August 08, 2014
Victor or Victim
Preachers sometimes point a
finger at themselves by using their personal life experiences as examples in
their sermons. I like the touch of, “I’m one of you and we all have the same
struggles.” However, I’m now detecting an anomaly where one pastor sees himself
as a victor, another pastor sees himself as a victim; and unfortunately, those self-induced
perceptions are subtly sent to the congregation. Similar to a positive person
vs. a negative person, there is a huge difference between one who feels
victorious and one who feels victimized. I’m now wondering if all sermons
shouldn’t contain at least some element of victory. “…for everyone born of God
overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our
faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 Jn 5:4-5 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I agree. Moreover, I think the pastor preaching upon the full perspective of new life would address both the believer’s victimization and victory. Trouble squeezes little chirps of truth from us, like, “I never asked to be born.” It can hardly be refuted. The fact that life must kill to live, or at least feed on found death to live (scavenge,) testifies to the spiritual travail of this physical existence. Its degradation can not be escaped. Vegetarians think they have escaped it, but the plants they enjoy must eventually participate in the biochemistry of dead critters. The entire chain of life depends upon death. How delightful! To even be born into it is a victimization.
-----Nor do the evidences of every human’s victimization end there. I often ponder a concept about truth and love on a very fundamental basis. Stepping down to that basis: truth is a simple condition of your perceptions about things being entirely congruent with their actual realities, whether the realities be physical things or simply ideas like history, equations, or musical progression. Match is truth. Love, on the other hand, is merely constructiveness. OK. That sounds neither glamorous nor spiritually charged. But it contains a great deal of meaning. By it I mean a cause will only produce effects which enable or enhance the existence of anything it affects, including itself. God’s perfect eternity contains nothing that does not both match the patterns He prescribes for it and constructively benefits everything it affects. This is life without victimization. We will enjoy it soon.
-----But in this present life, truth is defined as just about anything. And I’m not sure love is even known. Consequently, we have spectacles like this growing Islamic State riding their ignorance around, chopping off the heads of whoever does not match their thinking. (I exaggerate, of course, but not about their chopping off heads.) Wonderful! And the same kind of beheading applies metaphorically to how just about everyone treats anyone else. All you have to do to see this in action is watch for the next time somebody does not match another’s idea about something. Before the fracas is over, one or the other, and often both, have castigated and belittled the thinking of the other, if they were so kind. Usually they squash each other by berating character, and such.
-----Well, anyway. If our differences could flow through more truthful, loving processes, this world would not be so victimizing beyond what it is to simply be born into it. Every human alive is a victim. What about their victory? I love the message in Centaurus, the second deacon of Virgo and Victima, the first deacon of Libra. Centaurus, the great hunter, the great teacher of integrity and character holds His spear in charge at the heart of Victima, commonly portrayed today as a slain dog. But Victima pictorially represents a different perspective of the same personage as does Centaurus: Jesus Christ. Jesus’ life was not taken from Him on the cross (the second deacon of Libra, the Southern Cross, directly beneath the haunches of Centaurus.) He gave it like Centaurus slaying Victima.
-----Following Him, we likewise give our lives, victimizing ourselves, ending what is not true in us and feeding ourselves to the eating needs of those who are parts of our situations, bearing our crosses. Thus, like it was for Christ, His victory came through His victimization, making our victory as well for us who will follow.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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