Saturday, September 09, 2006
Despite the facts...
Britons think their life is worse than twenty years ago. Are they the only ones?
Friday, September 08, 2006
Invincible
We saw Invincible tonight. It's completely predictable. But it's also a wonderful movie. In addition to its maximal feel good value, it successfully recreates the ambience of South Philly in the late 1970s. The football scenes are thoroughly believable as are renderings of NFL games in Dallas and Philadelphia.Mark Wahlberg is understated and believable as real-life football wannabe Vince Papale. The supporting cast is strong as well.
You can't throw any tomatoes at this movie for its seemingly implausible premise...because the events it portrays actually happened.
It's a terrific movie!
Are You Worried About 'Elektrosmog'?
Hermann the German reports that many in Germany are concerned about a dire environmental crisis:
That article, from a German journalist, also says:
That's a thin strand on which to hang a lot of worry!
As I told Hermann:
"elektro-smog" that this awful [cell phone] technology produces, you know, the harmful levels of electromagnetic and low-level microwave radiation that nobody anywhere has ever been able to prove, well, this stuff is slowly killing them all..Hermann points to this article discussing the concern, held by 55% of all post-modern Luddites...er, Germans!
That article, from a German journalist, also says:
In contrast to their fear of insidious elektro-smog, just 38 per cent believe Germany faces any imminent terrorist threat...The Max Planck Institute has apparently done some very preliminary research indicating that "...mobile phone emissions do appear in fact to have a deleterious effect, at least on synthetic cell membranes."
In the major port of Hamburg, which has a population of nearly 2 million, Emnid researchers found that 82 per cent are convinced their mobiles pose a serious health threat.
Ironically, the survey findings coincide with figures from the telecommunications industry showing that there are now more than 90 million mobiles in Germany, compared to 82 million human beings.
A quarter of those human beings - presumably infants and inmates and invalids - still have no mobile. That means the vast majority of Germans have at least one mobile phone if not two or more...
...for millions of Germans, mobiles are their only link with the outside world. And most Germans are convinced they are carrying elektro-smog emitters around with them in their purses and pockets every day...
That's a thin strand on which to hang a lot of worry!
As I told Hermann:
Mark Twain once said, "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."By the way, Jesus gives His no-worry advice right after He tells us what we should concern ourselves with, God's kingdom. It comes from a larger section of Matthew's Gospel:
Jesus advises that we put off worrying until we actually have problems or we can do something about them: "...do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today." [Matthew 6:34]
I think Elektrosmog is one of those things we can put off worrying about until later...much later.
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:25-34)
Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: James 2:1-10
Verse-by-Verse Comments
1My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?
The word translated as favoritism can also be rendered as partiality. God has no favorites.
This was true even in Old Testament times when God spoke of the Jews as His "chosen people."
They were chosen not because they were better than other people, more numerous, more powerful, or wealthier. They were chosen to be a light to the nations. God spent many generations revealing Himself and His nature to a particular people, the Jews, so that that people would, in turn, cast that light for all the world.
Long before God came to earth--as a Jew among the Jews--in Jesus Christ, there were non-Jews (Gentiles) who had come to believe in the God Who had revealed Himself to Abraham and his descendants. These Gentile believers were known as God-fearers and they were acceptable to God.
In spite of the misconceptions, God even revealed His nature to non-Jewish people during Old Testament times. He sometimes did so to the chagrin of members of His chosen people. The book of Jonah tells the story of a Jew, Jonah, commissioned by God to tell the population of an evil Gentile city, Nineveh, that because of their sin, their hometown would soon be destroyed.
Jonah ran away from this commission. He hated the Ninevites and was afraid that, God being God, if the Ninevites repented, God would relent. When the Ninevites repented, Jonah was angry with God, delivering an "I knew this would happen speech," while God explained that the Ninevites were important to Him too.
In Old Testament times, God chose foreigners to be heroes of the faith of the Jews. A prostitute from Jericho, Rahab, assisted God's people as they took possession of that city. A non-Jew from the country of Moab became the ancestor of Israel's great king, David.
God doesn't choose people because He likes them more than others. In his farewell sermon to the Israelites, just before his death and their entry into the Promised Land, Moses says:
In the New Testament, Christians are repeatedly warned not to think themselves better than others. In Christ, God makes us part of His people not because we've got it going on, but because God is gracious to sinners.
We're made part of God's eternal family, the Church, so that we can invite others to join us in repenting--turning from our sin--and believing in Jesus Christ. Peter, who knew a thing or two about the humilating hollowness of religious pride, wrote to first century Christians in Asia Minor:
"We are all beggars," Martin Luther said just before he died. We're all dependent on the grace of God. God has no favorites. But God does have a people...whose mission it is to tell all the other beggars on the planet that through Jesus Christ, they can find new life, forgiveness, hope, and everlasting joy.
Obviously, when Christians show favoritism for the wealthy, as James is talking about here, they break faith with the God Who has no favorites.
2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
(1) The word translated as assembly is literally in the Greek, sunagoge, synagogue. It can reference gathering for worship or for the purpose of co-religionists to resolve conflicts.
(2) In spite of the use of this Jewish term, synagogue, James is clearly a Christian document, filled with references to Jesus, His function as Savior, and His teachings.
(3) Chris Haslam points out that the term seat is used by Jesus in Matthew 23:6, where He talks about how the Pharisees loved to have the best seats in the house for banquets and at synagogue.
(4) The Old Testament condemned judges who showed partiality in their judgments. Leviticus 19:15 says:
5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
(1) One must be careful not to misread this passage. James isn't saying that God prefers the poor or the powerless. Abraham, the patriarch of God's people, was wealthy, a Bill Gates of his time. There were wealthy people among Jesus' first followers, probably including Peter, Andrew, James, and John, as fishing was a lucrative trade. (James and John, the Gospels tell us, were from a family that had servants.)
But wealth can be an impediment to faith. Wealth buys things like good medical care, fine food, services, and comfortable homes, all of which can insulate us from the turmoil, hunger, and disease that is the lot of the majority of the human race. No wonder Jesus said, "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24) (The disciples reflect the assumption that wealth represents a special blessing from God when they ask Jesus, "Then who can be saved?”)
Wealth makes it easier for us to delude ourselves and deem ourselves self-sufficient. The poor (and the powerless) have no such illusions and are therefore more open to God and His power in their lives. Those who rely on their money think of themselves as wise, cunning. But the Bible teaches (and I believe that life demonstrates) that, "...God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong..." (1 Corinthians 1:27).
Can the wealthy enter the Kingdom of God? Of course they can. But it's difficult to surrender to the servant King Jesus when you already think that you're king of the world. The blessedness of poverty (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20) is that it clears away the pride that prevents openness to faith dependence on God. It's self-pride that leads us away from God and toward destruction.
(2) To love God is to put Him above everything and everyone.
(3) The New Interpreter's Bible (NIB) points out that Paul's writings demonstrate that there were wealthy and poor people among the early Christians. They didn't always meld well, although some of the wealthy became benefactors of the church and its poorer members. (See Romans 16:1-2 ; 1 Corinthians 11:18-22; 1 Corinthians 16:15-18.)
6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
(1) Chris Haslam writes:
(2) Brian Findlayson notes of vv.5-7:
The royal law, says the NIB, refers to "anything having to do with a king...[and] a king's rule or kingdom." Of course, the king referred to is God and the royal law in question is from Leviticus 19:18:
Jesus, of course, incorporated Leviticus 19:18 in what's called The Great Commandment, Matthew 22:36-38.
9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
(1) NIB points out that James appropriates the Torah (the Old Testament law) "distinctively," especially in comparison with Paul.
1My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?
The word translated as favoritism can also be rendered as partiality. God has no favorites.
This was true even in Old Testament times when God spoke of the Jews as His "chosen people."
They were chosen not because they were better than other people, more numerous, more powerful, or wealthier. They were chosen to be a light to the nations. God spent many generations revealing Himself and His nature to a particular people, the Jews, so that that people would, in turn, cast that light for all the world.
Long before God came to earth--as a Jew among the Jews--in Jesus Christ, there were non-Jews (Gentiles) who had come to believe in the God Who had revealed Himself to Abraham and his descendants. These Gentile believers were known as God-fearers and they were acceptable to God.
In spite of the misconceptions, God even revealed His nature to non-Jewish people during Old Testament times. He sometimes did so to the chagrin of members of His chosen people. The book of Jonah tells the story of a Jew, Jonah, commissioned by God to tell the population of an evil Gentile city, Nineveh, that because of their sin, their hometown would soon be destroyed.
Jonah ran away from this commission. He hated the Ninevites and was afraid that, God being God, if the Ninevites repented, God would relent. When the Ninevites repented, Jonah was angry with God, delivering an "I knew this would happen speech," while God explained that the Ninevites were important to Him too.
In Old Testament times, God chose foreigners to be heroes of the faith of the Jews. A prostitute from Jericho, Rahab, assisted God's people as they took possession of that city. A non-Jew from the country of Moab became the ancestor of Israel's great king, David.
God doesn't choose people because He likes them more than others. In his farewell sermon to the Israelites, just before his death and their entry into the Promised Land, Moses says:
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession. It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.Did you catch the reason behind God's decision to make the Jews His people? Because He decided to make the Jews His people. It may read like a tautology, but the implication is clear: God chooses to love us because God chooses to love us.
In the New Testament, Christians are repeatedly warned not to think themselves better than others. In Christ, God makes us part of His people not because we've got it going on, but because God is gracious to sinners.
We're made part of God's eternal family, the Church, so that we can invite others to join us in repenting--turning from our sin--and believing in Jesus Christ. Peter, who knew a thing or two about the humilating hollowness of religious pride, wrote to first century Christians in Asia Minor:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)You're a chosen people, so that you can tell others that if you can be saved from sin and death, anybody can be saved from sin and death!
"We are all beggars," Martin Luther said just before he died. We're all dependent on the grace of God. God has no favorites. But God does have a people...whose mission it is to tell all the other beggars on the planet that through Jesus Christ, they can find new life, forgiveness, hope, and everlasting joy.
Obviously, when Christians show favoritism for the wealthy, as James is talking about here, they break faith with the God Who has no favorites.
2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
(1) The word translated as assembly is literally in the Greek, sunagoge, synagogue. It can reference gathering for worship or for the purpose of co-religionists to resolve conflicts.
(2) In spite of the use of this Jewish term, synagogue, James is clearly a Christian document, filled with references to Jesus, His function as Savior, and His teachings.
(3) Chris Haslam points out that the term seat is used by Jesus in Matthew 23:6, where He talks about how the Pharisees loved to have the best seats in the house for banquets and at synagogue.
(4) The Old Testament condemned judges who showed partiality in their judgments. Leviticus 19:15 says:
You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.In Deuteronomy 1:17, Moses recalls establishing Israel's system of justice, when he told those he'd recruited to make it work:
"You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it." [Notice an appeals process, by the way.]It's this insistence on impartiality in judging that lay behind James telling first century Jewish Christians that to look down one's nose on those who are poor is not of God.
5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
(1) One must be careful not to misread this passage. James isn't saying that God prefers the poor or the powerless. Abraham, the patriarch of God's people, was wealthy, a Bill Gates of his time. There were wealthy people among Jesus' first followers, probably including Peter, Andrew, James, and John, as fishing was a lucrative trade. (James and John, the Gospels tell us, were from a family that had servants.)
But wealth can be an impediment to faith. Wealth buys things like good medical care, fine food, services, and comfortable homes, all of which can insulate us from the turmoil, hunger, and disease that is the lot of the majority of the human race. No wonder Jesus said, "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24) (The disciples reflect the assumption that wealth represents a special blessing from God when they ask Jesus, "Then who can be saved?”)
Wealth makes it easier for us to delude ourselves and deem ourselves self-sufficient. The poor (and the powerless) have no such illusions and are therefore more open to God and His power in their lives. Those who rely on their money think of themselves as wise, cunning. But the Bible teaches (and I believe that life demonstrates) that, "...God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong..." (1 Corinthians 1:27).
Can the wealthy enter the Kingdom of God? Of course they can. But it's difficult to surrender to the servant King Jesus when you already think that you're king of the world. The blessedness of poverty (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20) is that it clears away the pride that prevents openness to faith dependence on God. It's self-pride that leads us away from God and toward destruction.
(2) To love God is to put Him above everything and everyone.
(3) The New Interpreter's Bible (NIB) points out that Paul's writings demonstrate that there were wealthy and poor people among the early Christians. They didn't always meld well, although some of the wealthy became benefactors of the church and its poorer members. (See Romans 16:1-2 ; 1 Corinthians 11:18-22; 1 Corinthians 16:15-18.)
6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
(1) Chris Haslam writes:
The author seems to address both the rich and poor. The oppressive rich are considered as a class, characterized not only by wealth but also by oppressiveness and impiety, in terms reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets...Amos 8:4 says “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land”...Of v.6, he goes on to say, "In view of v. 7, religious persecution is probably in view, as well as social and economic."
(2) Brian Findlayson notes of vv.5-7:
James makes an observation about life. Those without status and wealth seem to be the very ones who respond readily in faith toward the Christian gospel and thus are incorporated into the kingdom of God. Therefore, showing favoritism to the rich is a bit of an insult toward a group that represents the majority of church members.8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The royal law, says the NIB, refers to "anything having to do with a king...[and] a king's rule or kingdom." Of course, the king referred to is God and the royal law in question is from Leviticus 19:18:
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.[Note that God underscores the authority behind the command with the words, "I am the Lord." Father Walter Burghardt asserts that Biblical justice differs from legal and philosophical notions of justice, useful though they are, because only the Biblical version of justice has behind it God's command to love God, love neighbor, and to handle the gifts of God with respect.]
Jesus, of course, incorporated Leviticus 19:18 in what's called The Great Commandment, Matthew 22:36-38.
9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
(1) NIB points out that James appropriates the Torah (the Old Testament law) "distinctively," especially in comparison with Paul.
(a) Faith and law aren't set against each other, but "are seen as complementary";(2) There is a unity to God's law. Its aim is love of God and neighbor. Violation of its particulars is a violation of its totality. Thank God for the forgiveness available to us in Jesus Christ:
(b) Law isn't defined as ritual proscription. It's about the Ten Commandments and the law of love. Paul actually displays a similar understanding of the law in Romans 13:9;
(c) "James uses the teaching of Jesus to identify love of neighbor as 'the law of the kingdom.'"
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)
How Much Does a Vacuum Cleaner Need to Pull? How Much a Toilet Need to Flush?
Remember that vacuum cleaner commercial from a few years ago, I think it was for an Oreck model, that showed a sweeper sucking a bowling ball?
During a recent trip to one of those mega-hardware stores--places I find intimidating--my wife and I saw an ad perched atop a toilet. It claimed that their product was so good, you could flush ten golf balls down the drain without a problem.
But I wonder, are these P.T. Barnum-like enticements germane to anything? I mean, no vacuum cleaner I've owned has had to suck up anything close to the weight of a bowling ball.
And only once in my lifetime has one of my toilets had to carry away something as bulky as ten golf balls. (That was when my wife decided to flush a batch of my homemade vegetable soup down the commode, not realizing that there was a hambone in there. Fortunately, the apartment maintenance guy thought that it was funny, a vivid foray into food criticism.)
Or, are these ads meant to make another point? Maybe.
Maybe the idea is that after a few years of use, when the vacuum cleaner will only handle billiard balls and the toilet can only flush ping pong balls, the competition's products won't be able to handle the stuff they're meant to handle. "Sooner or later, everything put together falls apart," isn't as compelling an ad come-on as pictures of bowling balls at the ends of sweeper attachments, though.
I have a feeling that I'm probably an advertiser's nightmare. I'm not conscious of making any major purchase in my lifetime based on an ad.
Several years ago, in fact, I instituted a new policy. I decided that whenever I bought a new lawn mower, I would read the consumer reports and find the highest-rated, least expensive product. After I bought it, I would run it until it broke down. If I got three years out of a $150 lawn mower, I figured that I'd spend a lot less than I would have by hiring the job out.
I never applied this philosophy to more major purchases, like cars or big appliances, of course. That's why my wife and I feel fortunate to have found reliable people to maintain and fix those things.
But I have to make a confession: I bought a slightly more expensive mower this year. No mower I owned before had more than 3.5-horsepower. This baby has 6.5! And it's self-propelled, something I justify because of past back problems. But, I can't afford to take the run-it-till-it-dies approach with this mower; it's got to last six years. I guess I'll have to find a good mower mechanic.
As long as it does a good job cutting grass, I'll keep it. I have no inclination to test its ability to chop up a bowling ball.
During a recent trip to one of those mega-hardware stores--places I find intimidating--my wife and I saw an ad perched atop a toilet. It claimed that their product was so good, you could flush ten golf balls down the drain without a problem.
But I wonder, are these P.T. Barnum-like enticements germane to anything? I mean, no vacuum cleaner I've owned has had to suck up anything close to the weight of a bowling ball.
And only once in my lifetime has one of my toilets had to carry away something as bulky as ten golf balls. (That was when my wife decided to flush a batch of my homemade vegetable soup down the commode, not realizing that there was a hambone in there. Fortunately, the apartment maintenance guy thought that it was funny, a vivid foray into food criticism.)
Or, are these ads meant to make another point? Maybe.
Maybe the idea is that after a few years of use, when the vacuum cleaner will only handle billiard balls and the toilet can only flush ping pong balls, the competition's products won't be able to handle the stuff they're meant to handle. "Sooner or later, everything put together falls apart," isn't as compelling an ad come-on as pictures of bowling balls at the ends of sweeper attachments, though.
I have a feeling that I'm probably an advertiser's nightmare. I'm not conscious of making any major purchase in my lifetime based on an ad.
Several years ago, in fact, I instituted a new policy. I decided that whenever I bought a new lawn mower, I would read the consumer reports and find the highest-rated, least expensive product. After I bought it, I would run it until it broke down. If I got three years out of a $150 lawn mower, I figured that I'd spend a lot less than I would have by hiring the job out.
I never applied this philosophy to more major purchases, like cars or big appliances, of course. That's why my wife and I feel fortunate to have found reliable people to maintain and fix those things.
But I have to make a confession: I bought a slightly more expensive mower this year. No mower I owned before had more than 3.5-horsepower. This baby has 6.5! And it's self-propelled, something I justify because of past back problems. But, I can't afford to take the run-it-till-it-dies approach with this mower; it's got to last six years. I guess I'll have to find a good mower mechanic.
As long as it does a good job cutting grass, I'll keep it. I have no inclination to test its ability to chop up a bowling ball.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Musings on Blair, Lame Duckdom, What Happens Next, and the Politics of Triangulation
Labourites allied with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown have apparently forced British Prime Minister Tony Blair's hand, exacting his pledge to leave 10 Downing Street within the year.Blair's position within Labour had become increasingly tenuous. While his center-left politics of triangulation brought Labour an extended period of parliamentary majorities, many in his party thought that they came at the expense of party principles. Socialism often gave way to free market policies. And a more independent foreign policy gave way to one more closely tied to that of the US government. Labourite discontent evidently only grew with Blair's dogged support of the US war in Iraq and hius agreement with the Bush Adminstration on the recent war in Lebanon.
But I can't help mulling over several things...
(1) Doesn't Blair's announcement make him a lame duck? I hate term limits at any level of government in this country because it makes office holders lame ducks--and so, ineffectual--the moment they're re-elected for the final time. (I talk about that here, here, and here, by the way.)
And though I would be loathe to go to a parliamentary system--I like our Constitution's separation of powers and system of checks and balances, British PMs have historically enjoyed an ability not given to second term US Presidents because of the Twenty Second Amendment: The ability to exercise influence over the government so long as they retain the confidence of the people and of the legislative branch.
But Blair's announcement fritters that advantage away, no matter than he hasn't announced a departure date. He has become irrelevant and you can bet, the wrangling over the future of Labour has already begun. No new policy initiatives will be possible.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Blair step down within the week.
(2) What do you do if you're only fifty-three and after a ten year run at the zenith of your profession, you're put out to pasture?
Recent US Presidents, like Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, have spoken of the profound hurt from which they had to recover after suffering repudiation from the electorate. Blair no doubt feels some of that, making it even more difficult for him to figure what he'll do next.
My guess is that after some time for healing, Blair will have opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly as it relates to one of his favorite causes, Africa. (Blair, a one-time rocker who apparently still practices the guitar each day, might even cut a record.)
(3) What gets forgotten because of the close relationship he's forged with George W. Bush is that Blair was probably even closer to Bill Clinton. In fact, Blair's "New Labour" was, in many ways, an adaptation of the "third way" triangulation that Clinton developed with the Democratic Leadership Council prior to his election in 1992. Blair drew counsel from Clinton operatives and welcomed the former President to speak to a Labour Party Conference a few years ago.
Over the long haul, triangulation can't be sustained, particularly when you're the member of a party whose philosophical moorings are emphatic in one direction or another. Eventually one's co-partisans become restive. The wars in Iraq and Lebanon finally proved Blair's undoing; he simply couldn't keep a major Labour faction quiet when they felt their principles were being violated.
And besides all that, there simply seems to be a feeling among other Labour MPs that Blair has had his day in the sun.
The Blair era is likely to end in days. It will be interesting to see what happens next in Britain...and in the life of Tony Blair.
First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: James 2:1-10
[Each week, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since most weekends, our Bible lesson is one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]
The Bible Lesson: James 2:1-10
1My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
General Comments:
1. For some general information on the New Testament book of James, go here.
2. A reading of the second chapter of James shows that the New Interpreter's Bible is right in saying that:
The Bible Lesson: James 2:1-10
1My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
General Comments:
1. For some general information on the New Testament book of James, go here.
2. A reading of the second chapter of James shows that the New Interpreter's Bible is right in saying that:
- 2:1-26 forms "a single argument." In it, the assertion made in James 1:26-27, at the end of the passage we looked at last week, that faith must be evidenced in living is expanded.
- The first part of the chapter, 2:1-13, is divisible into two parts: (a) vv.1-7 "shows how a preference for the rich...is a betrayal of the law of love." (b) vv.8-13 demonstrate "how such behavior is inconsistent with the claim to live by the love taught by Jesus."
- In both parts, favoritism is denounced.
Western societies major on appearance. We also major on rewarding the rich.He goes on to say:
The writer of James is sufficiently in touch with Christian origins still to speak from the perspective of the poor and vulnerable. Some Christian groups, including those who looked back to James as a mentor, used the designation, 'The Poor', to describe themselves (the Ebionite Christians). The original core group was poor and many of them chose a poverty lifestyle of travel with little means, believing this was Christ's instruction for them. This set their perspective as one of solidarity with those at the bottom of the economic heap. Thus the author speaks about these rich people who (or whose associates) drag them to courts and slander Christ. [One hopes that the case mentioned here doesn't exemplify what James is referencing.]I hope to present verse-by-verse comments tomorrow.
The hearers might identify with such dangers, but clearly they had accommodated themselves so much to their context that they were taking on its values. The result was crass discrimination. Our confusion with our contexts is so thorough, that it is only the crass cases of discrimination that we tend to recognise. All the while our context, which will portray itself as willed and blessed by God, depends for its wealth to a large degree on exploitation of the weak and the poor.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Big Ministry Sues Little Christian Blogger...Maybe
Ligonier Ministries, the entity built around the teaching and preaching of a guy named R.C. Sproul, has supposedly sued a blogger who has alleged unethical practices on the part of the organization's CEO.
I've heard of Sproul and even once tried get through a short book of his authorship. (I was unsuccessful.) But that's the extent of my knowledge of him.
The details of the case at hand are unclear at this time, although Ligonier Ministries apparently wants to stop the publication of a blog called Contending for the Truth.
Here are some links so that you can read what's known of this distrubing incident so far:
Orlando Sentinel article
Beltway Blogroll story
Contending for the Truth's reaction
More information can be found here:
Google articles on Ligonier Ministries
Ligonier Ministries web site
Wikipedia entry on R.C. Sproul
I obviously have no way of knowing about the merits of this blogger's concerns about Ligonier Ministries. But I was taken aback by this alleged lawsuit against him. The Bible takes a dim view of Christians suing Christians. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8:
Jesus lays out a very specific means of resolving conflicts within the Church. It's found in Matthew 18:15-20:
And then there's the supposed aim of the (alleged) suit: To get the court to shut the blog down. That's disturbing if true.
The blogger in question has been lodging some serious allegations. A reaction was predictable. Is this the appropriate one? I don't know, although it makes me squeamish. I only wish that things could have been resolved before this all went public.
[Thanks--I guess--to Glenn Reynolds for pointing this case out.]
I've heard of Sproul and even once tried get through a short book of his authorship. (I was unsuccessful.) But that's the extent of my knowledge of him.
The details of the case at hand are unclear at this time, although Ligonier Ministries apparently wants to stop the publication of a blog called Contending for the Truth.
Here are some links so that you can read what's known of this distrubing incident so far:
Orlando Sentinel article
Beltway Blogroll story
Contending for the Truth's reaction
More information can be found here:
Google articles on Ligonier Ministries
Ligonier Ministries web site
Wikipedia entry on R.C. Sproul
I obviously have no way of knowing about the merits of this blogger's concerns about Ligonier Ministries. But I was taken aback by this alleged lawsuit against him. The Bible takes a dim view of Christians suing Christians. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8:
When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels—to say nothing of ordinary matters? If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer—and before unbelievers at that? In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and believers at that.Christians are supposed to resolve disputes among themselves through the Church. Even those who acknowledge that there may be times when Christians have no choice but to sue fellow Christians say that it should only be done as a last resort.
Jesus lays out a very specific means of resolving conflicts within the Church. It's found in Matthew 18:15-20:
“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”Have these steps been followed in this dispute? If not, is this lawsuit--which may or may not have been filed--appropriate?
And then there's the supposed aim of the (alleged) suit: To get the court to shut the blog down. That's disturbing if true.
The blogger in question has been lodging some serious allegations. A reaction was predictable. Is this the appropriate one? I don't know, although it makes me squeamish. I only wish that things could have been resolved before this all went public.
[Thanks--I guess--to Glenn Reynolds for pointing this case out.]
The Key to Coping with Tragedy
[This is the third installment in a series of columns I'm doing for our local paper. It deals with a Christian response to suffering and tragedy.]
She was dying of cancer.
"Are you angry with God?" I asked her.
"I was at first," she answered honestly. "But then I remembered that He's right here with me. Somehow that helped me."
Because of the recent murder of Marcus Feisel and the Comair crash, events that have affected many in our community, I've written two columns on the realities of suffering and tragedy in our world.
In one, I talked about how, in the face of evil or after a tragedy , it's understandable that we ask, "Why?"
The answer, that this world is under a pall of alienation from God which allows evil and tragedy to exist, may explain things. But the explanation doesn't take our grief away.
In another column, I pointed out that, while God hates to see us suffer, He paradoxically, allows us to live in a world where suffering is possible because of His compassion for us. The moment that God ends the life of this world in which He allows us to say Yes or No to His love, He'll also have to forever end our capacity to decide whether to put our dukes down and let Him be our Lord.
The woman, we'll call her Mary, who was dying of cancer, a member of the northwestern Ohio congregation I formerly served as pastor, knew that once we get past the anger and asking "Why?," another question must be addressed as we deal with the suffering that affects us.
It's a simple one: Now that this grief has befallen me or my community, my family, or my church, how do I handle it? How do I cope?
Mary found a way to cope with the cancer that ultimately took her life. She relied on the God Who fully revealed Himself to all of us in Jesus Christ. Mary appreciated that Christ, God in human flesh, understood her situation and could help her more than anyone.
Seven centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote of Him, "He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity..." (Isaiah 53:3)
Monty Python satirizations aside, Jesus Christ doesn't tell us to "look at the bright side of life" when we suffer. "Compassion" is a compound word that means "to suffer with." Jesus is compassionate and suffers with all who turn to Him. (Although He never forces His company on anyone!)
Compassion explains why Jesus wept in grief over the death of His friend, Lazarus. It also explains why He wept in sadness over the hardness of heart He saw in Jerusalem, as people in the very center of religious life among God's people, refused to follow Him.
The Savior the Bible calls "the suffering Servant," promises that those who entrust their lives to Him will live beyond death. Romans 14:8 in the Bible's New Testament says: "If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s."
How do we cope with suffering?
Above all, by placing our lives in the hands of Jesus Christ. On a daily bases, we ask God to forgive us for failing to love Him completely and failing to love our neighbor as though she or he were another self. Then, assured that our sincere turning from sin is honored in heaven, we ask Jesus to have His way in our life again today. "Your will be done," we pray. We put ourselves at Christ's disposal and in Christ's hands.
It doesn't answer all the questions. But it does help us cope with the mysteries and to look to the future with undying hope.
She was dying of cancer.
"Are you angry with God?" I asked her.
"I was at first," she answered honestly. "But then I remembered that He's right here with me. Somehow that helped me."
Because of the recent murder of Marcus Feisel and the Comair crash, events that have affected many in our community, I've written two columns on the realities of suffering and tragedy in our world.
In one, I talked about how, in the face of evil or after a tragedy , it's understandable that we ask, "Why?"
The answer, that this world is under a pall of alienation from God which allows evil and tragedy to exist, may explain things. But the explanation doesn't take our grief away.
In another column, I pointed out that, while God hates to see us suffer, He paradoxically, allows us to live in a world where suffering is possible because of His compassion for us. The moment that God ends the life of this world in which He allows us to say Yes or No to His love, He'll also have to forever end our capacity to decide whether to put our dukes down and let Him be our Lord.
The woman, we'll call her Mary, who was dying of cancer, a member of the northwestern Ohio congregation I formerly served as pastor, knew that once we get past the anger and asking "Why?," another question must be addressed as we deal with the suffering that affects us.
It's a simple one: Now that this grief has befallen me or my community, my family, or my church, how do I handle it? How do I cope?
Mary found a way to cope with the cancer that ultimately took her life. She relied on the God Who fully revealed Himself to all of us in Jesus Christ. Mary appreciated that Christ, God in human flesh, understood her situation and could help her more than anyone.
Seven centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote of Him, "He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity..." (Isaiah 53:3)
Monty Python satirizations aside, Jesus Christ doesn't tell us to "look at the bright side of life" when we suffer. "Compassion" is a compound word that means "to suffer with." Jesus is compassionate and suffers with all who turn to Him. (Although He never forces His company on anyone!)
Compassion explains why Jesus wept in grief over the death of His friend, Lazarus. It also explains why He wept in sadness over the hardness of heart He saw in Jerusalem, as people in the very center of religious life among God's people, refused to follow Him.
The Savior the Bible calls "the suffering Servant," promises that those who entrust their lives to Him will live beyond death. Romans 14:8 in the Bible's New Testament says: "If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s."
How do we cope with suffering?
Above all, by placing our lives in the hands of Jesus Christ. On a daily bases, we ask God to forgive us for failing to love Him completely and failing to love our neighbor as though she or he were another self. Then, assured that our sincere turning from sin is honored in heaven, we ask Jesus to have His way in our life again today. "Your will be done," we pray. We put ourselves at Christ's disposal and in Christ's hands.
It doesn't answer all the questions. But it does help us cope with the mysteries and to look to the future with undying hope.
Ohio Gubernatorial Debate Was Civil, Somewhat Informative
I've been in favor of dumping or radically revamping presidential campaign debates for some time now.
The spotlight in which the nominees of the two major parties live for the months leading up to presidential elections means that by the time debates happen, you've already heard much of what they're going to say.
If they do say anything new, it's likely to be either an insubstantial zinger prepared by handlers or an otherwise inconsequential gaffe that gets subjected to treatment by various spinmeisters.
But in state and local races, which don't receive the sort of coverage accorded runs at the presidency, such debates can actually be informative, so long as the combatants successfully avoid imitating the pitfalls of presidential debates.
Yesterday's Ohio gubernatorial debate between Congressman Ted Strickland and State Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, held in Youngstown early in the day and aired statewide last night on the Ohio News Network was interesting at several levels.
First: While they did get in their "contrast talking points," with Blackwell painting Strickland as a tax and spend liberal and Strickland painting Blackwell as a flip-flopper who is a key player in the scandal-plagued state Republican apparatus, the debate was mostly amicable. The candidates weren't shrill.
Second: While the programs of both candidates are rather vague, each did a good job of conveying their general philosophy.
Third: Neither candidate wowed.
Fourth: I liked the format. A panel of journalists from the Youngstown area asked questions to first, Blackwell, and then Strickland. The first candidate had one minute to answer; the second candidate had thirty seconds to rebut; then came thirty seconds for the counter-rebuttal. The candidates were fairly disciplined in their responses and the moderator ran an admirably tight ship.
Fifth: I liked other elements that had been negotiated by the two campaigns. For example, the candidates never appeared on camera together, so there was no opportunity for one candidate to wander over to his opponent's podium to try engaging in brinksmanship or to one-up the other.
The worst part of the debate came when one of the panel asked a question about the war in Iraq.
The only thing worse was that, inexplicably, both candidates answered it.
The war in Iraq has almost nothing to do with the Ohio gubernatorial race. It was sort of equivalent to asking candidates in a presidential race, "What reforms ought to be made to Ohio's school funding formula?" Or, "If you were the Reds general manager, would you bring Homer Bailey up from the minors?"
Had I been Strickland, the one asked the question, I might have said, "I have strong feelings on this issue and a voting record. But it's not germane to this race." But both candidates answered the question, clearly disagreeing with one another.
Polls show that Strickland is up by about 18% right now. People appear to be disgusted with the statewide GOP, in firm control of the State House for sixteen years and plagued by a series of scandals.
It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds.
[This piece was substantially cross-posted here.]
The spotlight in which the nominees of the two major parties live for the months leading up to presidential elections means that by the time debates happen, you've already heard much of what they're going to say.
If they do say anything new, it's likely to be either an insubstantial zinger prepared by handlers or an otherwise inconsequential gaffe that gets subjected to treatment by various spinmeisters.
But in state and local races, which don't receive the sort of coverage accorded runs at the presidency, such debates can actually be informative, so long as the combatants successfully avoid imitating the pitfalls of presidential debates.
Yesterday's Ohio gubernatorial debate between Congressman Ted Strickland and State Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, held in Youngstown early in the day and aired statewide last night on the Ohio News Network was interesting at several levels.
First: While they did get in their "contrast talking points," with Blackwell painting Strickland as a tax and spend liberal and Strickland painting Blackwell as a flip-flopper who is a key player in the scandal-plagued state Republican apparatus, the debate was mostly amicable. The candidates weren't shrill.
Second: While the programs of both candidates are rather vague, each did a good job of conveying their general philosophy.
Third: Neither candidate wowed.
Fourth: I liked the format. A panel of journalists from the Youngstown area asked questions to first, Blackwell, and then Strickland. The first candidate had one minute to answer; the second candidate had thirty seconds to rebut; then came thirty seconds for the counter-rebuttal. The candidates were fairly disciplined in their responses and the moderator ran an admirably tight ship.
Fifth: I liked other elements that had been negotiated by the two campaigns. For example, the candidates never appeared on camera together, so there was no opportunity for one candidate to wander over to his opponent's podium to try engaging in brinksmanship or to one-up the other.
The worst part of the debate came when one of the panel asked a question about the war in Iraq.
The only thing worse was that, inexplicably, both candidates answered it.
The war in Iraq has almost nothing to do with the Ohio gubernatorial race. It was sort of equivalent to asking candidates in a presidential race, "What reforms ought to be made to Ohio's school funding formula?" Or, "If you were the Reds general manager, would you bring Homer Bailey up from the minors?"
Had I been Strickland, the one asked the question, I might have said, "I have strong feelings on this issue and a voting record. But it's not germane to this race." But both candidates answered the question, clearly disagreeing with one another.
Polls show that Strickland is up by about 18% right now. People appear to be disgusted with the statewide GOP, in firm control of the State House for sixteen years and plagued by a series of scandals.
It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds.
[This piece was substantially cross-posted here.]
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
"Hands off that second cookie, Jimmy! Think of the bulging Armenians!"
So writes Annie Gottlieb at Ambivablog at the conclusion of a post on the expanding worldwide pandemic of obesity.
(Yes, I meant the adjective in the preceding sentence to be a bad pun.)
And by the way, Gottlieb's post hit me below the belt (and above), because I read it while biting into a massive chocolate chip cookie as my luncheon topper. (In self-defense, I had already broken the cookie in two, resolving only to eat half of it! I have added incentive to keep that resolve now.)
Read all of Gottlieb's post.
Bucking this trend has been my God-blogging buddy, John Schroeder, who wrote briefly yesterday about resisting his cravings...and losing 200-pounds, thus becoming one svelte environmental consultant! (Can males be described as svelte? I hope so.)
(Yes, I meant the adjective in the preceding sentence to be a bad pun.)
And by the way, Gottlieb's post hit me below the belt (and above), because I read it while biting into a massive chocolate chip cookie as my luncheon topper. (In self-defense, I had already broken the cookie in two, resolving only to eat half of it! I have added incentive to keep that resolve now.)
Read all of Gottlieb's post.
Bucking this trend has been my God-blogging buddy, John Schroeder, who wrote briefly yesterday about resisting his cravings...and losing 200-pounds, thus becoming one svelte environmental consultant! (Can males be described as svelte? I hope so.)
Lessons Learned on the Streets of Cleveland (Column Version)
[This is the column version of my post of the same title. The column I write appears in the Community Press newspapers.]
Shortly after leaving her, I defended myself. "I didn't understand her at first," I said.
But the fact is I hadn't really wanted to understand her.
Cleveland's downtown streets were nearly abandoned on this perfect Labor Day morning. My family and I were walking the few blocks from our hotel to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a few hours of fun. The Hall opened at 10:00 and, at our pace, we likely would get there well before that.
But on our way, we encountered a woman. “Do you have change for a ten?” I thought I heard her ask. I was almost relieved. I never carry more than five or six bucks these days and I knew that all I had was a five. I wouldn’t have to stop and fork over any cash. "Sorry," I said, "I can't help you."
"Wait a minute," the woman told us, "I'm no bum, I'm a nurse." The phrase was repeated three times as though part of a well-rehearsed routine. "My car broke down and I need to get to work. Buses don't run as often today and I need to get a taxi."
I was ready to move on. But my wife asked the woman how much she needed. "Ten dollars." She pulled out her purse and handed the woman the money.
As we walked on, my wife explained, "She may well have taken me. But if so, she'll have to answer for it. I don't want to have to answer for not giving to somebody who might really have a need."
Less than twenty-four hours before, I had preached a sermon on James 1:17-27, stressing the importance of living one's faith in Christ in the real world: "...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves...Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows [and presumably others] in their distress..."
Many times, as a preacher, teacher, and writer, I've told my fellow Christians and others who ridiculed followers of Jesus for being chumps when hit up by strangers that "...[Christians] understand that sometimes, people will take advantage of them...[but they prefer erring] on the side of mercy [rather] than on the side of judgment."
The call to serve God and neighbor always comes at inconvenient times. In Jesus' famous story of the good Samaritan, the religious leaders--the Scribe and the Pharisee--had no time to help the man lying wounded on the road. After all, they had places to be and this seemingly dying man may have been a decoy, bait for an ambush. A Samaritan, a foreigner whose kind were hated by Jesus' fellow Jews, happened by, stopped, and helped the wounded man. "Who," Jesus asked his original hearer and us, "proved to be the true neighbor?"
Fortunately for me, I have a wife who is a better theologian than I am. And a better Christian. She never upbraided me with a single guilt-tripping word. Instead, she gave me an example of Christian faithfulness.
I've repented for my cynicism and insentivity, ways of thinking that lead us to regard the needy around us as less than human. Jesus calls such sullen hostility to others murder.
I thank God that, in His hospital for hypocrites, the Church, I have experienced the forgiveness of God and that as a believer in Christ, God fills me with the power of the Holy Spirit, to live a changed--and constantly changing--life.
I also pray that the next time the call to love a needy neighbor comes, I won't regard it as an inconvenient interruption, but as a holy opportunity, as an appointment with Jesus.
Shortly after leaving her, I defended myself. "I didn't understand her at first," I said.
But the fact is I hadn't really wanted to understand her.
Cleveland's downtown streets were nearly abandoned on this perfect Labor Day morning. My family and I were walking the few blocks from our hotel to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a few hours of fun. The Hall opened at 10:00 and, at our pace, we likely would get there well before that.
But on our way, we encountered a woman. “Do you have change for a ten?” I thought I heard her ask. I was almost relieved. I never carry more than five or six bucks these days and I knew that all I had was a five. I wouldn’t have to stop and fork over any cash. "Sorry," I said, "I can't help you."
"Wait a minute," the woman told us, "I'm no bum, I'm a nurse." The phrase was repeated three times as though part of a well-rehearsed routine. "My car broke down and I need to get to work. Buses don't run as often today and I need to get a taxi."
I was ready to move on. But my wife asked the woman how much she needed. "Ten dollars." She pulled out her purse and handed the woman the money.
As we walked on, my wife explained, "She may well have taken me. But if so, she'll have to answer for it. I don't want to have to answer for not giving to somebody who might really have a need."
Less than twenty-four hours before, I had preached a sermon on James 1:17-27, stressing the importance of living one's faith in Christ in the real world: "...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves...Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows [and presumably others] in their distress..."
Many times, as a preacher, teacher, and writer, I've told my fellow Christians and others who ridiculed followers of Jesus for being chumps when hit up by strangers that "...[Christians] understand that sometimes, people will take advantage of them...[but they prefer erring] on the side of mercy [rather] than on the side of judgment."
The call to serve God and neighbor always comes at inconvenient times. In Jesus' famous story of the good Samaritan, the religious leaders--the Scribe and the Pharisee--had no time to help the man lying wounded on the road. After all, they had places to be and this seemingly dying man may have been a decoy, bait for an ambush. A Samaritan, a foreigner whose kind were hated by Jesus' fellow Jews, happened by, stopped, and helped the wounded man. "Who," Jesus asked his original hearer and us, "proved to be the true neighbor?"
Fortunately for me, I have a wife who is a better theologian than I am. And a better Christian. She never upbraided me with a single guilt-tripping word. Instead, she gave me an example of Christian faithfulness.
I've repented for my cynicism and insentivity, ways of thinking that lead us to regard the needy around us as less than human. Jesus calls such sullen hostility to others murder.
I thank God that, in His hospital for hypocrites, the Church, I have experienced the forgiveness of God and that as a believer in Christ, God fills me with the power of the Holy Spirit, to live a changed--and constantly changing--life.
I also pray that the next time the call to love a needy neighbor comes, I won't regard it as an inconvenient interruption, but as a holy opportunity, as an appointment with Jesus.
Lessons Learned on the Streets of Cleveland
Shortly after leaving her, I defended myself. "I didn't understand her at first," I said.But the fact is I hadn't wanted to understand her. To have done so would have meant making a choice I preferred not to make, a choice between believing her or not, a choice between living my faith or not.
Cleveland's downtown streets were nearly abandoned on this perfect Labor Day morning. My family and I were walking the few blocks from our hotel to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a few hours of fun. The doors opened at 10:00 and, at our pace, we likely would get there twenty minutes early.
To our right, a solitary figure, an overweight, reasonably well-dressed black woman laden with bags, could be seen. She was walking on a street running east-west; we were on one running north-south that would soon intersect it.
Although we were four, I was already slamming my interior drawbridge tight against this solo intruder. After all, I thought as I regarded her, aren't there operators on the streets who distract people in friendly conversation to allow accomplices to rob them or worse? I picked up my pace.
But the woman slowed hers. She timed things so that she met us just as we arrived on the northwest corner of that empty intersection.
I was almost relieved to hear what I thought she'd said. I heard her say that she wanted change for a ten. I never carry more than five or six bucks these days and I knew that all I had was a five. "Sorry," I said, "I can't help you."
"Wait a minute," the woman told us, "I'm no bum, I'm a nurse." She repeated that phrase three times as though it were a well-rehearsed routine. "My car broke down and I need to get to work. Buses don't run as often today and I need to get a taxi."
I was ready to move on. But my wife stopped and asked the woman how much she needed. "Ten dollars." She pulled out her purse and handed the woman the money.
As we walked on, my wife explained, "She may well have taken me. But if so, she'll have to answer for it. I don't want to have to answer for not giving to somebody who might really have a need."
Less than twenty-four hours before, I had preached a sermon on James 1:17-27, stressing the importance of living one's faith in Christ in the real world:
"But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves...Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."Many times, as a preacher, teacher, and writer, I've told my fellow Christians, along with others, who ridiculed followers of Jesus for being chumps when hit up by strangers that "...[Christians] understand that sometimes, people will take advantage of them...[but they prefer erring] on the side of mercy [rather] than on the side of judgment."
And many times, I'd reminded people that Christ calls us to view every person who has a need as though he or she were Christ Himself. Loving our neighbor is a way we love God.
"Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters," John the Evangelist writes in the New Testament, "are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen."
The call to serve God and neighbor always comes at inconvenient times. In Jesus' famous story of the good Samaritan, the religious leaders--the Scribe and the Pharisee--had no time to help the man lying wounded on the road. After all, they had places to be and this could have been an ambush. A Samaritan, a foreigner whose kind were hated by Jesus' fellow Jews, happened by, stopped, and helped the wounded man. "Who," Jesus asked his original hearer and us, "proved to be the true neighbor?"
Fortunately for me, I have a wife who is a better theologian than I am. And a better Christian. She never upbraided me with a single guilt-tripping word. Instead, she gave me an example of Christian faithfulness.
I've repented for my cynicism and insentivity, ways of thinking that lead us to regard the needy around us as less than human. Jesus calls our sullen hostility to others murder.
I thank God that, in His hospital for hypocrites, the Church, I have experienced the forgiveness of God and that as a believer in Christ, God fills me with the power of the Holy Spirit, to live a changed--and constantly changing--life.
I also pray that the next time the call to love a needy neighbor comes, I won't regard it as an inconvenient interruption, but as a holy opportunity, as an appointment with Jesus.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Some Thoughts on Steve Irwin's Death
This morning, before going to breakfast in the Cleveland hotel at which we were staying, we flipped on the television to get the forecast for the day. Almost immediately, the image of Steve Irwin appeared on the screen, along with the news of his death.Before this morning, my knowledge of Irwin was very limited. Channel surfing (and a friend of mine, who's fond of imitating Irwin) had taught me that he said, "Crikey" a lot, that he always wore shorts, and that he had once taken a foolhardy chance by feeding a crocodile while holding his small child. I also was aware that he had appeared in a movie a few years back. But that was about all I knew of him.
If you'd asked me last night, "Who is Steve Irwin?," I simply couldn't have told you.
So, the reaction to his death has taken me a bit off guard.
Once in the hotel dining area, I watched as dozens of people stopped what they were doing in order to gaze at the Plasma screen TV mounted above the line where they were loading up on eggs, bacon, and sausage, listening intently as Soledad O'Brien reported on Irwin's death.
Surfed-through newscasts seem to have been full of Irwin eulogies and retrospectives this evening. My daughter called tonight to ask if we'd heard the news. She also said that the cable channel on which Irwin's show had appeared was giving wall-to-wall coverage of his life.
Apparently, this fellow I'd known as only the Crikey Guy was a more significant presence in people's lives than I knew. I can't imagine that I'm alone in that.
My guess is too, that in this age of cable channels and web sites, there will be lots of celebrity TV hosts, recording artists, actors, and authors, people who will have significant international followings, but whose celebrity won't necessarily be widespread. Irwin was one whose celebrity had "crossed over" various demographic lines, making him at least somewhat recognizable to the general culture. Yet, he surely didn't enjoy the general recognition that once belonged to Marlon Perkins, owing to his Irwin-like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom TV show forty years ago.
Back then, there were only three TV networks (PBS, which existed in embryonic form, didn't really count as a full-fledged net then), there were no computers, and families generally sat in front of the television, watching the same shows and revering the same personalities together.
The long tail of today's internet world will confer star status on more people, who'll fill significant cultural roles, but there will be fewer megastars than we've had in the age of mass media. (There's a terrific article in the latest issue of Ode magazine on this subject, by the way.)
But of more immediate concern to me in all the eulogies that are being made for Steve Irwin is that impressionable young people will decide to pursue a life like his. From what little I know of Irwin, although he seems to have been an unfailingly nice man, he also appears to have been unnecessarily risky. How, for example, was the cause of conservation of which he was an ardent advocate advanced by dangling food before a crocodile while holding his month-old son? It's the sort of derring do that gets a crowd, to be sure. But what does something like that really accomplish?
The Jackass phenomenon, for example, has encouraged people to do all sorts of things to risk the wrath of animals. This has always struck me as exploitative of the animals who, after all, don't have the power to control their instincts or to think rationally that we human beings have. Why goad them into doing what they instinctively do to protect themselves and their own? It makes no sense to me.
Some risks are appropriate, of course. Life wouldn't be very interesting and the human race wouldn't advance very far if we all decided to quit taking reasonable chances. We can be thankful for people like Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther, the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, the astronauts, and so on. I only hope that the warm tributes being given to Irwin today don't cause young kids to take big, superfluous, and dangerous risks with their own lives.
[Also see here, here, and here.]
The Dylan Exhibition
Highly dependent on the Martin Scorsese documentary of last year, one of the highlights of our visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was Bob Dylan's American Journey, 1956-1966. Clips from the documentary can be seen interspersed throughout much of the two-story exhibition, which will end its run at the Cleveland museum in just four more days.For those who, for the first time, want to familiarize themselves with Dylan's work or for established fans like myself, two different elements will be of interest. For the first group, a series of listening booths in which you can hear every cut of every Dylan LP of this period, with excellent sound systems, will be a welcome introduction. For the latter group, sitting in a beautiful theater with great acoustics, is the perfect place to watch a seemingly endless loop of Dylan performances from the period, some of which I had never seen before. Included is an unusually accessible performance of Girl of the North Country.
I'm hoping that at some point in the future, the Hall will give similar treatment to the subsequent period of Dylan's career. It was in the 1970s that he produced albums which were less political, more personal and poignant. Blood on the Tracks, from this period, is my pick for Dylan's very best LP and it comes from this period. The title itself is evocative of the pain and wistfulness of one who has lost at love evident on every tract of the album.
The Perfect Labor Day Getaway!
Immediately following worship yesterday, we headed up I-71 to Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Although we've lived in Ohio almost our entire lives and have traveled extensively around the state, it was my wife's first visit to Cleveland and my first since 1978!
The Hall of Fame is a fantastic place. Its multimedia documentation of rock and roll truly conveys a sense of what this music is about culturally, as well as showing its antecedents and multiple expressions. It's a museum with a serious side. But it never forgets something that a member of the Clash says in one of the two excellent films that begins every visit to the hall: Rock and roll exists to remind us that life is--or can be--fun!
I think that assessment is true on two counts...
- In spite of all the agony and horrors that happen in this life, I still believe that life can be and is meant to be fun...a wonderfully unnecessary gift from the mind of an endlessly creative God. By that, I mean simply that God didn't have to give us this gift. But I'm surely grateful that He did!
- And I think that rock music can remind us of that simple fact. Through the years, I've been at concerts with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, dcTalk, Chicago, Newsboys, Elton John, James Taylor, Bryan Duncan, Audio Adrenaline, and many others. The sign of a really good rock concert is, that at the end of the evening, after the last encore, you're nearly as exhausted, almost as sweaty, and your voice nearly as spent as the performers on stage. In one famous live cut, Christian rocker Steve Taylor exhorts his audience, "I want to hear you scream until your ears bleed!" No matter how serious it gets, rock is still about celebrating the sheer joy of being alive.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
More Than Just Words
[This message was shared with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, during worship celebrations on September 2 and 3, 2006.]
James 1:17-27
Today, I begin at the end. The last line in our Bible lesson says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
There’s a song that little kids sing: “If you’re happy and know it...stomp your feet...clap your hands...bang your head.” The point of this song is that if you believe in Jesus Christ and through Him, you know that God is with you forever, it will show in how you live.
Many Christians seem to have forgotten this and instead of living their faith in the here and now, act like passengers on a jetliner waiting to land at a busy airport, circling eternity with no apparent interest in this life or how they live it.
The world notices this detached attitude, too. One blogging writer whose site I read this past week wrote, “I don’t understand religious people who look for a paradise after this life, instead of doing their best to create it here.” Apparently he has only encountered Christians who view their lives as inconveniences to be endured, rather than places where they can live with the power of the risen Christ at the center of their lives. The phrases, passionless Christians and disengaged Christianity may be two oxymorons, but we all know Christians and congregations who are indifferent to their faith, to life, and to the world around them.
A colleague of mine told me about something that happened in the life of his son-in-law when the latter was a boy of about ten. Someone at his church gave an impassioned presentation about the work of missionaries and told the congregation how important it was to support them with their prayers and their dollars. When my colleague's future son-in-law heard this, he approached the speaker and offered him all the money he had in his pocket. The speaker looked at him and said, "It was only a talk, son."
For we Christians, one antidote to such un-Christian non-living might be to read the New Testament book of James! Its author has traditionally been thought to be James, the brother of Jesus. As you read the first few verses of his book, you understand why James wrote it: The late first-century church was squabbling so much, everyone so hung up on getting their own ways, that its effectiveness was hampered, killing its mission. Ask God for wisdom, James tells the churches early in his book. With God’s wisdom, you’ll resolve your disputes and tap into the power that God gives to His Church to fulfill Your mission of sharing Christ’s kindness with the world. You’ll be happy and the world will know it!
As I've mentioned before, when my wife was three-and-a-half months pregnant for our son, she underwent an appendectomy. Three hours after her surgery at University Hospital in Columbus, one of the nurses had her up and walking. Years earlier, that would have been unthinkable. But in the intervening period, medical professionals had seen that extended bed rest for surgical patients isn’t good for their recovery. They lose strength needed for recovery when they’re not up and moving.
That’s a lot like Christian faith. Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for us to have a relationship with God that lasts forever, of course. Our role in our salvation is simply a matter of trusting what Christ has done for us when He died on the cross and rose from the dead. But faith is a muscle. If you don’t use it, it becomes a blob of unused potential.
If you have Christ and you know it, your life will surely show it. That’s why James says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for [people] in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Well, if that’s the object of our faith while we live in this world, how do we get there? It starts with God, the generous giver. “Every generous act of giving,” James says, “with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights...In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” God gives us new, everlasting lives. That’s how the life of faith begins: We let God save us from sin and death.
James writes next: “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger...rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.”
There are no solo Christians. People who live out their faith in Christ do it within the fellowship of the Church. But being part of a fellowship of believers isn’t always easy. A friend of mine once told me that in the midst of excitement over a new building program, one family left the church because they didn’t like the color of the carpeting selected by the appointments committee!
Churches that take care of the needs of people in their communities are ones that have figured out how to get along with one another and allow for differences. They trash their egos and they listen--to God, to others in the Church, and to their spiritually-disconnected neighbors. In fact, I think that listening may be among the most powerful ways we have for sharing Christ with each other and the world.
In the latest issue of Lutheran Partners, a magazine for rostered leaders of our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Dr. Nathan Frambach tells of an experience he had back in 2000 in a hotel coffee shop. During the year before it happened, he had been flying into Saint Louis for weekly planning meetings surrounding the National Lutheran Youth Gathering that was to happen in that city. He stayed at the same hotel every visit and because of his odd check-in time, he seemed always to be assisted by the same part-time hotel clerk, a college student named Leslie. By the time the two-week gathering rolled around, Frambach says that he and Leslie had brief, chatty, and polite conversations.
When it finally dawned on Leslie that Frambach had something to do with the Church, she had questions. Learning that he was Lutheran, she said that she had been raised in the Lutheran church. After all her questions, Frambach decided he could ask her a few. Foremost among them: Where, he wondered, was Leslie at now in her spiritual life?
She grew silent. Finally, she told him that she was a Wiccan, a believer in witchcraft. Leslie seemed to wait for the condemnations or the recited Bible verses or the rhetorical manipulation to which she had apparently been previously subjected by Christians. Instead, Frambach allowed as how he didn’t know much about what it meant to be Wiccan and said that he’d like to know more.
Reluctantly, Leslie said that if he was sincere and wouldn’t try to religiously manipulate her, she could meet him in the hotel coffee shop at 11:00 to talk. When they met, Frambach said almost nothing for the first forty-five minutes. Leslie told him about her life and her religion. She apologized for talking so long. But Frambach assured her that he didn’t mind and that he had learned a lot. Then Leslie asked about his life and faith. It was an open invitation to share his belief in Jesus Christ and it had all come about because Nathan Frambach had listened.
Christians and churches that live out their faith depend on God to give new life and they work hard at maintaining loving relationships with each other and the world around them. Those are the first two steps to being a church that lives out its faith by caring for others. What’s the third step? James writes, “...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” Christian churches that live the faith they confess don’t confine it to Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings. They know that faith in Christ is more than reciting a creed. They do the Word they read in the Bible!
That’s why I’ve gotten so excited every Sunday night this summer when going through your reporting on the hours you’re spending in service to your neighbors--whether it’s with the Boys and Girls Club, or picking up groceries for an elderly neighbor, or whatever it might be.
It excites me, too, to hear about the telephone calls and cards you share among one another in tough times.
And it excites me to know how much time all of you spend praying for the people on our prayer list.
It excites me to see how welcoming you are toward visitors.
And I loved it this past summer when, in our most recent new members class, Kelly talked about how she and her daughter and new son-in-law came to Friendship. The M Family, especially Bryan, told them how much the congregation meant to them and invited them to be with us.
These are all examples of faith--not some dead religion that waits for the sweet by and by--but of faith that’s alive. Faith that’s alive brings a taste of heaven to the world around us and that’s what God wants to use us to make happen, if only we’ll let God shine through us!
This past week was a horrible one for our community. In a house just one-quarter of a mile from where I live, three year old Marcus Fiesel was killed. I have no answers as to why this was allowed to happen.
But a different question has haunted me ever since word of his murder came out. It’s this: What if we in the Church had more overtly lived our faith here in our community? Maybe somehow, you or I or someone could have given the people who allegedly killed Marcus Fiesel a glimpse of the new life that Jesus makes possible for all sinners. Maybe they would have come to faith in Christ. And maybe their lifestyle of utter depravity, self-centeredness, and evil would have been replaced by life with Christ and with Christ’s Church.
I don’t know the answer to my haunting question. But I do know this: We in the Church--we at Friendship Lutheran Church--should rededicate ourselves to the mission of the Church so that what happened to Marcus will never happen to another child in this community again!
It’s also why I hope that all of us will remember that authentic faith is something that we live together and that we live that kind of faith...
James 1:17-27
Today, I begin at the end. The last line in our Bible lesson says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
There’s a song that little kids sing: “If you’re happy and know it...stomp your feet...clap your hands...bang your head.” The point of this song is that if you believe in Jesus Christ and through Him, you know that God is with you forever, it will show in how you live.
Many Christians seem to have forgotten this and instead of living their faith in the here and now, act like passengers on a jetliner waiting to land at a busy airport, circling eternity with no apparent interest in this life or how they live it.
The world notices this detached attitude, too. One blogging writer whose site I read this past week wrote, “I don’t understand religious people who look for a paradise after this life, instead of doing their best to create it here.” Apparently he has only encountered Christians who view their lives as inconveniences to be endured, rather than places where they can live with the power of the risen Christ at the center of their lives. The phrases, passionless Christians and disengaged Christianity may be two oxymorons, but we all know Christians and congregations who are indifferent to their faith, to life, and to the world around them.
A colleague of mine told me about something that happened in the life of his son-in-law when the latter was a boy of about ten. Someone at his church gave an impassioned presentation about the work of missionaries and told the congregation how important it was to support them with their prayers and their dollars. When my colleague's future son-in-law heard this, he approached the speaker and offered him all the money he had in his pocket. The speaker looked at him and said, "It was only a talk, son."
For we Christians, one antidote to such un-Christian non-living might be to read the New Testament book of James! Its author has traditionally been thought to be James, the brother of Jesus. As you read the first few verses of his book, you understand why James wrote it: The late first-century church was squabbling so much, everyone so hung up on getting their own ways, that its effectiveness was hampered, killing its mission. Ask God for wisdom, James tells the churches early in his book. With God’s wisdom, you’ll resolve your disputes and tap into the power that God gives to His Church to fulfill Your mission of sharing Christ’s kindness with the world. You’ll be happy and the world will know it!
As I've mentioned before, when my wife was three-and-a-half months pregnant for our son, she underwent an appendectomy. Three hours after her surgery at University Hospital in Columbus, one of the nurses had her up and walking. Years earlier, that would have been unthinkable. But in the intervening period, medical professionals had seen that extended bed rest for surgical patients isn’t good for their recovery. They lose strength needed for recovery when they’re not up and moving.
That’s a lot like Christian faith. Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for us to have a relationship with God that lasts forever, of course. Our role in our salvation is simply a matter of trusting what Christ has done for us when He died on the cross and rose from the dead. But faith is a muscle. If you don’t use it, it becomes a blob of unused potential.
If you have Christ and you know it, your life will surely show it. That’s why James says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for [people] in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Well, if that’s the object of our faith while we live in this world, how do we get there? It starts with God, the generous giver. “Every generous act of giving,” James says, “with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights...In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” God gives us new, everlasting lives. That’s how the life of faith begins: We let God save us from sin and death.
James writes next: “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger...rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.”
There are no solo Christians. People who live out their faith in Christ do it within the fellowship of the Church. But being part of a fellowship of believers isn’t always easy. A friend of mine once told me that in the midst of excitement over a new building program, one family left the church because they didn’t like the color of the carpeting selected by the appointments committee!
Churches that take care of the needs of people in their communities are ones that have figured out how to get along with one another and allow for differences. They trash their egos and they listen--to God, to others in the Church, and to their spiritually-disconnected neighbors. In fact, I think that listening may be among the most powerful ways we have for sharing Christ with each other and the world.
In the latest issue of Lutheran Partners, a magazine for rostered leaders of our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Dr. Nathan Frambach tells of an experience he had back in 2000 in a hotel coffee shop. During the year before it happened, he had been flying into Saint Louis for weekly planning meetings surrounding the National Lutheran Youth Gathering that was to happen in that city. He stayed at the same hotel every visit and because of his odd check-in time, he seemed always to be assisted by the same part-time hotel clerk, a college student named Leslie. By the time the two-week gathering rolled around, Frambach says that he and Leslie had brief, chatty, and polite conversations.
When it finally dawned on Leslie that Frambach had something to do with the Church, she had questions. Learning that he was Lutheran, she said that she had been raised in the Lutheran church. After all her questions, Frambach decided he could ask her a few. Foremost among them: Where, he wondered, was Leslie at now in her spiritual life?
She grew silent. Finally, she told him that she was a Wiccan, a believer in witchcraft. Leslie seemed to wait for the condemnations or the recited Bible verses or the rhetorical manipulation to which she had apparently been previously subjected by Christians. Instead, Frambach allowed as how he didn’t know much about what it meant to be Wiccan and said that he’d like to know more.
Reluctantly, Leslie said that if he was sincere and wouldn’t try to religiously manipulate her, she could meet him in the hotel coffee shop at 11:00 to talk. When they met, Frambach said almost nothing for the first forty-five minutes. Leslie told him about her life and her religion. She apologized for talking so long. But Frambach assured her that he didn’t mind and that he had learned a lot. Then Leslie asked about his life and faith. It was an open invitation to share his belief in Jesus Christ and it had all come about because Nathan Frambach had listened.
Christians and churches that live out their faith depend on God to give new life and they work hard at maintaining loving relationships with each other and the world around them. Those are the first two steps to being a church that lives out its faith by caring for others. What’s the third step? James writes, “...be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” Christian churches that live the faith they confess don’t confine it to Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings. They know that faith in Christ is more than reciting a creed. They do the Word they read in the Bible!
That’s why I’ve gotten so excited every Sunday night this summer when going through your reporting on the hours you’re spending in service to your neighbors--whether it’s with the Boys and Girls Club, or picking up groceries for an elderly neighbor, or whatever it might be.
It excites me, too, to hear about the telephone calls and cards you share among one another in tough times.
And it excites me to know how much time all of you spend praying for the people on our prayer list.
It excites me to see how welcoming you are toward visitors.
And I loved it this past summer when, in our most recent new members class, Kelly talked about how she and her daughter and new son-in-law came to Friendship. The M Family, especially Bryan, told them how much the congregation meant to them and invited them to be with us.
These are all examples of faith--not some dead religion that waits for the sweet by and by--but of faith that’s alive. Faith that’s alive brings a taste of heaven to the world around us and that’s what God wants to use us to make happen, if only we’ll let God shine through us!
This past week was a horrible one for our community. In a house just one-quarter of a mile from where I live, three year old Marcus Fiesel was killed. I have no answers as to why this was allowed to happen.
But a different question has haunted me ever since word of his murder came out. It’s this: What if we in the Church had more overtly lived our faith here in our community? Maybe somehow, you or I or someone could have given the people who allegedly killed Marcus Fiesel a glimpse of the new life that Jesus makes possible for all sinners. Maybe they would have come to faith in Christ. And maybe their lifestyle of utter depravity, self-centeredness, and evil would have been replaced by life with Christ and with Christ’s Church.
I don’t know the answer to my haunting question. But I do know this: We in the Church--we at Friendship Lutheran Church--should rededicate ourselves to the mission of the Church so that what happened to Marcus will never happen to another child in this community again!
It’s also why I hope that all of us will remember that authentic faith is something that we live together and that we live that kind of faith...
- when we gratefully receive the gift of new life we have in Christ;
- when we live together within the Church in humility and love; and
- when we dare to do the love that we read about in our Bibles!
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