Month: April 2020

Are You Distancing?

“Are you distancing?” is one of the most commonly heard questions these days, though it’s more of an implied command than just curiosity in search of an answer. Various medical and governmental authorities are telling us to put distance between us and other people, from 6 feet to as much as 27 feet, depending on which “expert” is speaking. The warning is that the coronavirus is so contagious that social distancing, along with hand- washing, mask wearing, and face-touching-avoidance are required to slow down or stop its spread.

When it comes to a pandemic, maintaining social distance, that is, space between people, is probably a good idea, since the virus seems to be spread through physical contact, sneezes, and coughs (not to mention smooches). It’s something we do automatically when we enter a room and see someone who is coughing; we go and sit in a different part of the room without even thinking about it. What makes this distancing hard on us is that we are by nature social creatures, requiring interaction with other human beings. We interact with other people in our work, schools, playtime, and home life – not to mention in our churches. We were not created to be alone, but to be in fellowship with others, so this enforced distancing is hard on our spirits and psyches. The seemingly random and contradictory decisions about what is deemed to be an essential service (e.g., cannabis shops, yes; churches, no) doesn’t make it any easier to tolerate this period of shut-downs, nor does the impact on people’s livelihoods and productiveness. Add to that the heavy-handedness of some governmental entities enforcing what they consider to be proper distancing, and we, both individually and as a society, are having some serious struggles. We  hope and pray this will end soon!

But as I considered the term and concept of “distancing,” I thought of it not only in the physical sense of spacing ourselves from other people, but also in the spiritual sense, pondering what would be good distancing and bad distancing when it comes to what is good or bad for our souls. Here are some of my thoughts in that regard:

1. Distancing from what is bad. There are many things that are spiritually harmful to us, from which we should distance ourselves. The principle is this: we should distance ourselves from anything, or anyone, that would lead us to disobey God in our thoughts, words, or actions.

That distancing will take place in our thoughts and desires, but also sometimes needs to be enforced physically. For example, Jesus taught us that to lust in our hearts is to commit the sin of adultery. Therefore it would not be a good idea for a man to hang around a strip club or visit certain prurient websites on his computer. It would be far healthier spiritually to distance himself from both physical and virtual proximity to such temptations and surround himself with what is good and pleasing to God.

Other times the distancing has to be from a person whose attitudes are hateful, who sows discord by gossiping and spreading rumors, who encourages dishonesty and covetousness, who breaks laws or who disrespects God, whether by outright denial of faith or by taking God’s name in vain (“OMG!”). The Apostle Paul lists a variety of such people to avoid in Romans 1:29-31, “They were filled with all manner of unrighteous-ness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” And in Romans 16:17 he warned, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”Again, the principle is to avoid getting caught up in sinful thoughts and actions by associating with people who practice such things.

Now, some might argue against this distancing by saying, “But pastor, sinners are the very people who need me to hang around with them, showing them love and demonstrating good attitudes and behavior. After all, didn’t Jesus associate with sinners?” I would reply that, yes, I should confront people with God’s Word and commandments, and show them love and right behavior. But the danger comes when I try to be so much accepted by them that I take on their attitudes and behaviors such that there is hardly any difference between their actions and mine. Jesus, who knew no sin, “who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), could associate without becoming soiled himself, but I am too aware of my own sins to risk putting myself in such situations. Even Paul warned against the contagious nature of sinful behavior when he spoke of rebuking a brother who sins: “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). As the old Southern proverb said, “You can’t waller with the pigs; you both get dirty.”

Ultimately, since our spiritual struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers of the fallen spiritual world (Ephesians 6:12), our distancing is from Satan and his lies. That’s why the first part of the rite of Christian baptism (after the invocation) is an exorcism: those being baptized are asked to renounce “all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises.” The one being baptized is separated  (“distanced”) from the devil by “death” in the waters of baptism, and given new life that is joined to Christ. Just as Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan!” (Mark 8:33) when tempted through Peter to avoid the cross, so we are saying the same in our baptism, and every time we distance from sin and darkness in our lives.

But of course, in ourselves we have no such ability to reject sin and choose what is right and holy. We must be joined to Christ and operate under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit.

2. Not distancing from what is good. Spiritually, we need to avoid being distanced from God in our hearts and minds. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that we humans don’t have to be taught or encouraged to distance ourselves from him; we’ve been doing it from the beginning. When we focus on our own needs and desires, and our own abilities to get what we want, we push God away. Only when we fail do we sometimes turn to God with the patronizing statement: “The only thing left to do is pray!” as if God were the last resort, rather than the One we should have been looking to from the very beginning.

Of course, it is only ourselves we are hurting by ignoring God or pushing him away. He never really goes anywhere; it is only our spiritual blindness (or nearsightedness) that keeps us from seeing him close by, ready to help.

The Book of Jonah illustrates the foolishness of a man who tried to get away from God and God’s call on his life. When God called upon Jonah to go and preach to the city of Nineveh, which required a journey by land to the east, Jonah got into a boat and sailed by sea to the west. As if he could escape God! God sent a great storm that threatened to sink the boat, and when the sailors asked their passenger who he was and whether he could be the reason for the storm, Jonah replied, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9). So . . . he thought he could distance himself from the God who made the sea . . . by sailing on it? The crew threw him overboard after that.

Psalm 139:7-12 proclaims beautifully that God is near us wherever we go:

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.

Because God is indeed everywhere, any distance we experience from him is only because of our sin and failure to seek and see him. It’s on us. But God, in his great love for us, seeks closeness with us, and therefore came to us as the Son, providing a way for that closeness to be restored and for us to have eternal spiritual intimacy with him. Through Christ he provided forgiveness of our sins, made us his children (John 1:12), and opened the gates to life with him (spiritually and physically) forever.

Therefore, he calls on us to approach him, to end our “social distancing” from him: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6), and “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). The verse in James even goes on to say, “Cleanse your hands.” (I wonder if that refers to hand sanitizer?).

I could go on, and talk about the ways we can maintain (or regain) the closeness that God desires from us: Bible study, prayer, worship, contact with mature Christians who exhibit godly behavior and attitudes, etc. But you get the point. The closer we draw to God, the further we distance ourselves from what is harmful to our souls.

So stay safe, stay healthy, keep your distance from what can harm you; but stay close and embrace Christ, who will ultimately save both body and soul!

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: Jonah, Psalm 139, Ephesians 6:11-13, Romans 1:18-32

 

Prison Break!

Prison Break!

When some of you read that, you thought to yourself, “Finally! Pastor Rich is taking a ‘break’ from writing articles supposedly from prison, as if his missives could in any way compare to the great letters actually written from prison by such notables as the Apostle Paul, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther King, Jr.”

But, no. By “prison break” I just mean that yesterday I escaped from my shelter-at-home prison of the mandated coronavirus quarantine. In other words, I got out! Okay, it was just for an hour or so to a local store and home again, but the “parole” was refreshing, and my wife and I did practice safe social distancing, wore face coverings, and washed our hands before and after what little surface contact we made.

One can look at our current stay-at-home isolation in two ways: it is harmful to our freedom and to our economy, to our social interactions and to our organizations, especially our churches. But hopefully, we will find the isolation will slow or limit the spread of this disease, and at the same time force us to find new ways to interact with our families, and with God through more study of his Word and time in prayer. We may even find time to go through those old VHS and casette collections to see if they’re still any good!

While on the way to the store, the words, “jail break” and “prison break” went through my mind, which in turn mutated into thoughts about prison breaks in movies such as The Great Escape and The Shawshank Redemption. From there, it was just a short mental jog to considering other, more significant escapes worth thinking about. This blog deals with some of those important prison breaks:

1. In Acts 12, the Apostle Peter was put in prison. This was pure persecution, in which the ruler, Herod, arrested Peter for the horrible crime of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Herod had already executed James and planned to do the same with Peter, ostensibly handing him over to the crowd the next day. To make sure Peter didn’t escape, the jailers made him sleep between two soldiers, bound him with two chains, and posted sentries outside the door to guard the prison (Acts 12:7). But during the night, an angel woke Peter up, made the chains fall off, told him to get dressed, and led the drowsy prisoner past the sleeping guards, through an iron gate that opened on its own, and out into the street. Peter was free! The story ends jubilantly when Peter joins the group of Christians who had gathered to pray for his release, but not before those friends humorously left him outside their locked door while they debated whether it was really Peter or just his ghost! (Verse 15).

2. Similarly, the Apostle Paul and Silas make an impressive prison break in Acts 16. Once again, preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ were thrown into prison by local authorities, ostensibly to keep the peace. In this case, it was in the Macedonian city of Philippi. And as with Peter before, special measures were taken to make sure they didn’t escape: the jailer “put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks” (16:24). This time, an earthquake hit around midnight while the two prisoners were praying, making their chains fall off and the doors swing open. But though they were now free, they didn’t leave, resulting in the conversion and baptism of the jailer and his whole family. Once again God showed his power, and his saving grace toward the jailer, who was about to kill himself when he thought the prisoners had gotten away.

The above accounts are wonderful examples of God miraculously freeing his servants. I always loved these passages, because they show God’s power over men (even tyrants like Herod). They demonstrate that God is with his people, that “no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed” (Isaiah 54:17), and that “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). And yet, such examples have their limitations. Not everyone held unjustly gets freed supernaturally, not even faithful believers. Most remain in jail and some die there for their faith. The same Acts 12 passage tells us that Herod put James to death “with the sword,” and eventually, even Peter and Paul were executed during their final imprisonments from which God did not free them.

So what good do those prison breaks do us, given that they were temporary and not universally available?

There are several, more obvious answers. First, they remind us that God has power over creation and can intervene for his Church as he wills. Second, in Peter and Paul’s cases, God had much important work yet for them to do. Third, God’s actions on their behalf validated their apostolic authority. And fourth, the events happened, and are part of the history of the Church worth telling.

But beyond these reasons, I believe there is a greater spiritual lesson and example here for us to learn. I believe that these liberations of some of God’s people are partial, visible fulfillments of the Messianic prophecies which God’s Old Testament prophets foretold would mark the work of the Christ.

We read in the Old Testament prophet Isaiah (61:1), these words about the coming Day of the Lord’s favor: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.” Then, when Christ began his earthly ministry, he read those same words from Isaiah’s scroll in his home synagogue and added this comment: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21). Jesus knew who he was and what he had come to do, which included proclaiming liberty to captives and opening the prison to free the captives.

But unless the gospels leave out a lot of what Jesus did while on earth, we don’t see him going around to various jails and prisons and opening the gates to let all the prisoners go free. He didn’t hand out “Get out of jail free” cards to his disciples or the crowds which followed him. He didn’t abolish incarcerations as some kind of social activist or reformer. So what did he do to fulfill the prophecy? How was it fulfilled in his reading?

First, we should understand that when reading that passage, Jesus was claiming that the whole prophecy of Isaiah about the Messiah was pointing to himself. He was claiming messiahship; his coming, and the work he was about to do, would fulfill the words which God had given Isaiah to write.

Second, as Messiah, Christ would fulfill all that was foretold, but each thing in its own proper time and in its own proper way. We see in the gospels the fulfillment of all Isaiah’s Chapter 61 predictions about Messiah except the freeing of prisoners; even John the Baptist died in prison during Jesus’ earthly ministry, and if there were anyone Jesus would have wanted to free, it was certainly him (Jesus said, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John.” Luke 7:28). Interestingly, when John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to ask if Jesus were really the Messiah, Jesus again quoted the Isaiah passage, but this time left off the “free the prisoners” portions (Matthew 11:4-5 and Luke 7:22-23). Maybe he did so because John was in prison and Jesus knew how that would end?

Third, this puts the freeing of Peter and Paul in a new light. Not only were they specific and personal blessings for those two and the Church they would serve, they were also signs of Christ’s messiahship, fulfilling what was promised by Isaiah. Even from heaven, Christ reached down and freed the captives, for it is clear that God freed these proclaimers of Christ. Now, the fulfillment of Isaiah 61 was complete.

But just as the fulfillment of the prison prophecy was temporary, so were the healings which Isaiah had foretold and Jesus had claimed: the blind saw .  .  . but would die. The lame would walk . .  . but would still die. The poor would die. And even those Christ would raise from the dead would, once more, die. Does that mean Jesus was only a “temporary” Messiah, one whose work applied to one place and time? Isn’t there a more permanent fulfillment of Christ and his work?

Fourth, indeed there is. While the signs which validated Jesus’s identity as the Christ had temporary fulfillments, the work which he accomplished on the Cross and by his resurrection is permanent, even eternal. Christ died so that all who believe in him would be freed forever from the bondage to sin and death. He freed us from sin’s curse; we are no longer its slaves: “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” Therefore, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1), and “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

Jesus proclaimed about himself, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36). But he did more than just say we are free; by his death he set us free from the curse of the Law, canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. Colossians 2:14 says, “This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Because of Christ and through his sacrifice, our sins are forgiven, our debts are paid, and we are set free! The Liberator has come, broken our chains and opened the prison gate. We have been pardoned, our record has been expunged, and we are free to follow him now and into eternity.

Talk about a prison break!

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: Isaiah 61; Acts 12; Acts 16