Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Ephesians 6:10-20

[For a look at the first pass and an explanation of what this is all about, see here.]

Ephesians 6:10-20

A Few More General Comments
1. Either implicitly or overtly, most commentators organize the passage as follows:

vv.10-13: Opening with God's "command to take up God's weaponry against hostile spiritual powers"
vv.14-17: Linking "divine armor with virtues or gifts of salvation"
vv.18-20: Prayer

2. Walter Taylor sees the entire passage as being composed of seven exhortations. They're found in: 6:10; 6:11-12; 6:13; 6:14-16; 6:17; 6:18a; and 6:18b-20.

3. NIB points out that throughout this section, Paul--or whatever member of the Pauline school of Christianity authored this letter--harks back to themes explored in preceding chapters. This section particularly surfaces Christ's power, mentioned memorably at 12:19-21, and how that power is at work in our world today. (See 1:21; 2:2; 3:10) "His [Christ's] power provides the energy at work in believers and in the ministry of the imprisoned apostle (3:7)."

More later, I hope.

John Schroeder with Interesting Take on 'The Nature of Blogging'

He especially addresses what makes a Christian blog Christian. It isn't necessarily about whether one does devotionals or says, "Praise the Lord," says John. It's more about whether one's faith is evident in how people are treated and issues are tackled, even when disagreeing with other bloggers:

...there is lots of griping in some circles of Christian blogging that Hugh Hewitt is not a "real" Christian blogger because he writes about politics almost exclusively. I beg to differ...graciousness, kindness, and generosity...set Hugh apart as a Christian blogger among the leading polibloggers.

You want to redeem Christian blogging [?]...link generously, disagree kindly, never insult, make friends..., PRAY FOR OTHER CHRISTIAN BLOGGERS. These things will change our world...far more effectively than arguing about the correct exegesis of some obscure passage.

Amen. Read the whole thing.

By the way, Hugh Hewitt and I don't always agree on things. But I have found him to be unfailingly gracious to me, generous in linking to this blog and others, unapologetic about his Christian faith, and even when he disagrees with those he interviews on his radio show, polite and civil.

It would be wrong to describe Hugh's politics as Christian just as it would be incorrect to label the politics of Jim Wallis or Barry Lynn in the same way. God, I'm convinced, is neither a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how faithfully we may be in attempting to pray about and bring our Christian sensibilites to our politics.

But, allowing for the human imperfections we all bring to political discussions (and every other sort of discussion), I think it's fair to say that Hugh seeks to be a faithful Christian as he goes about his day as a radio host, author, lawprof, AND blogger.

But back to the main point here. (There is a main point here.) John has written something very important here.

Take It Easy

Pope Benedict XVI, the Associated Press reports, has warned people against overwork. According to the article:

During his traditional weekly appearance to bless the faithful, Benedict quoted from writings of St. Bernard in the 12th century meant for the popes of his time on the subject of overwork.

Benedict quoted the saint as advising pontiffs to "watch out for the dangers of an excessive activity, whatever ... the job that you hold, because many jobs often lead to the 'hardening of the heart,' as well as 'suffering of the spirit, loss of intelligence.'"

"That warning is valid for every kind of work, even those involved in the governing of the church," 79-year-old Benedict said.

Rest from work is commanded by the Bible itself. Taking breathers in order to recharge our spiritual and physical batteries, taking it easy and soaking up God's love for us by heeding His Word, is what lay behind the Third Commandment, discussed here.

I am Pumped!

It's tough not to be excited these days...

My Cincinnati Reds won against the Houston Astros last night, engaging in more late-inning heroics. After falling behind 3-0, the Reds rallied late, tying the game on a three-run homer by Rich Aurilia, before going ahead on Royce Clayton's RBI single.

Reds TV play-by-play announcer George Grand pointed out after the game that it was the twelfth game this year in which the Reds line-up went down on strikes ten times or more and still won the game, tied for tops in the NL in that category. The point is that the Reds have an explosive offense that can put a lot of runs on the board in a hurry, as they did against Pittsburgh on Saturday night...twice.

Now that general manager Wayne Krivsky and owner Bob Castellini have acquired pitching that, most days, can keep the Reds in ballgames, the team is starting to give its offense the support it has so long needed.

The win is the third in a row for the Reds, a team that's staying in the hunt for a post-season playoff berth by winning each individual series they play.

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox, aren't doing so well. While my baseball universe has always been pretty much the Reds and everybody else, among American League teams, I've long had a soft spot for the Red Sox.

But the team from Boston has taken a nosedive lately. The New York Yankees completed a five-game sweep of the Red Sox in Boston yesterday afternoon. As the ESPN networks pointed out last night, the loss climaxes a month-long skid that has seen Boston fall from first place in the AL East Division, three-and-a-half games ahead of the Yankees, to second place, six-and-a-half games behind New York. A ten game descent in one month's time!

If Boston can't win their division, it's unlikely that they could go to the playoffs as a Wild Card team. The Wild Card slot goes to the team with the team unable to win its division, but has the best win-loss record. Right now, several AL teams have a better shot at that berth than Boston.

While it's way too early to count the Red Sox out of post-season play, things look considerably grimmer today than they did five days ago, when they begam their series with New York.

Lotsa Stuff on Ephesians

Since this weekend's worship celebration at the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church--and lots of other churches--will focus on the summary peroration of the New Testament book of Ephesians, I thought that I'd share these posts. Many of the themes discussed in these posts come to play in the text for this week, Ephesians 6:10-20.

Changing Your World Through Amazing Grace
Changing Your World By Being a Disciple
Changing Your World Through Prayer
Sanctification: Growing Up to Be Like Christ
From Prime Time TV: An Unexpected Bible Lesson
Darkness Meets Light
Growing Up to Be Like Jesus
First Pass at Ephesians 2:1-10
Second Pass at Ephesians 2:1-10
What To Do on the Way from God to God
First Pass at Ephesians 1:3-14
Aiming for God's Aims for Our Lives
First Pass at Ephesians 2:11-22
Second Pass at Ephesians 2:11-22
We Have Peace
First Pass at Ephesians 3:14-21
Second Pass at Ephesians 3:14-21
Abundance Beyond Imagining
First Pass at Ephesians 4:1-16
Growing Up...Together
First Pass at Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Second Pass at Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Third Pass at Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Living a New Life
First Pass at Ephesians 5:15-20
Second Pass at Ephesians 5:15-20
Third Pass at Ephesians 5:15-20
How to Use a Life

First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Ephesians 6:10-20

[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.]

This Weekend's Bible Lesson:
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 15As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.

19Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

General Comments:
1. For basic information on Ephesians, see here.

2. This lesson is the rhetorical summarization of the book of Ephesians, which we've been looking at through much of this summer.

3. According to Ephesians 1:10, peace and reconciliation with God and oneness between God and His creation comes from the plan of salvation effected through Jesus Christ (see Ephesians 1:10). That peace includes the Body of Christ, as Ephesians describes the Church, Christ's eternal community of reconciliation already alive in a world darkened by evil. The rulers and powers discussed in this passage know about God's plan and attempt to destroy our peace with God. That's what lay behind this passage's exhortation to the Ephesian Christians--and to us--to cover ourselves in the power of God, protecting ourselves against "the wiles of the devil."

4. I love this summary of the passage by Chris Haslam:

The author now concludes his letter. Earlier, he has prayed that his readers may come to know the power of God operative in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ to heaven, and in his victory over the forces of evil. The Church participates in that victory; its members know something of this power in their conversion: a resurrection from a fatalism that viewed the world as continually declining towards evil.

Now the author tells them that they must learn to rely on that power: they are to equip themselves with “armour” (vv. 11, 13) provided by God, as they oppose not people (“blood and flesh”, v. 12) but the malevolent forces (“rulers ... authorities”) which control them. The metaphor of the soldier is from Isaiah; here he is girded with “truth” (v. 14) and integrity (“righteousness”); his “shoes” (v. 15) give him firmer footing for (paradoxically) proclaiming the “gospel of peace”. His faith will protect him against attack from the devil (“the evil one”, v. 16). He accepts “salvation” (v. 17). He has one offensive weapon, given to him by the Spirit, “the word of God”. Persistent prayer, prompted by the Spirit, is his aid in interceding for fellow Christians (“saints”, v. 18). In vv. 19-20, the author asks his readers to pray for him that he may be given a gift of the right words in telling of the “mystery”, God’s age-long purpose, now disclosed, to call both Jews and Gentiles to share in Christ’s saving action. Paul is (like) a prisoner awaiting trial (“in chains”) yet is able to tell the good news “boldly” and freely.

More on the passage and then, specific verse-by-verse comments later, I hope.

What My Beloved SAS Shoes Look Like

Comfy!

What a Crocs!: A Social History

I had seen Crocs before, of course.

I don't know when I first saw a pair of the brightly-colored clogs. But I do remember that the first people I saw wearing them were pre-teen girls less than a year ago. I figured that the shoes were some passing chintzy fashion accoutrement they picked up at Claire's. (I know all about Claire's because, dutiful dad that I am, I used to take my now twenty-one year old daughter to accessorize there when she was a tweener.)

But, when I underwent oral surgery--a gum tissue transplant--this June, I noticed that all my periodontist's female staff members (there are no males apart from the doctors there) wore uniforms of matching smocks, drawstring surgical slacks, and neon Crocs. "Are they comfortable?" I asked about the shoes, making small talk with one of the assistants as she ushered me to an examination room. "Oh, yeah!" she gushed.

I figured she must have been telling the truth. My observation is that usually, there's a direct corelation between the comfort of any article of clothing and its ugliness. For example, for years now, I've almost exclusively worn what I call "old man's shoes" from SAS. I keep a pair of black and a pair of brown for more "formal wear," as on Sunday mornings or for important meetings, and backup pairs of each color for daily use. (When new formal pairs are brought onstream, the shoes formerly designated for regular daily use are pressed into service as my "lawn mowing shoes.") I love my SAS footwear! But it isn't because the shoes are beautiful. It's because they're comfortable, the only valid reason I can think of for buying or wearing a pair of shoes! But my SAS shoes aren't nearly as ugly as Crocs.

After my oral surgery, I began noticing more and more women, especially those who work as sales floor clerks, nurses, teachers, and others who are on their feet a lot, wearing Crocs. Clearly, I concluded, the shoes had become a fad, like those huge purses with elaborate color prints you see women carrying these days.

But then, last night, I learned just how pervasive a fad the Crocs phenomenon has become. I saw the shoes in a completely new light, as hit items not just for medical personnel, teachers, or pre-teen girls any longer!

My wife and I went to nearby Mariemont to meet some friends for ice cream at a Graeter's Ice Cream parlor. While we stood on the sidewalk outside the shop, chatting, a family passed by us: Mom in traditional sandals, followed by two kids and Dad...the latter three all wearing Crocs.

And Dad's Crocs weren't in some subdued shade! This guy hadn't tentatively stuck his toe in the latest cultural wave, hadn't opted for what some guys might see as a sensible and unexceptionable hue, like brown or black. No! His Crocs were bright, screaming, flaming ORANGE!

Displaying my ignorance, I turned to my wife and our friends and said, "I never knew they made Crocs for men."

It was funny I mentioned that, one of our friends said, also a pastor. She and her husband--like her, another seminary classmate--had just been at a gathering of friends where one of the male guests had also worn a pair of Crocs. Another male present at the gathering had made a crack--a Croc crack?--about the shoes, intimating that the bold male Croc-wearer had swiped his daughter's footwear. "It was good-natured fun," our friend told us, "but you could tell the fellow who said it had been surprised to see a man wearing Crocs."

My education as to the extent of Crocs' acceptance was deepened just this morning. A friend and member of our congregation had outpatient gall bladder surgery. After we shared a prayer, she was rolled off to surgery and her husband and I, one of my best friends, awaited word from the surgeon about how things had gone.

After the surgery was completed, we were escorted to a consulting room where, moments later, the doctor walked through the door. He was a tall guy, surprisingly fit and certainly someone who, in earlier years, had played more than a few sports. Sitting down and crossing his legs, I couldn't help but notice...you guessed it: He was wearing a pair of Crocs! (In sensibly subdued dark blue, I might add.)

Once his briefing on my friend's successful surgery was completed, I had to ask the surgeon. "Are your shoes comfortable?" "Oh, yeah!" he gushed.

The evidence of the shoes' quick and pervasive rise to popularity is more than anecdotal, of course. Crocs, Inc., the company that produces the shoes, is making lots of money.

But Crocs do have their detractors. Some people say that it's easy to contract foot fungi from them. For example:

Shoes like Crocs earn high marks for having good arch support, especially compared to some summer favorites such as flip-flops, but the synthetic material of the shoes can cause some problems because they don't wick moisture away like leather and the friction between the foot and the plastic can also cause blisters.

Yet Crocs defenders can point to the same article detailing problems with the shoes with this:

...people [don't] have to give up the comfort and cool style of their Crocs.

For people who wear the shoes frequently, they need to wipe out the shoes with a bleach-based spray or wipe on a good shoe spray that is labeled for killing fungus.

"You don't have to submerge them," Christensen said.

To overcome the blisters, Christensen recommends spraying the feet with a light coating of antiperspirant/deodorant.

"The coating reduces the friction," Christensen said. "It can control sweat and odor, too."

I don't know. That seems like an awful lot of trouble to me. I just polish my SAS's every couple of months, the only maintenance they require other than replacing an occasional snapped shoestring.

I salute those men willing to emulate the male peacocks and cardinals, the more outlandishly colorful of their species, by slipping on screaming yellow Crocs, of course. And I'm glad that all those nurses, surgeons, teachers, and others have found a way to ease the burdens of their poor, aching feet. But I think I'll stick with my bland, extremely comfy--and nearly as ugly--shoes for now.

The jury is still out as to whether Crocs turn out to be like the PT Cruiser, a product which looked dorky, became wildly popular, and has remained a consumer fixture, or more on the order of the Pog phenomenon, which took off like a meteor and is now largely forgotten. One indicator of the shoes' long-term prospects may be this, though: When I had my first Crocs-sighting about a year ago, I never dreamed I'd be blogging about the things!

[More on Crocs here.]

[Thanks to Andrew Jackson of Smart Christian for linking to this post.]

[Here's the corporation's account of its remarkable success.]

Just Read What Juan Williams Has to Say

In today's Washington Post:

With 50 percent of Hispanic children and nearly 70 percent of black children born to single women today these young people too often come from fractured families where there is little time for parenting. Their search for identity and a sense of direction is undermined by a twisted popular culture that focuses on the "bling-bling" of fast money associated with famous basketball players, rap artists, drug dealers and the idea that women are at their best when flaunting their sexuality and having babies.

We must fill the void in kids's lives not with the lies the culture that Williams so eloquently describes, but one infused and empowered by the God Who makes every child and demonstrated His love for each one through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The crisis of identity that Williams sees in the lives of African-American children is seen in many ways throughout all of youth culture in America and should be a call to tough, loving ministry on the part of every church and community in our country.

Who will give our kids hope and a different way of life?

Who will challenge them to turn their backs on the cruise control, take-but-never give ethos being commended to them by so many of their cultural icons today?

See here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Murkowski Loss on Tuesday Would Certify This Year's Key Election Trend

The Washington Post reports that incumbent Alaska governor, Frank Murkowski, is at risk of losing his state's primary as he vies for re-election this coming Tuesday. The Post notes:

A defeat on Tuesday would make him the fourth incumbent to lose a primary election this month. On Aug. 8, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and Rep. John J.H. "Joe" Schwarz (R-Mich.) were defeated in primaries. Murkowski, who has been running third in recent public polls, may be headed for the same fate.

In American primary elections, incumbents lose about as often as unopposed candidates for the Politburo used to be defeated in the late Soviet Union. So, this string of losses by incumbents is notable.

With a nod to the maxim, "all politics is local," one must acknowledge the peculiarities at play in each of the races where incumbents have lost--or may lose.

Nonetheless, one can see a trend among the American electorate, as well as the mood in which it's rooted.

The trend: A rejection of the usual suspects, be they Democrat or Republican. The mood: Full-scale, widespread anger with politicians for their seemingly governing life styles.

Probably both rightly and wrongly, Americans are ticked off at their government and the pols in charge, irrespective of their party, and they're finding ways to express their rage at the voting booth.

Whether all of this anger will devolve to the Democrats' advantage in November is still being decided. In the normal course of things, one would expect that a midterm election in the second term of a President's tenure, especially one coming after a period in which his party has enjoyed majorities in both houses of Congress, would go decisively against the incumbent's party. That may happen this year. But if it does, it will be apparently be accompanied by little enthusiasm, as polling shows that voter anger contains almost no impulse to turn to the Democrats for new ideas. Ideology will prove to be even less important in 2006 than in most elections.

My guess is that as the fall campaign season unfolds, the people in trouble will be incumbents or candidates representing the parties of incumbents.

The electorate's anger is going to make credible independent candidacies, such as those of Kinky Friedman and Carol Keeton Strayhorn in Texas, attractive to voters, whether those candidates win or not. If it weren't so prohibitively difficult for independent parties to get on ballots around the country, the current angry mood of the US electorate would possible result in a real apple cart-tilting election in November. As it is, candidates best able to articulate, harness, and express positively Americans' anger with politics-as-usual, as Ronald Reagan did, will have a real advantage.

But candidates who win on the basis of such voter impatience with the political process will have to deliver change...and quickly. Voters are unlikely to be very patient with pols who ride to office on a wave of discontent and then appear unable or unwilling to change the things they railed against when they were campaigning.

How to Use a Life

[This was shared with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio during worship celebrations on August 19 and 20, 2006.]

Ephesians 5:15-20
I never do three point sermons. Today I’ll be making three points. Here goes.

Christians may be aiming our lives for eternity, but the fact is that you and I live in a time-bound world. While we’re here, we have to put up with time. We have to put up with...

• the sun setting on the last days of vacations spent with loved ones
• deadlines on projects that aren’t as good as we want them to be
• the test that comes tomorrow morning, whether we’re ready for it or not
• 5:00 soccer practices and 7:00 piano recitals
• creaking bones, graying heads, and death.

Time is a reality of this life and we must deal with it.

So, here’s a question for you: How are you spending your time?

I was once told about a seminar in which the participants were challenged to log how they’d used their time in fifteen minute increments during an entire day. If you had to make note of how you spent every fifteen minute segment of your day, what would it look like? What might it say about how you were spending your time?

Frankly, I’d be afraid to keep a log like that because I have such a penchant for goofing off, winding down one little rabbit trail after another until, lo and behold, it’s late into the night and time to go to bed. In fact, to tell you the truth, one of the reasons I’m such a nightowl is that I hate giving up on days which I fear I’ve wasted.

Our Bible lesson for today begins with the words, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”

Our lesson comes from the first century preacher Paul’s letter to the church in the Turkish city of Ephesus. It's taken specifically from a section of Ephesians in which Paul is contrasting two ways of living. One way is in light, the other is in darkness. Life in the light is about goodness, a right relationship with God, and building our lives on the true foundation of Jesus Christ. Darkness is the opposite of these.

Be careful, Paul is saying, not to cave into the foolishness of a life of darkness, away from Jesus Christ, away from forgiveness, and away from hope. In our lesson, Paul equates light with wisdom and darkness with foolishness. It’s all about where we place our lives each moment of every day, in the light or in the dark, on the wise path or on the foolish one.

If I had a bucket full of water here and I dunked a tissue into it, what would happen? No matter how absorbent the tissue was, it would eventually get swamped by all that water. Fluid mechanics tells us that “an object which sinks completely displaces an amount equal to its volume...” A similar kind of displacement can happen to us when we spend time in the darkness away from God. We can be swamped and sunk.

Recently, a RAND Corporation study was released on the relationship between the music kids had on their iPods and what they did sexually. The study showed that kids who spent time listening to music that saw men as sexual predators and women as mere objects were far more likely to have sex at an earlier age than kids with less of that music on their iPods.

I mentioned this study on my blog. (See here and here.) Someone wrote to me and said that these kids who had early sex probably had dysfunctional families. That's undoubtedly true! And the point is that if young people have no contact with affirming adults or more importantly, the God loving Who calls them worthy and lovable without having to prove themselves, they will chase after counterfeit love and intimacy. When there’s no light in our lives, we’ll spend time in the darkness...no matter what our ages.

There’s a lot that’s evil in our world, of course. Wise people spend time in the light. That means, among other things, being available to God through prayer, worship, and love of neighbor. A man I knew seemed perpetually busy with a demanding job. And yet, he had the capacity to make every person he met feel that they were important. He never was too busy to stop and listen to someone who truly needed an ear. He put me to shame because he always carried a slip of paper in his shirt pocket. On it, he would write prayer requests from people he encountered during his day.

That man used his time wisely.

• So does the busy executive or teacher who stops to pray for the people with whom they’ll be dealing that day.
• Or, the student who makes the effort to memorize a passage of Scripture, allowing God’s truth and love to permeate their minds and wills.
• Or, the parent who gets down on the floor to play a game with their child, knowing that the lawn may have to go un-mowed today.
• Or, the neighbor, like one of my neighbors, who, knowing what a mechanical ignoramus I am, replaces an old doorknob on my front door and won't let me pay him for it.

Point one: Wise people spend time--they place their lives--in God’s light.

Paul switches metaphors in what comes next in our lesson. He says: “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts...”

This isn’t about musical comedies or more seriously, teetotling. In an ultimate sense, it’s not even really about having an occasional drink. Once more, we’re dealing with displacement.

It’s about letting God be the source of your joy. “This is the day that the Lord has made,” the Psalmist writes, “Rejoice and be glad in it.” The Bible commends the high that comes to us when we regard each moment of our lives, even the troubled ones, as gifts from God

to be savored,
to be used for His glory,
to love others,
to mature in our faith and the call to self-giving and surrender, or
to learn about His amazing grace toward us.

This past week, I heard a report on the difficulty that US Customs officials are having in finding a technology that will allow them to detect dangerous substances in cargo shipped into our country. One official said that given the nature of the complicated gear that gets imported into the States, any detecting equipment is likely as not to give a “false positive,” labeling items that are safe as dangerous and vice versa.

There are some things in this life, like getting a buzz from booze, that can seem so good. But that’s a false positive. Let yourself instead be filled with God’s Holy Spirit, Paul says.

A few years after I’d come to faith in Christ, Ann and I were at a wedding reception with Ann’s mom. I was having a great time with some of the other guys from our church when I went to the rest room. Ann’s mother pulled her aside and said, “You’d better cut him off.” Ann laughed and told her, “He’s only been drinking Seven-Up’s all night!” Some people will confuse your behavior with drunkenness, I suppose, but when you’re filled with God’s Spirit, you’ll always be good to slip in behind the steering wheel of your car. Point two: When you wisely spend time in God’s light, joy will be its byproduct.

At the end of our lesson, Paul says that wise people spend their time, “...giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Six years ago, comedian Drew Carey was asked if he considered himself ambitious. “Now, yes,” he said. “But before, I always thought I was going to win the lottery or get lucky. I had no idea what I was going to do. Now I would never buy a lottery ticket--that would be like slapping God in the face.”

I really don’t think that Carey was talking about the relative advisability of buying a lottery ticket here. I think that he was talking about how you go through life. It’s so easy to try to float, to try to luck our way through living. But in a world often swamped by evil, people who take that route are more often than not drowned by evil, or by cares and hopelessness, and their lives devolve into irrelevance and what Henry David Thoreau called “quiet desperation.”

Christians don’t live by dumb luck or superstitions. They know the God Who, in Jesus’ death and resurrection, has proved Himself bigger than all the fears and sins that dog us, a God Who has entered our timebound world and given all with faith in Him freedom from the death sentence that our sins have placed on us.

Christians can live with intentionality, with purpose. We can make it our aim, as Paul puts it, to use our time and our lives to give thanks to God the Father for the new and never-ending lives we have through Jesus Christ. Point three: When you wisely spend time in God’s light, joy will be its byproduct and thankfulness will pour out of you all the time.

This past week, at the Athenaeum Library, where I go to study, I ran across a new book of sermons, Let Jesus Easter in Us, by Roman Catholic preacher Walter J. Burghardt.

I learned that he’s ninety-two and in his retirement years, travels the country as an advocate for Christian justice. At times, Burghardt speaks up for the nearly half-million US veterans who are homeless at some point in their lives. At others, he may be an advocate for the one-in-five American children who live in poverty. But he always speaks in the light of Jesus’ love for us all and there is a joy even in his most serious words. (He even has one sermon in which he speaks of the propriety, horror of horrors, of smiling during Lent!)

The point is that Burghardt wouldn’t have to travel the country speaking up for Christian justice. He’s ninety-two, for crying out loud! But he knows that Christians never retire from life. In fact, in Drew Carey’s words, it would be like slapping God in the face to do so.

Jesus’ people can make the most of their time in this often evil world. Jesus’ people live for Him from the Baptismal font to the grave...and beyond! That’s our call and our privilege.

Three points:

(1) The wise spend time in God’s light,
(2) Joy is the byproduct of that time, and
(3) Thankfulness comes from them because of the time they spend living with God, Who graciously loves and accepts them as they are.

How are you using your time?

Why is Geriatric 1927 So Popular?

"Have you seen this old guy on YouTube?" my son asked me today.

"You mean the guy from Great Britain?"

"Yeah."

"I haven't yet. But AOL even mentioned him on their log-in page the other day."

What is it about the commentary of Geriatric 1927 that has YouTube viewers, AOL, my son, and others so intrigued?

Well, first of all, there's the sheer uniqueness of it. Cyberspace is often thought to be the exclusive purview of the young. The average blogger, for example, is a fourteen year old girl. (That's according to Hugh Hewitt.) And many of the videos presented on YouTube are made by or appeal to a younger audience.

But there's probably another reason that Geriatic 1927 is getting such attention from the younger demographic who log onto YouTube: In our mobile Western society, young people don't, as a rule, spend a lot of time with septuagenarians. Members of families whose parents have moved far away from their families of origin, grandparents are people that their kids see at Thanksgiving and Christmas, maybe. Because of this, it's been my experience that young people are highly interested in talking with and hearing about the experiences and opinions of the elderly. Geriatric 1927 scratches that itch, with his reminiscences about his life.

Interestingly, Geriatic expresses appreciation for youth culture, as he's seen it on YouTube. This sort of respectful treatment of their cultural expressions may not be something young people have been given by their Baby Boomer parents, teachers, or bosses. That too, must explain some of this elderly vlogger's appeal.

As to the substance of Geriatric's on-screen comments, I've only viewed four of his vlogs and so can't draw generalizations. But his stated initial purpose was to complain about news items he finds annoying. In that, he has a lot in common with the legions of bloggers and vloggers who are taking advantage of today's cyber-technology.

See here to look at some of Geriatric 1927's vlog posts. Here's his first video (there are now 12 of them):

Metro Cincinnati Mourns Bishop Thompson

Herbert Thompson, who retired as bishop of the Epicopalians' Southern Ohio Diocese last December, died unexpectedly in Italy the other day. Thompson was widely respected by people both within and outside his denomination as a person of prayer committed to helping others. Here is the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary.

An Elder Preacher's Passionate Message Leads Me to Ask, "What If...?"

Once a week, I spend some time preparing for my weekend preaching in the library of The Athenaeum of Ohio, a short drive from my home. This week, a new book caught my eye, written by a Jesuit priest named Walter J. Burghardt.

If you've never heard of Burghardt, you should know that he's ninety-two and a fantastic preacher. His sermons, even when you don't completely agree with him, are generally short, to-the-point, and filled with practical Christian spirituality. But their simplicity of structure and expression clearly result from a depth of living, of spirituality, and of scholarship.

The particular Burghardt book that caught my attention and I've been reading, Let Jesus Easter in Us, is a set of sermons built on the Biblical call to justice. I like Burghardt's summary of the Bible's notions of justice:

Fidelity to relationships, to responsibilities that stem from a covenant. What relationships, what responsibilities? Three: to God, to our sisters and brothers, to our earth. Love God above all idols; love every man, woman, and child, enemy as well as friend, like another self. Touch all of God's material creation with reverence, as a gift of God.

At several points, he contrasts Biblical justice with justice as defined by philosophy or the law:

...the philosopher can tell you what his mistress, naked reason, demands: Give to each what is due to each, what each can claim as a human right. The jurist can tell you what his blindfolded Lady Justice demands: impartiality, no favoritism, simply the law on the books. Neither--neither philosopher nor jurist--can command that we love. Only God can demand love. Only the Jesus of Bethlehem's cave and Calvary's cross can demand that we love as he loved. Such is the justice that rises above the ethical and the legal, the justice that is divine, the justice of God.

There are times when Burghardt delves into politics. But most of the time, his calls to justice commend Christians to live in fidelity to the primary relationships of our lives, those with God, neighbor, and the world God has given us.

The homilies are almost always directly taken from Scripture, although Burghardt sometimes roots them in words from the assigned liturgy for the season of the Church Year during which they were presented. Burghardt has the master preacher's ability to connect the Word of God with the world in which we live and he does it with admirable economy. He amazes me because, in spite of his age, he is obviously in tune with what's going on in the world, able to relate to people's everyday lives.

I've read quite a few of the homilies contained in this book so far and have loved each one. Maybe the most remarkable thing about them is the Christian passion that permeates each one. Nowhere is this more apparent in one given at Holy Family Retreat Center in Beaumont, Texas on January 20, 2003. After a recitation of grim facts about the lives of American children--one in five US children are impoverished, for example, Burghardt talks about the relevance of his sad data for Christians:

...To what purpose such statistics? I list them with such cold, unadorned brevity because behind the word 'percentage' lie flesh and blood--millions of creatures as human as you and I, shaped by God with minds to know and hearts to love, with fingers to feel and emotions to burst forth in joy unbounded. Children of one divine Father, sisters and brothers of the one Christ who lived and breathed and died for them.

Jesus' call to love, Burghardt asserts--and I think rightly--is a call for all who follow Christ to live justly toward God, neighbor, and earth.

And while Burghardt shies away from both abstractions and prescriptions--he does give a reading assignment to one set of congregants, challenging them to read one of the Gospels and to note all of the places where Biblical justice comes into play and then determining for themselves how they might live that out--he occasionally shares a vision. In the sermon on the injustices to which American children are subjected, he concludes with one such vision:

An incurable optimist, I dream a massive movement among families. I mean a movement where every Catholic family with more than a mere sufficiency of God's gracious gifts would "adopt" one of the imperiled children in your area. Not legal adoption. Rather, a family friendship, within which the special needs of one child would be addressed: food that builds energy, funds for a basic education, books to read, braces to for uneven teeth, a pair of skates, a summer-camp vacation, perhaps even a job for the youngster's father. The needs are legion. With persistence, imagination, time, and some sacrifice, your people can transform a parish, parishes transform a diocese. And if the dream were to carry over to diocese after diocese, the country we love might well become known, be envied, not for its wealth but for its justice--the justice of God, the justice that is penetrated by love.

When I first read those words, I thought they were preposterous. Preacher talk. Burghardt, who first presented them in Epiphany Season, with Christmas, the feast celebrating the birth of the Savior Jesus, still fresh in his hearer's memories, was prepared for such a reaction:

Far out, off the wall, a mission impossible? Perhaps. But remember, the most improbable transformation in history began with a single child, a helpless child, in a tiny corner of our world, with no one to care save a virgin mother and a foster father. If we Christians could only see, in each little one in need, an image of Bethlehem's child, we could remake our troubled world...don't be afraid to take the first step, to reach out to another little Christ. Let none of us be afraid--for one remarkable reason: It is Christ Who reaches out through you, the same Christ who told you, "Blessed, fortunate, happy are you who hunger and thirst for justice."

Burghardt has me thinking, "What would happen if every Christian of sufficient means 'adopted' a child as he suggests? What if I were a Christian willing to take him up on his suggestion?"

More broadly, "What if I laid aside my unwillingness to tackle the little impossibilities and simply trusted God to make something of my availability to Him? What would happen then?"
These are frightening questions--I don't know if I have enough faith to live as Burghardt suggests I live.

But these are also exhilarating questions, among the many that Burghardt's amazing preaching causes me to ask myself.

Faith in a risen Jesus should always cause Christians to ask, "What if...?" and then, in dependence on Him, to look for the answers.

If nothing else, I'm praying that Burghardt's preaching and living will incite me to make one line from that Christian hymn, "Rise Up, O Saints of God," a more prominent prayer in my life. The line? "Give justice larger place."

If You're Not Reading 'Another Think' Every Day...

...you're missing out on some of the most thoughtful, encouraging writing in the blogging world. Each of Charlie Lehardy's posts is a gem. Go there now!

There's Nothing Wrong with Being the Church

So says Jan, even though some congregations have decided not to use the term to describe their fellowship.

There are a lot of things wrong with the modern-day church. It is perceived as an institution in a world that is hungry for spirituality and meaning. It has frequently failed, or missed the mark. It came late to the AIDs crisis. But it has been the only consistent agent of change throughout history. Even Bono acknowledges that the Church, organized and impassioned, is a force to be reckoned with. After September 11th, thousands of people across the country flooded into their local church, identified as such and still trusted. The church shows up in Katrina-devastated New Orleans, in the inner-city, in Africa, and wherever people are hurt, homeless or hungry. It is still the only real Hope for the World.

Her sentiments remind me of those of Bill Hybels, expressed in his book, Courageous Leadership:

“...the future of the world rests in the hands of local congregations like yours and mine.”

The Church is the Body of Christ in the world, a divinely instuted family that has its dysfunctionalities to be sure, but is still the indispensable means by which the Good News of Jesus Christ is brought to the world, in words and in deeds.

Third Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Ephesians 5:15-20

[Go here and here to look at the first two passes. In the first of these, you'll find an explanation of what the passes are all about.]

15Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. (see previous comments on these two verses from the second pass at the lesson)
(6) William Loader interestingly points out that Paul, in urging the Ephesians (and us) to make "the most of the time," is calling Christians to "exercise good time management."

It's admonitions like these which lay behind the Christian notion that "idle hands are the Devil's workshop," an idea that is unfairly maligned, seen as prompting Christians to joyless adherence to grim duty.

But that's absurd! There is an immutable law of displacement within the human soul. When we're not about God's business, we're inevitably about the Devil's.

This doesn't mean that we're all to be monks, nuns, or pastors. "Whatever you do, do it unto the Lord," is another of Paul's admonitions. Biblical faith has a deep appreciation of the value of both work and leisure. Whatever our work or leisure time activities, our aim should be the same, expressing worship for God by loving Him and loving others.

When this intent is displaced from our lives, we can become followers of Christ, but slaves of the devil, the world, or our sinful selves.

(7) Colossians 4:5 is similar to this passage. But there, time is to be used wisely in relation to non-Christians. Here, the general issue is the Christian ethical or moral life.

17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
(1) This is one of three contrast statements that are found in the passage. In fact, the entire passage, according to The New International Bible (NIB), contains "groups of three" structuring.

• 3 "not...but" statements (vv.15b, 17-18)
• 3 types of music (v.19a)
• 3 participial phrases (19a, 19b, and 20)

(2) Foolishness is marked by trying to define truth and goodness to suit our own impulses and desires. But the Bible believes in objective truth, defined and revealed by God. There are ambiguities in life, to be sure; this is an underlying theme especially in the Gospel of Matthew. But Jesus Christ, as He says of Himself in the Gospel of John, is "the way, the truth, and the life," the foundational Reality of the world against which truth claims are to be measure. Through Christ, we see that the will of God is that we repent, receive new life through Christ, and seek, with the Spirit's power, to live out the life style of love God, love neighbor.

Wisdom is conducting oneself in ways that are consistent with our faith. Of course, no follower of Christ ever lives completely wisely. This is where the practice of "daily repentance and renewal," asking God to help us make midcourse corrections and to grant us the forgiveness we need to live, comes in.

18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,
(1) Once more, we see the phenomenon of spiritual displacement. But the contrast here isn't between wine and the Holy Spirit. It's between drunkenness, a dependency on alcohol for feeling good or good times on the one hand, and reliance on the Holy Spirit, Who can guide us in personally fulfilling and God-pleasing life styles.

(2) The passage draws on these Old Testament words:

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
Those who linger late over wine,
those who keep trying mixed wines.
Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
At the last it bites like a serpent,
and stings like an adder.
Your eyes will see strange things,
and your mind utter perverse things.
You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I will seek another drink. (Proverbs 23:26-35)

(3) Paul has previously prayed in this letter that God would fill the Ephesian believers with the Holy Spirit. But as I asked in this post:

If believers are filled with the Spirit, why do they need to be filled again? Billy Graham deals with this well in his fantastic book, The Holy Spirit. He says that out of the abundance of His life, God gives His Spirit to all when they come to believe in Christ. But those believers can also be filled again and again, for their consolation; for reminders of God's love, presence, and power in the midst of trying circumstances; and for sharing Christ with others by our words and actions.

19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,
(1) When we allow God's Spirit to displace self-driven living and let God's wisdom direct our "walk" through life, worship is the basic attitude of our lives. See here.

20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) Christians aren't meant to thankful for the bad things that happen to us. But when you know Christ is always with you and that He has given an inviolable future with God to you, you have the capacity to cope with what comes your way. See here.

I Rail Against the Church Doing Politics...Again

Here.

(For an earlier rant on the subject--there have been many of them--see here. Sorry for the funky misalignment of letters and sentences in this post. Numerous attempts to fix it have been unsuccessful.)

An Amazing Story

As a one-time atheist, I found myself peculiarly drawn to this person's tale of coming to faith in Christ.

Toby, also a former atheist and student of Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard, describes something of his conversion and what it has thus far meant:

After a lifetime of atheism, almost entirely devoid of any exposure whatsoever to religious practices; after cofounding a secular humanist club in undergrad; after spending way too much time picking apart really bad arguments for the existence of God; after declaring a few times (before witnesses) that I was an "incorrigible" atheist, probably the last atheist who would ever, ever convert to Christianity--after all that, I've converted to Christianity...

I can't explain why, because there is no explanation. I converted, and there was no reason for my conversion. None. Really, none...

...I received no visions, heard no voices, had no hallucinations of any sort (a pity, since I'm rather fond of hallucinations, though I doubt they're any sort of basis for faith). I was not convinced of God's existence by some amazingly clever philosophical argument I'd never considered before. I did not feel that I was at the end of my rope and needed some supernatural force to get my life back on track. I didn't feel a deep psychological need that only religion could fill. I felt no deep sadness, no sense of lack, no sense of despair. No arguments, no needs, no wants, no motivations were responsible for my conversion.

I found myself in a position where I faced an incomprehensible choice to either commit to God, or not, with no basis whatsoever for choosing one over the other--and I chose to commit. It was that simple (that difficult, that bizarre). I know next to nothing about existentialism, but I get the feeling this was some hardcore kinda existentialist moment...

If you're a Christian and Toby's nascent theology doesn't look like yours, I wouldn't worry about it. We're all in the process of becoming and you and I could well be wrong on every point at which we might disagree with him. But for me, it's enough to know that someone has changed the sun (the Son?) around which he orbits.

And one other thing: Few people are ever intellectually argued into faith in Jesus Christ. Christ woos us through the Holy Spirit and the Spirit-empowered witness of His people. An amazing story like this one is all the inspiration I need to keep wooing for Christ for a long time to come!

[Thanks to Ambivablog for leading me to Toby's site.]

Christian Faith: The Basics, Part 32

I'm dealing with a few questions that may have cropped up as we've been moving through this series. I did so in the last installment and tackle one more here.

Q: Christians speak of Jesus as being God and also as the Son of God. Which is He?

A: Both.

Jesus, in many different ways, made the stunning claim that He was God. "I and the Father are one," He once said, for example.

Yet He also spoke of Himself as the Son.

It's important to understand that in describing Himself as the Son, Jesus was not claiming a subordinate or derivative role for Himself, except to the extent that He voluntarily submitted to the will of the Father in going to the cross. While never using the term, Trinity, the Old and New Testaments taken together reveal that God is one Being, three Persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

In His willingness to accept worship, Jesus signaled that He was God. But as the Son, He had a particular role, what the theologians call an office. As the Son, Jesus was the Person of the Godhead Who built the bridge between God and humanity, heaven and earth, eternity and our time-bound world. He was to be the Redeemer.

I love the confession about Jesus found in the New Testament book of Colossians:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

More on Jesus in the next post.

One Tragic Result of the Sin of Anti-Semitism

Ambivablog cites someone who cites someone else. (Go to her site to sort it all out.) But consider this:

In a column a few months back, Dennis Prager cited perhaps the most tragic statistic that haunts the human race. Throughout history, so many Jews have been murdered for being Jews, that “While the world's population is about 30 times larger than 2,000 years ago, the Jewish population has barely doubled. Had Jews been left alone to procreate at the same rate as others, there would be about 180 million Jews in the world today.

In spite of the New Testament witness that it was the sins of the whole human race and in spite of the fact that it was a Gentile functionary of the Roman Empire who, in essence, signed Jesus' death warrant, there have been Christians over the centuries who have accused the Jews of killing Jesus and used that as an excuse to hate or kill Jews. Hatred and baseless prejudice will always find excuses for sin.

Several observations:

• People will go to untold lengths to elude responsibility for their own sin. My sin killed Jesus. How dare I try to pin that blame on somebody else? As we sing each Lenten season to our Savior, "I crucified Thee!"
  
• Jesus was a Jew. So were Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, and Hannah in the Old Testament. So were John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Paul, and others in the Old Testament. The light of the world, Jesus, came from the Jewish people. What warrant does anyone have for hating Jews who, along with the rest of us, spurned and killed the Savior of the world? All this affirms is our common humanity, our common sin, and our common need of a Savior? Beyond all that, what warrant does anyone have for hating anyone for their religion, ethnicity, or nationality?
• As the Gospel of John makes especially plain, Jesus, God-enfleshed, died at a time of God's choosing, among a people of God's choosing. You wouldn't have Me in your hands, Jesus told Pilate, unless God had placed me there. "It is finished," Jesus exclaimed as He died, choosing the very moment of His death, surprising all who witnessed His crucifixion by the rapidity with which it came. (Crucifixion ordinarily entailed a much longer dying process.) The world did spurn Jesus and nail Him to a cross, but only because God had chosen this as the means by which the Lamb of God would take away the sins of the world. This only adds to the tragic absurdity of so-called Christians blaming Jews for the killing of Christ.

Anti-Semitism is one of many sins that result in murder. But it's sobering to consider how pervasive, destructive, and violent this particular sin is, especially among those who profess to follow Jesus Christ.

Trusting God by Trusting the Church and Finding and Using Your Gifts

John Schroeder addresses the critical issue of living in authentic community with Christ and His Church. I love these two paragraphs:

I think it is important that as Christians, we figure our what "our jobs" are. For example, the job of a pastor is to help form Christians and Christian community. Thus, when a pastor starts taking stances on political issues for the church, despite the fact that as a private citizen he should have an opinion, he is stepping outside of his "job description."

Why is this important? Because we want the best people doing things, that's why. I learned early and with difficulty that I am not suited for vocational ministry. When I did such ministry, not good things happened. The same would be true for other people when they step outside of what they are suited to doing. A pastor is not suited to politics for any number of reasons. Likewise, a politician is not suited to do what I do, or what a pastor does.

Read the whole thing.

Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Ephesians 5:15-20

[See the first pass at the text here.]

A Few More General Comments
1. The New Interpreter's Bible (NIB) calls this passage, Wisdom as Thanksgiving. When we exercise the wisdom God has given to us, it's a way of expressing our thanksgiving to him. When, for example, we refrain from drunkenness, as is mentioned tangentially in this passage, we give God and His Spirit place in our lives. That's wise. Drunkenness displaces God and is an unwise, even dangerous, way of living.

2. NIB also--rightly, I think--divides this short passage into two sections: 5:15-18a, which is a call to live wisely; 5:18b-20, which is a doxology.

3. William Loader says this about the passage:

...In this excerpt of the continuing instructions the focus falls first of all on wisdom. This comes both in 5:15 and in 5:17. Why emphasise it? What would it mean for the hearers not to be wise? To answer that we need to note the themes of the preceding verses. 5:6 assumes there is persuasion around which could lead them astray, probably in Christian guise (see also 4:14). The verses which follow speak of unfruitful works of darkness, hidden, shameful behaviour. This may be sexual immorality (a theme in 5:3). It may be that this is just a typical warning against false teachers. It was common to accuse false teachers not only on going astray in their thoughts but also in their behaviour. It was probably less than fair, but we see it happening more and more in the later writings of the New Testament and then in the early church.

The instruction to look accurately at how they live and not to fall to foolishness (5:15) arises from the assumption that there are real dangers to faith and that often they need intellectual discernment...

Verse by Verse Comments
15Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
(1) The opening verse sets the tone for what's to follow. This entire passage expresses the letter of Ephesians' penchant for contrasts, here calling Christ-Followers to love wisely, not unwisely. In what follows, we'll be told some of what constitutes a wise life.

(2) Of course, wisdom is a highly valued trait in Biblical faith. The book of Proverbs, in the Old Testament, is wisdom which God revealed to ancient King Solomon. Many contemporary business people, as well as Christian leaders like Billy Graham, Bill Hybels, and Gerald Mann, make reading Proverbs a regular routine. Wisdom is the practical know-how needed to live life with a sense of connection to God's purposes for us.

(3) In Proverbs, there's a passage that contrasts wise and foolish people:

Hear, my child, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
When you walk, your step will not be hampered;
and if you run, you will not stumble.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of evildoers. (Proverbs 4:10-14)

(4) Wisdom is rooted in God and belongs to those who call on Him, Who dispenses it. Psalm 14 says:

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power,
to make known to all people your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout

all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.

The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.

You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. (Pslam 14)

(5) The times in which we live, where evil exists, requires us to exercise spiritual caution, avoiding temptations that might lure us from God. This means adopting a lifestyle wisely tuned into God. Our lives and our faith can otherwise be destroyed. The God we Christians meet in Jesus Christ will never abandon us. But we can walk away from Christ and when we do so, it rarely happens as the result of some grand conversion to evil. We walk away from Christ "by littles," an unwise decision here and there that we allow to build into a wall of self-centered unrepentance. That is the path of destruction. Avoid it, Paul says.

More later, I hope.

Lebanon: Now What?

As Lebanese strive to rebuild their country, two sobering assessments of what's happened and what it means for the future.

There may come a point when the Lebanese blame Hezbollah as much, if not more, for the loss and destruction they've experienced in this recent war. After all, it was Hezbollah that precipitated the conflict by poking their wet fingers into the electric socket and getting a response.

But it was Israeli bombs that fell on Lebanese homes, businesses, power plants, airport, highways, and bridges in what appears to have been a non-sequitur counterattack.

Besides all that, of course, is the encouragement which this war has given to that strain of thinking in the Middle East traced by Lebanese Druse leader Walid Jumblatt to "Karbala and Masada." It willingly accepts stupid, futile, meaningless martyrdom as a glorious thing.

John Kennedy used to ruminate over the fact that if a would-be assassin were desperate enough and heedless enough of losing his own life, no security measures in the world could be strong enough to impede him. Radicalized Islam has perhaps concluded that life is so cheap and meaningless that it's willing to sustain death "in a blaze of glory" over life in a peaceful democracy. (And that appears to not only be true in the struggling democracy of Lebanon, but also the advanced nation of Great Britain!)

Life has once more been cheapened in Lebanon. Hezbollah is the immediate beneficiary. Let's pray that the Lebanese don't remain enamored of the group for long. People who see their lives as meaningless tend to share their misery in very destructive ways.

Whatever we can do in America to help the Lebanese rebuild their country could give people reason to doubt the dangerous, empty-headed propaganda of Hezbollah...and reason too, to back away from the silly path of faux-martyrdom embraced by those with no appreciation for the gift of life.

Can Kinky Friedman Be Elected Governor of Texas?

He started out tongue-in-cheek, though rarely has his tongue been in check. Nonetheless, Kinky Friedman, the country musician and writer, who calls himself "the Jewish Cowboy" and bears a passing resemblance to the late Western film star, Richard Boone, isn't just going away in his independent run for governor of Texas.

The Daily Times notes:

The national Rasmussen Reports July 24 poll gave [incumbent Republican Governor Rick] Perry a lead among voters with 40 percent of the vote. [Republican State Comptroller Carole Keeton] Strayhorn [also running as an independent] received 20 percent and Friedman 19 percent. While Perry’s percentage has been static since February, Friedman has gained 10 percent and Strayhorn dropped 11 percent. [Democratic nominee Chris] Bell scored 13 percent in both polls.

Like such facile--and successful--gubernatorial candidates as Ronald Reagan in California and Jesse Ventura in Minnesota, Friedman is an effective and seasoned communicator--the author of more than twenty books and composer of many songs--who knows the value of well-crafted phrases. A sampling of Friedmanisms:

• “I think money doesn’t vote, people do."
• “My mind is alert to terrorism, of course. In Texas, particularly, we need to be alert to the situation. Imagine what would happen if Rick Perry has to get on an airplane without his hair gel.”
• “The other three candidates seem to have humor bypasses. If you’re a politically correct person, you should vote for one of them. You have to be politically correct to be a politician, and the three of them are. Me, I’m a compassionate redneck.”
• “As you know, I’m 61 years old, which is too young for Medicare and too old for women to care.”
• “But I care about Texas and I want to fix what’s wrong with it. We are probably the richest state in the country, but we got potholes in the roads, we can’t pay our teachers, we can’t provide health insurance for our kids and they’re trying to sell off the state parks!”
• “We can make Texas number one in renewable fuels — which is a helluva lot better than being number one in executions, toll roads, property taxes and dropouts!”
• Noting that in 2002, a scant 29% of the electorate came out for the election, Friedman asserts, “Last time, they spent $ 100 million just to drive 71 percent of us away from the polls. This time, that 71 percent is coming roarin’ back--with pitchforks!--to throw the moneychangers out of the temple!”

None of it adds up to a political program, of course. But few pols seem to have anything resembling a program these days, so it probably doesn't matter.

Besides, Friedman has something else going for him that's very similar to Reagan.

Ronald Reagan's breezy optimism disarmed his Dem opponents accustomed to running against conservatives whose politics was characterized by seething rage. Conservatives were angry at government institutions they deemed bloated, bureaucratic, intrusive, incompetent, and too inclined to play nice with the Soviet Bloc.

Reagan was every bit as angry as Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican presidential standard bearer who got clobbered by Lyndon Johnson. But Reagan was a sunny fellow who could deliver scathing words with a non-threatening smile. A succession of Republican and Democratic opponents in primaries and general elections--including Pat Brown, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Walter Mondale--never knew what hit them after they'd tangled with the smiling Reagan.

Friedman has apparently established himself as something of a folk hero in Texas. (At least that's how the current President Bush sees him.) As a musician and author, he's won lots of people over as fans with his humor and good-natured persona. It's that persona that's likely to allow him to deliver his stinging indictments of Republican and Democratic business-as-usual without scaring anyone off or being seen as a regular pol, even if he doesn't seem to have a complete platform.

Friedman's independent run may be coming at an auspicious time for him. His articulated mood corresponds precisely with that of people all across the country: People are angry...at all pols, especially incumbents, Republicans and Democrats. They're angry with government. And we saw in last week's Connecticut primary the power of anger to bring people to the polls, especially people who haven't voted for awhile. Pleasant, intelligent candidates who articulate their anger in a non-threatening, yet memorable ways have a heightened ability to garner big support in 2006.

I don't know if Kinky Friedman can win the Texas governorship. But his candidacy will make this year's election there one of the most interesting races in what promises to be a very interesting political year.

[See here and here.]

I Think It's Official: I'm a Curmudgeon

Or so Sippican's fun comment over at Althouse would seem to say. I mean if I'm that begruding about passing around Wow's, I must be a curmudgeon.

By the way, be sure to read all the comments to Althouse's post on historical books written with literary beauty. You'll derive quite a reading list from it.

First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Ephesians 5:15-20

[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
15Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

General Comments
1. For background on the book of Ephesians, see here.

2. This passage is a segue to a section of Ephesians that presents a household code. Such codes appear in many of the letters found in the New Testament. They delineate the ethical or moral obligations of people relative not only to the households in their primary residences, but also in the household of faith, the Church.

3. Moralizing, as the world usually practices or talks about, is an entirely different matter for Christians. The Christian moral code is something that Christians voluntarily embrace not in order to win points with God, but because they're grateful that in Christ, God has already won eternity for them, because Christ is living in them, because they know Christ has made them a part of an eternal family, the Church, and because they know that doing things Christ's way puts their lives on an optimal path.

In his first chapter on Christian morality in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes:

...a Christian is not a man [sic] who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out. [Thus crucifying the old sinful self and enabling the new God-self to rise.]

That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or--if they think there is not--at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.

And let me make it quite clear that when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being "in Christ" or of Christ being "in them," this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating in them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts--that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body...

If you've been paying attention to these "passes" at the Biblical texts over the past several weeks or to the messages based on Ephesians, you can see how much what Lewis writes here resonates with this New Testament letter. The Church is the Body of Christ, a living organism attached to and dependent upon Christ for its life, an entity composed of all of us. The mission and purpose of the Church is fulfilled when all these individual cells healthfully work together and live together in love and cooperation.

If you want to know why the Church can sometimes be so ineffectual and off-putting to the world we are called to reach with the Good News of Christ, you need look no further than this fact: There are too many Lone Ranger Christians, too many who think about "Jesus and me." Christianity isn't a me-faith; it's a we-faith. Every indivdual person is unique and special in the eyes of the God Who made us and died and rose for us; but every individual is part of a big redeemed family.

In this passage and others, Ephesians calls us to live out this revolutionary new life of love and mutuality, of interdependence and the sharing of our gifts for the good of the Church internally and the mission of the Church externally.

More on this passage later in the week, I hope.

If you live or are close to Columbus, consider attending the Central Ohio debut of a new independently-produced film...

OPEN MICR's

It's a mock-umentary look at the world of stand-up comedy.

My brother, comedian Marty Daniels will perform just before the showing of the film, along with several other comics. Marty has a small role in the movie.

After the movie has run, there will be a Q-and-A and a Meet and Greet.

It all happens tomorrow night, Tuesday, August 15, at the Drexel Gateway Theater, on the south edge of the Ohio State University campus.

Tickets are $10.00. For information or to order tickets, call 614-545-2255.

For more information, on the film or the theater, see here and here respectively.

For more info on my brother and his comedy, see here and here.

Christian Faith: The Basics, Part 31

In this post and the next, I'll respond to a few questions that may have cropped up about what I've written so far in this series.

Q: You promised to try to keep the posts in this series short. But some have gone on forever. Why have they (like the answers you sometimes give to questions) gotten so long-winded?

I did make that promise and unfortunately, I've broken it. This reflects both an occupational hazard and a personal penchant. I can get long-winded. I'm sorry. I'll try to keep these posts shorter from now on. I've similarly veered off course by not hewing to the pattern of The Small Catechism, as I'd originally planned. I'll try to correct that as well.

Q: In part 13, you said that war is one circumstance under which, in spite of the Fifth Commandment, killing might be defensible. As a Christian, doesn't it make you feel uncomfortable to say that?

Yes. When I say that God is pro-life and that I'm pro-life, I'm not making a political statement. God makes life. He loves life, this incredible invention of His, and He wants us to cherish it too.

But we live in a world in which people who are given over to evil sometimes attack the innocent. If a menacing person broke into your home, brandishing a gun and threatened to kill the members of your household, would it be appropriate for you to let them do their worst to the people you're to protect or to take defensive measures which may result in the death of the attacker? The answer should be obvious.

By the same token, to use a concrete example, if the US government and military had decided to simply ignore the attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, we'd think them criminally negligent. They would have been as guilty of killing by not defending the country as the Japanese Imperial air force had been in attacking Pearl Harbor in the first place.

This brings up three important points:

• Whether in war or in some other context, a believer in the God of the Bible can only justify their taking another life in defending others or themselves against attack.
• When Christians kill, it should never be for the purpose of exacting revenge.
• Related to the two above points, Christians should never be the initiators of violence.

Tomorrow, I hope to respond to several more questions that have come up during the writing of this series. After that, I'll resume the series...with shorter posts, I hope.

'Natural Moderns': A Great Exhibition to See If You're in Cincinnati

We went to the Cincinnati Museum of Art today. There is no admission charged to enter the museum any longer, which, as my wife pointed out, makes it ideal for taking the place in through bite-sized chunks It's possible to really look at a few pieces, giving them the attention needed to appreciate them, without feeling pressed to see everything in one visit.

Today was the second day for a new--and small--exhibition called, Natural Moderns: Georgia O'Keefe and Her Contemporaries. Included are two paintings by O'Keefe, both stunning. Even though it's a small exhibition, it's far from disappointing!

The theme is landscapes--and seascapes--as seen through the self-consciously modern eyes of O'Keefe, Arthur G. Dove, Marsden Hartley, and John Marin.

The two O'Keefe works immediately call out for attention. This is especially true of Red Hills, a gorgeous painting at which I couldn't stop staring.

The surprise of the exhibition for me was Dove, of whom I don't remember ever hearing before. His pieces are clearly inspired by nature, but are abstractions, what he called "extractions." And that's a sensible designation for them, since Dove seemed to extract the color and energy out of nature, while rendering his subjects in abstract ways. The effect, for me, is like seeing something of the essence of a roiling sea or an evening sky, conveying something of their nature far more certainly than could a more photographic rendering.

The museum's web article on this exhibition notes:

Dove, Hartley, Marin, and O’Keeffe were members of the famed Stieglitz Circle, named for photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, who championed avant-garde art in America. (Stieglitz and O’Keeffe married in 1924.) Between the two World Wars, the Stieglitz Circle worked to define a distinctly American form of modernism, finding meaning in the American landscape and the natural world, which they expressed in thoughtful and highly personal works of art.

If you're in Cincinnati and have the chance to visit the museum in its beautiful Eden Park setting, you might want to check out this exhibition, which will be showing through January 14, 2007.