Equality Is First a Theological Discussion

In his magnum opus theologian Robert Culver picks the scab many Christians want left alone.

God’s sovereign plan includes the circumstances under which we live – poverty or riches, labor or leisure, sickness or health, bad times or good, and the circumstances in which we die…modern people with their ideas about equality are frequently out of patience with any God who sanctions social and economic classes…no aspect of this subject is sketched more sharply than that God designs some to be rich and others poor, some to lead and others to follow, some to command and others to obey, some to be prominent celebrities, others to live out energetic constructive, but plain lives in obscurity (Systematic Theology, p. 136; emphasis mine).

• Lydia was wealthy (Acts 16:40); the widow possessed only pennies (Mark 12:42).

• David was strong, handsome, and powerful (1 Samuel 16:12; 17:42); Mephibosheth was orphaned, weak, stripped of his privilege, and crippled when dropped by the nurse who carried him (2 Samuel 4).

• Tamar seduced her father-in-law for the express purpose of bearing his child (Genesis 38); Elizabeth endured decades of barrenness before conceiving John the Baptist (Luke 1:7).

The examples of inequality found in the Bible are numerous. No example is more unjust than the great illustration of Joseph. What should have been a life of comfort in a wealthy and influential patriarch’s home became a life of indentured servitude in a foreign country (Genesis 37:27-28).

Of critical importance is the fact that God did not merely allow Joseph to be sent into Egypt; rather, God sends Joseph to Egypt “through the treacherous actions of his brothers, for which they are fully responsible.” As Culver expressed, God sanctioned Joseph's social and economic status.

Yet, God’s sanction of location or era of birth, life circumstances through old age or death, or even skin color does not require remaining under the realities of those inequalities or injustices. There is nothing in the Scripture that tells us we may not escape injustice or inequality, that our fate is to accept the unchangeable lest we rebel against God.

In the grace of God and by the aid of heaven, Joseph attempted to throw off his captivity and was successful (Genesis 41). Paul did not accept unlawful detainment (Acts 22:22-30). God heard the cries of the Israelite slaves in Egypt (Exodus 2:24). Childless Hannah pleaded with God to give her too a child like her rival, the other wife of her husband (1 Samuel 1).

Where we see inequalities and injustices, we can and should vigorously pursue righteous and equitable resolutions. Where no resolution is possible, then we rest in the sovereignty of God quoting Job, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Where inequality and injustice continue despite every righteous effort to overcome it, we trust God that his grace is sufficient to carry us through the injustice and inequality (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It doesn’t take long to identify inequality and injustice in our lives and those around us. There can be no question that some suffer far deeper and with much greater consequence than others through no fault of their own, so we must weep with those who weep, and we must bear one another’s burdens. Further, there can be no question that some enjoy far more ease and comfort than others through no attributable action of their own. With them, we rejoice.

Still the questions abound, and I would remind us that human minds cannot answer all the possible questions that arise when we examine inequalities and injustices. God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). When we identify inequalities and injustices, we must begin with what God says is true and what he deems a righteous course of action. Then and only then can we move to attack the problems of injustice and inequality. Injustice and inequality are not first political or sociological; they are first theological. They are first about God.

Can anything good come from the injustices and inequalities sanctioned by God? Let him answer,

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

and…

Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about]this present result, to preserve many people alive.

and…

Acts 17:26-27 He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

The creator is sovereign. Do not grow impatience with him over what he sanctions.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

More on Privilege

Privilege is such a curious word and idea.

Last week I wrote, “This life I live is not the result of my white privilege. The life I live is the result of the privilege that comes from grace. I will not accept any other explanation.”

I stand by those words.

Such a statement does not deny the advantages I experience in daily life. I live privileges others do not, and I am denied some privileges others possess. The statement identifies the source for what I receive and what I am denied.

Luke records Paul’s words to the gathered at Mars Hill,

"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist (Acts 17:24-28)."

He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things

and

(He has) determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.

What interpretation can we conclude other than every human being everywhere lives the life they live because of privilege that comes from grace?

Every human being everywhere must affirm privilege of one form or another. Read again Paul’s words. God gives to all people all things, and God determines the time and locale of our existence. Paul’s preaching is Job’s testimony, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10).

I cannot deny Bible narratives recording advantages some possess and others do not. I cannot deny advantages I have that others do not have. But that’s the point, no human being anywhere can deny he is privileged because every human being everywhere is privileged because he lives under grace (Lamentations 3:22).

Lest someone think erroneously, of course we oppose with zeal any who use God’s gifts to them to foster selfish ambitions (Romans 6:1-2). If we have advantages others do not, we do not consume our advantages on our own selfish lusts (James 4:3). We give out of our abundance and out of our poverty (Matthew 10:42; 2 Corinthians 8:2).

I am asserting the cause, origin, reason for anything good about my life is God’s sovereignty displayed in his grace. To attribute whatever is good in my life to my melatonin level, a design feature in every image bearer, takes me to a place where God’s character is assaulted. I can’t go there.

What my white skin grants, I say with Job, “The Lord gives.”

What my white skin obstructs, I say with Job, “The Lord takes away.”

I conclude what Job and Paul declare, “Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).”

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Yes, I'm Priviledged

Let me tell you about my privilege.

I was conceived when a worldly-wise man in his mid-20s convinced an 18-year-old recent high school graduate that he loved her.

I was born into a shotgun marriage necessitated by my soon arrival in the summer of 1965. I seriously doubt my birth father ever loved my mother.

My birth father was a drunk like his father before him and like all the adult men in the Jackson clan. I’m told he wasn’t a silly drunk or a happy drunk but an angry drunk and a violent drunk. I’m told his drunken rage targeted my 19-year-old mother in brutal displays. She cried out to his family for help, but they showed more sympathy to their son than to the mother of the grandson.

We lived in squalor on Chicago’s Southside where I was born. My maternal grandparents did as much as they could to try to help my mom and me, but when the bread winner drinks away the family’s meager income, what’s left doesn’t go very far.

My birth father blew his brains out in a drunken stupor. There was no life insurance or large savings account to take care of my baby sister and me.

My mom came to faith in Christ prior to high school, but her home did not provide an environment where a young Christian girl could thrive. Somewhere during her high school years, she lost her way. I was not born into the church, had no baby dedication ceremony, and was not positioned to live an abundant life in Jesus Christ. It wasn’t looking good for my future prospects.

Through mutual friends, my mom met Tom. He was a recent convert to Christ after hearing the gospel from a local Baptist pastor. He was a simple man with an elementary school education, but hard working and deeply in love with my mom and her two children. There wasn’t anything my grease-monkey dad wouldn’t do for my mom and us. Years later on his death bed, he looked at the three of us and said, “I’m sure glad I found you guys.”

No longer Jacksons, we were now Verweys (yes, that’s the correct spelling and a story for another time) living very simply in a Southside apartment. God had stopped the madness.

I don’t know how we started going to a Baptist church as a young family, but there I heard the gospel from my Sunday School teachers and from my pastor during his Sunday sermons. God opened my mind to understand the gospel and poured into my heart faith to believe the gospel of his son, Jesus Christ. So commenced my life of privilege.

My privilege began when God stopped the madness that was my reality and my future. My story is not unique to me. Kris, Brenda, Maaike, Dan, Jeff, David, and so many more can tell of the grace of God that radically transformed their lives.

I am married to a godly Dutch girl, a first generation American and the beautiful daughter of immigrants. How our paths crossed asserts another expression of God’s grace. Apart from the mysteries of God, I would know nothing of the former Brenda Koning and she nothing of me. Our shared life might appear privileged to some, and, I suppose it is, but not because of the melatonin levels in our skin pigmentation. My privilege in whatever manifestation observers identify is solely attributed to God’s grace. To say my privilege is because of the melatonin in my skin ignores the sovereignty of God to which I owe all for this life and the life to come.

I decry racism. I decry injustice. I decry punishing the innocent because of association with the guilty. I decry the “it’s not what you know but who know” way of getting ahead in this world. I decry every expression of rebellion against the Creator manifest in the abuse, dismissal, or killing of any of his image bearers.

My life is good, certainly better than I deserve and happier than many. This life I live is not the result of my white privilege. The life I live is the result of the privilege that comes from grace. I will not accept any other explanation.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

Can You Hear the Children Sing, "He's Able?"

Can You Hear the Children Sing, "He's Able?"

Brenda VerWay is a daughter of her Heavenly Father, a wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She grew up in poverty but describes her life as one of great riches. She is a new writer, and I welcome her.

“He heals the broken hearted, he sets the captive free, he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see (peek a boo).”

I teach small children every week in our church’s Sunday School. Over the years, I’ve heard He’s Able sung, complete with hand motions, by more young voices than I can count. It wasn’t until today that the words really hit me. We teach children Sunday School songs to teach them truths from God’s Word that we pray will stay with them for the rest of their lives. This song contains many of those truths.

Our stay-at-home worship this week included Scripture reading from Psalm 147. There God says of himself that “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds (v.3)”. It seemed as if I didn’t hear the rest of the Psalm while someone in our family read to the end. My mind began to race. The tears began to flow. You see this past month or so I have seen major tragedy in the lives of people that I know and love.

A high school friend buried her firstborn son after a tragic accident. I read what she wrote of her God, “He is so good.”

By now, nearly everyone has seen video and pictures from the devastating floods caused by dam failures near Midland, Michigan. We ministered for 10 years in Midland. It’s home to us as much or more than Chicago is. The area suffered what’s been called a 500- year-flood. Within two hours of the failure and breach, more than 10,000 residents immediately evacuated.

People I love lost much. People I love lost everything. The devastation is really beyond what we can even imagine. I have scanned through Facebook pictures, read comments, and watched videos. One video stood out to me. Our Jennifer’s first grade teacher was interviewed by a reporter. She talked like it was any other day. She gave details of so much damage. They own a rental home next to their residence. The rental provides income to two Christian school teachers in their retirement years. The damage to the properties approaches six figures. The news report shows her praying with a woman who was overwhelmed by the damage to her daughter’s house. At the end of the interview, she spoke of her God and about the life that He has given her as she surveyed the destruction in front of her, “We are so blessed.”

A few days ago, I found out the toddler grandson of Mike’s and my youth pastor and his wife had died during a tragic drowning accident in a neighbor’s backyard. I am stunned and emotional. I’m a new grandmother with a little grandson too. The heartache of this child’s death was too great. How could this happen? How could they get through this? How could their son and his wife endure this pain? You see, this toddler’s parents and grandparents are in pastoral ministry like my husband and I are. Could they live out what they preach and what they believe? I read what his bereaved daddy wrote of his God, “Christ can redeem the most devastating pain and loss.” I listened today as his grandpa, my youth pastor, spoke of his God, “We know that this will be the best thing that has ever happened to us and to (our son and daughter-in-law) because I believe everything I preached last week on the sovereignty of God out of Isaiah 40:13-31. And today I believe it even more.”

My husband, my pastor just took our church family through the book of Job. I really do see God work out in the life of Job something beautiful after so much tragedy. I hear Job speak of his God, “And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).’” Later In chapter 2, Job says, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.’” At the end of the book, we see God blesses Job more than at the beginning. Job dies an old man and full of days. He dies a more satisfied man who loves his God.

So as I look at the lives of people I know and love suffer great tragedy and respond with praise for our God and trust in his plan, I am encouraged. I praise God for His grace in their lives at this time. And when in time, I get back into the classroom with my precious children and hear them sing, “He heals the broken-hearted,” I will smile and say, YES HE DOES!

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

I Really Miss Our Singing

Unlike the growing religions of the world, Christians sing. Our singing was born out of the psalter, the hymnal of Old Testament saints and carried into the worship of the gathered Christians, the church, as modeled by our Lord (Matthew 26:30). We Christians sing in our homes and cars, but the greatest expression of our singing is when we gather for corporate worship.

Nothing replaces or imitates the sound of combined voices singing in a live setting the songs of the redeemed.

Singing in the gathered church has apostolic authority (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16), and the singing of the church is a vehicle of praise, prayer, and training. A hymn or spiritual song may provide one or all in its lyrics. So, Be Thou My Vision is the praise of God, a prayer to God, and the training of the mind about God.

Samuel J. Stone’s classic hymn, The Church’s One Foundation is primarily a teaching text we do well to sing. In 1866 England, Stone penned the text at time of significant controversy in the Church of England and the Church of South Africa. Once again the battle lines were drawn over the inerrancy of the Scriptures and the role of Jesus in God’s plan of salvation. In response and in aid to local churches, Stone writes his deep convictions in hymn form that serves to train our minds about fundamental Bible truths.

The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation by water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died.

I miss our singing and look forward with great anticipation to our singing together again. When? I don’t know, but I do know we will sing again.

As always I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.

Mike VerWay
Pastor for Preaching & Vision