I Was Just Thinking...

I was just thinking that I needed to write something in the ol' blog.  But then I was also thinking that I really didn't have anything to say... which is a definite problem when its time to blog.  Just as I was thinking that I wasn't thinking of anything to write, I got an email from Wineskins' editor Greg Taylor.  (Well, he didn't write it to me personally, but he did include me!).  As I was reading his note, I started thinking that what he said is what I am thinking too.  So here is what I am thinking today.

This week on the Writer's Almanac, Garrison Keillor quoted John Adams, who said, "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide."  

Are we in danger of committing democra-cide? 

Isn't it ironic that we are now trying to nurture democratic nations internationally while we rush headlong into the fire that burns with a white hot passionate hatred toward people different from us in our own nation? And we're just talking about people in different parties, to say nothing of the other racial, religious, social ways we express disunity and hatred.

How many times in the last few weeks have you uttered, "He's an idiot" or "She's an idiot" about a candidate or friend who emailed you a newly minted narrative to discredit a candidate? If we think we can barely live in a world led by the party we oppose, what does that say about our world view, what we trust in?

This week, Newsweek's Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham asked the question, "Is there a religious reason to vote for or against Obama or McCain?"

Judging from the pile of desperate emails we're getting, the answer is yes. And many on both sides of the aisle believe there are religious reasons to vote for one or the other party or candidate. 

I'm of the party of people who have grown exasperated at the notion that religion can only be expressed through one particular party. That doesn't make me a Republican or Democrat. My conservative friends think I'm a Democrat. My liberal friends probably think I'm Republican. 

My voter card still says Independent. Maybe next time I get a card, I'll ask if they can record "Christian" on my party affiliation. Because I'm a Christian who believes a particular political party or candidate is not the answer to my prayers. 

Return to Me

Researchers seem to disagree on just how common infidelity is in our culture today.  Some studies suggest that 60% of men and 40% of women will cheat on their spouses; others studies set the figures much lower, at 24% for men and 14% for women.  But even if this lower figure is accurate, that means that 30% of marriages are impacted by unfaithfulness.  And infidelity is the leading factor in between 22-29% of all divorces and only about 35% of marriages survive an infidelity.  That means that with time and work and patience, marriages can survive an affair… but they usually don’t.  (See http://www.infidelity-etc.com/index.php/4)

In Jeremiah 3 (our OT reading for today), God is portrayed as a spouse who has been wounded by Judah’s infidelity in worshipping other gods.  Like many a wandering spouse, Judah wants God to just get over the unfaithfulness, “Will you always be angry? Will your wrath continue forever?” (Jer 3:5).  Judah does not understand how deeply their infidelity hurts God, and she does not really move to change her behavior, “This is how you talk, but you do all the evil you can” (Jer 3:5b).  What God sees in her people is “the brazen look of a prostitute” (Jer 3:3).  And yet God pursues his wandering spouse, calling her to repent and return—

“If you will return, O Israel, return to me,” declares the LORD. “If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, 2 and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory.” 

Jeremiah 3 begins with God asking, “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again?”  That is the very thing that Moses divorce law forbids in Deuteronomy 24.  A man could not divorce his wife and then remarry her after she had been married to someone else.  This was to protect women from being divorced casually or on a whim “to teach them a lesson” and then taken back.  Marriage was to be forever, but then so was divorce.  And yet here, God was willing to take back his "wife" Judah after her prostitution with idols, a point God had made to an earlier generation through the life and writings of Hosea.

We need to understand how our sin hurts God.  Sin is not something that our holy God can wink at and overlook.  And yet, God in his mercy and love is always willing to take us back if we will repent.  The call of God to his rebellious people is always “return to me.”

“Would you now return to me” (3:1) 

Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord” (3:12)

“Return, faithless people for I am your husband” (3:14) 

“Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding (4:1)

Excessive Celebration

I’ve mentioned Al Maxey several times in this blog.  If you aren’t subscribed to his Reflections email, you should be.  Al occasionally makes mincemeat our of some of our Church of Christ sacred cows, and he does God’s kingdom (and especially our little corner of it) a great service in the process.  He was also the first preacher I ever heard preacher who wasn’t wearing a tie (he was in a Hawaiian shirt… he was also in Hawaii), so I liked him before he ever said anything!

In this week’s installment of Reflections, he takes to task a preacher who was taking liberal churches to task for the highly offensive practice of... applauding at baptisms.   Players in the NFL sometimes get penalized for “excessive celebration.”  To clapp and cheer when someone gives their life to Christ and has their sins washed away is excessive celebration that has no place in church!

Al points to the celebration at the homecoming of the Prodigal Son where they was music and dancing because the lost was found and the dead was alive again (Luke 15:24).  This is the joy that is expressed in heaven when the lost one comes home (Luke 15:7,10).  It is the kind of joy expressed by the Ethiopian Eunuch who “went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39).  It is hard to see why expressing that joy together in the assembly would be inappropriate.  On the contrary, it is inappropriate not to express joy!

Why would anyone be so critical of spontaneous applause of approval and joy when someone is baptized?  It is basically seen as a worldly violation of worship protocol that is neither decent nor in order.  Al quotes from the preacher (named John Waddey)--

"One way to respond to those trying to justify their practice is to ask if they would applaud at their mother's funeral. If not, why? Would they have applauded at Christ's death and burial? Why not? Baptism is a symbolic re-enactment of the death and burial of Jesus Christ. Is that an appropriate time for applause?"

Waddey rightly points out that baptism is a sacred of reenactment of Jesus death and burial.  But then no one claps (in my experience) when someone goes into the water.  In our experience here at Denbigh, applause break out when the person comes UP OUT OF THE WATER! Baptism is also a picture of Jesus’ resurrection and our resurrection from sin into a new life.  So Al responds to the funeral analogy like this-- 

Waddey wondered if someone would actually dare to applaud at their mother's funeral. John, if she rose up out of that coffin ... YES, I would applaud. God help me, I might even shout and leap into the air! Should we express great joy (as do the angels in heaven) when someone arises from the watery grave? If not, why not, John?! For those who are offended and distracted by such expressions of joy over a brother brought to life, there is ample room outside the Father's house in the darkness with the elder brother! He didn't care for the celebration either!

Amen! I don’t believe that excessive celebration is one of the problems that we have in church… following baptisms or at any other time!

Letters from a Skeptic

I (finally) finished reading Greg Boyd's book "Letters from a Skeptic."  Boyd is founding senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church, an evangelical mega-church in St. Paul, MN.  Trained at Yale and Princeton, Boyd taught for years at Bethel University in St. Paul. He has written several books on theology and apologetics, but "Letters from a Skeptic" is different... and very personal.

The skeptic is Edward Boyd, Greg's father.  The book is an exchange of about 50 letters over three years discussing questions of the rationality of faith in God.  Ed Boyd begins the exchange as a hard-boiled unbeliever with serious questions about his sons faith.  Why is the world so full of suffering? How can you believe that a man rose from the dead? Why do you think the Bible is inspired? Do all non-Christians go to hell? How can I be holy and sinful at the same time?  The discussions were straightfoward and generally free from philosophical and theological jargon asa  son shares with his father why it is reasonable to believe that Christianity is true.  The book ends with Ed Boyd's acceptance of Jesus and a testimonial of the change that faith made in his life.  Click here for a local newscast that reported on the book. 

Toward the end of the book, the issue being debated stopped being the existence of God and the reliability of the Bible-- it was the church.  Or really, it was the kinds of Christians that Ed expereinced in his Catholic upbringing and on religious TV.  These believers seemed to have all the answers and all the rules; he wanted to know how he could ever be righteous on his own. 

Dad, you are perfectly correct! No one can live the Christian life! No one has, does, or ever will (this side of heaven) perfectly live the Christian life! Do you think for a moment that I'm any better at doing the "holiness routine" than you? You know me better than that! It's as impossible for me as it is for you.

But this is just the point, Dad. It is the central motive for all of Jesus' ethical teachings. We are unable to perform our way to God on our own: thus, we need a Savior!

Throughout Jesus' ministry He was confronting people who (like the Christians you've confronted) believed that they were righteous before God on the basis of how good they were. They didn't think they needed a Savior.

So how did Jesus help them? He helped them by showing them what they'd really have to be like if they were to be righteous before God without a Savior.

So, for example, the Pharisees were proud because they didn't appear as sinful as other people, but Jesus tells them they need to "be perfect, even as God is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Good luck!

So too, some self-righteous folks were proud for never committing adultery, but Jesus (not Paul) told them "if you've lusted after a woman in your heart you've already committed adultery" (Matt. 5:27-28, my paraphrase). 

He makes His point precisely because everyone has lusted in his heart!

Then again, these religious types were very proud because they had never murdered, so Jesus told them "if you get angry or even say 'fool' in your heart towards a brother, you're already in danger of hell fire" (Matt. 5:21-22, my paraphrase). The point, Dad, is that left on our own, we are all "in danger of hell fire. "

The list of verses could go on, but the point would always be the same. If you're going to stand before God on your own basis, Dad, you have to be perfect, for God is perfect. 

Any imperfection is eternally incompatible with the character of God. Being "relatively good" just doesn't cut it. Being "sort of holy" will get no more brownie points in heaven than being a dope-addicted prostitute. One must have God's own perfect righteousness.

In the Eye of the Storm

“In the Eye of the Storm” begins with one of my all time favorite Max Lucado stories.  It concerns Chippie the parakeet and the fact that you never know what live will bring.  There was old Chippie, sitting on his swing and minding his own business when all of a sudden he was “sucked in, washed up, and blown over.”  Here’s the story--

The problems began when Chippie's owner decided to clean Chippie's cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She'd barely said “hello” when “sssopp!” Chippie got sucked in.

The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie— still alive, but stunned.

Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air. Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.

Ever have a day like that?  You think everything is going well, the then the wheels fall off and the roof cave. And maybe you can relate to Chippy after his hard day.  His owner was asked how he was doing and replied, “Well, Chippie doesn't sing much anymore—he just sits and stares.”  

Our Old Testament reading for today is God’s promise to Israel, and to us, to be there when we are sucked in, washed up, and blown over by life.  In Isaiah 43:2-3, God says--

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; 

and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. 

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; 

the flames will not set you ablaze. 

For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

God never promises to keep us from the storms of life, but He does promise to be with us through those storms.  He promises to restore us and life us up after the storms.  And unlike Chippy, once we are restored, we will sing to the Lord a new song (Isa 42:10-13).

The process of getting from the storm to the new song is called “faith.”

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Gayle Williams was in Afghanistan working with a interdenominational Christian aid group called SERVE (Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprise), a charity that works with handicapped Afghans.  The 34 year old British citizen was shot and killed this morning while walking to work, targeted for assassination by the Taliban.  Her crime was sharing her Christian faith with others.  

SERVE officials have denied that Williams or any of their people are actively proselytizing to the Christian faith, which is against the law in Afghanistan.  But perhaps a faith real that it drives one half-way around the world to help others in desperate need is enough to seen by the Taliban as evangelistic?  Can one give a cup of cold water be given in Jesus name without it being done in Jesus’ name?  Praise God for people like Gayle Williams; may God bless her family and friends.

What I couldn’t help but wonder is this—if the Taliban started shooting people in American for evangelizing, how many of us would be in danger?

Reflections on the Debate

I participated in a public debate in West Virginia when I was in grad school. No, I wasn’t the disputant (the one debating) or the moderator (the one officiating). I wasn’t even the time-keeper (the one, well, keeping time). I was the guy who sat up on the stage with the overhead projector flashing the slides when one or the other called out, “May I see Slide #317J please.” There were hundreds of slides, so this was actually a big job. Maybe my subsequent fascination with PowerPoint was born on that polemic platform!

The debate got pretty ugly pretty quickly. The moderators kept jumping in with “point of order” objections. The disputants constantly tried to outdo one another’s sarcasm, even to the point of drawing cartoon caricatures of each other on their slides. (Of course, the slides were flashed on the screen with a crisp and professional efficiency). At one point, the disputants called each other “the devil.” After the debate was over, both sides claimed that great victories had been won for the cause of truth. Actually, people came away from the debate having what they believed before the debate confirmed and reinforced. I remember the whole thing being rather embarrassing.

I watched part of the Obama-McCain debate last night.  So... what did we learn from the debate? McCain is feisty.  Obama is smooth?  That each of them has “a plan” to make things better.., though they are hazy on exactly what those things are.  Surely, the only people coming out of that debate with strong feelings for one candidate or another were people who had gone into the debate with those strong feelings.  

My take on the debate is summed up by this clip from Pat Paulsen and his presidential run back in 1968.  Paulsen was a comedian whose satire on the political process often hit pretty close to home.    He also perfected the ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth.  And is it just me, or did Paulson look a lot like Ron Paul... who also may still be running for president somewhere?

Columbus Day

One of the things we did during our first trip to Ukraine was to visit classes at Kiev State University and talk with the students. This was back in 1993, and most Ukrainians had never seen an American before. So the students got the chance to try out their English on Americans and ask questions about life in America. And we got the chance to do a little preaching. One of the first things they said was “So today is Columbus Day in your country; tell us about that.” Not one of us knew it was Columbus Day; we needed the Ukrainians to tell us.

I needed them yesterday. I came to work and was confused why Cathy wasn’t already here. I even went so far as to pull up the email she sent a couple of weeks ago telling me when her vacation was coming up… and it wasn’t yesterday. It was almost lunch time before it dawned on me that yesterday was Columbus Day, and Cathy is off for all federal holidays. Technically, my contract says that I am supposed to be off for federal holidays, but that does require that I remember when they are!

I did something yesterday that I used to do routinely in my youth but thought I’d never do again. I played over two hours of tennis. Singles. Three sets. And won. Now I might concede that this wasn’t at quite the same level that I played back in my Freed-Hardeman days, though I’m sure Doc Woods would probably add that I didn’t really play at that high a level back then anyway! And it sure did take me awhile to roll out of bed this morning… not to wake up, but just to roll out of bed. I thought I was going to have to take the holiday today that I forgot to take yesterday!

Thy Will Be Done

Someone sent me a transcript of a great commentary piece on faith in America given by Ben Stein on CBS.  Unfortunately like so many other things circulated on the Internet, the piece wasn't completely accurate.  Part of it was indeed commentary by Stein, part was an interview (also on CBS) with Anne Graham Lotz (Billy Graham’s daughter) just after 9-11.  The rest was just made it.  Another example of the fact that most of the stuff circulated over the Internet may have a bit of truth decay.  (Snopes.com is a great place to fact check things you receive to see if they are true.)

Saying all that, the Ben Stein article is actually pretty good, and I'll probably reprint it a little closer to Christmas… if I remember.  And the September 13, 2001 interview with Anne Graham Lotz is good too.  Jane Clayson, the CBS interviewer, asked Lotz,  “I've heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you say?”  Here is her reply--

I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. We need to turn to God first of all and say, God, we're sorry we have treated you this way and we invite you now to come into our national life. We put our trust in you. We have our trust in God on our coins, we need to practice it.

This is a good reminder that we really can’t have it both ways.  We cannot on the one hand reject God in our private and corporate daily lives and then expect His blessings and protection in times of crisis.  God will eventually give us exactly what we want-- to be left alone.  But there are consequences. To paraphrase a line from C.S. Lewis, we can say to God “Thy will be done” or He will say to us “Thy will be done” and then leave us to our choice.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Isaiah was on a roll this morning.  Well, I was reading him this morning; he got on his roll almost 3 millennia ago.  Writing to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Isaiah warns against the very sins that would cause the Northern Kingdom of Israel to be destroyed by Assyria.  In fact, Isaiah’s words to Judah in Isaiah 1 sound almost identical to the condemnation Amos directs at Israel in Amos 5.  They both condemn a religiosity that focuses on ritual and ignores holiness and helping others.  Compare Isaiah 1:10-17 with Amos 5:21-27.  Both guys are using the same sermon outline here.  Both guys probably had veins bulging and spit flying as they preached it!  Get that way myself sometimes… which explains why our folks never sit on the front rows!

Unlike Amos, Isaiah turns on a dime and sounds more like Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30.  His voice and his face soften (at least in my staging of the scene) and he offers the quintessential Old Testament invitation in Isaiah 1:18—

18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. 

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; 

though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. 

There was a time when preachers went soft on the soft and gentle invitation of God.  The fear factor of hell-fire and brimstone was too useful.  You keep your people scared straight and smelling the sulfur.  Today, most of us are too soft on the brimstone and seem to portray God as a cosmic grandfather with lots of goodies and few expectations.

I think we need both pictures!  God hasn’t gone soft on His expectations; it’s still as Hebrews 10:31 suggests, “a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Isn’t Hebrews in the New Testament).  But God is the God of Calvary; the cross is His invitation of love.  He still promises “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”  This message of judgment and forgiveness are two sides of the same coin.

Aaron's Drippy Beard

There are some things that churches today seem to empahsized much more than does God.  For example, while the New Testament talks about "the assembly" of Christians, the details are never really fleshed out.  Churches today really stress the details,  hence all the drama over the "worship wars."  Think about all that has been said and written about the right style, form and format of church music when the New Testament barely has enough material on music to make a good paragraph.

On the other hand, God seems so obviously interested in some things to which the church barely gives lip-service.  How much does the Bible say about unity, peace and harmony among believers?  But we'd rather fight over church music! 

God goes to great lengths to emphasize unity.  Look at the rather unique imagery of Psalm 133 where David extols the the beauty of fellowship and unity.  He affirms that it is good and pleasant when God’s family lives together in peace and harmony.  This little Psalm is dripping (pun intended) with metaphors that emphasize this message of harmony.  There are two types of anointing here that stress the sweetness of unity:

• Anointing of the Priest.  Here the oil runs down Aaron’s beard and onto the collar his robe, joining the priest and the priestly robe are together.  Though the sweetness of the oil isn’t specifically mentioned, that seems to be the imagery here.
  
  
• Anointing of the Mountain.  Here the dew of Mt. Hermon, the highest of the mountains in Palestine and one known for its moisture, falls on (and thus anoints) little Mt. Zion, the hill upon which Jerusalem sits.  So the two mountains are joined by the anointing.
  

Maybe the focus of the Psalm is seen in the second couplet of verse 3— “For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”  It is God who takes the initiative to make unity possible.  It is on Mt. Zion, at the Temple, in the presence of God that this blessing of unity is given.  This sweetness of harmony is not possible when based solely on human power alone.  Just think about how well people get along today in the region of Mt. Hermon and Mt. Zion!  It was God who made unity possible in Israel.  It is God who makes unity possible today.  And that is Paul’s point in Ephesians 2:17—

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

Not only does God demand unity, He is working to bring it about in us.  If we keep ourselves close to Him, then we will also stay close to all others who are seeking Him.  When we come closer to the cross, we also come closer to each other!  That’s why unity is no optional extra for those seeking the face of God.  The closer you get to Him, the more you bump into to others seeking to get close to Him as well!

"I Saw Only the Gold"

It is one of those stories that (sadly) you see in the paper all the time.  Richard Harper was having an adulterous affair with Michelle Reynolds.  They were so deeply in “love” that they decided to kill Michelle’s husband Thad Reynolds so they coud be together.  So they did.  The 36-year-old father of four was stabled 19 times as he arrived at the Frito-Lay distribution center where he was a district manager.  There is no happily ever after for anyone in this story; both Richard Harper and Michelle Reynolds will spend the rest of their lives in prison and the Reynolds children will grow up without either parent.

What makes this story unusual is that all three were members at Hollywood Baptist Church.   Richard Harper was the associate pastor and Thad Reynolds was one of the deacons and did part-time marriage counseling.  The adulterous relationship began because of a church relationship; the murder co-conspirators and victim were all part of the same church family.  Don’t you think at some point someone might have thought, “Hey, this is wrong?”  Maybe before the adultery?  Or at least at some point during the adultery.  Or before the conspiracy?  Or maybe before the murder was actually committed?  How could these good Baptists get to the point where not only was adultery acceptable, but so was murder?  

I don’t know, but likely it was the same basic process that led the man after God’s own heart to commit adultery and murder.  David had an affair with Bathsheba and then murder her husband Uriah so that he could marry her.  Afterward, David was still pious enough to condemn the offender in Nathan’s fictitious story for “pet lamb larceny” and condemn him to death.  It wasn’t until Nathan pointed his long boney finger and said “Thou art the man” than David was knocked off his high horse and onto his knees.

I remember reading somewhere (Irving Wallace, I think) of a Chinese legend of the thief whoso dazzled by the emperor’s gold that he tried to steal it even though it was highly protected by armed guards.  The thief was easily arrested, and they asked him as he was carried off to a certain fate, “Why did you try to steal the gold when all of these guards were around?”  The man replied, “I didn’t see the guards; I saw only the gold.”

The murder of Thad Reynolds reminds us.  The sin of David and Bathsheba reminds us.  We can get so focused on getting we want that we start justifying and rationalizing until what we want to do somehow seems the thing we must do.  That can lead to things like adultery and murder.  And it can lead to a host of other sins as well.  If we are not careful, we can ignore all of God’s safeguards because all that we can see is the gold.