Category: Sin

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.

 

War and Peace

War and Peace.  That was the title of Leo Tolstoy’s great work, his magnum opus, an 1869 novel set in Russia during the war against Napoleonic France. It was magnum in both literary impact and in size – some 1400 pages long, with a cast of 500 characters. It is also the name of this blog, though you can take some comfort in my promise that this blog will likely be shorter than Tolstoy’s epic.

This blog, and the thoughts that brought it to mind, were triggered (a sadly appropriate term) by the events of last Saturday, when the group known as Hamas launched a coordinated attack from Gaza into Israel. The attackers killed over 1,300 Israelis and captured an unknown number of hostages. They also launched thousands of rockets at Israel, adding to the number of dead and wounded.

Israel has declared war on Hamas, and after regaining territory from the invaders, the Israeli military amassed troops on the border, poised to counterattack into Gaza to destroy Hamas. We will see what comes next, though everyone expects the war to be brutal and bloody.

Amid the many calls for peace and negotiations, was the dissenting voice of one Israeli, who said that for there to be peace, the perpetrators who killed so many civilians must themselves be killed. To him, and many like him, the path to peace will lead through war. In the words of the old Latin adage: Sic vis pacem, para bellum (If you want peace, prepare for war).

This situation has raised the question of what Christians should believe – and do – about war.  Historically, Christians have responded in many different ways, from mounting crusades to fighting defensive wars to insisting on pacifism. Therefore, we cannot depend on tradition for our position; we need to go to the Scriptures for guidance.

On the one hand, we see that God’s desire is for us to be at peace with each other. In Genesis, God condemns the spilling of others’ blood, “for God made man in his own image” (9:6). Later, he gave the 10 Commandments, in which he said, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). Luther explained that this commandment went far beyond prohibiting killing, to also mean, “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.”

Then we read Psalm 46:9, which says, “He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.”

And we have Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9), and, famously, “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). And when Jesus told us what are the greatest commandments, he summed them up as loving God and loving our neighbor (Mark 12:31); it’s hard to reconcile loving our neighbor with killing him. Finally, we read Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

From these passages, it is clear that God does not desire war and killing. Therefore, pacifism can be a legitimate response by those seeking to honor and obey God’s word.

On the other hand, we unfortunately live in a fallen and sinful world, in which most people don’t care what God has said. Some are sinners who hate their neighbors, and some are outright wicked, delighting in killing for their perceived benefit. What do we do about them? Do we let them run rampant in this world, slaughtering innocent people, hoping that they get their just deserts on Judgment Day? What if the “slap on my cheek” becomes a knife attack against a loved one? Do I tell my family member to turn their other cheek to the knife, when I have the means to stop the attack?

Though the Bible commands peace, it is not naive in its understanding of life. Its clear message is that we do live in a world of sin, and that we must be aware of its dangers and deal with them. The passage that tells us to be “innocent as doves” also tells us to “be wise as serpents” because we are in “the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16). Therefore, Jesus could command his disciples to sell their cloak and buy a sword (Luke 22:36).

The Scriptures go further in saying how we should deal with the evil actions of wicked people.

  1.  We are not to associate with wicked people, lest we support them or be tempted to do evil. Proverbs 22:24 warns, “Do not associate with a man given to anger; Or go with a hot-tempered man” Psalms 1:1 says, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” And Paul warns Christians in 1 Corinthians 5:11, “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.”
  2. Capital punishment of killers is not only permitted; it is commanded. God said in Genesis 9:5-6, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
  3. Governments have the duty to protect people and restrain evil. Romans 13:3-4 says, “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”
  4. The command about turning the other cheek deals with responding to insults, which a Christian can bear without reprisals. It does not talk about protecting the innocent (or yourself) from violent assaults. While you may choose to forfeit your life when threatened (such as accepting martyrdom), you are not required to do so. Your submission may embolden the attacker to kill others,and your loved  ones may depend on you provision and protection. The old saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.” is true. Proverbs 24:11 says, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” Rescuing people may require force.
  5. The biblical statement, “an eye for an eye,” from Exodus 21:23 is often looked at as being a bloodthirsty command. But the point was to limit reprisals to “proportionate” actions. You were not allowed to kill someone who took your eye; you were only allowed to take their eye, too. God’s command was to keep violence from spiraling out of control.
  6. Tribes, gangs, and nations go to war for many reasons: land, natural resources, human resources (slaves), markets (legal and illegal), pride, and security from active and potential threats. James 4:1-3 addresses this impulse to war: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

Wars of conquest and genocide are obviously wrong. But are there times when it is legitimate for a nation (or an individual) to go to war? Are there times when not going to war would be a greater evil than actually doing so?

There were times when God commanded the ancient Israelites to war against their neighbors and oppressors. Is there such a thing as a just war today? If so, under what circumstances, and how would such a war be carried out? Those are big questions that deserve answers; in the next blog I will try to address them. Until then, be at peace, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem! (Psalm 122:6).

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 2:4; Joel3:10; Micah 4:3-4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Individual

 

society

 

between nations

Light In the Darkness

We live in dark times. Not only are sins openly allowed, they are celebrated. Movies, TV, and social media are filled with words and images that just a short time ago would have never appeared in public places. On top of that, anyone speaking against them or calling for constraint or decorum is called a hater of some kind and is then canceled or outright attacked.

Christians are portrayed as villains in movies and TV shows. A man plays Satan in a televised award show. A pro baseball team gives an award to a group that mocks Christ and those who believe in him. A movie exposing the horrors of child sex trafficking is demeaned as “right-wing propaganda,” while others call for unlimited abortions up to and after  birth. Our government, charged by God with restraining evil (Romans 13:4), instead condones and even promotes evil.

It is indeed a very dark time.

Sort of like the time into which Jesus was born.

In those days, the prevailing Greek and Roman societies promoted the worship of idols, that is, demons (1 Corinthians 10:20). Women practiced abortions, primarily by throwing their newborn babies onto the city dump. Pirates and highwaymen waylaid travelers, and human trafficking into slavery was so common that Paul had to address how slaves and their masters were to act toward each other (1 Timothy 6:1-2). Even among the religious Jews of the time there was corruption in business practices (“wicked scales and deceitful weights” – Micah 6:11) and ethnic bias. People were sinful then, just like now. It was a dark world then, just like now. As the French would say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” (“The more things change, the more they are the same.”).

The good news was that something was about to change – drastically. Not the nature of the world, but the solution to that darkened condition. Light was about to shine in the world. The Apostle John opened his Gospel with the Good News that “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). Who or what was that light? The light was Jesus Christ, who in John 8:12 said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

So, what does light, especially the light of the world, do? What good is it?

  1. The first thing light does is reveal our path. Without light, we stumble in the dark; with it, we avoid obstacles and find our way safely. Twice this year, severe wind storms knocked out our power, leaving us without our computers (Oh, no!) or any lights. We dug out a couple flashlights and candles, allowing us to walk safely around the house until the power returned. In a world beset by spiritual darkness, we stumble from one false teaching or belief to another, ending up totally confused and lost. But spiritual light, in the person of Jesus Christ, shows us the way to salvation and eternal life with our heavenly Father. His coming fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah that “the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light” (Matthew 4:16). He who announced that he is the light of the world also said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus not only lights the way to salvation, he is the lighted path himself.
  2. Another thing that light does is reveal things hidden in the dark. This especially applies to evil deeds, which try to hide unseen in obscurity.  That’s why most crimes happen at night, when the perpetrators can hide their identity, or cover up their misdeeds. That’s why political figures try to hide their crimes and moral failures by weasel words and cover-ups. The Bible proclaims that all such evil deeds will be brought to light in the day of judgment. 1 Corinthians 4:5 says when the Lord comes, he will “bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.”

Unfortunately, many who dwell in darkness – and even love it – don’t want the light or the One who brings it into the world. John 1:9-11 tells us, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” Why doesn’t everyone want the light of Christ in their lives? 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” They have been spiritually blinded to the glory of Christ, not wanting to acknowledge their wickedness nor give up the sins which make them happy. Better to “turn a blind eye” to God’s commandments than to feel any obligation to obey them!  

But what about us? What part does Christ’s light play in our lives?

1. We trust that the true light will ultimately triumph, even if the darkness around us is so strong. John 1:4-5 says about Christ, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Similarly, the warning that the light will reveal the deeds of darkness shows the triumph of good over evil. In the words of the song, “This Is My Father’s World,” we hear, “For though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.”*

2. Like moths, we should flock to the light and avoid the darkness. The Bible warns us as Christians to no longer live in the darkness nor associate with it. This may mean dropping certain activities or friends that would tempt us to continue dark and destructive paths. 2 Corinthians 6:14 warns us, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” And Jesus himself said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 1:12).

3. At his Transfiguration, Jesus shone like the sun (Matthew 17:2). If he is like the sun, we are like the moon, reflecting his light into the world around us. That is why Jesus could say to us, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). When we shine Christ’s light into the world, we reveal both its lost condition and the one way to its salvation. The world may not like to hear the first part, but it needs to hear the second. According to Romans 2, we are “a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness.” We take to heart the words of the old Sunday School song: “Hide it under a bushel? No! I’m gonna let it shine!”** Our duty as Christians is to walk in the light. Paul called us to be “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). Our shining is a testimony to Christ and a call to follow the light to eternal life in Christ.

In Ephesians 6:12, Paul called the world, “this present darkness,” and said it is under the influence of spiritual, cosmic powers of evil. We should remember that when we face the evil words and actions of people around us, we are not to hate them, but to enlighten them to the light of Christ, that they too, like us, may be called out of darkness and into God’s marvelous  light (1 Peter 2:9).  Ultimately, it is only the light of Christ that will chase away the shadows of spiritual darkness.

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 1:1-14; Ephesians 6:11-13;

*”This Is My Father’s World”, by Maltie D. Babcock, 1901, public domain.

**”This Little Light of Mine”, by Harold Dixon Loes, public domain.

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. 

Hold Your Tongue!

Recently, as I have viewed various movies and video clips, and have heard people speaking, one particular biblical passage has come to mind.  The passage is from the Book of James, Chapter 3. It goes like this:

“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3:6).

Why does this verse come to mind so often? Because of the coarseness of today’s speech. It is one thing to despair of improper grammar and sloppy sentence construction – which do bother me to some degree (such as using “it’s” as a pronoun rather than as a contraction of “it is” which of course, it is). Or when people say “aks” instead of “ask.” Or when they write “whom” when the correct word is “who.” (or vice versa).

Yes it’s one thing to be a “grammar policeman,” always correcting people’s spelling and grammar,  but altogether something else to lament the current state of public discourse in our country. For no matter how much instruction you have had in proper English usage, you have to recognize that our society has become much more vulgar and blasphemous in recent years. It’s (notice the proper use of the contraction) not that people never swore in the past – they did, and some of our swear words today have long and “colorful” histories even back to Anglo-Saxon days, but the use of such words has become ubiquitous, being used everywhere. Previously, rough language was used privately or in certain situations but now it is common throughout the media, especially in millennials’ social media.

Now, I need to address this issue, but I will try to do so without actually writing the offensive words. For one thing, I don’t want you to put those words in your minds like infectious mind viruses. Another analogy would be to call them toxic waste that would pollute your mind.) But the other reason is that offensive words can change; the principle is what matters. No matter  what words become “bad words” in the future, there are three types of speech which James would agree we need to control.

These kinds are:

1. Blasphemous words. These are the words which break the Second Commandment. It’s not that words naming or describing the Deity are inherently bad; it’s how we use them that matters. If we name them in prayer, in preaching or teaching, or in witnessing to others, those are holy uses and therefore they honor God and don’t blaspheme him. It is when we use them as expletives in  anger, as common expressions of surprise, or combined with vulgar words to show emphasis, that we have used God’s name in vain. This is no small thing with God. His word proclaims many times that his Name is to be praised (e.g., Job 1:21 and Psalm 113:2,3 “Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore”).  Beyond that, God warns against blaspheming his Name: when God gave the command against taking his Name in vain, he finished the sentence by saying, “for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” Let us make sure that we don’t misuse God’s Name, especially around what may be non-believers, thereby cheapening the Name that should be praised. How can we treat the “name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9) as vulgar?

2. Vulgar words. While discussing bodily functions (or the lack of them!) with your doctor is certainly appropriate, do we really need to sound like junior high boys spouting crude names for excretory and reproductive functions?  No one needs to hear me pepper my speech with graphic descriptions of body parts. Sure, as a teenager I thought the Russian “Song of the Volga Boatmen” was about the “vulgar boatmen,” but I grew up. Unfortunately, it seems many adults have not yet made that transition. Their argument is that they want their speech to sound “real.” They say not to hide our thoughts with softened words like “heck” or “rats!”  But my parents “kept it real” when talking about all aspects of life and never used any vulgarities in their speech. When people fill their sentences with one vulgarity after another, they are only revealing how limited are their vocabularies.

3. Words used to insult, belittle, or harm others.  When explaining the Eighth Commandment, Martin Luther wrote, “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” It is a sign of our love and fear of God that we use language that is beneficial and uplifting to others. There is no room for a Christian to curse others with hateful speech. The Bible commands Christians to watch their language, and not use it against other people. James 3 contrasts the words with which we praise God and those which we use to curse those who are made in God’s image: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be” (James 3:9-10). Likewise, Paul commands Christians to focus on good speech: “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” (Philippians 4:8).

All in all, Christians are called to rise above the common speech of whatever culture in which they live. Neither blasphemies, crude language, nor hateful words are allowed.  As James 1:26 says, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” A few other relevant passages include:

  • Ephesians 5:4 “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”
  • Matthew 5:2 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
  • 1 Peter 3:9 “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”
  • Colossians 3:8 “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”

Therefore, I encourage you to guard your speech, making sure that it is holy, uplifting, edifying, and sweet in the ears of all who hear you speak or read what you write. And if you should be tempted to blurt out any words you shouldn’t, then follow James’ advice, and “Hold your tongue!”

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 30:12; Psalm 47:6; James 3:3-12; Colossians 3:1-17.

It’s In the Blood

This past week I began dialysis treatments. For those unfamiliar with dialysis, it is a procedure which cleans the blood of people with advanced kidney disease. In effect, it uses a mechanical device to do what the kidneys usually do, which is remove the waste materials which the body normally produces. While not pleasant to go through, after three sessions I have already felt some improvement in my energy level and overall condition.

During one of my treatments, a nurse came and drew blood for testing. As she did, I thought about how significant blood really is. Not only did my blood need to be cleaned, the sample she took would give vital information about many aspects of my health. By such samples, they have a window into my body’s functions. A verse from the Bible came to mind: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Leviticus 17:11).

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood.”

How true! For not only is blood needed to route oxygen and nutrients to keep cells alive, it also removes those cells’ waste products. If a person is cut and loses too much blood, he or she will die. If a person has too little blood, a transfusion of someone else’s blood will restore their life. And as I said above, a person’s blood will reveal a lot about that person’s condition. As it says in Leviticus 17, the life is truly in the blood.

Of course, if you have read any of my blogs, you know I haven’t said this just to discuss biology or medical practices.  And you would be correct. The connection between life and blood is also a spiritual one, one which is declared in the last part of the same verse from Leviticus. That verse continues and says, “for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

How can blood make atonement, that is, atonement for one’s sins? This verse refers to the blood sacrifices which the Old Testament commanded. Hebrews 9:22 explains that, “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” A guilty person would either pay for their sins with their own blood, or provide the blood of a sinless animal to take their place. Thus, by such sacrifices, the blood of innocent animals was shed to pay for, or cover, the sins of the person offering the animal. This practice actually began back in the Garden of Eden, when God himself provided animal skins to cover the naked and sinful first couple. It continued until the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 70.

Although God commanded and honored this practice throughout the Old Testament, there is one verse which reveals that the blood of animals is not the end of the story. Hebrews 10:4 says, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The blood sacrifices which God ordered were but a foreshadowing, a preparation for the one true blood sacrifice which was coming, and that is the sacrifice of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. By shedding his own blood, Jesus provided the one, true, complete, and final sacrifice to atone for all of our sins. While our sins condemned us to eternal death and separation from God, Christ’s death brought us full forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Hebrews 10:14 concludes, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” And 1 John 1:7 affirms, “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

In the words of Charles Wesley’s great hymn, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, “His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.” But how do we gain the benefit of Christ’s great blood sacrifice? How do we know his blood avails for us?

“His blood availed for me.”

The answer is very simple. It is through faith in the One who died for us. Just as God provided the covering for Adam and Eve, so he provides the covering for us through the gift of his Son. It is by God’s grace, and not by any of our works that we are forgiven. As John 3:16 proclaims, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Finally, as Christians, we have the privilege of participating in Christ’s blood by the sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus offered his body and blood at the Last Supper when he said, “This is my body; take and eat” and “this is my blood; take and drink,” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Likewise, in  John 6:53 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Whenever we receive Christ’s body and blood in Communion, we are strengthened in our faith and “transfused” by the life-giving blood of our Savior.

Our life is in the blood – in the blood of Christ.

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 9  and 10.

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

Super Bowls of Wrath

We are just one day away from the national extravaganza known as Super Bowl LVII. I think LVII translates to 57 in every language except ancient Latin. To show how old I am, I remember back to Super Bowl I. When that first match up between the champions of the National and American Football Leagues was announced, I thought the name “Super” was a bit pretentious and even corny, and was just a passing fad. Boy, was I wrong!

Now, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying an athletic contest between the best teams and players. Unfortunately, all the attention and hype given to the Super Bowls make it seem as if those bowls are important in the great scheme of things. But they are not; in fact, those bowl games pale to insignificance compared to another series of bowls – the seven bowls of God’s wrath proclaimed in the Book  of Revelation.

The 16th (XVI ?) chapter of Revelation describes seven terrible bowls of God’s wrath that his angels will one day pour out upon the earth. These include sores and boils, the sea and rivers turned to blood, a scorching sun, darkness, demonic spirits, a great war, and city-destroying earthquakes. Similar to the plagues that struck Egypt in the days of Pharaoh, these will demonstrate God’s power and judgment on mankind’s wickedness, prior to Christ’s final, victorious return.

I do not bring up these seven “Super” bowls of God’s wrath in any attempt to explain the Book of Revelation. There are many existing commentaries that attempt to do just that. Differing interpretations have led to various theories and the formation of entire denominations, all certain that their particular understanding is the right one. My purpose instead is to remind people that a day of God’s judgment is coming, and it will not be a game.

Usually, I write about God’s grace and mercy, and how knowing that can shape our lives. We celebrate God’s love for us, and rejoice that he has allowed us to become his children and inheritors of eternal life. His goodness to us calls us to “pay it forward” in acts of love and service to each other as we look forward to Christ’s glorious return.

That’s all good – it is after all, the message of the Gospel – but there’s the other side to what God has revealed in his Word. For he is not only a loving God, he is also a God of judgment, a God who is not mocked (Galatians 6:7), a God who sent a great flood to wipe out most of mankind (Genesis 6), who will destroy the earth with fire (2 Peter 2:10,12), and cast the devil, the demons, and those who are not redeemed into hell (Revelation 20).  These are scary thoughts, but they are necessary to fully appreciate what Jesus did for us on the Cross. If we are to proclaim that Jesus saves, we need to know from what does he save us? If God is just a “kindly old grandfather” who accepts anyone and everything, then what we do in this life doesn’t matter. But, if as Galatians 6:7 says, “for whatever one sows, that will he also reap,” then how we live matters greatly.

Unfortunately, too many American churches today are focused solely on God’s love, to the exclusion of God’s anger and wrath. In an effort to appeal to the widest possible audience, they soft-pedal God’s call to righteousness. Instead of preaching condemnation of sin, and calling for repentance, they teach a smiley-face form of happy living, self-improvement, and blatant acceptance of every sinful behavior in the name of “inclusion.” But how can you have “your best life now” when you are mired in horrible sin and its consequences?

Where is there godly sorrow for what we have done? Where are the voices speaking out against wickedness? Where are the warnings of fire and brimstone falling on unrepentant sinners? They are largely absent, shushed up by our pagan culture so that nominal Christians are afraid to be called judgmental, fill-in-the-blank-phobic, narrow-minded, out of step, or worse: extremists! So they try to keep a low profile, avoiding speaking out against the evils around them. Like the false prophets of old, they cry “Peace!” and lead people astray (Micah 3:5).

In the words of Rich Mullins’ song, “I hope that we have not too quickly forgotten that our God is an awesome God.”*

But the Bible is clear that God detests sin, and will bring severe judgment on all who are not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are all sinners and we know that to have sinned in one thing is to be guilty of all (James 2:10); therefore we all deserve God’s righteous judgment. But there are certain egregious sins which the Bible condemns in particular, which are even now rampant in our country today:

  • Abortion. It has gone far beyond a legitimate concern for a young woman who is raped and finds out she is pregnant. Now, protestors carry signs that say, “I’d rather be a murderer than a mother” and brandish red-soaked dolls. And then, congressmen and women wear pins that say “Abortion” to the State of the Union address (with a little heart instead of an “o” – only appropriate since abortion stops a beating heart). But God said we shall not murder (Exodus 20:13), and the Psalmists extol how God knit us in the womb (Psalm 139:13), fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), and call those in the womb a treasure and a blessing (Psalm 17:14).
  • Promotion of sexual sins and deviancy. It’s one thing to be compassionate toward those who suffer confusion over their identities, and another to extol and promote such things as normal and good. The Scriptures warn those who would call evil good (Isaiah 5:20), and spell out what some of those sins are that God detests: homosexuality, pedophilia, incest, bestiality, and even cross-dressing. There are more of these sins than I care to even mention, but they are summed up in the commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14).
  • Theft and robbery under the guise of inequity and just recompense for past wrongs by previous generations. Theft is expressly forbidden by the Ten Commandments, as is the idea  of punishing people for the sins of their ancestors. Jeremiah 31:29-30 say, “In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.” In other words, we are each responsible for what we do.
  • Class, race, and political hatreds. Jesus taught us to love and do good to those we perceive as our enemies (Luke 6:27). Scripture also teaches that we are all descended from the same original parents, and are all created in the image of God. To hate each other is to hate God, and if we do not love, then God is not in us (1 John 3:11).
  • Denial of God and exaltation of paganism. In an effort to cast off the “shackles” of God’s law, people deny his authority or existence, and praise whatever they think will affirm their sinful desires and remove any sense of guilt. This goes beyond any specific sin to include all of them. The Book of Judges 17:6 describes our situation with the words, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” And Paul sums it up with the words, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,” (Romans 1:25). People have always been guilty of this, but today this is evident in our public culture. You only have to watch the literally satanic performance at this year’s Grammy Awards, or see the horned and tentacled statue honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We have violated the first and chief commandment to worship the Lord God and serve him only (Exodus 20:3, Matthew 4:10).

Revelation 21:8  warns about these and other sins when it says, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

God will not wink at sin and wickedness. There will be no place in heaven for much of what our country now celebrates. The question is not whether God will pour out bowls of wrath upon a sinful world – and nation – but whether we personally will escape God’s righteous judgment. Romans 1:18 warns, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

As for our nation, I fear God’s judgment will fall upon America unless we heed the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Short of a national repentance, I fear the super bowls of God’s wrath will destroy us!

The only escape is repentance and faith in Christ, who bore God’s wrath for those who believe in him. It is in that hope that we trust the promise that there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

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: Revelation 16.

* From the song “Awesome God” by Richard Mullins, Reunion Records, 1988.

P.S. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sometimes referred to as RBG. Interestingly, a different RBG, Ruth Bell Graham, coined the statement, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Of course, God will never owe an apology for anything he does, but her comparison of America to those doomed cities makes its point.

 

 

 

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

Ball and Chain

I had a dream the other night, a nightmare of sorts. In it, someone took a heavy chain and fastened it around my left leg. Attached to the other end of the chain was a heavy iron ball, the kind you see in old prison yard movies, where the convicts are weighed down to prevent their trying to escape while breaking rocks with their sledgehammers.

I woke up in a cold sweat, screaming in horror at my bondage (actually, I just woke up and chuckled, relieved to know it had been just a dream). But then, when I went to get up, I remembered that part of the dream had been true, for my left foot was indeed shackled with a plastic tube connected to a portable vacuum device called a “wound vac,” something I had jokingly referred to as my “ball and chain.”

The device creates a mild suction on wounds, keeping them clean and stimulating a healing blood flow to them. For three months, 24/7, the device had been attached to my right foot, but now after I lost my left little toe, it was switched to that foot. Everything seems to be improving, which is the purpose of this device. Still, I can’t wait to be done with it and finally be free from my “ball and chain.”

Of course, the inconvenience I have with this healing device is nothing compared to what so many other people have suffered wearing real chains. Throughout history, and even today, people with power have used chains to control, enslave, and punish others. Just about every tribe and nation has put somebody in chains. From slavery imposed on Africans brought by force to our land, to Romans parading conquered enemies in chains in what were called “triumphs,” to Arab slavers capturing Europeans for their slave markets (our word “slave” comes from the word Slav, referring to the many slaves captured from Eastern Europe), to present-day slave markets in Libya, to convicts being transported to prison, chains have been used to bind literally millions of people.

The Bible records numerous examples of people being chained. In the Old Testament, conquerors chained the losing kings to show power over them, and to publicly humiliate them. The book of 2 Kings 25:7 tells us that the Babylonians blinded the Judean king, Zedekiah, “bound him in chains and took him to Babylon.” Likewise, in 2 Chronicles 33:10-12, the king of Assyria “captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze.” Psalm 149:5-9 prophesies that the godly will triumph in vengeance over the nations, “to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron.” 

Moving to the New Testament, we see that chains have not become obsolete. Luke 8:29 tells of a demoniac who broke the chains that had restrained him. Then, in Acts 12:6-7, we read about Peter being arrested and put in jail, bound with two chains and guarded by soldiers and sentries. (Not a problem: an angel appeared, the chains fell off, and Peter walked away, a free man.) Similarly, Paul was arrested and bound with two chains after his arrest in the Jerusalem Temple (Acts 21:33). Later, Paul wrote about his chains in several epistles, calling himself “an ambassador in chains” for the sake of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19-21). Finally, in the great “faith chapter” of Hebrews 11, the writer commends the saints who “suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment” (11:36).

So you see, chains have always been part of the human story, and God’s people have not been immune to their oppressive restraint.

While we are certainly familiar with the reality of chains, captivity, and slavery in human affairs, we must also recognize the existence of another, more dangerous kind of bondage: spiritual. The Bible calls this other form, being a “slave to sin” (John 8:34). Even though we don’t drag around iron chains (or wound vacs), we all have to contend with the bondage to sin.

In John 8, Jesus had an exchange with some of the Jews. He expanded their understanding of physical bondage to include the danger of spiritual slavery, and their need to be freed from it. He said,

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:31-36).

Of course, his audience did not take kindly to such a statement, and neither do we. We would rather go along with the popular attitude that people are basically good. Sure, we have some flaws, but look at all the good that people do. Doesn’t that count? I’m glad that much good is done, but even when intents are right, too often sin gets in the way and corrupts our efforts. Having phone connections with most of the world is great, so why are most of our calls from scammers? The internet is a real boon for information and communication, but we can’t use it without security software due to man-made malware (viruses, bots, ransom ware, etc.). Advances in medicine are wonderful, if you don’t count experiments done on unwilling or unknowing test subjects – or the creation of viruses in labs. And how much of the money given to alleviate suffering here and abroad goes to the needy, and is not siphoned off by corrupt officials?

The Apostle Paul saw the effect of sin’s bondage in his own life. In Romans 7:14-20,  he laments:

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

How often can we say the same things about ourselves? As one form of our liturgy of public confession proclaims, “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.” We see this not only in others, but in many of our thoughts, words, and actions. Anger, insults, curses, gossip; all are evidence of our natural slavery to sin.

But the good news is that we don’t have to let sin control us. So how do we break free? What can we do? Well, nothing. Our liberation from sin’s control comes only one way: by God’s power through faith in Jesus Christ. Right after Paul lamented his sins and asked, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”, he answered his own question, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25). Or as Jesus said of himself, “So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36).

The wonderful part of the Gospel is not only that our desire to sin is lessened, but also that the sins we do commit, the sins of omission, and even our basic sinful nature, are all forgiven. By God’s promise, we can rejoice that the ball and chain of sin has been overcome. We can at last find peace and celebrate the words of Jesus in Luke 4:18,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,”

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 61:1-3; Romans 7; Galatians 5:1

Deliver Us From Evil

There is a famous line from Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, in which Marc Anthony speaks at the recently murdered Caesar’s funeral. He begins his eulogy with the words:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones;

In his speech, Anthony cleverly turns what he says about the evil that Caesar had done, to a condemnation of the evil that the murderers had done in killing Caesar. No one is free of guilt; all are evil in one way or another.

Though probably not on purpose, Shakespeare’s lines echo what Scripture claims: “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. . .” (Romans 3:23). Sure, we all sin, but what about real evil? Does it really exist, or is it just the clever wording of a long-dead poet whose works were not “interred with his bones”?

Let me see. . . is there evil in the world today? How about Russian troops attacking Ukraine, bombing its cities and killing its civilians? Or, what about our country killing babies before they’re born, in the name of “reproductive rights”?* Or the U.S. droning an innocent man and his son during the pull-out from Afghanistan? Or elected leaders who lie and enrich themselves at the expense of those who elected them to office? Or drive-by shootings that kill bystanders along with their targets? Or mobs that loot stores with impunity? Or insurance companies that find loopholes to not pay claims? Or businesses that gouge their customers with inflated prices? Or people who abuse children, spouses, or the elderly? Or gangs who sell drugs that kill or leave users homeless? Or. . . or. . .or. . .

I could go on, and so could you. There is much evil in the world today, as there has been since the first humans took that bite from the forbidden fruit so long ago. We are reminded of the words of Genesis 6:5,”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.”

Evil is real, and its effects do live on after the evil has done its worst. People are harmed, societies crumble, and even nature is diminished by what people do. God warned Adam not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; before Adam and Eve ate of its fruit they knew good, but ever since they ate, they and we have known evil as well (Genesis 2:16-17).

 The Bible does not shy away from the reality of evil. It speaks of it some 539 times, including in the prayer our Lord Jesus taught us to pray, “. . . and deliver us from evil.”

What is the evil of which the Lord spoke? I can think of three ways our prayer for deliverance applies:

1. It is a prayer for protection from the bad things other people do to us, whether intentional or not, and from the dangers of the natural world. It could be a robbery, an assault, a car accident, infidelity, a flood, tornado, or earthquake; in other words, anything that would harm us. Just because we didn’t cause what hurts us doesn’t mean we won’t be harmed. We look to God to deliver us from all such evil events.

2.  The word “evil” in the Lord’s Prayer can also be translated, “evil one,” meaning we are praying for God to protect us from Satan. Evil is not just a term we use to refer to unhappy events; it also applies to a spiritual being, to the one who first tempted Eve and Adam to sin and who desires our destruction. Satan has been active in the world since the beginning, destroying people’s lives through his lies. In fact, Jesus called him “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Peter says of him in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Fortunately, Satan and his demons are not omnipotent gods; they can only do what God allows them to do, so we pray for God to protect us from them. (See Job 1:6-12, where Satan needed Gods permission to afflict Job.) Satan tempts us to do evil, beginning with separating us from God’s Word (Luther).

3.  Unfortunately, there is another source of evil, and that is us. As fallen, sinful creatures, we don’t need the devil to harm us or lead us astray. We can do that quite well all by ourselves. We are especially adept at rationalizing our evil actions – “I deserve this,” or “They have insurance,” or “They had it coming!” or “It’s just a white lie,” or “No one will know.” Jeremiah 17:9 proclaims,  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Or as Walt Kelly put it in his 1970 cartoon, Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” That’s why the Lord’s Prayer also contains the petition, “And lead us not into temptation”; we are asking God to keep us from doing evil ourselves by giving in to our wrongful desires.

This three-fold problem has been called, “The world, the flesh, and the devil,” first described by Thomas Aquinas in the 1500s as “implacable enemies of the soul,” though also seen in the temptations which the devil threw at Jesus in the wilderness: 1. gaining the kingdoms of the world by tempting God (the world); 2. satisfying his hunger by turning stones to bread (the flesh); and 3. worshiping Satan (the devil). See Luke 4:1-13. Jesus refused to give in to any of  those temptations, preserving his sinless nature and thus his ability to take our sins upon himself at the cross.

Jesus remained sinless, but we are inherently sinful, so what do we do about sin and the evil it causes?

1. As Jesus told us, we pray for deliverance from evil, and from the temptations to think and commit evil ourselves. We need God’s help!

2. We resist Satan. James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

3. Read the Scriptures, so you know what God considers right and wrong. This makes it harder to rationalize our actions as “not so bad.” or “I’m only human” when we see that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

4. Remember the promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” When you feel tempted to do wrong, look for the way of escape God provides you.

5. Psalm 34:14 says, “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Don’t put yourself in situations where you know you will be tempted; seek what is good and wholesome. Guard your thoughts: as Philippians 4:8 tells us, 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.” In other words, get your mind out of the gutter!

But what if we do these things, and evil still comes our way? Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Our Lord said, “But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39) and also “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44), a lesson repeated by Paul: “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all” (Romans 12:17). This is not to say we must let evil have free rein in the world, it does have to be opposed and stopped; the point is that we are not to stoop to the level of the evildoers, but to recognize them as people who are also loved by God.

Ultimately, our deliverance from evil has been provided for us by Jesus Christ, who died on the cross so that the evil we have done will not “live after us” into eternity. We not only have the strength of the Holy Spirit now in this life to resist sin, but also have full forgiveness of all our sins and the evil they cause, for all eternity. That is our hope, and we look forward to the day when evil is banished and only good remains.

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 1; John 8:34-47; Romans 12:9-21. 

* 41.9 million since the Roe v Wade decision in 1973.

I Was Wrong

I was wrong.

I don’t like admitting that, because I don’t like being wrong. Maybe because I seldom am; in fact, I hold to the famous saying, “I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.” (Sort of like boasting about being humble.) But, every once in a while, something happens that proves that I can be wrong. Even very wrong.

So it was recently on a visit to a local grocery store, that I did something that was totally wrong. This is what happened: After checking out with our groceries, Karen and I returned to our car, which was parked properly in a handicapped space. I had to wait a minute for a woman in a motorized wheelchair to use the adjacent ramp – she had come from further away in the parking lot, so I felt bad that she had to travel further than I had, since all the handicapped spaces were used. After she passed I walked down the ramp, then noticed the person using the space next to mine. He was young, robust, and seemed not to be disabled at all.

Having seen people abusing the parking privilege before, I immediately assumed he wasn’t disabled. Even though his car had a placard, I assumed he was using someone else’s. Rushing to such a judgment was bad enough, but then I compounded it by asking him as he walked past, “Handicapped?” In my righteous judgment, I guess I expected him to confess and apologize for taking a handicapped space when he shouldn’t have. Instead, he lit into me with a barrage of angry accusations.

He said I had no business questioning him about that. He said it was none of my business and that I had no right to judge him. He said he didn’t owe me any explanation of his medical condition, that just because he didn’t have gray hair or was as old as I was, didn’t mean he wasn’t disabled. He showed me his placard, and then, his anger building, he took off his shoe and sock to show me the ulcer on the side of his foot, explaining that he had been fighting it for several years. I was instantly shamed for what I had done, and tried to apologize, admitting that I was wrong in judging him.

He was still yelling at me as I sheepishly got into my car, and as I pulled away, I could tell by his parting one-finger gesture that I was not quite forgiven.

The whole incident rattled me. Most of my interpersonal interactions, even with strangers, are pleasant; certainly, I don’t like causing a rift with anyone, or causing them to get angry because of me. But what really bothered me was that the man was absolutely right. I had violated one of my core beliefs, one of my core Christian beliefs, that it is wrong to judge someone. I was a Pharisee who had looked down on someone for doing what I thought was wrong. I was a “disability nazi,” who appointed myself to enforce the rules, while violating one of Christ’s own commands.

As I pondered and grieved what I had done, I came to several conclusions.

First, I had violated what Scripture clearly teaches. Starting with the Old Testament, I had broken the Eighth Commandment: “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16 and Deuteronomy 5:20). As Luther explained this 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.” Do you think I missed that one?

Jesus also forbade what I did, when he said in Matthew 7:1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.  Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Do you think I maybe had a log in my own eye?

There is a telling situation in the book of 1 Samuel, where the prophet Samuel is sent to anoint a new king to replace Saul. Samuel is impressed by the appearance of one of David’s brothers, Eliab, but the Lord tells him that Eliab is not the one God has chosen. The Lord tells Samuel,  “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (6:7) Did I know this passage? Yes. Have I ever preached on it? Yes. Did I follow what it says? No.

Once when Jesus was teaching in the Temple, people rushed to judge him for healing on the Sabbath. He told them, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24). I had judged the man by his outward appearance, and out of my own inward ignorance. My judgment was not righteous. I had sinned.

Second, I was a hypocrite. I acted contrary to what I believe and to what I have preached. I did not practice what I preached, but instead, I had pulled a, “Do what I say and not what I do.” I have taught that we cannot see what’s going on inside a person, or know what they’re going through, so we cannot judge them. Judgment is left to God who alone knows each person’s heart and mind. I had put myself in God’s place by rendering judgment.

Third, I was ignorant. I didn’t know the man’s situation, nor was it my place to know it and decide whether he met my standards of disability. Other times when I saw apparently fully-capable people using handicapped parking spaces, I had cut off any inklings of judgment in my mind by reminding myself that not all disabilities are visible. As the saying goes, everyone is handicapped in some way; some ways show more than others. The man could have had heart problems, breathing problems, or even had some terminal illness and was out shopping for the last time. Or, he could have been loading groceries in the car for an elderly parent who was still on his or her way to the car. Or being a Good Samaritan, helping a disabled stranger with the groceries. I had no idea, yet I mentally condemned him.

Fourth, I lacked compassion. Instead of praying for someone who needed a handicapped parking permit, I ignored the possibility he actually needed the permit. But even beyond that, the more I thought about the level of anger he vented at me, the more I realized that this was probably not the first time he had been questioned about his status. He probably has been challenged before, and maybe responded every time with patience and gentleness. But then I came along, and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Now, as I remember the event, I pray for his peace – and healing. I know first-hand that foot ulcers are no small thing, and that their persistence and slow healing does try one’s patience.

Fifth, what I did was extremely dangerous. Especially these days. Karen was afraid during the incident, that the guy could attack or even shoot me if he were armed; road rage is a real thing, even when the two cars are parked. Even if the guy had wrongly parked, it wasn’t worth the risk to any of us.

Finally, I’m glad for the man’s angry response. Not that I made him angry, and not that it felt good. It didn’t. But his level of anger was like a slap in the face that I needed to repent of my judgmental tendencies. If he had just said, “Yes, I am handicapped,” and gone his way silently, I would not have been forced to confront my sin and correct my thinking. I would have probably thought, “Yeah, sure you are” and still harbored doubts and felt self-righteous. As it was, I think God used him to correct wrong attitudes in me; my particular handicap was sin, and God knew my sin needed to be repented of and healed.

Yes, I was wrong, and for that I am truly sorry.

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 20:1-17; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; John 7:14-24

 

 

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. 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

A World Without God?

What would the world be like without God?

Besides the fact there wouldn’t even be a world or anything else without God (Colossians 1:17 – “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”), what if God just “walked away” and left the world to its own devices? What if no one knew God or called upon him, or believed in his Son, or lived under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit?

The Bible has actually given us powerful examples of times and places that the world lived in ignorance of, or rebellion against God. There were our first parents, Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God and tried to put themselves in his place – the result was the death sentence on them and all their descendants (including us). Then came the days of Noah, when the entire world apart from Noah’s family (eight souls) was so hopelessly evil that God regretted having created mankind, and wiped the slate clean with the Great Flood (Genesis 6:6 and following). Then there were great cities filled with evil, such as Sodom and Gomorrah (which God destroyed) and Nineveh (which he spared when they turned to him; see the book of Jonah).

But mankind’s disregard of God is not limited to a few dramatic times and places; it can be seen throughout the world and throughout history wherever people have tried to live without him. The disbelief in God is so pervasive, Romans 3:11 says, “no one seeks for God.” The absence of belief in God or obedience to his Word manifested in ancient times before Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit came into the world:

  1. Constant wars and killings.
  2. Slavery, usually of conquered peoples or the poor.
  3. Abortion and Infanticide: the ancient Romans would toss unwanted children onto the city dumps (only to later have Christians rescue them). Canaanites would sacrifice children to their god, Molech, in a heated iron idol.
  4. Sexual licentiousness. There was an entire ancient Greek regiment made up of male pairs, and it was accepted for tutors to teach their young students more than the three R’s. Cults and religions had temple prostitutes and men could legally kick out their wives for  younger women. God forbidding such behavior is found in God’s law given to the Israelites in Leviticus 18:23, Exodus 22:19, and 1 Corinthians 6:9, among numerous places.
  5. Worship of nature rather than its Creator. Cults thrived that sought to control nature through magic, and gods were invented to represent forces and objects. Wind, rain, land and sea, stars and planets, the sun and moon: all were deified and worshipped.
  6. Selfishness and seeking material wealth and power at the expense of other people.

I’m sure glad we’ve gotten past all that foolishness in our modern world! No, wait, we haven’t, have we? We are every bit as sinful in all those areas as the world ever was:

  1. There are wars between tribes and nations, and hundreds of killings in our own country every week.
  2. Slavery still exists in what is called “human trafficking” as well as in outright servitude of some people to others.
  3. Abortion is rampant, protected, and even publicly funded in our country, with over 600,000 a year (down from 1.5 million due to fewer pregnancies). Now, two governors have spoken in favor of infanticide right after a child is born.
  4. Homosexuality is praised and taught to school children, and no negatives about it, or transgenderism or bestiality are allowed in the public arena. TV, movies, and online videos are filled with sexual innuendo and explicit acts. Acceptance of people is made contingent on accepting any sexual behavior those people do, regardless of what Scripture says about it.
  5. The new nature god is Science, and nature worship continues. Whatever the latest theory is, gets support and funding, and people speak of the planet being alive, self-evolving, and “all there is.” People who would never speak of Father God freely speak of Mother Nature.
  6. And as for selfishness and seeking after material wealth and power, do I really need to give examples?

So how is it that we see the same effects today of a godless world, when God himself came to earth to save us, and left his Spirit with us to guide and strengthen us? You would think things would be different. I think there are three points to make about that:

  1. First, things are different for those who believe in that Savior and trust God’s Word, both his Law and his Gospel. The Spirit does work through the believers to soften the effects of sin and the Fall, both in changing lives and providing remedial care for those suffering the consequences of a sinful world. The Holy Spirit is still active, calling and enlightening people to faith in Christ, and then moving them to show God’s love in Christ to the world. The world would be even worse without the Church being in the world.
  2. Second, even though Christians have brought blessings to the world, we are still sinners, and find that we don’t live up to our calling as well as we should. At times we have contributed to the world’s problems through wars, slavery, and greed, but these were not caused by faith, but by failure. At least our sins are confronted by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, so that we can, and have, repudiated many social sins.
  3. Third, most of the world does not believe in God, and therefore is living in a “world without God.” Their own perceived needs and desires drive their actions, and social pressures drive their beliefs. Even if they have heard about Christ, they don’t believe. Their hearts are hard, their pride is in control, and they don’t want to submit to divine authority and change their lifestyles. They say in their heart, “There is no God.”

Of course, those who say there is no God are just deluding themselves. Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 say, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” There is a God (the God of the Bible), whether or not people believe in him. He does not derive his existence or power from his creation or his creatures; he is what philosophers call, the only “necessary Being.” The rest of us are all “contingent beings.” We depend on God for our existence; he does not depend on us. He existed self-sufficiently from eternity past without us. He did not need to create us, but freely chose to do so out of love.

That God’s existence is real can be known by his creation, especially in his creation of us who were made in his image. Paul wrote in Romans 1:20, “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.” The rest of that passage (verses 18-25) reveals God’s judgment on those who would deny his existence:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 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. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Regardless of what people believe, or think they want, God is in the world. The world cannot shut him out, it cannot kick him off the throne and put themselves there, no matter what they want. He is still in charge, and now, just as in the days before the Great Flood, he has allowed the world to follow its own path, a path that leads to destruction. Each of us will face the reality of a righteous and holy God when our lives here end, and one day the entire world will face its day of reckoning. On that day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

So, what would the world be without God? Bleak and doomed. But fortunately, those in Christ will never have to know such a world, for God has promised never to leave or forsake us. Amen thank you Lord!

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: Colossians 1:15-20; Psalm 53; Romans 1:18-32.

Those Pesky Weeds!

This morning I grabbed some cottage cheese for my breakfast and stepped out to enjoy it on the veranda (also known as our concrete slab back patio). As I sat there enjoying the fresh air and listening to the sounds of nature (not to mention the drone of an airplane and the clanging of a neighbor’s back yard building project), I let my eyes wander around the yard and took in our tastefully-done landscaping.

There was the orange tree, festooned with young green fruit; the row of rose bushes holding on to a few withered petals; and a Lily-of-the-Nile bush resplendent with its purple flowers. The mostly-green grass was the final note in the visual symphony. Yes, a pleasant and harmonious opus of nature before my eyes!

But then, as I focused my vision more closely, there arose a few discordant notes: a prickly, leafy stem sprouting from the middle of the lawn; a medley of unrecognizable leaves spreading across the top of the garden mulch; and some huge plant that looked like a small tree – but which my wife assured me was not planted by us. In other words, we had weeds!

Those pesky weeds! I thought we had eradicated them by a combination of weed-killer, digging, and deft knife-work. We had even laid down weed- barrier fabric along one long strip, but that had not stopped the sprouting of noxious plants. Why are these undesirable plants so robust in spite of drought and all we do to try to remove them and prevent their return? Why do most of the flowers and vegetables we plant, water, and fertilize wither and die, yet these uncultivated little monsters thrive? It’s just not right!

While shaking my head at the prospect of having to crawl around the yard with my knife and trowel (or with a chain saw to remove the previously-mentioned tree-like weed), I began thinking about how sin crops up in our lives, spoiling our peace and introducing harmful “weeds” into  our souls. And with that thought there came remembrance of some biblical teachings about weeds, and the thorns that often accompany them.

Before digging into the comparison of sin to weeds, let’s define what a weed is. One of my teachers once said that a weed is any plant that grows where it is not wanted. Therefore, even an apple tree is a weed if it grows in the middle of a farm field. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a weed is “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth, especially: one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants.” That part after “especially” is an important point that will help us see the effect of sin as we consider it below.

Why do we have weeds? It is interesting to see the connection between sin and weeds, all the way back to the first humans. In the beginning, God created all plants and pronounced them to be “good” (Genesis 1:11-13). Then, God put his highest creation, man, in a garden of those good plants. God charged the man to cultivate that garden to care for the life-sustaining fruit those plants provided: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). At that point there was no sin, nor any noxious weeds.

But then, Adam and Eve sinned. Part of their punishment was having to deal with weeds in order to eat: God said, “. . . 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” (Genesis 3:17-18). And thus began the connection between sin and weeds.  

Jesus talked about the symbolism of weeds when it comes to sin and its effect on our lives. In Matthew 13, he told two parables, both of which included weeds as metaphors for sin and sinners. The first parable is known as the Parable of the Sower. In it, he describes a sower who sows seed that falls on various soils. Some of the seeds “fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them” (verse 7). When Jesus explained the meaning of that verse, he said, “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” The problems of the sinful world and the sinful desire for wealth above God’s word, act like weeds to choke out what is good and righteous in that person’s life.

The second parable is actually known as the Parable of the Weeds (“tares” in King James language). In it, Jesus contrasted weeds with desirable wheat; at the judgment the wheat (those who are righteous) will be gathered to the Lord, while the weeds (unrepentant sinners) will be cast into the fire. His message was clear: there will be judgment, but leave it to God and his timing (Matthew 13:24-30).

Why are weeds (sins) so hard to remove? As far as botanical weeds go, I have no idea why they are so hard to remove, except for being tough, sometimes spiky, and so quick to spread. And in some cases, they are actually beautiful in appearance, disguising themselves with desirable flowers; I have at times gathered a cluster of dandelions to present to Karen as a bouquet – much cheaper than a dozen roses and almost as pretty!

Come to think of it, sins share some of the same resistant traits as weeds. They grow so strong because the soil they spring from is by nature sinful and unclean. Sins are the product of our very natures, and thus grow strong. They are also, like weeds, prolific: one sin leads to another, and another, until they take over, crowding out the good. After a while we don’t even see them. And just as I have a weakness for dandelions (my wife, not so much), sins can appear attractive to us at first glance. We enjoy our sins and don’t want to root them out. They seduce us with promises of happiness and fulfillment, but in the end destroy us. Like a poisonous mushroom that looks as pretty as an edible one, sins that look good can kill.

Beyond the weed analogy, sins are also so pernicious because there is a spiritual battle raging constantly, in which the devil tempts us to sin with his lies. Whether tempting Eve to eat of forbidden fruit, or tempting us to think and act in forbidden ways, he uses every trick in the book to lead us away from God. In the Parable of the Weeds, Jesus attributed the appearance of weeds in the wheat field as the work of the devil (Matthew 13:39).

What do we do about our weedy sins? The first step is to recognize what is sinful by studying God’s Word. The Ten Commandments are a good place to begin. Second, is to recognize sins as harmful to our spiritual health and future; we must learn to not wink at sin, but to grow to hate it with all our heart as the destroyer of all that is good. Third, we turn the noun “weed” into a verb, and “weed” our garden by digging out our sins by the roots. This can only be done in the power of God, whose Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and drives us to the Cross of Jesus Christ. In Christ we have forgiveness of our sins (spiritual weed-killer!) and a new life no longer in bondage to sin. As Paul wrote, “you are no longer your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20),and therefore are no longer a slave to sin (Romans 6:15-22). You need not live a weed-choked life; let God, the True Gardener, begin a cleansing work in you. The weeds of sin spoil our ordered lives; it’s time to get rid of them.

And now, I’ve put off attacking those weeds in my yard long enough; time to put down my pen (keyboard) and pick up my knife and trowel, and get to work on those pesky weeds!

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 3; Exodus 20; Matthew 13; Mark 4

A Skunk in the Works

There is a skunk in the works.

I mean that literally. We have a skunk that has decided our back yard provides a handy path for it to travel from its den to our back-fence neighbor’s yard. Karen discovered this not long ago when she stood on our back patio one evening. As she looked around at our yard, suddenly a large (she emphasizes large) skunk came sauntering around the corner of the house, just a few feet from her. She stepped quickly into the house, then watched the critter (also known as a polecat) calmly make its way across the yard. The next day, we checked the fence line, and found the places where it had dug underneath the fence.

This began a series of efforts to keep the skunk out of our yard: spreading so-called skunk repellant at the entry points, blocking the holes with hard and heavy objects, and driving tent stakes along the fence line. But after all these efforts, the skunk just keeps digging new holes and getting through. There’s still a skunk in the works.

And, because skunks are famous for their ability to spray a horrible stench, the idiom, “skunk in the works,” refers to something that messes up a situation that is otherwise good. But, as I pondered the situation with our cute, but persistent, furry critter, it occurred to me that the term, “skunk in the works,” also has a deeper meaning.

When we look around us at the world, both the natural creation given to us by God, who proclaimed it “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and mankind itself, created in God’s own image (Genesis 1:26-27), we have to admit that things are not as good as they once were, or should be. There is a skunk in the works. Or rather, two skunks, both which begin with the same letter as skunk.

The first skunk is sin. It’s almost beyond comprehension how badly sin has infected and distorted the world ever since the first act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. The effects on mankind have been devastating, in the way our attitudes, desires, words, and actions have brought so much misery to ourselves, to other people, and to the natural world. Crime, wars, lying, stealing, racial and tribal animosities, adultery, and sexual perversions have brought sorrow, division, and death on a massive scale. It had become so bad in the past that God once sent a great flood to wipe the earth clean: “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. And the Lord  regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:5-6). The way things have gotten these days in this country, and around the world, the fact that God hasn’t yet acted similarly is amazing! It must be as Peter explained, that the Lord “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

We have to remember that sin is not just bad things we do or think, but is an innate part of us. We are tainted by sin from the moment of our conception; as David wrote in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” It’s like a birth defect that stays with us our entire lives; in fact, birth defects, sickness, injuries, and death are all consequences of sin. Not every sickness or injury is from us committing a sin, but all are part of the curse which God pronounced on us and all his creation as a result of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin and disobedience (Genesis 3:14-17). But note that we can’t just blame our first parents for the consequences of sin; The Apostle Paul explained in Romans 5:12, “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.”

Sin has such a natural hold on us that Paul says we are slaves to sin. Only through faith in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in us can we be freed from that bondage to be free indeed. And for those who are in Christ but are troubled by the hold that sin still seems to have on them, we are comforted by the Prophet Joel: “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” (Joel 2:13). Sin need not control us; even though the stink of sin is all around us, we need not fear this skunk, for in Christ, all our sins are removed from us, as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) . . . which is a lot better than we’re doing with our furry friend so far!

The second skunk is Satan. I know it was a serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden, but it could easily have been a skunk, for the devil has certainly played a huge role as a “skunk in the works” to mess up our lives. Not only did he lead that first couple into the sin that brought them hardship and death, he also continues to plague us. As 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” He crafts temptations in ways that make sin appealing and not so terrible. He knows each of our weaknesses, and seeks to exploit them to separate us from God. His desire is to sear our consciences, alienate us from Christ, and cause us to despair by accusing us of the very things he led us to do.

What should we do about this evil, spiritual being, whose name literally means accuser or adversary?

  1. First we recognize that such a being exists, and that he is powerful and very skilled in deception.
  2. Second, we avoid having too much fascination in him; rather, our focus should be on Christ our Redeemer, and not on our enemy. The Christian writer C.S. Lewis wrote in the  preface to his 1942 book, The Screwtape Letters, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”
  3. The devil does not look like the red-suited, pitch-fork-carrying, horned goat-like monster so often depicted in comics. The Bible tells us that he “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). How often do the temptations of the world appear so deceptively attractive to us?
  4. Satan is a liar, and “the father of lies” (John 8:44). As the saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Satan’s lies may sound good, but they lead only to destruction.
  5. Through faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can resist Satan and his lies. James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
  6. Last, but not least, Christ defeated Satan. Christ beat his temptations in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), he defeated him when Peter suggested Jesus avoid the cross (Mark 8:33), and he finally overcame Satan in the crucifixion and resurrection. You might say Christ “skunked” the devil. Christ has been exalted and glorified, and will be forever, while Satan and his demons will burn in the lake of fire for all eternity (Revelation 20:10). Because you are in Christ, you share in his victory, and need not fear the evil one.

Yes, when we consider life in this fallen world, we recognize that there are “skunks in the works.” But fortunately, life’s skunks of sin and Satan have been overcome through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. As Luther wrote in his Small Catechism, Jesus has “saved us at great cost . . . from sin, death, and the power of the devil.”

Now, if only Karen and I can overcome our polecat, we’ll be just fine!

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 1:6-12; Matthew 4:1-11; Romans 5; 1 Corinthians 15; Revelation 20.

P.S. The phrase, “skunk in the works,” is not to be confused with Lockheed-Martin’s secretive, advanced airplane development operations known as “the Skunk Works,” in Palmdale, California. 

Contactless Faith?

Thanks to new restaurant dining restrictions here in California, I went to pick up a meal from one of our favorite restaurants for us to eat at home. As I stood outside the restaurant’s front door, waiting for my order to be brought to me, I read the various signs posted around the entrance: “Mask required,” “Maintain six feet of social distance,” and “Contactless Curbside Delivery Available.” I wondered about the last one; wouldn’t some contact be needed, since the food is handed from one person to another? Or do they just throw the food out the window like someone feeding bread to the birds?

I also began wondering about other areas where “contact” between people is discouraged. Schools, grocery stores, parks, sports events, and even churches. The last is especially troubling; it’s one thing to warn people about packing together in small spaces, and another thing to have “Caesar” intervene in matters of the free practice of religion, which is supposedly guaranteed by our Constitution.

And now, with the current three-week restrictions on gatherings, we are being told to stay away from church services even through Christmas.

Which got me thinking even more: is faith possible without contact? Can we really have or practice “contactless faith”? How would this have changed the history of our faith, if today’s rules had always been in force? Just imagine:

  1. If Adam and Eve had kept social distancing, none of us would even be here.
  2. Mary and Joseph would have sung in the stable, “A way we’re in danger, no mask for our heads.”
  3. The wise men wouldn’t have been allowed to travel across national boundaries to visit the infant Jesus. We’d be singing, “We three kings of Orient are, staying home, can’t travel too far . . .”
  4. Other Christmas songs we’d be singing: “Deck the Halls with Rolls of Plastic,” “Edicts we have heard on high, telling us to stay inside,” and, “O Quarantine, O Quarantine, your rules are always changing. . .”
  5. Pontius Pilate would have not just washed his hands at Jesus’ trial, he would have washed his face and used sanitizer, too.
  6. Martin Luther’s famous defense at the Diet of Worms would have been: “Here I stand, six feet apart from you.” Then he would have self-quarantined at the Wartburg Castle for the next year.
  7. And finally, we’d have to revise the old Twelve Days of Christmas to go something like, “The Twelve Months of Covid.”*

On a more serious note, the biggest change would have been in our Lord’s earthly ministry, which was all about making contact with us and all the people around him. Just consider:

  1. Jesus had contact with lepers, who were the most socially-distanced people of his day: they were required to call out when they walked so other non-infected people could avoid them. When a group of them saw Jesus, they “stood at a distance” and called to him. Rather than running from them, he healed them, resulting in one falling at his feet (Luke 17:11-19).
  2. Jesus associated with sinners, including tax collectors and prostitutes, who were the “social lepers” of his day. “And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?'” (Mark 2:16).
  3. Jesus touched several dead people (just before raising them to life), something that was socially and religiously forbidden in his day. Numbers 5:2 ordered, “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead.” (Talk about social distancing!)
  4. And just imagine the Last Supper, with Jesus instituting a “drive-through” Communion service as the disciples filed in and out of the upper room.

But the whole point of Jesus coming to earth was to make contact with us, the “apple of his eye” (Psalm 17:8) to save us from our sins (Luke 19:10, etc.). Rather than “staying at home” in heaven, safe from all the ill effects of the deadly disease of sin, he came down to us to suffer and die for us. He didn’t just “Zoom” us from heaven; he showed up in person, freely accepting not only the risks, but the certainty of his death. And because he did, we have eternal life – free from any future diseases!

Jesus made contact, but what about us today? Can we have faith and maintain that faith in our “contactless” society? Can we have “contactless faith”? Well, the answer is both yes and no.

“Yes,” in that we all have God’s Word available to us in many forms, both printed and electronic, so that we need never lack for his saving Word of life. God’s law and his gospel are in our hands, though we be shut away from contact with each other. As God’s Word promises, it will not return empty, but will accomplish its purpose (Isaiah 55:11).

And “no,” in two senses. First, because even when separated from each other, we are not separated from God in Christ. His Holy Spirit has come upon us and remains with us no matter what. Jesus spoke of this Spirit in John 14:17, “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” No distancing there. And, even when Jesus was about to “distance” himself physically from the disciples at the Ascension, he promised them, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This was consistent with God’s promise made in several Old Testament Scriptures that he would “never leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 13:6-8, Joshua 1:5, 1 Kings 8:57, 1 Chronicles 28:20), as well as in the New Testament book of Hebrews (13:5). Even if we were locked up in solitaire, in a prison cell, or in a cage, Christ would still be with us. Apart from him, we have no faith, for it is his gift by his Holy Spirit that we can believe. As Luther’s Small catechism states, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

And second, though we find ourselves separated right now by circumstances, this situation is not normal and cannot continue. Christians are by nature called to come together, to be the Church, called out from the crowd and joined in fellowship. Hebrews 10:25 tells us to not neglect meeting together, “as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Faith when isolated and neglected can grow cold. We can get too comfortable not going to church, that we forget to hold up Christ as the center of our lives and as the core of all our decisions. We begin to look at the world in the same secular way that we hear and see espoused all around us. We forget that “though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”** We need the fellowship, teachings, sacraments, and sharpening of character that only the Church, by the power of God himself, can provide.

Therefore, join with me in praying for relief from this pandemic, from the sickness and death it causes, and from the social, economic, and spiritual damage our response has caused, for “contactless faith” is a contradiction in terms.

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

Read: Mark 2:13-17; Luke 17:11-19;  John 14:15-27 

*See the next blog for a full rendition of this slightly warped song.

** From the hymn, This Is My Father’s World, by Maltbie Babcock, 1901. 

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                 

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

Statues of Limitation – Part 2

Last time I began addressing the issues surrounding the current smashing and toppling of historical statues, and made the first two of four points: First, that such statue smashing is wrong, and second, that all the people represented by such statues were flawed sinners (with feet of clay) who overcame their flaws to accomplish significant things (whether we like what they did or not). Now, I continue with the final two points:

3. Should we erect any statues at all? While I recognize the value of holding up certain people as examples to us of flawed individuals who nevertheless accomplished great things in their lives, my musings have led me to ask the question, “Should we erect any statues at all?”

My question is based on the commandment given by the LORD on Mount Sinai: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4 and Deuteronomy 5:8).

The reactions to this commandment have varied by religious communities over the centuries. The Israelites broke it even before Moses delivered it to them when they made a golden calf and worshiped it as their deliverer from Egypt. Later, the Jews prohibited any statues as idolatry, and rose up in armed rebellion against their enemies who put idols in the Temple: first against the Greek rulers in the days of the Maccabees (167-160 BC) and then against the Romans in 66-73 AD. During the Exile in Babylon, the captive Jews refused to bow down to the golden statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had erected on the Plain of Dura; the story of faithful Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is told in Daniel 3. Today, orthodox and some conservative Jews practice what is called aniconism (from “an” meaning “not,” and “iconism,” meaning the use of images). They prohibit any 3-dimensional representations of people, animals, or God, but allow pictures that are 2-D. Additionally, strict Muslims prohibit use of any images, which is why their mosques are decorated with geometric figures and “arabesque” swirls.

Christians have varied their observance of this commandment. Some have propagated such statues as honoring saints and instructing often illiterate populations in biblical and Church history, while others, known as “iconoclasts,” have forbidden and destroyed any such human forms for being “graven” or carved images and thus prohibited.

Today, the idea that statues are forbidden by God seems to have faded away among Christians in this country. We look at the verses following God’s prohibition against carved images and read the ban in context: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. . . ” (Exodus 20:5a). I think we have generally reasoned that as long as you don’t worship the image and call it a god, you’re okay. (Even though we watch television competitions that tout their winners as “American Idols” – something I’ve never been comfortable with.)

I understand God’s commandment to be against worshiping anything or anyone but him, but I still think we should be careful not to invest any hero-worship in our heroes, whether “statued” or not. This applies to all famous people, celebrities of all kinds: athletes, movie stars, musicians, politicians, pastors-emeritus, etc. This concern came to mind in 1990 when I stood in front of the Novosibirsk State Polytechnic University in what was the Soviet Union. Standing with me was a Russian student who pointed to the huge statue of Vladimir Lenin that rose before us. The student leaned toward me and said, “Our last idol.” I hoped right then that I would never consider any statue to be an idol of mine.

4. Finally, what about statues of Jesus? What about the crucifixes that bear his form on the cross? Since we do worship Jesus as Lord and Savior, as the Son of God and the Second Person of the Trinity, are such images prohibited? I actually have mixed feelings and thoughts about this.

On the one hand, we must not worship the image, whether as a crucifix, a statue, or a drawing/painting. We worship the One that such art represents. We don’t know what Jesus looked like for sure, and I think that was God’s intention. Therefore people around the world have pictured him as looking like them, whatever their race or ethnicity. We can worship Christ without any artistic rendering, and must realize that whatever image we have in mind when we think of Christ will be inadequate. How can we describe the risen and glorified Christ in mere human terms? The Apostle John tried in Revelation 1:13-16, saying, “one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

On the other hand, I don’t want to criticize the faith and devotion of those who adorn their homes with pictures of Christ or crucifixes that bear the dying form of our Lord. They see his face or form daily, and are reminded of his sacrifice for their salvation. Like crossing oneself or wearing Christian jewelry, their faith is on display, and I commend them for it – as did Luther when he returned to Wittenberg. In defense of such images, while God cannot be confined to any finite image, Jesus did come to earth and become one of us, taking human form and life (Philippians 2:7-8).

I remember as a child (and later as a Sunday school teacher) using the old flannel graphs to tell Bible stories. Some of the flannel figures represented Jesus – walking on the water, healing the sick, sitting with the children. It’s hard to think that those pictures were idolatrous, since they presented visually what we were learning and teaching verbally. Even today, there are non-literate people who cannot read Bible stories in their language who can benefit from such visual representations.

So where do I stand after all these considerations? I think my title for these blogs, “Statue of Limitations,” says it pretty well. God’s prohibition against carved images is to prevent us trying to represent him by anything he has created. As Paul said, wicked men have exchanged true worship of the Creator with worship of his creation: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:22). Therefore, we who worship the true God must not hold up any statue or image as sacred; Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Our God is greater than any thing we might use to represent him. That is our limitation. But, if a statue or other image can be used to instruct, inspire, or encourage faith, then let it be used for that purpose, for God knows we need it!

And as far as a statue of me is concerned: God knows we don’t need that!

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 20; Deuteronomy 5; Romans 1:18-32; Philippians 2:5-11.

Statues of Limitation

To my many friends and admirers who have wanted to erect a statue of me, whether on the front lawn of my church, in front of City Hall, or in some national park known for its oversized presidential heads, I say: just wait awhile; now is not the time for such an honor to be bestowed. There is just too much statue- and monument-smashing going on right now, and I would hate for your investment to be wasted. I would hate to see my bust get busted. I suggest waiting until the current anti-statue fervor dies down.

Like you, I have watched the news and seen videos of recent vandalism and mob violence directed against many monuments: first, against statues of Confederate generals, then against founding fathers, explorers, and pioneers, and finally even against statues of abolitionists and black soldiers who fought against the Confederacy. The message is clear: “It doesn’t really matter whom the statue represents; if it’s part of American history, it’s evil and needs to come down.”

As I watched these acts of destruction by mob violence, I have considered various aspects of what’s going on, and among my many thoughts, have come down to four issues I would like to share with you.

1. The actions are wrong. They are just senseless acts of hatred against our country. While supposedly motivated by the failures of our society to live up to our proclaimed noble ideals, these violent actions against people, property, and the duly instituted authorities of our country, violate those very same principles. The smashing of monuments and statues are attacks on our country and its history, and attempts to destroy our common identity. The range of targets by the mobs betrays any virtue in their actions. The point is destruction, not improvement. Not to mention the admonitions by Scripture to respect our authorities and render to the government what is due it (Matthew 22:21, Romans 13:1-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-4)

It’s not that I’m approving of statues of men who defended slavery; my great-grandfather, Leander Allen Eddy, fought against the Confederacy, spent time in a prison camp, was wounded in action, and carried a bullet (a Minie ball) in his leg the rest of his life. I’m glad “our side” won. But the Civil War happened, and the generals and soldiers who fought on both sides are part of our heritage. They – and the slaves who were freed – are part of who we are as a nation.

Statues which were erected by communities to commemorate some event or person who positively affected those communities can certainly be removed whenever those communities no longer revere those people or events; but such removals can be done by vote and consensus and not by violent actions of a few people who have no regard for the wishes of those communities. This is not even taking into account matters of private property. If you don’t like someone, buy or build your own statue and destroy that; your protest would actually cost you something and carry more weight.

Interestingly, the start of the Reformation in the early 1520’s brought  about a period of statue-smashing, as well. While Martin Luther hid out in the Wartburg Castle, some of those who were won to his cause back in the town of Wittenberg decided to show their new-found faith by smashing the symbols of the old faith in what had been the Roman Catholic churches. To that end, the religious rebels smashed statues of Mary and the other saints, broke stained glass windows, and tore down other religious images. Luther was horrified to learn of the destruction, and returned to Wittenberg to help stop such actions. He spoke against what he saw as the desecration of people’s faith as well as images.

2. All statues have “feet of clay.” The saying, “feet of clay,” comes from the book of Daniel, chapter 2, describing a dream of the king, Nebuchadnezzar, in which he saw a statue made up of different metals, but with feet of iron and clay. The clay symbolized a vulnerability in a future kingdom, and since has come to represent any vulnerability in a person who otherwise is strong and capable.

So, when I say all statues have feet of clay, I mean that every statue today represents a person who has flaws and faults (except for statues of Jesus, but that’s another topic – see my point #3 below). There is no one who is righteous, not one (Romans 3:10); rather, all have sinned (Romans 3:23). There is no one who could be honored with a statue if sinless perfection were a standard. Nor, with changing attitudes, could the hero of a past era or event by considered a hero today. Thus, Kate Smith’s statue was removed from the Philadelphia Flyers’ arena, even though she inspired millions of Americans through World War II and beyond with her recording of God Bless America, because someone found her recording of a racist song from the early 1930s. (The Flyers had a win record of 100-29 when they played her recording instead of the national anthem before their games; hence, the statue being erected there in the first place.)

George Washington had slaves. Thomas Jefferson had slaves. Cinque, the African slave featured in the movie Amistad, won his freedom, then went back to Africa where he joined the slave trade capturing other Africans to be sold into slavery. Martin Luther wrote horrible things against the Jews which were used by Hitler to justify his persecution against them. John Sutter mistreated the local native tribes in Sacramento, numerous U.S. presidents have had mistresses and adulterous affairs, etc., etc. All our heroes (and villains) have or had feet of clay. We can find fault with each and every one of them because they, like us, were sinners.

So why do they get statutes and we (I’m speaking of me as well) don’t? Because those people, in spite of their sins, flaws, and shortcomings, rose to face the challenges and circumstances of their times and places, and in the process, overcame difficulties to accomplish things, to establish societies, to change people’s lives, to make history, or to win conflicts. They were giants in their effect on their part of the world, even standing on feet of clay. That doesn’t always make them heroes, but it does warrant some recognition, because ultimately their story is the story of mankind: people facing life and striving to overcome difficulties to accomplish something good. The goal is that we, who also have feet of clay, will rise above our shortcomings and flaws to make life better for us, our families, and our communities.

To be continued next time . . . . in “Statues of Limitation – Part 2”

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 22:15-22; Romans 13:1-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8

 

 

Blessing the Cursers

Over the past couple weeks, as social unrest has run rampant in our country, people have expressed their anger publicly through demonstrations and even riots. Triggered by the killing of an unarmed African-American man in Minneapolis by a police officer, the protests have grown and morphed into violence, fueled I believe by a combination of simmering angers, political agendas, and covid-19 consequences – such as long-term isolation and job losses. Unfortunately, much of the vitriol against injustice has been directed against people who had nothing to do with the triggering act, such as first-responders, shop owners, and complete strangers.

I received some of the hate this week myself.

It started about 3:15 one morning when my cell phone woke me with a call from a Louisiana number. When I answered, a little girl’s voice asked to speak to Stephanie. Since there is no Stephanie in our home or family, I told the girl that and said she must have the wrong number. She said okay sweetly and we said, “Bye, bye” to each other. No problem; simple error. A few seconds later the same number called, and figuring she had redialed the wrong number, I answered again. I did not expect what I heard this time: an older woman’s voice telling me, “I hope you die and go to hell!” I guess next time I should say, “This is Stephanie” in a high voice.

Over the next couple days I had several more calls and texts from Louisiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Arizona, and even British Columbia. While two were hang-ups, one voicemail was so foul and obscenity-laden I would never repeat what the young woman said. The fact that she was addressing her rant to someone named Katie only made her choice of wording that much worse. Maybe I should have said, “This is Katie” in a high voice to spare the real Katie from such abuse!

The fact other names were used makes me think the callers had the wrong number, but the number of calls and the wide range of caller locations makes me suspect a coordinated political effort.

As I heard each call or read each text message, I couldn’t help but think about how I should respond. Should I mimic voices like I joked above, just hang up, or yell and insult the caller back, telling them to “Get the —- off my phone!”?

While I did toy with playing games with such callers, such as I once did with a phone solicitor wanting to sell me solar panels – I told him no, since solar panels use up sunlight and there’s only so much sunlight to go around – I decided the best thing was to ignore the insults and just hang up.

There were practical reasons for doing so: 1. As my parents taught me, if you engage in a fight you’re only giving the bully what he or she wants: a reaction from their victim; 2. Some of the calls were aimed at others, not me; 3. “Sticks and stones, etc.”; 4. I doubt the callers were open to a calm and logical discussion seeking harmonious agreement; and 5. I don’t know enough nasty words or how to use them to hold my own in a cussing match!

But the real reason not to engage in a dispute, or to bear any grudge against the callers, is even deeper, and that is what our Lord taught us through Scripture.

1. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught us, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:43-45).

2. Likewise, in Luke 6:27-28 Jesus said, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

3. Paul wrote in Romans 12:14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”

4. Even more generally, the command of both testaments, old and new, is that God commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore, if I truly love my neighbors, I will forgive them their angry outbursts, even as I would appreciate them forgiving my sins. Martin Luther picked up on this and expressed it in his Small Catechism when explaining the Eighth Commandment: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” Yelling back at a caller is not speaking well of that person, who, though misguided, is still my neighbor.

God’s command that we respond with love to those who harm us or curse us does not mean we sit back passively and approve of everything that anyone does. I have to admit that much of what I saw on TV was unsettling and even angering: how can I condone smashing windows, burning cars, and looting goods from stores with smiles on the looters’ faces? Or for that matter, kneeling on a person’s neck until he dies? I felt anger rising in me toward everyone involved because much of what I saw was just not right! But then, I realized I was in danger of my “righteous” anger becoming a sin and recalled Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil,” and in verses 31-32, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Therefore, I refuse to be goaded into an attitude of hate. Instead, I prayed for the people who called, that their hatred be healed and released, and that they come to know the peace which passes understanding in Christ, through whom we can endure all things (1 Corinthians 13:7) and do all things: “through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

May you and I keep that peace foremost in our hearts ad minds, and in our words and actions!

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, Philippians 4, Ephesians 4:26-32

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.

True Cleansing

On March 15 I filled in for Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Galt, California, leading worship and preaching.  My sermon began by my walking to a table set with a bowl of water and a hand towel. I washed my hands and said the following:

In a short while we’re going to receive communion. But with all the news about the coronavirus, and practically every government agency, company, and health provider telling us to wash our hands regularly to avoid passing on the disease, I thought it would be prudent to wash my own hands before handling the bread and the wine.

As of March 14th, the coronavirus, or Covid-19, had spread to 142,530 confirmed cases and 5393 deaths in 135 countries. People are under quarantine, and all kinds of travel and public events are being cancelled. Some sports teams are competing in empty stadiums! Globally, the 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 lockdown, Germany’s cases spiking, and international travel being cancelled or banned, our prospects are looking very dim. And that doesn’t count the actual disease and its serious effects on those who get it.

And so, today I wash my hands for your sake and mine.

The only problem is, as I stand here washing my hands, I am reminded of another very famous hand-washing. It took place in Jerusalem when Jesus stood trial before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. Pilate realized Jesus was innocent of any crime deserving death, but when the crowds threatened to riot, Pilate gave in to the crowd’s demands that he crucify Jesus. Matthew 27:24 tells us what Pilate did next: “. . . he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’”

By washing his hands, Pilate was denying his guilt for what was about to happen, by washing away any blame for Jesus’ death.  Ever since then, whenever anyone denies responsibility for someone or something, they say they are washing their hands of the matter. As if just saying that, or washing one’s hands physically, can take away sin or guilt.

But, it takes a lot more to get rid of guilt than just water. Or soap and water. Or soap and water and hand sanitizer! Real cleansing of guilt and the sin that caused it require a cleansing act by someone who is able to actually remove that guilt. When it comes to our sin and guilt, the One who has the authority to forgive and remove it is Jesus Christ (Mark 2:5-10), and the cleansing act was his death on the cross.

That act was remarkable in what it cost Jesus for our sake. I am reminded of another sacrifice made in Jesus’ name. In 1864 a Catholic priest from Belgium known as Damien answered the call to missions, and traveled to a leper colony on the island of Molokai, in Hawaii. At first he failed in his work, making few converts, 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 as one of them, 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.

In a way, Damien’s story parallels Christ’s sacrifice for us. Christ came to a world full of people infected with the deadly disease of sin. He lived among us, sharing our lives, healing, teaching, and caring for real needs in this world. Finally, he took on our sin and the guilt that goes with it, becoming sin for our sake, and dying for us, just as Damien gave his life for those infected with a deadly illness. The difference of course, is that Jesus’ death brought life and the eternal cure for our sin and guilt.

Why did Jesus do this? Why did he accept the horrible death of crucifixion and the taking on of our condemnation for sin? Why did he go through with it, knowing what was to come? Romans 5 tells us why: 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.”

And how do we receive the benefit of the cleansing that Christ did for us? Through faith in him and what he did. Romans 5 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

So how do we respond to the pandemic now affecting our world?

Interestingly, Martin Luther was asked a similar question about the Black Death which had swept across Europe killing millions of people. This was his reply:

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.”

Luther’s answer was that we should take proper precautions to avoid getting or passing on the disease, so as to not tempt God, but to accept risks when serving those in need. Above all, pray for God’s merciful protection.

I like what he had to say. It’s okay to avoid dangers that would harm us or others, but when called upon to alleviate suffering, we step forward faithfully in prayer.  We are not called to try to become sick, but if we do, we have God’s consolation. Paul’s Roman passage promises: “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.”

Luther’s call to prayer recognizes that we are truly dependent on God in every situation, and not on ourselves. Sure, we take precautions, including washing our hands, avoiding the sick, covering coughs and sneezes, and developing a vaccine, but ultimately we have to submit our future to God. We need to trust his promise to be with us through whatever we face, and that he loves us and has the power to heal according to his purposes.

We appreciate Luther’s response, but how about ours?

  1. When troubles come our way, are we ungrateful for what God has already provided for us, and ask, “What have you done for me lately?” Or do we thank him for how he has already blessed us beyond measure in so many ways?
  2. When we have fears or unmet needs, do we grumble to God and blame him for what we’re facing, or do we accept his will and look for how God will bless and grow us in this situation, producing character and hope?
  3. When problems strike, do we doubt his existence (“A loving God wouldn’t let me go through this!”) and search elsewhere for answers? Or do we believe God’s promise never to leave or forsake us, and Christ’s promise to be with us until the end of the age, taking us to be with him no matter what happens in this world?
  4. Do we live in a world of Massah and Meribah (see Exodus 17 and Psalm 95) where the Israelites grumbled for lack of water, or by the Spirit of God with love, joy, peace, and the other fruit of the Spirit?
  5. Do we face the dangers of this world, such as the coronavirus, with paralyzing fear, or with trust and confidence in the Lord? What if we get the virus? Will it shatter our faith, or lead us to seek God’s will for us in the new circumstances we face?

My prayer is that you all avoid getting the coronavirus, and maybe my hand-washing will help a little. But whatever happens, rejoice in all the Lord has done, for he has cleansed you for all eternity.

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 95:1-9; Romans 5:1-8

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

 

 

 

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

Cross-Words

One of the new activities I took up after retiring was doing crossword puzzles. I don’t know why I didn’t do them “all these years” before retiring, since I do enjoy working with words and language, unless I was just so busy with other word puzzles such as writing sermons and Bible study materials. Not until retiring did I have enough free time to just sit and work a puzzle.

I have been doing two or three a week, depending whether the local paper has one in it; the most enjoyable ones come weekly, especially the New York Times Sunday puzzle. The Times puzzle is usually hard but very clever, using ambiguous clues and phrases following some theme. My favorite one was called, “Advice to Writers,” in which several long answers broke the rules which they were advising. For example: “Don’t use contractions,” “Avoid redundancy. Avoid redundancy,” “Sentence fragments are not,” and so on. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I write in the final words to such puzzles.

Which is why I was disappointed this week when the Sunday paper didn’t arrive. (Note: I didn’t call it the newspaper since I only read the comics and the puzzles!) What was I to do?

Fortunately, I have plenty of other things to work on, but as I thought about the missing puzzle, the word, “Crossword” stuck in my mind. I began to think about the different meanings it might have in various contexts.  So, after deep study and contemplation, I came up with the following:

1. The first use is to describe the kind of puzzle I’ve been talking about, in which answers to “Across” clues and “Down” clues intersect each other. This use is so obvious and understood that I don’t need to say much about it, except for one life lesson that I have to relearn every time I work one of such puzzles. The lesson is this: it is dangerous to jump to conclusions based on limited evidence. Too often I think I know the answer to a clue because it seems to answer the clue in the right number of letters to fit the right squares, only to be wrong. It isn’t until other words fill in that cross it that I realize my error; since I write my answers in ink, it gets awkward having to cross out my wrong assumption to put in the right word. Only when all the letters are finally in place do I see that the clue fits the word the puzzle designer was looking for.

This is such a good life lesson about the dangers of jumping to conclusions (especially about other people) based on insufficient information. We hear or see one thing, only to find out later, when more facts come in, that our initial idea was wrong. Too many people have been judged, scorned, or harmed by those who make such judgments. Of course, since none of us knows all the facts about anyone or the situations they are facing, it’s always dangerous to assume things about other people. Only God knows all the facts about a person, and he is the perfect Judge. (“Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?” Genesis 18:25).

I fell into the error of uninformed judging early in my ministry, when I noticed one of our members sitting in the back pew. It was during my sermon, and I saw that he had a cord hanging from an earplug. I was a little irked, figuring that he was listening to some ball game instead of my preaching. Imagine how ashamed I felt when the service ended and the man got up, took out the earpiece, and turned it in to the sound technician, along with the hearing-assist pack it was connected to. Not only was he listening to the sermon, he had taken efforts to hear it better!

2. The second use of “crossword” could be better written as, “cross words.” By this I mean the nasty things we say to each other when we get upset with something that someone says or does (or doesn’t do when we expected them to do it!). We get cross with them, and say things that belittle, insult, or dismiss. Things like: “You idiot!” or “That was stupid!” or “You never listen!” or “You’re worthless!” or . . . you get the picture. Often, such comments come out when we jump to conclusions about the other person’s actions (see the first use of “crossword” above), but usually they say more about us than about the person we slam.

When we belittle others we are judging them (“Judge not” Luke 6:37) often by harsher criteria than we use to correct ourselves (“Remove the log from your own eye” Matthew 7:3-5). We are trying to puff ourselves up by bringing others down, but such nastiness only reveals the smallness of our own character. Such insults also can crush the other person emotionally, or cause an equal reaction in them by which they become hateful and angry back at us (or the next person who upsets them). How many children have grown up under emotional and verbal abuse, who then treat their own children the same way, perpetuating the hurt and estrangement?

This is not to say we cannot ever criticize an action or attitude; we are to call sin, sin. But it’s far different to correct a sin than to condemn the sinner; Scripture tells us the purpose of calling out sin is to win back and restore our sinning brother or sister by correcting them gently (Galatians 6:1).

Jesus spoke plainly about our duty to speak well to and of each other. He told us to bless those who curse us, for what good is there in loving only those who love us? He also warned us that insulting others was a sin similar to murder: ““You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21-22).

The command not to speak ill of each other goes back to the Decalogue, or what we call the Ten Commandments. Command number eight tells us not to bear false witness against our neighbor. While at first glance, we might think that bad-mouthing a person is not the same as lying about them to others, Martin Luther captured the full sense of that command in his Small Catechism. He explained the command this way: “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.” Not much room there for name-calling! Cross words are not appropriate language for a Christian.

3. Now, the third use of “Crosswords.” Whereas the first two uses are about the Law, that is, what we should do and not do, this third use is about the Gospel. And the Gospel is about what Jesus Christ has done for us, to save us from condemnation for our failure to live up to the Law and all its demands.

These are the Words of the Lord spoken to us by the Cross on which Jesus died, bearing the judgment and punishment of all our sins, including our failure to keep the Law regarding not judging and insulting our neighbors. These “Cross-Words” were both literally spoken by Christ and written by his apostles, and shown to us by the very death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Consider just some of the words recorded for us by Scripture:

1. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Spoken from the cross by Christ.

2. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,” (Ephesians 1:7).

3. “And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28). Spoken by Christ at the Last Supper.

4. “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

5. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

6. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:19-21).

7. “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.” (Colossians 2:13-14).

Now those are the cross-words that really matter! For by his death on the cross, and through the promises made by God to us on behalf of his Son’s sacrificial death for our sake, Jesus has reconciled us to God, forgiven all our sins, and opened the door to eternal life. Therefore, I don’t need to get a new crossword puzzle each Sunday, when each Sunday I can hear the real Cross-words, proclaimed as they have been since that day when our Lord and Savior died to give us life. To him be the glory, now and forever!

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: Luke 6:27-42 and Colossians 1

 

Don’t Get Stung!

Over the past few weeks, Karen and I have been under assault by swarms of paper wasps that have taken up residence all around our house. And I mean, all around. They have built nests on every corner of our roof line, under the front porch overhang within three feet of the door, and even in our outside electrical box. Now, normally, I have a “live and let live” attitude toward all God’s creatures (except the ones with tasty meat on them), so I wouldn’t object to bees and wasps doing their thing.

But this summer has produced so many wasps, the risks of getting buzzed and stung have greatly increased. That, and the fact we have house painters coming over next week to do their thing, means we had to get the flying stingers under control. We could hardly have painters getting stung and falling off their ladders and scaffolds.

Since two of the nests greatly impeded our movement in and out of the house, I attacked them first. Under cover of darkness, when the temperature had dropped to where the wasps would be sluggish, I bravely sprayed the two most dangerous nests, and then quickly ducked back into the house. Each nest had over 20 adult wasps in it, which the spray took care of. Unfortunately, that was but a small portion of the total population, so I called in a professional exterminator. And stayed inside while he worked. Just to be safe. We did unlock our doors so he could duck inside in case he was attacked.

Which he was.

He sprayed all the affected areas, but the last we saw of him was him running from the wasps, spraying back over his shoulder as he ran. And the last we heard was him yelling when he got stung. In the days since then, the situation has much improved; the few wasps we’ve seen seem to be flying in from other locations. It’s just too bad the exterminator got stung.

When I thought about getting stung, a passage of Scripture came to mind. I thought of 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul writes about Christ’s resurrection and ours. After proclaiming the day will come when our perishable and mortal nature puts on the imperishable and immortal, Paul says, “. . . 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?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”

The more I considered stinging as a metaphor for sin, the more I saw an analogy between what we were experiencing with our wasps and the dangers of sin. Some of my thoughts were the following:

  1. Infestations of wasps can start small. Likewise, sins can start small and be hardly noticeable in our daily lives: a small indiscretion here, a well-meaning lie there, a fudge of taxes here, an “innocent” flirtation there. It may all seem normal and harmless (it’s not – see James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”) but just as the few wasps produced hundreds more until we could no longer ignore the consequences, so one small “peccadillo” can lead to more and worse trespasses. One lie leads to another; coveting leads to theft; anger leads to violence.

2. A live and let live attitude may be good in many ways, but when it comes to sin, we can’t ignore it and hope it goes away. What doesn’t seem to bother us or be our business does have a ripple effect on our lives and on our society. Hearts are hardened and sin is accepted, even celebrated. The more sin is winked at or openly condoned, the more it flourishes, building nests and strongholds which make it hard to root out. Even if there are not immediate practical consequences to us from other people’s sins, the fact we accept it cannot help but sear our souls. When we excuse sin or call it “victimless,” we are “calling evil good” (Isaiah 5:20) and earning a “woe to you” from God.

3. Another part of the wasp analogy to sin is the fact that our home was not immune to their invasion. Sin is not just something that happens to other people out there somewhere, but comes crouching right at our door (see Genesis 4 and God’s warning to Cain before he murdered his brother), ready to come in and infest our homes themselves. If we don’t address sin when it first shows itself in our lives, we will suffer its consequences. As believers in Christ, I don’t believe we are lost because of our sins (after all, we all continue to sin even when we detest doing so – see 1 John 1:8 and Romans 7); Christ came to redeem us from the eternal consequences of our sins. But there are still earthly consequences from our sins, affecting ourselves and other people and hurting and even ruining lives. We can lead and cause miserable lives here due to sin, even as we look forward to heaven.

4. When you sin, you get stung. Those earthly consequences can be devastating to us and those we love. Relationships suffer or are broken completely, people are hurt, and our lives can be overturned. Divorce, estrangement of children, criminal charges and punishments can change our lives for the worse.

It’s interesting that police conduct what are called “sting” operations to catch criminals. My favorite story is of investigators in New York who suspected a man in Washington State of being a murderer. They even had the killer’s DNA, but not enough direct evidence to warrant testing him directly. So, the police invented a phony lottery, and mailed the man a notice that he had won a huge prize. He just had to return the enclosed envelope accepting the prize and show up to claim it. The suspect sent back the acceptance letter and showed up on the designated day – only to be promptly arrested. When he licked the return envelope, traces of his DNA appeared on the glue, providing the needed evidence. The man sinned against God and man, and got stung for his actions.

5. Sin leads to death. In the case of the wasps, probably dozens, if not hundreds, of them died. If enough of the wasps had stung one of us or the exterminator, we could have died. So also with us and sin. The only way to finally deal with sin is through death. Romans 5:12 teaches, “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. . .” Likewise, Romans 6:23 begins: “For the wages of sin is death.” Paul continues in Romans 6:23 by adding, “. . . but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Fortunately for us, God loved us enough to provide us with someone to bear the punishment of death that our sins have earned. Christ is the Great Exterminator, who though he suffered the sting of sin for our sake, won the victory, eliminating sin and its eternal consequences. Thank you Jesus!

6. We must remain constantly vigilant, lest the wasps (and sin) take hold once again. One victory does not mean the war is over. We may resist one temptation, only to be hit with another when we think we are safe. We must respond quickly to the first signs of either problem. How do we do that?

In the case of the wasps: “Let us spray!”

In the case of sins: “Let us pray!”

Ultimately, we have the victory over sin only in Jesus Christ. When we are found in him, we are victorious. We share in his victory. Our sins were nailed to the cross with him, and forgiven totally by God. We are reconciled to our Creator, and can look forward confidently to eternal life without sin or death. When we trust in God’s Word, we read not only that our sins are forgiven, but that Christ understands our temptations and that he will provide us a way out of every temptation to sin. His Holy Spirit guides and warns us about the sins which are trying to build nests in our hearts and minds; only through him can those inroads be cleared out.

This life will not always be easy, but we need not live it alone, for God is with us, and promises never to leave or forsake us. May you always rest assured in that!

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 Corinthians 15, Romans 7, Hosea 13:14

P.S. This is my 100th blog since I started in January 2017! Thank you to everyone who has commented and encouraged me to continue!