can I ask someone else to do it for me?

It's another topic for another day to discuss why I myself can or cannot torture a terrorist "for a good cause." My point here is simply that if that is my conviction, I can't ask others to do it for me, either.

So I'm opposed to torture. Period.

All that to say... There are some jobs that are unpleasant.

And then there are jobs that disturb your soul.

I could collect garbage for a living. No problem. It's just a smelly job.

Killing animals for a living would trouble my soul, however.

Fact is, I have a very hard time killing animals. The practical matter of putting a dying hamster out of its misery has proven difficult enough. We paid a vet to do it for us last year. Spent $80 to give the hamster a more peaceful exit.

So I find it hard to kill a dying hamster. What about a healthy one?

And oh-by-the-way?

A hamster weighs half a pound and has rocks pebbles for brains.

Yet for years someone out there has been killing and cutting up much larger and smarter animals. Healthy ones. All day long. For me.

Perhaps it doesn't bother them. But some assassins don't mind killing people, either. The conscience I am responsible for is my own.

For decades I've been complicit in this uncomfortable arrangement.

But today I am free of it. And that feels good.

To be continued....

Worthy Is The Lamb! (Not The Loaf...)

This blog continues from where I left off....

This momentous (for me) move toward a vegetarian lifestyle certainly got my brain riled up. Things I never thought twice about before suddenly presented themselves for reconsideration.

One notion blew my mind for the sheer fact that it had been there in front of me about a thousand times — literally. And I never saw it.

It's called the Lord's Supper. The bread and the wine. I've probably taken the Lord's Supper a thousand times in my life. Maybe more.

But here's the thing I never noticed before. When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, he was presiding over a Passover meal. That means that meat was on the menu that night. Lamb, to be specific.

This occasion presented Jesus with a perfect opportunity to make (for his frequently confused disciples) a tangible statement about a very important symbolic truth.

After Jesus' resurrection, St. Paul will later (1 Corinthians 5) recognize Christ as "our Passover lamb" — and that is what he is.

John the Baptist testified to this same reality when Jesus began his ministry — when Jesus first approached John at the Jordan river.

John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

So the pivotal moment has arrived. Jesus is about to institute the Lord's Supper. The Pascal Lamb is presiding over a Passover meal.

And...

And...

He grabs for the bread instead.

Go figure?

Now it must of course be said that Jesus is also the bread of heaven. The bread of life. Absolutely. He said so himself. This is also true.

But John the Baptist didn't call Jesus the Loaf of God.

The Apostle Paul didn't call Jesus our Pascal Loaf.

No one on earth has got this matter confused. What about in heaven?

Nope. Not there either. In Revelation Jesus is not wandering around heaven as a resurrected loaf of bread. Not even symbolically.

In heaven too Jesus is revealed to be the resurrected Lamb of God.

To quote just one of many references, let's savor this one:

Revelation 5:15
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
    to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
   and honor and glory and praise!”

Jesus is described as a lamb about twenty-five times in Revelation.

On the night of the Lord's Supper, there was lamb meat on the table.

Why on earth, then, did Jesus reach for the bread?

Well, meat is more expensive. Did Jesus chose cheaper ingredients so as to make the Lord's Supper more affordable to all?

Perhaps. But a tiny bite of meat once a week doesn't cost much, and is this really the moment to be stretching the food budget?

In any case, Jesus chose the bread, and it wasn't because the lamb was too far down the table. We ought to think about why he did that.

The book of Hebrews spends no small amount of time arguing that the sacrifices in the temple are no longer necessary. Jesus was the last, perfect, sacrifice. No further animal sacrifice is necessary, ever again.

For me this thought invites a follow-up question. Is it possible that Jesus intended to be the last sacrifice not merely for the sake of mankind, but also for the sake of the animals?

Hard to say. Scriptures do not answer this specific question. However I cannot help but wonder if Jesus intended for us to eventually work out the fact that we're free now to stop killing animals. Prior to his death, that simply wasn't an option for believers.

If that thought was on Jesus' mind, it's perfectly clear why he reached for the bread. After Good Friday, we'll never need meat again.

If that thought was not on Jesus' mind, we're left with a bit of mystery as to why he didn't reach for the lamb sitting there on the table.

As I said, these are just wondering questions. I don't have answers.

But I will address an obvious objection. Someone may ask, "If that's what Jesus wanted, don't you think he would have mentioned it?"

There is an easy reply to that. The Bible does not explicitly address every topic that should be of interest to God-fearing Christians.

Preserving rain-forests and managing water resources should concern us all, but the Bible is understandably silent on these topics.

What's worse, the Bible is sometimes tantalizingly vague even on highly charged moral issues that were relevant both then and now.

For example, Jesus did explicitly condemn slavery. We know he didn't like it, though, because we know who Jesus is.

Many Christians believe Jesus was a pacifist, but he didn't condemn the centurion for his line of work. He only commended his faith.

So Christians worked out some values and beliefs only in hindsight — and sometimes (e.g., pacifism) without unanimity among believers.

So, Yes, Paul certainly made it clear that meat is still permissible (1 Corinthians 8) — but on the other hand he gave instructions to slave-owners that did not include setting their slaves free.

Working out the true convictions of New Testament personalities can be tricky at times, because they focused like lasers on the highest priority: building the Church.

It's clear enough from the book of Philemon that St. Paul was definitely looking forward to a day when slavery would be no more, but that was not the highest item on his agenda each day.

Likewise, we do see Jesus eating fish in one post-resurrection appearance. But Jesus wanted to meet Peter, and Peter wasn't at the local falafel joint. He was fishing.

Would Jesus have preferred a different menu that day? Perhaps. But in any case it's clear that Jesus too had bigger fish to fry. He needed to reinstate Peter and remind him of his calling to build the church.

...Specifically, to stop catching fish. And start feeding sheep.

I'm playing with words, to be sure. It's food for thought all the same.

To be continued...

Little Encouragements Along The Way

So this blog series began two Sundays ago with me taking a stroll in the sun before church began.

I began the stroll a meat-eater and finished it a vegetarian.

But let's face it. I'm only eight days into this experiment. Time will tell if I have the resolve to hold to the decision.

So it was encouraging to get what I took to be a nod of approval from the Lord in His sanctuary.

The service began, as always, with a few hymns. One of them turned out to be Amazing Grace. I can't recall when we last sang it in church. Six months ago? A year? Well ain't that just a co-inky dinky?

But it gets better.

The sermon was titled, Ruling With Christ in Heaven and on Earth — which doesn't exactly immediately make you think of vegetarianism unless it's already on your mind. However the pastor spoke about our calling as Christians to care for the earth, and read these verses aloud:

Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

    So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Sound familiar? They did to me. They were the very verses I had just been noodling over in the park a few minutes earlier.

And then the coup de grâce...

During the service a PowerPoint image went up on screen with details on an upcoming church barbecue. It included a picture of a grill loaded with chicken, hot dogs and burgers, all looking quite tasty.

I'm trying (and failing) to recall the last time I saw cooked meat up on screen during a church service.

Ah, well. One thing is clear. If if I hold fast to this decision, it won't be on account of the support I get from fellow churchgoers, friends or family. They're all enjoying the meat.

Now to be fair, I should note that after I shared my decision with my oldest son, he didn't disparage me. Not a bit. He simply asked, "When we have our Father's Day barbecue, can I have your steak?"

Ah, well. But a very encouraging thought struck me later.

To be continued...