On Wall Street and Martians

Things aren’t looking too good for the ol'  economy right now.  First there was Congress' refusal to pass a $700 billion (that's with a “B”) bailout bill and then Wall Street plummeted in responseto their refusal .  If things keep going this way, I will OWE money to my IRA when it is time to retire!  Most pundits seem to agree that some sort of bailout bill will HAVE to be passed, but then you can see why some in Congress might want a little time to think about it beforwe stroking a check (on our account) for that amount of money.  Who knows where this will end. Surely either Obama or McCain or both will revive the Clinton mantra, “It’s the economy."  Or maybe, “It’s the stupid ecomony!”

Thomas G. Long tells a story that comes from some of the older members at the little country church here he grew up in.  The story was told and retold so many times that parts of it are bound to be apocryphal... but it is a true story nonetheless—

On certain Sunday night in October 1938, the evening prayer services were in full swing when a man named Sam charged into the prayer meeting trembling with fear and excitement. Finally gaining the breath to speak, he shouted, "Martians are attacking the earth in spaceships! Some of ‘em have already landed in New Jersey!" The preacher halted in mid-sentence; the congregation stared at Sam blankly. "I s-s-swear," he stammered, now a little unsure of his footing. "I h-h-heard it on the radio." What Sam had heard, of course, was Orson Welles’s now infamous Mercury Theater radio production of War of the Worlds, but no one in the congregation was aware of that at the moment. For all they knew, the world outside was coming to a flaming end. The little flock looked apprehensively at the preacher, but he was mute and indecisive, never having had a sermon disrupted by interplanetary invasion. Finally one of the oldest members of the congregation, a red-clay farmer of modest education, stood up, gripped the pew in front of him with his large, callused hands, and said, "I ‘speck what Sam says ain’t completely true, but if it is true, we’re in the right place here in church. Let’s go on with the meetin’." And so they did.  

Whatever may come in this life, from stock market crashes to alien invasions, we need to get a tighter grip on our faith and get on with living it.  God is God and all is well.

Rain, Rain... Don't Go Away!

About 12 hours after I finally finished several days worth of mowing (about 5 times), raking (35 bags worth) and then planting (twice for good measure) next year’s lawn, our unnamed almost-but-not-quite tropical storm blew in with a long, soaking rain.  And behold, it is good.  I have never “planned” this so well—I plant, God waters AND gives the increase!  I'm going to have fun mowing the stuff next spring!  Of course, I haven’t inspected the yard very closely yet.  I has rained so much, my grass seed may have all floated away… into Lynn's flower beds!

Even better, about 12 hours later Oregon State blew in like a tornado and rained all over USC’s BCS parade, manhandling the “best team in the country” and showing USC and the national polls for what they are—posers.  Come on, no team is really Number #1 before the season begins or less than a month into the season.  Actually, no team is Number #1 after the season unless there is a playoff to prove it.  (The Giants were supposedly the worst team in the NFL playoffs last year; that's why they play the games).  BCS = Big Contrived Show.

I didn’t stay up for the whole game last night-- that would have been way past my bedtime.  But I did enjoy the first half, listening to the rain falling outside and watching OSU blow USC away!

In the Crucible

Proverbs 17:3 says, "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart."  Just as silver and gold are purified under intense heat, so the believer’s heart is purified by the heat of the trials which the Lord allows us at times to suffer. Peter promised his readers that they would "suffer grief in all kinds of trials"  (1 Pet 1:6).  He explains why in the next verse--

These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:7)

Hardships, difficulty and trials are the crucible which God uses to refine our faith and burn off impurities.  This trials are not themselves good, but God can use them for good as He refines our faith.  God does not always take away our sufferings because these can help us to grow in faith and character.  There we are to "consider it pure joy" (James 1:2) when these seasons of struggle come because we know that somehwere in there, God is doing His work.

In his first book, On the Anvil, Max Lucado uses a similar image as he asks us to see God as a blacksmith hard at work at his anvil.  We are the tools that are to be found in God’s blacksmith shop.

• Some tools are new and sharp and ready to be used by the blacksmith.  And there are some Christians who are mature and ready to do the Master's bidding, ready spend their lives and be spent in His service.
  
  
• Some tools are broken and no longer useful.  They are discarded in the corner, fit only for the rubbish heap.  And there are some Christians who have given up the quest to be like Jesus and have returned to the world. 
  
  
• Some tools are on the anvil, being repaired and sharpened so they can be useful again.  Most of us are on the anvil being reshaped by God.  He pounds and chisels on us so that we become more and more like Him.
  

This image is a painful one— we are on the anvil to be beaten, thrust back into the fire, beaten some more and plunged into cold water.  Some of you may feel just like that right now.  This process of growth and maturity is both necessary and painful.  But if we will just hold onto our faith, God can use our anvil experiences to create in us something strong and glorious. 

Vanity of Vanities

I’ve been hard at work the last couple of days mowing, thatching, mowing, raking, mowing... and planting grass seed in my yard.  Why?  So that I can complain about having to mow it next spring.  Why go to all the trouble to have grass so that you can cut grass.  Bob suggested on Facebook that it is sheer lunacy.  But I prefer to see myself confirming the endless and meaningless circle of life observed by the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 1:3-8

3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? 

4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 

5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. 

6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; 

round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 

7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. 

To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 

8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. 

The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. 

The sun rises and sets only to return to the same place the next morning to begin its trek again. The wind blows one way and then the next.  I once drove past a vacant lot in Midland, Texas that was filled with old newspapers and plastic bags that hadbeen trapped by the lot’s fence.  I asked about it and was told, “That trash just blows in from Odessa.”  I asked what happens to it and was told, “Oh, it just blows back to Odessa.”  Ecclesiastes would like that.  

Ecclesiastes would also like thatching, planting, and mowing that becomes thatch that is removed again the next fall.  “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher.”  There’s no point, and that’s the point.  Actually, there is a very good point… but I’m just too beat right now to figure out what it is!

What's Wrong With the World? Amazon.com!

I ordered a couple of books just a minute ago from Amazon.com.  They were both paperback books that cost only $11 each.  It has been awhile since I ordered anything from Amazon, and I had forgotten just how easy that whole process is.  I clicked on “checkout” and the website asked me for my email.  I went to type it in, and was surprised when it already knew my email address.  (Chrome must have imported my cookies from Firefox; nice of it to do that, wasn't it?).  Then Amazon came up with a screen with all my data already there—shipping address, billing address, credit card number.  I just had to click on one confirm button and the books are in the mail.

So Amazon is what is wrong with the world today.  It is why Fannie Mae and Merrill Lynch are in such trouble.  It's why consumer debt is out of control (our national revolving credit card debt hit an all-time high in July at just under $970 billion!). OK, so it's not all Amazon's fault, bit it is WAY TOO EASY to buy stuff today!  Two clicks of the mouse and the books are in the mail.  What if I always had to go to the bank to withdraw the money and drive to the bookstore and browse the shelves, etc. Well, I probably wouldn’t buy nearly as much stuff!  And what if you added the step of having to dig up the potatoes to take to the market to sell to make the money to take to the store…  Then I wouldn’t have time to read, so I could skip the whole thing!

The upshot is that it is so easy for us to buy things that we don’t have to stop to ask whether we can afford them or really need them.  We spend money that we don’t have on stuff that we don’t need, all because it is so easy.  

One Thing Is Needed

I've been playing tennis the last several weeks. Actually, I've played tennis since picking it up in high school, and I actually played three years of intercollegiate tennis at Freed-Hardeman (though my teammates would likely disavow knowledge of me actually playing). But I hadn't touched a racket in 10-15 years until recently, some 30 years and 30 pounds past my prime. I used to be one of those defensive specialists who ran everything down and kept the ball in play. I really should have developed a backhand, because I'm not running anything these days!

Back in the day, tennis was extremely important to me. I often played 3-5 hours a day during the season. And not only did I regularly squeegee water off the court after a rain so that we could "hit tennis," I once shoveled snow off the court! I never was really all that good, but I played all the time. For awhile, college was really just an excuse to play tennis, and I didn't let classes get in the way all that much.

Tennis was once a huge priority for me, and then for years it wasn’t even on my radar screen. That is the way it is with a lot of life’s priorities. Things like buying a car, getting a house, going on that dream vacation can seem to be the most important thing (or at least the most urgent thing) in the world… until they are not. Life changes, priorities change, and all of a sudden the things that once seemed critical are all but forgotten. We can spend so much of our time today focused on things that will be forgotten tomorrow. And sometimes in the process we forget what is really important. Jesus told Martha—

You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:40-41)

It’s not that housework wasn’t important, it was just that other things were more important. Martha was so busy wioth the urgent, she almost missed the important. There is nothing wrong with getting the house straight. There is nothing wrong with a new car or house or vacation. Hey, there isn't anything wrong with tennis! But if we aren’t careful, we may spend a lot of time now on things that we will learn later aren’t really that much of a big deal.

By the way, I didn’t play much tennis my senior year. The summer before, I paid a lot of my hard earned cash to a tennis pro trying to fine-tune (or find) my game. But I lost interest in tennis that last season. Why? I found something that was more important... and married her!

Seven Years Later

Seven years ago, four hijacked jetliners crashed and our world was changed. The Twin Towers were destroyed, the Pentagon was attacked, and a third attack was thwarted and a fourth plane lost.  At the end of the day, more than 3000 innocent people were dead, and with them died the unstated but widely held view that terrorism was something that happened in the Middle East and we read about in Time or watched on CNN.

Alan Jackson's song asks, “Where were you when the world stopped turning?”  Most of us can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing that day.  That was the first day that Elaine Denman was to start a counseling ministry in our church building once a week.  We spent all morning in the teen classroom completely transfixed by the TV.  We were watching when the second plane hit and when each of the towers fell.  No work was done that day; a lot of prayers were prayed.  The world didn’t really stop turning, but it was changed forever.

The last war fought on American soil was the Civil War.  (Regardless of what my kids think of my rapidly advancing age, I don’t remember a lot about that war.).  Every war since then has been fought, to use the words of a Word War I era song-- “Over There” 

Over there, over there, send the word, send the word over there
That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming ev'rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray'r, send the word, send the word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming over, and we won't come back till it's over, over there

After September 11, war didn't seem to be just "over there."  This new kind of war fought by fundamentalist Islam against us over here.  It was a new war against a new enemy that didn’t fight fair. This was an enemy without an army, uniform or country that turned our planes into bombs and used our own freedoms toagainst us to bring their terror to our shores.  This was an enemy that seemed to be everywhere, and seemed to be nowhere.  Ironically, our response to 9-11 was to launch a "War on Terror" that has once against sent brave men and women to fight “over there.”

God still reigns over the nations.  Psalm 47:8 is just as true today as it was when the sons of Korah wrote it, “God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.”  We live in a fallen world where the evil choices of evil people hurt the innocent.  That is not exactly a new development in the history of the world.  Jesus said to those who came to arrest him, “But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53, NLT).  But just as Jesus looked to God in that time of darkness, so we look to God and his power today.  We pray for His peace. We pray His justice.  We pray for His will.  We pray for His mercy.  And we pray for His coming.  Peace on earth will always be the impossible dream until the Prince of Peace returns.

Who Will Survive?

A recent CNN article explores the question, “Why do some survive disasters while others do not?”  There have been stories in the news recently of people who faced catastrophe while climbing mountains, hiking in the wilderness, sailing, swimming, flying, etc.  Some are found alive after the crisis while othersare not.  Why the different outcome?  Sure the answer can be found in some combination of luck, circumstance, and answered prayer.  But the article points to the fact that those who would appear to be the best suited for survival, what the article calls “the Rambo types,” were often the first to die in these life-or-death struggles while children were the most likely to survive.  

Why is that?  According to the experts, the Rambo-type often trust themselves (their strengthor expereince) and get into trouble making foolish choices and taking foolish risks trying to save themselves.  Small children often will survive the crisis because they're humble.  They rest when they get tired and sleep in the heat of the day; they know they are too weak to try something heroic on their own.  Humility in the wilderness can keep you from trusting in yourself and waiting for others to do the rescuing.

Humility is pretty important in the wilderness of life too.  Jesus tells us, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:17). A prideful insistence on doing things our own way and going in our own direction will just serve to get us more and more lost.  Pride leads us to say, “I can live my life without God.”  Pride can also say, “I already understand what God expects.”   Humility keeps looking to God in the helplessness of a child and reaching out to be blessed by him.  For such is the kingdom of God.

Strange That's It's Strange

I'm not sure what you think of the nomination of Sarah Palin as GOP VP candidate; I'm not completely sure what I think.  If the first characteristic of a good VP candidate is that they be experienced and presidential because of that "one heartbeat away" thing, then I'm not sure she was the best choice.  My initial reaction to her nomination was “Is this Dan Quayle all over again?”  But then that "experienced and presidential" thing would seem to disqualify one of the presidential nominees as well.  And Palin is the only one of the four who has executive branch experience, so there is that.  

What is beginning to irritate me us how some are beginning to question Palin because of her conservative Christian religious beliefs.  Palin has been a member of the Pentecostal church, although for the last six years she and her family have been members of an independent Bible church.  One writer seems concerned that Palin “shows a strong faith in the Bible and in prayer.” He is critical of statements she made at old her church, reminiscing about "getting saved here, getting baptized." And she had the audacity to ask the church to pray that a new proposed natural gas pipeline program ($30 billion bucks worth) was God’s will.  

The fact that people see a government leader asking for prayers before spending $30 billion as a BAD THING is hard to believe.  Are we really at the point in our country that a public official talking about getting saved and getting baptized is seen as proof that they are weird?  Both presidential candidates have gone to great lengths in interviews emphasize their religious beliefs in order to appeal to certain segments of voters.  The fact that Palin seems to taken her religious views seriously seems strange to some.  That it seems strange to them seems strange to me.

Who Goes in Your Wax Museum

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)

Years ago I had lunch with a Mennonite businessman who had a dream. He wanted to build a wax museum honoring Christian leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin. He especially wanted to honor Menno Simons, the founder of the Mennonites. He even was willing to throw me a bone, "We’ll even have your guy (Alexander Campbell) in there too." I told him that I didn’t really think people would pay money see wax figures of old Christian leaders

What I could have said was that Menno Simons have most certainly NOT have liked that idea at all. Simons was former priest and Reformation leader who was very influential in the Anabaptist movement. Simons had a profound influence on many later reformers, including "our guy" Campbell. Simons wanted no honor for himself, including having his name on the title page of his books. Instead they were imprinted with "no other foundation can any man lay."

We owe a great debt to those who taught us of Christ. We all stand on the shoulders of those who went before us. I owe a tremendous spiritual debt to my parents (my primary spiritual influences), my grandmother (for all the Bible stories she read me), Bruce Jackson (my preacher while growing up), Rubel Shelly (my professor in college). And there have been many others.

It is proper for me to respect and to honor them... and to be thankful for their influence in my life. But my only allegiance is to Christ. Respect and honor for our teachers can come to compete with that for Christ Himself. Respecting our teachers can lead us to put them on pedestal... or in a wax museum. We can name our churches after them, dogmatize their doctrines and refuse to go beyond their conclusions and practices.

Maybe ol’ Menno Simons was onto something when he imprinted his books, not with his own name, but rather deflected all attention back to Christ. We indeed stand on the shoulders of those who went before us. But we do our spiritual forebears a great disservice if we point to them rather than to Christ.

On Duty and Beyond

I went through the some of the typical teen rebellion stuff when I went off to college. OK, maybe it wasn't typical college rebellion; after all, I went to Freed-Hardeman. My rebellion was that I decided that I wasn't going to go to church on Sunday Wednesday night. I went to chapel every day and that was enough! After all, how much religious suffering was a person required to endure in a week? I would go on Sunday morning because that was required (because of communion), but the other stuff was optional and I was going to opt out. Besides, Charlie's Angels came on during one of those times.

Well, my rebel-without-a-cause phase lasted about two weeks. I had been raised to go to church and I felt horribly guilty not going. I mentioned in a previous post that my Grandmother had a this quaint way of referring to someone who wasn't going to church; she called them "out of duty." She referred to a relative and said, "They are out of duty." I said, "Ohhh..." I had to find out later what that meant. The way she said it sound like they had some dreadful disease. But that is how I felt after my two-week rebellion against going to church, so I went back. Out of duty.

I'm glad I wised up and went to church. I'm also glad that at some point I came to see that worship is about much more than duty. In that previous post I mentioned, I wrote this--

Worship isn't about performing proscribed acts in precise ways; it is about coming into the presence of God in the presence of other worshippers. Church isn't about running the doctrine up the flag pole to salute it and feel holy in the process; it is about falling at the feet of the Crucified One who makes us holy. Church isn't fulfilling a spiritual obligation; it is a precious gift that God gives us to prepare us for our true spiritual duty-- living our lives to His glory. In worship, we come before God to be uplifted, challenged, loved and rebuked... all at the same time. In worship, we draw near to God as God draws near to us. In worship, the real world of the Spirit breaks into our world and draws into the presence of the Almighty.

Is worship a duty? No, not in the sense of membership requirement or grudging obligation. Worship is what happens when people see God. In scripture, when people realize in some way that they are in the presence of the divine, they worship. Moses taking off his sandals. Peter falling down in a boat load of fish. John falling at the feet of the angel who in turn told him to "Worship God!" Worship is a gift that God gives us; ultimately, it is the gift of Himself. The psalms in our reading for today begin with a call to worship--

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God,the great King above all gods. (Psalm 95)

1 Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. (Psalm 96)

What is it that church is for us? Do we sing for joy to the Lord and shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation? Will we declare His glory among the nations? Or do we just show up to do our duty?

Around the World in 180 Days

Tuesday, September 2, a day that will live in infamy. OK, maybe that is a little over dramatic for the first day of school. But when you are married to a school teacher, the difference between the last day of summer break and the first day of school is the difference between the alarm clock going off at 4:45 and not going off at all. This morning, Lynn turned off the alarm clock and gave a little sigh... or was it a groan. At least I didn't have to pull her out of bed kicking and screaming like I used to do with the girls. She did point out yesterday that there are only 180 school days left before summer break next year!

This is the day that the Lord has made... even when it is the first day of school. May God bless this year of possibilities and opportunities for all our students and teachers. I know that sanctioned prayer is no longer allowed in public school; I also know that many of our teachers and students would not want to face school without it. Quoting from a back to school prayer guide for a private Methodist School--

Loving God, sometimes a new school year seems exciting or scary or both. Sometimes school is great, and sometimes it is hard. But we know that whether we are excited or scared, you are with us. We know that whether school is great or hard, you are with us. We thank you for always being with us. Help us to remember to show our thanks for your gift of learning by
doing our best every day.