November 15 - 2 Peter 2: Dried-up Fountains

I got up from the table with mixed feelings of numbness and uncomfortable complacency. We left the restaurant and I turned to my husband and said, "I don't think there was a single conversation that mattered during the past 2 hours." I wasn't angry or disappointed or surprised with anyone seated around the table - everyone was filling their normal roles. One with arms crossed and monosyllabic answers to every question I asked, taking little interest in anyone. One couldn't take her gaze off someone across the table to make eye contact with me as I tried to speak with her. Two were deep into political talk so that they didn't have to discuss anything personal. Another desperately trying to get attention with words that the rest of us are conditioned to simply ignore. And me - withdrawing into my role as 'observer' in this group of people - unaware of the Holy Spirit, protecting myself, status quo relating.

This event and my response weighs on me as I read this second chapter of Peter concerning false teachers in our midst. How would well-meaning (or not so well-meaning) religious leaders counsel me to move into a difficult relational situation like this - a scenario that has played out over and over in my life? A scene that has left me feeling ignored at best and emotionally wounded many times. What would those who prefer "to indulge in self-rule" and who "speak evil against the most splendid of creatures" (v. 10-11) say to me in my relational discontent?

There’s nothing to these people [false teachers]—they’re dried-up fountains, storm-scattered clouds, headed for a black hole in hell. They are loudmouths, full of hot air, but still they’re dangerous. (v. 17)

Peter's choice of words in verse 17 reminds me of Jeremiah's warning. I wonder if this is the image that Peter was trying to conjure up in the minds of his readers who were very familiar with the Old Testament,

My people have committed a compound sin:  they’ve walked out on me, the fountain of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns — cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves. (Jeremiah 2:13)

False teachers - these dried-up fountains - will encourage us to also walk out on the Fountain of fresh flowing water, the One who desires to pour out His Spirit, His Love, His Sufficiency into us regardless of how others may respond, neglect, betray or wound us. Then, they will help us construct strategies to dig our own cisterns of self-protection, self-realization, and self-interest with the empty promises of satisfaction and healing that is not promised to us by the Lover of our souls.

"...they turn the cross into an example of love that justifies as Christian whatever lets them feel loved and happy. In so doing, they 'bring the way of truth,' the new way to live selflessly won by My Son's death into disrepute (2:2).

"Understand this: when spiritual leaders nudge the cross of My Son into the outskirts of their thinking, when they stubbornly fail to realize that only through the cross are they both forgiven for their arrogant self-obsession and empowered to live sacrificially, then painful wounds will be seen as a greater problem than selfish relating. When that happens, relating in a way that protects you from further wounding and enhances a sense of personal well-being seems not only necessary but moral."  (66LL)

Soon, I will be seated with these same people around the table. Will I be the same, following the tempting way of false teachers, digging my own cisterns? Or, can I rest in the One who paid it all for me, the One who is a fountain of living water to my soul, and move in love toward those seated at the table - whatever the cost to myself?