Living Above the Routine

It officially became Fall last night. I say that because I attended the first high school football game of the new season. Tressa is living out what was once her dream—teaching at Denbigh and coaching the cheerleaders. So we were there to watch her working with her girls… for some reason, the image of “herding cats” comes to mind here! (If Tressa were writing this blog entry, it may be entitled “Careful what You Wish For”)

Although it was a brand new season, it was very much the same old Denbigh football team. There were some flashes of promise, but we got pushed around pretty well by Woodside in a 34-14 loss. And unless Woodside turns out to be very good, Denbigh may be looking at another very long season.

But the game itself was overshadowed by what happened with 5:00 minutes left in the second quarter. After a pretty routine play, the line judge—a man named George French— went down on a knee. The play had been run his way, and I thought maybe he had been bumped by one of the players. But then he just collapsed to the ground, falling over hard on his face. Within a few minutes the rescue squad was frantically performing CPR, and before long an ambulance came and took him to the hospital. He apparently had a heart attack, but as of this morning, there has been no word available on Mr. French’s condition. Keep him in your prayers.

The reaction insider the stadium during this drama was interesting. As you might expect, a hush came over the whole crowd when he collapsed. The other officials gathered around him, one frantically waving to the sidelines for help while another walked about 15 yards away and went down on one knee in obvious prayer. After a brief minute, the announcer in the press box haltingly said, “Uhhh.. now for some scores from some other games.” And in very few minutes, the crowd was back to buzzing and Tressa was back to fussing at her cheerleaders.

You never know when the routine of life will become very un-routine. James says, “You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing” (James 4:14, The Message). We know that… but we don’t seem to live like we know that. We live our lives as if the daily grind is all that matters. But we never know when a routine play (or day at work or short drive or whatever) will turn into a life and death drama. That happened last night at Todd Stadium. It can happen today wherever we happen to be. We must live our lives above the routine so that we will be ready when the routine is shattered.

Spiders and Snakes

Christina Ryan is the reigning Mrs. Tennessee and is in Phoenix to compete in the Mrs. America Pageant. She was just getting ready to walk up an outside staircase at the resort hosting this weekend's competition when she saw a spider on a step. She instinctively jumped away from the spider… and onto a rattlesnake which bit her on the right foot. So she spent a day in the local hospital receiving ten vials of antivenin. She’s fine now… except that she has to walk in high heels in the pageant on a very swollen right foot.

There’s gotta be a metaphor for life in there somewhere! Just when you think you’ve got the spiders beat, up pops the rattlesnake! It’s just like Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, “It’s always something!”

This story made me think of Jim Stafford’s 70’s hit song “Spiders and Snakes.” More seriously, it also made me think of Amos 5:18-20—

It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

Amos describes the smug, self-satisfied and materialistic Israelite who looked forward to the “Day of the Lord” because they thought this would be the time when God would destroy their enemies and give victory to Israel. The Day of the Lord was the time of God's judgment, but it would be directed at them! God would hold them accountable for their sin, and they would not escape His wrath. It would be as though they ran from a lion right into a bear, and then escaped only to be bitten by a snake in their own house. They would not get away. God tells his people that when His day came, in the immortal words of Rambo, “I coming for you!”

OK, besides pegging the meter for references to 70’s pop culture, what is the point here? Actually, Amos makes it rather plainly, doesn’t he? True, eternal safety exists only for the people of God… and only as they live like the people of God. We can’t buy God off with the right rituals and church done “decently and in order.” God is looking for hearts that beat for Him and lives that are lived for Him. Amos continues (Amos 5:21-24) with what for me is some of the most dramatic words of the Old Testament—

"I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Lost in Translation

"This is next are acts. Calling to inform you. That your order 1. 822. 5. For. 3. 5. When she had gone. Tuesday. this plenty 8. And should arrive within side. Business days or sooner. If you chose to exit out your order. Thank you from next Iraq's. Goodbye."

That is a message that we received today on our voice mail. Well, actually that is the message as translated by Vonage, our VoIP phone company (at least until Verizon shuts it down). Vonage has this neat feature that takes voice mail and translates it to text and emails it to you. That way you have the message you missed at home sent straight to you wherever you are.

So what is the above gobblely-gook? This is a computer-generated message sent to a computer-based voice mail interpreted by a computer algorithm with no human interaction at all. Very helpful, isn’t it? The message, whatever it is, is lost in translation. Don’t computers make our lives so much easier?

Lost in translation. I wonder if that is what happens with our Christian lives among our non-Christian friends and co-workers.. How often is there a 'lost in translation" disconnect between what we say we believe and how we actually live. We speak of a “peace that passes understanding.” What others see in our lives is the same full-bore, flat-out rat race dominating our life just as it dominates theirs. We may talk about faith in a God that controls the world while what they see in us may be the same fretting, fuming and fussing over life that would be there if God were NOT in control.

Does the gospel lose something in translation between what God calls us to be and what others see? Peter says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12). Boy, talk about a verse that is easier to quote than to live! But then, most Bible verses are that way. How much of the gospel is lost in translation by the way we live it… or don’t live it?

O Fill My Cup

I don’t know whether anyone out there in Blogville gets Al Maxey’s e-newsletter Reflections. Each month there is a long article by Al that appears in Reflections, and all of the articles are posted on his website. Many of his articles, though by no means all, raise questions about some of our traditions in Churches of Christ. Such is the case in the issues I received yesterday.

As you may know, there is a branch of our movement that practices communion with only one cup. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. I have been places that used one cup to emphasize the unity of the church in communion, though I was careful to make sure I sat on the front row so I got the first sip. (In was also wine rather than grape juice; a little germ killer “for thy stomach sake” isn’t a bad idea in such a setting). The problem is that these brothers and sisters insist that one cup is the only right way to do communion. Multiple cups are sinful.

Maxey’s article points to a publication called The Old Paths Advocate (which he renames Odd Paths Advocate) that raised the question of whether or not it was scriptural to refill the one cup during communion. The question was, “What should be done if the assembly proved too large to be able to commune together from the cup normally used by the congregation?” The Old Paths writer points to an elder who decided that the cup could be refilled and then communion continued from that point. That elder argued that as long as one cup was used, it could be refilled as often as was necessary to serve everyone. But this was heresy to the writer in Old Paths Advocate. I'm not making this up; here are his words--

Where is the Bible passage that either explicitly or implicitly authorizes a congregation to refill the cup and continue with the distribution of the fruit of the vine at the place in the assembly where the first cup was exhausted? There is no such scripture… We do not intend to consider even for a moment the idea of 'refilling the cup in an emergency' as described in this article. Such would entail sin and digression. We will not, must not, countenance such a corruption of the Lord's Supper. Uncertain sounds concerning the doctrine of Christ cannot be tolerated.

I thought I had LONG AGO run across all the strange ideas and practices that my religious tradition has come up with in an effort to be scriptural, but this one is a new one to me! I kept waiting for there to punch line in there somewhere. I had a professor who liked to say, “Some positions are so absurd that they must only be stated to be refuted.” This one qualifies, I think.

God calls us to be faithful to Him, and it is through scripture that He reveals His will to us. But continual arguments and divisions over logical nuance has caused more harm to the church than any direct attack of Satan. Paul warns Timothy to warn his people (and us) about such issues, “Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen” (2 Timothy 2:14). And later he says to Timothy, “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels” (2 Timothy 2:23).

So if you will excuse me, my coffee cup is empty and I need to go refill it… if that is OK!

The HOW Versus the WHAT

Several years ago I remember someone asking the question, "What would happen if Paul came to town looking for Christians with whom to worship?" I don’t know exactly how this would happen, but imagine you are coming out of Big Lots or something and there is Paul says, “Excuse me, but can you tell me where the Christians be meeting this Sunday for worship?” The exchange just might go something like this—

You answer, "Sure, they meet right down the street there at the church building right beside the high school." Paul looks a bit puzzled and asks, “Church building? What is a church building?”

You smile and answer, “You know, the church building is the place where we have the auditorium (or “sanctuary” or “worship center”) in which we assemble for worship." But that only leads Paul to ask, “Auditorium?” (or “Sanctuary?” or “Worship Center?”) “What is that?"

Now you are getting a bit frustrated and answer, “Oh, that's the big room where we meet that has all the pews (or chairs) and the podium.” Of course, Paul says, “Podium? What is a podium?”

You answer, “Duhh, that’s where the song leader stands when he leads singing.” And of course, Paul asks, “Song leader? What is a song leader?”

OK, face it-- it is a little bit annoying for those of us in a "Restoration Tradition" to have to admit that there are very few things that we do in the worship and work of the church today that looks anything like what it did in first century. Church today looks so different from the first century that it is unlikely that Paul or Peter would even recognize it as church! Now I think that we are hitting at WHAT the first century church was doing, but we don’t do those things anywhere near HOW the first Christians went about them. We aren’t even close.

And yet, most of our squabbles and fractures in fellowship today is over HOW we do things! It really is hard to imagine Paul getting all worked up over the issue of a single song leader with a mike verses multiple song leaders with a mike when Paul’s church not only didn’t have mikes, we have no reason to believe they song song leaders (“When you come together, everyone has a hymn,” 1 Cor 14:26). The stately hymns of Isaac Watts and gospel songs of Fanny J. Crosby would be just as foreign and strange to Paul was the contemporary anthems of Dennis Jernigan! Flannelgraph would be as much an innovation to Paul as would PowerPoint!

It is all too easy for us to ourselves to get worked up over the HOW’s of church that we ignore some very plain WHAT's. Peter is pretty plain about the WHAT when he says, “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble” (1 Peter 3:8). How are we supposed to do that? The HOW is up to us, but we must do WHAT Peter says here, right?

May we never ignore the WHAT because of our understandable and unavoidable differences over all the HOW's of doing church.

A-Rod and Avalanche Ranch

I was watching sports on ESPN yesterday—one of the few times ESPN bleeds over clearly enough for me to pick it up. (This year we will "real" cable during football season, especially if Tank makes the Eagles again). They were discussing an award given to Alex Rodriguez for reaching the 500 homerun mark in his career. They had a little ceremony with some baseball officials standing with A-Rod on the field. The unveiled the award with a flourish-- too much flourish. The easel folded up like a cheap suit and the plaque bounced down the first base line like a bad bunt! The commentator said, “What was with this award; it looked like something a bunch of kids made in VBS.” The other commentator looked at him blankly; he had no clue what was meant by "VBS." Some people are just culturally challenged like that.

Well, we know what VBS is around here! We are right in the middle of our Avalanche Ranch VBS this week. We’ve had a really good crowd of kids (more than we were expecting) the first two nights, and I don’t see any reason that this trend will not continue. When I was a kid, VBS meant we got a cookie and Kool-Aid. Well, its a bit more than that now! It’s been great watching all the excitement, enthusiasm and childish wonder… and that’s just been Len doing his cowboy imitation during praise-n-worship! I do appreciate all the hard work so many have put in, especially Kati heading everything up and putting it all together.

For some pictures, take a look at http://www.denbigh.org/Events/AvalancheRanch/. If you think these pictures look a bit grainy, you should have seen them before Photoshop. Will King will take some good pictures later, but these will give you an idea.

It's All About God

I made it through our recent trip to Arkansas by listening to several books on CD. Getting lost in a good story is the best way for me to make monotonous miles bearable. OK, I know I should “enjoy the journey” and all, but after 30 years of that same trip (I-64 to I-81 to I-40), the only thing I enjoy about it is getting it over. And listening to books is the best way I know.

The most interesting book was Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel The Lovely Bones. It is the story of Susie Salmon, a 14 year old girl murdered and dismembered by a serial killer who was her neighbor. Susie narrates her story from heaven as she watches her family and friends deal with the aftermath of her death. This was not an easy book to read… but it was even harder to put down.

Susie inhabits her own unique heaven. All the buildings look like 1960-era school building. There are lots of dogs. She has an intake counselor to help her adjust. At times her heaven intersects that of others, so she does have friends. In one chilling scene she meets other victims of the same serial killer. Mostly she sits in a gazebo and watches earth—and she is variously worried, afraid, sorrowful, lonely and bored. She watches her family grieve and struggle and fall apart… and then eventually pull together and survive. She watches her killer evade justice. She watches the place where her “lovely bones” are buried and are never found. She watches her friends grow and change. Mostly she longs to return to her life… which she does in one strange and never fully explained scene.

Susie’s heaven is a stopping place before she moves on. She is told that once she stops longing for life on Earth, then she will go to a heaven that bigger and brighter and fuller. But there is nothing really that compels her there. She sees only earth, and she longs for life there. Ultimately the only real peace she experiences is when her family starts to find their own peace with her loss.

What is missing from Susie’s heaven is God. At the center of the heaven of scripture is a throne. There is no sun and no night because God is the Light. Those in heaven are not looking back on their lives on earth; they are too focused on the glorious joys of being with God. There will be no sadness or fear or pain or loneliness because God is there. We will not long for what we lost on earth because the peace and joy of God will be too great. I liked Susie; I wish she’d have seen the real heaven—the one with God. That is the real point of heaven.

And that is the real point of Earth. We shouldn’t get too focused on Christianity as a way to live so we can see God someday. It is really about living in relationship with God both NOW and FOREVER.

The Daily Grind

Well, my week-long sojourn in Arkansas has come to an end and I’m back home to the old daily grind. (Well, the real daily grind doesn’t start for 2-3 weeks when Lynn goes back to work. I get a little extra sleep when her alarm doesn’t go off at 4:45 a.m.) Angelynn is one of the trainers for Harding’s football team, so she had to be back before the football team starts practice today, so her summer break ended in July. Fall practice has also already started for Coach Tressa who already getting her Denbigh High cheerleaders in shape for football season. Just so that things don’t get too quiet with Angelynn gone, Courtney and her kids are with us for awhile while Tank is in training camp with the Eagles. So the signs are that summer is heading toward being over. Boy time flies when you are having fun, huh?

Or maybe time just flies. Why does time seem to fly faster and faster as you get older? When we were kids, it took forever for Christmas or birthdays to come around; now they come and go with increasing rapidity. While time is fixed and precisely measured, our perception of it is very relative. Two minute seems pretty short when it’s a coffee break but an eternity when you are holding your breath underwater! Does time fly faster as we get older because of the percentages? To a child, a month is a large percentage of their entire life; it not that large of a percentage to us geezers. Or is it that children are more finely tuned to the moment—they enjoy, experience and endure each moment in the moment. As we get older, we fill our present moments with "the daily grind" and put off living for the future moments-- evenings, weekends, and vacations.

It is easy to view Christianity as anything but living in the moment. We look back to the cross (past) that saves us so that we can go in heaven (future). If we are not careful, we may sanctify the past and look the future while we forget all about the present. But Jesus tells that faith means trusting God for today, right now, rather than being anxious about tomorrow. He says, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matt 6:34, NLT). Today's troubles are enough for today. So is today's joys. And today's daily grind.

Trusting God today means that we won’t to worry about what will come tomorrow. So we must live in the moment… remembering the past (cross) with an eye on the future (heaven). But we live right now in the moment. Today with its "daily grind" is a precious gift from God.