Quote of the Day

"There is no medical way to explain how you survived your heart attack. God's hand must have been on you." 

That was from the cardiac care nurse who oriented me today as I began twelve weeks of cardiac rehabilitation. Her words echoed those of my cardiologist and of the nurses at the McConnell Heart Health Center of Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, where I underwent a heart catheterization and stent implantation last week. 

But the way she expressed herself was stunning to me. 

Whatever You want me to do, Lord, help me to do it. Amen!

"Something Better"

God doesn't promise that this life will be easy. But whatever happens, we're called to be faithful to God. We can dare to do that because in God's ultimate self-disclosure, the crucified and risen Jesus, we know that God is always faithful to us...and because something better awaits us!

See here.

Freedom in Christ

Eric Waters' outstanding sermon on Christian freedom and the Fourth of July. What Pastor Waters calls God-given rights I would call gifts from God which no human being has the right to deny us. But that's quibbling.

Feeling Stronger Every Day!

Another nap and a longer walk today. Took a nice walk yesterday evening and then we were surprised by good friends (you know who you are), who took us for a ride in their jeep. Fun! Lots of reading and praying, too.  Feeling stronger every day!

"Christian" in More Than Name Only

Here.

Acts 11:19-26

¹⁹Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. ²⁰But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. ²¹The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. ²²News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. ²³When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; ²⁴for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. ²⁵Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, ²⁶and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”

Luther on "Opposing Evil"

This comes from Faith Alone, a daily devotional composed of Martin Luther's essays, sermons, and table talks:

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. (Matthew 5:39-40)

Getting involved in secular matters isn't a sin for Christians. Believers are simply carrying out the responsibilities that all citizens have--whether Christian or non-Christian. Yet believers have to consciously avoid sin and do what Christ expects of them. In contrast, the people of the world don't do what Christ requires.

That's why when Christians fight in a war, file a lawsuit, or impose a punishment, they are functioning in their role as soldier, lawyer, or judge. But within these roles, Christians will want to keep their consciences clear and their motives pure. They don't want to hurt anyone. So they live simultaneously as Christians and as secular people. They live as Christians in all situations, enduring hardships in this world. They live as secular people obeying all national laws, community regulations, and domestic rules.

In summary, Christians don't live for visible things in this life. These things fall under the authority of secular government, which Christ doesn't intend to abolish. Outwardly and physically, Christ doesn't want us to evade governmental authority or expect us to abandon our civic duties. Instead he wants us to submit to and make use of the organizational and regulatory powers of the government which keep society intact. But inwardly and spiritually, we live under Christ's authority. His kingdom isn't concerned with governmental authority and doesn't interfere with it but is willing to accept it. So as Christians and as individuals, we shouldn't resist an evil person. On the other hand, as citizens with responsibilities in society, we should oppose evil to the full extent of our authority.

[UPDATE: In the comments, Bob asked what might be meant by "secular." I tried to answer that. Here's what I wrote (fixed a bit, since I initially wrote it on the fly):

Thank you for your kind comments. I am feeling better and in fact, in a short while, intend to do a little dusting here in the house while my wife handles lawn-mowing duties.

As Luther uses the term, secular, in this citation, I believe that he's referring to offices and functions other than Christian "offices," whether those filled by clergy or laity.

What underlays these remarks is Luther's understanding that God operates in two kingdoms here on earth: the kingdom of the right and the kingdom of the left. The kingdom of the right is composed of those persons who voluntarily and by faith, live under the reign of Christ. They remain sinners as well as saints, but they seek by daily repentance and renewal to live out the new life given to them by Jesus Christ. Their intention to live in accordance with God's will is something they offer up freely out of gratitude for Christ and is not coerced.

However, because we still live in a fallen world, God has also established the kingdom of the left. This is composed of the governments, laws, and regulations, whose coercion is necessary to keep unrepentant humanity in check. Christians voluntarily live under such secular authority out of love for their neighbor. [Luther also says that if there were no kingdom of the left, we Christians would live in a world like lambs among ravenous wolves.]

Accordingly, Luther argues that Christians may, with clear consciences, provide services to governments. He would argue, I'm sure, as the Augsburg Confession states emphatically, that the Church and those holding Church offices, in their capacities as officers of the Church should refrain from taking secular authority, lest voluntary acquiescence to Christ's authority become coercion; lest too, those pastors, priests, or bishops speak and act on their own authority rather than that springing from the Church's true power: the Word and the Sacraments.

There is good reason to be critical of some of what Luther reasons from Scripture. There were too many Lutheran clergy--Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a notable and blessed exception--who felt that acceptance of secular authority meant they needed to go along with Nazism. There were also Lutheran apologists for slavery in the antebellum US.

But this may not be an inherent flaw in Luther's two kingdoms thinking. There must be exceptions when Christians break with secular authority.

A Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder, provides a useful gauge by which we can judge whether Christians are free to break with secular authorities. Yoder puts two passages of Romans in tension. First is Romans 13: 1:

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God."

The other is Romans 12:2:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect."

I may have my personal opinions about the actions of secular authorities. As a Christian individual, I am free to vote as a please, write to members of government expressing my views, etc.

But I dare not invoke the name of Christ, nor may my Church, speak out on political issues unless a secular authority asks me or other Christians to live in ways that conform to the fallenness of the world rather than the will of Christ.

Keep in mind that Paul wrote these words during the Roman Empire. He did not, in his office as an apostle of the Gospel, speak out on political issues. The Church of today should show similar reticence, I think. We have bigger fish to fry--making disciples.

If the Church will be about the business of making disciples, those living under the kingdom of the right--Christ's kingdom--will change the world without political power plays, social statements, wars, or coercion. The power of the Holy Spirit to woo people to faith and true righteousness is infinitely greater than the secular world's capacity to coerce what Luther called a "civil righteousness" from resentful citizens. The Church is crazy to go for secular power or to cozy up to politicians when it already has more power at its disposal--through the Word and the Sacraments and prayer--than any government or empire in the history of the world.

That's my windy response, Bob. I hope that it helps.]

Fourth of July, the Declaration, Rights, Responsibilities

Historian Garry Wills, in his wonderful book on Lincoln at Gettysburg, rightly points out that for the first eighty-nine years of their history, citizens of the United States saw the Constitution, that document which forged the disparate and unruly original states into a single nation, as their birth certificate. Washington and the other Framers saw the Constitution as the document that completed the American Revolution, because liberty without mutual accountability is tyranny and chaos. It was Lincoln at Gettysburg who gave the Declaration of Independence the significance it retains to this day.

Though the Declaration lacks the force of law, its significance for our country and for the history of freedom around the world cannot be underestimated.

As a Christian who strives to pay heed to the Bible, I question the entire concept of "unalienable rights" on which the Declaration is predicated. But I do acknowledge that in the civil realm in which theists and secularists live and govern themselves together, it is a useful fiction, the content of which we can collectively decide. (Certainly, our notion of what constitutes a right and who--which has come to include the unpropertied, blacks, women in the intervening centuries--might stake a claim a right, has expanded over the years.)

For me though, it's personally more useful to think in terms of Jesus' "golden rule": Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I think more of my "unalienable responsibilities" to love my neighbor as I love myself, the second part of Jesus' great commandment, than I do of my rights. (The first part of Jesus' great commandment is to love God with all one's heart.)

Of course, not all voluntarily live by this ethic--even we Christians who, on earth, remain saints as well as sinners. That's why government remains what Martin Luther calls "an emergency measure," necessary until the return of Jesus and the final establishment of His kingdom. Government exists to coerce us into consideration of our neighbor when we fail to offer it voluntarily.

Winston Churchill once observed that democracy is the worst form of government...except for every other form of government. He's right, I think, which is why I feel so blessed to live in the cradle of modern democracy, the United States.

Take some time to listen to the hosts, reporters, and contributors of National Public Radio read again this year, the entire text of the Declaration of Independence, here. May God bless the United States of America and may the United States of America always bless God!

Learning to Relax

One of the hardest things for me to do is relax.

There are many factors that no doubt have contributed to my being so relax-averse. One is my work ethic. Growing up, one of the worst things that could be said about someone was that they were lazy or that they lacked initiative. Because my interests--other than sports--were more sedentary, things like reading, writing, creating, and other things not mechanical, I always feared that I might deserve the label of "lazy." I'm sure that, at some level, to disprove this epithet, I've been a harder worker than many.

Don't misunderstand, I love to work and I love the work to which God has called me. But there has to be a shutdown time, a point at which we agree with Jesus to let the day's troubles be enough for that day. Clearly, one of the reasons that God established a sabbath is so that we would set aside a day on which we could rest, recharge, and pay particular heed to God's Word. Martin Luther talks about this in his explanation to the Third Commandment:

The Third Commandment.

Thou shalt sanctify the holy-day.

What does this mean?--Answer.
We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.

Another factor in my relaxation-aversion may be the nature of my work. While of course, I can't visit with shut-ins or the hospitalized at all hours of the night, I can work on a sermon, send a note, compose an email, or write a press release at any time. Because I've always been a night owl anyway, the temptation to do "just one more thing" is probably greater for me in the evening hours than it might be for others and when you're dealing with work that is never done (won't be done until Jesus comes back), the temptation is magnified. In recent months, I've even found it difficult to justify sitting to watch movies with my family because of a sense that I had something more to get done.

Another element of my personality working against relaxation is that I'm a widget man. A widget, in the days before computer techs took over the term, was simply a euphemism for any means of keeping score: How many transistors or hood ornaments a factory produced; How many battles a general won; How many words you got right on the spelling test. Widgets can affirm your productivity and, at a sick level, your value or worth as a human being.

Although I was an indifferent student, I always prided myself on the "widgets" I acquired in areas that mattered to me. I never got less than an A in History, Social Studies, English, or Spelling when I was growing up. I loved flaunting my supposed "mastery" of these subjects.

My first love was politics, in part I suppose, because on election night, voters deliver a score. The more votes you get, the more affirmed you are.

A close second to politics as I was growing up was sports. I was never a good athlete. But I was an earnest one. A small fry, I nonetheless loved to play basketball. Winning was so important to me that I tried to find subtle and not-so-subtle ways to compensate for my deficiencies. "Watch out," Steve, a friend of mine told another friend with a smile as we got ready to play some hoops, after we had all reached our thirties, "Mark's a dirty player."

In my twenties, two of my very best friends--Jerry and Tom--worked hard with me on my softball skills. I was the only guy on our team who hadn't played varsity baseball at least at the junior high level. (Most had played high school ball and several had played in college.) I became obsessed with my batting average and five years into our stint in an industrial league, loved showing people the stats I meticulously kept which demonstrated that I had the highest average on the team.

I even carried this silliness over into my years as a pastor. Once, I was invited to a conference for pastors of congregations in small towns or in rural areas. I was serving at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in rural Okolona, amid the corn and soybean fields of northwest Ohio. To start out, the convener asked us to give a ballpark estimate of our weekly worship attendance. The other pastors sitting around the circle said things like, "Around...," "About...," "Somewhere around...." Just before the meeting, I had gone through my weekly ritual of confirming the Sunday attendance and figuring out what that number did to the average for the year. "About 282," I said. The place erupted in laughter. "About 282?" someone asked.

When I took a call to establish a new congregation in the Cincinnati area, what became Friendship Lutheran Church, my tendency to obsess over numbers was encouraged. There are thresholds to be met by so-called "mission churches": attendance figures, membership numbers, congregational giving. These, in turn, decide whether the mission church meeting in temporary facilities, will be able to erect its own first building unit.

All of that is important, of course. I agree with the maxim of Rick Warren: We count people because people count. There is no sure way to measure how many disciples, followers of Christ, a church is making. But any pastor who doesn't care about seeing more people exposed to the Gospel should think about going into some other line of work. Jesus has given His Church a great commission, to reach people with the good news of new life as a free gift for all who repent and believe in Him. The Church is called to "make disciples."

But pastors and congregations must avoid overestimating our role in the disciple-making process. Jesus says, "I will build My Church." He didn't say, "Mark will build the Church." (Although in the passage from which that line is taken, Jesus is saying that He will use the confession of Him as Savior, like the one made by His follower, Peter, to build His Church. God's people are the central means by whom Jesus builds His Church.)

Furthermore, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, it's only by the power of the Holy Spirit that a person can confess, "Jesus is Lord." For a recovering control freak like myself, it's tough to simply share Christ by word and deed and leave the rest to the Spirit.

My heart attack has taught me what I should already have known as a Christian:

• I'm not in charge.
• "Successful" or not, God loves me.
• I don't deserve the gifts of God's grace, but without personal merit, I can appropriate forgiveness and new life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Those are important facts for me to remember if I'm to learn to relax.

As I mentioned yesterday, over the past few days, I've been re-reading Dr. Keith Sehnert's Stress/Unstress, published in 1981. In a section I read last evening, Sehnert mentions Dr. Herbert Benson's book, The Relaxation Response. Benson looked at relaxation techniques from different cultures and noted that they have four elements in common:

1. Quiet environment
2. Mental device such as a sound or word
3. Passive attitude to help one rest and relax
4. Comfortable position to reduce muscular effort to a minimum

Benson then developed a method described in his book. I adapted it for myself last evening and found it deeply relaxing. After doing it, I was definitely ready to hit the sack. Here (with my adaptations in italics), is Benson's relaxation response:

1. In a quiet environment, sit in a comfortable position. (I used my Ikea office chair, extremely comfortable.)
2. Close your eyes.
3. Relax all your muscles, beginning with your feet and progressing to calves, thighs, lower torso, chest, shoulders, neck, head. Allow them to remain deeply relaxed. (I had forgotten how easy it is to relax parts of my body in this way. Keeping them relaxed is a challenge, but not insurmountable. You just have to give yourself the time and the silence.)
4. Breathe through your nose. Become aware of your breathing. Say the word 'one' silently to yourself as you breathe in; repeat it when you breathe out. (The breathing was fine with me. But in my mind to myself, I recalled promises from Scripture, prayed in Jesus' Name, and visualized and prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill and heal my body.)
5. Continue the practice for 20 minutes. You may open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm clock. When you finish, sit quietly for several more minutes, at first with your eyes closed, then later with your eyes open. (I was able to keep my eyes closed for the entire 20 minutes and found it deeply refreshing.)

I understand that for many people, finding the time to do this exercise just once a day may prove impossible. For you, other modes of relaxation may work. If so, let me know. Recent events have made me very open to learning other methods.