dishonesty
Do You Feel Secure?
By Linda Rex
August 7, 2022, PROPER 14—This morning I was reading the book of Joshua and considering the reality of how we often place our sense of security in the wrong things. In this particular story, the ancient Israelites triumphantly crossed the Jordan River on dry land. Triumphantly, by a miracle from God, they took the fortress of Jericho down. They were on a roll. In Joshua 8, they spied out a small city, Ai, and realized they didn’t need to send the whole army. So, they sent about three thousand soldiers there, and were thoroughly routed by the enemy. Why the sudden change in the direction of their progress through the Promised Land?
What gets exposed in this chapter is the greed and covetousness of one man, Achan, and the impact his subterfuge had upon the nation as a whole. What was set apart for and dedicated to the Lord he had taken to himself, due to greed and covetousness. God was well aware of what was a hidden sin, one that he didn’t think anyone would ever discover. The thing which Achan believed was well hidden was systematically exposed before the whole nation and brought into judgment so that healing could occur.
In the days of the early church, following the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost, there is a similar story. The believers were just beginning to make inroads with the gospel in Jerusalem, demonstrating the good news by sharing what they had with the poor and needy. Along with others, Ananias and Sapphira also brought a gift to the church. They attempted impress the believers with their generosity, when in reality they had kept some of the portions of the sale of their property for themselves. The problem wasn’t that they kept part of the sale for themselves, but that they had pretended to have given more than they actually did. Sadly, they had given way to covetousness, greed, and dishonesty. Where was the transparency, generosity, and integrity of Jesus in what they had done?
Today, we are constantly exposed to the reality of greed, covetousness and dishonesty. All one has to do is go to the grocery store where you buy something, open it up, and find the bottle or box is only one thirds full. Or you take your car to the mechanic to have work done, pay for their hard work, only to discover they did not do what they said they had done. There is an inherent evil in this whole thing, and it’s not just the dishonesty, greed and covetousness.
What is missing here is an understanding that we do not exist in a vacuum. Not only do decisions we make ultimately impact someone else no matter how innocent they may be, but every thought, desire, decision is made within the spiritual reality that we are not alone—in Christ we live, move, and have our being. We do not live independently like we think we do. We’re not individuals, but persons in relationship, dependent upon God for our very existence. And this God in Christ has brought us into relationship with himself.
What if we took seriously what Jesus said about not seeking our security in the things of this life but rather, seeking them in the heavenly realities? In our reading for this Sunday, Luke 12:32–40, Jesus told his followers not to be afraid, that his Father happily desired to give us his kingdom. This is God’s passion—to include us in his life in relationship, in the oneness and fellowship of the Father, Son, and Spirit which has existed from before time began. Think of God’s generosity, transparency and integrity in Christ. This is what we were designed to reflect—this is our true way of being. When we don’t live in this way, we create a living hell for ourselves.
Going back to the story of Achan, we can ask ourselves a couple important questions: 1) Did Achan realize who God was? He was Achan’s Creator and Redeemer. 2) Did Achan realize who he was? He was one of God’s chosen people, brought into relationship, to live in daily fellowship with his Creator and Redeemer.
When Achan entered Jericho that fateful day, he was participating in something God was doing for Israel, and his simple task was to bring certain things to God and to destroy others, accomplishing what God wanted done. As he entered Jericho, Achan didn’t remember who God was, who he himself was, and why he was there. The siren call of the beautiful garments, the gold and the silver, said to Achan that his security was to be found in what he could touch, feel, and hold. At that moment, the treasure he had found grew to be more real than the God he had been brought into relationship with.
When Ananias and Sapphira brought their gift to the apostles, they forgot who had brought them into relationship with himself through his life, death and resurrection. They forgot that Jesus was a risen Lord, one who lived with them and in them by his Holy Spirit. They did not remember who Jesus was, their Creator and Redeemer. And they forgot who they were, the Father’s own adopted children by faith in Christ. What good does all the money in the world do us if we are estranged from the God who saved us, redeemed us, and who invites us by faith in Christ into intimate relationship with himself in the Spirit?
We can complain all we want about how bad things are economically, but until we all surrender to the reality that God has done something powerful and wonderful in his Son Jesus, drawing us into life with himself in the Spirit, we will continue to struggle. All of our choices, decisions, desires and motives, are exposed and open to the One who was willing to endure the fire of the crucifixion in our place and on our behalf. And his baptism is a baptism of fire in the Holy Spirit, an inner transformation which regenerates how we look at him, at ourselves, and at all of the things in this world, including money, belongings, popularity, and prestige.
Do you long to feel secure? So do I. But our true security will never be found in the tangible, transient things of this life. They will come and go. They will get broken or be stolen. They cannot save us from death, though they may temporarily prevent it for a while. Our true security is in relationship with Jesus Christ, the One who made all things, who sustains all things, and who has redeemed all things, and is working to restore and renew all he has made, including you and me. He is our true security, the One we are invited to surrender to, to live in relationship with—in the reality that God loves us, cares for us, is always present to us in Christ by the Spirit, and will bring us to live with him forever.
Heavenly Father, loving Jesus, forgive us for getting so attached to the things of this life, and for forgetting who you are—our Creator and Redeemer. Forgive us for grieving your Spirit by our greed, covetousness, and dishonesty. Grant us the grace to live in the truth of who you are and who we are, through Christ our Lord and by your Spirit. Amen.
“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.” Hebrews 11:(1–3, 8–12) 13–16 NASB
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.” Luke 12:32–40 NASB
[Printable copy: https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/do-you-feel-secure.pdf ]
When Truth of Being Hurts
By Linda Rex
In this discussion about truth and the truth of our being, it occurs to me that just having truth or being people who value truth is insufficient. God, who is truth, has sent the Spirit of truth through Jesus who is “the way, the truth, and the life” to us to dwell in human hearts. So we have the Spirit of truth available to us at all times.
But the reality is that even though we have the truth at our disposal, we also need a huge helping of God’s grace to go with it. Truth without grace and love is dangerous and destructive. Being truly open about one’s self or being authentic about who we are can bring about deeply painful and horrific consequences when it is told to the wrong person, and/or at the wrong time, and/or in the wrong way. Anyone who has been the victim of malicious gossip or Internet bullying is well aware of this fact.
Living out the truth of our being does not automatically ensure that the people in our lives are going to accept or embrace this reality when it appears. Jesus lived authentically his whole life and look how he ended up!
Sincerity, integrity, authenticity were a part of his nature, but the people around him often did not appreciate this, especially when it exposed their own hypocrisy, insincerity and deceitfulness, and their own prejudices. In fact, whenever we find Jesus pointing out the truth of who he was and the truth that the listeners were not living in agreement with their truth of being as God’s children, we also see them plotting his death and destruction. In these situations we see the huge contrast between, as Paul puts it, the expression of fleshly wisdom and the administration of the grace of God through holiness and godly sincerity.
Fleshly wisdom in this area is the natural human response of self-preservation and self-protection through image-management, manipulation of others, pretense and hypocrisy. Soon we become like the white-washed tombs which Jesus talked about—they look great on the outside, but on the inside is only death and dead men’s bones. We may think we’re fooling everyone else, but we’re really only fooling ourselves.
Because all the pretense, image-management and spinning of the truth in the world cannot remove the reality that we are completely and thoroughly known and loved by a God who knows us down to the very depths of our soul. The Spirit of truth doesn’t just dwell in heaven, but in human hearts—and he knows the truth of who we really are. In fact, the Spirit of truth is the very Breath of God who breathes life into our human bodies so we live and breathe every moment of every day.
The reality is, if he decided to do so, the Holy Spirit could just stop breathing life into you or me and we would simply die. When Peter pointed out the truth to Ananias and Sapphira they both had conspired to lie to the Spirit of truth, they died on the spot—their breath left them. They had been trying to be something they were not by impressing the early church with how generous and good they were when in reality they were hedging their bets because they didn’t truly trust God to care for them and provide for them if they donated all they had to help others.
I don’t know about you, but I know that I have on occasion been equally guilty of image-management and being generous under false pretenses. It has only been due to the love and grace of God that I am still breathing and doing ministry today. I’m reminded by all this to treat the Spirit of truth with a great deal of respect—honoring him by being sincere and truthful—but I am also reminded that in the end, it’s all of grace.
So in receiving God’s grace to be sincere, authentic and a person of integrity, I also receive the grace to love and forgive others who are insincere, inauthentic and lacking in integrity. In receiving God’s love in the midst of my mess, which is who I really am, I am able to offer to others the freedom to be the beautiful mess they truly are.
God is always at work to bring the truth to light, because it is in his nature of truth. He is the Spirit of truth, and Jesus is the truth of our being. God will not stop working to bring us all to the place where we are people of integrity, honesty and authenticity, because he is conforming each one of us to the image of Christ, who is truth. This is why we put our faith in Jesus Christ, in the Truth, and not in ourselves or in any one or anything else. May God complete his work in each of us to bring us into all truth, and may he grant us the grace to love and forgive others as well.
Thank you, God, that you are our God of truth, our Spirit of truth, our Messiah who is the way the truth and the life. Thank you that you are gracious and loving at the core of your Being, for we are fully dependent upon your grace and love. Thank you, Spirit of truth, that you overlook our shortcomings, for without you we would not live and breathe. Finish, Lord, all your work of transformation so that we may reflect you as you really are, in truth. In your name, Father, Son and Spirit, we pray. Amen.
“For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.” 2 Cor. 1:12
Being Truthful vs. Truth of Being
By Linda Rex
I don’t know if there is such a thing as social dishonesty, but I think there ought to be a term for fudging the truth for the sake of one’s relationship with others. Maybe it’s called telling a white lie. I guess, in reality, the real term for it would be hypocrisy. But none of us want to be accused of hypocrisy when all we want is to avoid hurting someone or to keep other people’s good opinion of us.
One of the most powerful tools of destruction when it comes to domestic violence is silence. In destructive relationships there is a rule, unspoken or not, that what happens within the relationship or family stays within it. Nobody is allowed to tell the truth about what is going on, no matter how hurtful or wrong it may be.
This type of silence and our “social dishonesty” create relationships based on a lie. It becomes very difficult to determine exactly what is true and what is false, because what is being said and done does not come from a place of safety, transparency and authenticity but from a place of fear, shame, guilt and/or manipulation. Rather than living out of truth, we live out of something we are not.
At some point God will bring all of us to the place where we have to face the truth of who we really are inside. And most of us are so terrified by the thought of what we might find there that we will do anything we possibly can to avoid this confrontation.
What if we discover, or worse yet—if someone else discovers—we’re not the image we’ve been trying to portray all these years? What if the truth about who we are is that we are a smuck, a selfish, thoughtless idiot? What if all the hateful things that have been said to us over the years are true? What if we really are worthless, useless and deserve only to die like our mom or dad told us over and over as we were growing up?
We so often seek to be what we are not, or believe that we are not, because that is what is expected of us. We hold each other to impossible standards, which none of us are capable of fulfilling—this is the result of a society built on the lie that to be truly human is to be attractive, charismatic, athletic, clever, smart and talented. Just like the Greeks who worshiped the perfect human form—we worship the superhuman who can do impossible feats.
Even though there is no such thing as a supermom, women still feel driven to “do it all”—have the perfect body, the perfect family, the perfect job, and the perfect home. Even though Superman is just a story, men feel the pressure to have the perfect physique and to be a person of presence and power in the marketplace or industry—wherever they work and live.
For those who seek to be moral people, there are the impossible standards that we hold ourselves and other people to. I know from personal experience how destructive and self-defeating it is to try and live up to someone else’s or my own interpretation of the Bible’s commandments. The best we can do is to keep up appearances and to hope that no one finds out the truth about who we really are.
At this point, I think it might be helpful to reevaluate our self-concept. We are so resistant to people finding out the truth about who we are because we believe the truth of our being is that we are awful, horrible monsters. I appreciate William Paul Young’s observation that when we try to live out of this lie—that the truth of our being is that we are evil and depraved—we find ourselves unable to become what we ought to be. We expend a lot of effort hiding, self-medicating or self-destructing as a result. We need to change the way we think about ourselves and about what the truth of our being is.
As I was reading 2 Corinthians 4 this morning, it struck me that if we could truly grasp the reality that Jesus is the truth, the truth of who we are, our lives and how we think and act would be entirely different. When we look deep inside ourselves, often all we see is evil and depravity. But God calls us to look further.
God shines the light of his Spirit in our hearts because he wants us to see ourselves honestly and in reality. We need to see that the evil and depravity, whatever form it may take, is not the truth of who we are. Whatever evil and depravity may lie at the heart of our being, along with all the good stuff that we are as well, died with Christ and rose with Christ.
The truth of our being is that we are made in the image of God and declared to be very good—and so God in Jesus Christ redeemed and redeems us so that we, in truth, are and can be that very thing. We need to see the truth of our being as being defined by Jesus Christ, who is our life and the truth of who we are.
This does not mean that we stop being ourselves, but rather that the ourselves that we are have been redeemed and made new. When we find ourselves living in ways that do not coincide with the truth of who we are in Christ, that is when we are living a lie. Evil and depravity no longer define us—no matter what anyone may say—Christ does. So our entire life now is sacred, devoted to God, to be lived in agreement with the person God has declared us to be.
This is why I love the Voice translation of 1 Cor. 1:6 which says that our life story confirms Christ’s life story. How we live now is a confirmation of the very nature and life of Christ. We are uniquely ourselves but we live in and with God in Christ by the Holy Spirit—a life surrounded by, filled with, and defined by God, and no one else.
This makes living authentically a whole lot easier. We’re not held to any standard other than the life of Christ. Since his life, death, resurrection and ascension is ours and we are united with him, our faults, failures and idiocyncrasies are redeemed. We are new creatures.
We can have hope in the midst of our faults because we can know that, as the apostle Paul points out, we have the treasure of God’s very presence and life in these “jars of clay”, right within our humanity. When we are criticized or ridiculed by others, we can look at ourselves with honest eyes, with a willingness to see the truth. Are we indeed what they say we are, or is there some part of us that is in the process of being redeemed by Christ and we need to participate in that process?
Because there will always be some brokenness in us that God is working with as long as we are in this human flesh. We will have the appearance of being faulty as long as we are not yet fully transformed into Christ’s likeness. It is a process—from glory to glory. We cannot just focus on what is seen, but must trust in what is unseen—that God is at work, transforming us and making us what he means for us to be.
This creates the groundwork for authentic, transparent relationships that are truly loving. In a relationship based on this foundation of Christ, both parties are able to be honest and truthful with one another because there is always Christ between them. They each live and walk in truth, leaving no room for “social dishonesty” or destructive silence, because at the same time, they are walking in grace and love. And this describes the Triune life we participate in through Christ and in the Holy Spirit. May we each experience this blessing of authentic relationship today and every day, and forever.
Thank you, God, that you have included us in your divine life and love. Thank you that you define who we are, and that you are at work redeeming us by the Spirit, renewing us and making us what we were meant to be. Grant us the grace to trust you, allowing you to work your process of renewal in us and participating with you as we live in agreement with the truth of who you have declared us to be. Through Jesus our Lord and by your precious Spirit. Amen.
“… we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:2 NASB
“Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.” 1 Corinthians 4:5 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 