Things of Shame & Things Not to be Ashamed of

Shame is a word we often use but pay little attention to its meaning. It falls into that class or group of words that Galbraith, in his masterful work, The Anatomy of Power, says are often used but we pay little attention to their meaning. Love and repentance are other such words. In the church, we have an entire collection of words with no meaning or diluted meanings. We use many words loosely, insincerely, and ineffectually. I call that behavior and use, Church Talk.

Definitions are important because without them, we have no real meaning or understanding of what God or anyone else is saying. Generally, there are two types of definitions: denotative definitions, dictionary, and connotative definitions, a meaning that is has an image or meaning that is not in the dictionary but generally understood by the word's use. In Dr. Williams Carlos Williams’s poem, This is just To Say, he writes a poem that does not seem to be a poem at all, but rather a prose statement. The work depends on one knowing and having an understanding of definitions. The simple word he rests his poem's meaning and magic on is plums. But a dictionary definition does not give a clue to this work’s meaning. The connotative definition is where its magic lies. 

THE NATURE OF DEFINITIONS

This idea of definitions is not confined to man’s sophistication; man merely gets his sophistication from God. David’s Psalm 19 states, there is no speech or language where God’s voice is not heard. In all languages, God's voice is there, whether men place it there wittingly or unwittingly. Man cannot escape the existence of God in their works and in their words. 

One need only look as the beautiful words of the Greeks as they petitioned Phillip to see Jesus: Sir, we would see Jesus. (John 12) Beautiful though these words are, and understood on one level, their meaning is dependant on one knowing the language and definitions of God. For without knowledge of the definition and sophisticated methods of God, one will be in confusion about and with Jesus’ response and the seeming confusion of His disciples. The Bible says that Phillip, at the Greeks’ request, took it to Andrews, and Andrews and Phillip finally took it to Jesus. The greater confusion would arise, however, when one sees the response of Jesus to this request. 

Jesus responded to that question in what seemed totally off the mark. He responded this way: “The hour has come that the son of man must be glorified….” And there is never any answer to the specific request of the Greeks—We would see Jesus. They are never given a yes or a no answer. It is as if they are totally ignored. Furthermore, one reasoning from that logic, and on its face the logic is sound, would say that Jesus’ response was a non sequitur—an answer that does not logically follow. It is the equivalent of one asking for water, and another responding by saying it will be a fruitful year in 2002. Such an answer is inappropriate to that request. 

But God is neither illogical nor unresponsive to the petition of human beings to see Jesus. And as we understand the words and ways God speaks and speaks to us, we then can understand the response of Jesus as an appropriate response. God signaled that something was larger than the Greeks' request in two ways: the confusion of Phillip and Andrews about what to do with the seemingly simple request should capture our notice--they debated among themselves, (a careful reading of God’s word can show why they debated) and second, Jesus, once finally getting the request, never addressed it forthright, as we supposed. 

The Greeks were the voice of God to Jesus; and that voice remaindered him of the imminence of Calvary—his death, burial, and resurrection. The Greeks, by their request, were saying, Tear down this middle wall of partition between us and God; we are foreigners and strangers, aliens from God and the household of faith; let us into God; remember your covenant with Abraham; we are the seed of Abraham through promise. (Gal. 3)

Their voice was the voice of God to remind Jesus that the cross was soon upon him and that was the purpose he had come into the world. There was no way that they could get to God, except the wall between them and the Jews was torn down. The Jews held the entrance to God as a result of the covenant God made with Abraham. But that covenant had to be remembered by God and that is exactly what God was doing by sending Jesus. He came into the world to tear down the wall that separated the Jew from the Gentile, the wall that separated man from God. The only way that could be done is for Jesus to go to Calvary’s cross and die for our sins. That was the only way. So their request was not really an immediate audience with Jesus. The audience for all gentiles could only occur after he had died for our sins. 

Most profoundly, they were saying figuratively and unwittingly, as God used the ass of Balaam, (Num.22)  He is using us to say, Calvary is upon you, Jesus, get ready! Only Calvary could open the door for all to God. Their request was a direct word from God to the man Jesus, saying forget not your purpose, you must soon die, Jesus. Hence, the response of Jesus to their statement was an appropriate response to God. As Jesus lingered in discussing the imminence of Calvary, God thundered from heaven and said, I have and will glorify you. Glorification came after Calvary—yet before Calvary, in the predestination of God; God is sovereign, and that should never be forgotten or confused. (Rom 9)  Indeed, of a certainty, the Greeks were the voice of God, but understanding definitions and knowing how God speaks is the only way we can appreciate what they were saying.

Shame is tied to the word conscience; and conscience is paralleled to the word pain. David said how wondrously we are made by God. (Psalm 139) On the physical level, God has made our bodies with an alarm system. If I feel pain in my hand, I will look at that hand to see what is the problem. That pain (intense discomfort) calls out and tells me that something has happened to the body; fix it or it could harm or kill the body. Pain is our body’s alarm system that tells us when something is wrong. 

Many people learn to increase their tolerance to pain; this is especially true with soldiers and boxers, but it must also be true for those who have certain goals they want to achieve. Indeed, sometimes our bodies will want us to respond too rapidly to the minutest painful situations—the body can become a child in that any discomfort, regardless of how mild, the body would want us to attend to and remove. But we must educate our bodies to tolerance if we are going to achieve. All academicians and those who strive for mastery know that to tame the mind, first one must tame the behind. The body must be made to endure hardness as a good soldier. It will have its alarm system go off whenever we linger long is prayer. We must remember, however, he that suffers in the flesh has ceased from sin. We educate the body that we are not going to adhere to minute levels of discomfort it tells us to watch out for. 

And as God has given the physical body an alarm system, He has given the emotional, psychological, and spiritual man an alarm system as well. Just as pain signals that something is wrong with the body, the conscience is that part of our emotional composition that says something is wrong with our moral, ethical, and psychological well being; it signals wrong behavior and tells us to curb that behavior or the spiritual man will be harmed or killed. 

But as the body can and sometimes must be educated to pain, the spiritual man’s conscience must be educated to what and when to signal a moral or ethical alarm about behavior, thoughts or actions that are not fitting and/or appropriate to a situation and position. Situations, positions, and enlightenment demand certain behaviors that may not be demanded by others of a lesser state. The Saint in Light is in a position that requires a behavior different from those who are not saints in light; the educated is in a different position than those who are uneducated; the person in a position of authority is in a different position from one not in authority. Standards of behavior are dictated by one’s situation--this is a concept called, The Obligation of Light. 

OBLIGATION OF LIGHT

This Obligation of Light is not a concept that I have come to independently. Indeed, men and women of greater thought than I have looked at it, have seen it, and have added to that field of thought. Jesus said, to whom much is given, much is required. To whom little is given little is required. (Luke 12) The widow’s mite is larger than the Bill Gates’s or Larry Ellison’s millions, because they take from their much and give little, whereas she takes from her little and gives much. (In all fairness to Bill Gates, he has surpassed all in his giving to real world needs. I know little of Larry Ellison’s philanthropy.)  As one has, so is one required to give and function. 

As much as many may want the intellectual to function as he is of the unlearned, it is not a role that he can play—the medical doctor is obligated by his/her position to help the sick when he/she sees help is needed; the learned is obligated by law to behave in a certain way. Jesus again says, one cannot take a light and place it under a bush, it must be placed on a candlestick. He said, let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify God. (Matthews 5) Just as he enunciated that principle, with its meaning that is seemingly single in focus, he enunciated another concept that is single in focus—I came that you might and life and have it more abundantly—both concepts delineate, however, a principle that is above and beyond what they seemingly say. 

No man with a light has that light, or that greater knowledge, to be relegated to darkness. It cannot be. Those of greater skill must assist those of lesser skill. This debate is as old as Jesus and as recent as the argument between Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois. These two noted scholars argued with each other in their now famous Talented Tenth. 

The argument was how to educate the newly freed slaves. Should they be educated to understand matters of skills or matters of letters?  DuBois contended that those of letters had the greater light and could readily pick up a skill. Washington argued that Blacks newly out of slavery needed to learn industrial skills as soon as possible to get them on the road of self-sustenance and dignity. Their compromise was to educate a talented tenth of the newly freed slaves in letters and the other population in industrial skills. This Talented Tenth would have a greater obligation to the community because of their greater light. 

This was a concept DuBois may have seen in Scripture, although he was not a particularly religious man. But it is stated in Scriptures to the Jews: those who had fields were told that when they harvested their crops to always leave some. That left was for those of lesser wealth than they. This is the Obligation of Light in works. No light is given to be placed under a bush; it is given that all may benefit; sometimes many are too closed minded and jealous to receive the benefits of that light. That is a thing of shame! 

When Jesus was preaching in his own hometown, they who knew him said, “Where does he come with this knowledge? Is he not one of us? Don’t we know his mother and brothers and sisters?”  They refused to benefit from his light. They had such low esteem of themselves that they tried to pass it on to him. They, in so doing, were attempting to limit Jesus by their limitations. That is the case today for many of our most needy individuals, whether inside or outside the church.   And that is a thing of shame!

This concept of Light’s obligation is seen and called in a number of ways and words today: payback, giving back, some just call it the responsibility that I owe to others because Jesus said that the entirety of the Law is summarized in this, that you love God with all your soul, mind, and strength, and the second is like unto the first, that you love your neighbor as yourself. (Matt. 5) Some call it the Obligation of Light. When one sees no obligation based on his/her situation, that failure of vision is a thing of shame! 

One with a certain gift, a certain light, cannot place it under a bush. He has to let it shine. He cannot repent of that calling, that gift, or that light. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Rom. 11) They must be used per their giving. Of this truth both Jeremiah and Jonah discovered.  And this is a truth our consciences must be educated to realize. 

 Paul said that he had tried to live a life wherein his conscience was void of offense toward God and man. But Paul had to educate his conscience on what is offensive to God. When he was holding the coats of those who stoned Stephens, his conscience certainly had not been educated to the offenses against God. It was not until he was on the road to Damascus to engage in more offenses against God that he came face to face with truth. (Acts 9) No one's conscience can be educated correctly until that person comes face to face with truth. (Hebrews 9) Many people in and out of the church have mis-educated their consciences. (I Tim. 4:2) 

After being saved, Paul went on to learn what the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God was for him. Only then could his conscience become educated. And as he saw what God’s will was and educated his moral alarm system, he looked back at his aiding and abetting of those who killed Stephen and saw that his action in that situation was one of those things of shame! But he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly. (I Tim. 1: 13)  

Paul had not come into a knowledge of truth, but many who are supposed to be aware of the will of God and have a knowledge of truth cannot say that they have done their acts ignorantly. Hosea said that God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge and because they reject knowledge, God said He will reject them.(Hos 4) The Apostle Peter elaborated further on this idea by saying, some individuals are willingly ignorant; in so being, they want to make, as Jesus said, the word of God to no effect by their traditions and their behavior. (Matt. 15) This situation/behavior is a thing of shame!  

The great prophet Jeremiah (chapter 6) cried out: stand in the ways and see, ask for the old path, wherein is the good way; and when you find it, walk therein. And you will find rest for your soul.  But they said, we will not walk therein. This failure to walk in the light of God’s word is one of those things of shame! It is a failure that continues unto this day. Many have stood in the way, have not understood how to ask but assumed that they have asked, and instead of walking in the way of God, they have walked in their own way and only stood in God’s way. 

Some church members had banquets, while others had nothing, as they supposedly remembered the Lord’s Supper; Paul asked, “Have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not…? I praise you not.” Paul had them to know that their behavior was a thing of shame. He educated the consciences of the people of God.

To ask is to do more than verbalize a request to God. That may be enough for man, but God is not man; His way are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts; as high as the heaven is from the earth, so are His ways from our ways and His thoughts from our thoughts. (Isa. 55) To understand the words of God, we must move to another level—a level that is outside of ourselves and inside of God. 

On asking, Jesus said he that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled. (Matt 5) The Apostle Paul said that one coming to God [asking] must first believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Heb. 11) The Scriptures say, rent your heart, and not your garment. Finally, Jesus gave the definitive definition of Ask, when he gave the parable of the Unjust Judge. This judge feared neither God nor man, but the widow came to him, she too was fearless of him, with a laser-like focus, she asked avenge me of mine adversary and she persisted in that request until the judge was worn out. Jesus pointed to her persistence, focus, and absence of fear as ingredients of asking.  

What we see with a careful examination of the Word of God is that we have not taken the time to hear and see God's meaning, and that is a thing of shame! 

Many years ago, my now deceased brother brought my father’s house to shame. My father was a Black businessman in Louisiana of some reputation. He had a Taxi cab Company, some restaurants, and he was an insurance man as well. My brother’s violation of the law was in the papers and my father was brought to shame and disgrace because my brother went over the line in his behavior. His actions were unacceptable, beyond our family norms, and beyond the community norms. It devastated my father. I saw him weep each third Sunday, as we went to prison to see my brother. I saw my mother weep weekly, as she thought about this disaster. They questioned themselves over and over again: Where did we go astray? What made him go so far off the mark?  What was it about our parenting that was deficient? 

Their hearts were torn with pain. And as I perceived, through my young, still uninformed eyes, God dropped a purpose down in my heart, and I said within myself, I will make my parents proud; I will excel beyond the level of my brother; I will be what my father wants in a son; I will bring dignity back to my father’s name and house; he will be proud of his sons again. And that is a thing not to be ashamed of. 

There are acts that are so egregious and shameful that we presently engage in. Acts that rent the very heart of God. Yet many of us engage in those acts and we blush not. Those are acts of shame. Too often our consciences have been seared so that we walk in our own way and say that it is the way of God. We have not known the way or will of God, and in our ignorance concerning God’s will, we have claimed our will as his and refused to come to truth about the real will of God. 

Many bite and devour one another because of jealousies and splitting—one is of Apollos and another of Paul; not recognizing that both are workers of God; one plants and another waters so that God may give the increase. (I Cor. 3) That is a thing of shame! 

We set traps for others and we fall into them ourselves because we refuse to see that God has set in HIS CHURCH Apostles, Prophets, evangelist, Pastors and Teachers all for the perfecting of the saints, for working of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God….that we be no more children…. (Eph 4) If I fight against the ministries that God sets in the HIS CHURCH, I fight against God. And that is a thing of shame! 

Paul said that God had chosen him before, in his mother’s womb, to be an apostle to preach the word of God. Paul said to the Roman Church, as much as within is, I am ready to preach to you who are at Rome, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to everyone that believes. (Rom 1) God has used the foolishness of preaching to save souls from sin and the consequences of sin. For in preaching is the wisdom and faith of God revealed. The just shall live by faith.

The preaching of the gospel is a stumbling stone to the Jews; it is foolishness to the Greeks, but it is the power of God to ever one who believes. And although it seems like foolishness, this foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. It is by preaching of the Gospel of Christ that God delivers man from his low estate. (I Cor. 1). And this gospel is a thing not to be ashamed of. []    

From The Word of Truth Ministry

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