Catholic Saints

The New York Times reported it this past weekend. News from Rome that the Catholic Pope Benedict XVI has canonized five new saints Sunday, including a 19th-century Belgian priest who worked with lepers in Hawaii.

The news reported that a large delegation from Hawaii attended the ceremony, "including a Hawaii resident who recovered from cancer after pray to the Belgian born priest, Jozef De Veuster (known as Father Damien.)" The Vatican had pronounced her recovery (from cancer) a miracle.

Now this Father Damien, whom the Pope promoted to sainthood over the weekend, actually died in 1889. In fact, all of the people that the Pope canonized are dead (as is the tradition in the Catholic church). And of course all of them appear to have lived virtuous lives, dedicated to God. Certainly all of them had a profound impact on humanity during their lifetimes. Their lives are a testament to faith in God and fine examples for the rest of us to follow.

But let us not miss the heresy here. For starters, God says that all are equal. None are above the others. So it is not to the Catholic church to decide who is elevated in heaven. If there are levels in heaven (as some will argue), then there can be no argument that it is God Himself who determines which are the saints, versus the common inhabitants of heaven. In fact, we cannot even be certain that these so-called saints are even in heaven!

Another aspect of the heresy is that people of the Catholic faith pray to other dead people. And the church acknowledges it ... instead of rebuking it and correcting it. I've blogged before about the heresy of the Catholic tradition praying to the Virgin Mary (Jesus' birth mother). I suspect this goes to another level, simply praying to any dead person that the Vatican decides is important spiritually (i.e., canonizes as a saint). Let's be clear here: Christ-followers are not to pray to anyone but God Himself.

I'm fully aware that the Catholic church has done much good in our society. I'm also aware that most Catholics are decent, righteous people. Some of them are my dear friends. But it grieves me to see the Catholic church, as an institution, so badly misleading its people into heresy.

The Bible says there will be special punishment for spiritual leaders who lead others astray. Perhaps it is the Pope who should repent then. And when he's finished, he could call the rest of his church to repentance and align their Catholic traditions with Biblical truth. It would be nice if all those poor Catholics could pray to the One who can truly help them!

More Confession

I have blogged before about confession. James 5:16 tells us to, "Confess your sins to one another and be healed." I've come to understand that as one of the key mandates from this God of conditions that we serve.

We confess our sins to God and He forgives them. But if we want His healing, well that requires something more - it requires that we confess them to one another.

I have to say that over the years this has seemed like maybe the best kept secrets of the Bible. It certainly seems to be one of the best kept secrets of Christianity!

We have self-professed Christians who go around pretending to each other that they don't sin. And yet, God asks us to do exactly the opposite. Go figure.

Proverbs 28:13 tells us that, "People who conceal their sins do not prosper ..." What do you think of that? It would seem that prosper and healing are two entirely differently things. I can find healing from my sin patterns. Or I can be prosperous.

Could it be possible for someone to be prosperous without healing? How about having healing without being prosperous? No, these two things sound like they are entirely different. But I suspect we are not to be deceived. While they may seem different, they are more closely linked than we think.

It is hard to learn from a mistake that you don't acknowledge. How exactly does one learn from mistakes (besides acknowledging them)? I think he (or she) would admit it, confess it to God, confess it to another, analyze it and then make adjustments to prevent it from happening again.

It would be those latter three things that require assistance from another human being. Of course I need someone to confess to.

But can I properly analyze my sin on my own? I doubt it. The Bible tells us clearly to "lean not on your own understanding." That would seem to be sage advice when analyzing one's own sin. No, I will need the wisdom of another to assist me.

And what about that making of adjustments? Resisting temptation. Eliminating temptation patterns in my life. How about evaluating my continued sin? Can I do that by myself? Probably not. It seems I would need the assistance of another to do that as well.

King Solomon wrote his wisdom about prosperity being tied to my confession in the Old Testament. James wrote his wisdom about healing being tied to my confession in the New Testament. (Do you think these guys collaborated bit on this?) There is a common theme here.

The older I get, the more I understand the wisdom, the precious value of confession. To be clear, confession can be intimidating. We want to be able to confess to someone that would be trustworthy. I need to confess to someone who won't hurt me, shame me or otherwise wound me. (After all, I'm already guilty!)

But James was writing to the saints when he said to "confess to one another." So we don't just confess to anyone. We confess to someone who is at least as spiritually mature as we are. That would be someone who sees us as Christ see us. It will be someone with the love of Jesus in them. It will be one who can model God's grace with us.

Romans 8:1 tells us that, "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." There is no condemnation from those who are in Christ Jesus either! So if I'm confessing to the right person, I will feel better. He will feel better. God will be in the middle of that conversation. His healing will result from that conversation.

Doesn't this just make you want to go out and get a "black belt in confession!"

Those Awful Christians

There should be a sub-title on today's blog. It might read, "God's grace is bigger than you think."

Have you ever spent much time around today's Christians? They're awful people. They sin. They have issues. They're broken. They squabble. They even persecute each other! I have spent many years closely connected to my local church(es). The experience has been both rewarding and painful. At times, I've looked at the people I'm in community with. I want to turn to God and say, "Lord, have you seen these people? Do you even know what they're like? And yet you tell us to get into community and be one with them. What were you thinking!"

Christians in business aren't much better. I worked in a Christian company, started by an entrepreneurial missionary. It was awful. He was awful. There was quarreling and distrust. There was lying and failure. Disappointments and frustrations. Resentments and anger. My goodness, there were even firings and lay-offs! You go in thinking that a Christian company run by Christians will look and behave better than the rest of the world. But often times it doesn't. It makes you want to question God.

I think most of us have a fundamental problem when it comes to relating to other Christians. We read our Bibles and see a certain standard of behavior. Naturally it is a sinless standard. So when we see people who are sinning and think we could write a book about "Christians behaving badly," we often are tempted to question their faith. We wonder how they could be Christian and act that way they're acting. I know, I know - we're not supposed to judge each other. But let's be honest here ... we do judge each other. We can't help ourselves; we're that broken!

I think it was Ghandi who was quoted as saying something like, "You know, I might become a Christian if I didn't know so many of them." So it appears that others who are intelligent and spiritual are judging us. What kind of evidence are we giving them to judge us with? When we decide to call ourselves a Christian, it connotes some specific things. First, it says I am a Christ-follower. Secondly, it says I am in the process of becoming Christ-like. So let me ask you, how well are you following Christ? How much Christ-likeness is emerging in you?

So I just finished reading the Gospel of Mark this morning. I noticed something pretty relevant to this story of horrible Christians. All of Jesus' disciples failed him. They were Christ-followers behaving badly. They all said they would die with him - and just hours later they all deserted him. Peter even tried to defend him - but ended up denying him three times. We all know that story. What we might overlook is that when Jesus rose from the grave, it appears that among his first words were to instruct someone to "go and tell my disciples ... and Peter."

Why did he single out Peter? Hadn't Peter deserted him worse than the others? Yet Jesus went on to build his church on Peter. So the thing I notice here is that Peter was broken. He failed Christ. He was not a good Christian. He was a work in progress. Jesus value everything he was and everything he would be. At the same time, Jesus forgave him for his shortcomings. And then Jesus went right on using him.

This makes me conclude that perhaps, indeed God's grace is bigger than we think. While we look at so-called Christians sinning and conclude something --- perhaps we're concluding the wrong thing. It would seem that these saints are sinners. And the sinners are saints. Did you get that? The sinners are the saints --- because Jesus makes it so.

Let's face it, until Christ returns, Christians will continue to behave badly. They will fail him, deny him and fail to represent him in their deeds, actions and even thoughts. Still and all, the sinners are the saints. Jesus makes it so. God's grace truly is bigger than you think!