Words from WW Blog

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

Mike Woodruff in “The Friday Update” writes that the Platinum Rule is now getting playing time. The Platinum Rule takes Jesus’s Golden Rule (“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.“) and rewords it to make it all about the person. It says to “treat ourselves the way we want others to treat us.”

In a culture obsessed with selfies, the emphasis is now on grabbing the last piece of the pie before anyone else gets it. More to the point, grab it instead of asking someone else if they’d like it. After all, you are the queen, or king, of your own make-believe kingdom.

Jesus approached it differently. He astounded his own disciples when he said, “… the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) Not only did Jesus not take that last piece of pie (or probably bread), he served it to the one who was considered by others to be the least.

Serving others and making them feel they are worth serving is a valuable commodity, despite the increasing trend toward the Platinum Rule. Chick-Fil-A has elevated it to a core value. Although we sometimes chuckle at the person bringing the tray to your pleasure with their reply of “My pleasure!” to our thank you, I have never left a Chick-Fil-A feeling unappreciated or undervalued. The company wants you to know that you are important and valued.

Jesus applauded selflessness and self-sacrifice, drawing attention to the widow’s mite, which was a stretch for her to give up, although it didn’t even compare with the large amounts of coins others brought to the temple, which made loud sounds when dropped into the offering containers. And Jesus demonstrated servanthood when he grabbed the water and the cloth and washed his disciples’ feet. It was the prelude to his sacrificial servanthood displayed on the cross.

The Platinum Rule treats servanthood as if it were one of those kindergarten lessons meant to keep the students from pushing and punching one another when they get in line to go down the playground slide. To avoid chaos and broken arms, give the kids a few lessons on kindness and courtesy. According to the Platinum Rule, personal injury lawyers are where it’s at. Mother Teresa is a person from the past, outdated and old-fashioned. Social influencers wearing an exorbitant amount of bling is where it’s at now.

The thing is, we’re never satisfied. Paul David Tripp, in his devotional, New Morning Mercies, writes that sin “…causes us to look horizontally for what can only be found vertically.” The mindset “it’s all about me” never reaches a point of peace and satisfaction, and yet it’s the bill of goods we’ve bought into.

Serving others brings us to the heart of Jesus.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (1 Corinthians 4:18)

I loved watching my grand-nephew, Chase Allen, play basketball. He had vision. He could see what hadn’t happened yet, as well as the possibilities of what could happen. He knew when to slow it down and set up the offense that was having a few minutes of chaos, and he knew when his team had the advantage and needed to speed the game up.

Court sense and game understanding. Seeing the not-yet and what such foresight could mean for his team.

In our walk with God, wouldn’t it be great to see what has not yet happened? We have some of that in that we know where our eternal destination will be. We know that the love of God will always be there. We know His presence never disappears.

However, we see what is seen so much that fixing our eyes on what is unseen is like knowing what is in the midst of the morning fog we’re walking into. We see the fog, but not what is positioned within the fog.

In our lives, we see what is the immediate. We see what is on the agenda for the day. We see the person in front of us that we’re talking to, and we hear what they’re saying. However, we fail to see the presence of God in the moment or in the details. We so often fail to see the heart of the person we’re talking to or the innner struggles that are being fought. We are a “see what’s in front of your face” kind of people.

In recent months, I’ve had several of my youth-years friends pass away. Three of them were in the same church youth group I was in. They’re my age! Their passing causes me to pause and consider the eternal matters of this life and the next. I can not see what is to come, and yet I am confident in the promises of the unseen. It isn’t that I am no longer concerned or interested in the events and moments of this life, but rather that I’m investing more of my pondering on the life I will experience in the eternal.

Like my grand-nephew’s basketball court sense, I’m sensing the presence of the Unseen and the “what is to come.”

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

In general, the church has struggled to define its relevance to current culture. It has battled with two questions: Why do we do the things that we do, and why shouldn’t we do what the culture is doing? A subtitled question for the second would be “What are the limits to the push to be culturally relevant?”

In some cases, the drive to be culturally “with it” has resulted in producing churches that have thrown Jesus into the backseat. He’s not even riding shotgun anymore. In other situations, churches have asked the risky question, “Why not try this? Would Jesus be upset by it, or is it just different than what has always been the tradition?”

Jesus’s teaching about the house built on the rock versus the house built on sand brings us, literally, to the foundation of the issue. I mean, “who builds on sand?” is the logical question. In recent years, we’ve seen many crumbling houses built exactly there. Some in sinkholes, others on hillsides where erosion has deemed the structure unsafe to live in. In some of the situations, the “bad” foundation isn’t discovered until later on when it’s too late to change anything.

It makes me wonder if, in the beginning, the sifting sand looked solid? Did the decision to build seem like a great idea, a creative project that was going to connect with those seeking the truth? Did it look rock solid? When did the foundation become more about cultural leanings and less about Christ?

Regarding the church, there is a certain mindset that holds firmly to the idea that rock-hard resistance to the winds of change is the way of the faithful, while others argue that such rigidity eliminates the freedom the gospel brings.

In addition, the church and its members have a habit of trivializing what it means to have a solid faith by putting disqualifiers into the question. Can you be anchored to the Rock and still drink a margarita? Does being Rock-Solid mean that playing the lottery is an indicator of a lack of faith? Can I stay close to Christ and still cuss?

Going back to my opening question, it has been difficult for the church to define its relevance to culture, and also what being set free by the gospel means and what it looks like.

The vitalness of being anchored to the Rock is evident in the cultural antagonisms that pull in various directions. “WWJD”- what would Jesus do gets verbalized in vastly different ways by different people and groups. What is a sign of waywardness to one group is a sign of devotion to another. Changing the world for Christ will always meet resistance from those who want the world to change in another way. It seems that Christ-followers too often have to battle against culture and other Christians. In reading the epistles of the New Testament, the struggle was evident back then as well. Pressures from those outside and tensions and warped beliefs from some of those on the inside made for lengthy letter correspondence. Of course, that was the early church in various locations and hostile cultures. They were communities of believes trying to figure faith out.

I’m not sure what our excuses are. Staying close to Jesus always seems to attract sand and wind.