I.      Growth needs right environment

Growth doesn’t just happen.  Certain conditions must be met to allow growth to take place.  In a garden, plants need sunlight, water, good soil, warm temperatures, and weed removal to grow.  We need challenges and nourishment for our own growth to take place.  The ideal condition for growth to take place in our lives usually involves a lack of comfort.  They don’t call it “growing pains” for nothing.

II.    Growth is a process

The entire growing process seems to be full of struggle and a long process without short cuts.  While we would love to believe in the magic of diet pills, shake weights, and the latest Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme…we must understand that there are no shortcuts around process.  We must succumb to the slow grind of growth.  We do not change overnight from an infant to an adult.  The changes cannot be seen from minute to minute, hour to hour, or day to day…but from year to year and decade to decade.

III.  Growth takes help from others

We are prone to create the wrong environment in our lives from growth.  We are prone to try out shortcuts and believe what is too good to be true.  We need accountability and inspiration from others in our lives.  We need to be connected to those who have gone before us who can offer advice and show us the end product.

In our spiritual growth, our primary role is space maker.  We create room in our lives for growth and change.  We know that temptation’s battlefield is our desires.  And while removal of wrong desires and selfishness is not an option, the strengthening of good desires, love, and selflessness is our focus.

Great players are always connected to great coaches who know how to pull out the best of that player.  Growth often demands sacrifice from us that we are unwilling to demand of ourselves.  We must rely upon outside influences that motivate us and call us towards something we never thought we were capable of.

St. Thomas Aquinas defines lying as, “A statement at variance with the mind.”  A more recent definition reads, “A false statement with the intention of deceiving.”

Abraham probably did not expect a famine after God spoke so clearly to him a blessed him.  As he traveled to Canaan, he probably daydreamed of the lush land, abundant wildlife, and pure water.  He thought about how the conditions of this land would be primed for him to have many children and fulfill the blessing God had spoken to him.  So when he and Sarah settle down and a severe famine comes, he must have had thoughts about God lying to him or forgetting him.

The same can be true of us today.  We read about the promises and blessings of God.  We do our best to follow His guidelines and mandate to love and serve.  And we find ourselves more cursed than blessed.  We feel that we get trampled upon by others.  We experience the pain of being taken advantage of and used as a commodity and for other’s selfish purposes.  Even if we have a sense that the blessings of God might be waiting for us in a more futuristic tense, we still struggle with anger, frustration, and questioning against God.  We can start to become self-focused and believe that God’s words to us are lies.  David cries out in the Psalms to God about why the wicked prosper, while he, a righteous man suffers.  Job questions the justice of God.  Joseph must have wanted to turn his back on God while in prison for doing the right thing and maintaining his integrity.  I am sure we all can relate to the feelings Abraham must have had when he arrives in Canaan, only for it to be ravaged with famine.

As they leave Canaan and go to Egypt, Abraham tells Sarah to lie about being his wife, for fear that he would be killed.  What sense of justification did Abraham feel for this?  Did he think that since God lied to him, it is okay for him to lie to Pharaoh?  Did he feel that the life-threatening situation allowed room for the lie?  Was Pharaoh and the Egyptians so evil that lying was the only way to deal with them?  Whatever the case may be, Abraham and Sarah committed to a lie out of fear that Abraham’s life would be taken.

St. John Chrysostom held that it is lawful to deceive others for their benefit, and Cassian taught that we may sometimes lie as we take medicine, driven to it by sheer necessity.  This story of Abraham seems to reinforce this idea.  We find Pharaoh being punished and Abraham thriving due to this deception.   On the other side, we have St. Augustine, who’s doctrinal view is commonly held by the Western Church today.  He believed that it is never lawful or acceptable to lie.  I don’t know how he explained the story of Rahab and the spies of Jericho.

Hypocrisy is a form of lying when we pretend to possess good qualities, which we know we don’t have.  It is a purposeful attempt to deceive others into thinking a certain way about us.

It is important to realize that even though Abraham seems justified in his lying, his deception led to unwanted circumstance.  Pharaoh took his wife and his own.  Even though Abraham’s life was spared, he had to live with the knowledge of another man being with his wife.

Leviticus 19:11 is most clear when it says, “Do not lie”.  But yet, we see different examples in Scripture of people who lied and seem justified in it.  When looking at lying through the rest of the Bible, I see a pattern of what Proverbs refers to as “full of lies”.  God speaks to Jeremiah about the false prophets who spread reckless lies…plural.  Most of Scripture talks about lying in the plural sense, with multiple offenses and patterns of lies being condemned.  We cannot be ignorant of the difference between a lie of necessity and a lying lifestyle.  It seems that the righteous man must be open to the ruse of deception that goes against his nature for the welfare of others.  But being careful, knowing that the very lie that is necessary, can bring corruption to one’s soul.

Yes, we all have told lies, deceived others, and lived out hypocrisy.  But let not the frequency of this behavior in us lead others to define us and liars, deceivers, and hypocrites.

Kaioen is officially 2 years old.  This location move is another step forward in our evolvement as a community within this community.  We are lucky to be blessed with such a wonderful location and space.  My hope is that we are all encouraged to help drive the momentum of Kaioen forward.  I cannot do this alone, nor do I want to push ahead by myself.  One of my biggest fears is that Kaioen becomes centered on myself, my ambitions, and my actions.  Kaioen is a community and I need all of us to work together to solidify its health and effectiveness.  Especially now, that we have a child, we need you more than ever to step up and take greater responsibility and ownership.  The landscape of organized religion seems bleak to many people out there.  They are searching for something authentic and the waters are filled with dogma and business models.  It is up to us to spread the good news of Kaieon and offer hope to those looking for it.  When people find out about us, they will be skeptical and unbelieving that we are who we say we are.  So we must be willing to accept rejection and handle people’s doubts with patience.  But we must do our best to give Kaioen a little bit of a higher profile within Ann Arbor.  Our mission is to help people connect on a deeper level to God and others.   We are an inclusive community that should be motivated to reach out to others.  If we become content with Kaioen as it is, it is only a short period of time before Kaioen withers and dies.  Without your help, I will quickly grow tired, resentful and lose drive.  I strongly believe in Kaioen which is why I am here every week, committed to the discussion and to you.  You are here today as well because you believe in Kaioen.  But we have others that don’t have this level of commitment and they need to be encouraged by us to step up their level of involvement.  There are others who don’t even know about us that need to be told and invited to come.  The religious world needs to see a different way of doing things.  And they do not look and take notice if that different way is not working successfully.  We have a wonderful opportunity here in this new location, and I really hope we take advantage of it together.

[Genesis 12:1-9]

“BLESSING”

We have now shifted gears in the book of Genesis.  The first 11 chapters of the book are what is known as the Creation Era.  We now move into the Patriarchal Era.  This section begins with the call of Abraham, the first patriarch.  Let us start this journey understanding that this blessing, this plan, and design that begins here with Abraham is all about Jesus.  This is the beginning of stages of redemption that will culminate with Jesus and His work on the cross.  It is bad interpretation to think that since Israel never can live up to what God asks of them, He needs to send Jesus as a backup plan.  We need to understand that Israel is fulfilling its role in the design just the way the Law is fulfilling its role in the design.  Both are examples of incomplete fulfillment that lead up to Christ.  Humanity is broken and humanity is incapable of redeeming and fixing each other.  The call of Abraham is the beginning chapter of Jesus, and I hope we keep this in mind as we continue to study each week…I will of course continue to keep reminding us of this until we are all sick of hearing it.

(NOTE:  The call of Abraham came when he was 75 years old.  We know of no previous communication from God to Abraham.  This doesn’t seem to fit in our modern mindset of experiencing God and hearing from God on a weekly basis at church.)

This blessing is:

I.      FUTURISTIC

Most all blessings that God gives are in a futuristic tense.  They are not fulfilled in the present tense, but offer us something to look forward to.

The greatest future blessing we have is the promise of eternity with God.  We are blessed to have a future, an afterlife with God.

II.    COMMAND DRIVEN

Abraham was told to uproot and leave his homeland.  God’s blessings are usually connected to responsibility we have been given.  The blessing is offered on a road of sacrifice, discipline, or hard work.  No matter what the command may be, it is always given so that we learn to have greater trust and faith in God.

A good example to look at is children.  Children are one of our greatest blessings, but there is so much hard work and sacrifice to raise them.  Blessings are not about us being given something freely with no responsibility, but finding the deep joy and contentment within the work.

Even the blessing of the afterlife is connected to commands.  This blessing is offered to us with weight placed upon how we live life in the present.  The narrow road leads us to this blessing.

III.  INCLUSIVE

Here from the beginning, we see God never intended Israel to become some exclusive club that no one else could join.  Israel was to be a beacon…a light, that welcomed all to God.  Israel was to be a nation that brought other nations under the rulership of God.  Why does God bless us?  So that WE can be a blessing to others.  We are to follow in His footsteps and to offer others what has been offered to us.

IV.   CONNECTED TO A COVENANT (promise)

In Genesis chapter 15, we will find the covenant that God establishes with Abraham.  We can have great assurance in the blessings of God because He has established a covenant with us that He holds Himself to.  Even when we fail, mess up, and rebel against the commands of the blessing, the covenant offers us forgiveness and redemption.  There is always hope and we are never given up on.  The covenant solidifies the blessings of God and gives us assurance of His faithfulness to us.

The tower of Babel story concludes the first section of Genesis.  We now move into the patriarchal period with the story of Abraham.  The conclusion to this pre-patriarchal era, gives us a holistic view of the good life God wants us to possess.  With the story of Adam and Eve, we see God’s desire for us to live in harmony and intimacy with Him.  With the story of Cain and Abel, we see God’s desire for us to live in harmony and intimacy with each other.  And in the story of the flood, we see God’s desire for us to live in harmony and intimacy with nature.  The tower of Babel gives us God’s response to man’s rebellion of the good life offered Him.

GENESIS 11 CHIASTIC STRUCTURE

A All the earth had one language (v. 1)

B there (v. 2)

C one to another (v. 3)

D Come, let’s make bricks (v. 3)

E Let’s make for ourselves (v. 4)

F a city and a tower

G And the Lord came down to see (v. 5)

F’ the city and the tower (v. 5)

E’ that the humans built (v. 5)

D’ Come, let’s confuse (v. 7)

C’ everyone the language of his neighbor (v. 7)

B’ from there (v.

A’ (confused) the language of the whole earth (v. 9)

The tower of Babel story is the third recording of God’s response to humanity’s disobedience.  We have also seen an individual response to Cain after he murdered his brother Abel.  But this is the third time, the author of Genesis writes about global implications for man’s rebellion against God and His plan for the good life:

• Adam and Eve
• The Flood
• Tower of Babel

It seems that the Bible tends to be a cyclical recording of this:  man rebels – God responds

Exodus 34:5
Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. (Moses CAME DOWN the mountain to the people)

Exodus 3:8
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

Exodus 19:11
and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Numbers 11:17
I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Numbers 11:9
When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.

Numbers 11:25
Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders.

Numbers 12:5
Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam.

2 Samuel 22:10
He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

Nehemiah 9:13
“You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good.

Psalm 18:9
He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

Psalm 144:5
Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke.

Proverbs 30:4
Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and the name of his son? Tell me if you know!

Isaiah 31:4
This is what the LORD says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over his prey— and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against him, he is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor— so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.

Isaiah 64:1
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

Isaiah 64:3
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Matthew 28:2
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

John 6:41
At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

John 6:51
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

John 6:38
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

John 6:58
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

There is so much more imagery in Scripture that speaks of God “coming down”:

• Dove comes down out of heaven at Jesus’ baptism
• Tongues of fire came down and rested on disciples heads in the upper room
• Fire come down from heaven on Elisha’s altar
• Fire come down from heaven to destroy fifty men (2 Kings 1:12)

ONE FINAL NOTE:  We would be remiss not to mention that the hecklers at the cross mocked Jesus, “Save yourself!  Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God”.  But Jesus DID NOT come down.

The blessing, found in vs. 1-7, is what is known as an “inclusio”.  This is different from a chiastic structure in that a mirroring theme is not present.  An inclusio begins with one statement and ends with a repeating of the initial statement.  This should bring the reader to understand the importance of the repeated phrase.

The repeated phrase we find here within the blessing is “to be fruitful and multiply…fill the earth.”  This is a repeat command of what God spoke to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and increase in number.  Rule over the earth and subdue it.”  This command will be important once again as we look at the story of the tower of Babel soon.

This commanded blessing is obviously important due to the use of an inclusio.  The blessing is also tied to the plants and animals.  This once again mirrors the passage in Genesis 1:28.  What is new here the inclusion of animals as part of the food chain for us now.  If I were to rephrase this, I would say, “Get out there and enjoy everything that I have created.  Everything your eyes can see has been created for your survival and enjoyment.  All of these wonderful plants and animals are yours for food, clothing, companionship and shelter.  Make a ton of babies and fill the earth with them.  Teach them of me and how good I am to you so that they will grow up loving me and connecting to me.  Learn from my goodness and treat this wonderful world and its inhabitants the same.  Because I WILL be holding you accountable.  You are responsible for the way your treat the animals and the earth.  You are responsible for how you treat your fellow man.  Learn from me and know how much I care for the earth and its people, and let that guide you.  Look at this rainbow in the sky.  Let it remind you that I will never destroy the earth again.  I will stay true to my word and you can hold ME accountable to this.  So let us together care for, and live in harmony with, the earth, its plants, the animals, and all the people.”

This correlation to blessing in Genesis 1 seems as if this is a start over for humanity.  God blesses Noah with the same blessing imparted to Adam and Eve, but He does so outside of the Garden setting.  He sends Noah and his family out into a harsher environment (a world that has the curse upon it) but with the same plan still intact.  God’s goal and design is for man and woman to live the good life.  Yes, it is going to be more difficult and strenuous, but it the hand we have been dealt.

The good life is connected to, and entwined with, what God mentions here in this blessing to Noah:  the earth, the plants, the animals, and the people (but yet He still does not mention the women…) Not only does God bless Noah and his family, but He makes this covenant with him.  Let us not look over that God specifically mentions that this covenant is with the birds, cattle, and every living thing on the earth as well.  The good life is for ALL and connected to ALL, every living being and mortal on the earth.

And we are to be accountable for our participation or lack of participation in this good life and balance.  We will be held accountable for the way we either share the good life with creation or decide to live life outside of God’s plan and order.  Obviously, God’s good life plan does not follow the route of us using everything and everyone around us as commodities.  It does not follow a pattern of consumerism.  The culture around us crams a distorted message down our throats of what the good life is.  And that message includes buying Swiffer Wet Jets, Snuggies, houses, cars, Topsy-Turvys, ironing boards, extravagant vacations, and sweaters with wolves on them.  The culture around us teaches us that a life of convenience and ease is the good life.  Life is good and easy because we have created massive feedlots for animals so that we can have McDonalds on ever corner and cheap meat in our stores.  The good life can be lived because 3^rd world countries slave their days away so that I can buy a Skip-It and it not take hardly any money out of my wallet.  The good life is among us because oil, natural gas, and coal are being harnessed for plastic, heat, light, and fuel.  How could anyone NOT live the good life these days?

But even with all of this, the good life continues to slip from us, like trying to hold and squeeze a handful of sand.  The blessing and covenant that God makes with Noah is coupled with the warning of accountability.  Yes, we are to be held accountable for all of these things.  No matter how much we twist the words of Scripture to make it seem like the American dream and way of life fits the good life God wants us to have, we are not fooling God and we seem to be having a hard time fooling ourselves.  Depression continues to run wild.  Insomnia and anxiety are everywhere.  Rage, murder, coveting, lack of contentment, and greed spring out of the seeds that the American good life plants within us.

As the body of Christ, as brothers and sisters that are committed to the good life that God pointed us towards, we need to help hold each other accountable so that we do not stray from this.  It is so easy for our mindset to change and path be led astray.  Jesus says that wide is the path to destruction and narrow is the road to the good life.

The good life is not an easy life filled with easy decisions.  That is why so few choose it.  The good life is hard, filled with sacrifice, and counter-cultural.  But it IS rewarding.  In the long run, all the hard work, right choices, and sacrifice will be worth it.  And we need each other to stay strong and committed to the narrow path.

Once again, organized religion did me a great disservice by distorting the idea of accountability into a simplistic formula.  They taught me that accountability was having a group of guys that asked me questions about my devotions, my thought life, and my sex life.

Do we want the good life?  If so, we need like-minded people in our lives.  We need accountability.  We fall short of the good life if we think we can pursue faith/spirituality on our own.  We fall short if we think we can pursue faith/spirituality by being lost in the crowd of a mega-church and reveling in the ease and convenience it brings into our spiritual life.  We fall short if we become tunnel-visioned, thinking that emotional encounters with God are what we need.

What we need is to recognize is the holistic message of the good life that God clearly communicates to us.  And the clearest place we find it is in the life and works of Christ.  Jesus lived counter-cultural when we walked the earth, and He would do so even more if He was around today.  We should study Him and His ways and live accordingly.  Because WE WILL be held accountable.  Jesus says in Matthew 12 that we will all have to give an account for the good and bad that come out of our hearts, including every word that we have spoken.  It will be a day where accountability and justice will work together to give unto man what he deserves.

Thanks be to Jesus that His grace is available to those who really pursue the good life.  His grace is a wonderful gift that covers our faults and offers us forgiveness for when we stupidly stray from the narrow path.  It is this grace that will allow us to confidently stand before God one day and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant”.

Let us recognize that we need Jesus and we need each other because a day of accountability is coming.  As the writer of Hebrews says, “Let us encourage one another daily towards good works…to the good life.”

How did this flood actually happen?  How did all of these animals coexist on the ark together?  How was Noah able to build such a structure?  How did Noah hear from God?  Where did the animals come from?  Where did Noah get the knowledge to live well?  When did the flood actually happen?  Did the flood actually happen…

The question I want to focus on today is “WHY?”  Why did God show destruction to be in His nature? Why take such drastic measures that seem to deviate from such love and goodness?   We need to wrestle with the idea that destruction and judgment should not always be categorized as unloving or the opposite of love.  We should entertain the idea that these elements might, in some way, work within the parameters of love.  We should not look to our limited understanding of love for the answers.  In fact, our understanding of love is often distorted and defined according to our own interests and ambition.  Within the flood narrative, I find three explanations for God’s destructive actions:

1. God’s destruction of the earth demonstrates His sheer power.
2. God’s destruction of the earth demonstrates His hatred of sin.
3. God’s destruction of the earth demonstrates His determination for the good life.

It is important to note how destruction is used in all eras of Scripture

A)    Creation Era

B)    Israel Era

C)    Christ and Church Era

D)    Post-Church Era

The coming of Christ ushered in a break from God’s use of destruction against man as a tool of justice and communication.  Christ took all our iniquities and infirmities upon Himself and began the destruction of blood lines and cultural lines.  Christ death and resurrection communicated the exact three things to us that God’s destruction in the Old Testament did.  It demonstrated God’s sheer power, his hatred for sin, and His determination for the good life for us.

Christ did not concern Himself at all with releasing Israel from the dominance of the Romans.  Instead, He taught how the good life was possible in the midst of slavery, pain, suffering, and poverty.  Before Christ, God used wealth, prosperity, land, and conquest for Israel as blessings of the good life…and these exact things were what led Israel to turn their backs on God.

The complete and whole good life will come about with the final destruction of sin and the creation of the new heaven and new earth.  But we are not living in that era.  We are living in a world that is still distorted and plagued by wickedness of man.  And yes, we have the ability to still experience the good life now, in the form that it is available to us.  It comes to us in the life of Christ, modeling it following in His footsteps.  To do this, we must pick up our own cross…we must be willing to do what the rich, young ruler was unable to do – SACRIFICE.

It is not a popular message or an easy road.  But if we are serious about the good life, we will put others before ourselves, we will endure hardship with all joy, and we will abandon hypocrisy and false personas.  In a sense, we will allow the message of Christ to destroy our way of life…and bring us the good life.

If you’re the parent of a Christian teenager, Kenda Creasy Dean has this warning:

Your child is following a “mutant” form of Christianity, and you may be responsible.

Dean says more American teenagers are embracing what she calls “moralistic therapeutic deism.” Translation: It’s a watered-down faith that portrays God as a “divine therapist” whose chief goal is to boost people’s self-esteem.

Dean is a minister, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of “Almost Christian,” a new book that argues that many parents and pastors are unwittingly passing on this self-serving strain of Christianity.

She says this “imposter” faith is one reason teenagers abandon churches.

“If this is the God they’re seeing in church, they are right to leave us in the dust,” Dean says. “Churches don’t give them enough to be passionate about.”

What traits passionate teens share

Dean drew her conclusions from what she calls one of the most depressing summers of her life. She interviewed teens about their faith after helping conduct research for a controversial study called the National Study of Youth and Religion.

The study, which included in-depth interviews with at least 3,300 American teenagers between 13 and 17, found that most American teens who called themselves Christian were indifferent and inarticulate about their faith.

The study included Christians of all stripes — from Catholics to Protestants of both conservative and liberal denominations. Though three out of four American teenagers claim to be Christian, fewer than half practice their faith, only half deem it important, and most can’t talk coherently about their beliefs, the study found.

Many teenagers thought that God simply wanted them to feel good and do good — what the study’s researchers called “moralistic therapeutic deism.”

Some critics told Dean that most teenagers can’t talk coherently about any deep subject, but Dean says abundant research shows that’s not true.

“They have a lot to say,” Dean says. “They can talk about money, sex and their family relationships with nuance. Most people who work with teenagers know that they are not naturally inarticulate.”

In “Almost Christian,” Dean talks to the teens who are articulate about their faith. Most come from Mormon and evangelical churches, which tend to do a better job of instilling religious passion in teens, she says.

No matter their background, Dean says committed Christian teens share four traits: They have a personal story about God they can share, a deep connection to a faith community, a sense of purpose and a sense of hope about their future.

“There are countless studies that show that religious teenagers do better in school, have better relationships with their parents and engage in less high-risk behavior,” she says. “They do a lot of things that parents pray for.”

Dean, a United Methodist Church minister who says parents are the most important influence on their children’s faith, places the ultimate blame for teens’ religious apathy on adults.

Some adults don’t expect much from youth pastors. They simply want them to keep their children off drugs and away from premarital sex.

Others practice a “gospel of niceness,” where faith is simply doing good and not ruffling feathers. The Christian call to take risks, witness and sacrifice for others is muted, she says.

“If teenagers lack an articulate faith, it may be because the faith we show them is too spineless to merit much in the way of conversation,” wrote Dean, a professor of youth and church culture at Princeton Theological Seminary.

More teens may be drifting away from conventional Christianity. But their desire to help others has not diminished, another author says.

Barbara A. Lewis, author of “The Teen Guide to Global Action,” says Dean is right — more teens are embracing a nebulous belief in God.

Yet there’s been an “explosion” in youth service since 1995 that Lewis attributes to more schools emphasizing community service.

Teens that are less religious aren’t automatically less compassionate, she says.

“I see an increase in youth passion to make the world a better place,” she says. “I see young people reaching out to solve problems. They’re not waiting for adults.”

What religious teens say about their peers

Elizabeth Corrie meets some of these idealistic teens every summer. She has taken on the book’s central challenge: instilling religious passion in teens.

Corrie, who once taught high school religion, now directs a program called YTI — the Youth Theological Initiative at Emory University in Georgia.

YTI operates like a theological boot camp for teens. At least 36 rising high school juniors and seniors from across the country gather for three weeks of Christian training. They worship together, take pilgrimages to varying religious communities and participate in community projects.

Corrie says she sees no shortage of teenagers who want to be inspired and make the world better. But the Christianity some are taught doesn’t inspire them “to change anything that’s broken in the world.”

Teens want to be challenged; they want their tough questions taken on, she says.

“We think that they want cake, but they actually want steak and potatoes, and we keep giving them cake,” Corrie says.

David Wheaton, an Atlanta high school senior, says many of his peers aren’t excited about Christianity because they don’t see the payoff.

“If they can’t see benefits immediately, they stay away from it,” Wheaton says. “They don’t want to make sacrifices.”

How ‘radical’ parents instill religious passion in their children

Churches, not just parents, share some of the blame for teens’ religious apathy as well, says Corrie, the Emory professor.

She says pastors often preach a safe message that can bring in the largest number of congregants. The result: more people and yawning in the pews.

“If your church can’t survive without a certain number of members pledging, you might not want to preach a message that might make people mad,” Corrie says. “We can all agree that we should all be good and that God rewards those who are nice.”

Corrie, echoing the author of “Almost Christian,” says the gospel of niceness can’t teach teens how to confront tragedy.

“It can’t bear the weight of deeper questions: Why are my parents getting a divorce? Why did my best friend commit suicide? Why, in this economy, can’t I get the good job I was promised if I was a good kid?”

What can a parent do then?

Get “radical,” Dean says.

She says parents who perform one act of radical faith in front of their children convey more than a multitude of sermons and mission trips.

A parent’s radical act of faith could involve something as simple as spending a summer in Bolivia working on an agricultural renewal project or turning down a more lucrative job offer to stay at a struggling church, Dean says.

But it’s not enough to be radical — parents must explain “this is how Christians live,” she says.

“If you don’t say you’re doing it because of your faith, kids are going to say my parents are really nice people,” Dean says. “It doesn’t register that faith is supposed to make you live differently unless parents help their kids connect the dots.”

‘They called when all the cards stopped’

Anne Havard, an Atlanta teenager, might be considered radical. She’s a teen whose faith appears to be on fire.

Havard, who participated in the Emory program, bubbles over with energy when she talks about possibly teaching theology in the future and quotes heavy-duty scholars such as theologian Karl Barth.

She’s so fired up about her faith that after one question, Havard goes on a five-minute tear before stopping and chuckling: “Sorry, I just talked a long time.”

Havard says her faith has been nurtured by what Dean, the “Almost Christian” author, would call a significant faith community.

In 2006, Havard lost her father to a rare form of cancer. Then she lost one of her best friends — a young woman in the prime of life — to cancer as well. Her church and her pastor stepped in, she says.

“They called when all the cards stopped,” she says.

When asked how her faith held up after losing her father and friend, Havard didn’t fumble for words like some of the teens in “Almost Christian.”

She says God spoke the most to her when she felt alone — as Jesus must have felt on the cross.

“When Jesus was on the cross crying out, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus was part of God,” she says. “Then God knows what it means to doubt.

“It’s OK to be in a storm, to be in a doubt,” she says, “because God was there, too.”

By ANEEL KARNANI

Can companies do well by doing good? Yes—sometimes.

But the idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed.

Large companies now routinely claim that they aren’t in business just for the profits, that they’re also intent on serving some larger social purpose. They trumpet their efforts to produce healthier foods or more fuel-efficient vehicles, conserve energy and other resources in their operations, or otherwise make the world a better place. Influential institutions like the Academy of Management and the United Nations, among many others, encourage companies to pursue such strategies.

It’s not surprising that this idea has won over so many people—it’s a very appealing proposition. You can have your cake and eat it too!

But it’s an illusion, and a potentially dangerous one.

Very simply, in cases where private profits and public interests are aligned, the idea of corporate social responsibility is irrelevant: Companies that simply do everything they can to boost profits will end up increasing social welfare. In circumstances in which profits and social welfare are in direct opposition, an appeal to corporate social responsibility will almost always be ineffective, because executives are unlikely to act voluntarily in the public interest and against shareholder interests.

Irrelevant or ineffective, take your pick. But it’s worse than that. The danger is that a focus on social responsibility will delay or discourage more-effective measures to enhance social welfare in those cases where profits and the public good are at odds. As society looks to companies to address these problems, the real solutions may be ignored.

Well and Good

To get a better fix on the irrelevance or ineffectiveness of corporate social responsibility efforts, let’s first look at situations where profits and social welfare are in synch.

Consider the market for healthier food. Fast-food outlets have profited by expanding their offerings to include salads and other options designed to appeal to health-conscious consumers. Other companies have found new sources of revenue in low-fat, whole-grain and other types of foods that have grown in popularity. Social welfare is improved. Everybody wins.

Similarly, auto makers have profited from responding to consumer demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles, a plus for the environment. And many companies have boosted profits while enhancing social welfare by reducing their energy consumption and thus their costs.

But social welfare isn’t the driving force behind these trends. Healthier foods and more fuel-efficient vehicles didn’t become so common until they became profitable for their makers. Energy conservation didn’t become so important to many companies until energy became more costly. These companies are benefiting society while acting in their own interests; social activists urging them to change their ways had little impact. It is the relentless maximization of profits, not a commitment to social responsibility, that has proved to be a boon to the public in these cases.

Unfortunately, not all companies take advantage of such opportunities, and in those cases both social welfare and profits suffer. These companies have one of two problems: Their executives are either incompetent or are putting their own interests ahead of the company’s long-term financial interests. For instance, an executive might be averse to any risk, including the development of new products, that might jeopardize the short-term financial performance of the company and thereby affect his compensation, even if taking that risk would improve the company’s longer-term prospects.

An appeal to social responsibility won’t solve either of those problems. Pressure from shareholders for sustainable growth in profitability can. It can lead to incompetent managers being replaced and to a realignment of incentives for executives, so that their compensation is tied more directly to the company’s long-term success.

When There’s a Choice

Still, the fact is that while companies sometimes can do well by doing good, more often they can’t. Because in most cases, doing what’s best for society means sacrificing profits.

This is true for most of society’s pervasive and persistent problems; if it weren’t, those problems would have been solved long ago by companies seeking to maximize their profits. A prime example is the pollution caused by manufacturing. Reducing that pollution is costly to the manufacturers, and that eats into profits. Poverty is another obvious example. Companies could pay their workers more and charge less for their products, but their profits would suffer.

So now what? Should executives in these situations heed the call for corporate social responsibility even without the allure of profiting from it?

You can argue that they should. But you shouldn’t expect that they will.

Executives are hired to maximize profits; that is their responsibility to their company’s shareholders. Even if executives wanted to forgo some profit to benefit society, they could expect to lose their jobs if they tried—and be replaced by managers who would restore profit as the top priority. The movement for corporate social responsibility is in direct opposition, in such cases, to the movement for better corporate governance, which demands that managers fulfill their fiduciary duty to act in the shareholders’ interest or be relieved of their responsibilities. That’s one reason so many companies talk a great deal about social responsibility but do nothing—a tactic known as greenwashing.

Managers who sacrifice profit for the common good also are in effect imposing a tax on their shareholders and arbitrarily deciding how that money should be spent. In that sense they are usurping the role of elected government officials, if only on a small scale.

Privately owned companies are a different story. If an owner-operated business chooses to accept diminished profit in order to enhance social welfare, that decision isn’t being imposed on shareholders. And, of course, it is admirable and desirable for the leaders of successful public companies to use some of their personal fortune for charitable purposes, as many have throughout history and many do now. But those leaders shouldn’t presume to pursue their philanthropic goals with shareholder money. Indeed, many shareholders themselves use significant amounts of the money they make from their investments to help fund charities or otherwise improve social welfare.

This is not to say, of course, that companies should be left free to pursue the greatest possible profits without regard for the social consequences. But, appeals to corporate social responsibility are not an effective way to strike a balance between profits and the public good.

The Power of Regulation

So how can that balance best be struck?

The ultimate solution is government regulation. Its greatest appeal is that it is binding. Government has the power to enforce regulation. No need to rely on anyone’s best intentions.

But government regulation isn’t perfect, and it can even end up reducing public welfare because of its cost or inefficiency. The government also may lack the resources and competence to design and administer appropriate regulations, particularly for complex industries requiring much specialized knowledge. And industry groups might find ways to influence regulation to the point where it is ineffective or even ends up benefiting the industry at the expense of the general population.

Outright corruption can make the situation even worse. What’s more, all the problems of government failure are exacerbated in developing countries with weak and often corrupt governments.

Still, with all their faults, governments are a far more effective protector of the public good than any campaign for corporate social responsibility.

Watchdogs and Advocates

Civil society also plays a role in constraining corporate behavior that reduces social welfare, acting as a watchdog and advocate. Various nonprofit organizations and movements provide a voice for a wide variety of social, political, environmental, ethnic, cultural and community interests.

The Rainforest Action Network, for example, is an organization that agitates, often quite effectively, for environmental protection and sustainability. Its website states, “Our campaigns leverage public opinion and consumer pressure to turn the public stigma of environmental destruction into a business nightmare for any American company that refuses to adopt responsible environmental policies.” That’s quite a different approach from trying to convince executives that they should do what’s best for society because it’s the right thing to do and won’t hurt their bottom line.

Overall, though, such activism has a mixed track record, and it can’t be relied on as the primary mechanism for imposing constraints on corporate behavior—especially in most developing countries, where civil society lacks adequate resources to exert much influence and there is insufficient awareness of public issues among the population.

Self-Control

Self-regulation is another alternative, but it suffers from the same drawback as the concept of corporate social responsibility: Companies are unlikely to voluntarily act in the public interest at the expense of shareholder interests.

But self-regulation can be useful. It tends to promote good practices and target specific problems within industries, impose lower compliance costs on businesses than government regulation, and offer quick, low-cost dispute-resolution procedures. Self-regulation can also be more flexible than government regulation, allowing it to respond more effectively to changing circumstances.

The challenge is to design self-regulation in a manner that emphasizes transparency and accountability, consistent with what the public expects from government regulation. It is up to the government to ensure that any self-regulation meets that standard. And the government must be prepared to step in and impose its own regulations if the industry fails to police itself effectively.

Financial Calculation

In the end, social responsibility is a financial calculation for executives, just like any other aspect of their business. The only sure way to influence corporate decision making is to impose an unacceptable cost—regulatory mandates, taxes, punitive fines, public embarrassment—on socially unacceptable behavior.

Pleas for corporate social responsibility will be truly embraced only by those executives who are smart enough to see that doing the right thing is a byproduct of their pursuit of profit. And that renders such pleas pointless.

Dr. Karnani is an associate professor of strategy at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He can be reached at reports@wsj.com.

Our focus within this passage will be on verses 5-7.  Here we find what God sees (vs. 5), what the author perceives He felt (vs. 6), and what He intends to do (vs. 7).

WHAT GOD SAW – vs. 5

The writer is clear that evil abounded throughout the land.  He communicates this in such a way that we understand how infested the world had become…”every scheme in man’s imagination was nothing but evil perpetually.” This type of imagery makes me think of how Michael Connelly writes that a truly evil man has eyes that betray him by revealing within, a darkness more than night.

Over the years, good and evil has shifted constantly.  Things that once were considered acceptable (such as slavery and racism), are now considered evil.  And things that were once considered evil are now deemed acceptable (such as medicine/marijuana, and science).  Man’s perceptions and standards have changed and evolved over time, which has led to the common belief that these ideas are defined culturally and they do not exist in the realm of absolutes like truth cannot be talked about in absolutes either.

As a Christ-follower, I recognize that these concepts can exist in both realms.  There are countless examples in Scripture and the Law of certain practices and actions that fall into the category of cultural/time-sensitive evils.  In fact, these things are always defined in action.  On the other hand, absolute evil/true evil resides in the heart of man.  It is a condition of inner turmoil that ultimately will express itself in action.  For instance, a good man can rise up and commit murder and it be different from an evil man committing the same act.  Unchanging evil seems to be the result of man releasing himself over to it’s control and grasp.

This passage evokes in me imagery of a world that has given themselves over to evil…a deeper and darker existence than one of people committing evil actions.  One translation states that human evil had spiraled out of control.  No longer was the tension between good and evil evident within man and society, but all had given themselves over to this immense evil.  This, in contrast to what God spoke to Cain about in terms of “living well”.

A thought here in regards to man “forming” evil thoughts.  The Hebrew word here “yeser” is the same verb used to describe God forming man out of dust.  Where what God formed was good, what man forms in his mind and his heart is repulsive.  This is the condition that man is stricken with.  What man forms with his mind, heart, and actions strays from the good that God forms.

Other parallel flood stories do not articulate this extreme wickedness for the destruction of the earth like this Biblical one.  The Gilgamesh Epic uses a vague statement “when their heart led the great gods to produce the flood.”  There is no amplification of this reasoning as in the Biblical account.  In the Atra-hasis Epic, the Babylonian story of the flood, it states that man’s noise and commotion had become so loud that Enlil starts to suffer from insomnia.  So he tries plagues and famine to destroy humanity, and fails.  He then uses a flood, which Atrahasis survives by building a boat.  This story seems to imply that man has become too many, not too evil.

HOW GOD FELT – vs. 6

Due to the extent of wickedness and evil abounding, the author describes God as being regretful for creating man.  He even goes further to say that this regret has caused pain in His heart.  It seems that the purpose for this kind of language is to show how the tables have turned on God.  God cursed Adam and Eve and at the center of the curse is pain…pain in working the land and pain in childbirth.  Now, man is reveling in his wickedness and God is feeling pain.  God’s pain is not coming from his own sin, like man, but coming from man’s sin as well.  It is this imagery of combined pain.  Man (we) suffer pain for our own sinfulness and God feels pain along side of us.

Without us understanding the real capacity God has for relating to us emotionally, Scripture wants us to understand that God DOES understand and empathizes with us on many levels.  Jesus, coming to earth as man, puts Himself into a position to experience the emotions of humanity.  Isaiah prophesies about Christ in 53:3-4

³ He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

It seems that the idea of God experiencing emotion for the sake of empathy doesn’t pose as many problems for us as does this next point of God’s emotions bring about a change of heart in Him, causing Him to want to get rid of man.  Is God capable of changing His mind, and does He do so logically or in the midst of an emotional crisis????  Obviously, the author would only be speculating as to the emotional state and mindset of God.

What I believe we find here is not a matter of God changing His mind about humanity, but bringing justice to the situation.  Yes, it is implied that God questions his decision to make man, but His response to flood the earth is not based in the regret, but based in justice and punishment.  Yes, the Old Testament response to sin and wickedness is harsh and brutal, very different from the New Testament response.  It varies as greatly as the concepts of “eye for an eye” and “turn the other cheek”.  But we can find comfort due to verse 8.  It states that Noah found favor in God’s eyes.  Obviously, God wasn’t in an emotional state that blinded Him from justice and rational response.  Irrational response would have consisted of destroying Noah as well.  Why save only the one when the world is so wicked and deprived?  Not only can we garner a sense of justice but we see the light of hope and redemption arise out of God’s regret and pain.

WHAT GOD DID – vs. 7

God speaks of washing man from the earth.  While this response is drastic and widespread, this phrasing should bring to mind the idea of God washing our sin from us.  In fact, it is the same Hebrew root of “mhh” that we find in both writings.  This washing also brings the idea of baptism to mind.  We are washed in the water to bring purification and renewal.  We go into the water to bury sin and our old way of life, and we arise a new creation with a new purpose.  We have put do death our old ways of life and living.  We now live for God surrounded by His grace.

God’s justice playing out as wiping life out is the most extreme form of devastation recorded in Scripture.  It is so extreme that He promises never to do so ever again.  But yet, we find this type of behavior on smaller scales throughout the Old Testament (Sodom and Gomorrah, Nineveh, Israel’s two major captivities, Jericho, etc…)  Many people still believe that God continues to administer justice in this manner.  They look at Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the tsunami, earthquakes, etc… as judgments from God for earth’s wickedness.  They seem to not understand that we now live in a new age, the New Testament age, where Christ has come and bore our sin upon His shoulders.  God’s love for man, in spite of our downfallen state and wickedness, has led Him to lay out a plan of redemption that breaks the cycle of death and destruction.  It is a plan that includes Him taking responsibility for our actions.  A plan keeps His hand from this type of behavior until the day that He creates the new heaven and new earth.  That future day will be a day of great destruction, but also, a day of new life and renewal once again.

Yes, God seems to have experienced regret, but His response uniquely brings death, destruction, justice, hope, renewal, and redemption all entwined together.  It is simple, yet complicated…the essence of our spiritual life and journey.