Why I don't blog as much and loving my enemies... // May 5, 2008
Its been a great month! I was talking to Sara not long ago and noting that I find its a lot more difficult to come up with interesting posts this tour than last. I think the reason for this is three-fold:
1. I'm not a rookie in the chaplain/army business any more. I'll have been at this for four years come September and not that much is "new" any more. On my last deployment, every day would bring a new idea, new verbiage, and new experiences into my life - stuff I HAD to share! Now, I pretty much have the job down (not to a science yet, but getting there) and whatever "new" things I run into, are not actually that interesting.
2. This environment is very different from my last one. In my last deployment, I was ministering in a very traumatic environment - not only for my troops but for me as well. I spent a great deal of time off the FOB in the combat environment but this time, its basically a garrison environment that does not change all that much. Given that we are an Aviation Support Battalion, all our work is maintenance, warehouse or other support functions and not many in my BN do "out the wire" missions so my days are VERY similar. In fact, unlike last tour, I fight the "groundhog day syndrome" daily...
3. I am just not as into writing as I have been in the past. I don't really know how to explain it. I sit down to write and nothing interesting jumps to my mind! Its not writer's block, I write all the time for other things, but I just don't have a lot to say I guess. Who knows, maybe it'll pass...
In the mean time, I've been passing time that I would otherwise be writing reading:
Besides several novels, I've polished off some amazing non-fiction to include (finally finishing) Evil and the Justice of God by NT Wright and, most recently, The Myth of a Christian Nation, by Greg Boyd. This last book is a challenging look at the "civic religion" that Christianity in
The challenge presented to me is - can I love my enemies? I mean, if I ran into an insurgent who placed the IED that killed my soldiers - could I love and serve them? I am convinced that service and the Gospel go hand in hand. Its not that we serve so that we have an opportunity to present the Gospel - its that the gospel of Jesus Christ is presented IN our service! When I bleed for others, when I sacrifice for them, I exemplify Christ. My father-in-law, a pastor in rural
From The Myth of a Christian Nation, "Doing the kingdom always requires that we bleed for others, and for just this reason, doing the kingdom accomplishes something kingdom-of-the-world activity can never accomplish. It may not immediately adjust people's behavior, but this is not what it seeks to accomplish. Rather, it transforms people's hearts and therefore transforms society." (pg.116)
How can I serve others? How can I show the love of Christ in this camp? How can I show Christ's love?
Christians are not know for their radical, self-sacrificial love. I'm sorry, I do not mean to preach - I am not known for my self-sacrificial love. Is my calling in this world to fix all the moral problems or to love others? Is my calling to vote Christians into public office or to show Christ's love to others? Is my calling to push a radical,
I suppose some would argue that in confronting sin we are loving others - tough love - right? Besides the Jewish authorities, when did Christ do this? Jesus, a Jewish prophet in a Jewish world, rightly pointed out the problems of the Jewish religious leadership - when did he say anything about the unjust, corrupt, decadent Roman authority? He said to "love your enemies" - love - when these same Christians would soon be fed to lions for sport....
I don't love like that. I'm quite sure I can't. I know that such love needs the transformational power of the Christ through the Holy Spirit. Its deeper than a systematic theology, its deeper than a dogma or tradition - its has to come from deep with in is.
I want to want to love.
Again, Boyd, "Above all we are to love. Everything we do is to be done in love and, thus, communicate love. We are to imitate God by living Christ like love, and if we do this we fulfill the whole law. If we lack this, everything else we do is devoid of kingdom value, however impressive it might otherwise be. Not only this but God has leveraged the expansion of this Kingdom on the church loving like Christ loves. By God's own design, the corporate "body of Christ" is to grow as the corporate body does exactly what the incarnate body of Christ did - dying for those that crucified him.
For the church to lack love is for the church to lack everything. No heresy could be worse!" (pg. 134)
Love - not "tough love" or "confrontational love" but honest, unconditional, Christ-like love. Love with no borders, colors, creeds, belief structures, strings or money.
Love.
Yeah, that kind of love is a lot harder than forwarding an email or sticking a sign in your yard. Its harder than putting money in an offering plate or having conversations about the degradation of culture. This kind of love demands that I give of myself. Give of my family. Give of my life. Its hard.
But I've been called to it. I've been commanded to love - John says, "a new commandment I give you - love one another..." Its been personified in the love that loved while the nails were driven into the hands of the lover. Love is the glory of God, expressed by the Word given to mankind.
At least its hard for me. You might be beyond that already. Perhaps you could share your secret as to how you came to that...
Every day, I pray that God will help me love soldiers. But you know, I already do, I already love them - how do I love my enemies?
Maybe the reason we have such a hard time as Christians loving our enemies is because we find it so hard to love our brothers and sisters in Christ - but that would be a bit much to ask wouldn't it....
I love you.
God helping me...
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Blogging , Book Reviews , Interesting Articles , Iraq Part Dux...5 Comments
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Chaplain Jon Fisher
Jon, I remember going back to my elementary school when I was in junior high. Everything seemed so small. Why? I had grown up. I saw things differently, I processed the world around me differently. Has Iraq changed or have you? Great commentary on the reading. Luther once said, we must be little Christ's to one another. Just be Christ to your Soldiers and the Iraqis (easier said than done I know) and let God surprise you. Keep your head down! Michael
Thats my point michael - how to be christ to my soldiers - yea, everyone I meet? What does that mean? "Let God surprise you" what does that mean? What does it look like?
I find that the "answers" I have learned in various schools, from sermons - even the ones I studied out myself - these fail to meet the challenges of the reality I face daily. There is more to "looking like Christ" than I ever thought and its harder than here than it ever was in the States.
I find that I love it though. This searching makes me feel closer to God. The more the "answers" don't actually answer the more convinced I am that the reality of God is cannot be bound by man, packaged and wrapped up like a gift - it is only bound in the person of Jesus Christ - whose example we follow.
Its empowering...
All sin is a failure to love, and that's all sin is. This formula does not diminish or minimize the seriousness of stealing, adultery, murder, bearing false witness, coveting, or any of the other commandments.
In fact, this formula expands and maximizes the meaning of sin, just as Jesus did in the Sermon on the Mount. Love is more than just avoiding the murder of another. Love is finding the good thing to do for another. Love is more than avoiding that which brings death: Love is finding and doing that which brings life.
One should not excuse murder, stealing, adultery or the others by saying, "I'm doing this out of love." Love will find a way to express itself in a way that does not damage the command.
Based on this formula, Jesus was able to say that loving God supremely and loving others as ourselves fulfills the requirements of the law.
Jon, I only know how God tends to surprise me - The Holy Spook as I call the third person of the Trinity when things happen that just spook the @#$ out of me and there is only one explanation - GOD. Shouldn't be surprised, but I always am.
Also, when I am open - really open, fall down on my face, give it up to God, let go and let God - open (and this is coming from a Lutheran). In the voice or the presence of the other - who ever they may be. I don't know if I find the answers or the answers - the God who speaks in the still small voice, in the babe in the manger, in the converted Saul, the martyred Stephen, etc. find me.
I find being Christ is being real, being myself. There is Chaplain Lozano (what others expect a chaplain to be as they define it) and then there is Chaplain Lozano who presents or re-presents Christ in the only way I know by being me. Which sometimes challenges others to rethink their definition of chaplain or more importantly see the gospel in a new light. Remember Christ was fully divine and fully human. Sometimes we forget the human part. Sometimes the chaplain is seen as fully (or nearly fully) divine. In my messy humaness I try to point to the divine (like John the Baptist).
"Love is more than just avoiding the murder of another. Love is finding
the good thing to do for another. Love is more than avoiding that which
brings death: Love is finding and doing that which brings life."
That's beautiful Dad. Its exactly what I am thinking. Love demands
action. I wonder if the phrase "faith without works is dead" could be
rendered "works without faith is dead." Or, in this context - love
without action is dead and vice versa. It has been causing me to
re-think my missiology. Can love have an agenda? Do we, when we serve
for the purpose of "opening the door for the gospel" ruin our attempts
because we have an agenda?
Love, service and the gospel seem to be the same thing.