MLK Day 2012: The Civil Rights Movement, The Left & The Legacy of MLK

MLK Day 2012: The Civil Rights Movement, The Left & The Legacy of MLK

Walk Off the Earth with "Somebody I Used to Know"

I Wouldn't Do It Like That Guy!

I'm right, you're wrong.

I have never read Kierkegaard but in quotes, so when I got "Practice in Christianity" from Cory this Christmas, I was excited to start. So far, I've not been disappointed.


I'm going to go through some of the main ideas and items I've highlighted, mainly for posterity sake. I always have book notes, and eventually, my book notes will go onto this site so I can have them in one place as opposed to being scattered in various folders.

Soren Kierkegaard (known the rest of the way as SK) wrote "Practice in Christianity" in 1848 and the main thrust of the beginning of the book was to lay out Christ as a contemporary to every man in every generation. It is rather easy to look at Christ as a historical figure and keep him in annals of history relegating him to 2,000 years ago. However, as SK points out, he is not distant, but here, now; able to transcend any year or heart, if the individual is willing and not offended.

I'm offended and experiencing great indignation at your comment

SK's prayer is

Lord Jesus Christ, would that we, too, might become contemporary with you in this way, might see you in your true form and in the surroundings of actuality as you walked here on earth, not in the form in which an empty and meaningless or a thoughtless romantic or a historical talkative remembrance has distorted you, since it is not the form of abasement in which the believer sees you, and it cannot possibly be the form of glory in which no one as yet has seen you. Would that we might see you as you are and were and will be until your second coming in glory, as the sign of offense and object of faith, the lowly man, yet the Savior and Redeemer of the human race.

This offense SK refers to is the first time I've come across the idea of offense and pride working together to form a wall built to keep a man from stooping to belief in God. I say stoop because a man's belief in anything usually has to pass his pride first.

"I simply cannot believe in 'x' because it is silly, beneath my vast understanding and intellect". It is not articulated as such, but lived out in a certain haughtiness, through a consistent puffed out chest and raised chin. The mental picture of pride in that respect is found in all of us in various disciplines of life. For some it is the metaphysical, for some it is political and for the simple like me, it comes in the form of sports (teams, instruction, allegiances)

And in the most profound sense, pride is manifest when help is offered and summarily rejected. Whether the help is rejected because of the source or the manner in which the help was offered ("it is not the way I wanted it!") isn't relevant. We find Naaman initially rejecting help for his leprosy because of the manner in which help was given. In 2 Kings 5:1-19 the story is written. Naaman was a proud man and wanted a dignified way to be healed, maybe even a quick fix. What he got was something he had not planned. However, there is no easy remedy for what ails you and I.

Dip in the Jordan seven times? Inconceivable! Naaman's pride made him incredulous to the task. That is us.

Naaman without leprosy & pride

As an aside, If you were tasked with bringing a rebel back to your camp, what methods or manner would you employ?

I see this in the coaching profession. A coach makes a decision with personnel or play calling and every one not on the coaching staff (and perhaps those on the staff) will eventually say, "I wouldn't have played him" or "I wouldn't have called that". It's inevitable. That's what armchair coaches do, they second guess. Naaman second guessed the coaching staff of Elisha and God, we second guess others and at some point in your life, you've second guessed God.

But what if you were God? What would you do to set out guidelines, expectations without offending? This:?


In a fantastic scene, Bruce loses his pride and discovers humility ( the key to belief )
A picture of humility.

Bruce figured it out, lost his pride and responded to the invitation SK points out in his first chapter: There is One asking you to "Come here" because He has what you need.
SK writes in the first chapter titled, "The Invitation":

But ordinarily it is the case that the person who is able to help must be searched for, and once he is found it may be hard to gain access to him, and when one has gained access one perhaps must still plead with him for along time, and when one has pleaded with him for a long time, he perhaps at long last lets himself be prevailed upon- that is, he sets a high price on himself.

A person only asks others to come when that person is willing and able to help. Invitations come from those who have something or someone to give. They are requesting your presence to something they think you would like or need. The inviter reserves to the right to invite whom they like. The selection of the inviter is up to the inviter. Pretty simple, eh? So, Jesus has invited all to "Come here" under no conditions, no matter your condition. Jesus knows all the objections & excuses. Apparently, it doesn't matter to him.

He also isn't worried about how many will come, either. Is there ever "too many" for Him? So, from our perspective on invitations, we are usually attentive to "who is going?" and that may partially influence our decision to accept the invitation or reject it. Perhaps that is why Jesus reserves the right for him to judge who is fit to be with him. For if we were left to decide, who knows who would be there?

That's why the Cross is offensive and God remains the only one who can rightly be offended at sin, provide a solution and simply say to all, "Come". He doesn't ask any of us if we'd prefer that someone or some group  remain uninvited. Since He is the one offended, he chooses whom he will invite.
Everyone.

What an enormous variety, what almost limitless differences among the invited guests...So, then the invitation goes out, along the highways and along the lonely ways, and along the loneliest way-yes, where there is a way so lonely that only one person knows it, one solitary person. XII, 11

SK writes for three pages on the why the invitation hits each one of us at our own crossroads. We have our own roads in which we travel, yet common to most men. There are wide roads such as despair and loneliness that Jesus has been along, yet he calls you and I to a narrow road, a road of rest.

To the ones he invites, it matters not at this point whether you are aware of your sin. He understands your condition, whether you acknowledge it or not. That's why some get offended. He offers the invitation and some say, "What, me? Why? I have no need of such help!" and they turn around in a huff. "Why the nerve of such a man to say that I need what he has! I've never been so offended in my life!" and off you go, to suck your thumb in the corner, satisfied you know better. Good luck with all...that.

SK continues

And if you are conscious of yourself as a sinner, he will not question you about it, he will not break the bruised reed even more, but will raise you up when you accept him; he will not identify you by contrast, by placing you apart from himself so that your sin becomes even more terrible; he will grant you a hiding place with himself, and hidden in him he will hide your sins. For he is a friend of sinners. He walks- but no, he has walked, but infinitely farther than any shepherd...Indeed, he walked the infinitely long way from being God to becoming man; he walked that way in order to seek sinners!

SK continues further with the implication of the Inviter seeing the need of all he invited, thus everyone, as weary and heavy burdened, wretched and poor. As soon as you see yourself as those, you will have no problem accepting the invitation. However, it is a big problem when you don't think you have a reason to accept the invitation. Why would you if didn't think you were poor, wretched, sick and dying?

Self assessment, accurately executed, will quickly set you on the path of humility. The longer one goes without it, the farther down the road one gets, making the path back that much longer. The problem is once so much time is invested down a road, the time itself becomes the main thing keeping one on a particular road.

"Come here!" He assumes those who labor and are burdened feel the burden to be ever so heavy, feel the labor to be heavy and now are standing there irresolute and sighing, one person looking in all directions for help, another with downcast eyes because he discerned no comfort, a third staring upward as if it might still come from heaven-but all of them searching. 

Which of the three shoes are you wearing or wore before you were found? Let's not make the mistake of saying we found Him. No, he found us, offered himself and we accepted the help. Whether it be a simple sigh or a determined walk back from a wrong turn, God receives them both as an RSVP to his invitation for us to "Come here"