Speaking of “getting by on good behavior,” the basketball legend Bill Russell passed away on July 31 at the age of 88. Many “good white people” in his day weren’t even getting by on good behavior – they were outright hostile because he was black.

I remember him well when he started playing for the Boston Celtics in 1956, having won the NCAA basketball championship with the University of San Francisco in 1955 and 1956, and the Olympic gold medal. My dad was in awe: “He’s got springs in his legs!”

It didn’t occur to me until I started reading tribute articles what a tough time he had. Here are some snippets from Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal. His article is worth the read in its entirety.

He was ruthlessly honest. He came of age in Louisiana, then Oakland, at a time when blunt racism, segregation and vestiges of slavery were norms, and moved from college (where the sport tried to curb his dominance by widening the foul lane) to the NBA in an era when a rival club owner could discuss quotas and whether or not Black players should be allowed to guard white stars. Some stories are well known—Russell and teammates boycotting a game in Kentucky after being refused service at a restaurant; Russell returning to his home in the Boston suburbs to find it trashed, a racial epithet scrawled in excrement on his wall. There were other humiliations—the way white coaches asked Russell to pal around with Black players, assuming they would be fast friends; A restaurant guest flipping Russell her keys, thinking he was the parking lot valet; A Boston neighborhood petitioning to try to stop Russell and his family from moving there. 

He moved there, nevertheless. 

“He was a man.” It was not a declaration of modesty, but a demand of basic respect. Russell…is inarguably one of the greatest athletes in the history of team sports, collecting 11 titles in 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics. But Russell’s essential legacy is his lifelong insistence on being rendered as a complete human being, with all rights, privileges, fears and frailties—“a man, nothing more,” as he put it more than five decades ago. – Jason Gay, Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2022

Howard Bryant of ESPN wrote:

When Russell arrived in Boston, widely considered the most racist city in America, he did so only because neither the ownership of the St. Louis Hawks nor its white fan base wanted a star Black player as its face…The [Celtics] belonged to the coach, Red Auerbach, and his star, [Bob] Cousy, who basked in being the leader, the hero from the local college (Holy Cross) but could not accept — as most great players cannot — that he was being eclipsed by a better teammate. Cousy won six titles with Russell, but none without him. Auerbach won nine titles as a coach, but none as a coach without him. The city responded to the Celtics’ greatness by failing to draw attendance, by humiliating Russell and revealing whenever it could, the racial double standards of feting white stars while merely appreciating its Black ones. Russell won two college championships at the University of San Francisco… He won a gold medal for a country whose Black children several months later required national guard protection to go to school in Little Rock, Arkansas. [I wrote about a similar event that happened in New Orleans in 1960.] Later that season, in 1957, Russell would win an NBA title for a city whose racial inequalities were so pronounced that by 1974, Boston would resemble Little Rock from 16 years earlier. – Howard Bryant, ESPN, August 1, 2022

These are painful memories. Where were the people who should have called their compatriots out on these injustices? Some of them were in church on Sunday, no doubt, “complacently getting by on good behavior.”

People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test. (1 John 3.9, 10, MSG)

So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. GOD, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing. You must treat foreigners with the same loving care— remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10.16 – 19, MSG)

Yesterday we looked at the strange parable of the Shrewd Manager and reflected on verses 8 and 9 as it appears in The Message:

Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior. (Luke 16.8, 9, MSG)

Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of us do: “Complacently just get by on good behavior” instead of really living. Going to church is good behavior. Leaving a conversation with your friend so you can meet someone new might be “really living.” Cutting your grass so your yard isn’t an eyesore is good behavior. Cutting your neighbor’s grass if they’re sick or on travel might be really living.

Here’s a stunner: I’ve never heard anyone tie the story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus at the end of Luke 16 with the parable of the shrewd manager at the beginning of Luke 16.

“Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteousness wealth…” (Luke 16.9, ESV) The rich man did not make friends with his wealth. He could have helped Lazarus who would then have received the rich man at Abraham’s side. 

“They have Moses and the prophets” who are clear about how we should take care of the poor. The rich man was “complacently getting by on good behavior.” There’s no record that he cheated to get his money or was mean to anyone. He probably went to synagogue every week. He just didn’t extend himself. Maybe he just wasn’t paying attention. He certainly didn’t take any action. And, by the way, he ended up in hell.

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3.17, 18, ESV)

We come to the strange parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16.1 – 9) which ends:

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. (Luke 16.8, 9, ESV)

The dishonest manager was commended for his shrewdness! Really? And verse 9 leaves us confused – “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth.” What does that mean? I like Eugene Peterson’s take on verses 8 and 9 as recorded in The Message:

Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior. (Luke 16.8, 9, MSG)

He was commended for his shrewdness. For his creativity. His shrewdness was illegal, but Jesus apparently thinks shrewdness and creativity are better than always “coloring within the lines”! We need to engage in “creative survival” not just “good behavior.”

What’s the application? Jesus was outside the lines. That’s what the Pharisees criticized him for. He didn’t meticulously obey every law at the expense of meeting needs. “Good behavior” is attending synagogue. “Creative survival” is healing someone while there, even if it is the Sabbath. 

And there might be a connection between the opening of Luke 16 with the dishonest manager and the closing of Luke 16: the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar. Stay tuned.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5.13 – 16, ESV)

We interrupt this blog to bring you a word from our Creator:

It’s the last of this year’s super moons. I had to go out Thursday night and found myself at the perfect spot as it rose, orange, bigger than life. If you missed it, it’s not too late. Friday’s is supposed to be almost the same.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8.3, 4, ESV)

Yesterday we talked about persistent prayer, which reminds us of faith. Often we’re like the disciples, “I wish I had more faith!” But what does Jesus say?

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. (Luke 17.5 – 6, ESV)

It’s not the size of our faith, it’s the size of the object of our faith.

Faith is only as valid as its object. You could have tremendous faith in very thin ice and drown… You could have very little faith in very thick ice and be perfectly secure. – Stuart Briscoe

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us… (Ephesians 3.20, ESV)

We’re still in Luke, and I apologize for skipping around a bit… Let’s circle back to Luke 11 for a lesson that’s echoed in Luke 18: persistent prayer.

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Luke 11.5 – 9, ESV)

This was right after he taught them what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” – not something just to repeat every Sunday in church, but a model for prayer which is to be prayed…persistently. That’s what he said here, and that’s what he said in Luke 18:

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily…” (Luke 18.1 – 8, ESV)

In both parables the God figure comes across negatively with the idea that if these flawed people will help you if you persist, how much more will your loving Father? (I’ve written about this before.)

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11.11 – 13, ESV)

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5.17, ESV)

We’re thinking about productivity or fruit. An economist observed that in the U.S., productivity is down while employment is up – an observation of opposites. In the church, we normally measure attendance only – “employment” – with no real way of measuring fruit, even though fruit is very important.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last… (John 15.16, NIV)

What happens when there’s no fruit?

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away…Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. (John 15.1 – 6, ESV)

Those of us raised with some version of “eternal security of the believer” don’t really like these verses. My Navigator friend, the late Skip Gray, used to say,

I don’t know exactly what that means, but I know that it’s a bad scene and I don’t want to make it!

The parable of the fig tree that we looked at yesterday twice uses the phrase “cut it down.”

To whom is this directed? Theological purists would say, “He’s talking about the nation Israel, often referred to as ‘the fig tree.’ Israel rejected her Messiah and was cut down by the Romans in 70 A.D.” Fine, but are there any modern-day applications? People? Churches? Cities?

Consider ancient Ephesus, a thriving city and home to an early Christian church. What did John say to the church at Ephesus?

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Revelation 2.4, 5, ESV)

“I will remove your lampstand…” I’ve been to Ephesus. It’s a tourist site now. Some famous buildings are there, including the 25,000-seat amphitheater of Acts 19, but no people live there. Nearby is the small Turkish town of Selcuk. I’ll never forget our guide pointing to “Harbor Street,” so-called because it went to the harbor (duh!). But the harbor today is six miles away! Do you know the word “meander”? It comes from the river near Ephesus which changed course. And when it changed course, it took the harbor with it.

When God removed Ephesus’ “lampstand,” he didn’t just remove the church. He removed the entire city!

More often than we should we read of mega-churches whose pastors go off the rails. And sometimes, a church of thousands or tens of thousands goes away. Europe is filled with Christian cathedrals, many of which have now been re-purposed. No fruit? Cut it down!

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. (Matthew 21.18 – 19, ESV)

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15.8, ESV)

Yesterday, we discussed an economist’s observation that employment is up and productivity is down. This is probably the state of many churches (some don’t even have increasing membership), but we don’t know since we don’t normally measure “productivity” or, we could say, “fruit.” But we should, but Jesus is clear that fruit is important:

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13.6 – 9, ESV)

Here are some simple observations:

• Fruit is important. A tree with no fruit is unacceptable.
• Fruit cannot be tacked on. It has to come from within. Hence, a bunch of sermons telling you what to do without telling you how to build-in those behaviors doesn’t work.
• The vinedresser must be intentional about helping the fig tree bear fruit. Fertilize it! That’s one of the reasons I write often about our daily time with God. Fertilizer is food for trees – the Word is food for followers of Jesus.
• We don’t know if this fig tree responded to the treatment.  

This is too important to rush through…more tomorrow.

In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. (Isaiah 27.6, ESV)

And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. (Isaiah 37.31, ESV)

I’ve started reading a 70-word daily blog from economist Elliot Eisenberg. Here’s what he wrote on July 12, 2022. (It’s not an excerpt – the whole blog is only 70 words! Don’t say it: “Bob, can you get yours down to 70 words?!”) Anyway, back to Dr. Eisenberg:

GDP in 22Q1 was -1.6% annualized, 22Q2 looks to come in at -2% annualized. Yet job growth in 22H1 was superb, averaging 456K/month. How can this be? Are firms hoarding workers despite falling sales because bosses expect a mild downturn or because hiring is so tough? Maybe the GDP data will be revised up or employment data downwards. Otherwise, productivity must be sinking at 6%/year which is historically unprecedented

He calls it opposite observations. Employment up, productivity down. This raises an interesting question with respect to churches except we have no clear way to measure “productivity.” It should be in terms of “fruit,” which I have written about before. Here’s a list of possible kinds of fruit (“how God can use me today”) from Mark Green’s book Fruitfulness on the Frontlines:

• Model godly character
• Make good work
• Minister grace and love
• Mold culture
• Be a Mouthpiece for truth and justice
• Be a Messenger of the gospel

Most churches measure only attendance, along with income. But attendance or membership translates roughly into “employees.” Even the celebrated metric “baptisms” is only measuring employee growth. We’re not measuring employee productivity or fruit. And yet, fruit is of paramount importance: more about that tomorrow.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last… (John 15.16, NIV)

I’ve written about the Good Samaritan before including describing the research study that suggested that when we’re in a hurry, we often don’t take time to do what we should do. But reminders never hurt.

The Chosen presents the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.25 – 37) as a true story, Season 2, Episode 1. Whether it’s true or a parable, Jesus uses a priest and a Levite as negative examples.

Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. (Luke 10.30 – 32, MSG)

The Samaritan had compassion. It doesn’t matter how much I know or how many “religious” works I do if I don’t love my neighbor. 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13.1 – 2, ESV)