November 2017 - Pastor Rich Eddy

Thanks, I Needed That!

This week we will celebrate Thanksgiving, that holiday when we take off work, get together with family and friends, cook meals, stuff ourselves along with our turkeys, watch the big game, nap, and oh yeah . . . give thanks. For some of us it means worshiping at church, and hopefully for everyone, it includes moments to pause, consider our blessings, and thank the One who is the Giver of all good gifts (James 1:17 – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights . . .”).

For the many across our land who attend Thanksgiving services or read Thanksgiving Day devotionals, they will be challenged and encouraged to list the many blessings for which they should be grateful. Those lists often include such things as: family, friends, food and other material provisions, home and work, health and happiness, our country, our pastors 🙂 and life itself, both now and in eternity. I have included such blessings in my own sermons and in the prayers of the church during our Thanksgiving Day services. These blessings are in a sense as traditional as the meals (and naps) we enjoy over this holiday.

But today, I would like to offer additional thanks to God for one other blessing that often gets overlooked, and that is this: I thank God for giving us a sense of humor.

As my wife said just today, she is grateful that I make her laugh, and that she can still laugh at me, I mean, with me, after 43 years of marriage. Actually, I think I give her more things to laugh about now than in our early years, since we have experienced more funny things over all those years, which have accumulated like gray hairs and “love handles.” (Now, if we could just remember all of them!)

Certainly, there is humor to be found in puns, in jokes, and in the routines of stand-up comedians. There is slap-stick humor and prat-falls, and even the barbed witticisms of insult kings like the late Don Rickles. But even though I have laughed at humor expressed in all those varied forms, the sense of humor I’m talking about is not contrived by someone to make others laugh, but rather is found in our ability to find humor in our life events and circumstances. This sense of humor provides a relief valve that protects us from being overwhelmed by frustrations and difficulties that come from living in a fallen world. It allows us to laugh in the face of danger or disappointment, and to endure pain and poverty. It keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously, and can’t help but keep us humble when we can laugh at ourselves and our own foibles. To quote The Joker from the Batman movies, “Why so serious?” We are told by the Lord to remove the log from our own eyes before we criticize someone else’s speck (Matthew 7:5), but shouldn’t we laugh at our log, too, when we find it?

Certainly, I have been blessed with the gift of being able to laugh at myself (maybe because the Lord knew I would need it so much!) and at many of the circumstances which I have faced. This has lessened disappointments, softened insults, and helped keep me balanced in a world (certainly, not me!) that often seems so crazy. It doesn’t mean that I have laughed out loud at everything, but that I have seen the events from a different perspective. I offer you the following as examples of what I’m talking about:

This last week, I had some dental surgery that involved a tooth extraction and a bone graft in my jaw. Not what you would consider a funny situation (though I could tell you it left me in stitches!). But add to that the fact that the oral surgeon used bone from a cow for the graft, and the possibilities are almost endless. When the surgeon asked how I felt afterward, I said, “Moo!” (Which from his reaction, I guess he’s heard before). Then they gave me post-op care instructions which advised cold, soft foods the first couple days, progressing to grass and alfalfa by day four. Even though I am sore and bruised from the surgery, I’m not mad (no mad cow here) at the surgeon, because after all, “To err is human, but to forgive is bovine.”
Then there was the time one Sunday morning when a fellow pastor and the men’s choir set me up. Having established early on that I am not skilled at singing, I decided not to sing with the men at either morning service for their traditional Super Bowl Sunday anthem. During the announcements at the first service, I commended the men for singing, but apologized for not joining them at rehearsal, which meant I couldn’t sing with them that day. Knowing my quality of singing, most people chuckled and I went on with the rest of the announcements. Came time for the second service, the other pastor encouraged me to make the same announcement again. But when I did, I realized why he asked me to do so. Between the services, the men had prepared a little surprise: as soon as I said I wouldn’t be singing with them, they broke out in the Hallelujah Chorus, leaving me speechless and the congregation roaring in laughter. The pastor who did that to me has since wisely moved to Tanzania.
One time I took a flight where I was sitting next to a man with a prosthetic leg. We had purchased the “Cheap seats” and found ourselves sitting with our backs to a bulkhead, so we couldn’t recline our seats. This was fine until the seats in front of us leaned back, which left us no room; also, his prosthesis got jammed by the now-reclined seat. We looked at each other’s discomfort, and began to discuss the preference of sitting anywhere else in the plane, which led to our dreaming about moving to first class. We chuckled about it, and then he asked, “I wonder how much it costs for a first-class seat?” To which I innocently replied, “Probably an arm and a leg.” Which I instantly regretted saying, especially as he got up and found a vacant seat elsewhere in the plane.
On another flight, my sense of humor got me in trouble. It was a packed plane, and being the last to board, I was forced to sit between two guys as big as me. They frowned as I squeezed into my seat, and once the plane took off, we all three took out paperback books to read. There we were, all three holding up books in front of us, crammed together in those small seats. The situation struck me as funny, so wanting to lighten things up I said, “Why don’t I just hold up one book and we can all read it?” Apparently, they failed to appreciate just how hilarious I was, as they continued to read their books and sat in stony silence for the entire flight.
Finally, there is an incident from my early twenties which I will now share with you, but you must NEVER TELL anyone else! I went to the doctor for a routine checkup, and after the usual poking and prodding, the doctor sent me to get a urine sample. The nurse directed me to the bathroom, which I entered and prepared to “collect” the required sample. Only there weren’t any cups or vials in the bathroom, just a sign above the toilet that read, “Aim to Center of Bowl.” I looked around again, but still there was only that sign. So I figured, they must have a collecting device in the toilet, that would trap the sample as long as I “aimed to the center of the bowl.” So I did, washed my hands, and returned to the exam room. The nurse looked at me kind of funny and asked where my sample was; I told her how I had followed the instructions. With a big grin, she led me back to the bathroom and opened a little sliding window, behind which was a nice little collecting bottle. As she walked away, I am sure I heard her laugh and I knew that I would be the subject of their next staff meeting. I blame it on the inexperience of youth, but though I almost died of embarrassment at the time, now I just laugh at it.

In Umberto Eco’s book, The Name of the Rose, the plot revolves around a monastery that houses a secret collection of writings that present God as having a sense of humor. This is considered so scandalous and threatening to the Christian faith that the monks will even kill to keep the books hidden from view. This is similar to ancient Greek dramas which were of two types: comedies, which were about people, and tragedies, which were about the “gods.” To many, the very idea that God could laugh or find humor is considered heretical. But if that is true, where does our humor come from? Is having a sense of humor part of the image of God in which we were created? And why can good, clean Christian comedy be so funny, if God is not the source of our sense of humor? Is humor a sin? A vice, or a virtue? A blessing or a curse?

I believe our ability to find humor and laugh is like other human abilities: it is God given, but like our other gifts, it can be used for good or evil. If we deride other people, make “fun” of them before others, or mock them, we have sinned. If we laugh at someone’s misfortune, guffaw when they trip and fall, or chuckle at their embarrassments, then we have broken the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. But if we can use humor to entertain people positively, defuse tense or embarrassing situations, help people improve behavior by pointing out ironies, and keep ourselves humble, then humor is a good thing. So I say to God for his gift of humor, “Thanks, I needed that!”

I also believe God does himself have a sense of humor, though the evidence for it will have to wait for another time. For now, let me just offer one word: platypus.

In the meantime, have a great Thanksgiving celebration, and remember the reason for the day, which is to give thanks to God for all his blessings. May God continue to grant you those in abundance!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read and enjoy: Numbers 22:1-35

It’s a No-Brainer

This Sunday we were shocked to learn of another mass killing in our country, this time taking place during a church service in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Over forty worshipers were killed or wounded by a man who apparently was angry with his mother-in-law and decided to attack her church. Ironically, and fortunately for her, she missed church that morning. I say “fortunately,” but imagine how she must feel knowing she was the target, and that so many others were shot instead of her. The whole situation was a tragedy, and we will pray for all the victims and their families, to “the God of all consolation, who comforts us in our sorrows, that we may comfort others in their sorrows with the consolation we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Before the news broke about the Texas shooting, I was already going to blog about a previous shooting, and in extension, about all the other murderous acts which have been performed recently around the country, and around the world. What “triggered” my attention was a report about the Las Vegas shooter, specifically the news that the authorities were arranging for the dead killer’s brain to be examined, in an effort to learn whether there was some disease involved, such as a brain tumor or some other degenerative illness that could have caused, or at least influenced, his actions.

My immediate response was to shake my head at the attempt. And the results so far have validated my doubts that the answer to the horrific murders can be found in a laboratory. According to the Clark County, Nevada, coroner, the exam showed no signs of abnormality. The next step will be a neuropathological examination of the brain tissue by Sanford University’s Department of Pathology. They may find something abnormal, or they may not, but I continue to doubt they will find the answer they’re looking for to the question, “Why did he do it?”

In one sense, we already know why he – and every other killer, mass or otherwise – did it. But before jumping to the answer, there are several things we need to consider first.

Our brains, along with the rest of our bodies, have been affected by sin and God’s curse upon his creation. When God pronounced death on all living things, that meant that our bodies (including our brains) would eventually all break down and die. This has led to all our diseases, including those that directly affect our brains, such as tumors, dementia, strokes, and formative defects.
Because of the intimate connection between our brains and our minds, the health and functioning of our thought processes – our minds – can be directly affected by what happens in the brain. Alzheimer’s, brain tumors, injuries, and even low blood sugar and dehydration can greatly affect our perceptions and reasoning functions. So do psychotropic drugs, prescribed or otherwise – which is why they are taken in the first place.
However, and this is a critical point: brain and mind are not identical. A physical problem in one’s brain does not determine what a person’s thoughts or feelings have to be. Conversely, a healthy brain does not mean that a person will have good and healthy thoughts. Some of the worst criminals and brutal dictators have been geniuses, able to plot and plan and execute their desires with great intelligence. And, some of the most loving and gentle people have had serious brain malfunctions. There is not a one-to-one correspondence between mental ability and mental activity, let alone personal actions.
As actor and comedian Steve Martin says, we are “thought machines.” We are constantly absorbing stimuli, images, sounds, smells, and other memories from ourselves and others. Those thoughts impact us, change our perceptions of the world, and motivate us to many of our actions. How we are raised, how people treat us, whether we succeed or fail in something, what we enjoy or dislike: all these things affect what we think and what we do. In many ways, we are the sum of our experiences. Two people with the same brains may have totally different mental processes and attitudes, based on different people and events in their lives. These experiences cannot be read in the laboratory, but even if they could be, they will not tell us what we did with those memories or how they affected other areas of our lives.
Conversely, two people can go through the same experiences, yet come out different. One can feel positive and encouraged, another negative and discouraged – over the same words and events. If you doubt this, check out various commentators’ reactions to statements made by political leaders. Same speech, but one person cheers and the other boos.
For all these reasons, even if the lab techs discover some chemical or biological abnormality in the killer’s brain tissue, they still won’t be able to tell us why he did it.

So why did he kill all those people, and why do other killers do what they do to cause so much death, pain, and grief? The answer is neither physical nor mental, but rather, spiritual. And that is why the answer won’t come from a test tube. Again, there are several aspects to this explanation:

Murder has been with us from the beginning: the first human born on earth, Cain, murdered his brother Abel. God called that a sin (Genesis 4:1-16). After the Flood, God condemned murder, establishing the death penalty because to murder someone was to strike against someone made in God’s image (Genesis 9:5-6). Later, God commanded us not to kill (murder) in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). The Apostle James condemned murder, explaining that we kill because we do not have something we want (James 4:2), and Christ expanded the definition of murder to include anger and “hate speech” (Matthew 5:21-22).
In his explanation of the command not to murder, Martin Luther wrote, “We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need (The Small Catechism). Luther recognized that the commandment not to murder was part of Christ’s greater command to love our neighbor as ourselves. The command requires positive actions to bless, and forbids negative ones that can harm. Because we are sinners, we ignore both aspects of God’s commandment.
Hatred and the desire to murder are fruits of sin. They are described as “works of the flesh” by Paul in Ephesians 5:17-21, and are contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit in 5:22-25. Those who live by the flesh will disobey God and exhibit many destructive attitudes and actions, while those who are led by the Holy Spirit will have peace, joy, love, and the other fruit which grow as Christ’s Spirit indwells and leads us.
Mankind’s inherent problem is that we are sinners who live in open rebellion against God. We want to live in darkness and shun God’s light, enjoying (temporarily!) the fruits of selfish desires. Our hearts (and minds) are not right spiritually; in fact we are spiritually dead. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Matthew 15:19 proclaims, “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.” and John 3:19 says, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” Paul adds, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
People are especially good at rationalizing their sinful actions. They feel justified doing horrible things because the other person “deserved it.” They may lash out in revenge for some real or perceived slight, believing their own action is righteous, that they are better than the other person. Warped religious or cultural attitudes can help a killer justify his actions. But our having what the Bible calls a “seared conscience” (1 Timothy 4:2) does not justify our evil actions in God’s eyes.
There can also be other spiritual forces at work in someone considering an evil act, and those forces can be evil spirits. The devil and his spirits hate God and those made in God’s image, and so he encourages murder and war as ways to destroy those whom God loves. While an evil spirit can take advantage of physical or mental issues, their victim doesn’t have to have any underlying disability other than sin. Temptations to hate, covet, harm, and kill can trip up the otherwise healthiest and clear-thinking person.

So, if murderous intent and actions are primarily spiritual problems, what can be done to prevent such horrific acts as we have recently witnessed far too often? Let me suggest a few things, though I recognize that as long as we live in this sinful, fallen world, some people will murder each other.

Make sure that we care for the amazing brains which God created in us. This means not abusing them with drugs and alcohol so as to become stoned or drunk (Ephesians 5:18 – “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit”). Sobriety is a spiritual virtue, drunkenness is a vice. Many evil acts have been committed by those “under the influence,” so we should be careful not to allow our consciences to be chemically compromised.
Learn what God says about anger, coveting, and murderous feelings by reading his Word. Recognize from the Bible our own sinfulness and God’s love for all people, so that we not build up a “better than thou” attitude which might help us justify harmful actions. Our attitudes should be shaped by the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: instead of the Pharisee’s comment that he was glad not to be a sinner like the tax collector, Jesus praised the tax collector’s prayer, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:9-14). When we recognize our own humility before God, we stop judging others – or justifying their murders.
Everyone is tempted, but God has made a way out for us whenever we are tempted (1 Corinthians 10:13). If we seek him and look for the way out he has provided, we can avoid doing some terrible things.
Prayer, worship, reading of Scripture, and association with fellow Christians can help us deal with life’s problems; we especially are called by Scripture to cast our burdens on Christ, and to seek the counsel and strength of the Holy Spirit.

You may have noticed that these admonitions are for self-control, and do not directly deal with how we can prevent others from doing such evil deeds. There are social, legal, and political aspects to our response as a nation, but even the best of intents, laws, and actions will not solve what is a spiritual problem. Only if people are self-controlled and regulated by their fear and love of God (and empowered by his Spirit) will their actions show civil righteousness. We can’t do that for them; our work is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that people believe and their lives are transformed to seek what is right by God’s power. Only then will evil actions diminish as those who would have done them are changed to become agents of righteousness rather than destruction.

And that’s not something you can locate in a person’s brain; you might even say “it’s a no-brainer,” because it’s located in one’s heart and spirit. Only there can lives be changed and transformed into Christ’s likeness.

And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Galatians 5:16-26

Odds & Ends #3

Once again, here are a few items that I’ve been holding onto, that I have wanted to share with you in a less-than-full-article manner. So, here they are, in no particular order:

A. The benediction at the end of each blog: Those of you who regularly attend our church services recognize the benediction that appears at the end of each of my blog postings. It is roughly the same as what the pastors proclaim at the end of each church service: “The Lord bless you and keep you, etc.” Where does that come from, or do we just make it up each week as something that sounds nice to say? While the actual wording varies a little based on the translation that is used, the original blessing is found in Number 6:22-27, and reads like this in the ESV: “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, “Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.’ “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” This blessing was commanded by the Lord God, who told Moses that Aaron and the other priests were to bless the people with these words. Because the command was given to Aaron, this has come to be known as the Aaronic Blessing. Christian churches have adopted its use for their services as well. As I mentioned, due to a translation difference, we may say “favor” instead of “countenance,” since the latter is no longer common in everyday speech, but the meaning is the same. You may have noticed that I have switched over to the ESV version of the benediction (which word comes from the Latin word for blessing: benedictionem, from bene [well] and dicere [to speak]).

B. Indulgences: With October 31st fast approaching, I am reminded once again of the theses which Martin Luther nailed to the church door 500 years ago. The primary theme of those Ninety-five Theses was the Roman Catholic practice of indulgences. An indulgence, as defined by Rome, is “The remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven” (Catholic Glossary of the Archdiocese of St. Louis). Let me unpack the meaning of that theological statement: Catholic doctrine agrees that the sins of believers are forgiven by Christ’s sacrifice, but there are still punishments to be suffered by the believer after death. Death itself is one punishment (since forgiven Christians still die), but to the Catholics, there are still many temporal (that is temporary, time-related) punishments which must be laid upon believers after death and before they are “purged” and allowed into heaven. Their guilt is gone, but punishments remain. The punishments are said to be agonizing and hellish, but only temporary, though the length of time to be punished may go on for millennia. As I wrote previously, such doctrines rob Christ of his glory and allow the Church to exert a fearful control over its members, as the Church leaders are the ones with the power to shorten the time of punishment. In Luther’s day, the pope sold indulgences to raise funds for building St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and for fighting the Muslim invasion into Europe. A typical believer would pay to see special relics at the churches (such as the bones of saints, pieces of the Cross, straw from Jesus’ manger, or even fire from the burning bush) or just pay cash directly for a certificate of remission. One collector of such payments was named Johann Tetzel, who traveled Germany collecting funds with the promise: “As in the box the money rings, the soul from Purgatory springs.” Luther challenged the practice, insisting on true repentance for forgiveness of sins, and asking, “Why does not the Pope deliver all souls at the same time out of Purgatory for the sake of most holy love and on account of the bitterest distress of those souls?” rather than charging them money to do so.

We should note that indulgences are still offered by today’s Popes, though usually in exchange for good works. For example, in the Jubilee Year of our Lord 2000, Pope John Paul II offered a special indulgence to Catholics: they could look forward to spending one less day in purgatory for each day they refrained from smoking or doing drugs. Interestingly, a new relic – a vial of Pope John Paul II’s blood – is even now being taken around the world for veneration.

C. My Parents the Gangsters? In my recent articles extolling the wonderful legacy I have received from my parents, I didn’t have room to tell about their brushes with Prohibition Era gangsters. First, my mom: she and a girlfriend were enjoying a day at one of Chicago’s Lake Michigan beaches, when a good looking young man approached her and asked her out. He told her he made a good lasagna, and invited her over to have some. She blushed, but recognized him as Ralph Capone, Jr., nephew of the infamous Al Capone. She declined the invitation, and later said she was glad she did, because she knew the woman who married him and saw how that woman became hardened by the kind of life the Capones lived. Even so, whenever Mom told that story, even into her final years, her eyes still twinkled as she would say, “He was so handsome!” For my dad, I can’t prove such contact (other than moving to Chicago and marrying someone asked out by a Capone), but the circumstantial evidence is there: Fact #1 – my dad was raised in a town in central Florida, a town close to where Ma Barker and her gangster sons moved in 1935. The gang was discovered because the boys went out shooting ducks with their “Tommy guns,” which local farmers reported hearing. Fact #2 – before moving to hide out in Florida, the Barkers spent time in Chicago, the same city where my mom was living. Coincidence? Maybe. . . Fact #3 – The Barkers were from Lawrence, Kansas, the same town where my dad was born. And finally, Fact #4 – the first house where my dad lived in Lawrence was on – wait for it – Barker Street. Fact #5 – my dad married a woman who was in the favor of at least one Capone. I rest my case. It’s amazing they both turned out to be as good as they were. It must have been the influence of their kids . . .

Until later, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Number 6:22-27, 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, and Exodus 20:12