Category: God’s grace

The Debates Go On, Part 3!

The Protestant Reformation was one of the most significant events in both Church and World history. During its early years, many debates arose between the established Roman Catholic Church, and those who tried to correct what they saw as incorrect beliefs and practices in the established Church. At first, the reformers hoped to convince Church leaders, such as the pope, to make improvements, but soon it became apparent that the Church would resist their demands, even to the point of violence and excommunication. Because most political leaders were on the side of the Church, they used force to enforce the Church’s condemnations.

It wasn’t until some princes began to side with the reformers (such as Frederick the Wise in Luther’s state of Saxony), that the protestors were free from persecution and able to continue their reform movement. Eventually, the disagreements turned to full scale war between Protestants and Catholics in what was called the Thirty Years War, which lasted from 1618 to 1648, resulting in the deaths of up to 8 million people. In the end,  a treaty would allow each ruler to determine whether his realm would be Catholic or Protestant.

Pre-Reformation movements. Beginning over two hundred years prior to the Reformation, there were similar attempts to  reform the Church. One was in the 1300’s led by John Wycliffe, called the “Morning Star” of the Reformation, who translated the Bible into English. He said the Scriptures held authority over the Pope and the Church, and that the elements in Holy Communion remained bread and wine.  He was condemned as a heretic, and after he died, his bones were dug up and burned.

A second attempt in the 1400’s was by a Bohemian (Czech) named Jan Hus. Hus agreed with John Wycliffe about the authority of Scripture, argued against the sale of indulgences, the appointment of Church officials based on payment of money (called simony), and the Church’s political ambitions rather than the preaching of the Gospel. He denied that the Pope was head of the Church, claiming that only Christ was the head. He established worship services in Czech instead of Latin. Finally, he was commanded to appear at the Council of Constance (Germany) in 1415 to answer charges of heresy. Though given a safe conduct pass, when he got there he was arrested and burned at the stake. His followers, called Hussites, continued to resist the authorities, until they were defeated by Catholic armies in 1434. But the spirit of Reformation continued.

The Protestant Reformation. October 31, 1517 is the date given as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, as this was the date when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony (Germany). His questions (which he offered up for debate – maybe he read my blogs?) were critiques of the Church’s sale of indulgences. Almost immediately, copies of his theses were printed and distributed across Europe. While a lot could be said about Martin Luther and the other Protestant reformers, we’re only going to look at the issues which came up for debate between the Catholic Church and the reformers, and between the reformers themselves.

  1.  Justification: by faith or works or papal decree? The Catholic Church taught that when God gave grace to people, it enabled them to do good works which in turn saved them. The Pope also claimed the power to forgive sins here and in the hereafter, thus allowing people to go to heaven. As holder of the keys to the kingdom, the Pope claimed authority over forgiveness and condemnation. Against this doctrine, the reformers claimed that we are justified by God’s grace through faith alone. The Lutheran confessions call this “the chief article of the Church,” and they appeal to Paul’s words in Romans 3:28 – “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law,” and Romans 1:17 – “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.””
  2.  Baptism. The meaning and practice of Baptism was hotly debated. Both Catholics and Lutherans agreed that baptism was a sacrament, by which God bestowed saving grace on his people. But to the Catholics, baptism only forgave a person’s original sin (what they were born with); subsequent sins required communion or a priest’s absolution for their forgiveness. On the other hand, Lutherans said all of a person’s sins were  forgiven in baptism. Contrary to both of these were the other Protestants (called Reformed) who denied the sacraments and just said baptism was just an “ordinance,” done to show one’s faith by obedience to Christ’s command. Many of the Reformed churches refused to baptize infants, calling their practices “believers’ baptisms”, even re-baptizing their members who had been baptized as children. During the Reformation, such churches were called “anabaptists,” where the prefix “ana” meant “again.” These distinctions continue to this day.
  3. Holy Communion.   This period saw major debates over the meaning and practice of the Lord’s Supper. To the Catholic Church, during Communion, the priest would call down Christ into the elements and sacrifice him all over again. Only the priest drank the wine to prevent the lay from spilling Christ’s blood (although the first time Luther served communion as a priest, he shook so hard he spilled the wine himself!). They also taught transubstantiation, the turning of the bread and wine into flesh and blood. They also “reserved” the leftover elements as the transformed body of Christ. The Lutherans rejected the re-sacrifice of Christ, distributed both elements to everyone, and though treating the unused bread and wine with respect, denied that Christ was in them apart from when they were given out in Communion. Lutherans and other Protestants also rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation; Lutherans teaching that we receive the true body and blood supernaturally “in, with, and under” the bread and wine, while Reformed saying it is just symbolic, an ordinance and not a means of grace.
  4. Other Sacraments. How many sacraments (means of grace) are there? The Catholic Church claims there are 7: baptism, communion, confirmation, absolution, marriage, ordination, and last rites. Lutherans and some protestants say there are only two: baptism and communion. Other protestants call those two sacraments, ordinances, that is done by obedience to Christ but not conferring any grace.
  5. Purgatory. The Catholic Church taught the existence of Purgatory, a place after death between heaven and hell, where a person would pay the consequences of their sins by having them burned out of them (purged) so they could then go to heaven. Only the pope could shorten a person’s time of “purging.” This unbiblical doctrine was rejected by all the protestant reformers, since Christ declared on the cross that his work was “finished.”
  6. Indulgences. A real argument was whether the Pope could forgive sins (and let people who died out of purgatory) in return for a person’s payment of money or doing some worthy work. This was a great fundraiser for the Church, which at the times was building St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican and funding a war against the Turks in eastern Europe. Protestants rejected such a practice.
  7. Authority. The question was, who had the final authority for Christians: the Bible, the Pope, or Church Councils (controlled by the pope). The Catholic Church said that the Pope stood in the place of Christ, and could decree what was true based on “oral traditions” passed down from Christ but not written in the Scriptures. Luther and the other reformers claimed that only the Scriptures had that authority (Sola Scriptura).
  8. Celibacy of Priests. The Catholic Church demanded that priests could not marry, in that they were “married” to the Church (the Bride of Christ). Luther disagreed and married a former nun to prove his point.
  9. Ordination of Clergy. According to the Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopal churches today, communion cannot be real unless a duly ordained priest “confects” the mass by his words calling down Christ into the elements.  (The magicians’ phrase, “hocus pocus” is a corruption of the priest’s words when he blesses the communion bread: “Hoc est corpus meaum.” Say it aloud!) These churches believed in Apostolic Succession, the idea that only men who were ordained in an unbroken line from Peter to the popes to bishops, could be priests. The reformers said that the local congregations had the power to ordain, based on the “succession” of the apostles’ teachings (the Bible).
  10. Election. No time to go into it here, but the major protestant churches divided over the question of God’s election of who will be saved. On one side were the Calvinists, who held to double predestination (that Jesus died only for the Elect, whom God chose to be saved, while God also predetermined that everyone else will be damned); and the Arminians, who taught that Jesus died for everyone’s sins, so all people could be saved through faith. (1 John 2:2 – “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.“).  Lutherans believe a middle position, saying that man cannot save himself, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. Luther put it this way in the Small Catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel.”

We need to stop here. As you can see, many of these debates that began during the Reformation continue until today. In addition, there are a number of new debates that have arisen in the “modern Church.” We will look at those new debates in the final blog of this series: “The Debates Go On: The Final Chapter!”

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: Ephesians1:11-14; Ephesians 2:1-11; 1 John 2:1-2.

The Debates Go On, Part 2!

The recent Presidential debate so inspired me, that I decided to look into famous debates that have happened over the centuries in the Christian Church. My previous blog began that study, looking at issues the Church faced in its first few centuries, deciding a number of doctrines in the light of various heresies which cropped up and threatened to destroy the Gospel. For example, the debate whether Jesus was just a divine being that only had the appearance of man (the Docetists) or a mere human who had been endowed with some divine attributes (Arianism). The Church rejected both ideas, affirming that Jesus was both true God and true man, as stated in the Nicene Creed.

Coincidentally, the Christian satire site, The Babylon Bee, just posted an article with the headline, “Scholars Now Believe Apostle Paul Spent Five Hours Per Day Arguing Online With Other Christians.” Considering all the problems his letters to the churches address, if the internet existed back then, he could well have spent that much time trying to correct them!

Before we consider the Church in the Middle Ages, there is one more ancient debate to consider: the Donatist Controversy. The question here was what happens when a priest is forced by the Roman Emperor to make a “donation” to a pagan god under punishment of law: does that render the acts of that priest (baptism and communion) invalid? The Church decided that no, the Christian sacraments are still valid, regardless of the priest’s sins or even lack of faith. This means that even today, the means of grace are still valid, even if the pastor is a fraud and an unbeliever. It is God who makes the sacraments valid, not the man.

But, now we leave the ancient church and move into medieval times, to see what debates the Church had to resolve. Unfortunately, some debates were not resolved in universally accepted manners, leading to church splits and the rise of new denominations that are still with us today.

1. First, there was the debate over the preeminence of the Roman Pope.  When the Bishop of Rome tried to assert his authority over the entire Christian Church, his claim was rejected by many bishops in other regions of Christendom, such as in the areas which came to be known as the Eastern Orthodox Church, and in the Northern African Churches, all of which had their own bishops. The split was formalized in the Great Schism of 1054, when East (Greek) and West (Latin) churches condemned each other and broke communion. This condemnation was not removed until the Catholic-Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965. The split, however, continues to this day.

2. The debate over predestination.  Most theologians of the medieval Church  believed in predestination, the doctrine that God determines ahead of time who will be saved (Ephesians 1:11, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. . .”). The debate arose over what came to be called double predestination, whether God had also predestined certain people to damnation. According to this, a person’s faith was irrelevant, other than God determining whether that person would have faith. This debate arose as early as the 800’s, but continued through the Reformation (which we will consider in the next blog).

3. The debate over Holy Communion. What do we receive during Holy Communion? Do we eat bread and wine, or the actual flesh and blood of Jesus? Do the elements miraculously transform on the altar by the priests’ words? Or is what we eat merely symbolic of Christ’s body? This became an important debate in the Church. One view was called the “realistic” view, which said the bread and wine turned miraculously into actual flesh and blood (transubstantiation); the other, the “symbolic view,” said that the elements remained bread and wine and gave spiritual benefits when eaten.  This debate arose in the 850’s, and continues to this day, even though the Roman Church decided on transubstantiation.

4. The debate between Faith versus Reason. As a result of the Crusades beginning in the 1o00’s, the works of ancient Greek philosophers became known through the Arabs who had preserved them. One that had an enormous impact was Aristotle and his call to reason. The impact this had was on the question reason played in our faith. Eventually this would give rise to the Enlightenment (1700’s), and to humanism, which made man the source of knowledge and truth, but for centuries before that, there was a huge conflict between truths learned through reason (including science and philosophy), and God’s revealed knowledge through the Scriptures. That’s why Galileo could be imprisoned for his scientific discoveries as being “opposed to faith.”

In the Catholic Church, St. Thomas Aquinas formed what became known as “Scholasticism” that employed a critical method of philosophical analysis predicated upon Aristotle’s teachings. By doing so, scholars sought to learn all attainable truth, whether revealed or not. Many of the universities of this time were founded on such teachings and philosophical methods. One of the products of this school of thought was the theory of transubstantiation, which used the Aristotelian categories of “essence” and “accidents” to describe the mass. In that view, the elements, when blessed, retained their accidents -(their physical form) but changed their essence (their actual nature). Luther argued against this view, saying that the Church should not base its doctrine on a pagan philosopher, but on the words of Christ in Scripture. Luther recited Jesus’s words at the Last Supper, when Jesus said, “This is my body, this is my blood,” as proof we receive Christ’s true body and blood.

5. The debate between Church and State. The Christian Church went from being persecuted, to tolerated (Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313 AD), to become the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD with the decree of the Edict of Thessalonica. But when the Roman empire was sacked by the barbarians, the Christian Church became the default unifying force in Europe. For one thing, it was a Pope (Leo I) who saved Rome from Attila the Hun in 451 AD, not by force of arms, but by prayer and persuasion. Also, when Europe was united under the Emperor Charlemagne, it was another pope, Pope Leo III, who crowned him Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in 800 AD. That set the pattern for the church as supreme over state.

However, throughout this period, tensions and struggles for power between kings and Popes continued. Part of this was philosophical/theological, but much had to do with money and political control. For example, German bishops of the period had castles and lands, and could enforce taxes and river tolls on boats.

Problems occurred when the Church tried to enforce allegiance to the faith or to religious authority by the power of the State, such as through various Inquisitions,  and when the State claimed power over the Church, such as when Henry VIII of England formed the Church of England and declared himself as the head of that Church (and disbanded Catholic convents and monasteries in England, Wales, and Ireland, and seized their wealth and assets).

One doctrine which arose was the idea of God’s two hands: his right hand the church, and his left hand the state. Each had its own God-ordained roles to play in the affairs of men. One to proclaim the Gospel, the other to use the Law to refrain evil. Luther called this division the “proper” work of God (by the Church’s proclaiming salvation through the Gospel), and the “alien” work of God, restraining evil by the power of governments. This is also called the “Two kingdoms” theory. Both are instituted by God to do his works and must be respected. (Romans 13:1  “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.“)

These and other debates continued through the medieval period, and affect us even today. Our First Amendment addresses the Church/State debate by establishing freedom of religion, saying: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” However, most recently, the State ordered churches to be shut down for the COVID pandemic, citing public health reasons. Some churches refused to do so, claiming freedom of religion, which is in keeping with the “Two kingdoms” doctrine.

We have now come to the end of medieval times. Before us now are the debates of the Reformation, which we will consider in the next blog, known, to no surprise, as Part 3 of The Debates Go On!

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: Romans 13:1-7; 1 Corinthians 11:22-24; Ephesians 1:11-14.

 

 

 

 

 

Trial of the Century

According to various opinion writers, the trial of the century has just concluded in New York, resulting in the conviction of a former President. But when I think of the most momentous trial of the century, I think of one specific trial in the last century that hardly made the newspapers or even caused a stir, but was in a way so significant that it bears our remembrance.

That trial took place in the 1930s, and ironically, also took place in New York.

It was Christmas Eve, and the Mayor of New York, Fiorello LaGuardia (as in the airport), decided to let one of the municipal judges go home for the holiday. So the mayor robed up, and took his place on the bench. He then signaled the bailiff to bring in the first case. As it turned out, the first case was of a woman charged with theft. The accuser was a baker who stood up, pointed his finger at the woman, and said, “She stole a loaf of  bread from me!” LaGuardia asked the woman, “Is this true?” The woman sobbed and said it was true, but added, “I took it to feed my child, because we had no food!”

LaGuardia sat there silent for a moment. Should he have compassion and let her go for such a minor offense, or enforce the law which said her act was a crime? He was a judge; how could he ignore the law? At that point, he must have regretted sending the judge home! As he pondered what to do, the courtroom became quiet as all eyes were on him. He had to act. . . .

Suddenly, he reached a decision. He lifted his gavel, and rapped it down on the desk with a loud bang. “Guilty!” he charged, “The fine is $5.00!” The whole court gasped. Five dollars then is worth $114 today. There was no way the woman could pay it; if she had that much money she could have bought hundreds of loaves of bread! The woman began to sob loudly, but then, she and the whole courtroom became silent again, as LaGuardia got down off the bench, and walked over to the bailiff. He took out his wallet, pulled out a five dollar bill, and paid the fine for the woman. Then he announced,”And I am fining everyone in this courtroom 50 cents for living in a city where a woman has to steal a loaf of bread to feed her child!” Then he collected the fines, and gave them to the woman. With a final wish of “Merry Christmas,” LaGuardia called for the next case.

Why do I consider this the trial of its century? Because it is a perfect example of the day we stand before our Judge to give an account of our lives. There is no doubt this will happen to us all, whether believers in Christ or not. We will all stand before God’s great white throne, and our lives will be revealed before the perfect Judge. No rationalizing our sins, or getting off “on a technicality.” No excuses or shifting blame. Every act and every word laid bare. Yikes!

Revelation 20:12 says, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:36, “But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.“

And Paul wrote in Romans 14:12,”So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.”

When that day comes, we will realize that the sentence – death and hell – is too much to pay. We will not have a plea in and of ourselves. All our good works won’t atone for the sentence we deserve. Like the woman, we have nothing and are at the mercy of the Judge.

But then, something miraculous happens. The Judge himself get down off the throne, and he reads from the book of life. He announces that our name is written in it. Then he shows the scars in his hands and feet, and proclaims for all to hear, “I paid this one’s debt.” Then he clothes us in his righteous robes (Isaiah 61:10),  gives us his inheritance (Colossians3:24), and welcomes us into heaven for all eternity (John 3:16).

But, what about our record of sin? Gone. This is good news!

Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Psalm 103:12 “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”

Hebrews 8:12 “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Hebrews 10:17 “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

This is the  future for all  who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The Bible promises that those in Christ will not perish. The whole New Testament is built on that promise, secured by Christ’s own death and resurrection, but key promises are the following:

John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to [Martha], ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die'”

Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”

Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Romans 12:9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

In the 18th chapter of the Book of Genesis, Abraham had an encounter with God before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham bargained with God regarding how many righteous people in those cities it would take for God to spare them. (Obviously, not enough.) But one thing that Abraham said stuck with me, and informs my thinking about God as our Judge. Abraham said, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

The Judge of all the earth shall indeed do what is right and just. He will punish the sins of unrepentant unbelievers, and forgive the sins of those who believe and trust in his Son, Jesus Christ. He will keep his promises, upholding equally his righteous laws and his merciful grace. We will never in eternity wonder whether any of God’s judgments were wrong. His judgments are perfect (Revelation 16:7), even when he gets off the throne to pay our sentence. For each of us, THAT will be OUR trial of the century!

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 18:22-33; Revelation 16:1-10

 

 

 

Are You a Bibliophobe?

While having lunch with a good friend, I invented a new word. During our discussion of the problems facing society today, we agreed that the rejection of the Christian faith and the Scriptures is at the root of our problems. I said, people are not just ignorant of the Scriptures, they distrust, disbelieve, and even hate what the Scriptures teach. They are, I said, “bibliophobes.” We looked at each other, and agreed that the term said exactly what we meant. Now, I say I invented the word, but I later looked it up in the dictionary and found the word “bibliophobe” already existed. There goes my claim to fame! Of course, the dictionary meaning is “a person who hates, fears, or distrusts books,” but I meant it specifically to refer to the Bible.

In what way are many people Bibliophobes?

  1. They don’t believe the Bible is God’s Word. To them, the Bible is just a collection of writings by people who wrote down their own ideas or beliefs about God. They experienced some event or felt some kind of spiritual feeling, and attributed it to God. But the Bible is clear that it is God’s word and not human ideas or imaginings. Over 130 times it attributes what it says to “the word of God” and almost 350 times to “the word of the Lord.” In 2 Peter 1:20-21 it says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Paul concurs, writing in 2 Timothy3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” And in case there should remain any doubt of how seriously God takes how we treat  his written word, check out Revelation  22:18-19 – “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.”
  2. They believe the Bible has been corrupted, that books have been removed or added over time, and the original texts have been changed by the Roman church. Interestingly, both Mormons and Muslims assert this. But, in the case of the Old Testament, the painstaking rules of the Hebrew copyists kept the texts consistent for over a thousand years; the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed texts a thousand years older than what we had before their discovery, and they were the same. For the New Testament, the  canon (the list of accepted books) was established before the Roman church gathered what it had into its collection of books. False gospels like Thomas and Judas were late fictions and were never accepted into the Bible. Today, we have over 5,000 manuscripts from around the ancient Mediterranean that testify to the accuracy of what is in our Bibles today.
  3. They don’t believe what the Bible says is true. The Bible, they say, is full of pre-scientific myths and fables. “The science is wrong and the history is wrong. We are more advanced and knowledgeable as people these days!” The evidence for the Bible’s truthfulness and accuracy fills books and has been validated by archaeological and historical finds. For centuries, historians slammed the Bible for talking about Hittites, saying they never existed; then in 1886, archaeologists announced that ruins found in Turkey were the Hittite capital of Hattusa. Then there are several stone pillars (stelae) of neighboring nations referring to kings of Israel and Judah reported in the Bible. And, as far as Noah’s flood, not only is there geological evidence for a great flood, almost every nation and people around the world has a similar story from its past, of an angry god who destroys all mankind except for a small group who survive in a boat to repopulate the earth.
  4. They don’t believe the Bible applies today. Even those who concede that some of Bible history is true, will say, “Fine. The Bible may have some good things to say, but it is so out of date. Today, we are more enlightened in our views of things like sexual freedom. Don’t try to apply Jewish rules from three thousand years ago to modern times.” While it is true that some of the Jewish cultural regulations no longer apply (such as kosher foods and Sabbath practices*) due to their fulfillment in Christ, Christ himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18). In addition, Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but  the word of our God endures forever.” What God commanded “way back when” still applies today. The morals of how people are to treat each other still apply, and we see daily the devastation that results from disobeying God’s commandments today.
  5. They don’t believe the Bible applies to them. Here is where many people are actually Bible-phobes. They are afraid of what the Bible labels as sin. They are afraid of the Bible’s prohibitions. Sure, they might agree with the “Do not kill” and “Do not steal” parts when applied to them being the victims, but don’t talk to them about the “Do not commit adultery” command, especially when their eyes are filled with lust. They think they are more enlightened about moral issues, yet they are the same human beings now as they were in ancient days. The same rules apply, and the same personal and societal consequences follow bad behavior: diseases. unwanted pregnancies and abortions, broken hearts and suicides, hatred and violence, theft and destruction, and the breakdown of society. Things the Bible prohibited are still rampant today, and so are the bitter fruits of such disobedience. Yet people think their lives will be better if they follow their own sinful impulses.
  6. They refuse to submit to God and his word. This is the attitude that led directly to mankind’s first sin. Tempted by the devil, Adam and Eve disbelieved God’s warning and disobeyed God’s one prohibition. The devil pooh-poohed the command not to eat of the forbidden tree “lest you die,” saying “you won’t die!” so our first parents disobeyed, and death and the desire to be our own gods, has been with us ever since. Ultimately, this is what Bibliophobia is all about – wanting to be our own gods. We don’t want to submit to anyone or any authority, let alone a God we cannot see, who doesn’t seem to punish those who rebel against him. We join the Psalmist’s lament: “Why do the wicked prosper?” and conclude there is no god, or he is unloving or impotent to intervene in human affairs. But such people disobey God’s first and greatest commandment, to love God with all their heart and mind and soul and strength (Matthew 22:27-28). They also forget that the wickedness they see will not go unpunished. Galatians 6:7 reminds us, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Popular society calls this “karma.” The Bible calls it what it is, and that’s what sinners don’t want to submit to.

It’s unfortunate that our society has largely silenced the Bible, through ridicule, slander (that it’s old-fashioned, irrelevant, and oppressive), and hatred. It’s unfortunate because the Bible is a wonderful gift, given to us by our Creator and Redeemer for our benefit and blessing, for this life and the next. Joel Osteen wrote a book called, “Your Best Life Now,” but God gave us the real way to our best life now, thousands of years ago. His book is called the Holy Bible. It is true, God-breathed, unchanging, relevant, and able to save beyond all measure. Let us honor, read, and follow its precepts. Let us be Bibliophiles, and not Bibliophobes!

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: Psalm 1; Psalm 119:105.

*The relaxing of these laws was approved by Jesus and the Apostolic writings. For the elimination of the kosher food laws, see Matthew 15:10 and Acts 10:9-18. And for the freedom from Sabbath rules, see Colossians 2:16-17.

 

Alone But Not Afraid

While recently surfing the Internet (a favorite pastime during dialysis), I encountered some ads for a book titled, Alone and Unafraid. Ostensibly written by a former CIA officer, the book purports to teach the reader all kinds of secrets from the spy world about surviving various dangerous situations. Even if a person finds himself alone during a catastrophe, he need not be afraid; the book will teach him what he needs to know to endure safely.

Sounds like a deal. Who wouldn’t want to face life and whatever it dishes out without being afraid? It’s like Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar, “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.” (Act 2, Scene 2). How much more enjoyable is life when we don’t fear all kinds of things that may or may not happen to us?

The above referenced book title certainly appeals to one of people’s greatest fears: being alone. There’s something especially intimidating about facing problems on our own, without someone there to protect us, share our burdens, comfort us in our pain, and console us in our losses. There are many such tough situations:

1. You lose a loved one to death or other loss, especially a parent or spouse who loved us and provided financial support and handled daily practical needs. Maybe they paid the bills, drove us to school, work, or appointments. Or maybe they just provided companionship (“It is not good that the man should be alone” – Genesis 2:18), a listening ear, and a ready smile. Suddenly there is a void in life, a space that cannot be filled.

2. You are facing a challenge. Maybe it’s a test at school, or a job interview, or a public speech, or “the big game” you’ve been training for. Whatever it is, it is up to you and you alone to take it on. No one can do it for you. (Reminds me of preaching! Talk of feeling “Alone and Afraid” on a Sunday morning!)

3. You are dealing with a serious medical condition. No matter how many people encourage you, the bad news is about you alone, and you are the one who has to undergo whatever procedure or treatment is required. It’s hard not to feel alone and afraid when the doctor looks at your test results and frowns or says, “Oh, oh . . .”

4. You are physically alone due to some disaster. A flood, fire, earthquake, or riot separates you from your normal network of support, supplies, or caregivers. No outside people or providers are available to you as you hunker down or flee the situation. Imagine losing touch with family and friends as you become a refugee.

5. You are at the end of your days. As the words of the song, Ten Thousand Reasons**, put it: “And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come. . .” During the covid lock downs, too many people in hospitals and nursing homes had to die alone due to bans on visitors. Even Karen’s mother, though she lived another year, had to spend her 90th birthday alone due to restrictions. But even if you are surrounded by your whole family when the time comes, you have to make that final journey by yourself.

These situations can be very discouraging and potentially fear-inducing. But no matter how threatening they may be, with no other human being anywhere near us, we need not fear them, because our powerful and loving God promises to be with us, no matter what happens. Whether we see him or not, he knew what would happen to us long before it did, knows our fears and struggles, and will answer our prayers for help. God promises this to us many times in his Word.

1. When the mantle of leadership passed from Moses to Joshua, God told the new leader not to be afraid of the challenges ahead in conquering the promised land. He said, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). This promise was not only for Joshua, but for all believers, because Hebrews 13:5 applies it to us: “for [God] has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

2. The Psalms are full of celebration that God is with us in good times and bad. Psalm 3:6 rejoices, saying, “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.” Likewise, Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” And Psalm 56:11 claims, “in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” The psalmist even addresses loneliness in Psalm 25:16 by calling on God: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.”

3. The basis of our courage and sense of togetherness with God is based on his love for us. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” And 1 John 4:18 tells us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” God’s perfect love for us guarantees his presence and comfort. We love our family even when we don’t see them. whether in the next room or across the country; likewise we know God loves us as his own children (John 1:12) even when we feel most alone.

4. God has come to be with us and in us, so we are never alone. Not only did Jesus promise to be with us: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age“(Matthew 28:20); he also said. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). Jesus continues in verse 27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Why are we not afraid? Because God’s own Spirit is now in us, so we are never alone.

5. Finally, God does not promise to spare us all the problems of this  life, but does promise to be with us and strengthen us through them all.  Proverbs 16:4 says, “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” That God is sovereign and allows suffering is plain in the Scriptures: “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:14-16). But even if the problem we face is the ultimate one of death, even then God is with us. The Apostle Paul asked what can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus; and he concluded that neither “life nor death” nor anything else can do that (Romans 8:38).

Alone and afraid? Not so much. We don’t need a spy-master’s book to tell us that, for we have a better book, the Good Book, through which our God, who promises to be with us always in this life, also promises that we will be with him in the life to come.

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: Psalm 46

*Alone and Unafraid, by Scott Hanson, Laissez Faire Press, c. 2018.

**Ten Thousand Reasons, by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin, released on Kingsway Music, 2011.

Reclaim the Rainbow!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: June 18 -The number 1 hip-hop/rap song in the US is Reclaim the Rainbow by Bryson Gray, Shemeka Michelle, and Jimmy Levy. It is also the number 3 hit in all music genres! What is it about? Exactly what I wrote in the following:

You see a lot of rainbows these days, but I don’t mean the ones in the sky after a rain storm. The rainbows you see are on flags, protest signs, bumper stickers, and clothing. Which would be okay, given that the origin of the rainbow is biblical; unfortunately, the rainbow has been “co-opted,” that is, hijacked by society and given a completely different meaning. To display it publicly now is to affirm the new, corrupted meaning, rather than the original biblical one. Which is unfortunate, because the original meaning is beautiful, combining the two essential doctrines of the Christian faith: Law and Gospel.

To recapture the original meaning, we have to go back to the Book of Genesis. There, we read of the Great Flood of Noah, when God was so grieved at the complete wickedness of his greatest creation – human beings – that he decided to wipe them and all air-breathing animals off the face of the earth. Genesis 6 presents the prologue to the Flood and God’s  call on Noah to build the ark and preserve and preserve his family and a remnant of the animals. The Flood begins in Chapter 7, and lasts until Genesis 8:18, when Noah, his family, and the animals exit the ark to repopulate the earth.

In Genesis 9 we come to the pertinent passage. It reads as follows:

9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Some have said that this was the first rainbow ever seen on earth, because the Bible talks only of mist watering the ground (Genesis 2:6) before the “windows of heaven” (Genesis 7:11) were opened to cause the Flood. Others say that rainbows had appeared before, but that God now gave them new significance. Either way, what is important is that God did endow the rainbow with a special meaning: his promise to never again destroy the earth by a flood. Now obviously, many floods have occurred, some of them with horrific damage and great loss of life. But these were local floods; never has the whole earth been destroyed by one great flood. Nor will it ever be again, thanks to God’s promise.

Earlier I said that rainbows were signs of the two great doctrines of Law and Gospel. How so?

Consider first the connection to the Law. The Law tells us God’s command-ments, that is, what he expects from us. It also warns us of God’s judgment against us when we break his commandments. An example of this is the Second Commandment, which commands us not to take the Lord’s name in vain, and warns us that “the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). An even more explicit statement is found in Romans 6:23, “for the wages of sin is death.” The law condemns us all because “we all sin and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Law cannot save us. It only pronounces righteous judgment against us, just as God did against the wicked generation of people in Noah’s day. Those people were not just bad; they were really bad. Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord  saw  that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” That’s really bad. They were so bad that God was sorry he had made mankind, and decided to destroy all but a remnant of them.

So how is a rainbow a symbol of the Law? Because it reminds us of how severely a holy God punished wickedness. It reminds us that God will not allow sin to go unpunished; as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be one day when God visits his judgment on an unrepentant earth. Peter warns us of the connection. He writes in 2 Peter 3:5-7, “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” When we see a rainbow, we must remember that God will destroy the ungodly one day, not with water, but with fire. This is Law. 

Now consider how the rainbow is also a sign of the Gospel. The Gospel is a message of God’s grace and mercy. It proclaims what God did for us to save us from the due penalty of our sinfulness. We could not gain this grace by our own efforts, but by God’s gracious decree. This grace is based on Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, by which we are forgiven and brought near to God. Colossians 2:13-14 says,  “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”  This is the Gospel, that although we earned only death and judgment, God himself saved and redeemed us to eternal life for the sake of his Son. This promise not to destroy those who believe in Jesus Christ for their salvation is embodied in the message of the rainbow: that God will spare mankind, even when they sin, by setting aside a watery destruction.

Why has God set aside such a destruction and delayed the fire to come? According to Peter, it is because of God’s mercy. As he writes in 2 Peter 3:9, “but [the Lord] is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” So even now, God holds his judgment to allow the lost to come to him for forgiveness. That is Gospel.

Therefore, God gave us the rainbow and gave it to us as Law, a reminder of how God judged sin with the Great Flood, and as Gospel, a  promise to never again destroy mankind by another Flood. As Christians, we should feel good to see a rainbow, because God gave it to us as a promise.  To us it not only holds a promise about flooding, but also about God’s forgiveness of our sins, and the promise that those who believe in Christ will never die. (John 11:26).

My hope, therefore, is that we will one day reclaim this powerful symbol, and rescue it from those who kidnapped it. Maybe we could do something like the following, adding the word REAL to the rainbow to show we believe in its real meaning, the meaning given to us by God himself.

                                          REAL

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 6; Genesis 9:8-17; Colossians 3:8-14; 2 Peter 3:1-13. 

Sackcloth and Ashes, Part 2

In my previous blog, I talked about this season of Lent, its meaning, and some of the ways Christians observe these somber weeks. The overall theme is God’s call on us to repent of our sins, sins for which Jesus died to bring us forgiveness and eternal life. I illustrated this call to repentance with the story of Jonah, the reluctant prophet whose half-hearted warning to the people of Nineveh still resulted in their repentance and forgiveness. Their story is important to know, but how does that affect us and God’s call on us to repent?

Let me suggest that our repentance can be described with the following, all beginning with the letter, “C”.

  1. Conviction – This is about recognizing and admitting that we are sinners and stand before a holy God, deserving of his punishment. This, the very beginning of all repentance, is probably the hardest for many people to accept. In our own hearts and minds, we are basically good people. Sure, we occasionally mess up, but it’s not really our fault, and besides, we don’t do that badly, right? After all, we’re not bank robbers or murderers or terrorists, are we? Like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, we thank God we are not like those sinful tax-collectors over there!

Even when we know our actions don’t match up with God’s commands, we often find excuses by which we rationalize what we do: “I took it because I deserve it; I gossiped because everyone needed to know what happened; I cheated on my taxes because the government was just going to waste it anyway, I cheated on my spouse because he/she doesn’t really understand me, etc.” We try to justify ourselves in order to keep our self-esteem high, because to admit we actually did something wrong may make us look bad to others – or to ourselves.

But scripture is clear that we are all sinners who stand convicted and guilty before God. In our weekly services we hear the words of 1 John: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We read in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And both testaments affirm “there is no one righteous, no not one.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. He said that the work of the Holy Spirit would be to convict the world of sin. When we truly know in our hearts that we are sinners and have sinned, it is because the Spirit has convicted us of our guilt through the hearing of God’s commandments in his word.

This is what hit the Ninevites so hard: they heard God’s word spoken by Jonah, and God’s Spirit convicted them that they were truly guilty and deserved God’s wrath. Likewise when we hear what God expects from us and what he forbids us to do, we become convicted that we have sinned and deserve the same wrath God almost poured out on Nineveh. That prepares us for the second part of repentance.

  1. Contrition – This is sorrow for what we have done – against God and others. It comes from the Latin word, contritus, which means, “ground to pieces,” as in being crushed by guilt for what we have done. It goes beyond just admitting our guilt – contrition is sincere sorrow, regret, and remorse for sins we’ve committed.

We feel sorry when something bad happens to us and our loved ones, but do we ever feel sorrow for the bad things that we do? How many public officials and politicians hold tearful press conferences about how sorry they are for their bad behavior before their sin is exposed by someone else? They seem more sorry to have been caught than to have done it in the first place. Likewise, are we more sorry for the consequences of our acts than we are for our sinful desires and attitudes that led us to do them? Are we truly sorry that we have thumbed our noses at God and his commandments? Are we just “sorry” because we know we should do better, or do we feel true contrition, that is, heart-felt sorrow for “our failure to live as God’s people in this place”? When the Ninevites put on their sackcloth and ashes, they were expressing the change in heart they felt for their sins: they were showing outwardly the contrition they felt inwardly.

True contrition leads to a “sackcloth and ashes” level of repentance, in which we grieve our sins and throw ourselves on God’s mercy. Gone are our excuses and rationalizations. Gone is our self-justification. We now depend totally on God and accept his judgment. David expressed this contrition in Psalm 51, following his sins of adultery and murder: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

  1. Correction – The mark of true remorse is to correct what we are doing wrong. How sorry do we really feel for doing something wrong if we keep on doing it? Do we cry “crocodile tears” when we are caught, only to go back to it when we think no one is watching? Repentance is turning away from pursuing sin and instead turning toward God and his ways; it means a change in the way we live. God saw this in the Ninevites, who did more than just dress and eat differently because of their remorse; they also turned from the violent and evil ways they had been living, and cleaned up their act. They showed in their more righteous living what Matthew 3:8 later commanded: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”

As Christians, we know we are not saved by our works. We can live a moral life, give generously to the needy, serve the church night and day, and even become a wonderful pastor, but all our good actions will not undo even one of our sins. We depend totally on the grace and mercy of God, and yet having been saved, we are called to live differently than the world lives, to live better and more in keeping with God’s will and commandments. And the same Spirit who convicted us also empowers us to desire God and his will for our lives, and to do it.

  1. Christ – the fourth “C” involved in repentance is Christ, for without him and his sacrifice for us on the cross (is that the 5th “C”?), all the conviction and sorrow and change of behavior would not satisfy God’s call for repentance. Conviction does not save us – it just shows we’re guilty; contrition does not save us – it just shows we’re sorry; correction doesn’t save us – it’s what we should be doing anyway. Only Christ provides the forgiveness we need; only faith in his atonement on the cross is sufficient for salvation. That’s because true repentance involves both turning from sin, and turning to God through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.

So let us move forward through Lent, repenting of our sins, all the while looking forward to the day when Christ himself shall trade our sackcloth for his robes of righteousness, and our ashes for his oil of gladness. And let us give thanks that Jonah was right about one thing: for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love!

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 chapters 1-4 again!

 

Sackcloth and Ashes

Today begins the 40 day observance of Lent, the somber season in which we Christians traditionally consider our sins as the reason Christ died. Our observance often includes wearing ashes on our foreheads (hence the name, Ash Wednesday), worship with confession and repentance, fasting, and service to others. In our liturgy, we replace the singing of the “Alleluia” with what is called the Lenten Sentence, which calls us to “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

These Lenten practices have their basis in Scripture, especially, if surprisingly, in the Old Testament book of Jonah. We would do well to consider his story as we journey through Lent toward the Cross and the Empty Tomb.

Jonah was not happy, for he was having a bad week. It all began when God called him to go preach a warning message to the huge city of Nineveh, which happened to be the capital of Israel’s mortal enemies, the Assyrians. Then when Jonah tried to get out of the task by sailing in the opposite direction, God sent a violent storm, and he was thrown into the sea by the pagan sailors who realized Jonah’s God was angry at him for something. Jonah almost drowned, sinking down to the depths of the sea and being entangled in seaweed. But even as Jonah’s death seemed imminent, along came a great fish that swallowed him whole and kept him alive for three days and nights in its belly. Not a pleasant experience for sure: even if you like seafood, the term, “sleeping with the fishes” is not something you really want to do! Finally, the fish spit Jonah up onto land.

Again, this was not a good week for Jonah, because even though he survived that ordeal, from his perspective, things were about to get worse. God came to him a second time and repeated his command for Jonah to go preach to Nineveh. This time, Jonah obeyed: he proclaimed to the city a simple message, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” and then he sat down and waited for God to pour his wrath upon the Ninevites and destroy them.

But something dramatic happened. The people of Nineveh, from the king on down to the lowliest peasant, believed God, and turned to him in repentance for their sins and violent ways. They fasted and wore sackcloth – think burlap bag. The king himself took off his royal robes and put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes to mourn what he and his people had done and what was likely to happen to them if God did not forgive them. The king ordered that man and beast alike must fast and wear sackcloth, in hopes that God would spare them.

And then, to Jonah’s dismay, God accepted their repentance and forgave them. Jonah complained to the Lord, saying why he fled from God the first time: he didn’t want Nineveh to be spared, and was afraid they might repent and be forgiven. He said to the Lord, “For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

So why did God spare Nineveh, when centuries earlier he had destroyed other wicked cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah? Jonah 3:10 tells us: “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”

Now did you notice what was missing from that explanation for the Lord’s mercy towards Nineveh? It does not say, “When God saw what they did, how they put on sackcloth and ashes and fasted, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them.” What it says is, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them.” It was not a change of clothing that saved them; it was a change of heart, which showed itself in their new, more righteous way of living.

The main effect of sackcloth and ashes back then, and of all the Lenten disciplines of prayer, worship, service to others, and fasting today, is not on God. He already loves us; he already is by nature gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; and we cannot manipulate him into forgiving us by what we wear or what we eat. Instead, the main effect of the Lenten disciplines is what those disciplines do to us.

We are the ones who need to be changed. We are the ones who sin and stand in danger of God’s righteous judgement; we are the ones for whom Christ died, and we are the ones called to turn to God in faith and repentance. Lenten disciplines remind us of these facts, and help us to focus on them more than we usually do in our daily lives.

Repentance is what the Lord desires from us. 2 Peter 3:9 says the Lord is patient toward us, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” Matthew 4:17 tells us that from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, his message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Then, just before Jesus ascended to heaven, Luke 24:47 says he taught “that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” And on the great day of Pentecost, Peter told the crowd, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. . .” (Acts 2:38)

God’s word clearly says so many times that he desires us to repent. But what does that actually mean? In Part 2 of this blog, I will suggest four things that are essential to true repentance. In the meantime, see what you come up with on your own.

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 chapters 1-4

Why Me, Lord?

As a pastor, I visited many people who were sick or injured, hospitalized,  or homebound on what were to become their deathbeds. Some were suffering quietly, while others went through agony from their  illness or from the  medical efforts to save them. I felt bad for them, for what they were going through, and tried to console them with prayer and scripture, that their faith would remain strong even as their bodies weakened. Most had faith that put mine to shame, accepting their condition stoically, or looking forward to seeing Jesus and their lost loved ones, but occasionally, one would ask the poignant question, “Why me?”

Sometimes I found myself silently asking God the same question for them. Why was this particular godly servant, lifelong believer, faithful church-goer having to go through this? Surely they should have a full, pain-free life, didn’t they? Surely there are plenty of evil people who deserve this suffering instead?

I was reminded of Psalm 73:3-5,in which Asaph complains to God, “For I was envious of the arrogant  when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.” Likewise, Jeremiah complained, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” (Jeremiah 12:1)

The most personal this question came was when my sister asked it of me. She wondered what she had done wrong, to go through two divorces, several heart attacks, and the amputations of both her legs. Did God hate her? I tried assuring her of God’s love for her, reminding her of Job, the most righteous man of his day, who suffered loss and illness. And of Paul the great Apostle, who was afflicted by a “thorn in the flesh” in spite of his prayers for relief (2 Corinthians 12:7). Not to mention Jesus himself, who was tortured and killed on a cross, though perfectly innocent and holy. Her sufferings were not punishment for personal sin, but a consequence of a fallen world and our mortality. Sadly, her mortality was proven soon after.

But now, it’s my turn to ask, “Why me, Lord?” It’s been over twenty years now since I was diagnosed with diabetes, and other than some recurring foot problems, I’ve been able to live and function normally. I never missed a day of work from it, and retired six years ago, looking forward to times of travel and other activities. But, during that whole time, my diabetes was “chipping away” at my kidneys, decreasing their function, dropping me from one stage to another. Now, the kidneys have failed enough that I need to go on dialysis, something I have dreaded and postponed beginning.

So I now ask, “Why me?” But fortunately, because of my faith and my experiences with suffering believers, there’s no anger or sense of injustice in my question. I just want to know what purpose this will serve, what I am to learn (or teach) from it, and what I am to accomplish with the time I have been given. I have a paperweight that says, F.R.O.G. on it: Fully Rely On God. Below those words are written my special scripture: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6). I want to keep that message in front of me, and trust that the God who has blessed my life so much for so long, has my future in his hands.

As to why I have this condition and others do not, I am reminded of the true story of a group of fathers and sons who took a bike ride up Pike’s Peak in Colorado. They were having a great time until two of the bikes collided, and one of them veered off the path and over the side of the cliff. Horrified, one of the fathers watched as his son plunged to his death. The stricken dad cried out in anguish, “Why me?” and the others in the group gathered around to comfort him as best they could. As it turned out, one of the other dads was a Lutheran pastor. The man looked the pastor in the eye and asked, “Why me?” To which the pastor replied sadly, “Why not you?”

The pastor’s question seems harsh at first. But I thought of it when my need to proceed with dialysis became clear. Why me? Why not me? Why should I, of all the people who have ever lived, be immune from sickness and suffering? What did I do to deserve such immunity? Maybe this is a time of testing as it was for Job, or my own thorn in the flesh, or my “cross to bear.” I know that once I was issued a handicapped placard, I became more aware of other people’s disabilities and sympathetic to them.* Maybe I have more to learn from what lies ahead – hopefully for years to come.

At the same time, I appreciate how blessed I have been for so many years. Basically, I was healthy for over fifty years, which itself was a good long time compared to most people throughout history. Likewise, I never suffered from serious injury or violent crime. I never had to go to war or flee as a refugee from war or natural disaster. I was never poor or destitute, but always had plenty to eat (as anyone who as seen me can attest.) I had godly parents who loved me and modeled the Christian life, raising me in the faith and making sure I was baptized. And not least of all, I have been married to a believing and faithful wife for almost 49 years. Not a bad run.

Therefore, I join with Job in asking, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). And leave the answer to “Why me?” to heaven – when I won’t care what the answer is, because I will be so filled with joy and awe. But then the question won’t be about why I am ill, but why would God choose me as one of his own. Praise God for his mercies shown in this life, and in the life to come!

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 life up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Job 2; Lamentations 3:13, 19-24; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

*See my blog, “I Was Wrong” of January 15, 2022 for when I forgot this.

Who Do You Think You Are?

One of the few shows Karen and I watch on TV is called, “Who Do You Think You Are?” In each episode, a celebrity searches for his or her family history with the help of historians and genealogists. They usually learn amazing and surprising things about their ancestors, including one who was tried as a witch in 1600s Salem, another who was a refugee from the Nazi holocaust, and still another who was sent as a “Daughter of the King” (Fille du Roi) to French Canada in the 1600s to wed a French settler. The show is fascinating, and often very moving for the celebrities when they discover their history.

I find the stories fascinating for a couple of reasons. First, because of the history involved. I have always enjoyed reading about history, and here are people who lived that history and helped shape it. Second, I have always been fascinated by my own family history, ever since doing a school project back in junior high. This has especially been true the last two years, when I inherited my parents’ family journals, records and old photos. Karen and I have been researching and building our family trees, filling the gaps with new information and stories we never heard while growing up.

So, if you asked me, “Who do you think you are?” I could go back several hundred years to a Scotch-Irish immigrant in 1630 or a German widow who sailed to America in the 1860s, to survivors of the Great Chicago Fire, to pioneers living in a sod house on the Kansas prairie, to a Civil War soldier captured by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Winchester, and to a Methodist circuit riding preacher in the Dakotas.

I have enjoyed learning these things about my family, but really, they are not who I am. If you asked me who I think I am, my answer would be very different. Not that I reject my family history, nor am I ashamed of it. Like every family mine has had both heroes and scalawags (hopefully, I will be counted among the former and not the latter!) Also, I know that what has gone before has shaped who I am today – both genetically and regarding my beliefs and values; for these I am indebted to my parents who raised me and taught me about life. And yet, regardless of what has gone before, I do not find my identity in such things.

Nor do I find my identity in current cultural fads which try to group everybody into sub categories based on race, ethnicity, language, social status, and gender. Oh sure, I could attach a bunch of labels to myself to show how “woke”* I am, (I am a cisgendered, white, English-speaking Anglo-Saxon male whose pronouns are me, myself, and I), but those don’t really identify who I am. So who or what am I?

I am a Christian. When it comes down to the one identity that really matters, that is it. That one identity changes everything and is more important than anything else that could be said about me, or by me. In that identity, I have faith, hope, love, and life itself. In that identity I have the knowledge of worth, the assurance of forgiveness, and the hope of eternal life to come. In that identity I find meaning, strength, and direction. In that identity, I have a relationship with the God of the universe. What other identity could possibly be greater than that?

I am a Christian, not through birth or inheritance, but through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And we have the well-known promise of John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” My family certainly played an important part in teaching me the Bible, taking me to church, baptizing me, and modeling the Christian life, but it was my own faith which God required of me.

As Christians, there are other identities which follow and help identify and explain who we are. Consider the following:

  1. We are children of God. My confirmation verse was John 1:12, which says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” This means several wonderful things. It means we can call God, “Father” or “Abba” (Daddy). There’s a personal relation-ship, in which we can call directly on him. Second, as his children we share his only-begotten Son’s inheritance (Acts 20:32, Ephesians 1:11a – “In him we have obtained an inheritance,” and 1 Peter 1:3-5). As his children, we are freed from our natural bondage to sin, to become sons who remain in God’s house forever (John 8:35).
  2. We are saints. By faith, our sins are removed from us. The filthy rags of our own attempts at goodness are stripped away and replaced by Christ’s own glorious robes of righteousness. Isaiah 64:6 says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” In Philippians 3:9, Paul explains the basis for his hope: “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ —the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” In turn, Paul addressed his fellow believers as “saints” in his letters to them (Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Colossians 1:2, etc.).
  3. We are sinners. Ouch! You would think this part of our identity would just go away with our adoption as God’s children. Unfortunately, though, this condition, though temporary, does continue to plague us in this life. We continue to sin, though we don’t want to. We fall to the same temptations too often, and do things we know are forbidden by God – whether outwardly or in our hearts and minds – such as lust, pride, jealousy, and greed. We also sin by failing to do what God commands us to do. Jesus told us the greatest of the commandments was to love God with our whole heart and mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves; who of us can say we have truly done that? That’s why, even as Christians, we confess in our weekly worship, ” We have sinned against you in thought word and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” Thanks be to God that our sins are forgiven, even when they are too numerous to mention in a single prayer!
  4. We are new creations.  As Christians, we are not just “modified” by our faith, but rather we are made new. Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Whereas, in our first birth we were subject to sin and death, in Christ we are reborn children of God and inheritors of eternal life. Christ breaks our original bondage (Romans 8:21) to sin and sets us free (John 8:36) to live as we were unable to do before. The old self dies; the new self will live on. If you are like me, you probably wish you could get a few “do-overs” in your life, to correct mistakes, avoid hurts, and make things right; in Christ we get more than that – we get a new life.
  5. Finally, we are Christ’s disciples, called by him to follow him wherever he may lead us. While it is faith alone which saves us, the new life in Christ calls for us to:
    • follow (John 12:26 “If anyone serves me, he must follow me.”)
    • serve others (Matthew 5:16 “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”)
    • obey his commandments (Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”)
    • make other disciples throughout the world (Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”) so that people of every nation, tribe, and language will receive their new identities in Christ.
    • and be willing to give up everything, even our lives, for Christ’s sake (Matthew 10:38 “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.)

When a Christian lives out his or her new identity, it honors God and blesses the Christian who does the things which God desires. As Luther said, “Good works do not make a man good, but a good man does good works.” We do not earn our place in God’s kingdom; God gives us our new identities by his grace through faith. But we get to serve him with our lives, How great is that!

So who do you think I am? The more important question is, “Who does God think I am?” He calls me his beloved child, and that is good enough for me!

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: Romans 7:21-25; Romans 21:1-8; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21.

*See my blog from October 6, 2020, “Are You Woke,” for more comment.

Top of Mind

Recently, a new phrase entered the English language (at least, the American version of English). That phrase is, “top of mind.” It first appeared during a White House press briefing, when a reporter asked the government’s press secretary why the President had asked where a certain dead person was. The spokesperson replied that the deceased person was not only on the mind of the President, but actually “on top of mind,” which is why he had asked about her. In other words, the President had been thinking about her.

Although I have a definite opinion regarding the President’s gaffe, my point here is neither to defend nor ridicule him, but to consider the phrase from a Christian viewpoint. What does it mean to have something on top of one’s mind, and given the many things we could keep in mind, what should that “top-of-mind” thing be?

As we go through the day, many things can rise to the top of our thoughts. They may be that day’s agenda of things that have to be done; or maybe things we want to do. They may be health concerns for ourselves or loved ones.  They may be political issues. They may be worries about possible coming disasters or current wars. They may be philosophical questions about the paradigms of the conflict between stoicism and existentialism in the Third Estate of 17th Century France. Or maybe, you’re just thinking about what to eat for supper. Whatever it may be, something is on your mind right now (such as, “Why did I start reading this blog??).

Karen and I have been leading a Bible study using material called Cold Case Christianity*. In it the writer, a former cold-case detective, names the three motives behind all the crimes he ever investigated. They are: money, power, and sexual or other relationships. Such basic human  motives do not necessarily lead a person to commit crimes, but one or more of them will rise to our “top of mind” sometime each day. (You may be worrying about paying for your next tank of gas, for example.) I think there are also many small, but important, things that occupy our thoughts – practical thoughts that affect our mundane daily activities, such as dressing, driving, or exercising.

There are also pressures on us each day to think about certain things, pushed on us by commercial and political advertisements. Today, for example, we received several political ads in the mail encouraging us to think about (and vote for) certain candidates. We turn on the TV or the computer and many commercials pop up, selling various products and services (“Ask your doctor if our drug is right for you.” I actually wrote down a week’s worth of such ads and took them to my doctor and asked if they were right for me.  He thinks I’m crazy.)

All this is to say that we have active brains that are constantly bringing things to mind, many of which do rise to “top of mind” status. But the question is, “Is everything that comes to mind of equal importance or value?” In other words, “What should be on top of our minds?”

For a Christian, this is not just an academic question. What we think about makes a difference. In the words of the United Negro College Fund, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” This is especially true for Christians who want to honor the God who gave us our precious minds, by not wasting them on things that are temporary or even ungodly. Therefore, we go to the Scriptures to find out what the Lord has to say about our thoughts.

First, we recognize that for Christians, the mind is essential to our being and to our relationship with God. It is not, as many eastern religions assert, in the way of enlightenment. We do not set it aside and go only with feelings as a way to God. (In fact, feelings flow from thoughts.) Job 38:36 says that God has given understanding to our minds.

Second, we become purposeful in our thinking, choosing what we will  bring to mind. We don’t just let our mind drift and be passive, taking in whatever comes our way.  We do not seek to be “conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,” (Romans 12:2a). Instead, we “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Third, we strive to think always about God, about what he has done for us, and what he desires from us. Psalm 1:2 speaks of the blessed man as one whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Fourth, we intentionally rid our minds of sinful thoughts such as lust, greed, hatred, pride, and selfishness. Harboring such thoughts makes us miserable and leads to sins against God and our neighbor. Romans 8:5-6  warns us, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Finally, we turn our attention to those things that are wholesome, pure, and God-honoring. Humility, gratitude, love, a servant heart, and mercy are among those  thoughts which bless us and all who come into our lives. Philippians 2:5-7 calls us to have the mind of Christ among us, that is, the mind of humility. By having a mind renewed in Christ, we may “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2b). And don’t forget the greatest commandments as cited by Christ himself: to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

I think it would be interesting to try for just one day, to keep our mind on God: one day filled with prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and love. One day to shun bad and sinful thoughts, one day to think of those things which please God. One day to practice what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8,”Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” What a day that would be!

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: Ephesians 4:17-32; Philippians 4:1-9

 

*Cold Case Christianity, by J. Warner Wallace, David C. Cook, Colorado Springs, CO. 2013

For Such a Time As This

Have you ever wished you could have lived at some time in the past, when things seemed more peaceful, with clear values and a clean environment? Before Covid and crime and the threats of war loomed over your world? When spouses loved each other and children listened to their parents?

Maybe you watched an historical drama and thought, “I wish I could have lived back then . . .” I know that I’ve done that: I saw some movie and then fantasized being in the story. Maybe it was about Robin Hood, and I saw myself wining the archery contest(by splitting an arrow in the bulls-eye, of course), and championing the oppressed peasantry. But then I thought, I’m not that good an archer, and the times were rough, total obedience to the king was the law . . . and then there was that Black Death thing. Okay, so not the Middle Ages.

But what about the Westerns I watched that had me imagining I was a dashing young lieutenant in the US Cavalry? The bugles blow and the men line up at my command as I save the wagon train from attack! Of course, half my troop would have died of diseases which today are rare. The food was hard-tack biscuits which broke your teeth, dental care was brutal, you had to ride for days in the saddle, and milk shakes had not been invented. So, maybe not that era.

Or instead, how about a hundred years ago, when my grandparents were born? That was a better time than now, certainly, if you ignore the sod house with no running water or electricity  where my grandfather was raised, or the Spanish Influenza, or World War I or the Great Depression.

Or the Age of Exploration, when I could have died with Magellan on his voyage, or the Reformation when I could have had the Plague before I was executed by the Inquisition, or the days of the early Church when I could have been thrown to the lions for the crowds’ entertainment.  And no milk shakes then, either.

You get my point: there is no time in history better than now, no matter how we idealize the good things about it. For there were good things, and bad things then, just as there are now. True, I’m glad I went through school when I did, in the 1950s and 60s, when we knew our genders and mostly listened to our teachers . . . much better, if you don’t count our hiding under our desks during air raid and tornado drills.

It is important for us to accept that we live now, at this time full of its challenges and dangers, just as people throughout history have faced their own problems. We don’t want to miss out on the good things around us, even as we lament the things that are wrong. No matter what we think of these times, now is the time when we have to live.

This is important for another reason, beyond finding contentment in life.

This past week I wrote a short Bible study on the book of Esther for our church’s national women’s group. In that book is the story of a young and beautiful Jewish woman named Esther, who saved her people from a planned genocide by appealing to her husband, King Xerxes. But before she made the appeal, her cousin, Mordecai, pleaded for Esther to do so. What he said to her was the memorable challenge:  “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

Apparently, those days had their problems, too! But Mordecai showed Esther that the very reason Esther lived when she did, and had married the king, was to save her people. If she had lived at any other time or place, she could not have done what she did, and God’s purpose for her would have gone unfulfilled.

Mordecai’s words to Esther become God’s challenge for us. Could it be, that we were born into the world, and live when we do, because God has a plan he wants us to fulfill right here and right now? Could it be that we have come into the world “for such a time as this?” That just as God sent his Son into the world “when the fullness of time had come,” (Galatians 4:4), he may have determined that each of us be born in our own fullness of time? For as God is above even time, and knows the end of a thing from its beginning, (Isaiah 46:10), he knows what he has prepared us to do. As the Apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 2, God “created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he prepared ahead of time for us to do.”

When we understand that God created us to live when and where we do, we certainly can receive peace in the knowledge. But we also are challenged to ask what that purpose is, and how we can fulfill it. What is it about our time and place, and our abilities and resources, that enable us to influence the world around us for God’s glory and the benefit of everyone else forced to live in our day?

Fictional stories are replete (a word from another era!) with people who have special abilities which save the day: superheroes with secret powers that stop the villains; a retired gunfighter who saves the town from a hired gun; a meek kid who out kung-fu’s the town bullies; or the janitor who changes the formula on the chalk board to solve some professor’s impossible equation. We enjoy such fiction, but we live in a  non-fiction world. And we may find that what we can do, though not as spectacular as those fantasies, is just as important and amazing.

So, what can we do that may help fulfill the purpose for our living now, “for a time such as this?”

  1. Prayerfully search your heart. As you pray to know God’s purpose for your life, you may find certain things that inspire you or trouble you. It could be a cause or an injustice. It could be persecution of fellow Christians or blatant public sins. It could be heartbreaking situations that move you to help the people who are suffering. You may be the person God has sent to alleviate the hurts or confront the sins. Such responses may be difficult and even dangerous, but who else will step in except those whose spirits are troubled and yearn for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
  2. Pray for the people and situations. Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded with him for them to be spared. God’s answer was that for but a few righteous people, he would relent and spare the cities. Perhaps, God has judgments waiting even now, and has sent you to be one of the righteous people to allow others the chance to repent and live. Likewise, when the Apostle Peter was unjustly jailed for preaching the Gospel, the believers gathered to pray for him – and God sent an angel to free him from his imprisonment. James 5:16 tells us, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power.” Maybe God has you living now to provide the one prayer he desires for working out his will.
  3. Use your particular gifts and abilities. Can you sing or write music? Write a hymn or praise song that will honor God and strengthen faith. Can you write? How about a book about heroes of the faith, or novels with noble themes, or even, dare I say it, blogs? Are you good with children? Teach Sunday school or VBS, or babysit, providing Christian nurture (maybe to someone who will one day become a great evangelist). Whatever you can do, or enjoy doing, can bless others and glorify God, as Jesus himself said: “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
  4. Honor Christ by your relationships. How do you treat people? Do you care about people, and show your love for them? A stable marriage, or children who are taught respect while being nurtured, or friendships that cross social divides of race, languages, or politics, all testify to the love of Christ. Honesty, helpfulness, generosity, and encouragement testify to the one who saved you, and may be the witness that someone needs for their eternal salvation. You may live here and now to be God’s means to reach them.
  5. Speaking of generosity. God has blessed you with the “Three t’s” – time, talent, and treasure. You can use those blessings to help others and advance Christ’s Church. You can volunteer, whether informally on your own when you see a need, or in your church. You can share your skills and abilities as mentioned above. You can give of your material and financial blessings to help others and spread the Gospel through local and foreign ministries. God has blessed you by the most generous gift of all: his Son. The least you and I can do is spread some of those blessings around.

We live in “such a time as this.” It is a time desperately in need of Christian presence, action, and love. You and I live in this time, not the past, or the future. Our time is now. Let us not let it slip by without realizing God has a purpose for our being here when and where we are.

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: The book of Esther.

 

 

 

This Little Piggy

As a number of you know, I was in the hospital over the weekend. I had a bad toe infection that didn’t respond to my own first aid attempts so I went to the emergency room. After numerous tests (at least I didn’t have Covid or the flu!), they admitted me to a regular room in the acute care wing. Come Saturday they removed the little toe and some adjacent bone. On Sunday they did another procedure to improve the blood flow to that foot. Both were successful.

As I lay in my hospital bed after the surgery, one of many doctors/nurses/ assistants came to check on me for something. In our small talk he asked how I was doing, then noticed my bandaged foot. He asked what happened and I replied with a line from the old children’s game: “…and this little piggy went ‘wee, wee, wee’ all the way home.”

He said, “Oh, that’s good.” Realizing he was too young to have ever heard that jingle, I explained plainly what I meant. Afterwards, for some reason I started craving some roast beef, though I had none.*

Lying in bed for several days was hard. I couldn’t get much sleep because the old cliché is true: they do wake you every couple hours to check you, feed you, bleed you, or do a myriad other things best not mentioned here. Not interested in watching the TV, I spent much of my awake time thinking and praying. Other than a few “Woe is me!” moments, I was surprisingly calm and philosophical about my ordeal.

A couple comforting verses popped into my mind as I prayed. They were:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber. (Psalm 121:1-3)

[Jesus said] “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30).

and my long-term favorite verse of encouragement when I don’t know the way forward:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Those verses were comforting. I never felt that God had abandoned me, but was thankful for getting the medical care of seemingly thousands of doctors and medical workers focused on me getting through this crisis. I was amazed at the modern medical technologies, and thankful this happened in 2022 and not 1922.  I expressed my amazement to one of the doctors, and he agreed that every year the knowledge and tools improve – so I asked if I should have waited two years to get better treatment. He said no. So I asked if I could get fitted for a prosthetic toe, but he just walked away.

Here are some other things I thought about during and since this crisis:

  1. I am mortal. Yeah, we all know this, but we usually have to live as if this were not true, or at least something in the far distant future. We couldn’t function if we just sat around, waiting to die. For the first time in my life, I had to consider that I really am getting old, and that I might not recover from this or some similar future event. It was like my body had let me down, and now I  would have to make some life adjustments. Even though I did not at all think I was going to die from this, I had to confront questions of whether I have properly prepared my earthly affairs for when I do. Images of my overflowing book cases and my rock collection came to mind. The book of Hebrews says it well: “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” (9:27). And as for all my stuff? A rich man once wrote, “ I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me” (Ecclesiastes 2:18).
  2. I cried because I had no shoes. You probably know the old saying (why do I know so many old sayings?): “I cried because I had no shoes, but then I saw a man who had no feet.” Whenever “Woe is me” came to mind, I thought of that saying. Besides hearing two “Code Blue” emergency alerts for people whose hearts had stopped, there was my roommate, who had both feet bandaged and sounded like he had pneumonia. I also thought of my sister, and the ordeal she had suffered having both her legs amputated. Compared to her and to so many others, I was indeed fortunate.
  3. The Church is essential. Some people look at church as a social outlet; some look for entertainment; some think of it as boring and out of date; some go to earn “Brownie points” with God; and still others follow celebrity pastors in cult-like devotion. I feel sorry for all those people, because they miss the fact that the Church is the body of Christ in this world. We hear God’s Word, spoken, sung, and preached; we receive the sacraments with their visible and touchable promises of God’s forgiveness; and we pray for, serve, and comfort each other through life’s journey until life’s end. Paul wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:4). I can attest to this truth by the incredible outpouring of love and support for Karen and me from our church family. Dinners, rides, errands, and other offers have already provided so much practical help. But even more so, are the universal offering of prayers. None have prayed more fervently than my wife, Karen, but many others in our church family have joined in a spiritual chorus that God has already been answering, with peace, protection, and healing. Karen and I can’t imagine facing this without everyone’s loving prayers. The Church is alive and doing what it  is called to do.
  4. Why me? The correct answer to that question is of course, “Why not me?” Why should I be immune to life’s problems? I have lived a long (as in old) life and been relatively healthy for most of it. This was my first stay in a hospital ever. The Bible says we will all face troubles, simply by living in a fallen world. But even with this knowledge, I still wondered a little if there were a more specific reason this happened. Was God punishing me for some specific sin, as Job’s “friends” offered as an explanation for his woes? Had I done something to earn some cosmic consequence; in other words, was this just karma (which I don’t believe in)? Or more biblically put, did I reap what I had sown (Galatians 6:7)? Had God abandoned me after 70 years of protection? No, for he promised never to leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), and Christ promised to be with us to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Finally, was this an attack from Satan to discourage or stop me from my Christian witness? Satan does attack us, looking for ways to separate us from God, but against Christ he has no power. So when that idea came to mind in the hospital, I simply prayed to Jesus to be with me and keep away any evil; I know that prayer was answered.

So there you have it: this was an ordeal, and months of healing lie ahead. But I am a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12), so no matter what happens, I am safe in his arms. Therefore, even though my little “piggy” was separated from me, nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39).

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: Isaiah 53:4-6; Matthew 8:14-17; 1 Peter 5:6-7

*If you don’t get that reference, you’re too young, too!

Did You Hear the Bells?

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:13-14, KJV)

It’s Christmas again, and once more, as in every year at this time, I have been enjoying the old, familiar carols proclaiming and celebrating the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. With its abundance of so many carols, this season is like no other, and that’s not even counting the songs about snowmen, Santa Claus, reindeer, grandma’s house, or grandma’s encounter with a reindeer.

A week ago, I was at our church’s senior luncheon (as a guest, since I can’t possibly be old enough to be a member of the group!), and enjoyed joining in the carol sing. We sang out many old favorites, led by one of our pastors who also accompanied us on the piano. He began taking requests from our song sheet, but then called on me. At first I feared he wanted me to sing a solo, but to the relief of everyone there, he just wanted me to pick the next song. One of the tunes popped into my head, and I immediately called out to the group, I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day. And so, we sang it.

I didn’t know why that particular song came to mind; it’s always been okay to me, but it’s never that special or meaningful. Until that day. For the first time, I actually heard the words. For the first time, they touched me, and brought home the power of the Christmas message. Read them right now, aloud to yourself:

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Those words hit me like a hammer: the message that even in a world full of sin and hate, where there is no apparent peace, “God is still with us. He is not dead, nor doth he sleep.” That is the message of the Christmas bells as they play the old familiar carols. The message that Christ came into a world full of hate to bring us ultimate peace, true peace that overcomes all that is wrong. For that reason, the bells can chime and ring out joyfully.

I wanted to know more about the song, so I did a little research, and found its story enhanced the meaning of the song.

It was Christmas of 1863, in the midst of the bloodiest year of the Civil War.
The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was a widower, his wife having died when her dress caught fire. Now, his son had returned from the war, seriously wounded by a rifle bullet on December 1. As he nursed his son’s recovery, he heard the local church’s bells ringing out on Christmas Day, and struggled with the message proclaimed by the angels of peace on earth, goodwill toward men. How could there be peace when thousand were dying in a war that had torn the country apart, and wounded his own son? Where was God and God’s promise in all this? Was God asleep, or even dead?

Longfellow picked up his pen and began to write: “I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play . . ” He laid out his sadness about the world, but like the ancient psalms, moved from doubt and hurt to an affirmation that God was still with us, and that his promise given to us at Christmas, still holds true. A promise announced by the angels, but fulfilled in the baby born that day in that stable in Bethlehem.

Why did this song affect me so much as we sang it, and again when I read its story? Could it be that the words of the song are just as true today as when they were written? After all, peace in our world, and even in our country, is in short supply. Or is it because that was the case when Christ was born in a country conquered by a foreign empire, ruled by a despot who would murder infants to abort the rise of a rival king, divided by sects and ethnic loyalties, and riddled with poverty and disease? Or because it has always been the case throughout human history, from the first child born on earth becoming a murderer of his own brother, to modern dictators who kill their own people, to religious fanatics who behead people they consider infidels?

The answer is all the above. But what means the most to me is not the despair such evil causes, but the final, triumphant message of the song, that the bells can still ring out joyfully because God has fulfilled his work in his Son, Jesus Christ. Even in the reality of sin and hatred, our God loved us so much that he sent the remedy: his only Son who would bear the penalty of our sins and open the way to a sin-free eternal life. Because of Christmas, (and Good Friday, and Easter), we can have hope – and peace – as promised.

So, I would ask you, “Have you heard the bells on Christmas Day? If so, what do they mean to you? And if you don’t hear actual church bells ringing, have you heard the same proclamation in other ways: on TV, radio, online, in church, or in a blog (I hear there are some good ones out there!)? And most importantly, do you read your Bible, which contains the most definitive and authoritative proclamation of God’s promises and fulfillments?

Have you heard the bells on Christmas Day? Listen for them every day, and rejoice in their joyful proclamation!

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: Psalm 29:11; Matthew 5:9; Luke 2:1-20; Romans 5:1; Romans 14:17-19; Romans 15:13; James 3:16. 

 

 

 

 

 

Have They Come For You?

Recently, I posted a blog which spoke of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his opposition to Adolf Hitler, a stand which cost him imprisonment and finally, execution, in a Nazi concentration camp (see The Era of Stupidity, November 14).  Today, I’m going to refer to another German Lutheran pastor who likewise opposed the Nazis and who also suffered imprisonment for his stand. Also, like Bonhoeffer, this other theologian had important things to say which are as relevant today in America as they were in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s.

Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who opposed Hitler’s Nazification of the German Church. At first, before Hitler took total power, Niemöller approved of the leader for opposing the atheistic Communists, and actually met with him. During their meeting, Hitler assured Niemöller that the Nazis would respect the freedom and autonomy of the Church. However, when Hitler became chancellor and began asserting control over the churches by appointing Nazi-approved bishops and limiting what could be preached and taught, Niemöller joined other objectors in denouncing Hitler and his party.

Of course, this didn’t sit well with the dictator, so Niemöller was arrested and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps for seven years, from 1938 to 1945. Fortunately, he survived the ordeal.

Niemöller’s most famous quote, and the one most pertinent to today’s situation, is this one which he wrote in 1946:

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

His poem was a confession of the fact that he, and many others in the Church, did nothing when the government targeted various groups as being undesirable, a burden on society, or non-conforming to its orders. Out of cowardice or complicity, many Christian leaders kept quiet as Jews and others were arrested and persecuted, because it didn’t affect them personally. Even if they didn’t like what was happening, they justified their silence as preserving their own ministries.

What struck me in reading Niemöller’s statement about the costs of remaining silent, was its applicability to today’s “cancel culture” in our country.  We’ve watched as many people have been attacked by various social media, or fired, or “cancelled” from speaking publicly. People are shunning other people – former friends and even relatives – who voice anything they dislike. Even worse, some are attacked just because they don’t agree fervently enough with the attacker. And yet, though we don’t like what is happening, how many of us actually speak out and actively defend those who get cancelled?

This phenomenon is not new. In a sense, warfare and murder itself are forms of cancelling people (permanently). But even when people set out to shut up others peacefully, there is an inherent violence in the attitude that often comes out in actual violence against those being cancelled. Some historical examples illustrate this point of people who were once allied but suffered because they fell out of favor or were deemed not enthusiastic enough for “the cause”:

  1. Following up on the violence perpetrated by the Nazis, Hitler turned on one of his earliest fervent friends and supporters, Ernst Röhm, murdering him and disbanding his pro-Nazi militia in 1934.
  2.  In the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin denounced and executed some of his allied communist leaders, including Leon Trotsky, who had served in the Russian revolution with Lenin. He conducted what is called the Great Purge (called by the Russians, “The Great Terror”), dividing people by their class and ideology before executing literally millions of them. He then executed his leaders who had conducted the purges for him.
  3.  Another Great Terror took place in France during and following their revolution. Again, social class and fervency for the cause were criteria for whether someone lived or died. Eventually the revolutionary leader, Maximilien Robespierre himself, died on the guillotine in 1794 after being denounced by his fellow revolutionaries.
  4. Following our own revolution, numerous Americans who had remained loyal to the Crown were harassed. Some 80,000 of them fled to Canada or back to Britain for safety.
  5. Lest we find the Church faultless in this area, consider the Inquisitions conducted by the Roman Catholic Church for four hundred years, which purged the Church and its territories of people considered to be heretics or Protestants. The accused lost jobs, positions, families, and even their lives. The number of executions is estimated at some 32,000 people.

Beliefs do matter, and the impetus to ally with those of like mind and purpose is a powerful and important one. I certainly would not have called any non-believers to serve as my associate pastors. Our church body does conduct thorough reviews of all candidates to make sure they know and believe the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions. But the difference is, we don’t execute those who don’t make it!

But now, our society is tearing apart as people group themselves and others into “acceptable” and “unacceptable” categories. What race are you? How old are you? Who did you vote for? What did you post on social media? What did you tell a friend twenty years ago in private, that now became public? What belief did you espouse that was once popular, but now is considered offensive? What are your preferred pronouns? Vaccinated or unvaccinated? Which computer system do you use, Mac or PC?

As you can see, there is an almost infinite variety of categories which can divide us. Unfortunately, once divided, it becomes easy to hate the other group and rejoice at their misfortunes, or desire their cancellation. It also prevents us from seeing the other person as an individual who probably has the same needs, wants, and hopes that we do. As people whom God loves and for whom Christ died.

So, how do we react to this current “cancel culture”?

  • We speak against it, in love but forcefully. Whenever anyone is cancelled, we could be the next in line, just as Niemöller warned. Even if we aren’t targeted, we are diminished by the loss of others’ ideas and works.
  • We avoid cancelling other people we may disagree with. The French philosopher, Voltaire, famously said, “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
  • When we disagree, make sure we are hearing the other person accurately. Avoid overreacting to what we think they mean, or what their critics tell us about what they mean. Read and think for ourselves. We should follow Martin Luther’s teaching on the Eighth Commandment: “We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, think and speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.” When we give the other person a chance, we may actually learn something!
  • We obey Christ’s command to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:27), a command echoed explicitly throughout Scripture in both Old Testament “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18), and New: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’.” (Galatians 5:14). Therefore, even if we completely disagree with what another person says or does, we still treat him or her with respect and love. And if they hurt us by words or actions, we still forgive them, as we have been forgiven (Matthew 6:12-15).
  • We see other people as people, and not as representatives of groups at odds with our particular group. As I stated above, God loves that person just as he loves me, and does not desire that either of us perish. John 3:16 is our guide here: God loved the world (that’s everybody) and gave his Son that we should not perish but have eternal life. If God did that, who am I to decide otherwise?
  • Finally, I remember the poem written by Edwin Markham, who wrote:
          • He drew a circle that shut me out
            Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
            But Love and I had the wit to win:
            We drew a circle that took him in.*

This is hard to do, to take in those who insult and hate me. But I seem to have heard about Someone else who did just that, enduring the hatred, mocking, brutal beatings – and yes, even death by crucifixion – out of love for those he came to save. Our Lord had every reason to cancel all of us, but his love took us in, even when we deserved only his wrath. Let us strive, in love, to cancel the cancellations.

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: Matthew 5:43; Mark 12:30-32; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:9-10; and James 2:8.

*Edwin Markham, The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems, 1913

You Are a Chimera!

A faithful reader of this blog responded recently to my article, “Male and Female,” which I published on September 25. Having worked in the medical field, she had witnessed individuals who were born with both male and female organs, and wondered how that fit in with God’s creation of us as male or female (or pertinent to her question, male and female).
 The condition she spoke of is called a  chimera (kī-ˈmeer-ə), named after a mythical beast that was part lion, part goat, and part serpent. It happens (the human condition, not the mythical beast) when fraternal twins begin forming in the womb, but one dies and the other absorbs its DNA. The result is a person with two sets of DNA, which can mean both a female and a male in one body. (I first heard of this on an episode of the TV  show, House, when a female cheerleader came down with testicular cancer.) This can certainly cause social and emotional issues for an individual who has two sets of sexual organs. But spiritually, I think the concerns are the same as for any person. As with all people, a chimera is a sinner in need of forgiveness, and Christ died for him/her as well as for you and me.
Several things came to mind when I read her question. There are the sayings of Isaiah 29:16 and 64:8 and Romans 9:21, which speak of God as the potter and us as the clay, and that he has the right to make us as he wishes. We are all different and yet are all his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10), and all in his image (Genesis 1:26-27). Also, we know that God loves each of us, no matter how we are born, and therefore we must in turn love each other. No accident of birth, or defect, can change God’s love or our duty to love and respect. Certainly, we must be especially compassionate to people born as chimeras, for they will face social and physical challenges. Another reality is that we live in a fallen world where we all suffer, all  have handicaps (some visible, some hidden), all face illnesses and injuries, and all die. We also know from Jesus’ own words that someone born with a defect is not being punished by God for his or her (their) sins. neither the twin that died nor the one who was born is being punished (John 9:3).
At this point you might by thinking, “Okay, this is interesting, but what has it to do with me? I’m not a chimera.” To which I answer, “Oh, yes you are!”
Maybe not a chimera in the medical sense (or mythical sense), but there are two ways that anyone can be considered a chimera in the spiritual sense.
1. First, all people incorporate in their one being, two opposite natures and sets of characteristics. On the one hand, we were created in the image of God and retain much of the glory which he instilled in us: the ability to love, to create, to give, to help, and to fellowship with God and with each other, among other lofty traits. Unfortunately, because sin entered into the world and into us, we suffer under its curse, and therefore embody all that is bad in human thought, attitudes, and actions: we hate, steal, harm, kill, cheat, and deny the God who created and loves us. Because of this, everything we do is tainted; even the most altruistic acts can carry the blemish of pride and self interest. (I’m especially proud of my humility!)
I’ve seen this many times in our modern world, though this is not a new phenomenon. There is no invention or development so wonderful or beneficial that it can’t be turned by sin into something harmful. Had any spam calls, email scams, or identity theft lately?  This goes beyond the unintended negative consequences that good intentions can have, such as wind turbines chopping up birds that get too close, or oil drilling that leaks oil and damages wildlife along beaches. It involves people willfully using technology to harm others. For example, think of the amazing development of airplanes for long-distance travel, only to see them used for bombing, drug-smuggling, and crashing into buildings.
This dual nature of mankind is clearly seen in today’s “cancel culture,” when people who otherwise do admirable things get caught saying or doing something that is either unacceptable or outright terrible. A sports announcer says something insensitive in the heat of an exciting play; a great teacher loses his or her temper at a student, a pastor butchers Martin Luther’s reputation by dressing up like him and speaking in a fake German accent*. Every person we respect or admire is capable of, and has already done, something that is cringe-worthy. Think of Kate Smith, who inspired millions of Americans over the decades with her rendition of the song, “God Bless America”; but also recorded several blatantly racist songs. Or of Martin Luther himself, who both restored the true Gospel to the Christian Church, and advocated burning synagogues. Two natures, indeed.
The problem is that everyone does things that are good and things that are bad. If we cancel everyone who has ever said or done something stupid or nasty,  there won’t be anyone left. Even Robespierre, a leader of the French Revolution, went to the guillotine when the mob turned against him.
So then, all people struggle with this dual identity as both exalted and fallen beings. But what about us Christians? Does this struggle also apply to us? Or are we better than that?
2. This brings us to the second way in which even Christians are chimeras. As believers in Christ we are reborn children of God and inheritors of eternal life (Romans 8:6-7), but while we are still in this body, we retain our fallen natures as well. We are both saint and sinner. We have been redeemed by Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, yet we cling to the old sinful nature, even when we abhor it. The Apostle Paul lamented this duality in Romans 7 when he said,
” 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”
Paul does not use this as an excuse to go on sinning. He doesn’t give the lame excuse, “Well, I’m only human, after all!” No, instead he admonishes us not to keep on sinning, even though God forgives us by his grace. He wrote in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
The Apostle John put it this way, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). See similar teachings in Hebrews 10:26 and 1 Corinthians 15:34.
The point is that even as Christians who are born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:3), we struggle to be faithful to the new spiritual life which God has given us in Christ. The old nature clings to us, tempting us and going against what we know God desires for our lives. We backslide into the old ways, due to social pressures or our own sinful desires, and fall short of God’s will and the new man or woman God has created in us. Then we get discouraged, with Satan whispering in our ear that we are failures, and that all this “God stuff” just isn’t for us.
So, what do we do about this chimeric split personality within us? First, we recognize it exists, so we don’t get blind-sided when we or someone else disappoints us. Second, we thank God for his grace, by which the sinner in us is forgiven, and the saint in us is proclaimed by his righteous decree. Third, we study the Scriptures to know what behavior and thought is consistent with God’s nature and the image he desires in us. Fourth, we seek out others who also strive to be faithful disciples of Christ -in church, Bible studies, charitable ministries, and other common places. Fifth, we pray for God’s strength, knowing that he has given us his own Holy Spirit to convict and guide us, to strengthen and comfort us for our life’s journey. He has promised to provide us a way out from the temptations to sin (1 Corinthians 10:13), even if it means giving us to the strength to run away from it! (1 Corinthians 6:18).
So, my fellow chimeras . . . let us thank God for blessing us with his own image, and for forgiving that other side of us. For in Christ, we are all being made whole again.
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: Romans 7 – 8:11; 1 Corinthians 10:12-14
*Hypothetically, of course.

Three Score and Ten

Three score and ten years ago . . . No, those aren’t the opening words of the Gettysburg Address; Lincoln’s famous 1863 speech began with, “four score and seven years ago,” and referred to the founding of our country in 1776. So to what major event does “three score and ten” refer? Why, to my birth, of course!  Yes, in a little over a week from now, I will celebrate my 70th (three-score and tenth) birthday. It’s hard to believe that I’m now that old, though I’m even older according to Native American reckoning – 71 – since many of those tribes counted the time in the womb as the first year of life.

In most respects, 70 is just another number, and my birthday will be just another day. I will be just another day older and won’t feel much different from the day before. No church bells, sirens, fireworks, or parades to mark the occasion (though there should be!). No, I will just go to bed at age 69 and wake up the next day at age 70.

But in one respect, seventy is a significant age, and that is because of its use in Psalm 90 – the only Psalm ascribed to the great prophet and leader, Moses. This Psalm describes the Lord as being “from everlasting to everlasting” (verse 2), and says that to him, a thousand years are like one night (verse 4). Then it asks the Lord to teach us to “number our days” (verse 12) because unlike God, our time on earth is limited. How limited? According to verse 10, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty . . . they are soon gone, and we fly away.” In King James English, that’s, “threescore years and ten; or fourscore years.”

It’s interesting that despite our advances in nutrition and medical care, in 2020 our life expectancy in the U.S. falls right in the biblical parameters set over 3000 years ago: 75 years for males and 80 years for females. (Maybe I should follow the trend and change genders – and thereby extend my life another five years?)

Whatever my own personal “expiration date,” I think that reaching the three-score-and-ten-year milestone does call for me to number my days and evaluate where I stand.

First of all, I have come to realize that there are just some things I will never accomplish. I will never win an Olympic gold medal (or silver, or bronze); I will never be a billionaire and fly into space; I will never win an Oscar, or an Emmy, or a Grammy; I will never  climb Mt Everest; I will never win a Medal of Honor; I will never run in the Boston Marathon; I will never swim the English Channel (though I did once pass underneath it!); I will never again sing a solo in church; I will never raise water buffaloes; and I will never become President of the United States (though, based on the last two elections, I’m barely old enough to run!).

On the other hand, I have done a lot of amazing things in my three-score and ten years: I have been on the radio, on TV, and in several national journals; I have published a book and written two others; I was a national Merit Scholar and graduated third in my high school class; I once did sing a solo in church, backed up by an all-Black Gospel choir; I have been to 12 countries on four continents (inadvertently invading one of them*); I rode on a Soviet tank and swam in a river in Siberia; I sailed in France, petted reindeer above the Arctic Circle, and preached a sermon in Spanish in Peru; I won my division in my city’s tennis tournament; I earned a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree summa cum laude; I served in the pastoral ministry for 22 years; I read the Scriptures during a worship service in Martin Luther’s  church in Wittenberg, Germany; I have learned (and am still learning) several language; I have a blog (duh!); and, last but not least, I have been married for 47 years!

But of all the important things I could say about my life, there is one above all others: I am a Christian, redeemed by Jesus Christ, forgiven of all my sins, and written in the Book of Life for all eternity (Revelation 3:5). This is ultimately the one that matters, for as Psalm 90 says, my years “are soon gone, and we fly away.” As wonderful as my blessings in this life have been, they will all pass away, and only one thing will remain: eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Other passages in Scripture also emphasize our mortality. 1 Peter 1:24-25 proclaims, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” Genesis 3:19 says, “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Ecclesiastes 3:20 lumps us with the animals, saying “All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.” Psalm 90:3 says, “You return man to dust and say, ‘Return, O children of man!'” Psalm 39:4 says, “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” In the New Testament, James 4:14 says, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” And Hebrews 9:27 reminds us, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. .  .”

By now you’re probably thinking, “Rich sure has gotten morbid now that’s he’s turning 70!” But that’s not the case, because my – and all mankind’s – limited lifetime is not the whole story; as Christians we know that our lives have really just begun. Not only do our spirits go to the Lord at our death, we can look forward to our bodily resurrection, when we will rise to new life in a new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17 and Revelation 21:1). For as Christ has by his own death and resurrection conquered death, so we too shall live: Paul tells us beautifully in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55,

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be  changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. or this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?'”

In the book of Job, that ancient, suffering saint proclaimed joyously in the Bible’s earliest reference to resurrection,

“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job 19:25-27)

The most well-known statement of eternal life is John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In the words of the contemporary Christian song, 10,000 Reasons, the last verse reads, “And on that day when my strength is failing, The end draws near and my time has come, Still my soul will sing your praise unending,  Ten thousand years and then forever more.”

You may have one more question at this point: Do I consider my eternal life to be my greatest accomplishment?  Well, no, because like Paul I cannot boast in anything except in Christ my Savior: “Let the one who boasts,  boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). Why? Because my salvation is not my accomplishment, but the gift of God and by his grace alone. Remember, we are saved by God’s mercy through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28).

Therefore, my greatest “accomplishment” was not done by me, but by God working in and on me. It is to him I turn in thanks for the three score and ten years he already granted me, and for how many years there are still to come. But most of all, I look forward to his greatest gift of all: eternal life in his presence, given by his mercy and love.

Seventy years old? No, not old. Based on God’s promises – which I believe – at 70 years I’m just a new-born babe!

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: Psalm 90; 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 21. 

*I invaded Canada in high school  when the bus I was in failed to check in properly at the border. On the way back to the U.S. the Canadian border agent couldn’t admit an entire bus had gotten past him and entered his country illegally, so he let us go.

 

A Time of Drought

We are in a time of drought.

For those of us living in California, that’s hardly news. We are experiencing the worst drought in centuries, coming hard on the heels of a string of dry years. Lack of winter snows, followed by a dry spring and summer, have led to arid conditions, which are impacting crops, livestock, wildfires, and soon, everyday water use by millions of people. According to one report,  2021 could be one of the driest years in a millennium, with only half of the normal precipitation so far this year.

There’s not much we can do to end the drought, since its out of our hands. All we can do is try to endure and manage the water we do have, the best we can, and of course, pray for rain. As Psalm 135:7 says, “He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.” So let us pray that he does just that, and brings the rain.

Unfortunately as bad as the lack of water is, there is another kind of drought that is also devastating our land, here and throughout the country, and that is a spiritual drought. People’s spirits have dried up, turned to dust, and blown away in the hot winds of life, leaving people thirsting and seeking relief in the arid sands of drugs, material possessions, and entertainments. In doing so, they are like survivors on a life raft who drink the ocean water, only to become thirstier and thirstier until death overtakes them. The signs are all around us as violence, drug overdoses, and suicides reach epidemic proportions.

What are the causes of this spiritual drought? Certainly the past year and a half of the pandemic and the unrelenting coverage and warnings about it have played a part, but the drought goes much deeper. We have survived epidemics and even wars before, but now the situation seems much worse. What’s to blame?

The primary cause of our spiritual drought – and its horrible consequences in society – is our nation’s general rejection of God. This is not to say that there aren’t numerous believers, because there are. The problem is that we have removed the name of God, and the fear of God, from our public life. Every institution has been stripped  of its God-given responsibilities and moral restrictions. Politicians and public officials, educators and students, judges and corporations, movie stars and sports celebrities, have banished God and sought to operate by their own power and desires. In the words of Judges 17:6, “. . . Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

All people are sinners, and we have all broken God’s commandments in both the spirit and the letter of the law, but in former times we at least recognized the validity of those laws; now we have rejected the very idea of there being a set of God-ordained requirements that should form the basis of society. This change in attitude and behavior has come through a steady encroachment of atheistic forces, but even our churches have played their part, either by compromising with the culture to “fit in” or by retreating from engagement with society into seemingly safe fortresses. The result has been a spiritually dry, drought-blasted nation.

I have been very discouraged about this spiritual drought and its consequences in our society. It seems that every day things get worse and worse, until my well of hope has almost dried up. But then I remember the book of Lamentations, in which Jeremiah looked with sadness upon the destruction of Jerusalem and its beloved Temple by the Babylonians. He lamented the loss, but then by faith was able to proclaim,

           My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

           But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of             the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new             every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:20-24)

Jeremiah put his hope for future restoration, not in what his eyes could see, but in what God promised. Over a century before him, another prophet named Isaiah had given God’s word of promise: “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:3). Note that the greater blessing, even greater than water to a parched land, is God’s Spirit. Later, the Lord spoke through the prophet Hosea (13:5) to remind the people, “It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.” Although so many have rejected him, and though God seems at times so far away, he has not forgotten his people. Instead, he calls us to return to him and receive the blessings he desires to give us, even to shower upon us. Even if it seems that the world around us is suffering spiritual drought and its terrible results, God’s promises still hold true for those individuals who believe in him and trust in him.

Psalm 1:2-3 describes the man (person) who delights in God and his Word: “but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.” Jeremiah continues God’s promise of abundant spiritual water: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8).

And how does someone become planted near such abundant spiritual water that refreshes and nourishes his or her spirit? Not by laws or hard work, nor by good deeds or exemplary living, though such actions would improve our society. Those are good things, but are only surface changes and therefore temporary. What it takes for true spiritual blessing is answer the call and promise of Jesus Christ, who  Jesus stood up and cried out, “‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”‘ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” (John 7:37-38).

If you believe in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit, and therefore your own spirit is alive. Water it daily through prayer and the study of God’s Word. Delight in God’s laws and in his promises. And don’t be discouraged; instead, “trust in the Lord with all your heart” (Proverbs 3:5), and worship the One who provides both natural and supernatural water to sustain us now, and through all eternity.

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: Job 24:19; Lamentations 3; John 7:37-39; Revelation 7:17.

 

 

 

Our Father’s World

Some of my favorite memories as a child are about the times I spent at our YMCA’s summer camp in northern Wisconsin. From swimming and boating, to great food and fun campfire programs, to trail rides on the camp’s horses, to catching frogs and toads, there was almost always something going on that I now look back on with fondness.

Some of my memories go back to Sunday mornings at the camp, when all the campers would gather at the outdoor chapel for a worship service (the Catholic campers were taken into town for mass, and the one Jewish counselor had the morning off!). Besides the beautiful, peaceful setting looking out through the trees to the lake below, there was one more thing that made those services special: my dad was worship leader and preacher.

Although he wasn’t an ordained minister, my dad was devout in his faith and always involved in some church or lay ministry. In fact, since the YMCA was in those days a lay Christian ministry, he saw the purpose of his work as implementing the organization’s purpose of furthering Christian values and building a Christian society. So, as our Y’s Youth Director, he would come to the camp on Sundays to see how things were going (and to check up on me?), and to lead the worship.

The one thing I remember most from those Sunday services was my dad’s choice of hymns, which always seemed to include the old hymn, This is My Father’s World.* It always inspired me, sitting surrounded by the beauty of nature, hearing birds, feeling the gentle breeze, and seeing the trees and shimmering lake down below. Add to that, the fact that my own father was up front leading the service, and you can see why even today I have such fond memories and an appreciation for that hymn. I still affirm that this is indeed my Father’s world.

But in what way is it my Father’s world, speaking as the song does, of God, being our heavenly Father?

  1. At the time, and for most of my life, the hymn has spoken to me of the natural world which God designed and created by his power. How beautiful his creation is, from mountains to oceans, to rivers and lakes; from trees and flowers to rocks; from sun and moon to stars; and most amazing, creatures from the small frogs I would catch at the camp, to the horses we rode, to the birds, and yes, even to the mosquitos we swatted. Everything in nature that shouted “God!” was praised in the hymn, which reminded us that this world is indeed a gift from God and from him alone.  This world is from him and belongs to him. We just get to live in it.

Think of the ways God has reminded us of this fact. Genesis 1 recounts the creation of all things in the heavens and on earth by God, who sums up his work in verse 27: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Psalm 8:3-4 says, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Romans 1:19 says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Colossians 1:16 reminds us that by Christ, “all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Hebrews 3:4 says, “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Jeremiah 32:7 proclaims, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” There are more verses which proclaim God as Creator, but let me add this one more from psalm 90:2, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” This is truly our Father’s world as proclaimed in the first two verses of the hymn:

This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass, I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.

From both the affirmations of Scripture and my own senses, I have never doubted that God is real, that he is all wise and powerful, and that he is the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists. This is my Father’s world – and universe.

2. But recently, I have had to look closer at the hymn’s third verse, which asserts that this is God’s world, regardless of its problems and challenges. With all the horrible things going on in the world, and especially now in our country, it would be very easy to think that everything is out of control, that our faith has lost the battle, and that the forces of evil have taken charge to remake everything in their own image. God’s commandments are thrown out, people look to the material world as all their is. As Carl Sagan put it, “The universe is all that is, ever was, or ever will be.” As Paul put it in Romans 1:25, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”

But no matter how discouraged we might be, or how dominant the anti-Christian forces seem to be these days, we must not forget the truth which the hymn proclaims in its third verse:

This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!

God alone raises up rulers and brings them down. He alone sets the time span for nations and empires, for the righteous and sinners alike. He is the sovereign, in-charge ruler over all. Though we don’t know his purposes in the events we see or the struggles we face, we must remain confident that in the end, God’s will, will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He will judge us all with perfect justice, so those who mock him will not prevail: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”(Galatians 6:7). And above all, God’s love and mercy will triumph over all (James 2:13b), for not only is he the all powerful Father, he also loves us more than even our earthly fathers can.

For that I am grateful, to my earthly father for his love and Christian testimony, and to my – our – heavenly Father for all he has done, and will yet do, in this, his world.

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: Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 66:2; Revelation 4:11; Isaiah 45:18

*Public domain, written by Rev. Maltbie Davenport Babcock, published in 1901 as a poem, and in 1925 with the music.

In Like a Lamb, Out Like a Lion

As we move ahead toward the end of March, I am reminded of the old saying: “March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb.” I first heard this statement when I was a kid (Yes, the saying is that old! Or should I say, “olde”?*) I learned that it referred to the change of seasons, and the resulting change of weather, during the month of March, when winter turns to spring. The cold, blustery and stormy weather of the beginning of the month, has transformed – much like the opening of the first daffodils – to sunshine and warm and gentle breezes. March does come in, roaring and charging like a lion, but by the end of the month, it goes out like a frolicking, new-born spring lamb. How cute!

At this point, I must apologize to my Australian friends and readers for my Northern-centric observation, for as we all know, the seasons are reversed in the Southern hemisphere. There, March marks the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, so the warm, balmy weather there gives way to increasingly cool temperatures and stormy winds. To our antipodal friends, “March comes in like a lamb, but goes out like a lion.” And they are right.

But they are right in another way, too, that goes beyond any meteorological meaning, because the phrase, “In like a lamb, but out like a lion” can also speak of the two comings of Jesus Christ.

The first coming of Jesus into the world was lamblike:

The first coming of Jesus into the world was lamblike: as a helpless baby, born in a stable and then cradled in a feed trough. His family was poor, and he remained so throughout his life, having, as he himself put it, “nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). He came humbly, setting aside his divine rights and privileges, taking on human form and physicality through which he suffered hunger, thirst, torture, and even death. Philippians 2 expresses Christ’s  humbling in the beautiful words, “but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (verses 7-8).

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter

Jesus endured the taunts, derision, mocking, and outright brutality that he didn’t deserve. He refused to use his miraculous powers to feed, heal, or enrich himself; he held firm to his sacrificial servant attitude when tempted by Satan in the desert, and when urged by his own disciples not to go to the cross. His harshest criticism of Peter was when the latter rebuked Jesus for predicting his death at the hands of the chief priests and scribes: “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mark 8:33). And once arrested, Jesus refused to curse or blaspheme his accusers, or beg for their mercy; instead, he fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

This is not to say Jesus was a wimp. Although a lamb can hardly defend itself or attack people (though a fellow church member once suffered a broken leg when one of her grown sheep smashed her into a fence!), Jesus was in no way helpless or cowering in fear. He who had power to calm storms by voice command, turn water into wine, heal the sick, cast out demons, and even raise the dead, could have easily brought judgment down on his enemies. As he told his disciples at the moment of his arrest, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions  of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). But he didn’t, so that his purpose of saving the world could be fulfilled.

This sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ first coming is summed up in the term, “Lamb of God.” As commanded by the Lord God, the Israelites put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and lintels during the tenth plague of Egypt; when God struck down the first-born son of each household, he passed over the homes which were marked with that blood. Hence the Passover was born, celebrated to this day by Jews, and by Christians who recognize that the blood of the sacrificed lamb was a symbol of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. We who are in Christ are marked by his blood, the blood of the Lamb, so that we are spared eternal death and judgment.

The Scriptures are clear about Christ being the Lamb whose innocent blood was shed to save us from our sins. At the outset of Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist pointed his own disciples to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29 and 1:36). Then, in 1 Corinthians 5:7, Paul declares, “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Peter likewise proclaimed we were ransomed from judgment, not with silver or gold, “but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” And then the final book of the Bible, Revelation, calls Jesus the Lamb no fewer than twenty-four times! My favorite verse of the latter is Revelation 13:8, which speaks of those whose names are written in the “book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (KJV).

Jesus came to us like a lamb, offering himself as the innocent sacrifice for our sins, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Thanks to God for his great love, by which he offered up his own son that we might be reconciled to him.

Yes, Jesus came to us the first time like a lamb, but the next time, it will be very different. When Christ returns, he will be a lion.

When Christ returns, he will be a lion.

Lions are impressive animals – on the one hand majestic and beautiful, on the other, powerful and dangerous. No, “Here, kitty, kitty.” Try messing with one of her cubs, and a mother lioness will tear you to shreds – and then feed you to her cute little kitties. It’s not for no reason that lions are called, “the king of beasts.” The Lion King, indeed!

The Scriptures used this symbol of a powerful lion ravaging and destroying its enemies, as a metaphor for God bringing judgment on his enemies. The symbol was applied to the tribe of Judah when Jacob blessed his sons in Genesis 49. Jacob prophesied of Judah, saying, “Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?” The lion became a sign of the tribe of Judah, and of the king who would come from that lineage: Jesus Christ. From the first book of the Bible, we look to the last – Revelation – which calls Jesus, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5).

When God prophesied through Hosea to warn the two Israelite kingdoms about his coming vengeance, he said, “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue” (Hosea 5:14).

Even when the term “lion” is not used, the effect is the same, that Jesus will return in power and judgment to overcome all enemies and rule the nations. 1 Corinthians 15:25-27 says, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” 

Revelation 19:15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

The King, who fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy by coming to us, humble and riding on a donkey (9:9) when he entered Jerusalem, won’t be riding a donkey next time. Revelation 19 says he will come riding into battle on a white horse: “The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.”

When Christ returns, he will bring judgment on the earth, and all will have to bow and give account of their lives (Romans 14:12). Jesus himself warned, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,” (Matthew 12:36).

The Good News of course, is that for those who are in Christ there is now no condemnation. Our sins are forgiven, and we stand before the throne of God as his redeemed. Thank God that we can stand before the coming of the Lion with joy and not fear!

In like a Lamb, out like a Lion. It’s a good thing he decided to do it in that order, because if he had come the first time in righteous judgment, we would all have been doomed, “for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” (Joel 2:11).

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: Revelation 5; Revelation 19

* The first printed reference to this saying was in 1742 in Merry Olde England.

Jesus and Belial, Part 2

In my previous blog, I told about reading a newspaper ad for an “interfaith” prayer meeting to be held online as a way to show, in the sponsors’ words, “the kinship of all Faiths.” I commented on that assertion and request by stating that other than some idealized moral values, such as the Golden Rule, Christianity is not kin to other faiths. Nor are they kin to each other, because their beliefs are not only different, but at times, polar opposites.

In addition, by participating publicly in a joint prayer session, Christians are giving subtle approval to, and acceptance of, those other faiths. We are telling people that all faiths are basically the same, each being one of many paths to God – though the ideas of who and what God is, are so different. As Christians, we must continuously demonstrate that Christ is unique, the Only Son of God, and the One Way to the Father. As Jesus himself proclaimed, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, except trough me” (John 14:6).

Jesus’ claims were very exclusionary, and the rest of Scripture agrees. He said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13). He also said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:9-10). He also told the crowds, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). And later, Peter said of Jesus, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”(Acts 4:12). Also, Paul proclaimed the exclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: “As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9). And, of course, this unique claim begins in the Old Testament, when the Lord God commands his people in the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3 and Deuteronomy 5:7).

Reminded that there is but one God, the God of the Bible, and only one way to him, how then do we live in and respond to the society around us that affirms “diversity” of belief and extols every religion except Christianity? My answer is not new, but hopefully it can encourage you to hold fast to the truth and set aside any doubts that may arise from constant anti-Christian messaging in our culture. Consider the following:

1. Know what the Bible says, and what Jesus taught. By your own study and learning of God’s Word, you can avoid and refute incorrect ideas and charges made against Christians. Did Adam and Eve eat an apple? No, the Bible just says, fruit. Is the Christian faith racist? No; Jesus commanded preaching the Gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19-20) and Revelation tells us that heaven will have a multitude that no one can count, “from every  nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” That’s as inclusive as you can get! Know the true Gospel, of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ apart from any works or righteousness we can personally achieve.

2. Don’t believe the movie and television trope that Christianity is a prudish, guilt-ridden group of hypocrites. Notice how many shows make Christians (especially preachers and priests!) the villains. Gangsters wear crosses and serial killers have crosses on their walls and mumble phrases like “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord!” before doing their evil deeds. Learn what Christians have done to benefit society and alleviate the natural states of poverty and suffering. It’s no accident that so many hospitals have the word “Saint” as part of their name. There’s not enough room here to even list all the blessings Christians have brought about because of their faith, such as written languages, literacy, hospitals, orphanages, disaster relief, nursing, sports (including basketball and volleyball), adult night schools, Braille and American Sign Language, the abolition of slavery, and the  recognition of human worth and dignity. As Christians we have nothing to be ashamed about when we bear the name of Christ.* Paul proclaimed, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. . . ” (Romans 1:16).

3. Remember that the Christian faith is not a fortress faith, living on an isolated island, trying to keep people out. While we are commanded to defend the faith (1 Peter 3:15 says, “. . . always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;”), our faith is not essentially a defensive one. On the contrary, it is meant to be an assertive faith, one which seeks to reach out and proclaim the good news of what God has done for us in Christ. After all, Jesus didn’t say the gates of heaven would shield us, but that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church (Matthew 16:18). When Jesus came, he didn’t set up a secret  monastery where he and his disciples could hide while he taught them exclusive truths; instead, he went among the people and proclaimed the truth openly. As a result, sinners repented, Pharisees such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea converted, and even Romans believed (Acts 10). Jesus pushed back against the devil’s territory by establishing and expanding the kingdom of God, which he proclaimed had now come in him. As Christians, we must not be content in just “holding our own,” but in working to expand the kingdom into which Jesus called us, through our personal witness, evangelism and missions.

4. Remember the twin Greatest Commandment, affirmed by Jesus himself: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). This means we must love, honor, and worship the true God and hold fast to his teachings, yet at the same time love others as much as we love ourselves – even if those neighbors don’t love us or God. This means we owe every person respect, even if we don’t think he or she deserves it. In the context of cross-faith relations, it means we respect the other person and their attempt to do what is right. We look for non-religious ways in which to cooperate, such as on sports teams, at work, or in school. We help our literal neighbors when they have a need, letting God work in their hearts and minds through our kindly witness. And we explain the true faith in loving and patient ways, so the other person knows clearly who Christ is and what he accomplished for the world. Remember Peter’s words which followed his command to defend the faith: “. . .  do it with gentleness and respect.”

One day a Sikh man with bloody bare feet came to my church office, asking to see Jesus. I spent several hours with him, talking about Christ and taking him to a church where he could see a large crucifix in the sanctuary. After that, I drove him to a nearby Sikh Temple, where he could get food and perform one of his religion’s rites. In all those things, I was bearing witness and showing him personal respect and brotherly love. I even went into his temple and met one of his fellow Sikhs near their altar. But when they offered me what was their equivalent of communion (a ball of sweet wafer material), I declined, explaining that my God is a jealous God, and would not allow me to participate in another religion’s ceremony. Years later, the man showed up again at my office, thanking me for caring for him as I did.

5. Finally, when it comes to prayer, we must absolutely pray for all people, and work for their health, well-being, and their salvation. We should never rejoice in their failures, hurts, or demise. We should never assume a haughty air of religious superiority, for that is what Jesus condemned in the Pharisees, the religious “stars” of their day. They did all the right things, said all the right words, and knew all the right Scriptures, but had no love, so they were like the “noisy gong or clanging cymbal” which Paul decried in 1 Corinthians 13:1. We must remember that it is by God’s grace alone that we have salvation in Christ. We are no less sinful than anyone else, but we are beneficiaries of God’s love and mercy through his only Son, Jesus Christ, and not by our own righteousness or membership in any group. Only because we are in Christ are we saved, and therefore we are compelled to love all for whom Christ bled and died – which is the entire world.

We must love everyone just as they are, but we must love them enough not to leave them where they are, but to show them Jesus in word and deed, that they too may rejoice in the salvation which he alone has brought the world.

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

Read: John 14:1-14; Acts 4:1-22; 10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 1:6-10.

*The book, What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1994, has 275 pages telling the many ways which Christianity has benefitted the world. 

A Better Baptism

Have you ever seen a TV commercial that went like this: a clunker of a car putts along while other cars race past, leaving it in the dust. Finally its engine conks out, and the driver coasts to the shoulder of the highway, while a soothing voice comes on to say, “Our cars don’t run too well, but they make excellent gifts to charities.”

Or did you ever see a fast-food restaurant named “So-So Burgers” with signs in its  window that read, “The burgers are better…across the street,” and “We love to see you frown”?

Or did you catch any candidates in the recent presidential campaign say anything like this: “I appreciate your support, but my opponent will make a much better president, so I’m voting for him myself and think you should, too!”

Or imagine Bill Gates holding a press conference where he says, “Our Windows software is pretty good, but if you want a better system, get a Macintosh.”

We’re not too likely to hear that kind of advertising, are we? Everyone claims their own product or service is the best available, because they want your business. It makes sense for them to promote what they have to sell. We’re used to that self-promotion; in fact, we expect it.

That makes it all the more fascinating when we read what John the Baptist had to say about the baptism which he was offering to the people of his day. Crowds of people had come down to the Jordan River valley, responding to John’s call for repentance from their sins. The culmination of their repentance was to be baptized by John in the river, and many answered the call. It was to these people that John made an astounding announcement. Basically John said something like this: “This baptism you’re getting from me is okay, but just wait. Someone is coming soon who will have a far better baptism than mine.” Poor John. He sure wouldn’t have made it in the advertising business….or would he? Why did John downplay his own baptizing in favor of someone else’s?

John did so for two reasons.

First, the crowds were beginning to believe that John the Baptist could be the Messiah they had been expecting. The time was right, he was preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins, he called for righteous living in preparation for the coming of God’s Kingdom, John lived a holy life, and he even looked like a prophet –  dressed in camel’s hair coat and leather belt. And so the people began to ask each other, “Is John the Messiah?” John wanted them to know in no uncertain terms, that he was not the Messiah, but only the one sent to prepare the way for the true Messiah who was yet to come. John told them his own baptism was inferior, because he was inferior to Christ – unworthy to even untie Christ’s sandals.

The second reason John played down his own baptism was that the nature of John’s baptism was different from the baptism which Jesus would bring. Something different was taking place when each baptized someone. Let’s compare them:

  1. John’s baptism: in one sense, what John was doing was not new to the Jewish people. Already, when a gentile converted to Judaism, he or she would be baptized as a symbolic act that their uncleanness as a gentile was being washed away. And for Jews, many would have repeated washings or baptisms to get rid of ceremonial uncleanness so they could go to the temple and participate in Jewish rituals. When John called for repentance of the people, he was asking them to repent more fully of their sins, but the actual act of baptizing them was not much different from what went before – it was a symbolic act, and primarily a human promise to turn away from sin.
  1. Jesus’ baptism, on the other hand, was, and is, much more than symbolic. Jesus’ baptism is primarily an act of God by which God’s grace and forgive- ness are truly granted to those being baptized. It is an act of God because Jesus is God. It is also an act of God because the Holy Spirit, who is God, comes upon the person being baptized. They are baptized with the Holy Spirit and not just water. With the Spirit comes forgiveness, but also new life as one is reborn a child of God. Baptism is more than water cleansing the outside; it is also the Spirit of God cleansing and remaking the inside. We are never alone, for the Spirit lives within us: guiding us, enabling us to resist sin and empowering us to do works which are pleasing to God. Eternal life is promised to those who believe and are baptized, and we are told that our baptism joins us to Christ’s death, and to his resurrection. When you see all that Christ’s baptism brings, you can see why John pointed his hearers to look for the greater baptism to come.

It’s not that John’s baptism was bad. The Gospels say John spoke the word of God, and in Luke 20 – Jesus implied that John’s baptism came from God. And as we read earlier, Jesus himself was baptized by John.

But the superiority of Christ’s baptism was shown later on, in Acts 19, when Paul met a group of believers who had been baptized by John, but didn’t know anything about the Holy Spirit. Paul baptized them in Jesus’ name, and at once the Holy Spirit came upon them powerfully. You might say their baptism was upgraded!

In a sense, John’s baptism was the last act of the Old Covenant. Like the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, it brought remedy for sin to those who believed God’s promises. But also like the rest of the Old Covenant, John’s baptism was a temporary shadow of what was to come. Now that Christ had come to institute the New Covenant, the Old had to pass away. With the New came something better – a better baptism than what John could offer.

As baptized Christians, we have a better baptism. We have the baptism promised by John and instituted by Christ, a baptism with the Holy Spirit.

So why would you go back and trade in your better baptism for a lesser one? If you wouldn’t, that’s great, yet today there are many Christians who seem ready to do just that. They actually prefer the baptism of John. They certainly wouldn’t say they do, nor even think of it that way. But, the truth is: they treat their Christian baptism as if it were no better than John’s baptism, and thereby miss out on some of what Christ has for them. They make two major mistakes:

  1. They forget that Christian baptism is mainly an act of God. Some Christians think baptism is a good work they are doing for God, like they’re earning Brownie points. Others, even entire denominations, deny that baptism has any real power in it. They call it an ordinance, meaning something we do because Christ told us to, as a sign of our faith, but not as a saving act of God. Worse yet, I’m afraid many people view baptism only as an initiation into church membership, like when I joined a fraternity in college, and had to walk around downtown Chicago at night, carrying a wooden sword and selling toilet paper at a penny a sheet to earn bus fare back to the college. (Fortunately I ran into a guy who bought the whole roll for $5.00!)  Baptism is a gracious gift from God, and he remains the primary actor in the drama. His blessings given are real, not just symbolic, and once we understand and accept this, we view our baptism with gratitude and certainty, because its value depends on the faithfulness of God and his promises, and not on our actions.
  1. They forget that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and not just water.

There are two groups that make this mistake. One group sees baptism as a symbolic action, a church ritual without any supernatural power. They don’t expect any real changes to occur except what the people do for themselves. It’s really sad they have that view and expect so little from God in the sacrament. Scripture describes them as: “Having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

The other group believes greatly in the power of the Holy Spirit, except they don’t think the Spirit comes during water baptism. They teach that there is a second baptism – a Holy Spirit baptism – which comes at some other time. And in their view, speaking in tongues is the evidence you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

While I respect their desire for spiritual gifts, this group reduces Christian baptism – that which Christ commanded us to do for all nations – with water – and relegates it to something no greater than John’s baptism, because like John’s they say it is just water and no Spirit.

But the New Testament knows just one baptism – Christ’s – complete with the Holy Spirit and the promise of forgiveness and new life. When a person is baptized, there may not be any outward evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work. But the greatest work of the Spirit is what takes place invisibly as the Holy Spirit regenerates and brings spiritual life to the person being baptized.

That is the baptism you have received – the one instituted by Jesus Christ, commanded by him, and empowered by his Holy Spirit. Don’t despise the great gift which God has given you, or trade it in for a lesser one. You have the better baptism, so rejoice and treasure it.

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: Luke 3:15-22; Luke 20:1-8; Acts 19:1-7

 

For All the Aints

In 1980, the New Orleans Saints football team had a bad season. They lost game after game, playing horribly, until their record after 14 games was: zero wins and 14 losses. In frustration, a local sports announcer started calling them the “Aints” instead of the “Saints.” And the name stuck as the hapless team went on to finish the season with only one win.

I thought about that name during the church service on November 1st. In keeping with the long-standing tradition (since the Third Century!) we celebrated All Saints Day. On that day, the Church celebrates the lives of all believers in Jesus Christ, especially those who have died before us. My favorite hymn for the day (and one of my favorites for any day) is called, For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest*; its strains rise triumphantly in honor of the saints who down through the ages have endured to the end, and even suffered, for their faith, dying without having seen the fulfillment of their hope for Christ’s return. As the hymn declares, they will rise gloriously to be with their Lord in his eternal victory. The first verse proclaims,

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Then, after several verses extolling the faithful struggles of the saints, verse 7 rejoices:

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
the saints triumphant rise in bright array;
the King of glory passes on his way.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

With such a stirring and triumphant hymn, why would I ever think about a football team that fared so badly 40 years ago? Why? Because my warped mind started imagining, “What if there were a song called, For All the Aints?”

Now, let me be clear: by “Aints” I don’t mean those believers who “aint” with us anymore because they died. Nor do I mean those Christians who don’t live up to what I believe are biblical standards of conduct. What I mean is, those who “aint” among the saints, because they don’t, or didn’t, believe in Jesus Christ.

Saints are those who, by their faith in Christ and by his righteousness and grace, are declared to be saints. Although some special individuals are known by the title of Saint because of their special devotion and lives of service to Christ and his kingdom, every believer is also a saint, as witnessed by Saint Paul’s use of the term when addressing the believers in the various churches. For example, when writing to the believers in Corinth, Paul greets them by saying, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. . . “(1 Corinthians 1:2). Likewise, he addresses the church in Ephesus with the words, “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus . . .” (Ephesians 1:1). He repeats such greetings to the believers in Rome, Colossae, and Philippi. In other words, he calls all Christians, saints.

Aints are, by contrast, non-believers. They may be “good” and moral people. We may respect them and enjoy their company. They may make great neighbors. They may even live saintly lives. But when it comes to counting the vast multitude of the saved from every nation, tribe, and language (Revelation 7:9 and 19:1), they aint among them.

So, once again, you may wonder why I would think of a song title that extols non-believers. The answer is, I’m not extoling them; rather, I’m extoling Jesus Christ, who came to earth to save the aints, among whom every one of us was numbered. Why did Jesus die? For All the Aints.

That this was indeed Christ’s mission is clear by multiple passages of Scripture, not to mention the entire grand sweep of the entire Bible. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Saint Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost,” and in Romans 5:8, he wrote, “ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Saint Peter affirmed God’s love for the lost, writing that God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). It’s clear: Jesus came and died “for all the aints.”

Jesus’ mission, made possible and anchored in his death and resurrection, continues today, because the world is still full of aints. Jesus’ mission is now the primary work of his Church, which by the power of the Holy Spirit enables aints to become saints through God’s Word and the Sacraments. This is the Great Commandment which Jesus gave his followers after his resurrection and before ascending to heaven: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). Likewise, in Mark 13:10, Jesus predicated his return on the Gospel first being preached throughout the world to every nation. His command to us is clear: leaving aints as aints just aint acceptable.

I could go on and on with the evidence from Scripture’s commands and the examples of saints who have gone before, but I’ll finish by focusing on what the result of proclaiming the Gospel will be, according to my new song, For All the Aints:

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
those who were aints will rise in bright array;
now they’re saints, their faith is on display.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

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: Hebrews 11, Revelation 7, Mark 13

*For All the Saints, written by William W. How, 1823-1897.

More Than Just Halloween

Today is October 31st, known everywhere as Halloween. But this day is much more than a day for kids to dress up and go out to gather candy and other goodies while yelling, “Trick or treat!” Much more. For today is the 503rd anniversary of one of the most important days in Church history and in the history of Western civilization: the day that Martin Luther posted a notice on the door of his church in Wittenberg, Germany, challenging the teachings and practices of the Church (and government) of his day and starting the Protestant Reformation. But what happened, and just as importantly, why did it happen? Rather than me trying to tell you, let’s hear from Martin Luther himself . . .

Guten Morgen! Meine Name ist Martin Luther, ja? You may know me as a monk, a priest, a doctor of theology, a professor, or a pastor . . . but did you know that I am now also known as a “wild boar?” It’s true; according to this proclamation of the Pope  I am . . . well, hear for yourself: “Exsurge Domine . . .” oops, sorry, it’s in Latin. Let me translate: “Arise, O Lord, protect your church, the vineyard which the wild boar from the forest seeks to destroy.”

How is it that the Pope himself wrote a proclamation against me, with the title, “Condemning the Errors of Martin Luther?” What happened that I should be so condemned? To explain, we must go back to another October 31, in the Year of Our Lord 1517, when I nailed my own proclamation to the door of a Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Like today, it was All-Hallowed Eve, and I knew that the next day, All Saints Day, many people would be in church to remember all those believers who have gone before us into heaven. I wanted to be sure that many would see this poster, because I hoped the 95 questions, or theses, which I had written on it would cause serious discussion about some of the beliefs and practices of the Christian church of my day

Well, I got my wish – and then some! But, let me explain how it all came to pass, and what happened because of it . . .

I was born in Eisleben, Germany, in the year of our Lord 1483. My parents, especially my father, Hans, were very strict with me, but they made sure I got a good education. And so at the age of 5 I learned Latin. I also learned about God  and Jesus Christ, but mostly I learned about God’s punishment of sinners. Because  I knew I too was a sinner, I feared God greatly. If you would say Jesus’ name, I would shake and tremble, for I knew that Jesus was an angry Judge, just waiting to punish me for my sins.

As I grew, it came time for me to go to the university in Erfurt, where I studied law, as my father wanted me to do. But though I was a good student and advanced very quickly, I still was not happy, because I had no peace with God. For though I was now educated, I was just an educated sinner, waiting for God’s judgment.

Then came the day that everything changed, when I thought my time of judgment had arrived.

I was walking to Erfurt one day, when a terrible storm arose, more terrifying than any I had ever experienced. I hurried along, looking for shelter, but found myself out in a field as the wind and rain hammered against me. Finally, in the midst of peals of thunder, a bolt of lightning struck me to the ground. At that instant, I thought I was about to die, and all my fears of death and judgment and God filled me with horror!

I cried out for God to save me, “If you let me live, I will become a monk!”  The seconds went by, I got up and felt myself to see if I was still alive, and I was! So I hurried on to Erfurt, quit my law studies, gave away all my possessions, and joined the nearby monastery. I became a monk. Now, I thought, I shall certainly lead a far more God-pleasing life than I ever did at the university.

Of all the professions in my day the monk was considered the most pleasing to God. Certainly a man who gave up the world and its pleasures and wealth, to live a life of prayer, worship, poverty, and self-denial would earn salvation! And if anyone could have been saved by his monkery, it was I! I worked hard all day long. I fasted by going without meals; I slept on a cot in the winter with no heat or blanket, I whipped myself with ropes whenever I had sinful thoughts, I prayed and attended services every day, but still I could not find peace with God. Had I done enough? Were my motives good enough? I went to confession many times a day, searching my heart and mind for every sinful thought and action, until I wore out the abbot from hearing me. Finally he told me, “Martin, go out and sin so you have something to confess!” But he did not know how I felt inside, that I was a sinner standing in judgment because I might have missed confessing even one sin. And had I confessed my sins fervently enough, or had my mind wandered? Was I really sorry I had sinned?

Soon, I was ordained a priest, able to celebrate Holy Communion. But for me, it was not much of a celebration, because I so feared touching God with my sinful hands that the first time I held the cup, I shook with fear and spilled the wine.

Even as I wrestled with my sins before a holy God, I was given the chance  to go on a trip to the holy city, to Rome, the home and throne of the Pope. I thought, surely, this would be the one place I would find forgiveness and peace with God, at the center of his church.

When I got there, I did all the things a good Christian pilgrim is supposed to do – I attended many masses, visited shrines and looked upon the bones of saints, and I climbed the Sancta Scalia – the Holy Stairway – brought to Rome from Jerusalem, and the very stairs upon which Jesus climbed to be tried by Pilate. It was said that you could assure salvation for someone if you crawled up the steps and kissed each one, while reciting the Lord’s Prayer. And so I did – but when I got to the top, I looked down and asked, “Who knows if it is true?”

When I finally left Rome, it was with a heavy heart. After seeing the riches and corruption of the church, and failing to find the assurance of forgiveness I needed,   I despaired. My works had failed me, my church had failed me, what was left? I had nowhere left to turn, but to the Bibel, the Holy Scriptures. And there I found what I had been seeking. I was appointed as a professor of the Bible to the new university in Wittenberg. But to teach the scriptures, I had to study them more carefully.

The more I studied God’s word, the more convinced I became that we are forgiven and saved, that is justified, by God’s grace alone through faith alone, totally apart from our works. Only in this way can we be sure of our salvation, because Christ’s death on the cross for us is totally sufficient to pay for all our sins. When I trust in him and in his forgiveness, freely given, then I am saved. I read Ephesians 2 which says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and not by works…” and in Romans 1, I read, “The righteous shall live by faith.” When the truth of this finally sunk in,  I felt as if I had been born again, and entered that moment into paradise through gates which were flung wide open!  The burden of salvation was off of me – I could not be perfect enough to be accepted by God – but I was accepted by the merits of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ!

When I realized this great truth of the Gospel, I began to look more closely at what we were doing and teaching in the Church, and I saw that we had strayed from the Bible’s teaching into the traditions of men. The Holy Bibel must be our only source of faith and life. If the Pope and church say Ja, but the Bibel says “Nein”, then the answer is “Nein – no.” And as for popes and councils, they can err, but as for scripture, it can never err. It is the trustworthy word of God himself; it is the cradle in which Jesus is found.  It is also important that everyone be able to read the Bibel, so I have been laboring to translate it into the language of the people – German – so you can all read it for yourselves.

But what led me to write these 95 Theses was the church’s practice of selling indulgences. Let me explain – the church has taught that there is a special place of punishment called purgatory. We were taught that when Christians die, we don’t go straight to heaven, but rather must spend time in purgatory being tortured for our sins. Of course, no one wants to be tortured, so the church offered a solution – buy an indulgence. To get one, you pay money to the church. An indulgence promises the pope will forgive you of the need to go to purgatory. You, or a loved one. So, when I crawled up the steps in Rome, and paid my fee, I was given an indulgence for my dead grandfather, to get him out of purgatory. At the time I was sorry my father wasn’t dead yet, or I would have gotten him out of purgatory too!

The church uses relics of the saints – their bones or something belonging to them – which it puts on display, and then charges people to see them, in exchange for an indulgence. People are told they will be forgiven by their good works of looking at the relics, whether they repent of their sins or not. But what lies are told! One church claims to have a feather from the angel Gabriel, another has flame from Moses’ burning bush, and how is it that there are 18 apostles buried in Germany, when Jesus had only 12?

There was even a priest named Johann Tetzel going around germany with a large money chest, collecting payments for indulgences. He announced to the crowds, “Sowie das Geld im Kasten klingt, die Seele aus dem Fegfeuer springt.” Which means,  “As in the box the money rings,  the soul from purgatory springs.”

Das ist nicht gut! The Bibel says nothing about purgatory; it does say that our sins – and the punishment for them – are taken away completely by Jesus Christ, that his death is sufficient for all our sins. Nothing I can pay, or look at, or obtain from the church can add to what Christ has already done for me.

That was when I decided I had to raise questions about indulgences to the church, so I wrote out 95 questions on a poster, and on October 31, 1517, I nailed them to the door of the Castle Church. And you now what happened next? Boy did they get mad! Ach, I was called a traitor and a heretic! My books were burned! The pope called me a wild boar in the vineyard of the church – and then he excommunicated me – twice! So I excommunicated him back!

Later, I was put on trial before the Emperor himself, at the Diet of Worms. When I entered the hall I saw a table with my books spread out on it. I was asked if I had written them, and I said yes. Then I was ordered to take back what I had written. But how could I deny the grace of God and the truth of the Gospel? How could I take back what the Bibel says? My answer was, “If you can show me by reason and the scriptures where I am wrong, then I will recant. But if not, then here I stand! I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen!” After that, I had to flee from the city of Worms, and hide out in the Wartburg castle for almost a year. Many are those who would destroy me, but God’s protective hand has been around me – and a mighty fortress is our God!

Since then, much has happened. There was my return to Wittenberg as pastor and leader of what has now been called the Reformation. There was my marriage to a former nun named Katherine von Bora – my dear Katie I call her – and the birth of six children – I called them our little heathens! I have finished the Bibel translation into German, and have written many other books.

But the Reformation is not my work, any more than salvation is a human work. Both are works of God, though God does use sinful people like the apostles (all 18 of them!) and me to spread the good news of what Christ has done for all of us. In my day, the church had lost its way, and had forgotten the truth that sets us free from the law of sin and death. God used me to reform his church, but in every age he uses his faithful people – like you – to keep the truth alive and spreading.

So stand firm in the faith, and never give up no matter what the difficulties. Never forget that you have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  The church does not belong to us. The good works we do are not for our glory. It is all God’s doing, and therefore we can trust in him and in the final outcome, according to his timing.

Speaking of timing: my time is up. I must follow the advice I give to young preachers – “Tritt’s frisch auf, offn’ Maul auf, hoer bald auf.” – “step up lively, open your trap, and close it again soon!”

So for now, Auf Wiedersehen, from the wild boar in the vineyard!

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

Read: Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 1:16-17 and 3:21-31                 

Are You Woke?

Are you “woke”?

That’s a question people may ask you when they hear you snoring during one of my sermons. Hypothetically. Not that it ever actually happened. How could it? Sure, I did see a few yawns during my times in the pulpit, but I’m sure those were from people who had worked all Saturday night and found peace in what I was preaching . . . right?

More likely, these days when people speak of being “woke,” they’re not talking about the physiological state of not being asleep, but rather about being aware of issues of social justice. According to The Urban Dictionary, “woke” is “A word currently used to describe ‘consciousness’ and being aware of the truth behind things ‘the man’ doesn’t want you to know.” The idea is to be “awake” to the social situations and realities of our history and culture.

It’s an interesting term. Of course, its use implies there is a specific reality to which one should be “woke.” To be considered to be properly “woke,” one must not only know about, but also agree with a certain political viewpoint, specifically that of left-wing politics. It would do you no good to claim to be “woke” to other political or economic realities. You couldn’t say, for example, that you are “woke” to the benefits of the free market. Or are “woke” to the great accomplishments of our nation’s founders. Or, that you are “woke” to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

And yet, that last statement is the one true statement that shows you are really “woke” to the reality that is the most important fact of all history, the fact which transcends all others: political, economic, and historical. While today’s use of the term “woke” may seem new, the idea of knowing and understanding truth is as old as, well, the Bible.

Scripture speaks of waking up in three powerful ways besides the normal use of the term to refer to arousing from natural nighttime slumber.

1. The first is the call to wake up from the slumber of going through life unaware of God and our relationship to him. Psalm 14:1 proclaims, “The  fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” To go on through life unaware of God, his power and his sovereignty over everything is to be foolish. It is like sleeping all day and missing all that is important in life; worse, our eyes are open, but the cares and needs of the world around us keep our eyes blind to the reality that is really important. Like the person whose house is burning down, but hits the snooze button on his alarm clock to shut off the smoke detector, our “few more minutes of sleep,” ignoring God’s call on our lives, puts us in mortal danger.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32*). But his statement was not about knowledge in general, or science, or philosophy, or the latest political correctness; rather, it was about being set free from the bondage to sin by knowing him and believing in him. In today’s parlance, he could have said, “Be woke and you will be liberated!”

 The Apostle Paul tells us that when we awake to the reality of God in Christ, our behavior should change. He says, “Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning” (1 Corinthians 15:34).

Ephesians 5:15 promises us blessing if we come out of our sleep-like stupor and turn to God: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

In the early 1700s, a series of revivals swept the American colonies, in which a renewed interest and devotion to Christ spread and impacted many people who had lost their religious fervor. It was called “The Great Awakening,” because people were said to be awakening from their spiritual lethargy. It is high time for another Awakening to come our way!

2. Second, the Bible speaks of being awake and alert as we await Christ’s return and the end of our current age. Romans 13:11 says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” By this, Paul tells us that there is urgency to our waking up to the reality of Christ’s return.

Likewise, Jesus told a parable in Matthew 25 about ten virgins awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom; five were ready but five were not, so when they were awakened at his coming, only the five who were prepared could enter the wedding feast. Christ commanded us to be like the wise virgins who were prepared: in verse 13 he said, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” His message is clear: we are to always be alert and ready for his coming. Being caught asleep is not an option.

What does this mean for us? It means that when Christ returns to bring judgment on the world, there will be two groups of people. One group will be those who ignored him and his warnings, and fell into a kind of spiritual sleep. The other will be the believers who long for his return, who pray for it daily (does “Thy kingdom come” sound familiar?), and who live in the expectation that Christ could return at any moment. This second group will not be caught off guard when he appears, but will rejoice at the sight of their Savior.

In Mark 13, Jesus  tells of the signs of his return and the end of the age. Four times he commands, “Stay awake!” Sounds like he meant it!

3. Third, Scripture uses the word “awake” to describe our coming resurrection as waking from the sleep of death.

The Old Testament had already used the term “sleep” to refer to death, and “awaking” to refer to our resurrection. Job 14:12 says, “So a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.” Isaiah 26:19 proclaims, “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.” And, Daniel 12:2 tells us, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

The New Testament reinforces this usage, and gives us the basis for our hope of the resurrection: Jesus Christ, who himself died and rose again as the first-born of those who will be raised (Colossians 1:18).

In Chapter 11 of John’s Gospel, Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, sickened and died while Jesus and his disciples were away. The Lord knew what had happened, and told his disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” (11:11). Verses 12 and following tell us what happened next: “The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died.'”

Other passages also refer to death as sleep, and to resurrection as waking up. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 describes that great “getting up day”:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

The temporary, sleep-like nature of death is memorialized in our word, “cemetery.” Prior to the early spread of Christianity, graveyards were called by the Greek term, “necropolis,” meaning, “city of the dead.” But the early Christians understood that the graves of believers were only temporary resting places where the deceased awaited the great day of Christ’s return and their rising to new life. Therefore, they started using a new word which was the Greek term for an inn, or traveler’s resting place. The new word they chose was “kemeterion,”  which became “cemetery” in English, a testimony to their faith in the resurrection.

Then will come to pass for all of us the miracle referred to in Matthew 27:52  “The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”

So, I ask you again, “Are you woke?” Are you awake to the reality of God? Are you awake and ready for Christ’s return? Do you look forward to falling asleep in the Lord and waking up at the resurrection? And finally, are you still awake after reading my blog?

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: 1 Thessalonians 4, John 11, Job 19:24-26

 

* This quote from John 8:32 appears in the lobby of the CIA headquarters, but without the Scriptural context or meaning.

The Rescue Mission

Looking around at everything going on, especially in California, with numerous deadly wildfires, a pandemic, and social unrest, I thought the following sermon I first preached in 2011 was appropriate for today in 2020:

First a powerful earthquake, one of the most powerful ever recorded, slams the country and shatters buildings and infrastructure, trapping people in the rubble. Then comes a devastating wave of water as a tsunami crashes across the coastal lands, obliterating entire villages and sweeping thousands of people into the ocean. But that’s not all: the double blow damages a series of nuclear reactors and disables safety systems – causing the release of some radiation and the likelihood of much more to come. It is a disaster.

But now imagine you are one of the survivors of that catastrophe; you are buried under the rubble of your house, trapped by a beam and unable to pull yourself out. You are cold, hungry, and very thirsty. You’ve been buried for days, waiting desperately for someone to save you.

It seems like you are alone and abandoned. Will no one come to save you? But then, just before you’re ready to give up, you hear someone coming: a team of firefighters, guided by a rescue dog, has found you and has begun pulling away the debris over your head. You are excited; help has finally arrived! It won’t be long now and you’ll finally be safe!

Only . . . your rescuers suddenly stop in mid-rescue. The beam has been left pinning you down; “Come on! Don’t stop!” you cry out. But then you hear the rescuer’s voice amplified by a bullhorn:

“Before we rescue you, there are a few questions we need to ask you:

  • Are you a good person?
  • Have you paid your taxes? These rescues are expensive, you know!
  • When was the last time you rescued someone else who was in trouble?
  • Are you polite and friendly to other people? Are you honest?
  • Have you ever committed a crime, been arrested or parked illegally?
  • Are you the right age, gender, social class, ethnicity, or citizenship?

You see, we need to make sure you are worthy of being rescued.”

The voice continues: “If you meet these criteria, there’s one more thing we require of you and that is that you participate in this rescue. After all, we can only help those who help themselves. So, you under the rubble: push harder and lift the beam yourself. It isn’t too much to expect that you exert some effort if you really want to be saved! And one more thing: you’re looking pretty dirty and wet right now; better get yourself cleaned up first.” As the voice fades, you are left dumbfounded; what kind of a rescue is this?

Well, the answer of course is that it isn’t very much of a rescue at all. I think we would be shocked to hear of any rescue team acting in this way; we would demand an investigation and make sure it didn’t happen again.

And yet, though we wouldn’t put up with that kind of rescue from flawed, sinful human beings, we seem perfectly happy to attribute that same kind of rescue to the perfect, loving, and sinless Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ. If so, we are slandering him.

Understand clearly that Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission. Humankind, the highest of God’s creation, made in the image of God to know God and have eternal fellowship with him, had suffered a disaster, a catastrophe unparalleled in history. This disaster has led to the death of every man, woman, and child ever born, not only in this world and life but also for the world and life to come. This disaster was the rebellion of mankind against God, our disobedience and fall into sin. Ever since that day when our first parents broke God’s one commandment, all mankind has suffered the consequences and penalties to which our just and holy God sentenced them. You and I are no less affected by sin’s consequences – suffering and death – than are the people of northern Japan by the natural and man-made catastrophes that hit them.

It was into this disaster-affected world that the Rescuer, Jesus, came. It was because of the disaster that Jesus came, for only by him coming and suffering in his body and soul the full effects of our great disaster, could Jesus rescue us from its deadly consequences. But it’s one thing to accept that Jesus came to save us; it’s another to understand how we receive that salvation.

For some reason, many people believe that Jesus acts like the horrible rescue team I described earlier: that Jesus has come to make sure we get ourselves cleaned up so that God can accept us. If only we wear the right clothes, eat the right foods, join the right churches or think happy and loving thoughts; if only we keep the Ten Commandments perfectly – then we are worthy to be saved. And of course, since “God helps those who help themselves,” we must participate with God in our rescue from sin and death. Don’t we have to do something to show we’re worthy to be saved? He saves good guys, right?

Even if they accept that Jesus died so others would be freely forgiven, they still believe that the free forgiveness somehow doesn’t apply to them. Their sins are too great; or they think they have to get their lives cleaned up before Jesus would accept them. But that’s the whole point of Jesus coming to save us: we could not save ourselves or get cleaned up enough for God. “Just as I am without one plea” is a true statement. “God helps those who help themselves” is not – which is why it’s not in the Bible!

Listen to what the Bible does say about Christ’s rescue mission:

  • Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
  • Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
  • Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
  • And there’s the last two verses from today’s Gospel, John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Those verses are full of rescue language. Jesus Christ did not come to lay down another set of laws for us to follow, or to ensure we kept all of God’s commandments. Christ did not come as a policeman to enforce the law, but as a rescuer to save us from the law’s judgment and condemnation. He came to fulfill those commandments perfectly himself, and then to offer freely that perfect gift of righteousness to every person who would believe in him and trust him for their salvation. If you are in Christ through faith, then you have already fulfilled God’s laws perfectly.  He has rescued you!

This gift is given by grace – that is the undeserved love and mercy of God – apart from anything we could do. As John 1:17 says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” And Paul sums it up in Romans 3:22-24 “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Imagine once again that you are pinned under the rubble of your home. The bogus rescue team has gone away; the beam is still pinning you down. You are no better off than you were when they first showed up; in fact you are hungrier and thirstier than before and more discouraged. What you thought would save you has proven to be a false hope. And as for your own strength, there is no way you can lift the beam and free yourself. Is this it? Is this the end? You close your eyes and begin to weep silently, whispering almost without knowing it, “Dear Jesus, help me!”

Suddenly, the air around you seems brighter. You look up to see one set of scarred hands grab a hold of the beam and begin to pull its weight off of you. You cry out to this new rescuer, “Are you sure you want to rescue me? Others are more worthy to be saved, and I’m all filthy and worn out!” In reply you hear a firm but kind voice: “Hush; I’ll have you out soon. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it!”

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: John 3:17; Luke 19:10; Romans 3: 22-24; Romans 8:1

You’ve Been Erased

Last week, I erased my sister.

In the 1996 movie, Eraser, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a US Marshal who protects people in Witness Protection by giving them new identities and “erasing” everything in their old identities that would betray them to the bad guys who are looking for them. His tag line was, “You’ve been erased!”

Well, last week I thought of that line as I went through my sister’s personal effects and finances following her death on July 18th. As I shredded old financial records, disposed of her jewelry, cookware, electronics, and furniture, I was hit with the sad thought that I was “erasing” all the things that had been part of her life. This feeling hit hardest as I came to her I.D.s, her RN nurse insignias, and photos of her with her friends and our family. By the time I was done, it was almost as if she had never lived – though I just had to hang onto a few of the most personal items.

I also thought of the passages from the Book of Ecclesiastes, in which King Solomon laments the futility of life when it ends so soon and all that our striving and gathering accomplished must be left to those who follow us.

Ecclesiastes 1:3 “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.”

Ecclesiastes 1:11 “There is no remembrance of former things,  nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.”

Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.“

After all these thoughts, I was hardly cheered up. Added to sadness over my sister’s passing was a sense of my own mortality, in which I realized that even those few remembrances I saved of her will likely be tossed when people sort through my stuff some day. And, after the incredibly hard work my wife and I did in cleaning up my sister’s things, Karen and I began more earnest talks about doing our own house-cleaning and what the funeral home directors euphemistically call, “pre-planning.” For the day will come when someone will have to go about “erasing” our lives, too.

This would all be depressing, except for a greater reality that sees beyond our current lives here on earth. For God has revealed to us in his word that as believers in Christ (which my sister was, too) we have eternal life. What we experience here in this life is very important, but it’s just the beginning of the story. We have much, much more ahead of us. Jesus said,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

And Jesus comforts us in John 3:16, even during times of loss, with this promise:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

In Revelation 21:4 we read,

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Romans 6:23 says,

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In other words, for those who are in Christ, death is destroyed and eternal life takes its place. Therefore, though aspects of our lives may be “erased” when we die – specifically our material belongings – we cannot be erased, for God has given us eternal life. At the deepest and most important level, who we are – our souls – will live on. For now, the spirits of those who died in the Lord are with him in heaven; one day, when Christ returns as he promised he will bring with him those who are with him and reunite them with their resurrected, perfect, and immortal bodies.

1 Corinthians 15:51-55 reads,

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?'”

This thought was especially comforting, as my sister had lost both her legs, her teeth, and much of her vision before the final crisis which took her life. In the final days she had expressed to me that she was looking forward to the day when she would be whole again. Karen and I pictured her dancing before the Lord, and expressed it in the song about heaven we played at her burial: I Can Only Imagine. The song’s chorus goes like this:

Surrounded by You glory
What will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah
Will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
There are those who say that a person who dies lives on in the hearts minds, and memories of those whose lives they touched. That’s a nice thought that may comfort us, and certainly, memories of my sister will continue for me. But this saying has never really resonated with me. If a person’s continued life depends on others’ memories of him or her, what happens when those people die? And by this reasoning, people like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao will live forever, while some poor, humble, and unknown saint in some little village will perish without anyone grieving or even knowing about them. That doesn’t seem right at all. And fortunately, God’s Word has told us that the key to eternal life is not that many people knew of you and your accomplishments, but rather that you knew Jesus and believed in his accomplishment: his death on the cross and the subsequent forgiveness of your sins.
The only things that are ever truly erased are sin and death. 1 Corinthians 15:25 says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
Therefore, no matter how many papers I shredded, or what I did with my sister’s belongings, I really couldn’t erase her even if I tried; God has promised her, and us, an unending life full of love, life, and relationship, with all the inheritance that heaven can hold. And that is far greater than anything we leave behind, or any feeling of loss. Thanks to God for his gift of life, now and forevermore.
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: Ecclesiastes 1, 2; 1 Corinthians 15; John 3

Still in This Together

In the previous blog, I lamented the fact that although the common sentiment these pandemical* days is that “We’re all in this together,” our society is anything but “together.” We are divided and set at odds with each other over many issues and identities, causing much animosity and even violence. I responded by suggesting several biblical approaches to mending our divisions, beginning with these four: 1. Remember that we are all related; 2.Remove the log from our own eye; 3. Don’t judge the heart or motives; and 4. Speak the truth in love. Now we continue, with three more ways to help bring us together:

5. Walk together and find common cause. How do we overcome feelings of division? By working together with someone and accomplishing a common purpose. Whether it be in our job/career, in sports, in school projects, in family emergencies, in combat, or just about any common endeavor, when we stand and strive side by side with someone, we create a bond that can overcome real (and artificial) barriers. When you have identified someone as your teammate or helped each other do something, or come along side in times of difficulty, you have in some way become one person.

I think of past barriers and prejudices that have fallen when previous opponents have come together to work in common purpose. Former enemies become allies when a new threat emerges; shared resources provide for common needs, and a shared sense of accomplishment breeds good will. Rather than sitting around and airing grievances, why not work together and celebrate what you have done? After all, “We’re all in this together!” As Amos 3:3 asks, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” If we do agree to walk together, have we not begun to share a common experience and done so peacefully? And will that sense of agreement not grow and bless our relationship?

There is an Arabic expression: “There are salt and bread between us.” It refers to a bond of friendship forged by acts of hospitality, when two or more people have shared a meal. As a proponent of potlucks (and other buffets, but I digress) I have seen the enjoyment and commonality people have when they share their bounty and eat with each other. It’s interesting that after Jesus’ resurrection, two disciples who walked with him on the road to Emmaus didn’t recognize him until he broke bread with them (Luke 24:30-31). How many divisions could we mend by working hard together and then sitting down to share a meal? I think that would help a lot.

6. Forgive as we have been forgiven. An absolutely vital step in breaking down barriers is to forgive the wrongs the other person has done to you. Refusing to forgive not only hardens the wall between you, it also hardens your heart and diminishes your soul. Unforgiveness grows a bitter root in you that colors all your relationships and makes them awkward, painful, and unrewarding. Just seeing the other person causes your stomach to tighten and your mind to close down; you anticipate more conflict and dread what could happen. But when you forgive, you free yourself from the hurt that was caused you. As one of my pastors once wisely said, “When you forgive someone, what that person did loses the power to hurt you.”

While going through a painful divorce, one of my relatives was understandably angry at her soon to be ex-husband. He had in truth done some horrible things to her, for which she was very bitter. As we talked, I asked whether he was unhappy the way things had turned out, and she said no, that he was probably out having a great time. So I asked her how she was doing. She said she was miserable. Then I asked, “So, why make yourself miserable when he was happy?” A few days later, she was able to forgive him and found the spiritual release that forgiveness provides.

In his Sermon on the Mount, our Lord taught us how to pray, giving us what we call the Lord’s Prayer. After saying, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. .  .” he continued with, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:12, 14-15). Jesus sure made it sound like our own forgiveness depends on our willingness to forgive others, a point he later made explicit in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. In the parable, a servant who owed his master a huge, unpayable amount was forgiven his debt, but then went out and refused to forgive a tiny debt that another servant owed him. When the master learned of his unforgiveness, he reinstated the first servant’s debt and threw him into jail (Matthew 18:21-35).

Colossians 3:13 says, “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” Can’t say it much plainer than that; not only are we obligated to forgive, we are the primary beneficiaries of the forgiveness we give, both for God’s forgiveness of our own sins and for the effect it has on us. There is a genuine freedom we experience when we let go of the anger we harbor and the regrets that go with it, and knowing at the same time that we have likewise been forgiven.

One of the most moving stories of the power of forgiveness is in the book, The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom. If you get the chance, find and read her story (It was also excerpted in Guideposts; you can easily find it online). The short version is that Corrie was talking to a group about her experiences as a prisoner in the Ravensbruck concentration camp for hiding Jews from the Nazis. At the end of her talk, one of the former guards at the camp came up to her and asked her to forgive what he had done. Her struggle and what happened next, are so authentic and powerful, I would cheapen it by trying to summarize it here. Please find it and read it yourself.

7. Pray for the other person. By that, I don’t mean that you should pray that the other person gets hit by a bus or suffers some other horrible fate. You are, after all, to pray for that person and not against him or her. You pray that the Lord touches that person’s heart, whether to open their eyes to the mistakes they are making, or to turn to the Lord for forgiveness, or for restoration of your relationship with them, or for the Lord to bless them and keep them (Not quite what the rabbi prayed in Fiddler on the Roof, “May the Lord bless and keep the Czar – far away from us!”). Not only may God answer your prayer and actually bless the other person, he will also bless you by softening your heart toward that person. God works in your heart, growing your love for the other person to be like his own love: a love that is forgiving, patient, and desiring good for even an enemy.

Jesus addressed this, saying that our prayers are not just for our friends and family. In Luke 6, he said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” You may think, “That’s easy for him to say; those pastoral types always say nice things, but what happens when they are attacked? How do they respond then?” Well, we know exactly how Jesus responded: when they crucified Jesus – after torturing and mocking him, he prayed for his tormentors, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He who could have called down legions of angels to save himself and destroy his enemies, prayed instead for their forgiveness. That is the same forgiveness the Father gives you and me inspite our our sins which out Jesus on that cross.

There you have it: seven suggestions for helping each other to heal the fractions in our society, so that we may truly be in this “together.” While these steps are all scriptural, they would help anyone and everyone come together and overcome the problems that divide us. And it’s high time we did something, for as Benjamin Franklin once said about the need for unity among the states at the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

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: Matthew 18:21-35; Luke 24:13-35; Luke 6:27-36

*Yes, pandemical is a word.

In These Certain Times

There are two disciplines of study that are important to us as we continue to face the current pandemic and the consequent shut-down of our society and economy. The first of these is the study of history –  what has happened in the past. The second is the study of theology – specifically what the Bible says about what has happened in the past and what will happen now and in the future. To these could be added a third: the viewing of funny cat and dog videos to keep us from taking everything, including ourselves, so seriously.

Why do I say these are so important? I say that because I think history and theology help us to keep our current situation in a proper perspective, especially when just about every media story, government decree, and commercial advertisement uses phrases like, “these uncertain times” and “these unprecedented times” as part of their pronouncements. But are the times in which we are now living really uncertain and unprecedented?

No, they are not.

While our current situation in America is unprecedented in our lifetimes, and there is a degree of uncertainty regarding the virus’ final medical and economic impacts, history and theology teach us that there is nothing new (or unprecedented) in what is happening. Instead, we learn that disease and social disruption have been the norm, and that mankind has suffered war, pestilence, famine, and death (the Four Horsemen of Revelation 6:1-8), as far more certain than peace and prosperity. It seems, rather, that our recent past has been a “bubble” of prosperity, a condition which itself has been unprecedented when compared to the historical reality of human struggle.

So let’s look briefly at what history and theology teach us about today’s difficult times:

1. Pandemics are not unprecedented. The corona virus is nasty and has killed lots of people so far, and will certainly continue to claim lives. But, it’s not the first, nor the worst, of widespread and deadly plagues throughout history which have killed millions and devastated entire nations. The most famous are the bubonic plague outbreaks of the 1300’s that killed up to 200 million people, including one-third of Europe; London’s Great Plague of 1665 that killed 20% of the city; the  Spanish Flu of 1918-20, which killed 50 million worldwide and 675,000 in the US; the Asian Flu of 1957 (1.1 million globally and 110,000 in the US); the 1968 Hong Kong Flu (1 million worldwide and 100,000 in the US); the H1N1 “Swine Flu” of 2009 (500,000 total and 18,000 in the US); and HIV/AIDS which has infected 65 million people and killed 25 million worldwide. And these don’t count seasonal flu epidemics or  unrecorded diseases from ancient and prehistoric times. Simply put, contagious diseases have always been a threat to mankind, and likely always will be, in spite of medical advances and victories over certain threats, such as smallpox.

2. Economic hardships are not unprecedented. This point seems hardly even necessary to state, let alone elaborate. Again, while we’ve become accustomed to being financially strong as a society, the opposite has been almost universally the case until the last century in the West. Only recently have Third World countries been able to rise out of poverty, and even so, many have much further to go. And in our own country, as wealthy as we have been, we have faced multiple recessions and depressions, including the Great Depression (1929-1939); the Savings and Loan crisis of the mid- 1980s; the dot-com bubble; the stock market crash of 2000; the Great Recession (2007-2009); and the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008-10. Of course, for most people throughout history, the idea of investment losses is irrelevant, since they had little or nothing to spend and nothing to invest.

3. Shortages of food and supplies are not unprecedented. Right now, stores are posting signs at their entrances saying which in-demand supplies are out, or limiting the number of each item which may be purchased. Some say, “Out of toilet paper” or “Out of hand sanitizer,”  and others, “Limit one gallon of milk per customer.” That’s a new thing for us, but I remember seeing my parents’ ration books from World War II, in which there were tear-out coupons for purchasing such basics as flour, sugar, and butter. Other situations have been worse: consider the Irish Potato Famine of 1845 to 1852, in which at least one million Irish starved to death (and another million emigrated to the US). Even more tragic (and recent: 1959-61) was the Great Famine of China, which saw the starvation deaths of 45 million people, due to the communist government’s enforced policies. So far, at least, we still have plenty of food and other supplies during this pandemic (except for the Charmin*).

4. Uncertainty is not unprecedented. As Ben Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Beyond those two things, just about everything else carries with it uncertainty: our health, our jobs, our friends, families, financial situations, and even our marriages. Our longevity, our safety, and our security cannot be surely established, as much as we try. Our reliance on institutions, including our governments and leaders, can be misplaced. Even churches with familiar names on the door can betray our trust that they will teach and preach scriptural truths.

Once again, history shows us the folly of thinking we have a certain future. From villages being overrun by enemy tribes, to droughts and floods, to storms, volcanoes, and tornadoes, to fickle and oppressive rulers, to attacks by animals, to plagues and the depletion of arable lands, people have always faced uncertain futures. Add to those crises the problems caused by greed, theft, adultery, violence, and other sinful behaviors, and mankind has always lived on the brink of survival – and never with a certain future. Besides death and taxes, the other certainty is change, which by its nature ensures uncertainty. Therefore, everything we now consider as being uncertain, have always been uncertain; that uncertainty itself is all that has been certain.

5. So then, where can we find answers to the uncertainties of life and the cycles of danger, disease, destitution, and death? The answer is the Word of God, the Scriptures, and what they reveal about the world: past, present, and future. The good news is that God has made known to us what we need to know about all this.

The Bible is not some magic talisman that we can wave around us to banish all life’s problems. But it does teach us what we need to know to rightly understand what we’re going through: that we were born into a world which is cursed because of sin, both from our first parents and ourselves. God told Adam and Eve that their sin brought a curse upon the world:

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)

The New Testament affirms this: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12), and “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And “just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). As our buddy Ben Franklin told us, death is a certainty – whether from Covid-19 or some other cause.

Because of sin’s curse, we should expect the problems that hit us in life, and find comfort that they are not new to us individually, nor a sign that we are being punished for some specific thing that we have done. We might just be experiencing what is common to mankind: the bad along with the good.

Now, I’m not saying we should ignore the coronavirus or accept life’s harms fatalistically; God’s word compels believers to ease suffering and help bring healing to all who suffer. Christ compels us to feed the poor, bind the wounds of the injured, and clothe the naked. Therefore, we should fight this illness with medicines, smart lifestyle behaviors, and hopefully, vaccines. What we learn now will help us fight the next disease that comes along.

But there is something else we learn from the Scriptures, that there are other things, wonderful things, that are even more certain than death and taxes: God’s love, God’s promises, God’s forgiveness, and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Because “there is no variation or shadow due to change” in God (James 1:17), and “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases” (Lamentations 3:22), his promises will not change nor end. “God is not a man that he should lie” (Numbers 23:19), so we can trust what he has promised.

Therefore, though mankind has endured tribulations in the past, though we go through tribulations now, and though people will face some horrible tribulations to come in the future, God’s promises will not change. The prophet Isaiah tells us, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Thanks to our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to his birth, death, and resurrection, God’s greatest promise has already been fulfilled, and we can look forward to eternal life, when God will “wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

So then, what’s this about our living in unprecedented and uncertain times? Not so much, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end he will stand upon the earth!” (Job 19:25).  Of that, I am certain! Amen, come Lord Jesus!

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 your peace. Amen.

Read: Revelation 21; Genesis 3; Lamentations 3:1-24

 

* No endorsement of this particular brand is intended, nor money received.

Beware the Ides of March 2020

“Beware the Ides of March!” That line from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, was uttered by a soothsayer who warned the Roman dictator about March 15 and the danger he would face that day. The year was 44 BC, and as actually happened, Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15 by a group of senators and a former friend named Brutus.

Sunday is March 15, the Ides of March according to the Roman calendar. While we probably don’t have to worry about our senators assassinating us, we have plenty to worry about if we let ourselves, given the news stories we hear every day. Particularly, the big scary news these days is about the coronavirus, or Covid-19, which as of today has spread to 142,530 confirmed cases and 5393 deaths in 135 countries. Governments and health officials are issuing warnings, areas are under quarantine, and all kinds of travel and public events are being cancelled. Some sports teams are even competing in empty stadiums! Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it to be a world-wide pandemic. Locally, we have had our first cases in Elk Grove and our first death.

My wife and I are very much aware of the effects this disease is having in the world, because we have been planning a trip to Italy and Germany this year to see the Passion Play in Oberammergau. But now, with Italy on lock-down and flights being cancelled or banned, our prospects are looking dim.

Of course, worries about epidemics, plagues, wars, and other life-threatening situation are nothing new. They have threatened and worried people throughout history. And with good reason, considering events like the 1918 flu epidemic that infected 1/3 of mankind and killed 20 to 50 million people world-wide, or the Black Death of the 14th century, which reduced the world population by 100 million and killed 30 to 60% of Europe.

So it was that the Israelites, too, faced a serious life-threatening situation while crossing the wilderness following their escape from Egypt. Exodus 17 tells us  what happened:  “All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?’

But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?’

When we first read this, we may look down on the Israelites as petty ingrates because we know how the story ends. We know that God will save them, as he already had in different ways. But now, faced with no water to drink, the people feared they would die of thirst in the hot desert. Their concern was legitimate: without water they would die, and there was no sign of it to be found. Their problem was not that they feared their destruction, but how they responded to a very real danger.

  1. First, they forgot those miraculous deliveries and provisions God had already shown them. They had witnessed the plagues God had rained down on Pharaoh and his people. God had saved them from the Egyptians, and brought them safely across the Red Sea, destroying the pursing Egyptian army in the process. He fed them with manna, bread from heaven. Surely they should have been grateful and expected God would take care of them. But they adopted a “What have you done for us lately?” attitude.
  2. Second, instead of praying to God and submitting to his commands, they blamed God and his servant Moses, even threatening to stone Moses to death. The passage tells us that God brought them to this place, Rephidim, so they should have known he would provide where he leads.
  3. Moses warned them about their grumbling, pointing out that they were not only complaining to him, but also were testing the Lord. Just as David admitted in Psalm 51 when confessing his sins to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Moses’ warning should have calmed the people, but still they grumbled.
  4. After providing the people with the needed water, Moses named the location Massah and Meribah, which in Hebrew mean “testing” and “quarreling,” because the people of Israel tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” This showed the people questioned God’s word, his commandments, and his promises. They even doubted his presence and his love for them. They had no faith.

Their sin paralleled that of Adam and Eve, who doubted God’s commands and word, forgot all God had given them in the Garden, and wanted what they didn’t have. And the Bible tells us that all death flows from that original sin; it has caused more deaths than thirst, plagues, and wars combined. As Romans 5:12 tells us, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

When we understand the Israelites’ errors at Rephidim, we recognize some of the same attitudes, or at least tendencies, in ourselves:

  1. Although blessed beyond measure in so many ways, we often forget not only to be grateful for what God has already provided for us, but also adopt that “What have you done for me lately?” attitude. Sure he’s provided all my needs, but what about those wants that I’m still lacking? Sure, he’s given me 68 years of a good life, but what if I get sick or die?
  2. When I have a fear or unmet need, do I grumble to God, blame him for what I’m facing, or do I accept his will and look for how God will bless and grow me in this situation. As Paul wrote in Romans 5: “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
  3. Do we have faith, trusting in God’s promises in Christ? Or do I doubt his existence (“A loving God wouldn’t let me go through this!”) and search elsewhere for answers? Do I believe God’s promise never to leave or forsake me, and Christ’s promise to be with me until the end of the age, taking me to be with him no matter what happens to me in this world?
  4. Do we live in a world of Massah and Meribah, or by the Spirit of God with love, joy, peace, and the other fruit of the Spirit?
  5. Do I face the dangers of this world, such as the coronavirus, with paralyzing fear, or with trust and confidence in the Lord? It’s certainly good to follow the protective procedures being urged by health professionals, but what if you get the virus anyway? Will it shatter your faith, or lead you to seek God’s will for you in the new circumstance you face?

Would you go into a dangerous area to save a stranger? How about an infected area where your chances are highly likely you’d catch whatever it is? A similar question became very real to a Catholic priest from Belgium named Damien who answered to call to missions, traveling in 1864 to the leper colony on Molokai, Hawaii. At first he failed in his work, and was ready to leave the island. Then, while waiting for the boat, he discovered his hands had lost feeling. Realizing he had caught leprosy from those he tried to serve, he stayed. Now accepted by his fellow lepers,    he ministered to them spiritually and practically, building houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents’ ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate with them, providing both medical and emotional support. He served until he became too sick, dying at age 49 of leprosy.

Damien gave his life for those infected with a deadly illness. I don’t believe we are all called to find people sick with the coronavirus and try to catch it ourselves. But if it happens, or you are called to alleviate their suffering, remember this: no less did Christ come to be with, and die for us who were mortally ill with sin.

Paul closes Romans 5:1-9 with these amazing words of God’s love:

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

My prayer is that you all avoid getting the coronavirus, but whatever happens, don’t worry, even if it is the Ides of March, and rejoice in all the Lord has done for you and will do in all eternity to come.

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: Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-9

Going Viral

The big news story this past week has been – no, not the primary elections – but rather the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Hardly a day, or even an hour, goes by without news that the virus has spread to a new country or state. It’s hard to keep up with the progress of the disease as we read or hear new reports of the numbers of infections and fatalities associated with the illness. It doesn’t do much good to remind people of the greater lethal risk from the regular flu, from car crashes, or violence. The coronavirus has captured our imagination and activated our fears.

While it’s not the Spanish Flu of 1918 (which infected 1/3 of mankind and killed maybe 50 million people), nor the start of the Zombie Apocalypse, it seems to be very serious and worth paying attention to.

As I’ve watched the spread of the virus and considered its implications, I considered writing about it, but at first I wasn’t sure what I could write that would be informative/acutely insightful/coherent about the situation. Then I realized, a blog doesn’t have to be informative/acutely insightful/coherent to be written and published, so here goes. Here are some random thoughts that more or less come together around the coronavirus epidemic:

First. My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe to see the sights and end up in Oberammergau, Germany, to attend the famous Passion Play, which reenacts the final week leading up to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. I have been wanting to see this performance for 50 years now, ever since I learned about it in my high school German classes. It’s performed only every ten years, so I figured this could be my last chance to see it while still fairly young and mobile. We started making reservations for the trip, and then the virus struck. At first we were okay, because the virus was in China, and we were flying to Rome. Then cases started showing up in Europe. And where in Europe? In Italy, of course. Now we watch as trains and flights are being cancelled and tourist venues are being shut down to reduce the threat of infection. My wife showed me a picture from Milan (on our itinerary) with armed guards in face masks guarding the cathedral. Now we’re wondering how much will be closed or restricted if we do go. It wouldn’t be worth it to fly there and just sit in quarantine for two weeks!

(Great! I just started sneezing while writing this!)

Second. As the reports of Italy’s growing problems came in, I thought: “Well, at least Germany is okay. We’ll arrive in Munich as planned and take the train to the play in Oberammergau.” Then Germany reported its first case of coronavirus. In Munich of course. Since then, the disease has spread so that as of this writing, Germany is second only to Italy in corona cases in Europe. I’m waiting for reports of cases in Oberammergau, or a decision by the German government to do what France has done, and ban large public gatherings. Since thousands attend each Passion Play performance, such a ban would be devastating to that town and to all the tourists/pilgrims who plan to go there.

Which would actually be ironic, since the whole reason that small Bavarian town has performed the Passion Play is because God delivered them from a plague in 1633. After first being hit hard for over a year (during which 80 citizens died), the people of the town gathered and prayed for deliverance, promising to honor Christ with a passion play every ten years if God spared them. After they prayed, the sick recovered and there were no more deaths; the townspeople honored their promise, performing the first play the next year on a stage built in the graveyard where the plague victims were buried. Ever since they have held a passion play every ten years except in 1940 due to World War II. I imagine it could be a crisis of conscience if the town were ordered to suspend the play which was promised to God for deliverance from a disease.

Third. Closer to home, last week my wife and I traveled to Florida to attend the graveside service for a 36-year old nephew who passed away suddenly at his work. Karen’s brother and his family live near Tampa, so after flying to Orlando we drove there to console them and attend the service. After that, we drove down to Sarasota, played some mini-golf there, and then went on to stay with friends in Venice (Florida, not Italy). Finally, we had dinner with my cousin and his wife in Orlando before returning home. For me, one of the good parts of the trip was a visit to Gatorland in Orlando, where Karen and I got to see a whole lot of gators and other Florida critters.

Here’s Karen, about to be devoured . . .

It was a bitter-sweet trip, though I was glad we were able to make it to a virus-free area. At least I was glad until we got home, and heard that Florida was reporting its first coronavirus cases. And where were those cases? In Tampa and Sarasota, of course.

Fourth. A news item caught my attention this week. It reported that Amazon has taken down a million products from its online catalog. Why? Because they were being sold by various people as cures for the corona virus. It’s hard enough to comprehend that Amazon has a million products to sell; even harder to think that a million of them were bogus and dishonest in just this one area. There is no natural problem, danger, or disaster that cannot be exploited by certain people to take advantage of others. There is no technology so helpful and beneficial to mankind that it cannot be misused to cheat or harm people. The sellers of such products didn’t have to be infected with corona; they were infected with the virus of greed and sin, which for them will end up being far more deadly than any virus. If anyone doubts there is sin in the world, they only have to hear of stories like this to know it’s true.

Fifth. Wednesday I went to the dentist. As I sat in the chair, I wished I had brought my face mask with me. Not that I thought I needed it to avoid infection, but I wanted to see my dentist’s reaction when I insisted he leave my mask in place while working on my teeth. (It’s only fair, considering he wears one while he works on me!) Then on my way home, I stopped in a new Chinese restaurant to take home and try one of their dishes. Chinese . . . I wonder if they could be from Wuhan . . . and so my story comes full circle.

After all this, I have sort of a fatalistic view, that if I get the virus, I get it. I don’t expect to die from it, but rather see it as an inconvenience affecting travel plans. Unfortunately, it has sickened and killed plenty of other people, and caused serious economic harm to many businesses and the people who work in them and depend on them for their livelihood. We should pray for God’s intervention, as did the people of Oberammergau, that he slows the spread of the virus and speeds the healing of those affected; that cures (real ones!) and vaccines be quickly developed and made available; that leaders avoid political judgments and work together to meet this problem; and that people turn to God for comfort and peace. It is my hope and prayer that we will be able to look back on this time and see how a threatening illness can be conquered for the blessing of the whole world.

In the meantime – stay healthy and look to the Lord for your strength!

May 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. Amen.

Read: 2 Samuel 22:1-3; Psalm 95; Psalm 103; Psalm 46

 

 

 

Borders and Bridges, Part 2

In my last blog, I introduced the idea of “Borders and Bridges” and spoke to the necessity for the first half of that phrase: borders. As I pointed out, from the separations established by God at the beginning of creation (light separated from dark to be day and night, for example) to the structure of cells within a defining and protective membrane or cell wall, to national boundaries, we saw that borders play an important role. We also saw that borders exist in spiritual matters, such as those between God and man, and between the lost and the saved. We read in Jesus’ parable about Lazarus that there is a great chasm (border) fixed that no one can cross between those in paradise and those in Hades who suffer in anguish  (Luke 16:26). Even non-believers establish behavioral boundaries to require permission and respect when it comes to interactions between people. But borders are only half the story. What about bridges that transcend those necessary borders?

Part II. Bridges are Necessary

As necessary as borders, boundaries, and walls are to separate, protect, and identify different individuals, places, and other things, they can also be a problem. If there is no way for anything to cross the border for a good and needed purpose, the barrier can prove to be harmful or even fatal.

A cell wall will cause the cell to die if there is no way for needed nutrients to get into the cell and waste products to get out. An example is type 2 diabetes which I have: the cell membranes become resistant to the insulin needed to transport glucose (sugar) into the cell, where it provides energy. Instead, the sugar remains in the blood above proper levels, where it causes damage to other tissues. Treatment usually begins with medicines which reduce that resistance to allow the insulin to pass into the cell and do its work. In essence, the medicine builds a “bridge” across the cell membrane to bring in what’s needed.

You see the same thing in other contexts. A prisoner locked in solitary confinement is essentially in a cell (duh!). If no one brought food and water through that cell wall, or removed waste, that prisoner would die (and go crazy in the process). A city under siege has its supply lines cut off, sealing it off from the outside world and preventing both reinforcements and any resupply of basic food supplies; the city has to surrender or starve (read Lamentations 4:1-10 about the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem and its consequences). A more recent siege took place when the Soviets blockaded West Berlin from mid-1948 to mid-1949. The city was left in dire straits without food or coal for winter heating until the U.S. and its allies formed an airlift, which over an entire year flew in 2.3 million tons of supplies, saving the city and causing the Soviets to lift their “siege.” The airlift created a vital bridge which preserved the freedom and lives of the Berliners.

Wealth and prosperity come from trade across borders. One person or company or country produces more of one item than it needs, and trades with another entity for what it produces, and now both are richer. For example, our orange tree produced over 100 oranges this year. We couldn’t eat that many, so we gave some away, which prospered more people with good food from our tree. Other people have shared with us their walnuts, lemons, limes, plums, and pomegranates. We were all enriched by the trades. But without such trades, if non-bridegable borders had forced us to keep everything to ourselves, there would have been rotting produce in all our yards and we would have all been a little poorer for it.

Trade was so important to our nation’s founders that they prohibited tariffs between states. The Constitution essentially established a trade bridge across all state boundaries.  When it comes to countries, trade treaties form bridges to allow the transfer of goods and services across boundaries. Both countries are benefited by those cross-border exchanges. That’s why the terms of trade treaties are such big news these days: the prosperity of the trading partners is at stake. The fact that we do have trade around the world is a blessing to everyone: just check out the food can and produce labels in your kitchen to see how much our diet is enriched by having economic bridges with the world.

Cross-border movement of people is important too. Besides international business and tourism travelers, there are those who cross borders to escape persecution or seek a better life. Immigration has been the life-blood of our nation for 400 years; the issue is not whether there should be borders or bridges across those borders, but how easy or difficult it should be to cross those bridges legally. I wouldn’t be here in America if my ancestors had not crossed some borders on their way from the British Isles. By the way, I still have the actual travel papers used by my great-great-grandmother when she emigrated from Germany to Chicago in the 1860’s. Once again, I am glad such a bridge existed for her to do that.

So far, you can see the benefits, and indeed necessity, of bridges in various areas of life. But there is ultimately an even more important area for there to be a bridge, and that is the spiritual. As I showed in the previous blog, our sin created a border between us and God, between us and the joys of eternal life. We were shut out from the earthly paradise in which God placed us, and remain excluded from heaven from birth. No matter how we try, we cannot cross that border by our own strength or goodness. That is what Christ did for us by his death on the Cross; the effect of his death was shown in that the Temple curtain (a border wall) which closed off the Holy of Holies from the people, tore from top to bottom, showing that we now had access (a bridge) to God.

When I consider the interplay between borders and bridges, I see the scriptural, Lutheran doctrine of Law and Gospel at work.

1. God’s Law defines the border between what God accepts and does  not accept. It shuts out those who sin and disobey God, and sets boundaries for our behavior. “Thou shalt not” and “thou shalt” command our obedience and threaten us with harm if we trespass them (a word which means “to step over,” and is perfect border-violating language.). The Law divides the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, and speaks of burning the chaff with unquenchable fire. This is the Law, and God is righteous in establishing and enforcing all such boundaries.

2. The Gospel proclaims that in spite of our sin, the boundaries which would separate us from God and consign us to hell have been breached by God’s mercy. Because God loves us and does not want us to be separated from him or see destruction, he has provided a Savior in his Son, Jesus the Christ. All are invited through faith in Christ to cross over the bridge into eternal life. Now, the way is narrow and not everyone will cross it, but the way is there. Jesus proclaimed he is the way (John 14:6), and Ephesians 2:14 joyously proclaims, “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” The way is open through faith in Jesus Christ.

There are more things that could be said about borders and bridges, about how they impact life itself and the way we relate to the environment, to each other, and to God. But for now, it’s important to see that both are necessary to order and freedom, to Law and Gospel, to you and me. May we always thank God for his righteousness and his mercy and for the borders and bridges his love provides for us.

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: Luke 16:19-31; Lamentations 4; 2 Kings 25; John 14:1-6

The Star Still Shines

The Star Still Shines

The star that shone so bright in the night, pierced the dark with its glorious light.

Beneath the star lay a world dwelling in the dark, but also from the benighted condition of a world subject to sin and death. The Scriptures spoke of people living in darkness, and so it was: a darkness bred by greed, malice, lust, theft, murder, hatred, political intrigue, oppression, and worship of the creation instead of the Creator. A people yearning to be free outwardly, yet unable to change their internal bondage to sin.

And yet, the star still shone, knowing that in spite of the depth of the darkness below, it was announcing by its small glow, the coming of a more brilliant Light, One that would ultimately banish all darkness, that would be the great Light also promised by Scripture: the Light that would save people from their sins, that would break their bondage to iniquity, and make them free indeed. And so it was that under the light of that star a babe was born. And the light drew men from near and far, even those who had longed to see the sign for what it told.

The star still shines so bright in the night, piercing the dark with its glorious light.

The Scriptures told us that not all people love light and not all people will love the Light. Evil deeds love the darkness, for darkness promises its own rewards, of selfish gain, sensual satisfaction, pride, vanity and replacement of God with self. The world is filled with evidence of what darkness truly delivers, yet people blame God for what they have caused. So it is that most of the world rejects the Light, hoping to shine in its own way, but only becoming fireflies that glow briefly before being snuffed out. The world mocks those who love the Light Hoping to justify their own dark souls.

And yet, the star which shone before shines still, proclaiming that the promised Light has come. It calls all people to believe, and to rejoice that the unending love of our Creator has shone and shown us the way out of the darkness. No longer must sin rule over us; there is a new way, a way that leads to life by following the true Light of the world.

Though the darkness will rage and fight to the end, it cannot overcome Whom God did send. The day will come when there’ll be no night, for the Morning Star will be our Light!

Merry Christmas, and may your celebration of Christ’s birth fill you with the love and joy of the true Light!

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: Luke 2:1-29, Matthew 2:1-12, John 1:1-14

Say to the People

If you’ve been reading my blog for any time at all, you’ve certainly noticed that I close each time with a benediction that starts with, “May the Lord bless you and keep you . . . ” And if you attend church, you’re familiar with that benediction, because we always close our worship services with the pastor saying those same words.

But why those words, and not something else, like “Y’all take care now,” or “See you later, alligator!” or “That’s all, folks!” or even some other actual biblical parting phrases, such as, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other” (Genesis 31:49)?

That’s the question a pastor named Mal, who was visiting from Australia, asked me one Sunday morning after the service. He knew the answer, of course, but was curious what I would say. I could have told him, “Because that’s what’s written in our book of worship for us to say,” but I knew he was probing deeper: he wanted to know what I thought about why we use that particular benediction. I answered, “Because that’s what God told us to say,” and he smiled in agreement.

God indeed did give his people that blessing. In the book of Numbers, we read,

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” (Numbers 6:22-27).

n 1979, archaeologists excavating a tomb near Jerusalem discovered two small silver scrolls that recorded this priestly blessing. The scrolls were dated to the 7th century B.C., making them the oldest written Scriptures found so far.

Because the Lord commanded that Aaron and his sons give that blessing, it is called “The Aaronic Benediction.” That’s its origin; but why do I choose to use it, other than by force of habit from 22 years of pastoral ministry? I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, let me share some thoughts I have about the benediction itself.

1. What is a benediction? The word comes from two Latin words bene (good) and dictio (speaking), so a benediction is a good saying, or speaking something good, a blessing, to someone. The opposite is malediction (bad speaking = curse). This use of these words can be seen in Luke 6:28 where Jesus tells us to “Bless those who curse you”; the Latin version reads, “Benedicite maledicentibus vobis.” Or, as I would translate it, “Benedictize those who maledictize you.”

2. Second, notice who created that blessing: God himself. It was not just some nice-sounding greeting that Moses or Aaron thought up to score points with the people; rather, God himself composed and commanded the  actual words of the blessing. This makes it a “God-authorized” blessing.

3. The text says that “the LORD” gave the command and included “the LORD” in each part of the blessing. When the word, “LORD” is written in all capital letters in English, it signifies that the original Hebrew word was YHWH (Yahweh), the four-letter word which signifies the revealed and personal name for God. Modern translators follow the Jewish tradition, which substituted LORD for Yahweh in the reading of the text, to avoid the possibility of using God’s name in vain. But the text shows us that God is putting his personal identity into his blessing. It’s not some vague, impersonal “May the Force be with you” kind of well-wishing; God has invested himself and given his personal promise of good for his people.

4. The command was given to Aaron who was Israel’s first high priest, the one authorized to offer sacrifices to God for the people, and to proclaim God’s forgiveness in turn back to the people. Therefore, he was the one to properly proclaim God’s blessing on his people. The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is the new and final high priest forever, the one who offered himself as the sacrifice for our sins, and who proclaims to us forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. In Christ we become God’s people (whether Jew or Gentile) and receive God’s own benediction. By faith, all believers become God’s priests, and therefore we are authorized to pass on this special benediction to each other.

5. The blessing proclaims that God will bless you and keep you. To bless is to pronounce and deliver good for someone; to keep is to watch over, protect, and save from bad or evil. When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “deliver us from evil,” we are basically asking God to protect and keep us from danger, from death, and from “the evil one,” or Satan himself. While everyone is susceptible to earthly dangers, hardships, and death, God’s promise and blessing is eternal, for he will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

6. To make one’s “face” to “shine upon you” is to be present with you, to look upon and see what you are going through, and to be favorably disposed toward you. It denotes power applied in your favor and to your benefit: for example, in Deuteronomy 4:37, Moses tells the people that God’s face brought them out of Egypt. The phrase is paralleled later in the benediction when it says, “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you” (or “look upon you with favor”). Hebrew often uses parallel statements for emphasis, as we do in our mealtime prayer, “God is great, God is good . . .”

7. God says he will be gracious, which in ancient times meant be will be protective and will include you “in the camp,” that is, where food, shelter, and the tabernacle (God’s presence) were found. As Christians we recognize that we too were lost in the desert until God, by his grace, delivered us, and brought us by faith “into the camp,” that is, into Christ. In him we have provision, safety, and God’s presence. As Lutherans, we understand the distinction between God’s Law (what he commands and what we must do, and what the consequences of our sin will be), and Gospel (what God has done for us to benefit us); in fact, the entire benediction is a Gospel message. There is nothing in it that requires anything from us nor that warns anything against us. It is pure blessing that announces from start to finish what God will do for us. Even the act of giving this benediction to Aaron was a sign of God’s grace. Sure, God gave plenty of laws in other places, but here he tempers it with merciful grace (as per Habakkuk 3:2).

8. The benediction concludes with, “and give you peace.” Most Christians and Jews recognize that the word here translated “peace” is shalom. While the Hebrew word can be a pleasant word of greeting or parting (sort of like aloha in Hawaiian or wassup? in American slang), and mean the opposite of war (milchamah in Hebrew), its full meaning is much deeper. To wish someone shalom is more than hoping they don’t get drafted. It means absence of strife, but also contentment, joy, well-being, wholeness, and so on. You are wishing them safety, security, soundness and health. All told, shalom is a powerful blessing that extends to every area of life, including one’s relations with other people and with God himself. The wonderful blessing here, is that the God of the universe wants all this for you!

Earlier in this blog I said I would tell you why I use Aaron’s benediction at the end of my articles. There are several reasons. First, it is a God-ordained way of blessing his people. Second, it was something I said thousands of times as a parish pastor, and I felt the connection with what the Church has proclaimed in God’s name ever since it was given some 3500 years ago. Third, it keeps me from having to come up with my own ending each time! But fourth, primarily, it is because I am actually praying and asking God to extend his blessings to you, for your benefit. As a priest of God (by faith, rather than by official ordination), I am reminding all believers who read my blogs of the gracious promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ for them. And for non-believers who may happen across one of my articles, I want them to know there is a God who has done everything for them, that they may have the joy of knowing true shalom through faith in the only one who can make it possible, Jesus Christ, or Lord. I want to say to the people, what God wants them to hear.

For all these reasons, I therefore pray for you:

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: Numbers 6, Hebrews 4:14-5:10, 7:23-26, Isaiah 9:6, Romans 15:13