When Your Bridges Collapse

The I-35W bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed during the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007, falling into the river and onto its banks, killing 13 people and injuring about 100 more. No smoking gun has ever found that identifies the precise cause of the collapse, though a design flaw was uncovered that may have contributed to it.

Yesterday, Mike Cope gave links on his blog to two articles that were written shortly after the tragedy by well-known Minneapolis preachers. One of them (John Piper) is writing from a Calvinistic perspective; the other (Greg Boyd) writes from a non-Calvinist position (and directly addresses Piper's position).

The two articles are helpful in struggling with tragedy and our broken world. Like Cope, I "continue to be puzzled with how one squares Calvinism with the apparent open-endedness of the world." I like the way that Boyd ends his article--

I suggest it’s far more biblical, and far more rational, to simply say that in a fallen, oppressed world, bridges sometimes collapse — and leave it at that. Rather than trying to see the vindictive hand of God behind catastrophes, it’s wiser to simply acknowledge that the world is an oppressed place where things sometimes go tragically wrong and focus all of our mental and physical energy turning from our self-centered ways to carry out God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Through the Eyes of Worship

John Bunyan's famous allegory, Pilgrim's Progress, tells of the journey of a disciple named Christian to a place called Celestial City. In the course of the pilgrimage, Christian stops at Interpreter's house. He was not allowed to continue his journey until he visited a dark room where a man sat in an iron cage. Christian said to him, "What art thou?" The man answered, "I am what I was not once... I am now a man of despair and I am shut up in it, as in this iron cage. I cannot get out." The man had once been a disciple himself bound for Celestial City just like Christian. But now he was hopelessly engulfed in the imprisonment of despair and doubt and a shaken faith.

The despair of the caged man trapped by his own shaken faith has been shared by many people. H. G. Wells, once described God as "an ever absent help in time of trouble." Have you ever felt that way? Asaph in Psalm 73 (my OT reading for today) seems to have felt precisely that way. What Asaph sees in the world does not correspond with what his faith proclaimed. Faith said that God was good to Israel and to those who are pure in heart. But what Asaph saw around him was the prosperity of the wicked. He sums up the plight of the wicked in verse 12, “This is what the wicked are like-- always carefree, they increase in wealth.” As he is struggling with this view of the world, he gets another perspective. As he enters the sanctuary of God, everything comes into clear focus (Psalm 73:16-17).

16 When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;then I understood their final destiny.

As long as Asaph remained isolated from the people of God, from the community of faith, then he struggled with his doubt. But when he goes back to the sanctuary, when he reenters the community of believers, then his faith is renewed and refreshed. It is when he finds himself amid God's people that he begins to see God clearly once again. His faith in God is restored as his participation in worship with the community is restored.

Within the house of God that Asaph gets a whole new perspective of the wicked. He begins to see their prosperity as a house of cards, vulnerable to every wind of chance and fate (73:18-20). This new assessment led to the strong conviction that God does not forsake His own! God is present in the valley of darkness, even in the valley of the shadow of death. He offers comfort in times of distress, counsel in times of perplexity, and strength in times of weakness. So the psalm that began as a bitter cry of disillusionment and lost faith ends with one of the strongest statements of faith and confidence that we find in scripture (Psalm 73:25-28)

25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

That sounds like a different man than the one at the beginning of the psalm. In some ways he is different. He is know looking through the eyes of worship.

One of the purposes of worship is to reorient our view of the world around us. It is easy for us to see a world of injustice and randomness. Our word can look for all the world like a place that is out of control. But we get a different perspective when we enter the sanctuary of God and bow before the one on the throne. Worship reminds us of who is sovereign; worship reminds us of who reigns. We need to see that daily, and each week we need a time where we can see that together. The world is a different place when it is viewed through the eyes of worship from the sanctuary of God.

A Child Shall Lead Them

Two weeks ago, Bob made a plea on behalf of Camp Idlewild. Somehow, Bob and I were talked into joining the board of directors for the camp (how did that happen?). One of benefits of this august position is inside knowledge of the financial condition of the camp. Put it this way-- if we were talking medical condition, someone would be reaching for the paddles and epinephrine! Somehow the camp spend several thousand more than it took in this year... and there are unpaid bills that are expecting our immediate attention. We had just had a board meeting the day before, and this was on Bob's mind-- so he shared it with the church. Several people tok the need to heart and made contributions to the camp that day.

Last Sunday, Chris Moore told me that his daughter Ashlyn had been so moved by the camp's need that she had wanted to give her savings to camp (her brother C.J. wanted to do the same thing). Ashlyn and C.J. went to camp for the first time this summer (Ashlyn during the half-week and C.J. with us during Middle School week). They loved it and wanted camp to be there next year-- and they were willing to put their treasure where their heart was (didn't Jesus say something about that?) So during the announcements, Ashlyn, C.J and their mother Kristin came forward and presented me with a check. And Ashlyn wanted to say a few words, so I gave her the mic. Little Ashlyn made this impashioned plea for people to "help the camp so that the camp can help the children." Oh, my! It was cute and convincing. Then after church, Ashlyn planted herself with a bucket by the door with a sign saying, "Help Camp Idlewild." She did the same thing yesterday. Over the last two weeks, Ashlyn helped raise over $2500 for the camp! WOW!

Ashlyn is too young to know (or care) that "we have never done it that way before," allowing children to raise funds in church for a good cause in church. No, she was convicted there was a need, and she had a voice. God can do powerful things through us when we combine our conviction with our voice.

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills

I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:9-10)

Israel had this recurring, basic flaw in their worship in the Old Testament. It may be the same basic flaw we have in our worship today. Sometimes they worshiped the wrong gods (a flaw our culture shares), but that isn't the flaw I'm talking about. The flaw was that They misunderstood WHY it was they were to worship God. They thought that worship somehow gave God something that God needed, and thus they were doing God something of a service in worship. (Is this why we call our worship time "the service?") In the Babylonian flood myth The Epic of Gilgamesh, the gods rush to devour the sacrifices offered after the great flood because they were starving. Without humans around to offer sacrifices, the gods had nothing to eat! Evidently, there was some of that thinking going on in Israel.

In Psalm 50, the psalmist Asaph dramatically makes the point that worship does not give God anything. We don’t supply something that is lacking in God when we give acceptable worship. Asaph drives home that point in three ways--

• Everything Israel could give already belonged to God (9-11)
• If God were truly hungry, He would not tell them (12)
• God didn't need their sacrifices or anything else (13)

Israel was like the child who gets Daddy something for Christmas. Whatever the child gives already belongs to the father. If Daddy really needed anything, he would just get it himself; he would not tell the child. But it is important for the child to give Daddy the gift because that teaches the child something important about giving. So the child benefits from giving and the Father takes pleasure in the gift. That is the point of Israel's worship and of our worship today. God demands Israel to continue to give their gifts (50:14-15).

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

Like the child who gives Daddy a tie on Christmas morning, the gift of worship shows our love for our Father and deepens the relationship we enjoy with Him. God does not benefit from our worship; we do. And ultimately the gift we receive is the gift of God himself. The Psalm concludes in verse 23--

He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.

Our sacrifice of worship gives God nothing, but it gives us something crucial. Our gift of worship allows us to better know God, and He takes pleasure in our feeble offering. And that opens the way for us to better see the salvation of God.

Resting Our Weight

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2).

I read somewhere about a scholar who was translating the Bible into the language of a South Seas island tribe. He ran into a brick wall when he discovered that this language had no word for “trust” or “faith.” Translating the Bible is always difficult, but what do you do when there is no word for faith? One day one of the natives came running into his house, plopped himself in a chair and said, “It's good to rest my weight.” A light bulb went on; that was the word! He translated the Bible word “faith” in God as “resting you weight” on God.” Faith rests itself in God, it changes our way of looking at life.

We will never have peace with God through our own ability to either figure out all the rules or keep all the rules. If we really believe that to please God we must be able to sift through all the Bible as if it were a codebook, figure out all the of its hidden messages and rules, and then keep all of those rules perfectly-- well, that is a recipe for constant conflict. Despite our best intentions, such an approach is destined to bring conflict within ourselves and with others. Such an approach rests our weight on ourselves-- on our intelligence and ability. We simply can't bear up under that kind of weight.

Peace with God comes when we rest our weight on God-- on his wisdom and on his accomplishments. That is the message of the cross. We are saved through what Jesus did for us there... and ONLY because of what Jesus did for us there. The cross is the only structure in the universe that is sturdy enough to hold us under the weight of our sin. That is why Paul refused to boast in any of his many accomplishments. They all paled before the glory of the cross.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

Ahoy, Ye Crews!

Our 2008 Vacation Bible School is in the books. For the last several years, it has felt that VBS has been our final act of summer, at least as a church. Once we get through VBS, then the summer with all of its busyness (and people gone on vacations) is bascially over. This year we had Upwards soccer and cheer camp in June, Idlewild Christian Camp (33 of us participated in that) in July, our Mexico mission trip and then finally VBS in August. Whew! The old boring routine looks pretty good right now!

We had about 85 kids ages 2 through 5th grade, most of them not from our church, attend our VBS. The theme this year was from the Veggie Tale movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." The theme verse was Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength" (NCV). In Veggie Tale speak, the message is that God can make all of us heroes through the strength of Jesus." The theme song, which we song over and over, was "Calling All Heroes."

We had a great group of adults leading the various activities, some serving for the very first time. Nathan Tanner did an outstanding job as "The Commodore" keeping the kids pumped up. The hard part was getting him to come out of character! Each year I am amazed at how my quiet little wife transforms into such an animated actress when she is teaching Bible lesson. The crafts, snacks and a science lab with experiments all reinforced the Bible lesson.

To tell you the truth, I really wasn't expecting too much from VBS this year; it didn't seem like we were stressing it as much as in the past (but we had so much else going on). Oh, me of little faith! It was great to see all the kids and all the enthusiasm. Some of these kids started with us as preschoolers and now are ready to "graduate" (to Middle School) and were talking about coming back next year as helpers. What even more surprising... Josh and Sylvia were talking Friday night about what we would do next year!

Being a Church of Christ

I recently got a note from some former members who were asking my input in their search for a church home in their new city. I spend some time looking at a church website and reading the preacher's blog so that I could get a feel for the church and give a reasonably intelligent answer to their questions... at least as intelligent as I get. One of the preacher's blog entries got me thinking.

He said that when he is around peers from different Christian fellowships and is asked what is his church background, he usually tells them "I'm Church of Christ." OK, that is grammatically awkward, but we don't have an "ist" that fits (like Baptist or Methodist). And that is really the point, isn't it? He went on to suggest that he is always a little hesitant when he says "Church of Christ." I run into people who connect "Church of Christ" with a smug, arrogant and prideful "We're the only ones who are right" attitude. In fact, I ran into the manager of a store in the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills California (long story) who heard "Church of Christ" and responded, "That's the church that thinks its the only one going to heaven!" Unfortunately, that is the baggage that "Church of Christ" carries. Some congregations have stopped using "Church of Christ" in their name just because of that negative baggage.

But that isn't the point the brother made in his blog. The hesitancy he feels in using the name "Church of Christ" is the "of Christ" part. What enormous pressure it is to wear the name of Christ in your church name. What great responsibility to model the life of Christ, the teachings of Christ and the sacrifice of Christ in your church. Quoting from his blog--

The name Church of Christ should always cause us to ask: "Are we of Christ?" "Are we Christ-like people?" "How well do we live up to a name that describes a people belonging to him?" If we claim to be the Church of Christ, we must recognize that we'll have to conform our American way of life to His death and resurrection way of life, not the other way around...To be a church that is worthy of the name Church of Christ will require relinquishing power and becoming vulnerable in order to serve others who are different from us. May the Lord give us the grace we need to more fully become a Church of Christ.

I think that is pretty much on target.

The Lips of Flattery

1 Help, Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
2 Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue
4 that says, “We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips—who is our master?” (Psalm 12:1-4)

David is so upset here by the wickedness he sees around him that despairs that righteous people were disappearing from the earth. Maybe you have felt that way as you've read newspaper reports of the latest examples of man's inhumanity to man. But what has David so upset here are neighbors who lie to one another "with flattering lips and insincere hearts." Of all the sins evidenced in the world around him, it was insincere flattery that upsets David! He is so moved by what he see that he cries out to God, "May the Lord cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue..." (12:3). And God responds that He will do just that (Psalm 12:5).

Is flattery really such a bad thing? In the way in which we generally use the word, flattery isn't a bad at all. It certainly isn't bad for a husband to tell his wife that she looks nice or for a parent to praise his or her child for getting an "A" on the big spelling test. David isn't discouraging co-workers from commending one another on a job well done or one church member from recognizing the faithful ministry of another. Hey, it is even OK to tell the preacher that he did a good job on a sermon.

This flattery isn't really flattery, at least not in the sense in which David uses the word in Psalm 12. He is speaking of the untruthful and insincere compliments that some dole out in an attempt to deceive or manipulate another person to achieve their own end. If complimentary words are used to put someone off guard or to mislead them into thinking one thing when the person giving the compliment really thinks something else entirely-- that is the flattery David is striking against here.

Here is a rule of thumb that you can use to make sure that your compliments are not really flattery. If your compliment was given or your kind words were spoken for the benefit of the person receiving them, then that is not the kind of flattery that David warns us against. However, if your compliment or kind words were said because of a benefit that you receive or an ulterior motive that you have, then you are on dangerous ground. It is good and holy to uplift the heart of another with kind words. But God will cut off the lips of the flatterer!

Cookies and Kool-Aid

I am writing this on the computer in the auditorium after sneaking away for a few minutes during a break in our first night of VBS. I remember going to VBS as a kid; it was the only time we got cookies and Kool-Aid at church. They told us that we were to be a "Booster" (not grouchy like a rooster) and invite all our friends to VBS so that we would all get cookies and Kool-Aid. Cookies and Kool-Aid at VBS was a pretty big deal.

Now VBS is a multimedia Bible adventure with a science lab, craft station, and outside game activities that all support a Bible lesson that is presented on a special set by Bible teachers in full costume. The refreshments are built into the Bible lesson to reinforce the story (tonight they had pop-rocks in a orange soda with mint that foamed up to remind them of the burning bush story). Actually, the burning bush was a great first lesson because the whole church building smelled like burning Styrofoam from last minute additions to the set. Yep, this is a long way from cookies and Kool-Aid and flannel-graph lessons.

But then, it's the same old story. God spoke from the burning bush; God speaks to us today through his word. The packaging is different; the refreshments are different. The truth is the same. So is the excitement on faces of the kids.

Everything Is Broken

It is good to be back home after our sojourn in the far country. We had a great visit with my parents. I didn't get to play golf with my Dad this trip; there's nothing like 105 degree heat to get one out of the golfing mood! But we had a great visit.

Not long before I left, Julia Denton mentioned a Bob Dylan song to me and how well the lyrics fir in with my sermon series on the 7 Churches of Asia. I've never been much of a Dylan fan; I get too tired listening so hard because I'm to understand the slurred lyrics. As it turns out, the song she sent me does fit well, and I will probably use it in my sermon on Sardis. As it also turns out, I bumped into to Dylan's lyrics Wednesday night. The church Sonya and Bob attend in Nashville is having a summer series that they call "A Musical Conversation." They have been having local music talent (and there is a little of that in Nashville) come in a perform and discussing faith issues as raised by the music. We were there for Buddy Greene, who did a great job singing a little and talking about the gospel and the stories behind some of the songs.

As it turns out, the first son that he did was an old Bob Dylan song called "Everything is Broken." I don't think I'd ever heard the song before, but then I'm not a Dylan fan. But the song really does capture the essence of our world, doesn't it--

Broken lines broken strings; broken threads broken springs
Broken idols broken heads; people sleeping in broken beds
Ain't no use jiving; ain't no use jokin'-- everything is broken.

Broken bottles broken plates; broken switches broken gates
Broken dishes broken parts; streets are filled with broken hearts
Broken words never meant to be spoken-- everything is broken.

Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground
Broken cutters broken saws; broken buckles broken laws
Broken bodies broken bones; broken voices on broken phones
Take a deep breath feel like you're chokin'-- everything is broken.

Everytime you leave and go off someplace things fall to pieces in my face
Broken hands on broken ploughs; broken treaties broken vows
Broken pipes broken tools; people bending broken rules
Hound dog howling bullfrog croaking-- everything is broken.

The reason that we need Jesus is that everything really is broken. A correct understanding of the gospel has to begin with a correct understanding of the fall. What happened in Eden was not that Adam and Eve just broke God's rules-- they broken God's heart. The result of sin was that the entire world shifted on its axis and everything became broken. The entire creation groans under the weight of that brokenness and looks with expectation to the time when everything will be un-broken (see Romans 8:18-25). The problems we see in the world today are the result of our brokenness-- everything is broken. The only thing that can put our Humpty-Dumpty world back together is the power of the cross. And one day it will. Until then, everything is broken.

Vacation Time

Well, I spent my first day of my visit with my parents the same way that I spent our last visit with them... installing a microwave often. This time, it was uinstalled in their kitchen rather than in mine. The good news was that it was the exact same model that Dad and I had installed at my house during their last visit, and we managed not to make the same mistakes this time. The bad news is that we managed to make some brand new ones. But we finally got'er done; supper is warning up even as I peck this out on my phone.