July 2007
July
2
“Rabbi
Levy saw a man running in the street and asked him, ‘Why do you run?’
He replied, ‘I am running after my good fortune!’
Rabbi Levy tells him, ‘Silly man, your good fortune has been trying to
chase you, but you are running too fast.’” (Wayne Muller, “Sabbath,”
p.48)
The Ten Commandments lead off with the command to worship only the God of
Creation and Redemption. That takes
place in our hearts. Then the
commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,”
should be kept by our lips. The next
commandment, the third or fourth, depending on how you count them, says,
“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”
Where does that take place? In
your management of time. God commanded His ancient people to build a day of rest
into their schedule.
We’ve lost that wisdom, that rhythm, in our frenzied lives.
Jesus says, “Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some
rest” (Mark
6:31
).
The days of the Fourth…enjoy them…and rethink the rhythm of your
life.
July
3
“We
hold these truths to be self-evident,” says the Declaration of Independence,
“that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty
and the pursuit of
Happiness….”
Maya Jasanoff, a professor at
Harvard
University
, points out that not all
people held those truths to be self-evident.
In fact, one out of five Americans did not agree with the Revolution.
She tells of a petition in Scott’s Tavern in
New York
.
Over 700 colonists signed the petition and agreed they were “steadily
and uniformly opposed” to the Revolution and that it was the “most
unnatural, unprovoked Rebellion that ever disgraced the annals of Time.”
(New York Times Magazine, June 1; p. 20).
The passage of time,
experiences with the American way of government, and wars to preserve our
freedom have led us to appreciate the words “We hold these truths to be self
evident.” Just as our appreciation for those words about civil government has
grown, it can also deteriorate. It’s
not unlike the words of the Bible. Familiarity
and experience can make biblical words truly treasured or we can take those
words of eternal life for granted. Please
occupy yourself this holiday with both words of eternal life and the temporal
words that enshrine so many of our civic blessings.
July
4
No
Minute on the Fourth
July
5
Back in
1776 the day after Independence Day must have been a day of great hope
for many Americans. But hope
is not easily realized. In August
the Continental Army was trapped on
Long Island
,
New York
.
Although many Americans escaped, the next month, September, the
Continental Army was completely driven out of
New York
.
It would be seven years before independence would be fully realized.
Seven years. Hope is not
easily realized.
What is true in civic life is also true in your personal life.
Hope is not easily realized, and unless you nurture your hopes they will
turn to despair. Every aspect of
your life has a spiritual dimension. Every
problem you face, every battle that leaves you wounded or bloodied, can easily
replace hope with despair. It takes
effort to nourish hope, and nothing is better than the picture of hope, the
empty tomb of the resurrected Jesus Christ.
He lives and offers the hope that will sustain you.
I came across this prayer: O God, You are the answer to our questions.
You have promised that one day You will wipe away every tear from our
eyes. Then our questions will cease
and we will praise You. Grant that
we guard the image of hope in our souls. Amen.
Guard the image of hope!
July
6
“Come
to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew
11:28)
“Come,” Jesus says. He’s
always inviting us; His Spirit always wooing us.
For some reason unknown to me, God has given us the terrible ability to
resist His call, to say, “No.” Still,
He keeps inviting us to come.
“Come to Me.” I’m afraid this
is where many churches go wrong. Churches
can’t save you. Only Jesus can.
Now that’s not to say you shouldn’t bother with church.
It’s just to say that the church should be about Jesus, not about
itself.
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened.”
That’s me; isn’t it you? Why
are we this way, burdened and weary? Do
we get so busy, do we carry so much because we want to prove that we’re worthy
of love and respect? That’s a
crushing load.
“Come to Me…I will give you rest.” Lay
your load down at His feet. Rest in
His love for you. Rest in His
strength…and, by the way, you’ll be renewed to carry your burdens.
Don’t just do something; sit there. “Oh,
Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
July
9
From the
“Odyssey,” the epic poem probably from the eighth century B.C:
“ ‘My good host,’ (Odysseus) said, ‘I hope Zeus and the other
gods will reward you with your heart’s desire for receiving me so kindly.’
‘Sir,’ said the swineherd Eumaeus, ‘my conscience would not let me
turn away a stranger in a worse state even than yourself, for stranger and
beggars all come in Zeus’ name.” (xiv,
54-58)
From Gordon Lightfoot, the refrain in “The House You Live In:”
“And the house you live in will never fall down, if you pity the
stranger who stands at your gate.”
From Exodus: “Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in
Egypt
” (
22:21
).
From Jesus: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and
you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in”
(Matthew 25:35).
These quotations from secular and sacred writing do not mandate specifics of an
immigration policy, but shouldn’t they weigh heavily on our minds as we debate
our borders?
July
10
On this
date in 1804 Vice President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
Burr, always an enigmatic and often a troublesome political figure, was
indicted three years later for treason. “Aaron
Burr…being…under the protection of the laws of the
United States
, and owing
allegiance…(thereto), not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being
moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil….”
So read the charge. (James F.
Simon, “What Kind of Nation,” p. 245)
“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may
receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad”
(2 Corinthians 5:10).
What would happen if more people in government and business were mindful that
they will appear in that judgment on that day, the last day?
How many relationships would be better off, how many marriages preserved,
how many lives brought into the world and cared for…
How different so much would be in your life and mine if we lived each day
mindful that “We must all appear!”
The Bible teqaches that our only hope at judgment is Jesus.
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke
18:13
).
That final deliverance, however, is not a blank check to do our will
rather than God’s. That’s the
highest treason.
July
11
In times
of war, routine activities are up for review.
Sometimes we’ll give up normal activities for the sake of security or
because of the compelling need to sacrifice for the war effort.
At other times, though, we doggedly do usual things in order to tell the
enemy we will not let them destroy our routines of peace and freedom.
So it’s been with the All-Star game, held last evening in
San Francisco
.
In 1942 the All-Star game was in
New York
, but the next day a second
game was played in
Cleveland
to benefit Army-Navy relief.
Many of the All-Stars in that game were on active duty.
The 1943 All-Star game in
Philadelphia
was broadcast to troops
around the world by short-wave radio. The
1944 game was held in
Pittsburg
but in 1945 the game had to
be cancelled because of wartime restrictions.
You can take or leave baseball…until you see it as a symbol, a powerful
symbol, of our way of life.
Broadcaster Jeff Torborg said several years ago, “I’m thinking about how
we’re sitting here safe watching this ball game because our kids are there (in
Afghanistan
and
Iraq
) fighting for us.”
So there was more to last night’s All-Star game than meets the eye.
Keep on “Playing Ball!”
July
12
Today’s
Minute is a “thumbs up!” for God.
God is so mysterious, so unseen, that even believers sometimes wonder if He
really exists. Maybe we’re trying
to peer too far into the universe, an answer being closer at hand.
Consider the follow quotation from world famous doctor Paul Brand, taken
from Philip Yancey’s book “Soul Survivor.”
“For several years our team worked specifically with the pain system of
the human hand, trying to find ways to protect the hands of leprosy patients who
can no longer feel pain. What
engineering perfection we find there! All
(our) techniques correct the deviants, the one hand in a hundred that is not
functioning as God designed. But we
have found no way to improve on the hand God gave us.
We wonder at the genius of Beethoven, but we have forgotten to wonder at
the mystery behind the human hand that plays the sonatas he composed.
After operating on thousands of hands, I must agree with Isaac Newton,
‘In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of
God’s existence.’” (p. 14f.)
So next time you’re wondering about God, twiddle your thumbs.
Poet Walter Chalmers Smith put it this way, “All laud we would render;
O help us to see ‘Tis only the splendor of light that hides Thee!”
July
13
About
church bells…
My home church rang its bell every Saturday night.
That wasn’t for the Saturday service, they didn’t have that, but to
remind the community that the next day was Sunday and worship.
Hearing that gave me a sense of order, of a place in time, and a sense of
community.
About the bells on Sunday, Karl Barth wrote, “On Sunday morning when the bells
ring to call the congregation and minister to church, there is in the air an
expectancy that something great, crucial, and even momentous is to happen.”
What happens is that God Himself is present, present with His people
through the Word and Sacraments of Christ.
And during that momentous presence, many churches toll the bell during the
Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. That
old custom made it possible for those who were physically unable to go to church
to pray along with the assembled congregation.
Again, a sense of order, a sense of community.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only
a resounding gong” (1 Corinthians 13:1). Don’t
let the church bell be an empty sound in your life.
It’s an invitation to the presence of God and to a community that will
pray with you and for you.
July
16
My
friend Bill shared an e-mail about a woman who visited the shop of a
silversmith. The silversmith held a piece of silver over the fire,
explaining that the silver had to be held in the very middle of the fire to burn
away any impurities. The woman, a Bible student, thought of Malachi 3:3:
God "will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
She
asked the silversmith if he had to be there the whole time and he answered,
yes. He had to hold and keep his eye on the silver. Otherwise, the
silver might be in the fire too long and be destroyed.
"How
do you know when the silver is fully refined?" she asked. "Oh,
that's easy," he answered, "when I see my image in it."
That
anonymous e-mail helps us understand tough days. "The Lord watches
over you" (Psalm 121:5). And the refining of Christians will achieve
its goal. "He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to
completion until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). On that
day, fully refined, you'll see Him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).
How
else can we understand this strange statement of James, "Consider it pure
joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds?" James 1:2).
July
17
My
parents taught me, and Diane and I taught our children, to say bedtime
prayers. I confess I don't do that too much myself. When I hit the
bed, I might watch a few minutes of TV but usually fall asleep quickly.
New
research shows that sleep consolidates memories, somewhat like storing data on a
hard drive (AP; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 9, 2003; A8). I knew
that. In grade school we discovered the best time to learn memory work was
in the evening, shortly before going to bed. As a minister I try to
memorize my sermons in the evening. Is that why I fall right to
sleep??? At any rate, the best time to memorize is in the evening.
So
what if I would apply that to my delinquent bedtime prayer habit? The
scientific reports on memory suggest that falling asleep with my mind on some
eternal truth will consolidate spiritual insights and confidence in the morning.
Now
I lay me down to sleep, I pray Jay Leno my soul to keep? What good will
that do tomorrow morning? I've slipped into a bad habit and need to
correct it. How about you?
July
18
Years
ago I was teaching religion class to 8th graders at our parochial school.
One day I had enough of their picking on each other, their cliquishness, their
hurtful behavior. So I unloaded the standard grown-up lecture they'd
probably heard many times. "Pastor, you've got it wrong,"
interrupted a courageous girl. "How's that?" I asked.
"The reason we act that way is we're afraid that we're not going to fit
in."
Why
does that office worker hoard information that would help the rest of you do
your job? Why does the up-and-coming professional hide the fact that he's
drowning in debt? Why does the fearful woman present herself as having it
all together? Is there any way that some of your behavior grows out of a
fear that in some way you're not going to fit in?
Because
we compartmentalize our hectic lives, security in one area of life does not
afford security in another. What we need is a security that embraces every
aspect of daily living, a centered sense that "It is well with my
soul" whatever tries to scare us.
"Come
unto Me" (Matthew 11:28).
July
19
I'm
feeling guilty. Last week a six day trip, gone last weekend, gone this
week, finally home tomorrow. Do you explain away the time and energy you
pour into work by rationalizing, "It'll pay off for my family and my
career?" One woman did and came to regret it.
"We
worked day and night at a feverish pitch," wrote Athena Dean in
"Consumed by Success: Reaching the top and finding God wasn't there" (Wordpress,
1995). "Ailen was involved in Little League and Roby was active in
drama at school. While they searched the audiences to find our faces at
games and plays, they never did spot us. We were too busy chasing the
dream to make time to attend their activities. Those kids hardly ever saw
us, but they saw plenty of the baby sitters. We rushed them from school to
day care to baby sitters to home, shuffling them from one person's care to the
other. We held the idea close that it would eventually be worth the
sacrifice. I only wish the kids felt the same way." (p. 21)
Thanks
Athena for the reminder. "God sets the solitary in families"
(Psalm 68:6) but obsessive "chasing the dream" undoes that blessing to
us. None of the Ten Commandments are about careers but two are about
family. I need to stay home more!
July
20
Think
you know what someone else believes?
First
century Romans misunderstood much about Jews. Because Jews took every
seventh day off, the Sabbath, the Romans assumed they were lazy. Not
true. Romans, even Emperor Caesar Augustus, believed the Sabbath was a day
of fasting. Again, not true. Scholar Erich Gruen: "Most
Romans contented themselves with a hal-baked idea, frequently repeated but never
examined" (Diaspora, 48).
So when Christians, originally a sect
within Judaism, were getting heat for what they believed, Peter encouraged cool
conversation. "Be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you
to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness
and respect." (1Peter3:15) Half-truths are the name of the game,
witness the current campaign, but when it comes to something as eternally
significant as religious belief, assumptions should be explored before being
asserted.
When a student asked how to convince
someone of the truth of biblical Christianity, I answered that he should put
that on the back burner and first find out what that person believes and
why. That's a lot harder work than bandying about Christian evangelism
slogans. More and more I believe that living according to Christianity is
a stiff challenge. But that's the way of the cross. Glory awaits
another day.
July 23
“The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians
5:22
-23).
That’s a sweet list, isn’t it? Does
it describe you? No doubt the Spirit
of God is putting out love, joy, peace, and the like, but it doesn’t always
get through to us.
She’s best known to us as Tammy Faye Bakker.
She died last Friday, after a long battle with cancer.
Tammy Faye and husband Jim Bakker led the PTL ministries with
half-a-million followers, a business empire, and in the end, disgrace.
She used her struggle against cancer to tell people not to be afraid.
“Don’t let fear rule your life.”
“Live one day at a time and never be afraid.”
(AP;
St. Louis
Post-Dispatch; July 22; A2)
But how do we get there, get to a point where we’re not afraid of cancer or
anything else? Love, joy and peace
don’t have an easy way into our hearts. Instead
of accepting a blanket, “Don’t be afraid,” why not admit you’re
afraid…and then go to the One who can calm you?
You’ll best know the fruits of the Spirit by acknowledging their
unpleasant counterparts in your life, anger, sadness, impatience, and the like.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with
its passions and desires” (Galatians
5:24
).
July
24
The
minimum wage goes up today, goes up to $5.75 an hour from $5.15, a 70 percent
increase. It will go up the next two years, ending at $7.25 in 2009.
What do you think of that?
Someone
getting the new minimum wage will make $12,168 a year before taxes, that's
above, but not too much above, the federal poverty level. Says Fawn
Townsend, a minimum wage worker, "My goal personally is to get a vehicle so
I can independently go back and for to work and maybe pick up extra work so I
can have that extra income because minimum wage is not cutting it. Being a
single person, you can't pay all your bills with one minimum-wage
job." (AP; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 22; A4)
Factor
this into your opinion: In Deuteronomy chapter 15, God commanded people in
ancient Israel to forgive all debts every seventh year. The seventh year,
like the seventh day, the Sabbath, was to be a time of no work, of total
rest. It was to remind Israel that all they had, all we have, is
ultimately a gift from God. Forgive all debts God said, because in the
last analysis it all comes from Me.
From
that perspective, can you see that you are much more like Fawn Townsend than
different?
July
25
Hi,
Christian here. Did you miss me?
I have been busy. I have
learned a new way to get what I want. I
put out my hand and I take Mommy’s hand. I
lead Mommy where I want to go.
Last week Mommy came
to get me from day care. Mommy was
talking to Carmen. They were talking
about wonderful little me. I wanted
to go home. I walked up to Mommy,
took her hand, and led her to the door. I
get what I want.
Mommy was mean the
other night. Mommy gave me a bath.
After my bath I wanted to go out and play.
I walked up to Mommy, took her hand, and led her to the door. Mommy said,
“No, Christian, you are not going outside.”
I cried. Shouldn’t I get
what I want? Mommy picked me up and
plopped me in my bed. I cried and I
cried and I cried, but mean old Mommy wouldn’t give me what I want.
Opa says, “Christian, it’s not about you putting out your hand to get what
you want. It’s about you putting
your hand out to be led by God.” I
don’t know what Opa is talking about. Opa
says a lot of big people don’t understand that either.
Do you?
July
26
If God
is a presence in your life, there will be times you wonder about the pureness of
your devotion to Him. It’s not
that our intentions are consciously against God; it’s that deep down in the
inner recesses of our hearts there are feelings that strive against God and His
commands. “Who can discern his
errors?” (Psalm
19:12
)
In this morning’s New York Times, Steven Kurutz writes about “house
stalking,” which is more than admiring someone else’s house.
“The level of interest can escalate, and people often turn from casual
admirers or failed bidders to near-obsessives who may stop and stare
longingly….” (D1)
Little attention is ever given to the last of the Ten Commandments: “You shall
not covet your neighbor’s house…or anything that belongs to your neighbor”
(Exodus
20:17
).
But the commandments don’t end on a whimper.
God had freed His people from Egyptian slavery, as He has freed us from
domination by sin, death, and the devil, and “You shall not covet” is His
final command: You are free! Don’t
put yourself in bondage to anything or anyone except Me!
Think about house stalking or any desires deep in your heart.
Innocent or not? Is God alone
Your satisfaction? “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah
17:9)
July
27
Vladimir
Lenin established a dictatorship in
Russia
and said he ruled by,
“power, based directly upon force, and unrestricted by any laws.”
Lenin died in January of 1924 and his body was preserved for display in a
Red Square
monument. Last
week it was reported that there are no more long lines of people waiting to see
and honor Lenin. Thus passes
the glory of this world.
“Trust not in rulers; they are but mortal; Earthborn they are and soon decay.
Vain are their counsels at life’s last portal, When the dark grave
engulfs its prey. Since mortals can
no help afford, Place all your trust in Christ, our Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia!” (Lutheran Service Book, 797, 2)
Many do just that, trust Jesus Christ. Put
the lines of church-goers together and you have one very, very long line that is
impacting nations. According to the
Pew
Research
Center
, 63% of Americans say that
they probably would not support a candidate who did not believe in God.
46% were likely to vote against a Muslim and 30% against a Mormon. (New
York Times, July 22; 4, 4). Outside
of America Christianity is even more alive.
“Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians
2:11
).
Better now by worship than later with Lenin in terror.
P.S. Time to rest my brain and body. I’ll
be on vacation until August 13th.
Christian and I will be planning our future Minutes!
July
30 and 31-no minutes-vacation
|
