February 2007
February
1
Do
you expect glory without a struggle?
This
is the great high festival of the Super Bowl, but it wasn't always such a
glorious thing. John Bacon writes, "contrary to popular belief, the
Super Bowl wasn't intended to showcase the sport's top teams-or to create an
unofficial national holiday...It began as a way to stop the mutually destructive
bidding wars between the NFL and the upstart American Football League for star
players" (World Traveler," January 2004; p. 18).
Shift
to spirituality: The Bible shows Jesus' unswerving commitment to struggle with a
special set of problems, the things that thwart God's goodness dominating our
lives, sin, death, and the devil. Jesus fought them all the way to the
cross; He didn't flee from them. Peter was repulsed by the idea that Jesus
should suffer, but Jesus said, "You do not have in mind the things of God,
but the things of men" (Matthew 16:23). Peter came around.
Jesus' resurrection victory did that.
There
would be no Super Bowl if the two leagues hadn't faced their problems.
There'll be no crown of glory if we don't face the fight against sin and Satan.
February
4
Congratulations
to the
New York
Giants! Super
Bowl glory didn’t just fall into their laps; they worked toward it.
Did Isaac Newton discover gravity out of the clear blue when an apple fell on
his head? Scott Berkun, author
of “The Myths of Innovation” would say “No.” “The
most useful way to think of epiphany is as an occasional bonus of working on
tough problems. To focus on the
magic moments is to miss the point. The
goal isn’t the magic moment; it’s the end result of a useful innovation.”
(Janet Rae-Dupree in the New York Times, February 3; Business 4).
Yesterday many churches observed Transfiguration, a transition from Epiphany to
Lent. The strange story is told in
Matthew 17. Jesus displayed His
heavenly glory; so Peter naturally wanted to settle in forever with that magical
moment but no. Jesus led Peter down
from the glory and to the work of suffering that led to His crucifixion and to
their persecution because they followed Him.
Newton
and the apple tree is a myth
and heavenly glory won’t drop into our laps without our work.
That’s the work of repentance, of sorrow over sin and dependence upon
God for His love and forgiveness. That
justice of God toward us is what you and I take to others in the inglorious
tasks of today’s work.
February
5
Jeremiah
29:11 has become popular in recent years. “‘I
know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’”
I don’t remember hearing that in my early years but people have glommed
onto it. “Isn’t that great, God
wants to prosper me, to give me hope and a future!”
Minor point, actually a major point: The passage is not directed to individuals
but it’s to God’s people as a whole. And
it wasn’t for believers in comfy, inherited surroundings.
It was directed to people exiled to a hostile environment, to a society
that didn’t share their faith values. “Seek
the peace and prosperity of the city into which I have carried you into
exile.” (v. 7)
Tonight we’ll watch Super Tuesday returns on TV.
It’ll be a nice spectator sport, and I’ll be on the couch watching
with you. Jeremiah 29 really asks:
Are you all involved in your community? Rotary,
Lions, American Legion, Meals-on-Wheels, city government, political campaigns,
are YOU involved? Are you
contributing beyond whatever you do in your church?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Jesus cares for those who suffer for a just cause even
if it is not exactly for the confession of His name.”
(“Ethics,” 346-347)
February
6
In his
1946 book, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis describes a varied collection of people
who push and shove to get on a bus out of hell.
When the bus makes a stop on its journey, some residents of heaven come
and meet the people leaving hell. One
person from heaven recognizes a person on the bus from hell.
“You
were sent there because you were an apostate.”
“Are
you serious?”
“Perfectly.”
“Do
you really think people are penalized for their honest opinions?”
“Friend,
let us be frank. Our opinions were
not honestly come by. We simply
found ourselves in contact with a certain current of ideas and plunged into it
because it seemed modern and successful. When,
in our whole lives, did we honestly face, in solitude, the one question on which
all turned: whether after all the Supernatural might not in fact occur?
When did we put up one moment’s real resistance to the loss of our
faith? We were afraid of cruel
Salvationism, afraid of a breach with the spirit of the age, afraid of ridicule,
afraid (above all) of real spiritual fears and hopes.”
(p. 35ff)
How many
Ash Wednesdays have you lived through? How
much of your simple pure childhood faith have you lost?
It’s Lent. Worship to
reclaim it.
February
7
A
prayer I heard in church prompted me to check out passages about
"weakness" in the Bible. "The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). "God has chosen the weak things
of the world" (1 Corinthians 1:27). "My grace is sufficient for
you, for My power is perfected in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
"We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin"
(Hebrews 4:15). "If I have to boost, I will boast of what pertains to
my weakness" (2 Corinthians 11:30).
There's
nothing unusual when you and I don't feel up to some task, especially holy
living. This is what being a "sinner" is all about.
Instead of denying our weakness admit it to Him and others and seek help from
God and others.
This
was the prayer that set me searching: "Almighty God, because You know that
we are set among so many and great dangers that by reason of the weakness of our
fallen nature we cannot always stand upright, grant us Your strength and
protection to support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations,
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen".
"Therefore,
strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble" (Hebrews
12:12).
February
8
People
praise prayer, and rightly so, but it seems to me that before we begin to pray
we should contemplate what we're about to do. That's why I like the
practice I've seen especially in black preachers...significant silence before
they say the first words of the prayer.
Prayer
proceeds on the assumption that your words will be heard by the mysterious
Almighty. That's a breathtaking assumption. The content of our
prayers is even more amazing because most of our requests to the Eternal are
small in the cosmic scheme of things. That's fine; His eye is on the
sparrow.
But
it doesn't it follow that God can respond to us with His specifics? If we
speak words to Him, can't He speak words to us? We don't communicate to
God with visions and emotions but words. Isn't it the obligation of prayer
that we get into biblical words, "the word of God" as it's
called...and is?
Read
the Hebrew prophets and you often come across their complaint that ancient
Israel prayed the right words but their heart wasn't receptive to God's words
and ways. So let the pray-er beware. When you bow your head and fold
your hands, you're taking on a dialog.
February
11
Is it a
crime to covet something your neighbor has?
It’s no crime but it is a sin. Again,
if you hate someone but don’t act on it, it’s a sin but not a crime.
Sincere followers of Jesus confess our sins and try to control our sinful
impulses so we don’t harm others, but if someone commits a crime against you,
is that your sin?
The
St. Louis
area is in deep grief
because a gunman stormed into the
Kirkwood
City Hall
and killed six people.
The next night hundreds of people gathered for a vigil of prayer and
Bible reading led by
Kirkwood
clergy.
Some clergy read passages and spoke about our need to repent.
That made me angry. What they
said was true but it’s not the question. I
know I have a sinful heart that constantly needs to repent.
What does the word of God say when someone else’s sin leads to terrible
crimes that destroy lives?
James Catford,
President of the British and Foreign Bible Society, described an earlier time in
his life. “It wasn’t that I didn’t believe the Bible but it was describing
a life I wasn’t experiencing.” If
clergy don’t tend the hurts and sorrows that repentant sinners experience, is
it any wonder people are walking away from churches?
February
12
Last
night the Westminster Kennel Club opened its 132nd annual dog show.
I felt compelled to watch. You
see, my dad grew up on the farm and had his fill of animals, so we couldn’t
have any pet bigger than a goldfish or turtle.
But I fell in love with a dog lover and it’s always been three of us,
Dale, Diane and a dog.
She’s out of town
right now; so I have doggy duty. “Be
sure to give Speaker a walk at
7:00 am
.
Be sure to feed him at
2:30
, feeding him his special
diet for his sensitive tummy. When
he’s done, be sure to hustle him outside to do his business.
In the evening try to wake him up and get him out one last time.
And Dale,” she says, “Don’t forget!
I’ll keep calling you every few hours to make sure the dog is being
taken care of.” She will.
I know from experience.
Metropolitan Terasios of the Greek Orthodox diocese of
Buenos Aires
says, “I’ve always
wanted to take the young children to the zoo.”
It’s his way to show children the wonderful creations of God.
That’s the right perspective for my week of doggy duty.
Speaker is a sermon to me from the Creator.
“The righteous care for the needs of their animals.”
(Proverbs 12:10)
February
13
Ash
Wednesday…one week ago today. Our
grandson, 22-month-old Christian, was taken forward to have ashes put on his
forehead, but the boy wasn’t having any of it.
What should have been ashes in the shape of a cross ended up as a
smudge.
Something deep within religious people struggles against repentance.
After all, we do the church thing many Sundays, if not every Sunday.
We do live upright and moral lives. We
take God seriously. But, God
“saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done
but because of His own purpose and grace” (2 Timothy 1:9).
Ash Wednesday, one week ago, I sat in St. Thomas church on 5th Avenue
in New York. When ashes were
offered, a young woman in the pew ahead of me went forward.
She returned to the pew, took out her compact and looked at the ashes on
her forehead. Was she checking her
Ash Wednesday style?
Presenting a proper religious face to the world can be as sinful as not wanting
to repent. “Be careful not to do
your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them.
If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”
(Matthew 6:1)
A week later…Are you still repenting without any external sign?
February
14
The
“Letter of Aristeas,” perhaps from the first or second century before
Christ, says, “All activity takes place by means of the hands.”
Two thousand years later that’s still largely true, though voice
activated commands are now becoming common.
On this Valentine’s Day, think of the activities that love shows by
means of the hands.
A doctor places a new born baby into the hands of mother and father.
The hands of the parents will be in almost constant motion for years to
come, from changing diapers to writing checks.
The child grows, and if so blessed, stands before the altar to exchange marriage
vows. Hands are joined and they are
pronounced husband and wife.
Hands do work around the house. They
run the vacuum, they clean out the gutters, they warm up the car in the cold,
they fix the closet door, they build a shelf… because love is about doing for
others.
Hands care for an older person. They
open doors, they run errands, they deliver meals on wheels… because our
understanding of love gets deeper as we live through more and more Valentine
Days.
And when bury our sobbing face in our hands because we have lost a loved one, we
know how blessed we are to have been given God’s gift of love.
February
15
One of
the greatest horrors of World War II was the bombing of
Dresden
on
February 13-14, 1945
.
The devastating attack did not take down
Dresden
’s magnificent Frauenkirche,
the
Church
of
Our Lady
, not immediately.
That church began as a small chapel around the year 1000.
From 1726 to 1743 a new building was erected for the congregation, which
had become Lutheran in 1539. That
was a tall building, able to seat 3000 on the main floor and in several
balconies. It was built of
sandstone, which is able to withstand temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius but
temperatures from the firebombing reach 1700 degrees.
The weakened sandstone collapsed on this date,
February 15, 19
45
.
“The devil led Jesus to
Jerusalem
and had Him stand on the
highest point of the temple” (Luke 4:9). There
Jesus was tempted. Magnificent
places of worship can be places of temptation, and we succumb whenever our
affection is more on the dear building than Christ, who is to be the foundation
of every church.
Built
on the Rock, the Church shall stand Even
when steeples are falling.
Crumbled
have spires in every land Bells
still are chiming and calling,
Calling
the young and old to rest, But above
all the souls distressed,
Longing
for rest everlasting.
(Nikolai Grundtvig,18th century)
The Frauenkirche has been rebuilt.
February
18
Saturday,
February 16th, was an anniversary I assume no one in the world
celebrated.
The 4th
century church historian Eusebius tells about a Christian teacher named
Pamphilus who was on trial before the Roman governor of
Palestine
, a pagan named Firmilianus.
It was
February 16, 31
0
and Christianity was
illegal. That didn’t stop
Pamphilus from talking about his faith. According
to Eusebius, Pamphilus told the governor, “Jerusalem was his fatherland,
meaning, indeed that Jerusalem of which it was said by Paul: ‘But the
Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother,’ and ‘You have come to
Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.’
(Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22)
At this time the city named “
Jerusalem
” was not generally know.
Jerusalem
had been destroyed in 70
A.D. and was replaced with a little, no account town the Romans called “Aelia.”
Hearing about this “
Jerusalem
,” Eusebius wrote, “The
judge was puzzled and shook with impatience, thinking that the Christians had
certainly established a city somewhere at enmity and hostile to the Romans; and
he was much occupied in discovering it, and enquiring into the said country in
the East.” (Martin Goodman,
“Rome and Jerusalem,” p. 534)
Pampilus witnessed with words that didn’t communicate.
Do we church people do the same?
February
19
Hi,
Christian here! Sunday my Daddy took
me to a big building. It was sooo
big! We walked down long halls.
We saw many rooms. Every room
had beds. We went into one room and
I saw my Mommy! Happy me!
Whatever this big building was, it was good for Mommy.
She was slim again.
Mommy and Daddy introduced me to something called “Connor.”
Connor is a mini-me. 7
pounds, 11 ounces, whatever pounds and ounces are.
20 inches long, whatever that means.
I held Connor. That was nice.
When Daddy and I left this big building, Mommy came with us…and so did
this Connor! You mean we’re taking
that home with us? Mommy and Daddy
said, “Baby brother, Christian.”
I’d like to talk to
Opa about this. He probably has
Bible passages.
“God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’” (Genesis
1:28
).
“Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him”
(Psalm 127:3). “May Your deeds be
shown to Your servants, Your splendor to their children” (Psalm 90:16).
“May the Lord bless you from
Zion
all the days of your
life…and may you live to see your children’s children” (Psalm 128:6).
Welcome, Connor!
February
20
People debate
about the virtues of spontaneous prayers versus written, formal prayers.
Each kind has its place; the more revealing question is, how intense are
you whenever you pray?
Shootings, most recently at
Northern
Illinois
University
.
A
New York
therapist butchered. Drag-racing
deaths in
Maryland
.
Suicide bombers. An
Ohio
police officer kills his
pregnant girlfriend. 143 million
pounds of beef recalled. Closer to
home, some personal problem probably weighing you down.
God, why do these things keep happening?
His answers are clear. “Call upon
Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you” (Psalm 50:15). “I am with
you,” (Matthew 28:20) and so on. Our
intense question is, You’re saying this but I’m not seeing it.
Shortly after the Berlin Wall opened, I was in
East Germany
with the Director of the
German Lutheran Hour. I was
dumbfounded by the depressing society I was seeing for the first time.
When I asked why the people stuck with such a depressing system, Dr.
Neumann answered, “Blind faith.” Those
poor people’s faith was misplaced, wrong.
Are we different?
I believe so, but part of prayer is quoting God’s promises to Him.
Not defiantly but humbly, not waffling but trusting, always wanting to
see more clearly. Intense, both
formally and spontaneously.
February
21
It’s common in art history, people gathered around the
cross. Often the people gazing on
the sufferings of Jesus are those we would expect to see.
So the Blessed Virgin Mary and
St. John
were painted by Lucas
Cranach the Elder in his 1503 “Crucifixion.”
Sometimes artists departed from a strict representation of the biblical
account and included their own contemporaries before the cross.
An example is “Adoration of the Trinity” by Albrecht Duerer in 1511.
Our imagination paints pictures. Does
your imagination place you at the cross? “Were
you there when they crucified my Lord? Were
you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
Oh… Sometimes it causes me
to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were
you there when they crucified my Lord?”
In “The Small Crucifixion” Mathias Gruenewald painted Mary and John standing
at the cross but he painted Mary Magdalene kneeling before her Savior. “In
three days time she will again kneel at his feet, but then it will be in a
garden outside his tomb, and she will be radiant with joy.” (Richard Abrams,
“An Illustrated Life of Jesus,” p. 118)
Our Lenten devotions before the suffering Savior become most meaningful
when we remember that His Easter victory over sin and death is going to be
celebrated…and we’ll be there!
February
22
We're getting clobbered with a dandy ice storm. Hopes of Spring
dashed again. There was a time when Diane and I fantasized about retiring
up in Michigan, sitting in a toasty little house, looking out at glistening
snow, reading our books with no pressure to get anything done. Sometime
these last years we pitched that fantasy. We're tired of putting on layers
of clothes, tired of slipping and sliding on sidewalks and streets, tired of
being chilled to the bone, tired, tired, tired.
Some
of my faculty colleagues were talking about how we've become insulated from the
world of nature. We have so many things to shield us from the realities of
nature that we don't regularly ponder our creaturely status in the great
creation of God. Heating and air-conditioning instead of nature's cold or
heat, cars and trucks instead of being exposed in horse and wagon, instant
communication instead of walking to talk to someone...On and on goes the
list. It's quite easy to miss the realities of nature, the reminders of
the real world God made, not man made.
So
thank God for the nuisance of cold and snow. Sinclair Lewis said,
"Winter is not a season; it's an occupation." (Washington Post,
February 7; B3) Don't you southerners envy us up north?
February
25
We
don’t like being identified by numbers. “Take
a number” is necessary but we much prefer being known and called by name.
Yesterday many liturgical churches observed “The Third Sunday in
Lent” but it used to be known commonly as Oculi.
That’s the Latin word for “eyes” and it’s taken from the Latin
translation of Psalm 25:15, “My eyes are ever on the Lord.”
Archaic, “Oculi” is, but unlike “The Third Sunday in Lent,” it
drives home a point better than the bland number.
Mimi Swartz wrote in yesterday’s “New York Times Magazine” about Christian
comedienne Anita Renfroe. She’s
popular, in large part because she’s honest.
“Some of us are not trying to play it like we’ve got it all together
and have risen above the fray. The
celebration factor comes in when it dawns on you that you don’t have to lug
guilt and shame around your whole life” (p. 35a).
Author Swartz contrasts that attitude with testimonials from other women,
testimonials about how wonderful God had made their lives, more me-centered
than, as Ms. Renfroe, God-centered.
“My eyes are ever on the Lord.” How
God-centered will I be today? You?
Or, you can skim over the me-challenging spiritual stuff by saying,
“Yeah, I did the Third Sunday in Lent.”
February
26
Some
conservatives don’t trust John McCain. Interesting
political intrigue, but what about you and trust?
“Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us,” (Romans
15:4). So let’s take King David as
an example. David was a trusting
youth when he fought Goliath. David
trusted King Saul’s son Jonathon and vice versa but Saul didn’t return their
trust and even tried to kill David. Years
later as the powerful king, David abused the trust of Bathsheba’s husband
Uriah and contrived his murder. Because
of that abuse of trust, the rest of David’s reign was troubled.
His parental trust in his son Absalom was betrayed to the point of civil
war and great personal grief. Many
more stories from David’s life show that trust can be used and abused in many
ways.
A repentant person isn’t confident of always being trustworthy.
“You can trust me” has to be proven over and over again.
Your stewardship of trust is judged daily by others and most decisively
by God. Repentance has two parts,
and since the first part is to know we haven’t always been trustworthy, the
second is to know that our Judge is also our Savior.
“Whom can I trust?” At
the end of the day, it’s less yourself and more David’s descendant, Jesus.
February
27
The “Pew Forum on Religion
and the Public Life” was in the news yesterday.
Their new survey shows that 44% of Americans have changed their religious
affiliations. The losers are the
Roman Catholic Church and mainline Protestant groups.
While a big gainer is non-denominational churches, up 3%, the biggest
increase is people who are not affiliated with any church, up 9%.
Most of them are not going atheist; they’re just not going to church.
Stephen Prothero commented on the data: “The trend is towards more
personal religion, and evangelicals offer that.
Those losing out are offering impersonal religion.”
(New York Times, February 26; A12)
For over 35 years I’ve stood in some pulpit most Sunday mornings looking out
at church-goers. Here’s what especially caught my attention: “Nearly one in
five men (20%) say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with
roughly 13% of women.” Hmmm…
come to think of it, I have looked out at many women coming to church without
their husbands. 1 Peter 3:1-2 says
those wives shouldn’t preach at their husbands but win them by exemplary
Christian conduct. But what are we
churches doing to encourage those wives in their lonely attendance at church?
Maybe sensitivity about wives worshipping without their husbands is a
good place to start. That would make
our religious offerings more personal.
February
28
The
verse jumped out at me. “There is
a future for the peaceable” (Psalm 35:39).
What a promise, peace is coming! Interpersonal
problems, inner turmoil about health and money, aggravations at work…
Yes, give me peace.
Not so fast! Peace will come, the
translation says, to the “peaceable.” “Blessed
are the peacemakers,” Jesus says (Matthew 5:9).
Peace passages are directives as much as promises. “Seek peace and
pursue it,” (Psalm 34:14). By the
way, these aren’t peace slogans for anti-war protesters.
These passages are personal, laying on you and me the kind of lives we
should be living right now. “God
has called us to live in peace” (1 Corinthians
7:15
).
Say “peace” and we might think of some earthly carefree living.
No, this peace comes from above. Jesus
says, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives” (John
14:27
). Christ’s peace is the
calm you have because you know God has saved you eternally. “Peacemakers who
sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness” (James
3:18
).
So keep that salvation in mind as you slog through whatever this day brings.
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 4:7).
February
29
This day
is special, not just this day but every day.
The news media will explain to us the scientific reasons why we’ve got
this leap day, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. The
ultimate reason we’ve got this extra day is the same reason we have any days.
The Creator has given each day to you and me.
Leap day…every day.
“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that
city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life? You are a
mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live
and do this or that.’” (James
4:13-15)
In historic baptismal services, the minister makes the sign of the cross over
the head and heart of the baptized and says, “Receive the sign of the holy
cross upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by
Christ the crucified.” How good to
awake and know that the new day is a gift that will focus on us God’s goodness
for our eternal good. “This is the
day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
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