The Named and the Nameless

As we started reading the book of Numbers in our chronological trek through the Old Testament, we are immediately reminded why Numbers is called “Numbers.” Numbers 1 gives a detailed accounting of the census conducted of the Israelite men of fighting age a little more than a year after they left Egypt. Numbers 2 gives, also in great detail, of how the Israelite tribes were divided into divisions, how many men were in each division, and how they were to camp around the Tabernacle. OK, so Math has never been my favorite subject and I’m sure that I would make a lousy accountant. It was tempting to “observe the Passover” and skip over the numbers in Numbers this morning.

But then it dawned on me that Numbers isn’t really about numbers at all. It is about people; the numbers reported in the opening of the book represented individual people who were loved by God. These numbers represent unknown people to us, but they were known by God. Consider for minute the men who were named as leaders over the tribes of Israel in Numbers—

Elizur son of Shedeur (Rueben), Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai (Simeon), Nahshon son of Amminadab (Judah), Nethanel son of Zuar (Issachar), Eliab son of Helon (Zebulun), Elishama son of Ammihud (Ephraim), Gamaliel son of Pedahzur (Manasseh), Abidan son of Gideoni (Benjamin), Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai (Dan), Pagiel son of Okran (Asher), Eliasaph son of Deuel (Gad), and Ahira son of Enan (Naphtali).

These men were singled out by God and appointed as leaders over the tribes of Israel. Think about the implication for these real flesh-and-blood people—they were chosen by God and given the responsibility to lead the people of God at this critical juncture in their history. These are just 12 names out of the 603,550 names compiled during census that gives Numbers its name. These were all real people with real stories. They are also really obscure.

That’s the point that struck me. The only time these men are mentioned in the rest of the story of Israel is in Numbers 7 and 10 as they do ceremonial tasks as the leaders of the tribes of Israel. Well, Nahshon is mentioned several times in genealogical lists because he is from Judah and was an ancestor of David... and of Jesus. And Eliab is mentioned in Numbers 16 only because his two sons Dathan and Abiram joined with Korah in an ill-fated revolt against Moses. But these leaders of the tribes aren’t mentioned in the failure of Israel to enter into Canaan. They aren't mentioned in any of the stories of the complaining and rebelling during the wilderness wandering. In other words, though they were appointed as leaders in Israel, they provide no real leadership for the people of God. They became just names that represent the nameless 603,548 men (all but Joshua and Caleb) who died in the wilderness because they would not trust God to lead them into Canaan.

God knew each of these 603, 550 men by name. He called a few of them by name serve in specific ways.  He called all 603, 550 of them to faithfulness in following His leadership.   And yet they all remain for us "the nameless" because they refused to trust God and follow where He was leading. Maybe if we try really hard, we can find a lesson somewhere in this for ourselves?

Sometimes the Best Thing We Can SaySometimes the Best Thing We Can Say

Sometimes the best thing we can say in the face of disaster, suffering and heartache is… nothing. In Job, a tornado killed all of Job’s children.  That was actually only one of the disasters that befell Job, but that was  certainly the most devastating. Job's friends showed up to comfort him, and they sat silently with him for a week without saying anything (Job 2:13). When they started talking, they started accusing Job of doing something to deserve God’s wrath. They should have kept quiet; they were true friends when they kept quiet.  Sometimes the best thing we can say in the face of pain and heartache is nothing.

This past week, the heartland of our country was devastated by a series of 90 tornadoes that cut a wide swath of death and destruction-- 39 people dead, entire families killed and some small towns almost completely destroyed. The country’s attention was captured by a toddler who had been dropped alive into the middle of a cornfield after her entire family had been  killed, but sadly 15 month old Angel Babcock later died from her injuries. There were other “miracle” stories (like the mother who lost both legs protecting her kids), but there wasn't one for little Angel. Why? Why do such tragedies happen? Why didn't God step into prevent such loss and heartache?

Sometimes the best thing we can say in the face of disaster and pain and heartache is nothing. Sadly, too many Christian “experts” were much too quick to speak up and say something. Not only were their words not  helpful; they were hurtful.

John Piper, a leading Calvinist preacher and scholar, suggests that God sent the storms for his own purposes. He wrote, “If a tornado twists at 175 miles an hour and stays on the ground like a massive lawnmower for 50 miles, God gave the command.” He quotes several passages in the Bible where God used winds, and then suggests that God used the tornadoes to bring death and suffering in rural America to teach a lesson to the rest America. “Jesus rules the wind. The tornadoes were his.”

Pat Robertson took a different tact in dealing with the storms. He said that God is not to blame for the storms… people are. God set up an orderly world with certain metrological laws that act as “release mechanisms” that show themselves in storms like tornadoes and hurricanes. People are hurt by these storms because “people decide they want to build their houses on the edge of an ocean. It’s their fault, not God’s fault.”

Neither of these statements is helpful. Sure, God did sometimes use winds in the Bible to accomplish His will, but that does mean that every wind comes from Him. The tornado that blew down the house that killed Job’s children came from Satan, not God. Jesus said “The wind blows wherever it pleases” (John 3:8).  Ecclesiastes sees the blowing of the wind as proof that the world is random and “meaningless” (Eccl 1:6). To attribute every wind that blows to the direct and intentional will of God is simply wrong.

It’s also both wrong-- and heartless-- to suggest that the people in places like Maryville, Indiana are somehow to blame because they chose to live in the path of the storm. Storms happen. Where in world can one live to never at risk of suffering the “wrath of nature” in some form? To dismiss suffering by suggesting that the sufferers brought in on themselves is certainly not the heart of Jesus!

Sometimes the best thing we can say is nothing. We can’t always understand why bad things happen. We don’t know why God chooses to answer some prayers and not answer others... or rather, to answer them by saying “No."  All we can do is to move close to the ones who are suffering and do what we can to help. Anything we say in times of suffering is likely to be the wrong thing. Sometimes the best thing we can say is nothing.

Sad But True

Last week, the state senate of Maryland by a voted to recognize homosexual marriage by a 25 to 22 margin. Gov. Martin O’Malley has said that he would sign to sign this bill into law, which makes Maryland the seventh state to legalize homosexual marriage. To win passage in the House of Delegates, there was a compromise that allows opponents to place the new law on the November ballot, leaving the possibility for opponents to repeal it. Polls show that Maryland is almost evenly divided on this issue, so the November referendum means that it will not be politics as usual in Maryland this fall.

This will likely prove a difficulty for President Obama. The president has been soliciting support from the gay community in his reelection campaign, but he has stopped short of fully embracing marriage rights In the last election, Obama expressed opposition to gay marriage, but now he has hinted that his views are “evolving.” Supporters of the bill will likely pressure him to weigh in on the referendum in November, and that is a problem for him. African-American church leaders in Maryland have led the charge opposing the measure. It is those church leaders who are expected to encourage grass-roots Democratic support. The Washington Post suggests, “If the debate in Maryland’s legislature is any guide, the mixture of emotions among African Americans over gay marriage will not be an easy issue for Obama to navigate.”  Politics is often the practice of being able to say with a straight face, “I have friends on one side of this issue and friends on the other side of this issue… and I always stand with my friends!” It seems like it is going to be hard for the president to stand with his friends on this one!

We need to decide where we are going to stand here.  It seems to me that part of being created in the image of God is being created male and female (Gen 1:27). That statement of our unity with God and diversity of gender because the foundation of marriage, not only for Adam and Eve, but for all time. Paul argues in Romans 1:26-27 that same gender sex is a violation of the natural created order—

For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. (NET)

Bible doesn't say nearly as much about homosexuality as it might appear given all the rhetoric these days.  But what the Bible does say is very consistent from the Old to the New Testament. Not everyone weighing in on this issue cares about the Bible' not everyone who cares about the Bible reads it the same.  But because of how I read it, I am left with little choice on where to stand.

To be perfectly honest, the Bible isn't any more clear on homosexual marriage as it is on heterosexual divorce.  In fact, the Bible is probably clearer on divorce.  So why are the no political movements by evangelicals to outlaw divorce? Why are the very politicians who speak the loudest of protecting marriage often the biggest offenders when it comes to divorce? It is a sad but true fact that many Christians who see homosexual marriage as a great threat to the institution of marriage look at divorce among us as a sad but true fact! I’m personally just not too interested in hearing people scream about the sin of homosexual marriage unless they are equally opposed to heterosexual divorce, not in the way they vote but in the way they live with their husbands and wives.

Nadab, Abihu and Strange Fire

Today’s chronological Old Testament reading from Leviticus 10 is undoubtedly the best known part of Leviticus for those of us who grew up "in the church."  The story of Nadab and Abihu was as large part of why I saw myself as different from members of other “Christian” groups. (And why I felt the need to use quotation marks when using the word “Christian” in that context). Nadab and Abihu offered the unauthorized sacrifice of “strange fire” before God, and they were destroyed... just as Noah would have been destroyed if he would have used  any other wood than gopher word. Our church offered only authorized worship to God— we sang without musical accompaniment, baptized only by immersion “for the remission of sins,” and observed communion every first day of the week. Any deviation from that (and other forms and formats) would be the strange fire that burned Nadab and Abihu to a crisp. (Of course, the church down the street condemned us for introducing the strange fire of Christian camps, orphans homes and eating in the church building, but that is just silly).

(See this older post, which I had forgotten about, for a similar discussion.)

One problem with our rather narrow use of this story of Aaron's oldest sons is that we read the story and fail to read the whole context. In Leviticus 8-9, Aaron and his sons were ordained as priests. Very meticulous and somewhat strange (see 8:22-29) instructions were given for the ordination process, and these instructions were carried out to the letter. In chapter 9, Aaron begins his priestly ministry, and the first time he carried out a burnt offering, sin offering and fellowship offering as high priest, the ritual is interrupted (or rather completed) by fire coming from presence of God to consume the sacrifice (Lev. 9:23-24). That wasn’t normally part of the sacrificial procedure, and it must have been impressive. But evidently it was not impressive enough.

The tenure of Nadab and Abihu as priests wasn't very long— about two verses (Lev. 10:1-2). The text says that they offered “unauthorized fire” (NIV) or “strange fire” (NET) before the Lord. The word here is the same word for "stranger" or "foreigner" (see Deut 25:5, 32:16, etc.). A similar expression occurs in Exodus 30:9 when it condemns “other incense” ("other" is the same word as "unauthorized"). In Numbers 6, the command is given to keep the fire on the altar burning perpetually (6:12-13), but here Nadab and Abihu bring the fire for the sacrifice in their censers from some other place. Remember, the last fire on the altar  had fallen from God himself, so did they get busy or distracted and allow that fire to go out and then try to cover their sin by introducing “strange fire?”

Or did they get drunk?  Immediately following the death of Nadab and Abihu, instruction is given that priests are not to drink before serving as priests (Lev. 10:9-11). Is that a coincidence? Or does it seem probable that alcohol had clouded Nadab and Abihu’s judgment and led them to fail to "distinguish between the holy and the common." (Lev 10:10).  Whatever the case, one would think that Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar (Aaron’s remaining sons and replacement priests) would have been very careful about sacrifice procedure from that point on.

Or maybe not?  At this point, the story gets even more interesting. Aaron and the two replacement priests were told not to mourn publically but to continue their duties as priests. When Moses checks up on them, he discovers they have not eaten their portion of the sin offering in the Tabernacle as they were required to do. Remember what happened to Nadab and Abihu when they free-lanced with the sacrificial procedure? Well, Moses comes charging in screaming, “What are you doing?” (a rather loose translation of Lev 10:17-18). Aaron replies (with a lump in his throat, we can imagine), “Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the LORD have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?” (Lev 10:19, NLT).

Aaron and his sons had not publicly mourned the death of Nadab and Abihu as they had been commanded. They had gone on with their priestly duties as they had been commanded. But they could not bring themselves to eat after witnessing their sons/brothers dying in such a horrible way. They weren't rebelling against God’s commands. It was just that human weakness and frailty would not allow them to eat. Moses was satisfied with that explanation. The absence of fire falling from sky indicates that God recognized the difference as well.

The story of Nadab and Abihu makes it very clear that it is not small thing to ignore what God has commanded and authorized. They story of Eleazar and Ithamar makes it very clear that God sees human weakness and frailty differently than willful disregard. These stories also make it clear that it is God and only God who decides between these two types of failures and whether or not the fire will fall from His presence. We would do well to take seriously both sides of this story.

Satan's Traps and the Cross

Several years ago, radio personality Paul Harvey told the story of how Eskimo hunters kill a wolf. The process is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into our struggle with sin. Harvey says this—

First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the frozen blood. He begins to lick more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more-- until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!

Like the Eskimo in Harvey’s story, Satan has set his deadly traps that play to our selfish appetites. Intellectual arrogance feeds our pride. Moral relativism encourages our appetite for pleasure. Materialism and greed drives our hunger for more money and things. Our culture falls for Satan’s traps with reckless abandon, and like the wolf, people are destroyed by their own appetites.

If we are not very careful, we may also find ourselves licking the knife. The siren song of the world can be overpowering. Without realizing or desiring it, we can find ourselves believing the lie. How do we keep ourselves centered? How do we miss Satan’s traps? We avoid the traps when we focus on what is at the center of our faith-- the cross. Christianity is at the same time a philosophy, a lifestyle and a mindset. Yet all of these derive their power from a single story (1 Cor. 15:2-4, NLT)

And it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me—that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.  He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said.

We can stress a lot of things and call them all “Christian.” But when all is said and done, the part that matters most is the message of the cross. But that message is not simply that Jesus died to save us from the guilt of our sin; the cross is also the power that saves us from being entrapped by our sin. We have been “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20) so that “the body ruled by sin might be done away with” (Rom 6:6). Because we belong to Christ we “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). The cross frees us from sin’s guilt and sin’s power over our lives. We can avoid Satan’s traps when we focus on the story that is at the center of our faith.

Seed Faith

Years ago, one of our members decided that I needed a garden. I guess he figured that if I learned how to grow my own food, then the church wouldn't have to pay me so much! So he tilled up a little area in back of the church building, and came into my office a told me that I was to tend it. I didn't. So he then planted a few things for me and told me all I needed to do was water and weed it. I didn't. So he took care of my little garden for me right along with his own. Next think I knew, there were grocery sacks of vegetables sitting outside my office door. I decided that this gardening thing was pretty easy!

Of course, it isn't really easy at all. But then, God does the really hard part, right? He places the real power of growth in the seeds we plant. Sure, we plow and plant, water and wait, but God takes care of the growth. In Mark 4, Jesus used several different parables drawn from farming. The first of these, the Parable of the Sower, stresses the need for the soil to be prepared to receive God's word.  The next two parables stress that the power of spiritual growth is always God's.

• The Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29). Jesus here uses the mystery of the growing seed to emphasize the power of God's word. The farmer does not have to understand how a seed germinates and grows; all he has to do is to trust the process. The power is in the seed, not the farmer. All by itself, the seed brings forth life. In that sense, every seed is magic. In the same way, we don't have to understand how God bears fruit in our lives. All we have to do is trust the process.
  
  
• The Mustard Seed (Mark 4:30-32). The Jews accepted as proverbial that the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds. But the plant produced such a large shrub that birds could mistake it for a tree. What starts out very small can grow very large. Our experience in the faith may have a very humble beginning. But that small start can give rise to something very large. The seed that looks so tiny and small has the potential to grow large and strong in each one of us.

Both of these parables stress the power that the power in spiritual growth is God's. Faith grows all by itself from a small beginning into something that is very large and very strong. We don't have to understand or chart and diagram the progress. What we have to do is trust God. The process of spiritual growth can seem overwhelming. We look at where we are in our walk with God in relationship to where we need to be, and we can despair that we will ever become what God calls us to become. But there is power in the seed within us, the power to change and grow. We don't have to understand the process. All we have to do is look to the Lord of Harvest and keep watering the seed that He has placed within us.

The Presence of God

Several years ago, one of our elders and I were asked to visit the sister of one of our visitors. The brother wanted us to visit with her and invite her to church (though she refused to visit church with him). So we went. As it turns out, the lady was heavily to New Age mysticism, crystals, astral plane projection… and very likely some mind-altering chemicals. In fact, she was convinced that she had gone to heaven and talked with God. She described in great detail the warm feeling that filled her heart with love, the sweet smell of flowers and the overwhelming feeling of peace and calm. She floated, suspended in midair as she and God chatted for about an hour! Afterwards, she was filled with a sense of tranquility and oneness with the universe. For some reason, as she was talking the tune of Brewer and Shipley's “One Toke Over the Line” kept playing in my head.

Call me a skeptic, but I rather doubt she really spent time in the presence of God. Why? Well, in scripture, when people find themselves in the presence of God, they are overwhelmed not with tranquility, but with terror. Isn't that what we've been coming across in our reading in Exodus? As Israel camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai, God made his presence known on the mountain—

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (Exodus 19:18)

That was the awesome presence of God. There was no sense of peace and tranquility, but of sheer terror. The scent in the air was smoke and not some flowery perfume. When God’s voice spoke the Ten Commandments from the mountain, the people were overwhelmed with shock and awe—

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (Exodus 20:18–19)

Frankly, many Christians are way more comfortable with a God who is easygoing, calming, and smells like daffodils than we are with the God who thunders, commands and smells like smoke. We sing songs that say “In His presence, there is comfort…” and “I can hear the brush of angel’s wings” because “surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.” And there is nothing wrong with those songs. We do come into God’s presence with “confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Heb 10:19-20). But while Jesus provides the way into God’s presence, we must remember that God is the same God that shook the mountain.

And we need to remember for precisely reason Moses gave Israel for the pyrotechnics at Sinai—“ Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (Exo 20:20). Right after the writer of Hebrews speaks of our boldness to enter the presence of God, he says this—

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God (Heb 10:26-27)

We need to remember that God is God and he is greatly to be feared. The fear of God, remembering who God really is, must keep us from sinning. Being in the presence of God is about many things... warm-and-fuzzy isn't one of them!

Angel

It suddenly dawned on me this morning that I hadn't done anything at all with the ol' blog in a week or so.  Today is Valentine's Day, so it makes sense that I would write something about the lady fair that has been the love of my life for most of my life.  Also, I'm still kinda pumped after spending Friday night with Lynn and the girls at the Casting Crowns concert in Virginia Beach, so it makes sense that I might write something about that.  So... I decided to combine both of those and share my new favorite Casting Crown's song "Angel" from their new album "Come to the Well." (As far as I remember, it's the only song from the new album that they didn't do in the concert!  Grrrr...)  I could have written this song.  OK, I could NOT have actually written the song (because I have no talent), but the song's sentiment and story are mine.



Not too long ago, I shared in a blog my conviction that the several and various coincidences that brought Lynn and I together were not simply coincidences at all.  And the fact that we have stayed together all of these years is no coincidence either; it has to do with a lot of patience, pardon, perseverance, prayer... and passion (it's Valentine's Day, after all).  But as crazy as it does sound, somehow this angel did fall in love with me and is somehow still in love with me.

Maybe I'm crazy but I'm praying
That an angel will love me, an angel will love me
Maybe I'm a fool but I'm still falling
Asking heaven above me, for an angel to love me
The rest of my life

Happy Valentines Day, Angel.

Super Bowl Monday

The Monday after the Super Bowl is always bittersweet for me. Almost always (and this year was no exception) it is mostly bitter because I picked the wrong dog in the fight. (The Super Bowl is always the same; the winner goes to Disney World and the loser goes home to Boston). Yep, me rooting for a team in the big game carries with it the same kind of curse as putting a player's picture on the front of the Madden box. I received a free Patriots jersey in the mail this year... from the Giants! But more than my team loosing, Super Bowl Monday is also "melancholy Monday" because means that football is over.

I've always loved football, but I really haven't followed basketball, baseball and even tennis as I have grown older. I think that is because my interest in those sports were tied from my love of playing those games whereas football has always been a spectator sport for me. With the exception of of a few weeks during March Madness (much of which is in April now) and Wimbledon (got to love strawberries and cream) in July, Super Bowl Monday for me means that sports are pretty much over until August when football comes back. The good news is that my TV watching will drop to almost nil until then. So I'll miss football for awhile; of course, there's always Mr. Madden.

I thought I'd mark the passing of football season this year by re-posting an op-ed piece from Fox News by Josh Graves entitled Is it OK to pray for your team to win Super Bowl in 2012?  Josh is the minister at the Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville where my sister goes to church. I think he does a pretty good job in both reminding us how unimportant sports are to God but how infinitely important we are to God.

Growing up in suburban Detroit, I never had to wrestle with the question “Is it okay for me to pray for my team to win the Super Bowl?” 

As a basketball player turned minister, I’ve observed that sport and religion have one interesting thing in common: both tend to bring out the best and worst in us. Especially in America. 

Sport has given us Jackie Robinson and Pat Summitt. Sport has also given us steroid abuse, and Ron Artest versus the world in the Malice at the Palace (Pacer-Piston NBA Brawl).

Religion has given us Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa. Religion has also given us witch hunts, the Middle Passage, unethical T.V. preachers who prey on the naive, and the mistreatment of minorities. 

Both bring out the worst in us. Both bring out the best. I’ve learned to embrace the paradox. On November 28, 2010, Steven Johnson lined up as a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. On November 28, the Bills were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers and they ultimately lost the game because Johnson dropped a pass late in the game, in the end zone. After the game, Johnson tweeted, “I praise you 24/7!!! And this is how you do me!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How??? I’ll never forget this!! Ever!!” 

Johnson praised God 24/7, but what kind of God was he praising? It was a kind of religious transaction where he gives God the glory and God gives touchdowns. Or victories. Or Super Bowls. A fair exchange? 

God ends up becoming a cosmic vending machine. 

Everything is well and good until Jesus makes you fumble. But this isn’t just Johnson’s problem. This way of approaching God shows up often and the best name for it is religion. And notice who is really in charge of this arrangement. You and me. Not God. 

This year, Tim Tebow became a household name because Americans (in Red States and Blue States) have differing opinions on the role of prayer in the outcome of sporting events. After learning that Tom Brady’s super-model wife (Gisele) sent a personal e-mail to friends and family asking for prayers “for Tommy” some tweeters had a field day. My favorite tweet went something like this: It’s fine for people to pray for Tom Brady. But ever since Tom Brady threw six touchdowns against Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos, Tim Tebow—4th member of the trinity— is no longer answering Tom’s prayers. Tebow took the wheel. 

Or how about this anecdote that surfaced recently? Tom Brady dies (he is mortal after all) and goes to heaven. St. Peter is waiting at the gate. “Tom, I’m here to show you around heaven and where you’ll be living for eternity.” After showing Brady the ins and outs of heaven, the perks and works, St. Pete takes Brady to his heavenly digs. Patriot red white, and blue are everywhere. As the odd couple approach Brady’s home, he is thankful until he notices a huge mansion on a large hill above his home with Denver Broncos regalia, signage, and decoration. Orange and Blue everywhere. The house is three times the size of his. Brady looks at St. Pete. “Let me understand this . . . I win multiple championships, MVP awards . . . this is the house I get while Tim Tebow—a great guy—has his first season in the NFL . . . and he gets that mansion? And I get this How does that work?” “Tom. Um. Well . . . Mr. Brady . . . that’s not Tim Tebow’s house. That house belongs to God.” 

We love to think God takes our side. Roots for our teams. It’s part of our American DNA.
To paraphrase Anne Lamott: You know you’ve created God in your own image when God roots for all the same teams you root for (I’m looking at you Yankee and Cowboy fans).
Here’s my short answer. Based on Christian scripture and practical experience, the purpose of prayer is for God to win. Not for you to win. Or your favorite team. Even if you are from Cleveland—though if anyone has a shot, God just might be rooting for you, Cleveland.
Millions of people all over the world will tune into the Super Bowl tonight. God’s probably not concerned with who wins the Super Bowl. God’s consumed by working on behalf of the usher who can’t figure out how to pay his chemo bill. Or the player going through a divorce. Or the assistant coach who lost his son to suicide. Or the trainer wrestling a gambling addiction. Or the recent immigrant, trying to pay one more bill by cleaning up the confetti that falls in Lucas Oil stadium. 

God sees the whole stadium, not the final score. 

God’s probably groaning for street kids in Nairobi, Kenya. God’s plotting for an end to Joseph Koney’s abduction and abuse of child soldiers in East Africa. God’s probably orchestrating hope for farmers in the Ulpan Valley, Guatemala.

God’s probably among homeless vets in Cass Park, Detroit. God’s probably grieving children victimized by abusers. 

God’s celebrating the new adventure a retiree is setting out on.


God’s smiling as God sees a new mother hold her infant son for the first time.


God’s dancing at our parties. 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this game or any other game.  It also doesn’t mean you can’t pray for your team. Because God is a father, God likes to hear from us—whatever the reason, even if our prayers might be childlike in nature. 

Just don’t fall into the trap of assuming that your prayers are God’s prayers. Even if that’s your heart’s desire.

Lonesome Dove, Joseph and Us

One of the best westerns of all time is Lonesome Dove, the TV miniseries based upon the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Larry McMurty. It is the story of August McCrae and Woodrow Call, old Texas Rangers and and new cattleman who decide to make a cattle drive from Lonesome Dove, Texas to the Montana territory. Of course, they have all kinds of adventures along the way. But not long after reaching Montana, McCrae is wounded in leg by Indian arrow; he loses one leg to gangrene and needs the other amputated to save his life.  He refuses. In the scene below, the dying McCrae asks his friend Woodrow Call for one last favor.



Lonesome Dove ends with Call’s 3000 mile odyssey from Montana to Lonesome Dove, Texas to bury McCrae in Clara's orchard. Everyone he meets thinks Call was completely crazy to go to all that trouble, but he completes his mission because he gave his word to his friend.

That part of the novel/movie is based on the true-life story of best friends Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight. Loving was scouting ahead on a cattle drive through Indian territory when he was attacked. Goodnight got to him before he died and promised to take him back to be buried in Texas, although his trek from New Mexico to Texas was nearly as dramatic as Call's odyssey from Montana. In fact, McMurtry gives Goodnight a shout-out by making him a minor character in Lonesome Dove.

But this story is also Biblical. The book of Exodus ends with Joseph charging his family to carry his bones back to Canaan for burial. He knew the promise made to Abraham (his great-grandfather), Isaac (his grandfather) and Jacob (his father). That promise was that the land in which the Patriarchs wandered as nomads would become the home of their descendants. And when Canaan became home for Israel, Joseph wanted to be buried at home. Joseph trusted the promise of God, and he wanted in on that promise. When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, one of the final preparations made was to collect that old bag of bones--

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.” (Exodus 13:19)

Joseph traveled more after his death than he ever had while he was alive. His bones were carried as the Israelites traveled to the foot of Mt. Sinai. His bones went with them as they came to banks of Jordan. His bones turned back and wandered with them through the wilderness for 40 years. And after the death of Moses, the bones of Joseph were carried into Canaan and accompanied the Israelites on the conquest of the land. Finally, after the death of Joshua, the bones of Joseph were laid to rest "beneath the green, green grass of home."

And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants. (Joshua 24:32)

Just an old bag of bones? No, those bones represented Joseph's faith in the promises of God. God always keeps hi s promises. Sometimes He is not as prompt as we would like; God only works on His timetable. But the promises of God always come true. Joseph counted on that; we should count on it as well!

The Real World

On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and went down in the western Pacific after delivering the components of the atomic bomb that would level Hiroshima. Because of the secret nature of their mission and some administrative bungling, the Indiana was not missed. A plane flying over the area happened to spot the oil slick of a sunken ship five days later. Of the 1,196 men on board the Indianapolis, only 316 men were saved-- rest had died in the explosion, from dehydration or were taken by the sharks. Charles McVay, the captain of the Indianapolis, was blamed for the disaster (some believe to cover bureaucratic bungling) and was court-martialed. The evidence shows that McVay was not responsible, but he lived the rest of his life being blamed for those 880 deaths. Every holiday, McVay received cards or  calls saying, “My husband or father would be alive today if it were not for you.” Finally, McVay could stand it no longer. He shot himself to death with his service revolver (his last link to his military career) in 1968.

When we read a story like that, we are struck with a feeling of injustice. It was terribly unfair that McVay was blamed for deaths that were not his fault. It was terribly unfair that he was haunted to his grave by this disaster. In a fair and decent world, all of the cards and calls that he received would have been of support and gratitude for a life spent in service to his country. A fair and decent world would have acknowledged the pain he felt for the loss of his ship and crew. In a fair and decent world, people would have sought to soften his agony rather than add to it. But we don’t live in a fair and decent world; we live in the real world,  Our real world is one broken by sin and overwhelmed with injustice.

That brings us to our reading today from Genesis 38 and the story of Tamar, the wife of Er, son of Judah. The only thing we’re told about Tamar’s husband was that he was such a wicked man that “the LORD put him to death.” (Gen 38:7). The custom of levirate marriage dictated that the closest relative of a man who died before his wife bore children was to marry the widow; the first child would legally be seen as the child of the dead husband (this would later be the background for the story of Ruth). So Judah married Tamar to his second son, Onan.  Onan refused to give Tamar a child, and he too was struck down by God. Judah had a third son, Shelah, but he kept putting off marrying him to Tamar.  She told her, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” (38:11).   Judah forgets about Tmar for “a long time” (38:12), and all the while Tamar’s life is in limbo while she waits for Judah to live up to his word,  He never does.

So Tamar takes matters into her own hands. She disguises herself as a temple prostitute and positions herself so that she would catch the eye of Judah, while wearing a veil so that he won’t recognize her. She seduces Judah, and they slept together. Afterward, she demanded payment, and he leaves her his staff and seal until he  can send her a goat as payment.  When Judah sent his servant back with the young goat, the mysterious temple prostitute has disappeared. It was not long before Tamar became pregnant; it was not long before that fact became obvious. Word was sent to Judah "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant" (38:24).  In a fit of unbecoming moral outrage, Judah demands that Tamar be brought out publicly and burned to death. As she was being brought out to be killed, Tamar springs her trap--

As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.” Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” (Genesis 38:25–26)

In the only way that seemed open to her, Tamar followed the levirate marriage law that Judah had refused to enforce. Since Judah would not give her Shelah in marriage, Judah himself had in effect become her levirate husband and the father of the twin sons that she would soon bear.

Tamar lived in a real world that was unjust and unfair; she was an innocent victim powerless over her circumstances. Twice she had to live as the wife of men who were wicked; twice she had to suffer through widowhood. She had to bear with the stigma of being sent childless back to her father's house, and she had to make a choice as to how to deal with her plight. There is no doubt that her course of action was itself wrong; the text doesn’t gloss over her deception or her immorality. But what seems to be the point of this story is how God, in a very quiet way, used her plight for His purposes.

This Tamar is never mentioned again in the Old Testament (another Tamar is a daughter of David). But you don't have to read very far in the New Testament before her name pops us

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram (Matthew 1:2-3)

The genealogy of Christ is traced through Judah, but not through any of his three sons Er, Onan or Shelah. It is Tamar’s twin boys Perez and Zerah that are mented here, Perez as an ancestor of the coming Messiah. God was able to use the real world misfortunes of Tamar to His glory and His purposes. None of the twists and turns of Tamar’s real world kept her from being used by God to His glory. No, she was not perfect, but she struggled to do the best she could despite her circumstance. And despite that circumstance, even because of that circumstance, the world has a Savior.

The story of Tamar sounds like a soap opera, but it isn’t. It’s the real world. And God can use your real world story no matter how many twists and turns there may be.

The King's English

We live in a secular, post-Christian postmodern culture that has left behind the trappings of it's Christian heritage and has no use for God, religion or any real spiritual reality.  Well, that's what some people want to believe.  And sadly, that's how many people who would call themselves "Christian" live their lives with the exception of one hour on Sunday.  But all one has to do is follow the soap opera that is the GOP presidential campaign and you get the idea that religion and religious beliefs do still matter in the public square.  Our world is surely multicultural and diverse, and no longer can one assume that everyone sees the Bible as "The Good Book." Nor can one assume that the God that most people do still believe in looks anything at all like the God of the Bible.  But the influence of Bible on our culture and on our language is still considerable.

That year marked the 400th anniversary of the release of the King James Version of the Bible.  Before 1611, there had been many different attempts to bring the Bible into English, beginning with that of William Tyndale (who was burned at the stake as a heretic for his trouble in 1536).  Today, there are dozens and dozens of English translations of the Bible; I have 7 English versions come up whenever my Bible software loads (NIV2011, NIV86, ESV, NET, KJV, NLT, NRSV).  But between 1611 and 1901, the  KJV WAS the English Bible, and the impact it had upon our history and culture is literally immeasurable.

The video below uses 100 phrases from the KJV in 3 minutes or less (notice the counter in the lower left hand corner).  So many common phrases that people, who may have no knowledge of the Bible, use every day are in reality phrases brought into English through the KJV.  Give the video a watch... and then pay attention in your everyday speech and notice how many times Bible language is used.



I think the KJV is the second most important translation of the Bible ever done.  The most important translation is the one that you and I do (or fail to do) each day as we bring the Bible to life in our lives.

The Fear of Isaac

Our worship yesterday was centered on the theme “Our Awesome God.” The word “awesome” has been so watered down in our language that many things that are decidedly not awesome are called awesome. There is a website called “Oh My, That’s Awesome” that features are kinds of strange “awesome” things-- like an Android geek tie, a 26 pound gummy bear, an iPig docking station, and an underwater scooter—all guaranteed to be awesome! Of course, none of those things are awesome.  God is awesome. Ultimately, ONLY God is awesome. We tried to remind ourselves of that yesterday in our worship.

One of the songs we sang yesterday was the Keith Lancaster arrangement of the Rich Mullins classic “Awesome God.” For years, we simply sang the chorus of this song—“Our God is an awesome God, He reigns in heaven above with wisdom power and love, our God is an awesome God.” But I think the the message of verses are what really let this song point us to the awesome in our awesome God.  Here's a cappella version arrangement we used yesterday. Listen closely to verses in middle of the song.



Have we too quickly forgotten that our God is an awesome God? Do we realize there really is thunder in His footsteps and lightening in His fists. Do we believe that "judgment and wrath he poured out on Sodom?"  Do we think "It wasn;t for no reason that he shed his blood?" God hasn't become civilized or domesticated; our God is still an awesome God!

Our daily Bible reading today is from Genesis 30-34. In part of this story, Jacob decides that it is time to leave Paddan Aram and return home to face the music with Esau. He is afraid that his father-in-law Laban will not easily allow him to leave, so he sneaks off in the middle of the night with his wives, children and flocks and herds. His fear of Laban turns out to be well founded as Laban rides them down and confronts Jacob in the hill country of Gilead. They spend some time accusing each other of being unfair, but then after the required diplomatic back and forth, they decide to make a covenant. They set up a pile of rocks to represent a boundary between and then they swear that they will not cross that boundary into one another's territory. Laban swears by the “God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father,” actually covering a gambit of different deities. It is interesting how Jacob returns the oath—

So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac. He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there. (Genesis 31:53-54).

Earlier he had referred to God as “the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac” (Gen 31:42). We are used to the Bible speaking of “the fear of God,” but here the name of God is Fear!  God is "He who is to be feared."  Maybe we have lost some of that sense of "awesomeness."

Our God is an awesome God. Not awesome like in 26 pound gummy bears. But awesome as in “There's thunder in His footsteps and lightning in His fists.” We need to remember that as we worship. We need to remember that even MORE as we leave worship.

On How to Respond to Critics

I'm sure you've seen You Tube video by Jefferson Bethke entitled “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus.” The video was uploaded last week and has become YouTube's most-watched video... and one of it's most controversial. There were several links to this video posted by Facebook friends (I never have to go looking for these; someone always brings them to my attention). If you you haven't watched it, go ahead and give it a look. Then I want to make a powerful point. Actually, it is a powerful point I was pointed to by Rachel Held Evans that Bethke himself makes in response to some of his critics.



Bethke is contrasting faith in Jesus with the kind of religiosity represented by the Pharisees that Jesus condemns in texts like Matthew 6 and Matthew 23. And I get it. It's a good point. So many of us (and Bethke includes his past self here) want to substitute doing religious things (like going to church, which is really pretty easy) for a genuine walk-like-Jesus discipleship (like actually taking the Sermon on the Mount seriously, which isn't very easy at all).  And sometimes our religious systems get in the way of actually living  like Jesus.

Where Bethke runs afoul of his critics (and they may have a point) is that he uses the word "religion" here as a synonym for the hypocritical and hypercritical ritualism that ignores the heart and the spirit of the Law that Jesus was condemning in the Pharisees. But that isn't how the New Testament uses it.  The word "religion" (Greek "threskeia") is sometimes used to denounce the "self-made religion" (Greek "ethelothreskia") that focuses on the "appearance of wisdom" and "asceticism and severity to the body" (Col 2:22, ESV). But sometimes the New Testament uses "religion" to describe the disciple's willingness to control hos or her  language, to help the poor and the powerless and to keep oneself "unstained by the world" (James 1:26-27, NRSV). So religion isn't bad; only bad religion is bad. Not only is religion not bad; sometimes even those external rituals (like observing holy days and eating kosher foods) can been good if they help us focus on God... and if we resist the annoying tendency to judge those who don't follow our exact program. There is nothing bad about religion... unless it's bad religion. For the record, I liked Bethke's video... except the part that I didn't.

But none of that is my point. In Rachel Held Evans' Sunday Superlatives 1/15/2012 blog (which is kind of highlight look back at the week on the blogoshere), she points to Bethke's response to some criticism he received for his video. As one who has been criticized (both constructively and otherwise) over things I've written and taught, I wish I could say that I always handled critics with as much grace and humility as does he.  But I haven't.  We'd have far fewer theological squabbles if we were all as open and willing to learn and as unwilling to depend our turf as is this brother here--

“I just wanted to say I really appreciate your article man. It hit me hard. I’ll even be honest and say I agree 100%. God has been working with me in the last 6 months on loving Jesus AND loving his church. For the first few years of walking with Jesus (started in ’08) I had a warped/poor paradigm of the church and it didn't build up, unify, or glorify His wife (the Bride). If I can be brutally honest I didn’t think this video would get much over a couple thousand views maybe, and because of that, my points/theology wasn’t as air-tight as I would’ve liked. If I redid the video tomorrow, I’d keep the overall message, but would articulate, elaborate, and expand on the parts where my words and delivery were chosen poorly… My prayer is my generation would represent Christ faithfully and not swing to the other spectrum….thankful for your words and more importantly thankful for your tone and fatherly like grace on me as my elder. Humbled. Blessed. Thankful for painful growth.”

I thought his video was good and helpful.  But his example here on how to handle criticism and the critics who offer it is extremely helpful.  Maybe if we would all follow his example, we'd come a bit closer to living out Jesus' prayer for our unity in John 17.

Beyond the Storm

Jerry Jones is a man well acquainted with tragedy. No, not the Jerry Jones who is the owner of Cowboys (although he is becoming more and more an expert on tragedy). No, I’m talking about Dr. Jerry Jones the preacher, professor and writer who some of you probably know because of the “Marriage Matters” series that he and his wife Lynn have presented at many churches (including Denbigh via DVD). Dr. Jones has seen his share of professional and church tragedies.

• He was fired by a Christian college for his stance (and book) on a controversial issue.
  
• As an elder at a controversial church, he tried to moderate some issues and ended up as “a man without a church” for a season.

These professional tragedies set the stage for more personal and real struggles of his life. Within a single year his only brother suddenly died of ruptured aorta, two close lifelong friends died unexpectedly and he watched his wife die a slow and agonizing death from cancer.

These experiences led Jones to write a book entitled Beyond the Storm. In this book, he looks at four different storms that we come to face in life– death, terror, divorce, and illness. In the book, different people share their own struggles with the death of a mate, going through a divorce, being the victim of violent crime, and suffering through a long-term illness. The contributors to the book are all very different, but they share:

• An unshakable faith that God was with them through the storms of life.
  
• The certain belief that they were blessed in some way by the storms.

None of these people come close to suggesting that their taste of tragedy was GOOD-- it is never good to lose a mate, get hurt in the Oklahoma City bombing, get cancer or suffer any of the other tragedies talked about in the book. But all of the contributors agree God was somehow able to use these terrible tragedies in surprising ways to bless them and to bless others for good.

The perspective that allows us to see the working of God within the storms of life only comes with time and distance. But the testimony of scripture and of others confirms that God works behind the scenes within the tragedies of our lives to strengthen and bless us. When we are in the middle of the storm, all we can do is hold on in faith and hope. But we can do that because of our confidence in the God who is sovereign over the storms of life.  Even things that are not good can be counted as joy as we wait for God to work His wonders.

The Book of Job (which we are reading this week) ends with God appearing to Job in the storm, and this experience of God puts an end to all of Job’s questions... even though those questions are never answered. Job’s final speech of book acknowledges that there is much in life that he can never understand, and he decides that coming to know the God of the storm is what really matters. The Message renders Job 42:3-5 like this--

I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head.
You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’
I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears!

Get Out of Jail Free?

After reading from Genesis this morning (remember our reading plan), I was skimming through Google News and somehow stumbled across an article entitled “Has Christianity Become a Get Out of Jail Free Card?” by Dr. Boyce Watkins, a professor at Syracuse University. Dr. Watkins is one of millions who are “spiritual” people seeking both God and personal spiritual enlightenment but who have issues with modern organized Christianity. I’m not going to address the whole of Watkins’ article, but I thought the point raised by the title of the article is worth exploring. He writes--

When someone asked me how I feel about Christianity, I said, “I respect it. My father is a Baptist minister. When I do go to church, I choose a Christian church. But one concern I’ve always had is that Christianity has become a ‘get out of jail free’ card for those who are choosing to live an unethical existence. It doesn’t appear (to me) to be a true, untainted quest for spiritual clarity, but instead appears to be a club that you join if you want to get into heaven.” 

I knew a man who was a thief, a liar, an adulterer and even a child molester (in an R. Kelly sort of way. Kelly is another man who went straight to the church for forgiveness, and has many fans in the black church). He did things to others that no decent man would ever do. Yet, he loved to thump bibles against my head to remind me that he’s going to heaven and I’m not. Why? Because of the “Get out of jail free card” he received when Jesus died for his sins. Whenever he did something wrong, all he had to do was pray for forgiveness and all sins would be washed away. And since all sin is apparently equal in the eyes of God (his pastor told him so), his actions were no worse than my own.

The emphasis in much of modern Christianity is on “getting saved” and eventually “going to heaven.” And there is an undertone among many that getting saved means “once-saved-always-saved.” Even many who don’t formally drink the Calvinist Kool-Aid seem to come around to an approximation of that viewpoint through the same back door in that Watkins describes above.

 Sin is sin in the eyes of God, none of us are perfect, but those who accept Jesus are forgiven.  That’s OK as far as it goes, but the leap that many make (like the man in Watkins' example) is to assume that it therefore doesn't really matter that much how we live. My sin is forgiven. God wants me to be happy. God forgives the sins I commit when I ask Him. And so God will take me to heaven when life is over. So I can then pretty live like I want to live and go to heaven as well. So Christianity become a “Get Out of Jail Free Card.”

Paul actually anticipates this modern misconception… and seeks to quash it. He understood that his gospel of grace would be twisted by some. He brings up that possible misunderstanding in two different passages and then both denies the allegation and challenges the alligator (so to speak)—

“But,” someone might still argue, “how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?” And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, “The more we sin, the better it is!” Those who say such things deserve to be condemned. (Romans 3:7-8, NLT) 

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? (Romans 6:1-2)

The point of the gospel is NOT that our sin doesn't matter so much. The point of the gospel is that our sin matters so much that it took Jesus’ death on the cross to bring us back to God. And once we are brought back to God, then we must try our best to rise above sinfulness. God was against sin so much that His response was the cross; we must be against sin so much that our response is to live a crucified life. Sin was so horrible that it cost Jesus everything; accepting the cross as God’s remedy for sin must cost us everything as well.

Get out of jail free? If we truly look to the cross, then the last think we will think about salvation is that it was free. And if we can only see the price that God paid for us, then we will live lives so indebted to Him and overshadowed by the cross that they will be transformed and changed.

My old self has been crucified with Christ.It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

Change for a Dollar

Last year, Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg (of Facebook fame) signed the "Gates-Buffet Giving Pledge" in which they promised to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already donated $28 billion dollars to charity, and they have pledged to eventually give away 95% of their wealth. A lot of wealthy people don't do that; in fact, few wealthy people do that. One of the criticisms in all the love-fest following the death of Steve Jobs was the fact that he didn't seem to be much of a philanthropist.  Of course, I remember someone telling prospective philanthropists "do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."  You really do have to admire people like Bill and Melinda Gates who have made a second career out of giving away what they accumulated in their first.

The biggest danger that "Regular Joes" like you and me face when it comes to giving is in thinking that the only giving that makes a difference is that which is done by the wealthy. Sure, Jesus told the story of the widow and her two small coins (Mark 12:41-44), but His point was the size of her sacrifice, not the good that her gift was able to accomplish. Even though their hearts may have been hard and their actually sacrifice was small, surely more actual good was done by the big sacks of gold thrown into the treasury by the Jerusalem fat cats, right? Maybe not. I seem to remember Jesus making the gift of a sack lunch of loaves and fishes go pretty far in helping people. This is God we're talking about, right? Who knows how He can use my gift even though it falls somewhat short of that of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I ran across the following film parable about the change that our change can do. It's ten minutes long and there isn't a word spoken, but the point it makes is eloquent, And maybe it's message is particularly powerful during this time of the year.



Jesus tells us that a cup of cold water doesn't lose its reward. We have no idea the good that He can accomplish with our small acts of giving and kindness.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

The stale smell of apples reminds me of Christmas. When I was a kid, we’d go to Arkansas for Christmas, leaving as soon as Dad got home for work the Friday before Christmas. We’d eat dinner, open our presents, and clap and cheer… and then put them back under the tree and take off for Arkansas on a 24 hour drive where we stopped only for gas and nothing else. Food was packed in the car, and there was always this big bag full of apples. And by the time we got to Arkansas, the whole car had smelled like too-ripe apples, a smell that still gets to me. But that is part of the ghost of Christmas past for me.

Another ghost of Christmas past was the thumping sound that woke me up one Christmas Eve (actually 2:00 a.m. Christmas morning). I was too old for the Santa thing (or else it would have sounded like reindeer hooves). So I snuck up to the room over the garage and looked out the window to see what was going on, and I saw my Dad and Larry Campbell shooting basketball on the new goal they had just installed to surprise me Christmas morning. Well, I was surprised… I was surprised that Dad could shoot hoops! (I miss you, Larry!)

My most special Christmas memory was the birth of our first child at 8:20 a.m. on Christmas morning. I was up late Christmas Eve playing gin rummy with my sister Sonya, and I had just been dealt a hand only a couple of cards shy of gin when Lynn announced that it was time. I wanted to finish that hand… but everyone else seemed to think that was a bad idea, so off to the hospital we went. With snow falling outside (the last white Christmas we've had, I think) and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” playing on the radio (which Lynn was not enjoying), little Tressa came into our world to change it forever.

Christmas is different when you have a Christmas baby. Oh, it was a big, big deal the Christmas she was born… in a Catholic hospital! But later it was easy for her birthday to be overshadowed by Christmas itself. Everything is closed, so forget going out to a restaurant and getting “Happy Birthday” sung to you by the wait staff. We had to develop a series of special birthday rules to make sure Tressa birthday remained special-- fruit cake can’t be used as birthday cake, you never combine Christmas presents with birthday gifts (they must stay separate and apart), and under no circumstances can birthday presents be wrapped in Christmas paper! Christmas is different when you have a Christmas baby.

Well, there was little ordinary about the birth of Jesus. He was born of a virgin in a barn and laid in a manger. (When Jesus left a door open and someone said, “Hey, were you born in a barn?” He could say, “Why yes I was!”). And what other baby gets gold, frankincense and myrrh at their baby shower? And while new mothers usually send out birth announcements (what else have they to do),  this time the Father did the birth announcement (Luke 2:8-14). Angels brought to the shepherds “good news of great joy.” The angels use one of the most familiar New Testament words—euaggelizo. What the angels literally said was, “I preach to you a gospel of great joy.” The birth of Jesus is gospel!

We don’t know when Jesus was born, and we aren’t told to make a bid deal about his birthday. But the fact of Jesus’ incarnation, that he really did come in the flesh, is indeed a big deal. It was more or less an accident of history that we started seeing December 25 as the birthday of Jesus. If somehow we decided to follow the Julian calendar and observe Christmas on January 7 (like some do), I don’t think Tressa would mind a bit. But the fact that Christ the Lord was born into our world was certainly no accident. I’m glad we have this special time of the year to remember that fact in a special way.

Christmas with an Attitude

I ran across a list of the 25 “Best Christmas Movies of All Time.” Frankly I was a little surprised that there were 25 Christmas movies, let alone the 25 best ones. Some on the list were the expected classics-- “It’s a Wonderful Life” (#2) and “Miracle on 34th Street” (#3). I had heard of many on the list ( “Christmas in Connecticut” (#7) or “Holiday Inn” (#12), but these were in black-and-white and I’m much too young to remember movies in black-and-white. There were 3 versions of “A Christmas Carol” (one with the Muppets and another with Bill Murray). Actually, the greatest version “A Christmas Carol” was the one starring Mr. McGoo, but you won’t see that one on anyone’s list. “Home Alone,” the most successful movie comedy of all time made the list at #8 (should have been higher). And they did get the #1 Christmas movie of all time right-- “A Christmas Story.”

According to the list, #16 was “Die Hard.” You remember the heartwarming story terrorists who try to blow up a skyscraper… except they’re not terrorists but bank robbers out to steal billions and murder a bunch of people in the process. But then they run into Bruce Willis and hilarious holiday hijinks ensue. But the story takes place during Christmas, so technically it’s a Christmas movie. If “Die Hard” is a Christmas story, then it’s a Christmas story with an attitude!

And John’s version of the story of the birth of Christ is a Christmas with an attitude. Of course, John doesn't have a birth narrative in his gospel; he saves that for Revelation. In John's version there are no shepherds, no wise men, no little drummer boys, and this is anything but a “Silent Night.” What this version has is a dragon! John’s version in Revelation 12 is Christmas with an attitude! There are two main characters here—

• First, there is a pregnant woman clothed with the sun and has the moon at her feet who is very pregnant and cries out because she is in labor. This woman doesn’t look very much like Mary, because in this story she isn’t Mary. She represents Israel, and later in the story she will morph into the persecuted church. We immediately recognize the son she births—“ he will rule all the nations with an iron scepter” (12:5). The child was snatched up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled to a place where she is cared for by God.
  
• Second, there is an enormous red dragon (Satan) who hotly pursues the woman as she is in labor. He has 7 heads (representing power), and 7 crowns (representing authority), and 10 horns (pointing again to more power). The dragon pursues the woman so he can devour the child she is about to bear. But when the child is taken to heaven to God’s throne, the dragon tries to follow to attack him.

Yep, Christmas with an attitude. This Christ child is not born in the obscurity of a barn and laid quietly in a manger. This birth takes place in the midst of a cosmic conflict. Eugene Peterson, in his book Distant Thunder, writes--

This is not the nativity story we grew up with, but it is the nativity story all the same. Jesus’ birth excites more than wonder, it excites evil: Herod, Judas. Pilate. Ferocious wickedness is goaded to violence by this life. (p. 121)

Angels aren’t singing “Joy to the World” because they are too busy in a pitched spiritual battle with the great dragon. And, of course, they defeat him and the dragon is thrown down from heaven to the earth (Rev 12:9, see Luke 10:18). The good news is that Satan was defeated in his attack on heaven. The bad news is that Satan is thrown down to the earth… with us! (Rev 12:12)

But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.

The bad thing about putting on as nativity plays is that there very few roles in the production so someone always has to play a sheep or donkey. This is definitely not true with John’s version of the nativity play here—we all have a part in this production! The great dragon can’t get to the child, and God protects the mother (now a symbol of the church). So what does the Satanic dragon do next?  He comes looking for her children-- that's your part and mine. And God bless us every one!

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. (Rev 12:17, NIV)

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. We know that because Andy Williams sings, “It's the most wonderful time of the year; there'll be much mistltoeing and hearts will be glowing, When love ones are near; It's the most wonderful time of the year."  But the very things that we love about Christmas also become dangers for us.

• Yes, Christmas is time for family… and of loneliness for those without families or who have lost parts of their family. (Perhaps that is why depression is so common during the holidays)
  
• Yes, Christmas is a time for tradition and customs, and it is the time when our expectation often exceed our reality (Another reason why depression is so common).
  
• Yes, Christmas is a time for giving and receiving gifts. And it is also the time that we allow materialism to run amok and run up debts we are still paying off in July!

Christmas is a time when we remember the birth of the child that would change all history. We see Christmas card images of Mary-and-child, shepherds, Joseph, the Magi and the rest.  (I saw a picture of one nativity scene with Tim Tebow bowing before the manger).  We sing the carols and try imagine the angels singing to the shepherds. We tell ourselves that “The True Meaning of Christmas" is in the proclamation of the angels. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14, KJV). Christmas is a time of peace and good cheer. (Ironic that “Christmas Cheer” for many is what gets slipped into their egg nog!)

But our carols present a one-sided view of the story of that “first Christmas,” the viewpoint of the shepherds, the magi, and the earth! There were things going on surrounding the birth of Christ that were unseen by human eyes on that “Silent Night” outside “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” In Revelation, John shifts our point of view and retells the familiar story from the viewpoint of heaven.

And thus the pastoral serenity of "Silent Night" dissipates into sounds of battle. Viewed from heaven or hell, the reason for the season was all out spiritual warfare. God came down into Satan’s domain to face down the dragon on his own turf, and the old dragon was not about to let that happen without a fight! He used Herod in an attempt to kill the baby Jesus, and he would use many others. All of hell’s fury would be released against that baby boy born that silent and holy night. And as the baby Jesus lay in that manger that night, somewhere in Palestine there grew a tree that would one day be cut down and fashioned into an old rugged cross. It would be that cross that would become ultimate Christmas tree upon which would be hung God’s ultimate gift! So John tells us this Christmas story with an attitude, and we are reminded to always view the manger through the lens of the cross!

RIP Maggie

Last night, we took Maggie to the vet for the last time.  The little pom-terrier mix-mutt was  part of our lives for more than eleven years, and I've had a lump in my throat all day.  I really owe Tracy Brainard an apology.  Years ago she called the church building (in tears) asking for her family to be put on the prayer list because they had just lost a dog.  I think I responded appropriately, but I thought the woman had lost her mind. It's just a dog, right?  No, Maggie wasn't just a dog.  Sorry, Tracy; I understand now.

The picture at right was taken at the pound in Williamsburg where we got Maggie (on one of several visits we had to make before we were allowed to take her home).  They guess-timated that Maggie was 2-5 years old when we got her, so she lived to the ripe old age of 12-16 (and in doggie years, that's... well, you do the math).  She had a good life, but the tumor that had grown from golf ball size through softball size was heading for bowling ball size, and she was deaf and almost blind.  And it was time.  There are many things pets remind us about life-- like that it doesn't last forever.

Angelynn had asked us for a dog since... well, since as long as I can remember.  But we were never going to get her a dog because we're just not dog people.  At some point, Mom told us that we should probably get the child a dog, and Keri started looking at all the area pounds.  And before I knew it, Maggie was living INSIDE our house (which we also said would never, ever happen) and sleeping in our bed (which she continued to do for years until SHE decided she would be more comfortable on the floor at the end of the bed).  I'm still not really a dog person, but I turned out to be a Maggie person.

So I felt like I needed to mark Maggie's passing with something, so Maggie gets one last blog.  I've actually written several about her over the years-- the short piece below was written in March 2008.  It was titled "Maggie the Wonder Dog."

My lunch break yesterday reads a little like an old episode of Lassie. I was home on my lunch hour minding my own business and eating my peanut butter and (no sugar added) jelly sandwich when Maggie started barking. Now usually that means that the mailman has just delivered our mail. There was no mail when I went to the front door, but there was smoke, and lots of it, coming out from behind our across-the-street neighbor's backyard. I got my cell phone and went over to investigate, wanting to make sure someone wasn't barbecuing on a really big grill before I called the fire department. Sure enough, the back yard was on fire. I'm not talking just a little bit on fire; the grass, shrubs, pine needle mulch, split rail fence and several trees were burning and the flames had jumped to the other side of the fence. The smoke was so thick by that time that I couldn't tell how far back it went. 

So I called 911, and 5 minutes later a fire truck pulled up and fireman jumped out and started doing their fireman thing. Fifteen minutes later, a second fire truck pulled up to add its crew to the mix. Firemen were running around grabbing hoses, axes and shovels just like on TV. I watched the show for awhile chatting with another neighbor before going back to work. I went over after supper to chat with the guy across the street and see the damage. It came fairly close to the house, but nothing was really hurt except a fence that he said he has been meaning to replace. If the fire had burned much longer, that could have been very different. 

So Maggie the Wonder Dog saved the day. I still have no idea if she was really barking at the fire or not. She may have glimpsed a squirrel running for its life across the street... which is exactly what any squirrel in the vicinity would have been doing. But there is a good chance I would've have noticed what was going on had she not been barking. So we'll credit Maggie the Wonder Dog with saving our neighbor's house. And then she went out and found Timmy who had fallen down a well.

Good-bye, girl,  Good dog!

Jesus Was an Occupier... of a Cross

I don't get the whole “Occupy Wall Street” deal. According to the movement's unofficial web site, the movement is a protest against “the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations.”  The slogan “we are the 99%” refers to the vast concentration of wealth and therefore power and influence in the top 1% of the population. “Occupy Wall Street” began as a protest rally on Wall Street itself that quickly spread to other cities— locally we had “Occupy Norfolk,” a march that drew literally tens of people (the news said a hundred, but I think they showed the same little group from different angles). Corporate greed and high unemployment seems to be the one thing that these protesters have in common, though some of the rallies that have spread to Europe seem to be more of a place for “football hooligans” to hang out during the off season. Some have compared the OWS movement to the liberal counterpart of the Tea Party movement. I would prefer to combine the best elements of both worlds and create an “Occupy Starbucks” movement.

So why write about something that I admit that I know little about? (If I didn't, I'd never write anything!)  Well, I ran across a speech made by Jesse Jackson to an “Occupy London” crowd earlier this week in which he said, “Jesus was an Occupier, born under a death warrant, a Jew by religion, born in poverty under Roman occupation.” Besides the logical contradiction (Jackson’s statement makes Jesus an “Occupied” rather than “Occupier”), I bristled at the suggestion that Jesus would have been right in the middle of the OWS protests lending his support to the movement.

But then, I also bristle when I read Tony Perkins’ blog “Jesus Was a Free Marketer, Not an Occupier” on CNN’s BeliefNet last week. In Luke 19, Jesus tells the “Parable of the Ten Minas” (Luke's version of the parable of the talents) in which a rich man goes off to be crowned king and gives each of his ten servants a mina (about three months wage) with the command “Put this money to work…until I come back.” (Lk 19:13). Two servants do that—one making 10 minas and the other 5, and as a reward they are made governors of 10 and 5 cities. But one servant hid his in the ground and is condemned for not obeying his master (and now king). Perkins point is that Jesus' parable blesses the free market system and condemns the unproductive servant (who looks a lot like the motley OWS crowd). He writes—

Jesus rejected collectivism and the mentality that has occupied America for the last few decades: that everyone gets a trophy – equal outcomes for inequitable performance. There are winners and yes, there are losers. And wins and losses are determined by the diligence and determination of the individual.

Jesus has the king kill all of political enemies at the end of the parable. (Lk 19:27).  Is Jesus also blessing that kind of political retaliation along with free market capitalism?  The point of the parable is that people thought that the kingdom of God was about to appear (in the form of an earthly overthrow of the Romans). Jesus is telling his disciples that they could not know when the king was coming so they'd better be busy doing His work and being ready for His return all the time. The point isn't how people will be rewarded for their work. Now there is a parable that makes that point-- "The Parable of the Workers in the Field" in Matthew 20:1-16.  There Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who hires workers to work in his fields and then pays them  the same wages whether they have worked all day or only one hour. God’s free-market system is just that—FREE. Grace does means that everyone DOES get a trophy whether they deserve it or not… because none of us can deserve it.

Jesus was neither an Occupier or Free-Marketer. Jesus was Messiah. His message was "the kingdom of God has come near" (Mk 1:15) and "the kingdom of God is within you: (Lk 17:21). Jesus identified with the poor and the homeless (Matt 8:20), so He would be likely be more at home with the OWS crowd than some of them are. But Jesus was also the friend of “tax collectors and sinners” (Lk 15:1), and the tax collectors were definitely not part of the 99% economically. They were social/religious outcasts precisely because they had gotten rich through the economic oppression of the 99%.  And Jesus hobnobbed with them along with poor and homeless.  And Jesus even hobnobbed with those who were definitely the 1% of his society, guys like Simon the Pharisee who were both wealthy and influential (see Luke 7:36-50).

I don’t believe that Jesus would be part of ANY of our political, social or economic movements today— He would not be a Republican, Democrat, Tea-Partier or Occupier...  though he would be happy to hang with any of those folks if they would listen to Him.  Jesus was for people, all people. Jesus was about the breaking of the kingdom of God into the world. He was the Great Physician who had come to heal the sick... all the sick.  He was the Lamb of God who had come to lay down his life for the lost—all the lost. Jesus was too busy touching the lives of people in need to ever have time to occupy anything... except a cross.

Tim, Aaron and Faith in the Workplace

As a lifelong Colts fan, this NFL season was shaping up to be an utter wasteland ( Colts are 0-12), then along came Tim Tebow. Tebow won two national championships and a Heisman trophy in college, but has been routinely panned as not having the skills needed to be a pro quarterback. After going 1-4 at the beginning of this season, the Denver Broncos switched to Tebow and have won 6-of-7 and lead their division. (OK, they have away games at the Bears and Patriots coming up, so the bubble might burst). But I am  pulling for Tebow and the Broncos like I have for no other team since Johnny U. hung us his high tops.

Why? Tebow is a committed Christian who has taken a lot of criticism because of his faith. He kneels during games (panned as “Tebowing”) and thanks Jesus for his success. When asked about his latest comeback win against the Vikings, he told Peter King that he was most proud of the fact he was able to say “hello” in the interview to Blake Appleton, a young fan who is suffering with cancer. He then ended the interview with “Have a good day, Mr. King. And God bless you.” Tebow isn’t the first NFL player to pray or thank God (Kurt Warner, Troy Polamalu, etc.), but Tebow has been mercilessly criticized for his faith. One player taunted him after a sack by striking a prayer pose.

Former Bronco quarterback Jake Plummer said that while Tim is a winner, “I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I'll like him a little better.” Tebow, who comes across as quiet and humble, replied simply, “I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, he is due for it." Football analyst Boomer Esiason was been particularly brutal in assessing Tebow, “He can’t play. He can’t throw.” But then he went on to say—

The kid is a tremendous character kid; If he said he wanted to marry my daughter, I'd be happy… But I wouldn't want him to be my first-round draft choice starting quarterback, which he's not capable of being right now.

(Tim, I have two daughters... I'm just saying). But the Broncos keep on winning, and Tebow keeps on pointing to Jesus. But I just have to think that the criticism he has received has nothing to do with football skills (or lack thereof) and more to do with the audacity of being public (and genuine) about his faith.

That brings me to another quarterback who is a dedicated Christian—Aaron Rodgers. Absolutely no one doubts Rodgers ability to play quarterback—he is the best player in the league and his Packers are 12-0. He went through many twists and turns in his career, and his path to the limelight has been less than meteoric. He once said, "God always has a plan for us, a path. Sometimes we wish we knew it sooner, but He always shows up His way." But Rodgers tales a quieter approach to faith--

I feel like my stance and my desire has always been to follow a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, who said, 'Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.' So basically, I’m not an over-the-top, or an in-your-face kind of guy with my faith. I would rather people have questions about why I act the way I act, whether they view it as positive or not, and ask questions, and then given an opportunity at some point, then you can talk about your faith a little bit.

OK, so now I’m also an Aaron Rodgers fan— maybe the Packers can play the Broncos in the Super Bowl. These are two very different approaches to bringing one’s faith into a high profile job. Which approach is the best? God definitely wants us to bring faith to our jobs (see Eph 6:5-7, Col 3:23). That faith must shape and mold us at work just as it does in every other aspect of our lives. And the faith that shows up at work just might influence people around us in more ways than we realize.

What's Forever For?

Not since Zsa Zsa Gabor has anyone been so famous for just being famous than has Kim Kardasian. And of course, what she is most famous for recently is having a lavish, made-for-TV "royal wedding" and then filing for divorce only 72 days later. OK, we are used to celebrity marriages ending early and ugly (can anyone say "Charlie Sheen"), but 72 days? We have food in our refrigerator that is older than that! OK, maybe it wasn't totally shocking when Kardasian released the following from her publicist--

After careful consideration, I have decided to end my marriage…I hope everyone understands this was not an easy decision. I had hoped this marriage was forever but sometimes things don’t work out as planned. We remain friends and wish each other the best.

We don't have cable TV, so I have never, ever kept up with the Kardasians. I also never, ever watch the NBA, I didn't know Kris Humphries, Miss Kardasian's 72-day husband. The suggestion has been made that the whole marriage was simply an excuse to have the wedding which promoted the Kardasian brand and made a lot of money in the process. I don't know about that, but I do know that 72 days is a bit too short a time to "give careful consideration" to buying a new car, let alone something as important as one's marriage.

I'd like to say that this can happen only in Hollywood, but that is, of course, not true. The most extravagant and elaborate wedding that has ever been conducted at our church building also has another distinction. This was back when we had pews, and we had to remove the first two rows of pews to accommodate the string ensemble (including a huge classical harp) that provided the music for the wedding. This was (I believe) the first instrumental music that was ever used in a wedding at our building, but that is the the "distinction" I mentioned above. No, sadly, while this was the longest wedding I ever performed, it was the shortest marriage-- the couple stayed together barely 3 months after the wedding. In retrospect, I think the bride (like Miss Kardasian) wanted a big fancy formal wedding-- what she didn't want was a husband.

Yesterday for no particular reason, a old song lyric came to mind. I couldn't remember the song, just the phrase "if love never lasts for ever, what's forever for." Google reminded me that this lyric comes from the song "What's Forever For" written by Rafe VanHoy and recorded by artists like Anne Murray, T. G. Sheppard, Billy Gilman, and England Dan and John Ford Coley, and it was a #1 hit for country singer Michael Martin Murphey in 1982. Lynn often wonders why I can remember obscure things like song lyrics but can't remember to take the trash out on Tuesdays.  (Uhh... I think I did take it out today... I hope).

I think the song's questions resonate in a world in which people get married so that they can have a big wedding and then get divorced way too often and far too easily. "So what’s the glory in living? Doesn’t anybody ever stay together anymore? And if love never lasts forever, tell me, what’s forever for?" It is exactly that forever to which Jesus points when asked to comment on divorce (see Matthew 19:4-6). The reason that God failed to honir Judah's worship was because they failed to honor the forever in their marriages (see Malachi 2:13-16). Both of these texts lead us to ask the same question posed by this old country song, "If love never lasts forever, what's forever for?"