September 2007
September 4
President
Bush has an M.B.A. Yesterday he
demonstrated MBWA, “Management by Walking Around.”
By going to
Iraq
, the President did what he
could not have done sitting at his desk in the Oval Office.
People will say what they want about the surprise visit, but one thing is
obvious: Life is tied to places and times…and people who care go.
It sounds tedious to
say we’re bound to places and time, but we obviously are. Some religious
people avoid the tedium by exalting spiritual qualities but ignoring physical
facts. “God bless you, but I
won’t bother about your starving body or your crime-infested neighborhood.”
But God cares and so God goes to people where they are, body and soul. When
something was wrong in Paradise, God did MBWA: “The man and his wife heard the
sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
His Son Jesus did the same, walking to where the trouble was.
“Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).
A popular word in contemporary spirituality is “seeker,” someone who is
seeking after God. That notion puts the person, the “seeker,” in control of
the relationship with God. Flip the
idea around. You’re being found in
your place and in today’s time. God is doing MBWA…and coming to you.
September
5
To my
grandson: Hi, Christian! Opa here.
Oma and I are glad you came to our house for the Labor Day weekend.
We had fun. Oma and I learned
two things while you were here. First,
we learned that older people don’t have the energy to keep up with you
toddlers. You are a whirling
dervish! Second, after you
left, Oma and I listened to the calm and started to put things back in their
places. I got out the vacuum to help
clean but I didn’t know how to start it or how make the upright part lean
back. Oma rolled her eyes at me, and
then showed me.
Opa, Christian here.
I was glad to visit you and Oma. Opa,
don’t you know the Bible? “To
everything there is a season” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
You are in the season of boring calm and clean.
“A place for everything and everything in its place!”
We toddlers are in the season of strewing things around.
That’s our work and we do it well.
And Opa, you couldn’t start the vacuum?
Sounds to me like you should learn to help Oma more.
Christian, thank you.
“To everything a season.” I
hope you’ll come back soon!
September
6
There
were three deaths yesterday. Paul
Gillmor, 68, a United States Representative from
Ohio
died from undisclosed
causes. Jennifer Dunn, a former
member of the House from
Washington
, died at age 66 from a blood
clot. Dr. D. James Kennedy,
Florida
minister and leader of the
religious right, died at age 76 from cardiac arrest.
Three deaths. Actually there
were many more, but you were not one of them.
For today’s Minute I was going to write about the expected entrance of former
Senator Fred Thompson into the race for president.
To get into an election race, for that matter to get into many things in
life, you have to have ambition. The
word “ambition” comes from a Latin word meaning “a going around.”
During the days of the Roman Republic candidates for office went around,
meeting people and seeking votes. As
years passed, the going around often included bribery, so by the time of the
Roman Empire “ambition” was a bad word.
If you were caught for bad ambition, your property was confiscated and
you were deported.
Jesus says, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:14)
Three deaths and counting. For Jesus’ sake, forgive whatever is vain in my own
pursuits and purify my personal ambitions.
September
7
About
two blocks west or five blocks south. When
I grew up, both sets of grandparents were close to home and we visited them all
the time. I don’t remember when it
happened, but sometime this little kid figured out that Grandpa and Grandma
actually were the parents of my parents. Those
authority figures who told me how to live my life?
They were kids too. They
reprimand me? Hey, they were
reprimanded by their parents. “Don’t
slam the door when you go out!” I
bet they got yelled at for that too. Wow,
was that great when it dawned on me that my parents were just grown up kids.
Sunday is “Grandparents Day.” We
didn’t need an artificial day back then. We
were at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s all the time and we truly did show them the
greatest of respect. After all, they
deserved it. They had to raise our
parents! Moral of the story: Young
moms and dad, with all your parenting books and parenting tapes, don’t be
obsessive about perfect parenting. If
they haven’t already, your kids will soon figure out that you were a kid too.
September
10
Almost
twenty years ago I was appointed speaker for the oldest weekly religious radio
program, The Lutheran Hour. Back
home the pastor announced the appointment to the congregation.
His next announcement was the death of a church member.
A man hard of hearing confused the two announcements and told his friends
that Dale Meyer had died. More than
anything else in my life, that incident taught me that I can’t control what
people think or say about me. What
counts most is a clear conscience.
General Petraeus is on
Capitol Hill to testify about the surge. Even
before he sits down in front of the imposing array of legislators, staffers,
cameras and lights, some people are praising him and his report while others are
making him out to be a lackey of the administration.
The public Petraeus and the private Petraeus: one at the mercy of
everyone’s opinion, the other known by himself, family, and hopefully a good
conscience before God.
“Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and
especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are
from God. We have done so not
according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.”
(2 Corinthians 1:12)
You’re motivated by many things. Is
one motivation to keep your conscience clear?
September
11
From the
Minute the day of the attack:
“We dare not be naïve about the world in which we live or the role our trust
in God requires us to take. When a
congressman asked me how to reconcile Christian love with his service on the
House Anti-Terrorism Committee, I answered that it is also sacrificial love when
our government and military personnel put themselves into danger and even combat
to protect us. God has given the
government the right to use force to protect its citizens (Romans 13).
“As individuals we dare not be naïve either.
There are evil forces that want to attack the goodness of God in your
life, to make you doubt, to shake you from your place of stability and peace.
Peter, (the one Jesus called ‘Rocky’ but whose own behavior was
anything but steady), reminds us, ‘Be sober, be vigilant, because your
adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may
devour.” Therefore, always, but
especially today, God help us in our personal individual lives to stand firmly
in His love and to not be tossed to-and-fro by the uncertainty of these early
moments of terror. And then let us
pray for wisdom as Christian citizens, that we might ‘resist evil steadfast in
the faith’ (1 Peter 5).”
September
12
To our
Jewish friends we say, “Happy New Year!”
Rosh Hashanah begins this evening at sundown.
Rosh Hashanah means the “head of the year,” and this evening begins
the year 5768 according to Jewish reckoning.
“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom”
(Psalm 90:12). That’s what
observant Jews will pray for this evening. There
is a prayer of thanksgiving. “Blessed
are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has given us life, sustained
us, and allowed us to reach this day.” Unlike
the way many Christians keep New Year’s Eve on December 31st, an
observant Jew approaches this new year with spiritual sobriety.
The prayer of Unitaneh Tokef says, “Who shall live and who shall die,
who shall see ripe age and shall not, who shall perish by fire and who by
water….” (George Robinson,
“Essential Judaism,” p. 40). “Teach
us to number our days,” indeed!
Christians believe that the Old Testament points to a Messiah and we believe the
Messiah has come in Jesus of Nazareth. But
has much contemporary American spirituality turned religion into a super-sized
discount store where you pick and choose the elements of faith that best serve
you? Those prayers of Judaism remind
us to sober up about the seriousness of faith.
September
13
Hi,
Christian here! I’m getting big.
I sit at the dining room table with Mommy and Daddy.
I can pick up my food and eat it. I
can pick up my cup and drink. I like
throwing things down to the floor. I
sit up in my high chair and fling the spoon down to the floor.
Clang! I throw food down to
the floor. Splat!
I point. I say, “Ahhh!”
This is a great game. Mommy
or Daddy scoop me from my throne, put me down on the floor, and make me pick it
up. Then back up to my chair and I
do it again. This is fun!
But I’m starting to think that Mommy and Daddy don’t see it that way.
Here is my question
for you big people. Are there things
in your life that you think are fun but your big Father is not amused?
Opa loves the hymn, “Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood
was shed for me.” But then Opa
says, “Christian, that doesn’t mean that God wants you to stay just as you
are.” Does being a Christian mean
you should change?
September
14
A few
weeks ago the media worked up a lather about Mother Theresa.
“Can you believe she had faith struggles?” was the theme of their…
what’s the word, ignorant, uninformed, biased…reporting?
Whatever word you choose, people who are earnest students of the faith
can identify with Mother Theresa’s struggles.
She once wrote, “If I ever become a saint, I will surely be one of
‘darkness….’ If there be no
God – there can be no soul. Is
there is no soul then, Jesus – You also are not true.”
I hope you know that struggle from your own faith thoughts.
Why does God seem to play a cosmic hide-and-seek game with us?
Have you puzzled about that?
Flannery O’Connor wrote, “I think there is no suffering greater than what is
caused by the doubts of those who want to believe.
What people don’t realize is how much religion costs.
They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the
cross. It is much harder to believe
than not to believe.” (New York
Times, September 5; A26)
Today is “Holy Cross Day” in the calendar of the church.
The cross is not about getting over your cold or your debts or what have
you. The cross IS about the
struggles of following Jesus, often against the evidence.
September
17
When
I was in grade school, we had a series of workbooks, called, “Think and
Do.” I don’t remember what
the workbooks were about but the title stuck with me.
Think and do is a good reminder as you plunge into the new work
week. Before you plunge into
your workday doings, think: God is real and can’t renege on His promises
to you.
Jesus once told a rich young man to sell all that he had and follow Him
(Luke
18:22
).
About that Oswald Chambers wrote, “Jesus did not go after him, He
let him go. Our Lord knows
perfectly that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or
later.” Think, remembering
God’s promises will bear fruit in your life…as long as you trust them
when you do whatever it is you do.
Visiting a church last month in Torgau
Germany
, I was taken by a
Latin inscription near the pulpit. No
worshipper can see this inscription; only the preacher sees it, and that
only when he leaves the pulpit. “In
silence and hope will be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).
That is to say, Preacher, think about it.
If you’ve properly spoken the promises of God, be still now and
let God work on the people through His promises.
God is real. Think about that,
and then go about your daily doings.
September
18
Sunday’s
New York Times had a photograph of little girls in
Nepal
. The caption: “Girls took
part in a ceremony yesterday in
Katmandu
,
Nepal
, in which they were
worshiped as goddesses. The girls
are believed to embody Taleju, a Hindu goddess who befriended an ancient king.
She is said to leave their bodies once they reach puberty.”
(September 16; A3)
I know nothing
about this belief but it’s interesting that the caption said the goddess “is
said to leave their bodies once they reach puberty.” You
don’t have to be a Christian to know goodness leaves people, you and me
included. Many Bible passages say
goodness was already gone when we were born (for example, Psalm 51:5).
It’s called “original sin,” and this inherited sinfulness shows up
in the actual sins you and I commit every day, not to mention people in
Nepal
.
How to get goodness back is the challenge. The
Bible’s answer is the new birth of baptism.
“All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His
death. Count yourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Sin
shall not be your master.” (Romans
6:3, 11, 14)
I googled Taleju and
found more than I can read. “Dead
to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” is enough on goodness for me.
September
19
“Most
of us know someone who has made a career of bitterness.
The cause of bitterness is a refusal of grace.”
That’s what
Elisabeth Elliot said some years ago, quoted in “The Dallas Morning News.”
She should know. In 1947 she
married Jim and moved with him to
Ecuador
to be missionaries to the
Aucas, a jungle tribe so feared that it was said no one who went to them came
out alive. On
January 8, 19
56
, the tribe attacked and
killed Jim and four other missionaries.
Here’s where grace, God’s kindness in Christ, made a difference.
Two years later Mrs. Elliot returned to
Ecuador
and went to live with the
tribe. Reporter Berta Delgado wrote,
“she learned long ago that you have to recognize your own sins first.”
“You cannot forgive someone else,” Mrs. Elliot said, “until you
receive the grace of God to forgive your own sins.
Most of us know someone who has made a career of bitterness.
The cause of bitterness is a refusal of grace.”
Is there any
relationship in your life where grace is waiting to make a difference?
September
20
Jesus
prayed to His Father that Christians “may be one as we are one” (John
17:11
).
Sadly, Christians have not been one but have been divided for millennia.
Such divisions are not Jesus’ will and they weaken our testimony to His
truth. But they happen.
Today the bishops of the Episcopal Church begin their semi-annual meeting in
New Orleans
.
The Episcopal Church, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, is sorely
divided over the blessing of same-sex unions and the consecration of gay
bishops. We are saddened when any
church is in turmoil. Because unity
is God’s will… “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in
unity,” reads Psalm 133:1…we pray for reconciliation in the Anglican
Communion.
If that is to happen, it won’t happen overnight.
Rev. Ephraim Radner of
Wycliffe
College
in
Toronto
said of this week’s
meeting, “I’m not saying it will resolve everything, but it will set in
motion responses that have been brewing for a long time” (New York Times,
September 16; A21). When Jesus
prayed for our unity, He prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is
truth” (John
17:17
).
I’m praying this week’s meeting sets out on a process toward unity
that will be based on God’s Word.
September
21
Robert
Putnam was on Concordia’s campus Tuesday evening.
He delivered the Dellinger Lecture, an annual lecture that has brought
names like George Will, Tony Snow, David Gergen, Edwin Meese and others to our
campus. Dr. Putnam is a professor at
Harvard and delights in statistics, especially statistics about Americans and
religion. He told us that about half
of Americans are no longer in the denomination in which they were raised, that
people tend to pick congregations where they find people like themselves, and
that picking a new church is often driven by political preferences.
A person who describes himself as a liberal Democrat won’t go to a
church loaded with conservative Republicans.
All that is about people who go to church.
Church attendance has been declining for a long time and Dr. Putnam
showed us that twenty-somethings are walking away from traditional congregations
in big numbers.
All that is very fascinating, especially to an audience of theology professors,
pastors, and future pastors and deaconesses.
The audience noted that the statistics don’t show people picking a
church because they are searching to know God as He really is, Creator, Judge,
and the only One who can reconcile us sinners to Himself, things clearly taught
in the Bible. Instead, people are
seeking a god to suit themselves. Anybody
think this is really dangerous?
September
24
I went
into my seminary class last week, sat down in my chair, and asked the students
if any of them had committed adultery lately.
You should have seen them look back at me with wide-eyed amazement!
“What are you talking about, prof?
We’re here at the seminary studying to become pastors.
Why kind of question is that?” That
was exactly the response I anticipated.
“OK, then tell me
this. Would you ever commit
adultery?” I could see piety
taking over (you can see it descend on seminarians) and so a good number of them
shook their heads “No, of course we would never do that.”
“That’s what I
expected,” I said, and went on to tell them something I learned when I
interviewed Jerry White of Navigators. The
gist of what he said is this: If you think you’ll never commit adultery,
you’re a good candidate to commit adultery.
On the other hand, if you know you could, you’re better prepared to
ward off the temptation.
Oswald Chambers: “Temptation is not something we may escape, it is essential
to the full-orbed life of a man…. What
you go through is the common inheritance of the race, not something no one ever
went through before. God does not
save us from temptations; He succors us in the midst of them.”
(“My Utmost for His Highest,” September 17)
September
25
One reason Jesus Christ is Good News is because He voices what people are
thinking. In John 14 he told the
disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Why did He say that? Because
He knew they were upset. He had just
told them one of them was going to betray Him and that Peter was going to deny
Him. Of course they were upset…and
Jesus gave voice to their worries.
Next He said, “Trust in God, trust also in Me.”
Why? The disciples believed
in God, just as most Americans believe in God, but they were having doubts that
this man from
Nazareth
was God to them.
The teaching that the only way to know God is by following Jesus Christ
is offensive, and those old disciples were stumbling over that exclusive claim.
Jesus Christ still surfaces our feelings. His
Spirit does that through the Bible, and perhaps in no place better than in the
Psalms. We can’t always get a
handle quickly on the feelings that churn within us but read the Bible long
enough and you will. And when that
reading identifies your feelings, your fears, your guilt, your anger, your
loneliness, and the like, then the Spirit of Christ through the Bible can speak
a good, effective Word of forgiveness and hope to you.
That is really Good News!
September
26
Wasn’t
it Rodney King who complained after riots in
Los Angeles
, “Why can’t we all just
get along?”
The United Auto Workers have gone on strike against General Motors.
Nope, we can’t always get along. Truth
is, much of life is adversarial. Members
of management and labor might like each other, but the relationship has an
adversarial nature to it which shows itself in a strike.
The court system, the political system, police: adversarial.
Marriage and family
certainly ought to be relationships where we all get along, but you know that
sometimes people who love each other find themselves at loggerheads.
That’s not necessarily bad. Better
to get a problem out in the open, “negotiate” a solution that suits the
family, and then go forward with a hug and a kiss.
There is one dynamic that the Christian family has that other adversarial
relationships don’t. That’s the
conviction in all hearts that God in Jesus Christ forgives us and therefore we
can forgive, negotiate, and get along.
“Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
(Isaiah 1:18). I hope your
spats at home are shorter than any strike.
September
27
Speeches
and reactions to those speeches have been in the news.
On Tuesday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the United Nations in a speech
described as “defiant.” Earlier
he spoke at
Columbia
University
. When the president of
Columbia
introduced him as “a petty
and cruel dictator,” controversy was kindled.
Analyses of the Iranian president’s speech included incredulity at his
assertion that women are well off in
Iran
.
(New York Times, September 26; C12) When
President Bush spoke to the U.N., pundits were surprised that he made only one
reference to
Iran
.
Speeches and reactions to speeches.
That gives you a sense of how things were in cities in the first century A.D.
Traveling orators gave public speeches to show how good they were and
thereby recruit students for the schools they operated.
Into that environment came
St. Paul
, who strove to differentiate
his speeches. “My message and my
preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of
the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but
on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)
Assuming that the
sermon you’ll hear Sunday is an obvious presentation of biblical teaching, do
you listen and react to the sermon differently than to other speeches?
Or do you dissect it and go home for roast, roast the preacher?
September
28
Somewhere
the ancient poet Homer wrote, “Injustice, suave, erect, and unconfined; Sweeps
the wide earth, and tramples o’er mankind; while prayers to heal her wrongs
move slow behind.” Too true.
Rather than avoiding all troubles that come our way, our prayers seem to
“move slow behind.”
Superhero Moses asked to see God’s glory.
Although they were on good terms, God said, “No.”
He did grant Moses this: “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front
of you…. I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy…. But, He said,
you cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live.”
(Exodus 33:19-20). So God
hide Moses in the cleft of a rock, shielded Moses while His glory passed by, and
finally did let Moses see His “backside,” His goodness and mercy.
We best see God’s presence in our lives by reflecting on what He has
done for us in the past.
God goes ahead of us and answers our prayers with the foresight of a loving
heavenly Father, giving us mercies, plural, uncounted acts of loving-kindness.
Tomorrow the Church observes “St. Michael and All Angels.”
The protection of God’s angels are mercies of which we are often
unaware, but when you think back over your life, don’t you see His protective
presence through the holy angels?
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