Don't Let Go of the Rope!

When I was a kid, Dad borrowed a speed boat from his business partner, and we pulled it down to our cabin on Lake Gaston in Carolina. Actually, it wasn't a cabin but an old burned-out trailer Dad had rebuilt and restored. And it wasn't on the lake but in the vicinity of the lake. But it was our retreat into nature, and the only time this city kid was able to hunt and fish. It was also the only time this (clumsy) city kid ever tried to water ski. Or maybe I should say, it was the time my father tried to kill me teaching me how to ski!

The story goes like this. After unloading the boat and getting a brief lesson on water safety and skiing fundamentals, we were off. My sister went first, and within minutes she was skiing circles around the lake… so I knew that it had to be easy. When my turn came, and I gave the ready sign, and Dad took off with the boat. I came up to my feet like a shot, paused for half a second (if that long), and went right over onto my face. Then the fun really began! Dad pulled me behind that boat for what seemed like ten miles-- UNDERWATER. In all the excitement, I forgot to let go of the rope. In fact, I didn’t know that I could let go of the rope. I’m not sure why Dad kept going-- maybe he wanted to see how long his idiot son would hang onto the rope. So I was dragged along bobbing and weaving, diving and surfacing like a Rebel minnow on fast retrieve. Finally the boat came to a stop and my miserable life was spared. I honestly did not know that I could just let go of the rope.

On December 30, 1977, Lynn walked down one of the aisles (they had two) of the Colonial Heights church building and for some reason pledged to be my wife for as long as we both shall live. I guess I'll never know exactly why she did that, but I thank God that she did. My ship came in that day, but it has not been only smooth sailing all the time. The lake has gotten a bit rough. At times I have made her life as bumpy as my first (and only) skiing lesson. There have been twists and turns, flips and bumps. But we are still going strong. And the reason for that is that, like my skiing experience, we just refuse to turn loose! Letting go is just not an option, no matter how bumpy the ride gets.

My sermon Sunday is on divorce. What was almost unheard of when I was a kid is now commonplace. Put 100 average adult people in a room, and 25 of them will have gone through a divorce. For every 10 marriages in our country, there are 4 (or more) divorces. We have learned at some point that not only is it possible to let go of the rope, in a growing number of life situations, you are basically expected to do so.

The issue of divorce for Christian is a complex one, and my sermon Sunday may muddy the water more than it clarifies. But there is one thing that I know for certain from scripture. God hates divorce. Period. Every time a divorce happens, the will of God and the heart of God are broken. We can spend a lot of time discussing “exception clauses” and “the Pauline Privilege.” We can come to the text looking for loopholes. And we can make the Sermon on the Mount a more restrictive legalistic system than the Pharisaic system Jesus was trying to correct. But what remains clear is that God hates divorce. For those seeking to please God, maybe that should be enough.

Fun While It Lasted

I'm back to the ol' grind after a rare weekend (plus a day or two) trip away. Lynn and I spent Sat-Tue with my parents in a Myrtle Beach time share to mark their 60th wedding anniversary. We surprised them with a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake, which was a real surprise since it said "Happy 60th Birthday." Oh, well, it was the thought that counts. We had a great time visiting with them. It was too cold to get on the golf course, but Lynn and I enjoyed a brisk walk on the beach each day.

I had intended to chronicle our trip on the blog while we were gone. The condo had Wi-Fi, so I took our laptop and was prepared to blog away. What I wasn't prepared for was to pay $3 an hour or $12 a day for the Wi-Fi connection! There was no way that I was going to stimulate the Myrtle Beach economy at that rate. So… we had a good time. That is about as much of a chronicle as anyone wants.

I got to experience church as “a Regular Joe” in the pew Sunday morning. That means that we were a bit late to church, sat on the back pew, and left right after church was over. I didn’t like being late or sitting in the back, but the sermon was great and church was enjoyable.

Well, vacation is over; I’d better get back to work.

Ripples

J.A. Copeland moved his wife and five children to Center Point, Arkansas in 1907. The reason was because they had a good school there. The school wasn't for the Copeland children; it was for Copeland. The 26 year old dirt farmer had dropped out of school years before, and he wanted to go back and finish his education. Why? He had felt called by God to preach, and he knew that he needed to finish his education. And that’s what he did, attending high school along with one of his children.

J. A. Copeland was a simple man of faith who loved God and wanted to serve Him. In some ways, he was a man ahead of (or perhaps behind) his times. In an era in which a preacher’s faithfulness was often determined by his ability to debate and stridently defend the truth, Copeland was a man of love and peace and patience. Copeland never gave up farming; he would never earn enough money to support his large family by preaching alone. He was often called to preach gospel meetings in far off corners of Texas or Arkansas and wasn’t paid enough to cover his train ride home. He was never at the center of what was happening in the brotherhood; Delight, Arkansas is never at the center of much of anything. J.A. Copeland was a simple, quiet man of faith and substance who influenced many people while he was alive and many more after he died.

J. A. Copeland was my great-grandfather. I never met him; he died the year that I was born. But his simple faith in God and commitment to Christ is part of the DNA of my family. At a family reunion about thirty years ago, we counted 44 preachers among Papa Copeland’s sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, and that number would be much larger now if we added the next generation. Papa Copeland never knew he was started a family business; he just was trying to make a difference in the family of God.

When you throw a stone into a pond, ripples are created that spread our across the surface far from the stone’s entry point. Our lives causes ripples of influence that spread our far from us in ways that we can never imagine. We will never see all those ripples or how they impact others far from us. It is important to live our lives in the right way so that our splash makes the right ripples.

The Sanctity of Marriage

Jonathan Lopez is (or was) a student at Los Angeles City College. He is in the process of suing the school for discrimination. One of his professors refused to allow Lopez to finish a class speech and called him “a fascist bastard” in front of the class. Lopez, an admitted Christian (gasp), inquired about his class grade, and was told by his professor to “ask God what your grade is.” Why such abuse? He was making a speech arguing against homosexual marriage.

The news accounts didn’t make it plain whether this incident took place before or after the passing of Proposition 8 (which amended the California constitution to define marriage as taking place between people of opposite genders). If this incident took place BEFORE Proposition 8 was passed, then Mr. Lopez was shut down and ridiculed for participating in a current sociopolitical debate because his view differed from that of his professor. If the incident took place AFTER the passing of Proposition 8, then he was censured for arguing for the law of the land! At any rate, this seems to be something less than the free exchange of ideas that is supposed to characterize the educational process.

I preached Sunday on homosexuality. You can listen to the sermon if you like (just don’t operate heavy equipment at the same time). Want a hint? I said that homosexuality is a sin... and that the gospel is for sinners. Does the open acceptance of homosexual marriage undercut the sanctity and inviolability of the covenant of marriage?  Sure.  But then, homosexual marriage doesn’t undermine marriage nearly as much as heterosexual divorce!  If Christians are truly interested in preserving the sanctity of marriage, then why not work to pass a constitutional amendment banning divorce? Banning gay marriage keeps the 5% or 10% of the population (depending on which guesstimate you accept) in line. Banning divorce would keep a lot more of us on the straight (excuse the pun) and narrow!

Hey, I’m not defending gay marriage. The Bible says homosexuality is an abomination to God. But the Bible also says that God hates divorce. Does God hate homosexuality all the time but hates divorce only part of the time? What was that word that Moses used for divorcing a spouse and remarrying him or her? That would be “abomination” (OK, it’s “detestable” in the NIV, but it’s the same Hebrew word). Why are we so selective in what we get riled up about?

I read some time ago that the reason it took so long to have real penalties attached to drunk-driving is that so many law-makers, judges and juries recognized that the poor sap caught drinking-and-driving just might be them someday. They might need a little love down the road when it comes to drunk-driving, so a lot of wiggle room was left in the system. Is that why Christians can be so hard against homosexual sin and not so hard against divorce? Do we think might need a little divorce wiggle-room sometime down the road?

Was Lopez discriminated against because of his religious beliefs? It would seem so. Or was maybe he was a bit too strident and harsh and combative in the way he presented his views. That undoubtedly has happened at times in the past.

It is entirely likely that if we were a bit more successful at living God’s moral law ourselves, we would be more effective in calling others to do so as well. The divorce rate of Evangelical Christians is the same (or maybe a bit higher) than the national divorce average. If we are really interested in preserving the sanctity of marriage, then maybe we need to show our respect for marriage by staying married. Once we solve our divorce problem in the church, then maybe we can be in a better place to help the culture respect the sanctity of marriage. Didn’t someone say something once about getting the beam out of our own eye before we help others with theirs?

This Present Economic Darkness

According to an article on CNNMoney, what is killing our economy is people saving too much. All you selfish people hording all your cash rather than rushing out to spend it on cars, houses and plasma TV— well, you are just being un-American! Understand that the “savings rate” is calculated by totaling up after-tax income and then subtracting spending. That means you are using your money to pay down debt, that is considered savings (which makes sense). According to some experts, that is what is wrong with our country!

CNN quoted economist Mark Zandi as saying that the jump in the savings rate since last summer is “the difference between an economy that is growing and one that is struggling mightily.” So if you really want to help the country, then get back out there and “spend money that you don’t have on things you don’t need for people who already have everything” to borrow a really good line from Tony Campolo.

What the article didn’t discuss was how it was spending money we didn't have to buy things we couldn't afford was basically how we got into this present economic darkness in the first place! And the economic stimulus plan that everyone seems to believe we need (and can’t agree on what it should look like) is basically spending money we don’t have in an effort to get us out of this mess.

I don’t pretend to understand the economic crisis, but I do believe that spending money that you don’t have is not a good idea. Paul says, “Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along” (Romans 13:8, The Message). Paul isn’t saying that we are never to responsibly use credit. (If we are never to owe anything, then a mortgage is sinful and the only people buying house would be drug lords). Paul is not against all debt.  But Paul is against our American tradition of wanting stuff so badly that we can’t wait until we can afford it. The person who is truly content will never incur debt trying to get more and more stuff (see Philippians 4:12-13).

What is the way out of this present economic crisis? Start with prayer. Then resolve to do a better job living within your means. And finally give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! We need to realize that most people in the world would love to have our economic woes!  Even at its worst, our standard of living is much better than most people in the world will ever experience!  Maybe we need to think about that a bit more!

Baptism and Understanding

We have just finished studying baptism in our Sunday morning class. With some of that discussion still fresh on my mind, I ran across the follow from Patrick Mead. Patrick's blog is entitled Tentpegs where he answers questions that his readers send him. (I might try that... if I ever get readers.) I thought he handled the question pretty well. Of course, I find myself more in agreement with what other people write when I have no time to write something of my own! Hey, my blog is both good and original. Today it is good; tomorrow I might try to write something original!

I’ve recently had someone tell me that one must understand certain things about baptism to be baptized. I’ve always felt the strongest argument is that we follow Christ, He was baptized, it makes logical sense for us to follow him in baptism. I’ve heard a lot of things that make me think people believe that being baptized except for certain specifications makes it invalid. Is there a question in there? Yes!! You being much smarter than I can sleuth it out right? My question is this: how does one know if one’s own baptism is valid. If someone tells me they’ve been baptized is it my job to question them further?

We’ve answered this question before, but we’ve been doing this so long that it is inevitable that some repetitions will come along. I come across people who question their baptism from time to time. The outward form was good and right but they are afraid they “didn’t know what I was doing” and, therefore, God considers their baptism invalid. It needs to be firmly stressed that that is not a biblical way to view baptism.

Baptism isn’t based on our knowledge, but on our heart. Simply put, your baptism is valid if you wanted to belong to Jesus forever, realized that you needed a Savior, and were declaring your allegiance to Him. There is no need to search for a magic formula (some fear their baptism was invalid because someone didn’t say “for the forgiveness of sins”) and there are no set words that have to be said. Before you write in saying “what about ‘in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’?” let me remind you: to do something in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit doesn’t require their names to be mentioned. You are acting by their authority. I greatly prefer mentioning their names and encourage others to do so but we cannot afford to be dogmatic about this. If I were a police officer and knocked on your door with a warrant in my hand, I would not be likely to say “open up in the name of the law.” I COULD if I wanted to because I am acting in behalf of the legal system, but the possession of the warrant, badge, and gun is sufficient to show in whose interests I am acting.

I would add to the above two more things that must be present: a lot of water and an adult. There is no biblical warrant for the baptism of children or for replacing immersion with sprinkling, pouring, etc. Baptism is a very important part of the Christian walk; a walk that begins with sacrifice and the sign of burial and resurrection — baptism.

To recap: if you were old enough to know what was going on, and if you were desirous of walking with Jesus forever, stepping into line as one of his disciples, and if you knew you needed forgiveness and a Savior, and then you were immersed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… your baptism is valid. Your knowledge base doesn’t have to be very wide at all. It is a question of God acting on His promise when He sees your heart. I believe He keeps His promises, including those to save imperfect (in morality and knowledge) people like us.

The Road to Cana

Did Jesus ever have a crush on any of the pretty, young maidens in Nazareth? Was his heart ever stirred by romantic love? Was Jesus ever tempted to fall in love, have a family and live a normal life? That was basically the idea behind the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis entitled The Last Temptation of Christ, made into a movie by Martin Scorsese in 1988. The Jesus of Last Temptation was one filled with self-doubts, fears and depression about his identity and mission. The last temptation was rejecting his mission and living a normal life, settling down with (who else) Mary Magdalene. The problem with Last Temptation is not that Jesus was tempted by love, sex and marriage; the problem was that the Jesus Kazantzakis and Scorsese envisioned had no real awareness of himself as Christ the Lord.

So... What if Jesus grew up with his heart in a tug-of-war with the prettiest girl in Nazareth (let’s call her Avigail)? What if thoughts of her torment his dreams? What if he was the only man his age in Nazareth that wasn’t married with a family? What if his unmarried status caused gossip about his dealings with women... and men? What if the pull of love and family was not the last temptation of Christ, but the last temptation before he began his ministry? And what if the woman that was married at the wedding feast of Cana was the girl Jesus had to give up in order to begin his public ministry? And what if Mary pressures Jesus to turn the water into wine because their family was responsible for part of the wedding arrangements?

Now THAT would make a good book! I know, because I just read Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. And it was a very good book! Anne Rice is famous to most people for books like Interview with a Vampire. After years in the wilderness (her memoir is Called Out of Darkness), Rice came back to faith and has dedicated her career to Jesus. Her Christ the Lord series tells the story of Jesus from his first person perspective. The first book is narrated by a 7-year old Jesus just returning to Nazareth after leaving Egypt (see Christ the Lord).

One reviewer says about Rice’s two books (thus far) in the Christ the Lord series, “These two books are to all other Jesus fiction what “The Passion of the Christ” is to all other Jesus movies.” I didn’t know “Jesus fiction” was a literary genre, but these are two very good books. Yes, they are fictionalized. If you want to write about Jesus at age 7, then you have to make stuff up! These books both caused me to stop and think about some of my assumptions about Jesus. Any time an author gets people doing that, it is a good thing.

Super Bowl Sunday

For the second year in a row, the Super Bowl provided our church Super Bowl party with a very exciting game and a heart-stopping finish. This time, it was the WRONG finish, but it was exciting. The game was so good that it was hard to find the time to run back to the food table to replenish supplies (of course, I found the time).

We were on pins and needles through the first half of the game, and not because of the game. We had a camera crew and reporter from WAVY TV-10 here filming us watching the game! The hook was the Steelers’ coach Mike Tomlin went to high school next door at Denbigh High, so we were there all pulling for the home boy. Actually, the reporter thought that Tomlin had gone to church here, which (to my knowledge) he hadn’t. Any way, we got some press out of the deal. They left after the first half... right before our devotional time. They missed the best part!

Our devotional at halftime talked about serving God and giving Him glory no matter where we are or what we are doing. Kurt Warner, Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu and many other players talked about God in their pre-and-post-game comments. We need to know that God is with us at our work even if we aren't NFL players and our job happens to be the Super Bowl. Maybe that was what we should have gotten our of the camera crew... people watch us whatever we are doing all the time and we either bring God glory or we don’t.

BTW, for the second year in a row, Tressa was there at the big game. Actually, she wasn’t at the game this year. She was there with Courtney for all the gala, pageantry and parties before and after the game. I gotta talk to that girl about her priorities.