Tag Archives: Good and Evil

Choices

Living in the Spirit

July 10, 2020

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:1-11

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. –Romans 8:1-8

Paul speaks of choice sustained and maintained by practice. Doing good grows more good. Evil acts beget more evil Paul simplifies choice by clusters. One is the cluster of the Spirit, the other the cluster of the flesh. We are more apt to think in terms of good and evil or right and wrong. Our example is Adam and Eve being removed from the Garden of Eden for disobeying God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Another example is Jesus’s sojourn in the wilderness with Satan, where he is tempted by wealth, which provides food to eat, power, and testing God, and he withstood each temptation.

If we chose the Spirit, we are gifted with the grace of God and the guidance of the Spirit to help us be faithful to our choice. Jesus nor Paul discount the constant power of the flesh working to dissuade us from being steadfast in maintaining our Spirit choice.

The continuous practice part of choice is the challenge. During this pandemic, it is interesting to see how athletes have worked to stay in shape for when they return to play. One of the things I noticed is that some basketball players who were in the last half of their season first took the time to heal the various injuries that plague their bodies just through the routine of playing game after game. We, too, need to seek spiritual sabbaths to let our souls heal from the everyday press of serving God. Once healed, those athletes found ways to exercise and rebuild their bodies to return to competitive playing. Similarly, we practice spiritual disciplines to restore and sustain our souls.

The discipline of self-evaluation is crucial. We often do not realize when we slip into bad habits that disconnect us from God. For example, while we may not think we are contributing to the racial divide in our country, what are we doing to heal it? We may regularly donate to a food bank, and that is good, but what are we doing to end poverty? I routinely recycle, but I know very little about the general issues of climate change and what I can do further to address them.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gifts of the Spirit, help us to delve deeper in how we can practice our spiritual gifts toward your justice. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Choices

Epiphany

February 10, 2020

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. –Deuteronomy 30:15-18

Choices—life is always about choices. Eat the apple of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and die. God chose not to follow through on that outcome and Adam and Eve did not die but the story tells us from the beginning of time our lives and the results of our lives depend on our choices—good and evil. The challenge of the world is that choosing the good can seem to have bad results; choosing evil for a time can seem to be the greatest thing in the world.

I do not know if parents still try to teach their children to make good choices. Some I fear encourage, not anything they perceive as evil, but things that are expedient or short cuts to success that really are wrapped in evil. Pursuing these other gods at any costs like greed, power, status in the world, all rank as the ways to get ahead; the ways to be successful in life whether they relate to who one really is or what actualizes their best talents and the deepest desires of their hearts.

God demonstrated God can make choices that are good for others. Good wants us to model those choices in our lives and support good choices in the lives of all God’s children.

Prayer: Lord, guide our choice making and help us support others find your guidance in their choices. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Sun and Shield

Living in the Spirit
August 29, 2018

Scripture Reading: Psalm 84

For a day in your courts is better
   than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
   than live in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
   he bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does the Lord withhold
   from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
   happy is everyone who trusts in you. –Psalm 84:10-12

I left my sunglasses beside where I had set my purse the day before. As I rushed out to get to a meeting I grabbed the purse but not the glasses. I realized it the minute I backed out onto my driveway. I am light sensitive, and it must be very overcast for me to go without my sunglasses. I did not want to take the time to run back into my house, so I put my night driving glasses on which I leave in my car. They do the job, but not quite as well as my regular sunglasses. The lenses are yellow in the night driving glasses which does a good job taking away the glare of headlights but in the daytime, it discolors everything making many of the roofs of buildings look like they are capped with gold. (Just for the record, I do recommend using the night glasses at night. They do cut the glare from headlights.)

We have had a lot of cloudy, muggy weather including rain recently. The sun streaming on me felt so good refreshing my soul. For me to get the full benefit of the sun though, I must also have my shield, my protector, in this case, my sunglasses. I suppose sunscreen serves a similar protective purpose.

So, what does our scripture today mean when it says the Lord God is a sun and shield? Is the Psalmist saying that God shines light on all the opportunities available for us to fulfill our potential and if we let God, provides a shield against our following the wrong paths? We are all capable of both good and evil or what the Psalmist calls wickedness. When we solidify our relationship with God and use God’s shield to protect our path we are guided to the good. When we allow the world’s shield to guide us, we see things differently. What looks like gold through the world’s view is merely a discolor illusion.

 

Prayer: Lord, protect us from the allure of the common things that turn out to be destructive to us. Guide us to see where your light is shining on the better way. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Good and Evil

Living in the Spirit
July 17, 2018

Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. –2 Samuel 7:10-14a

Much of the evil in the world is due to the fact that [humanity] in general is hopelessly unconscious.                                                                                                                                                        –Carl Jung

A new small, gray cat with a bobbed tail has taken over my backyard. I do not know if it is a feral cat or my neighbor has a new cat.  My neighbor’s cat, a black and white, has claimed my backyard since moving to my neighborhood.  My sense is the gray has established dominion. The driveway where I park my car is separated from my backyard by double gates. The gray has adapted quickly to his or her new environment. When I go to get into my car, if the gray is in the driveway he or she quickly climbs the fence having learned safety exists at least from me behind the gate.

Humans seem to lack the keen, constant instinct for survival that other members of the animal kingdom possess. Everything is a threat to other animals until it is not. Human adrenaline certainly kicks in when we perceive danger but usually not before. Perhaps our mental acuity was created to offset the constancy of the survival instinct. The difference between good and evil is a mental construct between which humans must choose.

Living in a state of peace and prosperity may dull our sense of the continuing presence of evil in the world. Some think that such a state is based on their being more deserving than those who do not live in peace and prosperity. We call that privilege the anesthesia that most often causes the unconsciousness Jung describes in the above quote. David sought to practice justice during his reign. Solomon seemed to have continued that principle. The kingdom divided following his death as justice and righteousness lost out to evil.

Privilege requires the existence of a lower level of existence. God, on the other hand, saw that all the world he created was good and the interaction of all its parts are necessary for good to prevail. Perhaps we need to pay more attention to good and evil than peace and prosperity. When good is fully realized peace and prosperity will be the norm.

Prayer: Lord, save us from our unconsciousness. Keep us alert to opportunities to defeat evil with love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.