Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
    with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
    the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Woe to those who go to great depths
    to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
    “Who sees us? Who will know?”
You turn things upside down,
    as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
    “You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
    “You know nothing”?

• Isaiah 29:13-16

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

• 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

“Humility is a virtue by which a man has a low opinion of himself because he knows himself well … You will never have real mercy on the failings of another until you know and realize that you have the same failing in yourself.  [The proud man’s] eyes are closed to anything which shows his own vileness or the excellence of others, wide open to what flatters himself.  His aim is not to teach you nor to be taught by you, but to show you how much he knows … He wants not so much to be better as to be seen to be better.’ (Steps of Humility and Pride 1.2, 3.6, 12.40; 13.41-42).”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was an abbot and Benedictine monk.  He co-founded the Knights Templar, and he was a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order.  His writings on justification by faith alone were quoted by Martin Luther and John Calvin. The quote above is from his writings to clarify and expand upon St. Benedict’s twelve steps of humility, and in the process shine a light on human nature.

Yet, St. Bernard was not so humble as to boldly stand against Peter Abelard.  Abelard, discussed last week, was a great thinker, but St. Bernard thought he fell short in his theology toward Jesus, even suggesting that Abelard had created a fifth gospel.  Was his motivation to remove heresy or did he not like Abelard’s sinful ways?  In the end, he succeeded in keeping Abelard cloistered in a monastery until his death about a year later.

But the quote, with the Scriptures above, become frustrating to someone trying to tell a very intelligent person about Jesus.  It is made harder these days with the secular concepts of millions of years of the earth’s existence, no global flood, and evolution being taught in schools.  These theories have no proof.  There is evidence to the contrary.  In fact, evolution in a fair debate could not stand compared to recent discoveries.  But these people are content with their worldview and they think the biblical view is foolish.

When you love these people, it hurts that you cannot find a means of reaching them, but we are to present the gospel.  It is up to God to convict their hearts so that they are receptive to the Word of God.  In the meantime, we must be loving, and sometimes, even though it hurts, we may have to create distance when those non-believers become antagonistic.

As St. Bernard states, the proud man has no goal in being a good man, only in being perceived by others as being good.

And in this world of comparison, many proud people can look quite good compared to the angry rabble that just want their voice heard.

But God does not go by comparisons.  God goes by what is in your heart.  Do you trust and believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior?  Only then can one’s sin be washed clean.

Note about the photograph: The St. Bernard breed of dogs was named for the hospice and pass, named after a different St. Bernard. I enjoy my humor.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.