That Just ain’t Fair!

That Just ain’t Fair! by Dave Wilson with Craig Wilson

Craig Wilson serves as the Chairman of the Mission Core Team here at Trinity Church. By trade, he is an attorney working with civil law in San Bernardino. He is married with 3 children.

Matthew 20-22

This week as I was reading through Matthew in anticipation of writing this blog, I prayed for the Lord to reveal people to join me in this journey who could bring light to the passages that were chosen. I immediately thought of Craig for this segment because I needed help dealing with the topic of fairness. As an attorney, Craig has to play the part of an impartial guide through various human interactions. Fairness is important to people in his profession which is symbolized by Lady Justice who is blindfolded and holding scales to ensure equality.

This first story of laborers in a vineyard is sometimes troubling to people who are fairness-minded. How can one man’s work for the entire day equal another man’s work for only one hour? Another fairness issue comes when Jesus arrives into Jerusalem to crowds who are excited and singing his praise, but we know the rest of the story. This same crowd turns on Him in just a few days to demand His execution. And then there is the dreaded topic of paying taxes. Just last week you either paid the tax man or you filed for an extension. Either way, it just did not seem fair to have to pay so much for so little in return. But in these passages, Jesus takes us one step beyond fairness. In light of eternity, things on earth really don’t seem to matter very much. When compared to His incomparable riches in glory, our paychecks are irrelevant. Taxes are man-made and earth bound, so that is where they should stay.

However, the crowd is worthy of some study and contemplation if we want to deal with this fairness issue. How much are we like the crowd? At one point in time, we are joyful and excited about our faith and what God is doing in our lives. Then at another point in time we turn our backs on Him to pursue our fleshly desires and worldly pursuits. We become more concerned with the temporal kingdom on earth, and ignore the Eternal Kingdom that Jesus came to bring. How fair is that to our Lord who left His home in heaven, suffered on our behalf and then conquered evil and death to bring us into a new life in Him? In all fairness, let’s agree to live our abundant life for him today.

Peace-Maker, Peace-Breaker or a Peace-Faker

Are you a Peace-Maker, Peace-Breaker or a Peace-Faker by Dave Wilson with Linda Parker

Linda serves as the Team Leader for the Missionary Care Team here at Trinity Church. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who helps her clients from a Christian perspective. She specializes in Peace-Making which is a biblically based model for conflict resolution.

Matthew 17-19

Peace-Making, Peace-Breaking or Peace-Faking are three words I have learned from Linda about conflict resolution and true humility. You may be familiar with the concept of making peace, but there are two other alternatives that are destructive and damaging to living at peace with one another. Peace-Breaking is when you stand on the side of ‘right’ and attempt to win an argument, while at the same time you lose the relationship. Peace-Faking is when you mistakenly accept an absence of conflict for real peace. Instead of confronting a problem or an offense, you overlook it. The problem is that there is still no real peace, just a calm that may not last.

Matthew 18:15-20 gives us an excellent model for Peace-Making. This process has church discipline applications as well as personal peace-making principles. The first step to peace is to confront the person who has committed an offense. The confrontation should always be with humility and with the purpose of restoring and maintaining the relationship. This should be a private meeting where you agree to never discuss the offense with others. You should make every effort to come to a peaceful resolution without the knowledge of others, but if that does not work then bring along someone else. You should bring someone who is impartial; not someone who will only defend you, but someone who will stand on the side of peace. Remember, your goal is to restore the relationship, not to win the argument. The next steps include official mediation which should be the last resort and should only be done if absolutely necessary for resolution.

Life in Christ demands that we live a life of peace and humility with others and with God Himself. But true peace (just like true love) takes work. A lot of work! And the most difficult part of peace is humility, because it requires that we set aside our rights, our passions and all of our selfish pride for the benefit of making peace. In light of this process, think about the context of the next few verses when Jesus teaches on forgiveness (70x7) and divorce.