Month: June 2019

The Real Chief Justice

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS for short) issued some new rulings. As always, I held my breath, waiting to hear what that nine-member judiciary decided was proper and legal for our country in the particular cases they reviewed. Even though I grew up watching and enjoying old Perry Mason episodes, and generally enjoy courtroom movies (My Cousin Vinnie comes to mind as one of those movies), I find myself always nervous and a bit trepidatious when it comes to decisions reached by the “Supremes.”

For one thing, their decisions are far-reaching and the “final answer” to almost everything in our country. Without getting too political, I can say that the Court’s power has grown to such an extent that it can override laws, actions, and policies enacted by both other branches of the federal government. Not only that, it does the same for state laws and even social organizations. It can decide issues of guilt in appeals cases, and direct even social norms and practices – often by split 5-4 decisions. No one else in the country has authority to say “No” to what SCOTUS decides. It is indeed, supreme, and that makes me nervous.

Now, having a supreme arbiter is bad enough, but the problem that compounds my anxiety is that the Court so often gets it wrong. And this is not a political statement: judges appointed by presidents of both parties, judges who are black, white, and Hispanic, male and female, conservative and liberal, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish, and older and younger have together rendered some absolutely horrific decisions which have negatively affected the lives of millions of Americans. Consider the following decisions, for example:

1. Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857. Ruled that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory where slavery was prohibited was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; and that slaves were the property of their owners.

2. Wickard v. Filburn, 1942. Ruled that an Ohio farmer who grew wheat for his own animals, and not for sale, could still be regulated and fined for affecting interstate commerce because he wasn’t buying his feed wheat on the open market, thus reducing interstate sales.

3. Salinas v. Texas, 2013. Ruled that the Fifth Amendment does not bar using a suspect’s silence as evidence of guilt.

4. Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 2005. The Court ruled that police do not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm, even a woman who had obtained a court-issued protective order against a violent husband which made an arrest mandatory for a violation.

5. Kelo v. City of New London, 2005. SCOTUS ruled that it was a valid public use for the government to take land from one private party and give it to another for “economic development.” In this case a woman lost her home to what eventually became a barren, unused field.

6. Roe v. Wade, 1973. The ruling that legalized abortion in the US as a protected “right” has led to the legal killing of over 60 million children ever since.

7. Overgefell v. Hodges, 2015. Overriding state laws and prior SCOTUS decisions (not to mention Scripture and all human history), the Court ruled in a 5–4 decision that all states must grant and recognize same-sex marriages.

8. And last, but not least, as far as this list goes: Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana, 2019. The Court ruled that abortions are legal for any purpose, even gender selection. Where we once criticized China for aborting its girl babies, now we can do the same here.

Those with different political and social leanings than I have will doubtless compile a different list of terrible decisions than what appears here, but they would have to agree, if even for different reasons, that SCOTUS is not infallible. On the contrary, it is a flawed, human institution that is subject to the same political and social winds that blow through our country, and too often makes bad decisions regarding important matters that affect us all.

Which brings me to the point of all this: what we call “The Supreme Court” is not really supreme at all. It is not infallible, it is not all-knowing. It is subject to the same failings every person and every human institution faces. If we want to find true justice and true, perfect decisions, we have to look elsewhere.

We have to look to God.

When we do, we discover the awesome way Scripture describes him as the Righteous Judge who renders his judgments according to perfect truth and knowledge, a Judge who is just, fair, and incorruptible.  From Abraham’s plea to God in Genesis 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” to the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:11-15, God is the supreme and perfect judge of all mankind (and all spirit beings as well).

Psalm 9:8 proclaims, “and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.” Psalm 96:13 says, “He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.” There are many other verses extolling God’s righteous judgments, but let’s consider some reasons that make his judgments so perfect:

1. God is omniscient. He knows all things, and knows the end of a thing from its beginning. There is nothing hidden from him: he knows our actions, our thoughts, and our motives. He sees through our excuses and rationalizations.

2. God cannot be fooled. He knows not only what we do outwardly, but also sees our motives and inward thoughts. Nothing we do will be hidden from him but will be revealed in the Day of Judgment. Luke 12:2 “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” And 1 Corinthians 4:4-5 warns us to leave judgment to God, “It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” 

3. God is not swayed by political considerations or the social position of the ones he judges, “For God shows no partiality” (Romans 2:11). He is not swayed by the outward appearance of people, “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

4. He can not be bribed or bought. Deuteronomy 10:17 proclaims, “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.” 2 Chronicles 19:7 repeats this truth: “Now then, let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribes.” It’s amazing how often we try to bargain with God (that is, bribe him), by offering him some incentive to take our side in a matter. “If only you do this, I will tithe! If only you heal me I will never take those drugs again! If only you help me I’ll start going to church again!” and so on. God doesn’t need anything from us, and will not change his commandments based on what we offer him in exchange. Everything already belongs to God; what can we offer him Psalam 50:10-11, the Lord says, “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.” and in Haggai 2:8, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.”

5. God’s commandments and judgments are permanent. What he says is true always was and always will be. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 12:8). “There is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). And finally, Numbers 23:19 tells us to remember, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”

God’s perfect knowledge of our sins and his awesome righteousness and power to judge and condemn us for them can scare us – and it should. Imagine standing before any human court, Supreme or otherwise, knowing that the prosecutor has every word you’ve ever spoken, every text or email sent, and video of everything you’ve ever done. You might start hoping for a plea bargain! Now imagine standing before God who has all that and more- even your most private thoughts and wishes. It should terrify us and cause us to lament and wail our lost condition. Like the congregations that cried out in despair at Jonathon Edwards preaching, we too are “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God”* and know we have no defense. The Law – God’s perfect Law – has rightly condemned us. As Jesus himself said in Matthew 10:28, we should not fear the one who can only destroy our bodies (human judges) but rather the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell (that be God). We stood condemned, awaiting our just punishment.

But thanks be to God, that he sent his Son into the world, not to condemn us, but to save us. While we were his enemies, guilty as sin and deserving his righteous judgment and condemnation, he sent his Son to save us, that we might not perish but have everlasting life, reconciled to him. His love and mercy for us triumphed over his judgment (James 2:13). By faith in Christ our sins are forgiven, and we stand justified, righteous before God in spite of all we have done. In Christ we have an advocate  (that is, attorney) before the Father.

Why would God do such a thing? How can he let us go when we are so guilty? For only one reason – his great love for us. He takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, but desires we to turn to him and live (Ezekiel 33:11). We come before God trembling, and he lifts us up, calms our fears, forgives us, and calls us to his side.

No human court, no matter what we call it, can do the same. Thanks be to God, our true and ultimate Judge, the real Chief Justice of the ultimate Supreme Court, whose rulings we need never fear. The Judge of all the earth shall do right – and not just by a 5-4 decision!

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: Genesis 18, Romans 8:1-34

* Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon from 1741 which described God dangling us over the fires of hell like a spider on its thread. Edwards was interrupted many times during the sermon by people moaning and crying out, “What shall I do to be saved?”

 

Odds & Ends #1 Revisited

One of my earliest blogs was called “Odds & Ends” which explained a number of approaches I was taking to my blogging. Since many of you have joined the vast (?) crowd of readers well after the first year, I decided to repeat that early blog for the benefit of my newer readers. At the end I added an updated note, #5. So, here it is again:

Our church’s monthly newsletter has a page called, “This ‘n That” which provides the pastors a space to post announcements of upcoming events, give short summaries of recent developments, congratulate people, offer condolences, and list people who need prayers for healing. It is a helpful way to communicate important matters to the members in a succinct manner.

I found it very useful, which is why I’m beginning a similar “page” for my blog. I’m calling it, “Odds & Ends” (to avoid copyright infringement?). I don’t know how often it will appear, but whenever I accumulate a few things to tell you which don’t warrant an entire article, I’ll stick them in “Odds & Ends” and pass them along. I hope you will find these short comments useful and interesting.

  1. The Bible translation I am using the most in my blog citations is the English Standard Version (ESV). It follows in the long tradition of the King James Version/ASV/RSV while taking advantage of recent textual discoveries and updated language. Before switching to the ESV I used the NIV because it was very comfortable and understandable, but its tendency to play loose at times with its translations, plus the decision of the copyright holder to forbid public use of the NIV from any editions before 2011, led me to make the switch. (Besides, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (ESV), just sounds better than “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (NIV). I know my preference is subjective and not a rigorous scholarly opinion, but it is after all my blog!
  2. You may have noticed that except for my first post, I have not been capitalizing the personal pronouns which refer to the Deity. This is not to show any lack of respect or honor for God, but to be consistent with both the modern English translations which I cite (such as the ESV) and the Hebrew and Greek biblical texts from which those translations are made. Pronouns such as he, his, him, and himself are not capitalized in the Greek or the Hebrew texts, so using lower case letters is actually more scripturally accurate.
  3. The Bibles pictured in the heading on my blog pages are from my own library. While I was looking online for stock images of books to place in the header and portray my interest in reading, my wife asked me why I didn’t just take a picture of my own books since I had so many to choose from. It was one of those “duh!” moments. She was right of course, so I got out the camera and took the picture you see. We like how it turned out, and besides . . . no royalties! (Unless you want to use it, then let’s talk . . .)
  4. Besides writing my blog and trying to assimilate the books from my church office into my home library, I’m also finishing work on my second book, which has the working title of Raising Ebenezers: Recognizing God’s Miracles in Your Life. I was almost done with it until I taught a course on miracles at church and realized there were a few more things to be added to the book. By the way, Ebenezer means “stone of help,” and refers to a stone that Samuel erected to commemorate God’s help in defeating the Philistines at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). Watch for news of publication when it’s done!

And now, an update for June 2019:

5. I finished the Raising Ebenezers book, which received a favorable review from a Christian writers’ service, but which I will probably self-publish soon. I also wrote a novel about biblical times, titled: Out of the Tombs. It tells the fictional story of one of the saints raised when Jesus resurrected that first Easter (Matthew 27:52-53). I have begun laying out plans for two other novels, also about other fictional saints resurrected that day.

P.S. I just received an invitation to my high school’s 50 Year Reunion. How is that possible? I don’t remember graduating when I was only seven years old . . .

Until next time, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace.

Read: 1 Samuel 7:5-14

Wearin’ o’ the Red

Today, my wife and I wore red to church.

So did the pastor, the altar, the pulpit, the lectern, and the music team (all except one singer who didn’t get the memo). So did many of the other congregation members. Even the flowers behind the altar were red.

Now, I get wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, even if the Irish side of my ancestors were “Orangemen” Protestants from Northern Ireland. Green is associated with Ireland, as are shamrocks, leprechauns, green beer and St. Paddy himself. But why red? Is this for a Russian saint’s day? St. Dimitry’s Day? St. Vladimir’s Day? St. Nicholas’ Day (yes, he is Russia’s patron saint)?

No; we wore red because today is Pentecost, the day in the Church year that celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit in power upon the Church and into the lives of believers. Acts 1 and 2 tell us that the first believers, about 120 in number, were gathered in Jerusalem waiting for “power from on high” (Luke 243:49) before taking the message of Christ and his resurrection out into the world. Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus had ascended into heaven, but not before promising the Father would send the Holy Spirit to his disciples in his place. Now another ten days had passed, and Jews from around the Mediterranean had gathered in Jerusalem for the feast day of Pentecost.

Pentecost, from a Greek word meaning “fifty,” was a feast held fifty days after Passover. The Jews called it the “Feast of Weeks” (7 X 7 weeks plus the actual day) or the “Feast of First-Fruits,” which celebrated the first harvest of the year. It also came to celebrate the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. It was one of the three major feasts of the year, one which Jewish males were supposed to celebrate by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But now, it was about to take on special significance to Christians.

Acts 2 tells us the events of that day: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

The Holy Spirit came upon them in the promised power from on high with signs that were both visual (tongues of fire) and audible (the sound of rushing wind). Then, to show that the Spirit not only came around them but also entered into each of them, the believers began to speak in other languages beyond their natural capabilities. By the power of God, they spoke in many other languages which were understandable to the various nationalities of Jews who had come to Jerusalem and now heard them speaking – and praising God – in their different tongues.

This amazed the hearers, who realized the Spirit-empowered believers were predominately Galileans; how did these back-country folks know their dialects? The phenomenon was so striking that some of the hearers thought the disciples were just babbling drunkenly; maybe those critics couldn’t understand the languages themselves.

Many Christians today focus on the supernatural gift of tongues which the Holy Spirit bestowed that day, as if that were the great sign of God’s presence and empowerment. But it was just a sign, an announcement of sorts to get people’s attention to pay heed to the greater miracle which was about to occur. For following the miraculous speaking of foreign tongues, Peter got up and spoke in a common, understood language, explaining not only the just-witnessed phenomenon, but also proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This man Peter had gone from hiding out in fear and denying his Lord three times, to standing up boldly before a crowd and charging them with killing their Messiah. This was miraculous in itself that Peter would do so, but Pentecost’s miracles were not finished. When the crowd cried out in conviction of their sin and pleaded how they might be saved, Peter told them to repent and be baptized. The Holy Spirit moved in the people’s hearts, and we are told that 3,000 of them were baptized that day.

And thus the Christian Church was born, and disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit would go out into the whole world, risking and giving their lives for the sake of Jesus Christ and the souls of the people of every nation, tribe, and yes – language.

Over the centuries, Christians have noted several things about the events and significance of that special day of Pentecost:

1. God chose the Feast of First-Fruits, a harvest festival, to begin the harvest of souls in the Church. The 3000 who joined the Church that day were the first-fruits of evangelism by the newly-empowered apostles. That gathering of fruit continues to this day, in that over 2 billion alive today have been baptized in Jesus’ name.

2. Just as the Jews marked the giving of the Law to Moses in their Pentecost celebrations, so the Christian Church marks the giving of the Gospel at the new Pentecost. This also celebrates the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy that God would send another prophet “like unto Moses” to whom the people were to listen (Deuteronomy 18:15). The comparison/contrast between Moses and Christ is stated explicitly in Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37. John 1:17 puts it this way: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

3. Pentecost is a reversal of God’s curse upon the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11), at which he confused what had been the one common language of all mankind so that the people could not understand each other. This thwarted their building of the tower, and caused them to spread out over the earth, as God had originally commanded them to do. Ever since, the world has been filled with many languages and dialects which developed in the millennia since the days of the confusion. Today there are estimated to be around 6,500 different languages (I don’t know if this includes invented languages like Klingon). Then along comes Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit bridges the language gap, uniting people from many countries into the one Church by speaking their language. As God once cursed mankind by separating them due to their sin, he now unites them in the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

4. Today, mission work requires people to study and learn other languages through hard work. Organizations such as Wycliffe and Lutheran Bible Translators are committed to providing the Scriptures in every language. But it is still the Holy Spirit who takes those translated works and uses them to change the hearts and minds of the hearers and readers, creating faith and bringing them to Christ their Savior, who died for them as well as for first-century Greek and Hebrew speakers.

Personally, I don’t lament that there are many languages around the world; they have added a richness to human life and experience. How else could we eat hamburgers, tacos, chow mein, pad Thai, pizza, sauerkraut, borscht, sushi, bagels, and lutefisk? Wait, skip that last one. But what I lament is that we (and I) can’t speak or understand all of them. The Bible promises that people of every language will be in heaven: “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). I believe in that day we will understand each other, whatever language or languages we will use, and that our words will do the same as the miraculous words did on Pentecost: we will praise the mighty and wonderful works of God.

But again, why do we wear red on Pentecost? To symbolize the coming and work of the Holy Spirit, who manifested his coming by tongues of fire resting on the disciples. May his power, so evident that day in so many ways, bless and keep you strong in the faith every day of the year!

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: Acts 2, John 1.