Even More On Hesed by Brady

I have been talking recently about the importance not only believing the right thing, but also doing the right thing when it comes to being a disciple. In my last blog, I talked about how Western Christianity puts more stress on orthodoxy (right belief) than orthopraxy (right practice). I wanted to take an example a little further than I used last time in order to get us thinking about hesed and what it means to become vertically horizontal.

I suggested last time that most people choose their church and decide if they like a preacher based on their orthodoxy rather than examining their orthopraxy. In fact, the majority of churchgoers often wonder what exactly it is that their pastor does during the normal work week. To add to this, our education system has trained us that we must learn by sitting and listening, and that this practice will somehow change the way we interact with the world around us. The only field I can see that does an above average job of continually breaking down this paradigm is science. At least students are forced to dissect actual animals and complete chemistry experiments in order to better understand the study of science.

The funny thing is that we have allowed the Western way of learning to greatly influence how we do church. We turn following Christ into a passive activity such as listening to a sermon and then feel like we are magically further along the road of becoming a better follower/disciple of Christ. I am not sure that you can “disciple” someone in a Sunday School room. Don’t get me wrong, I love preaching and teaching and it is how I make my living, but this cannot be the sum of the Christian life. Jesus was a Rabbi and he used common rabbinical techniques in order to teach about the kingdom of God. He taught in parables and on the streets where all of the action was. Today, it is culturally unacceptable to teach on the streets where people actually live. These types of preachers are seen as condemning and seem to have a social disorder.

But Jesus taught on the streets to the common, everyday person and he used genius techniques in order to get his point across. Even his teaching was the embodiment of hesed, perfectly blending the horizontal and vertical. He used ordinary and tangible examples in his parables when he preached. In fact, the illustrations he would use would sometimes be so “earthly” that the people would get confused on what the heck a seed has to do with God (see Matthew 13:1-23). Another example is the famous parable known as “The Good Samaritan,” when Jesus left the crowd baffled with a normal, universal story about what it means to be an actual child of God (see Luke 10:25-37). In fact, Jesus ends the parable in Luke 10:36-37 by using the Greek version of hesed, which is eleos. ““Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him eleos.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.””

The truth is that you should judge a preacher on their orthodoxy and what they believe. In fact, I believe that the more technology plays a dominant role in our lives, the harder it is to maintain the attention of the congregation. This means we preachers are going to have to use more creative methods to teach the proper orthodoxy in coming years. But, I have a suggestion for you before you choose a new church, buy a Christian book, or watch a preacher on TBN: Find out if they live out their faith daily! Too many prominent pastors are getting busted living lifestyles that no more reflect Jesus than I reflect Tom Brady on the football field. The reason these “pastorpreneurs” can have thousands upon thousands of people reading their books and listening to their sermons and then get busted embezzling money, doing drugs, or having an affair is because we don’t take the time to check out their faith in action. In some cases, we would rather not know if they live their faith out as long as we can benefit from their teaching.

Is it possible that we have put too much emphasis on our vertical relationship with God that we have reached an unhealthy balance when it comes to faith and practice? Is it possible to be spiritual but not be right with God? When do we reach the point that we have checked out on those around us in the name of “serving God”? It is probably when we reach the point that Jesus describes in Matthew 23. “Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer…Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’” (Matthew 23:1-3; 6-7 from The Message) We must decide if the state of the Western Church is maintaining a proper balance when it comes to the call of embodying hesed. May we all become Hesed Now.