Cho Seung-Hui was somebody’s son. He had grandparents and other relatives. As a child, he played with toys and explored his neighborhood. As a teen, he probably had caught the eye of a girl or two and surely dreamed about love more than once. The tragedy of 9/11 unfolded as he took his first steps into adulthood, and perhaps he was terrified that day like so many of us. A resident alien in the Land of Opportunity, he entered a fine university with expectations of achievement and success.
Cho Seung-Hui killed 33 people yesterday. He injured many others. He has been described as a loner. He will, however, forever be part of this group of 33. Unable to find membership with others in life, he now finds it in death. His aloneness has created aloneness for others. I think about the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, friends and families of the victims – their grief incalculable, their loss irreversible. They now have to deal with being alone. Hopefully, they won’t become loners.
We were never meant to be alone. We were made for community. It’s a sad commentary that we can be alone even in the midst of a multitude, like a university campus. Relationships, friendships, and family are too precious to be ignored because of busyness, preoccupation, or ambition. Communion is too important to be neglected because of a careless word, a thoughtless action, or a selfish choice. Love is costly and must not be postponed. The consequences are just too terrible.
Evil can only be overcome by goodness. If someone had treasured Cho Seung-Hui, enjoyed him, forgiven him, and loved him, maybe we wouldn’t be facing this nightmare. We can learn one thing from the Virginia Tech massacre: treasure those around you today. Tolerate their idiosyncrasies, delight in their uniquenesses, listen to their stories, share in their pain. The most noble thing we can do is build relationships of love. And maybe, just maybe, we can prevent the kind of aloneness that devastates our society.
“Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” – Luke 23:43
I wonder what went through the mind of the thief on the cross when Jesus told him that today he would be with the Lord in paradise. If it was your average twenty-first century American Christian I can imagine several possibilities.
The first one that comes to mind would be an image of a white-robed saint blissfully playing a harp on a cloud in a setting of stark white nothingness. How many times on TV have we seen that one? Or possibly, a happy-go-lucky fellow skipping along on a gold-bricked street in a moneyless world. Which begs the question about what attraction gold would really have if it isn’t worth anything; and I’m pretty sure there are better road construction materials available in paradise.
How about the picture of a huge ornate mansion with a single lone occupant? Even with biblical support for this notion (John 14:2), I fail to see the thief finding much comfort from the idea of eternally living on his own no matter how nice the pad is. With the size of families going down and the size of houses going up these days, I think a whole lot of people are going to feel the same way, especially since the time required to pay off these enormous mortgages approximates eternity.
But the top vision of paradise for many Christians is probably the mental image of a disembodied spirit floating around among other disembodied spirits, none of which remember or recognize each other from their former lives. I guess that could be considered paradise if your church relationships aren’t all that good.
With all these funny images of heaven in our minds, is it possible to really know what Jesus meant by paradise? Fortunately, there are clues in the Bible about what God thinks paradise is. Firstly, He created Adam and Eve in a place of paradise, it was called Eden. Secondly, Jesus explicitly described in His earthly ministry what God’s kingdom (paradise) was like. And lastly, the Apostle John gives us dramatic pictures of the consummation of the ages in the book of Revelation. From these sources we can form a pretty thorough concept of the paradise Jesus promised.
Eden was a place of community. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made mankind in Their own image, an image characterized by fellowship. Adam and Eve’s love for each other reflected the love of the Trinity. Eden was first and foremost the scene of divine communion. Paradise will be an environment of community.
Adam and Eve’s wardrobe can tell us a little about paradise. Their nakedness represented complete honesty and openness. It’s hard to keep secrets while letting it all hang out. They were who they were – no lies, no pretenses. Paradise will be an honest and truthful environment.
Being created unashamed meant that Adam and Eve had no guilt, no fear, and no shame. They accepted and enjoyed their humanity. God said being human was very good. With all their limitations, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities, Adam and Eve were at peace with themselves. Paradise will be a peaceful environment.
In Luke four, Jesus describes His mission as preaching the good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom to the downtrodden. He proclaimed the favorable year of the Lord. Everywhere Jesus went he spoke of the Kingdom of God. This is the message of paradise our Lord brought.
Poverty robs people of so many things. The good news is that in God’s kingdom no one will suffer from poverty. Like the early Jerusalem church, in God’s kingdom there will be no needs among His people. Paradise will be a prosperous environment.
The lame walk, the blind see, and the prisoners are set free. Paradise will be a place free from sickness, bondage, and oppression. God’s people will flourish and their welfare and blessing will be eternal. We will finally be whole. Paradise will be a wholesome environment.
The favorable year of the Lord…all will know God’s favor and be loved for who they are. No one will be lonely or alone. Rejection and self-hate will be unknown. Familial love and warmth will permeate the very atmosphere of paradise. Paradise will be an accepting environment.
The Apostle John says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’ And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'”
We live in a faded beauty. We know only a diminished world. God will reverse all this and restore everything to perfection. Nature, relationships, sounds, smells, tastes, joy, celebration will all be promoted to its original glory. He will make a new heaven and a new Earth…all things He will make new. Paradise will be a restored environment.
Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. Heaven and Earth will kiss. The dwelling place of God will be among men. Body and soul will be integrated. There will be no secular and sacred divide. All will be sacred. Paradise will be a spiritual environment.
A line from old chorus, based on Isaiah 51, goes like this, “Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The devil will be defeated and all things that make for sadness will be destroyed. If we had to say just one thing about paradise it would be this: Joy, eternal joy. Paradise will be a joyful environment.
Paradise:
A place of community
An honest and truthful place
A peaceful place
A prosperous place
A wholesome place
An accepting place
A restored place
A spiritual place
A joyful place
The thief on the cross probably knew the scriptures. And he had some understanding about the ministry and message of Jesus since he rebuked the other criminal for his foolish insults. Hearing those loving words, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise,” he died a happy man.
“[T]he New Testament calls the covenant community of God’s people into participation in the cross of Christ in such a way that the death and resurrection of Jesus becomes a paradigm for their common life as harbingers of God’s new creation.”
Adam and Eve’s fall from communion to autonomy was a tragic event that haunts us today. As I’ve been thinking about their experience and what we can learn about ourselves from it, it dawned on me that Genesis 3:10 contains in miniature the whole dynamic of the Fall. I call that dynamic, “Fear of Frying”, and it still functions in us today.
It goes something like this:
Withdrawing from communion leaves one alone to engage reality with their own scant resources. Therefore, when they come upon something good, they are afraid because it highlights their lack, and this sends them running for cover.
Take a look at Genesis 3:10:
He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
We can sum up this process in three steps: Sees Good => Fears Lack => Hides Self.
The following chart outlines the “Fear of Frying”:
Sees Good
“I heard the sound of You”
* Recognition of God’s standard. * Recognition of moral obligation (do right and be good). * Recognition of one’s duty/responsibility.
Fears Lack
“I was afraid because I was naked”
* Ashamed of limitations. * Not sure efforts are enough. * Others are better than self. * Can’t live up to standard.
Hides Self
“so I hid myself”
* Boast in talents. * Don’t admit lack. * Compete with others. * Dominate others.
The dynamic of the Fall works in us today. Because we mistrust God and try to be independent from Him and others, we experience a false sense of shame and insecurity that prevents us from meaningfully sharing ourselves with others, and often leads us to actually hurt them. Broken communion with God becomes broken communion with others.
It’s a miserable existence God never meant us to have.
I recently gave a message entitled, “Faith in Fig Leaves”. The message uses the chart from my last post as an outline. The pdf version of the chart is a little easier to follow.
We’ve been thinking a lot about Truth versus Pietism these last several weeks. One of the interesting insights has been how the rejection of truth goes right back to Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden. It seems appropriate during this season of Lent to think about the Fall and how that dynamic is still at work. Below I’ve tried to map how the Fall played out in our first parents and how it functions in us. Mankind, abandoning his faith in God, now has faith in fig leaves.
Step 1 – Kingdom of God Life in communion. God is a community of persons (Trinity). Reality is by nature communal. Being human is good.
Faith, relationship, and peace. Trust and truth (honesty) are the essential elements of relationships. Wholeness is found in communion (shalom).
God is the definition of good. In God is all reality and goodness. There is no other good besides God.
Symbol: Tree of Life. Path (tree) to life is union with God. Life is found in union with God (which also implies union with reality).
Gen. 1:31; 2:25; Luke 18:19; 1 John 4:8 Creation is very good. Naked & unashamed (complete through communion). Only God is good. God is love.
Step 2 – Mistrust
Withdrawal from communion. Without confidence (trust), relationship is impossible.
Doubt, self-preservation, isolation. Doubting God is doubting reality. Trust requires a risk of personal survival. Loneliness is rejection of relationship.
The definition of good is something other than God. Mistrust in God implies that good is found somewhere else other than in God. God is opposed to my ultimate good.
Symbol: Serpent. Satan works by introducing doubt about God’s character (accusation). Mistrust starts from concern about being cheated out of something.
Gen. 3:1,4-5 Did God say??? (accusation). You will not die (autonomy works). God knows you would become like Him (God is hiding something & cheating you).
Step 3 – Fractured Reality
Life distorted. If God can’t be trusted, then there is no truth. Life is irrational.
Compartmentalization (secular/sacred). Truth of heaven is different than truth of earth. Spirituality (the meaningful) is divorced from truth.
Good is confused. With no absolute, good is relative. Good is subjective.
Symbol: Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Path (tree) to knowledge of good and evil is death. Good and evil can’t be understood apart from God. Evil is anti-relational.
Gen. 3:6 Woman saw tree (path) was good for food (nourishment/life). Delight to eyes (her view, not truth). Desirable to make one wise (sufficient).
Step 4 – Inadequacy
Wholeness lost. Autonomy is incompleteness.
Fear, worry, anger. Inability to insure wholeness breeds insecurity and demand.
Good is not found in self. Mankind is finite, vulnerable, and fallible. Not “good”.
Symbol: Nakedness. Human frailty is weakness. Being human is shameful.
Gen. 3:7a Their eyes were opened (they swallowed the lie). They knew they were naked (humanity unprotected by communion).
Step 5 – Self-righteousness
Adequacy manufactured. Use any means to look and feel adequate.
Pride, ambition, power. Boast in talents. Don’t admit lack. Compete with others. Dominate others.
Good is artificial. Someone is always better. Success is fleeting. Others get hurt.
Symbol: Fig leaves. Mask true self. Image more important than truth. Lies & hiddenness.
Gen. 3:7b; Eccl. 1:9 Made themselves coverings. Nothing new under the sun.
Right before the Super Bowl, my son and I were discussing the “Truth versus Pietism” material I’ve been blogging about. He began sharing some interesting insights on sacred places. So I’d proudly like to introduce as my first guest blogger, my son, Timothy Krell:
A few days before Super Bowl Sunday, the idea of people watching the game in their churches was brought to my attention. I don’t know about you, but when I hear about people getting together in their local church to watch a football game, I cringe. But, instead of simply brushing over that feeling and moving on, I’d like to exercise the unique human ability of thinking about thinking and examine that thought. Where does this cringing come from?
Let’s assume that the game watching is not replacing any normal church service. Still there is the cringing. Our community has a room where we come together each Sunday for our Sunday service, cleverly termed the “Meeting Room.” I recently suggested that we watch the game on the TV there, but I did not feel the same cringing. Is this being a little hypocritical? I don’t think so. Allow me to explain.
In our meeting room, not only do we have our Sunday service there every week, but we have also watched movies ranging from The Passion of the Christ to Spider-Man, played games from musical chairs to Pictionary, and listened to music from worship to classical. The Meeting Room is simply another room that we happen to have our services in. It elicits no “spiritual” feelings from me like one would expect a temple or sacred sanctuary to. This is not to say, however, that the room is secular or that all our rooms are secular. Rather, they are all sacred. It is the life that I live together with my Brothers and Sisters every day that makes it so.
The reason, then, that I don’t have this mindset with a church is that it is designed to separate the secular and the sacred. Think about it. A church is built as a place for people to come once a week to worship God and hear the Gospel, away from their busy lives out in world and apart from their home and career. I realize that for some congregations there is need for more space than one member’s living room can offer, but it seems the problem is that the building is not part of the people’s daily lives. It is a reserved and sacred place, and hence comes the separation of the experience they know Monday through Saturday and the experience they know on Sunday. Even though it is not intended to be, the church building itself becomes a Pietistic symbol of the separation of secular and sacred.
I believe that it is much more beneficial to the congregation when the place where they come to worship on Sundays is not reserved for that alone, but also used for group activities, common meals, times of meditation, etc.. It is best when the church is a place where one can hear laughter, worship, weeping, praise, silence, and teaching throughout his daily life. This way we can symbolize to ourselves and to our children that every part of our lives together is sacred.
Adam and Eve chose to believe that the truth of heaven was different than the truth of earth. In doing so, they became the world’s first pietists. Pietists divide reality into two realms: sacred and secular. They see life divided into compartments, some spiritual and others not. This kind of thinking causes them to confront a fractured reality. The visible world and rationality become less valid and important. “Content, truth, and logic take second place to experience, fervor, sincerity, and rule-keeping” (Schaeffer 201). For the pietist, the exploration of truth isn’t as important as feeling and looking spiritual.
In Eden, our first parents experienced wholeness as they walked and talked with God in paradise. Their humanity, in all its weakness and vulnerability, flowed in perfect harmony with heaven and earth. They lacked nothing. “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a). All this changed after their fateful choice to split heaven and earth by embracing the lie that God was hiding something. Their mistrust of God left them with a broken reality and the impossible task of creating their own wholeness. Even though God had never told them that they were naked (lacking or inadequate), they now felt ashamed and incomplete.
Their first order of business was to hide their real selves. Truth no longer mattered. They must look and feel adequate, and now through their twisted view of reality they no longer seemed that way either physically or morally. Their imperfections of body and soul terrified them. And so began the war against truth as they covered their bodies (fig leaves: looking spiritual) and covered their souls (blame-shifting: feeling spiritual). Pietism was born.
As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Pietism informs many people’s attitudes. Looking and feeling spiritual (or righteous, holy, good, etc.) takes precedence over truth. This manifests itself in all kinds of ways.
God’s redemptive plan involves a reuniting of heaven and earth where wholeness is restored. This is what the Bible calls salvation. In community, we try to live honestly and truthfully with one another, embracing the values of the Kingdom (Matt. 5-7), in order to “prefigure and embody the reconciliation and healing of the world” (Hays 32). While we wait for the Kingdom to fully come, we can reject the temptation of false spirituality and really care for one another as brothers and sisters in God’s family.
Reference and Bibliography
All scriputres quotes from The New American Standard Version. Lockman Foundation. Schaeffer, Franky. Sham Pearls for Real Swine. Brentwood: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers Inc., 1990. Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1996.
In my writing about “Truth Versus Pietism” I explored how these two views of reality impact one’s approach to the gospel, Christian maturity, and engaging the world. My last post presented a chart that contrasted different aspects of these paradigms. Now, I’d like to look at the very first Pietists – Adam and Eve.
In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve enjoyed a blessed life of freedom, beauty, and fellowship with God and one another. According to Genesis, it was God’s custom to commune regularly with Adam and Eve in the garden. Both the spiritual and the physical came together in Eden. Heaven and earth kissed, and this was paradise. There was no division between secular and sacred. Everything was sacred, and it was as natural to work in the garden as it was to converse with God.
In this primordial world, secrets and shame, pretenses and lies were unknown. Naked humanity lived in complete harmony with the earth and with God. There was nothing to prove, and a vast universe of unthinkable beauty awaited to be explored. Wholeness and happiness flowed like a river.
But in the midst of this utopia, the deceiver, the Father of Lies, worked his malice and struck a blow that for ages to come would split heaven and earth. Beguiled by Satan, Eve bought the lie that the truth of heaven was different than the truth of earth. Indeed, God was hiding something. His reality was different than hers. If she and her husband were going to survive, they must reach out and know His truth, too.
With this fateful step, all of the rules seemed to change. They now confronted a fractured reality. Their world and home seemed inadequate. They were inadequate. The devastating shame of their humanity, in all its imperfections and weaknesses, frightened them. They no longer felt whole. Alone, with their own resources they would have to create sufficiency. They would cover their imperfections and make their own way in the world. The fig leaf would mask their weaknesses and would forever symbolize mankind’s pietistic attempt to make himself acceptable.
Mankind’s world was now at war with the spiritual world. Adam and his wife couldn’t bear heaven and earth’s communion anymore. Hearing the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they hide themselves while an agonized God calls out, “Where are you?” Racked with shame, Adam confesses his twisted fears. God asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” He had never told them that.
In a series of postsI’vebeendiscussing a concept called, “Truth Versus Pietism”. This is a model of two ways to understand reality. A Truth approach to reality means that reality is seen as an integrated whole created by God. A Pietism approach splits reality into two realms, namely, secular and sacred. The following is a chart that contrasts these two paradigms.
